Battery life not lasting? Your fix is in here

[mgrundmeyer]

this link right here will help alot,,its for the eris but u will be able to figure it out.. Some of the thing u turn off actually tell u it will extend battery life.

Do what he mentioned above and do this.. (settings>accounts&sync>uncheck Background data and Auto sync) will save a bunch of battery

I did what was mentioned in a previous post by "Slim" (settings>accounts&sync>uncheck Background data and Auto sync) and it would not allow me to automatically send/receive emails. Had to switch it back to factory settings in order to send/receive emails.

HTC Incredible

 

[wavechaser]

the battery meter is glitchy, lots of people are seeing it drop t0 95-97% immediately after taking it off the charger. I noticed this the first day. But it doesnt continue at that pace at all

It didn't "drop" per se, when I took it off the charger I immediately checked it and it showed up as 93%. The stock battery at least started at 100% before dropping immediately.

I just thought it was odd. I plugged it in at work and got it to 100%, seems to be doing great so far.

 

[n1ckym]

I got 20 hours out of my battery this past day (& night) and it was down to only 29%.

 

[dixonba]

i think a better estimate of battery time is the "awake time" as this tell you how long the device was awake. Those who post long unplugged time, could you post your awake times also?

 

[fillossofer]

I tried the fix as described by OP and it works like a charm for me. No negative consequences whatsoever and battery life is greatly improved. Thanks!

 

[thecodeman25]

i would have rather had a better battery and a 5 megapixel camera... since i use the battery every day and the camera once a month

 

[GenericMessage]

This is what happens when you have an enhanced device kids.


Look in your other "non-smartphones" and you'll notice in most cases the battery is the same strength.

But yet in your new shiny toys it lasts no-where NEAR as long as it does in those older phones or as it claims on the site.


This is what happens when your phone is constantly pulling data down. Your Android phone is probably doing the following right now:

Tracking you Via GPS
Bluetooth is on and waiting for a headset to pair
Facebook is refreshing every half hour
Your Gmail is CONSTANTLY refreshing as it is push
Your exchange is CONSTANTLY refreshing as it is push
Your AIM buddy list is constantly changing requiring data
Your screen is burning away
Your news and weather is being updated every half hour
Your various widgets are consuming power

Your phone is constantly on the internet making sure its up to date with everything because that is what we demand. 6-8 hrs of this use will kill ANY smartphone.

So don't fret, your incredible isn't broken, its just a smartphone

 

[threepio]

threepio...what was your awake time vs. unplugged time?

It was prolly similar because i constantly wake the phone up checking the time and for messages etc.

I will measure both factors today and report back.

 

[testcellchris]

I just got off the phone with seidio and they said it'll be the end of the month before the 3500 mAh battery will be available. I see a lot talk of task killers being bad, but I have to say that Advanced Task Mgr (program) and Beautiful Battery (widget) are awesome! The battery widget gets it right all the time. It shows what the battery is with remaining life in %, mv status, temp and type. It also recognizes when your batt is critically low and you can count on it being true. I had one batt that stayed @ 5% for 4 hours. It was a cheap 1600 mAh Hong Kong special. That was before the beautiful Batt widget, then it showed the available battery properly. The 3500 mAh battery only adds 3-4 mm which equates to .160". I want to see the new back cover, regardless I'm buying it because I want to run the phone without exceptions. I put the 2600 mAh in my 9630 Tour and I got 2 days out of it. That's what I'm shooting for..

 

[testcellchris]

Seriously curious...

Neither, because task managers are BAD for your phone

Why are they both bad? Seriously, what makes them so terrible? I'd love a solid answer with examples if possible. No disrespect intended, but I use Adv Task Manager and its great. The options are awesome.

 

[testcellchris]

When you guys go to Settings>About Phone>Battery what do you guys get for the "Up Time" and the "Awake Time"? Mine always match. I always hit the lock button at the top of the phone when I'm not using it. Should the phone not always be awake? And if so, when exactly does it go to sleep?

Is their a way to see if the processor is idling at the lower mhz like its supposed to. I know when a Android is rooted you can apply the settings yourself, but with the Incredible as it is now can you find those settings? If so how?

 

[sum spicy rice]

Why are they both bad? Seriously, what makes them so terrible? I'd love a solid answer with examples if possible. No disrespect intended, but I use Adv Task Manager and its great. The options are awesome.

They sometimes close things that need to stay open. The android OS is smart enough to close things themselves.. they dont need another program closing applications that it doesn't know need to stay open.

If you look at any android forum (android central, droid forums, android forums).. most people who complain about how their 'alarm' doesnt work or didnt go off.. it's because task manager killed it.

That's the only example I can give right now though.. I don't use task managers simply because I don't think they are needed. I just go into "Applications" and close the applications that I don't want running (which is rare)

 

[pheatton]

For me I use the Advanced Task Manager to only close those things that I open. I have it set to exclude anything running that starts when the phone starts. That way you dont have issues of something not running when it should.

For me I have never had any issues running one. Thats just my take on them.

 

[GenericMessage]

Why are they both bad? Seriously, what makes them so terrible? I'd love a solid answer with examples if possible. No disrespect intended, but I use Adv Task Manager and its great. The options are awesome.

Fair enough.


Task managers have this "auto-kill" stuff that is pretty horrible. It'll strike down any application unless you tell it otherwise. It also lets you pick what ones you want to kill.


Thats the problem, it doesn't manage the programs, it stops them and forcefully closes them.

Most users don't know what tasks and apps are necessary for certain parts of their android phones, so they just go "hmmm, that one is hogging resources, KILL" and now their phone wont sync to their servers, or their alarm wont go off, or the market is not updating.

Android already has a system in place to shut down/suspend/re-open programs. That system decides what to do for the best performance possible, and when you take the control out of its hands and start putting it into 3rd party software, it gets bad.


Here is an example, go to your task manager on your windows PC. See lots and lots of programs?

If there was a "ATK" for windows, it'd go through and start killing off things just as it does with your android.

Now if you did that on windows, you'd crash the system, I'd promise you that. Certain things need to run to keep the ship afloat.

Same thing goes with Android. It runs more smoothly and efficiently WITHOUT a task manager.

Google doesn't have billions and billions of dollars and some of the best programmers in the world to not properly build an operating system.



I promise you, most of the people who say "WHOA my phone is faster!" are just getting a placebo effect. Their system isn't running any faster, they just perceive it as so.

So in short, Android OS already manages the programs in the best way possible. Something that a task manager would interfere with, 'causing issues.


And to answer someone else's question as to of why VZW tells you to install one on your phone. Its rather simple, they're morons! They are the same people that don't know VZW is CDMA, or what LTE is, or even what half their phones are.

 

[testcellchris]

For me I use the Advanced Task Manager to only close those things that I open. I have it set to exclude anything running that starts when the phone starts. That way you dont have issues of something not running when it should.

For me I have never had any issues running one. Thats just my take on them.

I like your approach to the Advanced Task Manager especially after reading "GenericMessage's" reply. I think that I could get the best of both worlds using your method. I'm going to set it to close the apps that "I" opened and leave everything else alone. Thanks!

 

[testcellchris]

Fair enough.


Task managers have this "auto-kill" stuff that is pretty horrible. It'll strike down any application unless you tell it otherwise. It also lets you pick what ones you want to kill.


Thats the problem, it doesn't manage the programs, it stops them and forcefully closes them.

Most users don't know what tasks and apps are necessary for certain parts of their android phones, so they just go "hmmm, that one is hogging resources, KILL" and now their phone wont sync to their servers, or their alarm wont go off, or the market is not updating.

Android already has a system in place to shut down/suspend/re-open programs. That system decides what to do for the best performance possible, and when you take the control out of its hands and start putting it into 3rd party software, it gets bad.


Here is an example, go to your task manager on your windows PC. See lots and lots of programs?

If there was a "ATK" for windows, it'd go through and start killing off things just as it does with your android.

Now if you did that on windows, you'd crash the system, I'd promise you that. Certain things need to run to keep the ship afloat.

Same thing goes with Android. It runs more smoothly and efficiently WITHOUT a task manager.

Google doesn't have billions and billions of dollars and some of the best programmers in the world to not properly build an operating system.



I promise you, most of the people who say "WHOA my phone is faster!" are just getting a placebo effect. Their system isn't running any faster, they just perceive it as so.

So in short, Android OS already manages the programs in the best way possible. Something that a task manager would interfere with, 'causing issues.


And to answer someone else's question as to of why VZW tells you to install one on your phone. Its rather simple, they're morons! They are the same people that don't know VZW is CDMA, or what LTE is, or even what half their phones are.

You make some fantastic points. I'm going to set Advanced Task Manager to close the apps that I opened and leave everything else alone. I just cant get past the options available. I want to know whats running and its the only way I know of to see whats happening. That will change once I become more familiar with the OS. I'm a crossover from Blackberry so I have a huge learning curve. I'm trying to squash that quickly. So, with answers like yours, "pheatton's" and "sum spicy rice" I have learned tons. Thank you all for your specific answers and explanations. Thanks for all of you taking the time to help!

 

[TBolt]

i took a picture of a plain black binder w/ the camera set to the absolute lowest resolution & quailty and the flash off, producing a tiny totally-black picture of about 50kb.

Setting that pic as my wallpaper instead of the one I was using (which wasn't crazy) actually saved me 10% of my battery use yesterday vs. the previous 3 days. It's not rocket science but a black background requires less power usage.

Even better option would just be to find a 10kb thumbnail on google image search or something... This actually gave me back about 30min or so of battery life and cost me nothing except some dazzle when other people see the screen.

Ah, of course...so obvious!

Well, in that case, I'm using this as my background until a big extended battery hits the market.

lol...thanks for the idea.

 

[testcellchris]

I have reconfigured my phone, restarted and I personally think the configuration combination is great for a Android newbie like me. Don't screw with stuff you don't know enough about, but control what you do. Thanks! Oh do you need to restart an Android to have new settings applied? I'd imagine yes, but I've been wrong plenty in the past.

 

[kvmatz]

I started keeping a "battery log". Below is where I am with my battery:

Below is with wifi, gps, BT off. Gmail push is on. Weather sync every 3 hours. No FaceBook, No Twitter, G-TALK off. The always enable internet is on.

As you can see, I barely even turned on display today.


10:30pm Dead battery. (Tuesday Night)


charged phone off from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am, turned powered on while on the charger till 7:30

7:30 100% (Wednesday Morning)
8:10 91% no usage at all cell standby 58%, phone idle 38%, Android system 4% -84 dbm (on network extender at work)
8:51 86% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
9:10 81% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
9:48 70% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
10:30 59% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
10:42 57% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
11:08 52% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
11:36 48% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
12:10 42% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
12:50 34% Answered phone call, total time 20 seconds
1:26 26% Cell standby 46%, Phone Idle 44%, Android System 6%, Dialer 2%, Display 2% Uptime 7:08, Awake time 47:26 -84dbm (on network extender at work)
1:49 24% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
2:29 18% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
2:39 17% Turned on the display/back off to check battery
3:17 7% Turned on the display/back off to check battery (uptime 8:56, Awake Time 58:10) Cell Standby 45%, Phone Idle 44%, Android System, Display 2%, Dialer 2%) -85db

I forgot to mention that I turn the screen off as soon as I am done using it.

 

[VZWBB]

I can't comment on what I've done so far today other than what I have below..but i think its fairly accurate, my battery seems to be performing much better than above. Full charge off the charger this morning at 7 am. Turned off BT and Wifi after I got to work.

No phone calls, but some web surfing, stock quotes etc. Probably about 20 minutes.

Uninstalled advanced task killer.

Installed photobucket and uploaded 4 pictures from my phone.

Have comcast and yahoo mail set to push every 15 minutes.

Not sure what gmail is set to sync to or if you can set it. If you can i'm sure i set to asap.

Weather update frequency is set to every hour.

GPS Enabled - Location On

My battery level indicator shows 7 of 10 bars green, so I guess thats 70%. I don't do facebook or twitter or anything like that. Oh I think I played Teeter for about 10 minutes too. Oh I sent 2 small emails and probably received 10 or so others.