Active Notifications Persistently Flashing

[ulnek]

so cpu usage has been increasing more on my phone as far as battery consumption. could this be due to my active notification flashing every 5 seconds? is there a way to make active notifications only flash once? From what i understand about it, it should only flash once then die down then not turn on again until new things arrive. it does it a few times a day that i've noticed when it's on a steady surface. i don't even know how much it does it when it's in my pocket. does not stop until i dismiss the notification. no case or screen protector. why would it even do that? software or hardware issue?

 

[jesta192]

I'd like to think that your problem has nothing to do with active notifications, and is probably an app running or communicating in the background that you aren't aware of. Active notifications light up my phone all the time, but I'm still seeing great battery life.

Good luck! Let us know what you find.

sent from my XT1080M

 

[Xxwabbit]

I don't they are active in the pocket. At least mine doesn't.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[ulnek]

I'd like to think that your problem has nothing to do with active notifications, and is probably an app running or communicating in the background that you aren't aware of. Active notifications light up my phone all the time, but I'm still seeing great battery life.

Good luck! Let us know what you find.

sent from my XT1080M

see that's what i'm trying to figure out. is it some conflict or is it a hardware issue. i kind of want to know before i am unable to exchange it anymore. figured maybe someone here has had something similar happen. i don't have anything out of the ordinary on my phone so i don't even know how to begin figuring it out. plus the fact that it doesn't do it all the time. there's not even a consistency. at first i thought i was incoming gmail. but it doesn't do it for all of them. then i had it happen for a yahoo mail, but not all yahoo mail (even on same account). then i had it happen on a game (and again, it doesn't always do it for that game).

 

[viper8315]

so cpu usage has been increasing more on my phone as far as battery consumption. could this be due to my active notification flashing every 5 seconds? is there a way to make active notifications only flash once? From what i understand about it, it should only flash once then die down then not turn on again until new things arrive. it does it a few times a day that i've noticed when it's on a steady surface. i don't even know how much it does it when it's in my pocket. does not stop until i dismiss the notification. no case or screen protector. why would it even do that? software or hardware issue?

Personally, I think you're falling into the old habits of trying to conserve as much battery power as you can, and over-reacting a little. Don't exchange the phone, it sounds like it's working correctly. You also have plenty of battery power in this phone, just enjoy it! Here are some direct answers to your questions though.

No, there is no setting I have seen to make active notifications only flash once. The phone will continue to "breath" at you whenever there are non-dismissed notifications. From the video's I've seen on the moto x, and the behavior of my phone over the past month, I believe your understanding is incorrect. The phone continues to breath until you dismiss the notification. As far as being in your pocket, I'm fairly certain that the notifications stop when the proximity detector is triggered. You might be able to test this by placing a small piece of paper on the upper left hand corner of the phone and seeing if it stops. I haven't tried this test, but I will. One thing that would be educational for you is to watch some of the promotional videos on the development of the Moto X (basically the same hardware and software of our phone). Motorola put a lot of effort into programming that knows when you're around your phone, and having it "breath" when it knows you're near it. I've played with this feature myself by having the phone (with no notifications waiting) on my coffee table (soild wood), and tapping the table almost 3 feet away, and the phone would wake up, and breath the time at me. I actually think Motorola did an awesome job with active notifications, and I feel it works very well. I think they used the combination of sensing vibration, movement, and proximity detection in order to do it, and it works great.

Now, with all that said, if active notifications isn't for you, you can simply turn it off. You can also set which apps trigger active notifications so that it only breaths at you when you really want it to. For example, missed calls, text messages, but not emails. I would suggest visiting this page: DROID MAXX by Motorola Support | Verizon Wireless
Click on personalization, then click on customizing active notifications, and that will walk you through setting what apps you want to be notified with. I'll keep an eye on the thread if you have more questions, but I think your best bet is to just forget how you had to live with your galaxy nexus, and enjoy 3500 mah of battery power! Honestly, with the info you put forth here, I think if you return the phone, expecting something different, you'll be disappointed...

 

[ulnek]

Personally, I think you're falling into the old habits of trying to conserve as much battery power as you can, and over-reacting a little. Don't exchange the phone, it sounds like it's working correctly. You also have plenty of battery power in this phone, just enjoy it! Here are some direct answers to your questions though.

No, there is no setting I have seen to make active notifications only flash once. The phone will continue to "breath" at you whenever there are non-dismissed notifications. From the video's I've seen on the moto x, and the behavior of my phone over the past month, I believe your understanding is incorrect. The phone continues to breath until you dismiss the notification. As far as being in your pocket, I'm fairly certain that the notifications stop when the proximity detector is triggered. You might be able to test this by placing a small piece of paper on the upper left hand corner of the phone and seeing if it stops. I haven't tried this test, but I will. One thing that would be educational for you is to watch some of the promotional videos on the development of the Moto X (basically the same hardware and software of our phone). Motorola put a lot of effort into programming that knows when you're around your phone, and having it "breath" when it knows you're near it. I've played with this feature myself by having the phone (with no notifications waiting) on my coffee table (soild wood), and tapping the table almost 3 feet away, and the phone would wake up, and breath the time at me. I actually think Motorola did an awesome job with active notifications, and I feel it works very well. I think they used the combination of sensing vibration, movement, and proximity detection in order to do it, and it works great.

Now, with all that said, if active notifications isn't for you, you can simply turn it off. You can also set which apps trigger active notifications so that it only breaths at you when you really want it to. For example, missed calls, text messages, but not emails. I would suggest visiting this page: DROID MAXX by Motorola Support | Verizon Wireless
Click on personalization, then click on customizing active notifications, and that will walk you through setting what apps you want to be notified with. I'll keep an eye on the thread if you have more questions, but I think your best bet is to just forget how you had to live with your galaxy nexus, and enjoy 3500 mah of battery power! Honestly, with the info you put forth here, I think if you return the phone, expecting something different, you'll be disappointed...

see the thing is that most of the time the active notification will only flash once once received. then the screen goes back to sleep again and doesn't wake up until i wake it up. it's just sometimes it flashes every few seconds. it will do this for over an hour ever 5 seconds (that's about as much as i was able to stand letting it flash, it could have gone longer). it's not very consistent. not sure why some notifications would persist flashing and some would just flash once.

yea i've turned off most notification except email, text and chat. things that might need my immediate attention when i receive them. so far, with text and chat that i've noticed, it's pretty consistent with it just flashing once. but with email, regardless of which account, it would sometimes keep flashing and sometimes just only flash once. inconsistencies like this makes me uneasy because it makes me think that something is wrong. what's the explanation on the difference between the notifications i receive is what i'm after.

 

[viper8315]

I hear you, and now I understand what you're after. I too have noticed some of the inconsistencies that you've mentioned. I don't think anything is wrong though. I think it has something to do with the way the phone detects vibrations. I have two very specific scenarios for you that I've witnessed. The first is the stable coffee table, when the phone is at rest it seems as though the active notifications work very well and consistantly flash like they're supposed to. The second is when the phone already detects vibration, and won't necessarily continuely activate the active notifications on a consistent basis. My best example of this is when I'm running on a treadmill, after the first flash of the notification, it sometimes doesn't flash again, I usually have to manually wake the screen. I've also noticed it while I'm already holding the phone in my hand. Once again, I don't think anything is wrong, I think it's just a function of the hardware (gyro, accelerometer, etc) and software design. Being an engineer, I've learned that designing is always a comprimise, it's never "perfect". If we were talking about building a bridge, or a defib device here where people's lives depended on it, well yea, it will be a lot closer to perfect. But this is just a phone...either way, I think Motorola did an excellent job with this feature, and I don't think I can ever have another phone without it...

 

[jfriend33]

Guys this phone by default has higher android os usage. Installing better battery stats verified I had no bad apps.

I'm able to get 6-9 hrs screen on time and last 48 hrs.

It is a bad habit to worry, which I occasionally find myself doing.

You could install xposed framework and a module called GravityBox. You could disable active notifications and set your nav buttons to blink as if it were an led.

I noticed no improvement in battery life doing this...

Sent from my XT1080m using AC Forums mobile app.

 

[SteelGator]

I am confused by the experience reported here. My active notifications continue to breath until the are dismissed, and this is how they are supposed to work. This does not use a lot of power for the screen or the CPU.

Also, remember the battery use view gives percentages, not raw usage, so it is all relative. My OS and screen percentages vary a fair amount based on how I am using the phone. If my screen is on a lot, the percentage of use is high, but on more normal use days, my OS is much higher. It sounds to me like your phone is working normally. I would only worry about my battery if you are managing to kill it under 24 hours.

 

[ulnek]

I am confused by the experience reported here. My active notifications continue to breath until the are dismissed, and this is how they are supposed to work. This does not use a lot of power for the screen or the CPU.

see that's the thing. mine don't always. some notifications will show on screen when they come in then the phone goes back to sleep. i like it better that way where it shows it only once. then there are times when it would keep flashing at me every 5 seconds without any outside aid. it would come on, then off for 5 seconds then on again. it will continue this for it seems until i wake the phone and dismiss it (i tested this once and it did it for over an hour). it may not be affecting my battery much (i don't know) but that's how this is supposed to work? it will nag me every 5 seconds until i turn on the screen and off again? thought it would only tell me what came in when i looked at the screen, moved the phone or something (after the initial notification when it came in). no? that kind of seems unnecessary. that's almost like the led light persistently flashing except larger which should technically use more energy than the led light. plus on the commercial, the guy had to touch his screen to see what came in. mine i don't, i just have to wait 5 seconds and it will show me what's there.

I hear you, and now I understand what you're after. I too have noticed some of the inconsistencies that you've mentioned. I don't think anything is wrong though. I think it has something to do with the way the phone detects vibrations. I have two very specific scenarios for you that I've witnessed. The first is the stable coffee table, when the phone is at rest it seems as though the active notifications work very well and consistantly flash like they're supposed to. The second is when the phone already detects vibration, and won't necessarily continuely activate the active notifications on a consistent basis. My best example of this is when I'm running on a treadmill, after the first flash of the notification, it sometimes doesn't flash again, I usually have to manually wake the screen. I've also noticed it while I'm already holding the phone in my hand. Once again, I don't think anything is wrong, I think it's just a function of the hardware (gyro, accelerometer, etc) and software design. Being an engineer, I've learned that designing is always a comprimise, it's never "perfect". If we were talking about building a bridge, or a defib device here where people's lives depended on it, well yea, it will be a lot closer to perfect. But this is just a phone...either way, I think Motorola did an excellent job with this feature, and I don't think I can ever have another phone without it...

ok, so i guess i'm not the only one who noticed this. my only concern is that while it's in my pocket for hours and it keeps doing that, how much of my battery is being used because of that? would that be part of the cpu (android system) usage, which is the 2nd highest battery drain (usually over 60% or more as screen time on). i just wondered if there might have been something wrong physically with the phone, like the internal detectors and sensors, that would make my phone think it's being moved every 5 seconds. wanted to know before my exchange time was up. however, it seems that most people replying here have noticed the same thing.

 

[SteelGator]

see that's the thing. mine don't always. some notifications will show on screen when they come in then the phone goes back to sleep. i like it better that way where it shows it only once. then there are times when it would keep flashing at me every 5 seconds without any outside aid. it would come on, then off for 5 seconds then on again. it will continue this for it seems until i wake the phone and dismiss it (i tested this once and it did it for over an hour). it may not be affecting my battery much (i don't know) but that's how this is supposed to work? it will nag me every 5 seconds until i turn on the screen and off again? thought it would only tell me what came in when i looked at the screen, moved the phone or something (after the initial notification when it came in). no? that kind of seems unnecessary. that's almost like the led light persistently flashing except larger which should technically use more energy than the led light. plus on the commercial, the guy had to touch his screen to see what came in. mine i don't, i just have to wait 5 seconds and it will show me what's there.

The behavior you are supposed to see is faster breathing at first, but then it slows after a while. By touching the screen during the notification you will see additional detail at the top of the screen for the most recent notification.

If it turned off after a single flash, that would be useless. You would never know if you had a notification unless you caught it the first time.

I don't know how energy use compares to the led, but the active notifications carry much more info. I used light flow to customize colors, but this is much better. Some apps even have multiple icons depending on the notification, for example, CBS Sports flashes a hockey mask for hockey scores.

Anyway, no one solution is for everybody. More troubling is that yours don't seem to behaving properly.

 

[doogald]

see that's the thing. mine don't always. some notifications will show on screen when they come in then the phone goes back to sleep. i like it better that way where it shows it only once. then there are times when it would keep flashing at me every 5 seconds without any outside aid. it would come on, then off for 5 seconds then on again. it will continue this for it seems until i wake the phone and dismiss it (i tested this once and it did it for over an hour). it may not be affecting my battery much (i don't know) but that's how this is supposed to work? it will nag me every 5 seconds until i turn on the screen and off again? thought it would only tell me what came in when i looked at the screen, moved the phone or something (after the initial notification when it came in). no?

Yes, that is how it is supposed to work. When a new notification comes in, it starts flashing. It will keep flashing (what Motorola calls "breathing") the notification. When you have no unseen notifications in the active notification list, it will instead "breathe" with the current time and an unlock icon in a circle. The active notification breathing is basically replacing the old LED notification; the LED in most phones will continue to flash until you power on the display.

The active notifications do not flash in your pocket. Motorola says that it doesn't use very much battery power at all.

See https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/95499/p/30,6720,8882 for a FAQ about active notifications.

 

[ETPhoneHomeT]

If you don't want the active notifications to "breathe", I believe you can just put the phone face down and that will keep it from doing that.

 

[ulnek]

If you don't want the active notifications to "breathe", I believe you can just put the phone face down and that will keep it from doing that.

yea i do that at night when i sleep.


well if that's how they're supposed to work then i guess that's fine. wish we could change the frequency of that. i don't need to be constantly reminded that i have mail, but i do want to be informed when they come in.

 

[MotoHead72]

I was having the same problem. I checked another forum and fixed the problem. Here's what you do:

Click on the moto app.
In the top right corner is the settings "wheel." Click on it.
In the next screen, click on Display.
In this menu, there will be a selection that says "Moto Display: Battery-friendly notifications that fade in and out when the phone display is off." It will likely be checked. Uncheck it and problem solved!

 

[doogald]

I was having the same problem. I checked another forum and fixed the problem. Here's what you do:

Click on the moto app.
In the top right corner is the settings "wheel." Click on it.
In the next screen, click on Display.
In this menu, there will be a selection that says "Moto Display: Battery-friendly notifications that fade in and out when the phone display is off." It will likely be checked. Uncheck it and problem solved!

FWIW, this is not a solution that will work with the Droid Maxx. The Droid Maxx has no "Moto" app (at least not yet; it may if the phone ever gets the Lollipop update) and Moto Display is controlled using the settings app, under "active display".