I had seen one too many posts about people asking and complaining about battery drain issues on their G1 phones and it gets tiring to read it every 5-10 posts. So I decided to create this thinktank to pool in ideas from the community and create a set of best practices to maximize mileage of our phones. I'm currently using a HTC Dream with stock battery and my battery life is pretty good with light to medium usage. I would like to contribute to the community by creating this thinktank thread. I hope this can help as a guide for myself and for people who have been having numerous battery drain issues on 5.0.7-DS and variants of this distribution.
This is NOT the ultimate end-all solution for your battery problems. These are just steps to tackle the problem. If you want minimum to no battery drain keep it plugged to socket or plug it in a car battery.
If you would like to contribute your experience, or make any corrections please do not hesitate to post and I'll include them if they seem fit and attach your name as reference. I'll also do my best to give credit where credit is due. Please see the references at the bottom part of the post. Please do not clutter this thread by doing "I'll try this" or "It doesnt work" post. Its more important for all of us to know WHY it work/didnt work. Stick to topic, and be constructive. Be intelligent. Think first.
0. Update your Radio
Updating your G1's radio to the currently-latest version (2.22.23.02) should give you better battery life as well as signal reception (you can always switch back to 2.22.19.26I if it doesn't work out for you)
1. Recalibrate
Take note that BATTERY STATS ARE WIPED whenever you flash a new rom. (since full wipes are required whenever changing ROMS, and /data is where the battery info is.) This usually leads to inaccurate battery readings.
Here's how you recalibrate properly:
- Charge your phone till the GREEN LED shows up. Leave it for another hour.
- While plugged, go to recovery and wipe your battery stats.
- Right after the phone is booted up and settled, unplug and use as per normal till it shuts off. Then charge as per normal.
2. Disabling some basic phone hardware functionality
Turn off GPS, WIFI when not in use. And brightness set to manageable levels. Even loudspeaker. This is self-explanatory. Automation software like LOCALE can be useful, but usually all it takes for you to turn off your ringer, or turn on wifi when you're at a specific area is just a press on the Power control widget.
3. Overclocked kernels
Running on full overclock speed (by default is 528mhz or even higher on some kernels) will drain your battery faster and you'll notice significant heat increase when you're using your phone along with 3G.
Although im using pershoots 576mhz overclock kernel, I do not max it to 576 unless needed. The reason why I use his kernel is due to its UNDERVOLT capability. I have set up my phone using SetCPU
MAXFREQ: 480,
MINFREQ: 176
CPU Governor : ONDEMAND.
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Usually I would set my phone to 384mhz if im going to stay on it longer (texting/long browsing etc). On the sleep mode I set it to 122mhz to 384mhz.
4. Tame your widgets, minimize using them.
Widgets that constantly connect to the internet, or constantly refreshing on the screen to update data being shown on the screen at extremely small intervals would also give you battery drain. Minimizing widgets can help minimize applications running in the background (free up memory) and avoiding your phone going on "partial sleep". Also tweak your widgets to update as less as manageably possible. If for some reason you can't see the next suggestion.
Aside from that you might want to disable Background syncing and do manual syncing. Aside from saving your data plan, it also saves battery life. You can disable it by doing the following:
Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync > Background Data - OFF
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manually update your facebook widget or contacts/gmail by
Menu > Accounts & Sync > Facebook (or GMail) > Sync.
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5. 3G, 2G, switch off, or automate it.
You'll notice that inside the default settings for mobile networks. Setting to 2G will "save battery" which is actually true. The connection will definitely be slower, but if you like your phone to last longer throughout the day, either switch to 2G or turn it off altogether.
Also, similar to juice defender, I use 2g/3g toggle and toggle data as and when needed.
Another suggestion that I just found out recently is the use of Juice Defender app [d]. It automatically turns on or off your APN settings at intervals. You might want to try to look at that app if you cannot do #4
6. Disable live wallpapers. Auto Updating Sense
Remember that 2.1 isnt actually built for our old phones. and livewallpapers do require cpu/gpu processes. These are also running in the background and may run while your phone is asleep. So turning them off will benefit you.
7. Refrain from using Automated task killers and choose what you kill.
If you see that the app you had been trying to kill a few times keeps coming back. Stop killing it. Everytime you do, and whenever it respawns, CPU flies to 100%. Go back to #4.
8. Disable Market notifications.
- Open the Market application.
- Select the Menu key.
- Select Downloads.
- Select the Menu key again.
- Select Notifications.
- Select the Do not notify me radio button. press [Ok]
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9. Make your phone sleep.
Open your spareparts application, Go to End button behavior. Select "Go to sleep"
10. Under the hood tweaks
10.1 Extending Wifi scan intervals
Edit the wifi scan interval in /system/build.sapphire.prop (or build.trout.prop if you have a G1)
# Time between scans in seconds. Keep it high to minimize battery drain.
# This only affects the case in which there are remembered access points,
# but none are in range.
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval = 45
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Changing this number to just 90 second will half your wifi scans. Obviously larger numbers can mean less wifi scans which means more battery life, though it may take a little longer for your phone to pick up a remembered access point when in range. This is not just a CM/Eclair thing, it can also work for Donut phones.
This setting needs a reboot after editing the file. Edit it with Root Explorer, or nano as root if you have CM5, or pull the file with adb then edit it then push it back.
11. Remove your phone from your pocket whenever you can.
Body heat deteriorates battery life no kidding! there had been already studies to back it. I keep my phone either on my hand or outside of my pocket to keep it cool. Do whatever is manageable in your environment. If you're using your phone as a music player streaming using streamfurious and stuff. dont let your body heat add to the heat already been generated by your phone itself.
References / Updates :
[a] cyanogen recalibrating batteries : http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Troubleshooting#Battery_recalibration
thanks to mejorguille for correction on /data and wiping.
pershoot UV kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=666850
[c] SetCPU main site : http://www.pokedev.com/setcpu/ - Thanks also to ShadowCH for tip.
[d] JuiceDefender : http://www.latedroid.com/2010/01/juicedefender.html -
- Thanks to shohid1234 for 3G-2G toggle
[e] Thanks to Jaymzz for tip on disabling market: http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?/topic/94-i-fixed-my-battery-drain/
[06/02] thanks to Arkain2k for tip #0
[06/04] Thanks to Foo_Blyat's tip for disabling background sync and manual updates for fb/gmail (item 4) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6670907&postcount=36
[06/04] Thanks to Super Jamie for tip 10.1 extending wifi scans http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6684954&postcount=49
reserved in case something nice comes up
10. Remove your phone from your pocket whenever you can.
Body heat deteriorates battery life no kidding! there had been already studies to back it. I keep my phone either on my hand or outside of my pocket to keep it cool. Do whatever is manageable in your environment. If you're using your phone as a music player streaming using streamfurious and stuff. dont let your body heat add to the heat already been generated by your phone itself.
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really? isnt warmth charging batterys? in my old gameboy years i always put my batteries on the heater when the drained completely and after an hour i could play again with the old batteries.
1. Recalibrate [a]
Take note NOT TO WIPE BATTERY STATS whenever you flash a new rom and your battery is less than 90%. This usually leads to inaccurate battery readings. If you already wiped your battery during one of your flashes, here's how you recalibrate properly:
- Charge your phone till the GREEN LED shows up. Leave it for another hour.
- While plugged, go to recovery and wipe your battery stats.
- Right after the phone is booted up and settled, unplug and use as per normal till it shuts off. Then charge as per normal.
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Click to collapse
This is true, but since battery stats are stored on the data partition, a data wipe also deletes the battery stats. A lot of rom's require a full wipe, meaning data and dalvik, so battery stats are deleted whether you select the option or not.
Since001 said:
really? isnt warmth charging batterys? in my old gameboy years i always put my batteries on the heater when the drained completely and after an hour i could play again with the old batteries.
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Hi!
Yes Im very familiar with that practice because i do that too. The reason might be because of the composition of the battery (alkaline, non alkaline). Usually we put it under the sun so that the heat will help change the composition of the compound inside the battery in order for it to lower down its resistance. Leading to a "charge".
But now we are using Li-Ion batteries, and I do not suggest putting them under the sun because it will deteriorate your battery capacity holding charge and its lifecycle.
reference: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm see figure 1.
samaral said:
Hi!
Yes Im very familiar with that practice because i do that too. The reason might be because of the composition of the battery (alkaline, non alkaline). Usually we put it under the sun so that the heat will help change the composition of the compound inside the battery in order for it to lower down its resistance. Leading to a "charge".
But now we are using Li-Ion batteries, and I do not suggest putting them under the sun because it will deteriorate your battery capacity holding charge and its lifecycle.
reference: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm see figure 1.
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Thanks, that makes sense.
Made me lol to see that there actually is a "battery university"
Thank you! this post is noted
mejorguille said:
This is true, but since battery stats are stored on the data partition, a data wipe also deletes the battery stats. A lot of rom's require a full wipe, meaning data and dalvik, so battery stats are deleted whether you select the option or not.
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Noted. I have edited the guide to reflect your insight.
Thank you very much
how about going to setting - about phone - battery use?
there you can find out exactly whats killing your battery and take appropiate action.
Also, similar to juice defender, I use 2g/3g toggle and toggel data as and when needed. Using these two widgets i have no battery issues.
Post noted and added on top
shohid1234 said:
how about going to setting - about phone - battery use?
there you can find out exactly whats killing your battery and take appropiate action.
Also, similar to juice defender, I use 2g/3g toggle and toggel data as and when needed. Using these two widgets i have no battery issues.
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Noted. Your suggestion is added on top.
change preferred network type helped for me increasing battery life
Hello all,
as describe in post
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6432560&postcount=1
changing preferred network type worked for me.
default setting: WCDMA preferred drains my battery in a few hours, crazy
within CM 5.0.7-test7 I was able to change to: GSM/CDMA auto and it worked
But now in the final release 5.0.7-DS I can not select this setting. Perhaps it correlates to the this (PRL) info in brackets.
It seems that no "auto" setting want be working so I am trying WCDMA only right now and will see if I have a network in 2G networks too.
Bye morT
Hhmm let me think…
Running a prrocessor that's massively overclocked with software that was never meant to run on our g1's I have an idea.
****** off back to stock or get over it
I mean seriously people come on, we have set cpu for power profile management, basic battery usage which is dim screen, turn off wifi and 3g when not in use blah blah blah same **** written in every guide about battery life for ANY roms from cupcake to eclair.
As I said, get over it or go back to stock.
[highlight]Mod Edit: Please watch your language and don't flame others.[/highlight]
im sorry does turning on "display battery status" in spare parts still effect battery life? TIA
Ive noticed that bluetooth is killlllling battery life, but dont know if its normal. I charged to 100% and turned everything on, leaving screen on the whole time and what not.
While I was actively using the net over WiFi, I had nothing using the bluetooth, and both seem to eat up 20%..
This might be normal, might not be, but thought it was odd that it being on, but not in use, ate up just as much as functioning, in use, wifi.
whats funny to me is as soon as my phone dies i plug it up reboot it a few times and my battery is at 70%
.... i think its not reading correctly .. i mean fully charged play talk text browse till it shuts off .. plug it in turn it right back on then reboot ..
and my battery is back at 70% which is weird ... anyone else notice that???
also wifi, gps is on screen brightness is standard !!!
batteries really seem to be the least developed technology in our high tech phones. feels like a sportscar with a one gallon tank...the fun's over quickly...
turned off my 3G and got a lot of additional battery life. with bad 3G reception (like in the place I live in) the phone was sometimes sucked empty in just a few hours, now I get two days.
another thing that really helped me extend my battery life was turning on airplane mode when I went to bed.
how about dont use overclock or any other cpu speed up tool....maybe the speed they are factory set to is there for a reason...Hmmmmmmm
dcowboys2184 said:
whats funny to me is as soon as my phone dies i plug it up reboot it a few times and my battery is at 70%
.... i think its not reading correctly .. i mean fully charged play talk text browse till it shuts off .. plug it in turn it right back on then reboot ..
and my battery is back at 70% which is weird ... anyone else notice that???
also wifi, gps is on screen brightness is standard !!!
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Click to collapse
You should go through a battery recalibration - steps on the first page.
Best Practices for Improving Battery Life for CM 5.0.7 (and variant ROMS) is to use this ROM, Thanks.
Do whatever you like, show or hide battery status in the Spare parts, calibrate or not....the battery remains....for loOng....enough time....
hot/cold controversy
Since001 said:
really? isnt warmth charging batterys? in my old gameboy years i always put my batteries on the heater when the drained completely and after an hour i could play again with the old batteries.
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Since I have a background in electrical theory and chemistry, let me end this debate once and for all: heat makes atoms (and therefore molecules) move faster. Lack of heat (cold) makes them move slower. In general, fast-moving atoms in batteries mean MORE power, not less. The reason your car doesn't want to start when temperatures are subzero is that the battery acid (electrolyte) molecules are moving too slowly to oxidize (give off e-, electrons) and turn back into positive ions. The same is true for the ol' Gameboy AAs -- put them on the heater, the dry cell warm up, and more electrons are transferred to the anode by anions, the positive ions (cations) are more able to travel to travel back to the cathode (in the case of dry/wet-cell rechargeable storage batteries). Heat acts as a catalyst to produce electricity. Some of you may have even taken your car battery indoors if the electrolyte froze in the winter. Some of your cars may have battery blankets or even battery heaters if you live really far up north. In addition, the process of charging a Li-Ion, Ni-mH, or even lead acid battery will produce heat, because chemical conversion is bi-directional, but anyway . . . you charge the G1, it gets hot. You use it heavily, it gets hot. You know you're spending electrons somewhere when it gets hot period. Keeping the phone cool will not increase battery life or make it charge fast. What lower battery temperatures will do is lengthen the battery's overall life. What happens if you leave meat out in 100F/30C temperatures? It goes bad quickly. Same principle in Li-ion. The rechargeable battery is ideally an efficient, closed system of ion exchange that should work for many (hundreds) of duty cycles, but eventually heat plays a role in deterioration of the electrolyte and chemical catalysts inside.
So put your extra charged batteries (but you don't want a Li-ion or Ni-mH battery to sit very long in an discharged state, so be careful here) in the refrigerator in an airtight bag (rotating on a daily basis) if you really want them to last a long time, but don't charge them frozen (ka-boom!) and remember cold batteries charge slowly. Car batteries in sub-tropical areas are replaced at a rate of about once every 24 months, but in Sweden? Maybe every five or six years. Cold temperatures slow down chemical deterioration just like cold keeps that steak from becoming maggot food.
Again, a hot G1 may weaken its own internal components and batteries over time, but putting it on ice won't give you an extra 6 hours to oogle Miley Cyrus' vBlog
Hope this helps.
For me, unless I'm expecting a text or a call always have my phone on airplane mode. I turn it off every hour or so to see if I got any unimportant texts, and then turn it back on
I am using this 2.2.1 builds with FRX04 but the battery after 5 hours (with 15 min of wifi ,10sms and 1 call) goes to zero,phone reboot and windows mobile dont start because it says battery too low.
The only think i change is this "acpuclock.oc_freq_khz=650000"
theres somethink i can do?
Get a bigger battery.
Means that is normal 4-5 hours of standby?
Keep in mind, if you add OC (overclock) to your startup, it will generally use more battery. Have you tried it as stock/without OC? I don't even use OC because it often produces undesired results, for me anyway.
i try xdadroid with out OC, battery life has increase, but not too much...any other tips ?for example : how can i disactivate led flashing when device is on standby?
You need to download led effects. If you are using the packaged bundle from THIS post it is included in a sub-folder under the folder called AndroidApps. Keeping in mind, if you disable this, you won't be able to tell if your phone is going to sleep. Also be sure to test out the Gingerbread test build from THIS post.
n-Joie! (Enjoy)
IN my miui,
blacklight of it is gone for using the backlight killer
but there is a big problem
about the battery drain!!!
because i charge it 100%
but after 10hrs
is over 5%
OH~~!!!!
anyone have solution???
pls !!!!
(i am not to hate that)
What apps are actually running in background of your phone? I have only a 20~30% drop in battery level in ~9hr without touching my phone(wifi on).
see what the battery life is like if you turn off the killbacklight app for a day
i only open the backlight killer in background
nothings else
There's nothing you can do at the moment, unless someone fix this nasty bug.
You have to know that Android saves battery switching off your CPU while you are not using the phone (=> deep sleep). The app you are using "kills" the backlight every X seconds, that means your CPU is awakened every X seconds to execute something.
Your screen always on uses more battery than your CPU always on, I think, but it always drains the battery.
Use" ddkp3" as the bottom package will be more power, I tried
can anyone help me how to fix this problem of mine in my HD7? I've been searching all this time but all i see is for HD2 battery tweaks thread..anyone?
A) Define "poor" battery life. Smartphones typically get half a day to three days, depending on usage and network quality. My HD7 typically gets about 16-40 hours, depending on whether I use it a bit more or less than normal. I leave it on the charger every night and never run out of battery now unless I'm playing games on it.
B) There are lots of things you can do. Turn off push email, and instead check only every few minutes. The HD7's screen may actually get a slightly better battery life on the "Light" theme (the backlight runs anyhow; darkening a pixel takes more power). Set the phone to turn off the screen earlier. Dim the backlight. Turn down the volume (especially if you listen to music).
C) There's a setting (added in Mango) called "Battery Saver" that does some of the changes mentioned above (some quite aggressively - for example, it turns off all automatic email sync). You could use it, or at least tell the phone to use it automatically.
D) Change your usage pattern. Games, GPS, and cellular data are all huge power hogs. Play fewer games (or only play them when plugged in, or play ones without lots of graphical effects, etc.). Don't leave GPS apps running; check them then back out. Don't stream music (although I do, through Zune Pass, and still get decent battery life for a smartphone), movies, etc.
E) Switch the data mode to 2G instead of 3G, at least most of the time. 3G is power-hungry, and often harder to get a signal through so the phone hs to use even more power. Turn WiFi on (yes, on, not off; it's more efficient than the cellular radio when transferring data) unless you have no usable WiFi nearby, in which case turn it off. WiFi automatically turns off when the phone's screen locks, so no need to worry about it using power constantly at idle.
you're absolutely correct! I've done all those steps..if i will define poor battery I'll say it easily drains. I only use my device for SMS and battery drops 5-10% in 1hr? sometimes when I'm charging it whole night and when i woke-up i see the light indicator that it is full charge but the battery indicator is not (86%) i don't know if my battery is defect or there's something wrong my battery calibration or indicator..this suck!
If the light was green (fully charged) but the indicator showed partial charge (I assume you're using something built-in, not the app? The app isn't totally reliable due to multitasking limitations), then you've got a defect. It's possible that it's in software, but much more likely to be in hardware - either the charging circuitry or, more likely, the battery.
to check the percent of my battery I'm looking at setting>battery saver. If its a software problem how could i fix it? Is there a tweak in registry that can make the battery last longer? I've tried different custom roms but only Eburon rom gave a 2 days life battery but when I flash my hd7 to latest Eburon my battery returns to its old state where its easily drain so flash it back to old version of eburon.
Hi!
After I've updated my phone to 18.5.C.0.25 the battery life went very bad. 2 minutes writing SMS - 1% of battery gone. During night 15-20%, when the phone is doing nothing! Clean install through PC Companion, reseting to the factory settings, charging to 90, 80, 70% and then up to 100% didn't work. How to fix it? Anyone else has this problem? Stamina is on, the signal is good. What can be the problem?
Which variant are you using?
Following methods worked for me to reduce battery usage:
# clean install by flasing stock ftf using flashtool (downloaded by xperifirm)
# changing network mode from auto to gsm only (only when you don't need to use 3g/4g data)
# rooting phone, removing unnecessary apps(also some system apps and bloatwares) and managing autostart apps by allowing least number of apps to be started when system boots up
# stamina mode on > extended standby and extended usage is on (located inside the stamina option)
# turn off location service if not necessary, turn off wifi during sleep(keep wifi on only when charging), disable scanning always available for wifi, wifi optimization on
# turn off auto sync if not necessary
# remove widgets which drains battery faster by refreshing repeatedly (for example i've removed weather widget from screens)
# use auto brightness on and chose battery saving mode if applicable (lol no need to mention i guess! )
(btw, i'm using my phone with auto-rotate and wifi on all the time, now my phone provides me 2days of backup with around +/-6hrs screen on time on an average)
D2203. I have preffered 3G set, because my SIM doesn't support LTE
"# rooting phone, removing unnecessary apps(also some system apps and bloatwares) and managing autostart apps by allowing least number of apps to be started when system boots up"
I will try that
"# stamina mode on > extended standby and extended usage is on (located inside the stamina option)"
In use from the very beginning
"# turn off location service if not necessary, turn off wifi during sleep(keep wifi on only when charging), disable scanning always available for wifi, wifi optimization on
# turn off auto sync if not necessary
# remove widgets which drains battery faster by refreshing repeatedly (for example i've removed weather widget from screens)"
Done.
"# use auto brightness on and chose battery saving mode if applicable (lol no need to mention i guess! )"
I don't know why, but the brightness is very often set near maximum. Bug? The light sensor is ok (checked in CPU-Z)
The next question is, why the charging from 99 to 100% is taking so long? The next irritating fact is that the battery can stay on 99% for several hours and suddenly it's down to 92% in one minute. Is there any option to calibrate the battery gauge?
Magnum44pl said:
D2203. I have preffered 3G set, because my SIM doesn't support LTE
"# rooting phone, removing unnecessary apps(also some system apps and bloatwares) and managing autostart apps by allowing least number of apps to be started when system boots up"
I will try that
"# stamina mode on > extended standby and extended usage is on (located inside the stamina option)"
In use from the very beginning
"# turn off location service if not necessary, turn off wifi during sleep(keep wifi on only when charging), disable scanning always available for wifi, wifi optimization on
# turn off auto sync if not necessary
# remove widgets which drains battery faster by refreshing repeatedly (for example i've removed weather widget from screens)"
Done.
"# use auto brightness on and chose battery saving mode if applicable (lol no need to mention i guess! )"
I don't know why, but the brightness is very often set near maximum. Bug? The light sensor is ok (checked in CPU-Z)
The next question is, why the charging from 99 to 100% is taking so long? The next irritating fact is that the battery can stay on 99% for several hours and suddenly it's down to 92% in one minute. Is there any option to calibrate the battery gauge?
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Click to collapse
Well.. I haven't faced screen brightness issue like this yet, but an incompatible custom kernel can cause that, are you using any?
Charging from 99 to 100% can take upto 20mins i guess, because the last 10% is called trickle charging (or something like that) which means, the system will charge the battery in a periodic manner to ensure battery health.
Sudden drop of battery level can be caused by several different reasons, if the physical status of your battery is ok, try to find out the culprit which is draining your battery that way (you can figure it out by going power management > battery usage, here it'll show the battery consumption rate of various apps. right now i'm using CM11, last night i found that my battery was drained around 17% while staying in idle mode for around 6hrs! then i've found that the culprit was the nfc app which caused the huge battery drainage! Then i just removed nfc app (lol! ) because nfc was not working in CM11 either!)
Finally, many says that you can calibrate your your battery by discharging your battery to 1% and then re-charge it again to 100% in continuous manner and repeat this process couple of times to calibrate battery... some also say to hard turn off your phone after 100% charging by pressing volume up + power key for few seconds and then switch it on again, in that case if you find your phone battery is below 100% then charge it again to 100% continuously... But the thing I believe, if you find your phone in this situation that it shows drastically reduced battery level after phone restart, it's not any app, it's the damaged battery which is causing poor battery performance.
Thanks for reading, I hope you find this post helpful!