Related
When you talk smartphone, you want consistency, you want reliability, you want good battery life. And considering also that the Xperia Z2 doesn't have a swappable battery, at least not easily, you want your mobile to keep going for as long as possible.
So this thread is to help you optimise the battery life of your Xperia Z2. It's not 'Magic', it's just knowing what drains battery and avoiding it. Simple tips most people know and well, many more should. I will also use the steps from my Initial thread here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2579075 as the steps there are actually helpful to just about any android devices.
Just dat in this thread, i will try to target it at the Xperia Z2 of course.
Xperia Z2 specific tips (Or any other Xperia device)
1. Turn On Stamina Mode: App drawer > Settings > Power Management. Turn it on.
After turning on Stamina mode, remember to add the applications you need active in Standy, these are applications your rely on for notifications, such as Instant messaging apps.
If you do not do this, you will not receive IM messages or email notifications till you turn on your screen.
Example of the apps on my list are: BBM, Email, Gmail, Instagram, Messenger (FB), WhatsApp. So I still get my messages.
2. Turn On Extended Stand By: App drawer > Settings > Power Management > Stamina mode. Then tick Extended Standby.
3. Turn On Extended usage: App drawer > Settings > Power Management > Stamina mode. Then tick Extended Usage. (If you notice lag, turn off this feature) - But this has a HUGE effect on extending battery life. I don't get lags, so i leave it on.
4. Turn On Low Battery mode: App drawer > Settings > Power Management. Turn on Low battery mode. Now select Low Battery mode then Unick Mobile Data Off and WiFi Off, as i'm guessing you would still want to use your internet when ur battery is below 20%.
5. Turn On location Based WiFi: As the name implies, it turns on ur WiFi when u are in a certain location (say home or office). Then turns WiFi off when u out of that location. This feature doesn't work in my situation as I have a mobile pocket router. So I keep it turned off, do the same if you you have one of those too.
6. Turn On Queue background data: App drawer > Settings > Power Management. Tick Queue background data.
As the description below it says, what it does is queue the background data and send out background data at intervals, instead of sending randomly and using more battery.
7. Turning Off X-Reality Engine: This can also help you save some battery, but i guess most people will rather have than on. You can find this here Settings > Display. First thing on the list is X-Reality Engine.
8. Freeze Bloat: Bloatware are apps that could be useful but are not neccesary for the effective running of the phone. The more bloat u have running, the more ram your device uses and in turn, battery. I have made a list of Apps that are 'Safe to Freeze' on the Xperia Z2 itself, as I am not yet rooted at the time of this original post, the list is not yet complete.
But I will add alot more to this list when I root and get the option to freeze even more. You can disable these apps by going into Settings > Apps, then swipe to the 'All' tab. Select the app then hit disable.
Here is the list below.
Safe to Freeze Apps
Account Manager
Black Hole
Bubbles
Drive (I have limited data, i don't use it - I reckon it will drain battery too)
Google lyrics extension
Google Play Newsstand
Google Search (Will explain later in this post)
Google+ (Will explain later in this post)
Maps (Will explain later in this post)
Movie Creator (This disables Timeshift Video creation)
News & Weather
Photo Analyser Service
Play Games
Podcast
SensMe slideshow
Sketch
Smart Connect (You will need for Sony accessories)
Social Live
Socialife
Sony Select (You will need enabled to download themes)
Support
Weather Widget
Wikipedia extension
Wireless Emergency Alerts
Xperia Calender Sync
Xperia Music Likes
Xperia Socila Engine Sharing
Xperia Lounge
Xperia with Facebook
YouTube (I almost never use it, if you do.. No need to)
YouTube extension
YouTube karaoke extension
General Tips (Adopted from my first thread)
9. Greenify: ROOT ONLY EVERY rooted user must have Greenify! It's a fantastic app! It hibernates apps that you are not using so they never get to use your battery, yet the apps are available whenever you need them. No stress!
Download Greenify here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify (I bought the paid version as it has more fuctions)
For those who don't know greenify or how to use it, it's simple! Only Greenify those apps you don't rely on for Push Notifications.
For example, don't greenify apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Viber, Twitter, BBM if you expect to get notifications from them in the background.
Feel free to Greenify other apps like your games, adobe reader, dictionary, and the rest of them as you don't receive notifications from.
Note: If you are a NON ROOT Greenify user, you can still select to greenify apps. Go into Greenify and click the '3 dots' at the bottom right corner of the screen and hit 'Create hibernation shortcut'. This will send a shortcut to your home screen which u can use to close all ur supposedly 'greenified' apps by just touching that button. Do this whenever, especially just before u lock ur device. It's very effective. However, Greenify works best on Rooted devices. It hibernates automatically.
10. Screen/Brightness: As we all know, normally the screen consumes the most power so if you can manage ur screen properly, u can get some extra juice. My advice on brightness is set to Lowest then tick 'Auto', so you won't have to bother about setting screen brightness especially when outdoors. Then you should screen also set timeout to 30s. Try to avoid using live wallpapers as it uses the GPU for the animations.
11. GPS/Maps: Now, GPS is like the Number One drainer of battery and many many people don't know this. Here is what you do, pull down your notification bar with 2 fingers and make sure 'Location' is turned off. Leave turned off 'ALWAYS' unless you need to use GPS.
Maps is also another app that drains battery in the background, I don't use maps at all, so I keep it frozen/disabled all the time.
But if you use maps always and you are ROOTED, my advice is that you open up TitaniumBackup, look for maps on the list of apps, long press it and then convert to User app. Now u can Greenify it and it will still be available whenever you need it.
Note: Latest versions of Titanium Backup doesn't allow you to convert user apps, I can't find it anywhere anyways.. But here is a work-around. Uninstall Maps in Titanium Backup. Then re-install it from Play Store. Now it will install as User app instead of system app and u can freeze it.
12. Google Now / Google+: Google now does drain battery, if you don't use Google Now, turn it off. Go into Google now, enter settings and turn off. I keep my Google now frozen as I never use it anyways. If I ever need to, I will unfreeze it.
Google+ is one app that drains alot of battery, if you do not use it much or don't need it at all, my advice is that you handle it. Greenify it or better still, Get rid of it. However, if you use Google+ always and you are ROOTED, Greenify it just as I said in the step above.
If you successfully handle numbers 11 and 12, you will not have issues with 'Google Services' drain anymore!
13. Sounds/Vibration: Maybe not really a big deal, but those keypad/touch sounds do drain battery. It's fine to leave them on if you 'really' like em, but if you can do without, then do! Especially Haptic Feedback! (Vibrate on touch). Settings > Sound. Now scroll down to System. You will get the option there to turn them off. It's fine to leave Dial pad touch tones and StartUp tone. You don't hear/use then dat often (If that makes any sense to you lol). Also go into ur keyboard settings and turn off any sounds and vibration
14. Reception: Believe it or not, reception is VERY IMPORTANT when it comes to battery life saving. If you have good reception, then it's smooth sailing and good battery, but if your reception isn't good then your phone is always always trying to reconnect your apps and services to the internet, over and over and over again! (especially on mobile data). Trust me, this can take a serious Toll on your battery.
Here is how: Well, since i'm always on WiFi (have a pocket router as i said earlier).. I never need '3G/HSPA' reception active (No 4G here), so I set my phone to GSM/2G Only. Go into Settings > More... > Mobile Networks. then change Network mode to GSM Only). If you use LTE, you can set to either just 3G Only as that should still be more stable than 4G/LTE, you can still set as above too, afterall you won't be needing the LTE connection when on WiFi.
Bottomline, setting phone to 'GSM only' saves you a CHUNK of battery
However, if this sounds too complicated or something, this App makes it simple. (SADLY it is ROOT ONLY) You can set it to switch your phone to GSM Only when on WiFi and then Back to 4G/3G when disconnected from WiFi. Pretty Neat eh?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/themes-apps/app-intelli3g-2g-3g-4g-toggle-battery-t2580234
15. Disable Animation scales: Settings > Developer Options. Then scroll down to 'Drawing' section. And set the following to 'Animation Off'. Window animation scale, Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale. What this does it disable those UI animation helping you save battery, at the same time, making ur phone feel more responsive and fast.
Note: If you can't find 'Developer Options' in your settings menu, Select 'About Phone' instead then scroll down and keep hitting the 'Build number' option as many times till you see message saying 'You are now a developer', now go back and you will find developer options!
16. Sync: Of course disabling Auto Sync will extend your battery time, but then your smartphone might as well not be called a 'smart'phone anymore. So, even if you leave Auto-Sync on, be sure to make sure that your phone Auto Syncs stuffs that you actually want it to, things that you really need! Especially under Google Sync. Open Settings, Scroll down to 'Accounts' area then select Google. After you select Google, now select ur main account there which i guess should normally be the first one. Not sure, I only alays have 1 google account on my phone. After you select it, you will see a list of the items it is actively Syncing. For me here, the most important to me are 'Sync Contacts' and 'Sync Gmail' and those are the only two I leave active. I untick all the rest. You should do this according to what you use, or do it like Stanley! You can apply same to other google accounts you have on ur phone.
Extra (Unrelated)
I found out that the Whites on the Xperia Z2 is kinda off. Looks 'brownish' if I may. Go into Settings > Display > White balance. Then try R = 5, G = 35, B = 80.
Want more tips? Have some questions? Want quicker response?! Or you can actually contribute...
JOIN THE XPERIA Z2 FACEBOOK GROUP HERE
Having said all these, I know some of you will disagree with some things I have written above. But I'm only trying to help Xperia Z2 users get the best out of their Battery.
And hopefully the screenshots below will convince you to try some or all of the tips above. And as I said, I'm not rooted (at the time of this post) so i guess even root is not essential to get the best battery life on the Z2.
I had BBM, WhatsApp, 2 Email clients (Stock and Gmail), Instagram, Messenger (FB). Stock Facebook app drains too much battery! I don't use it.
First Test
ScreenTime
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Battery Graph
For some reason, GSam Battery Monitor Pro did not tally with the phones stats exactly. I think it was because I didn't install the Kitkat battery stat thing it asked me to or maybe its because i'm not rooted. Don't know really. Anyways, it's only about 1 or 2 minutes off and still as credible, you get a better idea of how i used my phone.
GSam Battery Monitor Pro
Second Test with Extensive Usage
GSam Battery Monitor Pro
Screentime
Battery Use
I hope this thread really helps you 'Maximize the Battery Life of your Xperia Z2'
CHEERS!
thanks for sharing and making the list of safe apps to disable. I followed the list and disabled almost all of them and you should include xperia with twitter as well beside the facebook one. Since im not rooted,thats the only thing i do now + stamina mode. Now i will see how it will go with battery saving
StarFcker said:
thanks for sharing and making the list of safe apps to disable. I followed the list and disabled almost all of them and you should include xperia with twitter as well beside the facebook one. Since im not rooted,thats the only thing i do now + stamina mode. Now i will see how it will go with battery saving
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok i will add to the list as i said. Don't forget to say if it helps you. Cheers!
Thanks for the post. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who's anal about battery life. And I hate all the battery draining bloatware (that's usually switched ON by default as well).
I'll de-bloat some more as soon as there's an exploit that allows me to root without UB.
And I'll have a look into Greenify as well. Is it as good as You claim it to be?
EDIT: It would be nice to know what all those safe-to-remove apps do. What does Xperia Social Engine Sharing do, for instance?
Don MC said:
Thanks for the post. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who's anal about battery life. And I hate all the battery draining bloatware (that's usually switched ON by default as well).
I'll de-bloat some more as soon as there's an exploit that allows me to root without UB.
And I'll have a look into Greenify as well. Is it as good as You claim it to be?
EDIT: It would be nice to know what all those safe-to-remove apps do. What does Xperia Social Engine Sharing do, for instance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will look at them, but i guess it has to do with sharing something from an app in ur phone to FB. 'Safe to Freeze' only means freezing it won't disturb ur phone and not that u must freeze them all. I don't use these...
Unless rooted, I don't think greenify helps that much. It doesn't seem to hibernate properly once out the app. Just sits in pending?!
belloni said:
Unless rooted, I don't think greenify helps that much. It doesn't seem to hibernate properly once out the app. Just sits in pending?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True! Greenify is more effective when u rooted.
Great guide!
I was to point out to users that Freezing 'Movie Creator' disables Timeshift Video creation.
Lolento said:
Great guide!
I was to point out to users that Freezing 'Movie Creator' disables Timeshift Video creation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks alot mate! Added to OP.
Is stamina mode necessary with greenify on or vice versa? Seems like they do the same thing
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
xnknown said:
Is stamina mode necessary with greenify on or vice versa? Seems like they do the same thing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wondering the same thing. Stamina seems to be doing a great job :good:
xnknown said:
Is stamina mode necessary with greenify on or vice versa? Seems like they do the same thing
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don MC said:
I was wondering the same thing. Stamina seems to be doing a great job :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. I get ur confusion. But technically, No. Stamina mode disables internet to stop apps from transferring data. Greenify closes the entire app. Let's say for instance, you sleep off using your phone, maybe with Google Chrome running, stamina mode will only stop google chrome from transferring in the background 'periodically' but Greenify will close Google chrome entirely because it sees that your screen has been turned off for a while which means that you are not using the app. So, it closes it entirely. Saving you even more juice.
I do nothing you are mentioning and getting almost 2 days battery life.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
PiskopatYazar said:
I do nothing you are mentioning and getting almost 2 days battery life.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with 10 hours screen on time like the OP??
stu_tls said:
with 10 hours screen on time like the OP??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly Im not wasting my 10 hours of a day on my phone.
Secondly I get 5 - 6 hours on screen
PiskopatYazar said:
Firstly Im not wasting my 10 hours of a day on my phone.
Secondly I get 5 - 6 hours on screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you get 10 hours like the op you wont be getting 2 days out of it
I can get 3 or 4 days out of mine if I hardly use it
stanley08 said:
Lol. I get ur confusion. But technically, No. Stamina mode disables internet to stop apps from transferring data. Greenify closes the entire app. Let's say for instance, you sleep off using your phone, maybe with Google Chrome running, stamina mode will only stop google chrome from transferring in the background 'periodically' but Greenify will close Google chrome entirely because it sees that your screen has been turned off for a while which means that you are not using the app. So, it closes it entirely. Saving you even more juice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do we need root to use greenify?
Sent From My Sony Xperia Z2 D6502 White .402
paras said:
Do we need root to use greenify?
Sent From My Sony Xperia Z2 D6502 White .402
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. To use it effectively.
PiskopatYazar said:
I do nothing you are mentioning and getting almost 2 days battery life.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then this thread isn't for you. Neither is it compulsory that you must comment. If I leave my phone in my closet, I will get over a week battery life.
Trolls will troll. Let's ignore them..
Thanks for the good tips!
Vangelis13 said:
Trolls will troll. Let's ignore them..
Thanks for the good tips!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha! True mate! And Cheers!
Welcome to JimTDI's Guide - Tuning the Nexus 7 with Android 5 Lollipop for Maximum Performance!
What's Up
The goal of this guide is to provide you with a well performing base for your Nexus 7 on which you can then build upon, enabling all the features of Lollipop that you want and need, and leaving the ones that affect performance and are unnecessary or unneeded by you, off or disabled.
Don't worry... we're not going to harm or do anything to your Nexus 7 that can't be easily undone. None of my tuning tips "alter" or "root" your Nexus 7, or do anything that would void your warranty - but let's face it, if you have a Nexus 7, it's probably old enough that it doesn't have a warranty anyway. That being said, use common sense, and make your own choices - I am not responsible for any damage to your Nexus 7 because of my recommendations and tuning tips. Rest assured though, I have tested my recommended settings extensively on both the Nexus 7 2012 and Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi models. I'll be as gentle, and as non-technical as possible as we tune your Nexus 7. So, let's begin...
This guide has been recently updated to cover tuning the latest released versions of Android 5 Lollipop on both the Nexus 7 2012 and Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi and Mobile models. I'll refer to them as the Nexus 7(12) or Nexus 7(13) hereafter when we need specifics.
The Nexus 7(12) was available in 3 models, with either 8, 16 or 32GB of storage memory - and with 1 GB of memory to run applications. The Nexus 7(13) was available with either 16 or 32GB of storage, and 2GBs of memory to run applications. There were Wi-Fi and mobile editions available. It's always prudent for a Nexus 7 owner to know the specifics of the tablet they own, especially when asking for help or seeking out support, repair, software patches or looking for accessories like a case, or parts.
If you're not sure which model you have here's a tip, if there's a camera on the back side (facing away from you) it's a 2013 model, if it has just a front-facing camera only (no camera on the backside), then it's a 2012.
As you can see from the above specs, the Nexus 7(12) has very limited application memory with just 1GB on board, just one half of what the Nexus 7(13) has. It also has a bit slower processor than the Nexus 7(13) does (you can look those specs up later). Therefore the goal of this guide is to reduce anything that uses excessive memory, battery, and processing power while still providing a buttery smooth, fully functional user interface. After all, that's what the Lollipop & the Material Design experience is all about
What's New
As of this writing (I update this guide regularly!) these are the current Android 5 Lollipop versions for the various Nexus 7 models. For the best performance, -MAKE SURE- you have the latest Android 5 Lollipop version for your particular Nexus 7 device.
Nexus 7(12) Wi-Fi 5.0.2 (prior release 5.0, no 5.0.1 version for the Nexus 7(12) was ever released).
Nexus 7(12) Mobile 5.0.2
Nexus 7(13) Wi-Fi 5.0.2 (prior releases 5.0, and 5.0.1)
Nexus 7(13) Mobile 5.0.2
Some users have received updates from Android 4.x to Android 5 Lollipop "over-the-air" (known as OTA), and some users have either side-loaded or flashed factory images of Android 5 Lollipop. This guide is written assuming you already have Android 5 Lollipop installed on your Nexus 7 tablet. Many users of the Nexus 7 (particularly the 2012 model) have reported major performance issues since the Android 5 Lollipop "update". The majority of users reporting performance issues are those who received their update "over the air" (OTA) while keeping all of their old Apps and settings.
Because of this, if you are experiencing slowness and lag AFTER applying these tuning tips, I then recommend that you do a "Factory Reset" (see the Factory Reset section at the bottom of this guide). Just so you know, "Factory Reset" is a bit of misleading term, as your Nexus 7 probably did not come with Lollipop on it from the factory, and a "Factory Reset" will take you back to a clean base Android 5 Lollipop installation without any of your applications or settings retained. Try my recommended settings below first - many of these settings may make a difference in the performance you see on your Nexus 7 without doing the Factory Reset. If you flashed a factory image to get Lollipop on your Nexus 7, you got a clean base install, and probably don't need to worry about a Factory Reset.
Do you have enough cash? (if you have extra, you can send me some!)
Android Lollipop (and prior versions of Android) use a portion of your Nexus 7's storage space to hold temporary data about the programs you have run, or are running. This area of storage is called the "Recovery Cache" (pronounced "cash"). Over time this area of your storage can hold old outdated or not used information about your system and programs. It is highly recommended to wipe Recovery Cache on your Nexus 7. You do NOT need to do a "Factory Reset" (see above) to wipe Recovery Cache, and you will not lose any of your settings or Apps wiping your Recovery Cache. Wiping the cache at this point will help assure you have a trouble-free and well performing system. Please see the section "Wipe Recovery Cache" directly below on how to perform this important step.
Wipe Recovery Cache
Turn off your Nexus 7
When the device turns off, press & hold the Volume Down button, and then press & hold the Power button simultaneously until the device turns on, then release both buttons.
You'll see the word "Start" with an arrow drawn around it.
Press the Volume Down button twice to highlight Recovery mode.
Press the Power button to start Recovery mode, and release it. You'll see the Google logo, and after a moment you'll see an image of an Android robot laying on it's back with a red exclamation mark.
While holding down the Power button, press and hold the Volume Up button for a second, then release both buttons.
Use the volume buttons to scroll to "wipe cache partition" then briefly press the Power button to select it.
When the cache is cleared (may take a few seconds to a few minutes), press the Power button on the option "reboot system now."
OK, First Things First
When you first run Android Lollipop, it has some housekeeping chores it needs to perform. You want to help these processes as much as possible to improve the performance on your Nexus 7 both the first time you run Lollipop and as time continues.
Lollipop uses a new Android Run Time "engine" (ART) to run programs. ART needs to pre-compile all of the Apps that you install before Android can run them for the first time. This pre-compile is very resource intensive, the more Apps you install, the more compiling will take place. But it doesn't all take place at once! This compilation takes place in the background, usually in idle-time so if you install a bunch of Apps - be patient as Lollipop needs time to compile them. Lollipop assumes you want to run some Apps too, not just wait for your Apps to compile, so it balances time for you to run Apps while it waits to pre-compile others as idle system time allows. Give Lollipop a day or two (or even a week) to settle-in on your Nexus 7, then just remember Lollipop and ART will work in the background after you install new Apps before you actually have the App available to run. ART likes battery too, so be sure to keep your Nexus 7 charged as much as possible until things settle in.
Now that you know a little about ART, Launch the Google Play Store. Tap the 3 stacked bars in the upper left corner and then select "Settings". Select "Auto-update apps" and set the radio button to "Do not auto-update apps". This will prevent Google Play from auto-updating user applications and more importantly compiling them in the background while you are trying to tune/run your Nexus 7. The Google core applications (Maps, GMail, Chrome, etc.) will all still update with "Auto-Update" set to "Do not auto-update apps". You will still receive all notifications about updates from Google Play for Apps you have installed, if you turn on "Notifications" in the same Google Play settings screen where you disable auto-updates. It is recommended that you wait until all Google core Apps have updated, before you begin to install your own Apps, but I understand, easier said than done... Turning off auto-updates of your applications puts you in control of when and which App updates are applied, and the amount of work ART needs to do, and do it in a more controlled manner.
What? - There's More??
Yes! - as if there's not enough going on already in the background, Android Lollipop's Media Scanner also likes to run, reading through the entire storage space on your Nexus 7 looking for various media files to index so that your Apps later can read the index and find your songs, photos, and movie files. Be aware that Media Scanner runs each and every time you reboot your Nexus 7 too, and that uses a lot of battery and affects performance while it runs. I recommend not rebooting or powering off your Nexus 7 unless you need to, unless you want to rescan your media files often (totally un-necessary!). Let your Nexus 7 sleep while you're not using it, and if necessary, plug it in to charge. It's better anyway to leave it on so it can perform maintenance on itself during idle time, while it, and you, sleep.
What do you mean don't swipe, I'm not a thief!
Android Lollipop has an "Overview" button (the big square icon at the bottom right side of the main screen). It stores a graphical card list (Rolodex or Carousel style) of recently used and running Apps allowing you to easily switch between them. Quite a useful feature, quite nice to pick up where you left off! One change in Lollipop is that this list remains, even after a reboot. Speaking of unnecessary things, I recommend -not- removing Apps from the Overview List, and allowing Lollipop to manage them. I know... it feels like something you should do, but just ignore your urge to clear them, the Apps shown there are using limited or no resources and virtually not affecting your performance. Additionally, you'll be swiping them away all the time since there is no "Clear All" feature (by design!). Closing Apps from the Overview Rolodex menu panel takes time, system resources, and uses battery.
Now the fun stuff!
OK, now that we've got a few things out of the way, and you've met ART, wiped your Recovery Cache (you did, right??, if not go back and do it!), and possibly performed a Factory Reset, it's time to change some settings to help your Nexus 7 run smoother and be buttery smooth and snappy. While my settings are not for everyone, you can use them as a base for yours and then enable what you might need, like Bluetooth if you use a Bluetooth device, or enable NFC if you make payments with your Nexus 7 at point-of-sale terminals, etc. Let's go!
Settings --> Wi-Fi --> tap 3 dots upper right --> Advanced --> Scanning Always Available --> OFF
Settings --> Wi-Fi --> tap 3 dots upper right --> Advanced --> Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep --> Always
Settings --> Wi-Fi --> tap 3 dots upper right --> Advanced --> Wi-Fi frequency band --> Automatic (Nexus 7(13) model setting only!)
Settings --> Bluetooth --> OFF (unless you use it)
Settings --> More --> NFC --> OFF
Settings --> Display --> Adaptive Brightness - OFF
Settings --> Display --> Sleep --> 2 minutes
Settings --> Display --> Daydream - OFF
Settings --> Display --> When Device Is Rotated --> set to: "Stay in current orientation" (will save you about 3-5% constant CPU usage). This turns Auto-Rotate off. You can later toggle this on/off as one of the items in the Quick Settings panel with a two finger swipe down from the top on your main Launcher screen so switching it on/off later for NetFlix, etc. is easy.
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Set all Volumes to lowest level you still can hear comfortably.
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Events and Reminders --> ON
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Messages --> OFF
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Other Sounds --> Screen Locking Sounds --> OFF
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Other Sounds --> Touch Sounds --> OFF
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Pulse Notification light --> OFF (Nexus 7(13) only!)
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> When Device is locked --> Don't show notifications at all
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> App notifications --> be aware there are settings for notifications from each App you have. If you don't want Pandora for example notifying you when new music is added to a channel you are subscribed to, or song notifications, you can either set Pandora to Block --> ON, and/or set the Pandora Notifications to --> Priority
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Notification access --> Uncheck All Boxes (don't allow any, also helps with data privacy!)
Settings --> Storage --> Tap the 3 dots in the upper right, USB computer connection --> set to MTP. This will allow your Nexus 7 to connect to your PC as a Media device. If you want to connect it as a camera to transfer photos, select PTP instead.
Settings --> Battery --> Tap the 3 dots in the upper right, Battery Saver --> OFF, and Turn on Automatically --> Never
Settings --> Location --> ON, set Mode also to Device Only for now. This activates the GPS chip/hardware location of your Nexus 7, but not software location services.
Settings --> Security --> Power button instantly locks --> OFF (this option will only show if you have a lock method specified in Settings --> Security - Screen Lock (I use a PIN).
Settings --> Security --> Owner Info (enter your name and phone number, "Reward if Found..., etc." here, this displays on the lock screen or if your Nexus 7 is rebooted.
Settings --> Security --> Trust Agents --> Deactivate All (turning off Smart Lock (Google) here, removes the display and configuration items in Settings --> Security --> Smart Lock, so if you want to use Smart Lock, (Face Unlock, etc.) leave this set ON. You can toggle it easily, so don't worry if you decide not to use Smart Lock initially, and later decide to use it).
Settings --> Security --> Screen Pinning --> OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Google Now --> OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Tablet Search --> Uncheck all boxes
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Voice --> "OK Google" detection --> all sliders set to OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Voice --> Audio History --> OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Voice --> Block offensive words --> OFF (damnit!)
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Ads --> Opt out of interest-based ads - slider set to ON
Settings --> Language & Input --> Voice Input --> Turn OFF "Enhanced Google services", turn ON "Basic Google recognition"
Settings --> Printing --> Cloud Print - OFF (this one really seems to help performance!!)
Developers Options
The following settings are in the 'Developer Options' section of your Settings. If you don't have a 'Developer Options' listed in your Settings, go to Settings --> About Tablet and tap "Build Number" 7 times to enable Developer Settings.
Settings --> Developer Options --> USB debugging --> ON (checked) (can be used later if necessary to recover your Nexus 7 or use advanced ADB commands). Just turn it on and leave it alone for now, no harm!
Settings --> Developer Options --> Use NuPlayer (experimental) --> OFF (unchecked)
Settings --> Developer Options --> Window animation scale --> Animation OFF
Settings --> Developer Options --> Transition animation scale --> Animation OFF
Settings --> Developer Options --> Animator duration scale --> Animation Off
To turn Developer Settings back off: Settings --> Developer Options --> slider switch at top right, OFF (more than OK to leave Developer Settings enabled however!)
More Google Settings
Now let's make some more changes to how your Google Account is associated with your Nexus 7. We covered some of these settings above, but lets go through them again anyway. Go to your App List (where you select icons from to drag to your desktop), and run the already installed App called "Google Settings" (you may be really surprised at some of the default settings!)
Tap the 3 dots upper right - Usage & Diagnostics - set Slider to OFF
Play Games - (you may receive a notice about a Google Account problem, just ignore it) "Level Up Notifications" - uncheck the box, make sure all boxes are unchecked. Also make sure to set "Game Profile" to "Hidden" in the Play Games settings.
Location - set slider to On, and Mode to "Device Only"
Disable 'Google Now' Search & Now --> Google Now, slide to OFF
Turn Tablet Search off - Search & Now --> Tablet Search, uncheck all the boxes.
Accounts & Privacy - all sliders set to OFF, especially "Personal Results", also, "Manage App History", uncheck App History
Voice - all sliders set to OFF
Security - set all sliders to OFF
Some other useful tips for great performance
Some users report intermittent or non-existent Wi-Fi connections after installing or updating to Lollipop. Make sure your wireless router is operating on Channel 11 or under. Lollipop seems to have problems with routers running Channels above 11. If you're not sure what channel your router is on, you can download the excellent free app called "Wifi Analyzer" by author "farproc" from Google Play to easily see these details. You can also make sure your router is not on the same channel as one of your neighbors with this must-have utility.
Check Google Play for updates to your applications regularly, especially for Google's core Apps (Google Maps, Google Play Music, Chrome Browser, etc.) themselves, which have recently updated. Many users are saying the newly updated Google Apps are boosting performance on the Nexus 7 as well. Remember you now have auto-update turned OFF for your Apps, so be sure to check Google Play often for updates and watch your notifications since we set notifications for App updates ON (above).
Use a 3rd Party Launcher! - What is a Launcher? The Launcher is the program that fires when you press the <Home> button (the circle) at the middle bottom of the main screen in Android. It is the program that you drop your icons and widgets onto to later "launch" them by tapping on them. Google provides a "stock" launcher with Lollipop - but you can easily replace it. Simply go to Google Play and select/install the Launcher you want to use, just like any other Android Application. In fact you can have several Launchers installed and switch between them easily. You don't delete the stock launcher, just add others, and select the new one to use, just as you can have two or three browsers installed on your system. Next Launcher 3D (my favorite!), Nova Launcher, Apex Launcher and Go Launcher are all good launcher choices. You can install one or all of them, and choose which one you want to use as you experiment more. To roll back to the original "stock" launcher after you have installed a (better!) Launcher, go into Settings --> (Device Section) --> Home, and select the radio button for the Launcher you would like to use. Using a different Launcher is easy, and does not require you to alter or "root" your Nexus 7, and switching back to the Google Launcher is even easier!
Note: If you choose Nova Launcher (an excellent choice for a first-timer changing Launchers!!), make this change in Nova: Nova Settings --> Desktop --> Wallpaper Scrolling --> Force.
Do not use a Live Wallpaper! Live Wallpapers eat CPU and battery. Later, once you achieve your performance nirvana on your Nexus 7 - you can then try a Live Wallpaper if you so desire.
Nexus 7(12) users - Don't forget you have a camera - Go to Google Play and install "Camera Nexus 7 (official)", Nexus 7(13) users should have Google Camera installed in Lollipop by default.
You may want to strongly consider replacing the stock Lollipop keyboard with a third party (better!) keyboard such as SwiftKey (free). This also seems to help boost performance some as well. You can always add a keyboard, change to it, try it, and change back to the stock quite easily in Settings --> Language & input. If you decide to keep the Lollipop (white) keyboard, be aware you can make it dark again and appear with separate keys by going to Settings --> Language & input, Google Keyboard --> Appearance & layouts --> Theme, and select Material Dark, or if you prefer the KitKat look, Holo Blue or Holo White.
Consider using a 3rd Party Browser to surf the web from your Nexus 7. Boat Browser, Ghostery Privacy Browser, Opera Mobile or Firefox are all good browser choices! If you choose to use Chrome, make sure to check for updates regularly! Many users report better luck using the latest beta version(s) of Chrome.
Too many Nexus 7 users having problems with performance are using the Facebook App. This can not be a coincidence. It is recommended that you uninstall the Facebook App, and use Facebook with a browser such as Firefox or Ghostery until you stabilize your Nexus 7, and/or until Facebook updates their application. Some users have reported great success using the App "Tinfoil for Facebook", available on Google Play, to access Facebook.
Factory Reset
To perform a Factory Reset (as referenced above in this guide): Settings --> Backup and Reset --> Factory Data Reset. Note: you will lose -ALL- of your personal data, music, pictures, etc., so back those items up if you wish to keep them.
Remember - Android 5 Lollipop is a major new release of Android, and is now just a few months old. I will continue to update this guide as I discover more in the settings, other new Android 5 versions for the Nexus 7 are released, or other tips & tricks are discovered to maximize performance of the Nexus 7. Please post any tips you find. All models of the Nexus 7 can run Lollipop outstandingly well, just not the way it is set to run out of the box. Best of luck achieving maximum performance, and have fun with your Nexus 7!!
Updated: 01/31/2015
I made a few updates to this Guide - post #1 of this thread. Now, includes the Nexus 7 Mobile tablets too, reworded some stuff, and added a few tips. Thank you all for your feedback along the way... !!!
Glad to see the LTE versions of the Nexus 7 get Lollipop too!
Many thanks as usual
I suggested your guide to several users of this fantastic tablet
May I create a couple of 3D into an italian forum (named ANDROIDIANI) recalling this your guide ?? Of course i will underline your reference, this 3D, etc ...
Yes, of course. No problem at all !!
JimTDI said:
Yes, of course. No problem at all !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thanks i will inform you when and where i forward your big guide
Ciao
---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------
Here my first 2 post dedicated to your guide:
http://www.androidiani.com/forum/go...-per-lavorare-meglio-con-lollipop-jimtdi.html
http://www.androidiani.com/forum/go...-per-lavorare-meglio-con-lollipop-jimtdi.html
ciao and thanks so much
paolo
Many Thanks
Many thanks for this, very educational, I had not a clue about most of this.
Mick.
JimTDI said:
Welcome to JimTDI's Guide - Tuning the Nexus 7 with Android 5 Lollipop for Maximum Performance!
What's Up
The goal of this guide is to provide you with a well performing base for your Nexus 7 on which you can then build upon, enabling all the features of Lollipop that you want and need, and leaving the ones that affect performance and are unnecessary or unneeded by you, off or disabled.
Don't worry... we're not going to harm or do anything to your Nexus 7 that can't be easily undone. None of my tuning tips "alter" or "root" your Nexus 7, or do anything that would void your warranty - but let's face it, if you have a Nexus 7, it's probably old enough that it doesn't have a warranty anyway. That being said, use common sense, and make your own choices - I am not responsible for any damage to your Nexus 7 because of my recommendations and tuning tips. Rest assured though, I have tested my recommended settings extensively on both the Nexus 7 2012 and Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi models. I'll be as gentle, and as non-technical as possible as we tune your Nexus 7. So, let's begin...
This guide has been recently updated to cover tuning the latest released versions of Android 5 Lollipop on both the Nexus 7 2012 and Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi and Mobile models. I'll refer to them as the Nexus 7(12) or Nexus 7(13) hereafter when we need specifics.
The Nexus 7(12) was available in 3 models, with either 8, 16 or 32GB of storage memory - and with 1 GB of memory to run applications. The Nexus 7(13) was available with either 16 or 32GB of storage, and 2GBs of memory to run applications. There were Wi-Fi and mobile editions available. It's always prudent for a Nexus 7 owner to know the specifics of the tablet they own, especially when asking for help or seeking out support, repair, software patches or looking for accessories like a case, or parts.
If you're not sure which model you have here's a tip, if there's a camera on the back side (facing away from you) it's a 2013 model, if it has just a front-facing camera only (no camera on the backside), then it's a 2012.
As you can see from the above specs, the Nexus 7(12) has very limited application memory with just 1GB on board, just one half of what the Nexus 7(13) has. It also has a bit slower processor than the Nexus 7(13) does (you can look those specs up later). Therefore the goal of this guide is to reduce anything that uses excessive memory, battery, and processing power while still providing a buttery smooth, fully functional user interface. After all, that's what the Lollipop & the Material Design experience is all about
What's New
As of this writing (I update this guide regularly!) these are the current Android 5 Lollipop versions for the various Nexus 7 models. For the best performance, -MAKE SURE- you have the latest Android 5 Lollipop version for your particular Nexus 7 device.
Nexus 7(12) Wi-Fi 5.0.2 (prior release 5.0, no 5.0.1 version for the Nexus 7(12) was ever released).
Nexus 7(12) Mobile 5.0.2
Nexus 7(13) Wi-Fi 5.0.2 (prior releases 5.0, and 5.0.1)
Nexus 7(13) Mobile 5.0.2
Some users have received updates from Android 4.x to Android 5 Lollipop "over-the-air" (known as OTA), and some users have either side-loaded or flashed factory images of Android 5 Lollipop. This guide is written assuming you already have Android 5 Lollipop installed on your Nexus 7 tablet. Many users of the Nexus 7 (particularly the 2012 model) have reported major performance issues since the Android 5 Lollipop "update". The majority of users reporting performance issues are those who received their update "over the air" (OTA) while keeping all of their old Apps and settings.
Because of this, if you are experiencing slowness and lag AFTER applying these tuning tips, I then recommend that you do a "Factory Reset" (see the Factory Reset section at the bottom of this guide). Just so you know, "Factory Reset" is a bit of misleading term, as your Nexus 7 probably did not come with Lollipop on it from the factory, and a "Factory Reset" will take you back to a clean base Android 5 Lollipop installation without any of your applications or settings retained. Try my recommended settings below first - many of these settings may make a difference in the performance you see on your Nexus 7 without doing the Factory Reset. If you flashed a factory image to get Lollipop on your Nexus 7, you got a clean base install, and probably don't need to worry about a Factory Reset.
Do you have enough cash? (if you have extra, you can send me some!)
Android Lollipop (and prior versions of Android) use a portion of your Nexus 7's storage space to hold temporary data about the programs you have run, or are running. This area of storage is called the "Recovery Cache" (pronounced "cash"). Over time this area of your storage can hold old outdated or not used information about your system and programs. It is highly recommended to wipe Recovery Cache on your Nexus 7. You do NOT need to do a "Factory Reset" (see above) to wipe Recovery Cache, and you will not lose any of your settings or Apps wiping your Recovery Cache. Wiping the cache at this point will help assure you have a trouble-free and well performing system. Please see the section "Wipe Recovery Cache" directly below on how to perform this important step.
Wipe Recovery Cache
Turn off your Nexus 7
When the device turns off, press & hold the Volume Down button, and then press & hold the Power button simultaneously until the device turns on, then release both buttons.
You'll see the word "Start" with an arrow drawn around it.
Press the Volume Down button twice to highlight Recovery mode.
Press the Power button to start Recovery mode, and release it. You'll see the Google logo, and after a moment you'll see an image of an Android robot laying on it's back with a red exclamation mark.
While holding down the Power button, press and hold the Volume Up button for a second, then release both buttons.
Use the volume buttons to scroll to "wipe cache partition" then briefly press the Power button to select it.
When the cache is cleared (may take a few seconds to a few minutes), press the Power button on the option "reboot system now."
OK, First Things First
When you first run Android Lollipop, it has some housekeeping chores it needs to perform. You want to help these processes as much as possible to improve the performance on your Nexus 7 both the first time you run Lollipop and as time continues.
Lollipop uses a new Android Run Time "engine" (ART) to run programs. ART needs to pre-compile all of the Apps that you install before Android can run them for the first time. This pre-compile is very resource intensive, the more Apps you install, the more compiling will take place. But it doesn't all take place at once! This compilation takes place in the background, usually in idle-time so if you install a bunch of Apps - be patient as Lollipop needs time to compile them. Lollipop assumes you want to run some Apps too, not just wait for your Apps to compile, so it balances time for you to run Apps while it waits to pre-compile others as idle system time allows. Give Lollipop a day or two (or even a week) to settle-in on your Nexus 7, then just remember Lollipop and ART will work in the background after you install new Apps before you actually have the App available to run. ART likes battery too, so be sure to keep your Nexus 7 charged as much as possible until things settle in.
Now that you know a little about ART, Launch the Google Play Store. Tap the 3 stacked bars in the upper left corner and then select "Settings". Select "Auto-update apps" and set the radio button to "Do not auto-update apps". This will prevent Google Play from auto-updating user applications and more importantly compiling them in the background while you are trying to tune/run your Nexus 7. The Google core applications (Maps, GMail, Chrome, etc.) will all still update with "Auto-Update" set to "Do not auto-update apps". You will still receive all notifications about updates from Google Play for Apps you have installed, if you turn on "Notifications" in the same Google Play settings screen where you disable auto-updates. It is recommended that you wait until all Google core Apps have updated, before you begin to install your own Apps, but I understand, easier said than done... Turning off auto-updates of your applications puts you in control of when and which App updates are applied, and the amount of work ART needs to do, and do it in a more controlled manner.
What? - There's More??
Yes! - as if there's not enough going on already in the background, Android Lollipop's Media Scanner also likes to run, reading through the entire storage space on your Nexus 7 looking for various media files to index so that your Apps later can read the index and find your songs, photos, and movie files. Be aware that Media Scanner runs each and every time you reboot your Nexus 7 too, and that uses a lot of battery and affects performance while it runs. I recommend not rebooting or powering off your Nexus 7 unless you need to, unless you want to rescan your media files often (totally un-necessary!). Let your Nexus 7 sleep while you're not using it, and if necessary, plug it in to charge. It's better anyway to leave it on so it can perform maintenance on itself during idle time, while it, and you, sleep.
What do you mean don't swipe, I'm not a thief!
Android Lollipop has an "Overview" button (the big square icon at the bottom right side of the main screen). It stores a graphical card list (Rolodex or Carousel style) of recently used and running Apps allowing you to easily switch between them. Quite a useful feature, quite nice to pick up where you left off! One change in Lollipop is that this list remains, even after a reboot. Speaking of unnecessary things, I recommend -not- removing Apps from the Overview List, and allowing Lollipop to manage them. I know... it feels like something you should do, but just ignore your urge to clear them, the Apps shown there are using limited or no resources and virtually not affecting your performance. Additionally, you'll be swiping them away all the time since there is no "Clear All" feature (by design!). Closing Apps from the Overview Rolodex menu panel takes time, system resources, and uses battery.
Now the fun stuff!
OK, now that we've got a few things out of the way, and you've met ART, wiped your Recovery Cache (you did, right??, if not go back and do it!), and possibly performed a Factory Reset, it's time to change some settings to help your Nexus 7 run smoother and be buttery smooth and snappy. While my settings are not for everyone, you can use them as a base for yours and then enable what you might need, like Bluetooth if you use a Bluetooth device, or enable NFC if you make payments with your Nexus 7 at point-of-sale terminals, etc. Let's go!
Settings --> Wi-Fi --> tap 3 dots upper right --> Advanced --> Scanning Always Available --> OFF
Settings --> Wi-Fi --> tap 3 dots upper right --> Advanced --> Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep --> Always
Settings --> Wi-Fi --> tap 3 dots upper right --> Advanced --> Wi-Fi frequency band --> Automatic (Nexus 7(13) model setting only!)
Settings --> Bluetooth --> OFF (unless you use it)
Settings --> More --> NFC --> OFF
Settings --> Display --> Adaptive Brightness - OFF
Settings --> Display --> Sleep --> 2 minutes
Settings --> Display --> Daydream - OFF
Settings --> Display --> When Device Is Rotated --> set to: "Stay in current orientation" (will save you about 3-5% constant CPU usage). This turns Auto-Rotate off. You can later toggle this on/off as one of the items in the Quick Settings panel with a two finger swipe down from the top on your main Launcher screen so switching it on/off later for NetFlix, etc. is easy.
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Set all Volumes to lowest level you still can hear comfortably.
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Events and Reminders --> ON
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Messages --> OFF
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Other Sounds --> Screen Locking Sounds --> OFF
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Other Sounds --> Touch Sounds --> OFF
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Pulse Notification light --> OFF (Nexus 7(13) only!)
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> When Device is locked --> Don't show notifications at all
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> App notifications --> be aware there are settings for notifications from each App you have. If you don't want Pandora for example notifying you when new music is added to a channel you are subscribed to, or song notifications, you can either set Pandora to Block --> ON, and/or set the Pandora Notifications to --> Priority
Settings --> Sound & Notification --> Notification access --> Uncheck All Boxes (don't allow any, also helps with data privacy!)
Settings --> Storage --> Tap the 3 dots in the upper right, USB computer connection --> set to MTP. This will allow your Nexus 7 to connect to your PC as a Media device. If you want to connect it as a camera to transfer photos, select PTP instead.
Settings --> Battery --> Tap the 3 dots in the upper right, Battery Saver --> OFF, and Turn on Automatically --> Never
Settings --> Location --> ON, set Mode also to Device Only for now. This activates the GPS chip/hardware location of your Nexus 7, but not software location services.
Settings --> Security --> Power button instantly locks --> OFF (this option will only show if you have a lock method specified in Settings --> Security - Screen Lock (I use a PIN).
Settings --> Security --> Owner Info (enter your name and phone number, "Reward if Found..., etc." here, this displays on the lock screen or if your Nexus 7 is rebooted.
Settings --> Security --> Trust Agents --> Deactivate All (turning off Smart Lock (Google) here, removes the display and configuration items in Settings --> Security --> Smart Lock, so if you want to use Smart Lock, (Face Unlock, etc.) leave this set ON. You can toggle it easily, so don't worry if you decide not to use Smart Lock initially, and later decide to use it).
Settings --> Security --> Screen Pinning --> OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Google Now --> OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Tablet Search --> Uncheck all boxes
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Voice --> "OK Google" detection --> all sliders set to OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Voice --> Audio History --> OFF
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Privacy --> Search --> Voice --> Block offensive words --> OFF (damnit!)
Settings --> Accounts, select your Google account --> Ads --> Opt out of interest-based ads - slider set to ON
Settings --> Language & Input --> Voice Input --> Turn OFF "Enhanced Google services", turn ON "Basic Google recognition"
Settings --> Printing --> Cloud Print - OFF (this one really seems to help performance!!)
Developers Options
The following settings are in the 'Developer Options' section of your Settings. If you don't have a 'Developer Options' listed in your Settings, go to Settings --> About Tablet and tap "Build Number" 7 times to enable Developer Settings.
Settings --> Developer Options --> USB debugging --> ON (checked) (can be used later if necessary to recover your Nexus 7 or use advanced ADB commands). Just turn it on and leave it alone for now, no harm!
Settings --> Developer Options --> Use NuPlayer (experimental) --> OFF (unchecked)
Settings --> Developer Options --> Window animation scale --> Animation OFF
Settings --> Developer Options --> Transition animation scale --> Animation OFF
Settings --> Developer Options --> Animator duration scale --> Animation Off
To turn Developer Settings back off: Settings --> Developer Options --> slider switch at top right, OFF (more than OK to leave Developer Settings enabled however!)
More Google Settings
Now let's make some more changes to how your Google Account is associated with your Nexus 7. We covered some of these settings above, but lets go through them again anyway. Go to your App List (where you select icons from to drag to your desktop), and run the already installed App called "Google Settings" (you may be really surprised at some of the default settings!)
Tap the 3 dots upper right - Usage & Diagnostics - set Slider to OFF
Play Games - (you may receive a notice about a Google Account problem, just ignore it) "Level Up Notifications" - uncheck the box, make sure all boxes are unchecked. Also make sure to set "Game Profile" to "Hidden" in the Play Games settings.
Location - set slider to On, and Mode to "Device Only"
Disable 'Google Now' Search & Now --> Google Now, slide to OFF
Turn Tablet Search off - Search & Now --> Tablet Search, uncheck all the boxes.
Accounts & Privacy - all sliders set to OFF, especially "Personal Results", also, "Manage App History", uncheck App History
Voice - all sliders set to OFF
Security - set all sliders to OFF
Some other useful tips for great performance
Some users report intermittent or non-existent Wi-Fi connections after installing or updating to Lollipop. Make sure your wireless router is operating on Channel 11 or under. Lollipop seems to have problems with routers running Channels above 11. If you're not sure what channel your router is on, you can download the excellent free app called "Wifi Analyzer" by author "farproc" from Google Play to easily see these details. You can also make sure your router is not on the same channel as one of your neighbors with this must-have utility.
Check Google Play for updates to your applications regularly, especially for Google's core Apps (Google Maps, Google Play Music, Chrome Browser, etc.) themselves, which have recently updated. Many users are saying the newly updated Google Apps are boosting performance on the Nexus 7 as well. Remember you now have auto-update turned OFF for your Apps, so be sure to check Google Play often for updates and watch your notifications since we set notifications for App updates ON (above).
Use a 3rd Party Launcher! - What is a Launcher? The Launcher is the program that fires when you press the <Home> button (the circle) at the middle bottom of the main screen in Android. It is the program that you drop your icons and widgets onto to later "launch" them by tapping on them. Google provides a "stock" launcher with Lollipop - but you can easily replace it. Simply go to Google Play and select/install the Launcher you want to use, just like any other Android Application. In fact you can have several Launchers installed and switch between them easily. You don't delete the stock launcher, just add others, and select the new one to use, just as you can have two or three browsers installed on your system. Next Launcher 3D (my favorite!), Nova Launcher, Apex Launcher and Go Launcher are all good launcher choices. You can install one or all of them, and choose which one you want to use as you experiment more. To roll back to the original "stock" launcher after you have installed a (better!) Launcher, go into Settings --> (Device Section) --> Home, and select the radio button for the Launcher you would like to use. Using a different Launcher is easy, and does not require you to alter or "root" your Nexus 7, and switching back to the Google Launcher is even easier!
Note: If you choose Nova Launcher (an excellent choice for a first-timer changing Launchers!!), make this change in Nova: Nova Settings --> Desktop --> Wallpaper Scrolling --> Force.
Do not use a Live Wallpaper! Live Wallpapers eat CPU and battery. Later, once you achieve your performance nirvana on your Nexus 7 - you can then try a Live Wallpaper if you so desire.
Nexus 7(12) users - Don't forget you have a camera - Go to Google Play and install "Camera Nexus 7 (official)", Nexus 7(13) users should have Google Camera installed in Lollipop by default.
You may want to strongly consider replacing the stock Lollipop keyboard with a third party (better!) keyboard such as SwiftKey (free). This also seems to help boost performance some as well. You can always add a keyboard, change to it, try it, and change back to the stock quite easily in Settings --> Language & input. If you decide to keep the Lollipop (white) keyboard, be aware you can make it dark again and appear with separate keys by going to Settings --> Language & input, Google Keyboard --> Appearance & layouts --> Theme, and select Material Dark, or if you prefer the KitKat look, Holo Blue or Holo White.
Consider using a 3rd Party Browser to surf the web from your Nexus 7. Boat Browser, Ghostery Privacy Browser, Opera Mobile or Firefox are all good browser choices! If you choose to use Chrome, make sure to check for updates regularly! Many users report better luck using the latest beta version(s) of Chrome.
Too many Nexus 7 users having problems with performance are using the Facebook App. This can not be a coincidence. It is recommended that you uninstall the Facebook App, and use Facebook with a browser such as Firefox or Ghostery until you stabilize your Nexus 7, and/or until Facebook updates their application. Some users have reported great success using the App "Tinfoil for Facebook", available on Google Play, to access Facebook.
Factory Reset
To perform a Factory Reset (as referenced above in this guide): Settings --> Backup and Reset --> Factory Data Reset. Note: you will lose -ALL- of your personal data, music, pictures, etc., so back those items up if you wish to keep them.
Remember - Android 5 Lollipop is a major new release of Android, and is now just a few months old. I will continue to update this guide as I discover more in the settings, other new Android 5 versions for the Nexus 7 are released, or other tips & tricks are discovered to maximize performance of the Nexus 7. Please post any tips you find. All models of the Nexus 7 can run Lollipop outstandingly well, just not the way it is set to run out of the box. Best of luck achieving maximum performance, and have fun with your Nexus 7!!
Updated: 01/31/2015
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just posted a new version of my Tuning Guide for the Nexus 7 & Lollipop here:
https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/nexus/EWUtW5-fVrE/zgxJ-S7NSNkJ
I would update it here, but the document is too big now according to a message from this forum when trying to save it...
JimTDI said:
I just posted a new version of my Tuning Guide for the Nexus 7 & Lollipop here:
https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/nexus/EWUtW5-fVrE/zgxJ-S7NSNkJ
I would update it here, but the document is too big now according to a message from this forum when trying to save it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will post my issue and dubt regarding N7 2012 3G with LL there
Many thanks
Paolo
Hello. Thanks for your very useful Guide. Having gone through all your steps I feel my Nexus-7 2012 has improved (less problems) but now I cannot get any sound from the keyboard pressing. Unlike many users, we prefer sound as I can tell whether or not a character has been pressed, eg when entering password. When I go to settings/options etc etc I cannot see any option that allows me to turn keyboard sounds on and off. Perhaps that is being governed by some other weird settings somewhere. Can you help please? Like so many other people, my Nexus-7 was screwed up by Android 5. I am on 5.1.1 ie the latest/last for this machine. Kept failing to respond, or dying to black, though never predictable. Always fine on Android 4 that it came with.
Hi - yes, 5.1.1 crippled many a Nexus 7. Can you tell me the values for Settings > Language & Input > Current Keyboard? If it's the Google Keyboard, touch that (right below current keyboard) then select Preferences > Sound on keypress (make sure it's turned on), and also check Volume on keypress there in the keyboard preferences. If you're using a different keyboard, then we may need to approach this differently to solve your problem.
HI Jim,
our N7 is really too old but ... sometimes some owners ask me on Italian forum in which way they can speed their N7 with LL
I always forward them to this topic and to your very interesting guide
Thanks a lot for all your effort addressed to N7
Really appreciate
Ciao
Paolo
paolocorpo said:
HI Jim,
our N7 is really too old but ... sometimes some owners ask me on Italian forum in which way they can speed their N7 with LL
I always forward them to this topic and to your very interesting guide
Thanks a lot for all your effort addressed to N7
Really appreciate
Ciao
Paolo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you Paolo for your kind words!
-Jim
Cant get Keyboard to click
Hello. Thanks for the Guide. I used it to try to fix my Nexus-7 2012 after the dreaded Android 5 update. It is a bit better after your suggested changes to settings, though still far from good compared to what it was like under Android 4. A key annoying problem is that I cant get the keyboard to click when I try to login to the tablet. I have tried what seems like everything but nothing works. Clicking is important to me because otherwise it is very difficult to tell whether a key stroke has been accepted or not, which is essential when entering passwords. Thanks for any help. Regards Roger Keynes
---------- Post added at 01:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 PM ----------
Sorry. Just realised you had replied earlier to my original post. I will look for my settings shortly and post them here. Regards RK
---------- Post added at 01:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------
Sorry. Just realised you had replied earlier to my original post. I will look for my settings shortly and post them here. Regards RK
No clicking from keyboard
Hello again. The Current Keyboard is English (UK) Gboard, which I believe is the Google Keyboard. Preferences seem to show Sound-on-keypress being ON, and Volume on keypress being 98%. I would have expected that to give me clicking, but it doesnt. Tablet has been turned off and on (many many times of course, due to the frustrations with it hanging up etc) but still I get no clicking. The tablet is basically just as it came orignally, apart from the 'automatically delivered' Android updates, and addition of various Apps from Google Play. No attempt ever made to 'root' it, or anything like that. Any help would be welcomed. Thanks and regards Roger K
PS... Sorry for any mistakes trying to use this forum...not intentional!
---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 PM ----------
Sorry but not sure whether you will have seen my keyboard settings that you asked for. I'm obviously not very good at using these forums. In case you didnt see my reply, it says keyboard is Gboard, and Sound on keypress seems to be ON, and Volume on keypress set to 98%. Thanks for any help, regards Roger Keynes
Re: keyboard click
Hello again Jim. Are you able to give me some help with this (refce my post in August)? Sorry but I'm not sure exactly where or how to look for any feedback from you. Perhaps you are on holiday, on maybe not monitoring this any longer? Kind regards, Roger Keynes, Beanosenior.
Do you hear any touch sounds? I have a PIN set and I do get sounds when I enter it to unlock my Nexus 7. I also tried a GMail with GBoard as my keyboard. I am able to hear keypresses there also, so try looking at Settings > Sound & notification > Other Sounds > Touch Sounds > slide to ON.
Sorry it took me a bit of time to get back with you - you're right, I was on holiday.
Keyboard clicks - Touch sounds
JimTDI said:
Do you hear any touch sounds? I have a PIN set and I do get sounds when I enter it to unlock my Nexus 7. I also tried a GMail with GBoard as my keyboard. I am able to hear keypresses there also, so try looking at Settings > Sound & notification > Other Sounds > Touch Sounds > slide to ON.
Sorry it took me a bit of time to get back with you - you're right, I was on holiday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Jim. Thanks for your feedback. I checked as you suggested, and found that Touch Sounds is already set to ON, and Screen locking sounds is also set to ON. (Docking sounds was OFF, and although I dont think that setting is relevant for me I did turn it on, and powered the N7 off and back on but no change; still no clicking. The places I want clicking are 1) when logging in to the N7, ie to unlock it (what you called a PIN I think), and 2) when putting in password to log in to my email (the latter not gmail but some other provider, but essentially the same thing as you said in your reply). It's really odd. If it hadnt been originally clicking (under Android 4) I perhaps would never have realised that it COULD click! The N7 is in one of those fairly standard protective cases, ie when you close the cover the N7 goes off. We use the machine mainly for downloading the daily TIMES Newspaper, and when away on holiday without laptop then we also use it for Internet and Email. There are many Apps loaded on it but few are used. There's plenty of space available. Every night we charge it up fully. Apart from the clicking issue, the only problem we have is that on some days/times it seems to be hanging, and it's a pig to get into, ie struggle to get to the PIN/login screen. In some of those cases we might see the msg that the UI (user interface I guess) is not responding. The only way to fix it is to power off (hold power button in for 10 secs or so). Sometimes even that does not work at the first try. Though the WiFi signal in the house is showing as fairly week, it doesnt really seem to be that per-se which is affecting it. We've been on holiday where the signal was much better but still had similar problems. As you can guess from the above, patience is needed when using the N7; and it wasnt like that under Android 4. I have a little more patience in this particular respect than my dear wife! Once you finally get to the PIN screen, and on to the Times App, or the Internet/Email, it seems to work quite reasonably. Not that fast, but at least tolerable. All your suggestions in the guide have, I think, helped, but as you can gather there's still a fair frequency of despair! I keep thinking of ditching it for a more modern tablet (Samsung S2 seems good even though 2+ years old), but then the good old N7 behaves for a while and i continue to save my money...... Any thoughts welcomed. Best regards.
beanosenior said:
Hi Jim. Thanks for your feedback. I checked as you suggested, and found that Touch Sounds is already set to ON, and Screen locking sounds is also set to ON. (Docking sounds was OFF, and although I dont think that setting is relevant for me I did turn it on, and powered the N7 off and back on but no change; still no clicking. The places I want clicking are 1) when logging in to the N7, ie to unlock it (what you called a PIN I think), and 2) when putting in password to log in to my email (the latter not gmail but some other provider, but essentially the same thing as you said in your reply). It's really odd. If it hadnt been originally clicking (under Android 4) I perhaps would never have realised that it COULD click! The N7 is in one of those fairly standard protective cases, ie when you close the cover the N7 goes off. We use the machine mainly for downloading the daily TIMES Newspaper, and when away on holiday without laptop then we also use it for Internet and Email. There are many Apps loaded on it but few are used. There's plenty of space available. Every night we charge it up fully. Apart from the clicking issue, the only problem we have is that on some days/times it seems to be hanging, and it's a pig to get into, ie struggle to get to the PIN/login screen. In some of those cases we might see the msg that the UI (user interface I guess) is not responding. The only way to fix it is to power off (hold power button in for 10 secs or so). Sometimes even that does not work at the first try. Though the WiFi signal in the house is showing as fairly week, it doesnt really seem to be that per-se which is affecting it. We've been on holiday where the signal was much better but still had similar problems. As you can guess from the above, patience is needed when using the N7; and it wasnt like that under Android 4. I have a little more patience in this particular respect than my dear wife! Once you finally get to the PIN screen, and on to the Times App, or the Internet/Email, it seems to work quite reasonably. Not that fast, but at least tolerable. All your suggestions in the guide have, I think, helped, but as you can gather there's still a fair frequency of despair! I keep thinking of ditching it for a more modern tablet (Samsung S2 seems good even though 2+ years old), but then the good old N7 behaves for a while and i continue to save my money...... Any thoughts welcomed. Best regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite sure what to recommend to you as far as getting your clicking back, sorry.
As far as performance goes - on one of my Nexus 7s (2012) I am running what's called Pure Nexus and it's running really fast. If you feel technically comfortable with altering your Nexus 7 it might be a way to go...
After a lot of time using stock rom and your tips and tricks I have decided to downgrade from 5 to 4 version
The usage with 5 is very ... unusable
I am obligated to use rom stock because unfortunately I have an app that cannot runs with Tom custom
Inviato dal mio HTC One M9 utilizzando Tapatalk
paolocorpo said:
After a lot of time using stock rom and your tips and tricks I have decided to downgrade from 5 to 4 version
The usage with 5 is very ... unusable
I am obligated to use rom stock because unfortunately I have an app that cannot runs with Tom custom
Inviato dal mio HTC One M9 utilizzando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get it... Lollipop did a number on many of the Nexus 7(12s), hence the guide. Good luck flashing back!
I got tired of my Nexus 7 draining its battery just sitting there in standby. Even if I turned the tablet all the way off, somehow the battery still drained itself (more slowly, but still…). I came up with the tips below so that I wouldn’t have to turn off the Nexus 7 completely between uses. I believe that a tablet should be in standby and ready to go at all times.
I now get more than a week of battery life in standby. For the first time, I feel like my Nexus 7 is a useful alternative to my iPad Air.
The biggest battery drain culprit during idle time is behind-the-scenes software — continuously running, polling the Internet, or updating. On a Google device such as the Nexus series, most of that power-hungry activity comes from Google itself. So here’s what we're gonna do. Before we get to the Google stuff, let’s tweak some overall settings and Play Store settings to reduce battery drain in those areas:
First, let’s make sure you’re on the latest OS version for the 2013 version of the Nexus 7. (I’m guessing these settings will work in the 2012 version also, but I don’t know for sure.) In Settings, swipe down to About Tablet, choose that, then swipe down to “Android version”. When I wrote this in mid-February 2015, the latest OS version was 5.0.2. Check for updates on the same screen, and update to the latest version if necessary. If rooted, install the latest custom ROM of your choice.
Once updated:
Hit your Play Store icon. Click the three-bar menu at the top left. Select “Settings” near the bottom.
Under “Auto-update apps,” choose “Do not auto-update apps.” (Why? Because that “feature” uses battery juice to download and install stuff whenever it feels like it, instead of whenever you say.)
On the same page, under Notifications, make sure “Notify me about updates to apps or games that I downloaded” is checked. That way you will know if something needs updating.
On the same page, uncheck “Add icon to Home screen for new apps.” Because it’s annoying, not because it uses battery.
Go to your tablet’s Settings.
Choose “Wi-Fi”.
Tap the three-dot symbol at top right.
Tap “Advanced.”
Make sure “Scanning always available” is unchecked.
On the same settings screen, under “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep,” choose “Never”. (Don’t worry: If Wi-Fi is enabled, it will wake up instantly every time you turn on the tablet.)
While in Settings, let’s turn off some radios:
If you don’t travel with your tablet, disable Location (GPS).
If you don’t use Near Field Communication (NFC) for tap-to-pair features, disable that. You can always re-enable it when ready.
Disable Bluetooth when not using it.
Obviously, keep your device’s screen brightness as low as is comfortable. (The display is the biggest power hog on your device.) You can change the display brightness settings under Settings, Display.
While in Display Settings, disable Ambient Display. (Well, first Google it, because you might actually like the feature. But I think it’s more of a smartphone feature than a tablet feature.)
When disabling or uninstalling Google apps, DO NOT uninstall anything essential to the smooth running of your tablet. That includes:
Google Search
Google Chrome (unless you replace it with another browser)
Google Settings
Hangouts (you can disable Hangouts once you’ve replaced it with an aftermarket texting app)
Google Now (although we will disable many of its features and opt-out later)
Google Play
Gmail
Now let’s clean up a few apps. We will stay away from system apps, such as Email — because people can get into trouble uninstalling essential system apps.
It’s impossible to know every time an app is working in the background or polling the Internet. So, in my opinion, you should uninstall any app that you didn’t specifically put on the tablet yourself (system apps not included). For example, I uninstalled:
Google Earth
Google +
Hangouts (after I replaced it with Textra)
Google Docs
Google Drive
Google Sheets
Google Slides
Google Fit
Any downloaded apps I’m no longer using, such as wallpaper apps.
For smartphone owners, Google Now can be a godsend — always reminding you of what’s next, keeping you out of traffic jams, and keeping you on schedule. But tablet owners might not need the features. Additionally, with Google Now, the Nexus 7 mic is always on and listening for that “OK Google” search command — which obviously uses battery power and is more of a smartphone than tablet feature.
I found that I didn’t need Google Now at home, where my Nexus 7 is 100% of the time. If you’re like me, you can opt-out of Google Now — or at least stop the mic from listening.
We’ll start with the least draconian measure: stopping the mic from listening for the “OK Google” command from any screen:
From your main home screen, swipe up to get to the Google Now screen.
Tap the three-bar symbol at top left.
Choose Settings.
Choose Voice.
Choose “OK Google” Detection.
Uncheck “From any screen.” Leave “from the Google app” checked, then Google can listen for the command only when you have a search window open.
If you don’t want Google Now at all (I don’t like it because it’s always updating something or doing something in the background), here’s how you disable it completely, while leaving full Google Search functionality intact:
Start by disabling “OK Google” voice detection for screens other than Google Search as shown above (or you can disable it in Google Settings below).
Then, in your Applications, open the Google Settings app.
Tap “Search & Now”.
Tap “Now cards.”
Uncheck “Show cards.”
You will see a message that asks if you really want to turn off Google Now. Go ahead and do that.
From now on, you can still easily search by swiping your finger up from the bottom of any Home screen. And you can still do voice searches by tapping the microphone on any Google Search screen.
I hope these battery-saving features do as much for you as they did for me!
Thanks for the tips, always good to know. :highfive:
I'd like to add that "Google Location Reporting," is a battery hog and seems to make little difference if turned off. With it turned off, my devices still know roughly where I am. :cyclops:
In Settings, under Sound and Notification, go to “other sounds.” Uncheck “Vibrate on touch.”
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... So where did you copy and paste this guide from?
khaytsus said:
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... So where did you copy and paste this guide from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I typed it myself while looking at my own device. It took hours. But yeah, that one I got wrong because I was looking at my rooted Nexus 7 at the time, not my stock one. But no need to get snarky because you found the one error in a four-page Word document--just try to help next time, okay?
Masteryates said:
Thanks for the tips, always good to know. :highfive:
I'd like to add that "Google Location Reporting," is a battery hog and seems to make little difference if turned off. With it turned off, my devices still know roughly where I am. :cyclops:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a great tip! Thanks for adding it. Hopefully, others will chime in with even more!
TheContinental said:
I typed it myself while looking at my own device. It took hours. But yeah, that one I got wrong because I was looking at my rooted Nexus 7 at the time, not my stock one. But no need to get snarky because you found the one error in a four-page Word document--just try to help next time, okay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, perhaps your custom ROM is incorrectly reporting then, because there's no vibration on the Nexus 7.
khaytsus said:
Okay, perhaps your custom ROM is incorrectly reporting then, because there's no vibration on the Nexus 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good catch! I just edited that part out of the guide. I found out where the mistake came from. I'm currently also writing one of these for the Nexus 5. So...my bad...you were right! It was a copy/paste error...from my own guide!
Thank you for clearing that up.
Nexus 7 Draining Big Time
TheContinental said:
I got tired of my Nexus 7 draining its battery just sitting there in standby. Even if I turned the tablet all the way off, somehow the battery still drained itself (more slowly, but still…). I came up with the tips below so that I wouldn’t have to turn off the Nexus 7 completely between uses. I believe that a tablet should be in standby and ready to go at all times.
I now get more than a week of battery life in standby. For the first time, I feel like my Nexus 7 is a useful alternative to my iPad Air.
The biggest battery drain culprit during idle time is behind-the-scenes software — continuously running, polling the Internet, or updating. On a Google device such as the Nexus series, most of that power-hungry activity comes from Google itself. So here’s what we're gonna do. Before we get to the Google stuff, let’s tweak some overall settings and Play Store settings to reduce battery drain in those areas:
First, let’s make sure you’re on the latest OS version for the 2013 version of the Nexus 7. (I’m guessing these settings will work in the 2012 version also, but I don’t know for sure.) In Settings, swipe down to About Tablet, choose that, then swipe down to “Android version”. When I wrote this in mid-February 2015, the latest OS version was 5.0.2. Check for updates on the same screen, and update to the latest version if necessary. If rooted, install the latest custom ROM of your choice.
Once updated:
Hit your Play Store icon. Click the three-bar menu at the top left. Select “Settings” near the bottom.
Under “Auto-update apps,” choose “Do not auto-update apps.” (Why? Because that “feature” uses battery juice to download and install stuff whenever it feels like it, instead of whenever you say.)
On the same page, under Notifications, make sure “Notify me about updates to apps or games that I downloaded” is checked. That way you will know if something needs updating.
On the same page, uncheck “Add icon to Home screen for new apps.” Because it’s annoying, not because it uses battery.
Go to your tablet’s Settings.
Choose “Wi-Fi”.
Tap the three-dot symbol at top right.
Tap “Advanced.”
Make sure “Scanning always available” is unchecked.
On the same settings screen, under “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep,” choose “Never”. (Don’t worry: If Wi-Fi is enabled, it will wake up instantly every time you turn on the tablet.)
While in Settings, let’s turn off some radios:
If you don’t travel with your tablet, disable Location (GPS).
If you don’t use Near Field Communication (NFC) for tap-to-pair features, disable that. You can always re-enable it when ready.
Disable Bluetooth when not using it.
Obviously, keep your device’s screen brightness as low as is comfortable. (The display is the biggest power hog on your device.) You can change the display brightness settings under Settings, Display.
While in Display Settings, disable Ambient Display. (Well, first Google it, because you might actually like the feature. But I think it’s more of a smartphone feature than a tablet feature.)
When disabling or uninstalling Google apps, DO NOT uninstall anything essential to the smooth running of your tablet. That includes:
Google Search
Google Chrome (unless you replace it with another browser)
Google Settings
Hangouts (you can disable Hangouts once you’ve replaced it with an aftermarket texting app)
Google Now (although we will disable many of its features and opt-out later)
Google Play
Gmail
Now let’s clean up a few apps. We will stay away from system apps, such as Email — because people can get into trouble uninstalling essential system apps.
It’s impossible to know every time an app is working in the background or polling the Internet. So, in my opinion, you should uninstall any app that you didn’t specifically put on the tablet yourself (system apps not included). For example, I uninstalled:
Google Earth
Google +
Hangouts (after I replaced it with Textra)
Google Docs
Google Drive
Google Sheets
Google Slides
Google Fit
Any downloaded apps I’m no longer using, such as wallpaper apps.
For smartphone owners, Google Now can be a godsend — always reminding you of what’s next, keeping you out of traffic jams, and keeping you on schedule. But tablet owners might not need the features. Additionally, with Google Now, the Nexus 7 mic is always on and listening for that “OK Google” search command — which obviously uses battery power and is more of a smartphone than tablet feature.
I found that I didn’t need Google Now at home, where my Nexus 7 is 100% of the time. If you’re like me, you can opt-out of Google Now — or at least stop the mic from listening.
We’ll start with the least draconian measure: stopping the mic from listening for the “OK Google” command:
From your main home screen, swipe left until you get to the Google Now screen.
Tap the three-bar symbol at top left.
Choose Settings.
Choose Voice.
Choose “OK Google” Detection.
Uncheck both “from the Google app” and “From any screen.”
If you don’t want Google Now at all (I don’t like it because it’s always updating something or doing something in the background), here’s how you disable it completely, while leaving full Google Search functionality intact:
Start by disabling “OK Google” voice detection as shown above.
Then, in your Applications, open the Google Settings app.
Tap “Search & Now”.
Tap “Now cards.”
Uncheck “Show cards.”
You will see a message that asks if you really want to turn off Google Now. Go ahead and do that.
From now on, you can still easily search by swiping your finger up from the bottom of any Home screen. And you can still do voice searches by tapping the microphone on any Google Search screen.
I hope these battery-saving features do as much for you as they did for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is fantastic -- thank you!
I just upgraded my Nexus 7 (2013 LTE) to Lollipop and its battery usage tanked. I finally got a good view of how bad it was this morning. I plugged it in last night but left it running (all radios except WiFi off (including mobile data off), display off) and it charged all night. When I checked on it this morning it had actually *lost* battery charge overnight. The battery display page shows that it had been charging all night but still steadily, albeit slowly, losing charge (went from about 51% to about 47% by morning).
I turned the device off and plugged it back in; within a couple of hours it was back up to about 70%.
From various forums it appears that people have wildly varying experience with this on their Nexus devices, including the Nexus 7, with some reporting good battery charge retention, so my first guess is that one or more of my roughly 160 apps is sucking on the battery heavily.
I'm doing a factory reset now and will then try the recharge scenario again (wherein I leave the device on while recharging) and will see what happens with the "clean" version. I'm also going to turn off WiFi, which I know will introduce a significant change, but I want to make sure there is no background WiFi activity going on either (e.g., downloading all my Google apps again).
I'll post the results of my "test".
Barry
^160 apps that's the problem. Use BBS to see what's keeping it up. You can leave WiFi on, I have all location, WiFi, now, ok google everywhere etc on and consistently get 8 hours screen time over 2 days or 7 hours over 3 days.
I've seen the difference (in negative way) of the battery in lollipop too.
I have a rooted n7 lte.
In addition to these tips, I installed "disableservice" from play store and disabled all the wear related service in android google play service and Google music.
Now on the list of battery consuming apps the Google play service is no more the first one.
I've read somewhere that the wear parts of play service consumes a lot of battery and I don't have android wear.
Only my two cents.
Bye
xranix said:
I've seen the difference (in negative way) of the battery in lollipop too.
I have a rooted n7 lte.
In addition to these tips, I installed "disableservice" from play store and disabled all the wear related service in android google play service and Google music.
Now on the list of battery consuming apps the Google play service is no more the first one.
I've read somewhere that the wear parts of play service consumes a lot of battery and I don't have android wear.
Only my two cents.
Bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great tips! Thanks for adding to the discussion!
yosmokinman said:
^160 apps that's the problem. Use BBS to see what's keeping it up. You can leave WiFi on, I have all location, WiFi, now, ok google everywhere etc on and consistently get 8 hours screen time over 2 days or 7 hours over 3 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nonsense, he has some other issue. Unless he has 160's "facebook" apps.
Questions: fyi I have stock 2013 5.0.2
When I try to disable NFC, it greys out and then turns itself back on.
I can't find the Google Now screen when swiping left.
TheContinental said:
For smartphone owners, Google Now can be a godsend — always reminding you of what’s next, keeping you out of traffic jams, and keeping you on schedule. But tablet owners might not need the features. Additionally, with Google Now, the Nexus 7 mic is always on and listening for that “OK Google” search command — which obviously uses battery power and is more of a smartphone than tablet feature.
I found that I didn’t need Google Now at home, where my Nexus 7 is 100% of the time. If you’re like me, you can opt-out of Google Now — or at least stop the mic from listening.
We’ll start with the least draconian measure: stopping the mic from listening for the “OK Google” command:
From your main home screen, swipe left until you get to the Google Now screen.
Tap the three-bar symbol at top left.
Choose Settings.
Choose Voice.
Choose “OK Google” Detection.
Uncheck both “from the Google app” and “From any screen.”
If you don’t want Google Now at all (I don’t like it because it’s always updating something or doing something in the background), here’s how you disable it completely, while leaving full Google Search functionality intact:
Start by disabling “OK Google” voice detection as shown above.
Then, in your Applications, open the Google Settings app.
Tap “Search & Now”.
Tap “Now cards.”
Uncheck “Show cards.”
You will see a message that asks if you really want to turn off Google Now. Go ahead and do that.
From now on, you can still easily search by swiping your finger up from the bottom of any Home screen. And you can still do voice searches by tapping the microphone on any Google Search screen.
I hope these battery-saving features do as much for you as they did for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
peaceridge said:
Questions: fyi I have stock 2013 5.0.2
When I try to disable NFC, it greys out and then turns itself back on.
I can't find the Google Now screen when swiping left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you swipe left on your home screen and don't get Google Now, then Google Now is not activated on your device. If Google Now is activated, when swiping left on your home screen, you'll see a full-screen view of Google Now and its helpful cards.
Sorry, I don't know what to make of your NFC turning itself back on. Of course, NFC won't work at all if Bluetooth is off, so you can defeat it that way.
TheContinental said:
If you swipe left on your home screen and don't get Google Now, then Google Now is not activated on your device. If Google Now is activated, when swiping left on your home screen, you'll see a full-screen view of Google Now and its helpful cards.
Sorry, I don't know what to make of your NFC turning itself back on. Of course, NFC won't work at all if Bluetooth is off, so you can defeat it that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, really appreciate your help on the battery issue! I've got Bluetooth off, so that should be fine, then. I'm contemplating going back to 4.4, but haven't had time to research that yet. Again, thanks for your help.
If I remember well, swiping left on homscreen, on nexus tablets do not activate google now, but swiping up from the bottom of the screen, if it's activated it will turn on.
sale 83 said:
If I remember well, swiping left on homscreen, on nexus tablets do not activate google now, but swiping up from the bottom of the screen, if it's activated it will turn on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right! My bad, I think I was thinking of my Nexus 5, where you swipe left. The procedures to disable Google Now are the same with both devices, though.
TheContinental said:
If you swipe left on your home screen and don't get Google Now, then Google Now is not activated on your device. If Google Now is activated, when swiping left on your home screen, you'll see a full-screen view of Google Now and its helpful cards.
Sorry, I don't know what to make of your NFC turning itself back on. Of course, NFC won't work at all if Bluetooth is off, so you can defeat it that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NFC and Bluetooth are completely unrelated.
As for the problem; I don't know but I'd have to guess that NFC is required somewhere, like perhaps Smart Lock is enabled or something else that's needing NFC? Wallet? Something like that. I can turn off NFC on my N7 Flo.
That said.. NFC uses almost zero power, so IMO it's not even worth worrying about having disabled.
khaytsus said:
NFC and Bluetooth are completely unrelated.
As for the problem; I don't know but I'd have to guess that NFC is required somewhere, like perhaps Smart Lock is enabled or something else that's needing NFC? Wallet? Something like that. I can turn off NFC on my N7 Flo.
That said.. NFC uses almost zero power, so IMO it's not even worth worrying about having disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NFC and Bluetooth are indeed related, but not in the way I originally thought. NFC uses an RFID-like protocol to make a connection, then Bluetooth to transfer any info (files, etc.). So, a user would need Bluetooth powered on for NFC to work, but not the other way around.
khaytsus said:
NFC and Bluetooth are completely unrelated.
As for the problem; I don't know but I'd have to guess that NFC is required somewhere, like perhaps Smart Lock is enabled or something else that's needing NFC? Wallet? Something like that. I can turn off NFC on my N7 Flo.
That said.. NFC uses almost zero power, so IMO it's not even worth worrying about having disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. They are completely unrelated. They work completely independent of each other.
Hi all,
Renewable Energy, batteries and efficient electricity is somewhat of a hobby of mine, and Android is another. So, I have combined the two to bring you better battery life. I have achieved 0.0%/h battery drain on idle with my Motorola Moto G 2 XT1068, running AOSP 5.1.1 and I am writing this tutorial to show you how you can potentially do the same on your device, without a significant sacrifice in functionality to your device.
This tutorial can very easily adapted to suit any rooted Lollipop phone with Xposed installed, the only major differences would be in the ‘Amplify’ section and for this you can have a look at this and this for guidelines on wakelocks and alarms for other devices.
First of all, I would to say that following this tutorial does not guarantee you the exact same battery life that I have gained. There are SO many different variables that can effect your battery life including the device you are using, the ROM you have installed, the apps you run and the amount of time you use your screen. Two very useful apps for measuring battery usage are BetterBatteryStats and Wakelock Detector
You should stay away from the so called ‘battery saver’ apps that flood the play store. At best most of them will simply have no effect, at worst they will drain your battery even further. See this for more details.
This tutorial is not just for root users. If you have not achieved root on your device, you can still use the tips in 'basic ROM settings', much of the tasker section (Anything involving secure settings requires root) and some of the greenify features.
For this tutorial you will need 7 apps:
Tasker
Greenify
Amplify
Intelli3G
Secure Settings (Tasker Plugin)
MinMinGuard
Kernel Adiutor
If you are having trouble starting Amplify you may need SELinux Mode Changer set to permissive in order for it to work, although according to the developer, as of v3.0.5 you shouldn’t have any problems.
For all the apps except tasker you will need a rooted device, and you will need the Xposed Framework installed for Greenify, Amplify, Intelli3G & MinMinGuard.
Remember, the steps in this tutorial are just guidelines. If you find that particular parameters aren’t working for you, you can change them.
NB THIS THREAD IS NOT FOR Q&A ON THE SPECIFIC WORKINGS OF THESE APPS. IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE APPS THEMSELVES, PLEASE HEAD OVER TO THESE RELAVENT THREADS:
Tasker
Greenify
Amplify
Intelli3G
MinMinGuard
DISCLAIMER: I do not accept responsibility for any device or application failures resulting from the use of any of these apps
But before we go into the use of these apps, I'll go through some basic ROM settings and how they may effect your battery life
Basic ROM Settings
The biggest battery drain on devices are screen on time/brightness, WiFi/Data & GPS. Therefore, it makes most sense to get those basic settings right before you do anything else.
Screen/Display:
Screen brightness is the big killer of batteries. The more light that you send to the screen, the more power you need to use. Simple. On a similar principle, dark themes will use less power than light themes, that is why all the old android themes were black with white writing, to save on battery consumption. It is true that AMOLED screens have the most to gain in savings from using dark themes, but regular screens will also benefit.
There is an xposed module called 'Minimum Brightness' which will allow you to reduce the brightness on your phone to levels below that normally allowed by your ROM. This is very handy, especially if you, like I do, use your phone at night in bed (and don't want to wake your sleeping partner). It has the added bonus of saving battery power by sending less power to the screen. The module can be installed directly from the Xposed Installer. Don't forget to activate the module and reboot. Once you have it installed there won't be any additional app in the drawer, the module just uses the standard brightness slider and alters the applied values.
Believe it or not, but the phone’s auto rotate function can potentially use quite a lot of battery power. Having auto rotate enabled uses about 3-5% CPU power constantly. Contrary to popular belief (mostly bandied about by task killer app devs), high RAM usage has very little impact on battery life, rather it is CPU usage that is the real killer. Do your battery a favour and turn off the auto rotate unless you need it. I have a tasker profile set to only auto rotate my screen when maps is launched.
Turn off Auto Brightness. More often than not, auto brightness overcompensates for the amount of light that is in a room, turning up the brightness more than you actually need, plus it is another sensor that is always running and using up CPU. Set your screen to the lowest setting you feel comfortable with and only turn it up when you go outside.
Alteratively, if you can't live without auto brightness, use gravitybox to change the auto brightness settings to levels that suit you.
I am firmly in the habit of pressing the power button to turn off the screen when I put the phone down, but for those of you who are not, that is why we have screen timeouts. Set it to 2mins, or less if you are comfortable with that.
WiFi/Data/Sync:
By default, even when your WiFi is switched off, your phone scans for WiFi networks in the background. This understandably uses battery power that could be better used elsewhere. To switch off this feature, go to:
Settings > WiFi > Menu (3 dots in upper right corner) > Advanced > Scanning always available > Off
There is another option in this menu also: ‘Keep WiFi on during sleep’. This option doesn’t matter if you are following the Tasker part of this tutorial because later we will be creating a profile which will automatically override this option. If you are not following the Tasker Section however, you could check this box for extra battery savings.
Notifications are something we all take for granted as users of smartphones. But we don’t really need as many of them as we get. Have a think of all the notifications you get and see if you can live without any of them. Every app that is sending you notifications is another background process using up your battery power.
You can also turn off autosync and use tasker to control the phone sync settings instead (see tasker section below)
Settings > Accounts > Menu (3 dots in top right) > Auto Sync: Off
Background data uses up battery life and if you are on a limited data plan, turning off background data for unnecessary apps can help here too. Go to Settings > Mobile Data and select the apps you wish to restrict.
Location:
This is probably the simplest one. Turn it off. You don’t need it on all the time. Turn it on when needed, or create a Tasker profile that will turn it on for you when you launch certain apps.
Bluetooth:
While bluetooth is not quite the battery hog it was a few years ago, it still does use up battery life that could otherwise be saved. Turn it off or set up a tasker profile to intelligently handle the service.
Other Settings:
OK Google/Google Now - The always on microphone and the constant background data sync is a big battery drainer. If you are a user you should decide what is more important to you, better battery life or the convenience of the app.
Motorola Apps - They are also big battery drainers. If they are on your device and you don't use them, freeze them with an app like titanium backup.
Native Phone Battery Saver App - If you are following the rest of this tutorial, turn it off. You’ll no longer need it as you’ll be replacing everything it does with stuff that Tasker can do and it will just be yet another app running in the background that you don’t need.
Smart Unlock/Face Unlock - Yes its cool, but unnecessary. Front camera on to save your poor finger the trouble? What do you think that is doing to your battery life? Switch it off.
Window animations will also drain the battery, you can turn those off by going to Settings > Developer Options and turning off 'Window Animation Scale', 'Transition Animation Scale' and 'Animator Duration Scale'. I tend to leave them on because I like the look of them
Live Wallpaper - Possibly the most pointless thing I have seen on a smartphone. If you are reading this and have a live wallpaper, you should know better. Shame on you.
Vibrations - Turn them off too, every shake uses battery life.
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Advanced ROM Settings
CPU Governor:
Another setting that will effect your battery life is the cpu governor that your ROM uses. You can check out what governor your ROM uses by downloading an app like Kernel Adiutor. Depending on the ROM and Kernel you are using, you will have different options for different governors. Take a look at this guide to help you choose the right governor for you.
CPU Frequency:
The speed that your cpu runs at also has a huge effect on the battery life of your device. I have left my maximum frequency at 1.19ghz, but reduced my minimum frequency from 787mhz down to 300mhz. This was, again, using Kernel Adiutor.
Multi core Power Saving: Enabled
*Notes: You must have root in order to change CPU settings and the Stock kernel has only very limited options to change CPU settings.
Hotplugging:
Intelli_plug is a total replacement for Qualcomm's proprietary mpdecsion.
it hotplugs/unplugs cpu cores based on load demand of the system.
mpdecision is a closed source proprietary solution from Qualcomm and it's not very efficient at hotplugging/unpluggng cpu cores leading to hotter cpu and poorer battery. Intelliplug is a complete OPEN Source solution to mpdecision and it is done in kernel instead of userspace (which it has to poll the kernel in order to make its decisions therefore inherently slower than in kernel solution like intelliplug).
MPDecision: Off
Intelliplug: On
Profile: Conservative
Touch Boost: Off
Hysteresis Value: 8
Threshold Value: 350
Set Maximum Screen Off Freq: 600mhz
GPU:
Max Freq: 450mhz
Governor: simple_ondemand*
Simple GPU Algorithm: enabled
Laziness: 5
Ramp: 4
*Similar to CPU governors, the options may be different for you depending on your ROM/kernel
Other Tips:
The standard Facebook app uses a lot of battery, and has many privacy issues. There is another app called 'Tinfoil for Facebook' that is an amazing alternative, and uses absolutely no battery when its not being used. Only catch is, there's no facility for push notifications. Which is fine by me. I always have them off anyway.
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OK, now that we have all that covered, lets move on!
Tasker
I shall go through battery saving techniques using Tasker first, because it is a straightforward install via the Play store and does not require the Xposed Framework. For this section of the guide all steps are the same whether you are running KItKat or Lollpop.
Tasker is an awesome app and hugely useful for many things within android. The basic principle is that it will automate many tasks for you based around parameters that you set, such as time, phone state, applications launched etc.
Once you have Tasker installed, you should head back to the play store and install ‘Secure Settings’, which is an extra plugin and adds even more functionality to Tasker. Then you need to head to Settings > Security > Device Administrators and ensure the Tasker box is checked.
Now you can open the Tasker app and you shall see this screen:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
For the purposes of this tutorial we shall just be using the ‘Profiles’ and ‘Tasks’ tabs. The Task is what you want to happen, and the Profile is when you want it to happen.
We shall start by creating a task to set the phone to go automatically into airplane mode at night. This is a great battery saver if, like me, you don’t turn off your phone at night. I shall go through this task in detail so you get a feel for the UI. Then I’ll type the same tutorial out in shorthand. All the rest of the profiles will be done in this way.
Airplane Mode At Night:
1In the profiles tab, hit + at the bottom of the screen.
2Enter new profile name. I called this one ‘Airplane Mode At Night’ *
* If Tasker does not automatically ask you to name your profile directly after hitting '+', on the profiles screen, hit the menu button (3 dots in top right) and select Preferences > Main Screen > Check the box that says 'Ask for new profile name'. That will fix it so that the order in this tutorial is correct.
3Select ‘Time’
4Choose the time you wish airplane mode to start in the ‘from’ section, and choose the time you wish airplane mode to finish in the ‘to’ section. Leave the ‘repeat’ checkbox blank.
5To save, you must press the Tasker icon in the top left of the screen. This will bring you back to the main screen with a popup menu.
6Select ‘New Task’ and call the task ‘Airplane Mode On’
7This will bring you to another new screen, once again, click the + at the bottom of the screen.
8A new menu will pop up, ‘Select Action Category’. Go ahead and press ‘Plugin’ > ‘Secure Settings’.
9 You will now be in the ‘Action Edit’ Screen. This allows you to set parameters for this particular Action. Click the Pencil icon beside ‘Configuration’. This will open up the secure settings screen.
10Under ‘Root Actions’ Click ‘Airplane Mode’ and select ‘On’. Then save. You will automatically be taken back to the ‘Action Edit’ screen. Save this task as you did before, by clicking the Tasker icon on the top left of the screen.
11Now, you are almost done. But first, you need to create an exit task for the profile. That way Tasker knows to revert back to normal mode at the exit time.
12Under the Profiles Tab find your profile and click it once to expand it out. Long press on the ‘Airplane Mode On’ task and then choose ‘Add Exit Task’. Call your exit task ‘Airplane Mode Off’
13Now you are going to go through steps 7 to 10 again, but instead of selecting Airplane Mode ‘on’, you are going to select ‘off’. When you are finished, save your exit task. That’s it! You have created your first Tasker Profile. You can toggle this profile on/off from the profiles tab, so if there’s a particular night you might be expecting a call you can turn it off.
Shorthand:
Profile: Airplane Mode Off At Night
Time: 0000 to 0800
Task:Airplane Mode On:
A1 (Action 1): Plugin > Secure Settings > Root Actions > Airplane Mode > On
Exit:Airplane Mode Off:
A1: Plugin > Secure Settings > Root Actions > Airplane Mode > Off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi Off At Night:
Now for the next Battery Saver Tasker Profile, WiFi Off At Night. Before Tasker I often would forget to turn off my WiFi before I went to sleep, and if I was somewhere without my charger this could be a real battery drain for me overnight.
Profile:WiFi Off At Night
Time: 0000 to 0800
Application: (Invert) Moon Reader, Yatse
Task:WiFi Off:
A1: Net > WiFi > Set: Off
Exit:WiFi On:
A1: Net > WiFi > Set: On
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On that profile I added an extra qualifier, to do this create ‘Time’ first and save it. Then create your task, the same as you did on the previous tutorial. Once your task is created and saved, you can go back and long press on time in the profile and click ‘Add’. It is inverted because I am telling Tasker that as long as the time is between 0000 and 0800 and these applications are NOT running, it is ok to turn off the WiFi. You can configure these apps whatever way you like, this is just what suits me, because I might often be using my phone as an XBMC remote after midnight and I need my WiFi connection for that. Alternatively I might be reading, in which case Moon Reader syncs my page position to Google Drive so all my devices have the same location for whatever book I am reading.
Screen Off With Periodic Data/WiFi:
This profile saves a lot of battery by only having data, WiFi and sync switched on when you need it, i.e. When the screen is on. If the screen is off it will automatically turn off connectivity, but will still periodically re-enable it for background notifications such as email and Viber etc.
This is quite a complicated one to roll into one single profile, so, to make it easier I have split it into five separate profiles. Other people may suggest other ways of doing this, feel free to do so. (If a better way is suggested that is just as easy for noobs I’ll change this post to include it and give the poster credit).
Profile 1: Screen Unlocked/Data On
Event > Display > Display Unlocked
Time: 0801 to 2359
Taskata On:
A1: Plugin > Secure Settings > Actions > Run Command > 'svc data enable' (Root: Yes)
---
Profile 2:Screen Unlocked/WiFi On
Event > Display > Display Unlocked
Time: 0801 to 2359
Task:WiFi On*
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Profile 3:Screen Off/Data Off
State > Display > Display State > Is: Off
Time: 0801 to 2359
Taskata On:
A1: Plugin > Secure Settings > Actions > Run Command > 'svc data disable' (Root: Yes)
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Profile 4:Screen Off/WiFi Off
State > Display > Display State > Is: Off
Time: 0801 to 2359
Task:WiFi Off*
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Profile: Ping Net On
State > Display > Display State > Is: Off
Time: 0801 to 2359 & REPEAT EVERY 29mins**
Task: Ping Net On
A1: Net > Auto Sync > On
A2: Net > WiFi > Set: On
A3: Task > Wait > 30 Seconds
A4: Net > WiFi > Set: Off
A5: Plugin > Secure Settings > Actions > Run Command > 'svc data enable' (Root: Yes)
A6: Task > Wait > 30 Seconds
A7: Plugin > Secure Settings > Actions > Run Command > 'svc data disable' (Root: Yes)
A8: Net > Auto Sync > Off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This last profile has many actions in it. You can test out more complicated profiles by pressing the play button in the bottom left of the screen. I have set this up so that it will turn on WiFi first and sync my notifications (Viber, Email etc) for 30 seconds, then if I am out and about and there is no WiFi it will also turn on mobile data for 30 seconds.
* Use the same task that you created earlier to save on doubling up on tasks
** You can set this to repeat however often you like, but bear in mind that the shorter the repeat interval, the less effective it will be at saving battery life.
For other Tasker tutorials and profile ideas, please see these links:
HollywoodFrodo Tasker Tutorial Series
Pocketables Tasker Tutorials
TechSplurge 15+ Awesome Tasker Profiles
Greenify
Greenify is a very useful app and a great battery saver. Basically what it does is hibernate any apps you are not using, while still maintaining full functionality of your device. What is the difference between this and other task killers you might ask? Well, lifehacker describes this perfectly:
It's important to note that Greenify is not a task killer (which you shouldn't use anyway), and it doesn't "freeze" apps. The apps that Greenify hibernates are still usable if you want to switch to them, and you can still pass data to them as though they were running. When you switch back to them, it's like you never left. Greenify just keeps those apps from launching new background processes (a problem with task killers) and you don't have to unfreeze or thaw an app to use it when you want to (a problem with "frozen apps").
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To get full functionality of the Greenify app you will need to have the newest version 2.6.1 (at time of writing) from the play store, with donation package installed as well as the Xposed framework installed. Once you install the app from the play store don’t forget to enable it in Xposed and reboot before you try to use it. You can use this app without Xposed and the Donation Package, but you will only have very limited functionality.
Once you have the app open for the first time you should click the three dots on the upper right corner and select Experimental Features. Go ahead and click all of the checkboxes in here.
Now you want to leave the app and in your app drawer select Settings > Apps > Running. Note the apps that are using the most RAM on your device.
The trick with Greenify is NOT to ‘Greenify’ any apps that you want to receive notifications for, like Viber etc. (As of the latest release you can check a box in ‘Experimental Features’ which will allow phone calls and SMS/MMS messages through, so it is now safe to Greenify the Dialler and Messager apps)
To Greenify your apps, simply click on the + in the top right of the screen. This will open the ‘App Analyzer’ Click the 3 dots at the top right again and select ‘show all’, then go to the bottom of the page and click ‘Show more apps’. You now have a full list of all the applications and processes on the system. You can multi select apps in this app, simply work your way down the list clicking the apps you want to Greenify. The apps I have Greenified on my device are as follows, yours will obviously be different. I do not have gapps installed on my device and avoid Google apps and services as much as I can:
Download Manager
Google Play Store
SuperSU
ES File Explorer
Ivona TTS
WhatsApp*
Maps.Me
Textra SMS
Yahoo Weather
Wunderlist
Dialler
Tapatalk
Sim Toolkit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*WhatsApp is safe to greenify, and you'll still receive messages when your phone syncs according to your tasker settings, but Viber cannot be greeified as you will not receive messages when the app is in hibernation.
I could have Greenified the Motorola Services that are packaged as system apps too, but I have no need as I have used Titanium Backup to freeze them. If you do not need Facebook/G+/Twitter notifications you could Greenify these too. I haven’t got them on my list because I don’t have Twitter/FB/G+ accounts!
You can also create a tasker profile to automatically greenify apps when you switch the screen off and/or at certain time intervals if you prefer.
Profile: Screen off/Hibernate apps
State: Display > Screen Off
Task: Hibernate Apps:
A1: Plugin > Greenify > Hibernate Now > Configuration > All Greenified Apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For more info on Greenify you can see this link
Amplify
Amplify is an amazing app. It controls how often apps and services can wake up your device and how long they will stay awake for. You will need the Xposed Framework installed and if you are on Lollipop and having any trouble you will need SELinux Mode Changer set to Permissive in order for it to work, although according to the developer, as of v3.0.5 you shouldn’t have any problems. You may also need to do a soft reboot from within the Xposed Installer if Amplify does not start.
Once again, to unleash full control of this app, you must donate to the developer. The donate buttons can be found at the bottom of the homescreen. Once you have donated, reboot your phone and you will be able to configure all of your alarms and wakelocks. There is a list of safe wakelocks, alarms and recommended times available on this database that is regularly maintained here
To configure your individual wakelocks and alarms, click the Amplify icon in the top left of the screen.
Select Wakelocks and you will get a full list of all wakelocks that are currently on your device. Click an individual wakelock to configure it:
My setup for my Moto G XT1068 is as follows:
(The numbers here refer to how many seconds interval amplify allows the process to perform a wakelock, not the amount of wakelocks)
Wakelocks:
LocationManagerService - (2400)
Network Stats - (2400)
CheckinService - (2400)
GpsLocationProvider - (600)
Wakeful StateMachine:GeofencerStateMachine - (600)
GCoreFlp - (2400)
SyncLoopWakelock - (600)
Icing - (900)
StartingAlertService - (240)
*net_scheduler* - (2400)
UlrDispatchingService - (240)
Fingerprint_scanner_static - (240)
Fingerprint_scanner_local - (240)
NlpWakelock - (7200)
CdmalnboundSmsHandler - (240)
LocationService - (600)
Config Service Fetch - (600)
SystemUpdateService - (9999)
Alarms:
Com.android.internal.telephony.data-stall - (600)
com.android.server.WifiManager.action.START_SCAN - (300)
com.google.android.intent.action.GCM_RECONNECT - (240)
com.google.android.gms.nlp.ALARM_WAKEUP_ACTIVITY_DETECTION - (600)
android.net.ConnectivityService.action.PKT_CNT_SAMPLE_INTERVAL_ELAPSED - (600)
com.google.android.gms./com.google.android.location.internal.AnalyticsSampler - (1200)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please note, I haven't got gapps installed on my phone so there are several other wakelocks and alarms that are safe to modify on our devices that are gapps related. Please see this post by @matzeko for extra Moto G 2014 wakelocks and alarms that you can use on your device.
WARNING: Modifying Wakelocks and Alarms can potentially cause apps to stop working and in some cases your device may even fail to boot. In such an instance you will need to disable the module at boot. To do this you have to repeatedly tap one of the hardware buttons (Power, Volume, or Home) on your device during startup. During boot, your device will vibrate twice when it detects the first key press. You'll then have five seconds to press that same button four more times, with each keystroke producing a short single vibration. After ending with a long vibration, your device will disable and prevent most of Xposed's actions, allowing you to go back to Amplify settings and fix whatever it was that you broke.
For more information on Amplify , and for detailed questions about the running of the app, please head over to the Original Amplify Thread
Intelli3G
Intelli3G was designed to save battery by intelligently switching your phone between 2G and 3G depending on the parameters that you set. 2G is a far less power hungry network type (You may have seen the difference in battery life in manufacturers specifications between 3G and 2G talktime). It will not change the network type if you are in the middle of a call. (If it did your call would drop). You can install Intelli3G via the play store, just remember to activate the module and reboot after installation.
FIRST ENSURE THAT YOUR CARRIER SUPPORTS 2G NETWORKS
Play around with the settings for yourself and see what way you like it to be set up.
I have mine set up as follows:
- Toggle to ‘Slow Network’
- Power Saving Network Mode: (GSM only)
- Fast Network Mode: (WCDMA Preferred)
- Service - (On)
- Power Saving Network Options:
- Screen Off - (Yes)
- Delay - (0)
- Don’t Interrupt Downloads - (No)
- Don’t Switch On Good Network - (No)
- WiFi Connected - (Yes)
- Data Disabled - (Yes)
- Fast Network Options:
- Screen On - (No)
- Screen Unlock - (No)
- App Launch - (Yes)
- Select any apps that need a faster connection (IM apps generally don’t, unless you also use them for VOIP)
- Charger Connected - (Yes)
- WiFi Disconnected - (No)
- Data Enabled - (No)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So basically, the only time the 3G network is being used is when I have no WiFi access, the screen is on, and particular apps (for me it is Opera Browser, Flipboard, VOIP calling, Play Store, K9 Mail) are open. At all other times the phone is using the 2G network and saving a LOT of battery life. If there are other apps that you use that you need a faster Internet speed for, you should add these to your list too.
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MinMinGuard
I'm tagging this section on to the end because I have no more reserved posts
I have added an ad blocker to this tutorial because of an article I read in Forbes:
"Apps powered by advertisements can eat up as much as 33% more energy than those without while draining significant amounts of a phone’s central processing unit and network data, according to a new study from the University of Southern California and Rochester Institute of Technology. The drain from the ads also contributes to higher costs for phone users with limited data plans, as well as key drops in average app rating scores for developers."
MinMinGuard is the best Ad Blocker that I have come across BY FAR, you just have to remember to manually configure the settings for any new app you install. It couldn't be easier, install MinMinGuard via the Xposed Installer, reboot the phone, then from within the select the apps that you want MinMinGuard to monitor and block ads on. And it just works. There is no grey empty space where the ad should have been, MinMinGuard compensates for this (see the original app thread linked in the OP).
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So, there is my tutorial for achieving maximum battery life out of your device, WITHOUT using any of the useless 'battery saving task killer' apps from the play store.
good thread
Good Thread, I will test later. but I have no root.
But I have a doubt: Google Now consumes a lot of battery? The microphone is on the whole day, I believe that it costs a lot of battery.
Anyone have test disable it?
A well written and excellent guide for battery-saving. Knew many facts mentioned above but learned a lot more too. Thank you!
DroidBr said:
Good Thread, I will test later. but I have no root.
But I have a doubt: Google Now consumes a lot of battery? The microphone is on the whole day, I believe that it costs a lot of battery.
Anyone have test disable it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google now probably would consume quite a bit of battery. I don't use it myself, and don't have gapps flashed on my device, just the playstore, so I don't have any way of testing. To be honest the idea of google potentially being able to listen in on everything I say terrifies me If you wanted to check how much battery it would use BetterBatteryStats would give you an accurate percentage. However, all of the above methods will still improve your battery life even if you did have google now enabled
Imperious Rooster said:
A well written and excellent guide for battery-saving. Knew many facts mentioned above but learned a lot more too. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
Mod please sticky this excellent guide! You deserve more thanks!
Sent from my Motorola Titan
Thanks for your guide, will try it later.
As I have already experimented with amplify, I have some questions:
- Do you get push messages, e.g whatsapp, in realtime to your device while in deepsleep?
- Does a-gps still work for you or does it take a long time until you get a gps fix?
matzeko said:
Thanks for your guide, will try it later.
As I have already experimented with amplify, I have some questions:
- Do you get push messages, e.g whatsapp, in realtime to your device while in deepsleep?
- Does a-gps still work for you or does it take a long time until you get a gps fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because of my tasker settings (as described in the OP) I have my phone set to background sync every half hour, so because of this I get Whatsapp/Viber messages on the half hour (unless my screen is unlocked, in which case I'll get them in real-time). As stated in the OP, if this sync interval doesn't suit you, you can shorten it, but it will effect your battery savings
When I open an app that needs GPS fix, like Maps or Zombies Run I get a GPS fix usually within 4-5 seconds. (I also have a tasker profile to turn on GPS whenever either of these apps turn on)
Thanks for this brilliant guide, agreed it should be made a sticky.
(Slightly off-topic, but for anyone who doesn't have Tasker and now wants to buy it you can get it for free. Pay for it with PayPal before the end of March and you will get the cost refunded. May be UK only, see PP for details)
Duck86 said:
My setup for my Moto G XT1068 is as follows:
[/URL]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing RILJ doesnt broke anything? I mean, if it has so many wakes, maybe its important to be always on. Could you explain it?
laureano97 said:
Changing RILJ doesnt broke anything? I mean, if it has so many wakes, maybe its important to be always on. Could you explain it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything is working fine. RILJ actually has over 9000 wakelocks on my system, it is high because I have blocked Dialler Location permissions in AppOps. It cannot get a lock on my location, hence the higher wakelocks. Amplify is helping to keep it in check. The number after each wakelock in the OP referrs to the number of seconds interval I have set for Amplify to allow the process, not how many wakelocks there are.
Hi guys,
I have added another section to the tutorial. This part is about basic ROM settings and how they effect your battery life. You can see it in post #2 Screenshots will follow
Duck86 said:
Hi guys,
I have added another section to the tutorial. This part is about basic ROM settings and how they effect your battery life. You can see it in post #2 Screenshots will follow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those tutorials are amazing man! Just one thing about this new post: Lollipop stock battery saver turns off animations. Thats helps saving battery right?
laureano97 said:
Those tutorials are amazing man! Just one thing about this new post: Lollipop stock battery saver turns off animations. Thats helps saving battery right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it does, but you can also do that manually in Developer Options by turning off 'Window Animation Scale', 'Transition Animation Scale' and 'Animator Duration Scale'. I had forgotten about that because I like to keep the animations on.
EDIT: Added to OP
The highlight of this thread is the way he explained Tasker and Secure Settings profiles.Most of them around here are confused with it.
And btw thank you for such a good guide
Tapped from my furious ZR
been messing around for 1 hour, finally finished everything, rebooted my phone, bootloop. gg
this is when life makes me happy
Hello guys, I want to try to help everyone who has problems with battery life and performance.
First of all, I want to say that you shouldnt have any problems if you use your device in a normal way(calling ,social networking apps, playing light games etc)
A SOT of around 6-7h on mobile network or a SOT of 7-8h on WiFi is really good and in my opinion normal and you shouldnt need to worry about. Over night while you are sleeping (8h for example) your battery shouldnt drain more than 3-5%.
If you have much less SOT or much more battery drain over night, you should read the following steps and try them.
(I can tell you that my OP3/3t never drains more than 3-4% over night and I have no problem getting 6h SOT on mobile network or 6-7h or even more on WiFi use only. I have to say I dont use Facebook or twitter for example, but I have my Bluetooth always turned on because i use a mi band )
Please try the following steps and tell me if it did help you. (Please choose one option in the pool)
1. Activate doze mode and aggressive doze mode in developer options and change the animation scale
- Go into settings -> developer options -> Doze mode -> activate it
- Go into Settings ->Battery ->3 Dots Menu ->Agressive doze & app hibernation ->Tap the slider and activate for apps
- Go into settings -> developer Options -> Window Animation scale/Transitions Animation scale/Animator duration scale -> set them to .5x or even off
2. Install Greenify from Google Play Store and activate it
Activate it for every app you can, except for apps with a little blue cloud as they need to work in background to sync data. (WhatsApp for example)
3. Wipe cache after every update and from time to time (I recommend once a week)
Turn off your phone -> hold power button and volume down button -> release the power when your phone turns on -> select english by pressing the volume down button and then the power button -> go to wipe cache and data -> select cache (and nothing else!) and press the power button -> reboot now
4. Turn off potential power hogs you dont necessarily need
- For example turn off Bluetooth, GPS Location and Location history, Mobile Data if not in use, WiFi if not in use and NFC -> you can find them in settings under their name
- Also turn off things like gestures in settings: Go into settings -> Gestures -> turn them off
5. Use pocket mode
Settings -> Advanced -> Pocket Mode
6. Turn off Android Device Manager and Google Now Cards
- Settings -> Security & Fingerprint -> Device Administrators -> Android Device-Manager -> turn it off
- Open your Google App -> Settings -> Your Feed -> Turn off Feed
7. Configure your WiFi
- Settings -> Wifi -> tap the gear symbol -> turn off "Scanning always available"
- You can also turn off "Keep wifi on during sleep" but i dont recommend it as apps like WhatsApp will only receive messages when you turn your screen back on!
8. Use adaptive brightness
Use the little "A" in the dropdown settings menu next to your screen brigthness bar
9. Use a Browser that is developed for Snapdragon devices
I recommend using Gello Mod or TugaBrowser as they are developed especaily for using with a device with a snapdragon CPU to save battery -> just search for them in Google
10. Disable permissions of apps
Try disabling permissions of apps if possible. This should prevent apps from using your internet connection and staying in background keeping your CPU awake. Please be aware that some specific apps need some specific rights to work properly. Use the try and error method here.
11. If u have custom recovery installed you can use custom kernels such as ex kernel , blu spark etc for better battery and performance.
Link to ex kernel
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3t/development/kernel-elementalx-op3-1-00-t3521298
Link to blu spark kernel
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3t/development/kernel-t3516012
12.AKT are is another way to save battery and performance tweaks.(requires root)
Link to thread of AKT
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/advanced-interactive-governor-tweaks-t3476589
13.Have a look at this thread too
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/potential-fix-cpu-battery-drain-aosp-t3543369
If you follow these 10(Normal everyone can do)+3(require twrp/root) simple steps you should not have any problems with battery life or performance.
If you need any further help please ask and please share your suggestions and results!
Source one plus forums , XDA and me
This is a big guide and it's worth reading
Hit the thanks button if this helps:good:
ATK for op3 works for op3t?
Nishidh said:
Hello guys, I want to try to help everyone who has problems with battery life and performance.
First of all, I want to say that you shouldnt have any problems if you use your device in a normal way(calling ,social networking apps, playing light games etc)
A SOT of around 6-7h on mobile network or a SOT of 7-8h on WiFi is really good and in my opinion normal and you shouldnt need to worry about. Over night while you are sleeping (8h for example) your battery shouldnt drain more than 3-5%.
If you have much less SOT or much more battery drain over night, you should read the following steps and try them.
(I can tell you that my OP3/3t never drains more than 3-4% over night and I have no problem getting 6h SOT on mobile network or 6-7h or even more on WiFi use only. I have to say I dont use Facebook or twitter for example, but I have my Bluetooth always turned on because i use a mi band )
Please try the following steps and tell me if it did help you. (Please choose one option in the pool)
1. Activate doze mode and aggressive doze mode in developer options and change the animation scale
- Go into settings -> developer options -> Doze mode -> activate it
- Go into Settings ->Battery ->3 Dots Menu ->Agressive doze & app hibernation ->Tap the slider and activate for apps
- Go into settings -> developer Options -> Window Animation scale/Transitions Animation scale/Animator duration scale -> set them to .5x or even off
2. Install Greenify from Google Play Store and activate it
Activate it for every app you can, except for apps with a little blue cloud as they need to work in background to sync data. (WhatsApp for example)
3. Wipe cache after every update and from time to time (I recommend once a week)
Turn off your phone -> hold power button and volume down button -> release the power when your phone turns on -> select english by pressing the volume down button and then the power button -> go to wipe cache and data -> select cache (and nothing else!) and press the power button -> reboot now
4. Turn off potential power hogs you dont necessarily need
- For example turn off Bluetooth, GPS Location and Location history, Mobile Data if not in use, WiFi if not in use and NFC -> you can find them in settings under their name
- Also turn off things like gestures in settings: Go into settings -> Gestures -> turn them off
5. Use pocket mode
Settings -> Advanced -> Pocket Mode
6. Turn off Android Device Manager and Google Now Cards
- Settings -> Security & Fingerprint -> Device Administrators -> Android Device-Manager -> turn it off
- Open your Google App -> Settings -> Your Feed -> Turn off Feed
7. Configure your WiFi
- Settings -> Wifi -> tap the gear symbol -> turn off "Scanning always available"
- You can also turn off "Keep wifi on during sleep" but i dont recommend it as apps like WhatsApp will only receive messages when you turn your screen back on!
8. Use adaptive brightness
Use the little "A" in the dropdown settings menu next to your screen brigthness bar
9. Use a Browser that is developed for Snapdragon devices
I recommend using Gello Mod or TugaBrowser as they are developed especaily for using with a device with a snapdragon CPU to save battery -> just search for them in Google
10. Disable permissions of apps
Try disabling permissions of apps if possible. This should prevent apps from using your internet connection and staying in background keeping your CPU awake. Please be aware that some specific apps need some specific rights to work properly. Use the try and error method here.
11. If u have custom recovery installed you can use custom kernels such as ex kernel , blu spark etc for better battery and performance.
Link to ex kernel
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3t/development/kernel-elementalx-op3-1-00-t3521298
Link to blu spark kernel
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3t/development/kernel-t3516012
12.AKT are is another way to save battery and performance tweaks.(requires root)
Link to thread of AKT
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/advanced-interactive-governor-tweaks-t3476589
13.Have a look at this thread too
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/potential-fix-cpu-battery-drain-aosp-t3543369
If you follow these 10(Normal everyone can do)+3(require twrp/root) simple steps you should not have any problems with battery life or performance.
If you need any further help please ask and please share your suggestions and results!
Source one plus forums , XDA and me
This is a big guide and it's worth reading
Hit the thanks button if this helps:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agressive doze spend more battery in my case
darkren said:
ATK for op3 works for op3t?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im using it, obviously isn't optimized exactly for the 3T but they are quite similar devices and it's better than stock imo.
ftuc said:
Agressive doze spend more battery in my case
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then disable for apps you constantly use.