[Q] Questions about CyanogenMod, and general battery life - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey everyone, last weekend I unrooted and wiped my phone, went back to factory settings, rerooted and installed CM6.1 RC2. I've been enjoying it so far (because I hate Sense UI) but I've got a couple of questions that need answered. Hopefully you all can help me.
CM6
1. Is there a setting to turn off always-on mobile data? I cannot find it.
2. For some odd reason, I cannot turn on bluetooth. I've not had a problem with turning on bluetooth with any other rom. In fact, I remember testing bluetooth the night I installed CM6. Is this an issue with the phone or the rom?
3. No matter how much I turn off Auto-Sync, it turns back on. What is doing this?
Battery Life
1. On average, I get around 10-14 hours battery life a day, maybe a little more if I barely use my phone all day. I've heard a lot of people say that an ideal battery drain with the screen off should be 1-2%/hour, but mine will drain from 6% to even 10% in 40-50 minutes (EDIT: Currently 75% battery left, unplugged for 2hrs 30min, done nothing but use the browser for 5 minutes, download something, and install it)! I use systempanel and spareparts to monitor which apps could possibly be doing this, but none look like they're eating up too much of the battery. I check Facebook 4-5 times a day, use the browser, and check Gmail. I don't use Google Talk. My screen brightness is around 30-40% and I have underclocked when the screen is off with setcpu. What is draining my battery so fast? It's a shame that there are so many cool things to do with this phone but I can't do them in fear of my battery dying before the end of the day
Sorry, that last question was long, but I did not want 2 separate posts. Thanks guys, I hope you can help!

CarterF said:
Hey everyone, last weekend I unrooted and wiped my phone, went back to factory settings, rerooted and installed CM6.1 RC2. I've been enjoying it so far (because I hate Sense UI) but I've got a couple of questions that need answered. Hopefully you all can help me.
CM6
1. Is there a setting to turn off always-on mobile data? I cannot find it.
2. For some odd reason, I cannot turn on bluetooth. I've not had a problem with turning on bluetooth with any other rom. In fact, I remember testing bluetooth the night I installed CM6. Is this an issue with the phone or the rom?
3. No matter how much I turn off Auto-Sync, it turns back on. What is doing this?
Battery Life
1. On average, I get around 10-14 hours battery life a day, maybe a little more if I barely use my phone all day. I've heard a lot of people say that an ideal battery drain with the screen off should be 1-2%/hour, but mine will drain from 6% to even 10% in 40-50 minutes! I use systempanel and spareparts to monitor which apps could possibly be doing this, but none look like they're eating up too much of the battery. I check Facebook 4-5 times a day, use the browser, and check Gmail. I don't use Google Talk. My screen brightness is around 30-40% and I have underclocked when the screen is off with setcpu. What is draining my battery so fast? It's a shame that there are so many cool things to do with this phone but I can't do them in fear of my battery dying before the end of the day
Sorry, that last question was long, but I did not want 2 separate posts. Thanks guys, I hope you can help!
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1. no. you could however turn data roaming off or use a program to accomplish this such as "tasker"
2. what do you mean you cant turn it on? what does it do when you enable it? use the widget in your notification drop down.
3. turn off background data as well and that should fix your problem.
and as for you other question. 10-14hrs is perfectly normal for battery life on cm6.1. and fyi: its RC1. there is no RC2 for 6.1 as of yet

t3project said:
1. no. you could however turn data roaming off or use a program to accomplish this such as "tasker"
2. what do you mean you cant turn it on? what does it do when you enable it? use the widget in your notification drop down.
3. turn off background data as well and that should fix your problem.
and as for you other question. 10-14hrs is perfectly normal for battery life on cm6.1. and fyi: its RC1. there is no RC2 for 6.1 as of yet
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Ah thanks for correcting my mistake, and answering my questions. My battery life isn't terrible per se, but I guess I was asking more on how I could make it better (and if I had a rogue app/other battery eater), especially because I see people claiming anywhere from 20-40 hours with a few tweaks.
And regarding the bluetooth issue, it just won't turn on. The option grays out for a few seconds like it usually does when it's initializing, and then it doesn't turn on. The notification widget method does not work either.
Also, there's no other way to turn off auto-sync? I just think it would be a hassle having to turn background data back on everytime I want to use the market. I use JuiceDefender, too, could there possibly be a conflict between the app and my phone's settings?

Man i'm with you here, I use CM6.1 too and love it but the first 30 minutes i unplug the phone from charging i'm already at like 90% battery =/

CarterF said:
Ah thanks for correcting my mistake, and answering my questions. My battery life isn't terrible per se, but I guess I was asking more on how I could make it better (and if I had a rogue app/other battery eater), especially because I see people claiming anywhere from 20-40 hours with a few tweaks.
And regarding the bluetooth issue, it just won't turn on. The option grays out for a few seconds like it usually does when it's initializing, and then it doesn't turn on. The notification widget method does not work either.
Also, there's no other way to turn off auto-sync? I just think it would be a hassle having to turn background data back on everytime I want to use the market. I use JuiceDefender, too, could there possibly be a conflict between the app and my phone's settings?
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I had the same problem with my Bluetooth recently. When I try to search for devices the phone locks up and I have to pull the battery. Wonder if this is a kernel issue. I am on snap
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

michaelvibe said:
I had the same problem with my Bluetooth recently. When I try to search for devices the phone locks up and I have to pull the battery. Wonder if this is a kernel issue. I am on snap
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Yep, I'm on Snap too; must be it.

Another thing; I've got a friend on Stock 2.2 Sense (battery sucking widgets filling the home screen, etc) with 100% brightness and mobile data constantly on and he gets better battery life than me (20+ hours!) What is going on!?!?!

CarterF said:
Another thing; I've got a friend on Stock 2.2 Sense (battery sucking widgets filling the home screen, etc) with 100% brightness and mobile data constantly on and he gets better battery life than me (20+ hours!) What is going on!?!?!
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never heard of such a thing on stock......

Klk450 said:
never heard of such a thing on stock......
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I couldn't believe it either, he had 3G on all day and everything and we barely get any signal at all in class. On for almost 8hrs with more than 70% left. I was at about 53%

Related

stock 2.1 idle drain

So...I'm using 2.1 and for some reason when I'm not even using the phoone..the battery drain is ridiculous. Since I'm new to 2.1, does anyone know what is causing this? Any processes I need to end? Any thing I need to remove?
I'm straight up rooted stock 2.1. No custom roms, just a custom kernel. I only downloaded Pandora, Wordfeud and SetCPU.
Edit: I also wanna add that I leave on 4G as well and I see it idle out and when I turn it off and leave it off I still experience the same amount of drain so I dont think its 4G.
And for more details on the drain...I went to sleep for about 3 hours and during that time I went from 91 to 42.
Edit2: Im gonna actually see if maybe it was just the kernel...I was using the first version of a kernel, not its latest version so Im going to put on the latest. But still, Id liike to know if it was a common problem and how most people fixed it.
Kill the omadrm process with each phone reboot. (Forgot exact name, but that is close) If you aren't always in a 4g area, having that radio always on will drain the battery.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Edit: Also double check your phone standby time and see what percentage your Time Without Signal (TWS) is at. Toggle Airplane mode after each reboot will correct that bug.
Also fyi you can use Tasker to toggle airplane mode for you automatically every boot
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Type this into your dialer:
*#4636*1111#
Click battery history, then click where it says Other usage, change to Partial wake usage, this should tell you what is using your battery while its asleep.
Sent from my non-rooted, stock eclair Epic.
It you can just.install spare parts and.look. also check your time without signal. If you don't reset your radio its prolly 50%. Whether.that is.cosmetic or actually does cause a battery drain its still good to do.
zanderman112 said:
Type this into your dialer:
*#4636*1111#
Click battery history, then click where it says Other usage, change to Partial wake usage, this should tell you what is using your battery while its asleep.
Sent from my non-rooted, stock eclair Epic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Evo Killer!!!
Battery life even with removing a few apps is pretty bad.
I think the most I got after a week of tests was about 18 hours and that was with almost no use.
Try downloading JuiceDefender from the market. It's free. What it does really is enable/disable your 3G/4G/WiFi connection when your phone is not in use. It also enables it every 15 minutes (default setting) to get email other updates such as weather. I am not kidding when I say went from an 18 hours to 72 hours hours. Granted, that was with little use.
Can download JuicePlotter as well to get an idea of how your battery is dropping and holding.
Side note that WordFeud constantly runs in the background, so that WILL rape your battery. JuiceDefender will keep it in check. Best app I ever got.
For reference, under 2.1 with JuiceDefender I would lose only about 1%/hour at night when I was sleeping.
Under 2.2 it's more like 2% per hour >.> and I've yet to figure out what's draining it.
I thought I'd chime in since the OP mentioned Pandora. After installing Pandora I noticed my battery drain had gotten significantly worse even when properly quitting out of the app. After uninstalling Pandora battery drain has normalized to the way it was before.
Also, setting your network to sprint only helps with battery too.
jdelano said:
Also, setting your network to sprint only helps with battery too.
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Click to collapse
maybe where you live it does, but thats an awful idea if you are in a town with little service because it will spend more time searching for service because it can't roam (i live in the middle of nowhere in new hampshire).
instead try to update your PRL. download the SDX stock app removal apk. remove the drm crap. and reboot. then charge your phone all the way, reboot into cwm, and reset your battery stats. then let the battery drain all the way and recharge. that should improve it significantly. thats what i did and it worked pretty damn well. battery life is upwards of 36 hours nominal charge now. and my phone used to drain battery WHILE i was charging it if i used it at all. and that was with a 1 Amp charger. also dont let your battery overcharge, mine seems to drain easier when i leave it plugged in all night.

[Q] Cell Standby/Phone Idle battery woes

The battery on my Evo has been plummeting recently. A while ago I could make 36 hours easy, and now I am lucky to get 12. The reason it seems is cell standby/phone idle, according to battery info. Over the course of last night I went from 85% to 28% while I just slept, and according to battery info these two things are responsible for that.
I'm not sure what they are or how to decrease, however. I read that NV and PRI 1.90 was causing problems for a lot of people so I tried downgrading to 1.77 as suggested, but I have no idea where to find the information to see if I successfully downgraded. I am running CM7 nightly build 23, I have wiped battery stats once and I am currently waiting for the phone to die before charging it again, but this has been going on for quite a few days over numerous roms and battery wipes. If I put my phone into airplane mode, the battery is hardly touched overnight. During the day I need my phone on however and the battery drains just as fast, whether I am using it or not.
Any suggestions?
ps. under accounts and sync the only thing I have set to sync is email by push, I receive only a few emails a day and a couple at night so I don't think that would be the problem. Facebook is also set to sync contacts, but only find status updates and the like when I refresh manually. Twitter, and my google account in there but both of those are set to sync manually.
Have you checked your partial wake lock in spare parts?
teh roxxorz said:
Have you checked your partial wake lock in spare parts?
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Click to collapse
I have never used spare parts in my life so bear with me; but when opening it now all I see is device info including battery history, battery info and usage stats, and general options which all have to do with animations, font size, haptic feedback, or compatability mode. I don't see anything that talks about wake lock in here
You click battery history, then on the first tab, click partial wake lock, and on the second, you can click since last boot.
teh roxxorz said:
You click battery history, then on the first tab, click partial wake lock, and on the second, you can click since last boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks! under partial wake usage since last boot, it's hardly nothing.
Android system is by far the winner with almost 11 minutes of usage, email is next at just under 2 minutes, facebook at about 1.5 minutes, and a couple other things (dialer, sms, google voice, google services) all coming in between 5 and 30 seconds.
Hmm...are you in a bad signal area or leave your radios [3G,wifi, 4G] on all the time?
I suppose I have 3g on. I never leave wifi or 4g on and my signal is between -85 and-96, according to battery info my time without signal is 0%
Well you should turn your 3G off when not using it, that'll definitely save your battery.
I will try that in the future, but it still does not explain why I am getting 1/3 the battery life I used to while doing much more to conserve battery. Could it have to do with my pri and prl and such? Maybe I need to update profile and such, like it's not looking for the right towers? I don't know much of anything about how polling and service works.
What's your wake time vs. your up time?
It sounds like you have something staying awake.
Have you gone to menu>setting>About Phone>software information to see if your PRI version & NV have been downgraded?
What kernel are you using?
Are you using RA or Clockmod for recovery?
countryfried said:
What's your wake time vs. your up time?
It sounds like you have something staying awake.
Have you gone to menu>setting>About Phone>software information to see if your PRI version & NV have been downgraded?
What kernel are you using?
Are you using RA or Clockmod for recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how to check wake time vs up time, but it would likely be useless right now, as I nandroid backup, flashed a sense rom, updated my prl and profile, checked to make sure i did downgrade pri/nv and then went back to cm7, so any battery info it is going to give me right now will be inaccurate while I wait for it to charge/discharge again over the course of the night. It does still have my previous information though since it was a nandroid backup and I've had it plugged in entirely since then.
I did succesfully downgrade to 1.77 PRI
kernel is savagedzen 0.2.1 cfs havs wimax GB (2.6.37.4)
RA for recovery.
I also uninstalled a few programs including facebook and twitter in case there was anything like that interfering with my services. I still use Go contacts and Go sms however, but I have unchecked any options with them to have facebook integration. If you could tell me how to check up/wake I can check that tomorrow morning when I wake up to see and go against whatever I had. Currently I'm just trying a few things out before tonight to see if anything had helped. An idle phone sitting on my window sill for 8 hours should not drain the battery THAT much, so something is off.
Go back into men>settings>about phone>battery (you can check it now)
If your up time and awake time are the same, you have a program that's stuck in wake. I also use a program called "system panel" that will show me live time which programs are using the most resources. OR you can use "Battery Monitor".
If you have wifi at home I would suggest you set up your phone to connect to wifi and shut your 3g off. I use a program called "Y5-battery saver". It automatically connects me to wifi at home and disconnects and switches to 3g when I'm away from the house.
attached is a screen grab of the graph from battery info
if needed:
cell standby says time on 15h 44m 47s (same as time listed on battery)
phone idle says 14h 46m 58s
(these 2 items used 47% and 44% respectively
thanks for the wifi tip, i used it on sense a lot but with most aosp roms it causes problems unless you set it to never sleep, and i didnt know what that affect it had on battery so i usually just turned it on when necessary or when in a low-signal area like school.
That doesn't seem that bad for ~14hrs on battery.
my problem is that it's while I'm sleeping. I used to get 36 hours of battery before getting to 15% and being told to plug in, and now I used it a little last night, went to bed and woke up to it being at 28% and was told soon after to plug it in. I just dont remember sleeping destroying battery life like that in the past. granted 15 hours isnt that bad, but when 10 of the 15 hours the phone is just sitting there it worries me because if I were to go through a normal day, where I charge it at night and use it during the day, there is just about 0% chance that I'll be able to make it through the day without plugging it in sometime in the middle.
teh roxxorz said:
That doesn't seem that bad for ~14hrs on battery.
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yeah, that's not bad. You're still at 87%? LOL. Maybe I need to switch to AOSP ROM!
I'm Back to 87%, I've been on the charger all day, hence the battery graph raise. the dramatic raise was from when I flashed the sense rom to update my profile/prl. (obviously it wasn't monitoring during that time and when i came back and started monitoring again the battery was much higher)
it actually died after ~15 hours, with 10 of those 15 hours having doing nothing. I got systempanel to see if it gives me any more info and the main reason i use aosp is because of the terrific backlight handling. I like it to be super dim while inside and bright outside, and find on sense roms the auto backlight is too bright under normal conditions. I should be getting much better battery life than this. I'll try again tonight with the battery being monitored to see whats up and I'll try going into airplane mode tomorrow to see what that does at night for comparisons sake. hopefully there is just some program using lots of data that I don't know about. i'd love a quick fix lol
It's almost as if there's an Evo "battery curse"!!!!!! It has been HELL finding a ROM that I love that has great battery life. I really liked Myn's but for some reason I could NEVER find a kernel that would give me great battery life. I'm currently using ultrablakk 3 by King's and love the interface, just trying to find the right kernel myself. I think I'll do a nand and try an AOSP for a change. Vaelpak looks stable. Good luck with the battery life issues!
I'm using an unrevoked-rooted evo and at 10% wake time, it lasts for about 15 hours unplugged. That is why I usually keep it plugged in whenever possible. I have task killer and do not synch anything except for weather and news. I do have 3G running all the time as well. I wouldn't do that if it weren't for the email checks (4 accounts checking every 30 min). If the 3G could be automated to turn on during the checks, that would save more battery life, but I don't know of anything to do that yet.

If you get great battery life, please share your tips here!

I'm currently on the CM7 ROM, I have juice defender and done all the minor tweaks as far as disabling wireless network location, turn off the wifi and GPS, and an app killer. I still only manage at max 9 hours before my phone tells me to recharge.
If your getting great battery life, help me and others by sharing your tips here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Best tip is to stay on wifi as much as possible. I got 3 days on wifi and about 4 hours use.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I turn data off when im not using the internet and when I'm just listening to musc I just put my phone in airplane mode
Yeah, I need some help too. I get about a day and a half with no use at all, and about 10 hours with minimal use. 4 hours with real world usage... I can't deal with this. Could it be the battery? It performs like a 1 year old, used, refurb battery came with a stock phone!
Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G with Tapatalk
Have you configured the battery since flashing the rom?
I get decent enough battery life, with light usage I can go about 36 hours w/o a charge but on my heavy usage days I usually have to use the car charger a few times a day.
kennyglass123 said:
Best tip is to stay on wifi as much as possible. I got 3 days on wifi and about 4 hours use.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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masaidjet said:
I turn data off when im not using the internet and when I'm just listening to musc I just put my phone in airplane mode
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Click to collapse
liquiddetox said:
Have you configured the battery since flashing the rom?
I get decent enough battery life, with light usage I can go about 36 hours w/o a charge but on my heavy usage days I usually have to use the car charger a few times a day.
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Click to collapse
all of these... biggest one is to turn off data when the phone is in your pocket. use wifi when u can, avoid using 4g unless plugged in, configure the battery in recovery (i've actually notice that this helps less than anything else for me), and finally: get an extended battery. it's worth the extra hours u can squeeze out of it. don't expect more than 4-5 hours screen on time with any rom/kernel/modem combo with a stock battery.
liquiddetox said:
Have you configured the battery since flashing the rom?
I get decent enough battery life, with light usage I can go about 36 hours w/o a charge but on my heavy usage days I usually have to use the car charger a few times a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I also did that wipe battery stats at recovery.
I just thought maybe my expectations were too high, although it seems as if my battery drains drop pretty fast.
I would say about -10% battery drop every hour, just checking the time and send/receive text messages. Occasionally I surf the Web on the phone when on break at work. Other than that the phone is in my pocket, and after my 9 hour workday my phone demands the charger.
This is with the stock battery, so I guess this is normal unless I'm using the extended battery?
...
Sent from I guess my SPH-D700 using XDA App
u could also run a kernel that allows for over (under) clocking/undervolting. that helps some, too
get the duricell portable battery extender, add milliamps to your arsinal in one way or another with extended batterys or whatever, if you call sprint and complain loudly and dickly they will rebate you the cost that u spend on a new battery or batt extender whatever... that being said all the above options work great, u can also use night mode on chainfire 3d to save battery, or perhaps half your pixel rate, or perhapes turn off some colors (havent seen an app to do this yet) and reset your battery memory in cwm, kill ur batt, charg while off, then cycle again like that. (theres an app for that) if your not rooted, root your phone. if you dont want to root your phone, cycle ur battery the old fasion way or pop it into a rooted phone and do it.
I used to get really poor battery life (due to my phone not sleeping as evidenced by Spare Parts app). I rooted, used Titanium Backup to freeze various apps, and got an Zboost antenna booster for the office and called Sprint who sent me an Airave for the house. I wiped battery stats and cleared my Dalvic cache and the thing the finally got me right was finding out the Amazon MP3 app was still logged in though not running. Once I made sure I was logged out of that and Lattitude (Google Map feature) and Facebook, I haven't had any problem with a sleeping phone. Stock Froyo, standard battery, but rooted. When they say a bad app keeps your phone from sleeping I think they mean an app that requires log in...although this does not seem to be a problem if you stay logged in from a browser, only from an app!
Breezy357 said:
I'm currently on the CM7 ROM, I have juice defender and done all the minor tweaks as far as disabling wireless network location, turn off the wifi and GPS, and an app killer. I still only manage at max 9 hours before my phone tells me to recharge.
If your getting great battery life, help me and others by sharing your tips here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be shooting yourself in the foot with some of those things. App killers aren't that useful on Gingerbread since they keep killing apps that just reload on their own, and every time the reload it uses power. Just because an app is loaded doesn't mean it is running. Try letting the system take care of it. Juice Defender may help a little but it keeps shutting down data and starting it up, which means you don't get as much usefulness out of the phone and may waste power in some circumstances.
See what you have set to sync. Turn off any autosyncs you don't need, like weather screens, facebook, etc. If at all possible set them to only sync when you open the program.
I use the exchange option for gmail using the stock samsung app, which gives me push email but doesn't have to keep polling the server. I don't know if that makes a difference compared to imap, but it works well for me. don't think you have that option in CM7.
Wifi is a much more efficient way transfer data than 3G, use it whenever you can, and set it to never sleep. Otherwise the 3G radio keeps starting up again and wasting battery.
You can freeze the DRM stuff if you don't use it. I don't know if it really makes a difference but everyone thinks it does, so I do it.
Having a black wallpaper helps a little because on a AMOLED screen a black pixel uses no power.
The biggest battery killer is being in a bad signal area. If you always have 0 or 1 bars then your phone is going to always be draining the battery trying to find a good cell. In that case Roam Control may help you.
That's about all I do, and with the latest Stock gingerbread EH17 and EI22 I'm sitting with about 40 to 50% left after 12 hours, that's with light to moderate use.
I've been through the ringer with this. I'm pretty comfortable now, routinely managing to have 33% of battery left after 12hrs w/3g always on, sync always on, intermittent music listening, 2.5-3hrs of gaming and general "screen on" time (auto brightness), 1.1 GHz OC, no undervolting, and GPS always on. Here's what I'd suggest:
Flash a ROM w/ NO CIQ (thanks k0nane!) - In addition to being a leech on your privacy it's a leech on your battery. It's old news to long-time Epic owners at this point, but ditching CIQ improves battery life and overall responsiveness of the Epic. A popular stable Froyo ROM for this is SFR 1.2.
Minimize always-running services - Long press your homescreen, select "shortcuts," select "settings," and select "running services." Tap this to see what's running ongoing services (not apps) your phone is running. All of these are drawing current to stay in RAM. Things like Juice Defender, Tasker, and others show up here and draw power in doing so. JD and Tasker especially can drain a lot because they perform constant tasks as well. Uninstall them and let your phone manage itself.
The same goes for task managers and app-stoppers - Froyo and above does this fine on it's own
Freeze/Uninstall system services you don't use - This includes things like Sprint voicemail, the "Email" app, and the "SprintAndroidExtension.apk," and SNS services. You'll most likely find these on the "Running Services Page" as well. You can Titanium Backup to uninstall them, but I recommend the SDX Stock App Remover as that can restore them (TB can't reliably). TB can freeze these as well, which accomplishes basically the same thing. SNS is connected to Facebook, so if you use that a lot you might want to keep it. DRM services can also be removed, but may cause problems reading the SD card. I stay away from it.
Use Spare Parts to monitor wakelock and CPU usage - If you notice something giving you persistent trouble, shut it down. This is time-consuming, but you'll get a good feel for what apps are out there to accomplish similar tasks and which one best suits your needs.
Uninstall apps you don't use - Next time you wipe and flash a new ROM, reinstall or restore backed up apps as you need to use them and not all at once. You may find you don't need quite a few of them, allowing you to keep more space open on your phone and requiring less current to maintain them
Don't charge the battery overnight - most phones can reach capacity in 2-4 hours depending on charge level. Beyond that, holding at or around fully charged will degrade the battery by denying it the ability to release the stored energy. I charge mine in the evening a few hours before bed and top it off in the morning before leaving for work.
Get an 1800mAh battery sold for the Epic Touch - this is what moved me form "getting by" to "definitely comfortable." For around $25 (incl shipping) on ebay, I've gotten a new lease on my Epic's life. It may seem like cheating to bring in a new battery, but it makes a lot of difference WITHOUT adding more bulge to your phone (makes it a tad heavier though).
Hope this helps. Remember, of course, that what works for one phone won't necessarily work for another. Despite being the same model, minor imperfections in silicone can create individual temperaments for each phone.
I as always trying to make my battery last by stopping this and uninstalling that. Then I thought; why did I buy this phone with all of these capabilities to turn them all off
So, something like the "Hyperion Sprint Samsung Epic Touch 4G 2 x Battery + Charger" (too "young" to post a direct link)
Would fit in/work with the Epic 4G (without needing a new cover)? Even though its for the Touch?
Lol, I've been doing many of the suggestions across the board, and have gotten much better results. But I'm still not "comfortable" with my battery strength, especially when I'm unable to charge my phone all day...
Looking into your running services is a big one. week ago my battery life greatly decreased. I kept seeing market update pending and it wouldnt go away. Never update never go away. I manually updated the market and the battery is back to wonderful. It drops 2-3% at night off charger. Thats about 8 hours.
A sticky with all the main running services and which ones you can stop would be wonderful. I have sns services running. I think i can stop it but not positive. I also have sanservice running supposedly some type of samsung update. Its not doing anything but its been running for 2 days. No negative effect on battery(that i notice) but its running. Also make sure you turn location off. Ive also noticed that even when you back out of google maps its still in running services. A restart fixes that but thats annoying.
themow said:
Looking into your running services is a big one. week ago my battery life greatly decreased. I kept seeing market update pending and it wouldnt go away. Never update never go away. I manually updated the market and the battery is back to wonderful. It drops 2-3% at night off charger. Thats about 8 hours.
A sticky with all the main running services and which ones you can stop would be wonderful. I have sns services running. I think i can stop it but not positive. I also have sanservice running supposedly some type of samsung update. Its not doing anything but its been running for 2 days. No negative effect on battery(that i notice) but its running. Also make sure you turn location off. Ive also noticed that even when you back out of google maps its still in running services. A restart fixes that but thats annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SNSservice is a Facebook and Feeds and Updates Widget service. ALWAYS stop it. It does not matter to Facebook, even if you use it, but if you remove the Feeds and Updates Widget on one of your screens, that service continues to search for it and will kill your battery in a matter of hours (it starts a "restarting" loop). Either leave the widget on or kill this service after every reboot or if you are rooted, freeze it along with DRM service.
My other battery tips are to log out or sign out of every app such as Lattitude, Facebook, Amazon MP3 (it's ok to use them, but don't just back/exit out, actually sign out of them so you have to log back in next time). Apparently, staying signed in causes your phone to not sleep and you can't find what is causing it (i.e. you can't see it "running" anywhere...people call it a misbehaving app, and you would have to delete apps one at a time to find it by trial and error).

Removing Bloatware aka "what can I do to get better battery life?"

So I think by now everyone has realized the battery life on our A100's is mediocre. I've actually been pretty content with the usage I get out of mine. What I'm not so thrilled about though is the idle usage. I'll leave for work in the morning with my A100 at / above 90% battery and come home after 6pm with it completely dead. I have wifi set to turn off when the screen does, any app I have that has a sync option is set to 6+ hours, and I've stopped using live wallpapers. Every other electronic device I have can usually last a full day when not in use(my old netbook gets 3 hours of use on battery but 2 days while sleeping).
I've started looking into the "bloat" / OEM apps installed by Acer. Nidus, sync, socialjogger etc... My main questions are; what can be removed, what can I live without or would be better of with a 3rd party app, and which Acer apps can possibly be causing the idle/sleep battery drain? This thing should still last a full day while sleeping, shouldn't it?
Any suggestions? Anyone else have this issue? Thanks!
You could try using Bloat Freezer to freeze apps. I have alot of the acer stuff frozen, and with it in standby, easily goes a day. Things like socialjogger, acer init, etc.
These are the apps I've completely removed from system apps, made a backup of course..
AcerClockwidget.apk&odex
Agendawidget.apk&odex
Aupeo.apk
Clearfi.apk
DTG.apk
LinkToFacebook.apk&odex
MusicA.apk&odex
MyLocationWidget.apk&odex
NemoPlayer.apk
Planner.apk
SocialJogger.apk
Solitaire.apk
Xt9.apk
You can also remove appinapp butyou will loose the games multimedia app I use that so kept it.
Battery life hasn't been that bad on mine. I expected worse, I just picked mine up last week and after reading reading reviews I expected worse.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
allthrottle said:
So I think by now everyone has realized the battery life on our A100's is mediocre. I've actually been pretty content with the usage I get out of mine. What I'm not so thrilled about though is the idle usage. I'll leave for work in the morning with my A100 at / above 90% battery and come home after 6pm with it completely dead. I have wifi set to turn off when the screen does, any app I have that has a sync option is set to 6+ hours, and I've stopped using live wallpapers. Every other electronic device I have can usually last a full day when not in use(my old netbook gets 3 hours of use on battery but 2 days while sleeping).
I've started looking into the "bloat" / OEM apps installed by Acer. Nidus, sync, socialjogger etc... My main questions are; what can be removed, what can I live without or would be better of with a 3rd party app, and which Acer apps can possibly be causing the idle/sleep battery drain? This thing should still last a full day while sleeping, shouldn't it?
Any suggestions? Anyone else have this issue? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! I can use mine all off and on all day and don't have a problem. There has got to be an app that you are using that is destroying your battery when idle. If I don't use my tablet all day, it will last 2 full days (with wifi kept on).
That's what I was thinking. I get a decent amount of usage from it; it's when I'm not using it is when I feel like it drains the most.
I started freezing apps last night and let it charge overnight. I've still got to go through my apps and remove a few I don't use, and check to make sure they're not syncing too often. Do you all leave your gps and wifi on all of the time or have them shut off while the tablet sleeps?
[email protected] said:
WOW! I can use mine all off and on all day and don't have a problem. There has got to be an app that you are using that is destroying your battery when idle. If I don't use my tablet all day, it will last 2 full days (with wifi kept on).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
My settings are to never turn WiFi off and I always leave sync on; I like getting notifications and app updates. I have a weather app that updates every hour and Pulse news that updates every 4 hours.
I also always leave my GPS on, but there aren't many apps that use it while it is not in focus, so I rarely ever see GPS pop up on my battery usage list.
I do not use a live wallpaper.
I found that with wifi on, my tablet drains about 1.5% per hour when idle.
allthrottle said:
So I think by now everyone has realized the battery life on our A100's is mediocre. I've actually been pretty content with the usage I get out of mine. What I'm not so thrilled about though is the idle usage. I'll leave for work in the morning with my A100 at / above 90% battery and come home after 6pm with it completely dead. I have wifi set to turn off when the screen does, any app I have that has a sync option is set to 6+ hours, and I've stopped using live wallpapers. Every other electronic device I have can usually last a full day when not in use(my old netbook gets 3 hours of use on battery but 2 days while sleeping).
I've started looking into the "bloat" / OEM apps installed by Acer. Nidus, sync, socialjogger etc... My main questions are; what can be removed, what can I live without or would be better of with a 3rd party app, and which Acer apps can possibly be causing the idle/sleep battery drain? This thing should still last a full day while sleeping, shouldn't it?
Any suggestions? Anyone else have this issue? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest other than setting wifi to turn off when screen is off is to use a wifi toggle widget. You really never know what happens when the screen is off if your wifi is really turning off. Wish it was built in to the quick launch though like some Honeycomb tablet.
You can also use setcpu to setup profiles so that when the screen is off the processor stays at a slower speed rather than jumping into high gear when something wakes it up to sync. I've been able to go days without having to recharge (but I only use it for reading books, listening to the music I have on google music and play order and chaos every once in a while). I havn't touched my a100 in about 4 days and its sitting at 62% battery power.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
here is my usage, I never turn off wifi no profiles
I don't necessarily think you need to remove any of the stock app. My wifi is set to turn off when screen is off, GPS off unless I need it (apps like facebook will use it when you open it since it tries to get your location for checking in even if you're not checking in). Gmail is left at default but other mail is set to never (I just manually sync it when I open it).
If you wanna go a step further, you can install a wifi on/off widget to completely turn it off just incase an app is trying to use wifi.
With my setting my battery drains about 1-1.5% an hour when screen is off. IMO the screen is what uses the most battery. However though after conditioning the battery for 3 cycles it's been lasting longer.
I was just about ready to return / exchange my a100 so I did a factory reset on it. Lost track of time and forgot to, so I just decided to boot it back up and play with it. Left it alone at around 70% yesterday afternoon, came back home at 7pm today and to my surprise it was at 40% battery remaining. Must've been an app or setting I had that was killing it.
Probably end up hanging onto this awhile longer. Great tablet for the money!
Sent from my A100 using xda premium
thats more like it glad you got it back to normal.
Guys i want the slimmest acer iconia rom possible please update the list? I just dont use much stock apps at all.
jay_993 said:
Guys i want the slimmest acer iconia rom possible please update the list? I just dont use much stock apps at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also can freezing apps brick your tab as well? Or does it defrost itself after boot?
jay_993 said:
Also can freezing apps brick your tab as well? Or does it defrost itself after boot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think with the 1gb ram on our device there shouldnt be a need to freeze any app and it doesnt defrost itself on reboot. Atleast it shouldnt.
Also I found for the most part if an app can be deleted it will let you delete it by dragging the app icon in the upper right in the app drawer. This is probably the safest way to delete rather than doing it in root explorer or TU.
This might be a dumb question but is it possible you have wifi issue that i've had on 2 a100s which will prob cause it to use more battery as its trying to work harder locking on.
It seems for the moment my battery issue was resolved with a factory reset. I have nearly the same apps on it now as before and my a100 hasn't been dying overnight. Don't believe I've frozen anything this time around either.
I don't think ram has a whole lot to do with it. I just figured some of these apps were starting themselves or syncing often, causing the battery drain.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
allthrottle said:
It seems for the moment my battery issue was resolved with a factory reset. I have nearly the same apps on it now as before and my a100 hasn't been dying overnight. Don't believe I've frozen anything this time around either.
I don't think ram has a whole lot to do with it. I just figured some of these apps were starting themselves or syncing often, causing the battery drain.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a lot of widgets that requires syncing like youtube, twitter, weather, facebook? Those are the apps you probably what to check. OR you can just turn off wifi if youre not surfing or streaming.
Here's mine with wifi turned off. It was at 89 but I had to turn on wifi so I can find a screen capture app in the market. I have lots of apps including facebook, twitter, weather widget, which cant sync cause the wifi is off. Have not removed any stock app. I know this doesn't really answer what you asked but I'm just thinking something else might be wrong other than apps. Maybe its your battery not holding correct charge. Have you tried calibrating the battery?
I tried calibrating the battery the first time around. This time (after the reset) I haven't done anything special and have so far been getting 2 days of idle/light use before needing a charge. Satisfied so far. I was mainly concerned that I wouldn't be able to go on a trip without it needing a charge while sitting in my bag for a day without use.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

How can I track down my battery drain?

Leaving my OP in place, but I have rewritten the description with much more detail and pics here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25401417#post25401417
I suggest skipping to there.
I am looking for general tips here. E.g., not asking you to diagnose my specific problem so much as give me ideas of what else to check or try.
Lately I have had unexplained (to me) battery drain. Yesterday I lost about 25 percent in an hour while the phone idled. It is not a constant thing, though. I can go an hour and loose 1 percent then loose massive amounts in the next hour.
Now, i have searched, but I have not found anything that applies to me.
I have:
Tried a different radio
Tried a different kernel
Reflashed my rom
Phone is entering deep sleep according to cpu spy
There are no unusual or excessive wake locks according to better battery stats
No apps are using a lot of battery.
I am in a low signal area at work, but putting the phone in airplane mode and dissabling background syn does not stop the drain.
Ideas?
might be your phone is loosing signal? i would check the battery stats in the settings menu to see if you have a poor mobile signal.
Zepius said:
might be your phone is loosing signal? i would check the battery stats in the settings menu to see if you have a poor mobile signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
beren28 said:
I am in a low signal area at work, but putting the phone in airplane mode and dissabling background syn does not stop the drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I don't think I can blame it on that.
Do you have any exchange sync on your phone?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
can you give us screen shots of battery stats?
Herman76 said:
Do you have any exchange sync on your phone?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do, and on reflection it is a possible culprit since I added it recently.
Didn't occur to me since it was producing no wakelocks and the battery stats did not showing as using much battery.
I shall turn it off for a bit and see if that helps. (unless there is some other way to test if it is the problem first.) I am off to the search button!
Zepius said:
can you give us screen shots of battery stats?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is from yesterday when i set it down unused for about 90 minutes. The amount of wakes seems liek a lot, but it is similar to what i see when i have far far less drain, so I don't think that is the problem. I didn't get the app list screen, but out should screen as the only major drain with about 2 minutes.
I know it is shows poor signal strength, so immediately after that shot I put it in airplane mode, turned of sync, and rebooted. The battery continued to drain and graph had the exact same slope under those conditions. (Forget to get a pic though.)
Sent from my jitterbug using tapatalk.
System panel paid version with monitoring enabled is the best for tracking apps using CPU.
OK, still working on this.
To recap:
When the screen is off, and no apps are running I sometimes get inexplicable battery drain. This is occurring under conditions when I should be experiencing little or no drain at all. I say this becuase:
The screen is of and no bakground apps are running
the phone is NOT awake and IS entering deep sleep (as confirmed by cpuspy)
there are no unusual kernel or partial wake locks
there are no apps listed as using unexpected ammounts of battery
This is not a universal problem. The phone *often* behaves as expected. I can leave the phone off for an hour and see a 1% or 2% drain, and I am happy with that. However, sometimes, randomly, it goes nuts on my.
This graph from a few weeks ago shows what I mean. Look in the green box. The phone is sleeping, and the screen is off. The graph starts as a flatline, then, all of a sudden, it begins to drop precipitously.
Here is a graph that shows the battery dropping at the same rate whether the phone is awake or sleeping:
I have gone the following to try and narrow the problem down:
Done a completely fresh install of my Rom including a system wipe.
Tried two kernels (the aokp default and several relases of Franco's
Tried a different radio
Activated and installed a new sim card
I have come to suspect that the problem is network related. When the problem starts, sometimes going into airplane mode and back and/or toggling 2g only temporarily fixes the problem.
I suspect that something is happening with my connection to T-Mobile that keeps the network running and draining power. This is pure speculation, but it is all I can think of.
I installed juice defender (which I had not been previously running) and noticed the that, sometimes, it didn't turn of data when it should have. I also noticed the following two things happen:
I do not believe it is a rom problem, since if so, someone else would be reporting this. It might be an app problem, but if so the app is draining battery without a wake lock and while the phone is in deep sleep.
It is not exchange (as was suggested in this thread) since it continues when I ev my exchange account.
I have no idea what else to do or try.
Since it happens at random and takes a while to identify, uninstalling one app at a time to test for that could easily take months to narrow down a misbehaving app.
I know it is not a hardware issue since last month I got this:
That was with AOKP and Franco (earlier versions obviously)
I have google searched till my fingers bleed.
I am a long way form being an expert, and I suspect I may have overlooked something obvious.
Please, any thoughts??
Damn you definitely have a major issue and I don't know what it could be. But when my phone sleeps itstays dead flat with no awake bars, and drops 1% every 3 hours.
1. Calibrate battery
2. If you really wanna find the problem, install the rom with no mods or apps and run it and see if it still happens. Then add back each mod/app one at a time
derekwilkinson said:
1. Calibrate battery
2. If you really wanna find the problem, install the rom with no mods or apps and run it and see if it still happens. Then add back each mod/app one at a time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I appreciate your effort, this is remarkable unhelpful for the following reasons:
1. "calibrating" the battery is a myth and doesn't actually do something. Even if it did, it would not explain the symptoms I have described. I have been around xda long enough to know it is the knee-jerk reaction to any battery question, but it is not relevant here.
2. Since the problem occurs at random, and sometimes takes hours to show up, (For instance, last night I charged to full and tried to catch it happening. For 4 hours nothing happened, it behaved perfectly. Then I went to bed and it immediately started to fall and was dead by morning) and since I have over 100 apps, your suggestion could easily take *over a year* to follow. Believe me, I have thought about it, but I started this thread hoping for ideas that would allow me to avoid it.
Here is that chart for last night.
I had about 1 hour and 30 minutes screen on time with 65% left when I went to bed. When I woke up, phone was dead.
RogerPodacter said:
Damn you definitely have a major issue and I don't know what it could be. But when my phone sleeps itstays dead flat with no awake bars, and drops 1% every 3 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine often does that. But sometimes it doesn't. It is the fact that it happens seemingly at random that makes it so annoying and hard to track down.
I would replace the battery
One thing you haven't rulled out is that the battery itself is bad.
Have a friend you could swap with for a day, or at least long enough to see if the problem follows? If your battery drops on their phone that is also a good indication.
arw01 said:
One thing you haven't rulled out is that the battery itself is bad.
Have a friend you could swap with for a day, or at least long enough to see if the problem follows? If your battery drops on their phone that is also a good indication.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thought has occurred to me, but unfortunately, no, I don't have a friend I can swap with. And really, since I have had the phone less than 3 months, the battery *shouldn't* be bad, but yeah, defective products happen.
If I cannot find any other cause I will likely order a new battery and see if that fixes it.
beren28 said:
While I appreciate your effort, this is remarkable unhelpful for the following reasons:
1. "calibrating" the battery is a myth and doesn't actually do something. Even if it did, it would not explain the symptoms I have described. I have been around xda long enough to know it is the knee-jerk reaction to any battery question, but it is not relevant here.
2. Since the problem occurs at random, and sometimes takes hours to show up, (For instance, last night I charged to full and tried to catch it happening. For 4 hours nothing happened, it behaved perfectly. Then I went to bed and it immediately started to fall and was dead by morning) and since I have over 100 apps, your suggestion could easily take *over a year* to follow. Believe me, I have thought about it, but I started this thread hoping for ideas that would allow me to avoid it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. yes battery calibration does make a difference.
2. ok, so an app can't run a process at random? especially when you have "over 100 apps"? Run the rom stock and see if it still happens, or even run the stock rom/kernel. if you don't want to try this then why are you asking for suggestions? christ
derekwilkinson said:
1. yes battery calibration does make a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are incorrect. But, in any case, I DID calibrate the battery just to cover bases in the case that I was wrong.
2. ok, so an app can't run a process at random? especially when you have "over 100 apps"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We'll of course it can. That is kinda my point. If I go one app at a time waiting for it to "run a process at random" I am talking literally MONTHS of testing. I would have to wait many hours, if not days after installing or uninstalling an app to be sure whether or not it made a difference, then move on the the next. This is simply not an option. I started this thread in hopes that a realistic and doable solution might exist that I was unaware of.
Run the rom stock and see if it still happens, or even run the stock rom/kernel. if you don't want to try this then why are you asking for suggestions? christ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am asking because there may be a solution that I am unaware of that doesn't require me to put my entire life on hold for months. It is possible that there is no such solution, but I asked in case there was one.
Sorry to have put you out so much.
You mentioned you recently installed exchange sync. Did turning off sync remedy this or have you not tried disabling all sync features?
One other thing to check is the background data usage of your apps. You'd find this under 'data usage' and make sure you enable the wifi tab so you can see data usage on wifi.
skadebo said:
You mentioned you recently installed exchange sync. Did turning off sync remedy this or have you not tried disabling all sync features?
when i did a complete quote and re flash i did not setup the exchange account, but the issue continued.
One other thing to check is the background data usage of your apps. You'd find this under 'data usage' and make sure you enable the wifi tab so you can see data usage on wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check that out. Thanks.
Sent from my jitterbug using tapatalk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My battery also drains at a rate similar to yours however I'm on the CDMA version. Hopefully you can figure out what's going on with yours.

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