Database Users

"Phone idle" is top battery consumer

My phone is 1h30m out of the charges and at 78% battery level, out of those 68% is "phone idle". What is exactly "phone idle" and why it eats so much battery where name suggests on it's own that it shall not be using any battery since it's "idle"

artisticcheese said:
My phone is 1h30m out of the charges and at 78% battery level, out of those 68% is "phone idle". What is exactly "phone idle" and why it eats so much battery where name suggests on it's own that it shall not be using any battery since it's "idle"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having a similar issue. On 2.3.4 HKTW with Faux kernel, battery mod and Battery level fix. Phone Idle is draining the battery.

jiggytom said:
I am having a similar issue. On 2.3.4 HKTW with Faux kernel, battery mod and Battery level fix. Phone Idle is draining the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a feeling this started happening after "battery fix"? I feel like it started happening since I install fix yesterday.

I had the same problem, both before and after the battery fix. I cant get my atrix to last 12 hours with light use before its crying to be charged. Just installed the battery fix and Ninja rom last night; ill give that a try and see how it goes.

Man guys, I'm just rooted, and running the latest stock rom, and I'm amazed at how awesome the battery life is. I can go for almost a day and a half. I do most of my rss feed reading on my phone, and I tend to go for hour long jogs with it strapped to my arm running gps.
Maybe my usage model has something to do with it. When I'm not running, I'm either at home or at work, where I connect to wifi. That might have something to do with my stellar battery performance.

i have the same problem it started yesterday well noticed it yesterday
i went with the new recovery and after a bad install of ninja
installed the new cherryblur I had a problem with the new recovery wipeing user data and had to reinstall after a wipe with fastboot. dont know what the problem is.

artisticcheese said:
My phone is 1h30m out of the charges and at 78% battery level, out of those 68% is "phone idle". What is exactly "phone idle" and why it eats so much battery where name suggests on it's own that it shall not be using any battery since it's "idle"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had exactly the same issue with Kenn´s rom and Faux kernel...
after a week testing with everything i can tell you that the guilty was the Kernel.
Flash again the rom that you have been using but do not install that kernel.
Cheers!

jmgg2k said:
i had exactly the same issue with Kenn´s rom and Faux kernel...
after a week testing with everything i can tell you that the guilty was the Kernel.
Flash again the rom that you have been using but do not install that kernel.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sounds like a good place to start. ill give it a go!
edit: this mornig i set my set cpu profile to the lowest setting while screen is off ond just notices phone idle is down to 45%
ill post back if i have more data

The less you are physically using your phone, the higher the percentage of usage Phone Idle will have. Typically, for a normal user Phone Idle will ALWAYS be the highest usage.

Diviance said:
The less you are physically using your phone, the higher the percentage of usage Phone Idle will have. Typically, for a normal user Phone Idle will ALWAYS be the highest usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is true. if your not using anything else to drain your battery something will always show up on the list. say you lost 20% of battery in 4 hrs. you have had it sleeping the whole time. well that list looks at what applications have been running so it builds a list on what took out the 20% so if you didnt do anything phone idle would have taken say 78% of the 20% of battery you lost. it doesnt mean its draining your battery more then normal. it means it was the only thing to drain the battery at all. followed by display, android system etc....

International user here with 2.3.4 ORANGEFR. After flashing edgan's kernel my battery issues are pretty much gone. I undervolted as much as I could. At 70% battery right now with 8 hours of moderate use.

Diviance said:
The less you are physically using your phone, the higher the percentage of usage Phone Idle will have. Typically, for a normal user Phone Idle will ALWAYS be the highest usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's fine but the problem (see original post) that despite low usage I do have big battery drain and in this case "idle" is in fact appears to be eating 2/3 of it.

I'm in the orange already after little use today and i've only been unplugged for 6hours. I just flashed GB on friday.

Normally I would suggest installing the app Spare Parts to monitor which apps run the heaviest while the phone is supposed to be sleeping...however, on the Gingerbread ROMs, Spare Parts can't show you those stats anymore...very unfortunate.

but spare parts+ can

artisticcheese said:
That's fine but the problem (see original post) that despite low usage I do have big battery drain and in this case "idle" is in fact appears to be eating 2/3 of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you never post what android version you are using, im assuming HKTW on ATT atrix? i had the same problem with that build, its full of problems. dont bother installing apps to try to figure out what is draining your battery, its the build itself it is known to have battery issues. theres def a problem if the phone is using 22% on just 1.5h of idle. there's no fix for it. install either ken's gingerbread rom or one of the other roms based on ATT 2.3.4. theres no battery issues with those

neotekz said:
you never post what android version you are using, im assuming HKTW on ATT atrix? i had the same problem with that build, its full of problems. dont bother installing apps to try to figure out what is draining your battery, its the build itself it is known to have battery issues. theres def a problem if the phone is using 22% on just 1.5h of idle. there's no fix for it. install either ken's gingerbread rom or one of the other roms based on ATT 2.3.4. theres no battery issues with those
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, no REAL battery issues. The meter still jumps around wildly unless you have the fix installed if you are using the 1% mod. So you can reboot and suddenly have 20-40% more battery than before.

artisticcheese said:
That's fine but the problem (see original post) that despite low usage I do have big battery drain and in this case "idle" is in fact appears to be eating 2/3 of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you done the battery fix for the GB ROMs? Without it, the drain is reported as being more than it really is.
Have you set up a more conservative profile under the battery management (or wherever the hell it is)?? With light usage, change your settings there to be less performance based, since you apparently don't need it.
And as previously stated...SOMETHING will use your battery. That will either be idle, or Angry Birds. If you aren't using apps, the browser, etc...then idle consumes battery. Use your phone more...or adjust your profile settings to be much more conservative (including turning data off after a shorter time period).

Diviance said:
Well, no REAL battery issues. The meter still jumps around wildly unless you have the fix installed if you are using the 1% mod. So you can reboot and suddenly have 20-40% more battery than before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is a very minor problem that doesnt effect battery life as in it doesnt shorten battery life. it jumps up after reboot but if you use it for a while it will jump back down on its own. there is also a fix that works so its not an issue anymore.

I'm using Kenneth ROM with default kernel. Idle is still top consumer ( more then screen for example). I did not do battery calibration but will do now but I don't think this will fix the issue.
Sent from my Atrix

short battery life with CM7

I am running CM7 on a D2 and i am experiencing pretty short battery life. I went from Liberty 2.0 rom on froyo last week, and upgraded to GB and flashed CM7.
I have barely used it much today for example. Took it off the charger at 6:30am have done nothing more than sent a few texts and browsed a website for about 10 mins. It is 10:30 and i am already at 70%
I did a proper battery stat reset this past weekend also.
(i have also been getting a lot of random force closes)
since i cannot post pics here's relevant info...
Android version - 2.3.5
Kernel Version - 2.6.32.9-gca08d89
Mem Info - 214/475
Mod version - CyanogenMod-7.1.0-RC0-DROID2-KANG
Build Number - GRH78C
Battery info...
Display - 42%
Phone Idle - 18%
Cell Standby - 15%
everything else is under 8%, Android OS and System at 2%

CM7 GB Battery Issues
I am having this problem as well. Ever since I rooted and installed Rev's CM7 GB build a few days ago battery life has been much worse. I tried installing Jake's Mods V13 but if it is helping it is not helping alot. Yesterday, made 2 short phone calls, sent 3-4 texts, browsed web for maybe 10 minutes total, and was on tweetdeck for maybe 15 minutes. By end of the day was down to 30% battery. Pre-root and CMY probably would have been about 60% - 70%. Here are the battery stats when plugged it in at bed time last night:
15h 16m 23s on battery
Cell Standby 55%
Phone Idle 19%
Display 13%
Voice Calls 9%
Android OS 2%
TweetDeck 2%
Has anyone figured out a solution to this? Really liking CM7 but I am afraid to play a game or something on the phone because I'm afraid I will run out of juice!

CM7 does have a shorter battery life than stock and some other ROMs. It's still the best ROM and it will eventually be back to better battery life. I use SetCPU and JuiceDefender.

Should I go into the CPU settings on my phone to find ways to increase my battery life? If so, which setting should I alter?

I have been using the 1Ghz/undervolt option in Jakebitesmod along with Juice Defender and it seems to be helping. Battery will usually last me all day with moderate use.

You might want to try SBFing back and starting from scratch. I was on Liquid 3.0 and has atrocious battery life due to the 'Idle' process and was seeing 10-15% battery life drop each hour when there was absolutely no use.
I switched to CM7 and things were much happier. Maybe 10% loss after 4 hours idle. FB app did drain the battery once but I think I backed out of it while it was loading so it was trying to load GPS or something but outside of that no battery life problems what so ever.

Battery life been sucking...

I don't know if it's my imagination, but since the 2.4.6 update, my battery life has dropped a bit. By the time I get into my office from my morning commute, I'm anywhere in the 65-70% battery life after unplugging from a full charge. I haven't done anything new. I always unplug around 8:30 am when I head out, I do some light chatting with gf, browse some sites, check facebook (usually very briefly), and maybe sometimes do a little reading on my device. By the time I get into the office around 9:30 or 10 AM, I'm usually around the 80-85% area with battery.
Lately, doing the same thing, I'm seeing the aforementioned 65-70%.
Is anyone else experiencing decreased battery life since 2.3.6?
I'm on a Tmobile Nexus S, running stock 2.3.6 (no custom ROMs).

2.4.6 ? .... maybe 2.3.6 ... and yes, I also noticed a slight increase in power consuption after the upgrade. The stand-by is still great .. about 0.8 - 1% per hour.

Sorry, yes I meant 2.3.6.
Thanks for replying Ro_explorer. Is your increased power consumption significant? Seeing 65-70% when I'm used to seeing 80-85% as I get into my office, I find, is a large change. To be frank, the battery life of the Nexus S in general isn't so fantastic to begin with... this hit makes it worse.
Anyone else?

I used to get home with about 40-50% after a whole "normal day" (unplugged at 8AM, and getting back home at ~8PM) .. now (with the same average usage) I'm getting home with ~30-40% ... that why I said "slight increase" ...

Not your imagination, I too have noticed this. I hope the next update, will fix this - as I used to get pretty good battery life (even with over 250 apps).
When I recently updated to the 2.3.6, it caused a bug of continuous reboot (every 1-3 minutes), so I had to do a hard reset - now it works fine, but I only have added back about 15 apps - and the battery life sux!

Downgrade OS' it will be ok.

This is so weird. Why is the battery life worse?

onthecouchagain said:
Sorry, yes I meant 2.3.6.
Thanks for replying Ro_explorer. Is your increased power consumption significant? Seeing 65-70% when I'm used to seeing 80-85% as I get into my office, I find, is a large change. To be frank, the battery life of the Nexus S in general isn't so fantastic to begin with... this hit makes it worse.
Anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You want bad battery life? Try an Evo 4g with a Sense rom. I averaged about 6hrs using a 1500mAh battery, in stock form.
The nexus is pretty light on power consumption, if you ask me. I average 15hrs on the stock 2.3.7 rom/kernel combo, with stock battery.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

I'm on 2.3.6 and need to charge every two days. I text a lot and do light gaming. I'm typing this from my phone. Maybe you could drain the battery and wipe battery stats? I'm not even at 50% yet and I charged yesterday.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

I also noticed that the battery last less time
I've been waiting to see if anybody else reporting this issue

i noticed a decent increase in battery life going to 2.3.7 and thought that previously the battery life had been fairly poor :\

I am non rooted, and get around 20 hrs on light to moderate use. Again. Stock, non rooted.

How do I recalibrate my battery? I wonder if it could be that...

There are many was to recalibrate. Some involve wiping batt stats, some plugging and unplugging phone several times after charge.
I have always found that using the battery almost all the way down, but not past 5%, and then full recharge conditions it very well.

Oh I've been here to solve the problem
"Why last 2 weeks my Nexus s drain battery so fast ? or I have to calibrate it"
Thank for your notice about update OS to 2.3.6.
I think that's a root cause for me too.
1. Could I rollback to 2.3.4 ,how?
2. Does battery calibration is useful for this case , how?( someone suggest to calibrate when flashing new rom )
Thank you very much..

i want to know who have some methods to do with this stuff

borrowedchief said:
There are many was to recalibrate. Some involve wiping batt stats, some plugging and unplugging phone several times after charge.
I have always found that using the battery almost all the way down, but not past 5%, and then full recharge conditions it very well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whenever switching roms, kernels, or batteries, i always perform the following :
1. Charge to a true 100% (Battery Monitor Widget will register +0 to +2 mA)
2. Wipe battery stats using recovery (Amon RA has this option for the Evo, not sure about cwm), Battery Monitor Widget, or a dedicated app.
3. Discharge battery to 0% with normal usage. When the phone shuts down, I pull and re-install the battery and power back up (it will shutdown again very quickly).
4. Recharge battery and be on my merry way.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

I found one workaround solution for this issue on
ww.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=1684c50cea15282a&hl=en&fid=1684c50cea15282a0004af022e5ed212
Sproogle77 's solution
Problem solved. Using the OS Monitor app, I found that the main culprit was Google Services - the Contacts sync specifically. Even though I had this disabled (only Gmail was being allowed to sync) it was constantly working, apparently trying to fix a location. The message log showed that it was generating continuous debug messages, all about locations - around 10 of these every second.
I have solved the problem by disabling 'Use wireless networks' under the Locations & Security settings.'Use GPS satellites' is still running. This immediately dropped my CPU usage - which had been running around 30 to 40% even when otherwise idle, to around 10%. Google contacts sync is now using 0% of the CPU. The difference in battery life was pretty much immediate and is now back to what it was before - the change in the slope on the battery usage graph is remarkable!
This doesn't really seem like a solution to me, and I don't know whether other aspects of my functionality are being affected, but at least my phone is properly useable again.
I'm testing for 1 day and I think that's working for me.

onthecouchagain said:
This is so weird. Why is the battery life worse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One reason is that the new version of the stock kernel removed a speed stepping, so it'll power to higher levels faster, thus using more battery.

rentaric said:
One reason is that the new version of the stock kernel removed a speed stepping, so it'll power to higher levels faster, thus using more battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That actually isn't the problem. I'm using netarchy's kernel and still get this problem.
My battery life dropped from 16 hours --> 6 hours. the slope on my battery usage life is horrible the system is also awake almost constantly even when I'm not touching it / getting no messages.
I will try the fix suggested on the google support forum and see if that does the trick. sloppy update.

Post your CM10 BASED ROM battery life! And some tricks and tips

I saw a similar topic in the atrix section and it looks very useful, so I searched the samsung forum but found nothing. Therefore I created this. Feel free to post your CM10 based rom battery life.
This is more for trouble shooting and sharing tips and tricks to extend the CM10 battery life. Also post some screenshots to show us your battery life, one of tour screen on time and one for your overall usage

Thebyani ROM 4.1.1 very good battery life.
Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

Testing RRemix

I get a drain of 4-5% per hour on CM10 which isn't normal. According to BBS I don't see any excessive wakelocks, also battery stats in settings shows phone sleeping.
I tried a lot of different things to see if the drain reduces. Finally when i changed 3G to 2G the drain reduced.
I know 3G consumes more battery than 2G, but this drain was excessive and nothing like I saw on Stock or CM9 ROM's.

I'm using PA 1.98 and Siyah 4.0.1. I feel this is a very good combination in terms of battery life and performance.
On a full charge, I easily get around 20hrs on medium-heavy usage. I used Lux AB to control brightness and VC just for reference to check on deepsleep and cpu states. I also used battery widget reborn beta for its cool stats and auto flight mode control. Disabled all haptic feedback and vibration alerts cos I could just use a low-volume profile. Disabled hardware keys backlight(if i can find the home button in the dark, no prob finding the rest)
Edit: I use stock 1650mah battery
In extweaks, I set battery profile with the following settings:
CPU
Gentle_Fair_Sleepers - on
arch_power - on
CPU Hotplug (default)
CFS - Linux kernel defaults
CPU Idle - AFTR+LPA
Smooth scaling - 800MHz
Dual core mode
Sched_MC - 2
CPU Undervolting - -50mV
CPU Step Count - 18
Default Governor - ondemand
Scaling_Max - 1000000Mhz
Scaling_Min - 200000Mhz
GPU
Freq Step 1 - 40MHz
Freq Step 2 - 133MHz
Freq Step 3 - 267MHz
GPU Voltage 1 - 850mV
GPU Voltage 2 - 900mV
GPU Voltage 3 - 950mV
Thresholds - all defaults
GPU Staycounts - 1,1,1
Audio
Optional - I set to 3
Screen
Sensitivity - 3pixel
min_bl - 0
min_gamma - 0
max_gamma - 24
gamma shift - 0
vibration intensity - 0
mDNIe Negative Toggle - on
BLN
I don't need it so disabled
Misc
Android Logger - on
Scheduler - sio
Zram size - 150mb
charge current - option 2
USB Mass Storage Mode - Force MTP Mode
Exclusive Wakelock Stats - on
Autoinstall root - off

atulalvenkar:
Try Dream kernel:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1788021
I have very good battery life with version 2.7.0 and CM10, but USB Mass storage isn't working. Also you can try newest Siyah.

atulalvenkar said:
I get a drain of 4-5% per hour on CM10 which isn't normal. According to BBS I don't see any excessive wakelocks, also battery stats in settings shows phone sleeping.
I tried a lot of different things to see if the drain reduces. Finally when i changed 3G to 2G the drain reduced.
I know 3G consumes more battery than 2G, but this drain was excessive and nothing like I saw on Stock or CM9 ROM's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I experience the same. 3G draines the battery and much more than on any other ROM I ever used.

My battery is no better or worse that on other roms, i loose about 15% of battery an hour with half an hour use or so. Any screenshots anyone? Or tips, did anything improve your battery??

i using CM10 ,the battery consumption still bad compared to stock rom ICS..so,no different to me,LOL

Tiaso said:
i using CM10 ,the battery consumption still bad compared to stock rom ICS..so,no different to me,LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which kernel do you use ?

atulalvenkar said:
I get a drain of 4-5% per hour on CM10 which isn't normal. According to BBS I don't see any excessive wakelocks, also battery stats in settings shows phone sleeping.
I tried a lot of different things to see if the drain reduces. Finally when i changed 3G to 2G the drain reduced.
I know 3G consumes more battery than 2G, but this drain was excessive and nothing like I saw on Stock or CM9 ROM's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get that in every ROM, even stock. I get half decent battery life now, deleted battery stats this morning so gona see how it goes tomorrow. It almost got me through the day though. I'm using extweaks to under volt my phone
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

MikeIliescu said:
I get that in every ROM, even stock. I get half decent battery life now, deleted battery stats this morning so gona see how it goes tomorrow. It almost got me through the day though. I'm using extweaks to under volt my phone
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A drain of 8-10% per hour if you actively use is fine. But while sleeping my usual drain on stock /CM9 is about 1-2% per hour.
I think due to all the hacks that are required currently to get CM10 working with ICS closed binaries we have this battery issue.IF it was
an app BBS would have shown, if my phone had deep sleep issues, cpu spy should have shown but I don't get anything in either of these.

CM10 on Galaxy S2
I'm running the latest CM10 nightly build (20120906) for my Galaxy S2.
The ROM works blazingly fast and I haven't had any bugs as of yet :victory:
The battery life is quite poor however, I get around 11 hours from full battery to nearly dead with moderate-light usage.
Today I used Google Navigate with GPS and 3G for around 15 minutes and it chewed through around 15% in just 15 minutes :crying:
I really hope they fix the battery life as its the only thing holding this ROM back.

This was my rom drain on standby with cm10 pretty good in my opinion
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

shaunnicho said:
This was my rom drain on standby with cm10 pretty good in my opinion
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's pretty awesome. Care to share the build and if you did something else (other kernel, settings, anything)?

my phone has battery problem with CM10 too
battery dead 2x faster than CM9 Rom
specially when use Wifi or GPS
i never had my phone for more than 20 hour

I am using CM10 nightly 20121017. I have switched to CM10 nightly builds since two weeks. Before I was on stock 4.0.3 Greek Vodafone. Also I have tried a lot of custom ROMs.
In conclusion: with 3G on, WiFi keep alive, gmail, push exchange mail and all other notifications off (eg Facebook), all touch vibrations off, from 8am that I unplug the phone, it lasts max until 5pm. And this is Almost the same with all roms. :thumbdown:
This is a smartphone and in order to operate as a smartphone of consumes a lot of energy! I can get a Nokia 6310 to have just a phone that lasts for a week...
My opinion is that someone must produce better batteries!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

I hardly get a day of battery life. The most efficient battery saving technique which I realised was to put your phone into airplane mode when not in any use. I put my phone to airplane mode while I am asleep or I am attending classes. Amazing battery saving technique.
Other thing we can do is to use a cm10 version of rom with the memory leak issue fixed. If its not, you might even need to charge your phone even twice a day.
Disable 3G(use 2g only mode) when not using the web. 3g sucks a hell lot of battery.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

at the moment testing RR-Rom 3.0.9. Awesome smoothness and battery-life
best ROM so far :good:

Easy when you know what you're doing
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=33094821&postcount=11815

Active battery drain

i'm getting an average drain of 9.5% per hour and i've tried different kernels , upon flashing the kernel for the first day i'd get about 8 or 7.7 ℅ drain per hour but after a day or two it jumps back up to 9.5 - 10 is this too much for active drain?? can this be fixed with a kernel or a custom rom? Btw i forgot to mention i'm getting this active drain at about 10-15 % brightness and i'm also running the latest franco kernel with no limits rom, i would really appreciate it if someone could help me out .

Wait, this means you are getting SOTimes of about 10 hours?

nxss4 said:
Wait, this means you are getting SOTimes of about 10 hours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope only about 8 hours because of idle drain i guess

You are talking about drain while the screen is on? That doesn't seem like a high number to me. You might be able to extend that by choosing the most battery friendly governor, under clocking the CPU or some other things that will make the performance of the phone suffer--but I'm not sure why you would want to waste money on a powerful phone and then throttle everything to maximize battery life. I suppose you could also go into the Developer Settings and severely limit the number of background processes that are permitted to run and also keep the phone running in battery saver mode most of the time. It's ultimately your phone. I'm sure you can find some tips for extreme battery savings if you do a Google Search.

I get about 7.5-8% drain with my screen on based on AccuBattery and about .3-.7% with idle drain (screen off). The combined drain is about 2.8-4% per hour based on usage obviously.
For basic info, I'm on auto brightness, stock OOS and stock kernel and I'm a medium/heavy to heavy user. I use my phone A LOT for work and play.
If you do a lot of web surfing, I found that habit browser is the most feature packed browser and the lightest on battery drain, and it's free with an ad blocker! So that could help some.

Eric214 said:
I get about 7.5-8% drain with my screen on based on AccuBattery and about .3-.7% with idle drain (screen off). The combined drain is about 2.8-4% per hour based on usage obviously.
For basic info, I'm on auto brightness, stock OOS and stock kernel and I'm a medium/heavy to heavy user. I use my phone A LOT for work and play.
If you do a lot of web surfing, I found that habit browser is the most feature packed browser and the lightest on battery drain, and it's free with an ad blocker! So that could help some.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow you must be getting amazing SOT, thanks alot for your help i guess ill have to try stock rom and kernel