Nexus 5 Battery Drain >20% Overnight

[crxssi]

Power Toggles app lets you set 3 different brightness levels easily accessible from the pull down notification menu. I have one at 25% for use the majority of the time, one at 55% for when I'm out in the sun, and the other at 100% for when I want to show off my screen (almost never use that one).

I love Power Toggles, and have used it for years. But like I said, I don't want to set brightness manually all the time. Maybe some day Google will get it right.

 

[Andy Truong1]

Just got my Nexus 5 last week. Experienced the same battery drain when idle. Checked to see if it was the camera bug and it wasn't. Tried messing around with some of the settings (Location reporting, wifi, etc..), nothing really helped. I barely use my phone throughout the workday and it pretty much dies on me before I get home at night.

This is an embarrassing product from Google. I switched over from my 2.5 year old iPhone 4S, which still gets quadruple the battery life compared to my brand new Nexus.

I'll be waiting to see if 4.4.3 fixes the issue. If it doesn't, I'm returning this phone and telling every person I know to never, ever buy a Google phone ever again.

 

[mrsmumbles]

You might want to try a simple reboot, that usually helps.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[pbc]

Just got my Nexus 5 last week. Experienced the same battery drain when idle. Checked to see if it was the camera bug and it wasn't. Tried messing around with some of the settings (Location reporting, wifi, etc..), nothing really helped. I barely use my phone throughout the workday and it pretty much dies on me before I get home at night.

This is an embarrassing product from Google. I switched over from my 2.5 year old iPhone 4S, which still gets quadruple the battery life compared to my brand new Nexus.

I'll be waiting to see if 4.4.3 fixes the issue. If it doesn't, I'm returning this phone and telling every person I know to never, ever buy a Google phone ever again.

Same issue I was having. Tried everything and I was at the same place as you.

Returned the unit for a new one, had it happen again right off the bat, but after the first week I haven't had the issue since.

Don't have to reboot before bed anymore or worry that I will drop more than 10-12% overnight.

But I agree, it is annoying as all heck when you have it.

 

[ianhanson85]

Is this all caused by the camera bug or is there a way to fix it? I also experience sufficient battery drain when idle.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[crxssi]

Is this all caused by the camera bug or is there a way to fix it? I also experience sufficient battery drain when idle.

There are any number of things that can cause this on ANY Android phone, hence the number of threads and posts about it. This is not unique to the Nexus 5.

You have to approach the issue with a troubleshooting methodology. There is likely nothing wrong with the phone hardware, but a combination of settings, apps, and conditions. I had a short time (about a week) of unreasonable idle battery drain too, but it went away after I changed a few settings and rebooted. I can't remember what exactly it was, but it doesn't mean it would be the same issue as for anyone else, and it wasn't camera related.

 

[ianhanson85]

There are any number of things that can cause this on ANY Android phone, hence the number of threads and posts about it. This is not unique to the Nexus 5.

You have to approach the issue with a troubleshooting methodology. There is likely nothing wrong with the phone hardware, but a combination of settings, apps, and conditions. I had a short time (about a week) of unreasonable idle battery drain too, but it went away after I changed a few settings and rebooted. I can't remember what exactly it was, but it doesn't mean it would be the same issue as for anyone else, and it wasn't camera related.

For those of us who are new to android- what settings would you change?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[B. Diddy]

For those of us who are new to android- what settings would you change?

Posted via Android Central App

Some are mentioned in this guide: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...how-tos/298919-guide-battery-saving-tips.html

 

[LeoRex]

.
This is an embarrassing product from Google. ... If it doesn't, I'm returning this phone and telling every person I know to never, ever buy a Google phone ever again.

Hyperbole, much? Sounds like there is some bias there.

It's far from embarrassing.. it's a great phone. If you have issues and think the phone sucks, sorry... but look around this board and you'll find a long long list of nexus 5 owners who will disagree quite strongly.

So either you are having a rare negative experience, or the whole industry is wrong about this phone

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm so embarrassed whenever my Nexus 5 just flies through whatever process it's doing. It's so embarrassing when I take vivid low light shots or dazzling daytime shots. I'm ashamed when I get system updates quickly and promptly. I'm enraged whenever I see that crisp screen. It's pathetic, really. Sad. Shameful.

 

[Soham26]

Use battery doctor app

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Bront]

For those of us who are new to android- what settings would you change?

Posted via Android Central App

From a previous thread.

Stuff I do:
1) Turn on ART. HUGE Idle battery saver.
2) Turn off "OK Google" responce. Huge battery drain.
3) Leave it on 3G when not using the internet. Even with a good signal, 4G drains the battery more, and what's the point if you're not using it. (Note, this would be easier of someone made a widget that made it easy, so I understand not wanting to do it).
4) Set the GPS to battery saving when not in use. For everything short of driving directions, that's good enough.
5) Space out any automated data synchs. Do you really need a facebook and email update within minutes of it happening? Do you even need your email auto-synched at all? (I have them all set to on demand, which takes a whole 30-60 seconds extra load time to pull down, even on 3G).
6) Turn off Google Now (I don't have it off, and I get amazing battery life out of the N5).
7) Set screen brightness to auto. Screen is the biggest battery suck, only so much you can do here.
8) Enable dark mode for any apps you can, and set your background to a non-live dark background. (Bright/lighter colors suck more battery. It's minor, but it does help).
9) Install Greenify (if you have root), and let it suspend any apps you know you don't need and don't want to take over in the background (Many games can "stick" open and running).
10) Use Wifi, have all your updates/backups that are automated happen on wifi only. Turn off Wifi (and BT) when not in use.

I get 2-3 days on my phone with light to moderate use (1-2.5 hours of screen time over that period). I also rarely use the camera, so don't run into the camera bug much. All that may not work for you because of how you use your phone (everyone uses the phone differently), but for me, I find that the phone performs awesomely.

Also, to be fair, I'm on Sprint, and despite LTE being around, I rarely find the speed is that useful, and rarely get the correct speed even if I wanted to.

 

[pmatil]

I have too observed this idle battery drain with my Nexus 5 (Android 4.4.4, not rooted). However, it seems to have something to do with GPS. Whenever I have used an app that uses GPS (Sports Tracker, Maps) the battery drain increases even though I turn GPS completely off after I'm done using the app. I have also turned off Wifi (alltogether, even scan when wifi off). I'm only on 3G network, 4G is not even possible for me. And, a reboot solves this drain until I use GPS again.

Idle times when not draining: 3 days from 100% battery to 50% (completely idle, only some google syncs running)
Idle times when draining: 12 hours from 100% battery to 80%.

It is weird that reboot stops the drain. Battery usage graph shows mainly "Cell standby" or "Phone idle" as the main battery hogs. I don't have screenshots from the graph yet to demonstrate.

 

[crxssi]

I have too observed this idle battery drain with my Nexus 5 (Android 4.4.4, not rooted). However, it seems to have something to do with GPS. Whenever I have used an app that uses GPS (Sports Tracker, Maps) the battery drain increases even though I turn GPS completely off after I'm done using the app. I have also turned off Wifi (alltogether, even scan when wifi off).

OK, this is scary, it was just yesterday I noticed that it might actually be at least partially related to the GPS. I normally leave mine on battery save, but I have to turn on high accuracy occasionally and the day before was one of them. After the drain starts, only a reboot will stop it. However, there are times this has happened without my manually switching the Location/GPS mode, so it is not a clean/direct association....