General Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life
You’re no doubt reading this article because you’ve got a shiny new Android phone, but there’s just one problem: you’re so addicted that the battery runs out on a daily basis. Instead of putting the phone down, let’s maximize the battery life.
Saving your battery life isn’t rocket science—the general principle is to get rid of the things that are draining the battery the most, and trim down other things that you need to use, but maybe can tweak a little. Keep reading for the full explanation.
Use Android’s Built-in Battery Usage Screen
There’s a screen built into Android that most casual users probably don’t even know about, and it can tell you exactly what is killing your battery. Head into Settings –> About Phone –> Battery use to see what has been killing your battery life.
From this screen, you can usually see what apps are the worst offenders, and you will probably notice that the biggest problem—at least, the biggest one that we can fix—is actually the backlight on the phone. Personally I’d prefer to talk less to other humans, but that isn’t always an option!
Note: on my phone, I’ve already configured the backlight to not be very bright—normally that number would be a lot higher.
Adjust the Backlight to be Less Bright
Since we’ve already determined that the backlight is usually the biggest problem, you should probably adjust the settings. Head into Settings –> Display –> Brightness, where you can choose to automatically adjust, which usually works fairly well, or you can just turn the brightness down to the lowest acceptable level.
You should make sure that the screen timeout value is set to turn off quickly as well.
Disable Your Wi-Fi When You Don’t Need It
Wi-Fi can really speed up accessing data on your phone, but it can also be a big drain on the battery if you don’t need it enabled, especially when you are out and about… The phone will try and scan for a wireless network even though you may not want it to.
To enable Airplane mode, you can head into Settings –> Wireless & networks–> Airplane mode.
You can easily toggle the Wi-Fi on or off with a widget or shortcut—there’s a built-in widget included in Android phones, or you can use the AnyCut or BetterCut utilities to create your own shortcuts to directly turn them on or off without requiring a widget.
Disable Bluetooth if You Don’t Use It
If you aren’t using a wireless headset, there’s no reason to have Bluetooth running all the time, and you should probably cut it off to save the battery life. If you never use it at all, head into Settings –> Wireless & networks–> Bluetooth.
You can also enable or disable the Bluetooth when you do need it, using the power widget.
Use the Power Widget to Easily Toggle GPS, Bluetooth, Wireless, and Screen Brightness
Android includes a built-in Power Widget that can easily toggle these settings on or off—just long press on the background of one of your screens, choose Widget –> Power Control to add it to the screen. You’ll notice in this example screenshot that I’ve got my GPS enabled but I’m not using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth at the moment—the icon all the way on the right lets you easily toggle the screen brightness settings.
This is probably the simplest and easiest thing that you can do to save your battery without having to dig into the settings all the time.
Disable Apps that Sync Constantly
The built-in Email application (not the Gmail one, which uses Push technology) can suck the battery badly, because it syncs on a too-regular basis, especially when you have lots of accounts—each one of them is set to sync every 15 minutes. You’d be better off setting it up to sync manually, but if you want it to sync automatically, you should set it to sync less frequently.
Open up the Email application, head to your account, and choose Account settings –> Email check frequency from the menu. Change this to something more like an hour… or never. You can always hit refresh manually when you want to read your email.
The same thing holds true for other accounts, like Twitter clients, which are even less important to update all the time. For Seesmic, you can head into Settings –> Background Updates from the main screen. For the official Twitter app, the settings are similar.
The Facebook application polls automatically in the background, and you can customize the refresh interval for that as well—if you don’t need Facebook updating all the time, you should set this value as high as possible.
From the main Facebook screen—the one with the icons—head into Settings –> Refresh interval from the menu.
Disable the GPS Location Features
One of the biggest battery sucking features on my droid is the GPS… When I have navigation going, the battery dies far too fast, so I end up having to keep it plugged in the whole time I am driving. This makes sense… but what you might not know is that a lot of other applications use the GPS as well.
You can also change the GPS to use wireless networks, and uncheck the option for Use GPS satellites—this will make the GPS a little less accurate, but it will save your battery. Note that you probably want the real GPS enabled if you’re using Google Maps Navigation.
Additionally, you should turn off the geolocation features in your Twitter client, weather application, or whatever other apps that you really don’t need them in. If you want to keep it enabled, that’s great, just realize that it does drain the battery, so uncheck this option to help.
Use a Task Manager to See What is Always Running
It is a wise decision to have a copy of Advanced Task Cleaner or a similar application installed on your phone to help you kill applications that don’t need to be running, but more so that you can see what exactly is launching itself repeatedly in the background. You can setup an auto-kill list for applications you don’t use that often—make them cut off when you shut off the screen, or after an interval.
Note: If you’ve configured your application settings to not pull down lots of data or do checking in the background, it’s not quite as important to keep tasks killed all the time—that’s really what kills your battery, not having them sitting idle.
You can also configure advanced task manager to show you CPU usage for each app, which is a more useful meter than memory usage when it comes to battery life.
Disable or Remove Applications That You Aren’t Using
Once you have identified the application that you don’t want running all the time, check in the settings to see if it can be removed from running in the background. Some applications will give you an option for notifications that can be turned off if you don’t need them, making the application not check in the background so often.
It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway—you should remove the apps that you don’t need anymore, especially the ones that are draining your battery as determined from the android battery panel or task manager. Head into Settings –> Applications –> Manage Applications and then you can click the Uninstall button for an app.
Disable Home Screen Widgets You Don’t Need
If you’ve got loads of widgets that are pulling data from the web, that means they are likely pulling down data in the background all the time. You should try not to go overboard with these, or remove the ones you don’t actually need.
Disable Animated Wallpaper
Yeah, that sweet animated wallpaper doesn’t help your battery any. Get rid of it for a small extra battery savings.
Use APNDroid to Kill Your Entire Data Connection When You Don’t Need It
If you’re using a phone that’s on the AT&T or T-Mobile networks, you can use the APNDroid utility to kill your data connection entirely with a simple widget. It doesn’t work on Verizon phones in my testing. It’ll disable the data but still allow regular calls and SMS.
Keep the Battery from Getting Too Hot
One of the quickest ways to kill a battery is to leave it out in the sun—try and keep your phone somewhere that isn’t too hot whenever possible. You’ll end up needing to replace the battery a lot quicker if you don’t.
Additional Notes
There’s a number of other things you can do to extend your battery life a bit—one of which is to use a rooted phone and install the Autostarts utility, which you can use to keep applications from launching themselves automatically. Since this isn’t something you can do on a stock phone, we’re not covering how to do it here.
You can also use an application called Tasker to automate certain actions, like turning on or off the GPS or Wi-Fi when you launch a particular application, or scheduling a time of day to make sure that Wi-Fi is disabled. Lifehacker has a great guide to using Tasker to automate your phone, and they also explain how to use a configuration to scale back data usage at night.
Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25319/complete-guide-to-maximizing-your-android-phones-battery-life/
Other battery tips that useful for you^
1. Things You Should Know About Lithium Ion Battery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1168036
2. Advanced Tricks for Saving Battery (it Works)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1189755
<<< Please click on "Thanks" if you found this post helpful, your thanks are very much appreciated >>>
Thanks, very usefull information
As an addendum.
If you have an OLED device, apps with black backgrounds are much more power efficient. Therefore, switching your background wallpaper to something darker will help battery life.
Screen size is a major factor too, smaller screen, more power efficient.
I do 2 days with my S2, easily.
The list should get a better layout, but the provided information are good - thank you!
Another option for editing the syncing in applications are to go into your main settings, the accounts & sync. There it should list he apps that sync and you can change them from there rather than finding each app individually.
Mh, I only see a list of the connected accounts but no list of apps.
Sticky This!
Nice clear guide
One issue I have now is with Sense 3 ported onto an original HTC Desire.
It has a bigger memory footprint than the stock Sense 1, and the memory cleanup function seems too aggressive, causing it to flush & reload too often, causing big CPU use.
Is there a way to tune memory `harvesting` to be less aggressive for specific apps in stock Gingerbread ?
You could try this app:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rs.autokiller
Yeah - I'm aware of the various task-killer 3rd party apps.
In my experience they often tend to lead to greater battery consumption as they over-ride the already pretty efficient gingerbread memory management.
I was hoping for a setting inbuilt to GB to just set residence priority higher on the single Sense task.
tune memory `harvesting` to be less aggressive
kuraikaze said:
Nice clear guide
One issue I have now is with Sense 3 ported onto an original HTC Desire.
It has a bigger memory footprint than the stock Sense 1, and the memory cleanup function seems too aggressive, causing it to flush & reload too often, causing big CPU use.
Is there a way to tune memory `harvesting` to be less aggressive for specific apps in stock Gingerbread ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try out "autokiller memoery optimizer". It is a tool to change the value in the android underneath "low memory kill level". Maybe your current "low memory kill level" is too high (e.g. 250, means android will close your app when ur RAM is below 250). You can set it lower so android won't kill your apps too soon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It fine tunes android systems inner memory manager to keep your device fast over time.
- As a side effect it also lowers battery consumption.
- At certain free memory level (e.g. 250mb), the android os will automatically close those apps not in use (according to original android os logic)
copy from another thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1189755
Very useful thanks for the info...
Thank you
Thanks.
Nice guide. Thanks.
Thanks
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Thanks for this info. I have noticed that on my phone there is no direct way to close applications. Some application close when I use my back button but a lot just stay in memory. I would assume pressing the home button while an application is open will push it to the background. There seem to be no universal close button for applications other than using some application?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
I doubled my battery life with this info. good stuff
thank you for your information,,, i will try it and hope it can solve my phone with battery problem,,,
Hi friends !!! i have written this thread in order to tell you how to get better battery life for your android phone . this always works for me !!!!
1. Find out where the power's going
The first step in prolonging your battery life is to find out which apps and components are using the power.
Press the Menu key, tap Settings, scroll to the bottom of the Settings menu and tap About Phone. Tap Battery Use in this menu to see what's eating the charge.
The chart at the top shows how long the phone's been off the charger and plots the rate of power drain over time. Tap any item in this menu for details and, if available, suggestions on how to cut its power use.
2. Use the screen wisely
For almost all users, the display is the biggest single drain on the battery. From the Settings menu tap Display to see the options. Tap Screen Timeout and set a short timeout to ensure that the screen goes dark when you aren't actively using the phone.
The Display menu has two options for controlling brightness; tap Brightness to select a constant screen brightness or to enable automatic adjustment to suit the ambient light. Tick 'Power saving mode' to have the brightness also vary to suit the image on the screen. You can improve things further by tapping the power button whenever you're finished with the phone, which instantly turns off the screen.
3. Turn off what you're not using
Radio interfaces help to make smart phones truly smart but they also suck up the battery's power. Drag the Notification bar down from the top of the screen to quickly toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.
Leave Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off unless you're actively using them.
GPS can often stay off too, but try to turn it on a few minutes before you'll actually need it -- on many phones this speeds up getting an initial position, meaning less time spent faffing with the screen and burning even more battery power.
4. Running apps drain the battery
It's easy to use the Home button to get from an app back to the Home screen, but doing so leaves the app running in the background. That may be what you want, but if not, the app will be sipping needlessly away at the battery. Quit apps properly by pressing Back until you return to the Home screen.
If you've quit all applications but something still seems to be draining the battery, enter the Settings menu, choose Applications and tap Manage Applications. Tap Running to list all the running apps and services -- tap an item for the option to stop it. Restart the phone to close all manually-started apps in one go.
5. Watch out for widgets
Widgets can be useful, but many -- such as news tickers or weather forecasters -- need processing time and data downloads to stay updated.
Resist the urge to festoon your home screens with widgets -- create application shortcuts instead and only run them when you need them.
While we're on the subject, Android's live wallpapers might look cool, but they're a constant drain on resources. If power's an issue, swap them for a decent gallery picture.
6. Email can wait
If something's urgent, people normally call, so it's safe to save power by checking for email less often.
Start Android's Email app and tap an account, then press the Menu key, tap More and choose Account settings. Tap Email Check Frequency and choose Every Hour, then repeat for any other mail accounts.
You can do the same in many social media applications, such as TweetDeck.
7. Go easy on video and games
Android phones make great radios, music or movie players, but video playback is one of the biggest possible drains on a phone's battery.
It might sound obvious, but don't get carried away with iPlayer on the morning commute if you need your phone to last until you get home again.
The same goes for Angry Birds, Stair Dismount or any other game -- levelling up can leave you powerless.
8. Try a third-party power app
The Android system does many things to manage power use but there are third-party apps that do more. JuiceDefender is one of the best examples -- there's a free version in Android Market.
JuiceDefender works automatically to keep power use down and you can tailor the settings to be more aggressive if needed.
The Plus and Ultimate versions add more features, but check first that the free version works on your phone.
9. In an emergency
With 15 per cent charge remaining, Android's low battery warning pops up and it's time for drastic action. Immediately head for the notifications bar and turn off as many options as possible.
With that done, hold in the power button and turn off Data network mode. Now exit all non-essential apps, return to the Home screen and turn the screen off.
From this point onwards, it's best to treat your smart phone as just a phone. Leave it alone unless there's a call or text to answer and you'll save enough power for when you really need it.
10. Never pass up the opportunity to charge
You never know when you might need a three-hour phone call or a gaming marathon, so it pays to top up your battery when you can. Invest in a USB adaptor for the car and buy a Micro-B USB cable that you can use to grab a top-up from any spare USB port. Obviously, perhaps, charging is quicker with the phone off.
If using your handset as a modem, tether it with USB rather than creating a wireless access point so you can charge at the same time. If your laptop supports it, configure its USB ports to provide power even when it's switched off so you can boost your phone.
Finally, if even all of these tips can't get your phone through the day, buy a second battery for backup .
I am sure this thread helped you . do give me your feedback .
regards ,
Hussain .
btu simply using n app like the easy task killer or the advanced task killer can simplify the work.
just a suggestion.
A common complaint among Android users is short battery life. As we all now, Google’s platform has numerous benefits, but state-of-the-art features and constantly being connected seem to come with one drawback: comparatively large battery consumption.
I don’t suggest that you should stop taking advantage of the things that make Android great, such as streaming music players that allow you to walk around with millions of songs in your pocket, location-aware apps, background updates or all the wireless options. Still, if you’re frustrated by how often you need to connect your charger, it’s good to know what types of apps and activities that eat the most battery, so you can make an active decision whether or not it’s worth the extra juice. Use the GPS Wisely
The GPS uses the battery like there’s no tomorrow. Location-aware software is one of Android’s many fortes, but they can be real battery drainers. The Power control widget is useful for switching the GPS on and off, and you should keep an eye on your notification bar: an icon will appear whenever the GPS is activated.
Turn off Bluetooth When You’re Not Using It
Perhaps an obvious tip, but it’s best to disable Bluetooth whenever you’re not actually using it. The quickest way to switch Bluetooth off and on is via a widget on your homescreen.
Disable Wireless Network Positioning
When your device learns your location via wireless network triangulation, it requires less battery than if it had used the GPS. But using both methods simultaneously will of course use the most power. The GPS can handle location tasks by itself, albeit a bit slower. Also, wireless network positioning is used to gather anonymous Google location data in the background, which will drain the battery further. You can turn it off from Settings > Location > Use wireless networks.
Switch off Wi-Fi, or Keep it Always On
If you’re close to a reliable WLAN during the better part of the day, having Wi-Fi always turned on may be favorable from a battery point of view, since the Wi-Fi radio uses less battery than the 3G radio. And when Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off. You can confirm Wi-Fi always stays on by going to Settings > Wireless networks > Wi-Fi Settings. Press the Menu button, tap on Advanced, Wi-Fi sleep policy and select the Never option.
On the other hand, if you’re not close to a strong Wi-Fi signal for extended periods of time, disable Wi-Fi from a homescreen widget or from Settings > Wireless networks > Wi-Fi. Disable Always-On Mobile Data
The Always-On Mobile Data option is on by default, and can be disabled from Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks > Enable always-on mobile data. It allows your phone to be connected non-stop, but does it need to be? I have disabled the setting, and I still get push Gmail and even Google Talk seems to perform as usual, as well as the few apps I have that use automatic updates. However, if you have a lot of apps that regularly connect to the Internet, disabling this option may actually be a bad idea, since turning the data connection on and off will require more energy than simply having it on all the time.
Kill 3G if Your Phone Often Struggles to Find It
When your Android attempts to decide which signal to lock on to, it strains your battery. If your phone often switches between GSM and 3G in your area, it can be preferable to simply disable 3G altogether, and hence abolishing the need for your phone to try and find a suitable network. Go to Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks > Network mode > GSM only. Use a Quick Screen Timeout
After a certain time of inactivity, your screen is automatically turned off, and that’s the Screen Timeout. To use such a low value as 15 seconds can be annoying, but one minute is on the other hand likely too long. I use 30 seconds. You can alter this option from Settings > Screen & display > Screen timeout. Turn Down the Screen Brightness
Android’s Automatic brightness (Settings > Screen & display > Brightness) setting is recommended. If your phone doesn’t have this option, set a reasonable value at roughly 30 % and see if that suits you.
Live Wallpapers Will Use More Power than a Static Background
Oh yes, live wallpapers can be awesome. But they will obviously use precious battery juice, albeit evidently not as much as one could think, talking the eye-candy into consideration and what they can do. Have an AMOLED Display? A Dark Wallpaper Will Spare the Battery
When having dark backgrounds, phones with AMOLED display will use less power, because each pixel on OLED screens is photoemissive and will actually generate its own light. Since there’s no need for a backlight, the pixel can essentially turn off its light source and go total black. As a result, you can save a teeny-weeny bit of energy by having a dark or black background on AMOLED screens. Use Widgets Wisely
A few days ago, we mentioned 10 cool homescreen widgets, and it’s great that Android supports them. Most widgets will only have a negligible effect on your battery life, but those that automatically pull info from the interwebs can be power hogs. Use Reasonable Intervals for Automatic Updates
I personally don’t need to have automatic updates on my phone, except for emails that I want to be notified of the moment they arrive. I prefer launching the apps at my convenience and see what’s new. Most applications that connect to the Internet have an option to update upon launch, and that’s all I need. By lowering the update intervals, or by even turning them off completely, you can definitely make your battery last longer. I recommend that you reduce them to your own minimum values.
If you have an Android phone with HTC Sense, you can make sure the HTC Mail Client, the HTC Weather App, Facebook, Flickr, Stocks and Twitter update themselves as often as you want them to. This is mainly done from Settings > Accounts & sync. It’s also a good idea to look over third-party apps that grab data from the Internet, particularly the official Facebook app and the various Twitter apps, since they usually have background updates on by default.
Streaming Apps Will Use a Lot of Battery
In a recent Droid vs Droid special, Andrew did a rundown of music streaming apps, and I certainly don’t think you should avoid this type of application on your phone. But bear in mind that software that stream audio and similar apps will use plenty of power. Learn What’s Been Drinking the Juice
Unless you have the doubtful pleasure of still running Cupcake, you can check out a built-in Android feature that tells you precisely how much your apps use the battery. You can then start using battery drainers less often, or simply uninstall them. Go to Settings > About phone > Battery > Battery use and press the items in the list for further info. You can also use JuicePlotter to analyze usage patterns.
I have gotten good results by making the tweaks and changes above, and I hope you will too. Do you know of any more tricks that can make our dear Android stay on his feet a bit longer before it needs to be charged? In case you don’t want to keep all this in mind, an app such as JuiceDefender is a good option
Use setcpu app or any other one that involves controlling CPU and set a profile to make your CPU very low(this one helps a lot but your gonna notice a little lag when your unlocking your screen)
Y U WANNA KNOW FROM WHERE SENT??
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1830576
And do not use task killer. I think it's one of the reason that drain your battery quickly
all pretty good tips.
I have a problem on my phone where the cpu will not enter deep sleep mode but im sure its my fault. It says the android system is taking alot of battery in battery usage.
I would highly suggest staying away from any task killing related software, they generally aren't good for Android and can lead to problems down the road. There's an application called Juice Defender on the Google Play store and it's been working for me. I can easily turn off battery hogs like GPS and 3G while your device is inactive.
Closed, redundant thread
MFirst of all i want to apologyze for my bad English.
After the nougat update i start getting a really bad battery life and have to charge the phone 3 times a day. I start digging in the problem and do test in search for a better battery. I managed to improve my 3hous SoT to get between 4.30 to 6 hours SoT.
The tweaks in this guide are not magical, there are just tips that help me improve a lot my battery life. There is no need to unlock bootloader or to root the phone. The idea is to make a good balance between functionality and battery life. Everyone can choose what thinks they want to sacrifice for battery life and what they want to keep. All the steps that are listed here are reversible and can't harm your device in any way. It is pointed to people that do not know a lot of this subject.
My advice is to full apply all the steps and after getting a good battery life start to enabling the features that you want to have on the phone one by one and test battery.
At the end of this guide there is a section with improvements wich aim is to make the moto x style look like more like the news motorola Phones.
Simple Tips for Battery life:
-After a major OS upgrade it is important to do a full factory reset, full wipe. When logging with your google acount start the device as a new device. Do not restore apps!
-Try to not use the Turbocharger. Based on my own experience, a good 1-2 Amp charger get a lot more juyce that the turbo charger. It may sound weird to you but i tested this a lot of times and really see and important difference. I only use the turbocharge when i am in a hurry.
-Do a full calibration of your battery. Let the battery get to 0%. Turn the phone off and let it charge to 100% and left it plugged a little bit more. After that unplugg the phone, restart it and see if the % is still 100%. If not plugg the phone again after a 100% charge and repeat the process until you get a full 100% charge or near that number.
-A good advice if to left the phone charging in the nigth, or when you think it is a good moment. After get to 100% of the charge, unplugg the phone, restart it and plug it again. For my the battery is not getting a good reading after Nougat update. After a restart i always "lost" like 8% of charge. I do this every time i charge the phone.
-The NOUGAT room is draining battery very very fast when there is bad celular signal. So if you are not having a good celular signal it is a good advice to put the phone in airplane mode until you change your location. Also, there is drain with bad wi-fi signal so try to avoid that too. It is not strong like the celular drain but can influence in your final results.
-Turn off location when you are not using it. If you have to use it try to use the "battery saver mode" and put high accuaricy when you are going to use the GPS for a precise fix or navigation. Google Play Services have and excess use of wackelocks due to location, they are listed ass NLPcollectorwackelock and NLPwackelock.
-If you are on Wifi turn off data and if you are in data turn off Wifi. If you can use both try to use Wifi with a good wifi signal. It uses a little bit less battery that 4G for me.
-Unninstall apps that you are not using or going to use in a short-mid time. They may be running in the background and eating
juice.
-Turn off automatic brigthness. Put your brigth to the minimun you are happy with. I used mine almost in the minimun and i see the screen perfect. Also remember that the power scale is non linear. Putting the wheel in the half of the brigthness bar is not getting you "half the brigthness of the screen".
Download autobrigth switch https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.abrody.brightness&hl=es_419 .This make you turn autobrigthness on with a click. This is very usefull if you are outside, let you see the screen with 100% and then let turn it off when you are inside. It is a easy way to manage brigthness.
IMPORTANT:When you are not using your device it must go to sleep mode. It is a mode where the CPU is almost turned off and it doens't drain much battery. Later in this guide i will explain how to properly install a Battery monitor program. It is very important to watch if the device is sleeping ok and there aren't apps with bad behaviours keeping the device awake and draining your battery. This can be seem in GSAM Battery monitor watching the held awake tab. If an app is keeping your device awake you have to uninstall or contact the developer and tell him about your problem with his app.
Tunning the system to Optimize the Battery and Performance:
For this part you will need to have installed ADB drivers, you can download and install from here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2588979
You have to activated debug mode on the phone:
Go to settings, about phone, tap 7 times the Compilation Number until you see a message saying that you are a developper. Now go to settingss, developer and activated USB DEBUG mode. To see what apps are running in the background on your phone go to settings, developer, in execution.
Also you will need to install 4 more free apps, later they can be uninstalled if you want:
App inspector to know the name of certain package:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bg.projectoria.appinspector
App Ops to manage special permissions of apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.findsdk.apppermission&hl=es
Shizuku Manager is needed to give the permissions necesary to App Ops:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=moe.shizuku.privileged.api
Gsam battery Monitor for monitoring apps usage:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm&hl=es
The aim of this part of the guide is to disable all the features and apps that may be drainning your battery.
All of this can be reverted one by one after getting a good battery and testing the results and the impact on battery life:
-Turn off location, bluetooth, NFC.
-Go to moto app and turn off Moto Voice, Moto screen, Wave to wake. I keep the flaslight and the cam gesture on but you can dissable them if you want.
-Go to settingss, Motorola privacy and turn off enhancet device support and help us with bla bla.
-Go to settings, security, back up and turn off data back up.
-Go to settings, location, turn of Google location History and share location of google. In the Rigth upper corner tap on the 3 dots and turn of bluetooth scanning and wifi scanning.
-Go to settings, google, search, and turn off all the features like feed, nearby, voice detection, notifications, doodles, google fit, firebase App Indexing.
-Go to settings, google, security, dissable google play protect,etc. (If you consider this ass important do not disable it)
-Go to settings, apps, tap the 3 dots in the upper rigth corner and tap on show system apps. Disable Motorola device manager and Motorola notifications. Also delete the apps data.
-Go to accounts and turn off syncronizations of all the things you really don't need. For instance in google account i left on contacts, Chrome and Contacts info only.
-If you are using chrome go to settingss, site configuration. Turn off location, notifications, sync in the background. In the sync settings just let the chrome sync only what you need.
-Disable all google and motorola apps that you are not using. For instance Google Duo, hangouts, play music, play books, play games, carrier services, Motorola connect, talkback, devices help, etc.
-Search for apps that ask for permission you think they don't need it. Speacially location.
-Turn off special permission that you think apps don't need. The special permission can be managed going to settings, apps, tap the wheel, advance-special acces:Look to "change system settings" and "get over other aplications". Also turn off acces to data usage for Google Play and Google Play services.
-Go to settingss, security, trusted agents, disable smartlock.
-If you have apps like greenify installed, uninstall them.
-If you have home widgets be sure that they are not using your location and also if it posible put the refresh time to the minimum.
-I don't use GBOARD, it was not working ok for me and also draining battery. So i search in the internet and donwload the latest google keyboard version before GBOARD, it works perfect. I do not recommend GBOARD as it is not working ok and it is not propperly optimized.
Using ADB for Background process:
The next step consist of disabling System process and apps that you no not need to run in the background, for example MotoCare:
Motocare is a system process that runs in the background and collects info of your device use even if you turn off motorola privacy features. That not makes much sense but it is there and can't be disable in a easy way.
After installing ADB, drivers and turning on USB DEBUG MODE, plug the phone, go to the search bar in windows and search for CMD. Open it.
Write:
abd devices
Is everything is ok you will see a device in the list that is your Moto x Style. If not figure out what is the problem, make sure DEBUG MODE is on and that you give the propper permission in the phone.
Then write:
adb -d shell pm grant com.gsamlabs.bbm android.permission.BATTERY_STATS
This will let you see full wakelock list in GSAM Battery Monitor app. This is very important to know if there is an app keeping your device awake.
next:
abd shell
cmd appops set "com.motorola.motocare" RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore
cmd appops set "com.motorola.motocare.internal" RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore
This last two lines will stop motocare. After this go to apps, with "show system apps" on search motocare and motocareint and delete all the data. After that check that motocare is not running in the background.
cmd appops set "com.motorola.ccc.ota" RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore
cmd appops set "com.motorola.ccc.checkin" RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore
This will turn off OTA services. If you want to take an OTA after this, (if motorola ever send another OTA for our device) you can just go to settingss, about phone and check for update manually. (After enabling Motorola device Manager and Motorola Notification). Anyway is there is a new OTA you probably are going to know it from XDA forums.
You can use the same command to disable apps that you don't need to run in the background but you want to use.
To use this commands just open app inspector, search the app you want. Copy the package name and use the command with that package. Anyway in the next step i will show you a easy way to do the same with other apps that are not from the system.
If you want to re enable and app to run in the background just reinstall it or write the same sentence changing "ignore" for "allow":
For example with Facebook. If you search it in app ops the package name is com.facebook.katana . The name of the package is "katana" because it is like smashing your battery with a Katana lol.
adb shell
cmd appops set "com.facebook.katana" RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore
to enable it:
cmd appops set "com.facebook.katana" RUN_IN_BACKGROUND allow
My advice is to not use this command with google services or with system apps you don't know what they do in your phone. It may get you in a problem.
Now we are going to see another way to stop apps for running in the background. This is usefull with apps that you want to keep and don't want to run in the background.
For example in my case, i use facebook app but don't want it to run in the background. Also i disable all navitagion apps to run in the background, Here we go and google maps in my case. They both work perfect when I open they, don't need them running in the background. I let apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, Tinder, Facebook Messenger to run in the background because i want to know when someone send a message and don't want to wait until i open the app. If you don't need the notifications my advice is to don't let run in the background. That will get you a considerable amount of battery. Whatsapp have a lot of battery drain. For some reasons it has the acelerometer turn on a ridiculous amount of time and it triggers google play services wackelock PackageMeasuremntservice.
Connect the phone via usb and launch terminal as we did before, search bar and search button, type CMD and open it. Open Shizuku Manager
Wrote in the terminal:
adb shell sh /sdcard/Android/data/moe.shizuku.privileged.api/files/start.sh
if you do it rigth you will see that the server starts running. Now unplugg your phone, close shizuku manager and open App Ops. If you turn off your phone you will have to repeat the process in order to get app ops running again.
Search for apps that you don't want to run in the background. In the permission settings there is "run in the background", you can turn it off or on from there. It has exact the same effect that doing it in the ADB terminal ass we did it in the previous step. But motocare can't be disabled from the app.
Also you can manage all the permission from the apps one by one in a lot better detailed way than from the stock app settings..
There is also a trick with google play services and location. I am getting a big wake up with NLPcollector and variants. If you turn off the network location permission in google play services it will stop the wakelock even if you have your location ON. That make google play services almost drainless. The problem is that some apps may not get a correct location in "battery saving mode" because they use google play services. This is fixed turning on high presition mode or device only mode and letting the GPS do the location work only when you need it.
Finally you can tweak all your apps permissions and see the battery results. The two most important permission related to battery life are the location and the background one. Try to disable location for everything you don't need to be tracking you.
Tunning your Moto X Style:
To get the new Camera app from motorola:
Go to apps, search for stock camera app and disable it. Delete all the app data. Go to settings, security and turn on "Unkown Sources".After that donwload the moded camera app from this tread:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x-style/themes-apps/moto-camera-6-0-43-10-modded-apk-t3459690
Restart your phonr and Install it! Now you have the new camera app . It work almost perfect, the only things that are not working for me are: Twist to change to selfie mode, shutter time in pro mode and white balance in pro mode. Don't forget to thanks the developer for this great app. Also turn off Unkonw Sources after the installation.
To get the Moto Z command Widget:
Donwload and install this app:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-maxx/themes-apps/moto-z-command-center-widget-t3417171
Don't forget to turn location of the widget off, you can put your location manually and save battery.
Launcher 3:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-z-play/themes/moto-z2-play-launcher-google-root-t3623608
It is the new Motorola Stock Launcher. You can try the Moto G5 Launcher too, it is in XDA.
Unlock Method:
The phone doesn't have fingerprint scanner but a good alternative is to use face unlock. LG and Samsung do a lot of marketing of something that is build in on android stock and work almost perfect. Go to security, turn smartlock on.Then go to smartlock and turn on face detection. It works like a charm, is almost instantaneous. My advice is to do this after getting a good battery life as smartlock features can affect battery. Make sure you don't have on trusted places on Smartlock as it drains your battery. Also if you have location ON it may drain your battery even if you don't have trusted place on, so take care. The trusted face feature on its own drains a negligible % of battery.
As i stated in the beggining:
If you want the best battery life you always have to do a compromise between it and features of the phone. For example i love moto display and the wave to wake feature but it takes so much juice of my phone.
My advice is to do all the steps, make sure you are getting a good battery life and after that start reenabling one by one the features you need and watching the impact of them in your battery life. Also i know that some of the stuff i mention may have a negligible impact in battery for themselves but when you put all together they do make a difference. My phone is draining almost 0% on stand by mode with doze. I let it with a %, go to sleep and when i wake up i have the same %.
At this moment i am testing battery on my phone and seeying wich features do make a big diference in battery life.
For instance i am using smartlock, face unlock with location off and in security settings i have android device manager enabled. They seems to not affect the battery performance so much. I will continue testing features to see wich ones are the main offenders.
Any suggestion or any question is welcome! Also if this helps you please let me know and post your battery life before and after.
Great guide, although might a bit extreme for some people to do all of these things.
I can tell you the biggest increase in battery life i have seen is to disable the Moto Display and Moto Gesture to wave over the display... My idle usage has stopped in half and maintains around 2% with it all off.
acejavelin said:
Great guide, although might a bit extreme for some people to do all of these things.
I can tell you the biggest increase in battery life i have seen is to disable the Moto Display and Moto Gesture to wave over the display... My idle usage has stopped in half and maintains around 2% with it all off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i know that for some people it may be too much, but the guide is divided in parts so anyone can take what they seem comfortable with.
I agree with you, wave to wake and moto display are the main offenders and i feel that with nougat the battery drain of this features get agravated a lot more. It is a shame because i really like that features but they drain your battery even with the screen on..
Great guide, thanks
With the Nougat update my sot is way better up to 4 h, while on mm it was around 3.5h.
I just wonder why buy a phone with features like wave hand, etc. and not using them?
That's a pity that Moto doesn't have d2w like lg phones, it's very handy.
I don't like to look for button to press it every time.
I know that's everybody's choice. Just my 2 cents.
Does turning off all location stuff that you mentioned affects any usability, notifications, etc?
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
2be3_80 said:
Great guide, thanks
With the Nougat update my sot is way better up to 4 h, while on mm it was around 3.5h.
I just wonder why buy a phone with features like wave hand, etc. and not using them?
That's a pity that Moto doesn't have d2w like lg phones, it's very handy.
I don't like to look for button to press it every time.
I know that's everybody's choice. Just my 2 cents.
Does turning off all location stuff that you mentioned affects any usability, notifications, etc?
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your SOT increased on Nougat, it is because the OS is more efficient elsewhere... hardware power draw cannot be changed with software.
Why not use the gestures? Like anything else, they are unnecessary for normal operation and consume extra battery, waiting for detect you waving your hand over the display takes some power, not a lot, but over 10-12 hours it is noticeable... Why buy a phone with gestures if your just going to turn them off? Because the pluses outweigh the negative and there is no perfect device.
Moto probably doesn't implement DT2W because the screen technology they use would require the screen (digitizer actually) to be powered all the time, increasing idle battery draw from 2-5% per hour. It is implemented in some 3rd party kernels and ROMs, but few people use it because over 12 hours of sleeping time, it consumes 25%-50% of your battery capacity. :/
I'm not going to get into the other stuff, things like disabling Google Play services and location services and stuff like that, just take away too much functionality for my taste for what you gain. In general when not traveling, I need 3 hours of SOT in a day and this device generally makes that. When traveling (which I did on very regular basis for years until this week) I was under 50% before 9am and near dead by noon if I didn't charge or connect to battery pack. So in general these optimization are not enough to do what I need, so I just skip them.
2be3_80 said:
Great guide, thanks
With the Nougat update my sot is way better up to 4 h, while on mm it was around 3.5h.
I just wonder why buy a phone with features like wave hand, etc. and not using them?
That's a pity that Moto doesn't have d2w like lg phones, it's very handy.
I don't like to look for button to press it every time.
I know that's everybody's choice. Just my 2 cents.
Does turning off all location stuff that you mentioned affects any usability, notifications, etc?
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For my after nougat update the battery life go to Hell. I was getting 3hs lf SoT wich is unaceptable for me.
I understand your point and i really like wave to wake. It is nice. For my is nicer to have 5hs or more of SoT. In nougat my wave to wake eats battery like crazy and i really don't need it much. Answering your question, disabling motocare only disable motorola remote support. All the other moto stuff doesn't affect the phone, only disable the OTAs. There is nothing in the guide that compromise basic functionality of the phone, maybe only disabling location permission on google play services with app ops can affect location on some apps. As i stated in the end, everyone have to chose between functionalitis and battery life.
After i managed to get 6hs SoT i start to enabling things and test how was my battery life. I will stop in the 5 hours SoT limit.
At this moment i reenable: moto voice, location in saving mode, smart lock with face unlock, android administrator to lock the device remotely and i am getting between 5hs to 5:20hs SoT. Next step is to try with moto display.
NahuelMS said:
For my after nougat update the battery life go to Hell. I was getting 3hs lf SoT wich is unaceptable for me.
I understand your point and i really like wave to wake. It is nice. For my is nicer to have 5hs or more of SoT. In nougat my wave to wake eats battery like crazy and i really don't need it much. Answering your question, disabling motocare only disable motorola remote support. All the other moto stuff doesn't affect the phone, only disable the OTAs. There is nothing in the guide that compromise basic functionality of the phone, maybe only disabling location permission on google play services with app ops can affect location on some apps. As i stated in the end, everyone have to chose between functionalitis and battery life.
After i managed to get 6hs SoT i start to enabling things and test how was my battery life. I will stop in the 5 hours SoT limit.
At this moment i reenable: moto voice, location in saving mode, smart lock with face unlock, android administrator to lock the device remotely and i am getting between 5hs to 5:20hs SoT. Next step is to try with moto display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have run ADB commands and after each and everyone I had no confirmation dialogue nor anything.
I have rebooted device and how can I check if I had done everything right?
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
2be3_80 said:
I have run ADB commands and after each and everyone I had no confirmation dialogue nor anything.
I have rebooted device and how can I check if I had done everything right?
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have done everything rigth you wont see the apps running unless you open they. To see process in execution you have to go to seetings, about device, tap 7 times build number until you get the message that you are a developer.
Go to seeting again, you will see developer option. In there you search for in execution. If you do everything rigth you wont see motocare or moto things runnings. Same with the apps like facebook, etc. They only appear in execution when you open they or have they in recent apps.
Let me know if your battery get improved.
This if from last test:
Enabled moto display, moto voice, face unlock, location in battery saving mode. Disabling background things really help with battety life.
NahuelMS said:
This if from last test:
Enabled moto display, moto voice, face unlock, location in battery saving mode. Disabling background things really help with battety life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's really good achievement.
I can't get close to your results.
I have disabled moto apps running in background, location off, Moto display on, wave hand on.
I only use WiFi/network when needed.
Hmm what could be the culprit?
On this charge I think I will get about 4h sot.
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
2be3_80 said:
That's really good achievement.
I can't get close to your results.
I have disabled moto apps running in background, location off, Moto display on, wave hand on.
I only use WiFi/network when needed.
Hmm what could be the culprit?
On this charge I think I will get about 4h sot.
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i think the average for those conditions is 5 hs (mine conditions)
Are you using turbocharger? How old is your phone? Maybe the battery is getting bad? Did you disable apps like facebook running in the background? Installed Gsam Battery monitor amd check there isn't an app eating your juice or keeping your device awake? Do you have good signal? My best advice is to do all the steps of the guide and see how much of battery life are you getting in that condition. Them start reenabling things like moto voice, moto display and finaly wave to wake. Did your battery got improved dissabling moto stuff?
Wave to wake for my on Nougat was a battery hog. Maybe try to disable it and see how much your battery improves!
My phone is from February 2017, never used turbocharger (I believe it's killing battery over time). Not using Facebook.
When updated to Nougat I did factory reset and disabled various Google apps that I don't use, like Duo, Google+, etc.
My sot was around 4 h with Moto display and wave hand gesture. After disabling Moto stuff from your guide though ADB I haven't noticed any improvements. I will observe few more days. I don't have any Moto update processes running in background.
I use Gboard and like it very much, so it's a keeper for me.
Thanks
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
2be3_80 said:
My phone is from February 2017, never used turbocharger (I believe it's killing battery over time). Not using Facebook.
When updated to Nougat I did factory reset and disabled various Google apps that I don't use, like Duo, Google+, etc.
My sot was around 4 h with Moto display and wave hand gesture. After disabling Moto stuff from your guide though ADB I haven't noticed any improvements. I will observe few more days. I don't have any Moto update processes running in background.
I use Gboard and like it very much, so it's a keeper for me.
Thanks
Sent from my XT1572 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try one or two days without wave to wake and see how much battery you can get. I don't think Gboard should be a deal breaker in battery life in comparison with google keyboard, i don't think it is the problem. Maybe there is an app keepping your device awake? Your phone is almost new so i doubt from battery problems. Can you post a screenshot of battery usage and signal, awake time, etc, from your android battery usage?
This is from today with mid usage and time with low signal:
Today I did factory reset and will observe how it goes without tweaks but with most apps shipped with phone disabled that I don't use
2be3_80 said:
Today I did factory reset and will observe how it goes without tweaks but with most apps shipped with phone disabled that I don't use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you allready did a factory reset i don't think it will give much battery in same conditions and take into account that android take some cycles to calibrate the system and the apps, so battery duration should getting extended during the first week until it reach a plateau.
Just an FYI... Up until a week or so ago, I was averaging 2h 45m to 3h screen on time in an average day and since I started using my phone for work (BYOD program, always had a separate work device before) the battery life started really mattering so I made the following changes...
- Dropped Facebook and Messenger (MASSIVE battery hog apps, always at the top of the list) and moved to Facebook Lite (yes, you can get it in the US, just have to use APKMirror, and it includes Messenger services in the same app)
- Dropped Accuweather (was keeping device awake and accessing location dozens to hundreds of times per hour) and switched to 1Weather
- Dropped Microsoft Outlook (keeping device awake and using background data, and a Device Administrator I didn't want) and switched to Nine
- Dropped OpenSignal (was using background data and waking device very frequently)
- Disabled Moto Display entirely
- Disabled Moto Action Wave to Wake
These 6 things are all I have done... I keep all services active, high accuracy location, all accounts and services syncing, no background data restrictions, no disabled apps, backup and other services like Motorola services all running, no adjustments in permissions, using Gboard as my default keyboard, and I have ~120 apps installed, 80% of which are occasional use only. I use a Quick Charger about 50% of the time for boost charging at work or when traveling, but overnights it is on a standard (5v/1.8A) charger and not QC. I have seen my Doze and Deep Sleep times increase significantly, with Deep Sleep time approaching to 75%... And Screen On Time over a normal day increasing by nearly an hour on average... In fact, yesterday I had my best SoT in over a year with 4h 28m over a 16 hour day in mixed use, including a 6 hour YuGiOh tournament where I used the phone to keep score of my matches (with marginal LTE service and no WiFi), going out to eat 20 minutes away, and then back home for some video game time with friends and still have 20% battery remaining when it went back on the charger, probably could have gotten 5.5 hours if I pushed it near zero. Making it sufficient for daily use for me again.
Am I saying this is the answer for everyone? No, but install a good battery monitoring tool like GSAM Battery Monitor and see what is using your battery (make sure to enable advanced reporting, requires ADB connection)... and don't just look at the default screens, dig into the app after some use. The "View % Power Used" screen only tells part of the story... Make sure to look at View Number Times Waking Device, View GPS Time Used, and View Time Held Awake because some things are not always so obvious. Accuweather for one was "hiding" some of it's usage in Android System and Google services in the View % Power Screen, but when you looked in View Time Held Awake and View GPS Time Used, it became evident it was doing something.
Some other apps which can be culprits are shopping apps, they often track where you are frequently... such as Walmart, Sam's Club, Best Buy, CVS, and most other dedicated apps for shopping. Alternative messaging apps like Messenger, Whatsapp, Kik, Skype, Viber, SnapChat (currently the #1 battery killer out there according to several sources), etc. often keep the device awake and use background data. Airline and other travel apps often check your location every minute or even more frequently even when not open. "Optimizer" apps like LionMobi Power Battery, CleanMaster, and similar tools are worthless and usually consume more resources than they help with. News apps like BBC News often use background data and keep the device awake... Some of these apps might be worth it's battery consumption for your usage, maybe not, the point is to know the problem and decide if it's needs to be fixed or not.
All I am saying here is that before you blame the device or hardware, make sure it isn't your software or usage that is the real culprit, but sometimes it does take some digging.
The last update to the clock app is buggy for me. It is using massive CPU and kepping my device awake for hours. It is important to check if it is working ok.
NahuelMS said:
The last update to the clock app is buggy for me. It is using massive CPU and kepping my device awake for hours. It is important to check if it is working ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would try clearing the clock cache / data
On Gsam the clock doesn't even show up on my CPU usage.
Hemidrosis said:
I would try clearing the clock cache / data
On Gsam the clock doesn't even show up on my CPU usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Allready did that but it didn't fix it. The problem was sporadiclly. Finally uninnstaled the update, cleared all the data and updated again, no sign of the problem for now! Thanks!
Facebook lite and messenger lite if you use those services help a ton all by themselves. Shopping apps I disallow them using background data and location. It's doesn't take that long to grab location once open. Saves a great deal of data and battery.. Amazon apps turn off background data takes care of most battery drain issues related to them.