Google Wear zapping phone battery: SOLVED

crxssi · Oct 4, 2014

I don't have a problem with the watch battery life. But I certainly do on my phone. At work I don't use the phone (or watch) and the phone normally drains about 8% or something. Now that I have the 360 and Google Wear, my phone battery is more like 72% when I get home and almost all of that is shown as being used by "Google Wear".

This is a Nexus 5. The two are always within about 3 feet of each other. I have Google Now OFF. I have not installed any "apps" on the 360. I rebooted both this morning as a test, made no difference. Three days in a row of this now (since I got the 360).

I can't believe I didn't see any other thread about this yet!
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UPDATE Nov 10, 2014: SOLVED. The problem is that Google has some really bad/stupid code in Wear 1.X that is going runaway if it can't get through port 53 (DNS) on your WiFi. Open port 53, reboot the phone, and the problem disappears. This is a MAJOR flaw that is sure to annoy a LOT of people.

Harlan H · Oct 4, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

+1

I think it's just the bluetooth. If you hadn't previously been using the bluetooth radio much, that thing's a substantial drag on a battery. My 2013 Moto X which could easily go a full day of moderate use on less than half a battery, now is close to empty if I don't charge during the day and don't get home until late. On the other hand, it's easy for me to plug in my phone at work, so I just do that.

crxssi · Oct 4, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

I am not sure it is bluetooth- since I have always left bluetooth "on" (although not used while a work), and this is supposed to be "low energy bluetooth 4" it is using, and I thought that bluetooth would show as a separate battery item (which it isn't in my case).

More perplexing is there shouldn't be much of anything being DONE when the whole setup is idle. How often does it need to sync time? Once every dozen hours or so? I wasn't using any apps. I had zero notifications. About the only thing it would need to do is check that it is connected. I am really perplexed... based on my estimates, the phone is using many times the entire energy of the watch to just "service" the watch. Makes no sense.

anDAOroid · Oct 4, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

This was actually my concern. The Nexus 5 has a small battery, and whenever I connect bluetooth devices to my Nexus 5, the battery drains substantially. I guess the only thing possible is to delete apps that drain battery and charge whenever possible.

dungoyle · Oct 4, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

I think different phones are experiencing different impact with Wear and/or the moto 360. Someone else posted a similar thread, but in his case, "bluetooth" was eating all his battery. My phone is a Galaxy S3, and it does not experience any discernible extra battery drain from Wear or the moto that I've observed. My battery statistics looks normal when I look at them with the major consumer usually being "Screen". This morning I do notice that "Android System" is the top offender at 37%, but Android wear is near the bottom at 4%.

crxssi · Oct 4, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

Yes, I have noticed a huge variety of reports about how it impacts phone battery life. Ironically, it seems like the Nexus 5 is mentioned the MOST when it comes to having Wear wipe out half their battery every day. It seems so very odd, since one would expect the Nexus to work the best with Wear.... but apparently not.

RussST24 · Oct 5, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

Hi
I had a similar issue and android ware using 40% cpu.
Turns out it only happens at work connected to the wifi in the office. Anywhere else I do not see the issue.
I killed wifi and disconnected the watch and reconnected and it didn't come back.
Use a cpu monitor to check.
Still have no idea why it only happens at work.

Russ

RussST24 · Oct 5, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

To clarify it still happens at work of wifi is enabled and I connect to the office wifi.
If this happens I have to kill wifi and disconnect the watch to stop the ware app eating cpu. Then reconnect and it's fine all day as long as I stay off the wifi.

Russ

Tower72 · Oct 6, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

Oddly enough, I can leave my bluetooth on my phone on, and the 360 in another room, and the battery will drain as normal (dont think its connected), but once I strap on the watch, and it gets within range of the 360, it goes pretty quickly.

crxssi · Oct 7, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

Here is a perfect example of what I mean. Today I demoed the watch to two people. I did almost nothing else the entire day. I had no notification at all. It doesn't matter what Wear apps are installed, the result is the same. I even factory reset the watch last night and reinstalled Wear on the phone (Nexus 5).

Almost 10 hours off the charger. I made no calls. I had no texts. I didn't even wake the phone AT ALL.20% of my phone battery disappeared and 65% of it was ANDROID WEAR! 55m and 15s of CPU usage on WEAR???!!!?!?!! Why???? What could possibly justify that much power?

(Oh, and the watch only used 25% of its charge during the same period)

Cincybearcatfan · Oct 7, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

Droid Maxx, no noticeable difference. MAYBE 3-5% more usage depending on the day. Before my 360 I'd go home with 73%-75% of my battery left and go to bed with 60% left. Now I go home with 68-70% of my battery left and go to bed around 11 with 55% left. I could go 24+ hours without charging both if I turn off my 360 at bedtime and turn it back on when I get up in the morning.

crxssi · Oct 7, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

I found these bug reports that seem to be related:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=74073

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=73804

I would add a comment to them, but I don't want to use Gmail for that, and apparently Google won't allow any other type of login (figures).

Also this on XDA (which I crossposted now): http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-360/general/watch-how-phone-battery-life-t2894819

anoia · Oct 9, 2014

Re: Google Wear zapping phone battery

Just run into this thread while I'm doing some research on Google about the Moto 360 drain. At first I thought it was something wrong with Google Play Services (the battery usage of it is even more than screen and Android System). Then I uninstall Google Play Services manually and reinstall the newest version (6.1 or something on Oct 7, 2014). Then the power usage of Google Play Service is getting better. But my phone's CPU is still awake on the time (draining about 12% per hour on the 3000mAh batter!). Then I just tried to set my Moto 360 to Airplane mode and everything is back to normal... Right now I'm trying to uninstall the Apps on Moto 360 to see if any of those Apps might be the problem...I'm using a Xiaomi MI3 running on MIUI V5. Please let me know if you find a fix...

anon(871934) · Oct 9, 2014