Is Froyo or Facebook killing my battery (or something else)?

[auburngirl]

I have had Froyo for the last four days, and the battery life has been terrrible. Prior to the update, I could get 3 days off charger, now I am lucky to get a full day. Cell standby and Phone idle seem to eat most of my battery...how is that possible? Suggestions?

 

[WarER4X]

I'm still looking for the answer, but haven't found it yet. I used to be able to get through the day with plenty of battery to spare. Now, I'm doing less with my phone to conserve power and it is still nearly dead by the afternoon if I don't charge it in the middle of the day.

-SR-

 

[bonfilio]

I think there's still a problem with the latest Facebook app (at least.. there are no more updates available for it on 2.2).

I've been testing this today.. completely fresh 2.2 install on my Droid with Facebook being the only thing run (only app in the 8 most recent apps list), and the battery icon is in the yellow - will probably shut down in less than an hour. All i've done is:

Take it off the dock this morning
Restart
Run facebook
Hit home button to return home
Sit it on my desk

Nothing else and no apps have been installed - completely stock 2.2 (other than FB app updated).

Flashing back to 2.0.1.sbf, the phone is back to normal.

This isn't completely scientific as I haven't really had a full day yet to test whether *not* running Facebook will make much of a difference. When I've been low on battery life and i know i really need my phone to work I've restarted it and avoided Facebook like the plague - seems to work.

 

[Nechasin]

I use facebook constantly thoughout the day. I can easily last 15 hours. I'm running stock 2.2

 

[WarER4X]

I did the ol' *#*#4636#*#* trick and found out that ESPN ScoreCenter widget was producing more network traffic than any other process on the phone except the browser. All of that was from the background updating that it does. So, I stopped using the widget this afternoon. Time will tell if that was my problem, but so far, by back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that my phone idle battery consumption seems to have been reduced be at least 30%.

I had ScoreCenter widget on the home screen before updtaing to Froyo and it didn't seem to cause any trouble. Perhaps it's background processes don't get along well with Froyo for some reason. I have noticed that I've seen the sync icon lingering in the notification bar more than it used to.

-SR-

 

[WarER4X]

I'm feeling pretty confident that ScoreCenter was the problem. The network traffic that the widget was generating was causing quite a battery drain, I think. It turns out that some of the more recent post-Froyo reviews of ScoreCenter in the Marketplace mentioned heavy battery drain as well as overall updating problems with the ScoreCenter widget since Froyo came along. I can still use ScoreCenter without using the widget and avoid the power hit, so that's good news. I hope the developer of that app gets wise to the issue and fixes it, because that was one of my favorite widgets. If not, I could always try another sports score app, but I alread went through that process and liked ScoreCenter the best.

Oh well, at least I can actually stop worrying about killing my phone battery during throughout the day now, and start using it normally. I will also be re-implementing the Facebook widget since I'm pretty sure now that it was never the problem in the first place. Now I'll see for sure.

-SR-

The "testing" screen brought up by putting *#*#46364#*#* was of paramount usefulness in diagnosing this issue. I wish I had known about it sooner. Great feature!

 

[WarER4X]

This is probably my final update, but I figured I'd better follow through wih the conclusion of this saga for anyone paying attention...

It was definitely the ScoreCenter widget that was causing the battery drain, but only after the Froyo update. So it seems they weren't getting along.

Just recently (yesterday or the day before), ScoreCenter released an update and one of the items listed for the update was something to the effect of "smarter polling for widget data". I installed the update and decided to give the widget another try. I am happy to report that the update fixed the issue. No more excessive battery drain!

Looks like this case is closed!

-SR-

PS: This issue makes me wonder if there are any other such app/widgets out there that also aren't getting along with Froyo and causing this problem. Might explain why so many people have had such different battery life experience under Froyo.

 

[Nechasin]

If you see my above post....I had some weather apps that caused my drain. I don't think the drain was bad before Froyo, only after.

 

[mudfinger]

My battery life after forcing the Froyo update was HORRIBLE.
I went 2 weeks before doing a FACTORY RESET. When I restarted my phone the OTA 2.2 installed and now...ALL IS WELL! Battery is better than it was on 2.1. Of course I had to reinstall my apps but that was no biggie. Just remember to remove your SD card before you reset .

 

[WarER4X]

I'd say that my battery life is now better that it was with 2.1 since I fixed the problem.

-SR-

 

[CHIEF#AC]

My battery life is horrible since 2.2. I use LauncherPro for a home app. Weatherbug is really the only non stock app I have running. No Facebook or Twitter crap. I don't talk/txt anymore than I did with 2.1. Any ideas? I am gona try the stock home launcher tomorrow. I am only getting half day down to 20%. One hour or so total talk time and 200 txts on a heavy day.

 

[WarER4X]

I'm running launcher pro (plus), too, and it didn't seem to be causing the problem for me. I'm even using all of the Plus widgets, except the texting one.

What widgets are you running on your home screens and what apps do you have installed that automatically sync data in the background (stock or not)?

One thing to try is to go to your dialer screen and dial *#*#4636#*#* without hitting send. It brings up a diagnostics screen that might help you find the problem. Go to "battery history", then select "network usage" from the top pulldown. You will see a list of you biggest data-moving processes. This is where I found what was causing my problem. You can look at it from the last time you unplugged, or if you've just finished charging (which makes that selection almost useless) and can look at network usage since you last rebooted.

Give it a try and see what you find. There are other useful menues in that tool, as well, like a screen that shows what processes and apps are using your phone in "partial wake" mode. It's pretty slick.

-SR-

 

[CHIEF#AC]

Running same launcher apps as you. Weather bug on my home screen. Youtube, sportstap and and couple others on other screens, but all are force closed till I open them. I just don't get it. Maps is forced closed. Alot of things. I dunno

 

[Nechasin]

Are you running a task killer?

 

[dcreed]

Here's something I keep running into with this: yesterday, light use, was at 20% by 5pm. Plugged it in, saw it get up to 40%, then I remembered something and turned the phone off and back on. 70%! This has happened to me multiple times now.

It seems that the battery reporting is just kinda whacked. Try rebooting and see if you get a jump.

- Dave

Droid vI, Android 2.2 FRG01B (still waiting for FRG22D)

 

[CHIEF#AC]

No task killers don't work and are unnecessary

 

[Maronda4]

Hmmm

Had no problems with my battery, had my phone about 20 days...Charged late yesterday, had 90% about 11:00. Went to bed and about 6:30 am with nothing on additionally I had 20% battery. I did see under my battery setting that I only has service 50% of the time.. Not sure why as I was home and always have service here. Hope that was a one time deal.

 

[en28so]

my battery lasts only about 3hrs. I have tried everything: different roms,disabling auto syn,wifi,mobilr data, lowering the display brightness to 10%, uninstalling power hungry apps, etc. I think my problem is the battery itself even though the phone says it's ok. The phone is only 2 months old by the way.

 

[jmack356]

My battery life is horrible since 2.2. I use LauncherPro for a home app.

You answered your own question.
I use ADW Launcher and my battery life actually improved with 2.2.

If I start with a full charge in the morning, I can keep the phone on all day and even with moderate use I still have 80% remaining at 10PM - and no task killers...

 

[leo]

I have all the the same symptoms that were described by the user who started this thread and have used all the same diagnostic methods.

I have however noticed one thing that noone here talked about. I am wondering if anyone has experienced a noticeable rise in the temerature of the phone during times of excessive battery drain?

If this was a consistant problem, I would think the battery itself is deffective,, but its not. Some days are fine. It almost feels like sometimes the display doesn't quite turn off all the way. Almost like instead of turning off it is displaying black.