Database Info

Calibrate Battery thread - This is how you do it!

There have been about eleventeen thousand questions across multiple threads on how to calibrate the battery properly...figured it probably should be a sticky in here if possible.
You have to know how to get into Recovery mode. You can do this with Quickboot when the phone is on, or the powered off phone method:
1. Power off phone or pull battery and replace.
2. Hold all three of these buttons down: Vol-Down, Camera button (lower left as you look at the phone) and Power on button).
3. You will see a small graphical menu come up. Most of us are using Clockwork, so I will focus on that - it will be a green menu.
For the battery wipe, Go to Advanced, navigate the menu with the vol up/down keys, and select using the camera button.
There are three ways so far:
The Drain Way:
1. Drain it down until fully dead.
2. Charge normally to full.
3. Reboot to Clockwork recovery and wipe battery stats (under advanced, on second page), reboot phone.
4. Turn everything on, flashlight, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Pandora, the whole nine, to quickly drain it completely dead.
5. Charge normally to full.
The Powered Off Charge way:
1. Charge your phone 100% while it’s on
2. Unplug it from the charger, power off, then charge it up to 100% with it in a powered off state.
3. Unplug charger from phone. Power it on, and then charge it to 100% while the phone is on.
4. Unplug the charger and then reboot into Clockwork, go to advanced and clear the battery stats.
5. Power on, charge to full, and then enjoy.
Third option (thanks squshy 7), I paraphrased it and wrote it out a bit for ease.
Maybe we can call it the Mr. Miagi Charge way....aka Power On, Power Off, Charge On, Charge Off way lol
(the parentheses are the state of the phone)
1. Start with the phone powered on.
2. (Phone on) Charge battery until the LED turns blue
3. (Phone on) Unplug the phone from the charger, wait until the LED turns off
4. Power off the phone.
5. (Phone off) Plug the adapter into the phone, charge it up until the LED turns blue
6. (Phone off) Unplug, wait until the LED turns off
7. Power the phone on.
8. Wait until the phone is booted back up all the way, and then power it off again
9. (Phone off) Plug the adapter into the phone, charge it up until the LED turns blue.
10. Boot the phone into recovery mode
11. Go to Advanced, and then choose Wipe Battery Stats.
12. Power the phone on and use normally.

Still a noob, but what would exactly need you to have to Calibrate Battery? Also what exactly does it do for the user?
P.S I'm sure I could look this up but it would be nice to see it in your thread for others to see

turtlenator694 said:
Still a noob, but what would exactly need you to have to Calibrate Battery? Also what exactly does it do for the user?
P.S I'm sure I could look this up but it would be nice to see it in your thread for others to see
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it's really a matter of semantics...you're not calibrating the battery, per say...it's actually calibrating how android is reading the battery. (these phones use Li-ion batteries, which don't use memory, so they themselves never actually need "calibrated" like some older types of rechargeables)
But...as far as what this means to you, its kind of a big deal! It improves battery life in letting android know when your battery is actually at 100%. When flashing new kernels and ROMs, its very likely that the phone will read your battery at full, when in reality its probably less. So it would seem like your phone isn't getting as good battery life (when in actuality it just hasn't been charged fully but you don't know that because android reads it as full because it hasn't been calibrated )
also, without a calibration, you might notice your battery gauge draining oddly...for example, you might see it quickly drop from 100 to 89, then drop steadily to 72, and then hang for a while at 71 (these are all just made up numbers)
so it means alot! but everybody has different methods and i've never seen anything officially released by spring or samsung to confirm methods...
I will say this though...I've read plenty about how since these Li-ion batteries don't have memory, the DRAINING method, while maybe correctly calibrating your battery, actually HURT the long-term life of your battery.
so heres what ive always done:
(the parentheses are the state of the phone)
(phone on) charge battery till LED blue
(phone on) unplug, wait till LED off
[POWER OFF]
(phone off) plug in, wait till LED blue
(phone off) Unplug, wait till LED off
[POWER ON]
When completely booted, power off again
(phone off) plug in wait till LED blue,
boot into recovery, wipe battery stats
unplug, reboot phone and use
it's always worked so try it out

Actually I'm pretty sure it doesn't fully charge to prevent over charge.. and the whole deal with you guys chargings 2-3 times after the light turns blue is just killing the life of your battery.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

My question why is this in devolpment?
Fyi: both methos work but the complete drain does kill battery life. The pluging in multiable times dont. Android nows wheb to stop charging the battery to prevent over charge.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

something must be wrong....
With my battery because I've done the above procedure and my battery doesn't even last 5 hours. Its starting to get annoying. Any ideas?

XtaC318 said:
Actually I'm pretty sure it doesn't fully charge to prevent over charge.. and the whole deal with you guys chargings 2-3 times after the light turns blue is just killing the life of your battery.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it can stop at 92 percent to prevent overcharging, then it can do the same thing when it reaches 100 percent, no matter how many times you plug it in.
I don't know of many, if any li ion battery packs made today that don't have circuitry in them that prevents overcharging.

I put it in development because when you load roms, generally battery is a big concern. I cant tell you how many times ive searched for the same topic all over, I just figured it would be as helpful to others as it would have been to me had it been here and been a stickie at the top.

I've always thought battery calibration was more of a placebo effect, but I have no data either way. On a related note, here's an interesting article about battery stats and charging that was posted a week or so ago:
Android Police: Your Battery Gauge is Lying to You...

Having a battery keep at a full 100% for a long time is not good for li-on batteries. The 10% between 90 and 100% is basically used as a safety buffer. That's why the charge drops between 100 and 90 is much faster than the drops from 80 to 0. even though there ways to increase the actual capacity of the battery by using the methods above, you will still see a quicker drop from full to 90 almost instantly after unplugging the charger. I am in no way saying that those methods don't work in helping the phone read the actual charge of the battery, but they do help increase capacity a little bit. by rearranging the electrons in the battery. There actually is an article on google and on xda that backs it up. I'll try finding it
Sent from my Samsung-SPH-D700 using XDA App

Thank you a ton for posting this. Ive been trying to find a good thread on this all over the place and there never seems to be one. So thanks again.

will the "Drain Battery" way work with a droid1 with the default battery?

doublea500 said:
will the "Drain Battery" way work with a droid1 with the default battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will work on any android device
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

mysteryemotionz said:
Will work on any android device
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks believed it or not, you really helped me

mysteryemotionz said:
My question why is this in devolpment?
Fyi: both methos work but the complete drain does kill battery life. The pluging in multiable times dont. Android nows wheb to stop charging the battery to prevent over charge.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol.. wow alright.
Yes COMPLETELY draining a battery is really bad for a battery; infact if you do so you may end up with a 'bricked' battery.
But the phone also knows not to 'over drain' so with the method of clearing batt stats there's no harm done..actually. allowing your phone to die before charging is healthier than plugging it in before it dies.
I won't argue on the other note anymore; well simply because I don't know enough to continue just know I won't be taking that path
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Thanks for the response. But also if you have a separate charger because you have multiple batteries, do you need to have to go through any of this? Or will the charger charge them to their true full state?

It will charge them to 100%. You'll notice it holds 100% for a lot longer.
Sent from my SPH-P100 using Tapatalk

The only thing that needs to be done to calibrate the battery is either flash at full charge or charge to full then delete batterystats, all this drain to dead and charge this way and that is pointless, though u will all argue otherwise, pointlessy
Sent from my Epic 4g

Yes thank you very much! I'm gonna give this a shot probably tonight after the Christmas Eve service and see what happens.

You should definitely add that NONE of this matters if your first usages out of the battery aren't proper. When you get the phone, you need to kill the battery before charging.. charge for 10-12 hours w/the phone off or in a dock, kill battery.. repeat 2 more times to condition the battery physically.

(Q) how to know when anker battery is fully charged

When I'm charging the banker battery, the notification will go green so I think its fully charged. But I've noticed that when I unhook the cable and use the phone for a while, then plug it back in, the notification light lights green. So I'm wondering, does the light turn green for the banker battery at a certain level even though its not fully charged?
Should I let it sit on the charger a couple more hours after the light turns green?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

Charge it til it turns green, then turn the device off and charge it for another hour with it being off and it will be fully charged. This is known as bump charging, but does decrease the long-term life of your battery if it is done too often.

durps said:
charge it til it turns green, then turn the device off and charge it for another hour with it being off and it will be fully charged. This is known as bump charging, but does decrease the long-term life of your battery if it is down too often.
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Click to collapse
+1 to that!

try this: charge battery until the LED turns green. Unplug & then wait until your battery is no longer showing 100% before you try to plug it back in. Mine will show 100% for a while before going down in percentage.

I thought android phones showed green at some point in the 90 percentile range? So if your at 98% it will still be green.

From what I understand because of the old battery the phone thinks that the capacity of current battery is the same. So unless you rooted your phone and wiped battery stats, you are not reaching the full potential of your battery. Unless you turn off your phone and let the hardware judge when the battery is full.

[Q] Weird Battery Problem??

This happened twice today..
For e.g: If my battery is showing 15% and then i restart my phone it suddenly shows 50% remaining..
Am using Battery Indicator to show me in % how much is remaining (though even the htc battery shows the difference in this case)
Any idea why is this happening and how to solve this??
Oh and how to stop the: Show Me app?? Keeps restarting and sucking my battery..

Could someone please help me out here with this weird problem??
It keeps happening everytime i restart my Sensation..

Try wiping your battery stats from CWM.Then charge battery fully>drain fully>then charge again it should be calibrated. oh and use startup cleaner in the market.

arturohernandez said:
Try wiping your battery stats from CWM.Then charge battery fully>drain fully>then charge again it should be calibrated. oh and use startup cleaner in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a 1 day old Sensation.. Havent rooted it yet..

I saw the same with my mine. I allowed the battery to drain until the phone shut off and recharged over night to 100%. I did that for a few cycles and mine seems fine now.

The battery % indicators only show what the phone software *thinks* it currently is.
The Sensation battery ranges from approx 4200mV (full) to 3000mV (empty).
The problem is sometimes the phone thinks those numbers are different. E.g. when you turn on your phone for the very first time, or flash a new ROM, if your battery was half full at 3700mV the phone would then think that was the 100% level (why they say charge a battery fully for a long time before turning your phone on for the first time).
This leads to various funnies such as a battery seemingly staying full for ages (the phone thinks 100% is much less than 4200mV so until you drop to the phones level your battery %age doesn't go down), and seemingly rapid drains where you end up with less than 10% left - but probably find in reality if you left it your battery would go on for ages at 0%.
Over time it learns, but best to wipe your stats after a long charge so it knows that 4200mV is 100%, and then don't charge your phone again until it physically runs out of juice so it knows what is 0%.
Another useful tip is to install the free BatteryLife widget from CurveFish from the market. That shows you the current voltage level as well as %age, so armed with the knowledge that full = approx 4200mV and empty = approx 3000mV you get an exact idea of how much you have left.

Mine does the same thing even draining/charging for few cycles
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

chrisw99 said:
The battery % indicators only show what the phone software *thinks* it currently is.
The Sensation battery ranges from approx 4200mV (full) to 3000mV (empty).
The problem is sometimes the phone thinks those numbers are different. E.g. when you turn on your phone for the very first time, or flash a new ROM, if your battery was half full at 3700mV the phone would then think that was the 100% level (why they say charge a battery fully for a long time before turning your phone on for the first time).
This leads to various funnies such as a battery seemingly staying full for ages (the phone thinks 100% is much less than 4200mV so until you drop to the phones level your battery %age doesn't go down), and seemingly rapid drains where you end up with less than 10% left - but probably find in reality if you left it your battery would go on for ages at 0%.
Over time it learns, but best to wipe your stats after a long charge so it knows that 4200mV is 100%, and then don't charge your phone again until it physically runs out of juice so it knows what is 0%.
Another useful tip is to install the free BatteryLife widget from CurveFish from the market. That shows you the current voltage level as well as %age, so armed with the knowledge that full = approx 4200mV and empty = approx 3000mV you get an exact idea of how much you have left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... I went to sleep with 100% charged and when i woke up it was yet 100% charged.. And when i check the battery stats it shows 0s but i was asleep for 8 hours.. Any way to solve this on an unrooted phone?

I had the same problem today too! Thought my battery was kicking ass...turns out it was 18% when I restarted my phone
sent from my s-off sensation!

byrdman164 said:
I had the same problem today too! Thought my battery was kicking ass...turns out it was 18% when I restarted my phone
sent from my s-off sensation!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you do about it?

Anyone know what to do about this to an unrooted phone??
Or is this a defective piece and i should get a replacement??

Mines has done the same but I haven't had the chance to calibrate it yet to know if that'll help. It has helped on previous phones. I don't think your device is defective though.

Aspeds2989 said:
Mines has done the same but I haven't had the chance to calibrate it yet to know if that'll help. It has helped on previous phones. I don't think your device is defective though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you calibrate an unrooted device??

I think it calibrates itself after a few charge/discharge cycles. Always charge it a lot longer than when the green light comes on (because if the phone thinks the 100% level is a lot lower than it should be, that green light may come on early), and for the first couple of charges let it dry out rather than topping up.
And install that BatteryLife widget from CurveFish, then you can look at the voltage. 4200mV = full, 3000mv = empty, regardless of what your battery %age says. Mine currently says 51% and 3753mV.

Having the same problem here, restarted my phone afew times now and the battery % keeps going up, then dropping rapidly! :s
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

[Q] Battery Drains with Phone Off?

I have long suspected something was wrong here. So last night, I charged my G2X to 100%, then turned the phone completely OFF!
Nine hours later I turned my phone back on, saw the nice Trinity animation, and saw that my battery was now at 89%!!!
WTF? Can anyone tell me what's going on here? My battery is only 7 months old! How does the battery drain so much with the phone off???

It could be that the battery is lying when it's at 100%... but I have read that the g2x drains while shut off.
Next time charge to 100, reboot phone, see what % it's at, then shut off the phone and test.

When I had charged the battery to 100%, I had left it connected to the charger for about five hours at 100%.

EEngineer said:
When I had charged the battery to 100%, I had left it connected to the charger for about five hours at 100%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still doesn't change the fact that it could be lying.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA

Mine does this along with a few others, there is a thread on the subject already.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

mt3g said:
Mine does this along with a few others, there is a thread on the subject already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some say it could be the kernel, but there doesn't seem to be any resolution.
As to battery gauge accuracy, I have Battery Monitor Widget Pro installed and it verifies the sensor accuracy.

Charged to 100%, pulled the battery & let it sit for 8 hours. Just put the battery back in and the fuel gauge and Battery Widget Pro both say 100%.

With the way virtually every rechargable battery works this is pretty normal. When you charge a phone battery or anything really overnight it doesn't actually take the whole time to reach 100%. Most phones only require a few hours and after it hits the 100% mark it actually starts draining a little (as you have it plugged in) to about 95% or a little lower (your phone however is programmed to still display 100% to reduce user anxiety and will slowly adjust to the actual battery percentage as time goes on) And as someone already said, leaving the battery in the phone (even while it is off) will drain the battery too. This can be fixed by simply removing the battery until you want to use it.

ehafling said:
With the way virtually every rechargable battery works this is pretty normal. When you charge a phone battery or anything really overnight it doesn't actually take the whole time to reach 100%. Most phones only require a few hours and after it hits the 100% mark it actually starts draining a little (as you have it plugged in) to about 95% or a little lower (your phone however is programmed to still display 100% to reduce user anxiety and will slowly adjust to the actual battery percentage as time goes on)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is false and contradicts my measurements. BTW, the Android battery API shows the real percentage of the battery and doesn't "display 100% to reduce user anxiety". A battery meter that lied about its charge would INCREASE user anxiety.
it is well known that modern Android phones, including iPhones, have sneak circuits that still operate when the phone is switched off, including the GPS. It's a big privacy issue.

Then why doesn't it happen all the time on all phones and roms? I can confirm while using hfp 2.1 it drained with phone off and battery inside, but on cm7 nightly latest and stock kernel it hasn't done it to me yet.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Because it's up to the kernel. Different kernels behave differently when the phone is off.

Kernel
Prob Has to do with Kernel. Maybe its the battery driver your using.
For example I'm using Hellfire phoenix Rom with this Kernel > http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1073626
I can use the one with DebouchedSloth's Battery Driver "(funky readings, but great battery performance)" or with the Official CM7 Battery Driver "(smooth readings, but battery life is slightly less than DebouchedSloth's driver)"

I think it's because the phone isn't actually off when you "power it off." I say this because when it's "off" and you plug in a power source the screen shows a charging graphic almost immediately, so it must still be on in order to detect the charger and show something on screen that quickly.
I had mine charged to 100%, turned it "off", came back 3 weeks later and it was dead.
Not sure why they'd design it like that. I guess the phone needs to be "on" in some sense to be able to charge while "powered off." I assume other phones can charge the battery while the phone is actually completely off.

O.K., just lost 10% battery overnight when powered off.
I've read that a draining battery when off is caused by the Fast Boot setting. When powered off some things are still running so the phone boots up faster.
In OEM Android there is a "Setting > Power > Fast Boot" that I can uncheck, but on CM7 I can't find that setting. Any ideas?

[Q] CM10 not charging past 90%

I'm running the 12/28 CM10 nightly, and I'm having an issue with charging my battery. When the phone is on, the battery charges normally to 90%, at which point the LED changes from red to green, indicating full charge. If I leave it plugged in, the phone continues to charge to 100. However, the battery doesn't really charge past 90 because once I begin to use it the charge drops really quickly down to 90. Similarly, if I restart the phone, even if it said 100 before, when it is on again it says 90. I have had this issue with previous CM10 nightlies as well. It is a software issue, because if I turn the phone off and charge it, it charges to 100.
Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks!

This is a suggestion out of the blue but maybe try recalrubratung your battery

omario8484 said:
This is a suggestion out of the blue but maybe try recalrubratung your battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did to no avail
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app

A0A said:
I'm running the 12/28 CM10 nightly, and I'm having an issue with charging my battery. When the phone is on, the battery charges normally to 90%, at which point the LED changes from red to green, indicating full charge. If I leave it plugged in, the phone continues to charge to 100. However, the battery doesn't really charge past 90 because once I begin to use it the charge drops really quickly down to 90. Similarly, if I restart the phone, even if it said 100 before, when it is on again it says 90. I have had this issue with previous CM10 nightlies as well. It is a software issue, because if I turn the phone off and charge it, it charges to 100.
Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the intended bahavior. The type of battery used in phones last longest when they say between 80% and 20% of charged. So your phone will pull the maximum amount of power it can until it hits 90% then reduce power draw to a trickle charge.
The rapid drop is power is often the chip in the battery lying that it is fully charged when it is not. That is why you may see a rapid decline to 90% where your battery drain will go back to normal.
You might also see the phone telling you that it has 15% power then turning off. Upon reboot it will say it's at 0% or 1% that also is the battery trying to protect it self from damage.
This is a simplified explanation of how all phones work these days. The only difference you'll notice is how good the software is designed to lie to you about the power level. If it's good you won't notice these types of anomalies but they are still there.

Have you wiped battery stats?

dc211 said:
This is the intended bahavior. The type of battery used in phones last longest when they say between 80% and 20% of charged. So your phone will pull the maximum amount of power it can until it hits 90% then reduce power draw to a trickle charge.
The rapid drop is power is often the chip in the battery lying that it is fully charged when it is not. That is why you may see a rapid decline to 90% where your battery drain will go back to normal.
You might also see the phone telling you that it has 15% power then turning off. Upon reboot it will say it's at 0% or 1% that also is the battery trying to protect it self from damage.
This is a simplified explanation of how all phones work these days. The only difference you'll notice is how good the software is designed to lie to you about the power level. If it's good you won't notice these types of anomalies but they are still there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that informative answer. So I take it that means there would be no performance difference between turning my phone off, charging it, and then using it (with it saying 100%) vs leaving it on, charging it to 90% (green LED turns on) and then using it?