Maps/Battery bug with 2.1?

[Cliffs71]

Got a question and wanted to see if anyone else has noticed this on their Hero. With 2.1, we now have access to battery information including a breakdown of what has been using the battery by percentage. I've also been using the HTC battery widget that gives me a remaining battery percentage. With 1.5, I found I was using about 2% battery per hour with the phone mostly idle. With 2.1, that seems to have gone up to 3% an hour. That's seems to be opposite of what others are reporting, but here's something else I find potentially troubling...

If I open Google maps (either via the maps widget or now through the Google Nav), it seems to be using an abnormally large amount of battery, even if I open it and immediately close it. For example, I opened maps for about 30 seconds tonight to quickly check what traffic looked like before I had to drive somewhere. I closed it out, as I said, within 30-40 seconds. 4 and a half hours later, when I checked the phone's battery history and use, battery was down from 100% to 86% and it showed that maps had used 96% of that 14%. It just seems weird that 30 seconds of maps would eat through 13%, especially since it didn't jump down 13% immediately. That makes me wonder if maps is somehow running invisibly in the background and just slowly leaking juice. But if I go into the applications settings and check the running services, maps is not one of the apps running. Or is it a bug where maps is reporting an incorrect percentage of usage?

Any other thoughts?

 

[trooper54]

It all depends on how your closing it. If you just hit menu or back, your phone still runs maps in the background. On top of that, when you open maps it forces the gps radio on, which consumes a lot of battery.

Try having the manual toggle for the gps radio, and turning it off when your not using gps features, and try getting a task killer to force close maps. let me know how that works out for you.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Yeah, I found maps one day draining my battery in the settings menu, and I hadn't used maps in a while. Who knew that when Google blaming poorly written apps for bad battery life, they were talking about their own... ZING! just restart the phone (worked for me) and it may not come back.

 

[Cliffs71]

Yeah, usually I restart the phone to clear it, but it seems weird that maps just quietly keeps ticking away after you're done with it.

I had a task killer, but I dropped it with 2.1 because the phone now had its own task killer built in. Guess I need to reinstall.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Official 2.1 installed. No task killer till today but just to see if it helps. My findings: I get the same thing with Maps and Camera from time to time. Very annoying. Either one will do just like the OP says. Watching battery use widget and either just take off through the roof. Right this minute I managed to have both maps and camera battling it out for #1 battery killer. Funny thing is while these are doing that, I just installed task killer today and it doesn't show them running. Battery is dying damn quick though. I'll exit app, task kill, back out or hit home button, no difference. Doesn't happen all the time though. Sometimes it all works like it's supposed to and neither will be showing a growth in battery using percentages, only lower. Well, that's my finding so far at least.

 

[Cliffs71]

Yeah, at a certain point, I think maps accounted for like 80%+ of my battery usage and yes, the official android app use area in the settings menus doesn't even show maps as running. I had to install a 3rd party app killer for maps to appear and to get rid of it. Definitely seems like a bug to me

 

[tobiasly]

Yeah, at a certain point, I think maps accounted for like 80%+ of my battery usage and yes, the official android app use area in the settings menus doesn't even show maps as running. I had to install a 3rd party app killer for maps to appear and to get rid of it. Definitely seems like a bug to me

Which 3rd party app killer did you use? Neither of the ones I tried showed maps as running. I think at one point there was a Maps entry in Running Services but killing that didn't help either.

I've also seen the very same thing with Camera, so it's not a GPS issue. And even if an app is using GPS in the background it will show the GPS icon in the status bar.

Verry frustrating...

 

[Cliffs71]

Which 3rd party app killer did you use? Neither of the ones I tried showed maps as running. I think at one point there was a Maps entry in Running Services but killing that didn't help either.

I've also seen the very same thing with Camera, so it's not a GPS issue. And even if an app is using GPS in the background it will show the GPS icon in the status bar.

Verry frustrating...

I use Advance Task Killer Free. Interestingly, the EVO doesn't have this map/battery issue, so it's an exclusive 'feature' of the Hero.

 

[tobiasly]

I use Advance Task Killer Free. Interestingly, the EVO doesn't have this map/battery issue, so it's an exclusive 'feature' of the Hero.

Yeah, Hero 2.1 has lots of "features" I also tried ATK and Maps didn't show up. Restarting is the only thing I've found that works. At least they fixed the "feature" where home screen widgets lost all their settings on restart, so it's much less painful now.

 

[mrcminnesota]

I have found the camera uses a significant amount of battery. So, do I need a task killer for this? I wish there was a close function in all applications - don't understand why there is not.

 

[deadeye99]

I have been reading here for a while but I had register to tell my experience with this. The first time I used maps and the camera after the update I had the same issue. It actually seemed like maybe it was attributing all the battery use to the map or camera but the battery lasted just as long. I suspect it is a glitch in the battery use function. Anyway, it only happened the first time and never repeated itself for the last 2 weeks and I've tried it daily. Fyi Bob

 

[deadeye99]

So, no sooner than I made this post the issue resurfaced. Turned camera on by mistake this morning. 9.5 hours since unplugged. 70% battery left. Battery use, camera 90%, cell standby 3%, wi-fi 3%, Phone idle 2%, voice calls 2%. This goes back to my original idea that its the battery meter. I have made at least 1 hour of voice calls and used the weather and maps several times. It seems to clear when you connect the charger and it resets. I don't think the battery is being used and thats why the task killers, I don't use one now, don't see it. For what it's worth. Bob

 

[Alvin]

This maps battery drain thing is weird. Maps doesn't appear to be running with the advanced task killer. How do I exit maps and be sure it's not running in background (what I do now is look at battery usage in the settings to see if maps is there ... but I use maps A LOT and that seems really stupid).

No "exit"or "close" under maps menu.

 

[Sinamn2224]

I use Advance Task Killer Free. Interestingly, the EVO doesn't have this map/battery issue, so it's an exclusive 'feature' of the Hero.

I have an evo and I've had the camera thing once. Don't haven't had it in a couple weeks, but now maps is doing it....I accidently started latitude one time and in running services maps will be running. I'll stop it, give it a sec and it will pop back up as running. Stop it and it starts again. I exited latitude thru the menus settings, but maps is just going crazy. I'm gonna try just a restart since there doesn't seem to be more issues with other people. Thinking it is just a bug.