Database Users

Battery Draining Bug?

I think I've discovered a bug on the X that's causing battery drain.
I installed Spare Parts and saw my phone had been unplugged for about 12 hours and that my phone was been Running (not sleeping) for 100% of that time.
After being methodical and getting data points after opening various programs, I determined that after I opened any program that accessed the GPS, the phone no longer would go into sleep mode.
To get the phone to start sleeping again, all I have to do is toggle GPS off and then back on again.
It's completely reproducible every time on my phone.
Now, I don't know what kind of effect this will have on battery life, but seems like it probably would have some effect.
If others can test this and see if it affect you at all, it'd be helpful to see if there's a potential major software bug here or if it's just something with my phone.
Easiest way to test is to start with a fresh reboot with GPS toggle on, install Spare Parts, plug in the phone for a second (to reset the counters), let it sit sleeping for a few minutes, then read the Running % in Spare Parts. Should be pretty low. Plug in the phone to reset the counters again. Then start Google Maps or any other program that will activate your GPS. Close that program and then let the phone sit idle for a few minutes. Check Spare Parts running time again and, for me, it's pegged at 100%.
It stays like that until I toggle the GPS off or reboot the phone.
Very curious to see if others get the same results.

lexluthor said:
I think I've discovered a bug on the X that's causing battery drain.
I installed Spare Parts and saw my phone had been unplugged for about 12 hours and that my phone was been Running (not sleeping) for 100% of that time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not trying to flame... but, after 12 hours your phone was unplugged, and still working... battery drain doesn't seem like a huge issue for me based on this information.
I would recommend an app called Tasker. I use it to turn gps off when it's not in use. I open google maps, gps starts. I close maps, gps off. I put my phone into the car mount, bluetooth starts, gps on, pandora on. unplug it, then everything off. I can have the cell radio off at night, but come on every 30 minutes to check for sms, email or whatever. I have Wifi turn on automatically when I get home, based on gps of course, and when I get out of the car, gps turns off and wifi turns on.
It saves a ton of battery for me, and might be something you'd appreciate. I have my phone running on performance mode all the time, and it still lasts all day and has 30+% to spare when I go to sleep. I'm a heavy user. almost 4GB of data this month with no tether.

That's not really the point.
The point is that there's potentially a bug with the phone that's not allowing the phone to go into sleep mode.
Seems like that might be a pretty important thing.

Point blank, the Droid X is one of the only Androids who last more than on day on the same charge! And what you all don't know is that if you use the blk taskbar and services.jar V.8 from teenfaces you will literally double or triple your life!
I have been unplugged for about 7 hrs and still have a sturdy 70%. All this with a normal discharge rate of about 5% every hour! That'd not bad! But then you have ATK set to aggressive... then the batt manager set to smart then cache mate running at full blast clearing caches every half hour. Plus the apps are killed and shut down when te screen ia off! So technically the X is dead till you power it up!
Take a look... I promise many will agree, that is if they did it right and are using V8.
Sent from my DROIDX via Telepathic DLNA.

What in the world is services.jar V.8 from teenfaces?
Ok, so then both of you are saying that the fact that the phone doesn't ever go to sleep once the GPS has been activated (even after the program that did so exists), isn't an issue?
Seems to me that you can only further improve battery life by having the phone sleep when it's not being used.
But who am I to argue I guess.

Seems like you dint understand my previous post. There is mod to change the task bar and shade. Like V8 is the latest with the services.jar replacment. Now how this affected my batt life i don't know, but, it did.
Now i see a lil longer batt life than with the original items.
Sent from my DROIDX via Telepathic DLNA.

this post is hilarious.
homeboy is trying to get bug testers, and people are talking about how to change the color of their taskbar : /

ixobelle said:
this post is hilarious.
homeboy is trying to get bug testers, and people are talking about how to change the color of their taskbar : /
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol yea. Im gonna head home and try what ur saying. I use tasker for turning wifi on and off for maps and the new google places thing (because most of the time im in buildings) but maybe i should use it for gps too. My friend with the evo has his turned off all the time he says its a huge battery drainer. I say how could that be if it only runs when the icon is up. But this might just explain that as well.
Also other logging programs might keep it awak but this one ur suggesting doesn't i take it. Good to keep in mind. Will update later today
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Sorry, I guess I'm lost/confused.
No one really has a concern that this is a potential system problem that's causing excess battery drain?

I do we still don't have an extended battery im very curious to what we can do with the battery life. If this is true id imgine tasker is the way we would go around fixing it. But went we getting 2.2 next week? Maybe that will fix it. Like i said when i get home im going to try what u said when i get home
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Just noticed something, I formated my phone just today. (for some reason i had to activate again. is that normal never had to do that with my WM phone when i would put roms on it and stuff)
During setup it asked if i wanted to share anymous location info to google, which i know the fist time i said yes (actually maybe the guy at verizon said yes for me) in any case it says under it something "will anonymously collect your location data even if a location app isn't running"
which could explain why it stays on when the gps is on
if you can go into your system settings and it's on for you try turning it off and see if then leaving the gps switched on will still keep the phone on.

mavermc said:
Just noticed something, I formated my phone just today. (for some reason i had to activate again. is that normal never had to do that with my WM phone when i would put roms on it and stuff)
During setup it asked if i wanted to share anymous location info to google, which i know the fist time i said yes (actually maybe the guy at verizon said yes for me) in any case it says under it something "will anonymously collect your location data even if a location app isn't running"
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's the option in settings->privacy, which I turned off the other day, so I don't think that's it.

Good find. Seeing the same thing. Repeated your test, and yep, system stays on till gps is bounced.
Certainly doesn't look right. Is it that once satellite fix is established, it's maintained (even if not used)? And on GPS on/off, the fix is lost and the system forgets about GPS till it's actually called?
Next step would be to see how it affects power consumption. Will try to run some more tests later in the day.

Is there an easy way to test power drain? it'll be very interesting to see what effect this is really having.

lexluthor said:
Is there an easy way to test power drain? it'll be very interesting to see what effect this is really having.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately with the Droid X only showing battery power in 10%, it's not easy to discern small differences without waiting for hours.
I wonder if looking at the voltage would offer more precision. But, not sure how reliable that is. After all, if it was, why wouldn't the 3rd party battery meters use that to show more precise % readings.

exempli_gratia said:
Unfortunately with the Droid X only showing battery power in 10%, it's not easy to discern small differences without waiting for hours.
I wonder if looking at the voltage would offer more precision. But, not sure how reliable that is. After all, if it was, why wouldn't the 3rd party battery meters use that to show more precise % readings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd actually have to write an event for every single percent in the Android system for anything to detect the battery much more accurately and Motorola is too lazy to do that. Its only gonna show every 10% because thats what Android was programmed to show.

just an update, i said no to google doing it's data mining off my gps. but then i found in location, when i check "use wifi" it asked me again. My guess is thats how they know where you are when you turn on wifi, because if you want that feature you also have to be used in mining data of where the wifipoints are physically located.
So maybe that has something to do with it.

Saw this on Android Central Yesterday.
I can confirm it, when used with fancy widget. When standard weather app is used, no major power drain. Fancy widget seems to pin the GPS and run it hard the entire time.

hijackerjack said:
You'd actually have to write an event for every single percent in the Android system for anything to detect the battery much more accurately and Motorola is too lazy to do that. Its only gonna show every 10% because thats what Android was programmed to show.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think that if Android had 1% events some app would take advantage of it (there are certainly plenty of battery monitors in Market). But I don't know of any that show anything other than 10%. The HTC phones do 1%, and the battery widgets on HTC phones show likewise. Must be a Motorola implementation limitation.

How I'm finally getting awesome battery life.

I recently installed Froyo (I know, about three weeks late). One of my hopes was that it would improve my battery life (~8 hours previously) but I found the opposite. After installing Froyo I was getting about 4 hours of battery. Horrible.
So I factory reset and started installing apps one or two each day, paying close attention to see if I could find what the problem was. A stock rom would be just fine with nothing installed - lasting all day and ending the day with 40% battery with normal usage.
I discovered that my battery started sucking when I activated Latitude. With further testing I found that Latitude did not suck my battery with the GPS off, and if I left the GPS on but Latitude deactivated I also did not have any major problems with battery.
By deactivating GPS and leaving latitude on I went from a 45% drop over two hours to a 6% drop over two hours.
Click for full size
Not bad! I don't want to give up hardware and I don't want to give up Latitude, so I purchased Tasker and set up the following profiles:
App - Earth: GPS ON
App - Maps: GPS ON
App - Wireless Tether: 4G ON
App - Internet: 4G ON
Battery Level below 35%: 4G OFF
Battery Level below 15: Brightness to minimum, 4G OFF, WiFI OFF, Auto-Sync OFF
I set up additional profiles to turn on WiFi when I'm at work or at home, and one that writes my battery level to a text file along with status of the hardware devices every time the battery percentage changes (for further tracking).
I now have not had to give up my GPS being on, WiFi working, auto-sync, or even 4G to keep great battery life. True that 4G takes a minute to turn on, GPS might take a few extra seconds to get a fix, but it's worth it. I've been unplugged for 6 hours now and I'm sitting at 83% so I should be able to get well over a day with this setup.
I'm interested in hearing if others having major problems are running latitude with GPS ON and if this setup solves the problem. Also, if you have ideas for additional power saving Tasker profiles.

I gotta say I am really must be missunderstanding whats going on here lol.
So without this tasker your phone would die in 4 hours because all that stuff was turned on and working hard? However with the tasker your phone at 6 hours is only at 85%? This is where I am confused, if you dont already see the problem with the math here. If the tasker is only killing things at 35% and thus everything is running how it was before until you get to 35% then shouldnt your phone be down to 35% by say 3.5hours and then suddenly your tasker takes over lol. I mean everything is running exactly the same from 100%-35% as it was without the tasker so why the heck isnt it killing the phone just as fast? Well why isnt it killing the phone down to 35% just ask fast is the better question?
I dont think the tasker solved your problem I think you inadvertantly solved your own problem. Or I am wrong and I am missing something. Maybe I didnt read your post correctly.

This is a great development. I too noticed that my battery would drain quickly when GPS was on, and I never once thought about Latitude (of which is enabled at all times on my phone)

Lattitude confuses me. You are essentially allowing anyone to track you, and doing it willingly? Am I missing something?

uniquenameevo said:
Lattitude confuses me. You are essentially allowing anyone to track you, and doing it willingly? Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's used to update your location to your friends - only those you explicitly approve.

I was underwhelmed with Latitude. It reports my position okay on my phone (great, I know where I am) but if my wife is right next to me on the couch, Latitude says she's a mile away in the middle of a park. What's the point? I can get general locations from Facebook updates?
And, yeah, it's also kicking GPS on all the time and draining battery. I have filed Latitude under the "gimmick" heading for now.

twilk73 said:
I gotta say I am really must be missunderstanding whats going on here lol.
So without this tasker your phone would die in 4 hours because all that stuff was turned on and working hard? However with the tasker your phone at 6 hours is only at 85%? This is where I am confused, if you dont already see the problem with the math here. If the tasker is only killing things at 35% and thus everything is running how it was before until you get to 35% then shouldnt your phone be down to 35% by say 3.5hours and then suddenly your tasker takes over lol. I mean everything is running exactly the same from 100%-35% as it was without the tasker so why the heck isnt it killing the phone just as fast? Well why isnt it killing the phone down to 35% just ask fast is the better question?
I dont think the tasker solved your problem I think you inadvertantly solved your own problem. Or I am wrong and I am missing something. Maybe I didnt read your post correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah sorry - that could be a little more clear. Each line is a separate profile, so I leave GPS off by default now and have it automatically turn on when I enter Google Earth or Google Maps. Since GPS was the main problem, this has completely fixed my battery issue while still allowing me to use Latitude.
The other stuff, like the extreme low battery settings, are just icing on the cake for battery savings.

SilverZero said:
I was underwhelmed with Latitude. It reports my position okay on my phone (great, I know where I am) but if my wife is right next to me on the couch, Latitude says she's a mile away in the middle of a park. What's the point? I can get general locations from Facebook updates?
And, yeah, it's also kicking GPS on all the time and draining battery. I have filed Latitude under the "gimmick" heading for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the person you think is your wife is actually an evil doppelganger. Better knock her out and head to the park to save your real wife.
I actually like Latitude a lot. I have a bunch of my friends on there and it's always interesting to see what they are doing or be alerted when they are nearby. The cool thing is that the alerts "learn" when you would normally be by that person and only alert you if you are nearby at an unusual time or location. It's also great if someone is on their way to meet you, you can pop in and see where they are and how soon they will be there without calling or texting them (this is the most useful thing I do with it).
Has it significantly improved my life? Not really. Is it still fun? I open it up 3 or 4 times a week, so it must be.

gthing said:
Ah sorry - that could be a little more clear. Each line is a separate profile, so I leave GPS off by default now and have it automatically turn on when I enter Google Earth or Google Maps. Since GPS was the main problem, this has completely fixed my battery issue while still allowing me to use Latitude.
The other stuff, like the extreme low battery settings, are just icing on the cake for battery savings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I see now. I also read in another thread that GPS with latitude on was a battery death blow lol. I dont use latitude so that probably why I was so confused with your post to begine with. My bad.

Battery tip for people with bad battery life.

I've had bad battery life since I bought this phone on release day. I would get no more than 1.5-2 hours screen on time. The battery wouldn't last more than 12 hours. I've been messing around with it since then but still had bad battery life up until the last few days. Now I get 3.5-4 hours screen on time and I'm a moderate user.
Here is what I did:
1. Go to Google maps and then go to settings and untick anything that is ticked then click on "location reporting" and set it to do not update your location.
2. Go into the phone settings>location services and untick everything. When you want to use maps just turn on gps.
3. Get the app "battery calibration". First charge your phone to 100% and keep the charger plugged in and then go to the app and Press calibrate. Then use your phone till the battery is dead (turns off) and plug the charger in and let it charge to 100% while it is off.
Turn it on and then use it till the battery is dead again and charge while off to 100%.
I'm not saying this is guaranteed to work for you but it has for me.

You know my problem is I did that and when on Jb lib battery drain like crazy.Back on ICS no problem with battery can you explain that why on ICS calibration is not needed ???
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
---------- Post added at 10:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 PM ----------
goose2515 said:
You know my problem is I did that and when on Jb lib battery drain like crazy.Back on ICS no problem with battery can you explain that why on ICS calibration is not needed ???
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
O end yes maps drain battery I turn this off
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

uf21 said:
Up until now I had bad battery life since I bought this phone on release day. I would get no more than 1.5-2 screen on time. The battery wouldn't last more than 12 hours. I've been messing around with it since then but still had bad battery life up until the last few days. Now I get 3.5-4 hours screen on time and I'm a moderate user.
Here is what I did:
1. Go to Google maps and then go to settings and untick anything that is ticked then click on "location reporting" and set it to do not update your location.
2. Go into the phone settings>location services and untick everything. When you want to use maps just turn on gps.
3. Get the app "battery calibration". First charge your phone to 100% and keep the charger plugged in and then go to the app and Press calibrate. Then use your phone till the battery is dead (turns off) and plug the charger in and let it charge to 100% while it off.
Turn it on and then use it till the battery is dead again and charge while off to 100%.
I'm not saying this is guaranteed to work for you but it has for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First two items I agree on. GPS uses up a lot of battery, though from personal experience, it didn't dent my battery too much anyway as long as I don't have running apps using it.
But the last point. I believe those battery calibrations are actually useless. There was some article from the android team describing why.

The 2nd and 3rd are completely useless.
People who use gps know that even if you tick those location services, it only gets enabled when an app requires gps. Thua, battery is only lost if you use loads of navigation services. Unchecking those won't do any good.
Battery Caliberation is just what you can call the perfect reading that is shown on your status bar. Ultimately, whether you caliberate or not, battery gets charged upto 100% only. It won't surely exceed that.
Sent from Hell!!

uf21 said:
I've had bad battery life since I bought this phone on release day. I would get no more than 1.5-2 hours screen on time. The battery wouldn't last more than 12 hours. I've been messing around with it since then but still had bad battery life up until the last few days. Now I get 3.5-4 hours screen on time and I'm a moderate user.
Here is what I did:
1. Go to Google maps and then go to settings and untick anything that is ticked then click on "location reporting" and set it to do not update your location.
2. Go into the phone settings>location services and untick everything. When you want to use maps just turn on gps.
3. Get the app "battery calibration". First charge your phone to 100% and keep the charger plugged in and then go to the app and Press calibrate. Then use your phone till the battery is dead (turns off) and plug the charger in and let it charge to 100% while it is off.
Turn it on and then use it till the battery is dead again and charge while off to 100%.
I'm not saying this is guaranteed to work for you but it has for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A better idea:
Disable auto sync for accounts
Disable GPS (and wifi gps)
Disable auto backup of Gmail account
Set wifi sleep policy to “when plugged in”
Disable motion
Check your apps settings and disable useless background sync​

Setup a static IP via your router.

I had issues with Chrome Sync - when enabled it prevented phone from going into deep sleep. So if you use Chrome and struggle with battery life this is one more thing to look at ...

Official Facebook app uses a lot of power and waking device for many times. Use browser for facebook or alternatives...You will see the diference !

Darkside Agent said:
A better idea:
Disable auto sync for accounts
Disable GPS (and wifi gps)
Disable auto backup of Gmail account
Set wifi sleep policy to “when plugged in”
Disable motion
Check your apps settings and disable useless background sync​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good list id like to add:
freeze unused apps/battery hogs if used sparringly (with titanium backup)
set wifi to always on, switch off manually when not in use
firewall apps that dont require internet

I agree on the Facebook app. I will charge my phone to full, reboot it, and then let it sit overnight without using any apps and it will be one of my top processes in better battery stats. I really like using facebook simply for the picture and phone number syncing. I guess I could always go back to haxsync. On my Galaxy Nexus since I can't use facebook app to sync I just use mobile page and it definitely is better on battery life.
I've been trying to improve my battery life on 4.1.1 LIB as if I leave it on Wifi overnight with no use after reboot and full charge I'll see Deep Sleep at maybe 90% if I'm lucky. I'm losing almost a full hour of sleep time over the course of 7-8 hours. I think Facebook is part of it, also it seems to be worse when I use the S3's built in alarms.

Go into Settings -> Location and disable everything? You mean that we should disable:
1) Use wireless networks (location determined by wi-fi and/or mobile networks). I really don't see how this saves battery.
2) Use GPS satellites. This uses up battery ONLY when an app requires GPS (and when the icon shows).
3) Use sensor aiding. See above.
4) Location and Google Search. (only used to get your location when you're connected to GPS and/or wifi/mobile network).
I really don't see how this saves battery.
On a side note, one might want to freeze unwanted apps, not use too many live wallpapers, sync only when needed, and get rid of unwanted widgets. THAT might help.

Better tip. Use your phone with everything turned on as it was designed like I do and get 4 hours + screen on time, and 1 to 2 days useage depending on how much it's used.. simples...

I really don't see the point of buying a phone like this and turning everything off!
Google now won't work properly with all the location stuff switched off.
I always get through the day with everything turned on, in use power saving at work and switch off wifi that's it.
If the battery runs down have a back up waiting, galaxy s3 owners are always going on about it being good that our phone has a removable battery and iphone doesn't but there are still many people not happy that their battery runs down quick!
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

The best thing I ever spent on for this phone was the official samsung battery kit. At least I don't have to worry about the battery at all and I can leave all the features on.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

The best app to see exactly what's happening on the phone is "Better Battery Stats".
I can have access to all partial wavelocks and see exactly what app is sucking my battery like a vampire on a virgin.
Companies creates amazing devices but forgot to create the amazing batteries that go with them!

DeadSOL said:
Go into Settings -> Location and disable everything? You mean that we should disable:
1) Use wireless networks (location determined by wi-fi and/or mobile networks). I really don't see how this saves battery.
2) Use GPS satellites. This uses up battery ONLY when an app requires GPS (and when the icon shows).
3) Use sensor aiding. See above.
4) Location and Google Search. (only used to get your location when you're connected to GPS and/or wifi/mobile network).
I really don't see how this saves battery.
On a side note, one might want to freeze unwanted apps, not use too many live wallpapers, sync only when needed, and get rid of unwanted widgets. THAT might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's true but this is not for everyone. I don't use Google now and why should I use wireless networks when there is a built in GPS.

Thank you OP. That was the problem with my phone. Now its awake when the screen is on. Before that, it was awake every 5 minutes. !!!!

And after you've turned every single feature off, you can stand back and admire your Nokia 3310

boundy said:
And after you've turned every single feature off, you can stand back and admire your Nokia 3310
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're only turning of location services. Why does the phone need to know where you are 24/7? Just turn it on when you need to use maps or location. Not hard.
My car was designed to be driven, does that mean it should be left on while I'm not using it? Think about that.

terranoid said:
Thank you OP. That was the problem with my phone. Now its awake when the screen is on. Before that, it was awake every 5 minutes. !!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help.

wakelock

notice the google maps keeps phone wake very long time! does any experience the same or something is wrong?

One thing to do is make sure location reporting or check-in services, whatever it's called in maps settings is turned off. Or go to latitude and make sure everything is turned off, but even still when on wifi especially if you have GPS turned on Google Maps reports location data way way too much. Usually when I'm on Wifi on my note I'm at home so I will leave GPS turned off and battery life is much better.

I dont use gps on phone and they are off, same with all settings in lockations. Still battery drain is annoing but phone lives like one day and a half
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

Have a fix for you
oops wrong thread. deleting.

Do people keep location reporting on or off?

I've always had it off, whenever I turn it on Google Play Services MULLERS my battery. It shoots straight up and when i'm on LTE my battery drains 2-5% per hours idle instead of sub 1%.
Anyone else?

ben-fisher-bro said:
I've always had it off, whenever I turn it on Google Play Services MULLERS my battery. It shoots straight up and when i'm on LTE my battery drains 2-5% per hours idle instead of sub 1%.
Anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I keep it ON, at all times with High Accuracy, since I have Android Device Manager enabled for my security concerns. Of course, It takes a hold on battery life, so if you are not much concerned with that kind of stuff, you can keep it OFF.

Well google device manager works with location just set to on, it's the reporting that kills battery.

ben-fisher-bro said:
Well google device manager works with location just set to on, it's the reporting that kills battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I do know, but I also rely on other services like Maps to navigate, at most times. So is the reason of setting it to high accuracy.

On all the time. No battery problems for me.

On. Every so often it goes a bit haywire with the battery and play services, but it's rarer than it was a few iterations back. Have the OP other apps that might mess with it?

Mine is ON with battery saving. When I need car navigation, I set high accuracy with Power Toggles (only one tap to switch between battery saving and high accuracy if you're rooted)
Nexus 6P with Chroma rocks!

I keep mine off all the time. I only turn it on when I need to utilize GPS which is very rare.

Use to keep off, but now it's on Battery save since I'm paired with Huawei SmartWatch..