another battery thread? please help! - Desire General

Ok I've had my desire now for couple if weeks. I've read many many posts regarding battery issues so please bear with me.
I've come from iPhone 3gs and estimate my battery is seeing 25 percent less capability.
There are it appears many settings for internet connection. (Always enabled, auto sync, background sync, connect to internet, then individual settings for certain apps when they wanna sync. And then WiFi settings. What I'm after is to kill the internet completely when my phone is not in use, (this is regretable but have to save battery).
What I want is to kill the internet completely when the phone is not in use. No background, no sending hunting for signal etc. Then in one click I wanna connect. AND have the apps sync that I want synced. And have full internet etc. Then in ONE click shut internet off compleley. Is the best way to do this, by setting up your auto sync and background to be always on. Background always on, everything always on or connected, then hold the power button to wake the phone but hold it till you get menu and then select connect to internet from one of the options. Then when I pit the phone down, hold power key, then select disconnect from internet. Will this work and kill my internet connection 100 percent? And get everything synchronized when I turn it on?
Not interested in juice defender, read some bad stories (aswell as good)
Thanks.

Long press the power button, click 'Mobile network' to toggle it on or off.
I use this settings when in work as I have a very poor 3G/H signal in my office, other wise the 3G/H singal drops and connects like a yo-yo all day long draining my battery like crazy! I turn it back on when I'm leaving work. This way I still get calls/texts while in work and I'm sitting at my computer for my internet.

JuiceDefender (even the free version) is working wonders for my battery life. The basic version forces your mobile Internet connectivity to only turn on for 1 minute for every 15...amazing what difference this makes.
I've been using it for the last three days or so in basic mode, and my multiplier is already over x2.
The only downsides I've found are that the 3G/HSDPA is a little slow at "waking up" if I want to use it if JuiceDefender has previously turned it off...I have to have the screen turned on for about 20 secs before a connection initiates - it's a relatively small price to pay, however.
As a rule, I have auto-syncing turned off during office hours since I'm in front of my PC at these times, so don't need to have GMail, NewsRob, Weather, Facebook, Twitter etc. updating on the phone. I turn syncing back on just before I leave the office - and there is plenty of stuff then synced up ready for me to look at whilst on the train home. I leave syncing on for the rest of the night whilst I have WiFi on the phone - and this seems to draw *far* less battery than when 3G/HSDPA is constantly on.
With this routine, I'm easily getting 24 hours out of the phone now...
The real battery killer is when you're using Internet-enabled services in a patchy area. The battery drains away extremely rapidly I've found. In can easily lose up to 40% whilst on the train home (which takes no more than 1hr 20mins) whilst I'm trying to use the Internet etc. as it is constantly cycling between cells moving between G-3G-HSDPA...

rodhull said:
JuiceDefender (even the free version) is working wonders for my battery life. The basic version forces your mobile Internet connectivity to only turn on for 1 minute for every 15...amazing what difference this makes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll agree with everything rodhull says, especially the lag after switching the screen on. But I know the developer is working hard to resolve this and other issues. JD looks like it will very shortly be an excellent solution to this, which is really an HTC problem - they should have provided a better battery!

I got my Desire a week ago and the first two days it drained in no time.
Today i have used the phone for playing, surfing, talking, mail, used wifi and gps . and I still have 48% left on the Battery.
Time since last charge is 16 hours and 4 minutes.
I am not doing anything special to preserve the battery

TheOriginalKi said:
Long press the power button, click 'Mobile network' to toggle it on or off.
I use this settings when in work as I have a very poor 3G/H signal in my office, other wise the 3G/H singal drops and connects like a yo-yo all day long draining my battery like crazy! I turn it back on when I'm leaving work. This way I still get calls/texts while in work and I'm sitting at my computer for my internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too, when at home my battery uses about 1-2% per hour with everything syncing and stuff. When at work, it's 6-8% per hour and it's switching between 3G and 2g the entire day. This seems to have a very big influence on battery life.

Hi All.. Just visiting from the X10 pages.. we're having similar battery issues over there too... suspect that these "super smartphones" are really battery killers... A lot of people on the X10 seem to be getting much better battery life now - I got c.40 hours out of mine earlier this week - with wifi usage - no BT and no GPS... There seems to be a few useful things you can try.. first of all - most people have now ditched Juice Defender.. concluding that it doesn't actually help at all.. if anything I reckon it was using more juice..
Wifi sleep policy - set one.. !
Switch data services off when you don't need them (when asleep etc).
Specifying just 2G/ GPRS when in a weak 3G area..
install task manager or ATK to kill apps that run in the background.. sucking up juice!
Hope this helps some!

Related

A positive battery story....

I let my phone discharge fully till it turned itself off!
Charged it for 4 or 5 hours.
Now I used it to make 3 short calls (5mins each) and send 10 or so texts, and surf for about 5 minutes, use google sjy mpas for 5minutes, showcase some video to some friends 2mins, general messing 10mins altogether.
Phone is up 40hours now (since charge) and still at 80%. I am very impressed.
I put it to airplane mode between 12am and 7am though as I don't like to be woken by drunk friends texts at 2am etc. (it happens sometimes).
I think those of us (me included) who slated the battery life originally didn't relaise we were using the phone non-stop pretty much for the entire day, trying out all the features on it. I doubt the first week of use will be "typical use" for ANY user
Happy Days
My battery on day one seems fine, 12.5 hours running so far, screen at 100%, everything on automatic syncing (and I mean everything, Weather, Twitter, FB, Gmail etc), continuous WiFi connection throughout, plenty of "first day" playing around and still sitting at something like 20%. With a few more charges and more typical use will last a day just fine, which is all I ask, since I always charge my phones overnight...
When i got my phone i let it run out as it had half power, i overcharged it a few hours then let it die, then i do the same again but not overcharge it and let it die. Now i charge it when i need to but i seem to be getting 3 days worth with usage out of it and i use gps, web and have things on auto. Seems to be much better than when i first had it as the battery didnt even last a day but now its past 2 days.
I assume with newer firmwares etc this will improve
My battery life seems to get worse. I charged it fully ... it has been on for 6 hours and I have put 3g on for a while (1hour max and i barely have used it) and my battery is already 60% ... is that poor?? This is my second phone as well!!!
mcgon1979 said:
I let my phone discharge fully till it turned itself off!
Charged it for 4 or 5 hours.
Now I used it to make 3 short calls (5mins each) and send 10 or so texts, and surf for about 5 minutes, use google sjy mpas for 5minutes, showcase some video to some friends 2mins, general messing 10mins altogether.
Phone is up 40hours now (since charge) and still at 80%. I am very impressed.
I put it to airplane mode between 12am and 7am though as I don't like to be woken by drunk friends texts at 2am etc. (it happens sometimes).
I think those of us (me included) who slated the battery life originally didn't relaise we were using the phone non-stop pretty much for the entire day, trying out all the features on it. I doubt the first week of use will be "typical use" for ANY user
Happy Days
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought a full charge only required 3 hours..?
Anyone having surprisingly short battery life go into the phone keypad and dial in *#*#4636#*#*, when you key in that last * you will be taken to a testing menu (I've added a contact with this number and when in the dialer I can long press on the number as select edit number before calling to take me to this screen)
In this menu there are options to see phone and battery information as well as usage statistics for apps. The best battery option is "battery history" this shows you what apps are using your battery for various things such as network and processor usage. You can see this data for since you last rebooted your phone, unplugged it or for the whole life of the phone.
The first important part is "other usage", "running" shows you the percentage of the time your phone has been awake and doing stuff, "screen on" is the percentage of time your screen has been on, the difference between these two is when your phone has the screen is turned off but the phone is still working such as when syncing. Ideally you want these two percentages to be as close together as possible but it depends on how much syncing you have going on automatically in the background. If your running percentage is at or near 100% then an app is keeping your phone awake and using battery.
Next we have "partial awake use", this is what as been running in the background when you have the screen turned off and any apps that process or sync in the background would be listed here, the longer the bar, the bigger the drain on your battery. On my phone now the biggest bar by far is android system but it is still only small.
With "sensor usage" this is what has been using your sensors, games that use the sensors will feature heavily here.
"Gps usage" is again pretty self explanatory, whatever has been using gps.
"Network usage" was a real eye opener for me, I found out that an app was downloading megs of data all day and dwarfed all the other bars and was the reason for my bad battery life. Here the blue part of the bar is download and the red part is upload.
And lastly "cpu usage" on mine these are all practically non-existent but if anything is using massive amounts of processing it will show up here.
I only found out about this the other day but it has helped my battery life substantially, I used to take it off charge in the morning and be down to around 60% by lunch time, now I'm at 98%. I did this by uninstalling any apps that used too much battery and that I didn't really use very much as well as the vampire apps that were running and syncing continuously in the background, I also reduced the frequency at which some of my services such as stocks, email and weather synced, and used it on a low brightness when possible.
This is my first android device and I can now happily use it without the fear of running out of battery before the days end
Wow, thanks andybut85, that was a very informative post!
If you download Spare Parts from the Market it gives you access to the same info - instead of 'dialing' to test mode.
andybut85 said:
Next we have "partial awake use", this is what as been running in the background when you have the screen turned off and any apps that process or sync in the background would be listed here, the longer the bar, the bigger the drain on your battery. On my phone now the biggest bar by far is android system but it is still only small.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My biggest is "Calendar" (54mins from Boot, compared to 1min for Andriod System!)
What Calendar could this be? Im syncing from Google Calendar, so will it be that? If so, wouldnt my email syncing show up as constantly on too?
Or could it be some other App that is making it run constantly?
Any help gratefully received.
myk202020 said:
My biggest is "Calendar" (54mins from Boot, compared to 1min for Andriod System!)
What Calendar could this be? Im syncing from Google Calendar, so will it be that? If so, wouldnt my email syncing show up as constantly on too?
Or could it be some other App that is making it run constantly?
Any help gratefully received.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look for "Total in all time" with mine the calendar is roughly half that of android system, it could be that recently your calendar has had to sync for a long time, this could be a one off or if it's still high for the total time it could be a deeper problem. You could also try rebooting and seeing if it occurs again.
Have a look for "Total in all time" with mine the calendar is roughly half that of android system, it could be that recently your calendar has had to sync for a long time, this could be a one off or if it's still high for the total time it could be a deeper problem. You could also try rebooting and seeing if it occurs again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Calendar: 1day 7hrs
Android: 5hours
I'm thinking some app I've put on yesterday is not letting it sleep. will uninstall stuff one by one and see how it goes.
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still having problems with battery drain.
My Desire will not last a day
Installed Juiceplotter to find out when and why my battery drops so fast.
See attached image.
The battery drains very fast when i USE the phone, so when the screen is on. (20% in one hour)
I have two push email account activated, one with the HTC Exchange, and one with TouchDown.
But that doesn't explain the drops when phone is active.
Anyone else having this kind of batterydrain ?
I have positive "story" about battery too. Im on second charging. Saturday at 1:00 Im unplug it from charger and now 34h later Im on 7/10 battery.
Im make few calls(cca. 10 calls long 1-3min), few times(cca. 3-5x) check emails accounts(4 pop3 email accountes), quick test sygic navigation, little search on market(install calendar widget and some other app), and play few levels of Teeter...
3G is turned ON
GPS, WIFI is turned OFF
Also automatic sync is for most things disabled or setup to sync 1x per day...
Hmm Can't say I'm impressed by my battery life... it dropped 20% overnight..
I''ll keep an eye out on what's running and see if i can fine tune, but turning things off seems to be a bit pointless as it is made for use not just sit on a desk being pretty.
regards
Kef
i got great battery life at home over the weekend connected to my wi-fi network.. i have a feeling its the crappy edge reception in my office thats eating into battery life during the week..
micks_address said:
i got great battery life at home over the weekend connected to my wi-fi network.. i have a feeling its the crappy edge reception in my office thats eating into battery life during the week..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, that sounds highly plausible. Bad or weak connections to the network (especially mobile internet connections) will really drain a battery as the phone needs to use more power to maintain adequate connection strength.
you can check your signal strength in the "settings / network strength" section. I notice in good 3G areas my connection is -95dBm or higher. At work (which is in some sort of black spot in Dublin) I only get EDGE connection and my signal strength is about -80 to -85dBm. I bet this makes a big difference to battery life, especially if I try browsing or data connection.
my signal strength at work is -91 dbm...
i'm guessing bigger numbers are worse?
mcgon1979 said:
yep, that sounds highly plausible. Bad or weak connections to the network (especially mobile internet connections) will really drain a battery as the phone needs to use more power to maintain adequate connection strength.
you can check your signal strength in the "settings / network strength" section. I notice in good 3G areas my connection is -95dBm or higher. At work (which is in some sort of black spot in Dublin) I only get EDGE connection and my signal strength is about -80 to -85dBm. I bet this makes a big difference to battery life, especially if I try browsing or data connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
spare parts showed me that "media" was using the network a lot, bowever i cant work out what this corresponds to, it says DRM protected content storage, download manager and media storage. shows as having downloaded several megs
i use spotify for music, anyone any ides what these could be?
thanks
only guess but i'd say its spotify.. i have used servcies like that in the past on my pc.. and they sometimes have a lot of downloading going on that you dont even ask for!... worth checking out..
kinkade said:
spare parts showed me that "media" was using the network a lot, bowever i cant work out what this corresponds to, it says DRM protected content storage, download manager and media storage. shows as having downloaded several megs
i use spotify for music, anyone any ides what these could be?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
micks_address said:
only guess but i'd say its spotify.. i have used servcies like that in the past on my pc.. and they sometimes have a lot of downloading going on that you dont even ask for!... worth checking out..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes it could be, but spotify also comes up as a separate user of resources and i tested it since unplugging when spotify wasnt running and "media" still comes up as the biggest user.
makes me think that its not spotify

Wifi drains too much battery?

I've bought Desire 4 days ago.
I've been running in some battery problems a lot. I've heard that battery should have 4-5 full draining and charging before having its max capacity, but I have a life span of about 16-20 hours of battery with Wi-Fi on.
How i found out that: Yesterday I went to the country and messed around with my gps and navigation (never used one, so felt like a little child with a brand new shiny toy). So the battery went dead and i charged it almost full. When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
In about 2 hours, the battery was nearly 60% from 90. When i went to see what's draining the battery I saw it was the Wifi. I turned it off and since last night, up to now (about 14 hours) the battery is 50% (only 10 percent for 14 hours).
Is there any way to make the phone not scan so agressively for Wifi when it's on ? I'm comming from iphone and it didn't matter too much if i had my wifi on or off there.
First of all, what you're experiencing is normal.
In fact, dropping only 30% with 2 straight hrs of heavy use is actually quite impressive.
If you don't want your device to scan for wifi, turn it off. Simple as that. Keep the WiFi setting widget on one of your homescreens for easy access.
It wasn't heavy use I killed all apps and left it there. 30% are just from WiFi scanning.
I know I must turn off wifi, i have the widgy button, but sometimes i just forget i have to shut it down. (Though that's a bit killing, since i didn't have to do this on my iPhone. Actually this is the only shortcoming i can think of now, great phone. Seems i have to get used to killing extra stuff )
Sadly i couldn't find an option to tell it to scan on rarer occasion, just to help absent-minded people like me.
Try downloading "Y5 - Battery Saver" from the Market.
It automatically switches WiFi on and off depending on your location (as determined by cell location, not GPS).
It allows you to leave WiFi in locations where you know you have WiFi, and automatically switches it off when you leave those locations.
I've installed it, but not exhaustively tested as yet as I've not really been out of WiFi coverage since I installed it.
Regards,
Dave
Try getting the WiFi On/Off widget from the market.
It lets you turn off the WiFi with one touch. Will save you a lot of battery when not using it.
@Gana1991 - i've already noted that i have the widget (no need to download from market)
@foxmeister - thanks, i will try that. (I have been secretly thinking about some app with this function )
indeed, there is a WIFI widget builtin.
If you really want another widget, check the WiFi Toggle by "JQ Soft", nice design.
The Y5-Battery Saver is nice....it seems to work properly.
But i am affraid it was causing some problems here, so i uninstalled.
I will reinstall and do some more tests.
WI-FI usage is actually much better than using the network which drains the battery more.
But deffo only have on when using, not all the time.
Or you'd use the standard HTC energy widged or the android wifi switch wich can be found @ widged -> settings -> wifi
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
I leave my WiFi on all the time at home because of the data constantly changing between G/3G it drains the battery amazingly fast. leaving WiFi on helps me save battery and keep a data connection. I took my phone off charge at 9 this morning, WiFi has been enabled all day and I have 80% battery.
once the battery has had a week or 2 of charging it will run loads better. also charging with the phone switched off gets you a bit more juice because of a firmware problem.
Software Guru said:
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is this battery widget? I cant find it anywhere.
Oops, didnt know i had to look for it on the market. Found it.
Go settings, wifi, menu button and this brings up advanced settings. From there you can disable wifi after 15 mins of inactivity. When the phone wakes wifi kicks in. I have data turned off, wifi turned off, but if I forget to turn wifi off after using it, it's not too bad as it will be deactivated.
What's that widget called? All I can find is the power widget.
Ok found it
Only seems to be a meter though, no adjustments?
Go settings, wifi, then WiFi settings, then press the menu button,. From their you can select advanced WiFi settings.
When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using your data plan then your wifi wouldn't be on as the phone turns it off when your connected via 3G, it only uses one or the other not both at the same time.
That's the way it is on my Desire.
I've not used WiFi at all today yet apparently its consumed 25% of my battery. I've got it switched off via widget and its also set to disable after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Any thoughts?
thanks for any help
It's just occurred to me that perhaps the percentages run and run and are not reset after a charge?
Anyone know how it works?

Battery Life

I have a widget that shows me how much I have left and when I unplug it after a full charge, I have 6 hours left.
Ridiculous.
This is on auto brightness, wifi, twitter/facebook/mail updating every 15 minutes.
whenever I take my phone out the house I have to bring a charger...
bloody ridiculous.
couple of points.
1) When you leave the house, don't leave your wi-fi on! I find wi-fi to be the biggest battery drain out of everything ( expect gps)
2) I use a brightness widget, therefore when your in doors you can have it on low, then when your out doors have it on high, i assume this will use less battery then auto brightness
3) why do you need facebook updating every 15 minutes?? Do you honestly look at your phone that much when your out? change the settings so it updates every 15 when your on wi-fi at home, and every hour for when your not.
Wifi isn't an issue. I leave it on 24/7 as well as bluetooth and still can get 36 hours out od a charge. Its hooked up to wifi 20hrs a day as well.
Phil750123 said:
2) I use a brightness widget, therefore when your in doors you can have it on low, then when your out doors have it on high, i assume this will use less battery then auto brightness
3) why do you need facebook updating every 15 minutes?? Do you honestly look at your phone that much when your out? change the settings so it updates every 15 when your on wi-fi at home, and every hour for when your not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks!
1) whats the name of this widget? sounds good
2) is there a setting for that? cant find it
I have a widget that shows me how much I have left and when I unplug it after a full charge, I have 6 hours left.
Ridiculous.
This is on auto brightness, wifi, twitter/facebook/mail updating every 15 minutes.
whenever I take my phone out the house I have to bring a charger...
bloody ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Battery and other constantly updating widgets are one of the causes for battery drain. Get rid of it.
2. Battery widgets try to get an estimate of your typical use. They are mostly wrong in my opinion
3. I can get 6 hours of battery, yes, but only if glue the phone to my hand and use it constantly for that time
4. there are tons of battery threads around, use those suggestions (mid brightness, no live wallpaper, turn airplane on when you know coverage will be unavailable for long, etc)
5. Battery gets better in 10 days.
6. Most people can get at the very least one day of heavy usage. If you really need to hammer the battery get a spare one, they are cheap. Oh, and realize you are lucky because you CAN have a spare battery !
7. If you are using an automatic task killer, get rid of it.
callummc said:
thanks!
1) whats the name of this widget? sounds good
2) is there a setting for that? cant find it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) go to the market and search brightness level, or brightness widget, there are a number of these. The best i find is brightness level by curvefish, it lets you pick a percentage and keep at that .
2) Cant remeber actually where the settings are but there is a way. But i prefer to use another widget, autosync on/off, this allows you to update every 15 when on wi-fi, but when you want to save battery, turn auto sync off and it doesnt sync ,
I suggest you use switchpro widget. its like the power control widget but with more options to turn on/off things.
I typically charged my Nokia N97 every other day or so, even though I used it frequently, and needless to say the HTC Desire doesn't have the same stamina. I was quite frustrated by it, and I started thinking of ways to save power. I came up with 19 tips, and I have actually noticed quite a difference by following them
19 Tips to Keep the HTC Desire Running a Little Longer
Nice post thanks.ill give this a go. But I have a question to do with the positioning using data or gps. I believe your stating that you should turn data off for this purpose, and let the gps do it? however my phone was set to opposite. when I changed as you were suggesting and I clicked allow gps, I had a message come up saying to turn off to conserve battery? But your saying to turn on? And have data off? Also how do you get into htc facebook settings,i cant even find it!
dingdong3000 said:
I suggest you use switchpro widget. its like the power control widget but with more options to turn on/off things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep i also use this widget
also use a free juice defender or paid ultimate juice that keeps turning on and off your 3g every now and then depending on how you schedule it, my phone with snowstorm weather widget updating every 80 minutes + 30s of 3g every 5 minutes to update mail etc and average usage lasts about 36 hours which is good enough for me
I leave my WI-FI on at home and suffer hardly any drain.
At work like today leave my Mobile network on down to 47% with just twitter usage!
Pathetic is the mobile signals drain.
MapleDouglas said:
I typically charged my Nokia N97 every other day or so, even though I used it frequently, and needless to say the HTC Desire doesn't have the same stamina. I was quite frustrated by it, and I started thinking of ways to save power. I came up with 19 tips, and I have actually noticed quite a difference by following them
19 Tips to Keep the HTC Desire Running a Little Longer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, ive had another read of this and am now just even more confused! Are you saying to have gps turned off via settings and location aswell as data, or just having gps on? Are you saying that having gps selected via settings for the purpose of locating services uses les batty than via using data? Either way, it appeatss that the power control widget controls the gps the same as via settings. Right now ive deselected gps and the data location.
Dunbad said:
Ok, ive had another read of this and am now just even more confused! Are you saying to have gps turned off via settings and location aswell as data, or just having gps on? Are you saying that having gps selected via settings for the purpose of locating services uses les batty than via using data? Either way, it appeatss that the power control widget controls the gps the same as via settings. Right now ive deselected gps and the data location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this is what I'm saying:
"To let your device learn your location via wireless network triangulation requires less battery than by using the GPS for this purpose. However, using both methods simultaneously is probably not a good idea from a battery point of view. The GPS can handle this task by itself, although it will get a fix on your location a little bit slower. Also, wireless network positioning will be used to collect anonymous Google location data, which will drain the battery further. You can change this option from Settings > Location > Use wireless networks. "
In other words, to only use wireless network positioning will supposedly use less battery than by only using the GPS, but using both methods will naturally use the most juice
For me...
- Turn GPS On when I needed.
- Turn WiFi On when I needed
- Turn Bluetooth On when I needed
- Use 2G Network for standard internet, we use 3G if we want more speed such us watch video
jauhari said:
For me...
- Turn GPS On when I needed.
- Turn WiFi On when I needed
- Turn Bluetooth On when I needed
- Use 2G Network for standard internet, we use 3G if we want more speed such us watch video
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get get good days heavy usage (except games) from mine, I haven't tried the 2G thing yet.
Apparently it is the connectivity thing that kills the battery, but turning off 3G, doesn't that take all the fun out of it???
If you just use it as a phone then I reckon you can get a couple of days out of it, or so I've read...

Why would having WiFi turned on kill my battery?

I have a Verizon G4 that is not getting the great battery life many speak of. I've tried a lot of things...only syncing the bare minimum of stuff (gmail, calendar, contacts), running Lux for auto brightness, used Access lock to turn off most all permissions in most all my apps, disabled/turned off most LG and Verizon bloat, and still I end up getting only 6 to 8 hours before the 15% battery warning, with 30 to 40 minutes screen time (I've been scared to use it more). GSam shows nothing eating up my battery except for Android System, which is typically using 35% to 60%, with all other apps showing minimal usage. My cell signal is strong everywhere I am, as is my WiFi signal.
So, today, on a whim, I decided to turn off WiFi when I got up and unplugged. Now after 8 hours on with 1 hour screen time, I've got 70% battery left and Android System has only used 17%. I consider this GREAT! Ultimately though, I need to get WiFi back on due to data restrictions.
Why would using WiFi be killing my battery? I did notice the day before that, even though I have "Allow WiFi scanning" un-checked, my WiFi screen was showing "searching" every 10 seconds...forever. That seems very battery hog-atious, but I've been told that it's normal (even though it doesn't seem normal to me).
Does anyone know why WiFi is killing my battery or if there is any troubleshooting/testing I can do?
Wifi can be a hog as it is constantly searching for available and open wifi signals. Depending on settings, even while the screen is off it is pinging around looking for open signals. That can kill a battery. In the past, we have had mods to reduce the time between checks from say every 10 second to every minute.
As a rule of thumb I NEVER run wifi unless I am using it. Same with Location or BT for that matter. Hogs always looking for signals.
Disable Wifi Scanning in advanced wifi settings.... I would also turn off google now and limit syncing of google stuff.. I actually have auto-sync off...
A LOT of it can also have to do with the particular Wi-Fi source. At my work, signal is strong, but there's something about it that drains my battery about fifteen percent per hour, even when not in use. And this is across my current g4 as well as my galaxy s4 and s5. Once I get home and connect to my home Wi-Fi, I regularly lose as little as between 0 to 1% over 6 to 7 hours overnight while I sleep. I've started using my laptop (which also uses the work Wi-Fi, but remains plugged in) as an ad hoc Wi-Fi source to which I connect my phone, and that drops my battery drain to about 3% an hour.
Edit* I also leave absolutely everything syncing all the time. Regardless, I lose extraordinarily little (~1% overnight) on home Wi-Fi.

Battery life

I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
I haven't had mine off charge long enough to really be able to comment about this yet but I can't complain with it so far.
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
bill3508 said:
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
supersquishy said:
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go. I'm guessing screen is only 6% because the tablet has been up now for 4 days, so 6 hours is a small portion of the activity.
supersquishy said:
I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't know. You may be right.
I guess the high wifi in battery stats is a reporting error / miscalculation. I have wiped the cache partition in recovery (to fix my ambient light sensor) and ever since wifi is at the bottom of my battery list.
And I did not get any better SOT, so there could not have been any real battery drain from wifi even when it held the top spot in the stats.
Still disappointed with only 4-5h SOT.
Thanks everybody for helping out.
ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
bill3508 said:
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
ZiggSVO said:
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that leaving WiFi on runs your battery down on any device when its connected and it takes all of 2-3 seconds to connect. No reason to leave it on full time when your not using it. Also, the device is continuously checking and sending small amounts of data to maintain that connection.
Were talking about the pixel here and not a cellular device.
Pretty happy with the C.
I haven't really payed attention to how long this device lasts, I use it pretty casually so it lasts me up to a week. I have used it to stream movies and it has lasted me the whole day (8 hours) watching movies with about 30% left. Compared to other tablets I've had including the nexus 9 this one blows them all away. My old nexus 9 would die after a few episodes (about an hour)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I streamed a good 6 hours of a live feed on battery and the device used around 50%, can not complain with the battery life at all with this device
bill3508 said:
Pretty happy with the C.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
Ves said:
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, just WiFi, don't have a keyboard.
As a heads up, there appears to be a WiFi issue with MM itself. I'm seeing the same issue on my Nexus 7 2013 running a MM ROM, and I found a thread online talking about it...maybe from the Android Central forums or something, I can't remember now. People seem to be unsure as to whether or not WiFi is actually causing a battery drain, or if it's just reporting incorrectly. But at least on my N7, the battery can drop 40-50% in one day while on standby, and when I have WiFi set to Off when it's sleeping. And I used to get DAYS of standby time before going to MM.
Edit: Here's an XDA thread about it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guys-call-wifi-battery-drain-6-0-t3219870
I had the same issue with WiFi battery bug on the nexus 5. Fixed it via router by turning off the auto disconnect (the option where router decides if a device can connect based on signal strength) on both 2ghz and 5ghz. After this the Wifi went back down to the bottom of the battery list. Long shot, and most likely not even related, but hope it helps anyone.
On a Asus rt router.

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