Poor Battery Life

[Girevik]

The last several weeks my battery life has been horrible and I'm not sure what has changed. As an example, I recently bought a new charging cable for my car and that actually charged the battery while I used my GPS and Android Auto. Not the battery drains quickly. Any use in general seems to just suck the life out of the battery. I haven't had a chance to test it as I'd like, but leaving it in standby doesn't seem to be as bad (I usually charge it overnight but have been meaning to charge it before I go to bed and see where it is when I get up).

I don't see anything that looks out of whack on the battery screen in the settings. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to track down the culprit?

 

[B. Diddy]

Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which shows Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

You might have to install a 3rd party battery monitor, like GSam Battery Monitor, to get the Cell Signal Strength graph.

 

[Girevik]

Ok, I got some screen shots but my usage for today was very atypical. I was on calls way more than usual and didn't spend as much time using aps (hopefully the pictures attach properly).

 

[B. Diddy]

Can you show a cell signal strength graph? I don't think that's available in the stock settings, so you'd have to install GSam Battery Monitor. The reason I ask is that poor signal can drain your battery, and won't show up as "Time Without Signal" if the phone can at least detect a little bit of it.

 

[Girevik]

Is this what you're after? Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I didn't work at my normal location for a good bit of the day and wasn't sure it would be a good indication. That said, I work downtown and my location hasn't change so I'd be surprised if that was an issue.

 

[B. Diddy]

Yes, that's what I was looking for, thanks!

Your cell signal certainly isn't consistently great. The steeper slopes do seem to correspond to when the signal is weaker or in flux. You could see what happens if you use the phone for a while in Airplane Mode (if that's feasible). Or if you spend most of a phone charge in an area of consistently good signal, compare that graph with this current one.

 

[Girevik]

Since I downloaded Gsam for the above, I figured I'd see what it showed. Here is a case when I had it unplugged for about 3 hours and I had used it a fair amount for killing time; games, Facebook, ect.

It says the biggest drain was "phone radio". What does that tell me?

 

[B. Diddy]

That would probably be consistent with poor cell signal as well. If you can, find an area with reliably good cell signal and stay there for a few hours while using your phone intensively. Does Phone Radio still show up as a big battery drain?

 

[Girevik]

Signal should have been great where I was. Outdoors in a heavily populated area. I wouldn't know where else to go. The first graph I was in a downtown tower so could see potential interference.

 

[B. Diddy]

The next time you see that kind of Phone Radio battery usage, also check the cell signal strength graph in GSam.

 

[Girevik]

Could wi-fi have something to do with it? I tried to reproduce what I saw Friday to check the cell graph, but since I was not connected to wi-fi on Friday I turned it off thinking it would make things more consistent. It didn't seem to drain as fast (but that's subjective) and when I checked Gsam it only had 3% used for Phone radio. I did this in my house, which is no more than a mile from where I was Friday and got the results from the last screen shot, so I doubt there was any difference in cell signal strength.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you keep wi-fi calling on? I don't know if this is the case, but perhaps if wi-fi signal is weak and wi-fi calling is on, it's the same as if cell signal was weak on its own.

 

[Girevik]

No. I've never used Wi-Fi calling that I'm aware of. Unless it's turned on by default and I never paid attention but I don't think that's the case.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, check it just to make sure. And the next time Phone Radio uses that much battery, check the cell signal strength graph in GSam.

 

[Girevik]

Wi-fi calling definitely isn't enabled. I'll try turning Wi-Fi back in and see what the "phone radio" status look like.

 

[Girevik]

I've not seen those crazy "phone radio" numbers again. Gsam is now showing the largest consumer as "Application CPU", but unlike when I've used Gsam before, it's not showing the individual ap usage. Does my phone need to be rooted to see that now?

 

[B. Diddy]

Probably, although I don't know for sure. But just because something is the highest relative battery consumer doesn't mean it's inappropriately high. What's more important is your total battery life -- is it any better?

 

[chanchan05]

You don't need to root. You can bypass that need using a PC and ADB. There are instructions in the GSAM app.

 

[xplod566]

Try switching with a new sim

 

[Girevik]

It doesn't seem to be better, but t's so subjective it's hard to say. I did get a new update today, so we'll see if that makes a difference. The good news is hat it looks like the OS update opened up whatever Gsam needs to read the AP cpu usage.