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Hey guys,
So after many months with the XT720 and alot of flashing and trying to get the most out of my battery, i've come up with a few conclusions about battery life in general and how to extend it. I thought I'd share here. This is mostly aimed at people who are new to android and have not experimented like some of the more advanced users we have on this forum. Hope you find this helpful and please feel free to make additions.
General Battery Info
The XT720 was my first android phone, and I came from a long line of typical nokia phones whose batteries would last for ages. I had no idea the kind of power an android device would use. When I started out using it, i was surprised at how quickly the battery would die. You'd think with advancing software we'd have better batteries but sadly batteries are lagging behind in technology. Generally speaking you can expect the following battery life from your XT720.
Heavy use: 10-14 hours
Moderate use: 16-20 hours
Light use: 1 day - 1 day 12 hrs.
Note: New batteries improve with each charge cycle. It is recommended to go through a few complete charge cycles when you buy a new phone. After that, complete discharges are not recommended and its smart to start charging your phone when it hits the 20-25% mark.
How to improve battery life
1: Battery Calibration
If you've ever flashed a new ROM, you must have noticed a sharp decline in battery performance. This is partly due to old battery statistics left behind from your old ROM. Android is a smart OS and collects information over time. The more you use it, the more accurate it gets. In the same way it collects information from your battery usage and reports your battery percentages according to that. When you flash a new ROM, sometimes android thinks that your battery is 100% when its really lower than that and that causes relative reduced battery performance. To deal with that it is recommended that you use a nifty free app called Battery Calibration from the android market. What this does it removes the old battery stats and allows your new ROM to create its own battery stats. Charge your battery to full, use the battery calibration. Drain once till phone turns off by itself and charge to full again. You will notice a sharp increase in battery life.
2. Battery Managment
We all know that android has its own battery management built in but it usually doesnt give complete information about the phone. For that you need to dive deeper into the settings. Usually if you experience battery drain its because of a rogue app and believe it or not some common apps you wont think off drain unnecessary battery. To see your complete Battery Stats input this code into the dialer.
Code:
*#*#4636#*#*
This will take you to a bunch of options. What you're interested in is Battery History. When you tap that it will show you two drop down menu's.
1) Other Usage
2) Since last unplugged
Other usage shows you how long your phone has been running and how long it has been asleep. Also shows you how long your wifi has been on and running and how long your screen has been on. It is important to see how long your phone has been running. For example if your phone has an uptime of 20 hours and its been running 5 hours out of that. Your run time is 25%. Which is very good. Sometimes an app can run even when your phone screen is off. This will represent a longer run time even when you have your phone lying on a desk or something. See this setting and correlate with the amount you have used your phone. Does it seem normal? If no then use the first drop down menu and select
Partial Wake:
Partial wake is basically, any app which takes your phone out of sleep mode to use the CPU even when youre screen is off. These are apps which need to sync or use the phone resources. In this you will see a list of apps and how much they have caused a partial wake lock. See anything unsual? For me one app that caused unsual drainage was latitute. Yes, i had simply signed into it and i didnt know it was updating my location every 5 minutes. Extreme battery drain for me even when my phone was idle. See which app was draining your battery and either tweak the settings or remove altogether.
GPS, Sensors, CPU:
You can also see these in the first drop down menu. Certain apps like screeble use the sensors alot, and hence cause drain. Obviously games, camera, will stress the CPU. See if anything is causing drain in that and adjust accordingly.
Miscellaneous Information
After you have dealt with rogue apps that you don't use that drain youre battery your battery life will depend on how you use your phone. But hopefull these tips will help you with increasing your battery life. I do have some more information on different settings and supposed battery saving applications.
Autosync: When you enable auto sync, you allow google and other accounts to sync on a regular basis. This is important for people who need to use push email etc. It does not drain battery IF you tweak what you need synced. In google for example you can have your contacts, calendar, google+, google reader, gmail all to sync by default. If you just need email, please untick the rest. This will help you save battery life. Increase your update times for facebook and google+ if you dont recieve many updates all the time or turn them off altogether. If you have many services syncing at the same time you will get battery drain.
Wifi Sleep Policy: This is sort of a hidden menu. If you go into wireless & networks >> Wifi settings >> settings key >> advanced >> wifi sleep policy. This has three settings. Never close down wifi, never close when charging, or close with screen off. If you choose never your wifi will always be on, which will in turn crunch the **** out of your battery. If you use it off with screen off, remember it takes about 5 minutes to turn the wifi off. I personally use the never with plugged in. Its an intermediate. So when im plugged in wifi always stays on and when im not it follows the screen off protocol.
Wifi Vs Mobile Data: Having mobile data on all the time, does not drain battery. The only time the battery gets drained is when the data connection is active i.e you have many apps on autosync youll see your battery going down. If you arent doing anything and your phone is connected to Edge or 3G your battery will drain regularly. 2G networks drain less than 3G keep that in mind. If you are actively using your connection, wifi will take less battery because speeds are faster and you will be using it for a little time. Also your signal strength has alot of effect on battery. If you have crappy 3G signals your radio will actively be searching for a connection the same goes for wifi. That is important to keep in mind.
Control Background data: By selecting this option you can allow or disallow apps to connect to data without any permission. Some apps require this like the android market. If you uncheck this apps wont be able to sync automatically in the background.
Milestone Overclocking: This is fairly obvious. The higher you overclock with higher vsel the more battery drain you will have. Some use set cpu with profiles but I found that if i set the setcpu too low while idle It takes time for the cpu to charge up when i recieve a call or turn the screen on. Ringtones lag etc etc. I let android do my CPU management and its fine. and comfortable setting would be 850 MHZ, 56 vsel but you can change according to your phone usage.
Juice Defender/ Screebl / Task killers:
In my personal experience with juice defender ultimate I found that with the above precautions juice defender didnt make much of a difference and actually used more battery. First off theres an extra process going on in the back. Second activating and deactivating the connection everytime the screen goes off uses more juice because your radio has to search for the signal hundreds of times as compared to not having it in the first place. Screebl is good if you dont want your screen to annoyingly turn off while youre doing something but it surely doesnt save battery life. Task killers are a no no for android. They kill tasks which start up anyways, its better to use autokiller memory optimizer which tweaks androids internal memory settings and allows for more free ram without killing processes without reason.
System Apps:
Some system apps run uselessly in the background specially with stock ROM's this is called bloatware. Remove all unused system apps with titanium backup to stop them from running in the background for no reason at all.
A final word
Finally after all this tweaking, just use your phone as normal. Dont worry about the battery all the time checking how much its drained, itll mess your head up and make you enjoy your phone less. Battery temperature also changes battery life. Keep your phone out of the sun or in hot places.
Thanks, good article.
Very detailed and useful
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App
Thanks for this interessting article!
Could you make a list of the bloatware that can be safely removed?
I figured this would just list all the usual stuff I've heard. I'm glad to say I was wrong! A bunch of useful info here I now plan to put to use. Many thanks
Might want to mention the display being the biggest drain of battery on this phone. Setting it to automatic brightness or lower will increase battery life. I love the screen at full brightness so I don't really follow that, but for those looking to squeeze some extra time and don't mind less brightness...
Thanks guys, glad you people found it useful.
syrenz said:
Might want to mention the display being the biggest drain of battery on this phone. Setting it to automatic brightness or lower will increase battery life. I love the screen at full brightness so I don't really follow that, but for those looking to squeeze some extra time and don't mind less brightness...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! Can't believe I missed that one out. In the start id use the lowest brightness setting, which would be fine indoors. But outside it was impossible to see the phone because of its insanely reflective glass. Since we have an ambient light sensor I use it on automatic and it does a good job. Full bright strains my eyes abit thats why I dont keep it on full bright So for people really wanting to save the juice you can keep your brightness on the lowest level. Also when you take the phone out of your pocket and use it, its better to put the phone to sleep with the power button than let it timeout by itself. Those 10-15 seconds for each time you use phone count towards many minutes of unused display time in the end and does make a difference.
This is a very gd post with lots o useful info!! ok i have a qn, is using the phone a lot while the charging good for the battery? And if u let the battery charge even though its already 100 percent for an hour good? srry if it is noob qn...
androidlover123 said:
This is a very gd post with lots o useful info!! ok i have a qn, is using the phone a lot while the charging good for the battery? And if u let the battery charge even though its already 100 percent for an hour good? srry if it is noob qn...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Using your phone while charging does not affect your battery life, and is neither good nor bad. It is perfectly normal to use your phone while charging and is sometimes recommended while doing battery intensive tasks for example navigating while driving, wifi tethering, playing memory intensive games and finally outputing video through HDMI.
2. Overcharging was a phenomenom is older lithium ion battery. New batteries have bypass circuits. So when your phone reaches complete charge, it does not charge any further. So you should not be worried about overcharging your XT720.
Hope this helps.
Excelent article and good quality info. Thanks and best regards!
awesome article! Great information. Thanks a lot for putting that together. I have already started using a few of the tips mentioned.
u da maaan dude, thanks for a very detailed and informative article
I have been obessing over my battery stat page and am trying to figure out what exactly "Android System" is. It is usually consuming the highest percentage of battery power. I have tried everything to figure out what action exactly makes Android System get added to the battery stats page. I have disabled everything, every radio, syncing, deleted all widgets. I hardly have any apps as it is. It just seems rather inconsistent because sometimes Ill check the page after making a call and will find that Voice calls has consumed a small percentage of battery and Android System isn't even on the list. Other times I will take it off the charger and make a 30 minute call, but when I check the stats page 70% battery was used by Android System and only 3% was Voice Calls.
Can anyone tell me exactly what triggers Android System so I can make sure I cut down on its battery usage in any way possible
Sent from my Microwave
I assume you are looking in the settings > about phone > battery. You can select android system also and it will tell you more info.
Agoattamer said:
I assume you are looking in the settings > about phone > battery. You can select android system also and it will tell you more info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see that but under more info its not very clear about what's using the batt.
Sent from my Microwave
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1312932238053.png
Sent from my Microwave
Anyone have any comments on this?
Sent from my Microwave
Did a battery calibration and now android system isn't the number 1 thing consuming battery as usual. Weird:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/testshot.png
This seems to be more in line with what normal battery usage should look like in my opinion.
Sent from my Microwave
I had this problem too until I did a calibration. Now cell standby consumes over 50% of my battery regularly, with android system consuming only 2%.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App
Yea I did a calibration and all is well
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1313102466360.png
Thank you
Sent from my Microwave
Aaaaaaaaand were back LOL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1313118381659.png
Sent from my Microwave
Its still occurring
What would you guys do?
Android system will occasionally use CPU as well, as shown in the following screenshots. Also! My good buddy let me see his Droid x recently. He had 42% battery life left and android system had only taken up 4% of that.
I'm pretty upset about this.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1314312490137.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1314312473018.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/seh6183/screenshot-1314312512785.png
Sent from my Microwave
If you asked me I would say all your values are a little screwy. Do you even turn the screen on, on your phone and use it? If you use your phone the Display should be by far the most used. To me it looks like you physically use your phone very little. That is why Phone idle and Android System seem to be the higher numbers.
Guessing you have many accounts syncing in the background. One of the biggies for Android System. So its not that Android System is using so much, the rest of the processes are using so little.
Oddly enough the same thing started happening with my phone recently too.
@Agoattamer
The system wouldn't eat most of the charge in less than 8 hours in normal circumstances. Also about your question concerning accounts, while I'm not seh6183, personally I only have my email account synchronizing and the very same thing happens.
Something is causing the CPU to remain awake, in my case stuck at 800MHz.
The factory reset will most likely solve it, but it'd be best to find the culprit to just try and rectify a specific anomaly rather than reinstalling the whole system.
Has recently any core Google apps been updated? Email, Maps, anything?
I do agree that in 8 hours of non physical use your battery should not be going dead. So I couldn't sleep last night and I did some google searching. Here are some things I found out.
Do you have Googles Goggles installed? Seems it may have a bug where it keeps the camera on even when the phone is supposedly asleep.
Seeing that seh6183 always has his wifi active maybe it has something to do with wifi. I found this from Juri's TechBlog
couple of days ago I finally got the eagerly awaited system upgrade to Gingerbread on my Nexus One. The update went pretty well, although some Nexus One users reported about problems with the updating process. The only thing I noticed is that Dropbox didn't work after the upgrade.
A re-install solved the issue. All-in-all Gingerbread is great. Beside UI enhancements it feels also faster than Froyo. However, after trying it for two days now, I noticed a substantial increase in battery consumption. By looking at the system battery stats (Settings -> About phone -> Battery use), Android System was listed to consume 23% of the battery .
Apparently the problem is a bug in Gingerbread version 2.3.3 (you know there is 2.4 as well) on how the system handles the Wifi adapter. If you go into your Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Wi-Fi settings, press the menu button and click on "Advanced", you'll see a menu entry "Wi-Fi sleep policy". Gingerbread seems to have a problem when that option is set to "When screen turns off". While that may sound to be the most energy-saving option, the bug turns it into a battery killer. If you switch the option to "Never", the Android system will only consume ~3% in the battery stats.
Obviously, in addition to this, the best battery saver is to just turn Wi-Fi off when you don't need it . Caution, if one of the future updates fixes this problem (which I strongly hope), you have to set the option back again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something I didn't see but killed my battery on my windows mobile phone was instant messengers. Do you use any apps that are for instant messaging.
Found this thread also talking about the same bug with wifi
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=15057
So it seems that if you (cmdr001) also are a full time wifi user, you may be affected by the same bug. Check your wifi sleep policy and adjust your settings to "Never".
Install a battery monitor app from the market or spare parts to see what is using your battery. Install Juice Defender to stop all that excessive useage.
Excellent find!!!!!
Just switched the sleep policy to "never" (which ironically I've always used until very recently). Ill return with results after about 5 hours. The only thing is that I'm on android 2.3.5 not 3.3 so we will have to see if the bug was affecting me.
I also don't have Google goggles. And to the above poster, my phone regularly went into deep sleep so it wasn't my CPU that was staying active.
Oh and I've been using watch dog to look for rogue programs for the last 24 hours. I haven't got a single alert.
Sent from my Microwave
I guess the first question should have been what ROM were you using and to try a different one then. Needless to say it still has 2.3.3 components in it. And if you recently changed that setting then my bet is thats the issue. Goodluck.
Watchdog may alert you if you are using too much cpu at one time but I don't think it will let you know what is constantly using the cpu.
Ok there's a glitch somewhere in the battery tracking. I just checked it and android system was consuming 12% battery. I placed one 17 minute phone call and re checked it, I then had 57% android system consumption.
No way.
I'm using a cm7 nightly and I'm about to flash the stable version with a different kernel. Ill do a full wipe as well.
Sent from my Microwave
You could check your wakelocks.
After recharging my battery to 100% and wiping the battery stats, my android system consistently uses 2% of the battery, while the display sucks up around ~40%.
Hi,
I have a question regarding battery life of the OPO. I'm still not sure whether I have a defective battery, or some apps drains my battery like crazy (or both?). I hope you can help me with this.
In the first 2 weeks since I got it, I use my OPO for mid to heavy activities (a lot of Whatsapp, Youtube, streaming music, etc). I always start the day with 100% battery and I thought it was normal to see the battery drops to at least 20% at the end of the day. To be honest, I didn't check the battery stats in Settings even once in this time frame, and due to my heavy usage, once again I thought this was normal.
Until one night I decided to plug the charger earlier than usual, unplug it around 11pm (w/ 100% battery), then I fell asleep. I was shocked the next morning (8am) when I saw the battery has decreased to 65% with no activities whatsoever. I check the battery usage in Settings and then saw Google Play Services (GPservice) at the top of the list with 45% usage, with "keep awake" time almost identical to total time on battery. I did some research and found some advice including 1) denying GPservice abilities to "keep awake" and "wake up" via privacy guard (from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-google-play-services-battery-t2832525), 2) turn off location, 3) turn off sync, but none of them seems the solution to my problem. Since then, I always check the battery usage and reset it, to see if GPservice still at the top. Sadly it still there. After I reset the stats, go to sleep directly and check it about 1 hour later, GPservice uses 40% - 60% of the battery usage, draining about 6% battery / hour.
With screen on a few minutes, it easily drops to 5th or 6th place with ~7% usage, with screen and main apps I use on the 1st and 2nd place. When I googled about this using Firefox, that's when I start worrying about something else, the battery itself. With wi-fi and low brightness (less than >20% if I convert it from the slide bar), browsing with Firefox decrease the battery 1% in 2-3 minutes, no or low usage drains 1% in about 5-6 minutes. In contrast, charging increase the battery 1% in 1 minute. Is that normal? IDK, usually bad battery increasing faster when charging and decrease significantly when in use.
Please help, especially about the excessive GPservice battery usage. And if it's possible, I prefer non-root solution for it. Thanks and sorry for my bad English.
OPO - stock rom (unrooted XNPH44S)
Google Play Services 6.7.76 (reverted back to 5.0.89 factory version but things pretty much the same)
cliffflip said:
Hi,
I have a question regarding battery life of the OPO. I'm still not sure whether I have a defective battery, or some apps drains my battery like crazy (or both?). I hope you can help me with this.
In the first 2 weeks since I got it, I use my OPO for mid to heavy activities (a lot of Whatsapp, Youtube, streaming music, etc). I always start the day with 100% battery and I thought it was normal to see the battery drops to at least 20% at the end of the day. To be honest, I didn't check the battery stats in Settings even once in this time frame, and due to my heavy usage, once again I thought this was normal.
Until one night I decided to plug the charger earlier than usual, unplug it around 11pm (w/ 100% battery), then I fell asleep. I was shocked the next morning (8am) when I saw the battery has decreased to 65% with no activities whatsoever. I check the battery usage in Settings and then saw Google Play Services (GPservice) at the top of the list with 45% usage, with "keep awake" time almost identical to total time on battery. I did some research and found some advice including 1) denying GPservice abilities to "keep awake" and "wake up" via privacy guard (from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-google-play-services-battery-t2832525), 2) turn off location, 3) turn off sync, but none of them seems the solution to my problem. Since then, I always check the battery usage and reset it, to see if GPservice still at the top. Sadly it still there. After I reset the stats, go to sleep directly and check it about 1 hour later, GPservice uses 40% - 60% of the battery usage, draining about 6% battery / hour.
With screen on a few minutes, it easily drops to 5th or 6th place with ~7% usage, with screen and main apps I use on the 1st and 2nd place. When I googled about this using Firefox, that's when I start worrying about something else, the battery itself. With wi-fi and low brightness (less than >20% if I convert it from the slide bar), browsing with Firefox decrease the battery 1% in 2-3 minutes, no or low usage drains 1% in about 5-6 minutes. In contrast, charging increase the battery 1% in 1 minute. Is that normal? IDK, usually bad battery increasing faster when charging and decrease significantly when in use.
Please help, especially about the excessive GPservice battery usage. And if it's possible, I prefer non-root solution for it. Thanks and sorry for my bad English.
OPO - stock rom (unrooted XNPH44S)
Google Play Services 6.7.76 (reverted back to 5.0.89 factory version but things pretty much the same)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely sounds like somethings not right, what apps do you have that access or could potentially access your location? If you're still not having any luck, as a last resort you could try a fresh install of CM11S and install your apps one by one to see if you can determine if any are responsible for sucking battery.
Give the below app a try:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playfulgeeks.gservicefix&hl=en_GB
Install Gsam to see if you can gain any more insight into whats causing battery drain.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm
cliffflip said:
Hi,
Until one night I decided to plug the charger earlier than usual, unplug it around 11pm (w/ 100% battery), then I fell asleep. I was shocked the next morning (8am) when I saw the battery has decreased to 65% with no activities whatsoever. I check the battery usage in Settings and then saw Google Play Services (GPservice) at the top of the list with 45% usage, with "keep awake" time almost identical to total time on battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try to use this App: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
there you can see which app prevents your phone from going to sleep (partial Wakelocks)
gsmyth said:
Definitely sounds like somethings not right, what apps do you have that access or could potentially access your location? If you're still not having any luck, as a last resort you could try a fresh install of CM11S and install your apps one by one to see if you can determine if any are responsible for sucking battery.
Give the below app a try:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playfulgeeks.gservicefix&hl=en_GB
Install Gsam to see if you can gain any more insight into whats causing battery drain.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maps, Google Fit, Google Now, among other things.
CMIIW but I read somewhere that GServicefix does the same like privacy guard, denying some service to keep awake, wake up, etc.
So I installed Gsam and run it about 1 hour. Interestingly in there, Kernel (Android OS) is on the top the % list with 60% usage (mostly phone in idle/sleep). When I switch sorting to Kernel Wakelocks, it shows event0-798 & event2-798 as the top 2 wakelocks with around 7000 wakelocks. I'll update in few hours, thanks.
drcyber said:
did you try to use this App: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
there you can see which app prevents your phone from going to sleep (partial Wakelocks)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I read on the Play Store description, Kitkat and above requires root?
cliffflip said:
Maps, Google Fit, Google Now, among other things.
So I installed Gsam and run it about 1 hour. Interestingly in there, Kernel (Android OS) is on the top the % list with 60% usage (mostly phone in idle/sleep). When I switch sorting to Kernel Wakelocks, it shows event0-798 & event2-798 as the top 2 wakelocks with around 7000 wakelocks. I'll update in few hours, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please post screenshot of gsam
Try clear cache+dalvic cache in recovery
Hi, sorry for the late reply.
It seems reboot the phone a few times solves the problem. Battery usage now seems normal when idle, even with location & sync turned on.
I'm not sure if it's more appropriate to post here
or on the custom ROM forum itself, but here's my battery issue:
Issue: Abnormally fast battery drain. My battery would
be fully charged, and almost immediately start draining until
it'd show 1% within 2 hrs. Screen would be off mostly (normal
use).
Been on a custom ROM since January 2017 (crDroid) and have had no problems with it since,
except 3 days ago, when the problem first appeared.
Things that are ON: LTE data (or Wi-fi), Auto apps update on
Google Play Store (never been problematic before), Location,
Things that are OFF: Bluetooth, ScreenCast, Caffeine
When I check Battery in Settings, the numbers don't add up.
I'd have battery indicator at 70% for example, but Screen,
Android System, all other apps would add up to only 7%. So
that's a whopping 23% unaccounted for.
But here's the weird thing: it drains fast until 1%, then at 1%,
the phone is supposed to initiate automatic shutdown like it has before.
When this issue cropped up, the phone keeps going for about 6 hours
or so before shutdown is started. Checking Kernel Adiutor occasionally,
I'd see a much slower decrease in voltage which probably reflects
more accurately the power drawdown situation.
Things I've done:
-clear cache (both through File Explorer and TWRP Recovery)
-clear batterystats.bin
-calibrate battery after full charge/discharge (via Root Essentials,
which basically does the same thing as manually deleting batterystat.bin,
if I'm not mistaken)
-Resetting App Preferences via Setting/Battery
None of the above has worked. Any idea what might be wrong?
My device is a Zuk Z1, with a 4100mAh battery. It usually lasts me more
than a day on normal use, but as the attached pic shows, it's at 96%
yet without having used any apps yet, has only 2 hrs of juice left.
I've tried reflashing my ROM, wiping everything including formatting data
yet nothing has worked.
I'm a light user, as I don't play games or watch videos on my phone.
Neither do I use graphics-intensive apps. I haven't used processor-intensive apps
that require constant GPS (like Google Maps, Waze) since then.
Borat38 said:
I'm not sure if it's more appropriate to post here
or on the custom ROM forum itself, but here's my battery issue:
Issue: Abnormally fast battery drain. My battery would
be fully charged, and almost immediately start draining until
it'd show 1% within 2 hrs. Screen would be off mostly (normal
use).
Been on a custom ROM since January 2017 (crDroid) and have had no problems with it since,
except 3 days ago, when the problem first appeared.
Things that are ON: LTE data (or Wi-fi), Auto apps update on
Google Play Store (never been problematic before), Location,
Things that are OFF: Bluetooth, ScreenCast, Caffeine
When I check Battery in Settings, the numbers don't add up.
I'd have battery indicator at 70% for example, but Screen,
Android System, all other apps would add up to only 7%. So
that's a whopping 23% unaccounted for.
But here's the weird thing: it drains fast until 1%, then at 1%,
the phone is supposed to initiate automatic shutdown like it has before.
When this issue cropped up, the phone keeps going for about 6 hours
or so before shutdown is started. Checking Kernel Adiutor occasionally,
I'd see a much slower decrease in voltage which probably reflects
more accurately the power drawdown situation.
Things I've done:
-clear cache (both through File Explorer and TWRP Recovery)
-clear batterystats.bin
-calibrate battery after full charge/discharge (via Root Essentials,
which basically does the same thing as manually deleting batterystat.bin,
if I'm not mistaken)
-Resetting App Preferences via Setting/Battery
None of the above has worked. Any idea what might be wrong?
My device is a Zuk Z1, with a 4100mAh battery. It usually lasts me more
than a day on normal use, but as the attached pic shows, it's at 96%
yet without having used any apps yet, has only 2 hrs of juice left.
I've tried reflashing my ROM, wiping everything including formatting data
yet nothing has worked.
I'm a light user, as I don't play games or watch videos on my phone.
Neither do I use graphics-intensive apps. I haven't used processor-intensive apps
that require constant GPS (like Google Maps, Waze) since then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried flashing another ROM/going back to stock?
Freewander10 said:
Have you tried flashing another ROM/going back to stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet. Am going to try an AOSP-based ROM later.
I've been deleting apps piecemeal, but have faile to pinpoint the culprit.
I have almost come to the conclusion that it's the ROM that's problematic.
But if that were the case, why haven't I had the same problem since
when I first flashed this custom ROM months ago;
and why is the problem reappearing when that same ROM is re-flashed now?
OK, I've flashed 3 other ROMs: Citrus-CAF, NucleaROM and stock, and the problem persists.
By doing the above, I've crossed out the possibility of it being the ROM. Neither is it the battery
itself, because it would've shut down by itself at 1%, yet at 1% I can last 6 or 7 hours of light use.
Anyone out there have any idea?
If you get the same results, the battery is trashed. Is it aftermarket?
WestCoastSunset said:
If you get the same results, the battery is trashed. Is it aftermarket?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery? No, it's the factory original.
It would not be unusual for a battery to fail in a month or two. I've had that happen to a couple laptops where I work.
WestCoastSunset said:
It would not be unusual for a battery to fail in a month or two. I've had that happen to a couple laptops where I work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be pretty unusual for reputable companies. If ever it did happen in my case, perhaps it's a lemon batch.
Sadly, I bought this without warranty.
Not really, happens all the time in laptop world. Even with oem batteries.
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