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JB vs ICS battery life

Is it just me, or do the JB ROMs, custom, official, just rooted, etc, get less battery life than the ICS counterparts?
I first had a HOX back in July/August, and used only ICS ROMs. So I have a pretty good deal of experience with it, got about 5.5-6 hours of screen on time every single time.
Now, I noticed a drop in battery life on JB when I had an S3, and just hated the drain. I thought maybe it was just ROM related, and moved onto an iPhone.
Now back onto another One X, and it seems like I still get less battery life than when I had ICS, and I use it the same way.
Has anyone else noticed it?
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2

I dunno, I got 6 hours onscreen last night. Just gotta tune it right. And make maps hibernate. That was eating half the battery.
Sent from my HTC One XL

Your battery is probably depreciating and loosing its full capacity.

Probably not JUST you, but from what I've read and experienced you're in the minority. My battery is definitely better on JB.

I've had much better life on JB, at least since I updated the whole phone (not just a JB rom). I can go almost two days without a full charge.

Hmmm, I'll try a different ROM then. And a JB radio.

iElvis said:
I've had much better life on JB, at least since I updated the whole phone (not just a JB rom). I can go almost two days without a full charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean "update your whole phone" ?
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app

Misterowl said:
What do you mean "update your whole phone" ?
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he means updated via the stock AT&T ROM, which would include the latest radio.

Misterowl said:
What do you mean "update your whole phone" ?
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ran the 2.20 ruu then flashed the 3.18 ota. Once on that base, I've been super stable with CleanROM and Elemental kernel.

My work phone (my HOX) is running completely stock (has to, effing government policies...) and has had terrible battery life since updating to JB. It seems to mostly be due to maps sucking me dry, which I presume is from Google Now. Maps is constantly waking my device and using whatever data connection it can get, which is why i presume the Now stuff. not sure, seems to be fine when i turn off WiFi, so it seems that the wifi use on google now is problematic. I factory reset the device but seems to still be running the same. I've been losing almost 10% battery an hour when I leave my wifi on with barely any use of the phone . this was never the case when the phone was on ICS. it's clearly some sort of data connection as it relates to Maps usage as i've been seeing high CPU usage by the app and, at times, nearly 50% of my battery life going to the maps process.

Also, just noticed on BBS that the android OS and maps high battery usage may be due to alarm manager...I'm seeing many long awake times for a number of apps. hadn't noticed it as much before because i had booted the device multiple times today. any thoughts here? i know what this app is for and there's lots of info and complaints out there about this process on other phones in the past, but not much for stock JB on the HOX...

I have had TERRIBLE battery life while running Sense JB ROMs, (seriously, incredibly bad), versus ICS ROMs. Tried nearly every Sense JB ROM that's out there and countless different radios. No idea why I'm having this problem. I'm not having problems with wakelocks BTW

It's maps. I don't have Google now and maps still ate half my battery on JB. Only way to get around it is make maps hibernate I've found, but this requires rooting.
Sent from my HTC One XL

Try Greenify. You need root, but it allows you to stop apps from running in the background. It's not a task killer, which are worse than nothing because they run constantly shutting down apps that keep restarting; rather, it uses system settings to prevent them from starting background at all. You can use it on stuff like Maps if you use another app to convert them to user apps. I've been using it a couple of weeks, and it's worked just great.

ECEXCURSION said:
It's maps. I don't have Google now and maps still ate half my battery on JB. Only way to get around it is make maps hibernate I've found, but this requires rooting.
Sent from my HTC One XL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iElvis said:
Try Greenify. You need root, but it allows you to stop apps from running in the background. It's not a task killer, which are worse than nothing because they run constantly shutting down apps that keep restarting; rather, it uses system settings to prevent them from starting background at all. You can use it on stuff like Maps if you use another app to convert them to user apps. I've been using it a couple of weeks, and it's worked just great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. It definitely seems like Maps is the problem for me. BBS shows a number of maps-based apps with long wake times. I charged up to about 95% before bed last night, and am going to let it run down all the way today to see what happens. Will post some screenshots later, if anyone cares.
EDIT: Nevermind, will probably post this in the BBS thread, unless anyone here really wants it.

Hydromea said:
I have had TERRIBLE battery life while running Sense JB ROMs, (seriously, incredibly bad), versus ICS ROMs. Tried nearly every Sense JB ROM that's out there and countless different radios. No idea why I'm having this problem. I'm not having problems with wakelocks BTW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Serially doubt you've tried viper xl
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Hydromea said:
I have had TERRIBLE battery life while running Sense JB ROMs, (seriously, incredibly bad), versus ICS ROMs. Tried nearly every Sense JB ROM that's out there and countless different radios. No idea why I'm having this problem. I'm not having problems with wakelocks BTW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same. 2.5 hrs of screen time vs 3.5 for ICS. Same usage.
Viper JB vs Cleanrom ICS.
Stock everything else (radio, kernal)

maybe not necessarily maps like originally thought, though it's one of the culprits. the mediascanner just happens to hit maps a lot, likely due to it's typically-large cache. check this thread, particularly post #42 and the Google response another 10 posts or so later. sounds like there is definitely an issue with the device indexing and it's the same thing that affected a number android devices. my guess is that some people just dont have a lot of media files (or wipe their phones often enough that they dont accumulate much) and dont see as much of the effect.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=37199
there's also a link at the end of that thread to another similar thread, found here: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=40370#58
i guess we really need to get that 4.2 source. also looks like someone built a sort of patch into CM10 on teh SGS3, but i dont know those forums well so i can't corroborate this. wow, i just ****ing said corroborate, time to go to bed.

Lol, corroborate.
Idk, I still think it's maps. I don't have very much media (2 albums) and disabling maps fixed my battery life (200% improvement, literally).
Sent from my HTC One XL

ECEXCURSION said:
Lol, corroborate.
Idk, I still think it's maps. I don't have very much media (2 albums) and disabling maps fixed my battery life (200% improvement, literally).
Sent from my HTC One XL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, i'm back on this boat as well. maps still has a long wake time i'm seeing location scanner services running so i'm thinking it's a location-based thing. going to let my phone die today so i can get a good BBS log since i screwed that up yesterday. i'm noticing odd dips in battery life whenever the phone wakes up. it seems to stay awake for up to 10-20 mins, but with the screen off. really weird thing is that when i let it sit overnight, there's no spike (just greater than usual battery drain) but it's when the phone first wakes up that it seems to be really draining and staying awake.

Possible fix for 4.3 battery drain

First off, in on us cellular. But here goes nothing.
I'm not exactly sure what happened but after the massive battery drain I've been having, I decided to try a new Rom. I chose Carbon. So I'm installing it and it wouldn't let me install the 4.3 gapps package I had, so I used an older 4.2.
Normally at work, after about four hours, I'd be close to dead. Today it's at 60. While you may not think that's great battery life, to me, it is. I think most of my drain is the Crappy signal. Either way, my battery seems to be lasting longer. It's been on Wi-Fi, 4g, 3g, and no signal with a lot of screen time.
Was it Carbon? Or is the new gapps screwed up and the 4.2 ones work correctly? I know the new ones come with Location services which I've been reading is a massive drain. I don't know. All I know is that it's been four hours and my battery is nowhere near dead.
After posting that nry battery lasted 8 hours when on the other Rom with 4.3 gapps, I barely made it four.
Take it for what it's worth
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

crackedvenom2 said:
MODS, PLEASE MOVE IF YOU FEEL THIS WOULD BE BETTER ELSEWHERE
First off, in on us cellular. But here goes nothing.
I'm not exactly sure what happened but after the massive battery drain I've been having, I decided to try a new Rom. I chose Carbon. So I'm installing it and it wouldn't let me install the 4.3 gapps package I had, so I used an older 4.2.
Normally at work, after about four hours, I'd be close to dead. Today it's at 60. While you may not think that's great battery life, to me, it is. I think most of my drain is the Crappy signal. Either way, my battery seems to be lasting longer. It's been on Wi-Fi, 4g, 3g, and no signal with a lot of screen time.
Was it Carbon? Or is the new gapps screwed up and the 4.2 ones work correctly? I know the new ones cone with McCain services which I've been reading is a massive drain. I don't know. All I know is that it's been four hours and my battery is nowhere near dead.
After posting that ny battery lasted 8 hours when on the other Rom worn 4.3 gapps, I barely made it four.
Take it for what it's worth
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This definitely belongs in Q/A. I'll get a mod to move it for you. I couldn't really say why but if 4.2 gapps worked for you with no perceivable drawbacks then cool. Were you trying 4.3 gapps with a new download or were you using just the same zip? Also, you didn't clarify what exactly was draining your battery in the first place. Have you tried using BetterBatteryStats or Wakelock Detector to pinpoint the issue? Lastly, what are "McCain services"? I did try an online search but understandably nothing but results for "John McCain" shows up.

IWell I used the zip I always used on the 4.3 roms. Maybe because carbon has a build number of 4.3.1 it didn't recognize it? I don't know. I was running pac man for clarification and there was a lot of wake Locks even with location serVices turned off. I should have made a screenshot I guess.
Though there was some for Google stuff, some rilj ones. It was basically phone crap and not actually apps like say Facebook, because we know apps like that drain it too. But no, the wake locks were under android stuff and there was hundreds. I think the rilj had 300+. I wish I could remember the rest but I can't. I've seen no drawbacks using 4.2 gapps on 4.3. Even on the carbon website, there wasn't any links. They just said to use 4.2. I don't know.
I figured I would post this. Maybe using 4.2 gapps I 4.3 is the solution. Maybe it's not. Maybe I got lucky. I can't give a definite answer. Just sharing what happened to me. And thanks for getting it moved
Also, day two, 3 hours into work and I'm at 70 percent. Like I said, some of you may not think that's great, but I use my phone a lot so 8 hours compared to 4 is great.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

crackedvenom2 said:
IWell I used the zip I always used on the 4.3 roms. Maybe because carbon has a build number of 4.3.1 it didn't recognize it? I don't know. I was running pac man for clarification and there was a lot of wake Locks even with location serVices turned off. I should have made a screenshot I guess.
Though there was some for Google stuff, some rilj ones. It was basically phone crap and not actually apps like say Facebook, because we know apps like that drain it too. But no, the wake locks were under android stuff and there was hundreds. I think the rilj had 300+. I wish I could remember the rest but I can't. I've seen no drawbacks using 4.2 gapps on 4.3. Even on the carbon website, there wasn't any links. They just said to use 4.2. I don't know.
I figured I would post this. Maybe using 4.2 gapps I 4.3 is the solution. Maybe it's not. Maybe I got lucky. I can't give a definite answer. Just sharing what happened to me. And thanks for getting it moved
Also, day two, 3 hours into work and I'm at 70 percent. Like I said, some of you may not think that's great, but I use my phone a lot so 8 hours compared to 4 is great.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I hate when it happens like that. When its unspecific stuff and Google related, I'm not too sure what actually resolves the issue for me. But hey, maybe this will resolve someone else's issues in the future. Per your battery life, usually folks get about 4 hours screen on time, if those stats you posted are improvements for you then you're definitely doing something right.

Yeah, I know others say they can get up to 12 and 24, but I have never seen those Stats before but like I said, I'm on my phone a lot and when it starts running for 8 hours, I'm happy. I just couldn't take it dying on me after 3-4 hours. That's ridiculous. I have two batteries but even before the day was over I had to switch them both out. I'm happy. Maybe I'll have my girl reinstall her pac man and install 4.2 gapps then we could figure out if it's the gapps or pac man. All I know is my phone is running better this way and I wanted to throw it out there.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

Regarding official updates

Hi.
It's been 2 months that I have used my one plus one and I still have the original/vanilla build 22R.
Now I'm curious is it worth to update to the newer versions? I have heard so much bad feedback regarding battery life and other bugs.
What are the pro's and con's?
Right now I'm enjoying 3 days battery life, 5h screen time. But microphone gain for videos is bad also for sound recording. WiFi and the antenna for RF seems to be buggy and not working properly.
Thanks in advance,
Zekenka
Sent from my One using XDA Free mobile app

Just update. Updates are good. Don't listen too much the blaming people cause a lot of them just confuse themselves by doing tests right after the update.

I agree with the previous poster, update your phone, don't worry about the negative Nellies, it's usually user error anyway.
Transmitted via Bacon

Make sure you do the updates in order, or just flash the complete 44s ROM that you can find also (use search, stock rooted 44s).
Personally I would just flash the complete ROM and skip the incrementals lol

ek69 said:
Make sure you do the updates in order, or just flash the complete 44s ROM that you can find also (use search, stock rooted 44s).
Personally I would just flash the complete ROM and skip the incrementals lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the battery life etc? I have heard like terrible stories(ofcourse myabe their nellies) but i kinda like the long one right now and I doubt there will be possibility to rollback unless i unlock my bootloader and install TWRP/CWM .

Battery life is good for me and others I've seen. It is possible to go back to old versions but like you said it requires unlocked boot loader and custom recovery probably. Why don't u want to unlock it?
Most battery problems are caused by wake locks. There's a thread in general by timmaaa called play services battery fix if you have issues. If your phone works good as is and don't care about upgrading then don't lol it's not a requirement. If you have bugs then it's probably fixed in the upgrades. Just don't blame us if you do upgrade though

ek69 said:
Battery life is good for me and others I've seen. It is possible to go back to old versions but like you said it requires unlocked boot loader and custom recovery probably. Why don't u want to unlock it?
Most battery problems are caused by wake locks. There's a thread in general by timmaaa called play services battery fix if you have issues. If your phone works good as is and don't care about upgrading then don't lol it's not a requirement. If you have bugs then it's probably fixed in the upgrades. Just don't blame us if you do upgrade though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would unlocking bootloader cause any stuff related to wakelocks? Right now It is perfect 0 drain over night and no terrible wakelocks,
I remember with daily SGS2 build there were terrible wakelocks with up to 20% drain over night

Unlocking bootloader won't do that. Updating or flashing ROM might, no guarantees. My experience is good with latest update, some others have problems most I would say don't. It's your phone and your choice what to do with it lol.

Just update, dont ask to much. Phone is working great on 44S. You will see when you update, battery life is great for me.

Quick question RE battery life + 5.0.2

When I tried 5.0 and 5.0.1 ROMs I had severe battery drain problems, so I went back to 4.4.4
I don't have time to waste flashing a ROM which hasn't solved the battery life issue which many (not all, I know, but MANY) people have encountered in Lollipop.
My question is this: NOT referring to your own personal setup, but regarding the N5 community as a whole - is there still a battery life problem prevalent on 5.0.2 ROMs for lots of people?
A simple yes or no will suffice. Thank you.

No. There never has been even on the L preview releases
Also there is no 5.0.2 for our device

Yes, there are definitely battery drain issues. I am not too sure it's related to the ROMs themselves but rather the radio. I have tried all Lollipop radios with a very basic set up on both stock ROMs and Cyanogenmod. At some point, I will get idle drain in the region of 2-4% an hour - way higher than I would expect.
There are no wake-locks - the device seems to sleep well - it's just idle drain is horrible. Go back to the radio from 4.4.2 and the drain ceases.
If one more person points to the Battery Life Q&A thread I might swear.

is it possible to use that radio with 5.0.1/2?
also:
fastboot flash radio radio.img is the right way to flash this, right?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

naien said:
is it possible to use that radio with 5.0.1/2?
also:
fastboot flash radio radio.img is the right way to flash this, right?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've not had any compatibility issues with any radio/ROM combo thus far. You can grab the radio image from the within stock factory images here https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images or go straight to the radio (in both img and flashable zip format) here http://downloads.codefi.re/autoprime/LG/Nexus_5/Modems
For ref, KOT49E is the one I use. Technically this is 4.4.1 but 4.4.2 shared the same one.

The KRT16M the 4.4.2? If so i have a flashable zip if you want it

naien said:
is it possible to use that radio with 5.0.1/2?
also:
fastboot flash radio radio.img is the right way to flash this, right?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Radios are device-specific and rom-agnostic. You can flash any N5 radio with any rom.

Is it confirmed that the battery life using the old radio is better?

t3al said:
Is it confirmed that the battery life using the old radio is better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no confirmation.
There are too many variables, the biggest being location....
What's better for one can be completely different for another.
Test several for your usage and location. You may also find little or no difference as well
If you are still getting 'drain', narrow down the issue by logic: work out what is actually using the battery, they don't drain by themselves. Apply this thinking to any device

eddiehk6 said:
... narrow down the issue by logic: work out what is actually using the battery, they don't drain by themselves. Apply this thinking to any device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe my issue is poor signal at home on my desk causing battery drain overnight. By flashing an older version of radio will this improve my battery life in anyway?

There is no such "drain" in Lollipop. People just have wakelock issues with their own setup, the same as on KK or any version of Android. They simply put the blame on Lollipop and say there is nothing wrong with their wakelock issues.
[Battery Life Help] Troubleshoot battery issues here!

Lethargy said:
There is no such "drain" in Lollipop. People just have wakelock issues with their own setup, the same as on KK or any version of Android. They simply put the blame on Lollipop and say there is nothing wrong with their wakelock issues.
[Battery Life Help] Troubleshoot battery issues here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a little narrow-minded to rule out all issues based on personal experience. My device, with current set up, sleeps like a baby. I don't use location services nor social apps like Facebook. My signal strength is fine.
On a Lollipop radio, idle drain after 1 or 2 days uptime will increase to around 4% an hour. On the radio from 4.4.2, my uptime can be a week or two and idle remains at about 1% an hour, everything else being equal.
Radios don't cause wakelocks, enable location services or install Facebook.
I do agree with one thing though - it's not Lollipop itself causing the battery issues. Some problem is deeper than that.

surrealjam said:
It's a little narrow-minded to rule out all issues based on personal experience. My device, with current set up, sleeps like a baby. I don't use location services nor social apps like Facebook. My signal strength is fine.
On a Lollipop radio, idle drain after 1 or 2 days uptime will increase to around 4% an hour. On the radio from 4.4.2, my uptime can be a week or two and idle remains at about 1% an hour, everything else being equal.
Radios don't cause wakelocks, enable location services or install Facebook.
I do agree with one thing though - it's not Lollipop itself causing the battery issues. Some problem is deeper than that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Radio's are an entire different story.
Different ones work better for different people.
Nor are they Android version related - there is no "Lollipop radio", its just a radio version that will work with any version of Android, and was the latest one so it was packaged with the latest factory images. Again, nothing to do with Lollipop

Lethargy said:
Radio's are an entire different story.
Different ones work better for different people.
Nor are they Android version related - there is no "Lollipop radio", its just a radio version that will work with any version of Android, and was the latest one so it was packaged with the latest factory images. Again, nothing to do with Lollipop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. That's why I said "it's not Lollipop itself causing the battery issues".

Lethargy I disagree mainly because there are a few bugs in Lollipop that need work to make it a bit more stable. They have pushed the fixes into AOSP for the ones that have been found but it seems like custom ROMs on Lollipop or a majorly tweaked stock ROM do better.
A lot of it too I think is how poor Google Play Services is with battery. I feel like I have to jump through hoops just to get Google Play Services to behave.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

MrObvious said:
Lethargy I disagree mainly because there are a few bugs in Lollipop that need work to make it a bit more stable. They have pushed the fixes into AOSP for the ones that have been found but it seems like custom ROMs on Lollipop or a majorly tweaked stock ROM do better.
A lot of it too I think is how poor Google Play Services is with battery. I feel like I have to jump through hoops just to get Google Play Services to behave.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What bugs are there in Lollipop that affect battery life? Enlighten me.
And what does Google Play Services specifically have to do with Lollipop?

Lethargy said:
What bugs are there in Lollipop that affect battery life? Enlighten me.
And what does Google Play Services specifically have to do with Lollipop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The RAM leak bug: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79729
It causes app restarts and extra CPU churn.

MrObvious said:
The RAM leak bug: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79729
It causes app restarts and extra CPU churn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the only reason I've decided to go back to 4.4.4 as I'm writing this. I seriously have to reboot phone 5 plus times a day. Ashley every time I get into car and maps loads this is like a instant trigger. Maybe I have to many background tasks idk, but it didn't happen on kk...

Newbie here

Hello everyone I have just joined this forum about two days ago. I own a oneplus one which i found to be one of the finest smartphones until CM12 came along. It seems to me that CM12 ruined battery life of the oneplus. With CM11 battery life was much better, even charging time was not more that 2hrs max. Now I have read the forums that many oneplus owners experienced the same issues.
Now the thing is that I do not have any experience in how to root my my phone or install kernels and other stuff. Is there anything that would help my phone to have a similar battery life of CM11?
Thanks

DavidMalta1991 said:
Hello everyone I have just joined this forum about two days ago. I own a oneplus one which i found to be one of the finest smartphones until CM12 came along. It seems to me that CM12 ruined battery life of the oneplus. With CM11 battery life was much better, even charging time was not more that 2hrs max. Now I have read the forums that many oneplus owners experienced the same issues.
Now the thing is that I do not have any experience in how to root my my phone or install kernels and other stuff. Is there anything that would help my phone to have a similar battery life of CM11?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take it you haven't unlocked your boot loader yet?
Unfortunately 5.0+ seems to be a bit poorer in the battery dept for most people. Most are hoping 5.1.1 helps the battery life, if not we'll have to hope for android M whenever that arrives. If you had an unlocked b/loader and custom recovery you could tryout some custom roms. Or even flash a 4.4.4/kitkat rom as many (including myself) have done. I had installed multirom and have been running COS12 as the main rom and CM11S on the secondary. The battery life was/is so much better, I was hitting 5-6hrs screen on time over 2days from a full charge, with lollipop I was hitting 4-5hrs screen on time over 1-1.5 days at a stretch., the standby drain is also a lot more.
If you havent already done so you could try checking privacy guard and denying wake up and keep awake permissions to google play services or anything else that seems to be active a lot in the background that you think shouldnt.

Reply
gsmyth said:
I take it you haven't unlocked your boot loader yet?
Unfortunately 5.0+ seems to be a bit poorer in the battery dept for most people. Most are hoping 5.1.1 helps the battery life, if not we'll have to hope for android M whenever that arrives. If you had an unlocked b/loader and custom recovery you could tryout some custom roms. Or even flash a 4.4.4/kitkat rom as many (including myself) have done. I had installed multirom and have been running COS12 as the main rom and CM11S on the secondary. The battery life was/is so much better, I was hitting 5-6hrs screen on time over 2days from a full charge, with lollipop I was hitting 4-5hrs screen on time over 1-1.5 days at a stretch., the standby drain is also a lot more.
If you havent already done so you could try checking privacy guard and denying wake up and keep awake permissions to google play services or anything else that seems to be active a lot in the background that you think shouldnt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I never unlocked anything. the phone is just unrooted. What I only is just change themes, which seems also to be buggy. So is it possible to revert back to CM11s? Are COS12 and CM12 the same or different please?

DavidMalta1991 said:
No I never unlocked anything. the phone is just unrooted. What I only is just change themes, which seems also to be buggy. So is it possible to revert back to CM11s? Are COS12 and CM12 the same or different please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It isnt possible without unlocking your bootloader, see the below guide if you want to look at that option. It seems a lot of hassle but once its unlocked, thats it, it wont lock again unless you specifically go through running a command to do so. As an added advantage you can install a custom recovery which will allow you to make a full nandroid backup, which you can keep on your device or copy over to your PC. You can use this if you ever run into any problems or if you want to try out some other roms, you have the option to go fully restore your last setup.
I dont think I've had any issues with themes, is it one in particular or all, what happens?
I believe we are referring to the same thing, COS12 (Cyanogen OS 12) is what the oneplus one runs out of the box (stock Cyanogen OS). CM12 which is what it also gets called can also mean the CM12/12.1 nightlies, which can be flashed like a custom ROM and are considered the most up to date (on the bleeding edge if you like).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guides-bacon-timmaaas-how-to-guides-t2839471