Battery life not lasting? Your fix is in here

[stormed]

The settings tweak by the OP also seems to affect AOL AIM

With the setting disabled, I find that my AIM is constantly logging off and logging back in
Once I re-enable the setting, AIM stays up

 

[lawdawg#AC]

Getting better all the time

I have also noticed improvement in battery life after having the phone for a couple days, even with similar usage. First day after a full charge I was at 30-40% after probably five hours. Today I'm at 60% after over six hours, and I've used the phone as much if not more today (e.g., using Wi-Fi, browsing, games, etc.).

I've read that even lithium-ion batteries can take a few charges to get up to maximum capacity and I would guess this is the case here, although I am not the authority on batteries by any means.

So to those whose battery life starting out was terrible: been there, done that, don't freak out; "it's getting better all the time." (You'll want to sing the last line in a British accent.)

 

[BriMcFly88]

I've gone through a few charge cycles already but I think I figured out a way to save a lot of battery time. This may seem like common sense, but it's a habit of mine I changed that drastically changed my battery time.

To put things in perspective, every day so far I have taken my phone off the charger around 7:15am and needed to recharge at work by about 1 or 2pm. I would charge it once the batter turned orange.

What I did to save battery was to kill all programs periodically throughout the day (obviously), but the biggest thing that saved me battery time was pressing the top power button and switching off the screen once I was done txting or using the internet. I didn't let the screen stay on for a minute or two and turn off automatically, I pressed it off when I was done using it. Considering how many times I check my phone and the internet throughout the day, this had to have saved a MINIMUM of 45 minutes of screen display time for me.

It's now 210 pm and I have more than 60% battery life left and I've been using my phone the same amount as usual.

 

[lawdawg#AC]

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

Good points all--except as far as I know, push e-mail means the email is "pushed" from the server to your phone, thus obviating the need for the phone to constantly check the server. Still a lot of stuff going on, but Gmail and Exchange aren't the culprits. (HTC's mail could be, on the other hand, because it doesn't support IMAP push, so it is in fact checking the server however often you set it to check.)

Minor quibble, I know--just don't want people to start trying to turn off push e-mail to save battery life.

 

[Sere81]

I seem to be getting much much better battery life than I was just a few days ago.

So far today I'm 60% battery left. Up time is 10 hours and awake time is 1:42

Few days ago I estimate I would probably be at 30% or lower with similar usage.

 

[GenericMessage]

Good points all--except as far as I know, push e-mail means the email is "pushed" from the server to your phone, thus obviating the need for the phone to constantly check the server. Still a lot of stuff going on, but Gmail and Exchange aren't the culprits. (HTC's mail could be, on the other hand, because it doesn't support IMAP push, so it is in fact checking the server however often you set it to check.)

Minor quibble, I know--just don't want people to start trying to turn off push e-mail to save battery life.

I wasn't trying to turn them off of anything.


Just the number 1 complaint I hear in any forum about ANY smartphone is about the battery life.

And it just comes with the territory.

 

[threepio]

Double post

 

[threepio]

anyone else try this?

Word. it works well.

 

[mobilemedic20]

I wasn't trying to turn them off of anything.


Just the number 1 complaint I hear in any forum about ANY smartphone is about the battery life.

And it just comes with the territory.

GenericMessage, that may be a complaint from a lot of people, but coming from someone who has used a few different smartphones (with capabilities similar to the Incredible), I'm here to tell you this is EXCEPTIONALLY bad. Key word: "exception", as in, NOT the norm, different, unusually bad. Of COURSE smartphones drain batteries more quickly than dumb phones, I think that's pretty obvious. But when my battery is at 30% after 4 hours of "use" (I read two e-mails this morning, that's IT, and had absolutely nothing enabled aside from Verizon's network and Location) something is WRONG...

Sorry but it's just getting annoying seeing people try to justify abysmal battery performance by saying "oh don't worry, it's just a smartphone, that's what they do!". A smartphone should last the day, plain and simple.

 

[mobiledevice]

Today...

Off the charger at 8am

It's 1pm now, and I'm at 14%

wifi, gps, and always connect are off

screen gets turned off every time I'm done plying with the phone

I've gotten about 20-30 emails, written a few notes durring a conf call, and texted/IM'd people on and off all morning. I listened to music for about a half hour (riding my bike to work and to get a sandwich for lunch just now).

That's literally 5 hours of moderate use, and I'm at 14%.

This can't be normal.

 

[BriMcFly88]

My battery is at 43%

Up-time is 8:48:41
Awake time: 2:26:44

My battery life has improved significantly from the first few days.

 

[BriMcFly88]

GenericMessage, that may be a complaint from a lot of people, but coming from someone who has used a few different smartphones (with capabilities similar to the Incredible), I'm here to tell you this is EXCEPTIONALLY bad. Key word: "exception", as in, NOT the norm, different, unusually bad. Of COURSE smartphones drain batteries more quickly than dumb phones, I think that's pretty obvious. But when my battery is at 30% after 4 hours of "use" (I read two e-mails this morning, that's IT, and had absolutely nothing enabled aside from Verizon's network and Location) something is WRONG...

Sorry but it's just getting annoying seeing people try to justify abysmal battery performance by saying "oh don't worry, it's just a smartphone, that's what they do!". A smartphone should last the day, plain and simple.

Some smart phones manage the memory and battery use for you, i.e. iPhone. They shut down programs when you close them to save battery and memory.

The Android is more customizeable - so you can change your home screens around, add widgets, and manage your memory and battery use more than you could with a blackberry or iPhone.

While not as consistent and "neat" or "pretty", this gives people more freedom with their phone. The result may be some people not knowing how to manage their use and thus poorer performance.

My suggestion for you is to spend the next 3 days fully draining and then fully charging your battery. These batteries get "trained" during their first few days and I've seen my battery life almost double. Second, I would download advanced task killer. It's free. Open it every once and a while and close everything. I do it after I use a few programs. Most programs will run in the background and drain the battery, as do widgets that update periodically. Third, shut off non-essentials. My WiFi is only on at home where I have WiFi. My bluetooth and GPS is always off. If I need GPS, I turn it on while I use that program, and then I close it.

If you look at the battery strength, it is equal or stronger than most other smartphones. This phone is just "smarter" than most smartphones, with more memory and a faster processor. Unfortunately the specs have out-paced the battery life, and length of use will suffer. There are supposedly stronger batteries out there so maybe you should read up on them.

 

[VZWBB]

I found this article about li-ion batterys. It may or may not be helpful. Theres a lot of other links on that site as well that may or may not prove useful. It is an interesting read if nothing else.

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

 

[rabernet]

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.

Here you go!

I Found & Fixed an HTC Incredible Battery Bug - Android Forums

 

[rabernet]

Today...

Off the charger at 8am

It's 1pm now, and I'm at 14%

wifi, gps, and always connect are off

screen gets turned off every time I'm done plying with the phone

I've gotten about 20-30 emails, written a few notes durring a conf call, and texted/IM'd people on and off all morning. I listened to music for about a half hour (riding my bike to work and to get a sandwich for lunch just now).

That's literally 5 hours of moderate use, and I'm at 14%.

This can't be normal.

Does your Awake Time = your Up Time?
Menu > Settings > About Phone > Battery

If it does, your phone is never truly going to sleep.

My Up time today (it re-booted after the software upgrade) is 12:23 and my Awake time is 1:43

 

[mobiledevice]

yes it does

 

[rabernet]

yes it does

You're losing your battery power because your phone is never truly going to sleep. Turn off your calendar through Manage Apps in Settings (Force Close it).

You can go back to the calendar and turn it back on - it just needs to be turned off one time after a re-start of your phone (power off and then back on) and can be on all the time after that, but doing that, will allow your phone to go into sleep mode.

You shouldn't need to turn your phone off and on right now, just turn the calendar off and then back on and wait an hour or two and check it again and you should see your awake time no longer equaling your up time and should see improved performance on your battery life.

 

[mobiledevice]

so I have to do this every time I reboot the phone?

 

[rabernet]

so I have to do this every time I reboot the phone?

That's what I've done - but I don't generally shut my phone down unless I'm forced to (like the software upgrade this morning).

Defining re-boot as completely powering down your device and then turning it back on.

 

[mobiledevice]

up and awake time are still within 30 seconds of each other