"Eye" icon in notifications - Smart Stay?

[Carin Richardson]

This is awesome info!

How can I find out which bad app is keeping my system awake?

Thanks!

GalaxyS3

 

[Carin Richardson]

Hi TenshiNo,

How do I know which app is keeping my phone awake all the time? I am a solid blue & my battery doesn't last very long at all. Thanks!

OK. First off, you're doing some things here that are not necessary and/or bad. You don't need to turn off mobile data when you are connected to WiFi. That happens automatically, so you're just wasting your time. The exception to this, is if you have the WiFi set to go to sleep. DO NOT "CLEAR YOUR TASK MANAGER". This has become a massive pet peeve. Apps stay loaded in memory so that they can use *less* resouces next time you want to use them. Many apps, such as those that sync, will have to relaunch themselves to perform that sync. This means that, by constantly force closing them, you're actually making them chew up far more battery by relaunching than they were by just sitting there idle. And that's not even getting into the stability issues you can create.

It's important to understand that, in Android, apps stay loaded in memory, but that doesn't mean that they are running. That's not to say that there can't be an app that was written badly that doesn't properly sleep and *could* drain your battery. In that instance, uninstall that app and give it the bad review it deserves in the Play Store, since handling this event is simple and there's no excuse for an app to be doing it incorrectly. Personally, I use an app called "System Panel" for that sort of thing. It works much more like "Task Manager" for Windows, in that you can see from the main list *which* app(s) is using the CPU by a small, vertical gray bar on the left edge of each item in the list.. It will also indicate the apps' actual status: "active", "idle", "cached", "service" or "system".

Now, for the battery drain, go to the settings menu, and then "Battery" and it will show you what apps have been using the most battery. Now, so long as you have been force closing everything, this might be misleading as you will likely see a bunch of system apps eating a lot of power because they keep having to relaunch. At the top, where is says "1h 40m 40s on battery" (or whatever time) click on that, and it will give you details on how much your screen has been on, and whether the phone has been prevented from "sleeping". This is indicated by the "Awake" bar at the bottom of that second screen.

There are actually a couple of things here to take note of: the awake time. If it's solid, you've got a bad app that's killing your phone. Also look at the "Mobile Network Signal" bar. If it's solid red, this means you're in a low signal area, which will rapidly drain your battery as the phone (desperately) searches for a better signal.

Also, if you're connected to WiFi at night, make sure that your WiFi isn't set to "sleep". To do this, go into settings, then WiFi, then hit the "Menu" button and select "Advanced" from the menu. There are a couple of settings here, actually. Personally, I *always* uncheck the "Network notification" option. This means that the WiFi scans every 5 minutes or so for an "open" WiFi in your area and notifies you if it finds one. Depends on how much of your day you spend going from place to place and how important it is to know if there's an open WiFi in the area, I guess. Also, if you turn off that notification option, set the "Keep WiFi on durring sleep" to "always". I know that having the WiFi chip "sleep" along with the phone sounds like a great idea, but these devices *want* to be connected to the internet so, as soon as the WiFi cuts out, the cellular radio turns back on and that uses significantly more power than WiFi.

I suspect your problem is going to be either a rogue app or the cellular signal strength. Personally, I leave WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS on 24/7 and I get 12-15 hours of battery life, easily, with moderate usage on my Note 2.

 

[GSDer]

Carin,
You can try Wakelock Detector: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.uzumapps.wakelockdetector - it'll show you a list of apps that keep waking your phone up.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 2

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Talking about that doctor-headpain analogy, sometimes it's difficult to describe the pain, u just want the Dr to treat u and let the pain go away. If my Dr. insists on me fully describing my pains before he treats me, it'll be time to shop for another Dr, believe me!

If the doctor DOESN'T ask you to describe your symptoms, it's time to find a new doctor, because the one you have is just guessing, and if he guesses wrong you could die. If he guesses you just have a headache, and you really have a hemorage, well, I hope you have life insurance.

 

[Christopher Oden]

Here is the answer!

 

[TenshiNo]

Hi TenshiNo,

How do I know which app is keeping my phone awake all the time? I am a solid blue & my battery doesn't last very long at all. Thanks!

Sorry for the long delay in reply. I wish these forums notified me better when someone replied.

Anyway, GSDer is correct. That app can be very useful for determining which apps are keeping your phone awake. I have used it myself in the past. The paid version of the System Panel app I mentioned also has a monitoring feature that will show you which apps have been using the most CPU power over time, going back as far as 1 week. Android now has some of that functionality built-in, with the battery screen in the Settings menu, but it shows percent of battery usage since the phone was last fully charged. All of these features can be useful in tracking down a rogue app that's eating the battery while the phone is supposed to be asleep.

 

[Chris Tinson]

The eye is the smart rotation feature. It allows the camera to detect how to rotate your screen. Disable it in Settings/Display/Features.

This worked for me its to do with screen rotate however I never got it before a systems uptate

 

[HATCHETRYDER1]

Zeyad... it is the second one you showed, with "eyelashes" above the eye. It is on constantly, and I notice that my battery seems to discharge quicker and not charge back as quickly since all this.

It actually means that a portion of the smart stay remains on even tho the icon may be unticked. So if you pull down your notification bar then press and hold the smart stay icon and the menu for it will pop up. You should see two (2) options... make sure that all are un checked. For me, I saw it disappear immediately.

 

[stlolth]

On Android 4.3 on the Galaxy S3, the "Smart Stay" icon is always shown when the feature is switched on, however that doesn't mean it's always actually on and working. The feature is dormant, and works only for a second when the screen is about to turn off, to check if you're still looking at it. This is indicated by the icon "blinking", or rather pulsating for a moment. On previous versions of Android, and on other phones, the same is indicated by the icon appearing and disappearing, however S3 with Android 4.3 notifies you of the Smart Stay activity in this different manner.

 

[William Scott3]

I have always used smart stay and never had a problem with it. Recently I started getting the eye and did a search as when it appeared it froze the phone.as it turned out it turned out to be the smart rotate and not the the smart stay giving the problem. I wish Samsung S5 would operate like my Blackberry torch. So when u closed a program it would close and stop operating and only about 5 or 6 programs would run all the time. The main functioning ones or ones u wanted to run. Saves a lot of battery drainage. I think this is a good idea I will send to Samsung. When u close them they should stop. When you dont Want to use them anymore. Everyone that reads this should also send the suggestion to Samsung and or android

 

[jademonkey]

Hi there

I know this is one of your older posts but I just wanted you to know that I got a lot of useful information from it!

Still chugging along on my S3!

jademonkey