Related
Hi everyone,
I have had my Galaxy S for a month now, I have been very unhappy with my battery life, so I thought, I gotta to fix without compromising perfomance.
I found it!
My battery life during this 1 month period was utter crap, battery used drained from 100% in about 10-12 hours on average.
At the time I was running the latest FWs (I kept updating as the FWs came out) with Mimocans EXT4 fix.
I was with lowest brightness setting, running on 2G without any screen animations.
So heres the fix:
Install SetCPU 2.02, make sure to apply on boot, make the minimum speed 100mhz and the top 800mhz.
This ensures the phone doesn't ever go to 1ghz but that the performance is never compromised (even when playing games, videos, apps).
Because I have the Mimocans fix, everything is smooth and battery life goes down very slowly!
Heres the stats of my battery right now:
Battery Level 70%
21h 40m 25s secs since unplugged
Display 37%
Phone Idle 27%
Cell standby 21%
Voice calls 7%
Android System 4%
Internet 2%
Android OS 2%
You can give this guide a go, sorry if it doesn't work, just trying to help.
Regards,
Azazin!
azazin said:
Hi everyone,
I have had my Galaxy S for a month now, I have been very unhappy with my battery life, so I thought, I gotta to fix without compromising perfomance.
I found it!
My battery life during this 1 month period was utter crap, battery used drained from 100% in about 10-12 hours on average.
At the time I was running the latest FWs (I kept updating as the FWs came out) with Mimocans EXT4 fix.
I was with lowest brightness setting, running on 2G without any screen animations.
So heres the fix:
Install SetCPU 2.02, make sure to apply on boot, make the minimum speed 100mhz and the top 800mhz.
This ensures the phone doesn't ever go to 1ghz but that the performance is never compromised (even when playing games, videos, apps).
Because I have the Mimocans fix, everything is smooth and battery life goes down very slowly!
Heres the stats of my battery right now:
Battery Level 70%
21h 40m 25s secs since unplugged
Display 37%
Phone Idle 27%
Cell standby 21%
Voice calls 7%
Android System 4%
Internet 2%
Android OS 2%
You can give this guide a go, sorry if it doesn't work, just trying to help.
Regards,
Azazin!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please update with display time, phone idle time, standby time and voice call time. Without it these are a bit useless, these don't seem far from my stats when I use the display for +/- 1 hour.
alovell83 said:
Please update with display time, phone idle time, standby time and voice call time. Without it these are a bit useless, these don't seem far from my stats when I use the display for +/- 1 hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the percentages up in the OP.
This guide isn't just for turning crap battery life to good, it's also for people to extend their battery life if they already have a decent one.
Following the underclock to 800mhz my phone can last this long, compared to before when it used to last 10-12 hours with same usage!
azazin said:
I have the percentages up in the OP.
This guide isn't just for turning crap battery life to good, it's also for people to extend their battery life if they already have a decent one.
Following the underclock to 800mhz my phone can last this long, compared to before when it used to last 10-12 hours with same usage!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The percentages stand out, thanks, I saw them. Again, they are a bit meaningless without the time used. If you don't use your phone for 24 hours you should lose maybe 5% with sync off.
So, please, click on "display" and report the time that the display has been on, repeat for the other usage categories, other people will ask for this same information. I don't know if you didn't know how to do that or if you are witholding the information, hopefully it's just the former. I understand that, perhaps, you are doubling your battery life, but depending on the way we use our phones, relative to the way you use your phone we can see better or worse results. Doing this will allow us to know how much you use your phone and for what purpose, so we can make personal judgments about its merits to our usage.
TIA
This may fix the issue but it's merely a patch to cover up the wound. From my experiments I've found that in most cases the problems are related to the phone never entering sleep-mode. If you have bad battery life, please do the following:
0. Make sure you phone has been running on battery power for a while, usually a day with only 20% battery left is a good place.
1. Type *#*#4636#*#*
2. Go to Battery History
3. Other usage and "Since last unplugged"
4. Check the "Running" bar. Generally, if this is over 60% something is wrong.
5. Go to partial wake
6. Check if there's some application (e.g. Facebook) that has a high partial wake percentage. This is bad. System should be on top on most systems.
So, do you have the signs of something being wrong? Fear not! Usually this is due to a program or service misbehaving. I had bismal battery life (about 15 hours, just check the other thread for several of my posts), and then I uninstalled "Weather from Yr". I also let my phone discharge completely, then charge TURNED OFF over night. I then disabled auto brightness and "power saving" in the display. Yes, I disabled the power saving feature, and my battery life went sky high. Now I have about 2 days of moderate use (1h 30 min on) and about 1 day with heavy use. Letting any application run while the screen is off using partial wake KILLS my battery.
Unfortunatley, I didn't follow proper scientific approach when conducting my experiments, so I can't say which of the three things (uninstall weather from yr, complete discharge/charge cycle or turning off power saving) that did it for me, but it's worth a shot if you haven't rooted your phone. Post back with results.
alovell83 said:
The percentages stand out, thanks, I saw them. Again, they are a bit meaningless without the time used. If you don't use your phone for 24 hours you should lose maybe 5% with sync off.
So, please, click on "display" and report the time that the display has been on, repeat for the other usage categories, other people will ask for this same information. I don't know if you didn't know how to do that or if you are witholding the information, hopefully it's just the former. I understand that, perhaps, you are doubling your battery life, but depending on the way we use our phones, relative to the way you use your phone we can see better or worse results. Doing this will allow us to know how much you use your phone and for what purpose, so we can make personal judgments about its merits to our usage.
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Oh okay lol, no problem.
Display: 1h 22m 8s.
Phone idle: 20h 51m 22s
Cell standby: 12h 12m 52s
It doesn't look like I have used it much but during the time the display has been on, I have either been:
Playing games,
Texting,
Twitter,
Or Internet.
It doesn't look like much, but I recommend you try this and post results before and after
dagingaa said:
This may fix the issue but it's merely a patch to cover up the wound. From my experiments I've found that in most cases the problems are related to the phone never entering sleep-mode. If you have bad battery life, please do the following:
0. Make sure you phone has been running on battery power for a while, usually a day with only 20% battery left is a good place.
1. Type *#*#4636#*#*
2. Go to Battery History
3. Other usage and "Since last unplugged"
4. Check the "Running" bar. Generally, if this is over 60% something is wrong.
5. Go to partial wake
6. Check if there's some application (e.g. Facebook) that has a high partial wake percentage. This is bad. System should be on top on most systems.
So, do you have the signs of something being wrong? Fear not! Usually this is due to a program or service misbehaving. I had bismal battery life (about 15 hours, just check the other thread for several of my posts), and then I uninstalled "Weather from Yr". I also let my phone discharge completely, then charge TURNED OFF over night. I then disabled auto brightness and "power saving" in the display. Yes, I disabled the power saving feature, and my battery life went sky high. Now I have about 2 days of moderate use (1h 30 min on) and about 1 day with heavy use. Letting any application run while the screen is off using partial wake KILLS my battery.
Unfortunatley, I didn't follow proper scientific approach when conducting my experiments, so I can't say which of the three things (uninstall weather from yr, complete discharge/charge cycle or turning off power saving) that did it for me, but it's worth a shot if you haven't rooted your phone. Post back with results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 things:
1) the phone number thing is pretty cool, in the past I've used "Spare Parts" for identical and a bit more information. I encourage people to use one or the other.
2) You can still fix the unscientific nature of your experiment by a factor of 1/3. You can turn power saving back on, and I'll try it. Also, I'll assume that 1 charge wouldn't make a world of difference, so I think that could've added a few minutes to your phone life (more than charging with the phone on) but maybe someone with actual technical knowledge can chime in.
As for any program running in the background, I had a similar situation where I was going from losing about 30% in a day, similar to the OP, while using the phone, and hence the display, for about an hour at work. I also, always preferred to leave the phone off the charger overnight, so I'd have been unplugged for 16+ hours. One day I allowed 3 things to run to check both battery and 3G usage (I have 500mb per month until I decide to change my plan, probably waiting for the new deal thats been announced for unlimited data for an extra 10 bucks sometime this month). So, I ran:
Sync
3G data monitor (To test if I would go over what I'd use too much data from my allotment, refresh every 30 mins IIRC)
ATK (to kill tasks, hoping they'd use less of my precious bandwidth)
This 2 tasks plus sync just CRUSHED my battery, by the first time I turned on the screen I saw more than 50% drain from my battery, probably around lunchtime (probably 3.5 hours from the start of work). I turned off all 3 and, like you, I haven't conducted a scientific experiment since.
I tried something similar with overclock widget, but I had the impression that underclocking made the SGS really unstable. It freezed completely like 3-4 times a day. After uninstalling overclockwidget the device didn't crash anymore.
So how are the longterm effects (say, 1 week) of setcpu?
If anything I'd OC my phone, not the other way around.
XQC said:
I tried something similar with overclock widget, but I had the impression that underclocking made the SGS really unstable. It freezed completely like 3-4 times a day. After uninstalling overclockwidget the device didn't crash anymore.
So how are the longterm effects (say, 1 week) of setcpu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The software probably isn't optimized for your usage scenario, I don't think an underclock, if done right, should be that bad, OC on the other hand...
ShezUK said:
If anything I'd OC my phone, not the other way around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same boat, screen uses 80%+ of battery when the screen is on, as long as I'm not wasting battery when the screen is off and processes aren't running I have excess battery life, not to mention a spare battery, which I'd like to get more use out of if I could better my experience.
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crap battery life
---------- Post added at 04:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:22 PM ----------
crap battery life
Battery issue (AndroidOS "bug") - workaround (3% loss over 9 hours!!!) - final update
Yes, I know, another battery thread. But after scouring many other threads for scraps of information, I feel I still have something to contribute on this widely talked about topic. If you’re not interested, don’t read or write on this thread – save your time, and mine. If it is useful to you, then great, please let us know. Here goes.
Like many people, I’ve been plagued with poor battery life on my SGS2. There are plenty of threads out there discussing how to trace the battery consumption back to the “Android OS” processes, specifically the “events” & “suspend” processes. Unfortunately, once isolating those processes, there’s not much we can do. Some say that when we get Android 2.3.4, battery issues might be solved, however:
My first Android phone was a HTC HD2, which was actually a WinMo phone that some clever people had managed to get a working Android ROM for. I started with Android 2.2.1, and as updates were released, upgraded to 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3, and then I moved on to a new phone. All throughout these different Android versions, I had excellent battery life. The power draw on standby would be between 4ma – 6ma. (Unfortunately we can’t measure the power draw on our SGS2s.) If my phone was fully charged at night, I would wake about 8 hours later, to around 92% battery left. My SGS2 has more like 40-70% after that timeframe. The HD2 had great battery life before 2.3.4. We can all theorise about whether 2.3.4 will fix the issues, but I don’t know, you don’t know, and life goes on. (Personally, I suspect the Samsung base rather than the Android build, but that’s just a guess.)
So I decided to do a systematic approach to troubleshooting the battery issue on my phone, and identified the following possible causes & possible resolutions, based on other people’s comments, and a bit of logic:
• Battery itself
• Battery calibration
• Data connection
• Wifi
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Location-awareness
• Latitude
• FastDormancy
• Phone connection
• SD card
• Kernel
• CPU speed
• Task killer
• Live Wallpaper
• Launcher
• Widgets
• Applications
• Stock vs custom ROM
• Hard-reset/data-wipe
Some details about my SGS2.I have a lot of applications installed, including the following that are always running (as services):
• WhatsApp
• PhoneWeaver
• Enhanced SMS & Caller ID
• NetQin Anti-virus
• Extended Controls
• Executive Assistant
• Enhanced Email
• Droidin
• Astrid Tasks
• SystemPanel
• SwiftKey X Beta
As well as the standard Samsung & Google background services.
I have used various versions of VillainROM, LiteningROM, and am now on CognitionROM 1.06. (All similar battery usage for me.)
I use LauncherPro Plus home launcher, and also have plenty of widgets on my screens:
• Beautiful Weather
• Agenda Plus
• Jorte
• Extended Controls
• Elixir (updating every 10 secs)
• LauncherPro Plus Facebook
• BBC News
• SetCPU (updating every 30 secs)
• 4 other miscellaneous small widgets
Ok, so here are my results, after testing most of the possibilities, for at least a couple of hours each, and some of them for longer:
Battery itself
I have 3 batteries, and all perform similarly, high drain occurs.
Battery calibration
I have used a battery calibration app several times, and followed the instructions to the letter, high drain still occurs.
This is however, still a useful process when changing ROMs, to help your battery stats be more accurate.
Data connection (tested for 8 hours multiple times)
Data connection turned off, high drain still occurs.
Wifi (tested for 8 hours multiple times)
Wifi turned off, high drain still occurs.
Bluetooth (I usually keep this off)
Bluetooth turned off, high drain still occurs.
GPS
GPS disabled, high drain still occurs.
Location-awareness
All location-awareness methods disabled, high drain still occurs.
Latitude
Never joined, high drain still occurs.
FastDormancy (tested for more than 8 hours in all 3 modes)
1. Default settings, high drain still occurs.
2. Configured for correct settings (my network supports FD) in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, high-drain still occurs.
3. Disabled FD completely, high drain still occurs.
Phone connection (tested for 10 hours)
1. Set to GSM only, high drain still occurs.
2. Flight mode enabled (ie all network off), high drain still occurs. This is significant!
SD card
Removed external SD card, high drain still occurs.
Kernel
1. CF-Root KE7, KE8, KF1, KF2, KF4, high drain still occurs.
2. Cognition 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06, high drain still occurs.
CPU speed
Throttled to maximum 800mhz, high drain still occurs.
Task killer
1. Advanced Task Killer auto-kill when screen off, high drain still occurs.
2. Advanced Task Killer auto-kill disabled, high drain still occurs.
3. Advanced Task Killer auto-kill every hour, untested.
Live Wallpaper
I use a LWP that I have written, and am fairly satisfied that the code is efficient, and does not take up any noticeable amount of CPU when the phone is in standby. However, untested.
Launcher
Tried using LauncherPro, high drain still occurs.
Tried using TouchWiz, high drain still occurs.
Widgets
Removed all my widgets, <insert fanfare> high drain disappeared!!!
WiFi Sharing
Not exactly the "Android OS bug", but it can cause other battery drainage issues. I freeze it with Titanium Backup to prevent any grief.
Applications
Untested.
Stock vs custom ROM
Untested.
Hard-reset/data-wipe
I am sceptical of this approach, as it changes too many settings. Yes, everything will be faster, with less issues, more battery life, etc, when you do a data-wipe. However, once you configure everything back to how it was before, you’re in the same boat as when you started, and none the wiser.
So! A couple of important findings:
1. With Flight-mode enabled, I get poor battery. This pretty much eliminates any possibilities of 2G vs 3G, FastDromancy, and anything else that uses phone/WiFI/BT type stuff.
2. Widgets are what trigger the issues for me. I use a lot of them, and some of them update frequently. Android should be able to handle this, but something (probably either Android or Samsung code) is adding some battery overhead. This may be fixed by Google or Samsung in the future, but until then, I need a workaround. The next step for me is to add my widgets back in gradually, and see which ones trigger the battery grief. I'll update this thread with my findings regarding which widgets cause me grief, once I have them.
I'm back to having all my location services, data, phone, HSDPA/3G, SD card, and other basic services enabled. The only thing I don't have, is widgets on my homescreen, and battery performance is good.
Hopefully this will be of some help to those people still struggling with battery issues! If you're having battery issues, remove your widgets, monitor for at least a few hours, and report back!
------------------------------------------------
Update - 23/06/11
Every night at 10pm, my Data, AutoSync, & WiFi, are all switched off by PhoneWeaver. This should mean that minimal battery life is being used. I still usually get 30-60% drain though, which as we all know, is due to the "Android OS bug".
Last night, after having removed all my widgets, I charged my phone to 98%, and it entered its usual "Night mode" at 10pm. At 7am this morning, it automatically (via PhoneWeaver) went back in to "Home mode", which enabled AutoSync & WiFi. At 7:15am, my alarm went off, woke me up, and I checked the battery usage. It was down to 95%.
That's 3% drainage over 9 hours and 15 minutes!!!
This is the battery life that we should be expecting when we have things like Data & WiFi turned off.
I value my widgets, but I also value battery life. I'm going to keep working to find a decent compromise between the two. In the meantime, if you need battery life now, maybe consider removing some or all of your widgets.
------------------------------------------------
Update - 24/06/11
Last night, I re-added all of my widgets except Elixir, charged the phone to 100%, and let my phone enter "Night mode" (Data & WiFi off). Again, 9 hours later, WiFi auto-enabled, sync operations completed, etc. I checked it at 9 hours 15 minutes, and battery remaining was down to 96% - only 4% drop over the 9 hours. Similar to the night before. Very happy with that.
I've done a couple of tests today, and have found that adding the Elixir widget back on, brings back the "Android OS bug" for me. I have a lot of items configured in my Elixir widget (including some that show internal storage usage and SD card usage), and although I had set it to update only every hour, it still seems to trigger the hogging of my CPU by "Android OS". I'm going to try some different configurations of the Elixir widget (as it is a useful app), but at this stage, I've narrowed the battery issue trigger on my phone, to Elixir.
I haven't really heard of any confirmations from anyone else, that removing widgets has helped with their battery issues, so if you do have success with this, please let me know. I doubt it's specific to Elixir, but if you're affected, then the trigger may be something similar on your phone. If you want to test, I suggest the following:
1. Freeze the "Wi-Fi Sharing" app in Titanium Backup, as it commonly causes other battery drain issues. (Use "Wireless Tether" if you need that functionality.)
2. Remove all widgets from your home screen.
3. Turn off Data & WiFi connections.
4. Stop any running foreground applications (such as games etc), or reboot your phone.
5. Charge your phone, and note your battery percentage.
6. Turn off your screen, and leave it off for at least 2 hours.
7. Turn your screen back on, and check your percentage.
8. If there has still been a high drain (any more that 1 or 2%), check your battery usage to see if "Android OS" is the culprit.
9. If it's something else, target that. If it's still "Android OS", then I guess widgets are not your trigger.
10. Let us know whether it worked for you or not!
------------------------------------------------
Update - 28/06/11
Probably the last update from me, as my battery usage is nice and stable now, and I have no other information to give.
Happy to hear success stories from a few people - removing widgets has improved their battery life. Obviously we don't want to be removing all of our widgets, as if we wanted to cripple our phones, we'd probably just get evil iPhones, instead of the powerhouse that is the SGSII. For me, I've been able to add all my widgets back in, and narrowed down the drain to Elixir. Fortunately, I've found that I can use Elixir without any issues, as long as I take out the CPU & storage card stats icons. Even though I had it set to update only ever hour, it would still drain my battery way too quickly. I can live without a running commentary on how much free space I have on my SD card, and how much CPU I'm currently using. (SystemPanel gives me all the monitoring I need.)
So if you're still having trouble, my advice is to:
first calibrate your battery with a battery calibration tool (or manually delete your battery stats file)
second, freeze the "Wi-Fi Sharing" app, and
third, check your widgets. Most widgets probably won't impact your battery noticeably, and shortcuts shouldn't either. Once you've tracked down the problem widget(s), try to determine whether you can reconfigure it/them to avoid the drain (perhaps with less updates).
Some battery usage results from posters:
lindsaytheflint - 0.32% per hour, over 9.5 hours, in flight-mode.
JJEgan - 0.08% per hour, over 13 hours, in flight-mode.
sjedwardz - 1.77% per hour, over 22 hours.
So we can get good battery life with these phones, even without 2.3.4, and with only a little bit of tweaking. Obviously, using the phones (i.e. screen on) will (and should) use the battery faster, so the important test is while the phone is in standby. Good luck!
lindsaytheflint said:
Yes, I know, another battery thread. But after scouring many other threads for scraps of information, I feel I still have something to contribute on this widely talked about topic. If you’re not interested, don’t read or write on this thread – save your time, and mine. If it is useful to you, then great, please let us know. Here goes.
Like many people, I’ve been plagued with poor battery life on my SGS2. There are plenty of threads out there discussing how to trace the battery consumption back to the “Android OS” processes, specifically the “events” & “suspend” processes. Unfortunately, once isolating those processes, there’s not much we can do. Some say that when we get Android 2.3.4, battery issues might be solved, however:
My first Android phone was a HTC HD2, which was actually a WinMo phone that some clever people had managed to get a working Android ROM for. I started with Android 2.2.1, and as updates were released, upgraded to 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3, and then I moved on to a new phone. All throughout these different Android versions, I had excellent battery life. The power draw on standby would be between 4ma – 6ma. (Unfortunately we can’t measure the power draw on our SGS2s.) If my phone was fully charged at night, I would wake about 8 hours later, to around 92% battery left. My SGS2 has more like 40-70% after that timeframe. The HD2 had great battery life before 2.3.4. We can all theorise about whether 2.3.4 will fix the issues, but I don’t know, you don’t know, and life goes on. (Personally, I suspect the Samsung base rather than the Android build, but that’s just a guess.)
So I decided to do a systematic approach to troubleshooting the battery issue on my phone, and identified the following possible causes & possible resolutions, based on other people’s comments, and a bit of logic:
• Battery itself
• Battery calibration
• Data connection
• Wifi
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Location-awareness
• Latitude
• FastDormancy
• Phone connection
• SD card
• Kernel
• CPU speed
• Task killer
• Live Wallpaper
• Widgets
• Applications
• Stock vs custom ROM
• Hard-reset/data-wipe
Some details about my SGS2.I have a lot of applications installed, including the following that are always running (as services):
• WhatsApp
• PhoneWeaver
• Enhanced SMS & Caller ID
• NetQin Anti-virus
• Extended Controls
• Executive Assistant
• Enhanced Email
• Droidin
• Astrid Tasks
• SystemPanel
• SwiftKey X Beta
As well as the standard Samsung & Google background services.
I have used various versions of VillainROM, LiteningROM, and am now on CognitionROM 1.06. (All similar battery usage for me.)
I use LauncherPro Plus home launcher, and also have plenty of widgets on my screens:
• Beautiful Weather
• Agenda Plus
• Jorte
• Extended Controls
• Elixir (updating every 10 secs)
• LauncherPro Plus Facebook
• BBC News
• SetCPU (updating every 30 secs)
• 4 other miscellaneous small widgets
Ok, so here are my results, after testing most of the possibilities, for at least a couple of hours each, and some of them for longer:
Battery itself
I have 3 batteries, and all perform similarly, high drain occurs.
Battery calibration
I have used a battery calibration app several times, and followed the instructions to the letter, high drain still occurs.
Data connection (tested for 8 hours multiple times)
Data connection turned off, high drain still occurs.
Wifi (tested for 8 hours multiple times)
Wifi turned off, high drain still occurs.
Bluetooth (I usually keep this off)
Bluetooth turned off, high drain still occurs.
GPS
GPS disabled, high drain still occurs.
Location-awareness
All location-awareness methods disabled, high drain still occurs.
Latitude
Never joined, high drain still occurs.
FastDormancy (tested for more than 8 hours in all 3 modes)
1. Default settings, high drain still occurs.
2. Configured for correct settings (my network supports FD) in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, high-drain still occurs.
3. Disabled FD completely, high drain still occurs.
Phone connection (tested for 10 hours)
1. Set to GSM only, high drain still occurs.
2. Flight mode enabled (ie all network off), high drain still occurs. This is significant!
SD card
Removed external SD card, high drain still occurs.
Kernel
1. CF-Root KE7, KE8, KF1, KF2, KF4, high drain still occurs.
2. Cognition 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06, high drain still occurs.
CPU speed
Throttled to maximum 800mhz, high drain still occurs.
Task killer
1. Advanced Task Killer auto-kill when screen off, high drain still occurs.
2. Advanced Task Killer auto-kill disabled, high drain still occurs.
3. Advanced Task Killer auto-kill every hour, untested.
Live Wallpaper
I use a LWP that I have written, and am fairly satisfied that the code is efficient, and does not take up any noticeable amount of CPU when the phone is in standby. However, untested.
Widgets
Removed all my widgets, <insert fanfare> high drain disappeared!!!
Applications
Untested.
Stock vs custom ROM
Untested.
Hard-reset/data-wipe
I am sceptical of this approach, as it changes too many settings. Yes, everything will be faster, with less issues, more battery life, etc, when you do a data-wipe. However, once you configure everything back to how it was before, you’re in the same boat as when you started, and none the wiser.
So! A couple of important findings:
1. With Flight-mode enabled, I get poor battery. This pretty much eliminates any possibilities of 2G vs 3G, FastDromancy, and anything else that uses phone/WiFI/BT type stuff.
2. Widgets are what trigger the issues for me. I use a lot of them, and some of them update frequently. Android should be able to handle this, but something (probably either Android or Samsung code) is adding some battery overhead. This may be fixed by Google or Samsung in the future, but until then, I need a workaround. The next step for me is to add my widgets back in gradually, and see which ones trigger the battery grief. I'll update this thread with my findings regarding which widgets cause me grief, once I have them.
I'm back to having all my location services, data, phone, HSDPA/3G, SD card, and other basic services enabled. The only thing I don't have, is widgets on my homescreen, and battery performance is good.
Hopefully this will be of some help to those people still struggling with battery issues! If you're having battery issues, remove your widgets, monitor for at least a few hours, and report back!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the in-depth analysis.
I figured it as much that it had to be Active Widgets that cause a higher drain than normal. I dont have any widgets active and dont have any drain, but I can see them running as a service.
I always wondered that if they were removed from the service, will the battery life improve or not make any difference, since the widget isnt really running, only the service. Force Quiting the Widget Service only has them come back shortly after.
Ok I jump in. I've the same issues. Now I disabled my lockscreen (widget locker) and deleted all my widgets. I'll report later if this was the key. BTW what about the screen settings for the brightness? I've set my brightness to 40% static.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
What kind of router do you have? Your drain is to high to be just the android-os bug.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
[germany]merlot said:
BTW what about the screen settings for the brightness? I've set my brightness to 40% static.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't looked at the brightness, as I've been troubleshooting the drain issue purely for when the phone is in standby (i.e. screen off). My display is set to automatic brightness.
TheGhost1233 said:
What kind of router do you have? Your drain is to high to be just the android-os bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My home WiFi router is not the issue. I only have WiFi enabled for a few hours each day, but my drain is always. My tests included disabling all network connections.
A drain of 30-60% (i.e. resulting in 40-70% left after 8 hours from a 100% charge) is typical of the kind of issues a lot of people have been having. If it wasn't so bad, so many of us wouldn't be so desperate to have it fixed. And yes, my battery usage in both the built-in battery tracking, & SystemPanel, both indicate "Android OS".
Hmm..it could be because I also have high drain and I currently have 13 widgets on my homescreens:Simple calendar, Simi Clock, Spotify, 7xHangping chinese, Snowstorm (update every 3h), CNN(update every 6h), Pure messenger(update every 6hours).
I wouldn't want to get rid of any of those widgets because after all these are the main difference compared to iPhone. What is the point of having Android if you just want the icons on your homescreen.
On the other hand I have been wondering one other issue with the battery drain. When I used to have Touch Pro 2, I used many different ROMs and there the battery was hugely affected by which radio it had. For example I live in Finland and if I used chinese rom with chinese radio the phone did work but the signal was never as good as with European/Finnish radio and also more drain affected.
I noticed similarity when updated to Hong Kong firmware, I didn't get so good signal in any place and I think I lost more battery.
Of course this isn't the whole solution if the battery drain is high also with the airplane mode. But for me even if I turn the data off and use only 2G I get pretty decent battery. So I think there is more than one problem effecting this.
I THINK that CNN widget might be quite bad for the battery..that I could try to get rid off..
There have been plenty of reports of people with a specific router that, once connected just one time, will cause high drain until you do a factory reset. And yes it also displays under android-os but it's a second bug.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
I lost 30% battery from 100 to 70 in 8 hours i slept. The only thing that was on was the yahoo mail push service. I deleted all the widgets that came pre-installed except the time/date one on the home screen. The phone was locked with screen off and brightness set to 0.
Is this normal? I have frozen a lot of samsung apps and services that are not needed.
Maybe its launcher pro, I might try deleting that and see how it goes for a while
Hi TS,
good effort here. i am wondering, after you removed all the widget and experiencing better battery life, does Android OS still use high usage?
this is the first android phone that i notice Android OS taking up such a significant portion. all my previous phones, one hardly notices it's usage in the battery stats.
Great list with tests! Although I don't think widgets are causing the high drain. It's something more deep underlying in the stock ROM... All working ROMs are based on the stock one and that's why we all have the Android OS bug.
I've seen people that report no Android OS drain on AOSP ROM (which someone only got booting, it's not usable but there is no battery drain). On the MUIUI ROM which we also got booting is also no battery drain...
What we can do now is WAITING... until we either 1. get a new updated ROM from samsung which solves the issue. or 2. we get a clean and stable CM7 ROM
Thanks my opinion...
Think I'm going to post this everywhere as there seems to be huge amout of people that blame poor battery life on this bug even if it's not the case.
The example of my phone:
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"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"
}
djfatrod said:
Maybe its launcher pro, I might try deleting that and see how it goes for a while
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, next thing I was going to try was a different launcher. I may still try switch to TouchWiz, and putting on all my widgets. Launcher Pro doesn't have any such issues with other Android phones I've had, but there may be something in the SGS2 code that causes an incompatibility.
sunwee said:
Hi TS,
good effort here. i am wondering, after you removed all the widget and experiencing better battery life, does Android OS still use high usage?
this is the first android phone that i notice Android OS taking up such a significant portion. all my previous phones, one hardly notices it's usage in the battery stats.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After removing the widgets, Android OS is no longer high. Other things are now higher (such as when I use the phone etc) which is what you'd expect in Android.
I agree with you - I haven't had this issue on other phones either.
(TS?)
d3sm0nd said:
Great list with tests! Although I don't think widgets are causing the high drain. It's something more deep underlying in the stock ROM... All working ROMs are based on the stock one and that's why we all have the Android OS bug.
I've seen people that report no Android OS drain on AOSP ROM (which someone only got booting, it's not usable but there is no battery drain). On the MUIUI ROM which we also got booting is also no battery drain...
What we can do now is WAITING... until we either 1. get a new updated ROM from samsung which solves the issue. or 2. we get a clean and stable CM7 ROM
Thanks my opinion...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree - I don't believe the widgets are the cause, but I do think having widgets is triggering the high drain. Something in Samsung's build is doing it.
I'm sure on a AOSP, MIUI, or CM7 the issue won't occur. It doesn't occur on proper builds on other phones. Just something in Samsung's build.
Definitely looking forward to a working non-Samsung build!
Personally I doubt, that the Battery usage stats from android give enough details about the battery usage. Therefore I think its misleading...
Btw, I am on stock rom KE7, no bug/drain here...
aurelm said:
Think I'm going to post this everywhere as there seems to be huge amout of people that blame poor battery life on this bug even if it's not the case.
The example of my phone:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what this adds, or how it's relevant. I don't think you read my first post properly, or if I was unclear, then I apologise.
The issue I was having, was that my phone was discharging very rapidly, even under various different scenarios, including my phone display being switched off for 8 hours, and flight-mode being enabled, etc. After this 8 hours of non-use, the battery would have discharged by 30-60%, and the "Android OS" processes (specifically, "suspend" and "events") were taking up around 90% of the usage.
This thread is not about debating the existence of the "Android OS bug", nor about how to identify it. This thread is about testing to see what can be done to workaround the "bug".
I think you also missed my statement in the first post: "If you’re not interested, don’t read or write on this thread – save your time, and mine."
pik1 said:
Personally I doubt, that the Battery usage stats from android give enough details about the battery usage. Therefore I think its misleading...
Btw, I am on stock rom KE7, no bug/drain here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System Panel gives quite a bit of useful detail around things like CPU usage, which is a significant factor in battery usage.
lindsaytheflint said:
System Panel gives quite a bit of useful detail around things like CPU usage, which is a significant factor in battery usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is actually interesting to see that there is Accu weather, AP mobile, digital clock and all those rest apps in the memory even thou I dont use them and never even opened them.
Sight...maybe I have to root the phone once again and freeze those apps after all even thou I was wishing that I could just keep my phone close to stock.
This guide is for unrooted devices. If u are rooted with a custom recovery , hard reset procedures may or may not apply .
Here are some tips of mine which have seemd to work for me
Edit : if u have just updated to ota , this tweaks will work better with hard reset .
Calibration technique: ( does not involve full drain cycle)
1) do a hard reset at 100% ( green LED) ,
2) when phone restarts charge till (green LEd) again,
3) Do another hard reset
4) fully charge to 100% (green LED)
5) drain the phone to 2% remaining
6) fully charge to 100%
1) Go to settings > network and change to WCDMA (only ) seems to make the battery drain lesser . May not work for some if coverage in yr area is spotty as it will drain more battery . But generally if u are in a country where there is good coverage and 3G everywhere, use this setting to save battery life .
2) Install this app WiFi-matic . Set the options there to what works best for u
3) go to settings - wifi - "keep wifi always on" and disable the "best wifi performance" setting . The HTC one wifi is extremely power efficient and for some it may give battery life savings more than the 3G radio sleep
4) use the in built HTC email for all your emails and avoid using separate apps for gmail and hotmail .
The Htc email behaves more intelligently due to smart sync feature
5) Turn on the settings - deepsleep , power saver at all times and u can individually customize the power saver options to your liking . The power saver still runs 4 cores but at a lower speed but puts connections to sleep . The difference between the 2.
Power saver - reduces brightness, cpu , vibrations and puts connections to sleep after 15 mins when screen off
Deep sleep mode - turns them off entirely after prolonged inactivity
6) go to settings > apps and disable any apps u are not using eg. stock HTC apps or other stuff like google now.
[Update]: Disable maps , turn off location all instances of location featurs in maps and phone settings"
7) the usual other stuff that are recommended with all phones like turn off bluetooth, gps , if u are not using them.
8) Blinkfeed - Set to update over wifi only ( edit: In the facebook app , set auto refresh interval to never for massive battery savings)
9,) disable or enable GPU rendering in settings. Helps saves battery life on quad core devices by using less of the Cpu cores . However this setting may work differently for some depending on the configuration set up eg, if power saving on /off. recommended is testing to see what works best for u. Edit : depending on your soc and phone variants, firmware . This setting either helps or does not .
10) New : go to settings backup and restore use HTC account instead of Google . Turn off daily backup .
12) New go to settings - autosync - Google , turn off all settings under "maps and latitude" and turn off "let Google maps access your location " in location settings . this steps may possible help some by minimizing the havoc Google maps does to battery life.
13) New : disable auto brightness in display and install lux auto brightness app from playstore, put values from as shown in the screenshot link for massive battery savings
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"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"
}
How abouth the "Snapdragon™ BatteryGuru (Beta)" which was made for Phones with Snapdragon CPU.
I had some finde results with it on my One S.
I always just turn off bluetooth and gps and tend to find my battery is pretty sweet
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Jawler said:
How abouth the "Snapdragon™ BatteryGuru (Beta)" which was made for Phones with Snapdragon CPU.
I had some finde results with it on my One S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the app has seen many complaints here in xda. no harm trying though
but it may interfere with the Sense 5 power saver
Magpir said:
the app has seen many complaints here in xda. no harm trying though
but it may interfere with the Sense 5 power saver
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't heared about that yet. Thanks for that hint. I'm trying it right now and i will report back in a few days.
Gesendet von meinem HTC One mit Tapatalk 2
GPS is the biggest battery eater (after screen lol), thank god I don't need gps.
I heard that using power saver could potentially use just as much battery if you have the cpu saver option checked because according to another battery thread here on xda (thread name "battery stats thread") someone said that the cpu power saver option only uses 2 of snapdragons 4 processors which causes the 2 to work over time switching on and off using just as much if not more battery than when power saver is off so if you're going to use power saver I'd try with cpu saver on and off to see the difference
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
floodingaugust said:
I heard that using power saver could potentially use just as much battery if you have the cpu saver option checked because according to another battery thread here on xda (thread name "battery stats thread") someone said that the cpu power saver option only uses 2 of snapdragons 4 processors which causes the 2 to work over time switching on and off using just as much if not more battery than when power saver is off so if you're going to use power saver I'd try with cpu saver on and off to see the difference
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it limits the cores . It limits the speed of the cores . When u turn on cpu power saving it operates around 1.1 ghz but all 4 cores operating . I think u need root app like 2nd core ( for Samsung galaxy devices) to turn off cores . i dont think even samsung designed power saver this way. because if the power saving function limits the cores then performance will be affected like for example a graphics intensive game is loaded up , and the user many not know how to deal with it
I tested with an app called cpu usage . As u can see from my attached that even with power saving on all 4 cores are running
The best battery saving in any ROM is STweaks with Siyah Kernel. you can control all cores of your cpu individually. You can control voltages for different stages. Loads available.
But you need root. You can even have dual boot run stock and any other ROM same time.
Another good app for all system setting is android tuner.
:*: Neebi :*:
is siyah kernel avaialble for HTC one? i dont think so right??
Magpir said:
I tested with an app called cpu usage . As u can see from my attached that even with power saving on all 4 cores are running
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Ive an app called micro cpu monitor that displays each cpu activity on screen, and all 4 cores are pumping during power saver.
Sent from my SGH-M919
Magpir said:
charging tip
charge the phone from 40% while off but do not let the phone go to 100 % or fully charge ( green).
Turn on the phone and charge till green and leave it overnight
[/I]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the explanation behind this?
ataft said:
What's the explanation behind this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it seems to have worked well for me
mettleh3d said:
Yes. Ive an app called micro cpu monitor that displays each cpu activity on screen, and all 4 cores are pumping during power saver.
Sent from my SGH-M919
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to compeltely turn off cores thats the job of the developers in development forum.
i dont think we can turn off cores just by using the power saver and i dont think HTC or samsung design power management in this way.
because samsung galaxy users need a custom kernel , apps , roms and mods, tweaks like siyah ect to achieve that like a user mentioned earlier
unless i am wrong, someone can prove me wrong..
What's the best battery saving kernel?
Any other tips, such as how to get apps that run in the background to remain off, I seem to always find google maps and other google services in use, even when I may not use the actual app.
Evolancer13 said:
Any other tips, such as how to get apps that run in the background to remain off, I seem to always find google maps and other google services in use, even when I may not use the actual app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download an app called greenify. Add Google maps, google+ and what ever other apps you find to be eating the battery to the app. This will make the apps hibernate when not in use.
Sent from my HTC One
ECEXCURSION said:
Download an app called greenify. Add Google maps, google+ and what ever other apps you find to be eating the battery to the app. This will make the apps hibernate when not in use.
Sent from my HTC One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not rooted as of right now, just running it how it was out of the box
Evolancer13 said:
I'm not rooted as of right now, just running it how it was out of the box
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh... Yeah I dont think you can prevent maps from eating your battery then. Disabling Google location services does nothing. Better start rooting!
Sent from my HTC One
How to improve your phone's battery life
It is about time to make a guide to help people who are struggling with battery life. There was a guide to save battery life but that was only for dorimanx users (thanks to voku). This guide is for all s2 users who currently have to battle with their phones lack of battery efficiency.
Disclaimer
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
/*
* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this guide
* before doing anything! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
*/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here are the things we are going to discuss:
- Battery life myths
- Affects of apps
- Affects of ROMs and Kernels
- Affects of screen usage
- Other things to improve battery life
Battery life myths
Here are some myths that some people believe to cause battery life drainage:
Q. Installing a custom rom will increase my battery life
A. This statement can be true if the right ROM has been chosen. A ROM with less inbuilt apps could have less battery drainage, whereas a ROM with lots a bloatware will be the complete opposite. However, a number of factors can account for battery drain, therefore this isn't necessarily correct.
Q. Rooting my phone will increase my battery life
A. Rooting doesn't save battery life. It just allows the user to modify the phone which would be otherwise be restricted by Google or by the manufacturer. It is installing battery saving apps (like Greenify) that can use root that could save your battery.
Q. Black or dark colours that are displayed on my screen will drain batteries faster than on a white or brighter colour.
A. Dark colours used to drain the battery more significantly than white or lighter colours. But that was for LCD displays! The S2 has a AMOLED display which blacks are displayed by switching off the individual LED crystals, therefore saving battery.
Q. Battery drain can be improved if undervolt my CPU/GPU
A. For most people, undervolting can be a very tedious adjustment a person can make to their phone. The actual battery savings from undervolting is small and can also be a waste of time for the inexperienced. Undervolting introduces instability and lagging if inappropriate voltages have been set and so the user experience will be annoying!
Q. If I reset the fuel guage indicator, the battery life will last longer
A. Resetting the fuel guage indicator (found in custom kernels) doesn't solve battery drain issues. It just helps to relieve the battery drop after rebooting your phone as the fuel guage sometimes needs to recalculate the battery's remaining life.
Q. Updating my ROM to the latest version will give me better battery life
A. In most cases, this statement isn't true. For stock roms, updates can be problematic and lots of things can go wrong during the installation. Updated stock roms can bring more bloatware to the device causing your phone to drain more battery. This happened when android 4.1.2 was released for the s2 and as a result, lots of people were forced to choose to install a custom rom. Custom ROM updates can be a good thing as ROM developers always work on their ROM to fix bugs. This can be a benefit for battery life since more bugs are fixed. However, sometimes an update may not go too well and battery life could start draining quickly after installing the update. Choose the version that you believe is best and/or check reviews/comments on XDA before flashing a ROM.
Affects of apps
You may have heard the less apps you have, the longer your battery life will last. This may be true if you have lots of apps that rely on active notifications, but even with having fewer apps with active notifications, there still could be a noticeable effect on your battery life.
Apps that use active notifications:
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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Apps that classify as active notifications includes:
- Instant messenging apps like facebook messenger, skype and hangouts
- Any social media related apps including youtube, facebook, google+
- Some games that have social media features
What you can do?
These apps are a likely cause of your battery drain. To prevent further battery drain, these apps can be removed by uninstalling these apps manually. Some phone OSes bundle social media apps with their software bundle, if you don't use social media apps like facebook, uninstall them. If you must rely on using social media apps, try using your phone's browser to load up the mobile version of the social media website. Doing this may save you battery life.
Battery saving apps
Believe it or not, some battery saving apps can drain your battery instead of saving you battery life! Here are some examples of battery saving apps that simply drain your battery:
- Apps that claim to manage your wifi and mobile data
- Apps like Juicedefender that claim to 'intelligently' manage your phones behaviour
- Task killers that don't require root (usually doesn't work properly anyway)
What you can do?
Uninstall the app. Enough said. If you have to use a battery saver, the only one I trust is greenify: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en (Note: Requires root)
Google Now
Google now is one of the most commonly used apps on android phones today. It has many features that can make your phone experience easier. However, it is known to have a drain on your battery so here are the things you can do.
What you can do?
Turn off ask google from homescreen or from anywhere on your phone. This speech recognizer function keeps your microphone active which in turn could drain your battery. A better option would be to disable Google now altogether. Some home launchers have an option to disable google now from homescreen, so you will need to disable it from there.
Battery monitors
A battery monitor doesn't classify as a battery saving app. This is because it doesn't do anything to manipulate your phone so it doesn't really save any battery. Moreover, battery monitors look at the statistics of battery drainage which could help users identify their battery issue.
What you can do?
If you experience battery drainage after using and closing an app, install and wakelock detector: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uzumapps.wakelockdetector&hl=en and you can see which app you need to force close to save battery. Apps that have a long awake time period could indicate a possible battery hogging app. Uninstall the app and your battery life could be extended. Another way to check if you have an app that is hogging up your battery is by using the in-built battery settings graph. Pressing the graph will allow you to see a combination of statistics. The statistic you should be focusing on is the awake bar and the screen on bar. If there is more awake than screen on, this usually indicates there is a rogue app. If they are the same, you have no wakelock problems.
Antivirus Software
If you are connected to the internet, there is a chance that you have encountered a virus once in your life. An antivirus may need to be installed to protect your device from viruses, all sorts of malware and even phishing. But what affects do they have on battery life?
So what's the battery affect?
Antivirus software aim to protect your phone without much performance hit. There are some fake antivirus apps that claim to protect your device but instead scams you into buying your product. Antivirus software don't usually use much battery life and are actually quite lightweight (most of them are, but they can still be unsuitable for old android devices like the i9000). Here is a good webpage that discusses the performance and the battery consumption on various antivirus suites for android devices: http://www.av-test.org/en/news/news...tection-apps-put-to-a-6-month-endurance-test/
Bloatware
Bloatware is one of the biggest culprits that just simply steals your battery life. Here are examples of bloatware:
- Any pre-bundled software that come with your phone
- Any apps that you don't even use that came with your phone
What you can do?
Uninstall the apps that you don't need/use. If you can't or have trouble uninstalling certain apps, try using titanium backup to freeze and uninstall any apps you don't need: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&hl=en (Note: Requires root). Some pre-bundled apps can only be uninstalled from your phone's application manager in the settings.
Affects of Kernels and ROMs
Custom kernels and custom ROMs can have a large variety of benefits for the user. Custom ROMs could add features that are only available on AOSP roms, custom kernels can add hardware improvements and functionality such as support for BLN and more CPU governors. But what are the battery effects concerning with custom kernels and roms?
Kernels
Kernels play an important role in any Operating system. It contains all of the drivers, information and programming required to allow the device to function properly. Without it, our phones will be worthless. Custom roms introduce more features than your standard custom rom kernel and here are the list of some kernels:
- Siyah Kernel
- Dorimanx Kernel
- Gustavo Kernel
- Apolo Kernel
- Speedmod Kernel
- And the list continues
The point is that custom kernels allow the user to customize more things on their phone than normal. This includes CPU governors, IO schedulers, voltages and etc. Here are some things you can do in a custom kernel that will help save you battery
Don't overclock your CPU
As simple as the statement reads, don't overclock your CPU. Overclocking your CPU could boost you phone's processing speed but this can also lead to overheating issues and bad battery life
Underclock your CPU
Here is where the benefits starts to come in play. Underclocking is making your processor run at a lower speed than the manufacturer's specifications. This results in better battery life but could also reduce performance. A slight underclock is enough to improve your battery life by a bit.
Play around with CPU governors and I/O schedulers
Being one of the more experienced XDA members around here, I often see users asking for the best combination of CPU governor and IO schedulers. My response will be to try a balanced CPU governor first or try a battery saving optimized CPU governor, then see which IO scheduler you like most. In my case, I like HYPER and SIO as it is a solid combination and provides great stability and battery life. For more information on CPU governors and I/O schedulers, visit my website here: www.androidmodguide.blogspot.com
Disable LED on touch
LED is a feature that allow your phone's hardware buttons to light up when you touch your phone's screen. This can be a bad thing in regards with battery life. Disabling LED on touch will prevent further battery drain especially if you constantly text others or play games.
Try not using BLN
BLN is a great feature that all phones should have. But keeping the phone's hardware button lights can lead to excessive power drainage. If you find BLN is not too important for your everyday phone usage, disable it. It will save you some battery especially if you get lots of notifications and constantly check your phone for updates.
Enable LCD Power Reduce
Even though the display on our device is an OLED display, the settings still applies for our device. LCD Power Reduce is similar to Adaptive Brightness in a way as they both alter the display settings when displaying different content. This feature is included is most custom kernels and is usually set to enable by default. If you disable this because you don't like the colours, you are missing out on extra power savings.
ROMs
One of the great things of rooting your phone is that you are able to flash a custom ROM. Stock roms can come with lots of bloatware and unnecessary apps that it just simply slows the phone down. Custom ROMs can help speed up your phone as they generally come with less or no bloatware and are better optimized for our device thanks to the developers of the ROM. Here are some examples of Custom ROMs:
- Cyanogenmod
- Paranoid Android
- Omni ROM
- Slimkat
- And many more ROMs
Here are the thing you can do in a custom rom that can help you reduce power usage
Avoid android lollipop
Android lollipop was one of the most anticipated android releases in Google's history. Lollipop comes with heaps of new features, optimizations and fixes that just make android better for everyday usage. However, with more features comes more chance for apps to drain your battery. Not all apps run on lollipop without bugs and are susceptible to stability issues due to the newly implemented ART runtime. If you care about your battery life, stick with stock android 4.1.2 or custom kitkat rom as they don't suffer from the same issue!
Use ART
Not the paintings or the drawings that you would think of when you see 'ART'. ART (or Android Runtime) is a new runtime for android that is supposed to replace the aging dalvik runtime that currently run on most devices with kitkat and below. The benefits of using ART is that it supports 64bit chips (which doesn't give us any benefits), faster app load times and slightly better battery life. ART for kitkat is still a bit unstable and it requires more of your storage space when installing apps (less apps, more space used). However, not all apps are compatible with ART so make sure to google the app and version (important!) before switching to ART.
Enable battery saving GPS settings
Enabling GPS on a phone can seriously drain the battery quickly if someone was to forget that it was left on. Newer android versions allow the user to use different combinations or methods to determine the person's location which can potentially save battery life for people who use location services a lot.
Enable Adaptive backlighting
A relatively new (yet still old) feature on newer android versions include a feature that controls the brightness of your phone when specific content is shown. The difference in brightness in not really noticeable and so it is a feature that everyone should enable.
Use the default messaging app for your messaging (SMS)
With Android Kitkat, you are able to set the default messaging app. The default messaging app that comes with your phone is most likely a basic messaging app that allows you to send any kind of normal SMS to someone else with a number. Third party messaging apps like hangouts are more heavy with features and this can be a bad thing if you care about your battery. The simpler the messaging app, the better! (Not regarding the look, but I'm talking about features)
Use lighter home launchers
Home launchers determine how your phone would look if you were to access your apps that are on your phone. Launchers can be designed for visual and function purposes. The general rule with launchers is choose a lightweight launcher (like nova launcher) for your phone and your phone will have more ram and responsiveness. Battery life could be slightly improved by switching launchers too.
Use stock android browser
Web browsers on android are a must for most internet enabled phones today. With the large variation of web browsers, people may feel tempted to try out a different, more advanced browser. However, the truth is that if you browser on the web a lot, third party browsers can drain your battery faster than stock browsers. Stock browsers are the browsers the come with the OS. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing interface but it usually lighter than most their party browsers on the play store and can save your battery!
Use stock keyboards
Without a software keyboard on our device, how else could we type a message or search for anything on the web (excluding voice and hardware features)? The keyboard bundled with stock roms may not be the easiest to use so you might download and use a different keyboard. Third party keyboard could be resource hungry and as of a result, it could drain your battery. Choose a simpler keyboard like android keyboard (bundled with AOSP roms) or google keyboard with holo design.
Avoid using audio improvement apps
You may have seen an equalizer app or an app that specifically is made for users to tweak the sound of the music. This can be great when you want to improve your audio but this could cause addition audio drain to your phone. If you can, try not tweaking the settings too much or make any changes that would improve the loudness of your speakers or earphones as this requires addition power. Audio enhancing apps generally require more processing power from your CPU and from your DAC, so that means less juice for your phone! If you are using an app like viper4android, use the battery saving mode when installing the driver and don't install the super high quality mode to save battery!
Affects of screen usage
Most people are unaware that one of the biggest factors that affects your battery life is the screen usage. You screen is one of the most power hungry components on your phone and so it's best to limit the brightness to get the best possible usage time. Here are some things you can do to stop screen battery drainage
Decrease time to turn off screen automatically
Having the automatically turn off screen feature set to long periods of time can seriously affect your battery life, especially if you forget to lock your phone after you are finished using your phone. Setting this to a shorter time will ensure no extra battery life is wasted from excessive screen on times.
Decrease your brightness and turn off automatic brightness
This is one of the most common actions to do to increase your battery life. Having your screen too bright can lead to serious battery drain. Find a setting that suits you and disable automatic brightness as it could adjust your brightness even once setting your brightness level.
Use darker, black wallpapers
This isn't necessarily a good method to save battery but the evidence suggest that actual black colours will save you battery life. Choose a wallpaper that uses black colours and your battery life should be slightly better (if you find yourself using your phone to only use the homescreen )
Other things you can do
If you have tried everything to fix your battery life and you don't see any improvement, you can either buy a new battery or simply buy a new phone.
Use greenify
You may say "I thought battery saving apps were bad for battery life?" Well in this case, Greenify is different from most battery saving apps as it is responsible of 'hibernating' your apps stocking them from leaving your phone on wakelock which could consequentially result in loss of battery life. This option is available for all other rooted phones too with different versions of android too.
Buying a new battery
If you have done everything possible to fix your battery life and your battery life can't stop depleting, it is probably a good time to buy a new battery. There are a number of ways to check if your battery is dying buy monitoring your battery voltage depletion or seeing a drop in battery life when your phone is hardly awake. When buying a new battery, be sure to buy from a trusted source and if possible, buy a genuine battery. There are a lot of compatible batteries that state that they have {so and so} battery capacity but the chances are they have the same capacity as the genuine battery (and sometimes less!).
Disable fast dormancy
Fast dormancy(FD) is a feature that controls your mobile radio by putting it to sleep when not in use. This can be a good thing if your carrier supports this but it could be a bad thing if your carrier doesn't With stock rom, you can easily disable fast dormancy by going on the phone dialer and typing *#9900# . In custom roms, you can use quick dialer numbers, so you will have to use an app called fastdormancy toggle by the legend gokhanmoral: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gokhanmoral.fastdormancytoggle.i9300&hl=en. Even though the description says it's for the i9300, it should work with the i9100. As you can see on the image above, this shows the different combinations of phones that have FD enabled or disabled and carriers that do and don't support FD.
Mediascanner bug/Music bug/FP bug/Fuse bug fix
Known as the infamous music bug, this bug has existed since Android 4.0.3. The problem was caused by the corruption of FP registors, in other words, when your screen turned off, the code for saving your state of your phone was not properly coded by Samsung, and as of a result, battery life was lost. The music bug affected all users of android 4.0.3 or later and could be noticed when after playing music from an external sd card where the music would just suddenly stopped. To fix this bug, install a custom kernel that includes this music bug fix (like apolo kernel, dorimanx kernel or gustavo kernel) and your problem should be fixed. Note: This also requires a rooted phone with custom recovery.
Change your phone's modem
A modem modulates and demodulates signals for communication between networks. Your phone's modem is responsible of providing a software layer that controls the mobile cell to communicate with the cell tower. Sometimes, the current modem may be poorly optimized for your carrier/device which may lead in some battery drainage. To solve this issue, you may have to replace your current modem software with a newer or different one. The benefits can only be determined by the user, so it is hard to tell which modem is best for your usage. Have a look at this thread to download a modem: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/general/ref-samsung-modem-ril-cwm-installers-t1881304
Factory reset
Some battery drain issues that can't be solved using apps like greenify or issues to do with mediaserver can be resolved with the good old factory reset. Factory resetting your device will return your device back to the factory defaults (deletes your apps, settings, etc) but doesn't delete you personal files (like music, photos, etc). Be sure to backup all important files just in case something doesn't go as planned. Beware: Stock Android 4.0.x Touchwiz users are advised that factory resetting with stock recovery with stock kernel can cause your phone to hardbrick. Once your phone is hardbricked, your phone is officially dead unless you buy a new motherboard for your phone! Update to JB 4.1.2 first then factory reset or install a custom kernel. To check if your phone is affected (if you have insane chip), download and run this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vinagre.android.emmc_check&hl=en.
Keep your phone cool and don't play games while charging
This is more of a maintenance tip for your battery but when you charge your phone, your phone's battery and circuitry can heat up. This heat can damage your phone's battery so it is important to keep your phone cool. Remove any cases on your phone and allow it to cool naturally. Don't play games while charging your phone as this will heat up your phone even more until your phone gets very hot. Remember that in the battery world, cool is better.
Huge thanks for all of the kernel developers including @dorimanx, @cybernetus, @Computoncio, @pedestre, @Gustavo_s, the developers of the custom roms including @CyanogenMod, @fusionjack and everyone else who made customizing the s2 possible.
Reserved.
Good guide mate thanks!
I will hopefully update the guide today, as well as my governor and scheduler guide
Update: I've added one new tip to stay away from android lollipop. I've also fixed how the image links were shown instead of the actual image.
gsstudios said:
I will hopefully update the guide today, as well as my governor and scheduler guide
Update: I've added one new tip to stay away from android lollipop. I've also fixed how the image links were shown instead of the actual image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely some good info here! Not sure I totally agree with your statement about Lollipop. Currently I find it very stable and don't personally suffer any more issues than I did using any other custom build. Battery wise I've had 4hrs+ screen time with 3g/WiFi, location on, sync on all day. No under clocking used. On a standard battery. With a some streamed Google play music, a couple of short calls and a lot of browsing. In fact with how smooth it runs in comparison to previous android builds vs battery life I highly rate it. Although yes nothing beats stock 4.1.2.
Also I did use sine build.prop tweaks with some Xposed modules and some popular battery saving apps.
Hello there,
I am newbie here, so please excuse me if tons of threads like mine are found across this forum, but believe me when I say i've read 'em all and I can't really work out a solution that suits me.
I've seen that people having the exynos version of s10+ deal with huge battery life problems, and so do I.
On the contrary, I've also seen screenshots of people getting 10 to 14 hours of sot on their s10+ and I really wonder how they achieve it.
First of all, I'd like to say that I've already tried all the minor tweaks like decreasing brightness, screen resolution, animations etc..
I don't really know how to use the "put apps to sleep" thing, and I'd like an opinion to that.
Anyway, I've observed that when I'm on mobile data/4G, the battery drain is insane. Like 1% per 3 minutes or so. Not that good for a smartphone at the cost of almost 1k €, huh?
These are the battery usage stats I get:
-usage by apps
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"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",
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"lightbox_share": "Share",
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-battery usage
-android system consumption setting
So...I don't know what's causing the android system to consume such large amount of battery.
-I didn't restore from any back up when I set up my s10+ almost 2 weeks ago.
-I wiped the partition cache yesterday
-I've optimized all apps (including facebook, messenger and instagram, although I use notification glimpse to get the screen to wake up when I'm sent a message)
-Always on Display is set to "off"
-Battery saving mode is set to "optimized" with adaption pattern set to "on"
-Almost 40% brightness during most of the day
-I'm running the latest software available
-animation frames decreased to 0.5x and also reduced via settings
-location and bluetooth permanently set to "off"
-I've already read the battery optimization guide, but I don't feel like turning all the features that drove me to buy this device to "off"..There has to be another way
Please take your time to look into it and enlighten me because it's so frustrating that a 1000 euros smartphone has to be so much tweaked to produce a decent battery outcome.
SaintJimmy7 said:
Hello there,
I am newbie here, so please excuse me if tons of threads like mine are found across this forum, but believe me when I say i've read 'em all and I can't really work out a solution that suits me.
I've seen that people having the exynos version of s10+ deal with huge battery life problems, and so do I.
On the contrary, I've also seen screenshots of people getting 10 to 14 hours of sot on their s10+ and I really wonder how they achieve it.
First of all, I'd like to say that I've already tried all the minor tweaks like decreasing brightness, screen resolution, animations etc..
I don't really know how to use the "put apps to sleep" thing, and I'd like an opinion to that.
Anyway, I've observed that when I'm on mobile data/4G, the battery drain is insane. Like 1% per 3 minutes or so. Not that good for a smartphone at the cost of almost 1k €, huh?
These are the battery usage stats I get:
-usage by apps
-battery usage
-android system consumption setting
So...I don't know what's causing the android system to consume such large amount of battery.
-I didn't restore from any back up when I set up my s10+ almost 2 weeks ago.
-I wiped the partition cache yesterday
-I've optimized all apps (including facebook, messenger and instagram, although I use notification glimpse to get the screen to wake up when I'm sent a message)
-Always on Display is set to "off"
-Battery saving mode is set to "optimized" with adaption pattern set to "on"
-Almost 40% brightness during most of the day
-I'm running the latest software available
-animation frames decreased to 0.5x and also reduced via settings
-location and bluetooth permanently set to "off"
-I've already read the battery optimization guide, but I don't feel like turning all the features that drove me to buy this device to "off"..There has to be another way
Please take your time to look into it and enlighten me because it's so frustrating that a 1000 euros smartphone has to be so much tweaked to produce a decent battery outcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all. Your battery stats aren't bad at all. 20h on battery with 4 hours and 30 mins screen on and 32% remaining. :laugh:
You managed those stats with 4g only? That would be just perfect
10h of screen on is possible if you just stay on the phone after you unplug it.(did it myself) but only wifi and indoors brightness(@30%)
They are bad. Android systen usage is too high. Mine is about 7-8 % over 20 hours.
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
Gogolakis said:
First of all. Your battery stats aren't bad at all. 20h on battery with 4 hours and 30 mins screen on and 32% remaining. :laugh:
You managed those stats with 4g only? That would be just perfect
10h of screen on is possible if you just stay on the phone after you unplug it.(did it myself) but only wifi and indoors brightness(@30%)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had 4G open (whether the phone was idle or active & messaging etc) about 5 to 7 hours in total. Can't be totally sure. The rest of the day I either used WiFi or no internet connection at all.
The battery since the last charge lasted 25h with Android system draining 22% of it. That fkn huge. I don't know what's causing it. I just tried to restrict it from running to background, but the adaptive power option keeps re-enabling it.. xD
vojopd said:
They are bad. Android systen usage is too high. Mine is about 7-8 % over 20 hours.
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've noticed, I'm asking if there's a way to fix it or find what's causing this and then fix it.
There is plenty of things to turn off because of android system high usage. Install battery gsam monitor, grant adb permissions then you will see what drains youe battery.
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
So what app should I use to see what's draining my battery and what's causing android system to drain almost 30% of battery per charging circle?
I'm getting 4 hrs of average SOT on 4G with youtube, some browsing, calls with standby time of about 15hrs.
But on Wifi SOT is 7+ hrs.