Abysmal battery life on my 2nd Moto X tried everything i know of...

[justlaxin13]

Ok, so I don't really know where to turn with this. I'm on my second Moto X (I RMAd the first one because of this exact same issue) and no matter what I do I can't get the battery life above 8-9 hours. My screen brightness is always set on auto, bluetooth is really never used, ditto for wifi, I am never anywhere with significantly reduced signal strength for any noteworthy length of time, and screen on time is never higher than about 1:30 when the phone finally give up (again, after a paltry 7-9 hours). I have tried more than one factory reset to no avail. Also of note i suppose, when left overnight for 6-7 hours I usually see 20-30% drainage which, like all else, seems insane.

I have attached screenshots from two days of use. One set comes a few days after a factory reset with no 3rd party apps installed other than Swiftkey (Newest version, i just can't live without it).The other set comes with a handful of the apps I use regularly installed again. Noteworthy is that apps or not, didn't make a whole ton of difference.

What interesting it that I went through this same song and dance with my first moto X, never finding anything useful to solve it and ultimately sending it back. I've been angrily and frustratedly putting up with it for the past several weeks and was galvanized to hit these forums again after hearing one of The Verge Mobile Show guys (Dieter I think) comment that he was getting 20-21 hour on his Moto X with 3-4 screen on hours. Generally such stories aren't inherently useful; because everyone's usage differs, but given his background etc. I can't imagine that A. He's a light user and B. its totally apocryphal. Given that, how am I getting less than half the battery life with less than half the screen usage?

 

[B. Diddy]

That's a head-scratcher. You've probably tried these tips before, but just in case, review this guide and see if any of them help: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...how-tos/298919-guide-battery-saving-tips.html

 

[effreyj]

I initially had a similar problem but fixed it in the following ways:

1) Turned off location reporting
2) Disabled "use location" in apps that had that option and manually entered my home city
3) Set most of my apps such as facebook/twitter/etc to manual refresh to keep my phone from waking a lot
4) Changed my Gmail to sync only the past 7 days worth of emails

Also, try installing GSam battery to get a better breakdown of apps using the battery. In addition, under developer options in settings, there's a Process Stats menu that shows which apps are using how much RAM and how long they're each running, so take a look there.

 

[justlaxin13]

I initially had a similar problem but fixed it in the following ways:

1) Turned off location reporting
2) Disabled "use location" in apps that had that option and manually entered my home city
3) Set most of my apps such as facebook/twitter/etc to manual refresh to keep my phone from waking a lot
4) Changed my Gmail to sync only the past 7 days worth of emails

Also, try installing GSam battery to get a better breakdown of apps using the battery. In addition, under developer options in settings, there's a Process Stats menu that shows which apps are using how much RAM and how long they're each running, so take a look there.

Thanks. So all of my apps like facebook, twitter, G+ and newsreaders have already been set to only manually update (should have mentioned that in OP). I changed the gmail thing as you said. With the location settings things, won't that cripple some super useful features that involve knowing where I am? I know that kinda thing does some battery damage, but im going to say not 50% worth.

With regards to battery monitoring apps, I discovered that several primary ones don't work in Kit Kat because google doesn't make certain system information available to 3rd party apps anymore. I don't remember exactly which ones that applied to, but I seem to remember stopping using GSam for this reason.

 

[effreyj]

Thanks. So all of my apps like facebook, twitter, G+ and newsreaders have already been set to only manually update (should have mentioned that in OP). I changed the gmail thing as you said. With the location settings things, won't that cripple some super useful features that involve knowing where I am? I know that kinda thing does some battery damage, but im going to say not 50% worth.

With regards to battery monitoring apps, I discovered that several primary ones don't work in Kit Kat because google doesn't make certain system information available to 3rd party apps anymore. I don't remember exactly which ones that applied to, but I seem to remember stopping using GSam for this reason.

GSam put an update out that fixed it so that it would work with KitKat. As for the location features, I haven't noticed any difference in functionality from disabling the Location Reporting option. Which location features do you use that you're worried about losing if you disable it? For most apps (such as most weather apps), there's an option to manually enter your zip code. Google Now still seems to know my location as well even with Location Reporting off.

 

[B. Diddy]

GSam does work on KitKat, but there are certain pieces of data that are no longer available (like wakelocks).

Posted via Android Central App

 

[natehoy]

Huh. That's a head-scratcher. I'm sitting on 7h 5s uptime, including about 30 minutes of using my phone for tethering to my tablet and an hour and 20 minutes of screen-on time, battery at 68%.

Screen on AUTO, mostly on WiFi. I never turn the GPS or anything off, full-on syncing, running MobileIron and Touchdown in "push" for corporate email, multiple weather apps all set to update hourly, bunch of active Hangouts going on.

Top Consumers:
- Screen 36% (1:20 on)
- AndroidOS: 25%
- WiFi: 9% (rinning 6h 35m, CPU 14s)

Not sure what to say. Your battery consumption patterns look in-line with mine, just a lot faster. ??

 

[effreyj]

Huh. That's a head-scratcher. I'm sitting on 7h 5s uptime, including about 30 minutes of using my phone for tethering to my tablet and an hour and 20 minutes of screen-on time, battery at 68%.

Screen on AUTO, mostly on WiFi. I never turn the GPS or anything off, full-on syncing, running MobileIron and Touchdown in "push" for corporate email, multiple weather apps all set to update hourly, bunch of active Hangouts going on.

Top Consumers:
- Screen 36% (1:20 on)
- AndroidOS: 25%
- WiFi: 9% (rinning 6h 35m, CPU 14s)

Not sure what to say. Your battery consumption patterns look in-line with mine, just a lot faster. ??

Do you have location reporting and automatic location in the weather apps on or off?

 

[natehoy]

Do you have location reporting and automatic location in the weather apps on or off?

All on, all the way. If I buy a phone with cool features, I want to use those features and battery be damned.

 

[natehoy]

Getting the Moto X required some hesitation on my part. Usually, I buy a phone and the first thing I buy is a massive extended battery for it. The MotoX is the first phone I have ever owned that has a non-replaceable battery, something that is usually a non-starter for me.

However, it was free from AT&T, and an oddity in the corporate Premier contract I am a member of allows me to get a new Android at contract discount whenever I please. So I figured if the MotoX didn't work out, I could just go buy something else for a couple hundred clams and give someone a good deal on a practically new Moto X. It cost me a $36 upgrade fee.

So far, it's impressed me deeply. Mind you, my phone history shows a few phones not exactly known for legendary battery life. The Thunderbolt was a turdmuffin even with the ginormous HTC extended battery. The Optimus G Pro is no slouch, but a 5.5" super bright LCD screen snorks down a lot of electrons in the course of a few hours. The Moto X is the first smartphone I've ever looked at the screen and seen battery time starting with "1 day...".

 

[justlaxin13]

GSam put an update out that fixed it so that it would work with KitKat. As for the location features, I haven't noticed any difference in functionality from disabling the Location Reporting option. Which location features do you use that you're worried about losing if you disable it? For most apps (such as most weather apps), there's an option to manually enter your zip code. Google Now still seems to know my location as well even with Location Reporting off.

Thanks, i downloaded GSam and will update this thread with screenshots from that as soon as I go through a full battery cycle or so with it. As for the location reporting, if you say google now still manages to work then I guess I can disable that. I was thinking it would stop Google now, location intelligent searches, and google maps to not work quite as well or at all.

With that said, I'm curious about why this is even necessary, especially after reading what natehoy posted.

 

[effreyj]

Thanks, i downloaded GSam and will update this thread with screenshots from that as soon as I go through a full battery cycle or so with it. As for the location reporting, if you say google now still manages to work then I guess I can disable that. I was thinking it would stop Google now, location intelligent searches, and google maps to not work quite as well or at all.

With that said, I'm curious about why this is even necessary, especially after reading what natehoy posted.

I have it disabled, and looking at google maps, it still says how long my commute home will be and events near my location. I use Google Maps as my GPS in my car, so that works as well. I found that this definitely helped my battery life.

 

[justlaxin13]

I have it disabled, and looking at google maps, it still says how long my commute home will be and events near my location. I use Google Maps as my GPS in my car, so that works as well. I found that this definitely helped my battery life.

Wait, do you have GPS on all/most of the time?

 

[effreyj]

I toggle GPS on when I'm using it (in the car or when using runkeeper), and otherwise I use battery saver mode for my location. Google Now doesn't need GPS though.

 

[justlaxin13]

Alright, i turned location reporting and location history off, we'll see what that does.

 

[effreyj]

Alright, i turned location reporting and location history off, we'll see what that does.

It's not exactly like it's irreversible. If you notice it disables a feature that you use, you can always turn it back on.

 

[justlaxin13]

No, I know, just wanted to see in advance how I could/should expect my usage or functionality to change.

 

[jedah]

What does the battery meter look like when you tap on the battery chart? Is it awake alot when your screen is off? If so, could be something causing a wakelock?

8-9 hrs definitely sounds odd. Your usage sounds similar to mine, and right now I'm staring at 7.5 hrs, half hr screen on time (but listening to podcast during a 15 minute commute), and 75% charge remaining, all LTE.