Related
Just posting my experiences with my Wizard, but before that, my uasge pattern is as follows,
Outlook Push Email:- about 150 - 180 messages a day
Windows Live:- about 20 a day
Text Messages:- about 80 a day
Phone usage:- apporx 2 hrs talktime
No other net usage
Battery lasts for about 5 - 6 hrs
Memory lasts for 8-10 hrs!!
Now for my experiences,
1) Every time I get receive or send a message, I lose program memory. any message of the 3 types mentioned above. I've seen this in all the ROMs that i've used and its been quite a few now.
2) Memory drain is exponentially quicker if I have my SD card in the phone. I've started removing it and keeping it seperately
3) Some memory can be recovered through FreeUp Ram (SKTools) or Oxios Memory, but the amount available keeps on reducing with time
The link between tmail and memory drain is the most obvious to me 'cos i can actually see it happening. Every time I get a message, or send one, the program memory available after i complete the task, including closing tmail, is less than what was available before. I use BatteryStatus to keep track, but have seen the same thing without BS as well, using SPB Pocket Plus.
I have to reset every day, towards the end of the day, or the phone starts behaving like a dog. Its like "press a button, wait a weekend, and then move forward... :-/
I'm probably just looking for some input on whether this is a problem that others face as well, and if yes, what solutions / work arounds exist to tackle it.
Thanks
--sry wrong idea--
just thought about sd power management trick ,but if tmail is using card, its nonsense idea to try..
memory leak isn't clear for me, though..
could you please tell me why?
What rom/radio are you running? Your sig says Orwell and 2.69, are those still accurate?
yes, that accurate. IPL & SPL are 3.08... also, tmail isnt using SD... i dont keep the card in the phone anymore...
try a newer rom and try lowering your radio to 2.19. I would try the rom first and then the radio.
I had terrible battery life on orwells, but after upgrading to a newer WM6 rom the battery life became much better.
If the rom doesn't help enough, try changing your radio.
Interesting...
Yes, if you can, check to see if a rom change helps with your memory leak. You use your phone a lot more than I do, but I have noticed a small memory leak in every rom I've tried. Maybe you've put your finger on it!
Anyway, you could also install BatteryStatus and report the idle cpu usage. Your custom extended rom could be contributing to your poor battery life.
Regards,
idle CPU usage is between 3 - 7%... battery drain at idle goes down to 70mA... thats without windows live, but with outlook push mail... also have a problem with battery status as it doesnt update dynamically... just stays with one reading till another program or task is launched or it decides that its time to refresh... refresh time is 5 secs, but it seldom is... cpu usage gets updated every 5 secs though... i'm gonna try moving to the Tmobile 2.26 and then to Faria's kitchen rom... will be done in a couple of hrs, but will need a working day to test the results...
i'm still more concerned about the memory, though... battery, i can handle... have an extended battery on the way which is rated for 2400 mA... should last a day, im hoping... but i do really dislike restarting the phone every day...
thanks a million for the interest... im sure there's light at the end of this tunnel as well, now that there are a few members interested...
cheers...
I'm attempting to try to increase my battery life so it lasts longer than 12 hours (~13 seems to be my limit). (I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of those who can run the phone 24+ hours) Though it's somewhat painful, I'm shutting down most the programs I have running in the background. However there seems to be a number that like to restart even after I think I've disabled their startup, widgets, notifications, etc.
Is there a way to make sure programs that you install don't run? Or at least don't launch during start up? Perhaps something like msconfig in windows?
Thanks.
Raleran said:
I'm attempting to try to increase my battery life so it lasts longer than 12 hours (~13 seems to be my limit). (I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of those who can run the phone 24+ hours) Though it's somewhat painful, I'm shutting down most the programs I have running in the background. However there seems to be a number that like to restart even after I think I've disabled their startup, widgets, notifications, etc.
Is there a way to make sure programs that you install don't run? Or at least don't launch during start up? Perhaps something like msconfig in windows?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Killing background tasks will only decrease your battery life. When an application goes to the background, it sits in memory but does NOT consume any CPU power. since the memory is in solid state, it requires no power to stay in that state. By constantly killing background applications, it will need to start up, reinitialize, and consume more power then if you had just left it alone. Also, long term performance will be negatively affected, even if you do expereince a small short term performance gain. the Android OS is designed at the core level to have applications behave this way, and modifying that behavior will make for a worse experience.
asrrin29 said:
Killing background tasks will only decrease your battery life. When an application goes to the background, it sits in memory but does NOT consume any CPU power. since the memory is in solid state, it requires no power to stay in that state. By constantly killing background applications, it will need to start up, reinitialize, and consume more power then if you had just left it alone. Also, long term performance will be negatively affected, even if you do expereince a small short term performance gain. the Android OS is designed at the core level to have applications behave this way, and modifying that behavior will make for a worse experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, this is the first I've heard this. I don't remember reading this in the various battery optimization guides.
Still is there a was to stop things short of uninstalling? For example, I want to stop using the Yahoo Mail app but don't want to install yet. I went through all the options I could to disable checking/notifications, etc but it still pops back into memory constantly.
I assume youve tried the obvious, turn off WiFi (3G) and screen when not actively using it?! Those are the big batt.-eaters
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
asrrin29 said:
Killing background tasks will only decrease your battery life. When an application goes to the background, it sits in memory but does NOT consume any CPU power. since the memory is in solid state, it requires no power to stay in that state. By constantly killing background applications, it will need to start up, reinitialize, and consume more power then if you had just left it alone. Also, long term performance will be negatively affected, even if you do expereince a small short term performance gain. the Android OS is designed at the core level to have applications behave this way, and modifying that behavior will make for a worse experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Documentation? As far as I have read an application does not go into any type of dehydrated state when running in the background / minimized. It can do anything it wants including using CPU cycles.
I do agree that most applications do not need to be killed with a task killer but leaving 3D games (for example) running in the background could hurt your battery. Also not all applications are progammed with ther same fore thought and skill level.
I get about 33% more runtime out of my battery using a task killer to kill specific applications that I know I do not want running in the background.
Streaker said:
I assume youve tried the obvious, turn off WiFi (3G) and screen when not actively using it?! Those are the big batt.-eaters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I leave wifi on since I'm usually in range. It's more efficient than 3g right? I alway sleep the device when I'm done. I still have huge percentages on the screen when looking at the battery usage. I'm trying a completely black screen now.
Mainly your widgets and icons and stuff still cover large portions of it, so: a black screen will help, not but alot.
Also, to keep items in RAM, to the second poster... What do you think is keeping those items in RAM?
Ummm... It's the CPU.
Task Killers won't help you on RAM usage at all (Because Android will automatically shuffle them out if it has to, or so I've read... I've yet to hit max memory). Task Killers DO help you as far as battery use goes, though... Keeping the browser killed if you aren't using it, etc.
Bjd223 said:
Documentation? As far as I have read an application does not go into any type of dehydrated state when running in the background / minimized. It can do anything it wants including using CPU cycles.
I do agree that most applications do not need to be killed with a task killer but leaving 3D games (for example) running in the background could hurt your battery. Also not all applications are progammed with ther same fore thought and skill level.
I get about 33% more runtime out of my battery using a task killer to kill specific applications that I know I do not want running in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should clarify. I guess the term I meant to use is "suspended." If a program is actively "running" in the background, it will use CPU cycles. But if you simply stopped using a program, say for example the xda app, and returned to your homescreen, the application stays "suspended" in the background and consumes no CPU cycles until you go back to it. Now services that are updating, such as email or SMS, will use CPU cycles in the background because they are still actively running. But if you want to conserve battery life you can simply disable the notifications from most of these programs.
asrrin29 said:
I should clarify. I guess the term I meant to use is "suspended." If a program is actively "running" in the background, it will use CPU cycles. But if you simply stopped using a program, say for example the xda app, and returned to your homescreen, the application stays "suspended" in the background and consumes no CPU cycles until you go back to it. Now services that are updating, such as email or SMS, will use CPU cycles in the background because they are still actively running. But if you want to conserve battery life you can simply disable the notifications from most of these programs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app itself at that point may not be but the Android OS still does to maintain that suspended state.
I have some applications I rarely use or even some that I've never used but may want to in the future. I see absolutely no benefit in keeping these applications in the background. Further more, I've noticed a signficant drain on the battery when extra applications are running in the background. I'm sure it's not all of them, but I've yet to discover who exactly the culpit is. Right now I suspect it's the NPR app, perhaps due to data use?
The point is, there are perfectly good reasons to keep some apps in the background, and perfectly good reasons to kill others - or perferrably not have them start up at all unless I do it myself. Could be due to data usage (especially if you do not have unlimited data), could be due to concerns about excessive cpu usage. There really should be a clear method in which you can stop applications from opening on their own.
You can use the program "Autostarts" to keep applications from starting at startup. With it you can also prevent things from launching under a number of other situations. That might be what you are looking for. Just do a google search for the APK as I don't think it is in the market.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Shuggins said:
You can use the program "Autostarts" to keep applications from starting at startup. With it you can also prevent things from launching under a number of other situations. That might be what you are looking for. Just do a google search for the APK as I don't think it is in the market.
Wouldn't tasker also help?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my AOSP on XDANDROID MSM using XDA App
To me, it's not a matter of "task killer or not", but rather when and where to use one. And I think it's simple: Don't bother, unless you suspect a specific app is doing something you don't want it to do in the background. Then, just kill that specific app and leave everything else alone. A Task manager that shows CPU% for each process can be handy for this as well.
I generally try to avoid killing tasks, but one night I had 50% battery on my phone and after about 2 hours or so I took it out of my pocket to make a phone call, and it was very hot and had about 12% of batter left -- something was running wild that shouldn't have been (I think it was Pandora, even though it was not currently playing any music!) So, background apps do occasionally run out of control, and you do need to occasionally kill them, but do it on an "as needed" basis.
Raleran said:
I'm attempting to try to increase my battery life so it lasts longer than 12 hours (~13 seems to be my limit). (I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of those who can run the phone 24+ hours) Though it's somewhat painful, I'm shutting down most the programs I have running in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless the background process is syncing data, it won't eat your battery. So instead of wasting your time, you should focus on other energy hogs. Things like screen brightness, bluetooth, wifi, and gps.
Shuggins said:
You can use the program "Autostarts" to keep applications from starting at startup. With it you can also prevent things from launching under a number of other situations. That might be what you are looking for. Just do a google search for the APK as I don't think it is in the market.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed Advanced Task Killer from the Market. It lets you kill all running applications including itself.
durrence
jsmith8858 said:
To me, it's not a matter of "task killer or not", but rather when and where to use one. And I think it's simple: Don't bother, unless you suspect a specific app is doing something you don't want it to do in the background. Then, just kill that specific app and leave everything else alone. A Task manager that shows CPU% for each process can be handy for this as well.
I generally try to avoid killing tasks, but one night I had 50% battery on my phone and after about 2 hours or so I took it out of my pocket to make a phone call, and it was very hot and had about 12% of batter left -- something was running wild that shouldn't have been (I think it was Pandora, even though it was not currently playing any music!) So, background apps do occasionally run out of control, and you do need to occasionally kill them, but do it on an "as needed" basis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or an auto-killer would've killed it before it killed your battery by 38% lol
Task Killings are bad, mmmkay...
Slightly off topic:
To help conserve battery power,
Use an all black desktop background since the black areas dont use battery power.
Hmm, people in this thread have said a few things that I haven't heard or seen much before. Specifically that killing apps could decrease battery life. When I first downloaded advanced task killer I tended to kill most things. I slowly backed off and now I've been watching what launches and what tends to come back and not kill those (mail apps, widgets, performance watchers, etc). The second is that not having a black background doesn't necessarily improve battery life. Makes sense considering I have icons everywhere on my screen.
@Shuggins - Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. I've downloaded it but now I have to, er charge my battery a bit before I can take a close look at it.
@jsmith8858 - Are you running setCPU? A couple days ago I noticed my battery running pretty hot. I stopped using setCPU and the battery cooled down a lot. I've used setCPU since them without the heat issue so I'm not sure what was going on.
Well during todays iteration I ran for about 12 hours (typical). I had a couple short phone calls, 2 email accounts syncing as well as other bg syncing processes. I did eat up 30% in an hour messing with a game. I'd probably have 13-14 hours if I didn't play anything (but if I didn't what's the point of the phone . Still, as much as I love it the screen is killing me. Guess there's nothing to do about it though (usually brightness is all the way down, turn it off when I'm not using it, using a darker background). I didn't kill any of my background processes today. I'm going to set up that Autostarts program and start auto-killing various programs tomorrow.
You can try using autokiller and art it to extreme, but I don't recommend this
Sent from my HTC Dream using XDA App
so i installed advanced task manager and for example i have google maps opend and i select it and kill it via advanced task manager BUT if i go in settings>aplications>running services google maps is still there whit 1 runing process......
is there any program that wil clouse for good every process a program has?
also sometimes if i check battery use, google maps is top of the list but if i check it in running proceses or whit advanced task manager google maps aint running
whit normal use my battery barely lasts me tru the day i had it 100% at 8 am now its 3 pm and i have 62% left with 15 mins of navigation use....thats all noting else
How long have you had the device? Mine lasts a day so far and I bought my NS on the 27th. I might have to calibrate the battery. You do not need the task killer. Nexus S has the manage data where you can force stop running services you don't need. Also Android does garbage collection which will manage your memory.
GB is supposed to improve battery life and given time you find your battery will improve.
Search on the threads for battery Calibration or goto
http://hemorrdroids.net/how-to-make-your-battery-last/
look at point 9.
Hope this helps
Tom
You need to get out of the iPhone Jailbreak poor memory management frame of mind where more free memory is a good thing.
Android (2.1 and higher) is very efficient at handling memory; it will do much better than you with a task manager will.
It's pointless to kill apps with a manual task manager, except in the very rare case that the app has run amok and is actually using up juice/cpu, because Android will just re-open those apps. You're actually hurting battery life (some will argue) by killing an app that you didn't need to because Android will just re-open it.
The mantra in Android is "free memory is wasted memory." In theory the apps are just sort of pre-loaded to have them ready and waiting to use in the background when you want them. They'll load faster that way. In the meantime, they're just sitting there not using any juice.
On your laptop/desktop you generally don't go into the task manager and kill everything off, there's no need to, and on the Androids it's the same thing. Leave it alone unless there's a really good reason to muck around with it.
That said, your battery life doesn't sound like most reports in the Nexus S community. My Nexus S, and the reports of others, is getting TERRIFIC battery life. This is by far the best battery life on any Android phone I've owned, and it's on a par with my iPhone 4 and 3GS devices.
Are you using Google Latitude? That seems to be a battery killer via Maps for some. Go into Maps settings and make sure it is off.
I use my phone a lot, it's on for hours each day with me reading twitter, text messages, looking up things on the web, dictating myself notes, etc, and I've only once even gotten the phone down to the 15% battery warning in 18 hour days.
funstuffalex said:
so i installed advanced task manager and for example i have google maps opend and i select it and kill it via advanced task manager BUT if i go in settings>aplications>running services google maps is still there whit 1 runing process......
is there any program that wil clouse for good every process a program has?
also sometimes if i check battery use, google maps is top of the list but if i check it in running proceses or whit advanced task manager google maps aint running
whit normal use my battery barely lasts me tru the day i had it 100% at 8 am now its 3 pm and i have 62% left with 15 mins of navigation use....thats all noting else
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
P.S. you mentioned NAVIGATION; you're aware that Navigation runs in the background if you haven't reached your destination yet, right? Even if you go to the home screen or put the phone to sleep, Navigation is still running. You have to reach your destination, or manually exit Navigation from one of the menu key options while it's in the foreground. Could that be your problem?
Also, you can grab an app from the Market called AutoStarts, and it will let you mark any app as not being allowed to start automatically after certain events, such as booting up, but once you manually start an app, it's back in the queue for Android's memory management.
If you really feel the need to have something doing more than Android's default memory management settings, on some phones and ROMs I've had good results with the app called Autokiller; this isn't a task killer, and it's poorly named for what it does, which is tweak the system defaults for free memory. Try it on strict or aggressive if you really feel the need. I haven't installed it on my Nexus S, no need to in my opinion.
i have the phone for 4 days now yea the first 2 days i used it alot and charged it like 3 times in 2 days(let it drop to 5% then charged it to 100%)
i am not using latitude, i know that part about navigation and i always check to make sure its cloused after im done whit it and my screen brigthneess is set to lowest
il give autostart a go it sounds good if it really dose wat it seaz it dose
it may also help to not have GPS enabled when not actually using an application that requires GPS
Did a search but found nothing substantial on this:
Does anyone notice their Google Maps is constantly running? And I don't mean in the cached menu. It's running in the "used" column (left column of the "Running" apps screen.
I'm certain Latitude is off, in fact, I unchecked all the location update options and then signed out of Latitude.
What's causing Maps to constantly stay open? Even after I close it and Stop it from the Running apps menu, it reappears moments later by itself.
Anyone know a definitive answer as to why?
onthecouchagain said:
Did a search but found nothing substantial on this:
Does anyone notice their Google Maps is constantly running? And I don't mean in the cached menu. It's running in the "used" column (left column of the "Running" apps screen.
I'm certain Latitude is off, in fact, I unchecked all the location update options and then signed out of Latitude.
What's causing Maps to constantly stay open? Even after I close it and Stop it from the Running apps menu, it reappears moments later by itself.
Anyone know a definitive answer as to why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer I gave to someone asking about Task Killers earlier today in another thread pretty much answers your concerns here. I'll quote it below.
In addition to the explanation of why you shouldn't worry about killing apps I'll add that on my phone Maps is also always running, but it's not sucking up any resources I need (like juice or cpu) so I don't care that it's "running"...and neither should you unless you see it misbehaving.
Android's memory manager has decided that Maps is one you'll need or want running, so it's going to keep re-loading it until something else with a higher priority takes its place.
If you really just can't stand that it's running or it's affecting performance of the phone, there's a root-required app in the Market called AutoStarts, which let's you mark apps as not being allowed to start automatically under a particular situation. You could use that to mark Maps as not able to start on bootup or whatever, but be aware, Android will just load up a different app to fill up that unused memory space...
distortedloop said:
In Android, free memory is wasted memory. People not knowledgable in how Android manages memory think that they're accomplishing something by killing tasks in the hopes of freeing up memory. It doesn't work that way.
Android has a threshold of what amount of free RAM should be maintained, and then does its best to fill up the remaining RAM with apps and stuff you might want to use later; it's like pre-loading your stuff so it loads faster.
The irony of people using task killers to free memory up to "improve performance" and "save battery" is that in most situations they're doing just the opposite. If you kill an app with a task killer, Android will frequently just re-open it in the background to frill up that empty memory space back to its thresholds, thus using up more cpu and juice to reload it.
There are apps or even terminal commands (for root) that let you change that threshold number, and on other devices (2.2 and lower) for me, tweaking that number did sometimes make the phone feel snappier, but it was real trial and error to get it right. I haven't felt the need for it on the Gingerbread Nexus S.
If you're interested in trying something like that, check out AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. Don't let that name fool you, it's a poorly named app, this is NOT a task killer app, it's just a GUI interface to the minfree settings that tell Android's own memory manager what thresholds to use.
There's another one I used to use MinFreeMgr or something like that, but I can't find a link.
And finally, there are limited times that killing tasks is beneficial, one would be if you have an app that's run amok and won't exit on its own. I'm sure there are others, but it's usually a good idea to avoid that practice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes it happens to me, but a reboot solves this issue.
Thanks Distorted for the explanation. A few more questions:
How come if Google feels it's necessary to keep it open, it's not in the Cache menu? They feel they have to keep it up and running? It can't be cached? Why? I'm mostly just curious about this.
Secondly, also for curiosity's sake, how much percentage does Maps show in your Battery Usage menu? It shows about 2% for me, and that's without actually using it. I'm guessing the 2% is just from running by itself.
It's not detrimental to my performance or my battery (2% is small), but I'm justu wondering why it needs to stay open, and what others' readings are in terms of batt. usage.
I've never noticed Map in my battery statistics as something listed. It's been running all day since I responded earlier, and not there.
2% may or may not be an issue, it depends on what else is used up. And remember, that 2% doesn't mean it used 2% of your total battery charge, it means it's used 2% of what's been used so far.
You lost me with cache menu; not sure what you mean there.
I just peeked at Maps in the Applications/Running apps again. If you click on it in there, it shows 1 process and 1 service. It looks like the service is the "network location services". I'm just wild guessing now, but perhaps it's related to having "use wirelss networks" or use "GPS satellites" enabled in Location & Security menu of Settings. Try turning those off and seeing what happens.
Also, you know that in the battery history screen, you can tap on anything that's listed there and it will give you more details on a new screen? Could you tap that on yours for Maps and see what it actually says? Maybe show a screen shot if you can capture one.
Sign out of latitude that's what is using it.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
leerobson99 said:
Sign out of latitude that's what is using it.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said in his first post that "I'm certain Latitude is off, in fact, I unchecked all the location update options and then signed out of Latitude."
I'm curious what other locations aware apps or activities he might have enabled.
When you go to the Running Applications screen, if you click on the lower right of the screen (somewhere near the "Ram" or "200 MB free" indicator) it'll switch to the cache screen.
Anyway, after a night's full battery charge, Maps no longer shows in the Battery Usage screen, but if it shows up there again, I'll click on it and share more info. I do have "Use Wireless Networks" checked, so perhaps that's the culprit? GPS is unchecked. I only check it when I need to use Maps or Navigation. But I'm not running any location update apps.
But again, it seems it's not doing anything detrimental to my CPU or battery, so this is more of a curiosity's sake. Will report if I find anything new.
onthecouchagain said:
Thanks Distorted for the explanation. A few more questions:
How come if Google feels it's necessary to keep it open, it's not in the Cache menu? They feel they have to keep it up and running? It can't be cached? Why? I'm mostly just curious about this.
Secondly, also for curiosity's sake, how much percentage does Maps show in your Battery Usage menu? It shows about 2% for me, and that's without actually using it. I'm guessing the 2% is just from running by itself.
It's not detrimental to my performance or my battery (2% is small), but I'm justu wondering why it needs to stay open, and what others' readings are in terms of batt. usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed it running also after I do a reboot but usually after a few hours the system usually moves it to the cache menu. I have tried to force stop the process but it will usually come back a little later. I noticed the same thing with the android market.
*Disclaimer* This is all from a personal experience and testing/research from a long time android user, what I have discovered over time and has helped me and some friends. This will work whether your rooted OR not. I kept it as basic as I can so everyone can benefit. If you dont like what you read and disagree, or want to add something PM me, Ill change/add and give credit to you. Hopefully, this can grow with the community.
*Rooted Section Will be Added*
*When I charge my battery I usually drain it all the way down or as much as i can (around 20% left) then charge plugged in till green, then power down and charge for another hour or so. Not sure if this matters or not but seems to help me out try it!*
This guide will help you if your rooted or non-rooted, all the apps I talk about I honestly have no ties to the devs. I don't use any SUPER AWESOME AMAZING BATTERY SAVER 5000 apps or anything like that. Those mostly just turn ur radios off and on and kill apps in the background. In my experience a lot of them cause syncing issues with my e-mail and other notifications. I like to receive my information instantly not have an app waiting for me to turn my screen on to check for updates.
About my personal setup: Basically, I want my phone to last me all day but still perform well with a heavy use, WITHOUT needing to constantly change settings to save battery. With what I have here Im able to keep my Sensation running for a full day of moderate-heavy use (7:30am to around 10pm) with its STOCK battery (Did damn well on my Evo 4G too). Days of very minor use Ive gone into the second day with 60% + battery. Yes, I use all my home screens and have a good amount of widgets, I love sense and its widgets. I play games, surf the web, do a lot of texting, listen to a lot of music, decent amount of fbing and email, usually take a few pictures a day. Half my day is wifi/other is mobile data.
Here goes the real basics, mostly common sense here not trying to insult anyone. Feel free to browse thru it quick (green text) if your not totally new to the android scene, whats after it will be a good read for noobs and vets.
*I use the power control widget, make getting to a lot of settings quicker. Why waste battery digging thru menus?*
Basics:
-Screen brightness: (duh ) these pretty screens eat battery brighter=quicker drain naturally and from my experience leaving it on Auto Brightness kills more battery too. Each time your phone pulls information from the sensor to decide on how bright it should adjust itself too.
-GPS: If GPS is on it should not effect battery unless an app is using it and you see the GPS icon on your notification bar. I noticed a very slight increase in mA discharge when i had it enabled, to be safe leave it off if you dont use it extremely frequently.
Location thru mobile networks: Not to hard on battery. I leave mine on it does add drain but it takes away from my weather widgets updating when Im traveling.
-Bluetooth: Moderate battery drain. I honestly don't use it at all myself but if you do try your best to keep it off when not in use.
-Wifi: Android has gotten a lot better at managing wifi over the past few years. It doesn't drain that bad on battery and it shuts off/on periodically on its own when screen is off depending on whats using it.
Google Back-Up: Takes a little juice here and there no biggie. I dont use it just because I like to fresh install my apps when I try a new rom, run into less problems that way.
2G/3G/4G: This varies phone to phone, the slower speed the better battery life. If you know your not going to be using 4G for a while turn it off. I leave mine on 4G or wifi all day with my sensation. When I had Sprint and my Evo I would leave it off most of the time. Depending on your carrier and how their data works this is a big one. T-Mobile seems to handle well, Sprint and Verizon's 4G Ive seen eat an insane amount of battery.
Sync/Background Data: I lumped them together because sync is pretty much reliant on background data. These kill a lot of your battery in general. It syncs your apps (email, facebook, google data, contacts, etc.), the periodic checks your apps do to check for and download new emails and notifications, using background data (data still transmits when screens off). I always leave these on and still manage great battery life, I like things instant if I wanted to wait Id just wait till i got in front of a PC. Sync and Background data are the settings most battery saving apps control because they really can help your battery if you turn it off. You can control what core apps sync in settings>accounts and sync. Or the power widget that 95% of android phones have has it on there. I recommend minimizing the amount of apps you allow background data with, example: WeatherBug first launch it asks if it can automatically update itself in the background for apps were thats not necessary hit no.
Radio/Airplane Mode: Pretty self explanatory, turns off your connection to your wireless provider. No point in ever turning it off in my eyes, your phones no longer a phone.
What has really helped me with my battery life (non-basics):
There is a lot to be said when it comes down to 2.2+ android phones and whether they need a task killer anymore or not. Since Ive had a lot of android phones and a few now that are 2.2+ Ive done a lot of testing. I usually go about a 2 weeks on one idea or new task killer and keep a close eye on battery drainage using Battery Monitor Widget, free app in the market. It tells you exactly how much of your battery is being drained without killing battery itself. Each phone/rom settles at a different average mA lower the better. In my experience if I can keep my phone anywhere under 100mA when idle im doing good. This held true on both the Evo 4G and my Sensation. Some ASOP roms i could get down to the 30's but for sense under 100mA is good. Keep in mind you will get the occasionally spike here and there its just android and/or apps in the background. You can view the a chart of the battery data in Battery Monitor.
Instead of boring you guys with each task killer Ive used and its results, Ill just get down to what I found out in the end.
Basically, the way android 2.2+ works it really isn't necessary to run a task killer it does a decent job removing apps from memory when you need more memory. But at the same time I found running a task killer periodically (BUT not killing frequently used apps) results in a lower average mA drain leading to overall better battery life.
The best application I have used has to go Automatic Task Killer , trust me Ive used a lot from the top free ones to a few of the more popular paid ones. What this task killer does is kill a selection of apps you allow it too every time your phones screen shuts off and goes idle. On Automatic Task Killer's first boot your shown a screen of every application that could at some point run in the background on your phone. This part sucks a little bit but it is worth it, you need to select which of the apps you want to allow it to kill automatically. It does not kill foreground apps the ones you currently have open on the screen aka a browser or a game. Example your playing NFS: Shift and your boss walks by so you quickly pause and hit the power button turning off the screen, next time you turn the screen on it will kill all other allowed background apps but your game will still be up front and center.
Now the trick is to go thru and set it to kill apps you know your phone won't automatically just restart or you don't use 90% of the time. So don't select things like Dialer, Contacts, Clock, Calendar, Messages or apps you constantly use/check such as a third party SMS app or your main E-Mail Client or third party keyboards (various by person and what you use most). Letting the app automatically kill those is just going to lead to worse battery life because your phone will just restart it each time leading to more CPU cycles (not what you want and part of the reason some consider task killers bad things).
Also, when using any task killer and killing the proper apps sense runs smoother, a big deal with sense 3.0.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
*ROOT Section (now that we have s-off )
Everything posted above can be done on any rom, rooted or none. There has been a lot of posts on "freezing apps" that you dont need or typically use, which does in fact really help battery life. Since, we (by we i mean sensation users) now have a permanent root this is my tiny second part of the guide for rooted devices.
I dont freeze my apps I prefer them to be gone for good if its something I dont see myself using or its bloat that came with my phone/rom. Since 98% of us will be using custom roms now this usually isnt an issue since most dev's r good at what they do and remove all the bs we dont need or normally use. Still there is some apps we may not want on our phones so for that I use SystemApp Remover . Its a great App for people who dont want to have to worry about going in manually and getting rid of system apps.
Its just basically an Uninstaller that allows you to access any and every app on the phone for you to uninstall (thats y roots needed). For me I just go in an drop the apps I know i wont use. A lot of roms come with carrier add-ons and such, those I normally delete as well as a few HTC sense widgets and apps I see no need for. It will free up space and increase your phones battery life with most things you delete.
Now, be careful. You are prompted upon opening SystemApp Remover that messing in system apps is dangerous and it is. If your not sure what something is DONT touch it, simply do a google search or ask around to see if its safe to remove first.
Re-calibrate Battery: After you flash a new rom or start using a new battery, you should use your recovery (CWM or other) to Wipe Battery Stats. Before you do this make sure your battery is at 100% and has been on the charger for over an hour with the fully charged green led on. This will allow your device to better drain your battery and can really help battery life.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
Thanks to people who have contributed:
-JadeSoturi
thanks for sharing the experience
i'm trying Automatic Task Killer
devine might said:
thanks for sharing the experience
i'm trying Automatic Task Killer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem. let me kno how it goes for you
very good info! would also help if you specify which versions of android.....
Thanks for the info, hope it will increase my battery life to last a day
Airfaire said:
very good info! would also help if you specify which versions of android.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im on my sensation so 2.3.3. Been getting a lot of hate on the sensation forums since task killers are officially deemed no longer needed, but this method really helps me with battery life hoping itd help some of u too
Watchdog> then any task killer
ADR6300
Hmm, ill try auto task killer as well, tried a few others.
I use JuiceDefender, I like it. It manages my connectivity pretty well and it does help.
This is excellent, many thanks. As a converted WM 6.5 user I have to say, I am enjoying android considerably more and I prefer it to the Metro interface of WP7. It's nice to know the little tricks to get the most out of it. Thanks again. ^_^
DarkSwanKnight said:
I use JuiceDefender, I like it. It manages my connectivity pretty well and it does help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here, JD works pretty good
TastyTorge said:
same here, JD works pretty good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth getting the full one or will the free version do?
Sent from my HTC HD2 running TyphooN CyanogenMod 7 via XDA Premium App
Thanks
Thanks for the info, and for sharing, i will try the different methods
i havent really bothered with task killers but ive found reducing the brightness and disabling data and sync makes my battery last alot longer. i just re enable when i need them.
also, i downloaded setcpu and added a profile for while the screen is off. that helps alot. the drain is about 5% with the screen off after every 3 or 4 hours.
Very good info thanks
You had me impressed until you mentioned task killers. Absolutely horrible...
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G
Martin_Toy said:
Worth getting the full one or will the free version do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full version is much better.
It's killer app indeed. I think many of it's features should be natively included in android.
Options like "Turn off 3G/EDGE when connected to Wi-Fi", "Turn off all radios when screen is off", "Turn off Wi-Fi after x minutes if it doesn't connect to a network", "Set screen brightess to minimal when battery is low", etc....it wouldn't be that hard to implement and battery life, perhaps most criticized aspect of Android, would improve immensely.
fpu
floating_point_unit said:
Full version is much better.
It's killer app indeed. I think many of it's features should be natively included in android.
Options like "Turn off 3G/EDGE when connected to Wi-Fi", "Turn off all radios when screen is off", "Turn off Wi-Fi after x minutes if it doesn't connect to a network", "Set screen brightess to minimal when battery is low", etc....it wouldn't be that hard to implement and battery life, perhaps most criticized aspect of Android, would improve immensely.
fpu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your mobile network DOES turn off when connected to wifi, and if all radios turned off when the screen went off, how would you ever get calls or emails with the phone in your pocket? The wifi after x minutes would be a nice feature, but I don't like things touching my screen brightness.
Thank you for your information.