Nexus 5: Battery Very Inconsistent - What's the culprit?

[onthecouchagain]

First off, have you tried Safe Mode and seeing how your phone does then? This can help identify if it's an app related issue. To enter safe mode, long press the power button while the phone is on then long press on Power Off and you'll be given an option to reboot into Safe Mode. Try this to see if you still encounter battery drains.

Which cellular network are you using? Also, how does it rate on Root Metrics in your area? Those spikes could maybe be cell tower overload during peak hours, which can cause your LTE modem to pull more juice as it's trying to keep a stable connection. The closer you are to a tower, the less this happens.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I'd have to run in Safe Mode for a long time as this happens randomly every few weeks. If you look at the OP date and my latest update date, you'll see a few weeks have passed. THat's how long I had to wait in order to witness this bug happening again. I just don't see how it is an app, though. I run more or less the same programs every day (my usage is very routine now, nearly down to a science) and I haven't installed anything new. I don't believe it's the carrier either because I've been with Tmobile since owning the Nexus 5, and during the good days (which are 95% of the time) the battery drain is perfectly normal and fine. Check my OP, you'll see examples of what the graph looks like on fine/most days.

It's perplexing and annoying; there's no discernible culprit. It makes it hard to pinpoint what the problem is. My usage and signal strength and apps and all are nearly identical on both good and bad days -- just once in a while, a bad day will creep it's head and my phone will drain much faster. After a reboot, it's back to normal despite all the conditions remaining the same.

I don't know. Something is amiss, and I can't help but feel it's Android. I'm not the only one experiencing this bug either. Another thread that's active right now is going through more or less the same issues: http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-5/353838-nexus-5-another-battery-drain-thread.html

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I'd have to run in Safe Mode for a long time as this happens randomly every few weeks. If you look at the OP date and my latest update date, you'll see a few weeks have passed. THat's how long I had to wait in order to witness this bug happening again. I just don't see how it is an app, though. I run more or less the same programs every day (my usage is very routine now, nearly down to a science) and I haven't installed anything new. I don't believe it's the carrier either because I've been with Tmobile since owning the Nexus 5, and during the good days (which are 95% of the time) the battery drain is perfectly normal and fine. Check my OP, you'll see examples of what the graph looks like on fine/most days.

It's perplexing and annoying; there's no discernible culprit. It makes it hard to pinpoint what the problem is. My usage and signal strength and apps and all are nearly identical on both good and bad days -- just once in a while, a bad day will creep it's head and my phone will drain much faster. After a reboot, it's back to normal despite all the conditions remaining the same.

I don't know. Something is amiss, and I can't help but feel it's Android. I'm not the only one experiencing this bug either. Another thread that's active right now is going through more or less the same issues: http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-5/353838-nexus-5-another-battery-drain-thread.html

I would check the signal strength in Settings - About Phone - Status while you experience the dip. The signal bars in your notification bar are not always accurate. I'd confirm that you're not experiencing network congestion or tower over load.

Also, have you tried putting the phone into 3G and seeing how that goes? I live in a dense LTE (band 17) market and I find 3G is still better indoors at work (I'm on AT&T). It's also more reliable for me and standby is tremendously better on 3G. I'd try that out for a while and report back.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[onthecouchagain]

I would check the signal strength in Settings - About Phone - Status while you experience the dip. The signal bars in your notification bar are not always accurate. I'd confirm that you're not experiencing network congestion or tower over load.

Also, have you tried putting the phone into 3G and seeing how that goes? I live in a dense LTE (band 17) market and I find 3G is still better indoors at work (I'm on AT&T). It's also more reliable for me and standby is tremendously better on 3G. I'd try that out for a while and report back.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I'll give that a go. But doesn't being on WiFi nullify the signal as the random battery drain?

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

I'll give that a go. But doesn't being on WiFi nullify the signal as the random battery drain?

If the tower you are connected to isn't doing well, then it could affect your standby because your phone is still communicating for calls and for text messages. Although I don't think this would cause such the dramatic loss you're experiencing if you are on WiFi.

I had thought this was happening on LTE at work (I assumed you weren't on it because I don't have it at work lol). WiFi should actually make your phone standby better. Does this issue generally happen while on WiFi? If so, check this out...

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...uble-connecting-to-5-ghz-wi-fi-access-points/

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[TURBOSPARTAN]

Since it was mentioned in this thread, how do you turn Location Services to "low battery usage" for Facebook?

My Google Search and other items are on "low usage" but the Facebook is on "high battery usage"

 

[onthecouchagain]

If the tower you are connected to isn't doing well, then it could affect your standby because your phone is still communicating for calls and for text messages. Although I don't think this would cause such the dramatic loss you're experiencing if you are on WiFi.

I had thought this was happening on LTE at work (I assumed you weren't on it because I don't have it at work lol). WiFi should actually make your phone standby better. Does this issue generally happen while on WiFi? If so, check this out...

[Bug Watch] Some Android Devices Having Major Connection Problems With 5 GHz Wi-Fi Access Points

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

No, I've experienced this "random bad battery day" bug without WiFi turned on. Also, I've experienced "normal/good battery days" with WiFi on. So, if it is the WiFi, it still doesn't explain why there are days (that repeat for weeks) where the battery drain is normal.

Like I said, it's really a mystery. Every time we point to a culprit, if it's a culprit that is also on or being used during the good days, then it sort of rules it out as the cause during the bad days. Because it begs the question, why isn't it having the same adverse effects during the good days?

Something is really amiss. All my research is pointing to something inherently wrong/buggy with Android. It's really disappointing because Android is clearly at a point where it's miles better than the alternatives, in my opinion, but once in a while, little oddities like this pop up, and it's frustrating.

- - - Updated - - -

Since it was mentioned in this thread, how do you turn Location Services to "low battery usage" for Facebook?

My Google Search and other items are on "low usage" but the Facebook is on "high battery usage"

I'd go into your Facebook app and check the settings there (refresh rate, location settings, etc).

 

[cancan101]

Do you use Google Wallet's tap and pay (NFC) feature?

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Re: Battery Very Inconsistent - What's the culprit?

I don't allow FB to run my location or to even sync (I don't use FB much so I manually sync when I open the app).

Here is my location settings:

View attachment 101085

I don't ever change these settings, so it doesn't explain why on the "good days" the battery drainage is fine and minimal under the same exact location settings and why on the "bad days" the battery is suddenly draining much quicker.

For what it's worth, I also have Google Now hot word listening off, and Google Now off (just don't use it). But again, I want to stress that these settings stay the same during the "good" and "bad" battery days. This leads me to believe these aren't the variables that are causing the battery drain.

I'm pretty stumped. And this reminds me of The Verge's review where they point out that the battery is very inconsistent.

Use battery saver instead of high accuracy for location services. Only use high accuracy when you are going to use the phone to navigate somewhere and need to use the GPS. Saves a lot of battery.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[mirko77]

What about the camera bug? I have been killing the camera app after any use and my battery lasts longer

 

[crxssi]

What about the camera bug? I have been killing the camera app after any use and my battery lasts longer

If you have the camera bug, it will be pretty obviously visible in the battery usage listing. What sucks is when it is "Android OS" or "Google Play Services" or similar....

 

[mirko77]

Well, if it is a background service common to many apps it might not be visible in the battery usage as a single app, but as Android OS. Just assuming...

 

[onthecouchagain]

Re: Battery Very Inconsistent - What's the culprit?

Use battery saver instead of high accuracy for location services. Only use high accuracy when you are going to use the phone to navigate somewhere and need to use the GPS. Saves a lot of battery.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using AC Forums mobile app

Is this true? I've read multiple times that even in "High Accuracy" the GPS and whatnot aren't enabled until you open an app that requires use of it (like say Maps, or Yelp, etc.). In other words, the GPS is not 'forever on' even when not needed.

No?

 

[onthecouchagain]

Well, if it is a background service common to many apps it might not be visible in the battery usage as a single app, but as Android OS. Just assuming...

Yup. I've concluded that this is just a straight up bug with either the OS (most likely) or the hardware.

Every experiment I've done points to a bug. There is no consistency to be able to point to anything else other than a random bug that occurs. Luckily it doesn't happen often, but it's unfortunate nonetheless.

 

[mirko77]

Re: Battery Very Inconsistent - What's the culprit?

You are right, I have "High Accuracy" on all the time and my battery drain is the same if I do not use any app which require to pin point me

 

[mirko77]

Yup. I've concluded that this is just a straight up bug with either the OS (most likely) or the hardware.

Every experiment I've done points to a bug. There is no consistency to be able to point to anything else other than a random bug that occurs. Luckily it doesn't happen often, but it's unfortunate nonetheless.

Google at least is working on a fix. Finger crossed for 4.4.3 to solve this

 

[onthecouchagain]

Bumping this old thread of mine.

The inconsistency of the Nexus 5 battery life -- even after the latest update -- is driving me up the wall. Doing virtually the same routines every day, some days the battery is amazing, and other days, the battery life is dreadful. Drastically worse while not doing anything majorly different. Same daily usage patterns, extreme varying battery life results. No discernable culprit.

Very frustrating. Am I the only one?

I think I'm going to have to start looking for a new phone.

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

Bumping this old thread of mine.

The inconsistency of the Nexus 5 battery life -- even after the latest update -- is driving me up the wall. Doing virtually the same routines every day, some days the battery is amazing, and other days, the battery life is dreadful. Drastically worse while not doing anything majorly different. Same daily usage patterns, extreme varying battery life results. No discernable culprit.

Very frustrating. Am I the only one?

I think I'm going to have to start looking for a new phone.

I experienced it too, but I think I figured out the culprit, poor cellular reception. This phone's RF performance is below par compared to other phones and being in not-so-great signal areas seems to kill the battery more so. I suspect this is a combination of that and apps running in the background and using data on a strained connection.

 

[jj14x]

Bumping this old thread of mine.

The inconsistency of the Nexus 5 battery life -- even after the latest update -- is driving me up the wall. Doing virtually the same routines every day, some days the battery is amazing, and other days, the battery life is dreadful. Drastically worse while not doing anything majorly different. Same daily usage patterns, extreme varying battery life results. No discernable culprit.

Very frustrating. Am I the only one?

I think I'm going to have to start looking for a new phone.

I see you had tried BBS earlier, and posted screen prints of the kernel wakelocks. Did you also take screen prints of partial wakelocks? If not, could you? That may shed some light on what's happening. The only time I've had thee type of battery issues are either when the play services needed an update, or when my carrier was doing maintenance on the nearby towers and that was causing my phone to lose signal for long periods.

Other than that, the only thing I can think of is some app trying to retrieve location, and draining your battery for that (try to set your device to use low battery usage location - I use a tasker profile to auto-switch it to high accuracy when I launch Navigation, and switch back to battery saving when I exit nav)

 

[onthecouchagain]

I experienced it too, but I think I figured out the culprit, poor cellular reception. This phone's RF performance is below par compared to other phones and being in not-so-great signal areas seems to kill the battery more so. I suspect this is a combination of that and apps running in the background and using data on a strained connection.

I see you had tried BBS earlier, and posted screen prints of the kernel wakelocks. Did you also take screen prints of partial wakelocks? If not, could you? That may shed some light on what's happening. The only time I've had thee type of battery issues are either when the play services needed an update, or when my carrier was doing maintenance on the nearby towers and that was causing my phone to lose signal for long periods.

Other than that, the only thing I can think of is some app trying to retrieve location, and draining your battery for that (try to set your device to use low battery usage location - I use a tasker profile to auto-switch it to high accuracy when I launch Navigation, and switch back to battery saving when I exit nav)

I appreciate both your advice, but I don't think those are the issues.

It isn't cell reception as on the "fine" days where the battery drainage isn't severe, I'm in the same building in the same office with the same cell signal strength.

The issue occurred today again. Here's a screen shot:



Notice that the graph is steep when the issue is happening. Then I reboot, and notice that it steadies out again. Yet, still the same cell signal strength throughout. And indeed so because I haven't left the office really.

There isn't any real app that's running amok either.

Anyway, long story short... I've done nearly everything I could to get to the bottom of it. It's either a hardware issue (I don't think I'm going to get an LG phone again...) or it's a software issue on Android's side. I was hoping the latest update would fix it, but it clearly hasn't. I've experimented so much, and have drawn very similar conclusions -- that there's no discernible culprit. Under the same usage patterns, same signal strength, I get vastly differing battery life.

And it's frustrating.

I'm really looking to the next Nexus or Moto X+1 to hopefully be rid of this battery inconsistency once and for all.

Very bummed about it because otherwise, I like my Nexus 5. I've just had it up to here with the battery issue.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I think I'm going to give Snapdragon Battery Guru a shot. Anyone have any experience using this on their Nexus 5?

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ils?id=com.xiam.snapdragon.app&token=tOxj-Nai