Database Users

[HOWTO] Cleaning your ROM for better battery life ~ up to 5 days

Disclaimer
I am not responsible for any damage to your phone and/or any consequences from your phone being bricked, exploding in your face etc etc etc... You are expected to read the full description and use your brains to process this information, before even touching your phone. Assumed is that you know how to flash using CWM.
Whining that you disagree to remove bloat is not appreciated; If you want to keep your phone bloated for whatever reason, you are at the wrong thread. Feedback should be substantiated and reproducible, not a ventilation of your bottom.​
Context
The intention of this thread is to set an approach how to minimize the battery consumption when you are NOT using your device, e.g. when you are at work, sleeping, at some place that does not allow you to recharge, etc. This guide explains how to thoroughly remove stuff that you probably do not need, something that certainly will not affect your battery life in a negative way. The approach is based on the ROMCleaner script, which was extended a bit. Whether it is necessary to remove all the stuff as described, is debatable - nevertheless it is an approach that works for me, otherwise I would not be posting it.
Because a lot of people replied with phrases like "this is bullsh*t", let me state the following: This approach is in no way a guarantee that you will actually achieve battery life longer than 2 seconds after a full recharge. Neither is it a part of the bible, it is merely the approach I followed to prolong the battery life of my device - which I like to share with you. If you are still hating, wonder yourself: "What have I contributed lately?". In any case, at least try it out yourself before drawing your conclusion beforehand and polluting this thread.
The second discussion point is whether the battery should last longer than 1 day. According to many, you are not using your device properly if you would like this to be the case. My answer is simple: If you have no such desire, move along. If you do, like I do, this topic might be of some worth to you.
Furthermore, I honestly do not understand statements like '2-3-4-5 days is impossible' on one battery charge. If you are convinced that Jesus will return again, please do so, but give other people the space to actually find out whether it is the case for themselves.​
Some Introduction...
Have you been annoying your ass of because your battery is drained within a day, without even using the phone while at work? I certainly have. Coming from a SGS1, which used to serve me at least 3 days on one charge, I got instant diarrhea from the battery life of the stock SGS3 firmware.
Then I downloaded a ROM, stripped everything unneeded and more and finally got a battery life of approx 3 - 4 days. However, because I had ripped a ROM apart, which was a manual operation, updating became quite time-intensive. Therefore I also did not update, until the recent JB leaks. So this time I though: Lets make a script to do it for me, in order to make updates possible in an easy way. Then I only have to run the clean-script after an update.
After some testing, I am finally satisfied with my device again - Check out the screenshots. The results are achieved while having wifi constantly on, using google sync and whatsapp. The screenshots are based on Wanamlite XXDLI7; The first shows the battery usage during a night, the second during a day of light phone usage. I will post another screenshot when the battery is drained completely.​
What to expect and trade-offs
After completing this procedure you can expect significant increase of battery life when the phone is idle. If you are using the phone actively all day long, then this approach might not be of much worth to you. People who do not have time to play with the phone all day, e.g. because they work during the day, will probably find this most useful. The cleaning of your rom will remove about 70% of the apps/widgets that come by default, therefore it is wise to check whether you will not lose apps/widgets that are valuable to you. You are still free to modify the "script" according to your need/desire.​
So what do we need?
A DEODEXED Stock-based ROM, I prefer wanamlite http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1705866
ROMCleaner - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1827817
The attached ROMCleaner_user.txt will sustain default samsung browser, calendar, email and messaging. (untested)
The attached ROMCleaner_user_jb-apps.txt expects you to replace the JellyBean apps discussed next. Beware that the stock browser, calendar and email are not tested by me and could drain your battery faster.
Because I had some issues that ROMCleaner would not read the ROMCleaner_user.txt, I had to integrate the file into the ROMCleaner package. To do this, you can download the ROMCleaner package and replace META-INF\com\google\android\romcleaner\ROMCleaner.txt in the zip by the file you just downloaded.
Packages to restore some stuff ^^
If you have chosen for the JellyBean apps package (jbapps-avdaga.zip) you will get:
JellyBean browser + calendar ripped from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1797109
Inverted JellyBean apps: email and messaging ripped from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1780559
In case you want Samsung Apps store for free fancy games, get it from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1861409
Got the packages, whats next?
Put all files on your phone, reboot to CWM.
Make a backup of your current system, smart monkey.
Flash the JellyBean ROM of your prefrence if you have not already. (If you come from ICS, wiping your data guarantees best results).
"Flash" the ROMCleaner script, either by using ROMCleaner_user.txt approach, or integrating the file.
If necessary, flash the provided JellyBeans apps package and Samsung Apps package.
Reboot and enjoy your awesome battery.
Thanks to
Wanam for his awesome ROM.
Patrics83 and others for ROMCleaner.
Temasek and CyanogenMod team for proper Android apps.
All others I forgot.
Interesting Posts
flypubec said:
@OP: Your post is missleading. Removed bloatware has nothing to do with the battery life.
After intensive research I came to the conclusion that there are only 2 major issues for the battery drain on vanilla stock ROM (JB DLI8).
Those are:
1) Samsung push service : SOLUTION -> simply unstall it, bacause you don't need it anyway (e.g. via Titanium backup).
2) Wrong fast dormancy setting : SOLUTION -> use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gokhanmoral.fastdormancytoggle.i9300&hl=sl from gokhanmoral to toggle it to the setting supported by your carier. BE careful not to toggly it exactly the oposite.
With these 2 mods on stock DLI8 I get less than 0.5% battery drain while idle over an hour.(Mail sync set to every 30 mins)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
>> If you like to keep all samsung stuff, this indeed is probably a better approach.
manemzjum said:
Charging your phone and putting it in airplane mode for 23 hrs your fooling no-one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
>> In the screenshot you can see the mobile network signal.

Nice!
I've been on Stock-rooted since I got the device. I'm definitely going to try this out.
I use my phone plenty, doubt I'd be able to get 5 days out of it, but we'll see.

Is it better than just freezing all the unwanted apps?

eggman89 said:
Is it better than just freezing all the unwanted apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cannot promise that, but you can compare the list of removed apps in ROMCleaner.txt

Will it work with a LH1 (BTU)- stock rom? (Rooted, of course)
Thanks!

According to the images, the screen was off 99% of the time, am I missing something?

DorEzo said:
Will it work with a LH1 (BTU)- stock rom? (Rooted, of course)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should, make a backup and try for yourself. Do take into consideration that you might need the default ICS apps or simply use the ROMCleaner_user.txt, not the JB one.

yellowbiz said:
According to the images, the screen was off 99% of the time, am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first image is supposed to show how it performs when idle, the second is after a day of usage. Primarily used it for some messaging and calls though, however the main point is that the battery is not drained when not using the phone. When I used a stock rom the battery was depleted for 50% after half a day without me even touching the device :-\
Of course if you use the phone normally the battery will be depleted in 3-4 days, like i mentioned in the intro.

I know how to get years of battery life, charge your phone to 100%, take the battery out for at least 2 years, and it should have some life left in it, you must make sure you don't put the battery in for at least 2 years.

What are you guys whining about..if it can improve your battery life and remove the apps that you dont need, why not? You should be thankfull that people put their work in such things in their free time.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

henrybravo said:
Yay, let's remove a bunch of features from the phone so that when you're not using it at all, you can get 5 days of battery life! :silly: Your claim of "normal" usage equaling 3-4 days is pretty unrealistic. Battery usage is subjective with thousands of variables, which makes lofty claims of battery life completely pointless.
Nearly all of your battery life improvements are just doing step #1.
You're using a rooted and tweaked stock ROM with a tweaked kernel. Just by doing this, you're going to get much better battery life versus stock ROM. Nothing new to see here. Removing what little other "bloat" that Wanam left in the ROM by removing a bunch of apk's (that don't run anyway unless you launch them) and replacing a few ICS apps with JB versions will only offer a very small improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please install any stock-based ROM and check the services that are running in the background - without you even know you had them. There is a lot of garbage coming in all stock-based roms, and I really do not understand the problem of removing stuff you do not use; Morever, I think this is something people should do in all apsects of life; that is removing sh*t you do not use.
I conclude your assertions are based on thin air, as you did not even take the time to test this approach. I have spent quite some time testing stuff out and posting my observations here - so please do not post if you have nothing constructive or reproducible to say.
Last thing: I do not replace ICS apps with JB, this stuff was tested on a JB rom - but you knew already because you read the full post

so basically you debloat a stock deodexed Rom? Any other changes I'm missing?

slaphead20 said:
so basically you debloat a stock deodexed Rom? Any other changes I'm missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Besides changing some samsung apps for CM10 ones, that is it indeed. Though the debloating is more thorough than proposed by others.

Ok, thanks,, just wanted to know exactly what the script did, prefer my own debloating and tweaking, but good for newcomers.

there are also people that are not normal and want to use their phones on trips or in situations when they have no charging opportunities

@OP: Your post is missleading. Removed bloatware has nothing to do with the battery life.
After intensive research I came to the conclusion that there are only 2 major issues for the battery drain on vanilla stock ROM (JB DLI8).
Those are:
1) Samsung push service : SOLUTION -> simply unstall it, bacause you don't need it anyway (e.g. via Titanium backup).
2) Wrong fast dormancy setting : SOLUTION -> use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gokhanmoral.fastdormancytoggle.i9300&hl=sl from gokhanmoral to toggle it to the setting supported by your carier. BE careful not to toggly it exactly the oposite.
With these 2 mods on stock DLI8 I get less than 0.5% battery drain while idle over an hour.(Mail sync set to every 30 mins)

Does this work on the omega rom by any chance. i only need at least a full day worth or battery

Iffay said:
Does this work on the omega rom by any chance. i only need at least a full day worth or battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should work on any stock-based rom, also omega.

My thoughts...really.
I don't wanna sound rude, yet i had to agree with some when they say "buy a Nokia (old one of course" or just "disconnet for one or two years".
It's virtually impossible with the kind of gadgets we have these days any battery last more than 1 day.
I've made my own mods and roms from scratch in recent past for X10, so u may consider at least that i known what i'm talking about.
The only way, no mather witch brand you like or believe its the best, is by f#@king your screen. Period. That is the main reason why every phone just last 1 day with "normal" use.
If you've payed attention i've used "normal" expression witch means phone, mail, sync and didn't wrote "heavy use" that will include music, YouTube, videos, etc.
Like i said. I've made my own work in the past and still do some minor (?) changes and i must say this: i'm glad if my phone last one working day from 7AM till 23PM. Yes! Working day, that's why i dont't develop anything.
If you or anyone else state that your/his phone had better battery life than this i make two considerations:
1. You're (not you in particular) a liar, or;
2. You simply don't use your phone as you can.
If you dont consider that you belong at the first consideration than..."buy a Nokia..."
Another thought:
You just bought this (or similar) phone for a status matter or money it's something that's really cheap for you (another 2nd choice).
Like i said...just my 2 cents.
Cheers
R.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

No way you have devised a way for your phone not to use battery while not using it
What's your next project you gonna design a wireless device that can change my tv station using infer red lasers
Oh wait both of these already exist
Charging your phone and putting it in airplane mode for 23 hrs your fooling no-one
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

[Q] CM users: Where does the battery go?

I realize that battery usage is a topic that comes up periodically, and that there are many variables, and this is not a slam on CM in any way, because I'm a huge fan, but my question is this:
Why, in general, does CM tend to use more battery than stock, all things being equal?
I've noticed that, even after having done all the usual stuff, like disabling features, brightness controls, etc. greenify, blah, blah, blah. that CM still tends to use more battery than stock, and I would have assumed that a lighter system would use less power, but even with the same apps and config, the same amount of screen on time, their is a difference between stock and CM.
Where does the battery power go? It's obviously being wasted somewhere, but what's really causing it?

donalgodon said:
I realize that battery usage is a topic that comes up periodically, and that there are many variables, and this is not a slam on CM in any way, because I'm a huge fan, but my question is this:
Why, in general, does CM tend to use more battery than stock, all things being equal?
I've noticed that, even after having done all the usual stuff, like disabling features, brightness controls, etc. greenify, blah, blah, blah. that CM still tends to use more battery than stock, and I would have assumed that a lighter system would use less power, but even with the same apps and config, the same amount of screen on time, their is a difference between stock and CM.
Where does the battery power go? It's obviously being wasted somewhere, but what's really causing it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
probably NFC running in the background consuming the battery well thats what most of the AOSP roms suffer from , but hey its still an unofficial Rom, im sure CM will fix it evenually.

im4eversmart said:
probably NFC running in the background consuming the battery well thats what most of the AOSP roms suffer from , but hey its still an unofficial Rom, im sure CM will fix it evenually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If/since I don't use NFC, can I fix it by just freezing or removing NFC?

aaa
donalgodon said:
If/since I don't use NFC, can I fix it by just freezing or removing NFC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only one way to find out - Do a backup & try! After uninstalling all you get is force closes - but keep calm - reboot device and everything will be allright

Why don't you just turn NFC off? That's surely the simplist way
Sent from my GT-I9505 whilst taking a s**t

Even if he switch it off, wont help..but pretty sure devs are working on fixing this issue soon probably an update or two
Sent from my SMART Galaxy S4 i9500 via Tapatalk 2

[Q] Damn Wakelocks!

Can anyone tell me if this is normal? I'm really trying to nip this wakelock issue in the bud, and I'm getting REALLY frustrated. I was seeing google services take up more resources than even the display, so I've turned off all location services and Google Now, and the Google services resource hogging went down.
Now I'm seeing high "keep awake" times in GSAM from the Kernel itself. I guess my battery drain isn't *that* bad (about 1.5% per hour) and that's with 1 hour of screen on time...but what's the deal with the wakelocks?! I'm assuming "keep awake" isn't counting the screen on time, right? 1 hour 32 minutes of keep awake seems excessive to me in only 13 hours time.
Can someone please tell me if this is normal for the Kernel? If it's not location services I don't know what else it could be.
TIA!!
p.s. What happened to the upload image option??
Pic is here

siciliano777 said:
Can anyone tell me if this is normal? I'm really trying to nip this wakelock issue in the bud, and I'm getting REALLY frustrated. I was seeing google services take up more resources than even the display, so I've turned off all location services and Google Now, and the Google services resource hogging went down.
Now I'm seeing high "keep awake" times in GSAM from the Kernel itself. I guess my battery drain isn't *that* bad (about 1.5% per hour) and that's with 1 hour of screen on time...but what's the deal with the wakelocks?! I'm assuming "keep awake" isn't counting the screen on time, right? 1 hour 32 minutes of keep awake seems excessive to me in only 13 hours time.
Can someone please tell me if this is normal for the Kernel? If it's not location services I don't know what else it could be.
TIA!!
p.s. What happened to the upload image option??
Pic is here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You really need to stop over thinking your devices and use them. You did the same thing for the last 2 years with your Nexus.

akellar said:
You really need to stop over thinking your devices and use them. You did the same thing for the last 2 years with your Nexus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man I remember you from the AOKP gnex forum. Did you pick up the N3 too? You're 100% correct...I really have no idea why I'm always *so* obsessed over battery life/drain. It's like an OCD that itches and compels me to have my devices run as efficiently as humanly possible. It's a crappy obsession too, because it's gonna be a VERY long time before any device is even near perfect.
You would think I'd be enjoying this insane battery life as compared to what I used to get on the gnex. I'm getting well over a full day and sometimes over 8 hours screen on time, but no, I'm obsessing all over again. To my credit I do think my gnex did really have some issues though - I couldn't even get close to getting through the day without having to recharge, and I had the extended 2100 mAh battery. I was having to charge that damn phone like every 8 hours with minimal usage.
I seriously thank you for making me wake up and smell the roses. I'm just gonna enjoy this beautiful phone. And for the first time in a very long time I have absolutely no desire to throw a ROM on my device!! I think that speaks to how great the phone is.

Hey, yup that's me. I actually grabbed a Note 3 in the Amazon screw up and will have it in hand tonight. I appreciate you not taking my statement as a personal shot and exactly how I intended it. There will always be something you can find wrong in a device if you're looking for it. And yes, the Gnex sucked

akellar said:
Hey, yup that's me. I actually grabbed a Note 3 in the Amazon screw up and will have it in hand tonight. I appreciate you not taking my statement as a personal shot and exactly how I intended it. There will always be something you can find wrong in a device if you're looking for it. And yes, the Gnex sucked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah man, I may be complaining a little bit about it, but make no mistake, you're gonna be blown away by this phone. 8 hours of screen on time? That's just insane. The s-pen is amazing with all its features and handwriting recognition, pen window, etc... I'm in love with it. And I have a good amount of features turned on that aren't hurting the battery life at all. Not to mention, as expected the phone is faaaaast. It's kind of amazing how much of a step up it is from the gnex. :good:
And yeah thanks again, I needed someone to snap me out of it and realize EXACTLY what you said - I need to just enjoy using this beautiful phone and stop trying to pick it apart. Sites like this especially are also a bad influence - it's ridden with OCD modders/flashers/tinkerers. It's all good though, I'm very happy and I'm not even gonna update or root the phone...it's not even necessary.

akellar said:
You really need to stop over thinking your devices and use them. You did the same thing for the last 2 years with your Nexus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
siciliano777 said:
Yeah man, I may be complaining a little bit about it, but make no mistake, you're gonna be blown away by this phone. 8 hours of screen on time? That's just insane. The s-pen is amazing with all its features and handwriting recognition, pen window, etc... I'm in love with it. And I have a good amount of features turned on that aren't hurting the battery life at all. Not to mention, as expected the phone is faaaaast. It's kind of amazing how much of a step up it is from the gnex. :good:
And yeah thanks again, I needed someone to snap me out of it and realize EXACTLY what you said - I need to just enjoy using this beautiful phone and stop trying to pick it apart. Sites like this especially are also a bad influence - it's ridden with OCD modders/flashers/tinkerers. It's all good though, I'm very happy and I'm not even gonna update or root the phone...it's not even necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I politely disagree with overthinking the phone. IMO, it's supposed to be an endless expansion of a playground for you to make the device yours and I always find myself tinkering. It has paid off through knowledge gained along with simple fun and pride for the awesome state my phone is in now.
For the battery life issue, I would recommend first installing Wakelock Detector and open it, select the top icon to toggle to "wakeup triggers". Keep in mind that BetterBatteryStats works fine as well. Wakeup triggers are nice because they'll tell you a number of times that a certain app waked your device when it tries to sleep.
I see it like "how dare google services wake MY device when i don't use google talk and/or have sync turned off" How to fix the certain wakelock will be my next post after you report back more detailed info on it if you'd like

I've fixed this issue. I cleared the main cache from settings...storage, then rebooted. Now instead of .5 - 1%/hr drain, I just got 6 hours of nice deep sleep with ONE percent drain.

THIS is what deep sleep should look like. and everything I had turned on before was still enabled the whole time...wifi, bt, smart stay, etc.
Android system process: stay awake time 2 minutes! Success!

siciliano777 said:
THIS is what deep sleep should look like. and everything I had turned on before was still enabled the whole time...wifi, bt, smart stay, etc.
Android system process: stay awake time 2 minutes! Success!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mind sharing what you've done to get to this point? (Besides just in relation to Google Services...)

snwbrdr852 said:
Do you mind sharing what you've done to get to this point? (Besides just in relation to Google Services...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, np. I froze a lot of apps, including all Samsung and all Verizon apps. Then I turned off all location services. I'm mostly on WiFi all day and don't really need location services, so I just turn them on before a trip when I know I'll need the gps/nav.

siciliano777 said:
Hey, np. I froze a lot of apps, including all Samsung and all Verizon apps. Then I turned off all location services. I'm mostly on WiFi all day and don't really need location services, so I just turn them on before a trip when I know I'll need the gps/nav.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, nothing new then. I was expecting more intense measures for some reason.
Thanks though.

[Q] ANDROID IS JUNK! (Battery "life")

Every time I track down what is sucking my battery Google come up with a new way for Android to suck even more. I have sorted out various apps, location services, underclocking, etc. Now I find that when there is an update waiting the Play Store punishes me by sucking the juice out of the battery - even though I have it set to automatic updates and to give me notifications if there are updates waiting. No notifications and sometimes the waiting update doesn't even show up in My Apps, unless you switch to the Store Home and then back to My Apps. It might make a little bit of sense if these app updates were waiting for you to approve a change to the permissions but that isn't the case.
I have this problem on my Nexus 4 running rooted stock Android 4.4.4 AND on my waterproof Moto Defy+ running uprooted stock 2.3, so I'm guessing it is the Play Store which is junk. Does anybody know a solution to this? Please? I have tried searching for solutions but there are SO many battery/Android OS problems that I haven't been able to find the answer for this particular one.
I'm almost tempted to go for an iPhone - except that they are junk too. Maybe my next phone should be a Nokia 3310.
(BTW "junk" wasn't the word I originally used)

You're never going to get zero percent battery use, maybe your expectations are out of line?
How much screen on time do you out of a full charge? And what's your %/hour drop when the phone is sitting untouched?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app

Badgie said:
Every time I track down what is sucking my battery Google come up with a new way for Android to suck even more. I have sorted out various apps, location services, underclocking, etc. Now I find that when there is an update waiting the Play Store punishes me by sucking the juice out of the battery - even though I have it set to automatic updates and to give me notifications if there are updates waiting. No notifications and sometimes the waiting update doesn't even show up in My Apps, unless you switch to the Store Home and then back to My Apps. It might make a little bit of sense if these app updates were waiting for you to approve a change to the permissions but that isn't the case.
I have this problem on my Nexus 4 running rooted stock Android 4.4.4 AND on my waterproof Moto Defy+ running uprooted stock 2.3, so I'm guessing it is the Play Store which is junk. Does anybody know a solution to this? Please? I have tried searching for solutions but there are SO many battery/Android OS problems that I haven't been able to find the answer for this particular one.
I'm almost tempted to go for an iPhone - except that they are junk too. Maybe my next phone should be a Nokia 3310.
(BTW "junk" wasn't the word I originally used)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
google doesnt come up with a new way for android to suck more battery , YOU DO , note the keyword is YOU , now figure it out .

I was getting under 2% per hour drain then, without me making any changes, when updates came along and Android didn't tell me and Android decided to suck my battery it goes to something like 10% per hour

Badgie said:
I was getting under 2% per hour drain then, without me making any changes, when updates came along and Android didn't tell me and Android decided to suck my battery it goes to something like 10% per hour
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
battery life is all dependent on YOUR personal usage, your personal setup, your personal decision to install whatever apps, and very much your phone/data signal. if your data/phone signal is only so so, then youyr battery life will only be so so. if you have things draining your battery besides for your signal and use, its up to you to figure out why. thye battery klife of my nexus 4 and nexus 5, actually, all androids that ive ever owned, has been wonderful. i get the same google apps updates as you, no less. so you have to figure it out.

OK, so as I said previously, with no changes made by Me I am finding that when app updates come along my Nexus doesn't alert me to the need to update but if I don't spot that an update is needed "Android OS" usage climbs and drains my battery until I look for an app update and update it. This is without loading any new apps and with the good signal I always have and all the things I normally have turned off (wifi, BT, location history, Google Now, etc) and slightly underclocked (1.2 GHz).
I'm sorry if criticising Android has offended people but I'm asking if anyone can help me solve yet another battery drain. Assuming that I'm doing something wrong isn't helping unless you can point me at what I'm doing wrong. All I am seeing is that I've sorted out all the known battery drains in my personal set up and yet updates, over which I have no apparent control, are causing another drain. I would like to hear from anyone who might be able to help and I apologise to anyone who is offended that I see an imperfection in the phone we have all chosen.
Thanks in anticipation.

Badgie said:
OK, so as I said previously, with no changes made by Me I am finding that when app updates come along my Nexus doesn't alert me to the need to update but if I don't spot that an update is needed "Android OS" usage climbs and drains my battery until I look for an app update and update it. This is without loading any new apps and with the good signal I always have and all the things I normally have turned off (wifi, BT, location history, Google Now, etc) and slightly underclocked (1.2 GHz).
I'm sorry if criticising Android has offended people but I'm asking if anyone can help me solve yet another battery drain. Assuming that I'm doing something wrong isn't helping unless you can point me at what I'm doing wrong. All I am seeing is that I've sorted out all the known battery drains in my personal set up and yet updates, over which I have no apparent control, are causing another drain. I would like to hear from anyone who might be able to help and I apologise to anyone who is offended that I see an imperfection in the phone we have all chosen.
Thanks in anticipation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to find out what's causing the battery drain. Get gsam or betterbatterystats. Without one of those you're just guessing.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
You need to find out what's causing the battery drain. Get gsam or betterbatterystats. Without one of those you're just guessing.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App updates come along. Play Store is set to give notifications and to auto-update. Some app updates don't give notifications and "Android OS" causes a load of wakelocks until I spot that the update needs doing and do it manually. Same thing happens on my wife's stock Nexus 4. We are both in the Uk on Three network and have good signal.
I have BBS but I need to see what it says when I get this app update problem. I will post my findings when I get the info. If nobody here recognises this problem maybe I need to look at what is similar between our two Nexus 4s. I know we both have WhatsApp and, of course, all the Google apps, both on 4.4.4 but there the similarities end.

Badgie said:
Every time I track down what is sucking my battery Google come up with a new way for Android to suck even more. I have sorted out various apps, location services, underclocking, etc. Now I find that when there is an update waiting the Play Store punishes me by sucking the juice out of the battery - even though I have it set to automatic updates and to give me notifications if there are updates waiting. No notifications and sometimes the waiting update doesn't even show up in My Apps, unless you switch to the Store Home and then back to My Apps. It might make a little bit of sense if these app updates were waiting for you to approve a change to the permissions but that isn't the case.
I have this problem on my Nexus 4 running rooted stock Android 4.4.4 AND on my waterproof Moto Defy+ running uprooted stock 2.3, so I'm guessing it is the Play Store which is junk. Does anybody know a solution to this? Please? I have tried searching for solutions but there are SO many battery/Android OS problems that I haven't been able to find the answer for this particular one.
I'm almost tempted to go for an iPhone - except that they are junk too. Maybe my next phone should be a Nokia 3310.
(BTW "junk" wasn't the word I originally used)
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Click to collapse
Why don't you try a ROM other than stock? I have flashed countless phones and tuned ROMs always offer better battery life. I don't understand why people go through all the effort of rooting then stick with stock ROMs. I know the general consensus is that the stock ROM (on the Nexus anyway) is one of the best, but let me tell you the general consensus is wrong. It is good, but there are much better custom ROMs.
Oh, and stock 2.3 on the Defy??? Come on man, why are you on XDA? This isn't the Carphone Warehouse helpdesk.
Try something barebones - no bloatware/small rom and choose barebones GAPPS. This will make a huge difference in battery life before you even dive in and stark tweaking further.

BMXJeff said:
Why don't you try a ROM other than stock? I have flashed countless phones and tuned ROMs always offer better battery life. I don't understand why people go through all the effort of rooting then stick with stock ROMs. I know the general consensus is that the stock ROM (on the Nexus anyway) is one of the best, but let me tell you the general consensus is wrong. It is good, but there are much better custom ROMs.
Oh, and stock 2.3 on the Defy??? Come on man, why are you on XDA? This isn't the Carphone Warehouse helpdesk.
Try something barebones - no bloatware/small rom and choose barebones GAPPS. This will make a huge difference in battery life before you even dive in and stark tweaking further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're wrong. The rom will make very little difference. I constantly get far over 5 hours sot with stock rom and kernel. It's your signal quality and the apps you use and how you set then up that makes the difference
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

BMXJeff said:
Why don't you try a ROM other than stock? I have flashed countless phones and tuned ROMs always offer better battery life. I don't understand why people go through all the effort of rooting then stick with stock ROMs. I know the general consensus is that the stock ROM (on the Nexus anyway) is one of the best, but let me tell you the general consensus is wrong. It is good, but there are much better custom ROMs.
Oh, and stock 2.3 on the Defy??? Come on man, why are you on XDA? This isn't the Carphone Warehouse helpdesk.
Try something barebones - no bloatware/small rom and choose barebones GAPPS. This will make a huge difference in battery life before you even dive in and stark tweaking further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
one more thing, you do not need root or to be rooted to run a custom rom or kernel. the only thing that root is need for is to change system files or to run root apps. but yea, you can get great battery life on stock.

I have been getting great battery life from the stock ROM after a few tweaks apart from this problem with updates. I have had a couple of other ROMs on this phone but went back to stock after the last couple of system updates. When I'm not having this particular battery drain then, if I leave the phone alone, I'm getting about 1%/hr battery drain. Also my wife doesn't want her Nexus "messed about with" and it helps if the two are fairly similar. Xposed is the big difference between the two.
The Defy+ is on 2.3 because I only use it when I'm out hiking and it might rain. The Defy is not easy to upgrade and 2.3 was where Android got good, so I'm OK with it, if that's all right with you.

BTW I have a degree in Electronics & Physics plus 17 years postgraduate experience in software engineering in the defence sector. So it's not that I'm not technical I just choose not to make a hobby out of keeping my phones working.

Badgie said:
BTW I have a degree in Electronics & Physics plus 17 years postgraduate experience in software engineering in the defence sector. So it's not that I'm not technical I just choose not to make a hobby out of keeping my phones working.
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That's nice
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
You're wrong. The rom will make very little difference. I constantly get far over 5 hours sot with stock rom and kernel. It's your signal quality and the apps you use and how you set then up that makes the difference
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
over 5hr sot with stock kernel and rom? impossible......do you even use any 3rd party app on your phone? i get tops 3,5h all stock with NO DATA at ALL, and i turn off sync/wifi when i dont use the phone, with a custom kernel i get close to 5h

Mashed_Potatoes said:
over 5hr sot with stock kernel and rom? impossible......do you even use any 3rd party app on your phone? i get tops 3,5h all stock with NO DATA at ALL, and i turn off sync/wifi when i dont use the phone, with a custom kernel i get close to 5h
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Click to collapse
i see 5h sot nearly every day i use n4, so its not impossible. its a matter of your signal quality and usage. when im using LTE, i always se 5h sot. on hspa+, i see 4-4.5h sot. i have everything enabled and am a heavy user, plus have 96 apps installed. no facebook on any of my devices though. and i never ever disable data.

jd1639 said:
You're wrong. The rom will make very little difference. I constantly get far over 5 hours sot with stock rom and kernel. It's your signal quality and the apps you use and how you set then up that makes the difference
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A stripped down ROM running only the bare minimum can greatly improve battery life! Just have a sift through some custom ROMs and you will find the ones that are tuned to do such a thing.
Also in reply to others here, the advantage of being rooted means you can remove unwanted system apps, underclock etc which if you're concerned about battery life would be quite important I would have thought.
---------- Post added at 07:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------
jd1639 said:
You need to find out what's causing the battery drain. Get gsam or betterbatterystats. Without one of those you're just guessing.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what you need to do if you want to persist with the stock ROM. I personally have used betterbatterystats with success. Use this to check wakelocks as these are often the cause of mystery battery drain. There is an old but useful guide to that here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1827676
PS. Your Electronics degree gave me a semi

BMXJeff said:
PS. Your Electronics degree gave me a semi
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Click to collapse
Me too. That was a difficult three years.

simms22 said:
i see 5h sot nearly every day i use n4, so its not impossible. its a matter of your signal quality and usage. when im using LTE, i always se 5h sot. on hspa+, i see 4-4.5h sot. i have everything enabled and am a heavy user, plus have 96 apps installed. no facebook on any of my devices though. and i never ever disable data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not possible with the 2100mah that n4 has! I have the same set up and I'm getting 3h sot..

simms22 said:
i see 5h sot nearly every day i use n4, so its not impossible. its a matter of your signal quality and usage. when im using LTE, i always se 5h sot. on hspa+, i see 4-4.5h sot. i have everything enabled and am a heavy user, plus have 96 apps installed. no facebook on any of my devices though. and i never ever disable data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i never use data and i average 3,5-4h sot?

Sudden drop in battery performance on my Nexus 6P(no rogue 3rd party apps).

Hello everyone!
So I have been having these battery issues since April security patch. the phone gets really warm to the touch even by doing the simplest of things like browsing and watching youtube. Android OS keeps the phone awake 80% of the time and I am only getting 2-3 hours of use throughout the day. Restored the phone to factory settings(fresh start, nothing restored) three days ago and still the same issue. Android OS drains the battery life even though I made sure that only google apps are installed on the phone.
But today things got even weirder. I disabled Google Now and location services as a test and the battery drain and heat issues were gone temporarily. I was getting a great battery performance from morning to afternoon. I check my battery stats and I notice that Google services mysteriously drained 17% of my battery life and that it's been running for 21 days straight? That's impossible since I just did a fresh reset to the phone three days ago. I rebooted the phone and that "Google services" drain changed to WiFi instead?! That's crazy!
I contacted Google store support team and they have been really helpful so far. They offered to replace the phone with a refurbished unit, but I don't think I am ready to give up on this phone just yet.
Thank you!

waelalzubieri said:
Hello everyone!
So I have been having these battery issues since April security patch. the phone gets really warm to the touch even by doing the simplest of things like browsing and watching youtube. Android OS keeps the phone awake 80% of the time and I am only getting 2-3 hours of use throughout the day. Restored the phone to factory settings(fresh start, nothing restored) three days ago and still the same issue. Android OS drains the battery life even though I made sure that only google apps are installed on the phone.
But today things got even weirder. I disabled Google Now and location services as a test and the battery drain and heat issues were gone temporarily. I was getting a great battery performance from morning to afternoon. I check my battery stats and I notice that Google services mysteriously drained 17% of my battery life and that it's been running for 21 days straight? That's impossible since I just did a fresh reset to the phone three days ago. I rebooted the phone and that "Google services" drain changed to WiFi instead?! That's crazy!
I contacted Google store support team and they have been really helpful so far. They offered to replace the phone with a refurbished unit, but I don't think I am ready to give up on this phone just yet.
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to recommend this, but sometimes things go out of wack after a SW update, so a hard reset would probably be needed. I would try that (just start from zero) before jumping into a refurbished phone that might have some other kind of issues. Have you tried a hard reset yet? I see that you did a fresh reset. Did you go through the recovery though? Not just the regular UI. I think it's better to clear cache, and every thing through the recovery (custom or stock).

en28so said:
I hate to recommend this, but sometimes things go out of wack after a SW update, so a hard reset would probably be needed. I would try that (just start from zero) before jumping into a refurbished phone that might have some other kind of issues. Have you tried a hard reset yet? I see that you did a fresh reset. Did you go through the recovery though? Not just the regular UI. I think it's better to clear cache, and every thing through the recovery (custom or stock).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did it through recovery. I have cleared the cache and rebooted the phone several times the past few days. Nothing seems to help at all.

Turn off your google backup.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

waelalzubieri said:
I did it through recovery. I have cleared the cache and rebooted the phone several times the past few days. Nothing seems to help at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. Maybe a custom ROM might help? Have you tried that? That's the last thing I would do. Good luck!

Not recommended but I just flashed January vendor and ROM and that has helped my battery life. I. Believe it is the security updates that kill our battery.

shawn1482 said:
Not recommended but I just flashed January vendor and ROM and that has helped my battery life. I. Believe it is the security updates that kill our battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it a widespread issue? Like I said in my post, I saw the decline ever since I got the April security update. The May patch actually managed to make things worse. There seems to be something hidden in the OS that it's draining the battery and causing the awake issues. I haven't tried rooting the device because I lack the experience to do so. I will probably look into it on these forums, but at this point I have tried everything.
Disabling Google now helped a lot and it exposed some sort of a glitch with the stock battery monitoring app. I am not sure if it's hardware or software, but it's certainly not normal. I am tempted to just replace it, but I am afraid that this issue will just plague the new one from Google. I am really disappointed How Google handles updates on this device. I always thought that stock android is most stable version of android, but the software on my old Xperia Z is actually more stable than this. It never had battery drain issues and standby battery life was always great. The battery life on Nexus 6P is actually worse than the Xperia Z even though that phone is 3 years old.

waelalzubieri said:
Is it a widespread issue? Like I said in my post, I saw the decline ever since I got the April security update. The May patch actually managed to make things worse. There seems to be something hidden in the OS that it's draining the battery and causing the awake issues. I haven't tried rooting the device because I lack the experience to do so. I will probably look into it on these forums, but at this point I have tried everything.
Disabling Google now helped a lot and it exposed some sort of a glitch with the stock battery monitoring app. I am not sure if it's hardware or software, but it's certainly not normal. I am tempted to just replace it, but I am afraid that this issue will just plague the new one from Google. I am really disappointed How Google handles updates on this device. I always thought that stock android is most stable version of android, but the software on my old Xperia Z is actually more stable than this. It never had battery drain issues and standby battery life was always great. The battery life on Nexus 6P is actually worse than the Xperia Z even though that phone is 3 years old.
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Click to collapse
I've seen a lot of posts over the months with people having the same problem we are. I came from a mid range LG stylo with a snapdragon 610. I would have 8 hours screen on time daily. Its sad that goggle cant get the same out of their own hardware. Also I have seen that the Note 5 and S7 Edge both get better battery life as opposed to our stock phones. For as much as people praise stock and look down on Touchwiz, they are doing something right over there.

But it doesn't affect everyone and that what puzzles me. Only certain phones are hit by these issues, while other people are getting excellent battery life. I have seen plenty of people post screenshots of 6 hours+ of on screen time. I am lucky to get 3 hours. I think Google should really invest in creating a better power management system into Android. Companies like Sony and Samsung built their own and the battery life on their devices always perform predictably relative to what I am seeing on this phone. I have never witnessed The doze feature kick in since I have bought this phone. Sony had stamina mode since 2013 and it actually worked.

waelalzubieri said:
But it doesn't affect everyone and that what puzzles me. Only certain phones are hit by these issues, while other people are getting excellent battery life. I have seen plenty of people post screenshots of 6 hours+ of on screen time. I am lucky to get 3 hours. I think Google should really invest in creating a better power management system into Android. Companies like Sony and Samsung built their own and the battery life on their devices always perform predictably relative to what I am seeing on this phone. I have never witnessed The doze feature kick in since I have bought this phone. Sony had stamina mode since 2013 and it actually worked.
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Click to collapse
Most of those people posting those outrageous number root and do kernel tweaks. I've gotten at most 6 hours SOT on stock without root. You are right our phones do all react differently to certain circumstances. I don't know if it's feasible to you ,but you should try rooting and trying out a few Roms some help others don't. If you aren't into Roms and decide to root try earlier vendors and stock roms and see it those work. I'm not an expert by any means just my suggestions.

shawn1482 said:
Most of those people posting those outrageous number root and do kernel tweaks. I've gotten at most 6 hours SOT on stock without root. You are right our phones do all react differently to certain circumstances. I don't know if it's feasible to you ,but you should try rooting and trying out a few Roms some help others don't. If you aren't into Roms and decide to root try earlier vendors and stock roms and see it those work. I'm not an expert by any means just my suggestions.
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Click to collapse
Well, the fact that you are having great battery life proves my point. It's either that the quality control of the batteries used on these phones are terrible, or that the software or kernel are corrupted from factory causing these issues. There is no way to fix them by hard reseting the phone so far. I am going to try to flash a stock rom on this device and see what happens. Thanks by the way.

1) Are you rooted? If not, at least do that and install BBS in order to track down what's eating your battery.
2) Probably we'll run into a common problem / bug the last two months.
After unplugging the phone, it seems that the wakelock *backup* runs constantly, does not let phone get into sleep, and runs in the background while using your phone causin battery to drain faster.
3) About battery life. Comparing battery results between two users it has no point, unless you really now his usage pattern. Not only the setup, but which apps of them used most etc.
For example Facebook app is real battery eater. I've seen an hour more SOT without this app.
I can give several examples like this.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk