Why does my Moto X (2013) battery drain fast?

[stuff5150]

Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Hello everyone,

I've been an AC reader for many years but have never used the forums as there was never a need. My question is in regards to the screen on time of the 2013 Moto X (purchased 09/26/2014). As a Nexus 4 user before this, the X was the obvious choice due to screen size, form factor and features. I do not regret my choice as it's a killer package, however I would very much appreciate some feedback on the subject line; I'd like to know if I'm good or if there is an issue that needs to be examined by a Motorola technician.

My SOT after a full charge is usually ~2 hours, ~2.5 if I push the battery down to <5%. The most I have ever seen is 2 hours 50 minutes. While I never paid particular attention to the Nexus 4, I do believe that it did better than this on average. A screenshot I have of the best SOT from the 4 is 3.5 hours which there is no way my X can achieve!

The SOT I'm giving for the X is almost exclusively on home Wi-Fi. As far as TS is concerned, I've pretty much done everything I found on the forums here, which is (in no particular order): Clear cache; delete old Wi-Fi networks; calibrate battery; screen brightness auto on/off; minimize Gmail sync options and app/email sync; 15'' screen sleep; safe mode; deletion of unused apps and kept only essentials; FDR. I've probably done more but this is what comes to mind right now.

I am running 4.4.4 and the Wi-Fi connection is with my home network exclusively. I have read of some insane SOT here from other members, ranging from 3-6 (!) hours of SOT -with minimal battery usage as well- and am truly astounded as I am not even in the same neighborhood as those stats! I should also point out that I updated my phone to 4.4.4 the moment I got it so I have no frame of reference to the claim that battery on this version has taken a hit compared to 4.4.2-4.4.3.

Any feedback from the members here as to if my phone is "normal" or a lemon would be greatly appreciated as it's been on my mind for some time now. I could certainly post screenshots as well, although I do not see an option on the page I'm on now.

Regards,

George

 

[weksa]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Hi George, welcome to the forum. First off, I'm not one of those who advise people to turn off Touchless Control among minimizing other functions. I have GPS on high accuracy, etc.

I've gotten as much as 3 hours SOT with 50% remaining. This is usually with simple usage like reading on Tapatalk, news, some G+ and FB.

But when I start to watch videos, is the camera for photos and videos, (no games though), I get as little as 2 hrs SOT with 20% remaining. Smythe factor that really affects my battery regardless of being on wifi is cell reception.

Since you can't post screenshots yet, can you tell us which apps/processes are taking up the highest percentages of your battery?

Like you already troubleshooted, I've disabled background sync for apps like G+ and FB.

 

[ProParkour]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

These are my best ever results. They came after many hours of modifying apps to take advantage of the Amoled screen.

But really, I have my settings what some would see as disabling everything. I have my email to sync manually. Which unless your job requires you to see them asap I feel most people should do the same. No GPS is on, because you can just enable it with a long press in the quick settings. Screen goes to sleep after 30 seconds (this is because I have a 1 year old who loves snatching phones).Touchless controls is on, never negatively effected my phone. I don't see why you'd have to when the X was designed for this.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Hi George, welcome to the forum. First off, I'm not one of those who advise people to turn off Touchless Control among minimizing other functions. I have GPS on high accuracy, etc.

I've gotten as much as 3 hours SOT with 50% remaining. This is usually with simple usage like reading on Tapatalk, news, some G+ and FB.

But when I start to watch videos, is the camera for photos and videos, (no games though), I get as little as 2 hrs SOT with 20% remaining. Smythe factor that really affects my battery regardless of being on wifi is cell reception.

Since you can't post screenshots yet, can you tell us which apps/processes are taking up the highest percentages of your battery?

Like you already troubleshooted, I've disabled background sync for apps like G+ and FB.

Hi weksa, thank you for the welcoming.

Right, I knew I was forgetting the small stuff! Google Now is on (Location Reporting & Location History included), Location is in Battery saving mode, Active Notifications are on, Active Display is on. I "refuse" to disable them as I believe they defeat the purpose of owning this phone. I have four email accounts (1 Gmail & 3 Hotmail/Outlook). The three I sync manually, Gmail is automatic but I don't even get that many emails per day to justify a battery drain from there.

I truly do not use the phone the way I "abused" the Nexus 4. I never watch YouTube or surf the web as I have a laptop and Nexus 7 (2013) for that. No pictures at all, just very moderate Hangouts and Whats App usage. I don't use G+ or Tapatalk and I dislike facebook in general.

Please see real-time screenshots posted. For some reason, I think Gsam has been inaccurate these past few days, not sure why.

These are my best ever results. They came after many hours of modifying apps to take advantage of the Amoled screen.

But really, I have my settings what some would see as disabling everything. I have my email to sync manually. Which unless your job requires you to see them asap I feel most people should do the same. No GPS is on, because you can just enable it with a long press in the quick settings. Screen goes to sleep after 30 seconds (this is because I have a 1 year old who loves snatching phones).Touchless controls is on, never negatively effected my phone. I don't see why you'd have to when the X was designed for this.

Posted via the Android Central App

ProParkour, thank you for posting these. I think you were one of the people I had in mind when I quoted the insane SOT in my original post. I don't think my usage varies that much from yours, yet our results from the usage of the phone certainly do!

I'm not posting on here because I want attention on my phone. But I've been using Android phones exclusively for the past five years and I know what I'm doing. Especially, with this X I've spent a lot of time reading, researching and TS to see if I can find a satisfactory resolution. The AC forums are my last resort, so if we determine that my phone has issues I'm sending it for service.

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Bump for feedback.

 

[sixty_four]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Odd. I'm in the same boat but my utilization shows slightly different weighting as to what's using my battery. My approach to troubleshooting is similar to yours - I try to optimize where possible but don't want to go crazy by disabling everything that makes the phone useful.

In my case, Wi-Fi is consistently the top consumer of my battery other than SOT. If I leave my phone off the charger overnight, Wi-Fi accounts for ~18% of battery usage. My Wi-Fi settings are:

• always on
• keep wi-fi on during sleep - only when plugged in
• scanning always available - off
• avoid poor connections - off
• wi-fi freq. band - auto
• wi-fi optimization - I tried both settings, no difference. Currently on.

Out of curiousity, can you post your Wi-Fi settings?

 

[jaredsutter]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

I also came from an N4 and have been using a Moto X for a couple months.

My battery averages 17.5 hours with 2.75hrs SOT, 6.25hrs active (lots of music, podcasts most days) according to GSam Battery Monitor.

I'm generally happy with battery life, I don't usually have to worry about it. But I do try to turn off wifi when I'm not at home. In my experience, this is the first device I've used where wifi actually uses a significant portion of the battery, usually upward of 10% when left on but not connected. On the other hand, cellular connectivity seems more efficient than past devices. I don't do anything else to actively manage battery usage.

My N4 battery was generally a little better on wifi, but much worse on cellular.

 

[sixty_four]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

...But I do try to turn off wifi when I'm not at home. In my experience, this is the first device I've used where wifi actually uses a significant portion of the battery, usually upward of 10% when left on but not connected. On the other hand, cellular connectivity seems more efficient than past devices...

I'm at the point where I'm going to try keeping Wi-Fi off all the time, even when at home to see what kind of battery life I get.

When I'm home, I generally use a tablet or desktop for applications that use a lot of data so I don't anticipate a huge increase in data usage.

 

[jaredsutter]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

I also have begun keeping wifi off at home much of the time. But cellular coverage is spotty in my house (for all US networks - I've used them all), so sometimes I have to connect to wifi to use my phone.

 

[terrrrrible]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

I've noticed lately that my Moto X hasn't been the best on battery life either. I'm currently at 56% battery, with only 37m SOT. Installed GSam last night, I'll post my results tonight for some comparison. I tried making sure I turned off GPS / Bluetooth when I'm not using it, but it doesn't seem any better. Removed a bunch of apps I wasn't using that were showing up in the logs when I first installed it yesterday also.

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Odd. I'm in the same boat but my utilization shows slightly different weighting as to what's using my battery. My approach to troubleshooting is similar to yours - I try to optimize where possible but don't want to go crazy by disabling everything that makes the phone useful.

In my case, Wi-Fi is consistently the top consumer of my battery other than SOT. If I leave my phone off the charger overnight, Wi-Fi accounts for ~18% of battery usage. My Wi-Fi settings are:

• always on
• keep wi-fi on during sleep - only when plugged in
• scanning always available - off
• avoid poor connections - off
• wi-fi freq. band - auto
• wi-fi optimization - I tried both settings, no difference. Currently on.

Out of curiousity, can you post your Wi-Fi settings?

Based on your feedback and from what I've read here over time, it does seem that the X has a high(er) WiFi usage percentage in general, compared to other devices. However, I've noticed that if the phone is used (calls, ie) the percentage drops. That is to be expected though, I suppose, as something has to account for battery usage.

As far as my WiFi settings, they are the exact same as yours with the exception that I turn mine off when I go to bed at night. I have the battery widget app (by Tomas Jubalek) installed, which has an auto night mode feature (disable/enable Wi-Fi at particular times) however I observed that when Wi-Fi turned on in the morning, while I was asleep, it would drain ~10% in maybe 1-1.5 hours. Not sure why but as that was a lot, I disabled it and now turn it on manually when I get up. Just FYI.

I also came from an N4 and have been using a Moto X for a couple months.

My battery averages 17.5 hours with 2.75hrs SOT, 6.25hrs active (lots of music, podcasts most days) according to GSam Battery Monitor.

I'm generally happy with battery life, I don't usually have to worry about it. But I do try to turn off wifi when I'm not at home. In my experience, this is the first device I've used where wifi actually uses a significant portion of the battery, usually upward of 10% when left on but not connected. On the other hand, cellular connectivity seems more efficient than past devices. I don't do anything else to actively manage battery usage.

My N4 battery was generally a little better on wifi, but much worse on cellular.

Jared, I think we are pretty close in our numbers as this is what I'm getting as well, more or less, when actively using the phone, and ditto on the WiFi usage by the OS. I haven't tried turning the WiFi off at home and not really keen on it as I always like it on.

Your thoughts on the X vs the 4 are spot on, that's exactly the way I would describe it too.

Anyone else care to give feedback on their SOT?

I don't know if it's just me but I am slightly let down by the battery and SOT simply because in the research I did before buying it, the majority of reviews said the battery is "great/awesome/a day and then some". Although it's certainly not horrible, I don't think it's as amazing as believed either. Sure, I can get 24 hours of "mixed" usage but that's by using the phone only when necessary. I guess I was expecting something that would be a "heavy" user rather than "low-moderate".

It is a dual-core phone after all.

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

...

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

I've noticed lately that my Moto X hasn't been the best on battery life either. I'm currently at 56% battery, with only 37m SOT. Installed GSam last night, I'll post my results tonight for some comparison. I tried making sure I turned off GPS / Bluetooth when I'm not using it, but it doesn't seem any better. Removed a bunch of apps I wasn't using that were showing up in the logs when I first installed it yesterday also.

How long have you had yours for? Mine is only 2 months old and I'm doing all of this now that the battery is still fresh (if not defective). I dare not think a year or year and a half down the road!

Please keep me posted with your stats in the next few days.

 

[sixty_four]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Thanks for the follow-up, stuff5150.

One more question - you mentioned you performed an FDR. Did you do that after the 4.4.4 update? I was nearing the point of doing one myself but it's such a pain in the [language]for me since I'm pretty OCD about phone setup and personalization. It's an effort to get the phone back to how I like it.

If it did no good - and I've seen reports that it doesn't - for this issue, there's no point in me trying. I'd rather just wait for Lollipop and hope for the best.

 

[jaredsutter]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

It is a dual-core phone after all.

The fact that it's only dual core would not inherently help battery usage. Most of the time on a quad-core processor, 2 or 3 cores are off, so it's not using any more power than a dual core. For multi-threaded processes such as browsing or certain games, the two cores have to run at a higher clock speed for more time than a quad core would, resulting in at least as much power usage.

As for your expectations, I agree that it doesn't seem to be all that it's cracked up to be. But this is the first phone I've had since the Blackberry I had in 2008, where it pretty reliably lasts all day with my usage. Part of that is due to the active display and my Nexus 7 reducing how much I use the phone for browsing, but it's good enough for me.

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Thanks for the follow-up, stuff5150.

One more question - you mentioned you performed an FDR. Did you do that after the 4.4.4 update? I was nearing the point of doing one myself but it's such a pain in the [language] for me since I'm pretty OCD about phone setup and personalization. It's an effort to get the phone back to how I like it.

If it did no good - and I've seen reports that it doesn't - for this issue, there's no point in me trying. I'd rather just wait for Lollipop and hope for the best.

Not a problem. The person behind the avatar is George BTW.

I did the FDR about a week ago (on 4.4.4 since day of purchase) only because I wanted to check it off my list and to be done with all TS in the event I send it back.

As far as improvement, one would expect the battery life to be better as there is nothing on the phone! My two cents though is don't do it, I didn't see any real difference in the sense that using a factory restored phone is of no use to no one in the real world. The best thing I can advise you to do is to be totally honest with the apps you have on the phone and regularly use vs the ones you have "just because". I was in the latter camp for some time and deleting apps I never touched did actually make a difference.

I'm going to wait for Lollipop myself and see what that does. Heck, if it makes the battery life on a Nexus 5 better, there is hope!

One last piece of advise to all (Moto X 2013, 4.4.4): If you do FDR, DO NOT use the SMS Backup+ app (Jan Berkel). It will backup your messages to your Gmail account but will NOT restore them due to an incompatibility bug. They will briefly appear in your inbox and then disappear. I spent hours trying to resolve this and gave up. My messages were not important so it wasn't the end of the world but that wasn't the point. Lesson learned the hard way.

The fact that it's only dual core would not inherently help battery usage. Most of the time on a quad-core processor, 2 or 3 cores are off, so it's not using any more power than a dual core. For multi-threaded processes such as browsing or certain games, the two cores have to run at a higher clock speed for more time than a quad core would, resulting in at least as much power usage.

As for your expectations, I agree that it doesn't seem to be all that it's cracked up to be. But this is the first phone I've had since the Blackberry I had in 2008, where it pretty reliably lasts all day with my usage. Part of that is due to the active display and my Nexus 7 reducing how much I use the phone for browsing, but it's good enough for me.

If only Motorola said that when they advertised the phone, hahaha!

I just had higher expectations based on a) what I read and b) seeing the SOT of other users. Makes me kinda think of two batches of Xs built; the awesome ones and the not so great but rather average.

 

[sixty_four]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

Thanks again for the advice, George.

I guess I'll hold off on the FDR for now and see what L brings. I've also went through and cleaned out a lot of apps but there's still a few that I could bear to part with.

 

[narenbn]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

I bought this phone 3 months ago and I m totally disappointed with its battery back up. I did a lot of online research to buy this phone , spent $ 425 dollars on an unlocked xt1052 model in India. I updated it to 4.4.4 as soon as I bought it. With 3G on I hardly get 8-9 hours till 10 hours with very low usage . SOT 2 hrs and in standby battery drains like crazy. In 2g I get a 15 hours battery back up with 3 hours sot. I regret that I bought it for its features but no juice to experience those features . I should have gone for HTC 816 .

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[stuff5150]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

I know what you mean. Investing in something that you've researched and doesn't turn out to be what you expected is always a disappointment. Try clearing the Android cache, deleting unused apps, calibrate the battery and take it from there.
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Just wanted to update everyone interested in this thread about battery and usage. I was out the other day and managed to get pretty good usage, I think. Here are the screenshots as food for thought and, of course, feedback is always welcome.

Just to clarify, even though you see WiFi on, it actually wasn't connected, I simply forgot to turn it off. Three hours of SOT is my record on this phone and considering I was on HSPA+ all day and actually using the phone, 14 hours is not bad.

 

[terrrrrible]

Re: Moto X (2013) Screen On Time

How long have you had yours for? Mine is only 2 months old and I'm doing all of this now that the battery is still fresh (if not defective). I dare not think a year or year and a half down the road!

Please keep me posted with your stats in the next few days.

Here is my thread with two albums of GSam stats in it. Take a look and see if it's similar to your issue.