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Maximizing Battery Life

What do you guys do to maximize your battery life? I just can't seem to get decent life. Average is probably 5 hours with heavy usage.
Any recommendations?
Sorry if there is already a thread, I don't have a computer right now and I don't think I can search on tapatalk.
Thanks in advance.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G

The usual - brightness as low as you can stand, radios not in use turned off, screen timeout 15 seconds, 200-1400 conservative governor in SetCPU.
Search AutoKiller in the market -- choose "optimal" profile, so far has given me an extra two hours today over what I got yesterday.

5h of heavy use is good already.
You can tweak your idle batt life, 2g-only, undervolted kernel, avoiding power hungry rom.

Idle battery life is just amazing with stock... just test it over night, 6hrs get 2/3% for me.
I can get 30hrs with 4hrs with screen on, the screen is the key here, i can get 5hrs with 4hrs with screen on too. ;o)
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

thiagodark said:
Idle battery life is just amazing with stock... just test it over night, 6hrs get 2/3% for me.
I can get 30hrs with 4hrs with screen on, the screen is the key here, i can get 5hrs with 4hrs with screen on too. ;o)
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a kernel that is made to optimise batt life with display active, like the XTEUV92 Trinity kernel.

rentaric said:
Try a kernel that is made to optimise batt life with display active, like the XTEUV92 Trinity kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried almost every single combination of rom + kernel. And for me, pure stock has the best battery life, by far.
But i'm getting bored and should flash something... )
Ps: afaik trinity doesnt work with stock. Did it change?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

thiagodark said:
I tried almost every single combination of rom + kernel. And for me, pure stock has the best battery life, by far.
But i'm getting bored and should flash something... )
Ps: afaik trinity doesnt work with stock. Did it change?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my signature, stock (rooted and removed soom Google apps) with Trinity, works together just fine

How would you define "heavy" usage?
Also, what does your "battery use" stats say? (Settings - About Phone - Battery Use)
5 hours of truly heavy usage (online gaming, for instance) is actually to be expected.

rentaric said:
See my signature, stock (rooted and removed soom Google apps) with Trinity, works together just fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm using the same stock 2.3.4 as your signature and tried the morfic kernel from yours, but got no lock at all, freezes and reboots...
that's a little strange for me, first time i see it in my device... =o\\

johnbibbs said:
What do you guys do to maximize your battery life? I just can't seem to get decent life. Average is probably 5 hours with heavy usage.
Any recommendations?
Sorry if there is already a thread, I don't have a computer right now and I don't think I can search on tapatalk.
Thanks in advance.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can create a custom prl setting. Turn wifi to never sleep when you're at home... Have the prl to auto *CDMA or GSM* Which ever your network is on. (This goes to all Nexus S. users). So you have wifi on with a signal and 3g off. The phone stays in 2g for calls and uses wifi for data. Turn off google location services while your at home, turn off roaming, turn all of that off. I get about 13 hours of battery life with heavy usage. People think wifi drains your battery but it doesn't if you have mobile data turned off. When you have 3g turned on it's constantly searching for a better connection. If you have wifi on and a strong connection it isn't constantly polling.

are there any charging habits that would help prolong battery life? I usually just charge my phone every night cause, if I remember correctly, these batteries don't have a memory or anything. anyone know if that is the smartest thing to do?

hoponpop said:
are there any charging habits that would help prolong battery life? I usually just charge my phone every night cause, if I remember correctly, these batteries don't have a memory or anything. anyone know if that is the smartest thing to do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you don't mean overnight. I don't know if phones have auto-cutoff feature (a la laptops), but it's safer just not to charge overnight.
I personally use an extension that has a timer built-in. Nifty. Set the timer, plug the phone in, it will automatically start and stop the charging at the predetermined times. I usually time the charging to end right before I wake up, so the battery doesn't stay fully charged for too long. I heard batteries corrode faster when they're fully charged.
When my battery life starts getting shorter than usual, I let them drain until the phone turns off automatically (well I actually try not to get to that point, but seldom succeeded ), and as soon as possible charge it until full.
Usually the battery holds longer then. It has something to do with teaching the battery about the true empty and true full.. or something.....
AFAIK. CMIIW.

doesn't the nexus s have a built in cut-off feature so it will only charge to 95% though? I figure that would take care of the full charge issue. i'm also not sure if lithium ion batteries have a memory, but you could always reset the battery stats if you're on root to compensate for the whole draining and fully charging thing.

hoponpop said:
doesn't the nexus s have a built in cut-off feature so it will only charge to 95% though? I figure that would take care of the full charge issue. i'm also not sure if lithium ion batteries have a memory, but you could always reset the battery stats if you're on root to compensate for the whole draining and fully charging thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery stats! That's the word I was looking for No I wasn't referring to the memory effect
I don't know what would happen when the cut-off feature kicks up. My Nexus S still shows a charging icon even a while after full, so I don't wanna risk it.
The best way is by touching the charger unit after a while and see if it's warm/hot. If it is, it's still charging. But you gotta give it time to cool down first (after it's finished charging) Haven't gotten around to it, though. Always forgot to check the charger

bprabawabr said:
Battery stats! That's the word I was looking for No I wasn't referring to the memory effect
I don't know what would happen when the cut-off feature kicks up. My Nexus S still shows a charging icon even a while after full, so I don't wanna risk it.
The best way is by touching the charger unit after a while and see if it's warm/hot. If it is, it's still charging. But you gotta give it time to cool down first (after it's finished charging) Haven't gotten around to it, though. Always forgot to check the charger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, I know that my phone for sure won't charge to 100% from watching it, so even after a night of charging it's still at 95%. I've read a few explanations on this forum about the whole not fully charging thing too, so i'm pretty sure that it's like that on purpose.

[Q] High battery drain (50-100 mA in current widget in sleep)

I have an unlocked T-Mobile Sensation 4G and I've tried a lot of different rom (with Sense and AOSP, GB and ICS).
I had made battery calibration every rom change (Full charge -> wipe battery stats -> do some full discharge/charge circles in normal use).
Every time I have 50-100 mA battery drain in "sleep" according to Current Widget and another battery widget (tried another to commit that Current Widget tells truth).
The phone settings are maximum power-saving:
Fixed small brightness
2g only
Data and auto-sync are turned off
Wifi only if needed
CPU is downclocked to 1.2 gHz
Battery is stock. Phone is two months old.
In my regular usage (1 hours of calls, 10 min wifi) phone dies in 12 hours after full charge.
It is not my first android and I'm not a total noob. My Desire HD with one year old battery live 2 days with my usage.
Also I notice, that sometimes battery left is not accurate and changed after reboot to a bigger value. For example, 80% left -> reboot -> 82% left.
Any suggestion?
Thanks in advance!
Sorry for my poor English...

My suggestions:
1. Use system tuner or a similar app to check up on which apps are draining the most power (keeping the CPU on, etc).
2. If no culprit can be found, full wipe and reflash your ROM, and refrain from downloading any apps, see if that improves battery drain. If it does, slowly install more apps until the battery drain goes up again, and you'll know whats causing it.
3. If reflashing does not help batter life, you might want to try another ROM or kernel.
4. If none of those help, or even if they do, I highly recommend an ANKER battery, it'll at the very least boost your battery life a few more hours.
5. If the battery life still sucks, then it might be a hardware issue and you might want to get it exchanged or whatnot.
I used to have the same high battery drain problem, but after flashing new ROMS/Kernels and switching to an ANKER Battery, I now get 2 days of light/medium use out of my Sensation.
Currently using Insert Coin 4.5.0 with 1.5GHz overclock+undervolt if you're interested in trying.

MoodyTunic said:
My suggestions:
1. Use system tuner or a similar app to check up on which apps are draining the most power (keeping the CPU on, etc).
2. If no culprit can be found, full wipe and reflash your ROM, and refrain from downloading any apps, see if that improves battery drain. If it does, slowly install more apps until the battery drain goes up again, and you'll know whats causing it.
3. If reflashing does not help batter life, you might want to try another ROM or kernel.
4. If none of those help, or even if they do, I highly recommend an ANKER battery, it'll at the very least boost your battery life a few more hours.
5. If the battery life still sucks, then it might be a hardware issue and you might want to get it exchanged or whatnot.
I used to have the same high battery drain problem, but after flashing new ROMS/Kernels and switching to an ANKER Battery, I now get 2 days of light/medium use out of my Sensation.
Currently using Insert Coin 4.5.0 with 1.5GHz overclock+undervolt if you're interested in trying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I will try.

How much does your battery actually drain overnight? Should be around 1% per hour or less if all is well. Disregard currentwidget in deep sleep mode as the Sensation has a very broken meter.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

Kameeeleon said:
How much does your battery actually drain overnight? Should be around 1% per hour or less if all is well. Disregard currentwidget in deep sleep mode as the Sensation has a very broken meter.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I'll check it this night.
With jumping battery meter I don't know if these values will be correct. But when the battery value reaches 0% the phone shuts down immediately and don't turn on. So 0% it counts well.

i think im also having the same issue . i checked current usage when in sleep mode.its between 50-80
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using XDA App

12hrs with the standard battery is actually very good for a sense build, without sense it should go around 15 - if the battery is in good condition. The battery driver for the sensation is very buggy and you won't get accurate results with any measurement app. Don't worry about the standby or inuse readings as they will both be wrong.
If you're battery drains faster than 1% per hour in standby, assuming you are in a good signal area, then use a system info app to see which program isn't sleeping, then uninstall that program.
But it doesn't sound to me like you have a problem.

According to the log file it drains 1-2% in hour (now I'm using aosp build, MIUI). I think, new Anker battery is the only way. Thanks to all!
Maybe in the future we'll get a more accurate battery driver...

I humbly seek the counsel of masters. (battery life)

I used to have great battery life. Nothing spectacular, but I could get around 4 hours screen on time on a single charge.
Somewhere along the line, on my journey of ROM hopping, this has changed. Currently, I'm getting about 30 minutes of screen time before my battery drops to 50%.
Using better battery stats, I think I see that my phone is never sleeping. But I really don't know what I'm looking at or where to start to solve my problem.
I'm currently on Carbon running the latest lean kernel. I'm not undervolted or overclocked, or anything.
I've superwiped my phone. I've killled maps location reporting.
Please. Help me...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Over/underclocking plus undervolting can help with battery life. DS battery saver can help put your phone to sleep by shutting down apps running in the background.

knifedroid said:
I used to have great battery life. Nothing spectacular, but I could get around 4 hours screen on time on a single charge.
Somewhere along the line, on my journey of ROM hopping, this has changed. Currently, I'm getting about 30 minutes of screen time before my battery drops to 50%.
Using better battery stats, I think I see that my phone is never sleeping. But I really don't know what I'm looking at or where to start to solve my problem.
I'm currently on Carbon running the latest lean kernel. I'm not undervolted or overclocked, or anything.
I've superwiped my phone. I've killled maps location reporting.
Please. Help me...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go back into BBS and check out the partial wakelocks and alarms tabs. those should tell you whats keeping the phone awake

Turn off Location Services and other apps that require location GPS. They really kill your battery a lot faster. Or you can get Wakeclock Detector from the play store to see which specific app is draining your battery and preventing it from deep sleep. Hope this helps.

Turns out I had an otg wakelock.
I wiped cache and davlik, fixed permissions, and it went away.
Thanks all.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Battery life problems.

Hello, I'm currently running cm 9, however the battery life is just awful
When the phone is on sleep it loses like 1 percent every 5-10 minutes
I am using an extended battery as well, please tell me what to do I was on GB before and the battery was outstanding, I could go on one charge the whole day with heavy usage, now i dont think I can make it through the day with light usage on this
thank you
EDIT: This could be a sleep problem, because when the device is on, the battery is normal

If you flashed the Feb 27 cm9 you should flash proton kernel so you can watch videos. Battery life isn't as good as gb no matter what you do. Also give it some time to settle in. It takes more than a couple hours.

alright thank you... I just flashed the newest version of cm9 a few hours ago, I was flashing a bunch of roms and this one seemed the best... do you know how to force a device into deep sleep cause that seems to be the problem i believe

OK I was just on 20 percent, then i rebooted my phone, and now im on 2 percent... im seriously considering going back to gb

Sounds more like a battery thing? With CM9.? + Proton I'm getting at least a day* with light use. Maybe a bad app or combo of apps? What does BBS say is eating the charge?
* - I say at least a day because I can't not use it for that long.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app

Stuck on hold said:
Sounds more like a battery thing? With CM9.? + Proton I'm getting at least a day* with light use. Maybe a bad app or combo of apps? What does BBS say is eating the charge?
* - I say at least a day because I can't not use it for that long.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just the screen and the android system... very interesting thing though is happening
I'm running a bunch of quadrants to get the battery down to 0, and the battery is all the way down to 1%, however it's been on 1% for like 6 quadrant tests... maybe its just a problem with the indicator, however another indicator also says it's at 1%... very interesting

If you are on CM9, I suggest you flash Hefe or Proton.
I use Hefe because according to the posts being made it puts your phone into deep sleep, which means longer battery life.

tstrat said:
OK I was just on 20 percent, then i rebooted my phone, and now im on 2 percent... im seriously considering going back to gb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely a battery problem. This happens to me on one of my batteries but not on another. Time to buy a new one. I haven't tested it fully but it does appear to be just a display issue. Sometimes the bad battery will make the phone display 1% but it will still act as if it had way more than 1% charge left. I haven't done any testing on that regard but that's what it appears to do.

FBis251 said:
Definitely a battery problem. This happens to me on one of my batteries but not on another. Time to buy a new one. I haven't tested it fully but it does appear to be just a display issue. Sometimes the bad battery will make the phone display 1% but it will still act as if it had way more than 1% charge left. I haven't done any testing on that regard but that's what it appears to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe it to be a battery problem, because I've been on GB with absolutely no problems and exceptional battery... I just upgraded to ics not long ago, and the battery life instantly screwed up

Have you set the cpu governor to anything silly like performance?
Have you let it charge up fully at least once?
Search xda for "better battery stats" app, use it to see if you're getting deep sleep.

Flash hefe over release 8 and youll have a little better battery. Proton doesnt deep sleep
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

Proton DOES deep sleep. That was one of its major features.
Certain scheduler/governor combinations work better on different kernels, though. If the specific one you like most sleeps better on Hefe, great. If the one you like does best on Proton, great. Just be aware that most issues are either physical or user-inflicted...
In this case, your battery is almost certainly dying. The variance in power over a reboot is a definite tell that your battery is probably swollen. If you can spin it on a table, the cells are starting to die. This does not mean you can't keep using it, but it does mean that your battery life will be irregular. It also means that you'll have significantly "higher" battery levels if you reboot the phone with external power connected, but the battery will discharge very quickly if it hasn't actually reached whatever level it believes it should be at.

Anyone else disappointed with Extreme Power Saving Mode?

Anyone else not getting much "extreme power saving" when EPS is turned on? Honestly, my phone seems to drain at the same rate whether it is on or off.

At least triples my standby battery life over standard power saver mode.

Kane5581 said:
At least triples my standby battery life over standard power saver mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. My phone is draining 10% overnight with or without it turned on. :/

just lou said:
Hmm. My phone is draining 10% overnight with or without it turned on. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10% overnight sounds like a lot. I would have to think you have an application that is causing the issue.

I get better with the normal than I do the eps. I can get through a day with normal to heavy use. And eps seems to drain just as fast

just lou said:
Hmm. My phone is draining 10% overnight with or without it turned on. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What battery level to you have it configured to become active? It doesn't run all the time - only when your battery reaches the configured level. It will not improve your day to day batter life - it helps your phone to last longer when the battery gets very low (configurable to either 20%, 10% or 5%) by turning off everything but essential features like calling, etc.

bwanshoom said:
What battery level to you have it configured to become active? It doesn't run all the time - only when your battery reaches the configured level. It will not improve your day to day batter life - it helps your phone to last longer when the battery gets very low (configurable to either 20%, 10% or 5%) by turning off everything but essential features like calling, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also manually turn it on...just fyi.
I'm going to try it out tonight with a full battery and see what I end up with by the morning.

I manually turn it on at night when I go to bed.

On my m8 in power saving mode I tap on the leaf to show the battery usage while in power saving mode and among other things it shows the Kindle app as using battery even though I never use it. My understanding is that it should only be running phone, texts, and the clock I wonder if this is a bug.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app

Yeah you've definitely have something keeping your phone awake at night. I'll drop 1% over 8 hours at night. With no EPS and leaving 4g on

just lou said:
Hmm. My phone is draining 10% overnight with or without it turned on. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10% over night with or with out?
You should drain about 2 to 5% over night with no attempt at battery conservation.
Also, the term "overnight" is very relative. I sleep 4 to 6 hours a night. Others 8 to 10...
Its best to describe battery drain in percent per hour %/hr

scrosler said:
10% over night with or with out?
You should drain about 2 to 5% over night with no attempt at battery conservation.
Also, the term "overnight" is very relative. I sleep 4 to 6 hours a night. Others 8 to 10...
Its best to describe battery drain in percent per hour %/hr
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About 10% every 7-8 hours.

Rogue apps in EPS mode?
mongoose96 said:
On my m8 in power saving mode I tap on the leaf to show the battery usage while in power saving mode and among other things it shows the Kindle app as using battery even though I never use it. My understanding is that it should only be running phone, texts, and the clock I wonder if this is a bug.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have strange apps running in Extreme Power Saving mode:
Amazon Kindle
Facebook
Skype
[Amazon] Appstore
What the **** Verizon?
Edit:
Add Amazon Music to that list. Just popped up now.
Edit edit:
I was wrong, it works great! You just need to set it and forget it (like while your sleeping)

Mine says Facebook, Beautiful Widgets, and Google Search have each used 1-2% during EPS mode.

I have found that Google plus, tasker, Kindle, snapdragon battery saver use battery. worst of all extreme power saving mode uses 5-15 percent of the battery usage
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app

How are you able to see what apps are running while in EPS mode?On my wife's M7 I can't even get into the settings menu. Let alone open a custom app.

dracon6ai said:
How are you able to see what apps are running while in EPS mode?On my wife's M7 I can't even get into the settings menu. Let alone open a custom app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tap the leaf next to the clock.

Turn mine on at 10 at nigh and its 100%. Wake up at 5 and its still sitting at 100%. Been great for me

just lou said:
Tap the leaf next to the clock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This does nothing for me. But mine is working fine I lose about 0.33%/hr.

I've changed my mind
I turned on extreme power saving mode at midnight with 86% and turned it off at 8 am to find it still at 86%. Only tasks using battery in the morning before I exited EPS were essential apps (dialer, messages, and two others which I forgot).
Needless to say, I'm very happy with its performance. If you just turn it on and leave it alone, it seems to work as it is supposed to.