Mobile radio active bug under 5.1.1 - Xperia Z1 Compact General

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to ask for some experiences with the "mobile radio active bug" under 5.1.1. Is there anyone who had this bug on a previous version and recently updated to 5.1.1? What are your experiences? Did it go away, did it improve, didn't it change at all?
To clarify, the mobile radio active bug is a bug specific to Lollipop under various android phones. It's symptoms are (though they might not be related):
- significantly reduced battery life (especially when screen is off)
- unusually high times under the mobile radio active stats in the battery monitor (mra times were almost as high as the run time itself)
- apps establishing internet connections (like whatsapp, facebook, chrome) are by far the top battery consumers (according to the battery stats)
For further information there are bug reports at google regarding these issues:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=165558 (Report for Android LP)
https://code.google.com/p/android-developer-preview/issues/detail?id=2556 (Report for Android M)
To isolate it from similar bugs encountered with LP:
- it is not a bug that results in sudden drops of battery %
- it is not a bug that won't let you charge your phone
- it is not a bug that keeps the cpu awake (by google services or other apps)
So, what are your experiences?
Thanks in advance
Walli

I had high "mobile radio active" times in both 5.0.2 and 5.1.1, but this never translated into lower battery life for me. It is just a problem with inaccurate stats/reporting. This is confirmed by others in the following discussion: http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-zl/general/cm12-1-cell-standby-mobile-radio-active-t3188147

I have it only when i'm on 2g/3g/4g. If wifi active the bug is not present.
It's due bam_dmux_wakelock and a lot of people (with different phones) have it since OTA to 5.1.
here is a good analysis, exactly what happens to me:
So the thing is that ever since updating to 5.1, my battery doesn’t last nearly as long as it used to. I’m using a couple of apps to try to diagnose the problem and I’ve found a this particular wakelock: bam_dmux_wakelock is what’s keeping my phone awake. I also noticed that Google Play Services is what’s using more energy than it used to. This wakelock is only present when using mobile data, although when using wifi the wlan wakelock family is also present, but those wakelock are not as long as the bam_dmux_wakelock, but they do keep the phone awake for a considerable amount of time.
Booting in safe mode does not help. Restricting mobile data access to Google Play Store and Google Play Services makes no difference either. I did some Googling and learned that I can disable some Google Services that were always running: BackupTransportService (I have backup disabled), WearableService (No idea why this was running since I’ve never even turned on bluetooth since I updated to 5.1, let alone pair my device with any wearable device), AnalyticsService and DeviceConnectionServiceBroker.
No dice. Wakelock is still keeping the phone awake.
There’ still 5 other services that I’m not sure I should disable: GMSCoreStatsService (No idea what this does), GoogleLocationService and GoogleLocationManagerService (I don’t why these are running since location has been disabled for weeks), PendingIntentCallbackService (No idea what this does), ConfigFetchService (No idea) an GCM Service (I think this is important, it has to do with push notification).
If you have more info on these services, please let me know. I don’t want to mess with anything I don’t know. I’ve stopped the location services but they come right back up. No idea why.
So, summing up, this is what I know:
– The bam_dmux_wakelock is responsabile for keeping my phone awake
– It only appears when in mobile data (not in WIFI)
– Google Play Services is what’s using more energy than before
– Disabling sync does not help
– I’ve made two factory resets (from settings and from recovery), nothing.
– Restricting mobile data access to Google Play Store and GP Services makes no difference
– Disabling running services doesn’t help either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

ltcdata said:
I have it only when i'm on 2g/3g/4g. If wifi active the bug is not present.
It's due bam_dmux_wakelock and a lot of people (with different phones) have it since OTA to 5.1.
here is a good analysis, exactly what happens to me:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there,
I did some profiling with my Xperia z3 compact both with mobile data enabled (4G LTE with good signal quality) and without mobile data enabled and measured the power consumption using Trepn-profiler and there is no noticable difference between both. (Note that the state of the mobile data never goes to dormant, but stays idle.) Despite no difference in power consumption, the android power usage screen re-organizes applications with an active radio "on" more to the top. So either the z3 compact is build with a mobile data component which nearly consumes nothing when idle or the android power statistics calculation is incorrect.
Concerning the bam_dmux_wakelock, this is a sperate thing. It stands for bi-directional amplification demultiplexing and although I'm by far an expert on the matter my gut-feeling tells me it is something similair like rx_wlan wakelock. Meaning: you're phone keeps track of the wifi-network you're connected to and it responds to packets which could be addressed to you and creates a wakelock accordingly. If you're on a wifi-network with bad coverage or a lot of other devices on it (eg.: pc, other phones, etc.) this wakelock will show up a lot. I think the same holds true for the bam_dmux_wakelock: it is part of the phone being connected to the mobile network. Bad coverage or a lot of traffic could be the culprit.
So its only relation with the mobile radio "bug" is that this wakelock can only happen when it has a connection to such a network. The fact that the mobile radio is active (and the "bug") has no relation with the frequency of this wakelock. I think it is more due to the qualty and signal strength of the mobile network.
Another possibility: I stated that when the mobile radio is active, it never goes to a suspend state or sleep state. So perhaps that component doesn't need to wake up and hence doesn't require the wakelock. For other phones it could be the case that it wakes up from time to time to check the network status (and consumes a bit of power when switching from suspend/ sleep to idle state) and hence the wakelock shows and power consumption increases.
But on a Xperia Z3 Compact, there is no real power consumption due to the mobile data being on, or I'm lucky to be in an 4G network with top notch signal coverage. The one thing that is not correct at all is that applications with the variable mobile data on is getting pushed towards the top of the standard android power management list.
Kind regards.

the_Walli said:
[...] So, what are your experiences?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I currently have this bug on stock Sony 5.1.1
Facebook was my top battery consumer, and I usually don't use it a lot (twice a day). Problem solved with Greenify.
Now Google Play & Google Services are my top consumers (respectively 15% and 13%, 12% for the screen). For both, mobile radio is active about 1h30 on a 2h screen on time.
I just installed MobileActiveRadioFix for Xposed and will see if it brings any improvements !

I've got problem with battery drain when both wireless connections (mobile data and WiFi) are available - then my device cannot enter deep sleep because alarm com.android.internal.telephony.data-reconnect.default is raised every 20s.
This problem is not visible when using WiFi only and I suppose when mobile data only - then there is another alarm com.android.internal.telephony.data-stall but it's less frequent so I does not drain battery so much and it could be natural alarm.
I will do full reflash in a week or two and will see if the problem is gone or it's a bug in firmware.

Related

Androids energy efficiency?

Uhh, I cannot post this in development as I am still a newby :-(
However:
Hello,
I came from Symbian (Nokia C7-00) and liked the phone very much. Everything worked the way it should. (I was especially interested in office functionality.)
Now I bought a Galaxy Note and I really love the hardware.
But I discovered that it uses much energy and it doesn't like to sleep as often as it could. (I already returned to Android GB, which gives a better experience, but there still is room for improvement.)
1. Sometimes even though the phone simply lies around and does nothing, the last app that I forgot to close is hindering the CPU from sleeping. Why? The is no need.
2. At night I am used to turn the phone into flight mode. However I found out that this isn't the best thing for Android. In the morning, when the email app goes to push phase, the phone leaves sleep mode and seems to excitedly wait for the flight mode to get switched off. This uses *quite* a bit of battery!
These things seem strange to me. My impression is that Android is not really optimised for cell phones. If the screen is off, there is no need for CPU time, doesn't it? There is nothing urgent to do; everything could be done slowly; no hurry.
I guess the battery could last *much* longer if this would be improved.
Greetings,
corcov
corcovo said:
Uhh, I cannot post this in development as I am still a newby :-(
However:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is handy, because this thread has nothing to do with development and thus saved you from some abuse!
Regards,
Dave
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
But I already know how to click the "thanks" button
corcovo said:
But I already know how to click the "thanks" button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't matter.
Development, if you did not create IT, then it does not belong in development. Remember that. Otherwise you will get flamed.
Android is a mobile OS, so of course it is optimised for smart phones - not ordinary cell phones. Android acts like a computer and, if you keep a computer running Crysis 2 for example, it would burn more power than a computer just playing some music off of iTunes.
In terms of improving your battery, check your brightness. You can download widgets to adjust the brightness right from the home screens. I use these to set my brightness to its lowest whilst at home (perfectly adequate for night and indoor use away from sunlight) and turn it onto automatic when I go outside. This has saved my a bunch of battery.
If you are running a stock Samsung ROM, turn on power saving mode. I always leave it on and, frankly, I have no idea as to what it actually does. I haven't noticed a performance drop in the slightest, but if it saves a bit of battery it is worth it. Also, you could try Juice Defender or some other battery saving apps which work for some people - others not.
Finally, ensure you haven't left GPS, Bluetooth or WiFi on when not needed. Try downloading CPU Spy to check your phone deep sleeps, yet mine even without it ever deep sleeping gets around 16 hours of battery life which is still the best I have ever gotten on a smart phone. Bettery Battery Stats can show you wake-locks (apps that are keeping your phone active) also.
Brad387 said:
Android is a mobile OS, so of course it is optimised for smart phones - not ordinary cell phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. Well it might be a nice feature if one could add an "now be a cell phone"-option for energy enhancement, which means: if screen if off, sleep.
c.
corcovo said:
1. Sometimes even though the phone simply lies around and does nothing, the last app that I forgot to close is hindering the CPU from sleeping. Why? The is no need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some legitimate needs for keeping the CPU from sleeping for a short period of time - such as finishing a sync operation (otherwise, the radio power spent beginning the sync is wasted). Unfortunately, some poorly written applications (Facebook for example) abuse the wakelock mechanisms and hold wakelocks when it is not justified.
2. At night I am used to turn the phone into flight mode. However I found out that this isn't the best thing for Android. In the morning, when the email app goes to push phase, the phone leaves sleep mode and seems to excitedly wait for the flight mode to get switched off. This uses *quite* a bit of battery!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not something I have ever encountered myself. "push" relies on the server to trigger something - in airplane mode, this trigger can't happen.
These things seem strange to me. My impression is that Android is not really optimised for cell phones. If the screen is off, there is no need for CPU time, doesn't it? There is nothing urgent to do; everything could be done slowly; no hurry.
I guess the battery could last *much* longer if this would be improved.
Greetings,
corcov
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is well optimized for cell phones - However, it assumes that third-party applications follow Google's recommendations for power management. Unfortunately, many of them do not. The number of IM applications which choose to use their own proprietary and poorly optimized network protocols (such as Skype, it's atrocious) as opposed to Google C2DM (optimized and efficient) is astonishing.
An interesting note was that I believe much of the focus at Google I/O was on reminding app developers that they need to play nice with the system and other apps.
There are some cases where there are device-specific nonoptimalities. Compared to most Nexus devices, Exynos devices have an absurdly long time to resume from wake (1000 milliseconds), and during that resume cycle CPU frequency is locked to 800 MHz and cpuidle is disabled. This is one of the #1 causes of power drain on our device. This is also exclusively a Samsung kernel/hardware architecture problem that does not affect the Nexus S (similar CPU, but completely different modem interface) or the Galaxy Nexus (different CPU/modem interface).
In the case of our device, the modem is hung off of the CPU on a USB bus - this makes for very long resume times.
Here are obvious reasons the CPU should occasionally turn on when the screen is off:
1) MP3 playback in the background
2) Handling of background syncs - e.g. when an email or Google Talk IM comes in, wake the CPU, handle it, and pop a notification sound, then go back to sleep. Normally, this means the CPU sleeps while waiting for an interrupt from the WLAN chipset or the cellular radio. Unfortunately, some apps drive incoming data to the device far too frequently. (See my above rant about Skype's network protocols being crap compared to Google's C2DM protocol.)
3) Handling of scheduled wakeups (alarms, calendar events, etc) - these are rare and almost never consume power
Most power drain is from item 2, with third-party apps frequently behaving extremely poorly compared to Google's own application suite and sync protocols.
Now this an extensive answer which is very informative and helpful for me since insights are always soothing. Love it. Thanks!
not much to add after Entropy, but if you feel the need to get some control over battery usage you could try betterbatterystats app (and the thread) to identify battery eaters, besides that, there are few apps to check what is going on with your system when it sleeps:
- CPU Spy to show cpu states time
- Autorun Manager or Autostarts to disable triggers causing apps like FB to run without reason (those which you will find with betterbatterystats)
- Battery Monitor Widget, to check battery current consumption (mA) - this app is generally not recommended, because Note's hardware does not report the actual current, so the readings are highly estimated and because when poorly configured it can drain your battery faster, BUT otoh with refresh rate set at 5 minutes or more, it can give you some approximate orientation on how much battery you lose (better than counting %/hour by yourself) at negligible battery usage
- also, if you feel the need to disable net and sync during night, you could automate it using "lama", which is free, and in my experience does not eat much battery by itself
- and last but not least, avoid taskillers, those apps may have adverse effect, i.e. self restarting apps (by the triggers mentioned above), will get killed then restarted and so on and so on, leading to much higher battery drain

[Q] Why might battery drain be worse on wi-fi?

Hi - newbie here hoping to get to the bottom of my battery drain problem.
Somewhat unusually I think, I am seeing problems only when I have wi-fi switched on. It took me a while to realise as I have wi-fi at work and home and I wouldn't normally have turned wi-fi off as I always understood that 3G uses more power.
I tried installing BetterBatteryStats but I am not rooted so it is only giving limited information. What it does tell me is that I am draining the battery at a rate of 9% or so an hour on wi-fi and about 1.4% on 3G. This is with very light or no actual use of the phone. The top two wakelocks by a big margin are msm_hsic_host and PowerManagementService.WakeLocks.
I have virtually nothing running according to my running processes list - mainly the Google ones like Google Play Services, Google Keyboard.
I couldn't put my finger on exactly when this started but it was towards the end of 2013. I did have the really bad drain with Google Play for a few days until the next Android update came. What I'm seeing now is not as bad as that was. I couldn't say whether I had a period after that update when things for a while were better than they are now but my feeling is that things have never been great since the 4.4 updates.
Does anyone have any suggestions please? Am I going to have to root to get better info to debug this problem?
OK, I'm too having this problem and couldn't find any concrete solution for this.
Without full use of batterystats application, the information that you provide don't help much.
Could be many things.
Unleashed by my Nexus 4

[Q] Android location services and GPS

Hi guys, I know that some people say to disable location services and/or GPS because they drain the battery (under Android system in battery usage). I just want to clarify. I came from an iPhone, and on the iPhone I leave location and GPS on, but as long as the app is closed, the GPS will NOT run (just that its functionality remain on) so there is no drain.
Is this the same on Android? Is it okay to leave them on but not run any location-based apps?
Bump...
It'll constantly bounce the GPS signal AFAIK, so will use it up. buuuut, on 4.4.2, you can edit your location preferences GPS accuracy etc and it tells you battery use on it. However I believe it's on perma unless you disable it totally
I wouldn't be so sure. I have GPS, WIFI, BT and all other crap 24/7 and I loose about 3% charge over about 7hrs sleep, personally I don't think it's worth bothering or lifting my finger to shut it off. Also when I drive I see my correct location on the map, after screen goes off and I need to check again few min later, the map shows my last location and it takes few seconds to update to new one. If it was working with screen off it should have been updated right away, no? At least it's working in some low power mode. I think what really kills the battery is all those push services like e-mail etc, especially when not set properly, but the best way is to test yourself.
fterh said:
Hi guys, I know that some people say to disable location services and/or GPS because they drain the battery (under Android system in battery usage). I just want to clarify. I came from an iPhone, and on the iPhone I leave location and GPS on, but as long as the app is closed, the GPS will NOT run (just that its functionality remain on) so there is no drain.
Is this the same on Android? Is it okay to leave them on but not run any location-based apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically 100% the same.
However for practical reasons things are not quite the same - as long as you have many, many apps and your data (WiFi and/or Mobile) active certain apps will try to connect from time-to-time, and some will try to get a location. Unfortunately Google Services is one of those, and an older version of that was generating a really huge amount of power consumption. The problem is reported to be a lot better now but I can not confirm since I am anyway keeping my data connections OFF for most of the time when I am not really using those.
xclub_101 said:
Technically 100% the same.
However for practical reasons things are not quite the same - as long as you have many, many apps and your data (WiFi and/or Mobile) active certain apps will try to connect from time-to-time, and some will try to get a location. Unfortunately Google Services is one of those, and an older version of that was generating a really huge amount of power consumption. The problem is reported to be a lot better now but I can not confirm since I am anyway keeping my data connections OFF for most of the time when I am not really using those.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess this is one of the few things that iOS is better than Android at - managing how apps run. I use Greenify to freeze inactive apps, but the limitation is that I will not receive push notifications. On iOS apps are frozen yet push notifications are functional (that's ironically the downside of iOS too - no true multitasking). I don't disable my data connections because I want my push notifications, but I do turn off GPS. :/
fterh said:
I guess this is one of the few things that iOS is better than Android at - managing how apps run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, when coming from a situation when there was absolutely no multitasking at all (and that was successfully sold as a "feature" for quite some time) I can really see that being easier
fterh said:
I use Greenify to freeze inactive apps, but the limitation is that I will not receive push notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the latest Greenify PRO version has something to improve that too. But I will have to test a lot more to see the real limits of that.

[Solved]Samsung Galaxy S5 battery drain so instantly!

Battery Saving Tips
1. Keeping mobile data (i.e., 4G or 3G) or wifi on all of the time uses battery. Ask yourself if you really need to be notified in real time about every new email, Facebook post, or tweet. If it isn't that important, then keep mobile data and wifi off until you really need it. Although most devices make it easy to toggle wifi off and on, it's a little more inconvenient to toggle mobile data with the stock controls. I like Power Toggles, which is very customizable and easy to use; another popular choice is Widgetsoid.
2. The biggest power drain is usually from the screen. The longer it's on and the brighter it is, the faster your battery drains. Adjust your screen timeout so that it turns off after 30-60 seconds of idle. Turn the brightness down to 50% or less, which is usually more than enough for indoor lighting. Automatic brightness may or may not help save battery--some think that constant sensing and screen adjustment may actually contribute to battery use.
3. Many apps (e.g., Facebook) by default will try to refresh their data on the web at certain intervals. In order to do so, they have to partially wake the device up from sleep, then try to access the web, and then refresh data, all of which uses battery. If you don't need realtime updates, you can typically change to manual refresh in the app's Settings, which prevents the app from waking up the device. For Facebook, all you need to do when you open the app is just swipe down, and your newsfeed will manually refresh to what's current.
4. Google Currents is notorious for being a memory and battery hog. Many people have reported that battery life improved significantly after changing its refresh setting to manual and/or disabling Google Currents completely. (Update 7/2014: Google Currents has since been replaced by Google Play Newsstand, which manages memory much more efficiently, without the same battery drain.)
5. Along the same lines, consider turning off the device's Background Sync. You can find the switch to turn it on or off under Settings/Accounts/Google, but it's easier to use the stock Power Control toggle or the better Power Toggles or Widgetsoid apps. Turning off Background Sync means the device is spending less time and energy syncing your Google account. If Background Sync is off, you can always manually refresh any of the Google apps within their respective menus.
6. Some apps partially wake a device up from sleep (called a "wake lock") numerous times a day to do things like trying to check the web for data updates as well as reporting location data. Install an app to detect wake locks like Wake Lock Detector. Let it run for the better part of a day, then open it and find out what apps are responsible for the most wake locks. (Update 7/2014: KitKat no longer allows apps like this to report wakelocks unless your rooted.)
7. #6 is how I discovered that Google Maps was burning up a fair amount of battery due to its Location Reporting (previously for Latitude, now used for Google+). If Location Reporting is turned on, then Maps causes very frequent wake locks to check location and report it. I don't think Latitude was that popular--I certainly didn't use it, because I don't really want other people to know exactly where I am, so I turn off Location Reporting by opening Maps, tapping Settings/Google Location Settings, and turning off Location Reporting. Note that this does not affect the ability of your apps to use your location to refine searches, for example.
8. Widgets are definitely a cool feature that makes Android unique, but some of them also contribute to battery drain--specifically the ones that need to access the web to update their information (think weather widgets). Review your widget use and remove the ones you really don't use.
9. Live wallpapers, another feature that distinguishes Android, can also use up power like crazy--typically the ones that are very graphics/animation intensive, or the ones that also access the web for information like weather. Use static wallpapers instead, but if they're too boring.
10. Vibrate uses a lot of power. Do you really need your phone to ring and vibrate at the same time? Do you really need the haptic feedback when you're typing (especially if you're using Swype-style gesture typing)? Turn off vibrate.
11. GPS is another big power-sucker. For most location-based apps, using Google Location Services (based on the wifi hotspot's MAC address or by triangulating your nearest cell towers) is enough, since it generally locates you accurately within about 100 meters. Use GPS only if you need a more precise location, like if you're driving and using Navigation. Otherwise, turn off GPS by changing the setting to "Battery Saving."
12. You never know what kinds of processes the bloatware on your device might be responsible for, but they might be contributing to battery use as well. Go to Settings/Apps/All Apps, go through the list, and disable any bloatware apps that you don't need. Be cautious that you don't disable an important system app--if you aren't sure, just post a question in one of the AC Forums, and someone is bound to know.
13. Understand how Android utilizes RAM, and resist the urge to use task killers. To understand how things work, read this article by the esteemed Jerry Hildenbrand here, as well as this guide by Ambassador extraordinaire Golfdriver97. Apps that you kill manually will often restart on their own, which in itself takes a little bit of CPU and battery power--so if it's happening hundreds of times a day, it can become significant. The main reason to use a task killer is if there is some runaway process that you know is bogging the system down and won't shut down on its own. It might still restart on its own--if the cycle keeps happening, it's probably a problem with the app, which should be uninstalled or disabled.
14. Poor cell reception kills battery, because the radio is working overtime to try to establish the connection. If you know you're going to be in an area of poor reception for a while, consider turning on Airplane Mode to temporarily shut off your cell radio. You can get some idea of how much time you're spending in an area of poor signal by going to Settings/Battery, tapping Cell Standby (if it's there), and seeing if it says how much time without signal there was.
15. If none of the above tips are helping, then try wiping the cache partition, which is the portion of memory where Android stores a lot of temporary data. It's a little different from clearing the cache of individual apps, because the cache partition also stores a lot of temporary data used by the system. You need to access your device's recovery menu in order to wipe the cache partition, and this process varies with the device, so the best way to learn how to do it is to do a web search for "wipe cache partition [your device name]."
Not really a fan of threads like this, basically they say turn the cool features of your phone off to save it's battery? Yes I still read them in case someone comes up with something interesting or innovative but generally all the same don't use some of the best features of your phone.
We're not iPhone users buy spare battery.
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app
Try a custom kernel
So is there a fix for battery drain? i keep reading all these threads about basically turning off everything no your phone. my problem is i used to have everything on my phone on and still was a good 50% battery life left at the end of the day. this was with heavy use as well. a lot internet surfing, youtube, gaming, location was turned on. I was loving my battery life. Now, seemingly over night my battery is horrible. i cannot make it to the end of the day with almost no use, i now have to charge it half way through the day to get it to last me until 9 oclock or so. my battery is now at 70-80% after a couple hours with absolutely no use. any idea or fix for what has caused this sudden drain of my battery?
Personally I use apps that close apps that automatically (autorun pro is my favourite) start block ad's etc I get a good days usage from mine.
It's a compromise but I carry a spare battery as well
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app
So I found out my issue was my email app. I cleared the data on it and now I'm back to having a 50% battery left at the end of a day with heavy use.
---------- Post added at 08:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:28 PM ----------
So I found out my issue was my email app. I cleared the data on it and now I'm back to having a 50% battery left at the end of a day with heavy use.
Turning off all features that make a phone "smart" is like buying a luxury Mercedes and ignore all those functions and use it as if it's a cheap Chinese car! If I want to use my phone just for SMS and Call why not buy a Nokia 1100 and buy a tablet to check my emails, viber and all other apps!
I bought a Galaxy S5 to utilize those functions. Anyway, previously my phone used to drain its battery in 6 hours! by adjusting my setting to the following I could increase the battery life to 14 hours! (I know it is still low but way better than 6 hours!)
1. Decrease the BRIGHTNESS as low as possible. For casual use we do not need a bright screen! whenever you wanna check an important photo you may increase the brightness temporary. (only by this you can have extra 2 hours or more)
2. Turn off unnecessary syncs, I do not need to have my contacts synced with 10 servers! Allow your phone to sync them with only one account ( I did it for Google only and turned off Samsung acc. dropbox, ChatOn and ...)
3. Do not add so many email accounts to your phone! Just add those you use frequently ( I have 5 emails and only 2 of them are vital for me!)
4. Set your location to use wifi only, and turn your GPS on only when you want to have a turn-by-turn navigation ( built in GPS can drain you battery in less than 1 hour!)
5. Turn off Push notifications for Games. ( you do not miss anything if you attend to your games 1 hour late!)
6. Uninstall those communication apps that are not necessary, you do not need to have BBM, Viber, Line, Whatsapp, Telegram, Hulu, Wechat and ... Keep those that you use frequently (In my case I kept Viber and Whatsapp only)
7. Uninstall any Anti-virus app! The likelihood of getting malware or virus if you install apps from Google Store is almost zero, so you only allocate some RAM to an useless app for doing nothing! If you wanna have any I recommend "360 Security" as I learned it uses only 6 mb of RAM and you can turn off real time protection.
By doing the above things I could get 8 hours extra from my phone!
It also a good idea to check which apps 'Autorun' when your phone restarts. SD Maid (maybe PRO version) has an AppControl option that lets you toggle autorun on or off.

[HOW-TO][NEWBIE GUIDE] Optimize & proper set up your Galaxy S6 Edge (stock firmware)

[HOW-TO][NEWBIE GUIDE] Optimize & proper set up your Galaxy S6 Edge (stock firmware)
As I've read across this forum and on several specific threads related to usage, battery life and so on, as well as discussing with some of my friends having a S6 or S6 Edge, I realized that most of the people don't really know how to properly set up their phones or how to use them efficiently.
OK, I get it, this is a fancy phone, not every owner is a developer or tech guy so it might be that many choose it based on the looks and don't really know how to optimize it...then they start complaining about different things like lag or battery drain not knowing that most of the problems are caused by miss-usage or improper setup. Of course there are bugs too, nothing is perfect. Of course there are many firmwares available and some are market or carrier dependent so some features or settings might be missing from some of them or even work differently.
What I will try here is to provide some guidelines and tips for setting up various things on the phone in order to maximize it's battery life and for a better usage. I will also make some recommendations based on my experience, tests and usage that might not apply to everyone. Use common sense and logic to apply similar settings in your particular case. Don't come screaming that you made that or that and now something is not working.
And YES, I know there are similar guides like this posted over the Internet and I'll probably make similar recommendations here too but I couldn't find such a guide here on XDA that is particular to this phone (if there is a better one than you might as well ignore mine).
All these things I'll describe below are applicable to any STOCK, NON-ROOTED 5.1.1 firmware and won't break warranty or your phone.
Now that was a long (and maybe unneeded introduction) but I thought to write this for everyone...let's start.
Model No.: SM-G925F
Android: 5.1.1 r2 (LMY47X)
Baseband: G925FXXU2QOI7
Kernel: 3.10.61-5672012
Build date: Fri Sept 4 2015
Carrier: Orange RO
DISPLAY
First I would like to say some words about the display. We have a great display, high resolution and it is most likely the biggest battery drain factor. There are two major things about it that you should keep in mind and will help you to get a better battery:
1. It's AMOLED...that means that the black pixels on it will consume no power because are not lit. Studies showed that even if not completely black, AMOLED displays use less energy if the displayed picture is darker compared to a lighter one.
2. The brightness level. Most people use it on "auto" or high level settings and this will be a major drain factor.
You can drastically lower the battery drain caused by your screen by selecting as much as possible dark (black) backgrounds and/or themes. There are some nice ones available in the Theme Store (my favorite is the Dalkomm Coffee Theme), that make most screens and menus dark/black. Also choosing a dark wallpaper for lockscreen/homescreens will help.
Don't use screen brightness at maximum...never. You don't need that in 99% of the cases. Also you won't probably need the automatic setting either since most of the people are spending most of the time indoors (either at work or home). A low manual setting will be fine most of the time, I have it set up at about 20% and only need a brighter one when going out. At that time I just tap on "auto" and it'll increase based on ambient light level. So you don't even need to tweak it alot every time. Find a low manual setting that's fine for your eyes and just tap on "auto" when you go out in sunlight.
CONNECTIVITY
Another battery drain factor is your multiple connection/radios features. In most cases you use just several: Mobile Data, WiFi, GPS/location and BT (when applicable). That means you should turn off all the others you don't use...NFC or BT (when not connected to a headset or car-kit or not listening to music). I don't listen to music and don't have a BT headset so I mostly not using BT (just when I'm in my car) and almost never use NFC so I have both disabled and I enable them only when needed via the Quick Settings.
WiFi
WiFi should also be properly setup otherwise it'll have impact on battery. It was incorrectly assumed or considered that keeping WiFi on all the time will drain battery faster. That was proven in different tests that's not true and in fact keeping WiFi on all the time won't make a big difference and in some cases was even better than to turn it off/on. I think is something similar with the car engines that suck more fuel when started that when running at idle. The major power drain is not when WiFi is running while is not connected to any network, but when the WiFi radio is powered up. When is on and not connected, it's going into a lower power state so the battery consumption is negligible.
I had a case with one of my friends that had WiFi setup to turn off when display was off...wrong choice, he got about 30% battery drain overnight because instead of having it connected to his home WiFi, the phone was using his 4G/LTE connection to make all the background sync/updates. That was eating his battery and also his data plan. After setting WiFi to "always" his overnight drain lowered to as little as 2-3%.
In some regions/carriers there are 2 other settings that were proven to help battery life: WiFi calling and VoLTE. I don't have either of them but based on different articles and what people say, they surely help with that so don't forget to turn them off if you don't use these features.
You might also want to try turning off "Always allows scanning" and "Smart network switch". I have the second turned off but I keep on the first one. Basically the first option tell the Location service to use WiFi for locating the device even if WiFi is switched off (by the on/off switch) so that means the radio is active. Second option should make you switch faster from WiFi to mobile data in case the WiFi signal is not strong enough or fluctuating. In my country there are plenty of WiFi hot-spots and they have mostly good connections so I don't use this feature.
GPS
Well here the opinions are split but I am currently having it ON all the time and Location Service is set to "high accuracy". I personally haven't noticed such a major difference with or without it so I preferred to let it on as it is used by many apps or services. You can try to set Location to "wifi and cell only" but don't think that will bring you a major benefit.
RUNNING APPS/PROCESSES
Well this is an important one. I've initially started to turn off/disable/uninstall everything I don't need or use. This can be done mostly from the Settings - Applications - Application Manager or if you want to go further, you can install Package Disabler Pro from PlayStore, about which I'll detail later.
Now why we should do that? There are lots of apps, processes and background services running on our devices that take care about all the things we do on the device. The problem is that ALL are using resources: processor time, memory, space and so on. In the end these are translated for a user in LAG or battery drain. Of course we cannot kill everything and I learned long time ago that installing Task or memory managers on Android it's the worst thing you can do. Android it's smart enough to take care better about it's resources and processes (at least to a certain point) and keep killing a certain process won't give you more battery life but will eat more of it in the end,
What I wanted to say is you shouldn't start disabling, killing or blocking everything cause you might end up with an unstable or not properly working phone (case in which only a factory reset might help). First of all look at the ALL tab in Application Manager and try to identify what you don't need or use. For example I'm certainly not using some things like: music, books, news feeds, Samsung's keyboard (I use SwiftKey), the TouchWiz launcher (I use Nova), health services or whatever, S-Voice, S-Health, S-Finder, I don't have any smartwatches so I don't use any Gear processes, fancy device wake-up functions (like wave gestures) or animated wallpapers either.
So after all considerations above, you decided that you can safely disable some apps/processes. All good but you'll quickly learn that some of them cannot be disabled via Application Manager (the "disable" button is grayed out). Now what? Well here comes handy that Package Disabler Pro that I've told you about in the beginning. That app is able to disable ANY apps/processes on your phone, including those that are protected and cannot be disabled via the normal way (and yes it can do that without being rooted). The downside of it is that you must be careful what you choose to disable not to have something that is needed for the normal functionality or the apps you're currently using. The app has also a backup/restore function (via an xml file) for saving the list with apps you have disabled and easily import them back after a factory reset for ex. I've added to this thread my list of disabled apps as it is exported by the application (just unzip and copy the file on the root of your internal memory and it can then be imported in the Package Disabler app)
Another important thing is WHAT apps you're using. I know that socializing and social networking are some of today's most trendy things but keep in mind that some of the apps used for that are not so well made. An example could be the Facebook app/messenger which are reported to drain alot of battery. RSS feeds, news feeds, multiple weather apps or widgets, all contribute to battery drain and lag. Don't install several apps/widgets for the same purpose (like several calendar apps or weather apps). Each will take resources and won't have an added value. Want to use another weather app/widget than the one coming with the phone? Fine, install it...but don't forget to uninstall/disable the built in one or others that do the same thing. Same goes for keyboard for ex; I use SwiftKey for years and got used with it. For me it's better than any keyboard that Samsung might put on the device, therefore I've disabled the standard Samsung keyboard. I also don't like TouchWiz launcher and use Nova that offers me much more flexibility so...I've disabled both the "easy" and "regular" TouchWiz launchers. I went to the point that I've even disabled the different embedded font types, you have 5 of them and I doubt someone uses more than one at a time.
So as you all can see it's not only a matter of setup but also a matter of usage. When you have a device you have to use it properly otherwise it'll not perform as you expect. Imagine a car that has a manufacturer fuel consumption value of 5.5 liters/100 Km....that's under certain conditions not on ANY type of driving. Fly with 200+ km/hr on a highway and I'll guarantee you won't have 5.5 liters/100 km consumption. That doesn't mean the manufacturer has lied or mislead you. Same goes with a phone, if you don't know how to use it and optimize it, you'll have a bad experience.
I work in the IT industry for years and I mostly laugh when I hear someone advising somebody to reinstall the operating system to solve a problem. Same goes for "factory reset" for a phone. Yes, this method works some times but that won't solve the root cause of an issues if you're using it the same way. After several days it'll perform as bad as before and you'll just say that "factory reset" did nothing. Of course it didn't...YOU have to do something different, not the phone.
Now I apologize for the long post and I do hope that at least some will learn to better manage their devices and to understand what they're doing not just running certain commands or procedures blind. Both S6 and S6e are great devices but we should learn how to properly use them in order to benefit the most from them...otherwise we just come here asking for help or mumbling about what crap devices they are.
Thank you, I will check to see if I get an improvement on the standby battery drain.
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
Tnx. And yes....keeping screen at 20% brightness and just switching to auto when in outdoors works great for the battery life.
ArmedandDangerous said:
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite, I've tested it. If you're on "auto" and use a lower setting on the slidebar, in a dark room the screen is too dark, you'll have to turn off "auto" and the manual brighteness set on the same level will be much higher than on auto.
Now if you have such good eyes and you're able to use "auto" in all cases with the slider at 20% that's good for you...unfortunately I am not so that's why I use it as I've described. The point is that "auto" mode consumes MORE battery regardless of how it's set, than a lower 'manual' mode. So I preffer to have it like this than to use auto all the time.
Thanks for the awesome guide. I'll start disabling some useless processes and see how my battery life is working. Anyway without much editing the battery of S6Edge is pretty good. I can use it a whole day and still 19% remaining. As a comparison I wasn't able to do it with my S3 having to recharge it 2 or even 3 times at day.
Again, thanks for the guide!
Enviado desde mi SGS6e mediante Tapatalk

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