Battery life after 4.4.4 and inductive charging

[AC Question]

Ever since Android 4.4.4 my Droid Maxx has had seemingly half of its previous battery life. The phone is just over 1 year old. Normally I could get 2 days life but recently I get battery warnings in the evening after all-night charging. I am charging with an Incipio ghost inductive charger and that too has been eratic lately. It keeps making my phone give off a loud alert and it runs a positioning bar telling me to align the phone. I can do this after a year without looking and am perfectly right every tie. Sometimes it goes of 10-20 times repeatedly. I am getting ready to give up and plug it in the old way. I would love to go back to some of my old phones with contacts on the back and a drop in charger. Am I "burning up" my battery? Should I just go back to plugging it in?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! It sounds like the Incipio charger may not be that well designed. Are you able to test it on any other compatible phones? Does it actually charge the phone up to 100%?

In regard to the decreased battery life, do the following:

Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which shows Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).

How to post screenshots: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

 

[SeniorSwede]

The Incipio Charger was recommended when I bought my phone last year and worked well until lately (update?). Actually it is called the Incipio Ghost and it is acting like a ghost. I use the phone program to silence notifications when I go to bed so if after 10 PM it does not make the noise but it incessantly turns the screen on and off until it has satisfied itself that it is charging. It does charge to 100% but as I said it seems to die rather quickly. Right now after 12.5 hrs it is 43% which is far lower than in the past. I even used to keep the screen on bright so I could read it in daylight but have turned it to Automatic and sometimes 1/2. I tend to get a bit irritated when (I assume) google pushes new Apps to me and they displace apps on my home screens. Most of the time I have no Idea what they are oir what they do. Of course Verizon is well known for their junk items that cost money to use but are free elsewhere.

I wil;l try to sent the information you want later or tomorrow as I am on my laptop right now. I typw well...but not with my thumbs! LOL Thanks

 

[SeniorSwede]

Although I loggin as a guest A C Ask a Question I went to register and discovered that I had already. When they told my my email was already regtistered that was a dead giveaway. So yes, I am SeniorSwede as in the answer. Will this thread get moved to somewhere else as I want to keep up with it and be a more active member.

 

[B. Diddy]

This thread won't get moved, but as long as people are still replying, it will remain higher up in the active threads. And I'll also see it easily in my list.

 

[SeniorSwede]

Here are my screenshot. Hope I got the right stuff. Let's see where this goes. If you need more info just point me. 31% after 15 hours. Half of what it used to be.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[SeniorSwede]

Perhaps this would help.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[B. Diddy]

I agree, that doesn't look right. Does that behavior persist after a reboot? If so, try booting into Recovery Mode and wiping the system cache partition, which won't erase any personal data: Wipe Cache Partition - DROID Mini / DROID Ultra / DROID Maxx by Motorola

 

[SeniorSwede]

OK. (back on the laptop!) I followed your procedure and Wiped The cache per instructions. It took me a few tries to get the right combination of button pushes down right and doing it quick enough while reading the instructions but I did get to the Wipe Cache instructions and executed them. It took nearly 10 minutes to complete and I wondered if I was wiping my whole phone. Or if I had bricked it. Alas it booted when I gave up and went outside to get something from my garden shed. LOL The phone seems to work and we will see about the charger tonight. Are there better inductive chargers available? The Incipipo Ghost 100 seems to "cook" the phone a bit while charging but frankly I have never really compared that phenomena to wided charging. Some techies (who do not have this opption) tell me it is bad for the batteries .Palm had inductive charging 10 years ago and I am sure that is not why they when out of business. It is nice I can come to you guys for tech support without Verizon trying to sell me a new phone or additional service. Now if I could only figure out all the odd ball apps. Or better yet, learn to integrate my phone's apps with my desktop in a better fashion. I have had a cell phone since the bag phone days and every model presents a new learning curve. I always write the company and ask for a printed paper manual...just wish they put things in a better format. Sory to keep switching between phone and laptiop...arthritic fingrs make thumb typing tough. I need to find a way to hook a fullsize keyboard to my phone for long posts! LOL. Thanks as usual.

 

[SeniorSwede]

Addendum. I did have one of the Motorola Lapdock 100's for my Moto Razr Maxx HD but when the new phone came without the dual Micro USB & HDMI ports the Lapdock became useless. A wireless bluetooth keyboard would be cool.

 

[B. Diddy]

I don't know how the various chargers compare. I have chargers from LG and from Zens, and they both work well. The phone does get a bit warm, but I think it's because it has a case on, which might disperse some of the energy.

I'm not aware of wireless charging being bad for the battery. The only situation where I would think it's bad would be if the phone were getting really hot for some reason (which could be a result of inefficient charging). Batteries don't like to get too hot--high temps might reduce their lifespan.

 

[SeniorSwede]

After the cache clear things have gotten bettter but not as good as new. 15 hours off charge and I am at 47%. This is better and tonight I will know what is happening with the inductive Qi charger (Incipio Ghost 100). Perhaps I have trained the battery into poor performance as I charge nightly regardless of the remaining charge. I have been told these new batteries don't build memory but I do not know that for sure. If necessary I will try another Qi charger. Oddly my exploits have circulated amongst friends and some have already asked me to show them how to clear the cache on their phones. that is funny. One day and I am the "go to" guy. LOL

This morning I mentioned a bluetooth keyboard for Android and tonight I see a 2 day old news release about a new Logitech keyboard. Hmmm. Anyone notice or know about this item?