Why is my phone draining on airplane mode?

[Javier P]

Weird drain on aeroplane mode

It's been the second time I've had the same problem. Went to bed and left the phone charging with the aeroplane mode on. Woke up, check the time and saw that it was fully charged so unplugged it and went to sleep again. In the morning, after maybe 4~5 hours, the battery was at 71% and still on aeroplane mode. That's a huge drain.

I used the phone normally and after a while I saw that the battery was still at 71%! It took a long time to go down that level and I thought that it could be just a calibration problem. I used the phone for the rest of the day and took an screen shot. Battery life for the day was normal (awesome as usual with this little phone) and nothing strange happened in the next battery charges.

I'm not worried, just curious of what's going on. Most likely it's a calibration problem that fixes on its own. Has anyone seen something like this? Any clue?

The two times that this happened I needed a partial charge the day before (from ~40 to ~70% in the evening). Heavy use after that.

My model is Moto G XT1003 dual sim.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

You may be right. The next time you see unexplained battery drain like that, show us the following:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which shows Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).

If it was overnight and you were on Airplane mode, #3 and #4 should be minimal, but include it just to be complete.

 

[Javier P]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

I will. But I think it could be misleading. In the screenshot I posted you can see that network, WiFi, awake and screen on are zeroed during the drain. The battery percentages could just be for waking the phone up and taking the screenshot!

I know, weird. Reminds me of that battery glitch before 4.4.3. when battery dropped to zero and back to normal after just plugging the phone.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

Maybe try rebooting, or wiping the cache partition?

I'm not sure how to recalibrate a battery, but I suppose you could charge up to 100%, then let it go all the way down until the phone shuts off automatically. Then charge up to 100% again, and then see how it behaves.

 

[Javier P]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

Thanks. I'll do that if this problem repeats. Right now I'm more curious than worried.

 

[Old Stoneface]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

Maybe try rebooting, or wiping the cache partition?

I'm not sure how to recalibrate a battery, but I suppose you could charge up to 100%, then let it go all the way down until the phone shuts off automatically. Then charge up to 100% again, and then see how it behaves.

The process you describe is how T-Mobile CS told me it's done, and that wiping the cache is unnecessary. (This was relative to putting a new battery in an HTC Sensation 4G.)

One time, following that, months later, my battery level seemed to be declining more rapidly than normal, several days in a row, so I did it again--once. Problem solved. And it wasn't the resulting reboot, because I'd already tried just a reboot.

Only concern is... and perhaps Motorola already fixed this, but I've read about Moto G's sometimes not wanting to wake up again after shutting down due to running the battery out? (Believe me: I will be testing that, for myself, a couple times w/in the first 30 days of ownership.)

 

[Javier P]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

I've read that draining completely a battery is not that good and could cause some problems. Some people in the Motorola forum recommend leaving the phone charging for a few hours after full charge for calibration. And they keep telling people to charge their phones overnight.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

You're right, letting a battery completely drain to true zero bricks the battery. But all devices should shut off automatically before it gets to true zero. As soon as that happens, then plug the phone in. This is only if you're interested in recalibrating the battery meter. I agree, one should not get in the habit of letting the battery drain that far.

Posted via Android Central App.
Please excuse any typos or autocorrect derps.

 

[TommyPepe]

I too have the same problem for my moto E. Only difference is the battery drain is huge. Android system is using about 40% and while in the standby mode the CPU is still awake....
I have wiped cache partition and apart from the RAM usage i found no improvement in battery drain. Its been about 4 months approx from the purchase date... So any help in this issue is deeply appreciable....

 

[Javier P]

Re: Weird drain on aeroplane mode

Post the screenshots described by Diddy in #2 and maybe we can find an explanation to that.

 

[neu smurph]

Moto G battery drain most noticeable in airplane mode may well be related to prior GPS use. Many users have reported this issue - it's not 100% reproducible (e.g. I get it about 1 in 3 times after using GPS), but GPS is pretty much confirmed as the culprit. Moto are very determined to ignore it as a bug. It's been reported since JB through to KK 4.4.4 and occurs in both stock ROMS and custom ROMS.

Luckily a reboot fixes it.

Long threads here - https://forums.motorola.com/posts/5a07d40ff2 and here - Tricky Idle battery drain problem | Moto G | XDA Forums