GAH! Battery Life Sucks! How to close background apps?

[android acolyte]

Ok. I bought the skyrocket a month ago, and I only have two days left to return it if I'm going to.

I've been using juice defender basic, and it has been doing ok. I recently downloaded quite a few games, a few live wallpapers, a couple random apps etc. I also downloaded 2x battery. A few days ago, when I would use the app killer, 25 apps would shut down. Now I have 47 apps that shut down. Within a couple minutes most of them are back up. I wanna kill most of them and keep them dead. I have gone in and shut them down manually, but things still are hovering somewhere. it's seriously affecting my battery life too.

This morning I unplugged my phone at 7am and skimmed through my settings. Within 7 minutes I had lost two percent on my battery life. Within three hours I had lost 30% and my phone hadn't been touched (I was in class the whole time). My battery was almost dead in less than 8 hours and I had my brightness down, no music usage, two texts, and maybe 30 minutes of total internet usage.


I've gone in and tried to manually close down applications, but I can't seem to close down media hub or the other social bloatware, and there are a bunch of random "com." stuff and I don't know what else.

I'm basically a total noob with technology to begin with, and an utter moron when it comes to all things droid. I'm interested to learn though....help?

 

[vdubpower]

i need to follow this, because i have issues too, not this bad as i dont really have alot of apps, at all

what are the legit battery saving apps,
that easy battery saver one that i had , i thought was doing wwell untiil it screwed up my MMS messages

need advice and help from android experts or else i migh t be back on my old iphone3g that will last me 3 days of battery life

 

[jess.hickey]

Try going a day without using juice defender or any other after market task manager. The constant closing of the programs and them opening back up will eat up your battery. Android 2.3+ has a built in task manager that works pretty well on its own. With as little use as you are describing you should get 15+ hours fairly easily.

You will be hard pressed to get 3 days as the above poster describes with an iPhone but you should most definitely be getting more than 8,hours

Good luck!

 

[Iamdunne]

live wallpapers are not worth the battery drain. I have juice defender enabled just on the settings it defaults too, don't stream music or anything just use to check facebook, email and some Internet while at work. Get through 10-12 hours a day. I use a cord to top of charge whenever in car. Have had 4 android phones and none have lasted more then that. My HTC Inspire was horrible. Another suggestions would be to not use a lot of widgets.

 

[jdm-skyrocket]

I have had the same issue with battery life, I find that most battery app only help drain the battery. But there is hope if you root your phone, once you have super user control over your phone you can shut down certain background app (and keep them froze) and remove bloatware app, this will help some, next after rooted you can tweak the CPU by underclocking it and lowering the voltage, my battery life has increased by leaps and bounds, but being a heavy gamer/web surfer as I am, I found the best fix was just to buy and carry a backup battery with me.

 

[jldoom]

Just like JDM suggested, and root your phone. I too was within my 30 days contemplating if I should return it (being a former iPhone user) but the battery for this with the standard apps was horrendous. I had no live wallpapers, barely a few apps, but overnight my phone would be nearly dead, draining about 30-60% (again my iPhone would lose about 8%)

Once I rooted it though, and froze all those bloatware apps. I can get through the whole day before it gets into the red, and that's with moderate usage, I'm always on twitter, internet, watch movies and the occasional game while on the subway as well, though I deleted all my music to make room for all the apps I got lol.

Check out the various threads on here on how to root your device, and there's a list already compiled on the XDA forums of bloatware to freeze up once you do. I was basically a total noob to android (still am lol) but following the directions word for word, you can root your device as well.

 

[jess.hickey]

Something else to try is downloading the app Wheres My Droid Power. It tells you each and every app that is using your juice. That will tell you if an app has gone rouoge and give you a good idea as to what ia going on.

 

[jdm-skyrocket]

Here is the easy way to root your rocket, all you need is a USB cable and a windows PC/laptop. First download Samsung usb driver and install to computer, click link to download http://downloads.androidadvices.com/S/Samsung_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones_v1_3_2200_0.exe next download zergrush exploit click link for download http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=784296&stc=1&d=1321435888 then hit this page up for easy step-by-step instructions http://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-root-your-samsung-galaxy-s2-skyrocket-34877/ Good luck and happy RooTing!

 

[Chevy-SS]

I'm having same issues as OP - battery life on my new Skyrocket stinks. I will follow this thread, and maybe even try to "root" the phone, as per jdm's links.

Does anyone have feedback or comments on the 3800mAh batteries I see on eBay? I just ordered one, it came with a back cover too, total cost $11.39. Seems like the perfect fix for this issue, but I wonder about any safety concerns???

Thanks

-

 

[dalvik]

if the phone dies overnight while being idle its definitely an issie with some some apps that you may have installed which constantly connect to the internet. I can leave my half charged phone with 50% battery overnight for 6-8 hours, wake up and it still will be 50% I am not running any social network apps (not that i even have any) I'm running only weathervug which is set to update every hour. so check your apps and remove any downloaded task killers they do more harm and dont help at all. I have my phone rooted and uninstalled only att crapware like NFS and some other stuff. but even if you'd look in the system those crapware apps woudlnt be activated and you'd see 0% next to the processor. so once again, check your downloaded apps. I manage to get 15( hours with normal use. if I dont touch ny phone it can easily go over one full day what I'd really love to have though is the avblity to switch off LTE as I dont need it most of the time. and that really eats the battery but nost of the time I'm connected tp WiFi and it significantly helps to save the battery life