Related
Please forgive me if this is a duplicate thread, I searched and only found folks complaining of other things with battery, not the length of life. Feel free to move this if it belongs in another forum.
I was one of the early recipients so I've been using the Incredible for a week already. Here are my findings on battery life and opening to further suggestions to stretch this out some more.
I am using the standard battery that came with the phone. I have a wall charger at my desk at work and a car charger in my car, all in addition to the charger on my night-stand. Fortunately these carried over from my Omnia2 since they are Micro USB. However, I have to use these constantly.
I have been using a smartphone for quite a few years and this one is by far the best yet... however, it also bleeds the battery dry like any other smartphone. I am also a power user, Exchange connection for work calendar and mail, Gmail, internet use and Facebook app. I also use the camera a lot, which yields impressive photos for a phone.
Average day for me; if I unplug the charger at about 7:00am as I leave for work and do not plug it into anything for power, the battery bar turns orange at about 2:30-3:00PM. I use Advanced Task Manager to kill things I don't use and have removed apps I had installed but use minimally which start up on their own (Skype, Photoshop Mobile... etc.). I also keep an eye on the running services to ensure the minimum is running at any given time.
Before I used Advanced Task Manager I was getting to about noon before the battery bar turned orange.
With occasional use of wall and car charger I can get through a full day before I get to red and the "plug into power" warning message. This past weekend I bled it to the point that it turned off on it's own, which was about 10:00PM
I typically have 2+ bars of 3G in my area, at home I have a signal extender so I have full strength signal, if that is off I have 1 bar of 1x.
Anyone have additional tips or tricks on how to milk even more battery life out of my Incredible phone? I expected lackluster battery performance but would love to get through a day without having to keep a charger on me.
NOEAOMD
Try this - seems to be best trick with little or no effect on usability:
Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks (2nd one down)-
Uncheck 'Enable always-on mobile data'. Does not affect my push Exchange, and dramatically helps battery life.
Credit is due to one of the users at androidforums.com.
That battery life sounds about right. Keep in mind that having all of that stuff syncing in the background is going to kill your battery life. Also, ATK could be hurting your battery life in general. You clearly have something that it's helping with, but if you're just killing every background process your phone will use more power reinitializing those programs than it would have just keeping them in RAM. In general, if something's not using any CPU time, it's better to leave it running.
My old phone was the touch pro 2. the battery equipped with it has a 1500 mah. The battery is slightly thicker but cover easily closes still and i can now enjoy my phone almost lasting the entire day p
also my friend works a tmobile and supposedly the HD2 also uses the same battery but with a higher rating. They throw them out after awhile and he said he will get me a few of them for free cant wait )
I had a similar issue...
I was having a similar issue where my Incredible wouldn't make it through the day without charging, and I found that Google Maps was eating the lion's share of my battery. I tried using Advanced Task Killer to stop it, but it didn't show up in the list of tasks, but if I checked my battery usage, it was always the task using the most energy (not just by a little...it would typically be responsible for 70-95%). I had turned the Locator feature on within Maps just to see how it worked, but even with it disabled the task would still be running. The only way I was able to rid myself of the process was to reboot Android. My battery life has improved drastically since then.
I'm not saying this will solve your issue, but it's something to look at.
Check this thread on androidforums:
http://androidforums.com/support-troubleshooting-incredible/72539-i-found-fixed-htc-incredible-battery-bug.html
I think the problem is battery Uptime vs Awake time. If they are the same then the battery drains like crazy.
I ended up turning phone off completely, charging, then killing the Calendar process (but I have read killing any process will do) after boot with Astro File Manager.
I am currently at 19 hours 42 minutes Uptime, with 7 hours 12 minutes Awake time (Phone was awake all night apparently and I ended up killing my last processes: Mint, Firewallet, Fianancisto as well as Calendar which showed up in the list again).
And I have GPS, location, syncing on and set to 4 hours for most everything (except for Gmail Contacts and Calendar which I turned off).
Anyway, hope this helps someone.
EDIT: Oh, and I have 60% battery (6 green bars). I'm not using any battery apps or any task manager apps apart from Astro File Manager to kill processes.
carlbettag said:
Try this - seems to be best trick with little or no effect on usability:
Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks (2nd one down)-
Uncheck 'Enable always-on mobile data'. Does not affect my push Exchange, and dramatically helps battery life.
Credit is due to one of the users at androidforums.com.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far this has done the most good. You are right it doesn't really delay my Exchange much. I notice a few seconds more of a delay when I am at my desk but I will never have something so critical that a few seconds will matter.
carlbettag said:
Try this - seems to be best trick with little or no effect on usability:
Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks (2nd one down)-
Uncheck 'Enable always-on mobile data'. Does not affect my push Exchange, and dramatically helps battery life.
Credit is due to one of the users at androidforums.com.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would this effect google voice?
I am also curious to know what all is effected by disabling that setting...
i disabled it and my google voice works fine, my weather widgets work fine, my dictionary.com widget works fine all updating themselves.... i'm not sure what it changed
damnhao said:
would this effect google voice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Facebook app only refreshes when I open it or manually, Skype IM shows me offline most of the time. Otherwise, just longer battery life.
For what it's worth, I disabled all of the htc widgets and sense (installed helix launcher 2) and I can get through pretty much an entire day on a single charge. Took phone off the charger around 7am and it's just now red at about 10pm.
I thought you couldnt disable sense on this phone.
Thanks!
theoneownz said:
My old phone was the touch pro 2. the battery equipped with it has a 1500 mah. The battery is slightly thicker but cover easily closes still and i can now enjoy my phone almost lasting the entire day p
also my friend works a tmobile and supposedly the HD2 also uses the same battery but with a higher rating. They throw them out after awhile and he said he will get me a few of them for free cant wait )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might I say- THIS IS BRILLIANT! Yes, the TP2 bat fits just fine and gives a bit more time on the life of the Incredible... good find!
My Imagio 1500 mAh and 1750 mAh batts also work fine in the Incredible .
Calibob2001 said:
Might I say- THIS IS BRILLIANT! Yes, the TP2 bat fits just fine and gives a bit more time on the life of the Incredible... good find!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Np man I knew it would help someone :0p I knew i wasnt the only one to swap over lol
We got two Incredibles on Wednesday. The Boss Lady's went through the "select language, etc" drill described in the user's guide on first startup after charging. Mine went straight to the Home screen without any setup options. So I did a hard reset and was walked through the setup.
We left them both on chargers during the night.
Yesterday, after two hours off the charger and doing NOTHING, mine had used up more than a third of the battery.
Boss Lady's was still pegged.
After four hours, still doing bupkiss, mine started begging for the charger. I put it on a car charger. Also fired up Advanced Task Manager (the only app I installed on it), and killed off every app in its list. Some of them, like HTC Checkin and People, just would not die or would restart immediately.
Since we were travelling, Boss Lady spent the trip setting up contacts, texting, checking the weather, and hitting the interwebs.
After a six-hour drive, Boss Lady using hers and mine on the charger, her battery was still nearly topped off. Mine would start begging for the charger five minutes after being disconnected.
Last night about eleven PM, Boss Lady's bettery was still at about 75%. Mine still begging for the charger. Put mine on the charger overnight. (Hers charged for about 30 min this morning). Two hours after taking mine off the charger, and again doing nothing, battery was half gone.
Oh, and during all this, the battery was VERY warm while charging and would immediately warm up considerably when the screen was on.
I checked the battery timers on both phones. Boss Lady's up timer was somthing like 12 hours, awake timer showed less than 7 min.
My timers both showed the same time and were updating in tandem.
I called support, described the Incredible Shrinking Battery. A new Incredible is on its way to my house.
Boss Lady's is still "bone stock" (no special settings) and her battery is chuggin right along...
th3drow said:
I thought you couldnt disable sense on this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im running GDE because helix2 kept force closing on me but same result. My battery now only runs down if I'm actively using the phone. With sense running it was burning through the battery. Huge improvement.
I was also able to replicate every sense widget but one and that being the contacts widget.
The way to do it is just set helix or GDE or whatever as your default and then restart the phone. As long as you don't manually launch sense after that it will stay turned off.
The reason people think you can't disable sense is that they didn't include some aspects of vanilla android. The messaging program and browser and a few other things aren't there and the artwork for others like the notification bar. You won't have access to the HTC widgets but you will still be able to use the HTC apps.
Anyway long story short. My battery life is MUCH improved with sense disabled.
carlbettag said:
Try this - seems to be best trick with little or no effect on usability:
Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks (2nd one down)-
Uncheck 'Enable always-on mobile data'. Does not affect my push Exchange, and dramatically helps battery life.
Credit is due to one of the users at androidforums.com.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS SOLUTION WORKS FANTASTICALLY! I am still at 90% when I used to be 35% by this point in the day. Thank you so much.
Try this - seems to be best trick with little or no effect on usability:
Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks (2nd one down)-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think this is 100% accurate. When you disable this setting, you disable data services after your phone goes to sleep (turning off the display). It does not happen right away, but after I put my phone to sleep and wait a few minutes Gmail and ActiveSync don't push notifications to the phone. If the phone comes out of sleep for some reason (text message, phone call, etc).. Then the notifications works again, because it reconnects to the data network. I have also used K9's push feature, which also stops working after the phone is sleeping for a few minutes.
Also, when you turn off the always-on mobile connection setting the data symbols (3G/1X) go away in sleep. If you wake your phone, you can actually see the data symbols are gone but eventually return.
Ok I got the X10 a few days ago.. loving it.. now..
How do I extend the life of the battery? I know theres a ton of topics on this but I can't seem to get more than 12hours..
- I use StartupAuditor and pretty much stopped most apps from running at start.
- I use ADW Launcher
- I use JuiceDefender
- Timeout - Screen timeout after 15s, lock after 2mins
- Schedule - Enable APN/Wifi for 1m every 15secs (for Moxie Sync/Mail - Push)
- Screen - Leave APN/Wifi enabled while screen unlocked (So it disables it after it has been locked)
Any help is appreciated.
After a couple of weeks your battery life should get better with out you having to do anything. Just be patient and let it fully discharge before recharging. Also restart your phone after a full charge and after using wifi and gps.
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force close the face recognition will save alot of power, face recognition sucks the cpu hardly!
wingz85 said:
After a couple of weeks your battery life should get better with out you having to do anything. Just be patient and let it fully discharge before recharging. Also restart your phone after a full charge and after using wifi and gps.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Discharing a battery is bad isnt it?
Well your problem may lay here
"- Schedule - Enable APN/Wifi for 1m every 15secs (for Moxie Sync/Mail - Push)"
Your using Moxier which other X10 users have identified as a huge power user and according to you, your also using APN/Wifi for a minute every 15 seconds..........so it's essentially never turning the APN/Wifi off :-S
Hope this helps!
Also fully discharging your battery every now and then is actually beneficial for your battery.
Quite certain the 1 minute every 15 seconds is a typo
Juicedefender defaults to 1 minute ever 15 minutes.
I removed ATK and Juicedefender, I found they only screwed up things in the phone and after removing them I noticed no change in battery life. (If anything, my battery life increased after removing ATK)
The best things for battery I have found to be.
-- Alternate launcher (I use ADW, I think Helix is better for battery performance but ADW has more options).
-- First 5 charges, discharge battery completely and do this again once every month or so
-- After full charge, power cycle phone (Turn off/on)
-- Use quick settings to turn off GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth when you are not using them
-- Make sure you back out of programs when you're done with them. This will close most applications so they are not running in the background. Certain apps (like a dolphin browser) have exit functions under more options. This is useful as back will just go to the previous page.
Note: Force closing applications which you see open in the background may use more battery as it may just start up again. Constantly killing and opening the program will use processor/battery power. Whereas many programs, when open in the background, are not using active process power and Android OS will pause/stop applications which are not in active use, by default.
xxsashixx said:
- Timeout - Screen timeout after 15s, lock after 2mins
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can i find the timout setting for the lock?
Screen brightness turned down. Wifi instead of 3g. That's what I do. And I think I get around 15 hours. Still kinda bad. But better than nothing.
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From my experience..
I find 3G has better battery life than WiFi, unless you are constantly browsing. When 3G is active, but you're not browsing the web and stuff, I find it doesn't use much battery. WiFi, however, uses up loads of battery when the phone is idle.
MarylandCookie said:
Where can i find the timout setting for the lock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to know that as well Tried to find in phone settings but couldn't figure it out
Battery barely gets drained by wifi in idle state. you just go into wireless settings and set wifi sleep policy to when screen turns off.. should be fine after!!
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Mano, not sure if this is what ya after! but here goes.. go to settings, sound and display, then screen timeout!!
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As per my last question, discharging is bad isn't it? With these batteries, you have to constantly charge them so they don't loose life
Edit: Also.. if I press home button or back button that doesn't close the app.. most apps don't close like that, so I have to use ATK to kill it.. is it fine to leave apps running in the bg like that?
Edit: So I should uninstall ATK?
I also JUST got an X10 about 2 weeks ago! My battery life was so bad at first, and I ended up trying most of these battery saving apps. But to be honest, I found that they did more damage than good.
I now have everything I don't use turned off. Bluetooth, WiFi (when I'm not home at least) etc. Just skim through settings and turn off anything you don't think you'll use. And I restart my phone every morning and I get 30-50 hours out of it, depending on use. It is definitely getting better with time too.
For ATK, I would uninstall it as generally killing tasks does more harm than good. If you use it intermittently and only when necessary (and not use auto-killer) you could keep it installed.
As for apps running in the background..
-- If you press back, it should close most apps (not all, but well designed apps should)
--The Android OS is designed to pause/stop apps/processes which are not being actively used by the user and will close them eventually if left unused
-- ATK is generally only freeing RAM which is not important. It is not like Windows in the sense that more free RAM = faster speeds. It is a lot more like, more free ram = more wasted ram.
Here is a link to where I found out most of this information.
http:/geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
As for WiFi sleep policy, thanks for pointing this out. It seems that my phone is already set to sleep WiFi when the screen is turned off. I find this weird as I have found significantly reduced battery life when I turn WiFi on, even when my phone is mostly unused/idle.
Mobzter said:
Mano, not sure if this is what ya after! but here goes.. go to settings, sound and display, then screen timeout!!
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much Mobzter, but i was not after that As Sashi said that he has set "Timeout - Screen timeout after 15s, lock after 2mins", I know about about screen timeout but "Lock after 2 min", How? Thnak You anyway ^^
@mano. Good question. I can only find screen time out as well.
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Sent from my X10i
i have noticed some thing strange ,the phone lasts more with apps open in backgroung than when i close them . and using my phone consumes less battery than leaving it in standby .very strange phone (may be only mine ) any confirmation.
Hey Hoss,
I can confirm that force-closing/killing apps seems to be worse for battery life than leaving them alone. Backing out of apps usually will stop any cpu usage, but leave the app running. Killing/closing them will just result in more cpu power to run it when necessary.
As for standby vs usage - I have the opposite experience. The battery life on my x10 lasts a lot longer when I am working all day and not using my phone very much.
Terul
Just reviewed several posts and looks like there's not a lot of clarification on extending battery life on the Epic 4G.
Based on what i've read here, its possible to extend battery life with the following ?
GB update (sprint released rom or modded roms)?
Screen Dims, Auto syncing disabling, etc?
PRL update (not searching for towers)?
Data disablement?
I hope the GB and mod updates are the real answer.
The fact that anyone suggests to disable your data as a way to save the battery is mind boggling to me. Why would I have a smart phone if I had to disable data to save the battery (aside from maybe being on a plane or something where you HAVE to disable it anyway).
Look for randomking's thread in the Q/A section in epic development... the link is also in his signature, but he gives great advice on how to save battery properly.
Sent from my Samsung-SPH-D700 using XDA App
I feel like I've tried everything but at this point I've resigned myself to poor battery life.
I have two Exchange accounts, gmail plus I use Yahoo and Live as well as a personal email account. Not to mention weather updates. I've got a 1amp charger in my car. A desktop cradle with a 1amp charger at my desk and another 1amp charger in a cradle on the table next to my favorite chair at home. At night I use the .5amp Samsung charger in a third cradle.
Basically, when I'm not using it its charging.
When I get up I automatically tap my belt case to make sure I don't walk off without it. I need it 31 and I need to know I get all email immediately and that I can be on a call for a couple of hours if I need to be.
But yeah, I wish I could just charge overnight and be able to depend on 24+ hours of battery life.
Milkman00 said:
The fact that anyone suggests to disable your data as a way to save the battery is mind boggling to me. Why would I have a smart phone if I had to disable data to save the battery (aside from maybe being on a plane or something where you HAVE to disable it anyway).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how I feel as well. I don't understand why you would want to have this phone if you are going to turn off all of its features. I don't undervolt. I am overclocked to 1400 and I have GPS on most of the time. I also use Bluetooth fairly regularly. I did spend $2 to get "Bloat Freezer" app to freeze the apps that run even when I am not using them. I also have a second battery. I can't obsess over the battery. I want performance and stability which I have. When changing ROMs, charge to full and wipe battery stats in recovery as well.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
JohnCorleone said:
This is how I feel as well. I don't understand why you would want to have this phone if you are going to turn off all of its features. I don't undervolt. I am overclocked to 1400 and I have GPS on most of the time. I also use Bluetooth fairly regularly. I did spend $2 to get "Bloat Freezer" app to freeze the apps that run even when I am not using them. I also have a second battery. I can't obsess over the battery. I want performance and stability which I have. When changing ROMs, charge to full and wipe battery stats in recovery as well.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking to get another battery.
Right now I always have wifi on downloading stuff like 24/7 brightness all the way down(come on its not like you need it up anyway). I'm always overclocked to 1.2, and not undervolted and I don't use dark backgrounds, and have everything set to sync every 4-6 hours. I charge maybe twice a day never completely until night time.
Sent from my SPH-D700
If you live in a poor service area of town like I do, typically avg 3 bars all day, and often less...you are doomed.
I've tried all the tips, but the constant tower polling rakes my bettery over the coals. This is why I've adopted the multiple battery approach (with an external charger of course).
MeetFace said:
If you live in a poor service area of town like I do, typically avg 3 bars all day, and often less...you are doomed.
I've tried all the tips, but the constant tower polling rakes my bettery over the coals. This is why I've adopted the multiple battery approach (with an external charger of course).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^ This. If not for rooting and Roam Control I'd have to almost not use my phone at work, and even then even Verizon's signal is low/spotty though to a much smaller degree in the building than Sprint's.
I do a number of things that are convenient for me.
I turn auto-syncing off. I don't need it always searching for updates in my life. I can spend the 3 seconds when I open the app.
I only put it on wi-fi/gps/4g when I need them. Sure, they can be on, but they use battery and it also takes seconds to turn them on.
I use auto-brightness. It works for me.
I do a lot of stuff:
- Leave GPS/wifi/4g/bluetooth turned off until I need to use them.
- Set screen brightness to the minimum, in both the OS and the browser.
- Use Titanium Backup's 'freeze' to disable bits of the OS I don't need, like 'DRM content'.
- Set up non-push email addresses to be forwarded to push email addresses (like gmail) automatically so that the phone itself does very little polling.
Doing all this, I can leave data on and easily have it last the day, every day, or turn data off and use it for a podcast player with BT headphones for a full eight hours.
Green power helps A LOT btw... its better than juice defender ultimate.
Sent from my Samsung-SPH-D700 using XDA App
Bloat Freezer allows you to freeze apps like Titanium Pro although it seems like most people use Titanium
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Freezing DRM saves a good portion for me. I also use Startup Cleaner to stop apps from automatically opening (not freezing) as soon as I startup my phone (swype, messaging, internet, etc). I'm not getting fantastic battery savings, but I've seen a difference doing this.
What is DRM?
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/drm/package-summary.html
It sounds like it would use some juice, but dunno that freezing may be most efficient for apps.
Dataswitch app by TomatoX. Its a widget that turns off 3G. I keep a Wifi on/off toggle on my homescreen as well. I connect often enough to get all my emails pushed through and what not so it doesn't feel like I'm crippling myself in the name of a little battery life. I went eight hours today and got home with 83% worth of battery. I prefer widgets over longpressing the power button personally.
These are a collection of the best suggestions I can make.
And no, turning data off is not one of them. Although disabling sync is.
DRM is a service for digitally verifying online store bought or rented audio/video. Itunes is a great example as the most annoying implementation of this concept. The problem is, that on our phones it runs constantly trying to verify files, whether you have any or not. If you don't think you need it, freeze it. Removing it completely has lead to problems. If you don't want to buy an app to do it, the terminal emulator commands are included in this thread.
PS: Currently I have not found one person that can top the best EC05 roms in battery life with a GB rom.
ok so i tried a couple of recommendations and i have some positive feedback!
I got green power and startup cleaner. After changing startup cleaner and using it to disable quite a few apps as well as drm and other non essentials it helped with my memory and apps running in the background.
I also tweaked green power settings to leave on the 3g and turned off the wifi on / off option (so i could do it instead of green power) and lt do its thing.
Excellent battery life. I left it on used it for a bit then let it sit and check a couple of emails, got a few pushed emails via gmail and did a few web searches.
i'm at 80% since 1pm. that's unbelievable yet that's the way it should be!
these apps / tweaks have helped. i do need push email and use push calendar from hotmail exchange.
i really wish the phone could do this on its own but i'll settle for this alternative using 2 apps at this time.
i hope gingerbread helps us all without the need for apps but i would probably still use them because of the substantial battery life gains.
Randomking is right.
All our efforts are minimal compared to what gb does....at least in cooked form
Rk..what custom rom do you recommed?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
swear0730 said:
I feel like I've tried everything but at this point I've resigned myself to poor battery life.
I have two Exchange accounts, gmail plus I use Yahoo and Live as well as a personal email account. Not to mention weather updates. I've got a 1amp charger in my car. A desktop cradle with a 1amp charger at my desk and another 1amp charger in a cradle on the table next to my favorite chair at home. At night I use the .5amp Samsung charger in a third cradle.
Basically, when I'm not using it its charging.
When I get up I automatically tap my belt case to make sure I don't walk off without it. I need it 31 and I need to know I get all email immediately and that I can be on a call for a couple of hours if I need to be.
But yeah, I wish I could just charge overnight and be able to depend on 24+ hours of battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's everybodys dream, to be ale to run this bad boy for 24 hrs straight. Unfrtunately were a long ways from that. Especialy from the way it sounds like you run your phone your going to becharging multiple times per day..that's just part of being a power user with a smartphone.
I gota agree though, fo the life of me i don't know why people disable data, or cripple thir phones ability just to eek out another hr of battery, this is a huge phone, with a big power hungry (beautiful) screen, you knew this when you picked it out. It can do pretty much any function that a laptop can. Use it like it was meant to be used, and dont fret so much over the battery.
From cellblock D
Great News!
Battery life is now up considerably without the use of 3rd party apps.
I may consider using green power to get more extended battery life...but here's how i did it.
1. Update to EF02 Gingerbread OS (on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of ease of upgrade...its a 2....1 being the most simple). It was as easy as download the app and let it upgrade your phone.
I'll post the video link here it was VERY Elementary folks.
2. Battery life in Gingerbread is great! Appears to have a better memory manager and much more smooth transition between screens, apps, etc.
Randomking was correct about battery life and adding all the apps we had to for Froyo just to get mediocre batter life.
Hope someone can help me solve this issue.
The Setup
I recently went out of the country and before I left I unlocked my GS4 following from wonderhowto[dot]com
Arrived to my Carribean destination, bought a prepaid SIM, popped her in and everything worked great.
Problems started when I flew back into Miami. I removed my prepaid SIM and installed my old one, changed my APN name back
and rebooted the phone. Decided to plug it into my laptop (USB3.0) to get some extra juice before the next flight and I noticed that
the battery was actually going down and quite quickly too, about 1% every 3 minutes. The phone was also doing a lot of connecting and disconnecting from the laptop even though it was not being moved.
I use two batteries which I have an external charger for , so this didn't slow me down too much.
After a few days, I thought maybe by unlocking the phone I had left it in some "roaming" state where it was eating up battery looking for its signal, so I decided that I'd restore it to the nandroid backup ROM Manager created before I did the unlock procedure. OH NUGGETS!
Things got ugly , quick!. In the process of trying to restore got MD5 mismatch error, so I went back to 3 previous backups before all of which said either "MD5 mismatch" or unable to open .zip -None of them worked.
Thankfully I had saved a copy of the backup folder in clockworkmod to my PC and tried to load that, it started and then get to writing /data and said error writing data.
I rebooted. Bootloop.
After a few hours of attempts with KIES, and some well timed cold beer deliveries from my wife, I finally got the phone back to stock version.
Rooted it again, motochopper, And loaded GoldenEye Rom v 8.0 . Still slow to little or no charging.
Loaded PACMAN and noticed something that should be mentioned.
Pacman rom has its own little battery widget that sits in the top tray and shows the %. It glows green from bottom to top to show that it is charging. I noticed on every couple of cycles, the battery meter would flash red for a quick second before turning green and sweeping up.????
Went back to a backup of GoldenEye8.
The current status
The phone is currently plugged in to the stock charger (2A) and stock cable. It has charged up only about 3% in 20 minutes time. I have it in battery saving mode with wifi on , and EVERYTHING else turned off.
Battery info says:
Temp 87.3 F
Voltage 4033mV
Plugged True
Charging
Li-ion
Health:Good
Charge Type : AC
Battery use shows 62% of battery use coming from SCREEN (Yes I have auto-brightness set, and NO live wallpaper)
Anyone have some good input?
Maybe its a bad cord? Or bad USB port/connection on the phone it self...
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62% screen usage is normal, I sometimes see over 70% with my brightness all the way up.
Make sure apps aren't keeping it from going idle and staying active.
Battery temp. seems a bit high. General causes of that are a faulty cable.
Download greenify and hibernate any apps that may be running unnoticeably in the background.
If your kernel allows fast charging (disables access to phone storage while fast charging is on) enable it while charging if you're not using the phone.
Play with CPU and GPU governors in your kernel to save battery life. I.E: I put my CPU governor on "powersave" while idle and not using the phone for anything extensive.
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mg2195 said:
Maybe its a bad cord? Or bad USB port/connection on the phone it self...
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Tried two other cords,but they just made it worse. They actually caused it to look like its charging but the battery level was going down.
Your second suggestion is probably right, but i'd like to exhaust my options first before having to restore and send to creator. I do find that with the stock cable and no external case on it stays plugged in well and doesn't make any "interrupted connection" noises.
With stock charger and cable and minimal functions running its charging about 1% every 4 minutes. ( Approx 6.5 hrs to full charge )
I feel like the hardware must be working in order to do that, and that the software is putting some kind of excessive strain on it. Possibly?
The battery use still shows, screen as the major contributor at 61% , so I switched from a really high resolution static background to a low res one. ( results to follow)
Downloading WanamLite now and going to try that out, also going to try performing the unlock procedure I did in reverse order and see what that does. Keep you posted. Open to suggestions.
Br4nd3n said:
62% screen usage is normal, I sometimes see over 70% with my brightness all the way up.
Make sure apps aren't keeping it from going idle and staying active.
Battery temp. seems a bit high. General causes of that are a faulty cable.
Download greenify and hibernate any apps that may be running unnoticeably in the background.
If your kernel allows fast charging (disables access to phone storage while fast charging is on) enable it while charging if you're not using the phone.
Play with CPU and GPU governors in your kernel to save battery life. I.E: I put my CPU governor on "powersave" while idle and not using the phone for anything extensive.
Sent from my SGH-I337 using XDA Premium HD app
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Thanks for the advise, I'm running greenify and its really only showing facebook and my sms app, I hibernated facebook anyways just to test it, but I know out of the box , on a car adapter this thing was charging 1%/min , maybe I have a bad ROM/Kernel mix?
prodigaltaurus said:
maybe I have a bad ROM/Kernel mix?
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Doubt it, but maybe you can try going from touchwiz to aosp. Very much more lightweight, though you'll lose some s4 features. If it is faulty hardware/battery I'd just save yourself the trouble and swap it for a new one; or try another battery. I guess you can try doing a compete wipe and flashing a fresh ROM with a kernel you know will definitely run smooth with it.
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Br4nd3n said:
Doubt it, but maybe you can try going from touchwiz to aosp. Very much more lightweight, though you'll lose some s4 features. If it is faulty hardware/battery I'd just save yourself the trouble and swap it for a new one; or try another battery. I guess you can try doing a compete wipe and flashing a fresh ROM with a kernel you know will definitely run smooth with it.
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Already tried the second battery, no luck. Any suggestion on the rom/kernel combo?
I use task650 with kt's kernel and it's excellent. Though it's all opinion, there is many great combinations. Some ROMs come packaged with their own kernel or a custom one.
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IMO: those temps are pretty normal.
Why you don't try a bone stock rom and see how it respond for a few hours, if the stock rom behaves the same, probably you will need to send it for warranty.
Horrible battery life.
i consider myself well versed in phones. In the past year i have had a Gnex, HTC One m7, and a moto x. Just got my s5 last week, and im lucky to get 12 hours battery life with 1.5 hours of on screen time. I have all the gestures and 'smart' stuff turned off. i dont get it. I have a handful off aps that i use, and have used on every phone. the only thing i can think of is perhaps its the google now launcher? has anyone else on here gotten HORRIBLE battery life with that installed?
That is bad indeed. Ive been on wifi most of today, different locations, and still have 30% right now with close to 6hrs screen time.
I have the GNL installed and I have amazing battery. I have location on "GPS Only" and photo auto-upload turned off. Everything else is on. What's your signal like? Worst case, try a factory reset. Oh, and turn off Google Now.
Also, why does your phone have 7bars instead of 4 or 5? Is that a sprint thing?
it looks like your system doong a lot of stuff, your screen On time should always be hiher and number 1. have you done anything to your cellphone? apps, xposed modules? custom roms?
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
rochford77 said:
Horrible battery life.
i consider myself well versed in phones. In the past year i have had a Gnex, HTC One m7, and a moto x. Just got my s5 last week, and im lucky to get 12 hours battery life with 1.5 hours of on screen time. I have all the gestures and 'smart' stuff turned off. i dont get it. I have a handful off aps that i use, and have used on every phone. the only thing i can think of is perhaps its the google now launcher? has anyone else on here gotten HORRIBLE battery life with that installed?
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I have the same issue but stock UK. i leave mine plugged in at work as it's so poor.
Ive done factory resets etc and disabled loads of stuff so im crippling my phone and the battery is wank!
waz000000 said:
I have the same issue but stock UK. i leave mine plugged in at work as it's so poor.
Ive done factory resets etc and disabled loads of stuff so im crippling my phone and the battery is wank!
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Has to be a faulty battery or phone. Battery life on mine is fantastic.
fenchai said:
it looks like your system doong a lot of stuff, your screen On time should always be hiher and number 1. have you done anything to your cellphone? apps, xposed modules? custom roms?
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Not rooted, so nothing with exposed chewing up ram. I have GPS set to "battery saver". My signal at work is kinda 'meh' on LTE but 5 bars on 3g. My 4g speeds are about 15Mbps so it's not like the phone is spinnimg its wheels looking for data. I turned off location sharing from Google. So we will see how today goes.
Is 'GPS only' more battery friendly then 'battery saver' for location?
Attached is my app drawer. Nothing crazy...nothing that should be wake locking the phone....
Edit: I switched photos auto upload to only on WiFi only while charging last night as well. oh, I also charged to 100% last night with phone off using a USB 2.0 cable for a slower charge. If today goes poorly I'm going to try another battery, next step is hard reset with no 3rd party apps, then replace phone :\. I'll keep it updated.
trying a new kernel now to see if it changes anything as a test
Please keep us updated. I'm in the exact same boat as you.
Its "better" but not like it was before the update. Lost 20 % in 5 hours with 50min screen time
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
much better
So its been much better today. See attached screen shots. Its not perfect but I have a big handful of apps syncing so 20hours on a charge is good for me. I mean, my moto-x got 20hrs, but that was on a highly optimized s4 pro processor only using a 4.7"amoled screen @ 720p. So if this 5"+ 1080p monster can get 20 with everything I throw at it im happy.
I think the biggest thing I did was settings - location - location services - google location reporting - off for this device.
The reason is GNL (GEL) was accessing location like crazy, so that helped.
I also made some other tweaks as stated in above posts, sorry I didnt do it scientifically by only changing one thing each day to pinpoint what it was. I turned off all of sammys 'smart' features and charged it to 100% on a 1A charger with a usb 2.0 cable with the device off. And turned off various other settings. Hope this helps.
The best thing I did for battery life was disable my Samsung account. The difference was incredible.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
aooga said:
...
Also, why does your phone have 7bars instead of 4 or 5? Is that a sprint thing?
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Its 6, I thought it was a cdma thing...idk all the phones in my store have 6 bars except the n5
iresq said:
The best thing I did for battery life was disable my Samsung account. The difference was incredible.
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Samsung apps like s health still work?
rochford77 said:
Samsung apps like s health still work?
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Yes they do. Kill the Samsung account with fire.
Although some things like the default Browser only sync with a Samsung account, not with Google.
ok, I will tell you, battery saver mode is better than gps only mode. usb 2.0 or 3.0 doesnt affect charging speed, its just for data transfer speed.
maybe your google account was syncing or maybe your gallery was syncing.
this kills and uses a lot of data and battery, also facebook... please do a favor and turn every notification off. also, use greenify to cancel all apps syncing. well only the ones that you do not use.
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fenchai said:
ok, I will tell you, battery saver mode is better than gps only mode. usb 2.0 or 3.0 doesnt affect charging speed, its just for data transfer speed.
maybe your google account was syncing or maybe your gallery was syncing.
this kills and uses a lot of data and battery, also facebook... please do a favor and turn every notification off. also, use greenify to cancel all apps syncing. well only the ones that you do not use.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
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No it isn't. Unless you use navigation all day, GPS Only mode is by FAR more battery friendly. The battery saving mode turns on Google location tracking and all that stuff...you know, the popup that you agree to each time. GPS only keeps that off which saves your battery a lot more. It's the worst named setting i've ever seen.
aooga said:
No it isn't. Unless you use navigation all day, GPS Only mode is by FAR more battery friendly. The battery saving mode turns on Google location tracking and all that stuff...you know, the popup that you agree to each time. GPS only keeps that off which saves your battery a lot more. It's the worst named setting i've ever seen.
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You can`t use Google maps navigation with power saving mode that`s why I go back to my high accuracy setting however this didn`t change my battery stand by time by much I usually could go around 1 day and 20 hours on 1 charge depending on how much i use my phone with around 2 hours on screen time and some calls for probably 1 hour.
@op what software version you use because in the latest firmware for the G900F there is a battery improvement made so I do suggest to check your phone for software updates.
Other then that the battery life depends on how often you use your phone and for what.
bnight said:
You can`t use Google maps navigation with power saving mode that`s why I go back to my high accuracy setting however this didn`t change my battery stand by time by much I usually could go around 1 day and 20 hours on 1 charge depending on how much i use my phone with around 2 hours on screen time and some calls for probably 1 hour.
@op what software version you use because in the latest firmware for the G900F there is a battery improvement made so I do suggest to check your phone for software updates.
Other then that the battery life depends on how often you use your phone and for what.
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Im on build 49h. However when i go to checl for a sw update I get this messege about unauthorized software. Im not rooted, no bootloader unlock, nothing. Ive never even plugged this into a desktop. I run gel and have selected ART in dev options as well as increased transitions to .5 and have usb debug enabled. Wtf?
Fixed: ART was the issue. I hate you samsung. Smh.
Edit: art was the issue with the "unknown software" issue, not the battery life/op