Battery Getting Worse-Caused by popular apps?

[millerkid095]

When I first got my HTC One X, the battery life was great and I could get around 4 hours of on screen time. I would use it a full day with moderate use and have around 45% left. Now i get around 2 or maybe 2.5 hours of on screen time. I had this problem within the first month and did a factory reset. It seemed to increase the battery life greatly. Could an app be shortening my battery life? I only have popular apps installed though... such as 100 Floors, CNN, Flixster, Ski Safari, Engadget, Flick Golf, Flipboard, Twitter, and some others. Any suggestions? I don't want to factory reset again.

 

[MaxO]

To be honest Im not sure if an app could be your problem.. but you may be overcharging your phone? Have you let it completely die and then fully charge it yet?

Also I would highly reccommend getting juice defender plus (1.99) or Ultimate (4.99) . I have Plus and it very easily doubles my battery life.. you can start with the free one but it wont have as big of an effect on your battery life.

 

[millerkid095]

I usually leave it charge for about 10 hours. Could this cause it die faster? I have the free version of Juice Defender. I'll check out juice defender plus though

 

[icebike]

Run the phone down to automatic self shut off. Then charge it fully overnight.

(no, don't worry about overcharging it, that's not possible).

Then install Caret from the market. It will take it a while (days) , but it will figure out what the battery hogs are.

Oh, and turn on Auto-brightness control.

Sent from my HOX

 

[terrrrrible]

I've been having some problems myself recently with battery life. Thought it was a few apps I had installed that may had been running in the background (Zynga Poker was one I had that would constantly pop stuff up). After I removed them, wasn't any different.

Here's a screenshot of my battery utilization from this morning:

The screen usage time was something like 22 minutes. Not quite sure how that is even possible.

I've noticed if I shut the phone off and charge it overnight, then turn it back on, I get better performance. I need to try this a few more times to test and see if it is legit.

 

[rdxhd]

Try downloading betterbattery stats or BadassBatteryStat. Maybe there is an app going through your battery. You want to check for the wakelocks

 

[icebike]

The screen usage time was something like 22 minutes. Not quite sure how that is even possible.

I've noticed if I shut the phone off and charge it overnight, then turn it back on, I get better performance. I need to try this a few more times to test and see if it is legit.

You don't need to shut it off to charge it. The charge controller is designed to handle this device being always on.

What might make a difference is to run it to exhaustion, and automated shutdown. Then charge over night.

 

[terrrrrible]

So I downloaded GSam Battery Monitor, and I'm trying to figure it all out.

That seems kind of poor performance to me. My screen is set for auto brightness.

Doesn't seem like anything too over the top.

Same here.

What else can I look at in this app to try and figure out what's going on? I really didn't use the phone all that much today.

 

[ring o fire]

That's interesting...I took this an hour or so ago.

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[terrrrrible]

That's interesting...I took this an hour or so ago.

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

Did you notice what the actual time was for your screen usage?

 

[terrrrrible]

Another questionable day of battery use...

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[TimHKyle]

DO NOT fully discharge your phone on purpose. Your cell phone battery is a Li-po, not a Ni-Cds.

Lipos don't develop memory or voltage depression. Keep them topped off. You will not benefit from fully discharge and recharging them. Don't cycle them.

 

[terrrrrible]

I've factory defaulted my device. I'm going to run it without most of the apps i had on here for a day or two, and slowly add some apps back. easiest way at this point.

 

[icebike]

DO NOT fully discharge your phone on purpose. Your cell phone battery is a Li-po, not a Ni-Cds.

Lipos don't develop memory or voltage depression. Keep them topped off. You will not benefit from fully discharge and recharging them. Don't cycle them.

This isn't a discussion about memory.

Try to keep up.

Sent from my HOX

 

[TimHKyle]

This isn't a discussion about memory.

Try to keep up.

Sent from my HOX

You gave advice to "...Run the phone down to automatic self shut off. Then charge it fully overnight. "

That is bad advice! That's hurts your battery!

Try to make sure you know WTF is going on before you write passive aggressive posts!

 

[icebike]

You gave advice to "...Run the phone down to automatic self shut off. Then charge it fully overnight. "

That is bad advice! That's hurts your battery!

Try to make sure you know WTF is going on before you write passive aggressive posts!

That is NOT bad advice. It does NOT "hurt" the battery.

These batteries and their charge controllers are designed for this environment. The engineers know damn well that phones will be run to exhaustion in the normal course of use.
Do you SERIOUSLY believe the engineers would allow you to drain a battery to a harmful or dangerous state?

The batteries have designed in protection circuits that cut off the battery WELL BEFORE any harm can come to them.

Power controllers (built into the phone) have no idea initially how low your battery can go before the battery internal protection kicks in. So it will tell you the battery is almost empty (maybe 5%) when in fact the battery on a new phone may well have 25% left. When you ignore the "Plug it In" warning, the power controller will obtain the actual charge state (measured by final voltage) to which the battery can be safely run.

Then it knows what the real limits of the battery is, and what previously was reported as 10% left will now be accurately reported as maybe 27% left.

Same for measuring the true full charge state. The power management controller has to see it to know it, otherwise its running from pre-programmed guesses.

Once you've done this once, normal usage will take care of if, and you may never have to do it again, because most people end up running their phones way down sometime in any two or three month period. But out of the box, your charge measuring circuit has only a guess about what your battery can do.

Please do some research before getting all high an mighty on the internet. This is common knowledge, and occasional full discharges are recommended for these batteries even by Apple and the battery manufacturers. They ALL have protection circuits that prevent battery damage. They are designed by professionals with engineering degrees, not kids playing with RC toys.

 

[TimHKyle]

That is NOT bad advice. It does NOT "hurt" the battery.
These batteries and their charge controllers are designed for this environment. The engineers know damn well that phones will be run to exhaustion in the normal course of use.
Do you SERIOUSLY believe the engineers would allow you to drain a battery to a harmful or dangerous state?

This is a logical fallacy in your thinking called affirming the consequent.
This is because the truth value of my statement has nothing to do with whether engineers are well trained or not.

The batteries have designed in protection circuits that cut off the battery WELL BEFORE any harm can come to them.

This isn't true. Li-Po batteries prefer to be kept above 50% and it is encouraged to continually top off your battery with shallow discharge rates.

Power controllers (built into the phone) have no idea initially how low your battery can go before the battery internal protection kicks in. So it will tell you the battery is almost empty (maybe 5%) when in fact the battery on a new phone may well have 25% left. When you ignore the "Plug it In" warning, the power controller will obtain the actual charge state (measured by final voltage) to which the battery can be safely run.

These "power controllers" don't know how far your battery can go, yet they know to kick in at 5%? How do they know the battery is at 5% if they cannot know how much battery is left?

It is TRUE that your phone can get confused as to exactly how much time is left. But, this doesn't mean that the power controller will turn your phone off when harm is being done to the battery.

Then it knows what the real limits of the battery is, and what previously was reported as 10% left will now be accurately reported as maybe 27% left.

Same for measuring the true full charge state. The power management controller has to see it to know it, otherwise its running from pre-programmed guesses.

They aren't guesses. You are widely overstating how the phone knows what % the battery is at.

Once you've done this once, normal usage will take care of if, and you may never have to do it again, because most people end up running their phones way down sometime in any two or three month period. But out of the box, your charge measuring circuit has only a guess about what your battery can do.

Please do some research before getting all high an mighty on the internet. This is common knowledge, and occasional full discharges are recommended for these batteries even by Apple and the battery manufacturers. They ALL have protection circuits that prevent battery damage. They are designed by professionals with engineering degrees, not kids playing with RC toys.

You got passive aggressive when I stated the FACT that Li-Pos are harmed when discharged completely. I have been using Li-Pos since their inception and have done extensive research.

Batteries will lose their performance quality over time. Fully discharging them, even to 5 or 10% will shorten their lifespan. The engineers know this, but also know that the benefits of Li-Po outweigh the cons.

The consumer should attempt to keep their battery charged when possible (shallow discharges), and not to purposely discharge it completely when possible. It's only recommended to periodically (once every few months) to discharge it if the consumer wants to have more accurate numbers.

In conclusion:
You told the OP to just discharge it completely. He may have taken that advice as needing to discharge his phone completely every time. That would shorten is lifespan of the battery significantly! It is best to never discharge your phone completely, unless you want your % to be more accurate.

Your advice does not explain why his phone is off by 50% or more of its accuracy.

Unlike your post, i'll provide sources:

"Avoid fully discharging a lithium-ion battery! Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries' life is shortened every time you fully discharge them. Instead, charge them when the battery meter shows one bar left. Lithium-ion batteries, like most rechargeable batteries, have a set number of charges in them."

One of the worst things you can do to a Li-ion battery is to run it out completely all the time. Full discharges put a lot of strain on the battery, and it's much better practice to do shallow discharges to no lower than 20 percent.

Lithium ion chemistry prefers partial discharge to deep discharge, so it's best to avoid taking the battery all the way down to zero. Since lithium-ion chemistry does not have a "memory", you do not harm the battery pack with a partial discharge. If the voltage of a lithium-ion cell drops below a certain level, it's ruined.

The battery lasts longer with partial rather than full discharges, it is better to recharge more often; avoid frequent full discharges. Charging in stages is acceptable, full charge termination occurs by reading the voltage level and charge current. Charging a full battery is safe and does not cause harm. The charger should automatically cut the charge current when the battery is full, so leaving the battery in the charger will not harm it.

 

[icebike]

Battery University recommends Calibration. (This guy wrote the book).

Wired recommends Calibration.

Apple Recommends Calibration

And AGAIN: The batteries have designed in protection circuits that cut off the battery WELL BEFORE any harm can come to them. They can not be discharged completely. The battery itself won't let you do it.

Discharging below 5% occasionally is essential if you want your device to properly be able to measure its state of charge.

Look, son, I;m not here to pick a fight with you and your bold typed pedantic rants. I've got better things to do than to match wits with an otherwise unarmed cut an paste jockey. Go read the articles written by people with actual EE degrees.

 

[darth wager]

does it hurt to never shut off the phone ever. i just leave it on all day then charge it at night. some times day charge if im using it a ton. but i never power if of is this bad? I have the new android 4g smart phone.

thanks

 

[icebike]

does it hurt to never shut off the phone ever. i just leave it on all day then charge it at night. some times day charge if im using it a ton. but i never power if of is this bad? I have the new android 4g smart phone.

thanks

They are designed to be on 24/7.

Sent from my A700 using Tapatalk HD