is autosync a battery killer?

[xXBLACKBERRYXx5]

If I have auto sync on does that drain my battery significantly?

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[Mercury81]

I would say yes, because it is constantly trying to update and your using the battery.

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central

 

[xXBLACKBERRYXx5]

would u say it would save me an hour or 2 of battery life? is it that big? or would it be like 20 mins more of battery life at the most? lol

 

[rnich120]

I doubt it would be 2 hours to be honest......

Its gonna be a small gain......on the general scale of things. The main thing you need to look at when it comes to battery life is the display.

 

[Mercury81]

would u say it would save me an hour or 2 of battery life? is it that big? or would it be like 20 mins more of battery life at the most? lol

I think that would mostly depend on how many sync selections you have. Id think multiple calendars, multiple email accounts, multiple social media accounts would all be a factor.

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central

 

[icebike]

I would say yes, because it is constantly trying to update and your using the battery.

And you would be wrong.

It is not "Constantly" trying to update, and therefor it is not constantly using your battery.

Autosync only transmits when the other side has something to send. It doesn't constantly ask if there has been a change that needs to be synced.

This is accomplished by opening a socket to the server, then putting the radio to sleep. The socket stays open until server attempts to send something, or the socket times out. TCP/IP sockets typically time out anywhere from 12 to 18 minutes after they are opened.

Each time the radio listens for traffic (which in GSM land is every 120 milliseconds) it will see that traffic is waiting if EITHER the socket timed out or the socket became readable (has data waiting). It would then power up the radio enough to read the data, or reestablish the timed out socket).

Your phone is doing that all the time, 24/7 365 whether you have autosync on or not. That's how cell phones work. It takes virtually zero power.

So if you sync your Gmail, Contacts, Calendars, Picasa, Documents, Books, Music, Reader, all of those things you sync with Google are handled by ONE socket. That one socket gets set readable when there has been any change in any of those services that needs syncing.

Add another socket for Dropbox, or skydrive, or any non-Google mail accounts.

(For non-google mail accounts ALWAYS choose IMAP accounts, never POP3. Pop3 has to wake up and check mail. Have your gmail account pull mail from pop3, and get that account off your phone. IMAP accounts use IMAP IDLED, which works on the open socket method described above, as does Microsoft Exchange).

The vast majority of these services go hours if not days between any changes, so there are very few times that data needs to actually be synced. Most of the time its just a socket refresh. And all of these tend to happen at one time, because Android tries to get them to all drop at the same time by starting them at the same time when you bounce from one tower to the next or switch from cellular to wifi.

But the key point to remember is that your phone is ALWAYS talking to the towers anyway, every 120ms, so these socket refreshes take almost zero extra power.

 

[gravage]

Without autosync on, what's the point of having a smartphone?

I mean, if you want to manually check your mail and update your contacts whenever the mood strikes you, great. I guess e-mail isn't that important to you.

For me, if I can't leave autosync on all day without worrying about battery, I'm either using the wrong phone, or I'm doing something else entirely too much (i.e. playing games).

 

[xXBLACKBERRYXx5]

Without autosync on, what's the point of having a smartphone?

I mean, if you want to manually check your mail and update your contacts whenever the mood strikes you, great. I guess e-mail isn't that important to you.

For me, if I can't leave autosync on all day without worrying about battery, I'm either using the wrong phone, or I'm doing something else entirely too much (i.e. playing games).

i have absolutely 0 issues with battery life on my one x lol the only reason i asked is to see how far i could push the battery saving.

 

[Mercury81]

Well if I'm wrong then so be it, but if you set your email to sync every 5,10,15,30 minutes there is a change in the usage if you download or upload pictures there is definitely a change in your usage. If you sync music files on your phone there is definately a change in your usage. Just saying

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central

 

[icebike]

Well if I'm wrong then so be it, but if you set your email to sync every 5,10,15,30 minutes there is a change in the usage if you download or upload pictures there is definitely a change in your usage. If you sync music files on your phone there is definately a change in your usage. Just saying

Explain where it is that you set your Gmail do download every 5, 10, 15 minutes?

You can't. Because its IMAP, and you don't make those settings on IMAP.

"Just saying".

 

[Mercury81]

Explain where it is that you set your Gmail do download every 5, 10, 15 minutes?

You can't. Because its IMAP, and you don't make those settings on IMAP.

"Just saying".

Chief, go into, setting, accounts &sync, mail settingd, account settings
, sync,send, receive there are many settings,peak time, off peak time, days, it's all in there...

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central

 

[icebike]

Chief, go into, setting, accounts &sync, mail settingd, account settings
, sync,send, receive there are many settings,peak time, off peak time, days, it's all in there...

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central

Nope.
Nothing there for Gmail.
If you use non Gmail you might have that but not for Gmail or any other imap server. Like I said above, get rid of pop mail. Set your Gmail account to pop your lame old pop3 accounts via the website.

The people who email you will never know the difference, and you will get instant notification of email without polling. An it saves a ton of battery.

Sent from my HOX

 

[Five0Feaux]

Icebike, not sure why you're giving Mercury 81 a hard time, but he is in fact correct. All of those different parameters are there on the gmail account. I just checked and every option he mentioned is there.

 

[icebike]

Icebike, not sure why you're giving Mercury 81 a hard time, but he is in fact correct. All of those different parameters are there on the gmail account. I just checked and every option he mentioned is there.

Ok, so where do I go from this screen to see those settings:

Nothing like that on that screen. Nothing like those on the prior screen either.



OH!
...
MY!
...
GAWD!!!!......

Don't tell me you clowns are still running your Gmail account as a pop3 account!!!

Please. Its not 1995 and more guys.

Set your Gmail account (via your web browser on your computer) as shown above
and stop downloading all that email to your phone.

And also click the button that says always use https in the "General Tab".

 

[Five0Feaux]

Sorry dude but I have my Gmail account set up as an IMAP account and can still make the adjustments that Mecury is speaking of. I also have the same settings that you posted but those settings are listed under the main Settings and Accounts & Sync folder.

Icebike, Click on the following in this order:

1. Click on your mail folder
2. If you have multiple email accounts click on your gmail account
3. Menu
4. Settings
5. Gmail
6. Sync, Send & Receive

 

[AndroidArmageddon]

I keep auto sync on all the time. I guess the best way to find out its if you test it one day keeping it off and the next day on. But it also depends on how much emails calendar, and other items etc you sync every day. It also depends on how busy you are syncing and the amount you keep synced. I keep it turned on for pretty much everything but I guess you can trim the auto sync fat by keeping only the services you truely need synced if you're tweaking for longer battery life. It also depends what garbage apps sync and how they sync. I only care about gmail, calendar and people syncing not the other junk.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[AndroidArmageddon]

Man that's a lot of sockets. Just kidding, I mean only one socket but socketly interesting.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[icebike]

Sorry dude but I have my Gmail account set up as an IMAP account and can still make the adjustments that Mecury is speaking of. I also have the same settings that you posted but those settings are listed under the main Settings and Accounts & Sync folder.

Icebike, Click on the following in this order:

1. Click on your mail folder
2. If you have multiple email accounts click on your gmail account
3. Menu
4. Settings
5. Gmail
6. Sync, Send & Receive

I can't follow your directions because there is no such thing as a mail folder.

Run those by me again starting with the step where i tap the Gmail icon to launch Gmail.


Sent from my A700 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rockinfigz]

Icebike is correct guys...there r no such settings under gmail app icon. Check before u post

 

[Mercury81]

I can't follow your directions because there is no such thing as a mail folder.

Run those by me again starting with the step where i tap the Gmail icon to launch Gmail.


Sent from my A700 using Tapatalk 2

Click your email name and setting will show...

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central