There's been a lot of talk about Google Services draining battery life on 4.4+ and I'm just curious for those with a non-rooted Maxx on 4.4+ any observations on battery life.
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Posted via Android Central App
KitKat & Battery Life
- Thread starter LinuxWeather
- Start date
Yesterday was my first full day with KK and my battery was hammered. I went to bed last night with the battery down to 33; it's usually between 50 and 65. Looking at the battery stats there was something holding the phone awake, but apps like GSAM battery monitor no longer work unroofed, so it's hard to see which app is doing it. I'm going to watch it today and either start uninstalling some apps or just go through with a factory data reset and start over.
First couple of days on the new operating system will be hectic on a battery. All the apps and stuff saying howdy to each other all over again, getting used to know each other, they're all setting themselves up all over again etc.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
I had an X that updated to 4.4 the third day I had it. Battery life went from 16+ hours to less than 12. I gave it till the 14th day to see if it got better, but it got a bit worse. I returned the X while I still could rather than be stuck with a phone that needed charging midday (maybe Google/Moto will get it fixed but I didn't want to wait for them).
Bought a Maxx figuring that the larger battery could brute force its way through the battery drain, but I expect to see a noticeable hit when I get the update. I was hoping Motorola would wait till they fixed the issue before pushing the update.
Yes. But nothing changed (on my end--apps/usage) between the pre- and post-Kit Kat time. OP asked about KK impact on battery. For me it was a big hit. And with wakelock detector and gsam battery monitor not working on KK without root, I couldn't really dig into what was the issue.
Google email said battery life will be worse for first few days. Also said keep update confidential... 
Yesterday was my first fill day with KK as well, and I left my house at about 1pm with 93%, got back to my house at about 5pm with 53%, no navigation, all in Scottsdale AZ, and before the update, I would have a solid 4g signal, I was in 3g all day yesterday. SO I know my phone was searching for that 4g signal all day, my screen on time was only 2 hours which is low for me. I hope for Motos sake and VZWs sake they pull this update and fix it and push another update out.
skatergirl
Retired Moderator
I haven't really noticed a change. I would need a day where I hardly used my phone to tell the difference. I have been using my phone A LOT since the update and I have been able to get the whole day out of the battery each day.
Google email said battery life will be worse for first few days. Also said keep update confidential...
Both Motorola and Verizon announced Thursday that the update was rolling out publicly.
Yeah its public now ... You can view that debacle on other forums ... I know a lot of babbling on bricking on moto public forums, it seems like vzw had some data issues the same day of the push (either root cause of victim don't know) but wonder if that didn't impact that issue...
Either way I was curious how 4.4 was doing with maxx battery life ... Personally if the moto maxx 4.4 vanilla install isn't coming with noticeable UI changes like the transparent bar, Google Home, etc I see no reason to update immediately as 4.2.2 is smooth as butter (pun intended) esp given well complained about issues regardless if pebkac or elsewhere.
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Either way I was curious how 4.4 was doing with maxx battery life ... Personally if the moto maxx 4.4 vanilla install isn't coming with noticeable UI changes like the transparent bar, Google Home, etc I see no reason to update immediately as 4.2.2 is smooth as butter (pun intended) esp given well complained about issues regardless if pebkac or elsewhere.
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Yesterday was my first full day with 4.4 and using ART. Phone went back on the charger last night with 37% battery remaining, and a screen on time of 5 hours 50 minutes. That's in addition to all the app updates, but I was on Wi-Fi all day. Very impressed so far, loving the improved responsiveness of ART.
Posted via Android Central App
Posted via Android Central App
I don't think so. As far as I know, the update is a digitally signed zip file. If it doesn't unzip right, and the signature doesn't pass, it won't even attempt the install. The people who had update problems had the update start.
I'm not sure if I found the full cause or not, but I ended up uninstalling all battery monitoring apps (GSAM Battery Monitor and Battery Monitor Widget (I forgot I had that one installed.) I also noticed that Android Weather & Clock Widget was listed in the battery usage screen, despite the fact that I didn't have the widget installed, so I uninstalled that as well. Battery use is still higher than usual with JB today, but the phone is not being held awake all day as it was yesterday. (I also had a problem where my trusted BT was not skipping the lock screen, despite the fact that the device was connected, but that's been better today, too.)
I've also disabled the Motorola ID and the Moto locking/wiping in the Administrators screen, as I have Android Device Manager so I don't need two solutions. I'm not sure if that was causing any battery drain, though.
When I have time I think I'm going to factory reset and start over from scratch, but that may not happen until after the 1st.
You had to switch to ART though correct, that's the "in-progress" desktop environment (home app/back end) ...
Thanks though -- its good to hear a smattering of "good installs" and with battery since that's the main reason a lot of us got the maxx
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You make a good point here ... Major updates is a great time to play housekeeping on app management ... I think it's a good idea anyway and if you don't need it uninstall it before you update just to cya
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Yes I had to manually enable ART in the developer settings. It made a HUGE difference for my gnex so I was very eager to use it on the maxx.
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Unfortunately I cant say with confidence whether it's KitKat or switching to ART runtime but my battery is now freakishly amazing!!! Additionally, again, dont know if it's KitKat or ART but the phone is snappy as hell!
Loving it!
Loving it!
Im a noob to all of this but could i switch to ART when I already have a phone set up or do I need to start fresh?
You can just switch it to ART. It will reboot and rebuild all you apps automatically, Just let it do its thing and your set.
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