Nexus 5: Another battery drain thread...

[pbc]

I posted a thread over in XDA regarding massive overnight battery drain after updating to 4.4.2. (Battery life was fine of 4.4.1) I ended up RMAing for that because nothing else seemed to work.

You mention the signal strength though, which may be your culprit. Try posting a screen of the little battery drain graph thing. On the bottom it also shows signal strength and the time your phone is spent awake. If we can see your phone is being kept awake, it may help to narrow it down. Also, are you running ART or Dalvik. I have had battery drain problems on ART after updating to 4.4.2.

I'm using Dalvik as XBMC doesn't run with ART and I use that app on occasion. The past couple nights have been okay battery drain wise, so will keep monitoring and if it drops again like a rock post that screen shot.

- - - Updated - - -

Do you have Dropbox installed? If yes do you have auto photo synch enabled? If yes to both try turning off the Dropbox auto photo synch.

Where is this function? Wouldn't it show up as a large user of battery if it was the culprit?

 

[pbc]

BTW, if I do a factory reset on the phone a couple questions:

1. I assume it won't erase all my photos/videos?
2. Does it automatically reinstall all apps that I had previously installed?

Thx

 

[jj14x]

Did this and the next morning only 3% of the battery drained over night.
Having said that, last night I left both wifi and mobile data on, and again charged it to 100%, powered it off and on, and only about 7% of the battery drained.

For the next week or so, would it be possible to keep doing this? Just to see if the problem recurs? If it does, you should be able to identify the culprit app easily.

BTW, if I do a factory reset on the phone a couple questions:
1. I assume it won't erase all my photos/videos?
2. Does it automatically reinstall all apps that I had previously installed?
Thx

1. On the stock ROM/unrooted, factory reset will erase everything from the phone - your phone will be back to how it was when you got it from the store. If you want to save pictures/video, backup to google plus or dropbox or copy or even to your PC. If you installed a custom ROM, factory reset will reset your phone back to how it was when you installed the custom ROM.
2. If you have set up the option to backup your settings to google, and choose to restore from google after factory reset, yes.

 

[kdonald26]

Been having the same problem but with my wifi draining my battery from a full charge overnight to 30%. I closed every app I could and made sure chrome was clean out and closed.
Running on 4.2.2 not rooted

 

[jj14x]

Been having the same problem but with my wifi draining my battery from a full charge overnight to 30%. I closed every app I could and made sure chrome was clean out and closed.
Running on 4.2.2 not rooted

Can you tap on the WiFi in the battery usage, and see how long it kept your phone awake for? Also, tap on the graph (where it shows 7h 39m 56s) - share that screen print - it should show when your phone was awake.
On Idle, WiFi shouldn't even show up on the battery usage unless it was downloading something in the background. You must have some wakelocks going as well (but since you aren't rooted, I guess you can't get detailed stats from BBS)

On WiFi settings, is WiFi optimization on? How is your GPS setting? Is it set to battery saver?

 

[kdonald26]

Night 2, I closed down what apps I could, GPS is set to battery saving, Wifi optimization is on, same result







Running Apps

 

[pbc]

Well, that cat, she came back ...

The battery has been draining between 7 to 10% a night (which isn't great, but I can live with it) the past few. Sure enough, last night I charged it to 100% before going to sleep, and woke up at 70%.

Screen shots below. Thoughts at this point?

 

[pbc]

For the next week or so, would it be possible to keep doing this? Just to see if the problem recurs? If it does, you should be able to identify the culprit app easily.



1. On the stock ROM/unrooted, factory reset will erase everything from the phone - your phone will be back to how it was when you got it from the store. If you want to save pictures/video, backup to google plus or dropbox or copy or even to your PC. If you installed a custom ROM, factory reset will reset your phone back to how it was when you installed the custom ROM.
2. If you have set up the option to backup your settings to google, and choose to restore from google after factory reset, yes.

Thanks, I haven't reset the phone yet but did try what you suggested above. But am still somewhat lost as to the culprit. I'm not seeing any consistency in terms of the App usage that calls out any particular app. This time the Cal app seems to be a large user, which is odd as that's a first and it doesn't show up as a "Running" app, but I guess that just means it wasn't running when I looked at it.

Not sure if the Wifi/Wake chart shows anything interesting.

Some people have mentioned updating to a newer Google Play version fixed some of their issue (not sure how they know, given how intermittent and seemingly random it is). But I do have a few questions about app updates in general:

1. I'm on 4.5.10 which I assume is the most up to date. How can I tell whether it needs to be updated?
2. Is it possible to make the OS work similar to the iOS in how it handles updates? E.g., on my iPad the apps do not automatically update, and you only know an update is available when you go into the app store and into the Update section and then can update all apps or as many as you want. I can only imagine this helps the battery, not having the apps constantly looking for updates or the Play pushing updates?

 

[jj14x]

1. I'm on 4.5.10 which I assume is the most up to date. How can I tell whether it needs to be updated?
2. Is it possible to make the OS work similar to the iOS in how it handles updates? E.g., on my iPad the apps do not automatically update, and you only know an update is available when you go into the app store and into the Update section and then can update all apps or as many as you want. I can only imagine this helps the battery, not having the apps constantly looking for updates or the Play pushing updates?

If the problem (huge battery drain) is still occurring, I'd suggest looking at the top few battery consumers. Android OS consuming 50% overnight (with no usage) is definitely not normal. You are stock, unrooted, right?

I believe 4.5.10 is the most up to date as of now (it does have the updates that fixed the sporadic issue of play services consuming too much battery)
Updates - yes. Go to the play store app, and under settings, you can choose to not auto-update. I don't think it will lead to significant battery savings though, but is an option that I choose (just so that I can read about the update, and know about new features before it is installed)

 

[Bront]

I'm using Dalvik as XBMC doesn't run with ART and I use that app on occasion. The past couple nights have been okay battery drain wise, so will keep monitoring and if it drops again like a rock post that screen shot.

Since it's easy, try swapping to ART, then do the overnight charge and drain, and see the difference. Try it for a few nights. I'm curious if it helps and/or helps significantly.

Also, check any and all data sync apps. Things like facebook and other apps occasionally like to turn back data synching and/or change the settings when they update.

 

[pbc]

Yes, I am stock, not rooted. Thanks re the updates info.

 

[pbc]

I removed Facebook to see it it would help after first posting this thread. How do I check for "all data sync apps"?

May switch to Art, though XBMC won't work on it. Not sure why that would fix the issue though.

Lost 20% last night. Almost 30% since charging it 3 ago. Did have a 1 hour phone call I guess.

 

[lets_go_android]

I removed Facebook to see it it would help after first posting this thread. How do I check for "all data sync apps"?

May switch to Art, though XBMC won't work on it. Not sure why that would fix the issue though.

Lost 20% last night. Almost 30% since charging it 3 ago. Did have a 1 hour phone call I guess.

Hey, I've also been having massive battery drain (~50%) overnight similar to yours. I don't have Facebook installed and the drain appears mostly attributed to some basic Android processes for me. I had been on ART when it first happened. I then switched back to Dalvik, but that it didn't help. If anything, I would expect ART to be more energy efficient. I finally did a factory reset a couple days ago. I still lost 44% last night.

Oh, before you do a factory reset, I would recommend copying down your wifi SSIDs and passwords somewhere as Google failed to save and restore them for me. (Curiously, when I moved from my previous Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 5, it restored all my wifi info correctly, but not this time.)

 

[kdonald26]

Well I was losing about 70% overnight which was mainly due to WiFi. So I switched over to ART, switch off WiFi overnight and closed down as many running apps as I could. So first night from 100% next morning 97% next night same result. So I turned WiFi back on for the following night and it was down about 30%.

I feel my problem is due to my router and losing signal, but I am getting 4 bars, sometimes 3. Maybe it drop out over night and I'm not seeing it. Time for a new router?

 

[kd0h]

Well I was losing about 70% overnight which was mainly due to WiFi. So I switched over to ART, switch off WiFi overnight and closed down as many running apps as I could. So first night from 100% next morning 97% next night same result. So I turned WiFi back on for the following night and it was down about 30%.

I feel my problem is due to my router and losing signal, but I am getting 4 bars, sometimes 3. Maybe it drop out over night and I'm not seeing it. Time for a new router?

Signal (wi-fi or cell) is usually a large propoent of battery drain overnight. Airplane mode (no data) or making sure you always have a good connection (better router placement/new router will always help.

*There is also a setting for location accuracy that searches for Wi-Fi even with Wi-Fi turned off. Turn that off for extra battery boost!

I also use Tasker for the following to help with battery
-to only turn on wifi when im within 1 km of my house, work, or anyother location that I have access to wifi (when I leave that 1 km range it turns off wifi for me)
-(root required) turn GPS on high accuracy for Maps and then when I close Maps it goes back to battery saving mode.

 

[kdonald26]

Signal (wi-fi or cell) is usually a large propoent of battery drain overnight. Airplane mode (no data) or making sure you always have a good connection (better router placement/new router will always help.

*There is also a setting for location accuracy that searches for Wi-Fi even with Wi-Fi turned off. Turn that off for extra battery boost!

I also use Tasker for the following to help with battery
-to only turn on wifi when im within 1 km of my house, work, or anyother location that I have access to wifi (when I leave that 1 km range it turns off wifi for me)
-(root required) turn GPS on high accuracy for Maps and then when I close Maps it goes back to battery saving mode.

After switching over to ART it seems the problem is solved for me. Turning WiFi back on the other night I only lost 4% I tested last night by putting back my Pebble app and DynamicNotifications app, only lost 15% which is reasonable.

Thanks for the help.

 

[spyderusa11]

I'm definitely having the same problem. WiFi reports a larger-than-usual percentage, second most below screen, but the device "sleep" usage appears to be typical. This has to be some kind of bug because it goes right away with a restart. Also, Dalvik vs. ART doesn't seem to matter. Lastly, it's completely inconsistent - sometimes I can go days charging and draining without issue, other times it'll begin draining right after unplugging, and other times it'll start draining midway through usage.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Wow, I didn't know this thread was here. I detail the exact same problem in my thread. Lots of screen caps and examples:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-5/354305-nexus-5-battery-very-inconsistent-whats-culprit.html

I recently made an update to the thread as well. I can confirm it happens in both Dalvik and ART as well.

That's the annoying thing about this bug. There's no discernible culprit. It makes it hard to pinpoint what the problem is.

 

[bjrosen]

Try changing the speed governor. I've done a couple of things to improve battery life, the first thing I did was install Snapdragon Battery Guru which seems to help. However the thing that made the really big difference was to root the phone and then to install CPU Master Pro and change the speed governors. Linux supports a number of speed governors which are optimized for different use cases, they control the clock speed of the CPU. The reason I rooted and installed CPU Master was because I was annoyed that the AnTuTu benchmark performance was so terrible relative to other Snapdragon 800 phones, it turns out the reason is that the Nexus 5 aggressively throttles the clock when it gets a little warm. I was seeing benchmarks ranging from 16000-23000 depending on the run. After rooting and changing the speed governor to Performance I got 27000. I then saw that number with the Interactive speed governor. The Pro version of CPU Master allows you to change governors depending on the state of the phone. What I've done is to set the default governor to Interactive with a Max clock of 2265 and a Min clock of 1267, this covers the case when you are actually doing something so it's fast. When the screen is off I set the speed governor to Powersave and the Max frequency to 1228 and the min frequency to 960, this really reduces the standby power consumption. For the low battery state I set the speed governor to Powersave and the clocks to 1497/729. For the overheat stat I set it to 1728/1036. In the last four hours I've only used 5% of the battery so I think this strategy is going to help a lot.

 

[mrsmumbles]

I still suspect this problem is related to an app or some combination of apps. My Nexus 5 is stock unrooted with only Twitter and Google + (which I don't use) as far as social media apps and I haven't experienced the battery drain problem once since I got the phone on November 7. I'm not saying the problem doesn't exist but that I don't think it's related to Android on its own.

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