Question from a new user about battery life

[donsmith1964]

I just got a DNA. I love the phone but my battery has gone down 15% in 5 hours and it has been in airplane mode for two and a half of those (I work in an area that has no signal). The battery says Phone idle and Android System are using most of the juice. Is this normal? The phone has mostly been in my pocket today. My screen is set to about 33%. I am using the original ROM. Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I just got a DNA. I love the phone but my battery has gone down 15% in 5 hours and it has been in airplane mode for two and a half of those (I work in an area that has no signal). The battery says Phone idle and Android System are using most of the juice. Is this normal? The phone has mostly been in my pocket today. My screen is set to about 33%. I am using the original ROM. Any suggestions would be helpful.

I'm not familiar enough with the DNA to know for sure what "normal" battery life should be, but based on some previous HTC phones I've owned...it could be. 15% in 5 hours is about 3%/hour, which does seems a little high if the phone was in airplane mode, but certainly not ridiculously so. Hard to make a real judgement without knowing more about what you're running on the phone.

 

[donsmith1964]

I'm running pretty basic apps. Business Calendar, Gmail and Outlook both set to push email, I use dolphin browser but haven't been on it today, Google now is off, Facebook and Google + both of which are rarely used. I normally leave Wifi running but have had that off today as well.

 

[chickweedblur]

Could be better but not indicative of a big problem. With generally light usage (overnight idle + check email a few times, txt's) I usually average about 2-3% drop an hour. Ironically, Google services seem to be the biggest culprits of background usage even when they're not being used (now, maps, etc). Game playing or videos are the biggest active consumers of battery (as you would expect). Since none of those show active for you, try restarting the device and see if anything changes.

 

[DarkBeer]

I'm rooted and running CarbonROM now, but just for comparison, I've been on battery now for 9 hours and 15 minutes and still have 87% battery remaining. I did a 23 minute commute by bike this morning with Endomondo tracking that ride via GPS plus bluetooth communication to my heart rate monitor. No calls on the cell today, but have checked a few emails. I've had 4G and wifi on all day.
Basic troubleshooting would suggest a reboot of your phone just to rule out a background process or something that is causing an unnecessary drain.

 

[donsmith1964]

Thanks. I will try that. I have had smart phones galore and never ate batteries like this.

 

[mightyfacundo]

Are you using Google Music's subscription service by any chance? I had to get rid of it on mine cause it was killing my battery. With it, I could barely get through 9 hours on a full charge. Without it, I average about 19. It could just be my phone though.

As for yours, and I'm sure you know all of this already, the phone will use battery if it's looking for a signal (phone, WiFi, data), and if you're pushing emails, then 3% an hour could be normal. How does it do when you turn off data and WiFi and leave it in sleep mode? For reference, mine might lose 1% every hour to hour and a half.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Daniel.Lynch]

Have you gone to settings > power > usage to see what has been using your battery?

 

[donsmith1964]

I have google play but i don't use it. I don't subscribe to their service. I have to put my phone in airplane mode at work because i do not have signal. I do use wifi at work.

 

[donsmith1964]

It normally said android system or htc sense. It never mentions screen. When i first got the phone i updated maps and it was very obvious sucking the battery. I uninstalled the updates and it improved.

 

[donsmith1964]

Basic troubleshooting would suggest a reboot of your phone just to rule out a background process or something that is causing an unnecessary drain.

Thank you again. I reset my phone and today it has been on for 5 hours and only lost 4%. I have no idea what the culprit was. It could have been maps when I updated (noticed a huge drain and read about the issue on the forums) and then uninstalled the updates. The other two apps I did not put back on the phone were Outlook and UCCW (widget).

 

[Everick]

Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use

 

[HOONIGAN43]

2 days with WIFI turned on.