How I improved battery life on MM

[Fousekis]

Hi and sorry for the long post, hope it helps someone.

I have the G4 for about a month, switching from an Iphone 6. The phone was originally in Vodafone UK, but I unlocked it and have been using it on another network. I have been really happy with this phone, especially since it cost me half the price I sold the iPhone while at the same time I consider it an upgrade. The only disappointment was the battery life.

The day I bought it I upgraded it to Marshmallow (V20d). For the first couple of weeks, I got around 2.30-3.00 hours screen on time which was a real disappointment, given that this was mainly on Wifi and with auto-brightness on. Typical use included half to one hour gaming, facebook/chating. news, 30mins of calls/video calls and some browsing with chrome.I also have over 100 apps installed, but for most of them I have deactivated notifications. The standby time was great, but the usage time was really poor.

I made the following changes and now I get 4.30-5.30 hours of SOT with about 1 full day between charges. Hope it helps someone:
1. Used the "debloater tool (google it)" and deactivated a bunch of apps I do not use, especially LG stock apps and Google apps, like photos, videos, games, etc. You can disable some of them without debloating, if this is not your thing. This improved battery life a lot.
2. Set location mode to battery saving as I only need that when I use maps. The location I receive from the network is very accurate anyway for other tasks, such as geotagging.
3 When the phone reached 100% and received the notification that the battery is full, I kept it plugged for 20 mins or so. For some strange reason, I now get up to half an hour SOT from 100% to 99%, so I guess there is something is wrong with the battery meter.
4. Deactivate data when on wifi and deactivate wifi when outside.
5. Used auto-brightness
6. Disabled smartcards, bulletin and autosync for the apps I do not need. I kept it on for email/backup.
7. Clear cache once a week (I think this has helped a lot)
8. Deactivated google now as I do not really use it but kept voice on.

In the screenshots, I got 2 hours SOT using 38% of the battery, streaming internet radio for half an hour, a 15 min Viber video call, 30 mins of gaming and some browsing/tapatalk/facebook, etc.
If I was not happy, I would further unlock the bootloader and delete a process called "logd" which seems to affect about 3-5% of the battery life. But for now I am just looking for a more efficient browser than Chrome.

Just to say that I hate that I have to do all these things, especially in a phone that is considered a flagship, but I really like this phone and now I enjoy it even more. Hopefully, an update will help even more.

 

[benchph]

Good job on improving the g4's battery life on MM. What's disappointing with MM is the amount of effort you need to put in to achieve acceptable battery life.

I have done my fair share of tinkering to improve SOT on my 1st g4. I'be probably followed all the articles i can find on the web which talks about battery drain on MM with no significant improvement.

Long story short, g4 had a bootloop issue, carrier sent me a refurb which i kept until the last incremental update of Lollipop. The notification to jump to MM comes everyday but nah. That is probably my best effort to improve battery life on my g4. Which is to kick out MM update on my phone.

 

[ShaneRay]

It worries me, somewhat, when I read of these battery issues on MM and the G4. I haven't experienced them, so I'm hoping it stays that way.

Right now, I'm at 33% remaining after 13 hours off the charger and 3:40 sot. GSAM is forecasting another 2:30 left. Nothing stellar, maybe, but about what I'd expect from a phone if I bought new today.

Anyway, glad you seem to have got yours sorted. Hopefully it continues.

 

[tphg]

Thanks very much for the tips you shared, @Fousekis, although I have done the same things after I bought my phone.