Memory leak and bad battery life

[Stang04GT]

I have a bad memory leak and also bad battery life. When i restart the pone the memory will be around the mid 200s then a few hours later it will around 60mb. Coming from a blackberry im used to mem leaks but this is just ridiculous. Also the battery drops 50% after around 3-4 hrs only sending texts nothing else. I used my storm all day and at night i would have 40% left.

How do i go about finding mem leaks on this thing? Also how do i do a factory rest?

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

I will add my name down on the list as there definitely is a memory leak somewhere. I also start with around 215mb of totally free space, with another 60mb or so being used by like 20 apps. After being on for a few hours it drops to under 100mb free and about 80mb in 28 apps. So if its only going up 20mb from running apps, and the amount being used by the services doesn't change at all, wheres my other 100+mb?

As for battery life, it could depend on a few things:

1: screen brightness? (biggest killer)
2: performance or smart mode? if smart mode, how long does it take to time-out your data network? (should be around 30 minutes peak, 15 off-peak)
3: do you have any UI changing apps? lockbot/launcherpro/custom widgets
4: do you get bad signal where you are? if your phones constantly trying to get signal it will drain your battery quickly.

 

[mflynn]

My Nexus exhibited the same thing and to the point, I think its more of android's memory management then an actual memory leak. Remember like any other linux operating system. Free memory is wasted memory. I'd not really worry about free ram, and its affects on the battery. I doubt very much it has any since its just ram, even if some ram was lost because of a memory leak, it won't have an impact.

Push comes to shove however if you are worried, reboot the phone. That will fix it.

 

[luniboy26]

There is no memory leak some app auto start which take up memory like gtalk, keyboard, etc. Please don't turn this into what the crackberry forums became after the launch of the storm 1. There is no way for memory not to be used on Android as there is always something in the background running its no big deal and it doesn't affect battery life. Speaking of battery life if you noticed that you tend to do things on a more powerful phone like actually using the browser because its good or apps/games because they are available. I came from a storm before I got my droid now I have a droid x and for me battery life has been more than acceptable.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

There is no memory leak some app auto start which take up memory like gtalk, keyboard, etc. Please don't turn this into what the crackberry forums became after the launch of the storm 1. There is no way for memory not to be used on Android as there is always something in the background running its no big deal and it doesn't affect battery life. Speaking of battery life if you noticed that you tend to do things on a more powerful phone like actually using the browser because its good or apps/games because they are available. I came from a storm before I got my droid now I have a droid x and for me battery life has been more than acceptable.

I pretty much hear where you're coming from with this, and can easily echo it. I used to think of RAM as a Windows XP user; its all about t3h efficiency yo!!!1!

But after re-examining this from a Windows 7 user perspective, RAM is meant to be used, not sit there empty. You place data into RAM preemptively so when you do go to use it there's no loading, its already there.

That being said there's definitely something that starts to choke up the system after being on for a few hours, and we're not just talking memory being soaked up like a Shamwow. I'm talking performance starts to seriously tank. An easy example of this is when I first boot up my phone and everythings cached and loaded fine, I turn off my screen and do something for a little while, then when I turn it back on it instantly loads my Homescreen, no lag or anything (I have screen lock disabled.)

But after a few hours of having my phone on idle, if I go to turn my screen on it lags for a sec, showing the unlock screen, then almost as if it remembers 'oh right he has this screen disabled' it just skips the unlock and finally loads my homescreen.

Aside from this constant decrease in performance/time dilemma, I must say my battery life is fine. I went 25 hours yesterday off the charger and was only at 40% battery life. I spent easily 5 hours using the phone browsing, streaming music, texting and downloading apps. For what this phone does and what kind of specs it has, thats pretty impressive. I just can't wait to slap a nice badass seidio extended life battery in this baby

 

[gafly]

I too am getting the "slowness" after a few hours and I have not been able to peg down what causes it yet. I really wish there was a way to reboot the X via an app so a simple touch of an icon on the screen and yes click to an "are you sure?" prompt could turn the phone off and then back on again and everything would be good to go in under 2 minutes.

I know I can just reach up and hit the power button, but I hate reaching "all the way" up there! haha.

Note: Try killing the Corporate Directory. I have not used it once since turning on the device out of the box and it has the HIGHEST CPU usage in the list. That's crap.

 

[moosc]

My first month or so after owning my Droid after owning a storm1 I was so paranoid of memory leaks. But no more. So please stop comparing the bb and Droid they are two different animals. The Droid will use what every memory it needs and then release it. Clear the fog of a bb and be happy.

 

[Stang04GT]

I will add my name down on the list as there definitely is a memory leak somewhere. I also start with around 215mb of totally free space, with another 60mb or so being used by like 20 apps. After being on for a few hours it drops to under 100mb free and about 80mb in 28 apps. So if its only going up 20mb from running apps, and the amount being used by the services doesn't change at all, wheres my other 100+mb?

As for battery life, it could depend on a few things:

1: screen brightness? (biggest killer)
2: performance or smart mode? if smart mode, how long does it take to time-out your data network? (should be around 30 minutes peak, 15 off-peak)
3: do you have any UI changing apps? lockbot/launcherpro/custom widgets
4: do you get bad signal where you are? if your phones constantly trying to get signal it will drain your battery quickly.

1. I have my screen brightness set on auto
2. Smart mode, always on during peak hours and 15 mins for off peak
3. All stock UI
4. At home I get 2 bars, and at work I get full signal

 

[Stang04GT]

I wasnt trying to compare it to my storm, I was just saying that I was used to having memory leaks but not this bad.

Also I dont kno how some of you get 12+ hours out of this phone. Today I had it unplugged for 3 hrs and it went down to 50% left. And this is after sending probably 50 texts nothing else, no browsing or voice calls. I'm sorry but that is really bad.

Are there any apps out there that can save the battery or something? I'm using ATK for the memory but that doesn't seam to help.

 

[terpitude71]

another tip for longer battery life: if you dont use the moto UI social networking services, go to menu>settings>data manager>social networking options and set you social networking to only update when on a wi-fi connection. this is the biggest culprit for constant 3g use, and turning it to wi-fi only has kept my battery very high, as i dont really use the philblur for my facebook updates. if you do use the UI for social networking, then make good use of smart mode as others have detailed in this thread

 

[terpitude71]

Are there any apps out there that can save the battery or something? I'm using ATK for the memory but that doesn't seam to help.

if you havent read the task killer sticky in this forum, please do so. do not use a task killer for managing the memory on your phone. believe me, the android OS will do this just fine on its own. if youre paranoid about tracking your "available ram", know that on most android phones i have used, anything above 30MB available and the phone is moving along just fine. for comparisons sake, i have rarely seen my x drop below 50MB available, and i have yet to experience any slowdown

 

[Stang04GT]

another tip for longer battery life: if you dont use the moto UI social networking services, go to menu>settings>data manager>social networking options and set you social networking to only update when on a wi-fi connection. this is the biggest culprit for constant 3g use, and turning it to wi-fi only has kept my battery very high, as i dont really use the philblur for my facebook updates. if you do use the UI for social networking, then make good use of smart mode as others have detailed in this thread

I dont use any of the moto soical networking services. I use the twitter app from the market and thats it. I also leave my wifi connection on all the time. I'll try and turn it off tomorrow

 

[Stang04GT]

I use weather bug setup for refreshing every 30 mins, twitter setup for 30mins, and Fancy widget setup for 30mins. Those are all apps that refresh on their own that I know of.

 

[dvader]

I find it hard to see the point in even putting out a phone that does anything but traditional calling.

Dont use this, dont use that. turn this off, turn this all the way down.etc etc.
what the hell is the point then of owning a device that can do all these things, but yet you can't use them or else your battery will die.
that' stupid.

for me I just always keep my phone plugged in and charged up.
i have docks in the car and by the bed. and i have cables at home for the laptop and at work for the laptop. so I can just keep it plugged in where ever i go.
that way I can use the phone however i want.
I think it's silly to turn every feature off and dim the screen all the way down, just to use what it's supposed to be able to do.

 

[gafly]

I think it's silly everyone turns all of the features off too and that is why I also have a charger at my bed, one just lying around, one at my desk, one in the car and one for my laptop bag. I bought a smartphone so I could use the stuff that makes it smart when I want to use it... I did not buy a smartphone to spend 90% of the time toggling crap on and off.

 

[terpitude71]

I dont use any of the moto soical networking services. I use the twitter app from the market and thats it. I also leave my wifi connection on all the time. I'll try and turn it off tomorrow

if you leave wi-fi (and bluetooth for that matter, also) on when you arent actively using them, that will also suck down a good bit of memory, as those two services constantly are looking for signals to connect to while they are activated

I think it's silly everyone turns all of the features off too and that is why I also have a charger at my bed, one just lying around, one at my desk, one in the car and one for my laptop bag. I bought a smartphone so I could use the stuff that makes it smart when I want to use it... I did not buy a smartphone to spend 90% of the time toggling crap on and off.

i 100% agree with that thought line, but if there are services on your phone that you never use, there is no point in leaving them active to drain your battery down faster. but i am also the type that carries a spare battery and the like

 

[IkariWarrior]

Yeah I'm getting the bad battery life too. Fully charged at 6 am and didn't make it to lunch. One 3 minute phone call and 3 texts...that's it. No GPS, no streaming, no internet usage, nothing. Screen was on for less than a minute every hour or two. Coming from the Incredible this is pretty ridiculous. I like the phone but if I can't figure this out in a few days it's going back.

 

[gafly]

i 100% agree with that thought line, but if there are services on your phone that you never use, there is no point in leaving them active to drain your battery down faster. but i am also the type that carries a spare battery and the like

Well, if you never use a particular feature or service then turning it off, and, on the rare occasion that you do need to use it, turning it on makes perfect sense; however, the constant flipping on and off of various, often used, features/services at all hours of the day is just insane.

...I can see it now... Jobs comes out on stage in the next couple of years with the iPhone 5 and says that the phone's battery will make it last for 5 days!!! All you need to do is keep everything turned off for 4 and a half days! ...and the iGroupies do as told.

 

[gafly]

Yeah I'm getting the bad battery life too. Fully charged at 6 am and didn't make it to lunch. One 3 minute phone call and 3 texts...that's it. No GPS, no streaming, no internet usage, nothing. Screen was on for less than a minute every hour or two. Coming from the Incredible this is pretty ridiculous. I like the phone but if I can't figure this out in a few days it's going back.

Could there possibly be a bad batch of batteries out there?

The longest I've gone so far without recharging (and without doing any "special battery saving techniques") is 13 hours but usually it can go to around 8ish of moderate use before it starts beeping at me.

 

[terpitude71]

Yeah I'm getting the bad battery life too. Fully charged at 6 am and didn't make it to lunch. One 3 minute phone call and 3 texts...that's it. No GPS, no streaming, no internet usage, nothing. Screen was on for less than a minute every hour or two. Coming from the Incredible this is pretty ridiculous. I like the phone but if I can't figure this out in a few days it's going back.

3 simple steps for awesome battery life on this phone (this is all that i have tweaked, and i make it 14 hours and still have 20-30% remaining):

-turn off wi-fi/bluetooth/gps when not using them (and the UI has two different sets of toggle widgets to make this an easy 1-click process)
-go into the data manager in your settings and set social networking to only update on wi-fi (unless you actively use the UI social networking features)
-go in to battery manager in your settings and use smart mode to set an aggressive data timeout when your phone is not being used (i have mine timeout at 30 mins during peak hours)

try these for a few days and see if there is an improvement.