Related
What is with this? I 've gone through several HTC phones on the EVO and everytime I lose my wifi. Anyone can help?
When do you lose the Wi-Fi?
I use the wi-fi in my house and it will maintain a constant signal.
UNLESS
It goes to sleep mode, then it turns off the wi-fi as well.
Whenever I bring it out of sleep, it always has to re-connect.
I don't know if there is some registry setting you can set to keep wi-fi turned on.
I think the risk is that it will drain the battery much quicker though.
I'm using the MAPL build 2.60 beta for a Dash 3G and the battery life is incredible.
You can make it stay on by going to: Comm Manager>Settings>WLAN Settings>Power Mode and unchecking the "Auto turn off..." box. And yes, it does suck the battery like a vampire and makes the phone HOT! You can also adjust how long it will stay on for after LCD OFF.
Wifi question
Hi, before i drive myself mad, I am convinced that my phone uses gprs for data, not wifi. And my bills seem to agree with me.
When I use things like MyPhone, either connected to my PC or connected to my wifi at home, it seems to appear on my bill as a data charge, which would indicate that it is using the network??
Am I right, wrong or stupid? Any help greatly appreciated.
I saw several posts suggesting that leaving WiFi on where you have WiFi connection helps you to save the battery which I'm finding pretty strange. I thought WiFi actually drains battery faster then anything else. Are savings due to the fact that WiFi is more efficient then 3G or does it actually holds true that it saves battery?
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
A lot of programs will initiate data transfers by themselves when connected to Wi-Fi though, so perhaps that is why some will notice higher drain when Wi-Fi is on.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
artisticcheese said:
I saw several posts suggesting that leaving WiFi on where you have WiFi connection helps you to save the battery which I'm finding pretty strange. I thought WiFi actually drains battery faster then anything else. Are savings due to the fact that WiFi is more efficient then 3G or does it actually holds true that it saves battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, as Scotty said above me...
ScottyNuttz said:
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This however, is untrue. At least for me. I run the leaked 2.2 and my WiFi is always on at home, my data connection is never active. I check this by dialing *3282# and hitting send.
ScottyNuttz said:
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I have wifi switched on I lose around 5 to 10% an hour. With it off I lose 1 to 2%. I don't have anything set to sync differently via wifi. I only have a few apps that sync data and those are set to do so every 4 hours or so.
I have tried leaving it both on and off overnight to test this and every time I've left it off I woke up with a full battery. If I leave it on I have to charge again in the morning.
When I'm going out I turn wifi off so that my phone isn't constantly searching for signal.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
miztaken1312 said:
This however, is untrue. At least for me. I run the leaked 2.2 and my WiFi is always on at home, my data connection is never active. I check this by dialing *3282# and hitting send.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the Wi-Fi advanced settings (Hit Menu when in the normal wi-fi settings), there is a Wi-Fi Sleep Policy (which specifies when to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data)
By default, my device was set to 'When screen turns off'. the other options were 'Never when plugged in' or 'Never', I switched mine to 'Never'. You should notice that when you turn your screen on, the wifi icon doesn't show up right away. Of course, I'm on 2.1, so this may be different in 2.2, but check it out.
For me, I get no cell signal in the building at work so I need to keep wifi on. If I turn it off my battery drains fast from the 3g radio constantly trying to lock on a signal.
It depends in the quality of your 3G connection, but all things equal I have seen that using WiFi instead of 3G does save battery, when the WiFi is connected of course. Anytime a radio is constantly searching for a signal or trying to hold a weak signal, power usage tends to go up.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
ScottyNuttz said:
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
A lot of programs will initiate data transfers by themselves when connected to Wi-Fi though, so perhaps that is why some will notice higher drain when Wi-Fi is on.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out Y5 Battery Saver.
This app turns your wifi on/off based on the cell towers that you are on. You just connect to wifi, enable the app, and it remembers what cell towers you were on while you were in range of that wifi location. as soon as you are off of those towers, it turns off wifi. to add new wifi locations, just disable the app, connect to the hot spot, and re-enable the app.
This gives you the best of both worlds. you get to save battery while you are using wifi and when you are out of range it doesn't continually search for new wifi networks to connect to.
ScottyNuttz said:
In the Wi-Fi advanced settings (Hit Menu when in the normal wi-fi settings), there is a Wi-Fi Sleep Policy (which specifies when to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data)
By default, my device was set to 'When screen turns off'. the other options were 'Never when plugged in' or 'Never', I switched mine to 'Never'. You should notice that when you turn your screen on, the wifi icon doesn't show up right away. Of course, I'm on 2.1, so this may be different in 2.2, but check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whenever I turn my screen on, my wifi icon is right there. No delay in it showing up. I don't remember ever changing the sleep policy when I updated so I believe this is the default behavior for 2.2
drwx said:
Check out Y5 Battery Saver.
This app turns your wifi on/off based on the cell towers that you are on. You just connect to wifi, enable the app, and it remembers what cell towers you were on while you were in range of that wifi location. as soon as you are off of those towers, it turns off wifi. to add new wifi locations, just disable the app, connect to the hot spot, and re-enable the app.
This gives you the best of both worlds. you get to save battery while you are using wifi and when you are out of range it doesn't continually search for new wifi networks to connect to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Y5. There are a few other apps in the market that claim to do the same thing, but I think Y5 is by far the easiest to set up and works really well. Nice little utility so you don't have to keep remembering to turn off the wifi manually when you are out of range.
Now if I could just find a app that does the same for my bluetooth when it is near my car....but that I think is much harder to do without it actually polling.
So my phone just started showing this behavior like a day or two ago. It's doing it right now. Both my Wifi and 4G icons appear in the notification bar. The 4G icon isn't showing activity (the download and upload arrows are dimmed), BUT if I go to my "Phone Info" app, and go to Phone Information it shows:
GSM service: In service
GPRS service: Connected
Network Type: HSDPA
Before whenever I was on Wifi only the Wifi icon would show up, and Phone Info would show GPRS Service as : Disconnected, i.e. normal behavior. Now it appears there is a conflict somewhere and the 4G network is showing as connected even when wifi is on.
Now, I did make some changes recently:
1) Temp-rooted and pm disabled a bunch of bloatware - this was like 4 or 5 days ago and I didn't have the problem at all so I'm not sure if it's related.
2) I unchecked Wireless Settings > Mobile Networks > "Enable always on mobile data" - Thought it might save battery when in sleep mode.
I think the problem started after #2. I've since checked that option back on, restarted, airplane mode, battery pull etc., but it's still exhibiting the same behavior. I've never seen this happen on any of my past Android devices (a lot). If I go to the Quick Settings it shoes Mobile Network is OFF but it IS checked. It's really confusing. When you turn Wifi on, Mobile network should disconnect, but according to phone Info, mine is on and I've been getting "network issue, try again" in the Market, and "Network Communication issues" in the Speedtest app so clearly something is being affected.
This has been my ONLY problem with my Sensation thus far, and the fact that it JUST started doing this makes me wonder what I could have done to affect it.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Every once in awhile the 4G icon WILL disappear leaving only Wifi on, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected, but eventually the 4G/2G icon comes back and Phone info shows GPRS service: Connected, so it keeps trying/turning itself on even though my Wifi is connected. WTF!
If you're on a t mo device it's because of the my device app. Open and close it or end the process in system panel and it should fix the problem.
I believe this is somewhat normal...
I have voice only plan and disabled data through the *#*#INFO#*#* menus. The only way I can get data is through Wifi, which I always have enabled, regardless when I go to About Phone -> Network, I see mobile network type HSDPA.
It seems like voice is going through the 3G/4G but not any data. Not sure why you do get the 4G popping up, I sure don't.
Sdobron said:
If you're on a t mo device it's because of the my device app. Open and close it or end the process in system panel and it should fix the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I tracked down the second package name for "My Account" (one is for My Account, one is for My device), disabled and rebooted. So far so good; Wifi is connected, no 4G icon, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected as it should. I had already disabled one package but not the other. I can live w/o the My account feature for a bit and I'll keep an eye out to see if the problem returns.
bigmase521 said:
Thanks! I tracked down the second package name for "My Account" (one is for My Account, one is for My device), disabled and rebooted. So far so good; Wifi is connected, no 4G icon, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected as it should. I had already disabled one package but not the other. I can live w/o the My account feature for a bit and I'll keep an eye out to see if the problem returns.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You phone will always connect to data whn using Tmobile apps such as my account app. Its because they need network data, not web data, to get their info like your usage, and billing. If you manually shut of data and turn wifi on and try to open the my account app, it will give you error.
Just because you turn Wifi on, it doesnt make the data shut off. It just connects to WIFI because its a stronger signal. It will still access the 4G data for netork required information. You can manually shut off mobile data and then turn on wifi if you want.
^This is true, I'm manually switching 4G off when connected to WiFi.
dubie76 said:
You phone will always connect to data whn using Tmobile apps such as my account app. Its because they need network data, not web data, to get their info like your usage, and billing. If you manually shut of data and turn wifi on and try to open the my account app, it will give you error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I realize this, however I was never trying to use the T-mobile apps.
dubie76 said:
Just because you turn Wifi on, it doesnt make the data shut off. It just connects to WIFI because its a stronger signal. It will still access the 4G data for netork required information. You can manually shut off mobile data and then turn on wifi if you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it does. What would be the point in having BOTH Wifi and 4g/3g/EDGE data on at the same time, all the time? That would be a HUGE drain on your battery if it were constantly using both radios and connected to/searching for both networks. When you turn Wifi on, the mobile data radio gets turned off. When you de-activate Wifi, mobile data turns back on. This is why you get much better battery life on Wifi because the 4g/3g radio gets turned off. Plus, both can't be connected at the same time or else there would be routing problems i.e., it would get confused as to which connection to use.
This is exactly what happened to my phone in that that both WERE on at the same time and it was causing no traffic to get in/out and I couldn't figure out why. Disabling the two t-mobile My Account packages solved it so it seems like
one was trying to connect in the background and couldn't but then froze the radio state. I'm not gonna re-enable the app to confirm but IIRC when you're on Wifi and fire up the My Account app, it either prompts you to turn off wifi, or it just disables wifi temporarily and fires up the mobile radio in the background, and re-enables when you're done.
Sdobron said:
If you're on a t mo device it's because of the my device app. Open and close it or end the process in system panel and it should fix the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. If you keep the T-Mobile my account app running it will do that cause It needs the 4G/Data connection.
xamadeix said:
Yep. If you keep the T-Mobile my account app running it will do that cause It needs the 4G/Data connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, but what I'm saying is that I wasn't running the app. It does run as a service though so I'm wondering if it was trying to connect on it's own in the background, though I'm not sure why. I haven't seen this behavior on any other devices including my Sensation before I disabled one of the My Account apps, but I'm almost positive at this point it was the culprit. Could be because I had only disabled one of them and not both. After I disabled the second, the problem went away.
Do you have WiFi sleep disabled?
If not, phone may revert to regular data until you start communicating and wake up your WiFi.
Just a thought.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
PaulGiz said:
Do you have WiFi sleep disabled?
If not, phone may revert to regular data until you start communicating and wake up your WiFi.
Just a thought.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, sleep policy is set to "Never" and wifi sticks fine. Still happened even with screen on so wifi was def. awake. I fixed it by disabling the T-Mo My Account apps so I'm cool but maybe it can help someone else if they have the same problem. It's really weird, never seen it happen before. I wish I took a video of it before I disabled the apps. Thanks guys.
bigmase521 said:
Right, but what I'm saying is that I wasn't running the app. It does run as a service though so I'm wondering if it was trying to connect on it's own in the background, though I'm not sure why. I haven't seen this behavior on any other devices including my Sensation before I disabled one of the My Account apps, but I'm almost positive at this point it was the culprit. Could be because I had only disabled one of them and not both. After I disabled the second, the problem went away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's poor coding in the app. Nothing you're doing wrong.
I have been using tasker on my tablet for about 2 years now, and all of a sudden, for the last week or two, it has been acting differently. I have a tablet installed in the dash of my car and use tasker to turn off all radios (mobile network, wifi, bluetooth, etc..), turn off the screen, etc.. when the car turns off (no power), and then turn all of that stuff back on when the car starts (power). The problem is that all of a sudden, after a couple of on/offs of the car, if I use the airplane mode on/off, it gets stuck and I have to restart the device (basically, in the notification panel settings, the airplane mode is half lit up, like it is in the process of turning off/on). If I use the mobile network on/off, it will show that it is picking up the network, but I cannot connect to the internet (shows the bars are full, for instance, like it detects the network, but I can't access any data). Also, to go along with these two things, I used to, when leaving my car parked overnight, come back to maybe a couple percent loss of battery life... now, it is dropping significantly (probably 30+% or so each night).
Anyway, I have been searching around online for a while now and I cannot seem to find an answer anywhere. I installed a new SIM card from Verizon, have factory reset it, and nothing works. If I disable the cell data disconnect (either mobile network or airplane mode), when I come back, it shows the signal bars with a small "x" in it and no connection. Either way, only a restart fixes the connection.
Attached is a screenshot of my devices info if that helps as well as a picture of what the "half stuck" airplane mode looks like.
Any help/info is greatly appreciated... thank you!
- Adam
Hi,
Just wanted to ask: Is there a significant difference in battery usage with the data on while on WiFi? I had read somewhere that it's best to turn off data when on wifi so that the radio doesn't keep looking for 4g signals unnecessarily thus saving battery. Has anyone tested this? But, generally, I wanted if this theory is just a hoax or if there's some meat to it!
Hoax. WiFi uses more energy than data
My phone doesn't use LTE/mobile data when WiFi is working. When I turn WiFi off, it takes a second to reconnect to mobile data network and show the icon up top. I assume it's not working in conjunction, I also believe it won't affect battery life one way or another.
If you have a very poor signal, it will most likely be searching. However turning off data won't stop this (at least I don't think it will)
steadly2004 said:
My phone doesn't use LTE/mobile data when WiFi is working. When I turn WiFi off, it takes a second to reconnect to mobile data network and show the icon up top. I assume it's not working in conjunction, I also believe it won't affect battery life one way or another.
If you have a very poor signal, it will most likely be searching. However turning off data won't stop this (at least I don't think it will)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool thanks..
I don't know if turning data off will result in battery savings but I have been using Tasker to automatically turn my data off when on WiFi for the longest time now.