For the last month or so I've been having various problems with my phone and have flashed different versions of Cyanogenmod multiple times. Normally I then immediately login to my Google account, download Titanium Backup, restore all my apps, and go from there. But last week when I restored to CM 11 I decided not to do that right away. I'd noticed that Google Play Services, or Android System were constantly the top users of my battery, and I'd also been getting lots of force closes of system apps. So I figured why not try life without a Google account for just a little bit. My restore actually had one of the minimal GAPPS packages with it, but I haven't signed into Google and have disabled all of the Google packages I could.
I installed both F-Droid and the Amazon App store, and that got me to about 80% of the apps I actually use on a regular basis. I then went on to use my apps to see what if I really missed. The answer to that is, so far, not all the much. I'm using a really minimalist search based launcher, which is great...but I do miss having some information readily available via a widget. Some apps I used weren't available in either Amazon or F-Droid, but I did find an HTML5 app on the Fireplace Market...which seems to be totally fine for my needs.
The biggest surprise has been the battery life. From the time I first got my phone 3 years ago, even when it was running stock with only a few apps, it was a bit of a struggle to get a full days use out of my phone. And the variability was crazy, some days it seemed like I could run through a full battery in about 4 hours, while other times I'd get almost a full 24, both with similar usage patterns. I used battery monitor apps to look into it and sometimes they'd give me some useful information, but a good chunk of the usage always seemed to be core Android functionality. But this week my battery life has been measured in days instead of hours. The first time I went about 72 hours before plugging my phone in, and it was still showing 48% battery remaining. And this was a period where I was using my phone probably more actively than normal, installing and configuring a lot of apps, browsing the web, a couple of hours reading books, etc... I've seen similar life over the last 3 days, but I haven't let it go as long this time before topping off.
So I can't say for certain that this is exclusively due to a lack of GAPPS, I have far fewer apps than I previously did, and any or all of them could have been responsible for excessive usage, and I'm using a minimalist launcher, with no widgets, etc... But still, overall I'm really amazed at the dramatic difference. I didn't even know it was possible to get 4+ days out of a normal smartphone battery, this puts it pretty much on par with my old dumb phones.
So has anyone else run without a Google account for very long and seen similar results, or is this just an anomaly?
Nice to find an ally
I decided running my Moto G (CM12.1) without GAPPS about one week ago using F-Droid and Aptoide as alternative stores and Cal/CardDAV via DAVdroid for syncing. So far I do not miss much. Battery life increased substantially, at least since then!
Did you encounter any issues due to missing Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) or maps API? This was actually my major concern, eventually even decreasing battery life because every app needs to pull the messages on its own. However, this seems not to be the case ...
One tip: If you use the AOSP keyboard and like to swype .. you'll need the libjni_latinimegoogle.so lib in your /system/libs/ folder.
Glad that I'm not totally alone here.
I've been having some problems with the email client pulling in new Exchange messages, it works sometimes, but stops pretty regularly. That might be related to GCM I guess? Exchange services has also started taking up the majority of my battery life. I'm still getting respectable life off a charge, but it's down to about 2 days vs. the 4+ days I was seeing originally. For maps I'm using Here, and haven't noticed any problems in my offline searches. I haven't done any navigation with it yet though. Will need to give that a try soon.
The AOSP keyboard worked fine for me out of the box, including swiping. I'm running CM 11 instead of 12.1 though, so maybe that's the difference?
I also need to look into what's required to setup my own CardDAV server, or maybe OwnCloud? Is DAVDroid just used for syncing, or does it become a new contact app? I'm currently having trouble keeping my personal and work contacts separate, since the personal contacts are stored only on the phone and not associated with an account. Definitely want to find a better way to handle that.
All in all I'm still liking the experience. I haven't missed anything from the Play Store yet. My biggest issues have been because I also switched to the Search Based Launcher, which takes some getting used to. I'd like to find a more "normal" homescreen type launcher so that I can use some widget based apps, but so far haven't found much to my liking on F-Droid. CM's Trebuchet feels severely lacking in customization and ADW is buggy almost to the point of being unusable. The couple of other launchers I've found on F-Droid that are based off of Trebuchet or AOSP won't install on my phone. So still experimenting there.
Uhm, no clue about Exchange messages, sorry. But same here with the e-mail app draining battery (about 30 %). However I'm still experimenting with IMAP IDLE (push) vs. regular polls. Maybe that does the trick ..
DAVdroid is basically a syncing adaptor for the regular contacts and calendar. If you don't wanna set up your own server, you may also use an owncloud provider or an e-mail service providing these features, e.g. posteo.de or openmailbox.org.
When I first set up K-9 for my personal mail my battery use spiked, but it settled down the next day even though I've kept it set to push. I wouldn't mind so much the Exchange Services battery drain if it would reliably fetch my work emails, which is probably 90% of the reason I even have a smartphone in the first place.
My email provider has said that CalDAV/CardDAV is the next feature on their list to build and rollout but no estimate on when to expect it. Do contacts synced via DAVDroid show up as an "account" in Android? Does the contact app recognize that they are separate from other contacts on the phone if you go into contacts to display? For me I only have Exchange listed and if I deselect that then no contacts show in the list.
dmcgregor said:
Do contacts synced via DAVDroid show up as an "account" in Android? Does the contact app recognize that they are separate from other contacts on the phone if you go into contacts to display? For me I only have Exchange listed and if I deselect that then no contacts show in the list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's exactly like that. Same with my synced posteo contacts.
rzac said:
Yes, it's exactly like that. Same with my synced posteo contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great. That's exactly what I want. Thanks!
I lasted a couple of days but nearly every app needs Google Play Services so I got GAPPS back.
Fupri said:
I lasted a couple of days but nearly every app needs Google Play Services so I got GAPPS back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which ones e.g.? I haven't run into such problems yet. But maybe my app "portfolio" is rather minimal.
Thanks for the experiment documentation. I started running my OPO without Gapps and use Candysix its CM based.
Are you using WhatsApp or Signal Messenger, both are Gapps based, are there any limitations or is it impossible to use em?
Its possible to use WA. The message delivery ist not perfect in standby but if you open the app you'll get your messages. In "chat mode" the messages are sent instantly in both ways.
I wasn't able to test Signal till now, at first i have to compile the source to get the apk.
how about google allo?
Related
Hello,
I recently rooted my phone and installed Eclipse 2.0 on my phone. I had quite a few problems with it afterwards:
1. Even though I registered the new install with the same google account my paid apps as well as free apps are not getting automatically downloaded to the phone.
2. Ever since I did the new install my screen is not automatically adjusting itself in bright sunlight and this is especially noticeable when I am driving around using my google navigation. I have setup options to auto - adjust brightness.
3. I sometimes notice that even now my CPU spikes up and my phone appears frozen(though it is lot less frequent with the new install). I was wondering if there is any app that will record a history of which app is using cpu. I don't need an app that tells me which app is using cpu right now because when the phone is frozen I can't use that app anyway but I want an app that will record which app used cpu 5-10 minutes ago and possibly give me a graph.
4. With the new eclipse install I got an app called 'Car Home' that automatically starts up when it connects to my car bluetooth. Is there any app that can have my phone automatically play a playlist, pandora etc.?
5. In Google navigation I see that it brings up a history of locations that I had previously visited but many times a place that I had visited a couple of days ago is not there, I guess since the app based upon time of the week tries to predict where you will be travelling next. Is there any way to search history or any place that Google nav stores history?
I can answer #4 for you and that is to download Tasker. It's kind of confusing at first but it is an extremely powerful application that does exactly what you want.
as for 1-3 i recommend checking your md5 on the downloaded .zip i'm assuming and if that isn't the problem I recommend using an odin file and flash it that way as you get no errors that way.
because no one else is having those errors you're talking about it leads me to think that it is a bad install so do the above.
1. You can see all your apps that you've downloaded in the My Apps section, All Apps.
2. Make sure your screen is clean near the photosensor. Also, I like to use the slide status bar to adjust brightness. Also, I like to use Brightness Widget.
3. Not sure how to find the culprit easily, but I suggest running OS Monitor. Keep OS Monitor active and on your screen. Watch it until you see stuff spike.
4. Tasker is ultimate, not sure if there is something easier or not though.
5. No clue, but you can easily manage your locations via a Web browser at a computer if you are logged into your Gmail and you go to Google Maps. From there you can add destinations which syncs with your phone right away. I think you can add destinations in the Google Maps app on the phone, too.
FWIW, the only ROM where my apps have redownloaded automatically after flashing was Humble 5.0. but I think I'm in the minority in experiencing this.
my suspician is that since I have flashed so many ROMs so many times, I noticed multiple Charge devices available on my Google Play account, and I thought I would clean that up by deleting some of them.
My experience is that if I log into my Google account during my device setup, it automatically redownloads my apps. I don't want that, so I always skip that step. If I wait and do it through Accounts and Sync in the settings menu, it doesn't redownload automatically.
I also have 3 Charge's in my account, but they're all a result of CLN replacements. I've never seen a new one show up due to a ROM flash.
Re-Flash
So I was having the same problems with my Charge. All I did was re-flash the rom and it works perfect now.
One more question. I am perpetually on low RAM. Is it because some of my apps are installed on internal memory and not on the SD Card? Should I move all apps to my SD Card?
Also will Tasker automatically be able to start a playlist on Pandora or Google Music or will it just start the app?
salilsurendran said:
One more question. I am perpetually on low RAM. Is it because some of my apps are installed on internal memory and not on the SD Card? Should I move all apps to my SD Card?
Also will Tasker automatically be able to start a playlist on Pandora or Google Music or will it just start the app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
make sure you are on the new pbj and you shouldn't have a ram problem. I have 100 apps i think and none of them are installed on my sd card so that has nothing to do with that problem
as for tasker it'll take some research but I know it integrates well with some apps settings and what not but I could not give you a definite answer. sorry.
Hey! tl;dr? Click here to go directly to the fast improvements post and disable some unwanted services.
Still want more fun disabling services? Read the second post.
Hi all,
I improved the speed of my G2 recently and felt that the community might appreciate this as well. It's probably not the "best guide" for everybody, but this is what I've done and it's worked nicely for me so far.
I recently got irritated at my phone being occasionally sluggish. So, when it was sluggish one time, I went to Manage applications->Running Applications, and saw that Facebook decided it wanted to start itself up in the background.
Now, I'm as big a fan as the next guy for having multi-tasking, but randomly starting an app in the background without my consent is not what I consider to be useful or resource-friendly. I decided to "freeze" the app using SD Maid (you can do this with Titanium Backup as well). Facebook is now in a frozen state so it will not launch itself at all. Ha!
What do I do about having no Facebook now? Well, there happens to be a great app on the Market called Fast for Facebook. This is quite an improvement over the sluggish and buggy Facebook app. I installed that and am having a blast with it so far.
I wanted to check for other apps that were dawdling in the background. So I looked again in Running Applications and found that Maps decided it wants to be running too. I went to the settings for the Maps application, and turned off Location reporting. Why would I want an app sucking my resources dry to alert the world where I am? I'm not that much of a socialite or stalker prey. I also turned off Automatic check-ins.
Previously, I'd gone through a few other apps and turned off automatic sync. Things like DropSync (to sync Dropbox), Tumblr, Google+, and Twitter are not necessary for me to have reviving themselves in the background. I should be the authoritarian ruler of all of the apps over my phone- no freedom here to run around as you please.
I set up a couple apps to run at odd hours of the night. I only need to have photos and documents synced probably once a day, so I set up Tasker to do it automatically while the phone is charging and connected to Wifi at around 4am. I've set up Titanium Backup to do backups something like every Tuesday night, Friday night, and Sunday night, each at like 4am as well; and upload those backups to Box. I want to use my phone fast when I use it during the day, and at night time it can take its time with these lesser-priority tasks while I'm asleep.
Email/Gmail and Messages still have notifications and syncing, as well as the occasional Pulse RSS feed notification. All else seems to be shutting up though, which is good. What I would really like to do is have Market update its apps automatically at like 4am, so it won't spend resources checking for updates in the background. I can't find how to do that though.
One app that really gets under my skin is Amazon Appstore. This guy runs in the background too- I've turned off its notifications but I'm pretty sure it'll still sit there sapping my resources. This one's a toughie because I want to uninstall or freeze it, but I want to still be able to get good free apps from it once a day. There have been some really good apps and some really bad ones, but the good ones are worth it to me.
I might add in more things to disable. It's been faster so far, so I'll see how it goes over a couple days. One last thing I did was install SetCPU. I use that now instead of CyanogenMod 7's built-in CPU stuff. I don't know if it's a placebo or not, but I seemed to notice a boost in performance from it (not instantly, but in general I see less lag).
Hope this helps someone, best of luck with all of your phones.
-Proxin
use watchdog to spy on what apps are actually running and using cpu in the background, lots of apps can be open in the background and not using anything cpuwise
demkantor said:
use watchdog to spy on what apps are actually running and using cpu in the background, lots of apps can be open in the background and not using anything cpuwise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Watchdog is a great idea too, I forgot to mention that.
If anyone else has recommendations they are all welcome!
Proxin said:
Watchdog is a great idea too, I forgot to mention that.
If anyone else has recommendations they are all welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For speed improvements, i usually use titanum backup to remove alot of useless apps i dont use (which frees up alot of ram). then i supercharge my phone and set it to agressive. And i also change up the build prop.
I need to post my additions.
I realized that by disabling Facebook, I lost my contacts that I had from there. That's no good. So I re-enabled it.
Now, Facebook has a few select services it likes to let run in the background. One specific one is MediaUploadService. This runs even when you are Not uploading anything, which is ridiculous because it hogs your resources.
However, if you disable this service completely, you won't be able to upload any photos to Facebook from your phone.
SO, I set up a script to disable all of Facebook's services like this at once, and I use the app called Llama to execute this script every time Facebook exits. I set it up to call my enable script once Facebook is started, then 5 minutes after Facebook closes it disables all of the Facebook services.
Here is what I used...
Enable Facebook services:
Code:
su -c 'pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.MediaUploadService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.FacebookService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.BackgroundDetectionService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService; '
Disable Facebook services:
Code:
su -c 'pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.MediaUploadService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.FacebookService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.BackgroundDetectionService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService; '
With this new ability to disable services, I took a look at Amazon AppStore's annoying service, and disabled it using this script with Llama like I did with Facebook:
Amazon Service Disable script
Code:
su -c 'pm disable com.amazon.venezia/com.amazon.venezia.service.UpdateService'
Proxin- note: old code said:
Next, I noticed SwypeConnect was keeping itself active, so I disabled it too (Swype never gets updates anyway, so I didn't see anything bad with doing this):
Code:
pm disable com.swype.android.inputmethod/com.swype.android.connect.ConnectClient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an app on the Market called StartupManager, I used that to kill off extra startup services that were not necessary. Things like Youtube, MyTracks and Maps were starting up. My view is, why do these things start when I don't start them myself? I stopped the services and have seen some pretty good responsiveness so far.
Go to the market and search for an app called gemini manager. It needs root but you can disable autostart for all apps with it.
Also get LBE privacy guard- it will block apps from using gps/data which can also increase battery life
redspeed said:
Go to the market and search for an app called gemini manager. It needs root but you can disable autostart for all apps with it.
Also get LBE privacy guard- it will block apps from using gps/data which can also increase battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, I'll look into those too- thanks
@proxin:
Amazing post! how do you find the path for each of those components inside a package?
I use the same method with Tasker (instead of llama). Perform a task (run shell command) on the exit of a App profile
Also, the .Mqtt. should be all lowercase (figured out after that service would not disable), like this:
com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService
file2mail said:
@proxin:
Amazing post! how do you find the path for each of those components inside a package?
I use the same method with Tasker (instead of llama). Perform a task (run shell command) on the exit of a App profile
Also, the .Mqtt. should be all lowercase (figured out after that service would not disable), like this:
com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, hope it has helped! I found them by looking up their Running service name on Google, and seeing people's logcat errors on there elaborated them for me. So I'd try a search for "com.facebook.katana*MqttPushService" and Google would direct me to the proper one.
You're spot-on with the Mqtt needing to be lowercase, I found the same issue on mine and got pissed off when I saw that the Mqtt service was still running forgot to change the post to reflect it though. Thanks for the notice
Seems like the best method for using your phone properly is to do like we're doing, otherwise applications with poor choice in how they handle resources, will clutter up the phone.
Btw, I tried Gemini App Manager and it works well for disabling autostart in apps. LBE Privacy Guard is intense in how much it locks down your phone, but that's locked down it's even a bit too much for me haha. It's a great app and will work for many people though.
I've noticed maps running in the background many times. I didnt know you're able to switch this off, thanks for the info!
Killer1desireZ said:
I've noticed maps running in the background many times. I didnt know you're able to switch this off, thanks for the info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, I don't recommend killing off the Maps service though as it's probably needed for some location service (in my case I need the cell tower location service for some Llama profiles)
That's just my case though. Before you disable the service, maybe see if you can turn off automatic location reporting in Latitude? Go into Latitude settings->Location Settings and change Location reporting and Automatic check-ins to be Off.
Hope this helps. It shouldn't disable the entire Maps service but maybe it will reduce the amount of check-ins that Maps does without your consent.
Perhaps one of the biggest performance hits in an Mid Spec Android phone is how many App's it's carrying.
It is generally a good idea to keep the App count low. A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 40~ user apps on your Device. Since you have less apps installed (some of which could be idling or actively operating in the backround), you'll have more free RAM/space in the internal storage which in turn will mean more speed/battery efficiency.
Hope this can be of help
crestofawave said:
Perhaps one of the biggest performance hits in an Mid Spec Android phone is how many App's it's carrying.
It is generally a good idea to keep the App count low. A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 40~ user apps on your Device. Since you have less apps installed (some of which could be idling or actively operating in the backround), you'll have more free RAM/space in the internal storage which in turn will mean more speed/battery efficiency.
Hope this can be of help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard this said too, but I've never seen evidence that the more apps you have installed = the more apps are actively running. It's definitely a good idea to have less installed, but I don't think they'll run in the background unless they have autostarting capabilities like you can monitor with Gemini App Manager.
This is just me without even a Bachelor's degree speculating and relaying my experience though, so don't take my word for it
I notice a definite lag once I go above a certain amount of apps. I uninstall 10 or so and its a rocket! But then again I have waaaay more then 40 probably like 100 or something
Maps doesn't have that option for me. Anyways uninstalled 20 apps
New fun things to try...
I enjoy GO Launcher Ex just as much as the next guy who uses it as the default Home application, but I don't enjoy it making multiple services of itself that do, literally nothing. What I noticed specifically was a service called GOMusic, taking up about 4MB of RAM which could be used for other, more useful things.
What I did to fix it was:
Code:
pm disable com.gau.go.launcherex/com.jiubang.ggheart.apps.desks.appfunc.mediamanagement.musicplay.MusicPlaybackService
My Google Music widget still works fine, so apparently the GOMusic thing was just a waste of RAM (unless someone can explain a good reason to leave it be?)
One more addition I did was that, I keep seeing SwypeConnect as a service and I don't like it. It shouldn't need to constantly connect, for me to simply use Swype whenever I do.
I tried two things, pretty sure the second fixed this:
Code:
pm disable com.nuance.swype.input/com.nuance.swype.input.SwypeConnect
pm disable com.naunce.swype.input/com.nuance.swype.connect.ConnectClient
And next, I saw that Google Voice had a Widget service that liked to hang out and sap my resources. This would be useful but I don't have a widget set, so I disabled it:
Code:
pm disable com.google.android.apps.googlevoice/.widget.WidgetService
That worked for me. I can still send and receive messages with Google Voice, so I still have the same functionality I need without having an extra service in my list.
Note that, as usual, these are easily reversible by using using "enable" instead of disable in that code block.
Hopefully this will help someone else as well.
New experimental service disabled; I had noticed multiple Maps services running whenever they pleased. I can do with a NetworkLocation service from Maps, because I use Llama for location profiles and all, but not a Prefetcher service for it.
Here is what I used to disable the Prefetcher service...
Code:
pm disable com.google.android.apps.maps/com.google.googlenav.prefetch.android.PrefetcherService
I haven't seen any negative effects from this so far, but I will update this if I do.
@Proxin
Hi there,
I'm realy like your entries here, but i cant get through with the scripts killing facebook services. Can you be more specifc pls how to set those scripts you mentioned in Llama?
i've just tried to do things you say with facebook background services and for maps' prefetcher, but it says Segmentation Fault, as far as i know , segfaults are not normal linux program response, right? without super user privileges it just says 'Killed' [i tried both because 'pm set-install-location' worked for me only without super user]
EDIT:
ok, i'm noob, i just had to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH, now pm doesn't segfault for me as superuser
hi can any ody guide me how to use those su commands with llama?? thanks
Hey guys, im pretty much new to the android scene, last week one of my parents friends changed their carrier to Telstra and my plans came into the conversation, and i said that i would like to get an android phone in the near future (probably the nexus 5 depending on whos making it).
Anyways he said he could give me one of his old android phones, a HTC Velocity 4G to see if i liked it or not.
Now my previous phone was a Nokia N8, not exactly great for apps n stuff but it was good at browsing the net using Opera and its battery life was amazing especially with music in the background it could last for quite a bit. If you werent using the browser and it was just sitting there with a few tabs open it could last nearly the entire day, if you actively used it with music in the background i think it lasted about 2 -3 hours
So here are a couple of questions i would like to ask regarding the phone itself and the google play store n such.
1. Do all android phones seemingly have bad battery life? i put some music on this phone, and it didnt even want to last a damn hour, that im wondering if it really is the phone or if the battery was stuffed up during the time they had it (understandable)
2. Do all android phones come with this task manager and can you only fully close apps from this app itself? i mean the N8 all you did was hold a button it would have the open apps and you just touched the X button.
3.. The Google Play store. Do you have to sign in with a google account? i mean i have a youtube account with a gmail but i dont think i want my phone to get all these email notifications or store my contacts on this account, mainly because this account gets alot of spam, in the spam folder and in the inbox folder that and i dont really use google plus except on a few occasions that i dont really wanna receive those kinds of notifications. Is it better just to create a new gmail just for my phone?
4. If i want in the future, can i remove my android phone from an account and decide to move it to another account due to unforeseen circumstances and keep the apps i might buy in the future?
Please remember im still new to the android scene, pretty much using Symbian my whole life (well only nokia 6300 and nokia n8 but they were both great phones) so dont judge me to harshly.
Thanks
Regular Android User Trying To Help
I am by no means an "expert", but I can try to answer your questions.
1. I currently have the Droid Razr MAXX HD and I can easily get 2 full days of use, and if I try, 3 days of full use. This is taking pictures, using 4g, playing games, texting, you name it. I also know they just released a 5000MaH battery for the S4, meaning it will last longer than my phone. Also, most phones have an optional extended battery.
2. Mostly, you don't need to close your apps. If you use the back button to navigate all the way out, or simply hit the home button, it will stay in your ram, but it won't normally interfere with the speediness of your device; since android apps are run in their own virtual device. But, in the settings you can force close any open app, and custom roms allow you a "kill" button for open apps.
3. I think it is better to create a new gmail for your phone. You have to sign into a gmail account to really even use an android phone, and I find it quite nifty. The one account lets you log into anything Google, the playstore, gmail, keep, etc. I have my contacts synced with my Gmail, so I never lose phone contacts, and I have really switched over to gmail because of my android phone. I just find it better to use than old school yahoo. Plus, I use drive, keep, and calendar frequently. Try all these Google apps for yourself, they can be very useful.
4. If by account you mean google account, then no, because the apps you purchase are synced with that account. If you mean carrier, then yes, because the apps are synced to the google account. You can also back your apps up with a rooted phone with certain software. Someone else might be better at answering this though.
Hope I helped.
jdubya42 said:
I am by no means an "expert", but I can try to answer your questions.
1. I currently have the Droid Razr MAXX HD and I can easily get 2 full days of use, and if I try, 3 days of full use. This is taking pictures, using 4g, playing games, texting, you name it. I also know they just released a 5000MaH battery for the S4, meaning it will last longer than my phone. Also, most phones have an optional extended battery.
2. Mostly, you don't need to close your apps. If you use the back button to navigate all the way out, or simply hit the home button, it will stay in your ram, but it won't normally interfere with the speediness of your device; since android apps are run in their own virtual device. But, in the settings you can force close any open app, and custom roms allow you a "kill" button for open apps.
3. I think it is better to create a new gmail for your phone. You have to sign into a gmail account to really even use an android phone, and I find it quite nifty. The one account lets you log into anything Google, the playstore, gmail, keep, etc. I have my contacts synced with my Gmail, so I never lose phone contacts, and I have really switched over to gmail because of my android phone. I just find it better to use than old school yahoo. Plus, I use drive, keep, and calendar frequently. Try all these Google apps for yourself, they can be very useful.
4. If by account you mean google account, then no, because the apps you purchase are synced with that account. If you mean carrier, then yes, because the apps are synced to the google account. You can also back your apps up with a rooted phone with certain software. Someone else might be better at answering this though.
Hope I helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mostly what jdubya42 said but heres my word on it.
1. Battery life. Battery life can be bad on any device, it depends on what you use and how much you use your data or WiFi Bluetooth etc. Also like jdub said the new s4 is getting a 5000mah battery, that's a lot of juice normally android phones will have only around 1000mah-1800mah, your lucky if you get 2000mah. Android tablets get somewhere around 7000mah, so 5k on a phone should last you all day. Just think of how much the nexus 5 will get.
2. Most android phones nowadays come with a task manager. On some of the Samsung phone all you would have to do is hold the home button and will show you all the apps you have opened, and keeps them running. Its a nice way to switch between apps but keeping apps in the background can drain your battery fast so you should close the ones your not using (the task manager for android only comes with android 4.0 and up devices lower versions of android close the app when exited out), for this I would recommend a phone that would have more than one core, the s4 comes with 1.6ghz quad core which is more than enough.
3.as for the gmail, yes you need to make gmail account or use existing one, android is open source, the way google make money is the OEM (original equipment manufacturer, HTC Samsung lg etc) makes the phones sells them, profit for OEM, and people buy apps movies music and books from the Google play store, profit for Google.
4. If you get a new android phone you are able to still use all the apps music etc you bought on your previous devices and use on future ones, you won't have to remove your gmail account from your old phone.
Welcome to the world of android mate
Closing apps and getting "battery saving" apps can potentially save you battery but in addition to the software aspect, you can also modify the hardware usage. By that I mean unlocking, rooting, custom kernel and ROM. Just installing them will likely optimize your phone better then stock but you can also manually set your min/max frequency, frequency governor, core activity, undervoltage, GPU governor/responsiveness, and more.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1736168
One would think that the company that actually created the OS would be the once knowing how to build the best applications for it. But this is far from true. Google's own closed sourced applications is actually the once with the largest battery draining issue. Google's Applications is also harder to locate when using analytics application to locate problematic packages because they hide behind the system processes category. Some analytic apps does not check these and others has to manually be configured to include them. Android's own list in the Battery section in Android Settings also does not include most if these processes. The once that are included is wrapped in a group containing multiple processes making it impossible to locate the actual problematic one.
The problem is that most people can't do without these packages. At least not all of them. But, it is possible to limit the amount and thereby remove a lot of your battery issues. In this thread I will tell you about the once that I found. Then maybe others can pitch in with their experience and some how we could once and for all stop Google from raping our batteries.
My first notice of this, was when Watchdog started reporting constant extensive CPU usage while the device was suppose to be sleeping. I could get multiple warnings within minutes about different kworker processes using 30% - 70% CPU usage at times where the CPU should be idle. Since kworker is a wrapper without any information about the process using it, those types are not easy to locate. However, after a few month I manages to track down the problem, which turns out to be Google Settings. The Application that it always automatically installed upon the first run after clean install. I removed this application and the problem was gone. No more alerts and battery life became better.
My second notice was a certain start of battery drain. At first this made no sense as I had not really done anything or installed anything different. All I did was update to latest nightly of CM, so I thought maybe a bug in CM. The problem however never went away and started looking into it. I found the Google Services group (One of those containing multiple processes). For some reason it was keeping wakelock's for very long periods of time, more specific 48 minutes out of little under 3 hours. It made sense since I updated the gapps package at the same time as CM. Someone in the CM10.2 thread advised me to take a look at Network Location. And sure enough, disabling this fixed the issue.
I can live without Google Settings, but Network Location? Don't know yet. However, those who can't could instead take a look at the OpenSource Version by @MaR-V-iN. I have used that before, and it is working just fine.
Also, when installing gapps, you could try to minimize what you install. I stripped the package down to the list below
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleLoginService.apk
GoogleServicesFramework.apk
NetworkLocation.apk (Which I will now remove or replace)
Phonesky.apk (Play Store)
SetupWizard.apk
No Libraries or nothing
Now, others might need other packages, but if you minimize by removing what you don't need, then you will also minimize the issues brought along by Google Applications.
Living without google settings is not viable to many people... I think it's almost necessary...
Really? To gain what? You can to everything from the web.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Guys, I'm losing my mind over their wake and battery use. I'm on Slim 8.0 and franco r63 and already done the following:
Yeah, so I've turned OFF 'wake' in privacy manager, I've cancelled 'wake' permission in Android Tuner, I've disabled ads / location activity, and turned off sync and STILL I get ~40% drain from stinking GOOGLE SERVICES!!
Last night was last straw of me, so I wiped / reflashed SLIM 8.0 and franco kernel r63, set max CPU to ~1450, max GPU to ~380, downvolt ~25ma and waiting to see result.
WHY are google services such a PITA when it comes to WAKE and BATTERY USE when I've obviously disabled their ability to both WAKE and COMMUNICATE?
It's driven me absolutely BATTY. My wife's S4 has the same issue and I'm about to be DONE with all Google crap on her phone also.
I've google the issues and they are THOUSANDS of reports of similar problems.
If ANYBODY has a better idea I'd really appreciate it. Different ROM, different kernel, ANYTHING.
UPDATE: 4 hours 37 minutes > 90% left... with a lot of 9gagging in that time
Battery help thread linked in my signature.
Had the issue earlier today. Settings > Storage > Clear Cache > Reboot seems to have worked.
Make sure to not disable GPS, doing so for some reason will have that process constantly scan for location and keeping your device awake.
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Never heard of the 'GPS on' trick, but I checked location and no apps have requested location.
I tried to load a 'mini Gapps' package for SLIM but it's same story, device NEVER sleeps. No sync, no location, disabled 'wake' for the services, everything... glad I backed up the system with NO Gapps because I'll likely be restoring...
Really, really, really pathetic that SO many people have this program. What the hell is wrong with google??
Im convinced google play services is nsa spyware. Anyone care to prove me wrong? I would feel bette if you could. I have uninstalled it several times and it WILL NOT GO AWAY. And it uses more permissions than any other app I have. It will not stop running. It behaves like a virus in my opinion. Am I just a conspiracy nut?
Sent from my LG-VS450PP using XDA Free mobile app
whodisname said:
Im convinced google play services is nsa spyware. Anyone care to prove me wrong? I would feel bette if you could. I have uninstalled it several times and it WILL NOT GO AWAY. And it uses more permissions than any other app I have. It will not stop running. It behaves like a virus in my opinion. Am I just a conspiracy nut?
Sent from my LG-VS450PP using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Google uses it for things like Analytics
2. Most apps depend on it as a framework to do things, hence the permissions
3. It updates in the background automatically
4. This is Android. Android means Google.
5. If you don't like that, switch to using the Amazon app store, or buy a crappy iOS device.
Well, I just removed it (it was a pita due to no recovery on phone so i gotta be delicate!) and maps still works. Thats the one app I cant live without. I havent checked everything yet but nothing I have used thus far seems affected. Used TB to remove market links.I use an alternate app store already. My phone runs MUCH faster. I will never own a crappy Iphone device!!!
Everything checked. All works.
Sent from my LG-VS450PP using XDA Free mobile app
You don't need GPS ON, just freeze google play store and services and enjoy LONG battery life. Only thing that works for me 100% of the time....