I have to charge my phone 2 or 3 times a day any recommendations on how to make my battery life longer that are simple and easy
Jawdude said:
I have to charge my phone 2 or 3 times a day any recommendations on how to make my battery life longer that are simple and easy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a truck driver and I'm a heavy user.
I did too before I made the changes below. These all work with the Stock Rom.
1. Installed No Lock (so that I don't have to swipe the screen to unlock, just push the power button)
2. Set screen to turn off in 30 seconds.
3. Installed Brightness Widget (allows changing the brightness from the home screen
4. Installed Screen Filter (lets me really darken my screen at night.
Try those and see how you do.
5. I then flashed the Infused Rom (I now get up to 10-14 hours)
Jawdude said:
I have to charge my phone 2 or 3 times a day any recommendations on how to make my battery life longer that are simple and easy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom kernal and rom
Running refused and infusion 1.8 rom and I get 14 hours with heavy data use
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
Also, Turn off GPS and Wifi when you're not using them.
Battery
After much experimenting and monitoring of battery use I find that the biggest drain is the screen display, so go to settings-->display-->brightness and lower the screen brightness as low as you comfortably can. Also when you you are not using the phone make sure the screen is off, I have trained myself to automatically hit the power button every time I put down the phone. If you listen to music through your phone make sure the settings on your music players allow the phone to play when the screen is off and turn the screen off while it plays.
GPS also drains the battery, so I keep it turned off when I don't use the Nav. When I use the Nav I know the battery will drain at a rapid pace, nothing you can do there, even if I have the phone plugged in to car power while using Nav it still drains the battery! Drains slower than unplugged navigating but still drains.
If your watching videos then your S.O.L. there's really nothing you can do that will increase battery life enough to make a difference during video playback.
I get 10-12 hours with regular use and stock rom. Worst was 8 hours best was 24.
Thanks for all the advice this has really helped my battery
Truckerglenn said:
I'm a truck driver and I'm a heavy user.
3. Installed Brightness Widget (allows changing the brightness from the home screen
There was a recent post that showed a shortcut for changing the screen brightness from the homescreen without any additional software. First, turn off auto brightness. Second, tap and hold the menu bar at the top. Third, slide left to reduce the screen brightness and right to increase screen brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
menzoom said:
After much experimenting and monitoring of battery use I find that the biggest drain is the screen display, so go to settings-->display-->brightness and lower the screen brightness as low as you comfortably can. Also when you you are not using the phone make sure the screen is off, I have trained myself to automatically hit the power button every time I put down the phone. If you listen to music through your phone make sure the settings on your music players allow the phone to play when the screen is off and turn the screen off while it plays.
GPS also drains the battery, so I keep it turned off when I don't use the Nav. When I use the Nav I know the battery will drain at a rapid pace, nothing you can do there, even if I have the phone plugged in to car power while using Nav it still drains the battery! Drains slower than unplugged navigating but still drains.
If your watching videos then your S.O.L. there's really nothing you can do that will increase battery life enough to make a difference during video playback.
I get 10-12 hours with regular use and stock rom. Worst was 8 hours best was 24.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does it drain your battery when its plugged into the car? I have never seen that on any cell phone. That my friend is messed up if true.
reissy said:
How does it drain your battery when its plugged into the car? I have never seen that on any cell phone. That my friend is messed up if true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems that Samsung ****ed up and included phone CPU/screen/etc usage when measuring battery charge current.
This means that the 600 mA stock battery charge current limit isn't just going to the battery, it's split between battery/screen/CPU. If screen/CPU/etc go above 600 mA (Navigation at full brightness seems to be the most common way), battery starts draining.
It also means that unless there's something I'm missing (which I could be since the MAX8998 datasheet is super-ultra-secret), our phone isn't going to be able to do proper charge termination - if the screen is on/CPU is running, it will cause a falsely high battery charge current reading, which will cause charging to fail to terminate.
Juice defender
I found that juice defender helped my battery and i just use the free version it's a great app
I used Iphone 3g 3gs 4. None of them drain battery like this one. First time use Android phone and getting a bit disappointed of this phone. It's draining 2% every 5 mins and im using stock Rom.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Install a ROM. Infused v2 nearly doubled my screen-on battery life and tripled my screen-off battery life.
sweetboy02125 said:
I used Iphone 3g 3gs 4. None of them drain battery like this one. First time use Android phone and getting a bit disappointed of this phone. It's draining 2% every 5 mins and im using stock Rom.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's excessive... Rogue app maybe?
ptgptg said:
Truckerglenn said:
I'm a truck driver and I'm a heavy user.
3. Installed Brightness Widget (allows changing the brightness from the home screen
There was a recent post that showed a shortcut for changing the screen brightness from the homescreen without any additional software. First, turn off auto brightness. Second, tap and hold the menu bar at the top. Third, slide left to reduce the screen brightness and right to increase screen brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I never new that
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look in about phone battery use to identify the biggest battery user, it should be the screen. anything else and there is a problem.
the cell standby may go high on froyo rom, turning on flight mode and turning it off will correct that, it's an android bug.
on gingerbread the android os or android system may hog battery occasionally. some think it is the wifi sleep policy but it pops up on me without setting the sleep policy. the fix for that is to pull the battery for a couple minutes and put it back in and restart the phone.
next manage the screen brightness
install a custom rom, there are issues with certain firmware keeping sensors active wen they shouldn't be.
turn off unneeded sync options (i find that auto fetching my email uses a lot especially with my gmail already set to sync),
use wifi when you use the internet if possible, turn it off when out and about.
monitor cpu useage of apps that are cached in the task manager
kill apps that use cpu
if needed turn the max cpu clock down to 800mhz
set "use wireless networks" for location when possible for general location (limited to city level at times)
Dani897 said:
look in about phone battery use to identify the biggest battery user, it should be the screen. anything else and there is a problem.
the cell standby may go high on froyo rom, turning on flight mode and turning it off will correct that, it's an android bug.
on gingerbread the android os or android system may hog battery occasionally. some think it is the wifi sleep policy but it pops up on me without setting the sleep policy. the fix for that is to pull the battery for a couple minutes and put it back in and restart the phone.
next manage the screen brightness
install a custom rom, there are issues with certain firmware keeping sensors active wen they shouldn't be.
turn off unneeded sync options (i find that auto fetching my email uses a lot especially with my gmail already set to sync),
use wifi when you use the internet if possible, turn it off when out and about.
monitor cpu useage of apps that are cached in the task manager
kill apps that use cpu
if needed turn the max cpu clock down to 800mhz
set "use wireless networks" for location when possible for general location (limited to city level at times)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, high cell standby is OK if the phone is screen-off often.
Cell standby is always my top user - but my phone is sitting on my desk with the screen off frequently, in a location with weak signal. Weak signal makes cell standby usage go WAY up.
Syncwifi application is awesome for extending sync settings to gain more battery
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
Using titanium backup I froze drm content 2.2.1 and this significantly increased my battery life.
Sent from my Infuse. It is what it isn't.
JuiceDefender!!
I agree JuiceDefender works!! I had to charge in the middle of the day. Now with moderate use it will last all day Im on stock Rom.
I easily get 2 days out of my Infuse, no idea how some of you are managing to only get 8 hours. After rooting my phone and freezing the bloat i easily get twice the battery life of my prior iPhone 3GS.
Related
I've been using HTC Desire s just for 1 week, it's good device but can't use a day after full change morning. I hate the battery life iphone but it is worse. Do you know how to get the battery life better this HTC Desire s ?
I've done 2 things like below.
1. 10 Tips for saving HTC Desire
2. Once full charge after battery dead(100% consumption)
Any better idea ? Thanks in advance.
I can't put the link for gadget 10 tips link due to 1st posting...
Same to me. 30 hours is max. This is not very good....
I also have the same as if I leave my desire S in stand by for 6 hours it loss 50% of charging and I sure that everything are closed (Wi Fi , Bluetooth , GPS , data connection , Application) so pls can anyone advise if this is special problem on my phone or it's generally in all Desire S
I find the battery quite good actually.... I normally charge it over night and have at least 25% left, normally towards 50 depending on how much angry birds i played
I have WiFi or 3g enabled, no gps or bt
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
Perhaps you can install battery monitor to find the cause...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
I'm getting around 30 hours before my nerve goes and I charge it up again at about 25%, but I'm still using the phone quite a bit more than the dumb-phones I've had in the past.
Check: Settings > About phone > Battery > Battery use
Essential apps:
Battery Monitor Widget
Power Monitor Widget
Screen Filter
I have the screen set to auto brightness, but use Screen Filter to reduce the overall brightness to (say) 50% outdoors, 35% indoors, and 25% in the evening.
I find the biggest drain on the battery is the display, but maybe that's because I've reduced a lot of the syncing.
In "Accounts & sync", I've disabled syncing for most things, especially HTC Sense; Weather widget updates every 3 hours, other things every hour or so.
WiFi is usually off, though even when it's on, it doesn't drain the battery much.
I get the worst battery drain when playing games or watching video, especially with the brightness turned up.
GPS is enabled, but rarely in use. 3G coverage near me is poor, so I'm usually on 2G only.
[ duplicate post got created somehow when editing - can admins delete this one? ]
Try these:
-wifi settings advanced setting for sleep after 15mins
-usb debugging on
-cancel auto sync OR sync frequency for all those things that like synching all time
-change email sync (default is every hour)
-change weather update
-turn off gps
-screen sleep quicker
there are some apps which are poorly put together and can drain battery, i had problem with android market fault and had to reinstall it, also 3g watchdog had an issue before
the desire s battery is better than most android phones, certainly one of the best compared to other htc phones so battery life shouldnt be an issue..
I get two days use. I consider myself an average user. Calls, sms and internet browsing.
kshinkr said:
I've been using HTC Desire s just for 1 week, it's good device but can't use a day after full change morning. I hate the battery life iphone but it is worse. Do you know how to get the battery life better this HTC Desire s ?
I've done 2 things like below.
1. 10 Tips for saving HTC Desire
2. Once full charge after battery dead(100% consumption)
Any better idea ? Thanks in advance.
I can't put the link for gadget 10 tips link due to 1st posting...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
turn your brightness down Switch off your data when not needed... use task killers? (not sure about task killers for android)
njd said:
I'm getting around 30 hours before my nerve goes and I charge it up again at about 25%, but I'm still using the phone quite a bit more than the dumb-phones I've had in the past.
Check: Settings > About phone > Battery > Battery use
Essential apps:
Battery Monitor Widget
Power Monitor Widget
Screen Filter
I have the screen set to auto brightness, but use Screen Filter to reduce the overall brightness to (say) 50% outdoors, 35% indoors, and 25% in the evening.
I find the biggest drain on the battery is the display, but maybe that's because I've reduced a lot of the syncing.
In "Accounts & sync", I've disabled syncing for most things, especially HTC Sense; Weather widget updates every 3 hours, other things every hour or so.
WiFi is usually off, though even when it's on, it doesn't drain the battery much.
I get the worst battery drain when playing games or watching video, especially with the brightness turned up.
GPS is enabled, but rarely in use. 3G coverage near me is poor, so I'm usually on 2G only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use Screen Filter unless your intention is to reduce glare when using your phone in darkness. It will not save you any power if you are using an LCD display. and
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
If all you do most of the time is idling, it should last a couple of days.
My experiences:
I always using all features in mobiles such as localisation, 3G, wifi, synchronization always on. I'm doing this because phone is for me/I am not for phone
Some stats on Desire S:
-wifi only(mobile network off) 60 min of video, 10 mins voice calls, few text, few emails, few webpages 50% screen brightness
result: 27 hours
-wifi off(mobile network on) 60 min of video, 10 mins voice calls, few text, few emails, few webpages, 50% screen brightness
result: 22 hours!!!
Cmon HTC, this are very bad stat!
Anyone know is that good stats? Please don't tell me to switch off this and that...If We will be thinking in this way maybe we just put mobile on air plane mode, set birightness to 20% and then We will get around 40 hours.
Do You think, that custom roms can help with it?
regards
Just curious. Did any of you do the battery calibration thingy?
mjemec said:
Just curious. Did any of you do the battery calibration thingy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I did. I always doing calibration even if now is not necessary...
I have WiFi, BlueTooth, 3G on all the time. Sync on and the device is in background alone collection app. 3MB of data.
If I don't use the phone, then it uses app. 15-20% of battery a day.
I can use the phone app. 5-6 hours a day for browsing, install programs etc.
I thing that is a full days use.
I have turned off auto brightness, as I don't think it is working. In normal day light I set the light to 50% which is nice for the eyes. (Auto mode goes to almost 100% all the time, which uses more power.)
/Michael
So, i managed to get 21 hours out of my battery and that was with quite a bit of usage and with the WiFi turned on all day.
I'll share what i'm running.
I'm no expert so i'm only posting what is working for me to help new people out.
Juice Defender
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.latedroid.juicedefender.beta&feature=more_from_developer
Ditch your charger - increasing battery life has never been so easy!
Always carrying your charger around? You don't need to!
JuiceDefender intelligently and transparently manages for you mobile connectivity and other battery-sensitive components, greatly improving battery life.
I have this set to aggressive.
Android Booster
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.netqin.mobileguard&feature=search_result
Android Optimizer. Make your droid faster. Save battery power. Monitor traffic
Android Booster FREE is one of the most powerful apps that can improve your Android’s performance!
You will find all the following productivity/utility solutions in this app:
Task Killer + Battery Saver + Memory Booster + Uninstaller + File Manager + Settings + Network Manager + Process Manager
These can optimize your android phone via task managers, battery manager, one-click turn on/off wifi, mobile network manager, Bluetooth manager and so on.
The Coolest thing is the Android booster Widget. It’s totally one-click optimization to manage WiFi, Bluetooth, mobile network & power display.
I placed the widget on the screen and after every use of the phone, i always click the optimize button.
APNDroid
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.code.apndroid&feature=search_result
Control your phone's internet connection. Pay less for data. Save battery life.
Prevents your phone from connecting to the internet over the mobile connection - 3G/EDGE/GPRS. Saves money for the data plan and also improves the battery life. Adds suffix to APN names and types to disable them.
I use this because i noticed that even though i connect through Wifi quite a lot, my phone is still using my data plan also. To make sure i don't use my data plan when i don't want to, i've placed the widget on the screen.
Other
Screen Brightness set to Auto
Bluetooth off unless i need it (AndroidBooster can sort this also)
Same applies to Wifi.
As i said, this is what works for me and i'm just sharing in case it helps anyone here.
Thanks
o0o Wiggy o0o
I'm not a power user.. but I'm getting ~2 days use simply by using Timeriffic with a schedule such as
11pm - turn on Airplane mode (ie. shut off all radios).. I'm in bed and dont want to hear from you
6am - remove Airplane mode
7am - enable Bluetooth while I drive to work
8am - disable Bluetooth, set ringer to vibrate
5pm - turn ringer back on, enable Bluetooth for drive home
6pm - turn Bluetooth off
rinse, wash, repeat (the 7am,8am,5pm events are only on weekdays).
There are multiple apps which support this kind of thing.
I've gone through this with every Android phone I've owned. Juice defender etc just isn't for me. In my opinion it just takes away one of the main features of having an Android phone in the first place.
With a few battery cycles, the battery life will improve. Once we have custom roms it will be even better.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
zim2dive said:
I'm not a power user.. but I'm getting ~2 days use simply by using Timeriffic with a schedule such as
11pm - turn on Airplane mode (ie. shut off all radios).. I'm in bed and dont want to hear from you
6am - remove Airplane mode
7am - enable Bluetooth while I drive to work
8am - disable Bluetooth, set ringer to vibrate
5pm - turn ringer back on, enable Bluetooth for drive home
6pm - turn Bluetooth off
rinse, wash, repeat (the 7am,8am,5pm events are only on weekdays).
There are multiple apps which support this kind of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, never heard of this app
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
i found this here on xda. im gonna try it later tonight.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712990
One thing that many people forget about is how often email syncs, how often you have your weather syncing, and any other apps that sync.
Menu / settings / about phone / tell HTC / remove V on both settings and i dropped down to 38ma with wifi on in standby.
5 minutes later i got 6ma.
If this is what was taking all power from the phone i will have a super phone with the best battery
NoModE said:
Menu / settings / about phone / tell HTC / remove V on both settings and i dropped down to 38ma with wifi on in standby.
5 minutes later i got 6ma.
If this is what was taking all power from the phone i will have a super phone with the best battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remove V on both options? huh? I see: Report Errors to HTC checked and two dropdowns.
See if just don't get you people. If your just using your phone for bluetooth vibrate rinse not repeat etc? Wtf why do you have a Sensation 4G? It's a powerhouse phone so if your attempting to get 48 hours of battery life(which basically means your phones screen is never on) Why waste 250 on a phone. Get a dumbphone with bluetooth and your battery can last you a week. Now if your a regular person with a smart phone you simply accept that your battery life will be shot your trade battery life for perfornance. If your emails aren't syncing, facebook, twitter, weather, google music, etc. Then a smart phone is pointless. I use my phone white a bit and i've been getting about 9 hours usage with my phone which is greatttt I play angry birds every thing syncs facebook twitter gmail aim Battleheart etc you name it and I get over 9 hours on a single charge that is great.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
If you are not killing your battery in four hours or less, you are not using your phone. Lol, in my opinion.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
rawr4dj said:
See if just don't get you people. If your just using your phone for bluetooth vibrate rinse not repeat etc? Wtf why do you have a Sensation 4G? It's a powerhouse phone so if your attempting to get 48 hours of battery life(which basically means your phones screen is never on) Why waste 250 on a phone. Get a dumbphone with bluetooth and your battery can last you a week. Now if your a regular person with a smart phone you simply accept that your battery life will be shot your trade battery life for perfornance. If your emails aren't syncing, facebook, twitter, weather, google music, etc. Then a smart phone is pointless. I use my phone white a bit and i've been getting about 9 hours usage with my phone which is greatttt I play angry birds every thing syncs facebook twitter gmail aim Battleheart etc you name it and I get over 9 hours on a single charge that is great.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haahaa....very true!!!!
People get Obsessed with battery usage.
What is the point of having this or any superphone if your gonna cut it's balls off from day one.
If you condition the battery properly from day one, you can use it heavily and still get easily a full day....and that's more than anyone should ever ask for from a device this powerful AND beautiful
rawr4dj said:
See if just don't get you people. If your just using your phone for bluetooth vibrate rinse not repeat etc? Wtf why do you have a Sensation 4G? It's a powerhouse phone so if your attempting to get 48 hours of battery life(which basically means your phones screen is never on) Why waste 250 on a phone. Get a dumbphone with bluetooth and your battery can last you a week. Now if your a regular person with a smart phone you simply accept that your battery life will be shot your trade battery life for perfornance. If your emails aren't syncing, facebook, twitter, weather, google music, etc. Then a smart phone is pointless. I use my phone white a bit and i've been getting about 9 hours usage with my phone which is greatttt I play angry birds every thing syncs facebook twitter gmail aim Battleheart etc you name it and I get over 9 hours on a single charge that is great.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry maybe you missed the point of the thread..........
There's no such thing as a regular user as you state, everyone does things differently. The point of this thread is to contribute methods that extend maxing out our perfomance, game playing, and all productivity on our devices. If you have nothing to add besides rants and flames, I suggest you just hush, watch and learn.
Right now we can't access/disable some programs that really drain juice. So every little bit helps til we get root.
NoModE said:
Menu / settings / about phone / tell HTC / remove V on both settings and i dropped down to 38ma with wifi on in standby.
5 minutes later i got 6ma.
If this is what was taking all power from the phone i will have a super phone with the best battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, but this solution was not working.
It was down to 6ma for a while, but after some minutes it was back to draining my battery with up to 200ma in standby.
[KillaHurtz]
If your post had a like button, I would click it.
NoModE said:
I'm sorry, but this solution was not working.
It was down to 6ma for a while, but after some minutes it was back to draining my battery with up to 200ma in standby.
[KillaHurtz]
If your post had a like button, I would click it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you using to check your battery MA? I use battery monitor widget and it never shows less than 200ma and I know those numbers have to be off a bit...my battery went down 4% overnight but the widget showed 200ma the whole time! Anyone know a battery ma widget that actually works?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
jahmezis45 said:
What are you using to check your battery MA? I use battery monitor widget and it never shows less than 200ma and I know those numbers have to be off a bit...my battery went down 4% overnight but the widget showed 200ma the whole time! Anyone know a battery ma widget that actually works?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's the one I'm using.
But i'm not sure if it's working 100% or not.
Anyone else know?
NoModE said:
Yes, that's the one I'm using.
But i'm not sure if it's working 100% or not.
Anyone else know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok i emailed the developer for battery monitor widget and he sent me an updated apk. but i think it was a simple option that he added that has seemed to fix the problem. Now im getting regular readings like 2ma and so on. i would email the developer and tell him your having the same problem as jahmezis45 and see if he can help. Hope this helps!
i have same problem with battery monitor, it is allways over 200mA
Spirit81 said:
i have same problem with battery monitor, it is allways over 200mA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea its reading the information from the device wrong. email the developer, email address is in his program on the android market
I dont know why I bother having a smartphone, it spends so much time in the charger, I might as well call it landline
First thing, I stopped using all battery and current monitoring apps when I realized they were a part of the problem and not part of a solution. They are simply drawing power and keeping the phone awake and are not really accurate anyways. Only actual usage time matters. Can you use it throughout the whole day with "normal" (for you!) usage patterns?
If you have something draining your battery over time, it is likely to be an app keeping the phone awake so it doesn't go into deep sleep mode.
Connect the USB cable to the phone and PC and run this command:
Code:
adb shell dumpsys alarm > AlarmDump.txt
Then have a look at the file, towards the bottom you get Stats. In here is the breakdown of what's causing the device to wake up. (h/t catnap)
The screen may be the single biggest drawer of power, so I usually suggest disabling auto-brightness and setting the brightness to a level you can work with, for me around 25% works. I also edit my build.prop and change the supplicant timer from 120 to 900 to prevent WiFi from pinging my remembered networks as often, turn off open network notification, and run the mobile network on 3G instead of 4G since it uses less power.
Some other things to do include turning off pocket mode under the sounds settings (turns off proximity detector) and disable vibrate feedback.
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 using my N5 for a couple of weeks and I know its battery life isn't the greatest. I have watched some youtube videos for tips on better battery life, and here's what I have done.
Turn off auto brightness, and screen brightness is about 1/4 of the way
Turn off haptic feedback
Turn off vibration on keypress
Turn off sync for most Google services
Turn off NFC
Location service set to battery saving mode
But it seems like after all that's been done, the battery is still draining pretty fast. For example, I went out for dinner and drinks with friends and my phone is just sitting in my pocket the whole time not being used, 4 hours later, I have lost 30% battery. Coming from an htc one, it doesn't drain nearly as much. Is this abnormal or just about right for the N5, thoughts?
Infiniteloop7 said:
I have been using my N5 for a couple of weeks and I know its battery life isn't the greatest. I have watched some youtube videos for tips on better battery life, and here's what I have done.
Turn off auto brightness, and screen brightness is about 1/4 of the way
Turn off haptic feedback
Turn off vibration on keypress
Turn off sync for most Google services
Turn off NFC
Location service set to battery saving mode
But it seems like after all that's been done, the battery is still draining pretty fast. For example, I went out for dinner and drinks with friends and my phone is just sitting in my pocket the whole time not being used, 4 hours later, I have lost 30% battery. Coming from an htc one, it doesn't drain nearly as much. Is this abnormal or just about right for the N5, thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
7.5%/hr is high for standby time. You can get it down to 1-2%/hr by using more of the battery-saving tips you'll find in the various threads on the subject.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Check the wakelock with better battery stat
If you don't need GPS on all the time turn that off too saves quite a bit of battery even the battery saving mode isn't that battery friendly
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Infiniteloop7 said:
But it seems like after all that's been done, the battery is still draining pretty fast. For example, I went out for dinner and drinks with friends and my phone is just sitting in my pocket the whole time not being used, 4 hours later, I have lost 30% battery. Coming from an htc one, it doesn't drain nearly as much. Is this abnormal or just about right for the N5, thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You really need to share your battery usage screen, and show what apps drained your battery. It is possible that you were had low signal strength, and so your phone kept trying to search for a signal and drained itself. Also, as dark_ente suggested, look at betterbatterystats results to see if you had wakelocks.
With no active use, that is very high drain - unless you were in a very low signal strength area, or had an app keeping your phone awake.
When I work from home, connected to WiFi, my phone drains about 3-4% in about 9 hours (assuming I don't actively use it. I use pushbullet to show me all notifications on my PC, so I don't have to turn my phone on at all)
Infiniteloop7 said:
Turn off auto brightness, and screen brightness is about 1/4 of the way - I do the same (actually, I set it to the lowest possible level), because it is too bright
Turn off haptic feedback - I do the same, because it is annoying
Turn off vibration on keypress - I do the same, because it is annoying
Turn off sync for most Google services - I leave sync on
Turn off NFC - I leave it on
Location service set to battery saving mode - I do the same - but set up a tasker profile to enable GPS when I launch maps - Disabling GPS helped the most in my case
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jj14 said:
You really need to share your battery usage screen, and show what apps drained your battery. It is possible that you were had low signal strength, and so your phone kept trying to search for a signal and drained itself. Also, as dark_ente suggested, look at betterbatterystats results to see if you had wakelocks.
With no active use, that is very high drain - unless you were in a very low signal strength area, or had an app keeping your phone awake.
When I work from home, connected to WiFi, my phone drains about 3-4% in about 9 hours (assuming I don't actively use it. I use pushbullet to show me all notifications on my PC, so I don't have to turn my phone on at all)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say turning off GPS and only enable it while launching maps, do you mean turn off location completely? Does that affect other Google apps/services? Such as Google now
If all else fails, do a factory reset.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
I noticed from the past few days that my N5 seems to have abnormal battery usage pattern. There are days with mostly light use (text messaging, whatsapp messaging, some web browsing, minimal on screen time) I can go for 2 days without charging, and I am only losing 1% battery per hour when it's in stand by. However, they are times (see attachment) when I didn't use my phone for 11 hours, and the battery level is down from fully charged to 26%. Can anyone give me some ideas on what may be the culprit?
kevtrysmoddin said:
If you don't need GPS on all the time turn that off too saves quite a bit of battery even the battery saving mode isn't that battery friendly
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
battery saver mode is actually very battery friendly. i've done extensive testing...
---------- Post added at 06:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 PM ----------
Infiniteloop7 said:
I noticed from the past few days that my N5 seems to have abnormal battery usage pattern. There are days with mostly light use (text messaging, whatsapp messaging, some web browsing, minimal on screen time) I can go for 2 days without charging, and I am only losing 1% battery per hour when it's in stand by. However, they are times (see attachment) when I didn't use my phone for 11 hours, and the battery level is down from fully charged to 26%. Can anyone give me some ideas on what may be the culprit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need 'better battery stats' log. . . stock battery screen tells you almost nothing
Infiniteloop7 said:
When you say turning off GPS and only enable it while launching maps, do you mean turn off location completely? Does that affect other Google apps/services? Such as Google now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I keep location enabled all the time, but in battery saver mode - that way, google now, weather widgets etc can get my approximate location (using cell tower triangulation), but can't activate my GPS for accurate location fix.
When I use maps/navigation (which in my case is the only time when I need accurate GPS location fix), I change from battery saving location to the GPS type location fix, and when I'm done with maps/nav, I switch back to battery saving location.
If you turned location off completely, google now, and possibly other apps (like weather widgets for current location) won't work.
Infiniteloop7 said:
I noticed from the past few days that my N5 seems to have abnormal battery usage pattern. There are days with mostly light use (text messaging, whatsapp messaging, some web browsing, minimal on screen time) I can go for 2 days without charging, and I am only losing 1% battery per hour when it's in stand by. However, they are times (see attachment) when I didn't use my phone for 11 hours, and the battery level is down from fully charged to 26%. Can anyone give me some ideas on what may be the culprit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From your 2nd screen print, you can see that your phone was awake pretty often. As @Enddo wrote, betterbatterystats should help you figure out what is causing the wakelocks.
Enddo said:
battery saver mode is actually very battery friendly. i've done extensive testing...
---------- Post added at 06:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 PM ----------
you need 'better battery stats' log. . . stock battery screen tells you almost nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jj14 said:
No. I keep location enabled all the time, but in battery saver mode - that way, google now, weather widgets etc can get my approximate location (using cell tower triangulation), but can't activate my GPS for accurate location fix.
When I use maps/navigation (which in my case is the only time when I need accurate GPS location fix), I change from battery saving location to the GPS type location fix, and when I'm done with maps/nav, I switch back to battery saving location.
If you turned location off completely, google now, and possibly other apps (like weather widgets for current location) won't work.
From your 2nd screen print, you can see that your phone was awake pretty often. As @Enddo wrote, betterbatterystats should help you figure out what is causing the wakelocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am still pretty new to Android and I don't know how to root my phone. I did check out betterbatterystats on google play, it says the app doesn't work on non-rooted Android phone running kitkat, that's why I haven't installed it yet. It seems that kitkat made some changes which prevent battery usage apps from working properly, wake lock detector also won't work on non-rooted phones running kitkat
Infiniteloop7 said:
I am still pretty new to Android and I don't know how to root my phone. I did check out betterbatterystats on google play, it says the app doesn't work on non-rooted Android phone running kitkat, that's why I haven't installed it yet. It seems that kitkat made some changes which prevent battery usage apps from working properly, wake lock detector also won't work on non-rooted phones running kitkat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting is pretty easy. And it opens up a whole new world.
________________________
Sent from my Nexus 5
Infiniteloop7 said:
I am still pretty new to Android and I don't know how to root my phone. I did check out betterbatterystats on google play, it says the app doesn't work on non-rooted Android phone running kitkat, that's why I haven't installed it yet. It seems that kitkat made some changes which prevent battery usage apps from working properly, wake lock detector also won't work on non-rooted phones running kitkat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While betterbatterystats will work on kitkat (unrooted), it won't give you partial wakelock summary That requires root)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15869904&postcount=3 - see FAQ 1 and 3. You can download the kitkat compatible version from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
As PhilipTD wrote, rooting a N5 is pretty easy, but if you don't feel comfortable doing it, don't.
If you decide to root, follow the steps in first post at the link that PhilipTD provided.
Note that Step 1 (unlocking bootloader) will wipe out all your data.
Before you root, why not disable GPS (keep location active) and see if that helps? Also, how often do you reboot your phone?
Hi, I'm worried about my bad battery life. Any ideas what it causes or how to improve?
I'm on latest Carbon Rom (Android 4.4.2), Now activated, Hotword detection off.
Logs and Screenshots: see attachment
I don't get it. You have 1 day 9 hour usage and 1 hour 42 screen time. Your screen time is low but your usage is quite a while, better than mine. Could be bad signal, you have 1 bar in all the screenshots posted. Try turning off sync or mobile data when not in use.
It's a combination of poor signal and gps settings.
Switch location mode to Device only and get us an overnight BBS log.
System UI is unusually high. I can only assume this is customized UI elements draining the battery. Google services are 2nd on your list so locations and auto syncs, among other things.
When you're getting normal battery life Screen should be at the top. Anything draining more than Screen you need to look into.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
mistahseller said:
I don't get it. You have 1 day 9 hour usage and 1 hour 42 screen time. Your screen time is low but your usage is quite a while, better than mine. Could be bad signal, you have 1 bar in all the screenshots posted. Try turning off sync or mobile data when not in use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, he charged the phone (look at the first picture above the number 26 ) and as result, it was less than 1 day, 9h.
Aerowinder said:
It's a combination of poor signal and gps settings.
Switch location mode to Device only and get us an overnight BBS log.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick answer. I switched to 'device only'. Please find attached the overnight BBS log.
any ideas? someone?
Hi,
I see systemui is at the top of the list in all your screens. Are you using "pocket mode" or lockscreen notifications? I had the same issue on Mahdi rom and it went away when i disabled "pocket mode"
Are you running a custom kernel?
Some general battery saving tips are :
-Lower your brightness (i have mine set at 20%)
-Download "Wakelock Detector" and "Greenify" from playstore. These 2 apps will solve any wakelock problems.
-Turn Google Location Reporting and Location History off.
Sometimes a simple reboot does wonder for your phone.
Everybody has their own best combo of ROM + kernel so it will be up to you to find what works for you.
I'm currently running Mahdi's ROM + Elementalx and get 4 hours of screen time, 4 hours of music playback (from SD card) and 20+ hours of standby time
simplyazn04 said:
Hi,
I see systemui is at the top of the list in all your screens. Are you using "pocket mode" or lockscreen notifications? I had the same issue on Mahdi rom and it went away when i disabled "pocket mode"
Are you running a custom kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, yes I'm using pocket mode. Too bad that it's drains this much battery! I love this feature
to me it looks as you having terrible wifi. and since you left the wifi on, your terrible signal drained the battery.
Towelie90 said:
Hi, yes I'm using pocket mode. Too bad that it's drains this much battery! I love this feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try turning off the feature for a day and see if it improves your battery life any.
I'm also a big fan of the pocket mode feature and s2w/dt2w features because i hate reaching for the power button but it killed my battery.
What i can suggest to you is to try an app called Gravity Screen by one of our very own xda developer. Somehow, he managed to get the turn screen on/off via proximity sensor to barely drain any battery. I use this app combined with Dynamic Notifications and every time i take my phone out of my pocket, i get notifications like the Moto X and screen on without power button.
Best of luck!
flash back to stock & change tamper flag, and get an exchange. I found out that the earlier models have some with batt and radio problems
simplyazn04 said:
Try turning off the feature for a day and see if it improves your battery life any.
I'm also a big fan of the pocket mode feature and s2w/dt2w features because i hate reaching for the power button but it killed my battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confirmed. Pocket Mode killed my battery, too. Since I deactivated it, my battery life is acceptable.
simplyazn04 said:
What i can suggest to you is to try an app called Gravity Screen by one of our very own xda developer. Somehow, he managed to get the turn screen on/off via proximity sensor to barely drain any battery. I use this app combined with Dynamic Notifications and every time i take my phone out of my pocket, i get notifications like the Moto X and screen on without power button.
Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give it a try! Thank you very much for your detailed help!