Database Info

Extreme battery drain: any way to determine what's causing it?

The last couple of days my battery has been draining ridiculously fast. It just went from 50% to 8%, just sitting in my pocket without otherwise being used, in the last 3 hours. Here's what the battery usage displays:
while unplugged for 3h 3m 24s:
Android OS 81%
Cell standby 10%
Phone idle 4%
Display 3%
Android System 2%
Obviously something is going on with Android OS and I suspect something I've installed is doing this. I have Watchdog installed but it hasn't given me any warnings. Is there some way to determine exactly what is causing the battery drain, other than removing apps one by one?
Thanks!

I've suspected that my display keeps coming on when my phone is in my pocket.
Both the power button, and the trackpad turn on the backlight for 15 seconds when pushed, and it's very easy to do both when the phone is in your pocket.

I stopped using the HTC weather app, there is no way to stop it from constantly searching your location and it kills the battery FAST if you are on the move. Since I stopped using it I have seen 10+ hours of battery life a day and I use it hard, internet, gps, music, twitter.

It's the suspend process.
I can't link it to you cause I'm on the phone but if you look around, you'll be able to find it.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

I don't think it's the display because the battery usage isn't showing the display as the main battery usage (unless I'm really using it for a long time). It's definitely something belonging to "Android OS". I wish there was a way to determine specifically what process within "android OS" is to blame. I really don't know much about Android or Linux in general so "android OS" is mostly a mystery to me.
I did uninstall several programs yesterday night and was almost convinced it was behaving better but it looks like after the first hour that Android OS is creeping up and overtaking the battery usage and the battery is draining pretty fast despite not using the phone other than to occasionally check the battery usage. At the current rate I'd be lucky if the phone isn't dead before the end of my workday. It probably doesn't help that I have a rather weak signal at work but if it was increased power to the cellular radio that was the culprit, would it show up under "Android OS" or "Cell standby"? I'd suspect the latter, but maybe Android isn't so logical in how it groups processes....
I'll try removing the HTC weather widgets as suggested and look up the sleep process.
Thanks!

It is the "suspend process" like that other poster said. Here is the defect, you can read through if you like. It's a known problem and not only isolated to mt4g
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=11126

How did people determine it's the "suspend" process? I can't seem to find any way to determine what processes are specifically involved. Is there an app that will tell you that? I am running Watchdog Lite set to alert me at 50% cpu and have never got an alert which makes me question whether my issue is the same one described in that thread. Various people were describing 100% cpu activity by the suspend process and it doesn't seem to be the case with me.
I did have 2 weather widgets on my home screen. I deleted both and since then the problem appears to have gone away. I'll have to wait a while to see if it's truly fixed or just a coincidence. Someone in the suspend thread did mention that plugging into a charger temporarily fixed the issue and I did charge the phone for a while after deleting the widgets so I'm not convinced just yet.
One thing I did notice in the battery usage is that google maps seems to have a significant presence, despite the fact that I haven't used maps at all since last unplugging the phone. What is maps doing in the background? I wonder if it's trying to determine my location and cache map data...
Thanks!

Install Watchdog and in its settings, include, monitor, and display all phone processes.
HTC Glacier running CM7 #15

Enable system process and set thrashold to 30% and you will see the suspend process. Or when you notice the drain is happening go to the phone hidden menu. You know the #*#*3626*#*# in the dialer and then from there go to battery usage then select CPU usage, you will see the suspend process on the top or near the top.

Just use some memory management apps. I currently use ES task manager and in advanced settings, i set it to kill all processes when i power down screen. I never use any battery when phone is unplugged(i literally left my phone unplugged overnight midnight to about 7am and it stood at 73% entire time). And having it rooted, i use SetCPU and set the phone at around 768mhz powersave when i'm not messing with the phone heavily. I easily can squeeze about a day and a half out of the battery.

knaries2000 said:
Enable system process and set thrashold to 30% and you will see the suspend process. Or when you notice the drain is happening go to the phone hidden menu. You know the #*#*3626*#*# in the dialer and then from there go to battery usage then select CPU usage, you will see the suspend process on the top or near the top.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that the correct sequence/code? I put that in and didn't get anything. Is root required?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

sorry, that was not the correct sequence at all. I was trying to do it by memory. It is *#*#4636#*#* then select battery history, in the first dropdown box select cpu usage. That menu is pretty useful for other things to like network usage breakdown per app, gps usage, etc.
el-jodio said:
Is that the correct sequence/code? I put that in and didn't get anything. Is root required?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks for all the info. I particularly like that hidden menu. I had no idea that existed...
Since removing the HTC weather widget my battery drain issue has completely disappeared. The battery now lasts a reasonable amount of time.
Thanks!

knaries2000 said:
sorry, that was not the correct sequence at all. I was trying to do it by memory. It is *#*#4636#*#* then select battery history, in the first dropdown box select cpu usage. That menu is pretty useful for other things to like network usage breakdown per app, gps usage, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Are there any other secret codes that do other things? Like the *#*#checkin#*#*
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

checkin menu does exist too. Those are the only 2 I know off. If other people here know of any please post.

Actually I have removed the HTC weather widget couple of days ago and also disabled the water sync in account settings too. That seems to have help with the suspend process on my phone also.

knaries2000 said:
Actually I have removed the HTC weather widget couple of days ago and also disabled the water sync in account settings too. That seems to have help with the suspend process on my phone also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the "water" sync? Is that a swype typo for "weather" sync? (Swype errors are annoying in that their usually not so obvious.)
I had also disabled the weather sync (forgot to mention it). Seems to be a lot of little bugs in Sense that need to get fixed.

Why don't you guys do what I did... I have profiles set on setCPU so that when the screen is off the phone runs at 368mhz max and the when the screen is on it'll go up to opp speed... That actually saves alot of battery for me.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Sorry it is weather sync. Yeah keyboard error. I stopped using swype recently for this very reason, but touch input isnt perfect either but still much better for me.

Ya if you are using OC based kernel then use SetCPU to scale your mCPU. Set few profiles for example my max is 1.7ghz, avg is 1.2ghz, min is 768mhz, idle is 368mhz.
Sent from my HTC Glacier

[GUIDE] Battery Management for noobs

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

[Q] Please Help ! Android System Battery Drain on Nexus 5 after KitKat 4.4.2 update

Hi,
The battery life of my Nexus 5 has taken a dramatic hit since the 4.4.2 update. I think the culprit is Android System but the GSAM battery graph seems to suggest that the culprit is Android OS kernel. My Nexus 5 is on 4.4.2, unrooted, stock ROM and the build no. is KOT49H.
In short, my phone does not seem to have a wakelock issue but I can't verify because 4.4 does not allow wakelock access without root. It sleeps fine at night and in daytime when it is not in use. I only lose around 5% or less overnight with 2x battery turning off the data connection and only turning on data connection once every night. The problem is the Android System which drains at least 17% (sometimes 25%) of battery everyday and routinely sits on top my of battery usage chart with or without me actually using the phone. My usage per charge is typically around 6-7 hours with around 1 hour 45 minutes screen on time. I had extraordinary battery life before the update to 4.4.2 (lasting more than 1 day with over 3 or 4 hours screen on time). Now my battery life is completely shot. The battery graphs attached already represent one of the better days. Some days the Android system will drain at 25% or more. You will note my phone relatively slept fine without draining at night in the first 7 or 8 hours and then the battery drain started to take a nose dive after I woke up. I feel that whenever I start using the phone (with the screen being turned on), the battery drain will occur. My observations are as follows:
1. I use LTE but the reception at my home and work for LTE is not good so the radio jumps between LTE and H+ from time to time however I do not think the radio jumping contributes that much to the drain. The drain stays the same even when I am at a place with good LTE reception. I use wifi at home but i cannot connect to wifi at work (which sadly is another issue). The wifi is always off unless i use it at home. I do NOT have wifi scanning in the settings. I have wifi battery optimization on. I never use bluetooth.
2. My google now is off. My location setting is completely off with no location reporting etc..
3. My Google + auto back up is off. I do not use Facebook, Facebook messenger, Instagram, snapchat etc. I mostly use Feedly, Whatsapp, Gmails and look at stock quotes every day. I seldom take pictures, videos or listen to music.
4. I only have one widget dashclock widget. I have removed feedly and stock quote widgets from the home screen but they don't seem to affect my battery usage that much.
5. I use Automateit but only have a few rules such as setting vibrate on weekdays etc.. I do not have any profiles which are related to GPS or location which i understand would drain battery. I also use Dynamic Notification, Light Flow, Lux, Nova Launcher, Notification Toggle and the memory in general is always below 65% in the background. I also use 2x battery to save battery which is set at switching off data after I turn off the screen and it will only turn data in the background every 10 minutes.
6. I have tried safe mode and 9 out of 10 times the Android system drain remains the same. The only way to lower the Android system drain (albeit temporary) is when I turn off the phone and plug it in for a charge, then turn it on when it is full and still plugged in. After I unplug it, the Android System drain will lower to say 7 or 8 % but it will slowly creep back up to 20% within an hour or so.
7. The CPU usage overlay routinely has 9 + readings on the top when the screen is turned on (but with no app running). I think it means very high CPU usage.
8. I do not think Feedly is causing any problems. I deleted the app and the drain remains. I also do not think GSAM is that useful as pointed out by another member here. It points to one app. You delete that app and then the drain remains it will point to something else.
9. I have been using Greenify (non-root) but it does not seem to help with my battery drain as the drain might be caused by system apps or processes within the OS.
I don't know what else to do and this problem has been troubling me for more than 1 month now. Please help !
Update on 24/2/2014:
I have given up and factory reset my phone. After I reset my phone, the apps were installed via Google Play automatically. I also switched to ART. It was fine initially for at least one day. The apps were there but I did not use or enable most of them as I wanted to transfer all my data and tweaked the settings in one goal. I mostly just used Feedly, Whatsapp and Maps for navigation. Even with Maps and high accuracy GPS on, the Android System would go below 10% even though it would temporarily increase to say above 20% during navigation. This morning, I thought the battery seemed ok so I enabled Lux, Dynamic Notifications, Lightflow, Automateit, Nova Launcher and restore the settings to most of the apps.
The Android System drain came back within 2 hours and hit 25% of the total battery drain. My phone's battery dropped from 100% to 40 % in less than 5 hours and the screen on time was only around 1 hour! I never did any battery intensive actions. The most was turning on the phone to check my battery and whatsapped less than 10 messages back and forth ! Since the drain re-appeared, I have turned off completely the location setting, Google Now, sync for Google Plus, auto-backup for Google Plus. I have removed all widgets and disabled Dynamic Notifications, Nova Launcher, Light Flow, Lux. The drain still remains the same at 23% or more.
This is driving me absolutely crazy and I am sick and tired of spending so much time and energy on sorting out the cause for drain (and to no avail!) I spent a lot more time on trying to fix the phone than really utilizing the phone for my benefit !! I just sent an email to the Google tech support and hope they will help instead of sending me generic self-help sheet. Thanks all for listening and trying to help. I am just really disappointed with Google this time.

Use bbs to get wakelock info.
Feedly has got to go too
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

rootSU said:
Use bbs to get wakelock info.
Feedly has got to go too
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. My N5 is not rooted so I do not have access to wakelock stats anymore.
I have removed Feedly but the android system drain persists.

Not a lot that can be done without knowing the cause. Consider factory reset?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

rootSU said:
Not a lot that can be done without knowing the cause. Consider factory reset?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am hoping I don have to resort to factory reset and can wait for the 4.4.3 update but I guess my patience is running out.
Thanks for your help.

My missus' LG-P880 has exactly the same problem. Just started happening one day. It seems to be wakelock locator alarms according to bbs but there doesn't appear to be any reason for it. Its been driving me mad too. Luckily tho she's rooted so using app opps i disabled Google services location and it's kinda helped
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Did you try another kernel ? When I changed to franco kernel, my battery life is better.

having weak LTE signal kills the battery but it should not be this bad.
Maybe you should try a factory reset and see if the problem still persist, if not then you have an rogue app somewhere.

You can use the process of elimination.
Start with disabling Dynamic notifications and Light flow as those have high potential for battery drain.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Elias_grodin said:
I am hoping I don have to resort to factory reset and can wait for the 4.4.3 update but I guess my patience is running out.
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restart your phone in safe mode, and see the battery drainage...maybe it can help you.

It seems good for me
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I had this same problem the other night. Get app ops starter from the play store. In there turn location off in Google play services and android system. Note, this may impact other apps. I don't use any that I need location for so it works for me.
Sent from my Nexus 5

I had a similar issue as well. For me I turned off a couple things and it really helped:
1. Turned off Cerberus, I believe checking location too often or incorrectly or something.
2. Turned off Account sync for Play Newstand. Noticed when a sync would occur, it would hang on Newstand for much too long which I think was waking device and keeping device awake during it's long syncs. Everything else would only take a min or two total.
3. Set G+ photo sync to only sync when on wifi and charging.
4. Removed Yahoo Weather app. Noticed yahoo weather app staying alive a lot too.
5. Removed Whatsapp. Probably unnecessary really, but any of those messaging/weather/location apps that I don't use often (if ever) I removed to make sure they weren't checking location in the background.
So far, I'm at 78% battery today when I would have been at around 30-40% usually, so that combo has made a huge difference.
It's going to be different for everyone I think, but basically just make sure you don't have any excess apps checking location in the background. And at least for me there seems to be something wrong with Play Newsstand sync hanging for long periods of time.

Yea... Even i had the same issues... Latest version killes ma deep sleep mode nd also some of a rules disappeared....

I was having similar issues and was able to narrow it down to syncing Google Services...
I found that often times Google Drive would get hung up when syncing in the background and chew up my battery.
What Google Services do you have set to auto-sync? I would narrow it down to the ones you only really need to have synced in the background and have the others sync up for you when you open them.
Also, in regards to your LTE/H+ signal, have you tried to flash another radio to see if there is any improvement? A poor signal can have a pretty significant impact on battery life as well.
Lastly, as mentioned by another user, Better Battery Stats, though requiring root, will make it a lot easier to track down the culprit of the issue if it indeed a rogue app somewhere.

Try different keyboard. I've a suspicion that latest Google Keyboard is the culprit.
I was having some unexplainable with BBS (no locks, etc.) battery drain. Which can only be resolved (though temporarily) with reboot.
So, I installed alternative keyboard (Swype in my case) and using it. So far, second day I don't have battery drain.

Update
Please refer to the OP for update. Thanks all.

battery after reset
After a second factory reset, I did not install a lot of the apps which I suspect have something to do with my drain - including Swype, Dynamic Notifications, Nova Launcher, LightFlow, Task Manager, 2x battery, Lux, Notification Toggle, Dash Clock, Automateit. I have also set my location to device only with no location history and history. I have also disabled Google Now. I have not restored my photos, music and videos to the phone yet. I have disabled sync for Google Plus, Google Drive etc.. I have also disabled auto back up for Google Plus. I am on ART.
The battery life (with around 25 % left) was around 6 hours 30 minutes or a bit more but with close to 2 hours 40 minutes screen on time. The screen was the biggest draw. Android system comes in second with around 13%. This is obviously better than before where I managed to squeeze maybe a hour or 30 minutes more but with 2x battery turned on in the background. I mostly used the phone for battery checking, whatsapp, Feedly, web surfing. I played games for around 20 minutes. I was not on wifi most of the time. Is this battery performance normal?
Thanks in advance.

Replacement offer by Google
Elias_grodin said:
After a second factory reset, I did not install a lot of the apps which I suspect have something to do with my drain - including Swype, Dynamic Notifications, Nova Launcher, LightFlow, Task Manager, 2x battery, Lux, Notification Toggle, Dash Clock, Automateit. I have also set my location to device only with no location history and history. I have also disabled Google Now. I have not restored my photos, music and videos to the phone yet. I have disabled sync for Google Plus, Google Drive etc.. I have also disabled auto back up for Google Plus. I am on ART.
The battery life (with around 25 % left) was around 6 hours 30 minutes or a bit more but with close to 2 hours 40 minutes screen on time. The screen was the biggest draw. Android system comes in second with around 13%. This is obviously better than before where I managed to squeeze maybe a hour or 30 minutes more but with 2x battery turned on in the background. I mostly used the phone for battery checking, whatsapp, Feedly, web surfing. I played games for around 20 minutes. I was not on wifi most of the time. Is this battery performance normal?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have reset the phone three times. After the third attempt, the battery drain for Android System would go back up to 20% plus. By the test of elimination, I thought I narrowed down the possible culprit to Light Flow and Dynamic Notifications. I uninstalled both of them but the battery drain remained 20% plus.
Google was willing to replace my device. I asked them whether the battery drain is likely a hardware or a software issue or a combination of both. They said (to my surprise) it is hardware issue. It seems they have come across quite a number of similar cases. I always thought it was a bug within 4.4.2 or in the google apps such as Google Play Services etc. and could be fixed by a patch or something. The phone also means a lot to me as it was a gift from my gf. I just don't want to go through the hassle of replacing the device if it is a software problem but I guess I am running out of choices unless I decide to wait for the update. What do you guys think?

It's definitely not a hardware issue. If you Google it there's threads all over the place with all different makes and models of phones having the same problem and no one can figure out why, apart from it definitely seems something to do with Google services (GmsCore.apk)
Your best option is to root your phone and use app ops and turn location access off for every app that doesn't need it. (pretty much everything apart from maps and weather apps)
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Why do Android System, Android OS, & Bluetooth account for majority of battery drain?

Why do Android System, Android OS, & Bluetooth account for majority of battery drain?
On my old Galaxy S4, I found that the screen was almost always the highest battery drain -- and if I saw some app using close to or more than the screen, then I knew something was wrong. However, with my Galaxy S5 (running OptimalROM 13.1), I am consistently seeing Android System is the highest drain, followed by Android OS -- at times I'm getting only 10 to 12 hours of life, but other times I get over a day -- in both cases, it's the Android System and Android OS using the bulk of the power, never an app.
I also see some odd things like Bluetooth using nearly 10%, even though it isn't connected to any devices the entire day -- why would it use that much on standby?
I also see Google Services sometimes using over 10% -- I think that was while I had Google Maps in the background (not navigating).

Nerva said:
On my old Galaxy S4, I found that the screen was almost always the highest battery drain -- and if I saw some app using close to or more than the screen, then I knew something was wrong. However, with my Galaxy S5 (running OptimalROM 13.1), I am consistently seeing Android System is the highest drain, followed by Android OS -- at times I'm getting only 10 to 12 hours of life, but other times I get over a day -- in both cases, it's the Android System and Android OS using the bulk of the power, never an app.
I also see some odd things like Bluetooth using nearly 10%, even though it isn't connected to any devices the entire day -- why would it use that much on standby?
I also see Google Services sometimes using over 10% -- I think that was while I had Google Maps in the background (not navigating).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that is the new normal. Unfortunately, "Andoid System" in our battery stats is nonspecific: that heading actually covers dozens of little apps and functions. With each successive generation, the phones try to have more features.
You can get a little better idea with GSam Battery Monitor: by clicking on the "Android System", it brings up another window showing you all of these processes. That doesn't mean you'll be able to do much about it, though.
I was able to solve one major problem with ridiculous battery drain by looking more closely: I have a lot of mp3s and pictures on my sdcard. Android system was scanning them, but Samsung indexing service was also scanning them for no useful purpose, and every time I rebooted it would start chewing on them again. I froze the samsung indexing service and the battery life improved by many hours per day.

Where do I disable the Samsung Indexing Service? I doubt it's causing problems, but it's useless to me.

Nerva said:
Where do I disable the Samsung Indexing Service? I doubt it's causing problems, but it's useless to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The safest way is to use Titanium Backup to "freeze" IndexService and, optionally, "S Finder". If you run into any issues, you can re-enable them easily by "defrosting" them.
Disabling them doesn't affect me at all because I use a file explorer to browse to my files directly.

OK, I installed GSam Battery Monitor a few weeks ago. Today I am dumbfounded by what my phone is doing -- after undocking it for just two hours and not using it at all, I notice it is hot in my pocket, so I pull it out and see the battery has already dropped to 78%. I check the list of open apps, and there's not much there -- my phone dialer, Camera, Chrome (with no pages open), and Messaging -- that's it.
I check the GSam battery usage, and it says the screen is using 2%, the cell radio 2%, the WiFi 1%, and the rest is "App Usage" -- I click on apps, and Kernel (Android OS) is using ~60%, Bluetooth is using 22%, and Android System is using ~10% -- so they combine for 90% of "App Usage". My Bluetooth is "on" but not connected to anything -- indeed, it is paired with only one device, which I have not even turned on in months -- the phone is getting all of its data via WiFi, which is only using 1%, yet the Bluetooth with nothing to do is using 22%!
What the hell is going on?

Nerva said:
OK, I installed GSam Battery Monitor a few weeks ago. Today I am dumbfounded by what my phone is doing -- after undocking it for just two hours and not using it at all, I notice it is hot in my pocket, so I pull it out and see the battery has already dropped to 78%. I check the list of open apps, and there's not much there -- my phone dialer, Camera, Chrome (with no pages open), and Messaging -- that's it.
I check the GSam battery usage, and it says the screen is using 2%, the cell radio 2%, the WiFi 1%, and the rest is "App Usage" -- I click on apps, and Kernel (Android OS) is using ~60%, Bluetooth is using 22%, and Android System is using ~10% -- so they combine for 90% of "App Usage". My Bluetooth is "on" but not connected to anything -- indeed, it is paired with only one device, which I have not even turned on in months -- the phone is getting all of its data via WiFi, which is only using 1%, yet the Bluetooth with nothing to do is using 22%!
What the hell is going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that sometimes it gets hung up if it encounters a corrupted media file while scanning for them, and that produces the symptoms you're describing. Scan your SDcard (it's fastest to do it on a computer, but there are many ways to accomplish this) for any files that are of size "0 kb" (that is, zero kb) and delete them. See if that resolves your issue.
Also try clearing cache and dalvik cache, just because that can alleviate strange problems for no discernable reason.

Battery life considerably worse after update to 9.0

OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.

NickJHP said:
OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click the three dots in the top right and choose battery usage.
As for battery life, mine has improved greatly on Android P

NickJHP said:
OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok here. 62% drop over night doing nothing suggests you have a rogue app in there. I'm assuming you have ok cellular coverage and nothing has changed there by coincidence. I would reboot and force close every app you have that's not essential overnight and try again. Swipe up from home and clearing those apps doesn't force close the apps. Greenify is an app that (in manual mode) will make it easy to select as many apps as you want and force close the lot of them. If that improves the situation you can then begin to work out which app(s) might be doing bad stuff whilst you sleep...

Battery on my P2 has significantly improved with Pie even if I didn't have any major problem with 8.1 either. Overnight drain 3-4%. After regular use after a full day I easily exceed 5h SOT. Everything stock with just Greenify in non root mode. I couldn't be happier, best Android release so far for me.

NickJHP said:
OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my p2 installed with PIE for about 2 days now. I suggest giving it a week (which is what I'm doing) and then getting a full overview of how my battery is performing. Usually, after any major OS updates, being that apps are trying to utilize your resources and a new version of Android would try to allocate and learn your usage (in this case battery), you'd get a much better definitive idea of your overall performance.
I also think that since its now available, turn on Adaptive Battery mode. After a day of upgrading the OS, Adaptive battery at my 26 hr mark of upgrade said that one of my apps was taking in a lot of resources to be used in the background (ES File Explorer). I made AB to stop ES from taking battery resources.
So in conclusion, if it a week and then you'll be able to get a better overall understanding of whether your battery REALLY has gotten worse or better.
Hope this helps!

Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?

Exact same problem here after updating. Even tried a factory reset in case it was an updating issue. Same problem. My battery is currently at 43% 4 hours after a full charge. And I've barely used it. This is really poor.
No new apps installed.
My Oreo battery life was great. I'll try shutting off adaptive battery as suggested - but seems a real shame if one of the flagship battery saving features is doing the total opposite on Google's current flagship phone!
Doesn't seem to be a massively common issue so not sure if a likelihood of a patch either

Just a quick update - Google play services has now become the biggest drain on my battery, just as it was before I factory reset after the first install...
Anyone else had the same?

gbmasterdoctor said:
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue and did the same thing... until dp3 and my battery usage was terrible again even with adaptive battery turned off. I ended up turning it on again and after about a week my battery usage was back where it was before. So there doesn't seem to be a magic bullet here. FWIW app usage offered no insight as to what was causing the drain in the first place.

MaxNXS said:
Battery on my P2 has significantly improved with Pie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS.
I got like 8+ hours of SOT.... no mobile network though, all day wifi use only.

I have this issue. Dropped about 40% over night. I found that turning wifi off stopped the drain completely. I did not have this problem with Oreo at all so it's not the networks im connecting to. Weird thing is this did not happen when I first installed Pie. This started happening about 3 days into installing. Also, I put it in safe mode and saw the same drain with wifi on vs off.

Hi guys,
I seem to have fixed my terrible battery life!
The below might be worth a try if you're still suffering from it.
I noticed in GSAM that RCSphone was the front runner in battery drain so did a little research and found this site.
SOLUTION: Turn off app preview messages (settings / google / app preview messages). Apparently its only function is to allow Allo messages to be received without the app. To me, totally pointless as i don't know - nor have ever met - a single person who uses it.
I've gone from draining 8-10% an hour (screen off) to around 2.5%/hour and from 1hr 35 total SOT to 3hrs 39 minutes with 32% left (and an hour of that was Google maps navigating, so a proper work out for the phone).
Do give it a try and let me know if it works for you.
Although there's room for improvement (idle 2.5%/h seems high to me!) and it's ludicrous that I should have spent several hours finding a fix for this on 100% stock android, I'm very happy to have a usable battery life back again...
Adam.
UPDATE: Seems like in the night I lost 40% again. Idle drain climbed it's way up to 5.6% in the night. Still an improvement from where it was before, but not quite as good as it first appeared...

WibblyW said:
Ok here. 62% drop over night doing nothing suggests you have a rogue app in there. I'm assuming you have ok cellular coverage and nothing has changed there by coincidence. I would reboot and force close every app you have that's not essential overnight and try again. Swipe up from home and clearing those apps doesn't force close the apps. Greenify is an app that (in manual mode) will make it easy to select as many apps as you want and force close the lot of them. If that improves the situation you can then begin to work out which app(s) might be doing bad stuff whilst you sleep...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Burkules I drop 0.4 - 0.7%/hr over night with Bluetooth off/Wifi on/strong cellular signal. Much the same as it was with Oreo. Not quite sure why's there's such a big range (almost 2x) but either way it's ok for me. Did you try the technique above?

WibblyW said:
@Burkules I drop 0.4 - 0.7%/hr over night with Bluetooth off/Wifi on/strong cellular signal. Much the same as it was with Oreo. Not quite sure why's there's such a big range (almost 2x) but either way it's ok for me. Did you try the technique above?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for getting back on this.
I left it on safe mode the other night and it still drained absurdly fast, which suggests to me it's a google system drain rather than rogue app, but will try again with app preview now switched off. Likewise will try greenify again and report back.

Burkules said:
Cheers for getting back on this.
I left it on safe mode the other night and it still drained absurdly fast, which suggests to me it's a google system drain rather than rogue app, but will try again with app preview now switched off. Likewise will try greenify again and report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Likewise maybe app preview set to off will help me even more. If I recall correctly rogue apps can cause some google system apps to wake up, but perhaps not in safe mode...

WibblyW said:
Likewise maybe app preview set to off will help me even more. If I recall correctly rogue apps can cause some google system apps to wake up, but perhaps not in safe mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, switched off adaptive battery again (i'd enabled it after my short-lived miracle recovery the other day) and now I'm down to 4%/hour. Which is better but still really high for idling! Cleared cache and data in Google play services for good measure too as it still comes up super high on the list of battery drainers.
Booting into safe mode now to check the drain without adaptive there and will report back...
UPDATE: Exactly the same drain in safe mode. This is a straight up google problem....

Burkules said:
So, switched off adaptive battery again (i'd enabled it after my short-lived miracle recovery the other day) and now I'm down to 4%/hour. Which is better but still really high for idling! Cleared cache and data in Google play services for good measure too as it still comes up super high on the list of battery drainers.
Booting into safe mode now to check the drain without adaptive there and will report back...
UPDATE: Exactly the same drain in safe mode. This is a straight up google problem....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to force close every app you've downloaded too?

WibblyW said:
Have you tried to force close every app you've downloaded too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried this - but if the battery drain is the same in safe mode (with only google/system apps running) I can't see how it will make a difference. Ill be in rehearsal for several hours today so will force close everything and will then be leaving my phone idling for a few hours anyway.
I signup up to the google play services beta yesterday, and google play services no longer appears as one of the top battery users... but the battery drain is the same and the numbers given in *all* battery apps (Gsam/accubattery/system) don't add up to anything close to the actual % drain. System battery displays 15% of usage (with 'full device usage' on show) when the battery is quite evidently at 48% from full charge. Total cluster****. So pissed off I updated.
Have you seen any improvement in yours with any of these workarounds?

Burkules said:
Haven't tried this - but if the battery drain is the same in safe mode (with only google/system apps running) I can't see how it will make a difference. Ill be in rehearsal for several hours today so will force close everything and will then be leaving my phone idling for a few hours anyway.
I signup up to the google play services beta yesterday, and google play services no longer appears as one of the top battery users... but the battery drain is the same and the numbers given in *all* battery apps (Gsam/accubattery/system) don't add up to anything close to the actual % drain. System battery displays 15% of usage (with 'full device usage' on show) when the battery is quite evidently at 48% from full charge. Total cluster****. So pissed off I updated.
Have you seen any improvement in yours with any of these workarounds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing to lose by trying. And as I said, Greenify makes it easy/quick to do. Force closing is almost as good as uninstalling those apps as the vast majority of installed apps won't restart or run in background until you use them for the first time again. In my experience, quiescent battery consumption (e.g. noticed over night):
Is vastly affected negatively by poor cellular signal strength. Marginal coverage can really drain the battery fast.
Gradually gets worse between reboots
Can be improved (once it degrades) if you force close all the apps you've installed, and swipe away the background apps just before you go to bed!
If quiescent consumption suddenly rises I can normally fix it by force closing all the apps (not being sure which was the one gone rogue/suddenly misbehaving)
At night I generally have excellent cellular coverage, good WiFi, and Bluetooth is off. NFC is always off
I don't enable sync on 2 of the 3 Gmail accounts I have configured
I disable notifications from any apps I don't actually need them from
Quiescent battery consumption is between, say, 0.4% and, 0.7%/hr at home, around 2 to 3%/hr when out and about which I put down to all background data being driven over 4G instead of Wifi, and variable cellular coverage
I've not noticed quiescent battery consumption change between Oreo and Pie, but this may be because I keep force closing apps at night and not giving adaptive battery (which I have on) a chance to have the same effect intelligently
Turning off app preview messages has made no practical different for me
I'm completely stock (stock launcher, not rooted, etc.)
If you can't fix it, at least a factory reset as the next experiment has the option to restore *most* of what was there before (so long as you have had the backup setting enabled). But because not everything is restored it's still a pain. And if that doesn't work it's another factory reset and test and then restore everything manually and gradually :-S. But I think you already tried that?

Burkules said:
Hi guys,
I seem to have fixed my terrible battery life!
The below might be worth a try if you're still suffering from it.
I noticed in GSAM that RCSphone was the front runner in battery drain so did a little research and found this site.
SOLUTION: Turn off app preview messages (settings / google / app preview messages). Apparently its only function is to allow Allo messages to be received without the app. To me, totally pointless as i don't know - nor have ever met - a single person who uses it.
Thanks, just tried that as well and my battery has stayed resolutely at 68% on idle beside me for the last few hours, previously it had gone from 100% down to 69% in about 4 hours whilst similarly doing nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse