Battery life discussion thread [from front page]

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

This thread is to discuss any findings from looking at your battery usage.

In a front page post http://www.androidcentral.com/keeping-your-charge-how-improve-battery-life-your-android-phone we talked about ways to see what apps are using your batteries. Questions about this are encouraged. We all learn the best when we are learning together!

 

[robwilson]

Nice article and I have turned off most of the stuff you talked about. I let my Wifi connection come on at home. I also took off the live wallpaper. As of 12:41 PM EST, my battery level is at 73. I will keep you posted.

 

[Songwind]

It was a nice article. I wonder if there's a way to tell which apps are taking the most CPU time or using the most battery?

I ask because my "android system" is far and away the largest consumer of battery on my phone, and that seems to take all the software into account.

Eric

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

It was a nice article. I wonder if there's a way to tell which apps are taking the most CPU time or using the most battery?

I ask because my "android system" is far and away the largest consumer of battery on my phone, and that seems to take all the software into account.

Eric

that's a good thing. It means things are acting normally and being managed by the OS, and nothing is hogging more battery than it should. Apps that have a direct drain on the battery get their own category.

 

[rog152]

I have a rooted G1, my battery history is showing Cell Standby, WiFi, and Phone idle all at 33%(and I set my wifi to "never") is that normal? My display is 3%,I went to slept. nothing else is showing

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I have a rooted G1, my battery history is showing Cell Standby, WiFi, and Phone idle all at 33%(and I set my wifi to "never") is that normal? My display is 3%,I went to slept. nothing else is showing

That sounds pretty damn good. What is your battery life like?

 

[rog152]

I have a 1600 slim battery 1 month old or less. With little to avg use i get anywhere from 5 hrs to a day, i don't know why and web surfing sucks it dry fast.

 

[VZWBB]

Coming from an incredible user, the chess.com app eats up the batterys. The app functions great but even if you turn all the settings off or log out, it seems to constantly want the 3g connection open.

I would surmize that anything else constantly wanting the 3g open would be battery eater as well.

 

[prometheus]

I know this is a battery thread and not an app thread. But, any opinions on an app called "juice defender"?

Whenever I check consumption, I always see "display" as the #1 drain. I have it set to the lowest possible setting with a 30 second timeout..... So, question: Why do some users have other apps / processes as #1? I have never NOT had display be #1 by a longshot.

Another question.... Do widgets show their battery consumption under the app name, or under the Android system, core apps, OS, or somewhere else?

 

[dubbnc]

thanks

worked great

 

[spooksmcgee]

I feel like this is a stupid question but I haven't been able to figure it out from searching. Does having Bluetooth simply enabled drain your battery? I have my bluetooth set to always enabled, so that as soon as I get in my car, it can connect to my stereo for hands free dialing. This is the only time I use it. Does that significantly drain my battery when I'm not actively in my car? And if it does, is there a way to set it so it only cuts on when the car dock app is activated? Thanks a lot.

 

[milominderbinde]

I know this is a battery thread and not an app thread. But, any opinions on an app called "juice defender"?

Whenever I check consumption, I always see "display" as the #1 drain...

JuiceDefender is amazing and yes it does tell you exactly who the culprits are. Display is always the worst offender. You can literally use your big bright screen as a flashlight.

From the Getting Started with Android - Tips and Tricks, Battery Life Tips section:

Try JuiceDefender
The free JuiceDefender app saves your battery by automatically:
? Turning off WiFi when you are not near a WiFi hotspot you use (like your home)
? Turning off 1x/3G//4G when WiFi is available.
? Turning off 1x/3G/4G/WiFi and set to silent mode overnight while you sleep.
Add in JuicePlotter for history and UltimateJuice for enhanced features.

 

[aerismel]

Hello, everyone,

I have a major issue with my battery. In general, my battery lasts about 5 hrs every day. It has also happened to me, that some days, it lasts 2 hrs only. And the most it has lived was about 7-8 hrs. But those last 2, are rare cases. In general, my battery lives for 5 hrs every day. Which you may know, is a pain!!!

So, every night, I leave my phone charging and disconnect it in the morning, and try to survive with the battery through the day; but I wanted to see what happens at night if I leave my phone with 100% battery and disconnected from the AC. So I did that yesterday, and today when I woke up, the battery was around 20%. And here is the screenshot of what was draining the battery:

PIC 1:


PIC 2:


What I see from those 2 pictures is this:

First of all, almost all my battery died through the night, and in the first picture you can see that the only thing that was on, was the phone signal. There was no AWAKE, or SCREEN ON draining the battery.

The last drop of the battery was at 8 am when my phone is set to re establish connections. It is set to sleep from 12 am to 8 am. That is why awake and screen on were off. Then there is this small drainage from AWAKE, that started at 8 am. Then I connected the phone to AC, and I was using the phone, while it was charging, I was using the browser, because I was searching for any kind of explanation as to why most of my battery is drained over night so fiercely. I know there are people with batteries lasting about 2 days, so it makes me very frustrated to see what is happening to my battery.

So The second picture shows that even though I was using the browser like a maniac to search for a solution, it only represented 2% of my battery drain. So this makes me wonder a lot. Why does my battery gets drained so much when I am not using it? I understand that when I am actively using it, the battery drains. It's obvious. But what is not obvious to me and I do care to fix, is that my battery gets drained when it is completely sleeping! This is crazy. I am not stupid, though, I also realize that just the fact that my phone is on, even if it is sleeping, will cause a small drainage. But what I am experiencing is not a small drainage. I don't believe this is a normal behavior, considering that there are people that have batteries lasting up to 2-3 days.

So, I want to explain a bit how I use my phone. I am not continuously on facebook / twitter / emails / whatsapp / whatever. I also don't make a lot of phone calls or send any messages. I try not to use my phone a lot because I know that if I use it the battery will die even faster. Which, of course is ridiculous, because I have a phone that I'm afraid to use, because it dies quickly. So then, what's the point of having a phone that you don't want to use because the battery dies?!?!

This is really annoying to me, and I have read a lot, but can't seem to find a solution for this.

The only thing I tried (but this was like 9 months ago) was flashing a custom rom (miui, cyanogenmod). And back then, it helped not only with battery life, but also with performance of the phone. Which was amazing. The problem is that I had to go back to stock rom, because the custom rom, didn't allow me to install apps. I could only install up to 5 apps and then it would tell me the internal memory was full. I read everything i could and never was able to fix this internal memory issue. So I decided to go back to stock, because I do use quite a few apps. I mean, I'm not crazy like I use 200 apps. I use less than 50. Probably even less than 30 apps, but I can't live with just the 5 apps it allowed me to install. So.....

I hope you understand my frustration here. Only custom roms helped me with my battery issue. But If i flash a custom rom, I have to say goodbye to installing apps, so my phone is useless, because I do use the apps that I have installed. I don't have apps I don't use.

If anyone can help me with this issue, I would appreciate it greatly. I am very, very frustrated / tired of my situation, but I am willing to follow any advice. I just need some guidance. And I do appreciate anyone who took the time to read my post and come up with suggestions for me.

Thank you all very, very much. I will cross my fingers in hope that someone can help me fix this.

 

[Paul627g]

Hello, everyone,

I have a major issue with my battery. In general, my battery lasts about 5 hrs every day. It has also happened to me, that some days, it lasts 2 hrs only. And the most it has lived was about 7-8 hrs. But those last 2, are rare cases. In general, my battery lives for 5 hrs every day. Which you may know, is a pain!!!

So, every night, I leave my phone charging and disconnect it in the morning, and try to survive with the battery through the day; but I wanted to see what happens at night if I leave my phone with 100% battery and disconnected from the AC. So I did that yesterday, and today when I woke up, the battery was around 20%. And here is the screenshot of what was draining the battery:

PIC 1:
View attachment 38120

PIC 2:
View attachment 38121

What I see from those 2 pictures is this:

First of all, almost all my battery died through the night, and in the first picture you can see that the only thing that was on, was the phone signal. There was no AWAKE, or SCREEN ON draining the battery.

The last drop of the battery was at 8 am when my phone is set to re establish connections. It is set to sleep from 12 am to 8 am. That is why awake and screen on were off. Then there is this small drainage from AWAKE, that started at 8 am. Then I connected the phone to AC, and I was using the phone, while it was charging, I was using the browser, because I was searching for any kind of explanation as to why most of my battery is drained over night so fiercely. I know there are people with batteries lasting about 2 days, so it makes me very frustrated to see what is happening to my battery.

So The second picture shows that even though I was using the browser like a maniac to search for a solution, it only represented 2% of my battery drain. So this makes me wonder a lot. Why does my battery gets drained so much when I am not using it? I understand that when I am actively using it, the battery drains. It's obvious. But what is not obvious to me and I do care to fix, is that my battery gets drained when it is completely sleeping! This is crazy. I am not stupid, though, I also realize that just the fact that my phone is on, even if it is sleeping, will cause a small drainage. But what I am experiencing is not a small drainage. I don't believe this is a normal behavior, considering that there are people that have batteries lasting up to 2-3 days.

So, I want to explain a bit how I use my phone. I am not continuously on facebook / twitter / emails / whatsapp / whatever. I also don't make a lot of phone calls or send any messages. I try not to use my phone a lot because I know that if I use it the battery will die even faster. Which, of course is ridiculous, because I have a phone that I'm afraid to use, because it dies quickly. So then, what's the point of having a phone that you don't want to use because the battery dies?!?!

This is really annoying to me, and I have read a lot, but can't seem to find a solution for this.

The only thing I tried (but this was like 9 months ago) was flashing a custom rom (miui, cyanogenmod). And back then, it helped not only with battery life, but also with performance of the phone. Which was amazing. The problem is that I had to go back to stock rom, because the custom rom, didn't allow me to install apps. I could only install up to 5 apps and then it would tell me the internal memory was full. I read everything i could and never was able to fix this internal memory issue. So I decided to go back to stock, because I do use quite a few apps. I mean, I'm not crazy like I use 200 apps. I use less than 50. Probably even less than 30 apps, but I can't live with just the 5 apps it allowed me to install. So.....

I hope you understand my frustration here. Only custom roms helped me with my battery issue. But If i flash a custom rom, I have to say goodbye to installing apps, so my phone is useless, because I do use the apps that I have installed. I don't have apps I don't use.

If anyone can help me with this issue, I would appreciate it greatly. I am very, very frustrated / tired of my situation, but I am willing to follow any advice. I just need some guidance. And I do appreciate anyone who took the time to read my post and come up with suggestions for me.

Thank you all very, very much. I will cross my fingers in hope that someone can help me fix this.

It appears you have a poor mobile/cellular signal during the over night hours. Your phone is constantly fighting and working OT to maintain a signal so in return its killing the battery.

Options..

1. You could toggle it to airplane mode which would stop the phones radios from being active and this happening but then you don't receive incoming updates, texts, etc unless your WIFI.

2. If you have WIFI at home and you phone is linked to it, leave it on WIFI at bedtime and check under Settings/Wireless Networks/ pull up your options or settings for wifi and look for the option

Keep WI-FI on during sleep

Make sure its checked or says "ALWAYS".

That will keep wifi active when the device is inactive and connected to your wireless router which should have a solid signal and in return should yield a much better overnight battery than your getting with it left on mobile networks (3g/4g)

This may not resolve the entire issue but it should stop this drastic battery drainage as evident by the amount of cellular standby time vs WIFI signal which is leading me to believe its working double duty to keep a signal and just eating your battery over night. Give it a try tonight and see what happens, report back in the AM.

 

[aerismel]

Hello Paul627g,

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Sorry I couldn't reply earlier. I have the setting to have WIFI on during sleep set to ALWAYS. I am using Juice Defender to make the phone "sleep" from 12 am to 8 am. That means that the phone will turn off all internet connections during that time.

So, just to make sure I understood, you say I should try leaving the phone during the night, with WIFI on? And that should prevent the phone from searching a signal?

Let me know and I will try that.

Thank you very much!

 

[Whovianjay]

My ZTE ZMax used to charge wonderfully, even while in use. However, recently, it's charging has slowed down and it has stopped charging while in use. I have checked the battery and the charger, they are both fine. I'm trying to figure out how to get it to start charging like it used to. It has only been in the past week that it has been doing this.

 

[albatros3]

The length of battery life extended by approximately 30% when I used applications to automatically turn off WiFi when the screen turns off. It works good:
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=eu.uvdb.tools.wifiauto&token=0xRRUS6d