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I saw several posts suggesting that leaving WiFi on where you have WiFi connection helps you to save the battery which I'm finding pretty strange. I thought WiFi actually drains battery faster then anything else. Are savings due to the fact that WiFi is more efficient then 3G or does it actually holds true that it saves battery?
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
A lot of programs will initiate data transfers by themselves when connected to Wi-Fi though, so perhaps that is why some will notice higher drain when Wi-Fi is on.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
artisticcheese said:
I saw several posts suggesting that leaving WiFi on where you have WiFi connection helps you to save the battery which I'm finding pretty strange. I thought WiFi actually drains battery faster then anything else. Are savings due to the fact that WiFi is more efficient then 3G or does it actually holds true that it saves battery?
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Yes, as Scotty said above me...
ScottyNuttz said:
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
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This however, is untrue. At least for me. I run the leaked 2.2 and my WiFi is always on at home, my data connection is never active. I check this by dialing *3282# and hitting send.
ScottyNuttz said:
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
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When I have wifi switched on I lose around 5 to 10% an hour. With it off I lose 1 to 2%. I don't have anything set to sync differently via wifi. I only have a few apps that sync data and those are set to do so every 4 hours or so.
I have tried leaving it both on and off overnight to test this and every time I've left it off I woke up with a full battery. If I leave it on I have to charge again in the morning.
When I'm going out I turn wifi off so that my phone isn't constantly searching for signal.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
miztaken1312 said:
This however, is untrue. At least for me. I run the leaked 2.2 and my WiFi is always on at home, my data connection is never active. I check this by dialing *3282# and hitting send.
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In the Wi-Fi advanced settings (Hit Menu when in the normal wi-fi settings), there is a Wi-Fi Sleep Policy (which specifies when to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data)
By default, my device was set to 'When screen turns off'. the other options were 'Never when plugged in' or 'Never', I switched mine to 'Never'. You should notice that when you turn your screen on, the wifi icon doesn't show up right away. Of course, I'm on 2.1, so this may be different in 2.2, but check it out.
For me, I get no cell signal in the building at work so I need to keep wifi on. If I turn it off my battery drains fast from the 3g radio constantly trying to lock on a signal.
It depends in the quality of your 3G connection, but all things equal I have seen that using WiFi instead of 3G does save battery, when the WiFi is connected of course. Anytime a radio is constantly searching for a signal or trying to hold a weak signal, power usage tends to go up.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
ScottyNuttz said:
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
A lot of programs will initiate data transfers by themselves when connected to Wi-Fi though, so perhaps that is why some will notice higher drain when Wi-Fi is on.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
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Check out Y5 Battery Saver.
This app turns your wifi on/off based on the cell towers that you are on. You just connect to wifi, enable the app, and it remembers what cell towers you were on while you were in range of that wifi location. as soon as you are off of those towers, it turns off wifi. to add new wifi locations, just disable the app, connect to the hot spot, and re-enable the app.
This gives you the best of both worlds. you get to save battery while you are using wifi and when you are out of range it doesn't continually search for new wifi networks to connect to.
ScottyNuttz said:
In the Wi-Fi advanced settings (Hit Menu when in the normal wi-fi settings), there is a Wi-Fi Sleep Policy (which specifies when to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data)
By default, my device was set to 'When screen turns off'. the other options were 'Never when plugged in' or 'Never', I switched mine to 'Never'. You should notice that when you turn your screen on, the wifi icon doesn't show up right away. Of course, I'm on 2.1, so this may be different in 2.2, but check it out.
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Whenever I turn my screen on, my wifi icon is right there. No delay in it showing up. I don't remember ever changing the sleep policy when I updated so I believe this is the default behavior for 2.2
drwx said:
Check out Y5 Battery Saver.
This app turns your wifi on/off based on the cell towers that you are on. You just connect to wifi, enable the app, and it remembers what cell towers you were on while you were in range of that wifi location. as soon as you are off of those towers, it turns off wifi. to add new wifi locations, just disable the app, connect to the hot spot, and re-enable the app.
This gives you the best of both worlds. you get to save battery while you are using wifi and when you are out of range it doesn't continually search for new wifi networks to connect to.
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+1 on Y5. There are a few other apps in the market that claim to do the same thing, but I think Y5 is by far the easiest to set up and works really well. Nice little utility so you don't have to keep remembering to turn off the wifi manually when you are out of range.
Now if I could just find a app that does the same for my bluetooth when it is near my car....but that I think is much harder to do without it actually polling.
So my phone just started showing this behavior like a day or two ago. It's doing it right now. Both my Wifi and 4G icons appear in the notification bar. The 4G icon isn't showing activity (the download and upload arrows are dimmed), BUT if I go to my "Phone Info" app, and go to Phone Information it shows:
GSM service: In service
GPRS service: Connected
Network Type: HSDPA
Before whenever I was on Wifi only the Wifi icon would show up, and Phone Info would show GPRS Service as : Disconnected, i.e. normal behavior. Now it appears there is a conflict somewhere and the 4G network is showing as connected even when wifi is on.
Now, I did make some changes recently:
1) Temp-rooted and pm disabled a bunch of bloatware - this was like 4 or 5 days ago and I didn't have the problem at all so I'm not sure if it's related.
2) I unchecked Wireless Settings > Mobile Networks > "Enable always on mobile data" - Thought it might save battery when in sleep mode.
I think the problem started after #2. I've since checked that option back on, restarted, airplane mode, battery pull etc., but it's still exhibiting the same behavior. I've never seen this happen on any of my past Android devices (a lot). If I go to the Quick Settings it shoes Mobile Network is OFF but it IS checked. It's really confusing. When you turn Wifi on, Mobile network should disconnect, but according to phone Info, mine is on and I've been getting "network issue, try again" in the Market, and "Network Communication issues" in the Speedtest app so clearly something is being affected.
This has been my ONLY problem with my Sensation thus far, and the fact that it JUST started doing this makes me wonder what I could have done to affect it.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Every once in awhile the 4G icon WILL disappear leaving only Wifi on, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected, but eventually the 4G/2G icon comes back and Phone info shows GPRS service: Connected, so it keeps trying/turning itself on even though my Wifi is connected. WTF!
If you're on a t mo device it's because of the my device app. Open and close it or end the process in system panel and it should fix the problem.
I believe this is somewhat normal...
I have voice only plan and disabled data through the *#*#INFO#*#* menus. The only way I can get data is through Wifi, which I always have enabled, regardless when I go to About Phone -> Network, I see mobile network type HSDPA.
It seems like voice is going through the 3G/4G but not any data. Not sure why you do get the 4G popping up, I sure don't.
Sdobron said:
If you're on a t mo device it's because of the my device app. Open and close it or end the process in system panel and it should fix the problem.
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Thanks! I tracked down the second package name for "My Account" (one is for My Account, one is for My device), disabled and rebooted. So far so good; Wifi is connected, no 4G icon, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected as it should. I had already disabled one package but not the other. I can live w/o the My account feature for a bit and I'll keep an eye out to see if the problem returns.
bigmase521 said:
Thanks! I tracked down the second package name for "My Account" (one is for My Account, one is for My device), disabled and rebooted. So far so good; Wifi is connected, no 4G icon, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected as it should. I had already disabled one package but not the other. I can live w/o the My account feature for a bit and I'll keep an eye out to see if the problem returns.
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You phone will always connect to data whn using Tmobile apps such as my account app. Its because they need network data, not web data, to get their info like your usage, and billing. If you manually shut of data and turn wifi on and try to open the my account app, it will give you error.
Just because you turn Wifi on, it doesnt make the data shut off. It just connects to WIFI because its a stronger signal. It will still access the 4G data for netork required information. You can manually shut off mobile data and then turn on wifi if you want.
^This is true, I'm manually switching 4G off when connected to WiFi.
dubie76 said:
You phone will always connect to data whn using Tmobile apps such as my account app. Its because they need network data, not web data, to get their info like your usage, and billing. If you manually shut of data and turn wifi on and try to open the my account app, it will give you error.
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I realize this, however I was never trying to use the T-mobile apps.
dubie76 said:
Just because you turn Wifi on, it doesnt make the data shut off. It just connects to WIFI because its a stronger signal. It will still access the 4G data for netork required information. You can manually shut off mobile data and then turn on wifi if you want.
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Of course it does. What would be the point in having BOTH Wifi and 4g/3g/EDGE data on at the same time, all the time? That would be a HUGE drain on your battery if it were constantly using both radios and connected to/searching for both networks. When you turn Wifi on, the mobile data radio gets turned off. When you de-activate Wifi, mobile data turns back on. This is why you get much better battery life on Wifi because the 4g/3g radio gets turned off. Plus, both can't be connected at the same time or else there would be routing problems i.e., it would get confused as to which connection to use.
This is exactly what happened to my phone in that that both WERE on at the same time and it was causing no traffic to get in/out and I couldn't figure out why. Disabling the two t-mobile My Account packages solved it so it seems like
one was trying to connect in the background and couldn't but then froze the radio state. I'm not gonna re-enable the app to confirm but IIRC when you're on Wifi and fire up the My Account app, it either prompts you to turn off wifi, or it just disables wifi temporarily and fires up the mobile radio in the background, and re-enables when you're done.
Sdobron said:
If you're on a t mo device it's because of the my device app. Open and close it or end the process in system panel and it should fix the problem.
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Yep. If you keep the T-Mobile my account app running it will do that cause It needs the 4G/Data connection.
xamadeix said:
Yep. If you keep the T-Mobile my account app running it will do that cause It needs the 4G/Data connection.
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Right, but what I'm saying is that I wasn't running the app. It does run as a service though so I'm wondering if it was trying to connect on it's own in the background, though I'm not sure why. I haven't seen this behavior on any other devices including my Sensation before I disabled one of the My Account apps, but I'm almost positive at this point it was the culprit. Could be because I had only disabled one of them and not both. After I disabled the second, the problem went away.
Do you have WiFi sleep disabled?
If not, phone may revert to regular data until you start communicating and wake up your WiFi.
Just a thought.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
PaulGiz said:
Do you have WiFi sleep disabled?
If not, phone may revert to regular data until you start communicating and wake up your WiFi.
Just a thought.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
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Nope, sleep policy is set to "Never" and wifi sticks fine. Still happened even with screen on so wifi was def. awake. I fixed it by disabling the T-Mo My Account apps so I'm cool but maybe it can help someone else if they have the same problem. It's really weird, never seen it happen before. I wish I took a video of it before I disabled the apps. Thanks guys.
bigmase521 said:
Right, but what I'm saying is that I wasn't running the app. It does run as a service though so I'm wondering if it was trying to connect on it's own in the background, though I'm not sure why. I haven't seen this behavior on any other devices including my Sensation before I disabled one of the My Account apps, but I'm almost positive at this point it was the culprit. Could be because I had only disabled one of them and not both. After I disabled the second, the problem went away.
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It's poor coding in the app. Nothing you're doing wrong.
so I am curious if anyone has run into this issue (or if it's not an issue and rather it's just the way the phone behaves, perhaps someone can tell me if there is a workaround in settings?):
it seems to me that turning wifi on doesn't always make wifi the active connection. it's intermittent, but it appears to happen frequently.
I found out because I started to download some stuff out of my audiogalaxy collection (which REQUIRES wifi, it doesn't let you do it on mobile data) and it kept telling me to enable wifi to continue downloading.
speed tests confirmed that I was on mobile data, not wifi... even though wifi was turned on and connected.
I've also noticed that occasionally, you'll turn wifi on and it won't replace the mobile data icon... I imagine it's all related.
any of you guys encountering this or should I go get myself a replacement?
Hi,
Just wonder if anybody is experiencing the same wifi fallback issue on the SGH-i727?
Basically, the phone doesn't automatically fall back to the previously added wifi network from LTE/4G when the screen is off. To get around that, I'll need to hit the power button once every time I enter the wifi range. When the screen is turned on by hitting the power button, I will see the 4G/LTE being replaced by the wifi icon very quickly. After that, it will then stay connected to the wifi network regardless whether the screen is on or off.
I was able to confirm this issue by monitoring the app traffic before and after I turned on the screen.
Without turning on the screen in the wifi range, the phone will stay on the 4g/LTE network forever even though the previously added wifi network is available.
I have already tried out different routers and it's still the same. SSID broadcast is on. I am thinking if there's a bug with the phone. Note that on my phone, my "Wi-Fi sleep policy" under the advanced menu of the "Wi-Fi settings" is always set to "never". Also, it's a stock ROM, nothing is modified at all.
This issue has never happened on other phones. What you think? Am I missing anything here?
After playing with it more, I noticed that the phone will never do the wifi handshake when the screen is off.
I tried turning off and on the wifi in the Wi-Fi settings. If I turn off the screen quickly before the phone gets connected to the wifi network again, it *will* remain unconnected until the screen is turned on again. =(
Did you go into the advanced wifi settings and change the wifi sleep policy?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App
No, I didn't. I've never touched that setting. The "Wi-Fi sleep policy" is always set to "never".
My phone can still be connected to wifi when the screen is off, so it doesn't seem related to the "Wi-Fi sleep policy". The problem is only that it won't do any wifi connection handshake during screen-off.
Am I the only one having this issue? I guess that's more of a software issue rather than a hardware issue?
Have you tried the AT&T wifi app? It automatically turns off and on wifi as needed
No, that doesn't help.
Yes, I do realize I'm bringing back a thread from the dead, but...
I just got a Samsung Stratosphere (SCH-i405 -- a CDMA-1X/EVDO/LTE Galaxy S phone) and it does EXACTLY the same thing. It's ironic, on the Stratosphere they added a bit of fun that CONSTANTLY lets you know there's networks (which I had to disable), but it doesn't connect to the wifi networks I do have in there until I turn on the screen I guess that's just how it is; at least it doesn't kill the wifi once it IS connected.
If anyone knows a programmatic way to bypass this, I'd be interested, and I could write up a wifi app to implement the solution. I'm guesisng it's a behavior of the drivers though and would take some custom ROM or something to fix.
You could always try to use tasker for automatically connecting to the wifi using radio antenna or maybe can't remember if possible by identifying certain wifi spot.
Hi all, I am having some issues with my Z3s mobile data switch. If I have mobile data on and then activate my wifi, the mobiles data 3g icon disappears, which I had assumed is normal because wifi trumps data.
After I turn wifi off, the data connection icon does not come back and i have no internet access. When I go to settings to reactivate the data connection, it says it is already on. I have to shut it off/turn it on manually 3 or 4 times before it reconnects... and it seems like it takes a really long time to reconnect too.
Any thoughts?
1. Try to reinstall the internet and mms settings under settings, Wireless and networks, Internet Settings.
2. Try under settings, Wireless and networks, mobile networks, prefered network mode, select any of the non LTE/4G options.
3 .If either of those don't work, then try under settings, Wireless and networks, mobile networks, then network operator, then select your network provider from the list, then do each of the previous step 2 then step 1.
If that still doesn't work take the sim back and get it checked out by your provider, or request a new one.
danw_oz said:
1. Try to reinstall the internet and mms settings under settings, Wireless and networks, Internet Settings.
2. Try under settings, Wireless and networks, mobile networks, prefered network mode, select any of the non LTE/4G options.
3 .If either of those don't work, then try under settings, Wireless and networks, mobile networks, then network operator, then select your network provider from the list, then do each of the previous step 2 then step 1.
If that still doesn't work take the sim back and get it checked out by your provider, or request a new one.
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Thanks for this. Apparently it matters in which order you do things with this phone so when I set it up before installing the sim it messed it up. I reset the phone back to factory defaults but this time with the sim card in it and it now works a lot better--though switching between wifi and mobile data is rather slow, at least compared to my One M8.
hmm, shouldn't do I haven't noticed that previously, I would be wary of your sim card.
I have the same issue on my Z3 Compact. Is there no other way than a factory reset? I'm rooted btw
Try turning off Stamina mode
I've had the same or similar issue with the T-Mobile version of the Z3 (D6616). For my phone, I've noticed that it is Stamina mode that is causing this issue. Another post described a similar issue and the way to resolve it was to clear the data and cache on the "Extended Standby mode controller" app/process. Note however that this causes all the stamina settings to be reset such as the apps active in standby. Eventually though this didn't work any more so I decided to turn off Stamina mode altogether. So far, the Wi-Fi to mobile data switching works flawlessly with Stamina mode off.
My feeling it has to do with an app/apps that affect this particular process. I had reset my phone and installed apps "slowly" (install one app, test, install another app, test, etc.) to see which app would cause this though could not pinpoint a particular app. I've experienced this issue with three Xperia Z3's (the first Z3 I had, the replacement Z3 due to a camera button issue, and my wife's Z3) so this has to be a software issue.
Another option is to put the phone in Airplane mode then take it out of airplane mode.
I have the same issue. Although it arises sporadically, I simply enable and disable Airplane mode when I'm out of wifi range if the phone fails to catch mobile data.
nOrbX187 said:
I've had the same or similar issue with the T-Mobile version of the Z3 (D6616). For my phone, I've noticed that it is Stamina mode that is causing this issue. Another post described a similar issue and the way to resolve it was to clear the data and cache on the "Extended Standby mode controller" app/process. Note however that this causes all the stamina settings to be reset such as the apps active in standby. Eventually though this didn't work any more so I decided to turn off Stamina mode altogether. So far, the Wi-Fi to mobile data switching works flawlessly with Stamina mode off.
My feeling it has to do with an app/apps that affect this particular process. I had reset my phone and installed apps "slowly" (install one app, test, install another app, test, etc.) to see which app would cause this though could not pinpoint a particular app. I've experienced this issue with three Xperia Z3's (the first Z3 I had, the replacement Z3 due to a camera button issue, and my wife's Z3) so this has to be a software issue.
Another option is to put the phone in Airplane mode then take it out of airplane mode.
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You can leave STAMINA mode on (under Power management), however...... only enable the "Extended Standby" option and of course Activation should be at 100%/Always on. When Wi-Fi is on, you must also have whitelisted 2 specific apps in STAMINA under the "Apps active in standby" list: The text msg app you're using (i.e. Textra, etc) and I would also whitelist one under "All others" entitled "Phone/Messaging Storage". Again, this is only for when you have Wi-Fi on. Keep the other stuff disabled in here. With regards to STAMINA mode.......
First, put Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep to "Only when plugged in" (Settings, Wi-Fi, Advanced). Also, make sure everything else on that page is unchecked/disabled. Turn off STAMINA mode. Go into Settings, Apps, All, Extended Standby Mode Controller, Clear Data AND Cache. Then go to your text app's (Textra, etc) "App info" page (on same Apps "All" screen) and clear ONLY the cache, then close out the app itself (3D button to the right of the virtual Home button, swipe the text app off the screen). Reset. When you come back, follow what I said above, including turning STAMINA mode back on (note the removal of having to leave "queue background data" off.) Make sure that when you turn STAMINA mode on that the pop-up shows up describing it. If it doesn't at any point, then repeat this paragraph's instructions. What I just said here MAY resolve any lingering MMS issues, and also resolve any issues regarding with STAMINA mode not kicking in too. When I did this my phone spit out a few "missed" incoming MMS messages out all at once. And the battery seems to be last longer too.
It seems that MMS messages will def show up if Wi-Fi is on, but it will take longer to show up if screen is off. Maybe 3-5 minutes longer.
RockStar2005