Android OS is eating my battery!

**evilhugbear** · 04-19-2012, 06:50 PM

Hey guys,

For the past few days my phones battery has been dying at around 4 P.M. I checked to see what was using my battery, and Android OS is using 39% when normally it would be less than 5. Keep awake time was 3h 40m 9s.

Has anyone had this issue? I'm running ICS with matrix CFS.

**evilhugbear** · 04-19-2012, 08:08 PM

Nobody has had this problem?

**Paul627g** · 04-19-2012, 08:39 PM

What governor setting are you running?

**evilhugbear** · 04-19-2012, 09:16 PM

Lulzactive
200/1300
Deep Idle ON
70% INC CPU Load
Pump up step: 2
Pump down: 3
Screen off min step: 7@100MHz
Up Sample time: 20000 (Stock)
Down Sample time: 35000 (Lowered)

Mildly undervolted, no crashes though :P

**pteezay** · 04-19-2012, 09:32 PM

my wife's phone is experiencing the same problem. Everything is stock, just noticed it since the ICS update. Any clues what it could be?

**steraser** · 04-19-2012, 10:40 PM

Mine is having the same issue. Stock ICS. I didn't even notice it the first week. It really seems like it has just become an issue in the last few days. Not sure that makes sense but...sure seems that way.

**losino** · 04-19-2012, 10:56 PM

Yea. Its a known fact that battery life has been horrible since the ICS update. Hopefully they get it fixed soon.

Go Bucs!

**MarkHirt** · 04-20-2012, 06:51 AM

I don't see it

67% left after 14h 5m 19 s on battery here

**Paul627g** · 04-20-2012, 07:31 AM

I have to say the same... I'm getting at least 10+ hrs on a heavy day and double or better on medium to light usage days....

Again running custom ROM with kernel but my kernel setting is 100-1000 On Demand nothing else tweaked so I can't say its the kernel making miracles happen. ROMs themselves don't really improve battery life in major ways.

I think the battery life issue has been both sides of the coin.... For me 4.0.3 and lower was poor battery life, once 4.0.4 source was released and they built off that I noticed immediate better battery.

**flipfone** · 04-20-2012, 07:48 AM

The only times ive seen issues with my phone is when the browser is synching. goto accounts and sych and disable it and battery life becomes 10x better.

just my 2 cents

**steraser** · 04-20-2012, 08:37 AM

light usage-no phone use, email sync on, read email 2x, used browser 2x. Basically on standby except for syncs. 10 hrs. battery died. Substantial Android OS usage. This is new to my phone since ICS. Never had the greatest battery life but as Paul said, light usage days like the one I detailed could get me 18-20 hrs. If it is inconsistent amongst users maybe it is in the settings somewhere. I will keep looking.

**steraser** · 04-20-2012, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by flipfone

The only times ive seen issues with my phone is when the browser is synching. goto accounts and sych and disable it and battery life becomes 10x better.

just my 2 cents

Are you saying to disable all syncs? If you are saying to disable the browser syncing I am not sure what you mean. I don't want to disable my email syncs. That is part of the reason I have a smartphone. It also was not an issue 2 weeks ago so if that is the problem then it is a legit ICS issue and should be fixed. Don't get me wrong, I know that syncing accounts and such creates battery drain and I am not expecting 3 days or even 24 hours of battery life. What I am saying is that since I have updated to ICS, Android System and Android OS contribute significantly to battery drain and my battery life is much shorter.

**6tr6tr** · 04-20-2012, 09:37 AM

Mine is also having the battery issue. Definitely lasts less time and the OS is a larger % than under gingerbread

**OleSalt** · 04-20-2012, 09:46 AM

A moderate to slightly heavy use at work yesterday had 19% after 16 hours 26 min and 29sec, seems better to me with ICS!

**mcantu** · 04-20-2012, 10:19 AM

the Facebook app destroys battery life with ICS. after it is used, it prevents the phone from sleeping ever...even after it is force stopped. it takes a reboot to clear its effects. i dont recall it doing with in GB

**btswein** · 04-20-2012, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by mcantu

the Facebook app destroys battery life with ICS. after it is used, it prevents the phone from sleeping ever...even after it is force stopped. it takes a reboot to clear its effects. i dont recall it doing with in GB

Don't have a Nexus but FB uses like 15-20% of my total battery usage on GB.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note.

**nismospec** · 04-20-2012, 10:57 AM

same issue for me, OS is always #1 culprit. haven't figured it out, but something isn't letting the phone sleep. like others have said in the battery problems since ICS thread, the phone stays hot even when asleep (which means it isn't sleeping). so i think the phone gets hot, then that is the reason why it decides to reboot time and time again.

frustrating since nothing has been added to my phone since GB, so it does appear to be something with ICS, but can't prove it yet.

**MarkHirt** · 04-20-2012, 12:11 PM

He didn't say all sync's just the browser. I know you own a smart phone but do your really need the sync all he bookmarks from the browser on your PC to your phone? (note this option is NEW in ICS)

I sync 4 Calendars, Contacts, Currents, Gmail, Music, Google+ and Wallet.
I also have Latitude running

Originally Posted by steraser

Are you saying to disable all syncs? If you are saying to disable the browser syncing I am not sure what you mean. I don't want to disable my email syncs. That is part of the reason I have a smartphone. It also was not an issue 2 weeks ago so if that is the problem then it is a legit ICS issue and should be fixed. Don't get me wrong, I know that syncing accounts and such creates battery drain and I am not expecting 3 days or even 24 hours of battery life. What I am saying is that since I have updated to ICS, Android System and Android OS contribute significantly to battery drain and my battery life is much shorter.

**steraser** · 04-20-2012, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by MarkHirt

He didn't say all sync's just the browser. I know you own a smart phone but do your really need the sync all he bookmarks from the browser on your PC to your phone? (note this option is NEW in ICS)

I sync 4 Calendars, Contacts, Currents, Gmail, Music, Google+ and Wallet.
I also have Latitude running

Could you please tell me where the browser sync setting is? When I go to "accounts and sync" as the previous poster said, I do not see anything related to the browser.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. It was already disabled so that is not the problem. I will keep tweaking settings. Something is different and causing the issue.

**hungryhippo69** · 04-20-2012, 11:18 PM

ever since my nexus 4g updated to stock ics, most, if not all, apps need to be forced stopped singularly to stop them. holding down the "home" button and clearing your recently used apps doesnt do anything, looking in app settings>apps running doesnt show any of them running. you have to look at each app separately and force stop it. i charge my phone all night everynight, and it actually died today around 2pm, i booted the phone up at 8:30am and did a couple texts THATS IT. there are some games/apps that i havent even used since updating to ics that i have to force stop them everyday.... wtf....

i am so unhappy with this phone and with sprint service at this point (and for a while) i am very interested in ending my contract early (not even a year) and going to verizon for the maxx. this is not how a smart phone experience should be, and sprint has such shtty towers i dont know why they are even contenders in the wireless game.

**axne1** · 04-20-2012, 11:27 PM

It's a bug with ICS it shouldn't effect your battery power. It just reports it wrong. I know it's ugly. Lol. Look it up.

Kanged out Google phone +
Franco's Magic

**zzz0ned** · 04-21-2012, 07:41 AM

When I did the update.zip ICS upgrade that was published here, I kept getting a couple of minor errors at startup. So I did a complete reset, but I let all my apps reload automatically. My battery life plummetted to something like 4 hours; my phone became a pocket-warmer because it was noticeably warm while it was doing whatever it was doing to run down the battery.

So I reset it again. Unfortunately I loaded on a bunch of apps and again the battery life was pretty short (~6 hours).

So I factory reset again and only put on like 5 essential apps. The battery life is now back to normal, but after about 6 hours I notice that the browser starts up and begins consuming resources and the phone heats up. I'm not sure why the browser starts while the phone is in my pocket. I have 3 email accounts (2 Google, 1 Exchange) that are syncing. Does this sync process use the browser?

**flipfone** · 04-21-2012, 07:57 AM

goto accounts and synch. hit one of your gmail accts, look to see if the browser is synching, if so uncheck it. mine hangs like this and kills the battery in 2-3 hours. pocket warmer as you said. once i disabled the synch with browser its fine. i noticed this after trying the chrome browser and uninstalling it.

**evilhugbear** · 04-21-2012, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by flipfone

goto accounts and synch. hit one of your gmail accts, look to see if the browser is synching, if so uncheck it. mine hangs like this and kills the battery in 2-3 hours. pocket warmer as you said. once i disabled the synch with browser its fine. i noticed this after trying the chrome browser and uninstalling it.

I'll try this and see what happens

**rogneal@yahoo.com** · 04-21-2012, 07:39 PM

I am also having the problem. I did not noticed it for the first week or so since I upgraded to ICS. I first noticed it about 4 days ago and really noticed it today when I unplugged my phone from the charger at about 9:20 am and did not use it at all for the next 3 hours, pulled it out and it was warm and the battery was at 30% or less. I do not have the browser sync so that is not the problem. Normally the display is the battery hog and everything else is far behind that. But today the Android OS was something like 57%.

I wonder if it was an app that updated in the past few days. I recall updates for Google Maps, Battery Indicator Pro, and maybe a few others.