Database Info

Calibrate Battery thread - This is how you do it!

There have been about eleventeen thousand questions across multiple threads on how to calibrate the battery properly...figured it probably should be a sticky in here if possible.
You have to know how to get into Recovery mode. You can do this with Quickboot when the phone is on, or the powered off phone method:
1. Power off phone or pull battery and replace.
2. Hold all three of these buttons down: Vol-Down, Camera button (lower left as you look at the phone) and Power on button).
3. You will see a small graphical menu come up. Most of us are using Clockwork, so I will focus on that - it will be a green menu.
For the battery wipe, Go to Advanced, navigate the menu with the vol up/down keys, and select using the camera button.
There are three ways so far:
The Drain Way:
1. Drain it down until fully dead.
2. Charge normally to full.
3. Reboot to Clockwork recovery and wipe battery stats (under advanced, on second page), reboot phone.
4. Turn everything on, flashlight, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Pandora, the whole nine, to quickly drain it completely dead.
5. Charge normally to full.
The Powered Off Charge way:
1. Charge your phone 100% while it’s on
2. Unplug it from the charger, power off, then charge it up to 100% with it in a powered off state.
3. Unplug charger from phone. Power it on, and then charge it to 100% while the phone is on.
4. Unplug the charger and then reboot into Clockwork, go to advanced and clear the battery stats.
5. Power on, charge to full, and then enjoy.
Third option (thanks squshy 7), I paraphrased it and wrote it out a bit for ease.
Maybe we can call it the Mr. Miagi Charge way....aka Power On, Power Off, Charge On, Charge Off way lol
(the parentheses are the state of the phone)
1. Start with the phone powered on.
2. (Phone on) Charge battery until the LED turns blue
3. (Phone on) Unplug the phone from the charger, wait until the LED turns off
4. Power off the phone.
5. (Phone off) Plug the adapter into the phone, charge it up until the LED turns blue
6. (Phone off) Unplug, wait until the LED turns off
7. Power the phone on.
8. Wait until the phone is booted back up all the way, and then power it off again
9. (Phone off) Plug the adapter into the phone, charge it up until the LED turns blue.
10. Boot the phone into recovery mode
11. Go to Advanced, and then choose Wipe Battery Stats.
12. Power the phone on and use normally.

Still a noob, but what would exactly need you to have to Calibrate Battery? Also what exactly does it do for the user?
P.S I'm sure I could look this up but it would be nice to see it in your thread for others to see

turtlenator694 said:
Still a noob, but what would exactly need you to have to Calibrate Battery? Also what exactly does it do for the user?
P.S I'm sure I could look this up but it would be nice to see it in your thread for others to see
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it's really a matter of semantics...you're not calibrating the battery, per say...it's actually calibrating how android is reading the battery. (these phones use Li-ion batteries, which don't use memory, so they themselves never actually need "calibrated" like some older types of rechargeables)
But...as far as what this means to you, its kind of a big deal! It improves battery life in letting android know when your battery is actually at 100%. When flashing new kernels and ROMs, its very likely that the phone will read your battery at full, when in reality its probably less. So it would seem like your phone isn't getting as good battery life (when in actuality it just hasn't been charged fully but you don't know that because android reads it as full because it hasn't been calibrated )
also, without a calibration, you might notice your battery gauge draining oddly...for example, you might see it quickly drop from 100 to 89, then drop steadily to 72, and then hang for a while at 71 (these are all just made up numbers)
so it means alot! but everybody has different methods and i've never seen anything officially released by spring or samsung to confirm methods...
I will say this though...I've read plenty about how since these Li-ion batteries don't have memory, the DRAINING method, while maybe correctly calibrating your battery, actually HURT the long-term life of your battery.
so heres what ive always done:
(the parentheses are the state of the phone)
(phone on) charge battery till LED blue
(phone on) unplug, wait till LED off
[POWER OFF]
(phone off) plug in, wait till LED blue
(phone off) Unplug, wait till LED off
[POWER ON]
When completely booted, power off again
(phone off) plug in wait till LED blue,
boot into recovery, wipe battery stats
unplug, reboot phone and use
it's always worked so try it out

Actually I'm pretty sure it doesn't fully charge to prevent over charge.. and the whole deal with you guys chargings 2-3 times after the light turns blue is just killing the life of your battery.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

My question why is this in devolpment?
Fyi: both methos work but the complete drain does kill battery life. The pluging in multiable times dont. Android nows wheb to stop charging the battery to prevent over charge.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

something must be wrong....
With my battery because I've done the above procedure and my battery doesn't even last 5 hours. Its starting to get annoying. Any ideas?

XtaC318 said:
Actually I'm pretty sure it doesn't fully charge to prevent over charge.. and the whole deal with you guys chargings 2-3 times after the light turns blue is just killing the life of your battery.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it can stop at 92 percent to prevent overcharging, then it can do the same thing when it reaches 100 percent, no matter how many times you plug it in.
I don't know of many, if any li ion battery packs made today that don't have circuitry in them that prevents overcharging.

I put it in development because when you load roms, generally battery is a big concern. I cant tell you how many times ive searched for the same topic all over, I just figured it would be as helpful to others as it would have been to me had it been here and been a stickie at the top.

I've always thought battery calibration was more of a placebo effect, but I have no data either way. On a related note, here's an interesting article about battery stats and charging that was posted a week or so ago:
Android Police: Your Battery Gauge is Lying to You...

Having a battery keep at a full 100% for a long time is not good for li-on batteries. The 10% between 90 and 100% is basically used as a safety buffer. That's why the charge drops between 100 and 90 is much faster than the drops from 80 to 0. even though there ways to increase the actual capacity of the battery by using the methods above, you will still see a quicker drop from full to 90 almost instantly after unplugging the charger. I am in no way saying that those methods don't work in helping the phone read the actual charge of the battery, but they do help increase capacity a little bit. by rearranging the electrons in the battery. There actually is an article on google and on xda that backs it up. I'll try finding it
Sent from my Samsung-SPH-D700 using XDA App

Thank you a ton for posting this. Ive been trying to find a good thread on this all over the place and there never seems to be one. So thanks again.

will the "Drain Battery" way work with a droid1 with the default battery?

doublea500 said:
will the "Drain Battery" way work with a droid1 with the default battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will work on any android device
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

mysteryemotionz said:
Will work on any android device
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks believed it or not, you really helped me

mysteryemotionz said:
My question why is this in devolpment?
Fyi: both methos work but the complete drain does kill battery life. The pluging in multiable times dont. Android nows wheb to stop charging the battery to prevent over charge.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol.. wow alright.
Yes COMPLETELY draining a battery is really bad for a battery; infact if you do so you may end up with a 'bricked' battery.
But the phone also knows not to 'over drain' so with the method of clearing batt stats there's no harm done..actually. allowing your phone to die before charging is healthier than plugging it in before it dies.
I won't argue on the other note anymore; well simply because I don't know enough to continue just know I won't be taking that path
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Thanks for the response. But also if you have a separate charger because you have multiple batteries, do you need to have to go through any of this? Or will the charger charge them to their true full state?

It will charge them to 100%. You'll notice it holds 100% for a lot longer.
Sent from my SPH-P100 using Tapatalk

The only thing that needs to be done to calibrate the battery is either flash at full charge or charge to full then delete batterystats, all this drain to dead and charge this way and that is pointless, though u will all argue otherwise, pointlessy
Sent from my Epic 4g

Yes thank you very much! I'm gonna give this a shot probably tonight after the Christmas Eve service and see what happens.

You should definitely add that NONE of this matters if your first usages out of the battery aren't proper. When you get the phone, you need to kill the battery before charging.. charge for 10-12 hours w/the phone off or in a dock, kill battery.. repeat 2 more times to condition the battery physically.

PHONE DOES CHARGE WITH CWM (just not showing LED)?

MODS PLEASE DELETE THIS IF YOU WANT ONCE VERIFIED
Basically i had 90 percent BAttery
I switched off the phone, Took out the battery to be sure it is completely turned off.
Plugged in my charger (im charging via PC at the moment, will test with wall charger later)
The LED Came on and then went out after 2 seconds
After ten minutes i took out the battery again and reinserted and powered on
My battery was 100 PERCENT
use battery indicator from market to check your current level or you can check it using *#*#4636#*#* and clicking battery information
Can you please check this. and post here ASAP.
Make sure your battery isnt fully charged (between 20 and 80 percent ideal), Turn off completely (pull the battery out and reinsert if you want to be sure)
Plug in your charger now
After 15 minutes
Take out battery and reinsert.
POWER ON
What is you battery now?
please post your before and after percentage here. THANKS

Mine too.
After CMW and S-Off it is not charging, same behavior. And my battery if fully discharged, which means I bricked my device since I just can't turn it on nor charge it...
:/

hmoroni said:
Mine too.
After CMW and S-Off it is not charging, same behavior. And my battery if fully discharged, which means I bricked my device since I just can't turn it on nor charge it...
:/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can either let a friend charge your battery for you in his phone
Or
You can get a usb cable, any kind really, chop off the end that goes into the phone. There will be 4 wires exposed, you only need the red and black ones, pay no attention to the green or white wires or whatever color they are. Connect the exposed wire to the battery (to part that touches the prongs on the phone) and it will charge. All you have to do is find out on the web which of the 4 slots on the battery do what, and connect the positive (red) cable to the positive slot on the battery, and the black cable to the neg part of the battery.

In the worst case,you could charge your battery outside the phone with a power supply...
Not an easy way,especially if you're going on vacation...But it's a good thing to be aware from this!
Edit: Durps,you killed me!

my phone charge while off i see alot of people are suffering from this but mine still charge while off my led is on

The issue seems to be fixed with the official cwm recovery flashed from within rom manager.
...at least for me.

phonegod said:
my phone charge while off i see alot of people are suffering from this but mine still charge while off my led is on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so do i..wating for the update

phone will charge with working led if you have the new recovery image, v4.0.1.5 is available now and works for sensation.

I bricked!!
I bricked...
My battery was almost 1%, i removed the battery, and now I am f***ed...
None of my friend use HTC Sensation. and i m totally tensed what should i do...
Can anybody confirm if sensations battery is comatiable with Desire HD??

pnyppon said:
I bricked...
My battery was almost 1%, i removed the battery, and now I am f***ed...
None of my friend use HTC Sensation. and i m totally tensed what should i do...
Can anybody confirm if sensations battery is comatiable with Desire HD??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy a new battery.

pnyppon said:
I bricked...
My battery was almost 1%, i removed the battery, and now I am f***ed...
None of my friend use HTC Sensation. and i m totally tensed what should i do...
Can anybody confirm if sensations battery is comatiable with Desire HD??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
walk into a phone shop, ask them if u can charge your battery for 10 mins in one of their phones.
Say something about software crash blah blah, they usually dont care at all, and will let you.
PS to confirm is version v4.0.1.5 the good one? ie will let you use/charge your phone in the "normal" way?

update your versions of rom manager ...the dev updated the recovery and now it does charge

Just install the new CWM version 4.0.1.5 from ROM Manager to fix this (HUGE) bug

[Q] Battery Inconsistencies?

Hey guys, is anyone else here experiencing the battery level going up when you restart the phone?
If my battery is at 70%, and I restart it, it'll be at 76% or even higher and remain that way for quite a while (remains a consistantly drain, not a single major drain in a short period of time)
This is something that's been happening since I was stock (Retail device from T-mobile store on launch date)
Here's some info:
-S-OFF using Revolutionary, and then later upgraded to 4.0.0.9 via terminal emulator
-Rooted stock (no rom uploaded)
-1900 mha Anker battery
-Battery stats wiped
-UncleSpoon's battery icon mod
even after all that, it'll still do it. So is it just me, or is everyone else experiencing this?

Yes, you have to re-calibrate your battery stats.
No, the CWM menu option to wipe battery stats is not right, for some reason.
Go get this free app: Battery Calibration
Charge your battery all the way up and let it sit charging for a few minutes after you see the light turn green (while turned on and booted up)
After it's been green for a few minutes, open this app and click the big "calibrate" button, and then un-plug it from the charger.
Let it run down until it turns itself off, without plugging it in. This means no usb to the computer, either - and don't turn it off manually.
After it turns itself off from lack of juice, plug it in (wait about 30 seconds) and then turn it back on. If you turn it on too quickly weird things may happen, depends on how depleted the battery is. (usually there is 1 or 2 % left so it's ok)
Leave it plugged in and turned on until fully charged. After that, you can feel free to play with it, but you should run it up and down a few more times without charging in-between. The first one is critical to do this way, though, or you are just wasting your time.
You MUST be rooted, or it will not work. (said for others who may need this info)
Tip to drain battery - screen brightness all the way up, screen to not turn off, and turn the flashlight app on. Leave it sit for a few hours.
Tip to charge quickly while on: Turn all wireless and data communication off, tap power button to turn screen off (keeping phone on)
Good luck, it'll solve the problem though.

I used battery calibration to wipe my battery stats (I did it in recovery on my 3G Slide, so I'm aware of that alternative method)..
I've let my stock battery get to 0% but that was pre-root.
After reading all the charging problems with the CWM, I was a bit afraid to attempt the 0% drain on the new Anker.
Are you running 4.0.0.9, and does it charge fine? I'd hate to deplete an Anker since I have no external battery charger.

RazoE said:
I used battery calibration to wipe my battery stats (I did it in recovery on my 3G Slide, so I'm aware of that alternative method)..
I've let my stock battery get to 0% but that was pre-root.
After reading all the charging problems with the CWM, I was a bit afraid to attempt the 0% drain on the new Anker.
Are you running 4.0.0.9, and does it charge fine? I'd hate to deplete an Anker since I have no external battery charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removing the stats only doesn't calibrate the battery, check the calibration guide in my sig, for a correct method that works for any android device.
Read this too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1168036

Ace42 said:
Removing the stats only doesn't calibrate the battery, check the calibration guide in my sig, for a correct method that works for any android device.
Read this too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1168036
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously, that's a good read.

I agree.
What I recommended was better then just wiping battery stats with CWM, but nowhere near as good as what Ace42 linked us up to.
I'd recommend reading those threads and doing that instead, I am more then happy to be corrected and shown a better way.
(FYI - I depleted a stock battery completely, both in CWM 4.0.0.8 and 4.0.0.9 to test the charging issue. You will always be able to charge it in the phone, even if you bring it completely to dead.
The idea that you can't is a myth, and was a concern until it was proven not to be true.)

Calibrating battery.

So i charged to 100% and callibrated and left the phone on the side for a while as ive heard battery callibration works better when battery is naturally drained. However, its been a week and its still at 100% -_____-. i dont plan on waiting a month or so just to make sure its perfectly callibrated. Is there a better way to do this? . Thanks guysss
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App

Light-라이트 said:
So i charged to 100% and callibrated and left the phone on the side for a while as ive heard battery callibration works better when battery is naturally drained. However, its been a week and its still at 100% -_____-. i dont plan on waiting a month or so just to make sure its perfectly callibrated. Is there a better way to do this? . Thanks guysss
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Naturally drained? Regular use is needed to drain the battery. An unused battery (I have a couple) will take months to drain. Just use the phone as you do in your every day usage. Let it get down to about 5 to 10% then fully charge and calibrate.

you cant calibrate a lithium ion battery. in fact draining them is bad for the battery. however if youre having problems with the phone not reading the battery percentage correctly you need to wipe the batterystats.bin using either clockworkrecovery or just download the battery calibration app from the market.

regP said:
you cant calibrate a lithium ion battery. in fact draining them is bad for the battery. however if youre having problems with the phone not reading the battery percentage correctly you need to wipe the batterystats.bin using either clockworkrecovery or just download the battery calibration app from the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Cycling the battery a few times for better performance is a myth?

xAshxMoneyx said:
Really? Cycling the battery a few times for better performance is a myth?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes for lithium battery it is. the older ni-cd batteries required this.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
infact..this result shows that you should charge often. 10-15% discharge..and charge cycles provided the longest battery life.
this article is very very good!

That's good information. While I didn't know all that I did find the whole calibration idea a waste of effort. I've tried calibrating the battery on a couple phones and my battery life has never increased. The most that ever happens is I'll find myself away from home with no charger and have to quit playing with phone so I have enough juice left in case of an emergency.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

regP said:
you cant calibrate a lithium ion battery. in fact draining them is bad for the battery. however if youre having problems with the phone not reading the battery percentage correctly you need to wipe the batterystats.bin using either clockworkrecovery or just download the battery calibration app from the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Lithium-ion batteries do not have a memory effect.
Technically, you are not calibrating the battery, you are calibrating your phone's battery gauge. The easiest way to do that is with the Battery Calibration app.
1. Open the Battery Calibration app screen. With the phone on, charge to 100%, then let the phone continue charging for another 15 min.
2. Press the "Calibrate Battery" button on the app (deletes batterystats.bin), Close Battery Calibration app then TURN THE PHONE OFF IMMEDIATELY!
3. Disconnect AC charger
4. Remove battery
5. Wait 30 seconds, then re-insert battery
6. Charge phone with phone off for half an hour
This tops off the charge on the battery.
7. Disconnect charger and turn phone on
As the phone turns on it will create a new batterystats.bin and record the high battery voltage as 100% battery.
8. Use the phone normally and run it down to 0% when the phone shuts off.
The phone now knows the curve of this battery as it relates to your phone's ROM
9. Charge the phone for ten minutes, then turn the phone on and let it continue charging to 100%
This lets batterystats.bin know your phone's charging curve
10. At 100%, remove charger
Now use the phone normally. You will be happy to get an extra few hours use of your phone.
If you really want to get the most out of your battery, get the Battery Monitor Widget Pro app. It keeps a close watch on your battery and also allows you to change batterystats.bin files for different batteries.
And always remember to Give Thanks if you find this helpful!

EEngineer said:
No, Lithium-ion batteries do not have a memory effect.
Technically, you are not calibrating the battery, you are calibrating your phone's battery gauge. The easiest way to do that is with the Battery Calibration app.
1. Open the Battery Calibration app screen. With the phone on, charge to 100%, then let the phone continue charging for another 15 min.
2. Press the "Calibrate Battery" button on the app (deletes batterystats.bin), Close Battery Calibration app then TURN THE PHONE OFF IMMEDIATELY!
3. Disconnect AC charger
4. Remove battery
5. Wait 30 seconds, then re-insert battery
6. Charge phone with phone off for half an hour
This tops off the charge on the battery.
7. Disconnect charger and turn phone on
As the phone turns on it will create a new batterystats.bin and record the high battery voltage as 100% battery.
8. Use the phone normally and run it down to 0% when the phone shuts off.
The phone now knows the curve of this battery as it relates to your phone's ROM
9. Charge the phone for ten minutes, then turn the phone on and let it continue charging to 100%
This lets batterystats.bin know your phone's charging curve
10. At 100%, remove charger
Now use the phone normally. You will be happy to get an extra few hours use of your phone.
If you really want to get the most out of your battery, get the Pro app. It keeps a close watch on your battery and also allows you to change batterystats.bin files for different batteries.
And always remember to Give Thanks if you find this helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
out of all battery calliberation posts ive seen till now but this one makes complete sense. this even gave me an idea how this "caliberation " works.
again, thanks

dragonflame8712 said:
out of all battery calliberation posts ive seen till now but this one makes complete sense. this even gave me an idea how this "caliberation " works.
again, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed :good:

[Q] Installing Anker Battery, anything special that needs to be done?

I just got an Anker battery.
Do I need to do anything to adjust for it being a higher capacity battery? Like somehow tell the ROM (CM10) that it's got a bigger battery?
Or do I just put the new one in, boot the phone, and stop whining about it?

You can after you charged the Anker FULL (You can ckeck it in recovery) wipe battery stats.
Sent from my powered HTC Sensation.
Press thanks if it helped

lgv2800 said:
You can after you charged the Anker FULL (You can ckeck it in recovery) wipe battery stats.
Sent from my powered HTC Sensation.
Press thanks if it helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. I just didn't want to put it in there and think it was charging all the way but only have it charging to the max capacity of the stock battery.
Does the phone adjust for having a higher capacity battery?
Or does it just stay at 100% until the remaining charge drops back to below the max of the stock battery?

No therfore there a thing called wipe battery stats.
Sent from my powered HTC Sensation.
Press thanks if it helped

Skipjacks said:
Cool. I just didn't want to put it in there and think it was charging all the way but only have it charging to the max capacity of the stock battery.
Does the phone adjust for having a higher capacity battery?
Or does it just stay at 100% until the remaining charge drops back to below the max of the stock battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've always read that after three full cycles that's the calibration, the phone then recognises the higher battery capacity. I've found this to be true as I'm using a 3800mah battery. So after almost draining completely and charging completely your device should be fine and good and recognise the higher mah. If you feel it's off you can calibrate again. But calibrate using the drain and charge method. Hope this helps, best wishes

Holy profanity!
I can't believe what a difference a new battery makes.
Unplugged 12 hours ago, only made 1 phone call, but I'm still at 96% left on the Anker. And tha'ts after 1 2 hour charge after putting the battery in last night. I haven't even run it up and down through a few cycles yet to get it broken in.
It does seem to run a little warm though. If that normal?

Yes a little warmth is normal.

Skipjacks said:
Holy profanity!
I can't believe what a difference a new battery makes.
Unplugged 12 hours ago, only made 1 phone call, but I'm still at 96% left on the Anker. And tha'ts after 1 2 hour charge after putting the battery in last night. I haven't even run it up and down through a few cycles yet to get it broken in.
It does seem to run a little warm though. If that normal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I loved my anker battery, it did run a little hotter for the first several cycles.
Sent from my Wicked fast SGS3!

lgv2800 said:
You can after you charged the Anker FULL (You can ckeck it in recovery) wipe battery stats.
Sent from my powered HTC Sensation.
Press thanks if it helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lgv2800 said:
No therfore there a thing called wipe battery stats.
Sent from my powered HTC Sensation.
Press thanks if it helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
WIPING BATTERY STATS ,IS A MYTH

Skipjacks said:
Cool. I just didn't want to put it in there and think it was charging all the way but only have it charging to the max capacity of the stock battery.
Does the phone adjust for having a higher capacity battery?
Or does it just stay at 100% until the remaining charge drops back to below the max of the stock battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone does not need to adjust for anything, as charging is not software controlled but hardware controlled. Whatever capacity battery you insert in your phone, it will automatically stop charging when it reaches capacity - due to the electronic circuity built inside the battery.