How to Improve Battery Life for the Samsung Epic 4G

[Empress_4]

Thanks for all of this... I did many (if not all) of the tips the other day and am seeing less of a battery drain! Told hubby as well because he is on his phone more then I am.

 

[ragnarokx]

Yup, we got some good hardware - it's just a matter of tweaking the software it to make it work for you

 

[rando991]

I installed the free Juice defender and set data at "always disenabled" and screen at "on at screen unlock" and this works like a champ. As soon as my screen is off 3G turns off. I also bought Power Control Plus which allows you to add as many button/widgets as you want ( I started with 4x1 and added about 7). It has a "2G/3G" button but it doesn't work with the Epic but there are 2 other cell data buttons. The first one DOES turn 3G on or off, so I have 2 ways of turning 3G off. This (turning 3G off at work where I have a very poor signal) has dramatically improved my battery life! Juice Defender has a free but limited version and Power Control Plus is $1.99. I recommend both especially if you are in an area of poor 3G reception, that way you can still receive calls and text but just not data which you can turn back on when you need it. I'm considering now buying the Ultimate Juice Defender for more options ($5.99). Hit thanks if I've helped.

 

[rando991]

Update: Tried the Ultimate Juice Defender for 1 day and uninstalled it in favor of the free version. I found I liked the Free version coupled with Power Control Plus. I like having more instant control, but the Ultimate did have a lot more options for Auto control.

 

[Windfrenzy]

To avoid overcharging and to troubleshoot battery drain, I've been putting my Epic into airplane mode at night off the charger. It will lose approx. 30% of battery over 6-7 hours! WTF is it doing? Biggest cpu users per Spare Parts are android system and suspend. Contrast that with my off-network Centro which has 60% left after weeks on the shelf. Seems like something fundamentally wrong. Any explanations or suggestions would be great.

 

[ragnarokx]

I'm rooted and use Startup Manager to stop the DRM service from starting on reboot. If you're not rooted, perhaps someone else has a solution that doesn't require root access.

 

[sandman512]

As of a week, LOUSY battery life.

For some unknown reason my battery life is lousy as of last week. I want to hard reset yet go back to the way my phone is setup. How can I do this? I did install some new apps, but deleted them. Any thoughts? Advice? THANKS!

 

[a_c_s]

back it up using backup pro or something similar... if you are rooted you can use titanium... after you hard reset you can restore...

 

[jrmitchell72]

Are you using the Facebook app? If so, make sure that you log out of chat after opening it. I was losing 10-15% per hour because of that app.

 

[sandman512]

Thanks for the replies, not using facebook. Something is killing the battery though. I wish I could figure out what it is. Very frustrating.

 

[DroidXcon]

Try the app spare parts. Use it for a day it has a good break down of battery usage.

Sent from my Fascinate -I finally got Tapatalk not even a WP7 will be able to keep my face out of the phone now!

 

[Jigmeister]

Are you using the Facebook app? If so, make sure that you log out of chat after opening it. I was losing 10-15% per hour because of that app.

How do you "log off" of just chat? My battery started sucking after the last update. Do I have to log out of Facebook altogether or just "go offline" in chat?

 

[zeravla531]

It is Facebook. Anytime i received a message through Facebook chat, my phone stopped sleeping. I just went offline and now the phone sleeps properly again. I tested with Spare Parts.

 

[jrmitchell72]

How do you "log off" of just chat? My battery started sucking after the last update. Do I have to log out of Facebook altogether or just "go offline" in chat?

If you go in Facebook and open chat it will automatically log you in, but it does not log you out. While the chat screen is open, you have to open the menu and go offline.

 

[Jigmeister]

If you go in Facebook and open chat it will automatically log you in, but it does not log you out. While the chat screen is open, you have to open the menu and go offline.

that's what I needed to hear! Thanks!

 

[E140]

There is an extended life battery that does not increase the phone's size. I found it for 60 bucks, wondering if anyone has had any experience with it and if its worth the $. it's only 100mAh more, will that make any difference? Sorry for the NEWB question

 

[rando991]

There is an extended life battery that does not increase the phone's size. I found it for 60 bucks, wondering if anyone has had any experience with it and if its worth the $. it's only 100mAh more, will that make any difference? Sorry for the NEWB question

What's the name of this battery?

 

[s2000fsu]

Battery fix - deplete battery then recharge while OFF

I've had my Epic for about a month. I ran the stock OS on it and then installed leaked DK28. Like many of you, I never got more than 8 hours of use before needing to recharge (with Android 2.1 and now 2.2).

The other night, I fully depleted the battery, then plugged in the Epic while it was powered down. The stock empty battery graphic showed up, and i left it there to charge for about an hour. When I came back to it, the phone was still powered off and showed about 20% charge. I turned the phone on...and after it booted up it showed 80% charge! So...I shut it down and got back to the 20% stock charge screen. At this point it looked like the normal (powered on) charger was only going to charge it up to about 50% then stop. As such, I left it powered off and charging overnight. The next day (yesterday), I got about 10 hours use out of it.

Last night, I plugged it in as normal and left it charging while on. Today I still have about 40% left after 15 hours use!

So, it seems as if the normal battery charge sensor (at least in DK28) may be faulty. Do a power down and full recharge WITHOUT turning it back on to see if that helps!

 

[ABMD]

One issue I continue to have is the numerous "experts" suggesting not using a Task Killer App. Each time I decided to follow their suggestion and turned off the auto kill feature my phone within a short time slowed down to a crawl- even when I was not using allot of apps and worse if I was. Once I have turned back on the auto kill every app loads faster and there is no further lag time.
Can some one explain to me why my experience is contrary to such expert advice ?? Thanks

 

[Skunkape60]

Ok so I got the startup Auditor and installed it. I am looking for "DRM Services" But find instead "DRM Protected Content Storage" and "DRM Content Launcher" Are these the items I need to disable?

And when I do disable them what funtion of my phone will I lose?