I've had the phone for just over a day now and the battery life has been fantastic when outside where I have great coverage. However, for the past couple of hours I have been studying in the basement of the library at my college and I noticed that my battery drains around 20-25% per hour (not a typo) when my phone is not attached to AT&T's network, and it is searching for a network. The only application that I have that accesses data when the screen is off is Google Now, and even that has location settings turned off.
It appears that Google Now will constantly try an access a data network even if you are in an area with no coverage at all. My Galaxy S3 did not have this issue. The phone would simply stop accessing data after a short period of time if it could not attach to a data network.
Anyone else have this issue? I have had to turn data off and it seems to have fixed the issue. My phone is no longer using any battery idly.
You can see what I am talking about in this picture
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2
ComradeNF said:
You can see what I am talking about in this picture
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that drain persist after a reboot? My phone started chewing through battery for no reason at about 35 hours of uptime.
From what I experienced on my S3 and also the N5, whenever I go to school, I'd have to turn off my data because my coverage sucks there. However, if I leave the data on, it begins to roam/search for 3G signal and will eventually drain my battery. What you're experiencing seems normal to me. Just turn off your data and hop onto the WI-FI connection to conserve your battery. Seems to do the trick for me all the time.
Related
So my Nexus gets very poor reception. And I've seen some other reports, but I think this problem is also responsible for all the people complaining of inconsistent connections and drops as well as bad battery.
When the signal is less than -90dBm the phone drops connection, so because the reception is poor this happens A LOT. When laying the phone on the router, I only get -40dBm, and 2 feet away -75dBm. 20 away it hovers high -80's or worse.
Also the bad battery because the dropped connections lead to scanning and scanning leads to battery drain. In my bedroom, where I have bad reception, my battery drained completely from full over night, but when left down stairs near the router I just only 10%.
And I know it's not the router because when comparing with my Galaxy Note 8 tablet I'll get -56dBm in my bedroom compared to -87dBm with the Nexus.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
So look at Dominion SSID...
The first 2 pics are from the Nexus and GNote respectively. Dominion and Dominion2wire SSIDs are about 20dBm stronger on the GNote, and you'll notice the GNote gets far more SSIDs in the scan.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Second 2 pics show a range extender for Dominion I have setup upstairs in the next room. The Nexus only sees the Extender, not the downstairs signal. GNote sees both and sees the extender very well. Almost 30dBm stronger in this picture.
Have you rooted and/or flashed a ROM on your Nexus 5?
If not, you might want to try that, go into recovery, then wipe your data and fix permissions. Not to sure what's happening with your device, but it's worked for me when I've had similar issues with other devices.
I am on stock rom, rooted, and using ElementalX Kernel. I don't think that really matters because whatever ROM I am on or whatever kernel, the battery drain is still there. In betterbatterystats, wlan_rx_wake is draining my idle battery horribly, along with a bunch of other random wakelocks. I've tried the majority of the solutions, but none have worked for me. And also, turning off wifi just gives me bam_dmux_wakelock. Is there a way any of you know that gets rid of the wakelock? Any help would be much appreciated. Also note in the screenshots the battery started from 90. (rebooted)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I was getting pretty bad standby battery life also. Turns out that I live at the fringe of LTE coverage where I'm at with tmo. Switching to 3g preferred has substantially increased my standby battery life. I was also missing calls/texts. Turns out that the phone was switching between LTE and 3g/3.5g very often causing all of my issues.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using xda app-developers app
anactoraaron said:
I was getting pretty bad standby battery life also. Turns out that I live at the fringe of LTE coverage where I'm at with tmo. Switching to 3g preferred has substantially increased my standby battery life. I was also missing calls/texts. Turns out that the phone was switching between LTE and 3g/3.5g very often causing all of my issues.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will try this and report to you my results.
I was wondering if it is normal for wifi to be active even when I'm out and not connected to a wifi network. I'm wondering this because I'm not getting the best battery life and the wifi bar under battery stats is solid and GSam is showing that wifi is active the same amount as radio signal. Shouldn't wifi automatically turn off when it is not connected to a network? I have attached screenshots of battery stats, wifi settings and gsam and you can see that wifi is always active even though I was out and not connected to a network (the small break in the bar was when I manually turned on and off wifi really quickly) . I'm running DigitalHigh's GPE 4.4.4 Rom with Lunar Kernel and stock 4.4.4 firmware.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I think what you're seeing is pretty much normal. Disconnected or not, if WiFi is on, it's always going to be looking for a network to connect to. If WiFi turned itself off when not connected; how would it know to turn itself back on? I have a Tasker profile I use to turn it off. It's not perfect as it turns WiFi on when connected to my home cell tower so anytime I'm near that particular tower WiFi is on but I'm away from that tower quite often so it's satisfactory for me.
If you don't want WiFi running all the time, as far as I know, the only way to get rid of it is to turn it off when you aren't using it. Either manually, or by using an app to do it like I do. Perhaps someone else has some other idea.
Thanks for your input, I will take a look into setting up a Tasker profile. Recently I have been flashing a bunch of roms so I thought something might have gone wrong when installing this one. I could swear that the battery stats screen showed when the phone was not connected to wifi on a previous rom but I'm not sure.
Okay I remember when I had the s6 when checking battery usage cell standby was always on top and now after a day with the Note 5, I'm noticing cell standby also shows high usage.
Is anyone else having this issue?
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
I saw someone on one of the battery related posts here saying disabling voice over LTE relieves a big drain on battery. I did it on mine last night and cell standby is no longer at the top of my list
Edit: if you don't know how to disable VoLTE, open your phone app, at the top right go to settings, and the option will be in there
joe11784 said:
I saw someone on one of the battery related posts here saying disabling voice over LTE relieves a big drain on battery. I did it on mine last night and cell standby is no longer at the top of my list
Edit: if you don't know how to disable VoLTE, open your phone app, at the top right go to settings, and the option will be in there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... I tried this out and nothing. is there something else I need to turn off? Cell Standby is still the number 1 drain on my phone.
It's caused by VoLTE and WIFI Calling.
Sent from my SM-N920T using XDA Free mobile app
I was having this same issue and disabled both and this worked for me.
Sent from my SM-N920T using XDA Free mobile app
I disagree I started getting high cell standby, I'm talking over 25% and now it's almost non existent. I didn't turn off any of that. In fact all I did was go into settings>storage and delete the app cache. Now look at my stats.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
So basically just out of nowhere, about 2 weeks ago, my phone's battery just starts dying really quickly when connected to WiFi. I am talking from 100% to dead overnight (7-8 hours). It's an S6 purchased on release day, original battery, but before this issue, I could easily go a day with normal use and have 40% or more. Even now with the problem occurring, I can leave WiFi off and still get my normal battery life.
No settings have changed (I have always had all the suggested battery saving settings set appropriately), no system updates, just usual app updates. I figured an app update caused the issue so I factory reset the phone with no luck. I ran a suggested app, GSam, to check for usage. It hasn't shown any apps consuming the power, just power draining very quickly when WiFi is enabled.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Not sure why this screencap is so huge, it won't let me resize it on here. Anyway, it's a screencap from GSam. The first half shows during the day with minimal use with WiFi off. The steep drop just before the green line is usage when I get home and have WiFi on. The solid green line indicates charging. After that is the overnight period with WiFi on, massive battery drain.
I'm at a loss at what to do. I really like this phone and this WiFi issue is killing the usability of it. If I'm at home and browsing apps with WiFi on the phone dies so quickly. If this were an issue regardless of WiFi, I'd understand that it's just old and a dying battery, but it's only ever present when WiFi is on.
Besides trying a custom ROM, is there anything else I can try to fix this? I don't have it rooted and would prefer to just keep it official firmware only if I can.
Thanks in advance.