Bad Idle drain

[globster2000]

As you may have realized, many moto x's are prone to bad idle drain for both overnight and day usage. Some people have claimed 10-15% of the battery drains overnight while others has claimed 5-8% drained overnight. The HTC One mini, which haves a smaller battery size, has been rumored to drain 3% overnight. Android OS on the mini is 4% while on the Moto X it is #2 battery eater. When I received my X a month ago the android OS was 3%, which is normal to android devices. However, a month later Android OS is 15% sometimes 20%, and my battery is being eaten 2% every hour. I thought these diminished returns was due to the always on sensors, but when I turn those sensors off nothing happens. I ran wakelock detector the last two nights and I notice chrome manager is waking my phone 20-30% of the time the phone is idling. I thought the syncing options with the Google+ account is the problem, but nothing changed the 2% per hour. I came across a rumor that said the 2% is reduced to 1.2% when you unclick Wi-Fi & mobile network locations from the Settings->Location Access, but I have yet to test. I also found something interesting today that shows a more detail settings for my phone. It is at the top of the homescreen when you press microphone->settings->Voice->Google Account dashboard. This will launch a dashboard on your google+ account, which shows more detailed settings for your syncs. I am not sure if this will improve battery, but I am going to give it a shot tonight.

 

[PlayDLine]

As you may have realized, many moto x's are prone to bad idle drain for both overnight and day usage. Some people have claimed 10-15% of the battery drains overnight while others has claimed 5-8% drained overnight. The HTC One mini, which haves a smaller battery size, has been rumored to drain 3% overnight. Android OS on the mini is 4% while on the Moto X it is #2 battery eater. When I received my X a month ago the android OS was 3%, which is normal to android devices. However, a month later Android OS is 15% sometimes 20%, and my battery is being eaten 2% every hour. I thought these diminished returns was due to the always on sensors, but when I turn those sensors off nothing happens. I ran wakelock detector the last two nights and I notice chrome manager is waking my phone 20-30% of the time the phone is idling. I thought the syncing options with the Google+ account is the problem, but nothing changed the 2% per hour. I came across a rumor that said the 2% is reduced to 1.2% when you unclick Wi-Fi & mobile network locations from the Settings->Location Access, but I have yet to test. I also found something interesting today that shows a more detail settings for my phone. It is at the top of the homescreen when you press microphone->settings->Voice->Google Account dashboard. This will launch a dashboard on your google+ account, which shows more detailed settings for your syncs. I am not sure if this will improve battery, but I am going to give it a shot tonight.

I have very bad idle battery drain also - thanks for bringing this up. Has anyone found any solutions that might help out? I even see this when I go into airplane mode and/or turn off data and wifi.

 

[globster2000]

Oh yea, I have noticed that the battery saver option doesn't show up anymore when the battery goes below 15% since I've installed the AT&T update. Maybe it kicks in but no notification, or it doesn't kick in at all. I need someone to test this for me, and see if it shows up or not. If the battery saver doesn't kick in, see if the moto x drains normally or drains slowly as if the battery saver is on. To me, it feels like it drains normally without battery saver.

 

[clankfu]

I'm getting about 1% per hour overnight. I'm ok with that since I have all radios on and all the Google location settings enabled.

Plus, I'm not rooted yet so I don't have anything frozen in TiBU or hibernated with Greenify although I plan to which should help with idle drain. If you're rooted, I highly recommend checking out Greenify.

 

[globster2000]

Update: I unclicked Wi-Fi & mobile network locations from the Settings->Location Access and turned off chrome sync through pressing microphone->settings->Voice->Google Account dashboard on my phone. I charged my phone to 100%, left wakelock detector on, and unplugged my phone an hour ago. I just checked my phone and it is still 100%. I am going to keep monitoring my phone to see for any changes, but so far this is a BIG improvement.

 

[clankfu]

Update: I unclicked Wi-Fi & mobile network locations from the Settings->Location Access and turned off chrome sync through pressing microphone->settings->Voice->Google Account dashboard on my phone. I charged my phone to 100%, left wakelock detector on, and unplugged my phone an hour ago. I just checked my phone and it is still 100%. I am going to keep monitoring my phone to see for any changes, but so far this is a BIG improvement.

You can also disable Chrome Sync along with whatever other Google service you don't want via Settings --> Accounts --> Google --> your email

 

[globster2000]

You can also disable Chrome Sync along with whatever other Google service you don't want via Settings --> Accounts --> Google --> your email

I am not sure if it changes on google's end or not... I haven't checked if the way you are suggesting or even if chrome sync is part of the problem. I am just happy that it was 100% 20 minutes ago. I am going to check again in 40 minutes.

 

[davidnc]

Im testing a different ideal to see if i can lower android os in my battery to.
I have not tested long enough right now however android os has dropped from 12% to 10%.since i started .If it works i will report back with what i have tweaked .

sent from Moto X

 

[globster2000]

Update #2: Battery dropped to 98% after 2 hours with those settings off... Definitely lesser idle battery drain, but this should be lesser. Wakelock detector detected 24 wakes with facebook and 30 wakes with google search with 2% awake. This is better than the 64 wakes i use to get in 2 hours. I am at 2 hours and 13 minutes on battery with wifi at top with 30%, android os 23%, screen 22% with 3 min and 41 sec

Edit: If i do the math with 2 hours screen time, that would be 3% Android OS idle plus whatever Android OS I used in that 2 hour screen time.

 

[phositadc]

Update: I unclicked Wi-Fi & mobile network locations from the Settings->Location Access

Doesn't that prevent apps like Google maps from estimating your location when GPS is off?

Sent from my XT1053

 

[globster2000]

Doesn't that prevent apps like Google maps from estimating your location when GPS is off?

Sent from my XT1053

nope but that does prevent google from knowing your phone when you lose it. However, if you use motocare website you can turn it on remotely and find your device.

 

[phositadc]

nope but that does prevent google from knowing your phone when you lose it. However, if you use motocare website you can turn it on remotely and find your device.

For me Google maps location doesn't work if I turn that off.



Sent from my XT1053

 

[mm356]

Interesting thread - I also have the high idle battery drain. If WiFi is on - even with 4G off - it's 4-5% an hour. With WiFi and 4G off it's still 2-3% an hour, and my biggest culprit is location wakelocks from the Android OS. I've found that if I turn everything off first and then power cycle the device straight into the sleep state, it will properly sleep at around 1% an hour or slightly less. But once I turn WiFi or 4G on and start using apps or anything then it wakes everything back up again and the excessive drain continues.

It's not a huge deal for me, as I'm always around charging stations and I like the location services Google offers. I'm thinking of rooting the device just to be able to have Tasker toggle my location services off in "sleep" mode and back on when I'm ready to use it again. I look forward to hearing your results!

 

[globster2000]

For me Google maps location doesn't work if I turn that off.



Sent from my XT1053

Is your Settings->Location Access looks like this?:

 

[globster2000]

I did another change. I turned off Facebook Refresh Interval because I get annoyed by the spammed game invites... haha. I turned this off by going to FB's settings and changing the "Refresh interval" to Never.

I also turned off Location Reporting in Google Maps from going into Google Map's settings. I just rebooted the phone and am now recharging to 100%... i will see how this racks up in an hour.

 

[davidnc]

I really have no complaints about battery life.
I have always had all the google syncs off.I have done that with all my previous android devices as well.
I still have Google WiFi and mobile network check right now
Im just trying to fiqure out why Android OS is always in the top of Settings>battery as you mentioned in the OP.Seems like Android OS was always in the second or third place in the battery stats .
What I have been testing is in my settings>apps>google search I cleared out my cache and data. This bascially wipe out my Google cards I had stored. Then I touch the microphone on the Google bar>settings>and slid the slid bar Google Now off
I can still say ok "Google now"> navigate to ........
Whats the weather like ,Set alarm clock, etc and all that works. It seems as tho I just disabled my Google cards.
Before I made this change the Android OS was at 12% then a little later was at 10% now its at 9%.
I have been using my phone in the same normal manner I been using it and I think this is the first time I seen it in single digits.Its 4th in the settings>battery now.
I am still testing my theory and will be all day tomorrow.
I just starting testing like 30 minutes after globster2000 started this thread.Reading the OP is what made me decide to try this .

 

[globster2000]

I really have no complaints about battery life.
I have always had all the google syncs off.I have done that with all my previous android devices as well.
I still have Google WiFi and mobile network check right now
Im just trying to fiqure out why Android OS is always in the top of Settings>battery as you mentioned in the OP.Seems like Android OS was always in the second or third place in the battery stats .
What I have been testing is in my settings>apps>google search I cleared out my cache and data. This bascially wipe out my Google cards I had stored. Then I touch the microphone on the Google bar>settings>and slid the slid bar Google Now off
I can still say ok "Google now"> navigate to ........
Whats the weather like ,Set alarm clock, etc and all that works. It seems as tho I just disabled my Google cards.
Before I made this change the Android OS was at 12% then a little later was at 10% now its at 9%.
I have been using my phone in the same normal manner I been using it and I think this is the first time I seen it in single digits.Its 4th in the settings>battery now.
I am still testing my theory and will be all day tomorrow.
I just starting testing like 30 minutes after globster2000 started this thread.Reading the OP is what made me decide to try this .

humm... interesting... tell me how that works... I noticed after i flipped off fb and location reporting i seem to be getting less wakes from google search and facebook. although, facebook is still waking my phone, but it is much better with 6 instead of 12 per hour...

 

[globster2000]

Update: I did a few more changes and undid one of the things I mentioned above. I undid it because I like that service, but I still think it is responsible for some of the wakes under google search. Last night with these changes, I turned on battery saver before heading to bed with 77% battery life on my phone at 2am. I woke up at 9:45am and my battery was 72%. By calculating the math, my phone ate through 5% of battery in 7 hours and 45 minutes.... An average of almost .00645% of battery lost per hour and that is considerably better than the 2% I use to get before these changes.

Changes I've made(Forget what I mentioned above):

[1] Unclicked Wi-Fi & mobile network locations from the Settings->Location Access
[2] Turned off Chrome Sync from Home Screen->Microphone->Settings->Voice->Google Account dashboard->Chrome
[3] Removed Facebook Account from Moto X (Settings->Facebook->Remove Account) and Uninstalled Facebook [Replaced app with FB link]

After going through facebook settings, it seems that no matter what I did it still periodically toggled events from facebook and kept retrieving facebook account information. I was almost driven to insanity with the 34-60 wakelocks an hour until i uninstalled that app.

I turned back on Location Reporting under Google Maps because I like the google now function to suggest things in different areas when I journey through boston. It may reduce some of the wakes under Google Search, but right now I am impressed that it is sapping less than 1% an hour by idling where as it sapped 2% an hour.

By the way, the facebook sync of contacts doesn't work on the moto x, and is a bug that has been reported to motorola. The most interesting part was my google sync of birthdays synced after I removed my facebook account from my moto x. Before the removal, I couldn't get my google contact's birthdays to sync no matter what I did. I am thinking these energy losses are due to the buggy facebook implementations, the "find my moto x" feature is taxing the battery, and Chrome syncs too much in short amount of time with google+ account.

 

[globster2000]

I really have no complaints about battery life.
I have always had all the google syncs off.I have done that with all my previous android devices as well.
I still have Google WiFi and mobile network check right now
Im just trying to fiqure out why Android OS is always in the top of Settings>battery as you mentioned in the OP.Seems like Android OS was always in the second or third place in the battery stats .
What I have been testing is in my settings>apps>google search I cleared out my cache and data. This bascially wipe out my Google cards I had stored. Then I touch the microphone on the Google bar>settings>and slid the slid bar Google Now off
I can still say ok "Google now"> navigate to ........
Whats the weather like ,Set alarm clock, etc and all that works. It seems as tho I just disabled my Google cards.
Before I made this change the Android OS was at 12% then a little later was at 10% now its at 9%.
I have been using my phone in the same normal manner I been using it and I think this is the first time I seen it in single digits.Its 4th in the settings>battery now.
I am still testing my theory and will be all day tomorrow.
I just starting testing like 30 minutes after globster2000 started this thread.Reading the OP is what made me decide to try this .

I think this explains the rest of the google search wakeups on the phone

 

[Ductman1]

I also have a high Android Os, it usually runs about 22% of battery life, the biggest offender seems to be Facebook even though location, notifications and sync is off
IN a 9 hour period Facebook was awake a whopping 120 times, I will probably uninstall the app and just log in via chrome.