Related
it would be awesome to start a thread with all the information in one place someone would need to maximize the phones potential without rooting it or wrecking the warrenty. i know i will end up rooting my phone but not right away. so im looking to maximize it without doing anything too crazy. so what should i know and what free programs should i get to do this.
thanks so much
Droiddog and places like that have recommended apps and such if you want to stay stock. XDA is a place for modding. Its great that you're learning and on your way.
Remember, that you can always go back to stock for warranty issues with oden. Once you flash, you never go back.
From a phone
Note: Droiddog only has 1 post in the samsung captivate/epic/fascinate/vibrant forum http://www.droiddog.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=87
When searching for captivate stuff, I found most information (even not related to rooting) on this forum.
For my stock captivate I got:
Advanced Task Killer - the free ad based one. I have not tried the auto kill levels since I am scared that my phone will turn off randomly when I want to receive a call.
Launcher Pro - the free one (so i can customize the 4 buttons at the bottom of the home screen)
Home Switcher - so i can switch to touch wiz launcher if I want to use the Kies mini app
Google Map - I heard the one that came on the phone wasn't as good as the one in the app store.
I removed all the AT&T Apps from the home screens.
For music I got double twist to sync music with my iTunes.
I tried the AT&T video/music players and PowerAMP and DoubleTwist and something else but none are really that good - They seem to forget which podcasts I already watched/listened to and are not really good at resuming. This is probably because they think podcasts are songs.
I got Pod Manager to download podcasts - worst UI in the world but gets the job done. I am still almost thinking of using itunes and just syncing with double twist every morning.
The battery isn't the greatest on this thing. Not sure what techniques I can use to make it better. I set my background to black but not really sure if that will help. Also I used the "Power widget" to dim my screen a bit. I really wish I could use the "auto" setting on the light but still tell it to be darker in general. To offset the power even more I bought a couple micro usb cables. 1 for computer, 1 for car, 1 for work computer, and power adapter from box for next to bed. However I had to cut down some of the plastic off the ends of the cable to make it fit. I do generally make it all day with just the nightly charge even when I watch a podcast on the way to work and home from work (about 1 hour each way) on the bus but I like having the cables just in case.
The Kies app and mini app seems to suck - I can't get either of them to work on win 7 x64 even with .net 4.0. On windows 7 x86 the mini version used (without .net 4.0) to work but not anymore since the latest kies mini update.
Other than that I just got a bunch of games and apps. Although it probably based on personal preference.
Hope that starts you off in your quest.
NinjaCoder said:
Note: Droiddog only has 1 post in the samsung captivate
When searching for captivate stuff, I found most information (even not related to rooting) on this forum.
For my stock captivate I got:
Advanced Task Killer - the free ad based one. I have not tried the auto kill levels since I am scared that my phone will turn off randomly when I want to receive a call.
Launcher Pro - the free one (so i can customize the 4 buttons at the bottom of the home screen)
Home Switcher - so i can switch to touch wiz launcher if I want to use the Kies mini app
Google Map - I heard the one that came on the phone wasn't as good as the one in the app store.
I removed all the AT&T Apps from the home screens.
For music I got double twist to sync music with my iTunes.
I tried the AT&T video/music players and PowerAMP and DoubleTwist and something else but none are really that good - They seem to forget which podcasts I already watched/listened to and are not really good at resuming. This is probably because they think podcasts are songs.
I got Pod Manager to download podcasts - worst UI in the world but gets the job done. I am still almost thinking of using itunes and just syncing with double twist every morning.
The battery isn't the greatest on this thing. Not sure what techniques I can use to make it better. I set my background to black but not really sure if that will help. Also I used the "Power widget" to dim my screen a bit. I really wish I could use the "auto" setting on the light but still tell it to be darker in general. To offset the power even more I bought a couple micro usb cables. 1 for computer, 1 for car, 1 for work computer, and power adapter from box for next to bed. However I had to cut down some of the plastic off the ends of the cable to make it fit. I do generally make it all day with just the nightly charge even when I watch a podcast on the way to work and home from work (about 1 hour each way) on the bus but I like having the cables just in case.
The Kies app and mini app seems to suck - I can't get either of them to work on win 7 x64 even with .net 4.0. On windows 7 x86 the mini version used (without .net 4.0) to work but not anymore since the latest kies mini update.
Other than that I just got a bunch of games and apps. Although it probably based on personal preference.
Hope that starts you off in your quest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want awesome battery life un-install all that crud( launcher Pro, ATK, fancy music player) use any wallpaper you want and toggle your background data and wifi notifications my cappy gets 12 hours easy.
tylerdurdin said:
If you want awesome battery life un-install all that crud( launcher Pro, ATK, fancy music player) use any wallpaper you want and toggle your background data and wifi notifications my cappy gets 12 hours easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry I was considering 12 hours (10 hours of sitting in pocket use + some phone calls + 2 hours of video playing) poor battery life.
I picked the black background because I heard the "Live Backgrounds" were a battery drain and I like the black color (its my PC's background color as well).
Auto Task Killer is not needed...does more harm than good IMO.
Also your black background is the best for Super AMOLED (all OLED-based) displays because when a pixel is black it is essentially using no energy.
-Battery life gets better with about 2 weeks of use
-I uninstalled all task killers. This thing multitasks on its own fine
-I figure a full day without plugging into a charger is excellent on any smartphone device.
-However, I bought the samsung external charger and battery on amazon, so I now seldom plug my phone in. I just swap batteries in the evening and charge the battery thats been in the phone all day
My captivate is 1 week old. The battery the first few days was not very good but now it seems to last longer.
This is what I have done:
1- Brightness set the lowest (Phone + Browser) I can see the screen just fine.
2- Black background, but with style so it doesn't look plain
3- All apps. sync manually and background data off. I turn it on when I need it but I am most of the time on wifi.
4- GPS off, I don't need it or use it
As of right now, with moderate use, I am on my 2nd day without charging and I'm pretty sure I will get a 3rd day without charging.
Apps that I can recommend:Fancy Widget,SamServmode, Barcode Scanner, 3G Watchdog
My post about droiddog was about the app reviews and such they do. Basically all unrooted android phones are the same, just different hardware. That's why general android sites are best for unrooted phones. Samsung support forums would be a good place. General public troubleshooting each other. Get where I'm going with this?
From a phone
NinjaCoder said:
Oh sorry I was considering 12 hours (10 hours of sitting in pocket use + some phone calls + 2 hours of video playing) poor battery life.
I picked the black background because I heard the "Live Backgrounds" were a battery drain and I like the black color (its my PC's background color as well).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh why didnt you say that If I were you I would buy an ipod touch for video playing and your battery in your phone will last for 20 hours.
I resisted rooting for the longest time, thinking I'd wait till Froyo.
I finally got tired of waiting and did the one click root + lagfix. Didn't try anything else yet but let me tell you, just doing that small amount has made my Captivate experience so much happier
Do you have the link to the oclf you used? I'm just afraid of bricking it. I need to root first then I can use the oclf? Our does the oclf do it all?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I896 using XDA App
with my usage, my phone lasts me 8 hours, if im lucky. sometimes i go to class at 12 get home by 3 and im at about 60% lol..
messxxxedge said:
Do you have the link to the oclf you used? I'm just afraid of bricking it. I need to root first then I can use the oclf? Our does the oclf do it all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use OCLF. Use z4root, it works with 2.2
I'm hoping this helps out I know with all the hype of the Thunderbolt there's quite a few users new to android that see how people are customizing and wanting to know, and repeat after repeat of questions and bringing a lot of unneeded hostility around here. Feel free to add what ever you guys think is something that is repetitively brought up. I'm running kind of short on sleep, so if I left anything out let me know!
Remember to always follow instructions and SEARCH SEARCH SEARCH before making a new thread
Remember to always Wipe Data/Factory reset/Wipe cache/wipe dalvik cache to insure a clean, fresh bug free install.
Also ALWAYS make a backup of what ever current rom before flashing a new one
Lastly, DO NOT treat the devs with disrespect they are losing sleep/girlfriends/what ever to give us these roms and kernels and everything else for free. If something gets messed up do not come at them with hostility or it will only be returned. The people of XDA will HELP you, but only if you've searched and tried to help yourself first. Also don't forget to donate to the dev's from time to time for their monster/beer/hookers and all their time and effort.
Thunderbolt Root Users Dictionary:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1143188
Back up Date before rooting
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1193901
How To Root your Thunderbolt
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=996616
How to Root via Mac OS
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1011623
REVOLUTIONARY ROOTwww.revoultionary.io
Easy Auto Root:(Although this is not the recommended way, I've used it before and had no issues.)
Video guide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQYoeFrJ1Jk
Download links
TB Auto-Root : http://www.multiupload.com/NOK55G17MZ
HTC SYNC : http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-and-Shell/Windows/HTC-Sync-81096.shtml
Lost data after rooting? Try these steps
oneders65 said:
This is what I did.
1.) Flashed my phone back to Stock S-ON usine this link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1009423
when you reboot the phone make sure you wait until you get a 3G/4G signal. If you start the process of setting up your phone to quick it will cause your phone not to activate the data connection.
2.) ROOTED my phone and at each boot made sure I had 3G/4G connection before setting up phone. (Downgrade and Upgrade).
3.) This let me keep my data connection all the way through.
Credits
Scotty2, jamezelle, jcase, and all of Team AndIRC
Testers, especially ProTekk and Trident
Thanks to scotty2 for WPThis
Busybox was pulled from a CyanogenMod ROM, source should be available here
psneuter was pulled from somewhere, credit to scotty2, source here
All firmware credit goes to 911sniper
Jaroslav from Android Police for editorial help
dbzfanatic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How To UNROOT your thunderbolt
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1009423&highlight=Un+root
To help decide whether you want Gingerbread or Froyo
Differences between Gingerbread and Froyo
http://androidheadlines.com/2011/01/differences-between-android-2-2-froyo-and-2-3-gingerbread.html
ROMS and Kernels:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1081930
Team Mikmik aka Gingeritis ROMs since people don't know where they went
http://www.themikmik.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=271
I see CyanogenMod around what is that?
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
I installed a GB rom and all my texts time stamps are off
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mattprecious.smsfix&feature=search_result
Activate>use phone time has fixed every issue with this for me!
Radios:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1048128&highlight=radio
Thunderbolt Themes and Apps:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=944
How to help Improve battery life (Courtesy of Guitarchris123):
If you easily get a full day's use with stock settings, then ignore this. But the ThunderBolt is a powerful 1GHz smartphone made by HTC with a fairly small stock battery, large 4.3" screen, LTE capability, and Sense UI, so battery life may be a concern to you. There is no magic app or single technique that will make your battery last all day with heavy use, but if you utilize some of the following tips you WILL notice a significant increase in your battery life. Everyone's use is different, so 6-9 hours on one charge may be enough for some while others need 12-15 hours. Some of these may not be necessary, appropriate, or desirable for all users, so just pick which ones work for your purposes and preferences. You might prefer to keep using some of the particular features mentioned, as the benefit for you might outweigh the minimal savings in battery life. The point of this is to show people how to disable or limit features they don't need, not force them to shut down everything the phone was built to do. Feel free to add your own suggestions as well or ask any questions about the techniques.
1. Settings: (use an app or widget that helps you quickly toggle them, eg. built-in widgets, or from market such as Elixir, Quick Settings, or MySettings)
a. Screen –go to settings/display, turn down Brightness (20-30%), set Timeout to 30 secs, manually turn off by quickly pushing top button when not using anymore (instead of waiting). I have personally found that I like setting timeout at 1 min better, and manually turning off the screen with the top button every time I am done using it before I put it down or away in my pocket, that way it doesn't waste itself timing out or shut off on me when I don't want it to yet.
b. GPS – always turn off when not using, and plug into car charger (or car dock if you have one) during extended use
c. Bluetooth – always turn off when not using
d. 4G – always turn off when not using, only use when you need the speed, (the TB will get a toggle either in an update or in app form at some point, in the meantime there are several methods to accomplish this)
e. Mobile hotspot – always turn off when not using, plug into charger when in use if you can
f. WiFi – turn off when not near a WiFi signal for an extended period of time, but always use when available (faster than 3G, uses less battery), go to settings/wireless & networks/WiFi settings, press menu button and tap Advanced then WiFi Sleep policy and select“Never”, this sounds counter-intuitive, but it actually uses less power because when WiFi sleeps 3G or 4G wakes up to sync, get email, and retrieve other data (WiFi connection disables 3G/4G). Also uncheck Best WiFi Performance if its checked.
2. Background/wallpaper - use a static image instead of a live wallpaper (but these are cool, so use one if you really want to, they only drain for the short amount of time you are looking at the launcher screens). Many say the live wallpaper drain is minimal, but I noticed a significant amount while using a live one so I went to static. Have any of you tried both and noticed much of a difference yet?
3. Window animations – go to settings/sound & display/animation and select“no animations”
4. Keyboard vibration – turn off vibration function (haptic feedback) for when you hit a key (helps with speed too), go to settings/language & keyboard/touch input/text input and uncheck vibrate when typing, you can disable haptic feedback in other areas of the system by going to settings/sound, and uncheck vibrate feedback
5. Notification lights – unless you really want/need to know when something happens on your phone when you are not looking, go to settings/display/notification flash and uncheck all the boxes
6. Vibration – unless you really want this function, go to settings/sound, and uncheck vibrate
7. Monitor battery use - go to menu/settings/about phone/battery use, this will show you what is eating the most battery, uninstall troublesome unneeded app, use Running services widget by going to shortcut/settings (helps identify processes running in the background and foreground), if you want more detail check out SystemPanel in the app market, if you want to be alerted to "rogue" apps check out Watchdog Task Manager in the app market
8. Disable“always-on mobile data”– go to settings/wireless & networks/mobile networks, uncheck “Enable always-on mobile data,”you will still receive emails, texts, and phone calls, as well as internet usage, but it may cause connectivity problems in some third party apps (use manual refresh feature when opening apps to update online data)
9. WiFi and 4G network notifications – go to settings/wireless & networks and uncheck Network notification box (so phone will not constantly scan to look for open networks to tell you about)
10. Background data – if you are not using Google life-management services, go to settings/accounts & sync and uncheck Background data box (so that apps cannot sync, send, and receive data whenever it wants to, even if not currently using them). Add a homescreen shortcut to quickly toggle this (allows you to update/sync only when you want/need to).
11. Auto-sync – uncheck Auto-sync in settings/accounts & sync, or at least limit what apps are set to sync, it is better to manually sync/update/refresh in the app when you open it (set to update at launch), set update/notification frequency (polling schedule), if you do not want to turn off auto sync, just change widget or app update/notification frequency (refresh interval) in settings/accounts & sync to 30 mins or 1-2 hours, or better yet set it to update at launch, useful for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, news, weather, Google apps, and stocks, be sure to manually sync/back up your contacts every once in a while in case you lose your phone or break it
12. Email – change sync option in settings, set email check frequency to 30 mins or 1 hour, or as items arrive, or better yet set it to never and manually refresh when you want to check/read your email
13. Camera app(s) – make sure they are not running in the background when not in use, exit/close when done
14. Video chat app(s) – make sure they are not running in the background when not in use, exit/close when done
15. Streaming app(s) – make sure they are not running in the background when not in use, exit/close when done, try to limit use or plug into a charger during use if you can
16. Google Talk – press Menu then tap All apps/talk/menu/settings and uncheck automatically sign in, make sure you exit the application by going to menu/more and selecting sign out when you are done (exiting the app by pressing home or back keys will not sign you out), if you want to receive IMs just open the application again
17. Adobe Flash Player – open browser, hit menu key, go to settings/enable plug-ins and set it to“On demand”(this way the browser only loads flash content when instructed to do so)
18. Update apps – hit menu key and to go My Apps to check for updates, even if you have selected“update automatically”because some apps require you to manually install updates (apps often get updated to use less power)
19. Location settings (updated) – go to settings/location settings. It is ok to have all of these checked, because it is the apps that use the GPS and consume power, not having these settings selected. GPS is only active when apps using it are in use.
20. Task killer – do not use them, uninstall if you currently have one, can harm phone and consume battery, just use back arrow key to exit apps instead of home key, simply monitor rogue apps instead and uninstall/replace. These are especially bad on pre-installed apps and services (many things rely on each other), so never "auto-kill" or "kill all." If you must use one, only use it on apps that you have installed that are misbehaving, otherwise let Android do it on its own.
21. Anti-virus – do not use them, uninstall if you currently have one, only download and use periodically or when you suspect a problem, do not download suspicious apps (check reviews and rating in market first)
22. Ad blocker – do not use them, uninstall if you currently have one
23. Battery meter accuracy – go to data/system and delete“batterystats.bin”after you have charged your phone to 100%
24. Tasker – can be used to automate settings (eg. based on time of day or app launched)
25. Juice Defender + Ultimate Juice – can be used to automate settings (eg. based on time of day or location)
26. Screebl - keeps backlight on while holding phone in "use" (vertical) position and turns it off when laying flat
27. Rebooting - reboot phone every few days
28. Delete unnecessary apps – determine which apps you do not need or use anymore and uninstall them, determine which apps you keep are causing the most battery drain and see if a comparable replacement from the market will do better
29. Widgets – turn off animations, do not use too many of them (choose them wisely), and delete unnecessary ones, they pull data in the background. At least make the interval/frequency of sync/updates longer for the ones you have. It may be better just to open some apps themselves instead of using the widget. Disable auto-updates on HTC Weather widget or at least set it to every few hours, manually update by tapping update icon on bottom of widget. Note that widgets that display battery, CPU, and memory utilization consume some power because they are polling the system for information.
30. No service – turn off phone or go into Airplane mode when you are in an area that does not have cell service
31. Chargers – have them handy at home, at work, and in car, and plug in when available. Try to get a 1A charger (same as included wall charger), many cheap aftermarket car chargers are only 500mAh and will not be enough to handle the GPS. VZW's car charger is 750mAh.
32. Rooting – (there are a lot more techniques that can be used with a rooted phone, such as removing bloatware and underclocking when then screen is off, but I will save that for a later thread)
33. If all else fails, buy an extended battery or have a spare handy just in case
Update1 - I came across another technique, it sounds a little strange but it apparently came from HTC regarding the EVO...some users appeared to have experienced gains from it:
34. "Calibrate" battery - (1) Turn device ON, charge it for 8 hours (or until LED turns green), (2) unplug and turn it OFF, plug it back in and charge for 1 hour (or until LED turns green), (3) unplug and turn it ON, wait 2 minutes, turn it OFF, plug it back in, and charge for 1 hour (or until LED turns green), (4) unplug it, turn it ON, and use normally. Repeat once a month or so.
Update2 - I found a few more things to suggest
35. Blockbuster app - open app, download update from market, then go to menu/settings and tap "disable movie updates." The app is set to automatically periodically scan for updates by default, and requires the new update to turn this off.
36. Friendstream - delete the widget from your home screen, open app and go to menu/settings and select update when opened. This way it isn't constantly refreshing, but rather only does so when you want to look at it by opening the app.
37. Signal strength - whether 3G, 4G, or WiFi, if whatever you are trying to connect to has a low signal strength the TB's battery will be draining trying to connect. Keep an eye on your connections, and try to be aware of when you are in poor signal areas and toggle off or switch connections if you can. Also keep in mind where your "fringe" areas are (ie. bounces between 3G/LTE/1X)
38. Apps - not all 3rd party apps are optimized for the TB, be sure to read reviews/ratings in the market to see what problems other users have had with them. Monitor your apps to see if any of them are hogging system resources (eg. CPU, RAM) and draining your battery, and delete or replace them accordingly. And remember to set the sync/update/notification frequency at longer intervals in settings within the apps that connect to the internet frequently.
39. Power saver - go to settings/power, and check enable power saver, the go to power saver settings and tweak (basically does a lot of the things we've talked about here for you automatically when you get low on battery, in case some things are left on or on higher settings than needed)
Another Battery Saver 3g/4g toggle switch:
https://market.android.com/details?id=net.andirc.lteonfoff&feature=search_result
What is SetCPU and where do I get it?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=505419
Just because it's free doesn't mean you shouldn't donate a little something to the dev!
Commonly used widgets
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=761517
How do I customize my home page and change the docks and such?
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.adw.launcher&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fede.launcher&feature=search_result
This is a nice and concise introduction. I needed this last week!
Upvoted for the phrase "beer and hookers."
One stop shop very nice!!!!....
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Thanks for that. I am going to have my wife read this so she can understand more on what to do with her phone, since it is not rooted and still has all that bloatware.
My phone is rooted and I have been testing with 4gLTE off/on, and seriously gained 5 hours when 4gLTE was turned off.
17-18 Hours Almost made it to 19 hours - 4gLTE off - This is with moderate use call/text/IM and some gameplay.
13-14 Hours - 4gLTE on - This is the same as above.
Trying now to talk my wife into letting me root her phone, but alas it is her phone and her choice.
Also if you want to update there is a 4G/LTE app in the Marketplace for the toggle - just search in the Market - LTE - it will show up as a Red Lightning bolt in a grey Circle.
Excellent post!
scubaskm said:
Thanks for that. I am going to have my wife read this so she can understand more on what to do with her phone, since it is not rooted and still has all that bloatware.
My phone is rooted and I have been testing with 4gLTE off/on, and seriously gained 5 hours when 4gLTE was turned off.
17-18 Hours Almost made it to 19 hours - 4gLTE off - This is with moderate use call/text/IM and some gameplay.
13-14 Hours - 4gLTE on - This is the same as above.
Trying now to talk my wife into letting me root her phone, but alas it is her phone and her choice.
Also if you want to update there is a 4G/LTE app in the Marketplace for the toggle - just search in the Market - LTE - it will show up as a Red Lightning bolt in a grey Circle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, very good! I forgot about the toggle switch. Added and thanked!
Lots of good info, thanks
Awesome, thanks for the tips, should make my experience better.
This is a great post!! I def used some of the battery saving techniques.
Awesome information - wish I would have found this when I first bought my Thunderbolt... better to learn from others than trial and error method sometimes. lol
Thank you for the info... Somw i knew some i didn't... Great one stop for quick reminder..
Sent from my A05PTH3ORYB0LT using Tapatalk
Good stuff. Thank you.
Great post. Just one question. Why do ad-blockers use more battery? Wouldn't it decrease data use and thus battery since it prevents ads from being downloaded?
Thanks for the info!!
def a one stop shop. thank you. info much needed.
Sorry kind of falling behind on updates. Anyone think anything needs to be added???
ScoobarSTI said:
Sorry kind of falling behind on updates. Anyone think anything needs to be added???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may want to add in the "how to unroot for people who used revolutionary" thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1310014&highlight=revolutionary
Rooted with revolutionary...lost my gps CM7 ROM
Rooted my TB...with revolutionary, installed CM7 ROM. Now my gps doesn't work. Any ideas. Any advice?
I think CM7 has issues with GPS.
Thanks !!
Using Juice Defender lets me go a day and a half without charging. It's awesome !
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*If you find this Guide Thread helpful, feel free to hit the "thanks" button below!
Getting a full day out of your battery isn't something that should be fantasized over, but rather is absolutely attainable with most phone configurations. With following this [GUIDE] you should have no trouble getting more from your Atrix 2's battery life. I will outline several "usual suspects" and "battery butchering bandits" that some may already know of, and some that you might not have ever considered. However, if you try all of these it, may ruin your Android experience because you’ll be constantly fussing with your battery; that's not what this is for. These are ALL the tips/tricks I know. Even I don’t use all of them. Using just a few of these (possibly even one or two) should be enough that you notice an increase in your battery life. So, n00bs and more knowledgeable users can both benefit from this, and for the more resident members here, we've all seen the threads like, “Please help with my battery issue”, “Does undervolting save you battery life” or “Getting horrible battery life”, so this should help give everyone some great ways to improve upon your battery's performance and lifespan between charges.
First off, let me start by telling you all to be realistic. What I mean by that is this: You Atrix 2 is meant to be used! Your Atrix 2 is more than just a phone, it is a pocket-sized computer, an arcade full of your most favorite games, it is meant to be talked on, played with, downloaded to, uploaded from, tweaked/modded/themed/rom'd and everything else that you may desire! So, again, after reading and implementing some of (or all, if you're neurotic) the things I'll outline, hopefully this will alleviate some of the questions you may have as to why your battery performance isn't everything you anticipated it to be. Though, if you think you will get days out of your battery's life by following these suggestions, you're either not using your phone for anything other than holding down a stack of papers, or you're just not being realistic. Will these suggestions help give you more from your battery? Absolutely. I know this is all (well, mostly) very elementary in effort, but overall this WILL HELP you.
*"There are many things to consider when thinking of your battery's performance, such as: Animation Speed. Polling For Notifications. GPS, WiFi scans, Overclocking. CPU/Ram Usage, Proper Sleep, Widgets, Brightness, 2G/3G/4G Data Usage, Call Time, Text Volume, just to name a few ~THESE are the things that really affect your battery life. The bottom line is, if you truly want to save battery you are going to have to get your hands dirty... there simply isn't a "one-click" (or one-flash) solution."
*STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I cannot be held responsible for any and all damage related to Hardware loss or Data or Software, which the user might cause while attempting these procedures. Additionally, I am taking the liberty to assume that anyone who attempts these procedures understands the potential risks involved. Though, there should be no such issues to arise from following this guide, I am still exempting myself from any liability.
---For All Users (Rooting Not Required)---
1) Turn Off Your Radio(s) When Not Using Them:
Radios are what connect your phone to the rest of the world. You have your general mobile connection, WiFi, data/internet connection (3G), GPS, and/or 4G. Those are listed in order from least to greatest in battery consumption. If you’re not using the radio turn it off. If you know you won’t be online for a long time, why turn 3G data on? If you’re at home, use WiFi instead of 3G. If you’re not using Google Maps why is your GPS on? You’d be amazed at how much battery life you can save just by turning off the radios that you aren’t using.
2) Vibrate Uses More Battery:
Anytime your phone vibrates a lot of battery is used. This include haptic feedback. A lot of keyboards have the option to turn off haptic feedback and I would recommend it. If you’re a heavy texter you’ll notice very quickly how much longer your phone will last. Also, if you’re in a place where you can easily hear your phone why do you need to have vibrate enabled? If you know you’ll be able to hear your phone there’s no reason for it to be buzzing too.
3) Don’t Use Task Killers:
Crazy, right? Android has it’s own task killer that’s actually very good. If programs are using too much memory your Android OS will kill it. A common misconception is that apps run in the background forever; this is not true. If an app is using too much memory (which links to battery life) it’ll be killed by your phone. That’s why if you play a game, check a message, and come back the game is still running. It’s memory usage isn’t that high. However if you put your phone down, walk away for an hour, and the game is still trying to run in the background, there’s a good chance it will be closed before you come back. Separate task managers have to constantly be running in the background which can actually use more battery than it saves. Yes, task managers can use more battery than claim to save.
4. Power Cycling:
Not sure about the real effectiveness of this charging policy, but some users have tried it and have claimed to have had good results from it. So, to begin with the phone in the on position, fully charge the battery with the phone on. Once your Atrix 2 is fully charged, unplug the charger until the led goes off. After the led goes off, plug the charger back in. When the led turns green , power off the phone. Now, with the phone fully powered off, 1) Unplug the charger. 2) Wait until led goes off. 3) Plug charger back in until the led turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again and go to step 1). Repeat steps 1) and 3), 10 times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes per cycle. Typically only about 1 minute though. It takes too much work for me, but I’ve done it once just to test it.
5) Don’t Use Live Wallpapers:
They look awesome, right? They also use a lot of battery (especially the more complex ones). We’ve all used live wallpapers to show off how cool our phones can be, but for daily use they can KILL your battery. Also, your animations will be a factor in diminished battery life expectancy. To adjust this, simply navigate to: Settings>Display>Animations>set to "Off or Medium". #1 when it comes to what is eating your battery, is your display. It always has been and always will be, so accept it and try to do something about it. If you don't believe me, go to your Settings>Battery> and see just how much percentages the screen takes up. But, you want to do something about this, right? This part is easy. Just lower the brightness. You can set it to a brightness that is low but you are still able to see well enough to function. Live Wallpapers fall into this category. They are cool to look at but static ones take up less RAM and also less display because they are not running all the time in the background. These screens are very bright at 100%, so tone it down.
6) Watch Your Applications:
You have to pay attention to your applications. I repeat. You have to pay attention to your apps! Especially if they run in the background. This can be anything from a harmless .99¢ game to a monster like a Live Wallpaper. The battery drain threat is twofold here because the application is running in the background but it could also be using its anonymous data collection abilities and sending that back to the Mother ship. Ever wonder why your signal bars in the status bar have arrows or other animations going back and forth when your phone is just sitting there? This is because some application is transmitting data, whether you are using it or not. There are apps in the market that monitor these situations like Watchdog Task Manager Lite or you can adjust app permissions like LBE Privacy Guard. Data transfer is #2 on the "What Kills My Battery" list.
7) Worthless Widgets:
They look cool. But widgets are nothing more than RAM and battery hungry monsters that you purposely put in your home screen. Think about it. What does a widget really do? All it really does is monitor an app that you have running. So not only is it running and taking up battery and RAM but the app that it is linked to is running in the background a la Facebook, Twitter, Google+, CNBC, MSNBC, BBC, …the list goes on and on because they want us to put THEM on our home page. What a great marketing campaign the widget is: "Hey, look at me new home screen!" "Cool. Hey what widget is that?" "Oh, it is (whatever widget)." "Nice, I’ll have to download that tonight when I get home." Right then and there, they have you and your battery. If you're serious about getting the very most out of your battery, get rid of the widgets. I know, they're hard to resist, but trust me, your Atrix 2 will be a better place if you want the most out of your battery.
8) Set Your Screen Timeout:
Some phones start with their screen timeout at 3 minutes or more. That’s completely unnecessary. While you don’t want it to be instant, you know your preferences. Set it to as low as you see fit. The sooner your screen goes off, the longer your battery life will last. I set my screen timeout to the lowest "never" -but, in doing so, every time I am done checking emails or sending a text, I kill the display with the power button to turn off the display. This takes some habitual conditioning, and if you're used to allowing your phone the responsibility of turning off the display for you, it might bode well for your battery capacity crusade to simply adjust this to the minimum. But, if if you're like me and like 'control' over your display, I recommend you still set the timeout to the lowest possible setting, in the event that you forget to manually shut the display off yourself. It's just good practice when going for battery life longevity.
9) The Charger, and What You Can Do Regarding it:
Using certain chargers causes a wakelock on your phone that prevents it from going into deep sleep. This can result in roughly 10% battery attrition, regardless of activity or screen on time. Before you try anything else, you should test each of your chargers and make sure they aren’t causing a wakelock. Though this shouldn't be of concern if you are using the stock wall charger that came when you purchased your Atrix 2, there are other aftermarket ones that you may not suspect as reasons to worry about charging your phone with. If you are not using the stock charger, and you suspect you may have a problem, or may be curious to find out: Install CPU Spy from the Play Store. Open the app to see how much time your phone spends in each CPU state. If Deep Sleep is a very small percentage, or Deep Sleep doesn’t even appear, you have a problem with your charger. Or, follow the method below to test each of your chargers:
Testing CPU Spy:
1) Plug your phone into the charger and turn the screen off. Leave it charging for about 30 seconds. (Don't do this with a fully charged phone, as I don't know how that affects the testing)
2) With the screen still off, unplug the phone from the charger.
3) Open CPU Spy, hit the menu button, and "Reset Timers". Turn the screen off.
4) Let the phone sit idle for a few minutes with the screen off.
5) Turn the phone back on and refresh the timers in CPU Spy (menu button again).
If Deep Sleep doesn’t appear in the list of CPU states, your phone is experiencing a wakelock brought on by the charger. It’s probably spent the majority of time at 192mhz or 384mhz. To further confirm this, leave your phone unplugged, restart it, leave the screen off for a few minutes, and then check CPU spy again. You should now see it going into Deep Sleep.
10) Your Camera Flash and Battery Don’t Get Along:
If you like using your camera LED for a flashlight realize that will absolutely MURDER your battery. In all seriousness, your flash uses battery more than any other process on your phone. Turn off the flash. Don't set it to "automatic", you should know when you will need it and when you will not. By setting it to "automatic" you're relying on the phone's light meter to determine if the flash is needed. Sometimes it is, and other times it isn't.
11) Low Cell Signal Hurts Battery
Your phone is always searching for a stronger signal…This process gets more hectic as the cell signal goes down. So if you’re at one bar your phone’s battery life will drop faster than if you’ve got full coverage. There’s not much you can do here, but if you’re in a place where your phone has little to no signal anyway, you probably won’t be making calls so you might want to just turn on airplane mode or your phone off. And with Airplane Mode, you can toggle the airplane mode on/off 3 times in a row, that will reduce your Cell Standby battery usage. It should only be necessary to do it once after flashing but if you think Cell Standby uses too much power at some stage, you could toggle again the airplane mode 3 times. This is a handy little trick, not well known, but should give you some relief with Cell Standby usage. I travel for my job, which means that at times, I do not get good reception, or bounce around between Edge/3G/4G, and each time that happens, your Atrix 2 is sucking more juice by trying to find a good signal. If you are not in a static network, meaning one that is either 3G/4G at any given time, without locating off-network tower connections, turn your radio off or switch to Airplane Mode.
12) Speaking Of Syncing…:
Check your settings to see what is syncing and when. You probably have things syncing you don’t even use (stocks, news, contacts, etc). You can turn those off and edit the other ones. I don’t need my contacts’ statuses every hour, so my facebook sync is scheduled for once a day rather than the old once an hour. Find out what you need and how often you want it, and turn the rest off. I know you are very important and you need to know what LeBron James is doing right now, or that you need to upload a picture of you and your girlfriend every time you two are at a party, drinking beer. That is fine and I applaud you for it, and will probably download the picture and Photoshop myself in your place. This is not the problem. Syncing your accounts is. That is what is causing battery drain. Do you really need to have your FB widget (see widgets section) streaming all day long? I doubt it. Kill it (not LeBron, but rather the auto-syncing). Every time you “friend” someone their numbers, contact info gets sync’d to your phone. Also, there are settings in Facebook, Twitter and Google+ that you can upload pictures instantly. Don’t do that. Once you do, it is out in the Ether-World and just swallowed a bunch of battery doing it too. Settings>Accounts and Sync>Auto-sync>uncheck it
13) Don’t Use GPS Unless You Have To:
Some apps give you the option to precisely determine your position using GPS, or make a general estimate (usually within 100 meters) based on WiFi or 3G data. While this isn’t always the best (like if you’re driving or getting navigated), try to use the 3G connection when it doesn’t really matter. The data radio uses far less battery than GPS.
14) We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat, erm... I Mean Battery:
If still not completely convinced that you have have stellar performance from your stock Atrix 2 battery, you can always check out the Atrix 2 Accessories threads for suggestions and/or discussions on extended capacity batteries. I've never used one myself, but don't see as to why this wouldn't certainly add to your life expectancy of your battery -assuming you're choosing foregoing the suggestions above, and simply insist on having your widgets and eating them to -or your battery, for that matter. Nonetheless, there are several manufacturers that supply an aftermarket extended capacity battery for the Atrix 2, just use your pal Google to help you find one.
---For All Users (*Rooting Required)---
*FOR ROOT USERS: If you’ve rooted your phone you have a few more options. You don’t gain too many more options, but they are even more effective than the ones listed above.
Underclock Your Phone:
Just like SetCPU can overclock your phone, it can underclock it as well. Set it to underclock when the phone is sleeping or even lower the max clocking speed. This will give your CPU's scaling frequencies a lower "resting" point, and will not allow the load of the CPU to be any higher than the maximum setting you permit. I know everyone who likes to get their hands into the belly of their Atrix 2 and start tweaking it loves the idea of overclocking, but c'mon, you don't have to run your CPU at 1.3GHz all day, everyday. Scale that baby down when you don't require such a high CPU load, and trust me, your CPU and your battery will thank you. Also, along with underclocking your CPU, you can undervolt as well. This will allow (after some testing you'll need to do first to make sure you're not undervolted too low for stable CPU loads) for your Atrix 2 to run at a lower voltage consumption, and with these types of settings, you can allow your Atrix 2 to run at your desired CPU frequency scaling, but a slightly lower voltage rate. *Note: As aforementioned, some testing is required for this to be effective with both your CPU's table values, as well as how it may improve your battery's life. Also, please reference This Thread for the latest kernel/module overclocking and undervolting methods.
Wakelocks That Destroy Your Battery Life:
If you're not familiar with wakelocks, they're basically processes that run on your phone that prevent it from going into deep sleep. Deep sleep is the mode your phone should go into when you're not using it so that it can conserve battery. Some wakelocks are intentional, while others can be the result of rogue apps or system processes. If you're trying to maximize your battery life, you know this already. Some wakelocks are happy, friendly things, but many are silent leeches, sucking away your battery life while you remain blissfully unaware of what's happening. First off, you have to understand the difference between kernel wakelocks (KWL) and partial wakelocks (PWL). KWLs are wakelocks caused at the kernel or hardware level. Some of these are benign, and some of them are vampires. The only way to solve them is to change how your phone behaves. To effectively find your wakelocks, you'll need Better battery Stats It's free to us XDA users. You can get it IN THIS THREAD. More on wakelocks can be found in the post below.
Use SetCPU:
Create a special profile that forces the device to run at low clock speeds when the display is off.
Go to profiles
Check Enable
Press Add Profile
Set the following:
Condition: Screen Off
Max: 600MHz Max
Min: 300MHz Min
Governor: ondemand
Priority: 50
Press Save
On the Main tab make sure you have
Max: 1000MHz
Min: 300MHz
Governor: ondemand
Scheduler: deadline
Clean Out the Bloat:
Some of the bloatware and unnecessary applications on our Atrix 2's can drain battery. I really recommend you freeze the applications by using Root Freezer and run your Atrix 2 for a few days after you have frozen an unwanted application, and certainly before you decide to uninstall. This way you won’t accidentally uninstall something your phone needs to remain stable. Albeit, most of the custom roms that you will see here are already "de-bloated", if you're new to rooting and Android, and haven't quite decided that taking the next jump to flashing roms is for you, use Root Freezer to "freeze" applications that you suspect are bloat, until you decide to run a de-bloated ROM -and you will, eventually...
The Stock ROM Sucks:
If you’re still unrooted and on stock Gingerbread, I feel sorry for you. What the heck are you doing on this forum if you’re scared to flash a new ROM? This guide would be way too long if I tried to explain the battery improvements you might see by stepping up to the Stock ICS leak. You’ll probably see even more improvement if you flash one of the many custom ROMs in the Development section. If you’re dedicated to getting the most out of your phone, spend a weekend reading the ever-loving crap out of the stickies in the Development forum, and the [ROM] threads. Only after you have read those threads and feel like you have a good understanding, backup your phone and flash a new ROM on it. As long as you’ve backed up properly, you can flash between several ROMs and choose the one that works best for you. If you have any questions about the ROM you’re trying to flash, ask in that ROM's specific thread, don’t start out by creating a new thread in the General Section. You did do a search first, right?
Lost DIR Liability:
Let's say that you have your phone plugged into your PC and for some reason you, in a fit of rage, jerk the plug out without unmounting it first. This creates a file that is put into your LOST DIR folder on your SD card. Anytime you don't safely unmount the SD card, it will create a file in that folder. In the scheme of the SD card, it isn't too much, but I don't like having useless items free floating about. Clear them out using Root Explorer or a like Root File Explorer, and this will free up some (depending on how many times this has been done) valuable memory real estate.
Tombstones:
So you are downloading an update from the market and for some reason your phone freezes and the Force Close-Retry-Wait doesn't work out for you. You have to do a battery pull. Frustrating I know and the memory takes a hit too. Every time you have to do a battery pull because of a freeze up or something of the like, it creates a TOMBSTONE file in /data. These are useless and can be deleted. If you are flashing ROMs and are constantly having to do battery pulls b/c market crashes or an app freezes, then you are creating a Tombstone file. Here is where your file manager (with root) will help. Go into /data and scroll all the way to the bottom and open /tombstone. There should be some files in there and depending on how many there are, I could be a nice chunk of wasted memory. Just select all and delete. They are not needed. Your internal memory should go up by doing this.
Lost & Found:
Same scenario, but now go into /data/ cache or /cache and you'll see Dalvik Cache (don’t mess with this), Lost & Found and Recovery. If you tried to download an app and it got frozen for some reason and had to do a battery pull, the apk will be free floating in there, uninstalled (free floating radical). You can delete this. While it isn't in the Dalvik Cache folder, it is taking up space. Once you are able to download something completely and correctly from the market, it will populate into Dalvik Cache correctly and won't be a free radical, as I like to say.
---For All Users (Miscellaneous)---
Some More Memory Clearing Tips:
Home Launcher:
If you have a 3rd party home launcher, see if it has the ability to long-press an icon to take you to its screen in the Manage Apps section. I use ADWex and if you long-press on say Market, it takes me to the same place as is I were to go to Settings>Applications>Manage Apps>Market. Instead of all that, just long-press on the icon and BAM! it takes you there. Here you can clear out your cache for the market or delete the data (if you need to do that). Or clear the cache of the XDA app because you looked at too many posts with pictures, etc.
Browsers:
These develop cache that takes up memory and space, especially the stock browser. If you use a 3rd party, you can get the settings to clear cache, cookies, passwords,…on exit. I use Dolphin, but I am pretty sure that most have something like this on them. (side note: most 3rd party browsers once exited will not run in the background unlike the stock one)
Media:
So you download a bunch of mp3's from the internet or you've clicked on some pix and saved them to your SD card. Or maybe you just felt like wiping your card and having a fresh start. Every time you reboot, you phone will scan media. No big deal, but the more you criss-cross things from PC to phone and back again, it can create a bunch of double files in your media cache on the phone. With the proper placement of .nomedia files (this prevents your media scanner from doing just that, scanning media- i.e. pix, jpegs,…Don’t place a .nomedia in your music, album art or DCIM files**bad). Every once in a while, I'll hit the Diskusage or go to Manage apps and clear the media cache. Then I got to my file manager and the DCIM->Thumbs and delete the thumbnails files (should be 2). Unmount the SD card and remount to start the media scan, pull up the Gallery and wait for the thumbs to come back (depending on how many you have, this could take awhile). By doing this you can get almost 5 mb back if you have a bunch of double scans in your media folder.
Applications That Use Advertisements:
Try to avoid ad-supported applications, if you can. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. With just a 30 second use of an application that uses ads, it might drain your fully charged battery anywhere from 0.35% to 0.70%, which is enough to completely discharge the battery within a couple of hours if the process is repeated. This, according to a team of researchers, show that applications using advertisement support can take a high toll on your Android smartphone’s battery. The researchers analyzed how Android apps use the battery and concluded that the ad-serving processes that run in the background are responsible for heavy battery drainage. This may not seem like much, but so many applications that are free utilize advertisements and are blasted about the bottom or top of your application. I know I'll likely get ostracized for mentioning this, at least by some of the developers who rely on ad-support within their applications, but there is a way to eliminate these ads from showing themselves in your application(s). This is for BOTH rooted and un-rooted devices, as there are applications available from Google Play Store, such as AdFree Android (for ROOTED users only) or you can find one that will work on a non-rooted device. Or better yet, you could pony up the nominal dollar or two and show your own support for your favorite applications by buying the paid version, and thus eliminating the ads in that manner.
*I will be updating this OP as I see necessary, and if anyone has useful tips that I may have missed or overlooked, please let me know. I'm aware that there are threads of this capacity floating about through XDA, but I have taken the liberty to create on specifically for our community.
Credits & Big Thanks To: Woodrube
Wakelocks Explained
Two final notes before I get started with the Wakelock Portion of this guide: Do not go wakelock hunting right after installing a new ROM or clean-wipe reinstalling your current one. New ROMs cause the phone to go nuts for a little while, as things decache and little behind-the-scenes tweaks are made. Wait one full battery cycle (100% to 0%, which you're probably doing to calibrate after a clean ROM install anyway) before trying this, or you'll drive yourself nuts. Also, remember that solving one wakelock will often create another, especially early in this process. That's normal and to be expected. God does not hate you, your ROM of choice is not crap, your phone is not glitched, and a clean install while your current ROM is still settling in will only make things worse.
So, how do you track these wakelocks down with BBS? This is a really complicated procedure, so make sure you're with me. First, open BBS. Then, see the drop down menu at the top that probably says "Other" right now? Tap it, and then you'll see "Kernel Wakelocks" and "Partial Wakelocks" below. That was obscenely difficult, right?
There are a couple of other features of BBS that we'll make extensive use of later, but there's one you need to know right now. Tap your phone's menu button to get the BBS menu up. Tap on "More". See the button that says "Set Custom Ref."? You'll need it--you'll need it a lot.
Last, but certainly not least: modifying your system in any way, including altering or deleting processes needed to resolve wakelocks, can have unpredictable results. Use caution and make backups of your apps and data, as well as nandroid backups, frequently while finding and eliminating wakelocks. Any modifications you make are done at your own risk, and I assume no responsibility for any damage you may do to your phone while cleaning out wakelocks.
With that said, we'll get started with the KWLs, as they're the trickiest to get rid of. Use the guide below to identify your wakelock, what is causing it, and how to get rid of it.
KERNEL WAKELOCKS
wlan_rx, wlan_rx_wake, wlan_wake: This is a wakelock caused by network traffic. The easy solution would be to just turn off Wifi, but be careful doing so! If an app goes to sync and it sees that Wifi is off, it will search for a mobile data connection (which causes the ConnectivityService wakelock). If it can't find a mobile data connection, it will wait and search again at its next sync interval and/or automatically sync when the phone wakes up. This wakelock can also, deceptively, be caused by the Wifi network itself as it refreshes connections or refreshes IPs.
To fix: This is a tricky little sucker to fix, as there are so many possible causes for it. Airplane mode is a safe bet--syncing apps seem to "respect" airplane mode, whereas if Wifi alone is turned off, they'll just try to find a way around. But then, of course, you lose your ability to talk on the phone. If you're particularly unlucky, your Wifi network itself will be the problem.
PowerManagerService: This is probably your #1 or #2 kernel wakelock, and you'd probably love to get rid of it at all costs, right? Hate to say it, but there's not much that can be done about this one. PowerManagerService is a KWL that serves as a "catch-all" for your PWLs. It's a placeholder, nothing more, nothing less. Don't spend much time worrying about it.
To fix: Reduce PWLs. See below.
deleted_wake_locks: Remember what I said above about force-stopping an app and deleting its cache and data before uninstalling it? This wakelock is why. It's the PowerManagerService for deleted apps. Once the app is gone, the wakelocks it caused suddenly become unknown to the system, so they get lumped in here. This number can also go up as the system "looks for" deleted apps and/or finds more wakelocks associated with them, but not dramatically.
To fix: Make sure to force close apps and wipe their cache and data before deleting. A reboot should eliminate the wakelock entirely. If it's still showing up, wipe phone cache and Dalvik.
sdio_al: This is an annoying wakelock, as there are two potential causes for it. One's easy, and one sucks. The easy one is that you've fallen victim to the charger wakelock. If your charger shows up as AC Regular Charge, there's your problem. If it's AC Fast Charge or USB Normal Charge, your wakelock is caused by your SD card. That can be an irritating fix, but the SD card version of this wakelock is typically small enough that it's not worth addressing.
To fix: Check your charger and adjust if needed. If it's the SD card, it's probably not a strong enough wakelock to be worth fixing, but if you want to fix it, you'll have to format your SD card. If formatting doesn't work, format it again, then wipe cache and Dalvik.
alarm_rtc: This is your phone's internal alarm scheduler, set to wake up your phone for sync, push, etc. Closely related to the AlarmManager PWL.
To fix: Check your apps and make sure they're only set to sync when you want them to, not for constant push or stupid-short intervals.
mmc0_detect, mmc1_detect, mmc2_detect: I'll be honest, I have no idea what causes these. Fortunately, they seem to be minimal, so I've never wasted much time worrying about them.
To fix: Good question!
vbus_present: This is a weird one. I never could quite figure out what causes it, but it seems like it's there as long as the phone's plugged it. Strange...
To fix: Check your phone. Is there a cord plugged into it? If so, does that cord lead to a source of power? Like, I don't know, an adapter plugged into a wall socket? That's your root cause. vbus_present is a completely harmless wakelock, which will appear for as long as your charger is plugged into your phone. Set a custom reference point in BBS when you unplug, and you'll note that it's magically disappeared.
There are a number of other, lesser KWLs that I'm not going to worry about here because you shouldn't worry about them either. You might occasionally see a battery cycle with very low (sub-1%) KWLs, but that's the exception and not at all the rule.
PARTIAL WAKELOCKS
PWLs are a different beast. These are almost all caused by an app (with a couple of notable exceptions). For that reason, I won't go in-depth on too many of them, as the solution is usually to delete the app causing them. There are a few notable ones, and a few apps that merit mention.
AudioOut_1: This is an evil leech of a wakelock that will drain you dry if given the chance. For being such a pain in the app, it's surprisingly easy to get rid of. This wakelock is created whenever the phone's speaker plays a sound. With 99% of sounds, it goes away almost instantly. With keypad sounds, however, it doesn't go away so quickly, and it will sit there draining your battery for as long as it goes unnoticed.
To fix: Open Settings, then select sound. Turn off key tone sounds, touch sounds, screen lock sounds and vibrate on screen tap. It'll take some getting used to, but the extra battery you'll coax out just by solving this ridiculously simple problem is more than worth it. See DoctorQMM's post (#5), linked at the end of this one, for info on additional causes of this wakelock and how to fix them.
ConnectivityService: This will appear whenever your phone is trying to connect to a mobile data network. Excessive wakelocking here suggests that your phone is having a hard time finding a network, and an even harder time staying on it.
To fix: Test out different radios and see if one's better in your area. If you're able to control your radio bands and you don't live in an LTE area, setting your phone to hunt for GSM/HSPA connections only can save you a little bit of juice here. Not much, but every drop counts, and if you're not using LTE anyway.
AlarmManager: This isn't a wakelock unto itself so much as it's a compilation of app alarms and the time they held the device awake for. Seeing the wakelock alone doesn't tell you much, but here's where one of those features of BBS that I said we'd be using comes in.
To fix: Open BBS. Tap the menu button, then "More", then "Raw Alarms". That will show you which apps are waking up your phone, and how often they're doing so. Google will have a ton of wake-ups, but they're mostly innocuous. We'll discuss some of Google's problem apps later. Email clients will also have a ton of alarms. If anything else looks out of whack, though, first check the app settings to see how often it's refreshing. If the app is set to refresh every hour but it's set off 400 alarms in the last 30 minutes, get rid of that sucker and email the dev. You can't eliminate this wakelock, and it's constantly my #1 PWL at this point, but you can minimize it.
MediaScannerService: This is a wakelock created by the system as it scans your device for music, movies, pictures, etc. Once in a while, it will randomly get hung up and hold the phone at 384 MHz for...well...until you notice and do something about it. Like AudioOut_1, this is a heavy-drain wakelock. Luckily, like AudioOut_1, it's almost always easy to fix.
To fix: Reboot. Ninety-nine times or so out of a hundred, this solves the problem. If the problem persists, go to Settings>Applications>Running then tap on "Show cached processes". Find the Media process and stop it manually to kill the wakelock. That's a short-term fix, though, as a persistent wakelock from this process most likely means you have a corrupt media file somewhere on your phone- and there are a lot of sounds, movies and images on your phone. This is one of the few wakelocks that, if it's a regular problem, justifies considering a full wipe and clean reinstall. That's not because it's doing any kind of damage to your phone, but more because sifting through every single media file on your phone to find the culprit isn't really a practical solution.
SyncLoopWakeLock: This is exactly what it sounds like; your phone is being held awake while apps sync. There are two possible causes for this: apps syncing (duh) and a bad data connection.
To fix: Open BBS. Tap the menu button, then "More", then "Raw Network Stats". This will show you which apps are using the most data, and help you narrow down possible culprits. Once you've done so, check those app settings and make sure they're not set to constantly push notifications, refresh every five minutes or anything dumb like that. If they're set correctly and still holding sync open that long, try downloading the Speed Test app off of the Play Store and test your phone's connection. If your connection is on the slow side, it's possible that the apps are struggling to sync because of your bad data connection. Try flashing different radios to see if that solves it. If the troublesome apps remain so after you've found a better radio, it's best to just delete or freeze them.
GTALK_ASYNC_CONN family: Despite its name, this wakelock doesn't seem to be directly related to Google Talk. How do I know? I haven't had Google Talk on this phone in over a month, but the wakelock still pops up from time to time. These wakelocks can be absolute destroyers of your battery if given the chance, and unfortunately, there's no known root cause for them, and no reliable way of eliminating them.
To fix: These wakelocks will often disappear within a minute or so of generating. If one becomes persistent, reboot into recovery and wipe cache and Dalvik ASAFP. That solves the problem temporarily, but it will reoccur. Thanks, Google.
NetworkLocationLocator: What a lovely name for such a lovely wakelock. It's a minor annoyance usually, nothing more. If this one is persistent, it's because you're in an area with crappy cell coverage and very few Google-mapped WiFi networks.
To fix: Why, exactly, are you leaving Network Location on all the time anyway?
SCREEN_FROZEN: Uh oh.
To fix: If this is high on your list, you've got bigger problems than a wakelock.
PWL OFFENDING APPS
We're almost done, I promise!
Down here, I'm going to list off for you apps that will cause you severe PWL migraines, and what to do about them.
A note when uninstalling Google built-ins: Google built-ins are often system packages, and deleting them can have unpredictable results. I highly recommend freezing them in Titanium Backup for several days to see how the phone runs before uninstalling them through there as well. Deleting system processes is inherently risky, and I assume no responsibility for your own decisions.
Facebook: Any social networking app will want to sync as often as it can, but you can overrule that by setting notification intervals. Thing is, Facebook doesn't respect those intervals, and wakes up the device for data exchanges pretty constantly (even though your news feed may only update every hour or so when you want it to). This app is no better than bloat, and should be treated as such when you clean house.
Alternative App: Friendcaster. It's as good a third-party Facebook client as you'll find on Android, and it only wakes up when you tell it to.
Gmail: A running theme here will be that if there's a non-Google equivalent to a Google app, you should probably kill the Google and download the alternative. Gmail is an alarm fiend, and one of the main offenders if you have an excessive SyncLoopWakeLock problem.
Alternative App: How many email clients are out there? I've had the best luck with the stock Email app, but K-9, Kaiten, MailDroid, even Enhanced Email and Touchdown for the power users are all great alternatives. Speaking of which...
Whatever email client you're using: Email clients will always be high up on the list of alarms, and that's by their nature. Keep an eye with raw network stats on how long they're connected for, and don't be afraid to experiment. I tried K-9, Kaiten and MailDroid before settling back on the stock Email app as the one that gave me the best balance of battery life and necessary features.
Alternative Apps: Download and try out different clients until you find the one that works for you. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Google Latitude: Latitude is a tracking service. As such, it tracks you. Beyond the creepiness aspect of that, it holds your phone awake pretty often while doing so. Kill it. Kill it with fire.
Alternative App: Personally, I'm not into the whole stalking thing, but I've heard that Glympse works quite well.
Google Maps: Colossal waste of space and battery. You can do better. An important note on Google Maps: this app will still wake your device up even after being frozen in Titanium Backup. I don't know how it happens, but it does. To truly solve the alarms from Google Maps, you have no choice but to uninstall it. Do so at your own risk.
Alternative Apps: I'm a fan of Waze for navigation and MapQuest for a Google Maps-ish "browseable" interface. OSMAnd is also a great alternative, but it uses a ton of internal memory because of its offline nature.
Google Play Music & Movies: Updates itself constantly and wakelocks. Even if you freeze it, it still somehow manages to tell you that there's an update available. It's the Google zombie.
Alternative App: There are literally 100+ music and/or movie players out there. I'm sure you can find one that works for you. I'm a big fan of RocketPlayer for music, and I just use the stock video app more often than not.
JuiceDefender: What's that you say? JD sets off tons of alarms and holds the device awake for more time than I'd care to discuss, largely because of its data control settings. More harm than good, in my opinion.
Alternative Apps: JuiceDefender's main goal in life is to minimize the amount of time your device is held awake. Therefore, if you've just gone through all this to clear out wakelocks, do you really need another wakelock-prone app to do what you've already done?
Skype: Occasionally, after a call, Skype will wakelock. This is not designed to happen, and is more a glitch in the app than a forced sync. Force-stopping the app and clearing its cache have solved it for me on the rare occasion that I've seen the wakelock occur.
Alternative Apps: No idea. I don't personally consider this a "replace" situation.
That's the bulk of what I've learned from clearing out wakelocks. Remember how, early on, I specified that the search engine of your choice was the third tool? Simple fact is, I haven't installed every app on the planet, so I haven't seen every PWL out there. Because of the way my phone's set up, there are KWLs that I've never seen and never will. If you've got a pesky wakelock that won't go away and it's causing noticeable battery drain, Google (or Bing, or Ask.com, or whatever) is your friend. Good luck, happy hunting, and enjoy the extra battery life you'll get just by spending a few hours over the course of a few days tracking down and killing those wakelocks.
Credits & Big Thanks To: T.J. Bender
A Little Charging Trick
If, after rooting or more likely that case after flashing a new ROM, you often have battery reporting errors, and re-calibrating the battery along with some steps I will outline for you below will ensure that your battery is getting a full charge, and the battery reporting accuracy is right on. I run my device's CPU governor in performance mode all the time, and with a CPU overclock of 1.25GHz and various tweaks, I have about a day and a half - to a day and a quarter of full run time from my battery. This is with moderate usage (calls, emailing, text, gaming, web browsing, etc.) so you should have no problems getting acceptable battery performance after following these steps, coupled with the ones I've given in the OP:
1. Take the case off your Atrix 2 (one of the latter steps involves taking the battery out from the phone while it's plugged in. Make sure your case won't stand in the way.)
2. Install Battery Calibration app from the market
3. Plug in your Atrix 2 to charge while it's on, wait till it gets to a 100%
4. When the charge is 100%, open the BatteryCalibration app and lookup what the charge is in MV while at 100%. Write it down.
My Atrix 2 was showing ~3400MV while at 100%, which is definitely not the maximum capacity.
5. Discharge your Atrix 2 completely until it shuts off.
A good way of doing this quickly is by turning on wifi, and a video player.
6. Without turning on the phone plug it into a wall charger and let it get to 100%
7. When it's at 100%, without unplugging it from the wall charger, take off the battery cover, and take the battery out.
Your phone will "reboot" and show a Missing Battery icon.
8. Without unplugging the phone from the wall charger or turning it on, put the battery back in and wait until the phone recognizes the battery.
9. Your battery should now be recognized by the phone, and showing a charge % significantly lower than 100%.
Mine showed only 5%.
10. Let it sit there charging for 2-3 hours (or more).
My phone wouldn't charge past 10%, but yours might. The numbers don't matter much as the phone is definitely getting additional charge that could have been lost while flashing ROMs, etc.
11. After 2-3 hours (or more), turn the phone on while holding the volume down button and get into CWM.
Do not disconnect it from the charger still!
12. Wipe battery stats in CWM, reboot.
Do not disconnect it from the charger still!
13. When the phone turns on, go into Battery Calibration app again and look up your MV numbers -if you were like me, they should be significantly higher than before. After this whole process I had 4351MV at 100%, comparing to 3400MV before calibration.
Do not disconnect it from the charger still!
14. Before going to sleep - Install Watchdog Task Manager Lite from the market. Go into it's preferences, set CPU threshhold to 20%, check "Include phone processes", check "Monitor phone processes", check "Display all phone processes", set system CPU threshhold to 20% as well.
Do not disconnect it from the charger still!
15. Make sure your wifi and data connections are off. Now finally unplug the phone from the charger.
Go to bed, let your phone sleep too.
16. Success! Next morning check where your battery % is at and if you followed the instructions correctly / got lucky like me, your battery life should be 90% or more.
I went to bed with 98% and woke up to 94%. So, I consider this mission a success.
NICE JOB!!!!
Sticky... I will ask...
Nice Guide just fixed minor things and my battery is already better!
Sent from my locked MB865 on Ice Cream Sandwich.
temperature
what causes battery temperature rising ? oc? data? games?
cause i've noticed that battery drops horribly on graph when temperature increases
shardul.phatak said:
what causes battery temperature rising ? oc? data? games?
cause i've noticed that battery drops horribly on graph when temperature increases
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery temperature is a direct result of device usage. If you go to sleep at night, and are NOT charging your phone overnight, in the morning when you wake up and roll over to check xda or Facebook or whatever, the phone isn't warm, right? During the day, if you're running a browser or streaming music or just have a lot of screen time on, your phone will get warmer and warmer. It's hard to say without seeing any test results from your phone as to what is causing higher temperatures, but it's safe to say that any or all of the things you listed could be a cause. Obviously, overclocking WILL cause your phone to run warmer. Your permitting a higher CPU load value at the maximum frequency scaling, and subsequently your phone's CPU is working harder. Try some (or most) of the suggestions in this thread and see if you notice a lower temperature and battery drop as a result of the changes...
Great guide mister strider!
Motorola lied and I'm still locked mb865
Nice! Thanks for putting this together, Apex... Keep on striding, man!
Apex_Strider,
Can you tell us the final result when you applied these trick on your phone ?
Mine was not used any above, and gave me ~24hrs with heavy use, wifi on 24/24, screen on 5h using wifi. Phone for 15 mins/day, sometime movies for 2hrs.
I charged it at 22:30 PM every night.
Awesome guide. I made my lady read it. She was constantly complaining about her new atrix2's battery life. She learned quit a bit. It was easier to take this way than coming from a frustrated loved one.
You should use your skills to write a guide about how to use the report button and what help or response should be given and how to give it by non op's or those not involved in a given project for all the sudo (ha!) forum cops. (See I can't do it. My sentences are too long.) The constant correcting of anyone by everyone is getting annoying.
Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2
Nice guide Apex!! Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks guys, your appreciation of my time doing these is more appreciated than I can say. Writing has always been a passion of mine, and really the only thing I was good at in school/college- when I wasn't ingesting illicit substances by the truck load. I'm working another guide thread now, hopefully completing it by tonight or tomorrow sometime. Thinking, since I'm nowhere near "dev" status or knowledge, I might apply for Recognized Contributor. Not sure we have any here in this community, at least that's not as present here as I am. Not to slight anyone who might be one, just haven't seen any floating around in here...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Apex_Strider said:
Thanks guys, your appreciation of my time doing these is more appreciated than I can say. Writing has always been a passion of mine, and really the only thing I was good at in school/college- when I wasn't ingesting illicit substances by the truck load. I'm working another guide thread now, hopefully completing it by tonight or tomorrow sometime. Thinking, since I'm nowhere near "dev" status or knowledge, I might apply for Recognized Contributor. Not sure we have any here in this community, at least that's not as present here as I am. Not to slight anyone who might be one, just haven't seen any floating around in here...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait isn't "ingesting illicit substances" part of the college curriculum? If it is not officially it should be, cause it does, ur, um, it did help... LOL.
vinamilk said:
Apex_Strider,
Can you tell us the final result when you applied these trick on your phone ?
Mine was not used any above, and gave me ~24hrs with heavy use, wifi on 24/24, screen on 5h using wifi. Phone for 15 mins/day, sometime movies for 2hrs.
I charged it at 22:30 PM every night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you asking for my "results", meaning my battery usgae stats (i.e.: maximum duration of battery from full charge to full discharge, screen time, etc.)? If so, I'll have to do this again, as it's been a couple of months since I had. Keep in mind, that everyone's results will vary, as it depends on so many different variables.
Also, being on WiFi will demand less from your battery than relying solely on the network connection. So, if you're 'always' on WiFi, you will get more from your battery than not. On my Atrix 2, I can get a full day or more from one full charge. Now, this is from my usage, and like I mentioned -everyone's will vary. Generally speaking, in practical use Wi-Fi isn’t any more or less friendly on your battery than cellular is. Sure there are differences, but the biggest one of all is distance. Since you’re probably a good-deal closer to your Wi-Fi WAP than you are to your cellular tower, it’s likely that your battery life will be better if you’re using Wi-Fi rather than cellular data.
The charging trick I outlined in this thread is very useful for battery reporting errors after flashing a new rom, or just is one feels like their battery isn't getting the kind of "full" charge it should. It helped me out, as well as others...
I have an extended battery that I've run through several full drain/charge cycles over the past two weeks (when I got it). However, it still doesn't register the charge % properly - it will say 5% for over a day. I used the BatteryCalibration app to no avail.
Ideas?
Ajfink said:
I have an extended battery that I've run through several full drain/charge cycles over the past two weeks (when I got it). However, it still doesn't register the charge % properly - it will say 5% for over a day. I used the BatteryCalibration app to no avail.
Ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the battery charge trick above, without the Watchdog part -sounds like a battery reporting error. Are you using 1% battery mods?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Apex_Strider said:
Try the battery charge trick above, without the Watchdog part -sounds like a battery reporting error. Are you using 1% battery mods?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I'm completely stock with root.
The Battery Calibration app DOES list the appropriate mV levels, though.
I'll give it a shot.
governors, i/o schedulers ?
may be this & this could help if u want to do sum experiment :silly:
+10 awesome job again !!!!!
This is my first android phone ever, so please forgive my ignorance i have been using nexus 5 for the last 1 week and I have few questions
1. Security : any applications that are install asks me permission how to access almost all of my data, contacts, phone location, phone status wireless, this is making me nervous
2. Virus protection : i had completely forgotten about having an antivirus on my iphone because there was no need. I would like to know which is the best antivirus and firewall for my nexus 5 i don't care if i have to pay for the software. I just want to be sure that's my banking transactions and bill payments are secure.
3. Battery : oh my god!!! Takes very very long time to charge and very very short time discharge. I wonder what is eating my battery. Even after 4 - 5 hours of charging it does not fully charge. Same when it is connected to my laptop and same when it is connected to my car charger. This is really annoying me. Am i doing something wrong here.
4. OK Google : ok google works only at the home screen is this how it is supposed to be. Ok google freezes or does not respond when there is no Internet. Is it possible to call out the name of the caller while the phone is ringing
5. Lock screen: is it possible to see the preview of messages and e-mails notifications on the lock screen just like i phone is there any application that can help me with this. I do not want how to unlock my phone every time to read a notification
Lol mine is charging so fast. It needs an hour to finish the charging.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
ali-blr said:
2. Virus protection : i had completely forgotten about having an antivirus on my iphone because there was no need. I would like to know which is the best antivirus and firewall for my nexus 5 i don't care if i have to pay for the software. I just want to be sure that's my banking transactions and bill payments are secure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://androidcommunity.com/banking...-report-shows-9-out-of-10-leak-info-20140114/
shows that banking apps are incredibly insecure on iOS, and on Android they are the same. neither is 'secure' when it comes to banking and bill payments
---------- Post added at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 PM ----------
ali-blr said:
3. Battery : oh my god!!! Takes very very long time to charge and very very short time discharge. I wonder what is eating my battery. Even after 4 - 5 hours of charging it does not fully charge. Same when it is connected to my laptop and same when it is connected to my car charger. This is really annoying me. Am i doing something wrong here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should do a factory wipe and let the device reset itself. max charge time from 0% to 100% is 2 and a half hours with the stock charger and cable
it's probably discharging so fast because of things like 'wifi always on' and 'always scan wifi' and 'high accuracy' location mode. if you want optimal battery life you should go through all the settings and pick stuff out. auto brightness is notorious for being a battery hog. especially on the N5 since it makes it too bright.
If you're only installing apps from Google Play, there's no need at all for antivirus software on your phone. The malware "problem" on Android is massively overblown. Don't believe the hype.
If your battery is taking that long to charge, something is not right. My phone fully charges in about 2 hours and I can easily get 4-5 hours of screen on time per charge. Try a factory reset, and if that doesn't work, you may need to RMA.
the answer to #5 is to download a widget called dashclock. search the play store for it. it was developed by a google employee. it has tons and tons of extensions which give you "at a glance" information on your lockscreen. you can see anything from detailed battery stats, to sms/mms, e-mails, missed calls, weather, the list goes on and on.
Use the original wall charger. Fast charging needs a charger rated at 1.8 amps iirc. Laptop USB only provides approx 0.5 amp so it will only show charge. Same with many car chargers. Make sure you use a car charger rated for 2.0 amps.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
1. Don't you want to know?
2. No.
3. Use the cord that came with the phone. Check your battery usage graph.
4. Some functions require internet. There's an app for that.
5. There's an app for that.
This is my first Android phone too. Google searches have made figuring this stuff out easy.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
alistairs1 said:
Use the original wall charger. Fast charging needs a charger rated at 1.8 amps iirc. Laptop USB only provides approx 0.5 amp so it will only show charge. Same with many car chargers. Make sure you use a car charger rated for 2.0 amps.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The N5 can't charge above 1.2 amps with the stock kernel. If you use a 2 amp charger, the phone will still charge at 1.2.
Welcome to Andorid, having made the switch myself early last year, I had similar concerns too. You have however come to the right place to ask help
1. App Ops (search on XDA) if you dont know about it (need to be rooted) or you could use xprivacy Xposed module to disable some permissions.
2. Not required (install from trusted source only) and you are golden.
3. Greenify (root required for some functions) should help. However what you are stating is an abnormal behavior. Go into setting and look at the battery graph and the usage per app/sys
4. I dont use this feature, so no comment
5. Dynamic notifications app is great, or if you use light flow it will wake the screen up for notification or as someone mentioned above dashclock.
1. iOS would require all the same permissions as android... no need to worry.
2. same as 1, no difference really compared to iOS. Most risks would be the same, you'll be fine as long as you don't pirate apps etc.
3. I don't experience this, if you use the supplied charger and usb it'll be fine. Android devices generally charge slower when just using a usb to a computer etc.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I think nexus 5 so good ,that reason why i am in here , xda forums !!! hehe
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
4. OK Google only works from the home screen on 4.4.x or you can get a third party app that offers the same function from anywhere but say good by to battery life most likely
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
ali-blr said:
This is my first android phone ever, so please forgive my ignorance i have been using nexus 5 for the last 1 week and I have few questions
1. Security : any applications that are install asks me permission how to access almost all of my data, contacts, phone location, phone status wireless, this is making me nervous
2. Virus protection : i had completely forgotten about having an antivirus on my iphone because there was no need. I would like to know which is the best antivirus and firewall for my nexus 5 i don't care if i have to pay for the software. I just want to be sure that's my banking transactions and bill payments are secure.
3. Battery : oh my god!!! Takes very very long time to charge and very very short time discharge. I wonder what is eating my battery. Even after 4 - 5 hours of charging it does not fully charge. Same when it is connected to my laptop and same when it is connected to my car charger. This is really annoying me. Am i doing something wrong here.
4. OK Google : ok google works only at the home screen is this how it is supposed to be. Ok google freezes or does not respond when there is no Internet. Is it possible to call out the name of the caller while the phone is ringing
5. Lock screen: is it possible to see the preview of messages and e-mails notifications on the lock screen just like i phone is there any application that can help me with this. I do not want how to unlock my phone every time to read a notification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. iOS apps need the same permissions. They just dont tell you
2. No need. Just don't install warez
3. Charges fast on ac. Fasted phone I've had. Usb / car chargers supply half the power
-----------------------
Sent via tapatalk.
I do NOT reply to support queries over PM. Please keep support queries to the Q&A section, so that others may benefit
maxpower7 said:
The N5 can't charge above 1.2 amps with the stock kernel. If you use a 2 amp charger, the phone will still charge at 1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually anandtech.com showed that the N5 is limited to 1.5amps. but you are right about the stock charger only being a 1.2 amp charger
ali-blr said:
This is my first android phone ever, so please forgive my ignorance i have been using nexus 5 for the last 1 week and I have few questions
1. Security : any applications that are install asks me permission how to access almost all of my data, contacts, phone location, phone status wireless, this is making me nervous
2. Virus protection : i had completely forgotten about having an antivirus on my iphone because there was no need. I would like to know which is the best antivirus and firewall for my nexus 5 i don't care if i have to pay for the software. I just want to be sure that's my banking transactions and bill payments are secure.
3. Battery : oh my god!!! Takes very very long time to charge and very very short time discharge. I wonder what is eating my battery. Even after 4 - 5 hours of charging it does not fully charge. Same when it is connected to my laptop and same when it is connected to my car charger. This is really annoying me. Am i doing something wrong here.
4. OK Google : ok google works only at the home screen is this how it is supposed to be. Ok google freezes or does not respond when there is no Internet. Is it possible to call out the name of the caller while the phone is ringing
5. Lock screen: is it possible to see the preview of messages and e-mails notifications on the lock screen just like i phone is there any application that can help me with this. I do not want how to unlock my phone every time to read a notification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will add something as well in your help :
1. In iOS they just don't tell you what the apps are accessing. Still want to prevent some, then use app ops (but it required to be rooted, so I won't advice to jump on unlocking and rooting right away)
2.Not required as long as you install from playstore, read the reviews a bit before installing any application. Still want to use, you can have a look at avast.
3. Few advices for battery save,
- turn off always scanning (settings > wifi > press settings [the three . on right bottom] > Advanced > Uncheck always scanning)
- Change location settings (settings > location > mode = battery saving)
- If it is really not required, turn off "ok google" hot word detection. Open google now page, goto bottom, click 3 dot > settings > voice > uncheck hotword detection. My battery life is precious than a single "ok google". I can tap on microphone icon if needed. (that was my view)
- Switch to 2G when not required. There is an application called tasker, you can automate switching 2g/3g/4g networks as per application, (and many more, must have) event etc. Very useful app. (some example - here and here). But again it is optional.
- I found google default brightness is too high for my need. Use LUX application to do so. Link few samples on different lighting condition and you will be good to go.
- Last & best : Use franko kernel (but need to unlock boot loader)
Battery charging : As other mentioned use wall charger.
4. Ok Google - I don't use it.
5.dashclock is best option in my view. Anyway, to get it in lock screen, a step is required. Settings > security > check enable widgets. After installation of the app, lock the phone, tap power button to goto lock screen, now swipe from left to add a widget.
ali-blr said:
This is my first android phone ever, so please forgive my ignorance i have been using nexus 5 for the last 1 week and I have few questions
1. Security : any applications that are install asks me permission how to access almost all of my data, contacts, phone location, phone status wireless, this is making me nervous
2. Virus protection : i had completely forgotten about having an antivirus on my iphone because there was no need. I would like to know which is the best antivirus and firewall for my nexus 5 i don't care if i have to pay for the software. I just want to be sure that's my banking transactions and bill payments are secure.
3. Battery : oh my god!!! Takes very very long time to charge and very very short time discharge. I wonder what is eating my battery. Even after 4 - 5 hours of charging it does not fully charge. Same when it is connected to my laptop and same when it is connected to my car charger. This is really annoying me. Am i doing something wrong here. While you probably haven't gotten around to rooting yet I would suggest looking into that and installing greenify to save some battery. Also turn off wifi scanning. There are a lot of ways to save battery so I suggest using the search function and reading the forums. Lots of useful stuff in here.
4. OK Google : ok google works only at the home screen is this how it is supposed to be. Ok google freezes or does not respond when there is no Internet. Is it possible to call out the name of the caller while the phone is ringing
5. Lock screen: is it possible to see the preview of messages and e-mails notifications on the lock screen just like i phone is there any application that can help me with this. I do not want how to unlock my phone every time to read a notification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to xda. I would definitely read up on some of the stickies articles and other topics that have been posted.
To reiterate what has mostly been said already:
1) iOS doesn't tell you it just does uses those permissions anyway.
2) I have never heard if anyone getting a virus on their android. I think it is one of many misconceptions about android running amok.
3) this is the fastest phone I have had that charges on ac power. Keep in mind that USB ports and car chargers only put out about half the power of a regular outlet. Also keep in mind the hardware you are running. Assuming you did not have a 5s you now have a quad core phone with 2gb of ram and so on. More hardware more battery
4) I personally use nova launcher was not a big fan of google play launcher. It's a work in progress.
5) using dash clock is probably your best solution to that. I do not lock my phone at all so I just pull down to see my notifications.
Android is not prone to viruses. Due to the enhancements made in 4.1 and 4.4, android is one of the most secure mobile OSes available. Yes I said it, iOS fans gonna hate, but its true. Less than 0.00000000? Of apps are actually malicious and attempt to evade runtime security. iOS would use almost the same permissions, but to keep it simpler and more user friendly, they choose not to display the permissions screen. The battery is kinda normal, but you must be really bored to rely on SoT as a battery benchmark. Also, check out Dashclock lock screen widget
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:49 PM ----------
Oh and welcome to the dark side of the mobile world
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
turn your brightness down.
I think to many people overlook this or think they missing out if the screen is not SUPER bright.
Might brightness is off auto, way down and my screen turns off in like 15 secs.
Now your question with rapid discharge points back to the comment about no data and okay google.
Are you in an area with bad coverage because at my job we have HORRIBLE coverage at my desk and my battery will kill itself some days. We used to have a booster on our building and I could go 2 days without charging my phone. SERIOUSLY TWO DAYS!
Since ATT came out and pulled our booster Im back to a faster death just sitting as it looks for signal.
One thing you can do with the 5 I love is set the preferrred network off LTE if you know there is no LTE. this will save you some juice for sure.
There are a lot of tweaks you can do to save battery life, just fool with the phone until you get what you find is a good balance.
as for security, youre fine, just dont install some Chinese 3rd party banking app. Always take the time to read reviews (be sure there are plenty and they are legit) and even look online.
Im pretty particular with what I install but Im also not an app whore
tevil said:
turn your brightness down.
I think to many people overlook this or think they missing out if the screen is not SUPER bright.
Might brightness is off auto, way down and my screen turns off in like 15 secs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. I thought that this phone had terrible battery life when I first got it, but it turned out that I just had the brightness set too high. I keep it at about 1/3, and I average about 4-5 hours of screen on time. It's still plenty bright for my purposes. My shutoff time is always set to a half hour though. I don't like my screen to get dim or shut off unless I tell it to.
Code:
/*
* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM
* before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
*
*/
Hi,
here you can find my version for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on LineageOS 19.1.
At first I want to thank @rINanDO, @ChronoMonochrome for all your work which was reused here and helped a lot.
Spoiler: Links
TWRP
ROM Android-Filehost
ROM Mega
Spoiler: Whats working
Boot
Audio
Bluetooth
Graphics
Cameras
GPS
Wifi
USB
Video playback (HW/SW)
OTA Updates
Tethering via USB, WIFI and Bluetooth
Sensors
RIL
Spoiler: Whats not working
NFC
Encryption
Maybe random reboots
SD card maybe can't formated as internal memory
Maybe more
I would recommend to use microG instead of gapps,
here you can find the installation instructions:
Spoiler: microG instructions
Download Magisk 24.1 and flash it via TWRP (yes, flash the APK file), reboot
Open Magisk and update the App (and do a reboot if it's asking)
Enable Zygisk in Magisk
Download and install microG installer in the Magisk manager, reboot
Download and install safetynet-fix in the Magisk manager, reboot
Check with a safetynet checker app and you should pass
Spoiler: Changelog
26.01.2022
08.03.2022
17.03.2022
25.03.2022
04.04.2022
19.04.2022
03.05.2022
15.06.2022
08.07.2022
22.09.2022
25.01.2023
Spoiler: How to install it?
Instructions
Wanna improve your sound configs, control your charging current and more?
Now you can use my app to access all boeffla configurations, there will follow more functions.
Exynos4 Kernel Manager - Apps on Google Play
This app provides Boeffla sound control and other kernel + charging tweaks
play.google.com
Telegramm group:
Samsung Galaxy Note II testing group
t.me
Do you like my work?
Than you can simply hit the thanks button and consider to spend me a coffee or a beer,
I'm doing this in my free time and it also costs a lot of money to buy hardware.
donate
XDA:DevDB Information
[ROM][12.x][N7100][BETA] LineageOS 19.1, ROM for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Contributors
html6405
Source Code: https://github.com/html6405
ROM OS Version: 12.x S
ROM Kernel: Linux 3.x
ROM Firmware Required: TWRP 3.3.0
Based On: LineageOS
Version Information
Status: Beta
Created 2021-12-30
Last Updated 2023-01-25
Alternative download link for the initial version:
File on MEGA
mega.nz
Originally posted in [ROM][UNOFFICIAL][11.0][N7100][Samsung Galaxy Note 2][LineageOS 18.1][ALPHA][TREBLELIZED]:
I just flashed the newly Android 12 LineageOS 19 build this morning.
It's currently a bit early to share my experience yet since I need some more time, but I already like to share my first impression.
First of all, I was surprised that I could just do a dirty flash over your current 18.1 dec build without any problems.
I did not perform a clean flash because I couldn't backup my Session messages, normally I always perform clean flashes.
I used TWPR 3.5.2 custom recovery to flash this ROM and only wiped Cache and Dalvik Cache/ART partition.
Everything went smooth. It didn't take too long for the first boot either.
Right after the first boot, just when it was booted, the phone rebooted.
After this reboot, I didn't encounter any random reboots yet.
Everything seems working smooth and snappy at the moment.
I can confirm that Magisk 23 is still working on this ROM. You just need to re-flash it after the first boot.
The only annoying thing I discovered is a blinking LED issue and the battery that last less longer, but that's maybe linked to the blinking LED issue.
Something I immediately noticed is that my notification LED is actually red now while charging and green when it hits 100%.
In previous 18.1 build, the LED always got a weird yellowish colour while charging.
Another thing that caught my eye was "Google Play System update" in settings.
I don't understands why it's there since it's supposed to be a degoogled ROM.
Google Play System updates is a part of the Google Play Services ecosystem.
I didn't install any GAPPS and this ROM didn't came with GAPPS pre installed.
Spoiler: What I can confirm is working
- It (re)boots correctly
- Able to receive and sending sms messages and phone calls (didn't try SIM unlock yet. I used the workaround that is mentioned in the main post)
- Camera's
- Wi-Fi (both, 2.4 GHz and 5GHz)
- Video's (YouTube in browser)
- Sensors, except compass (phone rotates correctly)
- Charge correctly to 100%
- S-pen (just as a regular styles, no button functionality)
Spoiler: What is not working + bugs
- An annoying blinking LED issue.
I never experience this before on any ROM.
Can be a coincidence, but after the battery drops below 75%, the notification LED is constantly blinking red, even when the screen is on.
I already tried to literary turn off all notifications options. I even disabled blinking LED option, but it still keeps blinking, even after a reboot. It only disappears after fully charging the phone but will come back in time.
I didn't find a way to fix this.
- Android 12 theme engine seems to be broken.
Some things like buttons (like emergency call button on lockscreen), text (search apps in launcher) and backgrounds in notifications icons in notification panel are still LineageOS teal.
Switching a wallpaper with different colours, but it doesn't change the theme colour of the device. Buttons, lockscreen clock etc. are still light blue. I try to add some screenshots to highlight this problem.
Also, the options to change the icon shape seems to be gone, even in developer settings.
Everything turned into circles after the update. Can't change it.
- USB (can't connect to pc (MTP))
- Extended screenshot beyond your screen
- There was a weird issue that my device is stuck at Samsung Galaxy II screen when turning on the device (not the LineageOS boot screen). I only had this once so can't describe how to reproduce it yet.
I just turned off my device in the power setting inside the ROM. The next time I turned on the device, it was stuck on that screen for 10 minutes. It was fixed by simply holding the power button for a while to turn off the phone.
After doing this, the phone rebooted normally again. I didn't got this issue again.
Besides the blinking LED issue, I had a very good first impression.
I really don't mind that some gimmick features are not working.
I only have this ROM for a few hours, so please keep in mind that I need more time for extensive and more in-depth testing.
Maybe there are some critical problems that I still need to discover.
I just wanted to give a quick update.
@html6405
If there are some specific things you like to try or things I need to keep an eye on, please let me know.
A big thank you to html6405 for this rom! Almost everything seems to work good.
The only thing i am missing is wake by proximity sensor. I use the app Waveup from F-droid for this. I know from trying other roms, that this is an unreliable feature. The sensor hardware is working, that much i know.
When using Lineageos 16, this is a built in feature in the rom, but it deactivates after every reboot. I have to manually turn it off and on every time to get it to work.
No big issue. Just glad to have latest Android on this device. I hope you get more appreciation from this than what you got from your Los 18.1 thread.
Let me know if you want feedback of any kind.
Happy new year!
It does work! I couldn't resist trying the future LOS19.
The overall impression is quite good, as the system seems to be more stable than the previous LOS18.1 for this phone. Still, the development options screen hanged a couple of times. At some point the system crashed and kept rebooting into recovery - fixed by erasing data partition. GPS works, although not well enough. The compass doesn't work in GPStest, but works in Compass app from Fdroid. I tried web browsing and viewing HD videos with Brave browser - very smooth experience. In order to access files on the phone I set up default USB mode in developer settings to files.
Two preinstalled applications are unsafe, contain trackers: camera and via. These had to be removed. Open Camera from Fdroid is installed - it works. The system web browser is preconfigured to ring Google; one may want to review its settings.
Installed Insular app (a sandbox made of the work profile) from Fdroid. The work profile works, but looses its filesystem after disabling and enabling it again. To bring the filesystem back reboot is required.
Phone encryption doesn't work, sadly. This is the same as with many previous custom ROMs for this phone.
A strange horizontal bar is seen at the bottom of the screen (nav bar home button??). Disable "Navigation hint" to get rid of it.
All together, it's an excellent result for the first attempt on LOS19. Looking forward to further releases!
Happy New Year everyone! Thank you html6405 for such an exciting present!
porcino said:
GPS works remarkably well, better than in the previous ROM, but compass doesn't work. I tried web browsing and viewing HD videos with Brave browser - very smooth experience. In order to access files on the phone I set up default USB mode in developer settings to files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This are really great news, could some one else confirm that GPS is working?
I cant test it by my own...
If it's working fine, I will add it to the working list.
GPS seems to work better with "Force full GNSS Measurements" and "Use GNSS APIs" disabled in GPSTest. I also disabled "Force full GNSS Measurements" in "Developer options". From inside a room it locks on 3-5 satellites, although sometimes after a delay.
With GNSS it finds also Russian and Chinese satellites, but uses only the US constellation.
GPS performance, of course, is not as impressive as in new Samsungs, which lock on several constellations at the same time.
----------------
Added later... Still, GPS is not working well enough in this first release. It finds satellites slower than my ancient HTC DHD (ace) running cm13. Then it locks and in a moment loses the lock. I'll look into this in more detail...
porcino said:
GPS seems to work better with "Force full GNSS Measurements" and "Use GNSS APIs" disabled in GPSTest. I also disabled "Force full GNSS Measurements" in "Developer options". From inside a room it locks on 3-5 satellites, although sometimes after a delay.
With GNSS it finds also Russian and Chinese satellites, but uses only the US constellation.
GPS performance, of course, is not as impressive as in new Samsungs, which lock on several constellations at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, hopefully some one else can confirm this , you're the only person so far.
Yes indeed - working GPS very important, and needs to be confirmed by multiple sources.
But kudos to the developer for making progress on this.
hello, dear! tell me, what is the battery life? I use rr 5.8.5, the battery lasts for a day of average use. I tried to install lineage 16 - the battery was enough for several hours( now I would really like to switch to this rom, but everything depends on the battery life. thank you for the answers!
alexfire_s said:
hello, dear! tell me, what is the battery life? I use rr 5.8.5, the battery lasts for a day of average use. I tried to install lineage 16 - the battery was enough for several hours( now I would really like to switch to this rom, but everything depends on the battery life. thank you for the answers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried: flight mode, screen off, location off, BT and NFC off, no GApps, just sitting on the desk starting with fully charged. After half an hour the estimated battery life is 10h, 6m. Not great. The battery felt fine last night for a couple of hours of experimenting with secure messengers, then fully charged, then down to 2% by morning. I'll try uninstalling the messengers in case they are draining the battery - wait for an update.
I could not find a way of disabling the clock on the sleeping screen. It disappears after a while, but the screen power consumption is suspect.
Well, this is the first alpha release, the things with power consumption might improve soon.
----------------
Update: I found a way to disable the clock on the sleep screen and the battery life increased to 23 hours, mobile network 1% (still the flight mode is on), phone idle 1%.
The method to disable the display was to press the power button while the notification panel is open...- perhaps another bug.
porcino said:
Well, this is the first alpha release, the things with power consumption might improve soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The always on display will be turned off in the next build, this will improve the power consumption a lot.
You should be able to disable the always on display in the quick settings (AOD) and give your test a retry .
html6405 said:
You should be able to disable the always on display in the quick settings (AOD) and give your test a retry .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried the AOD button: first enabled it and then disabled again... - it worked! Not sure, though, whether any of my previous attempts to modify the settings via adb played any role. I'll repeat timing of the battery with this setting. Thanks.
porcino said:
Just tried the AOD button: first enabled it and then disabled again... - it worked! Not sure, though, whether any of my previous attempts to modify the settings via adb played any role. I'll repeat timing of the battery with this setting. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theoretically it should be enabled by default (what I will change in the next build for sure), but anyway, it's good if you can turn it off yet.
Great news, another person confirmed with a video that GPS is working ,
so I will add it to the working list.
Nice to see, that this worked out nearly blindly, because I have no testing opportunities...
With AOD button on then off the battery life is estimated as "more than 2 days left" (flight mode, idle). Let's wait for a little longer...
-------------------
Update: after 11h it predicts "5 days left" and counting! Very good! The graph shows slightly increased power consumption in the first hour, and then it goes almost horizontal. I think it will be more than 5 days at idle, perhaps twice as many.
-------------------
Further update: after 1 day 5 hours it says 9 days left. The way the graph in Battery Usage page goes makes me think that it will last about 20 days if left idle. I don't know what caused the quick discharge in the first hour; after that the graph is a straight line pointing beyond 20 days mark...
-------------------
Yet another update: 28 days predicted after 23 hours of idling. Very good! This is with all wireless interfaces off, Always On Display off and NavBar off.
For reference - Note 4 with cdDroid 9 under similar conditions reports 45 days.
I checked this rom. the sd card is not mounted as internal memory, the phone falls into the bootloop before the lock screen, after which the bootloop again. wipe data or format does not help
-----------------
udp. the backlight of the hardware buttons does not work, although it is enabled in the settings
-----------------
upd. the indication of charge percentages in the status bar does not work when the display is selected with a circle inside the icon
alexfire_s said:
I checked this rom. the sd card is not mounted as internal memory, the phone falls into the bootloop before the lock screen, after which the bootloop again. wipe data or format does not help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simply remove the sdcard.
alexfire_s said:
udp. the backlight of the hardware buttons does not work, although it is enabled in the settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, this will come later from lineageos.
alexfire_s said:
upd. the indication of charge percentages in the status bar does not work when the display is selected with a circle inside the icon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, this will also be fixed from the linageos side.
html6405 said:
Simply remove the sdcard.
You're right, this will come later from lineageos.
Ok, this will also be fixed from the linageos side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now I use the 7100 as the main device, I actively use it, I can quickly share bugs if I find them. is it possible to contact you directly without communicating on the formum? do you use a group of testers in telegram?