Develop Bugs

Wifi drains too much battery?

I've bought Desire 4 days ago.
I've been running in some battery problems a lot. I've heard that battery should have 4-5 full draining and charging before having its max capacity, but I have a life span of about 16-20 hours of battery with Wi-Fi on.
How i found out that: Yesterday I went to the country and messed around with my gps and navigation (never used one, so felt like a little child with a brand new shiny toy). So the battery went dead and i charged it almost full. When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
In about 2 hours, the battery was nearly 60% from 90. When i went to see what's draining the battery I saw it was the Wifi. I turned it off and since last night, up to now (about 14 hours) the battery is 50% (only 10 percent for 14 hours).
Is there any way to make the phone not scan so agressively for Wifi when it's on ? I'm comming from iphone and it didn't matter too much if i had my wifi on or off there.

First of all, what you're experiencing is normal.
In fact, dropping only 30% with 2 straight hrs of heavy use is actually quite impressive.
If you don't want your device to scan for wifi, turn it off. Simple as that. Keep the WiFi setting widget on one of your homescreens for easy access.

It wasn't heavy use I killed all apps and left it there. 30% are just from WiFi scanning.
I know I must turn off wifi, i have the widgy button, but sometimes i just forget i have to shut it down. (Though that's a bit killing, since i didn't have to do this on my iPhone. Actually this is the only shortcoming i can think of now, great phone. Seems i have to get used to killing extra stuff )
Sadly i couldn't find an option to tell it to scan on rarer occasion, just to help absent-minded people like me.

Try downloading "Y5 - Battery Saver" from the Market.
It automatically switches WiFi on and off depending on your location (as determined by cell location, not GPS).
It allows you to leave WiFi in locations where you know you have WiFi, and automatically switches it off when you leave those locations.
I've installed it, but not exhaustively tested as yet as I've not really been out of WiFi coverage since I installed it.
Regards,
Dave

Try getting the WiFi On/Off widget from the market.
It lets you turn off the WiFi with one touch. Will save you a lot of battery when not using it.

@Gana1991 - i've already noted that i have the widget (no need to download from market)
@foxmeister - thanks, i will try that. (I have been secretly thinking about some app with this function )

indeed, there is a WIFI widget builtin.
If you really want another widget, check the WiFi Toggle by "JQ Soft", nice design.
The Y5-Battery Saver is nice....it seems to work properly.
But i am affraid it was causing some problems here, so i uninstalled.
I will reinstall and do some more tests.

WI-FI usage is actually much better than using the network which drains the battery more.
But deffo only have on when using, not all the time.

Or you'd use the standard HTC energy widged or the android wifi switch wich can be found @ widged -> settings -> wifi

Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed

I leave my WiFi on all the time at home because of the data constantly changing between G/3G it drains the battery amazingly fast. leaving WiFi on helps me save battery and keep a data connection. I took my phone off charge at 9 this morning, WiFi has been enabled all day and I have 80% battery.
once the battery has had a week or 2 of charging it will run loads better. also charging with the phone switched off gets you a bit more juice because of a firmware problem.

Software Guru said:
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is this battery widget? I cant find it anywhere.
Oops, didnt know i had to look for it on the market. Found it.

Go settings, wifi, menu button and this brings up advanced settings. From there you can disable wifi after 15 mins of inactivity. When the phone wakes wifi kicks in. I have data turned off, wifi turned off, but if I forget to turn wifi off after using it, it's not too bad as it will be deactivated.

What's that widget called? All I can find is the power widget.

Ok found it
Only seems to be a meter though, no adjustments?

Go settings, wifi, then WiFi settings, then press the menu button,. From their you can select advanced WiFi settings.

When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using your data plan then your wifi wouldn't be on as the phone turns it off when your connected via 3G, it only uses one or the other not both at the same time.
That's the way it is on my Desire.

I've not used WiFi at all today yet apparently its consumed 25% of my battery. I've got it switched off via widget and its also set to disable after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Any thoughts?
thanks for any help

It's just occurred to me that perhaps the percentages run and run and are not reset after a charge?
Anyone know how it works?

Battery Savings - WiFi Sleep Policy

Edit: Use at your own risk, it worked for me but people seem to be saying it's not true.
I figured I would share this tip because it worked so well for me. When I first got the Nexus and connected it to my WiFi, the battery was draining at an absurd rate, even at idle. I want to use WiFi because we don't have LTE out here, so turning it on and off was a pain. Then I remembered the Sleep Policy, and there it was set to keep the WiFi on, even during sleep. I'm assuming Verizon did this to help reduce congestion on their network and save them money. After changing this to "only when plugged in" my battery graph at idle flatlined.
Hopefully it will help someone else!
Steps:
1. Settings
2. Wifi
3. Menu -> Advanced
4. Keep WiFi on during sleep
5. Pick an option best for you. I chose Only when plugged in.

From what I have read, keep wifi on during sleep was always the most power efficient. Maybe you have a weak wifi signal?
I'd like to hear what other people have to say on this one.

That's definitely interesting to hear. I'm usually one floor away from my wireless-N router which yields 3 or 4 out of 4 bars consistently. I guess I'll have to see if this works for anyone else then.

This is wrong.
You should set it to Always.
http://www.androidcentral.com/android-101-save-battery-keeping-wifi-alive
Because initiating wifi connection every time you turn on your phone will consume more power.
compywiz said:
I figured I would share this tip because it worked so well for me. When I first got the Nexus and connected it to my WiFi, the battery was draining at an absurd rate, even at idle. I want to use WiFi because we don't have LTE out here, so turning it on and off was a pain. Then I remembered the Sleep Policy, and there it was set to keep the WiFi on, even during sleep. I'm assuming Verizon did this to help reduce congestion on their network and save them money. After changing this to "only when plugged in" my battery graph at idle flatlined.
Hopefully it will help someone else!
Steps:
1. Settings
2. Wifi
3. Menu -> Advanced
4. Keep WiFi on during sleep
5. Pick an option best for you. I chose Only when plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Well it significantly reduced my idle battery use (like at night), so I'll put a warning at the top but I'll keep mine the same.

I guess you haven't turned on the mobile data cause if you do, then this consumes more power than wifi for sure.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Generally, radio management on the Nexus sucks. I want a setting where if it's in standby, ALL RADIOS ARE OFF except for base phone and text messaging. So this helps a little.
Sure, it uses more power initially to turn whatever on, but no where near as much if you don't use your phone for hours, and don't constantly need to be in sync with everything (like when you're at a computer all day, and you can check your gmail, yahoo mail, have gchat and skype and whatever).
I'd even like a setting policy which only turns on data or wifi when you have an app open that uses them.
I may be using my "phone" (my wife said about her Stratosphere, "I forgot I could use this thing as a phone") differently than most people with smartphones. I need it to be my computer and social device when I'm away from a computer, and only when I take it out of my pocket and turn it on.

Wifi set to always on, while at home. Slept for 9 hours, went down from 100% to 94%

andy2na said:
Wifi set to always on, while at home. Slept for 9 hours, went down from 100% to 94%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, with WLAN on my Nexus Prime drops about 6% over night.
Interestingly I just lost about 10% in 2 hours with the phone in stand-by but then I remembered I had to change my IP ~7 times in this time frame which likely caused a lot of WLAN activity and used up quite some energy.

To turn off, or not to turn off

I am using android 2.3.7 (inc deck gingerbread).
Ok, I just read that the GPS check box (in the setting menu, or quick settings or whatever) does not actually turn the GPS antenna on and off, it only gives permission to the apps (gps-using-apps) whether they can turn the antenna on and off. Therefore, changing the GPS checkbox does not really save any battery. Simply by turning off gps-using-apps the antenna gets shut down, and then the icon disappears. The checkbox is simply there in case I don't want the app to have the ability to turn it on, as needed.
I just was hoping to get confirmation that this is true, yes?
Ok so that leads me to wonder about the Wifi and and Mobile Data check boxes (or toggles, whatever). When my phone is connected to Wifi and the 3G icon disappears, does that mean my phone just automatically turned off the 3G antenna?
I just upgraded to the Pro version of that fabulous little app Automateit... and just wonder if it is pointless to set up a rule to turn off 3G when it is connected to Wifi.

Yep. I would keep GPS ticked on because it does not actually go on unless you have an app (like navigation) open.
- Other programs may use GPS for a few seconds just to read your location, then they turn it off (such as weather programs) - this type of GPS usage really doesn't affect battery.
When you turn WiFi on it does turns off mobile data (3G) and you only have 1x.

GPS is only used when asked by an app or maybe the browser. Wifi on the other hand is always scanning. I recommend turning it off if you don't need it.
Sent from my HTC Droid Incredible

Thanks guys.
I have my wifi scan interval set to scan every 5 minutes. Hopefully that won't waste too much juice. he he
And if that wasn't stingy enough... with Automateit, my GPS, wifi and 3g get deactivated when the screen is off (all activate when screen is on). My battery life is pretty good, even overclocked . When I plugged in, going to bed the other night, I had 85% of my battery remaining (14 hours unplugged).
I should probably stop worrying about battery life.

iowabeakster said:
Thanks guys.
I have my wifi scan interval set to scan every 5 minutes. Hopefully that won't waste too much juice. he he
And if that wasn't stingy enough... with Automateit, my GPS, wifi and 3g get deactivated when the screen is off (all activate when screen is on). My battery life is pretty good, even overclocked . When I plugged in, going to bed the other night, I had 85% of my battery remaining (14 hours unplugged).
I should probably stop worrying about battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you really shouldn't have to be worrying about battery life, it's something that use to drive me insane so I just bought a 2150mah battery and haven't looked back since.

Battery life

I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?

I haven't had mine off charge long enough to really be able to comment about this yet but I can't complain with it so far.

Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.

bill3508 said:
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?

supersquishy said:
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go. I'm guessing screen is only 6% because the tablet has been up now for 4 days, so 6 hours is a small portion of the activity.

supersquishy said:
I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?

ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't know. You may be right.
I guess the high wifi in battery stats is a reporting error / miscalculation. I have wiped the cache partition in recovery (to fix my ambient light sensor) and ever since wifi is at the bottom of my battery list.
And I did not get any better SOT, so there could not have been any real battery drain from wifi even when it held the top spot in the stats.
Still disappointed with only 4-5h SOT.
Thanks everybody for helping out.

ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.

bill3508 said:
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."

ZiggSVO said:
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that leaving WiFi on runs your battery down on any device when its connected and it takes all of 2-3 seconds to connect. No reason to leave it on full time when your not using it. Also, the device is continuously checking and sending small amounts of data to maintain that connection.
Were talking about the pixel here and not a cellular device.

Pretty happy with the C.

I haven't really payed attention to how long this device lasts, I use it pretty casually so it lasts me up to a week. I have used it to stream movies and it has lasted me the whole day (8 hours) watching movies with about 30% left. Compared to other tablets I've had including the nexus 9 this one blows them all away. My old nexus 9 would die after a few episodes (about an hour)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I streamed a good 6 hours of a live feed on battery and the device used around 50%, can not complain with the battery life at all with this device

bill3508 said:
Pretty happy with the C.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?

Ves said:
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, just WiFi, don't have a keyboard.

As a heads up, there appears to be a WiFi issue with MM itself. I'm seeing the same issue on my Nexus 7 2013 running a MM ROM, and I found a thread online talking about it...maybe from the Android Central forums or something, I can't remember now. People seem to be unsure as to whether or not WiFi is actually causing a battery drain, or if it's just reporting incorrectly. But at least on my N7, the battery can drop 40-50% in one day while on standby, and when I have WiFi set to Off when it's sleeping. And I used to get DAYS of standby time before going to MM.
Edit: Here's an XDA thread about it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guys-call-wifi-battery-drain-6-0-t3219870

I had the same issue with WiFi battery bug on the nexus 5. Fixed it via router by turning off the auto disconnect (the option where router decides if a device can connect based on signal strength) on both 2ghz and 5ghz. After this the Wifi went back down to the bottom of the battery list. Long shot, and most likely not even related, but hope it helps anyone.
On a Asus rt router.

Wi-Fi won't shut off, and it's by far my largest battery user.

I've got a brand new unlocked Moto Z play with the Offgrid battery mod. This morning I was disappointed to see my wifi, despite being disabled, had nearly drained my battery mod. I have the wifi configured to only maintain a connection while asleep and plugged in. The toggle for background location via wifi is absent from the advanced wifi menu.
Why is my wifi constantly on, despite it being toggled off?
I've attached a screen shot of the battery screen.
Edit: found the wifi scanning toggle in locations. I've just switched that off.

fourpointsix said:
I've got a brand new unlocked Moto Z play with the Offgrid battery mod. This morning I was disappointed to see my wifi, despite being disabled, had nearly drained my battery mod. I have the wifi configured to only maintain a connection while asleep and plugged in. The toggle for background location via wifi is absent from the advanced wifi menu.
Why is my wifi constantly on, despite it being toggled off?
I've attached a screen shot of the battery screen.
Edit: found the wifi scanning toggle in locations. I've just switched that off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. Android Marshmallow comes with Doze functionality, and if the user is not using or moving the phone, it cuts down all background app activity that may eventually drain your phone, thus preserving your battery. You'll still receive notification about emails, and messages in social apps, as they're considered priority, if I'm not mistaken.
I'd say the source of your mod losing battery is your cellular reception. By the print you've posted, the Cellular Network Signal bar is most of the time red, orange or yellow. Poor cellular coverage eats up your battery.

I thank you for saving me the trouble of creating this thread, also did turning off the wifi scanning help?

keep wifi during sleep?

Wi-Fi has been switched off most of the day, wifi location scanning is disabled, and wifi connections while asleep are set to never. Still, it's almost ALWAYS on. Even when my ATT connection is strong it's still sucking down my battery. Wi-Fi remains my largest drain. Larger than cell standby, play services, and the screen.
Edit, looking at my images again, it appears my Z Play is treating the battery mod as a charger. Once the main battery drops to 80% and it switches to the mod battery, the wifi never turns off (despite my settings).

I also have similar problem with my moto z play. I haven't used wifi but still showing top ahead of others. Pls help to resolve this issue.

I had a Moto X Play before for a good while. this problem also showed up there (on Marshmallow as well), but I did find out my battery did not actually get drained, it was a reporting error in Android.
I am not sure if that is the case here with you, is the total battery life definitely lower or is it hard to tell?

Battery is still good but it could be better without the wifi drain. Mine is also more than the total energy the screen consumes and I have battery saver on with wifi location scanning off and wifi on only while plugged in. Not sure what would cause this.

Well, this is interesting. Flew to Boston today around 8:30, and as you can see, toggling airplane mode for the relatively short duration of my flight seems to have fixed my wifi drain. Although the phone did reboot in my pocket around 1530. At the time of this screenshot my internal battery is at 80%, and the battery mod is at 55% with only ~2.5 hours screen on time.

Out of curiosity, when you go into settings>location>3 dot menu>scanning, is wifi scanning turned on or off? Not sure about exact menu location as I don't have a Moto Z play, so working off a custom ROM on my Moto E2. Not sure if it would make a difference, but....

Wi-Fi location scanning is disabled.

Interesting, 24 hours after my flight (both legs visible in the chart) I'm showing no more wifi drain. This is with ~3.75 hours SOT. I am disappointed to see the Offgrid mod lost ~30% over night though. I'll still easily get 2 full days out of one charge, but I was hoping for 3-4. Hopefully Nougat's improved doze helps.

I am thinking my phone is also suffering from the same issue. Take look at my other post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69486349&postcount=77

Mine is even worse. Even when i activate the airplane mode, wifi does not turn off. It is open literally 24 hours. Seems like it drains the battery but I still have 9-10 Hours of SOT, depending on usage this can go up to 13-14 hours.

I fixed mine by following this:
http://androiding.how/how-to-fix-wifi-battery-drain-on-marshmallow/

emailrob said:
I fixed mine by following this:
http://androiding.how/how-to-fix-wifi-battery-drain-on-marshmallow/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't work for me, but I stopped caring. I computed total power usage, wifi does not seem to have that portion

Guys, you must confirm if the WiFi actually drains that amount of power. 8/10 times it is a reporting error in Marshmallow, experienced it myself as well. Gsam battery monitor could tell you more.

This solution is for the MotoZ, a similar issue, maybe it could help us a little
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-z/help/extreme-wifi-battery-drain-solution-t3476579