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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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 .)
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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
Morning all.
I had been playing around with ways to use tasker to save battery life. Previously I had used juice defender pro, which is excellent but coarse. Additionally, I work in an office with terrible signal, so automating syncs with juice defender did not work well for me. The following is a short guide on using tasker to automate 3g on and off (the main function of juice defender) on a per-app basis, rather than location or time. It solves the following problems for me:
3g is on when I use a spesific app, off when I don't
Most of the time the 3g radio is off, without automatic syncing
I can customize this setup according to my own personal workday
Tasker will turn on my 3g when I leave the office (and enter good coverage)
It's worth mentioning that juice defender does all this, it just does it differently. For me the biggest difference is when this happens, I only care about this from 8-5:30, monday - friday. At all other times i wan the 3g radio on.
1st profile (I named it apps at work)
First context: application.
Second context: time
Third context: Day
Task: mobile data set on (go ahead and create an exit task as well).
For the applications, you could select everything. I chose a broad swath of apps, including things like kindle so it syncs if i read on my phone during the workday. The idea is that if you use an app, say gmail, it kicks on 3g, you can check your mail, then it automates turning 3g off.
For the time context set your work hours. Or whatever hours you don't get good signal, or however you want to set it up time wise. for me, this is 8am to 5pm.
For the day context, select days of the week, and pick the days you are at work. For me this is Monday - Friday.
The result is that when you pick up your phone to use it during the day, it only cuts the radio on when you are using an app you told it to. It's a lot more precise than Juice Defender's screen on - screen off setting, because you don't necessarily need the internet to play a game. In fact, you might prefer to have the 3g off when gaming.
In order to get fancy, I set up a second context which I call "work's out."
Context 1: time. I set this to 5:35 pm.
Context 2: days of the week. I set this to Monday - Friday.
Task 1: mobile data on.
This turns my data on when i am supposed to leave work. I also set a notification that vibrates the phone and displays an alert.
It seems to work pretty well for me. Here is a list of people for whom this would not work well:
Anyone who needs push email during the day
for that matter, anyone who relies on any internet - based alert.
So - it's not for everyone, but it worked well for me. I wanted to post it up to share. For me, I was just blanket turning the 3g radio off all day, so this helps me automate the on and off switching that I had been doing.
Additionally, if you want to stream music it *should* work with the screen off. App running = internet on. So let's say I step outside, and need to listen to my Judas Priest Defenders of the Faith, then I am good to go. I have not tested that out yet, tho.
How much of a battery improvement have you noticed?
Sent from my Incredible 2 using xda app-developers app
It seems to be better. It's good for me because I have a crappy signal at work. If you have a good signal, this method is probably just going to be annoying / not save very much battery. Usual disclaimer - your results may vary.
Unfortunately, I did not bother to do any kind of baseline testing, which would have been useful. At the moment, I don't have a very good method for comparison, so let me think about it and get back.
Just to report back, I don't have a good way to measure success, other than it seems to be working well for me. My phone has be on for 12 hours, I used it at will, I have 50% remaining. Sorry for the lack of science.
Sent from my ADR6350 using xda premium
No sweat. I'm lacking in the scientific arena as well when it comes to android.
Thanks again for the info.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using xda app-developers app
Great guide! Thanks!
I have Tasker but haven't ever put it into use.
For tracking battery life, I use Battery Monitor Widget Pro.
-CM7 on DInc2
Thanks for the guide m8, I will give it a go. So far that is the only issue I have with the my dinc2 is the battery life. I have converted from iPhone and there is a huge difference in battery life.
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.
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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.
I use and love LG G3 D855 international version
I almost went completely mental trying to discover and fix what caused my battery to drain from 100% to zero in 5-6 hours with about 1 lame hour SOT. Believe me i tried freaking everything, from obbsessing about wakelock (everytime I killed one i was rewarded with 4 or 5 new ones in return) to installing multiple battery savers every week to try if they worked, Most do not! I searched XDA Threads and reddit, i even started few threads asking for help, nothing worked. Until I changed my thinking and demands for useless (but cool) tweaks.
Here's what i did, or did not do :
I installed CloudyG3 Rom version 1.2 I got rid off all battery savers/tweakers, i did not install Xposed Frameworks (witch was the hardest one to get rid off because im heavily used to some tweaks available there) I know Xposed by itself does not drain battery, but i've learned that many of the tweaks are not coded good enaugh so they drain alot. (while others are perfect and work fine) but i don't feel like sort out the good from the bads, i now know that all of them can be lived without.
I also got rid of all battery monitoring software, many of them do take to much juice by monitoring my system.
The rom is rooted, i got "superSU", "Busybox", "titanium backup", "root explorer" and some other root apps for the basics. I leave all system or ui tweaks apps out, they're easy to live without and some drain alot of juice. I even skipped installing Greenify, wich has done amazing job on my previous devices, but somehow was not on my G3 (i know i couldn't belive it myself)
I on the other hand have Android device manager active and screen on "auto" with the slider in full. For the first week or two i had all systems on, i had wifi and data both always on and gps and location services, i want to be able to use the device to it's fullest, but that can cost juice. It was fine, i got about 2.5 - 3 hours screen on time over 15-17h period, witch did not fully satisfy my needs, though it was a step up from the 1 - 1.5h I had before.
So i figured to use tasker to automate everything i liked, but i don't find tasker user experience good enaugh, it's too much too learn and get right for a "player" like me. So after googling for few minutes i installed app called AutomateIt Pro (there is a free version but i bought it to get more triggers, like cell tower based trigger. AutomateIt Pro i use to turn on wifi and disable data when im home or at office, and when i leave those places it does the opposite (wifi off, data on) , I leave Location disabled but make it enable when i open apps that uses it like maps, (and of cource disable it again when apps closes) and if i loose the phone i can enable both gps and sounds by sending a password by sms, that way i can use Android Device manager if it's gets lost.
I have few more tweaks there but those are the ones that saves my battery, the others i use for my special needs like disable screen rotation unless apps of my choice are open. and some others probably not worth to mention. I find this app easy to use and does it's job well. There are actually many apps that can do the same, like Tasker, Trigger and some others, but this one worked for me.
The results are quite good, i get 4-5 hours screen on time over 17-20 hour period, thats more than a day so usually it's about 30% battery left when i plug it in and go to sleep. the 4-5 hours suit my usage so im really happy after trying almost every trick in the book, and even trying to discover new ones to fix my horrible previous battery life.
In ending i want to say i am no expert, I know quite little about Android insides or how it works. But i´m a heavy user with more knowledge of the basic stuff than the people around me. Feel free to try out what i did, but i can in no way guarantee they will work or if they are useless. I share all the stuff that i did, some obviously are helping while some are not and did not need to be done, but my device is now as i like it to be and i don't have the time to go into finding out witch ones are doing the trick. All the changes i did are pretty basic so you shouldn't be able to damage anything, unless you're an idiot of course
Sorry about my english, it's not my first language and it gets rusty when not used regularly.
I hope this way to long madness will help those in same problems that i was in....
Interesting post. As what I've seen in the play services greenifying thread, Cloudy rom users have already an amazing battery life, looks like all the debloating is useful.
I have debloated my F460 from all the korean crap and compared to my girlfriend's, which is untouched, it is noticeable.
I get easily 2.5 or 3h of SOT, with location reporting on, and tasker for automating things like wifi on/off, measuring my commuting time from my car bluetooth to my house/work wifi, or refreshing some custom zooper widgets when screen is on (namely how long I have been working).
TheKaser said:
Interesting post. As what I've seen in the play services greenifying thread, Cloudy rom users have already an amazing battery life, looks like all the debloating is useful.
I have debloated my F460 from all the korean crap and compared to my girlfriend's, which is untouched, it is noticeable.
I get easily 2.5 or 3h of SOT, with location reporting on, and tasker for automating things like wifi on/off, measuring my commuting time from my car bluetooth to my house/work wifi, or refreshing some custom zooper widgets when screen is on (namely how long I have been working).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah im really glad i finally got things going with this great device...
But Zooper widgets? are they worth it? i tried them (some time ago) and it jumped to nr 2 or 3 in battery usage list. When i see something like that i instantly delete, i have zero patient for useless (often cool though) tweaks that drain my juce.
Believe me i will be the first one to say yes to bigger screens and faster hardware, but the battery life has to come first, otherwise all the goods are completely useless
I agree, but Tasker and location reporting are one of the things that I most want to keep in my device. I have verified that mobile data consumes way much more than wifi connection (maybe because tasker needs to query more and for longer time for my location based events?). Anyhow, today I am at 75% of battery with 45 mins SOT and 8h35m running on battery. I am satisfied, yet I always try to improve this time.