[Q] Save battery by turning off mobile data (Tasker) - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to turn off mobile data when the screen is off, and turn data back on when the screen is turned on. It would also be necessary for me to occasionally switch mobile data on even when the screen is off in order to check email. (I'm thinking something like 15 minutes off, 3 minutes on)
Does anybody have any success stories or advice whether I am likely to see any noticeable battery savings by doing this?

I started doing this from when I first got my evo. Just turn off mobile data, you can still get texts and make calls, and then turn it on when you need it. Also turning off background data in settings also adds additional battery, but just enable it when you need the market. I went most of all day with about 80% of my battery still good between it just being off, using the mobile data here and there, and some texting.
Edit: I don't use a tasker, I just use the power widget in my notification, so I can turn on my mobile data on/off with just a tap. And if you're like me you don't know when you actually need it or for how long. So I find it easier and more effective to do it manually.

teh roxxorz said:
I started doing this from when I first got my evo. Just turn off mobile data, you can still get texts and make calls, and then turn it on when you need it. Also turning off background data in settings also adds additional battery, but just enable it when you need the market. I went most of all day with about 80% of my battery still good between it just being off, using the mobile data here and there, and some texting.
Edit: I don't use a tasker, I just use the power widget in my notification, so I can turn on my mobile data on/off with just a tap. And if you're like me you don't know when you actually need it or for how long. So I find it easier and more effective to do it manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
X2, i use switch pro to toggle mine. Battery drops about 2% per hr while data is of with screen off even when listening to music from my play lists.

I turn off the "always on " mobile data and noticed a big difference. The data turns on and off with the screen.
Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk

Over the months I have been an Evo user, I have collected some valuable information that all users should probably know in regards to maximizing battery life. Besides the stuff about 4G and a few specific options, these steps apply to pretty much any other android phone running 2.2, and a lot of them apply to versions below Froyo.
General Lithium Ion Battery Information
^^This link includes stuff about charging, including trickle charging aka SBC (Why NOT to use it, or at your own peril)
My tips for good battery life:
Tips for Non-Rooted users:
1. Turn off all radios when not in use.
(gps, Bluetooth, wifi, data, 4g) Use a widget like the default HTC power widget or Switchpro from the market. The radios of the phone draw power if on even if the user isn't actually utilizing the radio's functions.
To manually turn off radios without a toggle, go to menu>settings>wireless & networks.
Wifi uses less battery than 3G, so use wifi when you can.
**IMPORTANT DISCOVERY**When you turn on your 4G radio, then turn it off, it will keep scanning and turning off all by itself.
The problem is apparently exacerbated by a 4G toggle widget, which causes the phone to automatically turn on 4G at boot. This repeating of scanning and disconnecting severely drains battery life, and sadly, no matter what ROM or kernel you use, there is only one way to fix it:
-If you don’t use the toggle widget, then you have to reboot your phone after turning off 4G
-If you do use a toggle widget, then you have to remove the widget from your homescreens, then turn off 4G via settings, then reboot.
**To check to see if this is happening, download alogcat off of the market. Look for the lines saying: I/Wimax ( xxx): <DC> Try to establish a connection to DC server.
E/Wimax ( xxx): <DC CONNECT> IO error: msg=’/xxx.x.x.x:xxxx –
Connection refused’
Over and over again.
2. Juice Defender is one of my favorite apps. Basically it controls your data for you to maximize life.
More explanations are on their page, search it on the market for free, or upgrade for more features.
Here are my settings for it: Click me
Note that for me at least, juice defender likes to deny apps data privileges whether you allow them or not, so screen on = data on works best for me.
3. I love live wallpapers, and I’ve always been a fan of pixel zombies, but they are really only good for showing off due to their battery drain.
4. Go to menu<settings<wireless & networks<mobile networks<disable always on mobile data.
Product F(RED) said:
To clarify, "Always On Mobile Data", when turned off, lets the 3G modem go to sleep after the screen has been off for 5 minutes. It doesn't interfere with anything like email or any other application that requires an internet connection at that moment because it turns on on-demand rather than being on all the time and wasting battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. Set your screen timeout to something that fits you
This will prevent your phone from staying on when you don’t manually turn off the screen. Also with this, manually turn off your screen when you’re done with your phone.
6. Everyone has that issue where the first ten percent go the fastest.
This is due to two things. One is that these types of batteries stop charging once they get to 100% to prevent damage, and begin charging again at 90%. This means that you could potentially unplug your seemingly fully charged phone at 90% actual charge. The second is number 7.5.
6.5. Use the trick described in this thread, it works.
My idea behind how often you should do it is once a month, if you flash a new ROM, or if you stop noticing the benefits.
This is the calibration technique recommended by HTC themselves. Check it out!​
7. Task killers used to be the shiz, but no longer.
Here is the ultimate, in depth, graphically assisted, explanation by the famous Fresh ROM's chef, Flipz. Shortly, in light of recent testing, really don’t do anything but force apps that the android OS needed to be open, and thus didn’t close, to re-open. So try not using them, unless for stuff like trying to figure out why your phone isn’t sleeping with system panel. You really won’t notice a performance difference, and the adverse effects you aren’t seeing will stop
+=+ A good alternative is the application SystemPanel Pro. It has a free version, but I highly reccomend purchasing the paid app. It basically monitors everything going on with your phone's usage both in real time an in terms of usage history. If your battery is draiging fast, it tells you what app was doing it, how much it was doing it, and allows you to stop it.
8. People posting screenshots of the Battery screen as proof of long lasting battery are giving statistically irrelevant information.
See HERE That screen shows time since last REBOOT, not last charge. This isn't always the case, but a lot of people will post a lot of things about battery life, but look for definitive screenshots and testing results before you break down and cry due to the poster's life and yours.
9. I'm sure you have all heard around that your phone isn't "sleeping".
This is referring to the phone's "awake" time, hence the name. When you go to menu>settings>about phone>battery, you can compare the two numbers, "up time" vs. "awake time." Generally, up time refers to the amount of time since the last reboot. The "awake time" is how long the screen has been active. The problem is, a lot of the time, due to the endless possibilities of inconsistencies between apps/ROMs/kernels/phones, the phone will not go to "sleep", drawing power proportionate to the screen being in use when it reality the phone is sitting idle.
If you compare these numbers, and they are the same, or if you note the difference, turn off the screen for a minute, then re-check and they are the same, then your phone is not sleeping.
One solution is to reboot.
Usually, SystemPanel will show an app that has gone "rouge" and is keeping your phone awake.
Uninstall applications/reinstalling them slowly, checking after every install to see what is causing it is one tedious but surefire solution.
Lastly,
Follow these steps that I have discovered almost always work.
1. Reboot phone.
2. Instantly upon reboot, as soon as you gain control, open up some type of monitor/taskkiller
3. "kill all" tasks on startup; about 5 times in quick succession should do the trick.
4. Turn off the screen and leave it for about five minutes.
5. Check the up time v. awake time and see if they are the same.
6. If they are, repeat steps 1-5. If they are different, you are good.
Tips for Rooted users:
1. Try out custom kernels.
By going to the EVO 4G Android Development section of the forums, you can see all of the different kernels being developed. These allow for all kinds of modifications like underclocking the CPU and undervolting, both of which save battery. To see how to use them, read the FAQ's in each thread's OPs.
Here is a great guide to custom kernel's by mroneeyedboh.
2. Use SetCPU in compliance with whatever your custom kernel allows.
This site will explain the basics of SetCPU: http://www.pokedev.com/setcpu/
-Profiles from SetCPU should usually involve these for battery life optimization:
-Screen off at the minimum clock speed for both, with the max raised on level if sluggishness is apparent
-A temperature greater than “X”
-General power related profiles that lower cpu speed at lower battery levels
-Here are my SetCPU profiles: 1 , 2 , 3
-My profiles change a lot as time goes by, because different kernel creators recommend different settings. I suggest reading up on whatever kernel you are using to gather settings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES:
*Some apps or processes begin to run at startup and keep the phone awake. These apps are not detected by things like spare parts or system panel, unless sometimes represented in the "system" process, in which case its usage will be unusually high.
This shouldn't take more than three repeats, and if it does, you need to factory reset, and slowly add apps back to see what's causing the problem.
___--- When it comes to actually "calibrating" one's battery, there are a couple of methods floating around. The method I first learned is to charge the phone all the way, boot into recovery immediately, and "wipe battery stats". Then reboot quickly, and run your phone all the way to death without charging it, then charge it all the way without interrupting it, and you should be good to go. Do this when changing ROMs/kernels for best results.
----When it comes to people claiming 20 plus hours of moderate/heavy use out of their current setup or other ridiculous absurdities, consider my position: No matter what you do, the Evo battery is the Evo battery. You can tweak it and customize it with kernels, ROMs, and settings, but none of that will turn it into a car battery. The main problem (besides a false sense of pride) that leads to these reports is the misunderstanding of what the usage levels are, so here’s my best summary:
* *Light usage – Phone screen actually on for maybe 4 hours. Things like a few texts, some emails, 20 minutes web browsing, etc.
* *Moderate usage – You watched a few youtube videos or similar apps, sustained web browsing, hundreds of texts, some games. Hours range from about 5-10 of screen on
* *Heavy usage – LOTS of video watching and games, or some high def gaming/movie watching for at least an hour to an hour and a half in total, with lots of emails and texts, browsing, and other app shenanigans
*I’m sure everyone doesn’t agree with all these numbers, but this is most likely a good average of what powerusers think. All specific hourage may vary due to differences in phones, batteries, ROMs, and kernels… Which also means that most battery comparisons are pointless; it’s only what you can improve on that counts!
I’ll update this whenever I see good stuff, people remind me, or I remember/come across things I do.
Hope it helps everybody!
Hit the "THANKS" button if I help you!
*All this is available in the link in my signature

hfuizo said:
I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to turn off mobile data when the screen is off, and turn data back on when the screen is turned on. It would also be necessary for me to occasionally switch mobile data on even when the screen is off in order to check email. (I'm thinking something like 15 minutes off, 3 minutes on)
Does anybody have any success stories or advice whether I am likely to see any noticeable battery savings by doing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am the owner of SuttCo. We developed the Locale Mobile Data Plugin (which can be used by Tasker). It has a condition that can keep tabs on your data use and a setting which can be used to shut off mobile data.
I know Tasker and Locale have screen off/on conditions. I don't have time to run any tests for you (busy working on a new plugin), but if you're willing to do a semi-scientific study and report the findings here... I'll comp you a copy of the plugin. Shoot me a PM.

Good stuff
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

glad i found this post... improving batt life all written up, great job!

Juice defender takes care of turning off ur mobile data and turning it on when needed, all by itself
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Not to say that turning off mobile data when you're not using it is a bad idea but I've found during my own personal experience with trying to improve my battery life for daily use that using titanium backup to freeze Google Backup Transport.apk is also a helpful solution. Other things that helped are going into Accounts & Sync and turning off background data because believe it or not, that stuff eats your battery up like a fat kid eating cake...hahahaha...Anyways, another tip would be to hit up Display and turn off Automatic Brightness and play around with the scroll until you come to a setting where you can see because I've found that the Automatic brightness eats up your battery too, not as fast but it does! Another thing that I've done is this and although there are task killers that would do this for you....I've decided to do this myself and after using an app such as Facebook or the brand new CNN app, I've gone into Applications and force close them out just to save battery and all of this nonsense I'm talking about has helped me out alot......NOT TO BRAG but using these little tips of mine, I've gone from 2 and a half hours and I was at 70 percent to 4 hours, 36 minutes and 48 seconds and I'm at 68 percent.....and that's with out turning my phone off, that's talking on the phone, texting, checking my facebook, downloading some apps here and there and just leaving it on in front of me at my desk.
Please don't start posting "Oh what, you want a FUC%ing cookie now" and all of this....all I intend to do is help someone by sharing my story....that is all! I got to get my butt to working again...hahahahaha

hfuizo said:
I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to turn off mobile data when the screen is off, and turn data back on when the screen is turned on. It would also be necessary for me to occasionally switch mobile data on even when the screen is off in order to check email. (I'm thinking something like 15 minutes off, 3 minutes on)
Does anybody have any success stories or advice whether I am likely to see any noticeable battery savings by doing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have setup a few Tasker profiles to do this exactly. I did this instead of JD because the free JD doesn't do exactly what I want it to do, and I don't want to pay for JD when I can emulate it with Tasker.
The only thing I cannot do, that JD can, is keep data on while there is an active connection. With JD, if you turn off the screen while there is an active data transfer, it will wait until the transfer finishes to turn off data.
According to the Tasker website, there is plans to make a state/event "connection data rate" which would make it possible to do this. But that has been in their plans for quite some time. (I actually happened upon this post while searching for a way to check if there is an active data connection with Tasker.)
Also, with the way that Tasker views an "Open program", the program has to be open in the foreground in order to be considered open. This makes it tough to keep data on when a specific program is open, unless you're planning on keeping that program in the foreground all the time. To get around this, I created a profile that leaves data enabled while I have headphones plugged in, since I have headphones plugged in while using all the programs that I want to have constant data with.
EDIT: here are the profiles, and the tasks that go with them (I also included a profile that turns off the wifi antenna after disconnecting from a wifi access point.)
dl.dropbox dot com/u/4658512/profiles.zip
dl.dropbox dot com/u/4658512/tasks.zip
(It won't let me post links because I don't have enough posts, so just take out the spaces and replace dot with .)

Related

Doubled battery life - but there's a down side

there is a setting under settings / wireless and networks / mobile networks that says "enable always on mobile data"
Switching this to off about doubled my battery life and everything still seemed to work okay as far as data goes. All my apps worked including things that check or update periodically in the background - so I'm not sure what this feature does.
The only downside is that the phone would crash periodically in areas with poor reception. It would go back to the sprint boot animation and come up after a minute and the uptime would not be reset.
Imconvinced part of the battery life problem is due ton inefficient use of data, but I'm wondering what can be done about it without sacrificing stability. Ahylne else have a similar experience or willing to try it out or have more information?
Trying this out, seeing what it effects it has on my normally used apps. So far (first 20 minutes of doing it) everything seems to run fine. I would guess this causes the phone to "hibernate" the 3g radio whilst locked.
I started doing this on Hero and continue to do it on the Evo. The biggest issue is that if you are using pandora (or similar app), it causes problems when the phone goes to sleep.
The setting stops your 3g connection when the screen goes to sleep. This prevents the phone from updating email, twitter or whatever else you use. As soon as you turn the screen on, it turns on 3g, downloads your email etc.
I check my phone often enough (for the time or whatever) that I don't mind not getting my email immediately (it downloads when I turn the screen on).
This has saves a ton of battery life. The only time I enable always on mobile network is to listen to pandora. I have done this since day 1 and have had no issues.
I tried this last week and it made a massive difference in battery life. I turned it back on though because I do like my phone to download things while it is idle. I also don't want to get used to the improved battery life just to have to switch it back later.
i dont know if any of you have heard of juice defender what it does the same thing pretty much. with a few exceptions. whereby you can set the program up to allow your phone to take data even if your screen is off at a certain duration of time, then it will go back to sleep.
thats a really simple explanation of what the app does. if anyone of you does decide to use the app let me know i can share my settings more specifically. I have increases my battery life by 87% and i have have 0 problems.
I have this option unchecked and not only has my battery life improved, but I don't notice any performance or stability issues.
Also, my data continues to download in the background as normal (regardless of whether the screen is on or off). I have Facebook and Twitter set to download data every so often and it continues to do so. Even Google Voice will notify me of messages even if the screen is off.
I think what this option does is, when checked, makes the radio work hard to find and keep a data connection (especially in low signal areas). I notice that with the option unchecked, my data connection drops a bit more often than with it on. I don't mind that though seeing that the data connection simply reconnects automatically and almost instantly.
thanks!
10char
Would you all mind doing an experiment for me? Turn this option off (so data is not constantly on) and turn your screen on and put it in your microwave so it loses signal*.
Watch it and see if it crashes. I suspect something about this setting being off is causing the phone to crash when it loses its cell connection momentarily.
*Don't turn on your microwave.
Okay so after more research I'm pretty sure the main instigator of poor battery life is the data connection constantly going wild. According to SystemPanel my phone hangs out doing nothing downloading at 100-200Kbps for large amounts of time. Not sure what it's downloading.
To find out what apps were causing this I used Spare Parts and saw this:
Click for full size
So a process with the PID of "0" is what is using most of the data connection, followed by UID 10011 which is contact/calendar/mail sync. I can click through to 10011 and get details, but if I try to click on PID "0" I get a force close.
There is also another preference under Accounts & Sync for "background data" and "auto-sync." I'm not sure what the difference is between this background data setting and the one in wireless & networks that says "enable always-on mobile data." Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Also interesting is what was happening when I had always on data disabled:
Click for full size
You can see where my phone was crashing but look at my battery life before and after the crash. It looks like it has dipped significantly. Also, the crashes only lasted a minute while the phone rebooted, not nearly as long as what was recorded here - so it's possible something was going on with the battery life before the phone crashed.
juice defender settings
mastermayhm069 said:
i dont know if any of you have heard of juice defender what it does the same thing pretty much. with a few exceptions. whereby you can set the program up to allow your phone to take data even if your screen is off at a certain duration of time, then it will go back to sleep.
thats a really simple explanation of what the app does. if anyone of you does decide to use the app let me know i can share my settings more specifically. I have increases my battery life by 87% and i have have 0 problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please post you settings that you use with Juice Defender. Also, please post any suggestions about Juice Defender and Ultimate Juice.
Thanks, John.........
mastermayhm069 said:
i dont know if any of you have heard of juice defender what it does the same thing pretty much. with a few exceptions. whereby you can set the program up to allow your phone to take data even if your screen is off at a certain duration of time, then it will go back to sleep.
thats a really simple explanation of what the app does. if anyone of you does decide to use the app let me know i can share my settings more specifically. I have increases my battery life by 87% and i have have 0 problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I swore Juice Defender only works with GSM and not CDMA.
It even say this when you go to download the app. Although I did just google it an apparently people have it going on the Motorola Droid rooted.
Who with Android experience wants to prove this?
OMGWTF_BBQ said:
I swore Juice Defender only works with GSM and not CDMA.
It even say this when you go to download the app. Although I did just google it an apparently people have it going on the Motorola Droid rooted.
Who with Android experience wants to prove this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I thought this was the case too. i unchecked the data option. It's been a full day and no reboots
I'm running Juice Defender today and my battery life seems even worse. I'm talking 20-25% drop per hour.
SOMETHING is wrong here.
prjkthack said:
I have this option unchecked and not only has my battery life improved, but I don't notice any performance or stability issues.
Also, my data continues to download in the background as normal (regardless of whether the screen is on or off). I have Facebook and Twitter set to download data every so often and it continues to do so. Even Google Voice will notify me of messages even if the screen is off.
I think what this option does is, when checked, makes the radio work hard to find and keep a data connection (especially in low signal areas). I notice that with the option unchecked, my data connection drops a bit more often than with it on. I don't mind that though seeing that the data connection simply reconnects automatically and almost instantly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The option is not meant to enable/disable applications from using the data connection when the screen is off, so applications should be able to continue updating.
What the option is meant to do is to determine whether your phone should maintain data connectivity all the time, even when there are no apps using data. Unchecking the option means that when an app needs data, it must first connect, then make its request. This makes it take a little longer (or maybe a lot longer for 4G which seems to take longer to initialize a connection).

[GUIDE] Battery Saving Steps/Mods/Roms | 7/6

Battery Save Like RandomKing​
I find myself regularly repeating many of these suggestions on many threads to many different people on how to extend your battery life. When not in use, my phone loses at most only 1-2% battery per hour! So I'm making one thread in the Epic forums dedicated to maximizing battery life while trying to explain why these steps will work. Some battery improvements come at the cost of performance or lack of certain services. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of these steps.
Step 1: Brightness & Battery​
Let's face it. Our Android phone screens are huge. This feature is the largest, and completely unavoidable battery-drain. The only way to limit it is to not use the screen... ergo... not use your phone. But that clearly makes no sense, so how to limit that drain? Well, a good step is to turn down your screen's brightness to the lowest you can read clearly, don't hurt your eyes! For night-time use, there's an app that can turn the brightness down even lower called Screen Filter(Thanks to iModMM for the find!). Also, choose a nice dark background, something in the black color range. For all phones, the darker the color, the less brightness used, less power consumed! But for our Epic's Super Amoled screen, specifically, a black pixel is technically an "off" pixel. That's right, every black pixel on your screen is a part of your screen not being powered, since the Super Amoled does not need backlighting. Blackle is also a good alternative to the standard Google site for a black themed search engine, though it doesn't seem to be mobile optimized. Also, lock your screen with that nice little button on the top right side of your phone. Don't wait for it to lock itself! As far as the battery itself goes, charging to 100% can be tricky. The moment that led turns blue, your phone has generally reached 100%, but it will generally trickle charge between 97 and 100 after that. A good way to charge to 100 percent is to use an external charger, which generally come with 1 or 2 spare batteries for about $20. This way, the moment your battery dies, shut down, and pop a fresh one in.
Step 2: Using a Custom Rom​
At this point, there are many Epic 4G custom roms out, and if you're in this forum, you've likely rooted or are trying to root. Well I will not go into rooting directions here. Take a look at one and see how it fare's out-of-the-box for you. If you choose to use my customized rom, you will find a task manager with a preset ignore list, ready to use as a one-tap app-closing widget; as well as the service-freezing patch mentioned below in Step 8 ready for execution through a terminal, and my entire setup(among many other mods, apps, and tweaks tested for the greatest battery performance). These are just roms I've used myself to great results. Many others exist. Updated 7/6:
RandomKing's Customized Rom
2.2.1 EC05 v.1 Plus [Journaled w/Genocide 1.0] [Screenshots]
SyndicateFrozen Rom
2.2.1 EC05 v.1.2
Bonsai Rom
2.2.1 EC05 v.4.1.1 Not Supported on XDA. Sorry.
Midnight Rom
2.2.1 EC05 v.5.3
Step 3: Disable Unnecessary Services​
First and foremost, disable all location services, wifi and gps based. This will affect certain apps like weather apps, you'll simply have to deal with static locations. Next, disable data sync. Contacts will not synchronize with Gmail while this is off. You will have to enable it sporadically. The Gmail app also will not function while this is off, I recommend using the email app and simply adjusting the refresh interval. You can always manually check your own email . Likewise, you may put your phone into airplane mode altogether if you don't plan to use it for an extended period of time, such as school, work, swim meet, movies, or on an airplane.
Step 4: Task Killers and JuiceDefender​
First, let's get JuiceDefender out of the way. It's a neat app, and in certain ways, effective. However, it's own effectiveness comes with certain contradictions. It disables nearly all signals, which will include, for example, Google Voice. In my experience, this app hindered certain other services, and if anything may have drawn further on my battery. My recommendation is to stay away from it. Now onto Task Killers, they are good, and they are evil. Let me explain. Many of us may find issues closing all the apps we open, and sometimes forget we left something open. A task killer can easily ensure that you've closed all of your programs. Now onto the bad. Task killers can try to kill certain system services. This is generally BAD. Certain services shouldn't be killed, and others can't be killed, and the ongoing battle only further drains your battery while trying to kill services that AREN'T actually bad. So on that note, the worst part of task killers is AUTO-KILL. Disable it! Kill it! Kill it with FIRE! I use Advanced or Adao Task Killer, with no auto-kill. It is one of the only widgets I use, and I simply tap it before I lock my phone each time.
Step 5: Widgets​
If you don't need them, don't use them. Almost all widgets make continuous unnecessary calls to the Android system, and this can be a huge battery draw. Even simple widgets. Through all my testing, there's only 2 widgets I have approved thus far: Advanced Task Killer, Power Control. Other disapproved widgets: Pandora, Winamp, Weather(ALL OF THEM), etc.
Step 6: SetCpu, Voltage Control, and Over/Underclocking​
As with much of this thread, this is opinionated and empirical theories. Through my testing, Overclocking is unnecessary, and guaranteed to draw on the battery. Most of these roms come from fantastic devs and are, by default, blazingly fast. Overclocking is completely redundant in my opinion, and I'm generally all about speed. Underclocking/undervolting may preserve more battery, but my opinion on the matter is similar to my feeling on widgets. If you don't need it, don't do it. If you feel the need to use these apps, a generally accepted setting for battery preservation is to undervolt to 800 max. and 100 min. (if your phone can handle it, some may experience wake-locks, raise min. to 200) on conservative governor, adjusting your profiles for when the phone is locked, unlocked and etc.
Step 7: Unnecessary Apps​
Free apps are great, aren't they? But how many have you gathered, just because they're free? Now how many of those don't you use, but regularly draw on your phone regardless. There's an easy way to roughly check. Open your settings. Now go to Applications. Manage Applications. Take a look at which are running that you have not opened. Using a task killer prior, and waiting a couple minutes to see what re-opens may be a good way to check which apps are continuously running in the background and evaluate if they can be removed.
Facebook --- Notorious for running in the background. Disabling notifications may help.
Latitude --- Largest offender of location service usage. Neat app. Huge battery hog.
QIK/Fring --- Any video chatter really. If you don't use them, remove or disable them.
Browser --- Large ram usage. Try Dolphin Mini or Miren.​
Step 8: Freeze Services​
Using Titanium Backup Pro, MyBackup Pro, or Bloat Freezer (yes, non-free apps) freeze any of the following services:
sns --- (Will disable sns)
snsaccount --- (Will disable Facebook contact integration)
drm --- (May affect media programs like mediahub)
drmcontent --- (May affect media programs like mediahub)
systemupdater --- (Best disabled if on custom rom)​
Enter the following commands into the Android Terminal to manually freeze the above services:
Code:
su
pm disable com.sec.android.providers.drm
pm disable com.sec.android.app.sns
pm disable com.samsung
Simply enter the previous commands into the Android Terminal while substituting "enable" for "disable" to manually defrost these.
If you would like a shortcut for this method, check out the patch in This Thread Also Included In RandomKing's Rom..​
Step 9: Journaling​
Journaling... some love it, some hate it. The fact remains, journaling enables extra write cycles. While this will prevent data loss, it also means more cpu usage. It follows that battery should last longer with journaling disabled. You can use chris41g's mod HERE to turn Journaling on/off at will.
Step 10: Turn it Off and Spend Time With Loved Ones​
That's right. You're obsessing with your phone. Leave it be. Do something meaningful and memorable. Have fun with life! This is just a phone.
More coming as it comes to me! Including mods, apps, etc. aimed at improving battery life. Feel free to leave your own suggestions or questions! If this guide and it's features have helped you in anyway, leave THANKS so I know whether or not to keep up on it!​
Y is this in q&a?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Because its an answer to many questions posted here.
-Sent from my Random Epic.
many good suggestions here RandomKing.
this stuff is all so useful to us newer users out here, maybe this should be stickied (either here or in general).
jarcher1971 said:
many good suggestions here RandomKing.
this stuff is all so useful to us newer users out here, maybe this should be stickied (either here or in general).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I have no control over where this belongs, I just know its an answer to many questions and would be noticed here.
-Sent from my Random Epic.
has anyone noticed an effect on the phone's ability to sleep when you manually reorder the apps alphabetically in the app drawer? I kept having problems and factory reset 2x. Now I did find 3 troublesome apps that although not apparently running in the background, kept my phone from sleeping simply by being installed. I also stopped ordering my apps, deleted the troublesome apps and now it seems my phone is working correctly. I wonder if that (editing the default order) could also prevent the phone from sleeping? Any thoughts?
rando991 said:
has anyone noticed an effect on the phone's ability to sleep when you manually reorder the apps alphabetically in the app drawer? I kept having problems and factory reset 2x. Now I did find 3 troublesome apps that although not apparently running in the background, kept my phone from sleeping simply by being installed. I also stopped ordering my apps, deleted the troublesome apps and now it seems my phone is working correctly. I wonder if that (editing the default order) could also prevent the phone from sleeping? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't say I've noticed this, but I've been on launcherpro for quite some time now. Perhaps you could share more details on your setup?
-Sent from my Random Epic.
I'm non rooted stock EC05. I used to use EDIT in the app drawer to rearrange my apps in alphabetical order (they don't arrange themselves automatically this way after rebooting). I had noticed in spare parts that my phone was never sleeping and killing my battery. I did a factory reset and it worked as advertised. I slowly added apps back until I found two that seem to prevent my phone from sleeping so I uninstalled them. Phone worked fine for a while but then started acting up again. I repeated the procedure, leaving only the apps my wife's phone had (hers always sleeps like a baby), but then my phone started up again. Tried another reset but this time decided to leave the apps in the order they put themselves and so far so good...wondering if that was doing something or if it is an app update that goes bonkers?
rando991 said:
I'm non rooted stock EC05. I used to use EDIT in the app drawer to rearrange my apps in alphabetical order (they don't arrange themselves automatically this way after rebooting). I had noticed in spare parts that my phone was never sleeping and killing my battery. I did a factory reset and it worked as advertised. I slowly added apps back until I found two that seem to prevent my phone from sleeping so I uninstalled them. Phone worked fine for a while but then started acting up again. I repeated the procedure, leaving only the apps my wife's phone had (hers always sleeps like a baby), but then my phone started up again. Tried another reset but this time decided to leave the apps in the order they put themselves and so far so good...wondering if that was doing something or if it is an app update that goes bonkers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. If you can't narrow it down to a certain app, I'm not totally sure what it could be. Have you tried clearing the data/cache of Twlauncher? You could try a launcher like LauncherPro, you don't have to be rooted to use a different one.
No but if the problem comes back up I will try some of those...these are the 3 apps that when loaded caused problems: NIV Bible, Document Scanner, [I now have relacement apps for each of these now] and most recently Espn Score Center, but my wife had all of thse but the doc scanner and had no problems
i would check in spare parts to see which apps may be holding a partial wake lock. for me the facebook app was not letting my phone sleep until i disable all of its notifications.
jarcher1971 said:
i would check in spare parts to see which apps may be holding a partial wake lock. for me the facebook app was not letting my phone sleep until i disable all of its notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Likewise. This is why I removed facebook altogether. The new mobile site has proven to be pretty useful now.
-Sent from my Random Epic.
Yeah I found the same thing...but I would log out of Facebook too. Also the problem reappeared after a factory reset and I had not gone into Facebook. Are you saying that even if you don't log in, it can stop your phone from sleeping? My phone started doing it again a few days ago for no apparent reason, and I was able to stop that behavior by: finding and moving 2 apps from the phone to SD card (I thought I had gotten all of them), clearing any cache from different apps, and rebooting.
jarcher1971 said:
i would check in spare parts to see which apps may be holding a partial wake lock. for me the facebook app was not letting my phone sleep until i disable all of its notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wouldn't tell me anything when I had the problem. The only thing was Android System....and....the phone wouldn't sleep even if in airplane mode! Which meant it had to be a process or app doing it all the time. I had never thought to clear cache, but I wonder why doing that works? Also there's a menu option in Spare Parts about Button Behavior which leads you to believe you can make the phone sleep but the menu says "only available in Ver 1.5". I've checked the market and can't find a ver 1.5 Spare Parts...
rando991 said:
That wouldn't tell me anything when I had the problem. The only thing was Android System....and....the phone wouldn't sleep even if in airplane mode! Which meant it had to be a process or app doing it all the time. I had never thought to clear cache, but I wonder why doing that works? Also there's a menu option in Spare Parts about Button Behavior which leads you to believe you can make the phone sleep but the menu says "only available in Ver 1.5". I've checked the market and can't find a ver 1.5 Spare Parts...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it means android 1.5, because that says "End Button Behavior", and no new phones have Call and End buttons on them. Because the "Fancy Screen Rotation" says 1.5 only also.
Sent from the only thing i need.
RandomKing said:
Step 6: Unnecessary Apps[/CENTER]
Free apps are great, aren't they? But how many have you gathered, just because they're free? Now how many of those don't you use, but regularly draw on your phone regardless. There's an easy way to roughly check. Open your settings. Now go to Applications. Manage Applications. Take a look at which are running that you have not opened. Using a task killer prior, and waiting a couple minutes to see what re-opens may be a good way to check which apps are continuously running in the background and evaluate if they can be removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mean "Now go to Applications. Running Services." Going to Manage Applications will show all non-system applications and not tell you what is currently running, AFAICT.
Or am I mistaken?
Thanks for this thread.
prodigyplace said:
I think you mean "Now go to Applications. Running Services." Going to Manage Applications will show all non-system applications and not tell you what is currently running, AFAICT.
Or am I mistaken?
Thanks for this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, there is a "Running" tab inside Manage Applications. An app doesn't have to have a service to be running.
Sent from the only thing i need.
zanderman112 said:
No, there is a "Running" tab inside Manage Applications. An app doesn't have to have a service to be running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for clarifying, Zanderman. Somehow I never noticed that tab before.
rando991 said:
That wouldn't tell me anything when I had the problem. The only thing was Android System....and....the phone wouldn't sleep even if in airplane mode! Which meant it had to be a process or app doing it all the time. I had never thought to clear cache, but I wonder why doing that works? Also there's a menu option in Spare Parts about Button Behavior which leads you to believe you can make the phone sleep but the menu says "only available in Ver 1.5". I've checked the market and can't find a ver 1.5 Spare Parts...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds to me like a system process may be the cause rather than any particular application. For me also I had issues early on with the SNS service forcing itself to restart continually and being a battery drain. It usually takes a force stop on that service followed by clearing data in the sns app and rebooting to fix. Don't know if that will work for you, but hope it helps.
Sent from the communications console of the NX-01 using a universal translator
My tips you can add:
1. I always, no matter what, always have brightness on lowest setting! If you have a hard time seeing in sun, than do auto, but turn off when don't need to, I have on low 24/7. Then at night, I have this app called screen filter which lets you lower brightness then default setting(good on eyes).
2. I always have auto-sync off. If you want emails etc. configure with ur preferences. And most of the time background data. But with background data off, you don't have access to market and have to enable for use. Don't get notifications. Lately, haven't been getting WhatsApp messages. This is optional.
3. In wifi settings, network notification turned off. Haptic feedback and all vibration disabled. Sounds on key clicks or anything disabled. Auto rotate screen off. No window animations. Screen timeout, 15 seconds. Keyboard timeout, 3 seconds. In location, use wireless networks and gps satellites unchecked.
4. No live wallpaper! No bright colors! I use a black background for wallpaper!! Try to go a little dark, not bright, stay away from white! Id recommened, the full black wallpaper. Also on ur homescreen, avoid widgets! Especially ones that use live web feed like, facebook, scorecenter. These are battery suckers!
5. I delete all apps I do not use! Stock and user. Download titanium backup to fix this issue. I freeze, system updates, swype, drm content, drm content launcher, sns, snsaccount. I uninstall the stock browser, use dolphin!! I also uninstall, all sprint bloatware, my files, gmail, email, talk, news and weather. Uninstall all stock and user apps you don't use! Check spare parts to see what runs in the background that you don't use. Another thing to add, I uninstall swype and android keyboard and use better keyboard gingebread edition 8.
6. Disable refresh interval in facebook, do it manually when you are going to use it!
7. Use setcpu. Undervolt to 800max and 100min on conservative governor. Set profiles, when phone is locked and etc.
8. Now lets talk about juicedefender and task killers. Juice defender will work and is a good app! BUT: if ur a person like me, I text a lot in whatsapp and when u lock screen it disables data, so u wont get texts. Download it, take a look at it, try it out. I recommend using agressive mode. Now lets talk about task killers. Personally, I think they dont work at all, and actually waste battery then save it. I just would say don't use one, and use samsungs stock task killer(actually works!)
9. Use a custom rom and kernel. Always be up to date on updates. I usually use, SRF and midNight. All about preference.
10. Extended battery FTW!!! Buy a seidio extened battery! May cost some money, but will greatly increase battery!!! Or get a cheap asian knockoff on ebay.
11. Disable data and put phone into airplane mode when it wont be in use for a period of time. Like at school or work. I usually keep data off during school. You will see a difference with data on and off.
12. Always keep wifi, bluetooth, gps, 4g off when not in use. They will drain battery crazy!!! Wifi will search for networks constantly, same basic thing with gps and bluetooth.
13. Also do full charges!! At night shut off phone and let it charge for a good 8 hours. Then in morning, turn on still plugged in. The charging indicator will be red, leave it alone till its blue. Go get dressed and eat some breakfast lol. Then when you come back it should be blue. And when on boot, let it finish media scanning, don't interrupt it!!
I can guarentee if you follow my tips, you will see a significant increase in battery life!
These are my tips!! I will add more if I can remember some more!
Typed this all on my Epic!!

[Q] SetCPU and JuiceDefender, are they needed anymore?

Hello,
Title says it all...
I would notice overnight that my battery would be completely horizontal (no drop) and thought it was the combination of SETCPU and JuiceDefender (night profile + screen off drop mhz).
But, after unisntalling them, I noticed the same "flat line" at night and also achieved over 30 hours of battery life.
My question is... do these apps really make a difference on our phones?
Or, are the phones advanced enough to handle everything just fine?
your thoughts are appreciated.
I agree... I got about 27 hours of life out of my battery without set cpu or JD (i've never liked JD anyway because its like putting my kid on riddlin)
h20wakebum said:
My question is... do these apps really make a difference on our phones?
Or, are the phones advanced enough to handle everything just fine?
your thoughts are appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of JD are you using? If you have the Plus or Ultimate version, you can probably still gain some benefit, but you need to learn how to custom configure the settings so that you use the ones that are still relevant. For example:
Where Not Helpful: JD will turn off your GPS if an application isn't using it, but most of today's phones will do that anyway.
Where Helpful:: In advanced settings, you can provide a 'night schedule', wherein during this time, JD will disable mobile data, and thus polling, so your phone will not go out and check for mail, FB messages, Tweets, etc. Otherwise, mobile data is off unless you 'wake' the screen for some reason. Or another feature that 'trains' your wi-fi to only activate when you are at home or a 'recognized' wi-fi spot. These are a couple examples, there are others.
Where it MAY be Helpful: JD can disable mobile data for a custom # of minutes (10/15/30/60) and prevent background sync during those periods. It will awake, allow the sync, then turn mobile data off. Now some apps may only sync in these intervals anyway, but unless they're all syncing at the same time, you could have lots of 'up' time. Some of this may not 'wake' your phone from Deep Sleep, but depending on how sloppy the code is, it might.
Hope this helps.
h20wakebum said:
Hello,
Title says it all...
I would notice overnight that my battery would be completely horizontal (no drop) and thought it was the combination of SETCPU and JuiceDefender (night profile + screen off drop mhz).
But, after unisntalling them, I noticed the same "flat line" at night and also achieved over 30 hours of battery life.
My question is... do these apps really make a difference on our phones?
Or, are the phones advanced enough to handle everything just fine?
your thoughts are appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think really depends on the ROM you are running. ViperROM has a script that changes the CPU speed and governer on the fly. So no need for SetCPU there. I'd say Juice Defender can still come in handy with turning data off when you aren't using it.
My 2 cents. Your results may vary.
Capp5050 said:
Which version of JD are you using? If you have the Plus or Ultimate version, you can probably still gain some benefit, but you need to learn how to custom configure the settings so that you use the ones that are still relevant. For example:
Where Not Helpful: JD will turn off your GPS if an application isn't using it, but most of today's phones will do that anyway.
Where Helpful:: In advanced settings, you can provide a 'night schedule', wherein during this time, JD will disable mobile data, and thus polling, so your phone will not go out and check for mail, FB messages, Tweets, etc. Otherwise, mobile data is off unless you 'wake' the screen for some reason. Or another feature that 'trains' your wi-fi to only activate when you are at home or a 'recognized' wi-fi spot. These are a couple examples, there are others.
Where it MAY be Helpful: JD can disable mobile data for a custom # of minutes (10/15/30/60) and prevent background sync during those periods. It will awake, allow the sync, then turn mobile data off. Now some apps may only sync in these intervals anyway, but unless they're all syncing at the same time, you could have lots of 'up' time. Some of this may not 'wake' your phone from Deep Sleep, but depending on how sloppy the code is, it might.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use ultimate. I did run a night schedule, but that kind of points back to my original observation... I'd have night setup from 11pm - 7am and see a horizontal line for battery during this time (wow JD is really working)... BUT, with it uninstalled, during the same period of time 11pm - 7am my battery was also horizontal line... So did it really do anything? I'm on wifi at my house so when I'm sleeping the phone is wifi and not constantly pinging the mobile network (does that make a diff. being on wifi)?
I also did like the wifi only when home setting.
With ViperRom, I probably don't need set CPU anymore... Maybe i'll throw JD back on.
One question.. were you running the beta JD? I noticed the beta would always throw errors in the log stating i needed to uninstall, reboot, reinstall (I never did) anyone else have that happen?
These numbers sound like you have the radio off and don't turn your display on. Pretty amazing numbers otherwise. Would love to know the rom + kernal you're using
edit: I see the post above you mention viperrom. Typically if you have data turned off and display off any device will last days. My OG evo lasts for around 48 hours just sitting there. Still really impressive if you're using your phone within that 30 hours
h20wakebum said:
One question.. were you running the beta JD? I noticed the beta would always throw errors in the log stating i needed to uninstall, reboot, reinstall (I never did) anyone else have that happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never tried the beta; I started with standard, upgraded to Premium, then eventually upgraded to Ultimate (I use the 'Customize' setting, but rarely the 'Advanced' config).
I hear ya on the night-time wi-fi thing. But with this particular phone (and before I rooted and changed ROM/Kernel), on some nights I would be connected to wi-fi and get ZERO CPU sleep time, other nights it would sleep - I have no idea why. It is conceivable that if the only polling your doing is e.g., Gmail, that either it doesn't happen at night, or it happens in such a way as to not knock the phone out of sleep (it IS Google's OS after all).
On a related note, I'm using K-9 mail (my primary mail is Yahoo); it throws wake-locks all the time (set to poll every 15 minutes), but they don't seem to impact battery life or take the device out of deep sleep which is why I suggested that case above.
One other item I like about JD is the ability to permission each and every app for wireless/network access; obviously mail, calendar, phone, etc. need it, but some apps simply don't, and I've been surprised when I set it to 'notify' and some random game pops up seeking network access. Looking for an update? who knows, but I lock 'em down anyway.
AC
pandamaja said:
These numbers sound like you have the radio off and don't turn your display on. Pretty amazing numbers otherwise. Would love to know the rom + kernal you're using
edit: I see the post above you mention viperrom. Typically if you have data turned off and display off any device will last days. My OG evo lasts for around 48 hours just sitting there. Still really impressive if you're using your phone within that 30 hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not turn off data/radio (no airplane mode).
I'm running ViperRom 2.2 with the latest loskernal experimental.
My display was on for roughly 2 hours (again, just used it as i happened to during the course of the day) and data was on.
Capp5050 said:
I've never tried the beta; I started with standard, upgraded to Premium, then eventually upgraded to Ultimate (I use the 'Customize' setting, but rarely the 'Advanced' config).
I hear ya on the night-time wi-fi thing. But with this particular phone (and before I rooted and changed ROM/Kernel), on some nights I would be connected to wi-fi and get ZERO CPU sleep time, other nights it would sleep - I have no idea why. It is conceivable that if the only polling your doing is e.g., Gmail, that either it doesn't happen at night, or it happens in such a way as to not knock the phone out of sleep (it IS Google's OS after all).
On a related note, I'm using K-9 mail (my primary mail is Yahoo); it throws wake-locks all the time (set to poll every 15 minutes), but they don't seem to impact battery life or take the device out of deep sleep which is why I suggested that case above.
One other item I like about JD is the ability to permission each and every app for wireless/network access; obviously mail, calendar, phone, etc. need it, but some apps simply don't, and I've been surprised when I set it to 'notify' and some random game pops up seeking network access. Looking for an update? who knows, but I lock 'em down anyway.
AC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting thing is with the latest JD build it has the bluetooth settings, so i can leave my headset paired, but the phone disconnects while not on a call and then when i get a call, it turns on... kinda cool.
In regards to the permissions... do i need to give the email applications permission for enable/screen off? (so that I'll still get the notifs?) or just enable (as in when screen on).
thanks,
RR

SGSIII / General Android Battery Tips (Can triple battery life!) | Updated 8/27/12

This thread that I've revamped from my Evo 4G/3D days, hoping to share some of the love with newer users. Over the time I've been on android, I've learned a few simple things that can greatly assist in the battery life of our wonderful smartphones.
If you get anything out of the thread, please don't hesitate to rate it and drop me a thanks!
If you read the thread and like the tips, have a new one to suggest, or have a revision, please post it.
On a similar note, moderators, thanks for the sticky!
General Lithium Ion Battery Information
^^This link includes stuff about charging, including trickle charging aka SBC (Why NOT to use it, or at your own peril)
My tips for good battery life:
Tips for Non-Rooted users
1. Turn off all radios when not in use.
(Bluetooth, wifi, data, 4G/Wimax/LTE, NFC, etc) Use a widget like the default power widgets, Switchpro, or a similar app from the market. Newer android versions generally allows users to access these radios and other settings from the notification pulldown menu, , under the "Quick Settings" tab or a row at the top of the pulldown. The radios of the phone draw power if on even if the user isn't actually utilizing the radio's functions. A radio searching for signal (if you are in a low-signal area) drains more than a radio with good signal, so again, turn 'em off when you aren't using 'em.
To manually turn off radios without a toggle, go to menu>settings>wireless & networks.
Wifi uses less battery than 3G, so use wifi when you can.
Unlike the others, GPS radios only draw power when you actually need them, so you can leave it on all the time.
2. Juice Defender is one of my favorite apps. Basically it controls your data for you to maximize life.
More explanations are on their page, search it on the market for free, or upgrade for more features.
Here are my settings for it: Click me
Note that for me at least, juice defender likes to deny apps data privileges whether you allow them or not, so screen on = data on works best for me.
3. I love live wallpapers, and I’ve always been a fan of pixel zombies, but they are really only good for showing off due to their battery drain.
4. Sadly, the "always on mobile data" setting is gone. This tip is invalid.
Go to menu>settings>wireless & networks>mobile networks>disable always on mobile data.
Product F(RED) said:
To clarify, "Always On Mobile Data", when turned off, lets the 3G modem go to sleep after the screen has been off for 5 minutes. It doesn't interfere with anything like email or any other application that requires an internet connection at that moment because it turns on on-demand rather than being on all the time and wasting battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. Set your screen timeout to something that fits you.
The screen is the highest drain of battery power on any smartphone. BY setting the timeout, you can prevent your phone from staying on when you don’t manually turn off the screen. Also, manually turn off your screen when you’re done with your phone.
Menu>Settings>Display>Screen Timeout
I use 30 seconds.
6. Task killers used to be the shiz, but no longer.
Here is the ultimate, in depth, graphically assisted, explanation by the famous Fresh ROM's chef, Flipz. Shortly, in light of recent testing, really don’t do anything but force apps that the android OS needed to be open, and thus didn’t close, to re-open. So try not using them, unless for stuff like trying to figure out why your phone isn’t sleeping with system panel. You really won’t notice a performance difference, and the adverse effects you aren’t seeing will stop
+=+ A good alternative is the application SystemPanel Pro. It has a free version, but I highly reccomend purchasing the paid app. It basically monitors everything going on with your phone's usage both in real time an in terms of usage history. If your battery is draiging fast, it tells you what app was doing it, how much it was doing it, and allows you to stop it.
7. I'm sure you have all heard around that your phone isn't "sleeping".
This is referring to the phone's "awake" time, hence the name. When you go to Menu>Settings>About Phone>Battery>click on the small battery graphical, you can compare the two lines, time on and awake. Generally, up time refers to the amount of time since the last reboot. The "awake time" is how long the screen has been active. The problem is, a lot of the time, due to the endless possibilities of inconsistencies between apps/ROMs/kernels/phones, the phone will not go to "sleep", drawing power proportionate to the screen being in use when it reality the phone is sitting idle.
If you compare these numbers, and they are the same, or if you note the difference, turn off the screen for a minute, then re-check and they are the same, then your phone is not sleeping.
One solution is to reboot.
I recommend two apps to help monitor:System Panel and Better Battery Stats. These two apps (explained in their FAQ's and descriptions greatly aid in finding those rogues.
Usually, SystemPanel will show an app that has gone "rogue" and is keeping your phone awake.
-This is done by hitting menu>settings>monitoring enabled. Then after some time has passed, ht menu>monitoring>history>change tab to top apps, and see if anything is above, say, 2-4%.
Uninstall applications/reinstalling them slowly, checking after every install to see what is causing it is one tedious but surefire solution.
Lastly,
Follow these steps that I have discovered almost always work.
1. Reboot phone.
2. Instantly upon reboot, as soon as you gain control, open up some type of monitor/taskkiller
3. "kill all" tasks on startup; about 5 times in quick succession should do the trick.
4. Turn off the screen and leave it for about five minutes.
5. Check the up time v. awake time and see if they are the same.
6. If they are, repeat steps 1-5. If they are different, you are good.
8. Apps and Combinations to watch out for!
-Facebook- Tries to sync live feed all the time, HIGHLY recommend unchecking this box, as it creates a massive draw on data
-Skype- This app reportedly (I've seen it myself) likes to sync random data and open up the network for fun. Sign out of app when not in use to fix
A rogue process called "gsiff_daemon", associated with the gyroscope. Changing its name seems to be the only semi-permanent solution. It's located in system/bin.
Lightflow is a pretty damn cool notification/led manager, but it eats up ridiculous system resources using its alarm wakeups. Use at your own risk.
9. Manage your syncing.
This is a big one, and it differs from person to person. Go to Menu>Settings>Accounts and Sync, and take a look at what's going on there. The green or checked or activated box to the right of the option means that there is an account syncing data. I for example have four email addresses, facebook, dropbox, box, weather, etc. That is bad. You should go through and turn off syncing for nasty apps you didn't even know where accessing the internet, or limit the access of apps and services that you do want to allow.
The problem lies in the way this syncing is handled. Each app/service runs on its own schedule, making it particularly likely that your phone could almost always be establishing a data connection and trying to download data for your various apps. See step 2 regarding the app Juice Defender to handle this problem.
10. Vibrate Settings
Vibration and haptic feedback eat up a surprising amount of battery. If you have the haptic feedback enabled, then every time you press anything your phone puts out some juice to make itself dance.
At least on the GSIII, the settings are in menu>settings>sound
Some apps have their own haptic feedback settings, and notifications are their own set entirely.
Root Tips LIVE
Tips for Rooted users:
1. Try out custom kernels.
By going to the Galaxy S III Android Development section of the forums, you can see all of the different kernels being developed. These allow for all kinds of modifications like underclocking the CPU and undervolting, both of which save battery. To see how to use them, read the FAQ's in each thread's OPs.
Here is a great guide to custom kernel's by mroneeyedboh.
2. Use SetCPU in compliance with whatever your custom kernel allows.
This site will explain the basics of SetCPU: http://www.setcpu.com/
-Profiles from SetCPU should usually involve these for battery life optimization:
-Screen off at the minimum clock speed for both, with the max raised on level if sluggishness is apparent
-A temperature greater than “X”
-General power related profiles that lower cpu speed at lower battery levels
-Here are my SetCPU profiles: 1 , 2 , 3
-My profiles change a lot as time goes by, because different kernel creators recommend different settings. I suggest reading up on whatever kernel you are using to gather settings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES:
*Some apps or processes begin to run at startup and keep the phone awake. These apps are not detected by things like spare parts or system panel, unless sometimes represented in the "system" process, in which case its usage will be unusually high.
This shouldn't take more than three repeats, and if it does, you need to factory reset, and slowly add apps back to see what's causing the problem.
___--- When it comes to actually "calibrating" one's battery, there are a couple of methods floating around. The method I first learned is to charge the phone all the way, boot into recovery immediately, and "wipe battery stats". Then reboot quickly, and run your phone all the way to death without charging it, then charge it all the way without interrupting it, and you should be good to go. Do this when changing ROMs/kernels for best results.
----When it comes to people claiming 20 plus hours of moderate/heavy use out of their current setup or other ridiculous absurdities, consider my position: No matter what you do, the Evo battery is the Evo battery. You can tweak it and customize it with kernels, ROMs, and settings, but none of that will turn it into a car battery. The main problem (besides a false sense of pride) that leads to these reports is the misunderstanding of what the usage levels are, so here’s my best summary:
* *Light usage – Phone screen actually on for maybe 0-2 hours. Things like a few texts, some emails, 20 minutes web browsing, etc.
* *Moderate usage – You watched a few youtube videos or similar apps, sustained web browsing, hundreds of texts, some games. Hours range from about 2-5 of screen on
* *Heavy usage – LOTS of video watching and games, 3D pics or video, or some high def gaming/movie watching for at least an hour to an hour and a half in total, with lots of emails and texts, browsing, and other app shenanigans. 5+ hours
*I’m sure everyone doesn’t agree with all these numbers, but this is most likely a good average of what powerusers think. All specific hourage may vary due to differences in phones, batteries, ROMs, and kernels… Which also means that most battery comparisons are pointless; it’s only what you can improve on that counts!
I’ll update this whenever I see good stuff, people remind me, or I remember/come across things I do.
Hope it helps everybody!
Hit the "THANKS" button if I help you!
Vote for Your Favorite Tip
Nice tips
I'm not quite sure if leaving the GPS on actually eats up battery now. I've seen articles now that state that GPS is only used if a program needs it. When I go into battery and usage, GPS will only show it has been used only a couple times with the apps that I opened such as Facebook, Speed Test or Gas Buddy. I think with ICS, it has changed in the way that GPS actually works and it is not actually constantly using battery.
jhuff83 said:
I'm not quite sure if leaving the GPS on actually eats up battery now. I've seen articles now that state that GPS is only used if a program needs it. When I go into battery and usage, GPS will only show it has been used only a couple times with the apps that I opened such as Facebook, Speed Test or Gas Buddy. I think with ICS, it has changed in the way that GPS actually works and it is not actually constantly using battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is correct and I have confirmed it. Just haven't updated the op.
Thanks for calling that to my attention.
The one about turning radios off is one that makes all the sense in the world, but I'm not sure in practice if it makes a significant enough difference to override the inconvenience of having to flip things on and off as needed.
I can only speak from personal experience but for about two weeks my wife and I, both with S3's, were shutting radios off when not needed out of habit from our Epic days. However, since then (well over a month now) we just leave everything on all the time... and I do mean *everything*: GPS, Wi-Fi, NFC, cell radio, BT... and the difference has been... wait for it... so little it's actually been hard to quantify!
My own take on that rule is to leave everything on and see what you see... it's always easy enough to turn things off if you find your battery life not living up to expectations and if it winds up being a trend, so be it, leave things off as suggested in the OP. For my wife and I at least we can get through an average day and finish up before going to bed around 30%-40% battery most days. To me, even if I could get that to 40%-50% left, that 10% difference I can accept for never having to worry about what's on or off.
Laziness has a price, and it's around 10% of my battery life apparently
great tips!!!! definitely improved my battery with these!
The radios are extremely dependent upon your area, signal strength, the walls of your house, the apps you have installed that actually call upon the data... So ideally, if your area has amazing signal, your walls are hyper radio permeable, and you don't have many data intensive apps, then you can probably get by with minimal loss. People who are feeling the itch to test should certainly go ahead and try, but the same could be said with most of these tips. This is simply a guide of suggestions. YMMV
fzammetti said:
The one about turning radios off is one that makes all the sense in the world, but I'm not sure in practice if it makes a significant enough difference to override the inconvenience of having to flip things on and off as needed.
I can only speak from personal experience but for about two weeks my wife and I, both with S3's, were shutting radios off when not needed out of habit from our Epic days. However, since then (well over a month now) we just leave everything on all the time... and I do mean *everything*: GPS, Wi-Fi, NFC, cell radio, BT... and the difference has been... wait for it... so little it's actually been hard to quantify!
My own take on that rule is to leave everything on and see what you see... it's always easy enough to turn things off if you find your battery life not living up to expectations and if it winds up being a trend, so be it, leave things off as suggested in the OP. For my wife and I at least we can get through an average day and finish up before going to bed around 30%-40% battery most days. To me, even if I could get that to 40%-50% left, that 10% difference I can accept for never having to worry about what's on or off.
Laziness has a price, and it's around 10% of my battery life apparently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gps Radio?
Really? The radio, even if left on, uses power only when an app needs the position. I am kinda boggled by this? Wouldn't it take longer to aquire the location from the 3-7 sateilites upon the request and then shut back down. What would be the diference? This can't be true about the GPS not sucking any power in ICS when idle.
BUMP
551skydiver said:
Really? The radio, even if left on, uses power only when an app needs the position. I am kinda boggled by this? Wouldn't it take longer to aquire the location from the 3-7 sateilites upon the request and then shut back down. What would be the diference? This can't be true about the GPS not sucking any power in ICS when idle.
BUMP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try leaving it on for the day and go into battery and click on the graph. You will see that it should be black across the board for GPS if the signal was not used. Only time it would be green is when a program utilized it.
ICS changed the Battery Stats. It doesn't display that information in About Device. Uptime is there but awake time isn't.
sekigah84 said:
ICS changed the Battery Stats. It doesn't display that information in About Device. Uptime is there but awake time isn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, that's incorrect. Menu>Settings>Battery>click on the small graph picture. It gives you many things, including time on battery, Awake time, Screen on time, and charging time. It's just graphically represented.
How do you accomplish #4?
Go to menu>settings>wireless & networks>mobile networks>disable always on mobile data.
---------- Post added at 08:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 AM ----------
found it under Data Usage
---------- Post added at 08:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:09 AM ----------
well, when I turned Mobile Data Off, didn't receive any data (emails, etc.) so I turned it back on
I'm curiouis about this 1 as well. How do we accomplish this as I don't see that option?
Remove that "wipe battery stats" from your tips. its a old myth that needs to die permanently.
Shoulon said:
Remove that "wipe battery stats" from your tips. its a old myth that needs to die permanently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct.
www.landofdroid.acom/2012/to-wipe-battery-stats-or-not-to-in-androidthat-is-the-question/
I disable everything when I go to sleep at night, or when I am putting my phone on charge in middle of the day to maybe help it gain battery while not draining it, sort of like a power charge I like to think. It's so easy to do, just slide down status bar, uncheck everything (WiFi, Mobile Data, Sync, dim screen all the way) and that's it. I had 22h1m running since last charge today when I was at 4%.
General Android Battery Tips (Can triple battery life!) | Updated
Thank you for sharing this is to improve life of the battery
battery
shuiguo said:
Thank you for sharing this is to improve life of the battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It helps to use the right ROM and know how to work your phone:
:good:
Also, apparently Google apps backup is broken for some users. I had a problem with the phone not sleeping and traced it to google backup, apparently it's a common problem with ICS. This is unrelated to contacts/calendar sync. If you have the phone device rooted and use titanium you can leave this off, and as long as you don't lose your phone it's no big deal. Setting is under system settings -> backup and reset.
Figure I would show this off here, had the flu last week and was basically comatose for 30 hours. Only about 2 hrs screen on time, but all radios on and even passed out with navigation on after checking traffic at one point. 51 hours
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
I would try disabling Google backup so it no longer updated/synced my info to the web until I next turned it on, but the option says it deletes all the info already stored on the web. I suppose this is good if someone wanted to delete this info for privacy concerns, but there should be an option to just turn the syncing off, or to schedule it for once a day or something.
I have not tried disabling it as I do not want to wipe my info.

A Root Battery Saver App (By Moi)

I've lately got into developing mobile apps and even though i've promoted this as beta, people seem to be using it, but nobody's reporting back! - same goes for all of my apps, i don't get it...
Anyway, i need real feedback and I was wondering if any folks here with a rooted android could help test this app out, it was made on Kitkat, so while yes, it works fine for me, it may not for you... I've had one feedback comment saying that his modem data was not switching off on lollipop, so i added support for that now allowing him or her to use the app as intended, but after replying via the playstore, nothing was heard of him since... almost suspicious lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpsPnMRO86w
Find it on Android's Playstore... Craig's Battery Saver ROOT
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=saver.battery.craigs.craigsbatterysaver :good:
How it works..... read on
How it works, if you're interested!
2 things use up battery power
1. apps that are CPU intensive, eg constantly repeating to connect (this would only happen under malware, as most apps would never do this, it would see the socket it closed/dead and stop and wait until user input, malware would constantly reconnect.. but 99/100 apps will just stop and then do nothing meaning all genuine apps should 'idle' not really using up cpu time....
2. Hardware services, bluetooth, mobile data, wifi, gps, these services are all hardware, so your cpu will switch on each of these services and each one has a significant drain on your battery, go bed at 11pm, by 9am it may have drained 30 - 40% or more... with this app, it will have drained under 1 - 3% depending on your battery (tablets for example should run for days with this app if rooted)
So this app does 2, it first remembers which hardware was on before the screen goes off, so no confusing switch wifi on when wifi's already on (as i've seen on other apps?!) reason why i wrote this because all the other apps i came across sucked really, almost but not quite etc etc..
With this tool, if you're a light user you could quite easily see 60% battery improvement! the bonus side affect of this app is also interesting, for 1, it charges quicker! if you accidentally fall asleep, it will conserve as much power as possible, obviously sms,telephone/mobile network is still running in the background so you can't completely stop a device from draining...
the other bonus side affect was, it kills dead all facebook notifications, twitter, well it would as it disables wifi, modem. 3g, bt when the screen goes off! :good:
1 more feature, if you drop your phone? then what?... take where's my droid, i sms it asking for location... it replies "GPS OFF" and "modem off" simple, send the text message to your phone with "on" without the " " around on, and the app will disable itself so it does not switch off the services and then at the same time it enables Wifi, Modem Data, Gps, Bt pretty useful huh... then on where's my droid, you'll get GPS combined with AGPS data from mobile data giving you pin point accuracy, as soon as you get the data of where it is... type in
off (to turn this feature off) or
on (to turn on all your services)
It also disables itself taking calls...
It has a smart check feature too, let's say after you switch the screen on and for some reason wifi failed to switch on ? after 3 seconds it will then check again to see if wifi is indeed on... if it's not on, it attempts to switch it on again...
Feedback is greatly appreciated so i can support a larger range of devices.... thank you for reading! (Suggestions, welcome!)
So basically what your device is and what's not working (along with build version, lollipop/kitkat etc) and i'll see if i can find a way to add it in to support your droid! - one more thing, i've been releasing updates like a crazy woman collecting cats lately and even though it does all this it's only supporting "Extreme power saving option" come tuesday i hope to have that sorted out so that every few minutes it can wake up to check for twitter/facebook messages for all of those who hate the sound of a phone being blissful quiet
if you're rooted and it does not look like that in the video [top of screen] (not the interface, but the services, i've already updated the UI)
anyway, help me to make it better for you...
One more thing, there are no push notifications, no popup adds, no huge banners, all my apps have one tiny advert to help support the countless hours of programming i'm putting into this apps, with each upgrade i aim to make them more stable and more usable, and i really need peoples help and support even if that is criticism - it's "beta" but i'm almost ready to bring it out after i add the wake up services....
Nobody has a rooted device?
Unlike other battery savers... it really does work

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