Related
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!!
I'm currently on the CM7 ROM, I have juice defender and done all the minor tweaks as far as disabling wireless network location, turn off the wifi and GPS, and an app killer. I still only manage at max 9 hours before my phone tells me to recharge.
If your getting great battery life, help me and others by sharing your tips here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Best tip is to stay on wifi as much as possible. I got 3 days on wifi and about 4 hours use.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I turn data off when im not using the internet and when I'm just listening to musc I just put my phone in airplane mode
Yeah, I need some help too. I get about a day and a half with no use at all, and about 10 hours with minimal use. 4 hours with real world usage... I can't deal with this. Could it be the battery? It performs like a 1 year old, used, refurb battery came with a stock phone!
Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G with Tapatalk
Have you configured the battery since flashing the rom?
I get decent enough battery life, with light usage I can go about 36 hours w/o a charge but on my heavy usage days I usually have to use the car charger a few times a day.
kennyglass123 said:
Best tip is to stay on wifi as much as possible. I got 3 days on wifi and about 4 hours use.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
masaidjet said:
I turn data off when im not using the internet and when I'm just listening to musc I just put my phone in airplane mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
liquiddetox said:
Have you configured the battery since flashing the rom?
I get decent enough battery life, with light usage I can go about 36 hours w/o a charge but on my heavy usage days I usually have to use the car charger a few times a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all of these... biggest one is to turn off data when the phone is in your pocket. use wifi when u can, avoid using 4g unless plugged in, configure the battery in recovery (i've actually notice that this helps less than anything else for me), and finally: get an extended battery. it's worth the extra hours u can squeeze out of it. don't expect more than 4-5 hours screen on time with any rom/kernel/modem combo with a stock battery.
liquiddetox said:
Have you configured the battery since flashing the rom?
I get decent enough battery life, with light usage I can go about 36 hours w/o a charge but on my heavy usage days I usually have to use the car charger a few times a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I also did that wipe battery stats at recovery.
I just thought maybe my expectations were too high, although it seems as if my battery drains drop pretty fast.
I would say about -10% battery drop every hour, just checking the time and send/receive text messages. Occasionally I surf the Web on the phone when on break at work. Other than that the phone is in my pocket, and after my 9 hour workday my phone demands the charger.
This is with the stock battery, so I guess this is normal unless I'm using the extended battery?
...
Sent from I guess my SPH-D700 using XDA App
u could also run a kernel that allows for over (under) clocking/undervolting. that helps some, too
get the duricell portable battery extender, add milliamps to your arsinal in one way or another with extended batterys or whatever, if you call sprint and complain loudly and dickly they will rebate you the cost that u spend on a new battery or batt extender whatever... that being said all the above options work great, u can also use night mode on chainfire 3d to save battery, or perhaps half your pixel rate, or perhapes turn off some colors (havent seen an app to do this yet) and reset your battery memory in cwm, kill ur batt, charg while off, then cycle again like that. (theres an app for that) if your not rooted, root your phone. if you dont want to root your phone, cycle ur battery the old fasion way or pop it into a rooted phone and do it.
I used to get really poor battery life (due to my phone not sleeping as evidenced by Spare Parts app). I rooted, used Titanium Backup to freeze various apps, and got an Zboost antenna booster for the office and called Sprint who sent me an Airave for the house. I wiped battery stats and cleared my Dalvic cache and the thing the finally got me right was finding out the Amazon MP3 app was still logged in though not running. Once I made sure I was logged out of that and Lattitude (Google Map feature) and Facebook, I haven't had any problem with a sleeping phone. Stock Froyo, standard battery, but rooted. When they say a bad app keeps your phone from sleeping I think they mean an app that requires log in...although this does not seem to be a problem if you stay logged in from a browser, only from an app!
Breezy357 said:
I'm currently on the CM7 ROM, I have juice defender and done all the minor tweaks as far as disabling wireless network location, turn off the wifi and GPS, and an app killer. I still only manage at max 9 hours before my phone tells me to recharge.
If your getting great battery life, help me and others by sharing your tips here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be shooting yourself in the foot with some of those things. App killers aren't that useful on Gingerbread since they keep killing apps that just reload on their own, and every time the reload it uses power. Just because an app is loaded doesn't mean it is running. Try letting the system take care of it. Juice Defender may help a little but it keeps shutting down data and starting it up, which means you don't get as much usefulness out of the phone and may waste power in some circumstances.
See what you have set to sync. Turn off any autosyncs you don't need, like weather screens, facebook, etc. If at all possible set them to only sync when you open the program.
I use the exchange option for gmail using the stock samsung app, which gives me push email but doesn't have to keep polling the server. I don't know if that makes a difference compared to imap, but it works well for me. don't think you have that option in CM7.
Wifi is a much more efficient way transfer data than 3G, use it whenever you can, and set it to never sleep. Otherwise the 3G radio keeps starting up again and wasting battery.
You can freeze the DRM stuff if you don't use it. I don't know if it really makes a difference but everyone thinks it does, so I do it.
Having a black wallpaper helps a little because on a AMOLED screen a black pixel uses no power.
The biggest battery killer is being in a bad signal area. If you always have 0 or 1 bars then your phone is going to always be draining the battery trying to find a good cell. In that case Roam Control may help you.
That's about all I do, and with the latest Stock gingerbread EH17 and EI22 I'm sitting with about 40 to 50% left after 12 hours, that's with light to moderate use.
I've been through the ringer with this. I'm pretty comfortable now, routinely managing to have 33% of battery left after 12hrs w/3g always on, sync always on, intermittent music listening, 2.5-3hrs of gaming and general "screen on" time (auto brightness), 1.1 GHz OC, no undervolting, and GPS always on. Here's what I'd suggest:
Flash a ROM w/ NO CIQ (thanks k0nane!) - In addition to being a leech on your privacy it's a leech on your battery. It's old news to long-time Epic owners at this point, but ditching CIQ improves battery life and overall responsiveness of the Epic. A popular stable Froyo ROM for this is SFR 1.2.
Minimize always-running services - Long press your homescreen, select "shortcuts," select "settings," and select "running services." Tap this to see what's running ongoing services (not apps) your phone is running. All of these are drawing current to stay in RAM. Things like Juice Defender, Tasker, and others show up here and draw power in doing so. JD and Tasker especially can drain a lot because they perform constant tasks as well. Uninstall them and let your phone manage itself.
The same goes for task managers and app-stoppers - Froyo and above does this fine on it's own
Freeze/Uninstall system services you don't use - This includes things like Sprint voicemail, the "Email" app, and the "SprintAndroidExtension.apk," and SNS services. You'll most likely find these on the "Running Services Page" as well. You can Titanium Backup to uninstall them, but I recommend the SDX Stock App Remover as that can restore them (TB can't reliably). TB can freeze these as well, which accomplishes basically the same thing. SNS is connected to Facebook, so if you use that a lot you might want to keep it. DRM services can also be removed, but may cause problems reading the SD card. I stay away from it.
Use Spare Parts to monitor wakelock and CPU usage - If you notice something giving you persistent trouble, shut it down. This is time-consuming, but you'll get a good feel for what apps are out there to accomplish similar tasks and which one best suits your needs.
Uninstall apps you don't use - Next time you wipe and flash a new ROM, reinstall or restore backed up apps as you need to use them and not all at once. You may find you don't need quite a few of them, allowing you to keep more space open on your phone and requiring less current to maintain them
Don't charge the battery overnight - most phones can reach capacity in 2-4 hours depending on charge level. Beyond that, holding at or around fully charged will degrade the battery by denying it the ability to release the stored energy. I charge mine in the evening a few hours before bed and top it off in the morning before leaving for work.
Get an 1800mAh battery sold for the Epic Touch - this is what moved me form "getting by" to "definitely comfortable." For around $25 (incl shipping) on ebay, I've gotten a new lease on my Epic's life. It may seem like cheating to bring in a new battery, but it makes a lot of difference WITHOUT adding more bulge to your phone (makes it a tad heavier though).
Hope this helps. Remember, of course, that what works for one phone won't necessarily work for another. Despite being the same model, minor imperfections in silicone can create individual temperaments for each phone.
I as always trying to make my battery last by stopping this and uninstalling that. Then I thought; why did I buy this phone with all of these capabilities to turn them all off
So, something like the "Hyperion Sprint Samsung Epic Touch 4G 2 x Battery + Charger" (too "young" to post a direct link)
Would fit in/work with the Epic 4G (without needing a new cover)? Even though its for the Touch?
Lol, I've been doing many of the suggestions across the board, and have gotten much better results. But I'm still not "comfortable" with my battery strength, especially when I'm unable to charge my phone all day...
Looking into your running services is a big one. week ago my battery life greatly decreased. I kept seeing market update pending and it wouldnt go away. Never update never go away. I manually updated the market and the battery is back to wonderful. It drops 2-3% at night off charger. Thats about 8 hours.
A sticky with all the main running services and which ones you can stop would be wonderful. I have sns services running. I think i can stop it but not positive. I also have sanservice running supposedly some type of samsung update. Its not doing anything but its been running for 2 days. No negative effect on battery(that i notice) but its running. Also make sure you turn location off. Ive also noticed that even when you back out of google maps its still in running services. A restart fixes that but thats annoying.
themow said:
Looking into your running services is a big one. week ago my battery life greatly decreased. I kept seeing market update pending and it wouldnt go away. Never update never go away. I manually updated the market and the battery is back to wonderful. It drops 2-3% at night off charger. Thats about 8 hours.
A sticky with all the main running services and which ones you can stop would be wonderful. I have sns services running. I think i can stop it but not positive. I also have sanservice running supposedly some type of samsung update. Its not doing anything but its been running for 2 days. No negative effect on battery(that i notice) but its running. Also make sure you turn location off. Ive also noticed that even when you back out of google maps its still in running services. A restart fixes that but thats annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SNSservice is a Facebook and Feeds and Updates Widget service. ALWAYS stop it. It does not matter to Facebook, even if you use it, but if you remove the Feeds and Updates Widget on one of your screens, that service continues to search for it and will kill your battery in a matter of hours (it starts a "restarting" loop). Either leave the widget on or kill this service after every reboot or if you are rooted, freeze it along with DRM service.
My other battery tips are to log out or sign out of every app such as Lattitude, Facebook, Amazon MP3 (it's ok to use them, but don't just back/exit out, actually sign out of them so you have to log back in next time). Apparently, staying signed in causes your phone to not sleep and you can't find what is causing it (i.e. you can't see it "running" anywhere...people call it a misbehaving app, and you would have to delete apps one at a time to find it by trial and error).
My battery is draining like CRAZY and i cant seem to find out what the issue is. Ive tried calibration several times and using a task manager that turns off running apps every few seconds(which seemed to make it worse) and that didn't help. Auto updates are turned off and fbook is only set to update every hour and brightness is set to minimum yet my battery only seem to last 8hrs. please help. i would really like to pinpoint what the issue is.
Oh...im running ERA Legendary 2.1, CPU speed and voltages are stock
That screenshot is worthless. It doesn't show anything useful. Percentages are meaningless. Get Betterbatterystats to see what is running as far as processes and partial wakes. Get CPUspy. To make sure your phone is going into deep sleep. Get Memory Booster Lite to see what is using your battery and get rid of the auto task killer. That will kill your battery fast.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
kennyglass123 said:
That screenshot is worthless. It doesn't show anything useful. Percentages are meaningless. Get Betterbatterystats to see what is running as far as processes and partial wakes. Get CPUspy. To make sure your phone is going into deep sleep. Get Memory Booster Lite to see what is using your battery and get rid of the auto task killer. That will kill your battery fast.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i only posted the screen shot to show the time vs percentage. i already got rid of the task killer and here is a screenshot from better battery stats. idk how to stop the processes though...
Again the percentages mean nothing. In Gingerbread everything goes through Android system so it will always be highest. If you use your phone only an hour or two a day then it will drop to around 60% with cell standby getting higher. They will always add up to 100% whether on a minute or 10 hours.
You didn't post the partial wake locks screen. Also did you check CPUspy for deep sleep? Did you uninstall the autokiller? You can go into settings>applications>running services and stop applications that shouldn't be running like Facebook or music and video players, etc. Sometimes it's best to get an app like Bloat freezer and freeze apps that keep reloading if you don't use them often.
CardnalSyn said:
My battery is draining like CRAZY and i cant seem to find out what the issue is. Ive tried calibration several times and using a task manager that turns off running apps every few seconds(which seemed to make it worse) and that didn't help. Auto updates are turned off and fbook is only set to update every hour and brightness is set to minimum yet my battery only seem to last 8hrs. please help. i would really like to pinpoint what the issue is.
Oh...im running ERA Legendary 2.1, CPU speed and voltages are stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another question and maybe the most important...what is your screen on time? I didn't see it in the screen shots. I think Max screen on Time I have gotten is right around 4hours. All the battery tweaks in the world wont help, if your screen is on a lot. Also...make sure to freeze drm, sns and system updates. Use randomlking's zip file.
If none of that works...wash, rinse, repeat. Wipe clean and reflash, rom and kernel.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
As I'm sure you know, everyone's battery drainage is widely independent. However; I'm on "stock" Legendary 2.1 and recently with the updated Samurai kernel as well and run Juice Defender Ultimate. I've got some advance settings set but over the past 3-4 days, I average about 20 to 22 hours on a single charge.
My usage in an average day is: about 20-30 texts, about 10 minutes of phone calls, 10-12 emails in and out, 10 minutes of web, whatever app updates there may be and maybe about 15-30 minutes of light to medium use games.
If JDU is something you might want to look into, I would be more than willing to post my setup to get you started. <--For some reason, people are real stingy with their JDU settings.
This kinda thing just happens sometimes, and usually clears up on it's own. Especially common after flashing new software.
sent from my secret underground bunker
Hi All,
I would like to invite your suggestions on best battery saving apps that you are using and how much difference does it make. Is it worth paying for apps juice defender ultimate or so http://forum.xda-developers.com/images/icons/advanced/battery_full.png
I am on stock (rooted) 4.2.1 and stock rom.
Thanks!
Best battery saver is your self. These apps don't work any better than you doing the things it does manually. If its using resources which they all do to "save" you battery... Its not really saving you battery.. But in fact using it.
Some tips I suggest:
Turn sync off in everything. Go to data usage hit the menu button and uncheck auto sync data. Also you will want to open apps that have notifications and make sure they aren't syncing either.
Remove maps if you don't use it or disable it at the very least this will keep it from polling your location and wake locking the device.
Keep your running apps to a minimum and force stop any unnecessary apps.
Turn off Google backup services. Sometimes this will be pulling and pushing data wake locking the device and using battery. I've never found it necessary especially since I use TiBu anyways for my apps to restore. It never saves my WiFi password either.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
anx.sap said:
Hi All,
I would like to invite your suggestions on best battery saving apps that you are using and how much difference does it make. Is it worth paying for apps juice defender ultimate or so http://forum.xda-developers.com/images/icons/advanced/battery_full.png
I am on stock (rooted) 4.2.1 and stock rom.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for me best battery saver app is still juice defender ultimate. used it on my S3 once (2.5x longer batt life) but not on my N4.
ÜBER™ said:
Best battery saver is your self. These apps don't work any better than you doing the things it does manually. If its using resources which they all do to "save" you battery... Its not really saving you battery.. But in fact using it.
Some tips I suggest:
Turn sync off in everything. Go to data usage hit the menu button and uncheck auto sync data. Also you will want to open apps that have notifications and make sure they aren't syncing either.
Remove maps if you don't use it or disable it at the very least this will keep it from polling your location and wake locking the device.
Keep your running apps to a minimum and force stop any unnecessary apps.
Turn off Google backup services. Sometimes this will be pulling and pushing data wake locking the device and using battery. I've never found it necessary especially since I use TiBu anyways for my apps to restore. It never saves my WiFi password either.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This ^^^ battery "saving " apps usually do more harm than good. Uber, nice to see you awaiting your N4
Sent from the Nodes of Ranvier
ÜBER™ said:
Keep your running apps to a minimum and force stop any unnecessary apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't particularly good advice in my opinion. Are there apps that do use battery power when you don't force close them? Yes, sure, but many don't. And those which do without a good reason.. try to find a replacement.
Force closing apps all the time especially on a device with lots of ram will mean that your device has to restart the app completely if you open it again, which takes time and energy.
edit:
Also, turning off sync doesn't really help that much if you still use your apps often but instead refresh manually with the screen on, I'd expect. Of course everyone can decide for themselves, but one of the reasons I own a smartphone is because it can notify of an incoming email or something without me having to go to gmail.com manually. It all very much depends on what you want from your phone and how much you are willing to compromise. Using an App like Lux for example could also save you some battery depending on how bright you need your screen to be etc. There are so many variables to this.
Best battery saver is to not run crappy battery hogging apps like juice defender.
Turn on auto brightness, check your apps and make sure you are not syncing very often unless you need it. For most apps you can turn off auto sync and probably sync manually. I just turn on auto sync for handful of important apps which I open regularly.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Manually turn down screen brightness, don't leave the Wifi or bluetooth on when you're not connected, make sure apps you install aren't keeping the phone awake. Not much else actually works in the real world.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I get two and a half days from my Nexus 4 battery, I can thank Juice Defender Ultimate for a large part of that.
I could do all the tricks that Juice Defender does manually, but it would be a PITA and I'm sure I'd forget some of those tricks.
Better to pay a few quid, take a little time to set up Juice Defender, then sit back and enjoy your doubled battery life.
the best part of Juice Defender was turning off Wifi when not at home.. if you like this feature, search the playstore for 'Y5 Battery Saver'. It does the same thing, is simple and free..
Note: dont backup and restore it in titanium though. If you rebuild, install from the playstore. I have found it doesn't work right if restored
IMO if all you want is bt/wifi to toggle when you aren't home spend $5 on a few nfc stickers and stick one by your front door. You could also go with tasker.
As for battery life, francos kernel is giving me 2 days of battery (far more than I need) with wifi/bt on, whatever apps need to sync do so and I have brightness set to auto.
I found juice defender good for phones that are bloated with crapware and not rooted. It hurt battery life when i used it for phones with custom roms and kernels.
gazsus said:
I get two and a half days from my Nexus 4 battery, I can thank Juice Defender Ultimate for a large part of that.
I could do all the tricks that Juice Defender does manually, but it would be a PITA and I'm sure I'd forget some of those tricks.
Better to pay a few quid, take a little time to set up Juice Defender, then sit back and enjoy your doubled battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you post you juice defense settings. I can't even get 2 days from my nexus 4.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
anx.sap said:
Can you post you juice defense settings. I can't even get 2 days from my nexus 4.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nvm
ÜBER™ said:
Best battery saver is your self. These apps don't work any better than you doing the things it does manually. If its using resources which they all do to "save" you battery... Its not really saving you battery.. But in fact using it.
Some tips I suggest:
Turn sync off in everything. Go to data usage hit the menu button and uncheck auto sync data. Also you will want to open apps that have notifications and make sure they aren't syncing either.
Remove maps if you don't use it or disable it at the very least this will keep it from polling your location and wake locking the device.
Keep your running apps to a minimum and force stop any unnecessary apps.
Turn off Google backup services. Sometimes this will be pulling and pushing data wake locking the device and using battery. I've never found it necessary especially since I use TiBu anyways for my apps to restore. It never saves my WiFi password either.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya cripple your phone like this guy says lol
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
After I turned 'Google location' and NFC off, this thing can easily last the day with average use. Before that it was just draining like crazy.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I've had juice defender ultimate since my Nexus S days. I wouldn't be without it as I can't get my battery to last a full day without it. When it's fully configured correctly, it works fantastic. I especially like that I can configure wifi to turn on and off automatically in areas where I have a saved wifi. I can decide the interval I choose for syncing data, and there are many other features. I'm not going to be manually turning on and off functions all the time, all that does is create more screen on time and is a waste of my time.
Bottom line, for me juice defender ultimate works because I spent time configuring it properly for my usage.
threeclaws said:
IMO if all you want is bt/wifi to toggle when you aren't home spend $5 on a few nfc stickers and stick one by your front door. You could also go with tasker.
As for battery life, francos kernel is giving me 2 days of battery (far more than I need) with wifi/bt on, whatever apps need to sync do so and I have brightness set to auto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the screen on time though?
I can easily get 2 days of battery if I don't use my phone at all.
Andrew025 said:
What's the screen on time though?
I can easily get 2 days of battery if I don't use my phone at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.5 hrs screen on, 1.5hrs on call...I got close to 6hrs screen on when I did a drain test.
And no, I wasn't getting 2 days out of the phone stock with the same usage, it was more like 12-18hrs.
I tried using Juice Defender on a different phone and all it did was make the phone buggy with problems with wifi connectivity and other minor irritations and I could never configure it in such a way that didn't give me problems.
Are you having trouble making it through the day on one charge? I don't think I could use my N4 that much if I tried, I sat in a doctor's office the other day for 2.5 hours listening to Pandora on a bluetooth headset while reading a book with the screen on and still made it until I turned in for the night. Perhaps it is the Trinity kernel or custom ROM I am running, I never ran my phone stock so I don't have anything to compare with. I guess some of you want to go longer than 24 hours but it would be a really bizarre situation for me to need to do that.
So I tried juice defender ultimate and it did significantly increased my battery life. I am now getting about 30 hours or more with my regular usage. Even right now I have 63% remaining battery with 1 hour screen time and 17 hours total run time, see screenshot for usage.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I know this horse has been beat to death, I'm just hoping I can get maybe one bit of info that will help me resolve this issue before I just swap out to another phone. I really don't want to, but I'm just so sick of being chained to a charging cord all day. My phone should be able to hold a charge for at least 1 day, I don't even use it that much!
So with my little tirade out of the way, let me give you the facts I've got a Samsung Galaxy S II/SPH-D710, and the battery just drains down so fast, and the phone's barely 6 months old. I've downloaded numerous process monitoring apps, designed to see what's going on, and they all point at WiFi being the culprit. The phone never hits deep sleep because the wireless is keeping it awake. Sure enough if I turn WiFi off and I go 3G/4G all day my battery is fine. Problem is I can't get to that next level and find out what program or process is causing the WiFi to be on all the time. Even more frustrating, every time there's an upgrade like FI27 or FL24 which I'm on now, the battery works fine for a day or two. Then something kicks in and destroys the battery. My thought is it's got to be an app, I just don't know which one.
So before I kick this piece of **** out the window, I was hoping someone could please help me figure out what app/process is the cause of my battery drain.
Get DS Battery Saver. It will force all of your stuff off when you turn off the screen so that it will go into deep sleep.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
Get a new battery?
Apps, batteries, ics vodoo it's a host of things that can solve your battery drain issue. Being that your phone is 6 months old I have to rule out the battery. The fact that your on ics is going to be main culprit, stock ics was not the best at managing battery use. There's something revving the crap out of your Wi-Fi, while Wi-Fi is on even while your screen is off there are processes going on in the background that are using Wi-Fi to send receive, update, sync, you name it and all you need to do is pinpoint these processes.
Some apps in the play store can help, but some of these apps can consume battery also, so it's best to delete it after troubleshooting.
If your phone is working properly and your not a social media junkie while it sleeps it should not be using any battery at all, just enough to keep your processor awake.
I keep notifications are sync off on my phone, while I'm out and about I'll check email or do a quick sync if I want to check for some incoming whatever. Most of the time I want info on my terms, not every minute with chimes beeps or lights flashing.
If you use google maps disable background location reporting, location services just use "location and search " disable Wi-Fi and GPS usage for location services.
This is a start, but I recommend Jb ga10 stock/rooted to give your phone a stable os.
I run stock/rooted Jb de-bloated with minimal apps, no games (all the games I like are on my Galaxy Tab 10.1) I use my phone for calls........... navigation and media player while driving. I get 16 to 20 hrs on a charge.
Pp. :thumbup::beer:
Transmitted from another galaxy with a Jellybean infused P-5113 full of Unicorn porn.
I get about 20 hours on the Vanilla RootBox JB ROM. YMMV. I also had terrible battery life on the stock ROM and every other one I tried. This is the first ROM that's bested 10 hours. Again, YMMV.
what rom are you on? tw? cm?
Have you used Better Battery Stats? Or the JB release candidate GB08?
Not to raise the dead, I've just been busy, but this is still an issue for me. I upgraded to JB GB27, and I love the GUI, it’s such a step up from ICS. But I’m still getting **** for battery life. Yes if I use DS Battery Saver it works and I get good battery life. However all those programs cause flaky restart issues. The phone will just restart for no reason. More importantly it’s not getting at the root of the problem.
IRL I’m a computer tech and I can’t just let this go, as previously stated I’m tired of being shackled to the phone charger. I’ve swapped in a new battery, it’s not the battery. I even turned on the setting “Keep WiFi On > Only when plugged in”. That did improve the battery a little, but I still can’t make it through the day without being charged. I’m on the phone maybe combined 30min of phone calls, 30 min checking email, and an hour or so of miscellaneous watching video etc. I know heavy users that are on their phones all day, or let their kids watch Disney movies all night. I’m not that guy, I’ve had numerous cell phones and never have I had one that couldn’t hold a charge all day.
I will be diligent in monitoring this thread, please give me your troubleshooting tips and I’ll report back with the results.
Downlpaf betterbatterystats. And find the wakelocks.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Can do, will let you know at the end of the day.
EDIT: Actually I read multiple issues with SG2 and BetterBatteryStats. However your wakelock comment made me stumble onto the app Wakelock Detector. Again I'll run it and report back. Thanks for the point in the right direction.
Ive noticed no better or worse battery between being rooted/custom rom and stock not rooted. However my phone gets about 16 hours on average. My friend has an epic as well and gets only 10 hours. I feel as though it depends on the user and apps. Facebook is a silent killer. As is any app that uses backround. Best setup ive had so far is billgeryans Quattro Rom with ds and greenify. I pulled a whopping 25 hour minimal use before charge and 13 hour heavy use day.....
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
JayDroid412 said:
Facebook is a silent killer. As is any app that uses backround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how do you stop it? Do you just have to close out of every app before you set your phone down?
nim6us said:
So how do you stop it? Do you just have to close out of every app before you set your phone down?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I do. This was a heavy use day on stock not rooted gb27
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
nim6us said:
So how do you stop it? Do you just have to close out of every app before you set your phone down?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exiting apps don't stop them. you can freeze and unfreeze them.
calisro said:
exiting apps don't stop them. you can freeze and unfreeze them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you freeze them?
nim6us said:
How do you freeze them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With titanium backup. You can also install greenify. It puts your apps in hibernation when your screen is off. So basically it's like freezing and unfreezing. Tbh I think it's better using greenify.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
nim6us said:
How do you freeze them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
titanium can and you can create a widget to do it easily per app.
or
app-quarantine in playstore
or what I do:
shell commands usind connectbot widgets with a command like this:
pm disable-user com.facebook.katana
pm enable com.facebook.katana
---------- Post added at 07:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 PM ----------
so my 2 cents:
1) get a second battery and charger.
2) betterbatterystats to identify "bad" apps and either get rid of them or deal with them.
3) "autostarts" app to stop crap from auto starting on boot that you don't need running as a service.
4) dim screen! huge huge savings. keep it dim enough to use the phone.
Battery issues well I have a solution that won't solve but greatly helps. It's called greenify. It puts all running apps in hibernate mode. It's not like a task killer that just screws things up. U can choose what u want to hibernate and all that jazzy stuff. It's worth a shot. All in all if you want a bada$$ battery efficient rom go with wcx stock rooted rom. It's simply amazing. Hope I was at help
Sent from my Vivid 4G using xda app-developers app
Check out greenify if you're rooted. It removes all currently unused apps and processes from memory, essentially putting them into deep sleep. That combined with ds battery saver and watching your wake locks will drastically improve battery life:beer:
Slithering from the nether regions of a twisted mind and tarnished soul
SASQUATCH said:
With titanium backup. You can also install greenify. It puts your apps in hibernation when your screen is off. So basically it's like freezing and unfreezing. Tbh I think it's better using greenify.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay so does Greenify do this freeze automatically, the interface is a little clumsy. I appreciate all the help guys.