Everybody's battery solutions: post them here!

[anon(20593)]

Hi,

I am starting this new thread to have everybody post their battery-related solutions. For most of us (there are some exceptions I've noticed on this group), the Galaxy Nexus battery wears down pretty quickly.

I've read varying reports about this, but it appears that the major culprit is 4G. Given that is what it is, and that for those of us in VZW's 4G markets, the additional speed is good and not something we want to trade in for 3G, our phones during regular use will die quicker than any other 3G phones we've used before.

There are some other issues - the other obvious one being the GNex's large screen - always the number 1 battery use. But again, its a great asset on this phone and not something we can tweak.

And then there is the default Mail app's inbox checking frequency - no way of choosing between off-peak and peak-hours means that our phone will check for new mail 144 times a day (6 times an hour if we pick the fastest check "every 10 minutes" option). That can't be easy on the battery either.

SO, given all of this, what is it that people are doing about their battery: please post your hardware AND your software (app control, sync frequency etc.) tips, tricks and suggestions. What are you doing to improve your battery life? This is not a debate on how much the battery on a phone like the GNex should / could last, nor is the solution as simple as "charge it as often as possible". Extended batteries, external batteries, switching off syncing, profiles with no syncing at night etc. etc. are the kind of things I'm looking to compile a list of.

It would be helpful to get a sense of how much longer your battery lasts after you've implemented your solutions, but I understand if you don't have that data down very precisely.

Post away!!

 

[pool_shark]

I don't try to conserve the battery, I use mine the way I want with all of the features.
I make sure to charge it frequently.

 

[anon(596177)]

Hi,

I am starting this new thread to have everybody post their battery-related solutions. For most of us (there are some exceptions I've noticed on this group), the Galaxy Nexus battery wears down pretty quickly.

I've read varying reports about this, but it appears that the major culprit is 4G. Given that is what it is, and that for those of us in VZW's 4G markets, the additional speed is good and not something we want to trade in for 3G, our phones during regular use will die quicker than any other 3G phones we've used before.

There are some other issues - the other obvious one being the GNex's large screen - always the number 1 battery use. But again, its a great asset on this phone and not something we can tweak.

And then there is the default Mail app's inbox checking frequency - no way of choosing between off-peak and peak-hours means that our phone will check for new mail 144 times a day (6 times an hour if we pick the fastest check "every 10 minutes" option). That can't be easy on the battery either.

SO, given all of this, what is it that people are doing about their battery: please post your hardware AND your software (app control, sync frequency etc.) tips, tricks and suggestions. What are you doing to improve your battery life? This is not a debate on how much the battery on a phone like the GNex should / could last, nor is the solution as simple as "charge it as often as possible". Extended batteries, external batteries, switching off syncing, profiles with no syncing at night etc. etc. are the kind of things I'm looking to compile a list of.

It would be helpful to get a sense of how much longer your battery lasts after you've implemented your solutions, but I understand if you don't have that data down very precisely.

Post away!!

Well for starters I'll say that I do not currently live in a 4g region, so my phone is always switched to CDMA only. This would be my first suggestion for anyone also in non-LTE areas, or even if your LTE coverage is spotty. If your phone is constantly switching between 3g and 4g because you are located at a border-line 4g region you are going to wear your battery down really quickly. Switch your phone to 4g only when you will be needing that burst of 4g speed. I believe there is a widget out there now that will let you do this from the home screen on the fly. If you are in a decent 4g covered area then this isnt as much of a bother, but would still help with battery drain.

My screen is set to auto brightness. I never have it on full brightness unless I'm watching a movie on it, and I usually have it plugged in when I'm doing that. Full brightness will wreak havoc on battery life with this Super AMOLED screen. Turning the brightness down helps considerably if you actively find you have the screen on more than an hour a day.

Turn off/disable apps that update in the background if you dont use them. The best examples of this would be Google talk, google voice, google+, facebook, and words with friends. Im sure there are more out there, but these are the most commonly mentioned battery suckers at the moment. Again, if you cant live without them, set the time between auto updates as long as possible (if applicable).

Dont use live wallpapers, and if possible try to use darker colored wallpapers. A completely blank white wallpaper would be rather dumb if you are trying to conserve battery.

set the screen to turn off at shorter intervals between usage. Mine is currently set to 30 seconds.

if you can help it, stay away from the graphic-intensive games unless you are going to be near a charger.


I take everything above into account throughout my daily usage and I can get the phone to last through my work day and pretty much my entire evening. But again that varies between each person.

I hope this is what you were looking for, sorry if it wasnt.

 

[Geezer Squid]

If you are having short battery life here’s a list of things that can help. Just read through the list and select the items that fit with the way you want to use your phone. Not all items will work for everyone and this list was written for the Droid Bionic but should work for your phone too:


- Don't use an automatic task killer--not even the one that comes with the phone. Reboot your phone and look at what's running. If anything that you've installed is running and there's no reason for it, then uninstall it and find an alternative that behaves. Ignore any stock apps that run on boot as I've found them to be more or less benign.

- Weather widgets, live wallpapers, news/social feeds, any app or service that you use that runs--do without it if you can. If you can’t do without it, lengthen it’s refresh time.

- Don't use antivirus

- Set your WIFI sleep policy to never. The default is "turn off when screen turns off". This will cause the wifi to reconnect every time you open the phone. From any Home Screen select Menu/Settings/Wireless & Networks/ and then use the Menu button to see some new options - select Advanced. Then select Wifi Sleep Policy and set it to Never. Home key to return to Home Screen.

- If you have access to wifi, leave it toggled on as it is more efficient than 3G. Wifi consumes less battery power than 3G.

- I leave GPS toggled on too by the way. Apps use it as needed. When I'm done with Maps or an app that uses it, I'm sure to return to the home screen so GPS can stop. Under wireless settings turn on "Google location services" so that an app is able to use network resources to get your location instead of GPS. I have "VZW location services" turned off--don't know why that option is even there. By the way, I increase the speed of voice output > text to speech > speech rate because I like the directions to get spit out faster. That saves a bit of battery. Turning off the display and just listening for directions help. Also, often I just get the directions and then exit back to the home screen: GPS uses so much battery I try to get it over with ASAP.

- When you get a 1) new battery, 2) do a factory reset, or 3) an OS upgrade - run your battery all the way down until the phone shuts off and then charge the battery all the way up. This will calibrate the phone's understanding of the battery's capacity. Do this once every month or two also, but don't do it too often if you can help it.

- I have my battery set to "Performance Mode" and data is on all the time because I am on call 24x7. If you don't mind, try out a more conservative battery profile to save more gobs of energy.

- Set screen brightness to "Automatic"

- Under Accounts, click on any account listed and turn off sync for any items that you're not interested in syncing. For example, Google Books if you don't use it. Don't use Backup Assistant--I prefer syncing my contacts with Google. You don't need both. Also go into your contacts > menu > display options > backup assistant > UNCHECK. Also do contacts > menu > more > settings > contact storage > and select your Google account and "remember this choice"

- Turn on Bluetooth only when you are going to use it.

- Consider turning off voice privacy. This may not be a big deal but it will save some processing (and therefore battery). It may also improve call quality.

-Turn off haptic feedback, animations, and any un-needed sounds in Android settings and in your apps

- Set your screen timeout to as low a time as you can stand (I use 1 minute) and manually turn the screen off when you’ve finished using the phone.

- Turn off in-pocket detection. In-Pocket Detection has been the source of many issues already.

- Keyboard: turn off vibrate on key press and sounds for any keyboards you use

- Use a red or black screen background. On the original Droid screen--not sure about this Bionic screen--red was the most efficient color that could be displayed.

- Camera app: I like keeping location on and flash on auto. Consider turning location off or at least returning to the home screen ASAP when using camera if location for camera is on.

- In stock browser the default home page is Google and it uses your location. This is a bad idea as it can waste your battery for no reason. Make something else your home page and make sure to close any web page that uses your location when you're done viewing it.

- Charge your phone via the wall charger instead of computer USB as it is faster. Also, don't use long USB cords--use regular power extension cords instead. I stick with the charger that came with the phone. Put the phone on charger when you go to bed every night.

- Consider install the Home Replacement app Zeam. It is basic app that uses very few resources and will help with battery power.

- Emails: I don't know what email app you use, but try this. It saves battery power and in some cases emails arrive quicker. This scheme will have you using only the Gmail app on the phone for all email accounts whether they are pop3 accounts or Gmail.

- If you are using Live Wall Papers, stop!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a link to some very good videos about saving battery power on the Bionic (there are 4 parts and the other parts will show up as available videos when part 1 finishes):

Battery Saving Video

Part 1: [TemptingGuides] Droid Bionic Battery Life Part 1 - Widgets - YouTube


If battery life is still bad: Consider doing a factory reset(Galaxy Nexus users beware!! A Factory Reset will wipe your sdcard of everything – backup accordingly): These have gotten pretty painless lately by following these simple steps: 1. Make sure Backup and Restore are checked in the Privacy setting. 2. When going through the setup after the reset, turn on wifi as soon as you can (assuming it is available). 3. After you have entered your Gmail account info, you will be presented with a screen that has two check boxes. Basically they are "Do you want Google to backup and restore this phone”. Make sure you check both of those. Your apps will then automatically reinstall (paid and free). Set the phone aside for a minute or two and let the apps download and install. 4. If rooted, use an app such as titanium backup to restore data only to select apps such as Tapatalk and you will not have to re-enter all your login information. I do this for 3-4 apps (Tapatalk, SPB Shell, etc.).

I've been flashing new roms/updates about once per day lately and I can be up and running with all my apps and settings back in place in less than 20 minutes. It's pretty painless now.

 

[Geezer Squid]

As noted in a lot threads on a lot of forums, there are some phones that have a problem with the Android OS and the "Keep Awake" time. There seems to be an issue with some phones not truly going to sleep when the power button is used to turn off the screen as opposed to letting the screen turn off automatically when the screen times out. This results in a very high time in the Settings/Battery/Android OS/Keep Awake menu.

In stock form and with every rom that I have installed, my "Keep Awake" time was always about 50-60% of my total battery time. If the phone had been off charger for 8 hours, I'd have 4-6 hours of Andorid OS "Keep Awake" time. This was true even if the phone had been in my pocket unused and seems to be exacerbated by my habit of turning the screen off manually with the power button every single time. I used to never let the screen timeout.

There seems to be two "fixes" according to Franco (of kernel fame). One concerns the camera. Seems the camera is started and then turned off during startup. But in so doing, it leaves a sensor active and this prevents the phone from actually going to sleep. So he recommends starting and using the back button to go back to the home screen. The other is DRM Protected Content. He recommends this be disabled or frozen. A third, that I don't believe I recall seeing him recommend but that I have seen on his thread at XDA (down for blackout right now) is to disable Maps.

I have done all three of those and my Keep Awake time has gone from 40-50% of my total battery time down to a few percentage points. I mean if I don't use my phone it will now show less than a minute of Keep Awake time per hour.

Good luck 

BTW, not sure about other kernels but Franco and Imo's latest both address this issue.

 

[mscalero]

Not sure how setting to Automatic Brightness is better than leaving brightness down to about 1/10 all day?

Mike

 

[anon(596177)]

Not sure how setting to Automatic Brightness is better than leaving brightness down to about 1/10 all day?

Mike

My point about brightness was just to not have it set at 100percent all the time. I use auto brightness because it works best for me. Yes, having it at about 1/10 would be better than auto

Edit: Just realized the last post also said to switch to auto, so not sure which of us you were replying to. Guess my reply is good either way.

 

[Brooke]

***Switch your phone to 4g only when you will be needing that burst of 4g speed. I believe there is a widget out there now that will let you do this from the home screen on the fly.***

I'd love this widget for the Nexus. Have looked. Where?

 

[Wildo6882]

There are a few things that I use to help me manage my battery, some have been posted already, but I'll reiterate them:

1) No live wallpapers. They seem to slow down the phone anyway.

2) Brightness on auto. Turn it all the way up if you want when you're near a charger and need the bright screen. But for most of the time, all you need is auto.

3) Turn off window and transition animations.

4) Turn off NFC if you're not using it.

5) Turn off 4G if you're not in a strong 4G area and/or don't need to use it at the time. I'm in a borderline area. I have 4G at my house and at work, but if you go outside of the city, it gets choppy. So I only use 4G if I'm at home or really really need it.

6) Turn off things that don't need to sync in the background. I have Twitter and Facebook that I use frequently. But I sync them when I open them. I don't need them updating in the background when I'm not going to be looking at them.

I've been off the charger for 5 hours and 50 minutes today. My battery is at 80% right now. I've had probably 40-50 texts and about 20 or so Google Talk messages. Not to mention about 40 emails deleted.

Hope this info helped you out.

 

[anon(596177)]

***Switch your phone to 4g only when you will be needing that burst of 4g speed. I believe there is a widget out there now that will let you do this from the home screen on the fly.***

I'd love this widget for the Nexus. Have looked. Where?

[WIDGET][LTE Toggle] BAMF LTE toggle v0.2 [01/06/2012] - Android Forums

Saw this about a week ago a Bmed it cause i figured it would maybe be useful someday.

This one only works on custom roms though apparently. I have not tried it myself.

 

[anon(20681)]

I don't try to conserve the battery, I use mine the way I want with all of the features.
I make sure to charge it frequently.

Exactly. I carry an extra battery with me. Some of these people are limiting every function that makes Android and the Galaxy Nexus so great. So use the phone the way you want to and just carry an extra (2 if you need it) battery with you.

 

[morphixxp]

This may sound a little wierd, but I've been doing this for the past 3 weeks and it works perfect EVERYTIME. I got the idea from a statement HTC made once a long time ago when I had an Evo 4g, and the battery was pretty bad at one point. HTC released a statement on how you can improve your battery life and they stated to charge the phone fully over night (or about 4 hours), then unplug the phone and use it for about 2-3% battery, then plug it back in AGAIN and charge it for another hour. I'm telling you, it may sound silly, but I found it makes a pretty decent improvement in battery. I honestly found almost a 20% battery increase. This morning I unplugged my phone at 7am, plugged it in my charger on the way to work (45min drive), and as of now 3:50pm, I still have 73% battery life. And I use it heavily with the only thing being turned off is 4G. Give it a shot

 

[Wildo6882]

Exactly. I carry an extra battery with me. Some of these people are limiting every function that makes Android and the Galaxy Nexus so great. So use the phone the way you want to and just carry an extra (2 if you need it) battery with you.

See, I don't think I'm limiting my phone at all. I don't need my emails coming in at the speed of light when 3G will suffice. I don't actually think there's any difference in the time it takes for the email to show up on my phone. If you need 4G for surfing or streaming, turn it on. Also, if you aren't using NFC, why have it on? And really, why would you need the brighness set at 100%? I don't see a reason throughout most of the day. I don't know if it's just me, but I still get to use all of the badassness of the Nexus without limiting it, and without the need to carry a murse for all my spare batteries.

And for those days where I abuse the hell out of my phone, I do have a spare battery and charger at home if I need to make the swap.

 

[yosteve]

I keep navi, animations, and live wallpapers. I both Facebook and Twitter widgets. I get 10-12 hours mainly cause I work 8 hour days. But it totally fits how I use the phone.


One thing I did notice is how vague suggestions are. They don't tell you how to do the things you're saying, just what to do. Newbies would have no idea.

Here's mine, under settings then data (then choose each app) I pretty much set everything to don't run in the background.

 

[Brooke]

[WIDGET][LTE Toggle] BAMF LTE toggle v0.2 [01/06/2012] - Android Forums

Saw this about a week ago a Bmed it cause i figured it would maybe be useful someday.

This one only works on custom roms though apparently. I have not tried it myself.

Running stock. No widget for me?

 

[Droidintorrance]

Use the phone the way I want, with EVERYTHING turned on...

I have a Charger at Home, Car, Suitcase & Work, the Nexus is almost 100% of the time; I like using the stock charger when I'm traveling cause it's the most compact in size...

Here is your battery tip:
if you can't afford another charger which are $4, you can pick one up at your nearest Hotel, (front desk or security office); just say you left one there. They will pull out a HUGE bin of chargers they've collected over the years... Chargers are the #1 thing people leave behind at hotels...

 

[elvisgp]

Juice defender can also help save a lot of battery when the phone is not in use.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[dc5_alex]

disable google plus

 

[anon(596177)]

Running stock. No widget for me?

Sorry, as of now it doesnt look like it

 

[happyluckynexustime]

I turn on 4G only when needed, disabled live wallpaper and Google location services. No weather widgets etc. The only thing I wanted automatically syncing was my Gmail and some Facebook notifications so I forwarded my Gmail to my SMS then turned off sync using the power control widget. Now I get all day battery life with out a problem. My deep sleep time is also above 90% now which it never was before.