Having wifi on all the time drain your battery faster?

[Chitown28]

I usually have wifi turned on all the time cause lte in my area sucks so im wondering could this be a reason why my battery doesnt seem that good? I even have it on when im sleeping. Im looking at battery usage and Device idle is the 2nd highest on the battery usage list why is this? The first is screen.

 

[Rukbat]

The screen is the largest battery hog. "Device idle" is basically the phone in standby, doing nothing. I normally have my wifi on all the time, and battery usage is 0. (Even though I just updated 2 apps.)

 

[steve_ma]

Yes, Wifi looking for a hotspot will drain the phone. Also, being in a bad cell area will also drain the phone.

I use tasker toautomate turning wifi on and off so I don't need to think about it and so it's doesn't burn up battery life needlessly. It uses cell tower locations to determine when wifi should and should not be on.

For me, it turns wifi off when I leave for work in the morning (because my phone is no longer near certain cell towers near my house). It's off in the car. When I arrive at the office, it turns wifi back on (because it's near my work cell towers). I also have it set up to turn on near friends houses and my parents and places where I know I'll connect. The rest of the time it stays off and I simply don't need to think about it any more.

There are some youtube videos and if you google it you'll find instructions that will help you set it up.

 

[Chitown28]

Yes, Wifi looking for a hotspot will drain the phone. Also, being in a bad cell area will also drain the phone.

I use tasker toautomate turning wifi on and off so I don't need to think about it and so it's doesn't burn up battery life needlessly. It uses cell tower locations to determine when wifi should and should not be on.

For me, it turns wifi off when I leave for work in the morning (because my phone is no longer near certain cell towers near my house). It's off in the car. When I arrive at the office, it turns wifi back on (because it's near my work cell towers). I also have it set up to turn on near friends houses and my parents and places where I know I'll connect. The rest of the time it stays off and I simply don't need to think about it any more.

There are some youtube videos and if you google it you'll find instructions that will help you set it up.

but i have hotspot 2.0 off network notification off.

 

[steve_ma]

but i have hotspot 2.0 off network notification off.

What I am talking about is if you are leaving wifi on all the time, but you are not connected all the time, then yes, it will have a negative affect on your battery.

The tasker solution I mentioned is a way around that.

 

[Ecm]

Yes, Wifi looking for a hotspot will drain the phone. Also, being in a bad cell area will also drain the phone.

I use tasker toautomate turning wifi on and off so I don't need to think about it and so it's doesn't burn up battery life needlessly. It uses cell tower locations to determine when wifi should and should not be on.

For me, it turns wifi off when I leave for work in the morning (because my phone is no longer near certain cell towers near my house). It's off in the car. When I arrive at the office, it turns wifi back on (because it's near my work cell towers). I also have it set up to turn on near friends houses and my parents and places where I know I'll connect. The rest of the time it stays off and I simply don't need to think about it any more.

There are some youtube videos and if you google it you'll find instructions that will help you set it up.

This has been baked in to the Galaxy S series since the S8's. My S8+, and now my S10+, will turn off WiFi when I leave home then turn it back on when I reach work. No additional apps required.



On the S10's go to Settings > Connections > WiFi > Advanced.

 

[steve_ma]

OMG, so that is awesome and I learned something new.

Question. Do you know how the phone determines location with this setting? I am wondering if it's based on cell or GPS data or if it periodically cycles the wifi on and off? For me, the Tasker solution was great because I got to ignore wifi all together and not worry about a battery impact from always scanning for hotspots.

If the phone now does this by cycling wifi on and off regularly, I'd try to understand if there is a battery impact before I dump that Tasker function.

To the OP. Maybe your battery drain is simply from having bad cell service???

 

[msm0511]

To the OP. Maybe your battery drain is simply from having bad cell service???

I think that's more likely than leaving wifi on. I've never really noticed much of a difference in battery from turning wifi off when not in use. Poor signal though will kill a battery quick. I had a job where we couldn't have our phones in certain parts of the building for security so we had to keep them in our locker. On the days I was in those areas most of the day my phone would almost die because the signal was so bad being in the locker.