Pinpoint AlarmManager Wakelocks?

[SilentEcho]

So I've noticed that my phone pretty much never sleeps, and the battery drain is substantial. I installed Wakelock Detector and have narrowed the culprit down to the AlarmManager service in the Android System. I understand that this service itself is not the problem as it's simply used by other apps to keep the phone awake, but I have no way of narrowing down which apps are triggering the alarms. I understand it's possible by running sysdump alarm > file.txt from the terminal, but I've tried that and realized this requires root privilege, which I don't have. I'm at a complete loss as to how to nail the problematic app, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[B. Diddy]

When I use Wake Lock Detector, it usually shows me which apps are using AlarmManager. So for example, Yahoo Mail might be at the top of the list, and when I tap it, it expands to show that part of its wake lock activity is AlarmManager 6 times for 1 min 38 seconds. Do you see that when you open Wake Lock Detector?

 

[SilentEcho]

Thanks for the reply. =)

Google Services is right underneath also showing quite a bit of usage in AlarmManager as well as Event_Log_Service.

 

[B. Diddy]

The problem is that Google Services, AlarmManager, and Event_Log_Service are such broadly used components that it's difficult to know what exactly might be causing the wake locks. I checked a couple of posts over at XDA, and there was some suggestion that keeping Google Sync on might contribute. If you don't need your phone to be constantly up to date unless you're actively looking at it, I suggest adding a toggle button that allows you to turn Sync on and off easily (like Power Toggles).

 

[SilentEcho]

The problem is that Google Services, AlarmManager, and Event_Log_Service are such broadly used components that it's difficult to know what exactly might be causing the wake locks.

Yea, seems that way. As far as turning Google sync off, I've turned off virtually every sync setting in every app I could think of and my Awake bar continues to look the way it does in the screenshot. I'm really stumped. On the plus side, I recently rooted my device, so I'll run that dumpsys command and post the results (after some time elapses, since I had to reboot).

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, but have you turned off the global sync, as opposed to turning off sync settings for individual apps? What I mean is the Sync toggle switch that appears at the top of the Settings/Accounts-Google screen, as well as the Sync toggle in the stock Power Control widget. I can imagine that if the global sync is still turned off even though individual apps have their sync turned off, it might still trigger some kind of wake lock.

 

[SilentEcho]

Oh wow, I had no idea there was a global sync setting. I turned it off, let's see what we get.

 

[B. Diddy]

I recommend you place either the stock Power Control toggle bar or a 3rd party toggle bar like Power Toggles on your homescreen so you have quick access to the Sync toggle.

 

[SilentEcho]

So I disabled global sync, rebooted the phone and left it over night. Apps used are Wakelock Detector and Battery Stats Plus. Here are the results. Global Unplug seems fishy. And here's an alarm dump :https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1cYQ9EY6A25WEhtZnFUbkZGWXM/edit?usp=sharing.

 

[B. Diddy]

I see that Global Unplug is used by SmartActions, so I assume you have a Motorola phone--which one? (I have a Razr Maxx.) Do you actually use SmartActions? Many have said that disabling SmartActions helped battery life, so give that a try. I never use it, so I disabled it, and I never see Global Unplug in my app list.

 

[SilentEcho]

I have a Razr HD. I don't use SmartActions, so I disabled/uninstalled it, let's see what that does. As far as Global Unplug, I've done some research and it seems to be used for the fully charged notification. I assume if you have that disabled in the settings, it won't be running, but the weird thing is, I've always had it enabled, yet my phone would never ring or vibrate on charge complete anyway.

 

[SilentEcho]

So I rebooted it, set it over night, issue remains. Culprits still being AlarmManager from Android System and Event_Log_Service from Google Services.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you have Motocast enabled or disabled?

 

[SilentEcho]

Not sure what Motocast is. I do see MotoCare showing up in my running apps though.

 

[B. Diddy]

Motocast is Motorola's software that allows you to wirelessly access files on your desktop. It's a pretty neat feature, but it does seem to impact performance and battery life for some people. I never use it, so I disabled it. I tried looking up MotoCare a while ago, but couldn't find an adequate description--in any case, you can't disable that app.

If you want to disable Motocast, go to Settings/Apps/All, select Motocast, and hit Disable.

 

[SilentEcho]

I don't seem to have Motocast anywhere. As far as MotoCare, as I said, I recently rooted my device, so I disabled it to see if that does anything.

 

[B. Diddy]

Oh sorry--I kept thinking you have an original Razr, then just remembered you have an HD. I guess the HD versions don't come with Motocast.

At this point, I'm a little stuck. Wish I could actually fiddle with your phone myself to see if there's anything else that I'm missing.

 

[SilentEcho]

If it helps, here is the typical state of my running apps. I don't understand why Google Play Store is always running as I've disabled auto-update as well as notifications for it. The running service is ContentSyncService. There's also PrefetcherService running behind the Maps process. I don't know why these are popping up.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm a little hesitant to give more advice, because we're getting into uncharted territory for me, so I don't necessarily want to lead you astray. But here are a couple more quick thoughts:

1. Just for kicks, remove the Circles widget from your homescreen. Widgets can contribute to battery drain, since they need to refresh their data, and Circles might be checking the web to update its weather too often. This is a longshot, and it would be silly for a stock Moto widget to cause problems, but you just never know.

2. If you've disabled a lot of apps, I wonder if it might have been one too many. For example, suppose some other app needed one of the stock apps you may have disabled, and if it's not available, then that makes the first app keep trying to find it, thereby keeping the phone awake. Consider re-enabling all system apps that you've disabled, then see what happens.

 

[SilentEcho]

Tried both to no effect. This is quite frustrating.