Bad cell signal so rapid battery drain - fix?

[ASD Dad]

I have had my Pure for a couple weeks now and I really like it overall. I have been bouncing around with different models trying to find the best mix of features I need and/or want and the Pure hits at a lot of them. One issue I have with all phones lately other than my 5X running 6.0 is the bad battery drain overnight with little cell coverage. I live in a fringe area and I will drop signal a few hours a day over 24 hours. With Doze running on the 5X I lose next to nothing overnight. Even my LG G2 did great overnight but still had the drain issues. My Note 5 that I returned would lose 20%!! The Pure isnt quite that bad but the Pure has better reception than the Note 5.

So are there any fixes other than remembering to turn on Airplane mode at night? I cant keep it on during the day so I am stuck with the battery drain unless there is a fix. Even when my 5X is "Dozing" I still get text messages and calls which wont happen in Airplane mode. I saw there was an App called Doze that some had luck with on Samsungs but I didnt see any references to it here. I honestly dont know if I even want the Doze feature on 6.0 as I read that it could break some features that make Moto great like the Assist for the screen...

 

[belodion]

Could you not switch off Mobile Data when you don't need it, or is your 2G signal bad as well?

 

[Laura Knotek]

I've always just left my smartphones on the charger overnight when I'm sleeping so they're fully charged when I wake up.

 

[ll_peterson]

Agree, being on Sprint I had to get in the habit of toggling data off when I'm not using it. Until towers are updated there will be no fix

 

[NickA]

I've always just left my smartphones on the charger overnight when I'm sleeping so they're fully charged when I wake up.

I agree. I really don't understand it when people unplug their phone before going to bed. Just plug it in and it's all set in the morning.

 

[cwise222]

There is no fix as it's an issue with Android itself tied to LTE data and, sometimes, VoLTE. What carrier do you have? With AT&T you can't shut off the Voice Over LTE; the option to turn it off does not exist on the Pure. I pretty much have to have LTE off at all times now and only run off the '4G' HSPA+ signal, which is pretty darn good where I am so It really isn't a huge deal. If I leave LTE on cell standby usually hovers around 15% to 25% of battery usage.

If you have Verizon I think you can turn off VoLTE from the phone and that may help. It's not a guarantee that it will fix anything but on my S6 the day after I turned off VoLTE cell standby vanished and other people have had some success with ti as well. My friend has a 5X on AT&T and the cell standby issue is there as well so 6.0 seemingly won't fix this annoying bug.

 

[isdaako]

The easiest answer is to leave the phone plugged in. The more expensive answer... have you considered using a cell phone booster?

 

[rushmore]

LTE chips need to throttle down rather than drain a battery with weak signal. No point in the power draw, since does nothing for a weak signal but drain power. At a minimum there should be an option to do so.

 

[ASD Dad]

I've actually seen a reduction in usage from Standby. It is still way up there which is why I started this thread but the battery hit isnt as bad, or so it seems. I could certainly charge it every night but it seems like this is a "defect" overall that could have a fix. Plugging it in is the easiest for now!

 

[thymeless]

The cell phone booster is a good solution. I'm on prepaid so I had to pay for my booster out right but it was worth it. If you're a long time contract customer, your carrier will probably provide you with one. Maybe free, maybe prorated. Mine was just over $200.00. It was a no brainer for me as it helped the whole family's reception and makes the phones much more usable at home. We're planning on dropping the land line when Google Fiber rolls into our neighborhood within the next year so home cell signal is important.

If you get a booster, you have to register it with your carrier in case it causes interference with the primary towers. But that's a minor thing to do.

 

[cwise222]

I still have issues with drain and standby even with a full and strong signal, it's just not quite as bad as when the phone has a weak signal. What it boils down to is Google needs to fix whatever it is in the firmware that is causing this, especially since this has been an issue since Lollipop came out.