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:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
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.