Battery life not lasting? Your fix is in here

[pheatton]

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.

No need to reboot the phone.

 

[mobiledevice]

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.

[snip]

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

This is about where I am with similar settings. This has to be a defective battery.

 

[markhunsaker]

Today (with no task killer), I made it through my work day with the same usage with 7% more! I have FB and Twitter updating every hour, same with the weather, I do have the mobile network "always on" unchecked. I have a live wallpaper running. At one point today my phone said Android system was taking up 90% of my usage. The rest was 5% for standby and 5% for cell standby. I rebooted my phone and this is what it says:

Cell Standby: 42%
Phone idle: 39%
Android System: 15%
Display: 4%

So that's seems good to me. Before must have been a glitch with the battery stuff. I think at one point today too, it read Android System was 100% and I hadn't really been using my phone except to send a few e-mails and texts. So I'm ending my work day with 67%...not bad.

 

[gburns]

ROFL, anyhoo the battery life sucks compared to my bb. I love this phone and need the large battery now! This is the biggest fail so far. I know several that are running nothing at all and getting 4-6 hrs on a battery. I'm wondering if there is a bug in OS draining the battery that we can not see.

 

[stormed]

Anyone know if Verizon/HTC is aware of the battery issue? A common theme among anything related to the HTC incredible (forums/blogs and etc) is that the battery life is bad. Through forums such as this one, workarounds, settings tweaks and new batteries have been used to combat this issue. I think the only reason why these workarounds are considered acceptable is because the phone is really *that* good.

With that said, do we all shoot ourselves in the foot by making these workarounds and not voice it to Verizon/HTC? Perhaps, there is a method by which we can vent this frustration already that I don't know about besides calling customer support but I have no idea what that method is....nor do I think most do.

Hopefully an OS update will help things out. I'm hoping that the device was semi-rushed out leaving off optimization for a patch. I'm hoping that running apps such as the continuously running FM radio is one of the culprits or how aggressive the always on connection is currently. Here's to hoping...


On that note - is there an app that is available that can graph out power consumption? I wouldn't mind using something like an app killer and try and isolate possibly something that is normally on by default which is causing an unnecessary drain on the battery...

 

[RayStinkle]

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?

yes, install the app called system panel, it shows EXACTLY that info, and much more. its the best task manager i've found.

 

[gordo0427]

This seems to have worked like a charm! Much better battery life.

 

[phone freak2]

Okay everyone I did what everyone says to do do with checking always on under mobile to off however, I stopped getting push e-mail. I would have to wake phone and hit sync anyone else finding that? All of you that say it has helped get your battery better did you stop getting e-mail or just manually sync it?

 

[hardhead]

I just wanted to say the settings posted by OP have worked great for really extending my wife's and my incredibles. No ill effects, still getting gmail and google voice notifications while phone is idle. The weather widget doesn't update quite as often, but I'd rather have a working phone than updated weather every few minutes! That said, if you want to update the weather app manually, you can.

 

[rabernet]

On another forum, there seems to be a consensus that the Calendar app is preventing many phones from truly going to sleep mode. You can check to see if your Awake Time = Up Time. If it is, it's likely that your Calendar is not allowing your phone to go to sleep - it's still Awake, even when the screen is black, and is killing your battery.

To check go to Menu > Settings > About Phone > Battery

If the two stats are the same, try this: Go to Menu > Settings > Manage Apps and look for the Calendar and do a Force Close. You can relaunch the Calendar and the phone will start to go to sleep.

It's only when the Calendar is allowed to stay open right after the phone has shut down and re-started that the phone won't truly go to sleep mode.

I'm just trying this today and already my Up Time and Awake time are dramatically different. I'm also seeing somewhat improved battery performance.

 

[howarmat]

Okay everyone I did what everyone says to do do with checking always on under mobile to off however, I stopped getting push e-mail. I would have to wake phone and hit sync anyone else finding that? All of you that say it has helped get your battery better did you stop getting e-mail or just manually sync it?

its been mentioned many times in this thread yes....

 

[GenericMessage]

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!

Menu-Settings-Applications-Running services.


You can see all the services here that you can stop without hurting your phone any

 

[phone freak2]

its been mentioned many times in this thread yes....

Sorry Howamat I do not have an hour to read all of these posts so when you said yes are you saying that I will not get my push e-mail? once again I have a life and can not hang on the computer all day

 

[GenericMessage]

Sorry Howamat I do not have an hour to read all of these posts so when you said yes are you saying that I will not get my push e-mail? once again I have a life and can not hang on the computer all day

Ok, lets all get along

 

[n1ckym]

Sorry Howamat I do not have an hour to read all of these posts so when you said yes are you saying that I will not get my push e-mail? once again I have a life and can not hang on the computer all day

Pics or it didn't happen.

Anyway, yeah email won't as well the weather which you need to hit refresh on. I've found that removing the weather / time widget and just putting a regular clock and refreshing the weather whenever you want would work best (I do it like that). But the best way to see the weather is to go outside...haha.

 

[GenericMessage]

Pics or it didn't happen.

Anyway, yeah email won't as well the weather which you need to hit refresh on. I've found that removing the weather / time widget and just putting a regular clock and refreshing the weather whenever you want would work best (I do it like that). But the best way to see the weather is to go outside...haha.

But if you go outside with your phone you can't see it! lol

 

[alkaline]

i've got my setting back to default for the second day now and my battery life is definitely improving.

got 17 hours yesterday with 21% on it when i put it back on the charger at night. that was with email / text / phone calls / internet / streaming slacker while on the internet / playing games at school / watching a couple youtube clips - pretty much using it as it was intended to be used.

it's going just as well today.

 

[Xeus]

Yesterday my battery was draining incredibly quickly -- I think within a few hours at work, my battery had gone down to the 60%ish range. This was with Advanced Task Killer regularly killing apps and the Mobile Always On setting disabled. So obviously I didn't think whatever I'd done had worked. Taking my phone off the charger around 08:15 and having the phone die by 21:30 was not fun.

Last night I removed ATK and put on Advanced Task Manager and rebooted (my phone having shut down). Then I killed all the apps on the first tab in ATM and now my battery usage today seems more normal -- 85% after about 4 hours. Wifi is turned off since I'm at work.

So I would like to see more info on rabernet's supposition that maybe Calendar is preventing sleep mode. I also thought about the problem some people are having with perpetual attempts to sync... But does anyone have any more insight into this Calendar thing? Today the difference between my up time and away time is also very different, so I know my phone is properly sleeping now.

On another forum, there seems to be a consensus that the Calendar app is preventing many phones from truly going to sleep mode. You can check to see if your Awake Time = Up Time. If it is, it's likely that your Calendar is not allowing your phone to go to sleep - it's still Awake, even when the screen is black, and is killing your battery.

To check go to Menu > Settings > About Phone > Battery

If the two stats are the same, try this: Go to Menu > Settings > Manage Apps and look for the Calendar and do a Force Close. You can relaunch the Calendar and the phone will start to go to sleep.

It's only when the Calendar is allowed to stay open right after the phone has shut down and re-started that the phone won't truly go to sleep mode.

I'm just trying this today and already my Up Time and Awake time are dramatically different. I'm also seeing somewhat improved battery performance.

 

[markhunsaker]

I turned mobile network always on again and my battery life is actually better. I am on 89% and it's been off the charger for 3 1/2 hours. I have sent several texts, received a bunch of GMails, and made a quick phone call. Not bad.

 

[ltrclwn]

Itrclown... They replaced it at the verizon store, or on the phone via mail? I want to do this too, just to be sure I don't have a bad battery.

they replaced it @ the store....not a single question was asked either....