Phone radio is killing my battery on a S6 & Wifi signal is very poor - please help? - Galaxy S6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Phone radio is killing my battery on a S6 & Wifi signal is very poor - please help?
Hi folks,
I'm new to these forums and having read through more posts than I remember I think I need some help - apologies in advance for the length of this post!
I bought a S6 approx 4 weeks ago, having had the S4 which served me well. I immediately noticed two issues
1/. Battery drain
2/. Poor Wifi signal
1/. My battery drain is currently unacceptable, I charge to 100% and unplug overnight so screen is off - I wake up 7hours or so later to find it has drained overnight to 75% or even less. I have power save mode on ALL the time, I have disabled all the non essential and probably some essential apps such google player etc. I have location, NFC, Bluetooth, Sync, Always allow wifi scanning, none of my apps are set to sync automatically etc switched off (having read all this good info on these forums). I installed GSAM and never saw any major issues although the screen would be showing close to 40% (I have black background and only on Amoled Photo display rather than the Adaptive display which is so much better!) I then read on a post today the GSAM Wifi profile had to be edited to 767 to show an accurate usage - I did that this morning and lo and behold I have a Phone Radio zapping 43% battery. Can someone please tell me how to switch that damn thing off or how it can be managed? I notice the battery issue is alot worse on wifi than using mobile data. I have attempted a cache reset post 5.1.1 update. Any other ideas on saving battery life would be very much appreciated.
2/. Wifi signal - I have a Virgin Media Superhub router on a 50meg connection. My S4 had no issues throughout the house picking up a very good signal and wifi speed was excellent. All other devices such as laptop and IPAD have no issues getting a good signal on both 2.4G and 5G On my S6 unless im in the same room as the router it is extremely poor and I'm guessing has also something to do with my battery draining so the two may go hand in hand? Again having read many posts on these forums I have changed my wifi settings DNS 1 & 2 to 8.8.4.4 - I haven't seen this make much of a difference though. I used the DNS SET app I read somewhere would also help but unfortunately the poor signal and slow speed continued.My battery drain is worse with Wifi so I try to use my data plan but im using that up very quickly and would love to use wifi! Does anyone know anything else I can have a go at?
I am loathed to try the factory reset option if there are other things I can attempt first to save me setting up the phone and my go launcher app etc. I have attempted to attach some GSAM screen shots but cant find an attach link anywhere?? can someone advise how to do this? more than happy to provide any other info. Any help would be very much appreciated - thanks in advance.

I have the low wifi signal problem too. My friend has an S6 and has also poor wifi signal at the same spot. Others phones like z3 compact or moto g2 have more signal than s6 at the same spot.
It's annoying.

Related

Lte vs 3g battery life

Will the phone have a longer battery life if the cell modem is set to 3g vs lte?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Bump
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Yes, in my experience with the S4 it's a pretty big difference UNLESS you get a very strong LTE signal. I'm on tmobile and now have the N5 and use the 3G setting which is HSPA/+ Plenty fast for me for what I do. When I want some extra speed I'll kick on the LTE
Does anyone have a more detailed answer for this? I just got this phone yesterday so I haven't been able to find out myself yet, just with 5hour battery life from 100% to 4% on what will only be half of its normal day I'm looking for anything to help right now till I get a battery case. This phone is one of only two to have a LTE radio that is supposed to use 30% less power than usual so I'm wondering if that makes it as efficient if not more than 3G for idle in your pocket to light stuff like FlipBoard.
it would depend on the quality of the data connection. im in brooklyn nyc, and use lte on my nexus 5 exclusively, used to use it on my nexus 4 as well. with 3g(hspa+), on both my n5 and n4, i average about 4-4.5 hours screen on time. when using lte, i average about 5-6 hours screen on time on both my nexus 5 and 4. after noticing this difference, i use exclusively lte on both my devices, as i average an hour more screen on time when using exclusively lte.
herqulees said:
Does anyone have a more detailed answer for this? I just got this phone yesterday so I haven't been able to find out myself yet, just with 5hour battery life from 100% to 4% on what will only be half of its normal day I'm looking for anything to help right now till I get a battery case. This phone is one of only two to have a LTE radio that is supposed to use 30% less power than usual so I'm wondering if that makes it as efficient if not more than 3G for idle in your pocket to light stuff like FlipBoard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Serious battery drain can have many reasons. One is having LTE on, syncing on(if you just booted it up, and input your Google account and let all your apps sync and download, its gonna drain your battery fast the first time), having locations on and wifi enabled. If you are in an area with poor reception, your phone will drain more trying to find connection.
Sent from a potato
simms22 said:
it would depend on the quality of the data connection. im in brooklyn nyc, and use lte on my nexus 5 exclusively, used to use it on my nexus 4 as well. with 3g(hspa+), on both my n5 and n4, i average about 4-4.5 hours screen on time. when using lte, i average about 5-6 hours screen on time on both my nexus 5 and 4. after noticing this difference, i use exclusively lte on both my devices, as i average an hour more screen on time when using exclusively lte.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the information. That's what I was wondering but I couldn't find anyone that had already tested this with these new radios. If I get the time this weekend maybe I'll do my own test in detail to compare LTE to 3G. Am thinking of using a TV episode on Netflix and see which makes the battery drop faster over the 30 or so minutes.
Slightly off topic, does anyone's WiFi show as always on in the battery monitor even if its been off? Still trying to figure out my battery drain issue, if it even is an issue with just me, I bought this phone knowing it had a small battery.
herqulees said:
Thanks for the information. That's what I was wondering but I couldn't find anyone that had already tested this with these new radios. If I get the time this weekend maybe I'll do my own test in detail to compare LTE to 3G. Am thinking of using a TV episode on Netflix and see which makes the battery drop faster over the 30 or so minutes.
Slightly off topic, does anyone's WiFi show as always on in the battery monitor even if its been off? Still trying to figure out my battery drain issue, if it even is an issue with just me, I bought this phone knowing it had a small battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go to the main phone settings, wifi, 3 dots on the bottom right, advanced, then disable scanning always available..
ill be interested in seeing your results
simms22 said:
go to the main phone settings, wifi, 3 dots on the bottom right, advanced, then disable scanning always available..
ill be interested in seeing your results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems that's a whole other debate on weather leaving that on or turning it off helps battery life. Apparently if you turn it off then apps that want your location will turn the GPS on and waste battery (looking at you Facebook...), but if you leave it on the phone just tells the app your location from WiFi networks around you.
One thing I didn't think about is I had added my work WiFi yesterday but it wouldn't connect to it, wouldn't tell me why but I'm assuming it's because of bad signal as I'm a valet outside and the WiFi is from a bar across the street so I forgot about it but WiFi was left on with that network saved, my Nexus 7 can connect to it on most days and any laptop has no issues but with this being a phone I guess it doesn't have a big enough antenna. So I'm wondering if now that I deleted that WiFi network, and I always have my phone set to not notify me of public networks, if my battery won't die so fast today.
And now I'm just rambling but I just looked at my screenshot I took yesterday of battery use before plugging in at 4% and WiFi isn't even being shown on top six things that used the battery, lowest one being shown is a Chrome process using 3%.
EDIT: Well off to work now with my phone 100% charged, will have screen 100% (am outside in the sun), BT off, WiFi on (disconnected, no saved networks nearby, open network notifications off, always on during sleep, scanning always available, avoid poor connections, and WiFi optimization), LTE on/connected, NFC off. So lets see how things go. It will have tons of screen on time as all I do at work is read through FlipBoard, then if I run out of things on there I move to FB. Lets see how this goes...
http://www.qualcomm.com/media/docum...envelope-tracking-technology-3g4g-lte-devices
Nexus 5 has it and its doing its job saving battery
Sorry for digging up such an old thread, but with LTE my Nexus 6P, it switches between HSPA and 3G. When turned to 3G, nothing changes. Would that mean I would save battery?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Sudden Overnight Battery Drain

Has anyone else experienced any issues like this? Over the past week my Nexus 5 has been going through about 60% battery over night. In the past I would at most use 5-7%. I posted a couple pictures of my battery usage. I live in an area where my signal is always LTE and usually 1-3 bars. I do not have any new apps, location, gps and pretty much all google services SHOULD be off...
smakcruiser said:
Has anyone else experienced any issues like this? Over the past week my Nexus 5 has been going through about 60% battery over night. In the past I would at most use 5-7%. I posted a couple pictures of my battery usage. I live in an area where my signal is always LTE and usually 1-3 bars. I do not have any new apps, location, gps and pretty much all google services SHOULD be off...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you tap on the graph itself you'll be able to see if the phone was awake frequently or if it was losing signal, etc...
If you're seeing that the phone was awake often, try BetterBatteryStats to see what is keeping your phone awake.
Wakelock Detector is another app to try and pin down the problem.
Also, maybe try wifi overnight instead of LTE to see if that might be the issue.
its your signal quality killing your battery. you have phone idle and cell standby taking most your battery.
simms22 said:
its your signal quality killing your battery. you have phone idle and cell standby taking most your battery.
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Click to collapse
I guess, but I dont know why all of a sudden it is doing it. My cell signal has remained the same at home since I got the phone in January. Unless for whatever reason it is dropping out all night...
smakcruiser said:
I guess, but I dont know why all of a sudden it is doing it. My cell signal has remained the same at home since I got the phone in January. Unless for whatever reason it is dropping out all night...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is especially strange is it appears you're on WiFi, and yet both the voice and data connection seem to be causing the largest drain here.
Tap the graph so we can get an idea of what the awake times and signal strength was like.
I have a similar gripe and I pinned mine down to stupid photos uploading overnight via wifi and a bunch of other wifi related crap....pretty much network things causing battery drain. also the auto update's killing it for google play stuff.
I found that switching to dalvik and back to ART [which i was on] helped a bit though i supposed there's a process running somewhere in the background that's buggy...here's hoping 4.4.x fixes it
Switch to ART cleared it for me
smakcruiser said:
Has anyone else experienced any issues like this? Over the past week my Nexus 5 has been going through about 60% battery over night. In the past I would at most use 5-7%. I posted a couple pictures of my battery usage. I live in an area where my signal is always LTE and usually 1-3 bars. I do not have any new apps, location, gps and pretty much all google services SHOULD be off...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also saw the same. Turning off functions, etc. had no effect, but switching form Dalvik to ART did. I'm guessing that the change probably cleared something in the OS that was actually causing the problem. Note that the reported sources of battery usage are almost the same in both images, even though battery usage rate is vastly different.
I've attached two screen shots before and after the runtime switch. The red arrow on the before image is when I made the runtime change.
Mike585 said:
I also saw the same. Turning off functions, etc. had no effect, but switching form Dalvik to ART did. I'm guessing that the change probably cleared something in the OS that was actually causing the problem. Note that the reported sources of battery usage are almost the same in both images, even though battery usage rate is vastly different.
I've attached two screen shots before and after the runtime switch. The red arrow on the before image is when I made the runtime change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a shot from last night. I went to bed with about 50% battery life and woke up with a dead phone. Looks like cell signal maybe...
I am already using ART, but maybe I should switch back to dalvik and back to art like someone suggested earlier.
I've noticed more battery drain as well as reduced cell signal. My phone is losing connection in areas where I'd previously have 1-2 bars. I was thinking T-Mobile was changing things on their towers, but I'm starting to see other Nexus 5 owners complaining about it as well. Did they update something in the background on our phones?
You REALLY need to get Gsam and take some screens from it after a night. The stock battery usage screen shots say very little of use.
Otherwise we're are all just guessing here.
smakcruiser said:
I am already using ART, but maybe I should switch back to dalvik and back to art like someone suggested earlier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's worth a shot, and I, for one, am curious to see if it helps.
FWIW, I just noticed that my battery usage is increasing significantly again. So, I may try the same thing if it persists.
I'd say there is definitely a bug somewhere, possibly interacting with an app or a subset of apps. Are you using Tasker, by any chance?
kj2112 said:
You REALLY need to get Gsam and take some screens from it after a night. The stock battery usage screen shots say very little of use.Otherwise we're are all just guessing here.
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Click to collapse
Good point.
As I noted in my previous post, my phone started chewing battery again yesterday. No evident trigger, battery usage rate just went up abruptly. I recharged the phone and then left it asleep over night. Images below captured this morning.
Mike585 said:
Good point.
As I noted in my previous post, my phone started chewing battery again yesterday. No evident trigger, battery usage rate just went up abruptly. I recharged the phone and then left it asleep over night. Images below captured this morning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obvious culprits are WiFi and radio. Check in gsam (might be too late if you charged) for kernel Wakelocks. Or try wakelock detector app.
You could have a WiFi issue caused by other devices on your network. Would have to search on that for causes and cures. I'm not sure. I only know its been an issue.
And you appear to have no radio signal at all. If you go in to radio screen from main gsam screen, it will tell you your time searching for signal. That can destroy battery life.
It doesn't seem to he an app. Or general held awake time...as you have hardly any.
Putting phone in airplane mode over night would prove its WiFi or radio.
---------- Post added at 09:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 AM ----------
If a night of airplane mode is no better, then its a rogue app. That you'd need to track down. Process of elimination style.
But its probably either WiFi or radio signal. I guess if you have location service on, it could be adding to the trouble.
Turning off WiFi would show if its WiFi....or radio. But with very poor radio signal....I know you're battery will take a beating anyway.
kj2112 said:
Obvious culprits are WiFi and radio. Putting phone in airplane mode over night would prove its WiFi or radio..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's puzzling to me is that it was not an issue until a week ago, then converting to ART made it go away temporarily.
My radio signal is poor, but it's always that way at home. I definitely plan to see what airplane mode does. Will report results.
Thanks for your help.
Mike585 said:
What's puzzling to me is that it was not an issue until a week ago, then converting to ART made it go away temporarily.
My radio signal is poor, but it's always that way at home. I definitely plan to see what airplane mode does. Will report results.
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These images are from last night. I went to sleep with about 55 percent and woke up with 31%. The screenies are from betterbatterystats. Maybe you guys see something...
Definitely radio in my case
kj2112, you were right on. :good:
Running in airplane mode removes all serious battery drain on my Nexus 5. If I turn WIFI on, there is only minor battery usage. I've installed OpenSignal and will try monitoring radio reception vs. battery drain.
I'm still puzzled by the sudden onset (could be a problem with my nearest tower, I suppose), and the fact that switching from Dalvik to ART dramatically improved battery life for a few days. That's hard to link to the poor cell signal.
I'm still suspicious that there is a software component, that may or may not be interacting with my cell signal strength.
Follup up / more info
Based on posts on other forums, I tried excluding LTE from my preferred network types, and my battery usage improved dramatically. If I choose 3G, signal strength is 2-3 bars. 2G gives me 4-5 bars. With LTE I get 0-1 bars - mostly 0. On 2G my battery life is the best I've ever seen
My suspicion is that the sudden change I saw was caused by a change in the way the radio software selects network speed options. It appears that if the preferred network type selected is LTE, the phone now will expend maximum effort continually to connect to LTE, even if there is no useful signal available. Before the change, it's likely that a stronger LTE signal was required before the phone would attempt a connection.
I'm not sure if the OS determines where that set point is located or if it's something the carrier can control. If it's the carrier then maybe the Nexus 5 has a radio that isn't as efficient as other phones, and the current algorithm is pegged to the best case phone.
If anyone knows how to adjust the conditions for attempting to connect to LTE or has any ides about who does control it, I'd definitely like to know. For now, I set my phone to 2G or 3G when I'm in a poor LTE reception area (which with T-Mobile is most of the time). That actually works okay for me, but I doubt it's a solution for everyone.

Unsolve battery drain

Hi everyone,
I need some advice from the community. I've had my XT925 for almost 2 years now, and in the last 6-8 moths I've been having weird battery drain that I couldn't solve. It started back on JB a while ago, and I thought "oh hell, KK is around the corner, it'll go away when I wipe everything". I was mistaken: I first tried the soak test leaked KK, and had the same erratic behaviour. And when the final release became available, I reflashed a full stock JB then flashed the zip OTA posted in general. I'm now on 4.4.2 stock moto kitkat.
I hardly last a full day, without a heavy usage. Many SMS (10-50), maybe 1-2 MMS, wifi ON most of the time at work, phone forced to 3G (4G cover is sporadic and when I turn it on I have a lot of 3g/4g switches). In the last week, I've frozen nearly every app I had with TB, to (hopefully) isolate the ones that drain too much battery. No luck so far.
Today I've decided to take a series of screenshot so maybe someone can help me troubleshoot what's wrong. They are attached to this post. I don't see anything out of the ordinary, but I'm no expert, so maybe someone can elighten me on any abnormality. I had roughly 40 min of vocal call today, which is a lot compared to my usual usage (average, maybe 3-5 min a day of voice call). This may have contributed to drain slightly more today, but there is not so much difference at the end of the day.
Basically, I recall lasting easily 1..5 days with the phone stock out of the box. Now, it's hard to reach >12h. I thought maybe the battery was dying (although *#*#4636#*#* said it was in good shape) so i replaced the battery by a brand new Moto one last week. There was absolutely no change at all.
So... here you go: any idea on what could be causing the drain ? Obviously I've cleared cache and wiped data many times already, and I'd like to avoid doing it again and again and again. Note that on the screenshot, there is many apparent time with bad signal. I have no idea why it shows like this since I'm always 3-4 bars at work. This is weird, and came with KK (JB sowed green signal at the same place).
Thanks for your help!
edit: just swa my thread title is missing a "d"... but cannot edit.
CoinCoin88 said:
Hi everyone,
I need some advice from the community. I've had my XT925 for almost 2 years now, and in the last 6-8 moths I've been having weird battery drain that I couldn't solve. It started back on JB a while ago, and I thought "oh hell, KK is around the corner, it'll go away when I wipe everything". I was mistaken: I first tried the soak test leaked KK, and had the same erratic behaviour. And when the final release became available, I reflashed a full stock JB then flashed the zip OTA posted in general. I'm now on 4.4.2 stock moto kitkat.
I hardly last a full day, without a heavy usage. Many SMS (10-50), maybe 1-2 MMS, wifi ON most of the time at work, phone forced to 3G (4G cover is sporadic and when I turn it on I have a lot of 3g/4g switches). In the last week, I've frozen nearly every app I had with TB, to (hopefully) isolate the ones that drain too much battery. No luck so far.
Today I've decided to take a series of screenshot so maybe someone can help me troubleshoot what's wrong. They are attached to this post. I don't see anything out of the ordinary, but I'm no expert, so maybe someone can elighten me on any abnormality. I had roughly 40 min of vocal call today, which is a lot compared to my usual usage (average, maybe 3-5 min a day of voice call). This may have contributed to drain slightly more today, but there is not so much difference at the end of the day.
Basically, I recall lasting easily 1..5 days with the phone stock out of the box. Now, it's hard to reach >12h. I thought maybe the battery was dying (although *#*#4636#*#* said it was in good shape) so i replaced the battery by a brand new Moto one last week. There was absolutely no change at all.
So... here you go: any idea on what could be causing the drain ? Obviously I've cleared cache and wiped data many times already, and I'd like to avoid doing it again and again and again. Note that on the screenshot, there is many apparent time with bad signal. I have no idea why it shows like this since I'm always 3-4 bars at work. This is weird, and came with KK (JB sowed green signal at the same place).
Thanks for your help!
edit: just swa my thread title is missing a "d"... but cannot edit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would get gsam battery monitor with the root companion (second app) so you can get a better idea of whats going on. some shots of the app view screen, then change the view to view time held awake, then a couple shots of the details on the highest ones.
you can then get an app called unbounce that can limit the wakelocks, but it requires some reading so you dont break anything.
if you could take shots in English that would be great, otherwise i wont be able to help much with the diagnosis.
I was trying not to rely on wakelock limiting apps, as there's no reason for the drop from 1.5 (2) days to 12 h, with all custom apps frozen. I didn't know unbounce but the same goes for Greenify. I'll try the widget you mentioned and report back.
edit: yup i'll switch to english for the shots next time.
Oh and I forgot to mention this: from time to time, the drain won't be so apparent (e.g. 40% remaining after 12-15 h) and in a matter of minutes, the phone will drop to 10-12%. However it hasn't happened sicne I last turned off 4G, so maybe it was due to constant 3g/4g switches.
CoinCoin88 said:
Oh and I forgot to mention this: from time to time, the drain won't be so apparent (e.g. 40% remaining after 12-15 h) and in a matter of minutes, the phone will drop to 10-12%. However it hasn't happened sicne I last turned off 4G, so maybe it was due to constant 3g/4g switches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no doubt, in weak and especially no signal areas, it will burn through battery like crazy.
Here it as, after a nearly complete discharge. Phone unplugged around 10am, 12h15 later I'm at 10% remaining, with not so much usage. Screenshots are attached. What's weird is that in the last 1h30 the phone has been off wifi (slider "Wi-Fi" is off in settings) but battery status still shows a connected wifi. However you can clearly see a huge drain due to wifi being off and 3g being on (it's the only part of the day it's been using cellular data: I was at the restaurant therefore no wifi). Possibly locatin services using the wifi even though it was disabled ? Anyway I'm not sure this could cause such a quick drain...
edit: as far as the signal bar color in battery status, I've found that grey-yellow stands for "signal 3/4", so it's rather good (solid green is signal 4/4). So it's probbaly not that either...
Ooops forgot the "time held awake" shots. It's definitely Google services messing around, but what... (details of Google services in previous post)
CoinCoin88 said:
Ooops forgot the "time held awake" shots. It's definitely Google services messing around, but what... (details of Google services in previous post)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some of those push the limits of what i would like to see personally, but none appear out of control to me.
im really not sure how you would go about taming some of that down though, without using a couple apps you dont want to use.
imo, you would need to control some of the wakelocks, and/or disable some of the receivers you done use.
the couple "nlp" wakelocks from google are going to account for a good bit of its waking. nlp is nothing more than google using your location information to build a database from it.
here is whats known about some of the more common offenders, and the testing results from limiting them.
That's what I feared... I'm usually not that bad with messing with the phone, and couldn't see anything obvious either. I've disabled "using wifi to locate" in wifi settings, I'll see how this drops the nlp wakelocks, for starters.
If anyone has a better idea, please don't hesitate
Sent from my RAZR HD using XDA Free mobile app
CoinCoin88 said:
That's what I feared... I'm usually not that bad with messing with the phone, and couldn't see anything obvious either. I've disabled "using wifi to locate" in wifi settings, I'll see how this drops the nlp wakelocks, for starters.
If anyone has a better idea, please don't hesitate
Sent from my RAZR HD using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have use quite a few of the more popular battery saving apps over the years. i just came across this one yesterday. its shaping up to be the best i have used to date. i wasnt using my phone except for a few minutes this morning, and it went 5 1/2 hours and was still @ 100%.
i also use greenify with root + exposed.
did you disable FAST DORMANCY? I have done it while on JB ? IT did not cause any prob.
Haven't disabled it, mostly because I've never been able to determine if it was being used by carriers in France or not. I've read somewhere that it wasn't, but the source was hardly documented. I've tried to disable it in JB however, and did not see any improvement.
Right now I've disabled Google Now and location history things. I'm trying to reduce the wakelocks as much as I can using settings available from stock rom (and understand at the same time what was causing them). Battery drain is still high, but I'm testing things every 10 min or so, so it's not really representative. I'll update here when I have a better idea of what's going on.
Another thing of interest is xposed with new module called Unbounce. There is a thread for it. All about minimizing wake locks
A few thoughts so far. I haven't tried Greenify or Unbounce yet, this will be the "final stage". For now I'm trying to minimize wakelocks as much as possible without installing third-party apps.
Here are a quick review of what I've found (NB: in the following I translated the menu names myself from french to english and didn't check their actual name... but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which ones I'm referring to if the name is not exactly right):
1) Disabled Google Now and all "Google Location settings" (i.e. "Update location" and "Location history", found within "Google settings" in the drawer).
2) Set location settings to "minimize battery", that is with network and wi-fi.
3) In wi-fi advanced settings, disabled "search always available"
4) Locked the phone to 2G/3G only, because 4G coverage from my carrier (Free Mobile for the frenchies here ) is erratic at best, and caused many 3G/4G switches
5) Some "light" de-bloat (froze all Google apps I'm not using). At first I froze all my apps to mimick a fresh stock system, but there were really not that much difference.
Note that all the tests were ran (mostly) in the same location, on different days, so signal quality should be rather constant (and good) and therefore is not acting as a confounding factor in my tests.
Whats happening when 3G and Wi-Fi are both off ?
Obviously, disabling 3G and wifi gives a very good battery life. I'm talking about something like 2h screen-on and probably 30-40% after a full day (9am to midnight, roughly). I'll double check the exact values for this and update this post with a screenshot asap (= in the upcoming days). With this setting, wakelocks actually correspond to screen-on time. So it's probably the best one can achieve.
edit: 1h of voice communication, 1h15 of screen-on time, 10-15 sms, 1 received MMS (had to enable 3G a few seconds for that of course) => see Screenshot_2014-10-27-23-22-14.png
The decrease at the end corresponds to wifi+3G when I got back home and started using the phone "heavily". Roughly, 40% decrease in 12h. That is what I call a good battery life. Notice how the wakelocks closely match the screen on periods.
Whats happening when 3G is ON and Wi-Fi is OFF
We've discussed a bit the "fastdormancy" thing earlier here. Spending a whole day on 3G made the "modem fastdormancy" process drain a high share of battery (10-20% ? Can't remember exactly, but it was in the top-5 list of draining apps, and had a big wakelock time). Further proof that my carrier doesn't support it. I've therefore edited my build.prop to set
ro.mot.ds.fastdormancy.disable=true
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After that, the process was not found anymore in high-draining apps, and battery life was a little better (again, no values here, I'll update in a few days after I run the tests again and double-check everything).
Can't say much about Google location, but I'd say most requests were not executed.
Whats happening when 3G is OFF and Wi-Fi is ON
Wi-Fi at work did not cause any interesting drain. The phone sat there and was connected all day-long. There were probably a few Google requests to determine its location, with some nlpwakelock, but not really interesting.
What was really interesting was the behaviour outside my workplce (e.g. on the street). I have in my "known networks" some wi-fi hotspots (FreeWifi) that are enabled with my DSL provider: they provide me with codes from my contract that I can use in the street if any other of their customer has a wi-fi enabled on their modem (their is a dedicated SSID broadcasted from their modem). The phone connected automatically whenever it detected this SSID (which was... really often), but the captive portal (to enter credentials) was not filled, because the phone was in my pocket. This caused HUGE wakelocks and drained the battery incredibly fast. I'm talking about draining 50% in an hour or so. I could even feel the phone warming up in my pocket.
So, conclusion here: I think Wi-Fi could be a major cause of battery drain if you have some fav SSID that require credentials through a captive portal.
I'll update in a few days if I find anything else, and to add values to what i've stated here.
Hope that helps!

Battery Life Decreased After Updating to 5.1.1

Before anyone asks I have searched, Googled, looked on reddit, and gone through these guides on xda:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/guide-to-battery-life-t3092593
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/guide-battery-performance-tips-t3072049
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/10-battery-life-tips-tricks-t3088264
I have a Galaxy S6 fro Rogers in Canada (no root) and I recently updated from 5.0.2 to 5.1.1 and my battery life has gone to crap, my usage patterns and apps remain the same as before. Previously I would get about 4 hours SoT, 5 on a good day. Now I can barely get 2.5 hours SoT. I have no other problems with this phone, none of the RAM issues, lagging, or over heating other people have mentioned, my only problem is the poor battery life.
The apps are primarily use are Facebook, Puzzle and Dragons, Messenger, and Chrome, I realise that these are battery guzzlers but 2.5 hours is ridiculous and I used to get more using the same apps. I typically start using my phone around 8am from 100%, and by 5pm after 2.5 hours SoT it is around 20% battery life, previously it would hit 20% around 11pm with about 4 hours SoT. No apps are draining a particularly large amount according to GSAM.
To reiterate the things I have done to improve my battery life are:
1. disabling unused apps in application manager
2. setting brightness to lowest setting on auto
3. restarting phone
4. restarting phone in safemode
5. clearing cache
6. performing a factory reset after updating to 5.1.1
7. leaving wifi gps off when not in use (but I'm not constantly turning it on and off either)
8. Greenifying apps I use less than once a day (but anything with push notifications is not Greenified)
Additionally I have not moved or anything and reception in my area has always been decent. Any suggestions for what else I should do? My phone is still under warranty, should I send it to a service centre? Or should I try rooting it an actually deleting bloatware and having an ad blocker (though this would void the warranty...).
Please advise! I am very frustrated with this battery life.
Im having the same issue after updating the GS6 on Wind (Canada) to 5.1.1. Terrible battery life and Android OS draining battery as well. I barely get 2.5 SoT.
I'll join this unfortunate crew. I have to charge everyday before leaving work in order to get through the day.
Take off the charger at home when I leave and by the time I get to work(30-40 min drive) I'm at ~95%. By lunch I'm down to around 50%.
Hoping Android M fixes some issues
Clear cache in storage option and reboot! It will very slightly improve!
bman3k said:
Before anyone asks I have searched, Googled, looked on reddit, and gone through these guides on xda:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/guide-to-battery-life-t3092593
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/guide-battery-performance-tips-t3072049
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/10-battery-life-tips-tricks-t3088264
I have a Galaxy S6 fro Rogers in Canada (no root) and I recently updated from 5.0.2 to 5.1.1 and my battery life has gone to crap, my usage patterns and apps remain the same as before. Previously I would get about 4 hours SoT, 5 on a good day. Now I can barely get 2.5 hours SoT. I have no other problems with this phone, none of the RAM issues, lagging, or over heating other people have mentioned, my only problem is the poor battery life.
The apps are primarily use are Facebook, Puzzle and Dragons, Messenger, and Chrome, I realise that these are battery guzzlers but 2.5 hours is ridiculous and I used to get more using the same apps. I typically start using my phone around 8am from 100%, and by 5pm after 2.5 hours SoT it is around 20% battery life, previously it would hit 20% around 11pm with about 4 hours SoT. No apps are draining a particularly large amount according to GSAM.
To reiterate the things I have done to improve my battery life are:
1. disabling unused apps in application manager
2. setting brightness to lowest setting on auto
3. restarting phone
4. restarting phone in safemode
5. clearing cache
6. performing a factory reset after updating to 5.1.1
7. leaving wifi gps off when not in use (but I'm not constantly turning it on and off either)
8. Greenifying apps I use less than once a day (but anything with push notifications is not Greenified)
Additionally I have not moved or anything and reception in my area has always been decent. Any suggestions for what else I should do? My phone is still under warranty, should I send it to a service centre? Or should I try rooting it an actually deleting bloatware and having an ad blocker (though this would void the warranty...).
Please advise! I am very frustrated with this battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Android/thread-id/31962/page/32 Read through the last 6 or 8 pages over there. A lot of unhappy people with Rogers right now using the S6. I'm in the same boat. Crappy cell service, times it will show bars of 4G but then tell me there is no network connection. Try to make a call with full bars at 4G and it will say not registered on network. Text messages being sent and received twice automatically. No connection at all in places my HTC used to have 4G if not LTE. I had to send my S6 away for camera repair for a week so I pulled back out my old HTC M8 for that time and my connection was stable and awesome everywhere just like I thought it should be. Now that I'm back on my S6 it's barely hanging onto EDGE in places I had full 4G bars on the HTC like at my desk at work. Places I spend a lot of time at.
I suggest you call Rogers and talk to the tech support. Tell them your issues. The more complaints the faster the issue will be resolved. It sounds wide spread so don't waste your time trying to fix it yourself.
flexfulton said:
http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Android/thread-id/31962/page/32 Read through the last 6 or 8 pages over there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link, I didn't think to check the Rogers forums, I'll call their tech support to let them know of my issues and hope they are working on something.
I also have this issue. I was able to make it through an 8hr work day before the update. Now it's down to 10% or to completely dead. My usage at work did not change. Sucks that I have to plug my phone into my car just to get enough juice to make the drive home.
Just to confirm are you guys all now on 5.1.1 and is battery life the only issue you are experiencing?
I talked to a rep with my carrier (Rogers) and he said that the known issues were to do with connectivity (calls, data), but not with battery. He said battery issues that could not be resolved by a reset should sent in for service.
bman3k said:
Just to confirm are you guys all now on 5.1.1 and is battery life the only issue you are experiencing?
I talked to a rep with my carrier (Rogers) and he said that the known issues were to do with connectivity (calls, data), but not with battery. He said battery issues that could not be resolved by a reset should sent in for service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was some discussion in various places about cell standby being a HUGE drain on the battery when connected to WIFI.
My issues are data and call related. I've never been one to care that much about battery but it does seem off from what I'm used too and I'm seeing some long times on the mobile radio being active.
I think it's safe to say that all of this stems for the 5.1.1 update. Cell reception "problems" can lead to big battery drains and if our phones are having issues staying in tune with the towers, it could cause big battery drain.
Keep an eye on what might be causing your battery drain though. It might be something silly like an app trying to do something.
I have also noticed a sharp drop in battery life now that I'm on 5.1.1.
USA AT&T.
I'm really at a loss. GSAM says "Android System" under apps as well as "Phone Radio" are the highest drain.

SOT - how to measure, is this reasonable?

Hello,
I recently picked up a OP6 and I'm really pleased with it overall but SOT has been a little disappointing. At least I think it has depending which battery app I consult!
Accubattery Pro thinks I'm getting an average 8h 16m of SOT (this is definitely not correct!).
GSM Battery Monitor PRO reckons 4h 46m of SOT (which still seems a bit high).
In the battery tab of the Settings menu it reckons having used 65% of my battery I've had 2h 50m SOT (ie. from 100% after 2hr 50m of SOT I'm now sitting on 35%). I think this equates to about 4h 30m of SOT if I continued at the same pace. I guess this tallies pretty closely to the GSM Battery Monitor PRO so maybe this is about accurate.
I've followed the guide here to get the most SOT but 4h 30m seems on the low given that I don't game or stream, don't have FB installed etc. This is purely webbrowsing, a bit of YT and a podcast app (listening to downloaded podcasts rather than streamed if that makes a difference).
Nothing in the battery stats seems that unusual (please see attached). What does seem a little odd is that I'm not in a great spot for mobile reception but looking at the stats it doesn't look like the radio is draining the battery.
Any advice on how to delve deeper? I'm 100% stock and not rooted.
Any advice for a OP newbie is much appreciated
Hmmmm Better Battery Stats seems to tell a rather different story especially around the radio reception.
Again any advice much appreciated!
The poor signal is killing you. When the signal is poor it pumps out more juice trying to stay connected. If you will be in an area with poor signal and won't be using your phone I suggest putting it in airplane mode or maybe setting it to 3G as a proof of concept. If your battery is much better then you found your issue
Also wifi scanning is turned on,which is a battery killer. Turn it off and you can see a great difference
spartan268 said:
The poor signal is killing you. When the signal is poor it pumps out more juice trying to stay connected. If you will be in an area with poor signal and won't be using your phone I suggest putting it in airplane mode or maybe setting it to 3G as a proof of concept. If your battery is much better then you found your issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Spartan! The problem is poor indoor reception with the signal constantly cutting in and out. As such airplane mode may be the ultimate option but obviously it's a bit of a bummer as a long term solution! I'm going to try another provider which claims to have better indoor coverage in my area.
Question #1 - you mention trying setting to 3G as a proof of concept. Is that because a 2G/3G uses less power to connect than searching for a 4G connection? Should I try the 2G only option before the 3G one?
Question #2 - if I do try 2G/3G (before trying airplane mode) should I turn off mobile data too or does that make a difference?
Question #3 - I'm guessing having 2 sims installed makes the problem even worse as both are constantly calling for signal? I typically use one for data and one for voice.
Question #4 - when some folks post their battery graphs they have a picture which shows the mobile and wifi signal (see attached as an example). I don't seem to be able to find this. Was it removed from the latest update as the battery section seems to have changed a bit.
Thanks again!
hasan4791 said:
Also wifi scanning is turned on,which is a battery killer. Turn it off and you can see a great difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Strangely I don't think I do have wifi scanning on (please see attached screenshots)! Location services are also off.
Are you thinking I do because the wifi is on 100% of the time?
Could this be because an app is somehow keeping it awake?
Hmmm can't see an option to check if "keep wifi on during sleep" is enabled. Has this been removed from 9.0.2?

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