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The last couple of days my battery has been draining ridiculously fast. It just went from 50% to 8%, just sitting in my pocket without otherwise being used, in the last 3 hours. Here's what the battery usage displays:
while unplugged for 3h 3m 24s:
Android OS 81%
Cell standby 10%
Phone idle 4%
Display 3%
Android System 2%
Obviously something is going on with Android OS and I suspect something I've installed is doing this. I have Watchdog installed but it hasn't given me any warnings. Is there some way to determine exactly what is causing the battery drain, other than removing apps one by one?
Thanks!
I've suspected that my display keeps coming on when my phone is in my pocket.
Both the power button, and the trackpad turn on the backlight for 15 seconds when pushed, and it's very easy to do both when the phone is in your pocket.
I stopped using the HTC weather app, there is no way to stop it from constantly searching your location and it kills the battery FAST if you are on the move. Since I stopped using it I have seen 10+ hours of battery life a day and I use it hard, internet, gps, music, twitter.
It's the suspend process.
I can't link it to you cause I'm on the phone but if you look around, you'll be able to find it.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
I don't think it's the display because the battery usage isn't showing the display as the main battery usage (unless I'm really using it for a long time). It's definitely something belonging to "Android OS". I wish there was a way to determine specifically what process within "android OS" is to blame. I really don't know much about Android or Linux in general so "android OS" is mostly a mystery to me.
I did uninstall several programs yesterday night and was almost convinced it was behaving better but it looks like after the first hour that Android OS is creeping up and overtaking the battery usage and the battery is draining pretty fast despite not using the phone other than to occasionally check the battery usage. At the current rate I'd be lucky if the phone isn't dead before the end of my workday. It probably doesn't help that I have a rather weak signal at work but if it was increased power to the cellular radio that was the culprit, would it show up under "Android OS" or "Cell standby"? I'd suspect the latter, but maybe Android isn't so logical in how it groups processes....
I'll try removing the HTC weather widgets as suggested and look up the sleep process.
Thanks!
It is the "suspend process" like that other poster said. Here is the defect, you can read through if you like. It's a known problem and not only isolated to mt4g
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=11126
How did people determine it's the "suspend" process? I can't seem to find any way to determine what processes are specifically involved. Is there an app that will tell you that? I am running Watchdog Lite set to alert me at 50% cpu and have never got an alert which makes me question whether my issue is the same one described in that thread. Various people were describing 100% cpu activity by the suspend process and it doesn't seem to be the case with me.
I did have 2 weather widgets on my home screen. I deleted both and since then the problem appears to have gone away. I'll have to wait a while to see if it's truly fixed or just a coincidence. Someone in the suspend thread did mention that plugging into a charger temporarily fixed the issue and I did charge the phone for a while after deleting the widgets so I'm not convinced just yet.
One thing I did notice in the battery usage is that google maps seems to have a significant presence, despite the fact that I haven't used maps at all since last unplugging the phone. What is maps doing in the background? I wonder if it's trying to determine my location and cache map data...
Thanks!
Install Watchdog and in its settings, include, monitor, and display all phone processes.
HTC Glacier running CM7 #15
Enable system process and set thrashold to 30% and you will see the suspend process. Or when you notice the drain is happening go to the phone hidden menu. You know the #*#*3626*#*# in the dialer and then from there go to battery usage then select CPU usage, you will see the suspend process on the top or near the top.
Just use some memory management apps. I currently use ES task manager and in advanced settings, i set it to kill all processes when i power down screen. I never use any battery when phone is unplugged(i literally left my phone unplugged overnight midnight to about 7am and it stood at 73% entire time). And having it rooted, i use SetCPU and set the phone at around 768mhz powersave when i'm not messing with the phone heavily. I easily can squeeze about a day and a half out of the battery.
knaries2000 said:
Enable system process and set thrashold to 30% and you will see the suspend process. Or when you notice the drain is happening go to the phone hidden menu. You know the #*#*3626*#*# in the dialer and then from there go to battery usage then select CPU usage, you will see the suspend process on the top or near the top.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that the correct sequence/code? I put that in and didn't get anything. Is root required?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
sorry, that was not the correct sequence at all. I was trying to do it by memory. It is *#*#4636#*#* then select battery history, in the first dropdown box select cpu usage. That menu is pretty useful for other things to like network usage breakdown per app, gps usage, etc.
el-jodio said:
Is that the correct sequence/code? I put that in and didn't get anything. Is root required?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all the info. I particularly like that hidden menu. I had no idea that existed...
Since removing the HTC weather widget my battery drain issue has completely disappeared. The battery now lasts a reasonable amount of time.
Thanks!
knaries2000 said:
sorry, that was not the correct sequence at all. I was trying to do it by memory. It is *#*#4636#*#* then select battery history, in the first dropdown box select cpu usage. That menu is pretty useful for other things to like network usage breakdown per app, gps usage, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Are there any other secret codes that do other things? Like the *#*#checkin#*#*
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
checkin menu does exist too. Those are the only 2 I know off. If other people here know of any please post.
Actually I have removed the HTC weather widget couple of days ago and also disabled the water sync in account settings too. That seems to have help with the suspend process on my phone also.
knaries2000 said:
Actually I have removed the HTC weather widget couple of days ago and also disabled the water sync in account settings too. That seems to have help with the suspend process on my phone also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the "water" sync? Is that a swype typo for "weather" sync? (Swype errors are annoying in that their usually not so obvious.)
I had also disabled the weather sync (forgot to mention it). Seems to be a lot of little bugs in Sense that need to get fixed.
Why don't you guys do what I did... I have profiles set on setCPU so that when the screen is off the phone runs at 368mhz max and the when the screen is on it'll go up to opp speed... That actually saves alot of battery for me.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Sorry it is weather sync. Yeah keyboard error. I stopped using swype recently for this very reason, but touch input isnt perfect either but still much better for me.
Ya if you are using OC based kernel then use SetCPU to scale your mCPU. Set few profiles for example my max is 1.7ghz, avg is 1.2ghz, min is 768mhz, idle is 368mhz.
Sent from my HTC Glacier
*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.
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Click to collapse
same here, JD works pretty good
TastyTorge said:
same here, JD works pretty good
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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.
Hey guys,
So after many months with the XT720 and alot of flashing and trying to get the most out of my battery, i've come up with a few conclusions about battery life in general and how to extend it. I thought I'd share here. This is mostly aimed at people who are new to android and have not experimented like some of the more advanced users we have on this forum. Hope you find this helpful and please feel free to make additions.
General Battery Info
The XT720 was my first android phone, and I came from a long line of typical nokia phones whose batteries would last for ages. I had no idea the kind of power an android device would use. When I started out using it, i was surprised at how quickly the battery would die. You'd think with advancing software we'd have better batteries but sadly batteries are lagging behind in technology. Generally speaking you can expect the following battery life from your XT720.
Heavy use: 10-14 hours
Moderate use: 16-20 hours
Light use: 1 day - 1 day 12 hrs.
Note: New batteries improve with each charge cycle. It is recommended to go through a few complete charge cycles when you buy a new phone. After that, complete discharges are not recommended and its smart to start charging your phone when it hits the 20-25% mark.
How to improve battery life
1: Battery Calibration
If you've ever flashed a new ROM, you must have noticed a sharp decline in battery performance. This is partly due to old battery statistics left behind from your old ROM. Android is a smart OS and collects information over time. The more you use it, the more accurate it gets. In the same way it collects information from your battery usage and reports your battery percentages according to that. When you flash a new ROM, sometimes android thinks that your battery is 100% when its really lower than that and that causes relative reduced battery performance. To deal with that it is recommended that you use a nifty free app called Battery Calibration from the android market. What this does it removes the old battery stats and allows your new ROM to create its own battery stats. Charge your battery to full, use the battery calibration. Drain once till phone turns off by itself and charge to full again. You will notice a sharp increase in battery life.
2. Battery Managment
We all know that android has its own battery management built in but it usually doesnt give complete information about the phone. For that you need to dive deeper into the settings. Usually if you experience battery drain its because of a rogue app and believe it or not some common apps you wont think off drain unnecessary battery. To see your complete Battery Stats input this code into the dialer.
Code:
*#*#4636#*#*
This will take you to a bunch of options. What you're interested in is Battery History. When you tap that it will show you two drop down menu's.
1) Other Usage
2) Since last unplugged
Other usage shows you how long your phone has been running and how long it has been asleep. Also shows you how long your wifi has been on and running and how long your screen has been on. It is important to see how long your phone has been running. For example if your phone has an uptime of 20 hours and its been running 5 hours out of that. Your run time is 25%. Which is very good. Sometimes an app can run even when your phone screen is off. This will represent a longer run time even when you have your phone lying on a desk or something. See this setting and correlate with the amount you have used your phone. Does it seem normal? If no then use the first drop down menu and select
Partial Wake:
Partial wake is basically, any app which takes your phone out of sleep mode to use the CPU even when youre screen is off. These are apps which need to sync or use the phone resources. In this you will see a list of apps and how much they have caused a partial wake lock. See anything unsual? For me one app that caused unsual drainage was latitute. Yes, i had simply signed into it and i didnt know it was updating my location every 5 minutes. Extreme battery drain for me even when my phone was idle. See which app was draining your battery and either tweak the settings or remove altogether.
GPS, Sensors, CPU:
You can also see these in the first drop down menu. Certain apps like screeble use the sensors alot, and hence cause drain. Obviously games, camera, will stress the CPU. See if anything is causing drain in that and adjust accordingly.
Miscellaneous Information
After you have dealt with rogue apps that you don't use that drain youre battery your battery life will depend on how you use your phone. But hopefull these tips will help you with increasing your battery life. I do have some more information on different settings and supposed battery saving applications.
Autosync: When you enable auto sync, you allow google and other accounts to sync on a regular basis. This is important for people who need to use push email etc. It does not drain battery IF you tweak what you need synced. In google for example you can have your contacts, calendar, google+, google reader, gmail all to sync by default. If you just need email, please untick the rest. This will help you save battery life. Increase your update times for facebook and google+ if you dont recieve many updates all the time or turn them off altogether. If you have many services syncing at the same time you will get battery drain.
Wifi Sleep Policy: This is sort of a hidden menu. If you go into wireless & networks >> Wifi settings >> settings key >> advanced >> wifi sleep policy. This has three settings. Never close down wifi, never close when charging, or close with screen off. If you choose never your wifi will always be on, which will in turn crunch the **** out of your battery. If you use it off with screen off, remember it takes about 5 minutes to turn the wifi off. I personally use the never with plugged in. Its an intermediate. So when im plugged in wifi always stays on and when im not it follows the screen off protocol.
Wifi Vs Mobile Data: Having mobile data on all the time, does not drain battery. The only time the battery gets drained is when the data connection is active i.e you have many apps on autosync youll see your battery going down. If you arent doing anything and your phone is connected to Edge or 3G your battery will drain regularly. 2G networks drain less than 3G keep that in mind. If you are actively using your connection, wifi will take less battery because speeds are faster and you will be using it for a little time. Also your signal strength has alot of effect on battery. If you have crappy 3G signals your radio will actively be searching for a connection the same goes for wifi. That is important to keep in mind.
Control Background data: By selecting this option you can allow or disallow apps to connect to data without any permission. Some apps require this like the android market. If you uncheck this apps wont be able to sync automatically in the background.
Milestone Overclocking: This is fairly obvious. The higher you overclock with higher vsel the more battery drain you will have. Some use set cpu with profiles but I found that if i set the setcpu too low while idle It takes time for the cpu to charge up when i recieve a call or turn the screen on. Ringtones lag etc etc. I let android do my CPU management and its fine. and comfortable setting would be 850 MHZ, 56 vsel but you can change according to your phone usage.
Juice Defender/ Screebl / Task killers:
In my personal experience with juice defender ultimate I found that with the above precautions juice defender didnt make much of a difference and actually used more battery. First off theres an extra process going on in the back. Second activating and deactivating the connection everytime the screen goes off uses more juice because your radio has to search for the signal hundreds of times as compared to not having it in the first place. Screebl is good if you dont want your screen to annoyingly turn off while youre doing something but it surely doesnt save battery life. Task killers are a no no for android. They kill tasks which start up anyways, its better to use autokiller memory optimizer which tweaks androids internal memory settings and allows for more free ram without killing processes without reason.
System Apps:
Some system apps run uselessly in the background specially with stock ROM's this is called bloatware. Remove all unused system apps with titanium backup to stop them from running in the background for no reason at all.
A final word
Finally after all this tweaking, just use your phone as normal. Dont worry about the battery all the time checking how much its drained, itll mess your head up and make you enjoy your phone less. Battery temperature also changes battery life. Keep your phone out of the sun or in hot places.
Thanks, good article.
Very detailed and useful
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App
Thanks for this interessting article!
Could you make a list of the bloatware that can be safely removed?
I figured this would just list all the usual stuff I've heard. I'm glad to say I was wrong! A bunch of useful info here I now plan to put to use. Many thanks
Might want to mention the display being the biggest drain of battery on this phone. Setting it to automatic brightness or lower will increase battery life. I love the screen at full brightness so I don't really follow that, but for those looking to squeeze some extra time and don't mind less brightness...
Thanks guys, glad you people found it useful.
syrenz said:
Might want to mention the display being the biggest drain of battery on this phone. Setting it to automatic brightness or lower will increase battery life. I love the screen at full brightness so I don't really follow that, but for those looking to squeeze some extra time and don't mind less brightness...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! Can't believe I missed that one out. In the start id use the lowest brightness setting, which would be fine indoors. But outside it was impossible to see the phone because of its insanely reflective glass. Since we have an ambient light sensor I use it on automatic and it does a good job. Full bright strains my eyes abit thats why I dont keep it on full bright So for people really wanting to save the juice you can keep your brightness on the lowest level. Also when you take the phone out of your pocket and use it, its better to put the phone to sleep with the power button than let it timeout by itself. Those 10-15 seconds for each time you use phone count towards many minutes of unused display time in the end and does make a difference.
This is a very gd post with lots o useful info!! ok i have a qn, is using the phone a lot while the charging good for the battery? And if u let the battery charge even though its already 100 percent for an hour good? srry if it is noob qn...
androidlover123 said:
This is a very gd post with lots o useful info!! ok i have a qn, is using the phone a lot while the charging good for the battery? And if u let the battery charge even though its already 100 percent for an hour good? srry if it is noob qn...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Using your phone while charging does not affect your battery life, and is neither good nor bad. It is perfectly normal to use your phone while charging and is sometimes recommended while doing battery intensive tasks for example navigating while driving, wifi tethering, playing memory intensive games and finally outputing video through HDMI.
2. Overcharging was a phenomenom is older lithium ion battery. New batteries have bypass circuits. So when your phone reaches complete charge, it does not charge any further. So you should not be worried about overcharging your XT720.
Hope this helps.
Excelent article and good quality info. Thanks and best regards!
awesome article! Great information. Thanks a lot for putting that together. I have already started using a few of the tips mentioned.
u da maaan dude, thanks for a very detailed and informative article
I have been obessing over my battery stat page and am trying to figure out what exactly "Android System" is. It is usually consuming the highest percentage of battery power. I have tried everything to figure out what action exactly makes Android System get added to the battery stats page. I have disabled everything, every radio, syncing, deleted all widgets. I hardly have any apps as it is. It just seems rather inconsistent because sometimes Ill check the page after making a call and will find that Voice calls has consumed a small percentage of battery and Android System isn't even on the list. Other times I will take it off the charger and make a 30 minute call, but when I check the stats page 70% battery was used by Android System and only 3% was Voice Calls.
Can anyone tell me exactly what triggers Android System so I can make sure I cut down on its battery usage in any way possible
Sent from my Microwave
I assume you are looking in the settings > about phone > battery. You can select android system also and it will tell you more info.
Agoattamer said:
I assume you are looking in the settings > about phone > battery. You can select android system also and it will tell you more info.
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I see that but under more info its not very clear about what's using the batt.
Sent from my Microwave
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1312932238053.png
Sent from my Microwave
Anyone have any comments on this?
Sent from my Microwave
Did a battery calibration and now android system isn't the number 1 thing consuming battery as usual. Weird:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/testshot.png
This seems to be more in line with what normal battery usage should look like in my opinion.
Sent from my Microwave
I had this problem too until I did a calibration. Now cell standby consumes over 50% of my battery regularly, with android system consuming only 2%.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App
Yea I did a calibration and all is well
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1313102466360.png
Thank you
Sent from my Microwave
Aaaaaaaaand were back LOL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1313118381659.png
Sent from my Microwave
Its still occurring
What would you guys do?
Android system will occasionally use CPU as well, as shown in the following screenshots. Also! My good buddy let me see his Droid x recently. He had 42% battery life left and android system had only taken up 4% of that.
I'm pretty upset about this.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1314312490137.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1314312473018.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1314312512785.png
Sent from my Microwave
If you asked me I would say all your values are a little screwy. Do you even turn the screen on, on your phone and use it? If you use your phone the Display should be by far the most used. To me it looks like you physically use your phone very little. That is why Phone idle and Android System seem to be the higher numbers.
Guessing you have many accounts syncing in the background. One of the biggies for Android System. So its not that Android System is using so much, the rest of the processes are using so little.
Oddly enough the same thing started happening with my phone recently too.
@Agoattamer
The system wouldn't eat most of the charge in less than 8 hours in normal circumstances. Also about your question concerning accounts, while I'm not seh6183, personally I only have my email account synchronizing and the very same thing happens.
Something is causing the CPU to remain awake, in my case stuck at 800MHz.
The factory reset will most likely solve it, but it'd be best to find the culprit to just try and rectify a specific anomaly rather than reinstalling the whole system.
Has recently any core Google apps been updated? Email, Maps, anything?
I do agree that in 8 hours of non physical use your battery should not be going dead. So I couldn't sleep last night and I did some google searching. Here are some things I found out.
Do you have Googles Goggles installed? Seems it may have a bug where it keeps the camera on even when the phone is supposedly asleep.
Seeing that seh6183 always has his wifi active maybe it has something to do with wifi. I found this from Juri's TechBlog
couple of days ago I finally got the eagerly awaited system upgrade to Gingerbread on my Nexus One. The update went pretty well, although some Nexus One users reported about problems with the updating process. The only thing I noticed is that Dropbox didn't work after the upgrade.
A re-install solved the issue. All-in-all Gingerbread is great. Beside UI enhancements it feels also faster than Froyo. However, after trying it for two days now, I noticed a substantial increase in battery consumption. By looking at the system battery stats (Settings -> About phone -> Battery use), Android System was listed to consume 23% of the battery .
Apparently the problem is a bug in Gingerbread version 2.3.3 (you know there is 2.4 as well) on how the system handles the Wifi adapter. If you go into your Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Wi-Fi settings, press the menu button and click on "Advanced", you'll see a menu entry "Wi-Fi sleep policy". Gingerbread seems to have a problem when that option is set to "When screen turns off". While that may sound to be the most energy-saving option, the bug turns it into a battery killer. If you switch the option to "Never", the Android system will only consume ~3% in the battery stats.
Obviously, in addition to this, the best battery saver is to just turn Wi-Fi off when you don't need it . Caution, if one of the future updates fixes this problem (which I strongly hope), you have to set the option back again.
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Something I didn't see but killed my battery on my windows mobile phone was instant messengers. Do you use any apps that are for instant messaging.
Found this thread also talking about the same bug with wifi
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=15057
So it seems that if you (cmdr001) also are a full time wifi user, you may be affected by the same bug. Check your wifi sleep policy and adjust your settings to "Never".
Install a battery monitor app from the market or spare parts to see what is using your battery. Install Juice Defender to stop all that excessive useage.
Excellent find!!!!!
Just switched the sleep policy to "never" (which ironically I've always used until very recently). Ill return with results after about 5 hours. The only thing is that I'm on android 2.3.5 not 3.3 so we will have to see if the bug was affecting me.
I also don't have Google goggles. And to the above poster, my phone regularly went into deep sleep so it wasn't my CPU that was staying active.
Oh and I've been using watch dog to look for rogue programs for the last 24 hours. I haven't got a single alert.
Sent from my Microwave
I guess the first question should have been what ROM were you using and to try a different one then. Needless to say it still has 2.3.3 components in it. And if you recently changed that setting then my bet is thats the issue. Goodluck.
Watchdog may alert you if you are using too much cpu at one time but I don't think it will let you know what is constantly using the cpu.
Ok there's a glitch somewhere in the battery tracking. I just checked it and android system was consuming 12% battery. I placed one 17 minute phone call and re checked it, I then had 57% android system consumption.
No way.
I'm using a cm7 nightly and I'm about to flash the stable version with a different kernel. Ill do a full wipe as well.
Sent from my Microwave
You could check your wakelocks.
After recharging my battery to 100% and wiping the battery stats, my android system consistently uses 2% of the battery, while the display sucks up around ~40%.
Is there any practical reason to install these battery-saving apps? Most of them I have seen just tweak the menu options of your phone you can already access manually and give no additional functionality to the phone itself that you couldn't already do.
Is this any different? Or will it just sit in the background consuming battery life itself just to run its "function"?
I've always had horrible time with these "battery saver" apps
Just let android do its thing
Turn brightness down, turn off GPS, BT and 4G/LTE when not in use and lower the intervals of background updates (and by that i mean turn the time up higher lol) on apps and your battery should last longer
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2
I used Juice Defender for awhile and realized it wasn't what I wanted. I tried Easy Battery Saver and that really helped out a lot.
What it did was to disable all internet, GPS etc when not in use or screen locked. It really helped out a lot in helping to save battery
I don't find they help much anyway and will just drain your battery faster, I think they're kinda designed for the average user who keeps everything on and don't know how to do all the things alot of us who are more better with Android already do.
Just Another★Gamer said:
I don't find they help much anyway and will just drain your battery faster, I think they're kinda designed for the average user who keeps everything on and don't know how to do all the things alot of us who are more better with Android already do.
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No, juicedefender ultimate saves me a serious amount of battery, no joke.
Sent from my LG-P930 using xda premium
I had a conpletely bad experience with juice defender. After using a little, came tto know that it of no use. It is battery drainer. :-/
Sent from my LG-E730 using Tapatalk 2
It offers some useful functions (such as the delayed screen lock), but I found that it messed up critical functions on my phone and didn't save much on battery.
rani9990 said:
No, juicedefender ultimate saves me a serious amount of battery, no joke.
Sent from my LG-P930 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
All I had is bad experience with battery savers and they drain alot more then they save for me plus I already turned off all online stuff like Wifi, bt, 3G, mobile data etc.
Juice defender pro is doing a great job for me. Recommended! No joke at all.
Also it has come to my attention that it has a feature of learning. The more time you have it in your phone then it will do a better job to save you battery. Also alot of settings to do depending on how much juice you want to save.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
On my phone, I used to run Juice Defender all the time. After awhile, I realized all it was doing was turning 3G off when my screen was off and turning it back on when the phone woke up. Since I wasn't necessarily using 3G every time I woke up my phone, I got into the habit of just turning 3G off and on only when I need it and stay on Wi-Fi as much as possible. After uninstalling Juice Defender and growing accustomed to found this, my battery life has improved at least 3x and I have never looked back. Just my 2¢.
Sent from my AOKP Swagged Out Nook Color
Yep, I also stopped using JD a long time ago. There are much better ways of saving battery than adding one more application - if you know what you're doing. Using JD is less work, but it's not the best way.
If you are toggling wifi, data, gps etc by your self you dont need JD. I used it sometime but I have habit to control all toggles myself and just found JD interfering with my choice and it shows it saves some 1.8X battery but I didnt find it that much.
I have tried many of them; in my use/ my phone (Nexus S, unrooted, stock JB) is Battery Stretch far the best, really almost doubling battery life.. JD, etc did save some juice, but far less, than Battery stretch. Just my 2c.
Personally I'd call my level of use on Android to be near expert. Not really a developer here, but I'm a very proficient user.
I'd say Juice Defender is totally full of crap.
So what can it do? It turns off "3G?" I swear this misnomer came from the US or something. We somehow equate 3G with data. I thought it meant it would throttle me back to 2G while the screen was off, but all it does is turn data off. Now here's a question: What the hell is the point of a smartphone with its data off? If you like social networking, email, communication, you WANT those notifications to come through. So what does turning data off while your screen do? You might as well turn off data manually and then turn it back on when your screen is on.
Furthermore, if you're interested in saving battery, use wifi in places where data sucks. The minute you turn wifi on, data is switched off. You don't need Juice Defender to figure this one out.
I can see 2G/3G auto toggle being useful, but this can be installed separately as the 2G/3G toggle app for CyanogenMod.
You should be able to tweak your battery to max it out without the use of any 3rd party apps or rooting or anything like that. Tons of newbies install a bunch of apps and as a result here's what could be draining for example:
- Google+ instant upload
- Dropbox instant upload (wow way to duplicate Google+ and effectively double your data use and battery consumption)
- Pulse news sync
- Google currents sync
- Gtalk 24/7 push
- Google latitude
People always say turn off GPS but I ask why? Are you leaving your maps on for 10 minutes at a time? I use location services a few seconds at a time. Show up to work? Checkin at foursquare. Walk into a bar? Checkin to foursquare. About to go home? Take a look at Google Maps. All that takes 1-2 minutes tops. How much battery should that even consume? 1%? Turning off GPS means what? I consume 0.5%? Woohoo. BIG SAVINGS there bro. Furthermore you gotta remember to turn it back on if you ever want to use navigation, and if anything having GPS accuracy helps when using location services like for Foursquare of Facebook checkins. You could find that venue as one nearby rather than scrolling around trying to find it because the cell tower puts you a mile away. You save time like that too.
Screen is the big one. Autobrightness should work well on most stock ROMs and even most stable ROMs. IF you're using your phone outdoors expect that screen to drain like mad, but indoors it should be fine.
Honestly, JuiceDefender accomplishes its task by crippling your smartphone. That's not what a smartphone was built for. You should be able to use all its features and get through a day unless you're on your phone 5 hours straight surfing. Then expect it to die soon. No juicedefender will save you there.
I think the point of JD is that you don't need 3g data on all the time, you can set it to enable 3g data every min/5 mins/30 mins/hour etc for a set time, if background processes are sycn'ing (gmail, facebook, twitter etc) it will wait until the sync is done, this means its up to you when you sync data, I sync evey 15 mins and it works really well. When you switch the screen on, data is automatically enabled, i have set it to use wifi when in range, or 3g when out of range (again its automatic) JD does save you battery and it does it all on its own, millions of downloads can't be wrong
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And that's exactly what Battery stretch does - with a much smaller footprint/memory/battery load than JD!
Just give it a try - I have tried all of them- and judge it for yourself
Another one to check out is 3GBattery, very basic but maybe that was the point too
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wxLDEsImNvbS5teXN0aXF1ZS50aHJlZWdiYXR0ZXJ5Il0.
Juice Defender is a fickle mistress. It does what you want, but it can get in the way. I use it when I know I'm going to be away from power most of the day and I either forgot my Sparq or it won't be practical. When properly configured Juice Defender bloody works. I usually end the day with a 2.4x boost when I use it. Normally my phone needs a pick-me-up after about 8-9 hours. With Juice Defender I had 35% left after an 18 hour day. The only difference was Juice Defender and using Screen Filter to drop the brightness. Had about 3.5 hours of screen on time.
Juice Defender's bread and butter is its data toggle tool, and there are some things to keep in mind with it to make the most of it.
When the data state on the phone goes from not connected to connected programs that can sync want to sync. This adds a lot of data use and cpu cycles. Because of this I've used the Application Specific control rather than having data toggle on at screen on/unlock. I don't want data coming on because I reply to a text. Data comes on when I call up an app that needs it, and data runs in the background for Music and Spotify only.
There's the argument of crippling a smartphone, but honestly, 99% of communications that come over the data network aren't urgent. Urgent communications are calls or texts. No power is more crippling to a smartphone than no data.
It's an absolutely fantastic app, but the memory footprint is huge! Even really fast devices like my evo lte slow down a little over time