battery life getting worse?

[kona1seven]

I have had my atrix for about a month now. It has had great battery life until I recently went out of town this weekend. The first day it went a full day on a charge (8 am-11 pm) then the days after it would die at about 6 in the afternoon after coming off the charger at relatively the same time. I was not getting the best service so that made sense. But then I got back to my home town and the bad battery lice remained. I've noticed my phone idle and cell stanby are actually taking up more battery than display which is unusual.
Any help appreciated!

 

[I Monarch]

My Atrix's battery life **** the bed after the OTA update. I immediately sold it after that. I don't know if the two were related, but after 3 weeks of using the device, it severely dropped off just after the update. I was easily getting 17-18 hours out of a charge, and it vastly dropped off to about 13 hours. That wasn't enough to get me through my workday, so it had to go.

 

[Major]

Cycle the battery (do a search for the proper method). I did it on my old Captivate and it seemed to help, so I did it on my Atrix soon after I first bought it as well. Also, disable stuff like wi-fi, Bluetooth, or GPS unless you're using them. Widgets and live wallpapers burn juice, too. Finally, check your Settings->Applications->Running Services to see what extra stuff is running in the background that you might want to shut off. If all else fails, replace the battery.

 

[mtngoat162]

My Atrix's battery life **** the bed after the OTA update. I immediately sold it after that. I don't know if the two were related, but after 3 weeks of using the device, it severely dropped off just after the update. I was easily getting 17-18 hours out of a charge, and it vastly dropped off to about 13 hours. That wasn't enough to get me through my workday, so it had to go.

i have the same issue i have since contacted att cust svce, they have replaced my battery at no charge to me, but i'm not convinced the new battery will resolve the issue, as you stated i was consistantly getting alot more use(day and 1/2) as opposed to the not quite a full day now since the update.... not sure what the issue is, but i hope it gets resolved

 

[mtngoat162]

Cycle the battery (do a search for the proper method). I did it on my old Captivate and it seemed to help, so I did it on my Atrix soon after I first bought it as well. Also, disable stuff like wi-fi, Bluetooth, or GPS unless you're using them. Widgets and live wallpapers burn juice, too. Finally, check your Settings->Applications->Running Services to see what extra stuff is running in the background that you might want to shut off. If all else fails, replace the battery.

i cycled my battery x2 after the update thinking it was this, but nothing.... no changes in the settings, so i'm not sure what happened.

 

[jsntrenkler]

Perhaps they had a bad batch of batteries? ... I have no issues with mine, although I haven't had mine for 3 weeks yet.

 

[mtngoat162]

don't get me wrong, while i was waiting for the battery i did go back to my iPhone 4, and couldn't wait to get back to the Atrix, Love the phone and features, but if the battery life is not going to get any better that would be a big concern for me.

 

[jsntrenkler]

@mtngoat162 ... Isn't it funny how once you have used the Atrix for a spell the iPhone 4 just feels sluggish.

 

[jess.hickey]

I have had my atrix for about a month now. It has had great battery life until I recently went out of town this weekend. The first day it went a full day on a charge (8 am-11 pm) then the days after it would die at about 6 in the afternoon after coming off the charger at relatively the same time. I was not getting the best service so that made sense. But then I got back to my home town and the bad battery lice remained. I've noticed my phone idle and cell stanby are actually taking up more battery than display which is unusual.
Any help appreciated!

Did you install any new apps during that time frame? Some apps are notorious for battery drain. If you did install any new apps, uninstall them and power cycle the phone.

If you didn't install new apps during that time frame, do as someone else mentioned and cycle the battery. A lot of people will call shananagins on this but it works for me. Just use the phone until the battery goes completely dead on its own...not until the power meter says zero, but until the phone shuts itself off. Plug the phone in (preferably with the moto charger) and allow it to charge over night. What you are doing is retraining the battery where 0 & 100 are (from my understanding).

If none of this works, look into wheres my droid power and watchdog...they can help you identify if anything has gone rouge and help you better see where your battery life is going.

As far as cutting everything off, I have bluetooth, wifi and gps turned on on my phone 24 hours a day a get a good 16-18 hours out of my battery.

Good Luck!

 

[Effington]

It's important to update your auto-end list whenever you download new apps. You never know what's running in the background.

 

[I Monarch]

i have the same issue i have since contacted att cust svce, they have replaced my battery at no charge to me, but i'm not convinced the new battery will resolve the issue, as you stated i was consistantly getting alot more use(day and 1/2) as opposed to the not quite a full day now since the update.... not sure what the issue is, but i hope it gets resolved

Ironically enough, the changelog for the update was to fix a battery issue. It made mine terribly worse!

 

[kona1seven]

i have the same issue i have since contacted att cust svce, they have replaced my battery at no charge to me, but i'm not convinced the new battery will resolve the issue, as you stated i was consistantly getting alot more use(day and 1/2) as opposed to the not quite a full day now since the update.... not sure what the issue is, but i hope it gets resolved

How did you contact customer service? Cause i have tried everything and the battery even charges faster now so I think it may br a battery issue. Not sure yet. And thanks for the quick replys everyone! Android central is amazing!

 

[Krak-a-Lakn]

Myself, a sudden battery drain always seems to be the result of a rogue app. I've had my battery drop by as much as 30% in an hour. I simply reboot the phone and this has always resolved the sudden drain issue.

 

[dalvik]

"As far as cutting everything off, I have bluetooth, wifi and gps turned on on my phone 24 hours a day a get a good 16-18 hours out of my battery"
This is really amazing... do you make only phone calls or use internet and/or games, videos music etc... the most best result my phone can make is about 12 hours and that is with minimal use.... if i activate wifi at home and browse the web it gets to 20% within two hours... but the percentage varies though concidering on how much was left before i got home and connected to wifi... well right now as im writing this it just hit 30% and the phone was up for 5 hr 19 min but its actually longer than that cuz i reboted it earlier... so i think its actually up from like 11:30 am or 12 pm... which still doesnt beat your results... could you please specify how exactly do you use your phone to get 18 hours....
Another important question i have is there any way to reverse back the software update? Because i believe i had a better battery life before it. Thank you!

 

[mtngoat162]

How did you contact customer service? Cause i have tried everything and the battery even charges faster now so I think it may br a battery issue. Not sure yet. And thanks for the quick replys everyone! Android central is amazing!

contacted tech support, advised them of the issue, they did basic troubleshooting(i had just doe the same myself), asked to power off the phone and check for water damage(none), so they advised they would replace the battery at no charge.

 

[jess.hickey]

"As far as cutting everything off, I have bluetooth, wifi and gps turned on on my phone 24 hours a day a get a good 16-18 hours out of my battery"
This is really amazing... do you make only phone calls or use internet and/or games, videos music etc... the most best result my phone can make is about 12 hours and that is with minimal use.... if i activate wifi at home and browse the web it gets to 20% within two hours... but the percentage varies though concidering on how much was left before i got home and connected to wifi... well right now as im writing this it just hit 30% and the phone was up for 5 hr 19 min but its actually longer than that cuz i reboted it earlier... so i think its actually up from like 11:30 am or 12 pm... which still doesnt beat your results... could you please specify how exactly do you use your phone to get 18 hours....
Another important question i have is there any way to reverse back the software update? Because i believe i had a better battery life before it. Thank you!

I work in the field, away from my office most of the day. I use my phone for ~1 hour each day, music varies (1-2 hours maybe), light gaming (30 min - 1 hour), send/receive 20-30 emails a day, 40-50 texts a day and I check FB 3-4 times a day.

I really wish I could provide more info on what I do but that is about it.

If you haven't cycled your battery, give that a shot. I did mine earlier this week and to try to run my battery down I was playing a game when my battery showed 5% remaining. I played 1to50 and Challenging Times Tables for 45 - 1 hour before the battery used up that last 5%.

 

[sk8trix]

My battery life was total A** for the first week,I was so angry but now its great i get about 18 hours out if the phone and that going online facebook and playing nfs shift alot so I think it might be a battery issue for your individual battery.Check your display settings and data settings too they might be the culprit.Get one of the free advanced task killers on the market they work way better than the built in life savers.Also like the above posts say try to cycle wait until the battery is down to ten percent and recharge it.Remember if you don't do this you're going to kill your battery.

 

[dalvik]

Thanks for suggestions guys i'll try to cycle my batt. a few times beginning today... i usually put it on charger when it hits 30 or 20% but i'll try to go like to 5 maybe and then charge it so will keep an eye on it... also is there any good logging app that you can suggest me? I want to be able to log all events even though if the phone was rebooted so i can see which program is using the most battery and so on... i had something like that on my bb bold9700 forgot how it was called... but it logged everything for weeks.. also a quick question: is it save to leave gtalk on all the time? I am not sure if its eats the battery when idle... thank you guys!

 

[sk8trix]

I loved the event log on BB idk of something similar on Android but if someone here knows please post!!!!!

 

[jess.hickey]

Thanks for suggestions guys i'll try to cycle my batt. a few times beginning today... i usually put it on charger when it hits 30 or 20% but i'll try to go like to 5 maybe and then charge it so will keep an eye on it... also is there any good logging app that you can suggest me? I want to be able to log all events even though if the phone was rebooted so i can see which program is using the most battery and so on... i had something like that on my bb bold9700 forgot how it was called... but it logged everything for weeks.. also a quick question: is it save to leave gtalk on all the time? I am not sure if its eats the battery when idle... thank you guys!

Don't just go to 5%...let the phone shut itself off. The whole point of cycling the battery is to teach the battery where 0 & 100 truly are. When you see 5% it could actuallybe that you have 20% of your battery left. I've used the example several times that I can play on my phone for more than an hour when it shows I only have 5% battery left thus telling me the battery (or the phone) doesn't know how much power is truly left.