Shorter battery life with Kit Kat on the Nexus 4?

[Tall Mike 2145]

I have had Kit Kat on the Nexus 4 for a couple days and battery life seems to be much worse so far. <snip> Any one else having battery performance issues with Kit Kat?

Would this qualify?

 

[anon5664829]

Would this qualify?

http://imageshack.com/a/img812/6646/6fd9.png

Holy hell. I can pull 7 hours and 2 hours SOT

Posted via Android Central App

 

[dalus87]

My battery life fell from 13 -14 hours (jellybean 4.3) to 9 hours per charge with KitKat (KRT16S).
Also my google now cards have stopped working after factory resetting (trying to resolve the battery issue). I don't live in the united states.

Read something about google now cards not working if location reporting isn't enabled in your country (it was working fine before with KitKat before the factory reset)
KitKat is a nightmare for my phone and i would like to downgrade.:'-\

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

I've just come back from spending time poking around on XDA and doing Google searches, and I'm really not sure what to think.

It seems as though everyone and their brother on XDA just can't pick their tongues up off the floor when it comes to running ART instead of Dalvik. They all seem to think there's this MASSIVE difference in performance. For me, there's absolutely NO difference in performance. 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.3, the 4.3 update, and 4.4 are INDISTINGUISHABLE in terms of performance on my Nexus 4. So, I have no clue whatsoever what they are talking about.

Some articles suggest there could be issues induced by pulling down the OTA image, and that downloading Google's factory image directly will result in a proper install. However, the problems people are reporting associated with any OTA image "issue" seems to be in terms of either stability or performance. My OTA runs perfectly, with both Dalvik and ART, in all respects other than exhausting my phone's battery at an unbelievable and unacceptable rate. In fact, if my phone is drained (to whatever point you like, I'm not going to argue percentages here) and plugged in and I'm using it, it consumes so much power that it barely charges at all, and I have to either quit using the phone or shut it off to get it to charge at a reasonable rate.

Today I finally was able with a great deal of difficulty to get my N4 flashed back to 4.3. And, before someone on here wants to tell me about "Oh, here's thus-and-such guide that makes flashing easy" I've looked. They are wrong. Either they don't include instructions that are complete for Mac OS X (which I'm back to running temporarily) or the instructions are just wrong.

In any event, I'm back to 4.3 and of course it's now downloaded the 4.4 update which I am going to try and ignore. I wish I could tell the phone to dump the update and not try to re-acquire it again without my express request, but it doesn't seem that's a possibility from what I've read.

This is supremely frustrating. What's the point in having a smartphone that you can't really take with you anywhere because the OS sucks the battery down so fast that you're left with a brick if you don't keep it plugged in?

4.2.2 and 4.3 allowed me times-between-charging of greater than a day. Now I can't go more than a few hours of NO USE between charges, and maybe an hour or two if I'm actually really using the thing.

So, as I said, back to 4.3.

EDIT: In the time I've flashed it back to 4.3 and left a few messages on here. it recharged off my laptop back to 100%. Under 4.4, it would NEVER have charged that much that quickly. I think it was at like 82 or 83% when I flashed. WTF, Google?!?!?

 

[Citizen Coyote]

My battery is a lot more sporadic than it was under 4.3. Right now it's sitting at 73% after 13 hours, but I haven't used it a whole lot today. On Saturday, it was down to about 25% after 9 hours, and I only had about two hours of screen on time (and nothing that would drain the battery that much like a game). Yesterday I streamed music for several hours while working in the yard, and I had my normal 40% by the time I plugged it in at night (which was very normal for me under 4.3). So I have no idea what to think about battery life under 4.4.

At least I can get through a day still, which is all I really ask for. I honestly wonder why Google doesn't put bigger batteries in the Nexus phones, though. Is an extra millimeter of thinness really worth shaving off several hundred mAh?

 

[deano131]

Tall Mike Although I have not attempted go back to 4.3 my experience with 4.4 has been the same as yours. In fact my phone will get so hot that I fear the battery will explode. The phone will go from 100% charge to dead in an 1hr or less when this happens. It seems fine while I am on wifi but when I go on network data things go down hill fast. The only thing I can do to stop this from happening is to disable location. My experiance with 4.3 was positive but 4.4 has frustrated me. At this point my only options seem to be root or go back to 4.3. I really am not interested in either. I would just like to have my phone work as it is suppose to. I am no *****, I have owned and rooted several Verizon android phones. I know when my phone is working right or wrong. My research has found this issue is known but Google has offered no help. Other then a factory reset which I did (pita). After that reboot in safe mood an start reenabling apps until you find the culprit. Unacceptable pita. For those that are not experiencing this issue you are lucky.

 

[anon5664829]

I feel battery is better.

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[Tall Mike 2145]

Couple things.

I have started a thread in the Android 4.4 area to which others here are contributing (yay team!) about how to flash your device from 4.4 to 4.3. This should be of help to those who wish to try it.

I'd also like to give a shout out to others here who are speaking up about their experiences. It is important to be able to quantify the degree to which this issue is happening so that the community has factual knowledge of it.

My guess is that whatever it is that's wrong with 4.4 will be attended to and fixed, in maybe like a 4.4.1 or some equivalent release. They obviously overlooked something, who knows how or why, but I imagine with all the shouting over the phone and online that's going on, they know about it loud and clear now.

To those who are angry and upset at Google for this and are shouting all kinds of things like "How dare they! Who do they think they are?" and so on, I'd encourage you all to stop, take a deep breath, and recognize something important. We can flash our phones and tablets back to 4.3. Try doing that with an iPhone and see how far you get. If Apple screws up, everyone mandatorially pays the price. Without extensive hacking of the phone, there's no going back.

I'd also like to take a moment here and point out to those who use Apple's products that here's another difference between Apple and the "PC world" or (especially!) the Linux world. When a new model of Mac comes out, you CANNOT use a previous version of Mac OS X. You can't even get to the point of not having something like driver support: you use what Apple tells you to use, period.

So, for anyone trolling these threads who is debating Apple or Google for their various future purchase decisions, I would like you to keep that sort of thing in mind.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[anon5664829]

Couple things.

I have started a thread in the Android 4.4 area to which others here are contributing (yay team!) about how to flash your device from 4.4 to 4.3. This should be of help to those who wish to try it.

I'd also like to give a shout out to others here who are speaking up about their experiences. It is important to be able to quantify the degree to which this issue is happening so that the community has factual knowledge of it.

My guess is that whatever it is that's wrong with 4.4 will be attended to and fixed, in maybe like a 4.4.1 or some equivalent release. They obviously overlooked something, who knows how or why, but I imagine with all the shouting over the phone and online that's going on, they know about it loud and clear now.

To those who are angry and upset at Google for this and are shouting all kinds of things like "How dare they! Who do they think they are?" and so on, I'd encourage you all to stop, take a deep breath, and recognize something important. We can flash our phones and tablets back to 4.3. Try doing that with an iPhone and see how far you get. If Apple screws up, everyone mandatorially pays the price. Without extensive hacking of the phone, there's no going back.

I'd also like to take a moment here and point out to those who use Apple's products that here's another difference between Apple and the "PC world" or (especially!) the Linux world. When a new model of Mac comes out, you CANNOT use a previous version of Mac OS X. You can't even get to the point of not having something like driver support: you use what Apple tells you to use, period.

So, for anyone trolling these threads who is debating Apple or Google for their various future purchase decisions, I would like you to keep that sort of thing in mind.

Posted via Android Central App

No one mentioned Apple here. You seem to love to bash them.

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[_Zguy__]

I get around the same still only manage around 3 hours screen on time but the standby life seems much improved. Switching to Hangouts and the constant 3g usuage hasnt helped my battery though and it would be improved had I not made the switch I assume

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

I'm not bashing. I'm simply stating a fact based on this being a teachable moment. I know there is a lot of griping going on here about Google screwing this up somehow with 4.4. Heck, I'm pissed at 'em, too. But I wanted to put this into perspective.

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[anon5664829]

I'm not bashing. I'm simply stating a fact based on this being a teachable moment. I know there is a lot of griping going on here about Google screwing this up somehow with 4.4. Heck, I'm pissed at 'em, too. But I wanted to put this into perspective.

Posted via Android Central App

Sorry, previous posts indicate otherwise.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

@Chetan Takyar, it's a simple statement of fact in the context of what I consider to be a teachable moment. But, it's a free country and you're free to interpret it however you like.

I, for one, can hardly wait for this to be fixed. And maybe, just maybe Google can throw in GEL, just for kicks.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[anon5664829]

@Chetan Takyar, it's a simple statement of fact in the context of what I consider to be a teachable moment. But, it's a free country and you're free to interpret it however you like.

I, for one, can hardly wait for this to be fixed. And maybe, just maybe Google can throw in GEL, just for kicks.

Posted via Android Central App

You will enjoy gel. It really is done well. Oh and free countries since I don't live in the US☺

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Mobile Nations mobile app

 

[deano131]

I gave up and finally rooted my N4. I feard that my phone was going to exploded due to whatever was causing the massive discharge. I installed a stock root N5 ROM. So far things seem to be better but I have not spent much time on the mobile data network in a real days usage. I'll see what tomorrow brings. I am thankful I atleast have this option instead of hoping or waiting for Google to fix it.

 

[1210saad]

My battery life has improved a little. Watching vids for 2-3 hours on youtube and only lost like 20%

Posted via Android Central App on Nexus 4

 

[Rohit Mathews]

I think this may be the problem I am facing. My Nexus 4 goes from 100 to zero in barely any time after the kit-kat update and Exchange services seems to be consuming the most amount of data. Did this fix the issue for your wife?

 

[deano131]

I think this may be the problem I am facing. My Nexus 4 goes from 100 to zero in barely any time after the kit-kat update and Exchange services seems to be consuming the most amount of data. Did this fix the issue for your wife?

I had the same problem with mine and it seemed to be the Goggle Play Services were using a lot of battery. Anyway I tried everything I could find on the net to fix the problem but nothing worked. In the end I rooted my phone and loaded a N5 Stock ROM with LTE. Today was my 1st day on the rooted N5 ROM with the LTE on and my battery issue seems to be resolved. I have been on the battery for 8:46 and still have a 44% charge. NOTE: I would say 4 hours of the battery on has been on WIFI. Before when I had the problem of the massive battery drain the problem seemed to manifest itself while on Mobile Data not while on WIFI. A couple more days will confirm my fillings that my issue has been resolved and I am back to normal battery use.

 

[Tuco Ramirez]

I'm experiencing the Exchange email synch bug, where it goes into a loop trying to synch with exchange every half second, and ends up killing the battery. A known bug.

 

[Mcwong]

My battery life fell from 13 -14 hours (jellybean 4.3) to 9 hours per charge with KitKat (KRT16S).
Also my google now cards have stopped working after factory resetting (trying to resolve the battery issue). I don't live in the united states.

Read something about google now cards not working if location reporting isn't enabled in your country (it was working fine before with KitKat before the factory reset)
KitKat is a nightmare for my phone and i would like to downgrade.:'-\

Had the same issue with 4.4 on my nexus4. Updated to 4.4.2 with same problem. What worked for me was unchecking device manager. Goto setting, security, device administrator. Battery drain has improved tremendously. May be due to the OS update defaulting to configuration.