battery life?!

[smurfette8202]

ok i know that there are other threads about the battery life. but im still a bit confused and frustrated!

wat exactly is bump charging, and is it bad or good for the battery?
wat can i do to save my battery life? my cousin has the same fone same stock battery and hasnt gotten her ota for the froyo and her battery life is ten times better then mine?! and she doesnt kill any apps?!

someone please help!

 

[Revolutionary]

1. Don't kill apps. Period. It doesn't work. Period. (I'm assuming you received the OTA update and are running 2.2). It actually kills the battery faster. Task killer worked on 2.1 -- they do not work on 2.2.

2. In Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync -- disable sync for News and Stocks. If you have the HTC News widget on one of your home screens, disable it (this is a notoriously buggy piece of software -- there are tons of threads on it in the EVO forum). The Google News & Weather widget is superior. If you use the Stocks app, you can still update manually.

3. If you are running the FriendStream widget, set it to update every 3 hours (or more). If you don't NEED to run the FriendStream widget (i.e., you only use if for Facebook, not Twitter), then remove it and use the Facebook widget. If you remove it, disable "sync live feed" for Facebook for HTC Sence in Accounts & Sync.

4. Set the Weather widget to update every 6 hours (honestly, do you need your phone to tell you whether it is raining outside?)

5. Turn off GPS when you are not actively using it. Unlike other platforms (Blackberry), leaving GPS on actually kills the battery on this phone.

6. If you are using the Calendar widget, consider removing it and installing Android Agenda Widget (in the market) in it's place.

7. Set any other widget that syncs online (news, Facebook, etc) to only sync every 3 hours or more.

8. Disable active wallpapers.

9. Set your screen to Auto Brightness in Menu > Settings > Display > Brightness.

10. Set your screen timeout to 1 minute.

11. Dial *228 to update your Preferred Roaming List (PRL).

12. Consider turning off "always on mobile network" in Menu > Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks. You should still received pushed emails, but to sync that a message was read or deleted you will have to manually sync the account.

13. If you are usually in a place that has wifi coverage, keep wifi on.

Bump Charging: this is an unfortunate term - it really means to "top off" the phone. Basically, when you plug the phone in for an overnight charge, it will achieve a full charge (the light turns green) and then proceeds to run off the battery again (not the AC). When you wake up, you can find that the phone is down to 90% or less because of this. "Bump charging" involves unplugging and then re-plugging the phone in order to get back to 100%. Some people turn the phone off then plug it back in; others simply reboot it then plug it back in. It makes no difference, but it does help battery life and does not damage the battery.

 

[smurfette8202]

i removed app killer. in settings>applications when you click the tab that says running you could force close apps. so i do that now! anything that involves syncing i have that set up for the longest time available. gggggrrrrr i think im going to verizon. i woke up at 6:30 took the fone off the charger then....now its 10:41 and my battery is like at 50%. haven't made any fone calls or used the internet! i sent and received maybe 10 text messages and 1 email.

 

[BSG75]

Check you "awake" time. It should be much less that "up" time. If you keep checking the screen, then the phone stays "up". That means the OS is still churning away even if you are just flicking through home screens. Check the battery to see what process are eating the most juice. It should be OS and Cell Standby. If you aren't going to be using it for an hour, put it in Airplane mode and lock it. You battery should not drop during that period.

 

[jayhawkfan18]

1. Don't kill apps. Period. It doesn't work. Period. (I'm assuming you received the OTA update and are running 2.2). It actually kills the battery faster. Task killer worked on 2.1 -- they do not work on 2.2.

2. In Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync -- disable sync for News and Stocks. If you have the HTC News widget on one of your home screens, disable it (this is a notoriously buggy piece of software -- there are tons of threads on it in the EVO forum). The Google News & Weather widget is superior. If you use the Stocks app, you can still update manually.

3. If you are running the FriendStream widget, set it to update every 3 hours (or more). If you don't NEED to run the FriendStream widget (i.e., you only use if for Facebook, not Twitter), then remove it and use the Facebook widget. If you remove it, disable "sync live feed" for Facebook for HTC Sence in Accounts & Sync.

4. Set the Weather widget to update every 6 hours (honestly, do you need your phone to tell you whether it is raining outside?)

5. Turn off GPS when you are not actively using it. Unlike other platforms (Blackberry), leaving GPS on actually kills the battery on this phone.

6. If you are using the Calendar widget, consider removing it and installing Android Agenda Widget (in the market) in it's place.

7. Set any other widget that syncs online (news, Facebook, etc) to only sync every 3 hours or more.

8. Disable active wallpapers.

9. Set your screen to Auto Brightness in Menu > Settings > Display > Brightness.

10. Set your screen timeout to 1 minute.

11. Dial *228 to update your Preferred Roaming List (PRL).

12. Consider turning off "always on mobile network" in Menu > Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks. You should still received pushed emails, but to sync that a message was read or deleted you will have to manually sync the account.

13. If you are usually in a place that has wifi coverage, keep wifi on.

Bump Charging: this is an unfortunate term - it really means to "top off" the phone. Basically, when you plug the phone in for an overnight charge, it will achieve a full charge (the light turns green) and then proceeds to run off the battery again (not the AC). When you wake up, you can find that the phone is down to 90% or less because of this. "Bump charging" involves unplugging and then re-plugging the phone in order to get back to 100%. Some people turn the phone off then plug it back in; others simply reboot it then plug it back in. It makes no difference, but it does help battery life and does not damage the battery.

This is great information, THANKS!! Quick questions: is the Google News and Weather widget that you speak of just titled "Google News" (by Peerbuilder) in the Market? Can you add your own RSS feeds to it like you can with the stock news/weather app (like for local news)?

 

[smurfette8202]

Check you "awake" time. It should be much less that "up" time. If you keep checking the screen, then the phone stays "up". That means the OS is still churning away even if you are just flicking through home screens. Check the battery to see what process are eating the most juice. It should be OS and Cell Standby. If you aren't going to be using it for an hour, put it in Airplane mode and lock it. You battery should not drop during that period.

it says the android system is at 63% cell standby is 15%

 

[Revolutionary]

This is great information, THANKS!! Quick questions: is the Google News and Weather widget that you speak of just titled "Google News" (by Peerbuilder) in the Market? Can you add your own RSS feeds to it like you can with the stock news/weather app (like for local news)?

No, it is stock on 2.2. The Peerbuilder app is something else -- haven't tried it. In the apps tray, you should have "News" and "News and Weather." Ditto for widgets [edited]. "News" is by HTC and is buggy as all get out. "News and Weather" is formerly known as the "Genie Widget" and is by Google Inc. You can't add RSS feeds to it as far as I can tell, but you can do a custom category based on a keyword (less than useful, really).

 

[jayhawkfan18]

No, it is stock on 2.2. The Peerbuilder app is something else -- haven't tried it. In the apps tray, you should have "News" and "News and Weather." Ditto for widgets and Accounts & Sync. "News" is by HTC and is buggy as all get out. "News and Weather" is formerly known as the "Genie Widget" and is by Google Inc. You can't add RSS feeds to it as far as I can tell, but you can do a custom category based on a keyword (less than useful, really).

Ahh, I gotcha. I don't have "News and Weather" as an option for Accounts & Sync, however. I haven't really noticed any buggyness (lol if that's even a word) with the HTC News but I will give the Google one a shot to see if that helps battery life.

Another weird thing is that unless I have "sync live feeds" checked in Accounts & Sync for Facebook it won't sync all of my contacts...? Don't really care about their status updates within my people app either so that's quite annoying.. oh well I guess.

 

[davidnc]

it says the android system is at 63% cell standby is 15%

Yeah and down near the bottom on the battery page it should show the "phone's awake time" as well as all the other you mentioned.

Like a few post above mentioned it should not be awake as long as has been actually on , those times are on the same screen I think , one at the top and one at the bottom

Just in case you haven't found it yet ,lol

 

[Revolutionary]

Ahh, I gotcha. I don't have "News and Weather" as an option for Accounts & Sync, however. I haven't really noticed any buggyness (lol if that's even a word) with the HTC News but I will give the Google one a shot to see if that helps battery life.

Another weird thing is that unless I have "sync live feeds" checked in Accounts & Sync for Facebook it won't sync all of my contacts...? Don't really care about their status updates within my people app either so that's quite annoying.. oh well I guess.

Yeah, sorry -- brain fart -- it's not in Accounts & Sync.

 

[smurfette8202]

Yeah and down near the bottom on the battery page it should show the "phone's awake time" as well as all the other you mentioned.

Like a few post above mentioned it should not be awake as long as has been actually on , those times are on the same screen I think , one at the top and one at the bottom

Just in case you haven't found it yet ,lol

no doesnt say that.....just has android system cell standby and display

 

[BSG75]

You need to look at the previous screen.

If you go to Settings > About Phone > Battery the "Up time" and "Awake time" will be displayed at the bottom (under the green bars in the battery indicator). If they are close to the same, then your phone is not going to sleep or you are using it continuously. An app could be going haywire. If you set it down for an hour and don't touch it, then the "Awake time" should be about an hour less than "Up."

 

[smurfette8202]

You need to look at the previous screen.

If you go to Settings > About Phone > Battery the "Up time" and "Awake time" will be displayed at the bottom (under the green bars in the battery indicator). If they are close to the same, then your phone is not going to sleep or you are using it continuously. An app could be going haywire. If you set it down for an hour and don't touch it, then the "Up time" should be about an hour less than "Awake."

dang i just noticed that my up time is 16:44:27 and my awake time is 11:06:50

 

[Revolutionary]

dang i just noticed that my up time is 16:44:27 and my awake time is 11:06:50

Something is keeping the phone awake. We can figure out what.

Open the phone dialer and dial (without quotes) *#*#4636#*#*

Click "Battery History". TOUCH NOTHING ELSE IN THIS MENU! You've been warned, I'm not responsible if you break something.

In Battery History, click the top menu and select "partial wake usage." In the bottom menu, select "total since boot."

If you click each entry, you will get a screen showing you precise seconds of use. Please give the top four entries, and list their durations.

 

[staffordjm]

JuicePlotter & JuiceDefender

Has anybody tried the JuicePlotter and JuiceDefender apps by latedroid (http://www.latedroid.com)?

JuicePlotter gives a nice graph of your battery state. It proves that recharging my Dinc since 2.2 takes MUCH longer than with 2.1. But I'm getting far better battery life as well. It also has a widget that shows how long the charge should take and based on previous usage, how long your charge should last.

JuiceDefender is the one I haven't really worked with yet. It has a bunch of really interesting settings for increasing battery life. Has anybody tried it? Does it really work?

Johnie

 

[KenB]

I'm getting pretty bad battery life as well. But I can't figure out why.

 

[jayhawkfan18]

After first getting froyo I thought my battery life had increased significantly... the last few days this has not been the case, however. I'm not sure what it is either but it's not cool...

 

[BBKik]

After first getting froyo I thought my battery life had increased significantly... the last few days this has not been the case, however. I'm not sure what it is either but it's not cool...

Same here, its weird but it seems as if my stock battery is better, but my Seido 1750 seems to go twice as fast. HTC/Android need to figure out what the big drain is, I am hoping that for me it is the bloatware and after I root (come on Unrevoked) that it will help a little bit.

 

[jayhawkfan18]

Same here, its weird but it seems as if my stock battery is better, but my Seido 1750 seems to go twice as fast. HTC/Android need to figure out what the big drain is, I am hoping that for me it is the bloatware and after I root (come on Unrevoked) that it will help a little bit.

I already removed Skype, which was the only one that started by itself after froyo (that I've noticed) and that didn't seem to help any... I really can't tell what the culprit is

 

[blastncast]

I have also noticed a decrease in battery life since Froyo. I have changed settings, removed certain apps, and changed sync settings. Still seeing poor battery life, I would say maybe 20% reduction since Froyo.