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1. having GPS and 4G on doesn't seem to have a very noticeable effect on battery drain when phone is idle. I typically lose about 1% every hour in idle no whether these features are on / off. I'm sure this would be different in an area without 4G... the radio would probably go bonkers trying to find a signal.
this is pretty good to know. not only do i love having instant access to these services, but it also allows programs like where's my droid to send gps coordinates back if the phone is lost.
2. a reboot usually takes 2% off my battery life. Once it took 4%! wth!
Haven't done any experiements with leaving wifi on yet but would be interested on others' experience.
oh some other basic info:
-running stock rom
-i use task killer set on manual to kill all the nonsense sprint crapware once at start up
-running push gmail
-turned off facebook, friendstream, favorites
-beautiful home widget updates q2h
Supposedly WiFi and GPS do not draw any power unless the app asks for it. The reason people still recommend to turn them off is that you might have an app in the background trying to use these services and drain the battery.
ramiss said:
Supposedly WiFi and GPS do not draw any power unless the app asks for it. The reason people still recommend to turn them off is that you might have an app in the background trying to use these services and drain the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can tell you that unless the battery stats app lies, this is not true. Wifi draws 2% or so on standby.
Interesting, is that 2% per hour? I keep meaning to do some extensive testing but currently I am only going off what I've been told.
Edit: Just a thought....You don't have it set to notify you in case of new access points do you?
ramiss said:
Interesting, is that 2% per hour? I keep meaning to do some extensive testing but currently I am only going off what I've been told.
Edit: Just a thought....You don't have it set to notify you in case of new access points do you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't set it to notify you then it doesn't auto reconnect to your existing hot spots. Also wifi is going to use power when it's on, but when you are connected to ask ap you are using less power than 3g.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
I understand the effects of leaving 4G, BT, and even 3G for that matter, ON can consume more battery life. However, what's the consensus on GPS. I have it OFF and turn it ON every time I'm using Google Navigation, etc. However, this is getting quite annoying. Will GPS really turn "off" itself if an application is not using it? I heard that the HTC Sense Weather widget will use the GPS for its refreshing and just that alone will affect battery life.
So what is the final verdict? I feel we've had plenty of time to test our theories by now.
akarol said:
I understand the effects of leaving 4G, BT, and even 3G for that matter, ON can consume more battery life. However, what's the consensus on GPS. I have it OFF and turn it ON every time I'm using Google Navigation, etc. However, this is getting quite annoying. Will GPS really turn "off" itself if an application is not using it? I heard that the HTC Sense Weather widget will use the GPS for its refreshing and just that alone will affect battery life.
So what is the final verdict? I feel we've had plenty of time to test our theories by now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says in Settings > Location > Use GPS Satellites "Uncheck to conserve battery", so I have to believe it will consume more battery when left on.
I leave it on, and get better than a full day of use from phone.
Only time when it flipped out was when I installed Yelp.
I was in my basement, and my battery went from 100% to 15% in 3 hours.
Uninstalled Yelp. Problem gone.
I was definitely under the impression that gps only used battery when it was being utilized. Hmmm I keep mine on all the time, so maybe its time to turn it off and see if there is a difference.
Sent from my EVO from the Apple Store.
GPS ON should only use more battery when an application that needs GPS asks for it. Android is really good about showing you an icon in the taskbar when the GPS chip is actually used.
I definitely leave GPS on since its only really "ON" and being used when the icon appears at the top of the screen. Otherwise its just available for us when its on.
The term used for the button should really be "Available" or "Unavailable" rather than on and off.
If your wondering about battery safe go into settings and undetermined battery it will show ways absorbing the most power. Believe it or not the how doesn't consume that much
sent from the EVO while punching an iPhone user!
really ? ofcourse it does
I doubt it consumes more than a fraction of your battery if left on. For that reason, I can't imagine having to manually turn GPS on and off throughout the day - complete waste of time. Even if it chews 5% of your battery in the course of a day(and I doubt it's that much) it's worth leaving on, unless you truly never use it.
After a couple days of normal use I started getting frustrated that my battery wasn't lasting very long and that Android System was consistently the top entry on the battery use screen. Time for some investigation.
I got adb working and logcat revealed that my phone was doing a lot of network location fixes. One would trigger every couple minutes even when the phone was sleeping.
I turned off network location and the results are stunning. With two hours off the charger so far this morning, my battery still says 100%. Cell standby and Phone idle are now my top battery use entries, with Android System a distant third.
The problem, of course, is that I like using network location. On demand GPS fixes are slow and do not work in many of the places I want to use location. I want to figure out if the G2's Android build is just doing location fixes too often of if the problem is really my poor signal problems in most of the places I go. I wonder if my phone is constantly jumping towers, triggering location fixes.
This is where you all can help:
Are you experiencing high battery drain with network location on?
Is Android System at the top of your battery use list?
If you know how to use adb logcat, are you seeing a lot of network location fixes?
My next step is to try logcat with my G1 running CM 6.0.0 and see if it also does frequent location fixes.
TLDR: Turning off network location dramatically increased my battery life. Trying to figure out if the problem is caused by software or by my low cell signal.
I had this exact same issue on the G1. I heard once that it was related to the GPS running frequently even when the phone was idle. Just disable the network location option and you'll continue to be good to go.
Is it definitely not a 3rd party app doing this?
I leave network locations on and my battery lasts.
How funny you bring this up as I jsut did this this morning. However a little differently.
Ive been noticing huge drains. Well, I have the Battery Watcher widget, and have seen the Android System was taking up like 45% of the drainage with things like
VPN Services (huh???)
Google Backup Transport
Setup (again, huh???)
Network Location
Android System
Settings Storrage
HTC Checkin Services
Account and Sync Settings
All I turned off was Background data, and for the last 2hrs, my battery has been @ 100%, and Im running both Tweet Deck and Trillian with 3 - 5 accounts on each
Jorsher said:
Is it definitely not a 3rd party app doing this?
I leave network locations on and my battery lasts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's a third party app because I turned everything off on the few apps I have that use location. I will definitely do some more testing by uninstalling apps this evening to see if anything changes. There is one app I can think of that could be doing this, but it was never a problem on my G1 (or maybe I just expected bad battery life on my G1).
Edit: Wow. At 3 hours and 10 minutes off charger now and still 100% battery. I hope I can find a third party source for this problem so I can use network location and get great battery life.
swags said:
I don't think it's a third party app because I turned everything off on the few apps I have that use location. I will definitely do some more testing by uninstalling apps this evening to see if anything changes. There is one app I can think of that could be doing this, but it was never a problem on my G1 (or maybe I just expected bad battery life on my G1).
Edit: Wow. At 3 hours and 10 minutes off charger now and still 100% battery. I hope I can find a third party source for this problem so I can use network location and get great battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... I'm not using any location-using apps except what was preinstalled, with the exception of SpeedTest. Battery works just fine and I only see GPS if I'm actually using the app. I could do some logging later I suppose to see if it's being used more than I think, but the battery life definitely isn't suffering.
swags said:
After a couple days of normal use I started getting frustrated that my battery wasn't lasting very long and that Android System was consistently the top entry on the battery use screen. Time for some investigation.
I got adb working and logcat revealed that my phone was doing a lot of network location fixes. One would trigger every couple minutes even when the phone was sleeping.
I turned off network location and the results are stunning. With two hours off the charger so far this morning, my battery still says 100%. Cell standby and Phone idle are now my top battery use entries, with Android System a distant third.
The problem, of course, is that I like using network location. On demand GPS fixes are slow and do not work in many of the places I want to use location. I want to figure out if the G2's Android build is just doing location fixes too often of if the problem is really my poor signal problems in most of the places I go. I wonder if my phone is constantly jumping towers, triggering location fixes.
This is where you all can help:
Are you experiencing high battery drain with network location on?
Is Android System at the top of your battery use list?
If you know how to use adb logcat, are you seeing a lot of network location fixes?
My next step is to try logcat with my G1 running CM 6.0.0 and see if it also does frequent location fixes.
TLDR: Turning off network location dramatically increased my battery life. Trying to figure out if the problem is caused by software or by my low cell signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's generally well known/accepted that turning off location services will show drastic battery improvements.
arich said:
It's generally well known/accepted that turning off location services will show drastic battery improvements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there is a fair amount of debate on just how much network location does impact battery. Maybe it's just a matter of what sort of battery life people expect. I'm trying to figure out if there is any way to reduce the battery drain from network location, particularly by reducing the frequency of location fixes while the phone is asleep.
It looks like network location is very different on my G2 compared to my G1 with CM 6.0.0. While the G2 appears to check the network location every minute, the G1 only seems to do it on demand. On demand makes a lot more sense. Does Google really need to collect where I am every minute of the day?
Does anyone know if leaving gps on will render the same (or better) results, while facilitating it's functions on demand rather than random sampling via network location?
I read somewhere that leaving gps on, doesn't necessarily drain the battrery unless actively being used.
When I leave GPS location on with the phone sleeping I do not see any location activity in logcat. I think GPS location is purely on demand.
After playing around a bit yesterday, I don't think any apps that I installed are causing the constant network location fixes. That's not to say that one of bundles apps isn't misbehaving, of course. What I have noticed is that while the phone seems to do a location fix every minute normally, additional locations requests will occur when apps are actively seeking the location. It looks like all these requests may not actually be location fixes, but instead simply getting the location already stored in the system. Nonetheless, this is causing CPU activity and draining the battery.
I'm not sure where to go next with this, but am open to any suggestions.
Having this issue as well... android system is in the highest partial wake and when I turn off location services via network, it does it less. So does anyone know why location needs to keep going on and on?
BriEE said:
Having this issue as well... android system is in the highest partial wake and when I turn off location services via network, it does it less. So does anyone know why location needs to keep going on and on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you enable Use Wireless Networks under Location, it prompts you that it will collect background data for Google. That's why it's a battery drain
Curious for anyone on the Sense ROMs - is there a way to get the weather widget to work without enabling Wireless Network Location? I have GPS enabled, and Fancy Widget worked fine with just that, but Sense won't update location w/o Wireless Networks enabled it seems.
FYI, this problem went away for me completely after I did a factory reset a few weeks back. The constant network location activity in the logs went away, and I've been able to leave network location on full time since then with no significant battery drain. The one thing that I may have done differently was that I never ran many of the bundled apps that use location after the reset.
How can I check in logs for which network activity runs?
Use aLogcat from the market or, if you are familiar with adb, use adb logcat from your computer.
swags said:
Use aLogcat from the market or, if you are familiar with adb, use adb logcat from your computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both options since I have quick system info and adb installed on my PC as well.
but what exactly am I looking for?
I don't recall what the exact entries are, but if you're having the network location problem that I was it is hard to miss. There were log entries that clearly indicated checking the location every minute, even while the phone was in sleep. It's probably easiest to check with logcat because you can let the phone sleep and monitor the log without all of the activity that occurs only when it is awake.
I simply switched off location services and my battery life has gone up by ~50%.
I was really surprised that the location services took this much energy. I usually have Wifi off except when at home (if that's important) I haven't really missed the lack of location services - I just remember to re-enable it before running "Places" or similar
I'll try it, thanks.
I'm overseas on holiday and have had no data for 2 days (no wifi no mobile data). The battery hardly drained (%30). I was playing games and texting so I am now convinced that it is data and voice calls that drain battery.
gf_gollum said:
I simply switched off location services and my battery life has gone up by ~50%.
I was really surprised that the location services took this much energy. I usually have Wifi off except when at home (if that's important) I haven't really missed the lack of location services - I just remember to re-enable it before running "Places" or similar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How you switched off location services ?
I want to know how you turn off that as well thanks!
I'm guessing menu>settings>location and security> switch off wifi location and GPS location
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
robotnoize said:
I'm guessing menu>settings>location and security> switch off wifi location and GPS location
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - that's all I've done.
Yes, all options is turn off.
My battery:
1d 1h 56min on battery
and now battery level is 38%.
Is the result same with you?
I'm getting ~10% drop over 10 hours when the phone is idle overnight. Obviously battery usage increases with calls etc. to 26% over 10 hours with some light calls and 3G based app updates. (no Wifi)
Increase battery life 10000% by turning phone off and removing battery
Number picked at random, YMMV.
DirkGently1 said:
Increase battery life 10000% by turning phone off and removing battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried this. Phone doesn't work
I turn on "Use only 2G networks" (in Settings --> Wireless & networks --> Mobile networks) and the battery life is incredibly increased ^^.
In addition, I also turn off the "Data enabled", whenever I need to access the 3G networks, I just turn them on again.
OferR said:
I've tried this. Phone doesn't work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give you £20 for it
Seriously though, rather than trying to eke out every last milliamp of power from their batteries, i wish people would just buy a spare one and use that instead.
DirkGently1 said:
Increase battery life 10000% by turning phone off and removing battery
Number picked at random, YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried that but my phone is bricked now. Doesn't boot anymore. xD
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
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.