Over 40% battery drain overnight doing nothing on the Nexus 5.

[tonyr6]

I did not use my phone much all day yesterday except for a few short phone calls. I had about 95% battery when I went to bed around 12:30AM. Woke up today at 9PM when I received a phone call and my battery was 43%. Doing nothing. Now don't tell me that because of a weak cell signal because this just started as I said all day the battery only drained about 5% of making a few short phone calls. Also don't tell me to clear the partition cache as I just did that a few days ago.

I was hoping to avoid charging my phone today to get another day out of it but looks like I am going to have to. Maybe I should just leave the stupid thing plugged in all the time like I did my iPod Touch.

 

[B. Diddy]

Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which shows Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).

 

[jj14x]

Just one thing to add to what B. Diddy mentioned - download and install the GSAM battery monitor. This will help show any wakelocks that might have kept your phone awake.

This does seem to happen every now and then - it hasn't happened to me in long time now, but yes, it can happen. And for me, usually, it is because of Play Services updates. For some reason, that sometimes causes Android system to go haywire and suck up battery life like there is no tomorrow.

Now don't tell me that because of a weak cell signal because this just started as I said all day the battery only drained about 5% of making a few short phone calls.

I hate to say this (because you did say "don't tell me that"), but the tower that your phone connects to may have had issues, or maintenance going on in the night - and it might have been fine all day before that. So it *is* possible that it may have been a weak signal. But #4 in the list that B. Diddy provided will help narrow that down.

 

[B. Diddy]

This will help show any wakelocks that might have kept your phone awake.

That's a good idea, but unfortunately with KitKat, GSAM and other apps like it can no longer report wake locks unless the phone is rooted.:'(

EDIT: Unless they finally overcame that obstacle. Did they change it recently? I haven't used GSAM for a while.

 

[tonyr6]

That's a good idea, but unfortunately with KitKat, GSAM and other apps like it can no longer report wake locks unless the phone is rooted.:'(

EDIT: Unless they finally overcame that obstacle. Did they change it recently? I haven't used GSAM for a while.

I know to be able to make my phone levitate off my desk I need to be rooted. To think I switched over from Apple to Android because of the crazy restrictions and now Android is locking crap down more too. I refuse to root or hack because it will void my warranty with T-Mobile so forget it.

Also I already rebooted it before charging so I can't test it no more until it happens again. I received two phone calls since charging it to 100% about over a hour ago and it is now 99%.

 

[B. Diddy]

Although analyzing wake locks can sometimes be helpful, I found that they are mostly very cryptic anyway.

 

[jj14x]

EDIT: Unless they finally overcame that obstacle. Did they change it recently? I haven't used GSAM for a while.

To be honest, I don't know. I am rooted, so I don't know if they can do this without root. Likely not.

I know to be able to make my phone levitate off my desk I need to be rooted. To think I switched over from Apple to Android because of the crazy restrictions and now Android is locking crap down more too. I refuse to root or hack because it will void my warranty with T-Mobile so forget it.

I think we have exchanged posts about this in the past. You are right - Android is making it harder for applications to access system data, but I suspect that is because of the malware reports that keep insisting that Android is insecure. The good thing about Android is that it still does allow a user to root and do what they want (unlike Apple). And you have one of the easiest phones to unlock/root (, and unroot/lock if you have warranty issues). But it *is* your phone, and your choice whether you want to root or not. I think since Jellybean, Android has been stable enough (and customizable enough) to use without rooting. I root because I have some root-only apps that I like to use.

Although analyzing wake locks can sometimes be helpful, I found that they are mostly very cryptic anyway.

They are cryptic, aren't they? Wonder why they don't make it easier to interpret. But even then, with the wakelock description, and google search, it is usually possible to figure out what is causing the issue.

 

[Shilohcane]

42% Battery isn't that bad for almost 24 hours. However if it was 95% when you when to bed then your Wi-Fi is way to high for being idle. Some App is running and transmitting via Google Services. This may sound stupid but try deleting the Facebook App and just using Chrome to access Facebook for a few days. Some people have allowed Facebook to update every 15 minutes, also FB maybe using your GPS if that is enabled. It is just something to try but a lot of people having this overnight battery issue have found FB is a major issue. That would also include their new Messages App. FB also just enabled Autoplay for all videos in your Newsfeed and coupled with this ALS Ice Bucket Challenges caused you to download videos using your data plan that also eats your battery.

Not saying the FB App is the only problem but it is becoming a power hog even when your phone isn't being used. Unless your N5 is broken it is some App that is sucking your battery dry using Google services so if it isn't FB keep trying to delete other Apps to look for the offending App.

 

[tonyr6]

I don't have the Facebook app installed. I don't even use Facebook.

 

[tonyr6]

Battery last night was 90% when I went to bed. Woke up today and it is 87% which is normal drain. I still don't get the sudden drain issues that Google refuses to fix. Even on the XDA forums where people root their Nexus's when they suddenly get battery drain in standby even then it does not show any wavelock issues and the only fix is once again rebooting the device. I really hope Android L fixes this annoyance.

 

[crxssi]

I still don't get the sudden drain issues that Google refuses to fix.

This is a common problem reported in many threads. I call it the "idle drain bug" now. When it happens, I can have 25% of my battery gone in just 9 hours of ZERO USE/ZERO SCREEN TIME in a HIGH CALL COVERAGE AREA with a FULL TIME WIFI connection doing NOTHING unusual. My Nexus will do that somewhere between every several days to a week or more and the only way to "fix" it is to reboot. Then it will be OK again for another few days to a week or two before it does it again. It is very unpredictable and one of the very few things I dislike about this device.

<rant mode>
I have almost entertained the idea of implementing an MS-Windows approach and having it somehow automatically reboot every day at night or something (I assume there is some app that can do that). What a disgusting thought. BTW- WTF doesn't Android have a "REBOOT" option? Why do I have to stand there and wait for the phone to shut down, then press and hold power to turn it back on every time? Granted, the shutdown and power-on sequence doesn't take that long on a modern phone (stark contract to years past) but it is very annoying. And there isn't even an app that can offer a real/nonroot reboot.
</rant mode>

 

[Blaize19]

Most of the skinned phones do have a Restart option. I was actually rather surprised to find that my N5 does not. :shrug:

Back in the webOS days, we had a homebrew app to schedule things like daily restarts, but I've never really looked for one since I switched, as I haven't felt it was a necessity like it was on my Pre's.

I do restart my phone every once in a while, though.

Posted via my Nexus 5 via the Android Central App

 

[crxssi]

Most of the skinned phones do have a Restart option. I was actually rather surprised to find that my N5 does not. :shrug:

Back in the webOS days, we had a homebrew app to schedule things like daily restarts, but I've never really looked for one since I switched, as I haven't felt it was a necessity like it was on my Pre's.

I do restart my phone every once in a while, though.

I use Linux on everything, so I am used to "never" rebooting (except after some updates... kernel, glibc). And if it weren't for this bug, I would rarely if ever reboot the Nexus 5. Back in WebOS days, it did need rebooting a lot due to app (?) memory leaks. I do miss WebOS some, although I don't miss the miserably underpowered hardware. And Android has finally caught up with what WebOS did so well. Hey- at least I have inductive charging again, which makes me oh-so-happy

 

[Aglet]

This is a common problem reported in many threads. I call it the "idle drain bug" now.

It doesn't seem to be phone specific. I've had it with my Nexus 5; I can think of three or four occasions in the past 3 months. It happened with my Samsung Galaxy SII; again probably once every three or four weeks on average. And it also used to happen on my last three BlackBerrys -- so I would suggest not only is it not phone specific (as a read of these forums will reveal) but it is also not OS specific. Nor carrier specific -- in the cases above there were two different Australian service providers, Telstra and Vodafone, and it happened with both.

 

[Blaize19]

I use Linux on everything, so I am used to "never" rebooting (except after some updates... kernel, glibc). And if it weren't for this bug, I would rarely if ever reboot the Nexus 5. Back in WebOS days, it did need rebooting a lot due to app (?) memory leaks. I do miss WebOS some, although I don't miss the miserably underpowered hardware. And Android has finally caught up with what WebOS did so well. Hey- at least I have inductive charging again, which makes me oh-so-happy

Yeah, I miss webOS, too, but not so much the constant maintenance necessary to keep it running on underpowered hardware. Yes, it was memory leaks and all but nonexistent garbage collection. Although we had an app for that. Homebrew and Preware ftw! A lot of what made it great has moved over here, thanks to Duarte.

And it's definitely awesome to have inductive charging, again. I loved my hockey pucks.

Posted via my Nexus 5 via the Android Central App

 

[surrealjam]

Hi Tony - I've just added a response on the "Nexus 5: Battery Very Inconsistent - What's the culprit?" thread (sorry, can't post links yet).
Don't suppose you had any joy over recent days/weeks with this? Driving me a little crazy.

 

[surrealjam]

Sorry, see post above...

Battery last night was 90% when I went to bed. Woke up today and it is 87% which is normal drain. I still don't get the sudden drain issues that Google refuses to fix. Even on the XDA forums where people root their Nexus's when they suddenly get battery drain in standby even then it does not show any wavelock issues and the only fix is once again rebooting the device. I really hope Android L fixes this annoyance.

 

[Buddy1969]

Sorry, see post above...

Battery last night was 90% when I went to bed. Woke up today and it is 87% which is normal drain. I still don't get the sudden drain issues that Google refuses to fix. Even on the XDA forums where people root their Nexus's when they suddenly get battery drain in standby even then it does not show any wavelock issues and the only fix is once again rebooting the device. I really hope Android L fixes this annoyance.

Funnily enough I know this behaviour from my Samsung Galaxy S3. Never had it (yet) with my Nexus 5.
The SGS3 was generally very bad, battery wise, and always unstable, especially when there were app-updates pending in the PlayStore.
Sometimes, when it froze, I had to reboot it and all of a sudden a lot of apps were updating.
Same thing happened when the battery lost 50% in an hour. The culprit was "PlayStore" most of the times, which doesn't say much, because AFAIK, many apps use PlayStore-services and so it might have been just some app that was causing trouble and hinding behind the PlayStore tag...

But as mentioned before, I never had that problem with my Nexus 5 yet *knocks on wood*. Your descriptions just remind me of my troubles with that crappy Samsung phone...

 

[surrealjam]

I still think the problem could be application related - I don't think hardware issues fit with the description of the problem. My real gripe is that Android seems to make it easy for rogue apps to drain battery (notably, with wakelocks) yet it makes it so very difficult for you to find the culprit... so often lumping consumption into "Android OS", "WiFi" or "Android System". At least people here seem to acknowledge a problem unlike on XDA where anyone without it says "you must have Facebook" or "it's location services" - neither of which I do.

But hey, perhaps Android L will be the silver bullet - miracles do happen.

 

[mrsmumbles]

I still think the problem could be application related - I don't think hardware issues fit with the description of the problem. My real gripe is that Android seems to make it easy for rogue apps to drain battery (notably, with wakelocks) yet it makes it so very difficult for you to find the culprit... so often lumping consumption into "Android OS", "WiFi" or "Android System". At least people here seem to acknowledge a problem unlike on XDA where anyone without it says "you must have Facebook" or "it's location services" - neither of which I do.

But hey, perhaps Android L will be the silver bullet - miracles do happen.

It can also be widgets and on mine the cell radios do drain the battery faster than if I have data off an airplane mode on. You are right, we need an easier way to find the culprits!