[Q] Bluetooth battery drain - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Hi,
I recently got a Galaxy Nexus and loving it and my question is regarding Bluetooth. Could be applied to other Android devices as well.
Is it better to toggle Bluetooth ON and OFF constantly (through apps such as Tasker) or to keep it ON (w/without any paired devices) until its turned off manually or by a constraint? What is a better battery saving option?
Thanks.

bluetooth
I tend to just leave bluetooth on all the time, I don't notice much drain and it makes connecting to my car a lot easier. I'm assuming that it acts like gps (i leave that on all the time too) and it only drains power when it is in use, like when i open google maps. Just because the toggle is on doesn't mean that it's in use and draining power, at least that's what i think...

I wouldn't mind that either, but the icon is there all the time and just makes me feel as if it is draining at least some amount of battery. Or using the Android system even if not in use. So I would rather have it turned off. But you're right, I haven't noticed much of a drain with Bluetooth always on (non-paired most of the time) and toggling it. Actually I think I have seen it eat more battery if I toggle. But I might be wrong!

Related

Battery draining issues

Hi everyone,
I bought my new Desire two days ago, and im noticing a really fast battery drain.
I had a Hero before, and although it had a smaller battery, i would charge it every two days.
When i check tha battery usage, i can see big percentages in cell standby, phone idle and android system. (Its where the percentages should be really low imo..) Things like display, bluetooth etc that were supposed to drain more my phone's battery have much lower percentages..
Maybe all this comes from the snapdragon cpu??
I also have 3g off, always on mobile switched off and brigthness to a really low level (although i think amoled displays dont drain the battery that much)
My battery will last one day the MOST..
I know that the new battery has to be charged a few times before it has its full potential, but i think that somehow battery is getting drained..any tips???
Thanks,
T.
I to have this same issue if anyone has any ideas on this would be great
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile appication powered by Tapatalk
You just need to relax
My Desire couldn't get through even one day of usage when I first got it. Several things contributed to this:
1. The battery is not fully conditioned
2. The device is new so I want to play with it all the time. I'd turn it on randomly for no reason whatsoever.
3. I use several widgets that requires updating just because of the novelty (ie, Friendstream, News, Twitter, Stocks, Weather)
Now, I go through about 60-70% charge per day which is fine by me. The only things that have changed is this:
1. The battery has gone though several recharge cycles
2. I only turn on my device when I really want to do something on it.
3. I no longer keep many of the widgets that requires updating and for those that I do keep, I make it update less often.
Eg, Updating your weather every hour is not necessary. Every 3 or 6 hours makes more sense.
Eg. Rather than having your Twitter or Friendstream widget on your homescreen, why not just have a shortcut that goes directly to the application and then set it to sync on launch? It's better than having your widget update when you're not even looking.
Also get an app like battery indicator to give you a numeric readout of your battery life left. My android battery indicator was in the red yesterday and complaining I had to recharge, but battery indicator said I had 12% left and I got 30mins more constant music playing out of it before I got to work and it was still on 5%.
when the battery is running low - you get a button to show battery usage stats.. can you get these through some of the widgets or a comparable app from the market?
almost every update is set to to once a day, or every six or eight hours...so i dont think that the updates drain the battery that much..
its just weird that the most battery usage comes from call standby, phone idle, or android system..
mine was the same, i found its due to sense & all the background updates. currently running helix2 homescreen & now I only go thru abt 50% battery each day & that includes 2 hrs of music each morning.
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
alright i know this seems stupid but remove all your task killers, i got rid of mine this morning and my battery has been fine normally by now i would have plugged my phone in for a juice up, but not today i had bluetooth on by accident all morning and by the end of the morning it was still at 70% yes i know it sounds stupid but it actually helps
There many interesting suggestions posted here and like most i've been absolutely hammering the battery on my handset simply because its a new and highly entertaining/useful device.
Here's some of my findings...
The battery/app usage screen can be quickly accessed by pressing the menu button on the home screen, selecting settings and "about phone". It helped me nail down some of apps causing excessive drain.
Much like the iphone and any other high powered smart phone, high screen brightness, wireless LAN, bluetooth, 3G and the GPS receiver all take its toll on the battery. One of the biggest drainers is the GPS receiver so use it sparingly, I initially had it on permanently for some of the maps functions but the battery was lasting about half a day! Sadly i've noticed the radio is also a bit of drainer, which is a shame because it makes a nice alternative to MP3 playback.
Data updates and notifications again much like the iPhone have a surprising impact on battery life so set them to manual or long intervals.
In summary, learn as quickly as possible to get the most out of your smart phone by balancing out the hardware and software options.
As a sidenote, I was previously an iPhone fan but this handset has really changed my opinion of how a smartphone should really be. The combination of excellent hardware, an OS thats clearly designed from the ground up for mobile use and an ever growing (open) software base, will in the long term win over Apple's over analy retentive ethos! Top marks also to HTC for their sense UI and application suite, it works on top of Android almost as if it was always part of the OS itself and I just love the integration of social networking features....leaves the iPhone in the dust!
I have noticed that Turning off the Data Connection helps a lot.
Last night I turned data off, before I plugged my phone in for charging. In the morning the battery was showing MAX power. Where normally in the morning would be 97%, because charging stops once the battery is full.
I am still experimenting with all the Apps & Widgets that turn data access ON/OFF, but my conclusions so far, just get a simple widget from the market, and keep data connection off, until you need it.
There is an app that turns data connection off once the screen goes off, but if you download something or wait for something to load and the screen goes off, data will also be switched off which is not what you need.

Wifi drains too much battery?

I've bought Desire 4 days ago.
I've been running in some battery problems a lot. I've heard that battery should have 4-5 full draining and charging before having its max capacity, but I have a life span of about 16-20 hours of battery with Wi-Fi on.
How i found out that: Yesterday I went to the country and messed around with my gps and navigation (never used one, so felt like a little child with a brand new shiny toy). So the battery went dead and i charged it almost full. When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
In about 2 hours, the battery was nearly 60% from 90. When i went to see what's draining the battery I saw it was the Wifi. I turned it off and since last night, up to now (about 14 hours) the battery is 50% (only 10 percent for 14 hours).
Is there any way to make the phone not scan so agressively for Wifi when it's on ? I'm comming from iphone and it didn't matter too much if i had my wifi on or off there.
First of all, what you're experiencing is normal.
In fact, dropping only 30% with 2 straight hrs of heavy use is actually quite impressive.
If you don't want your device to scan for wifi, turn it off. Simple as that. Keep the WiFi setting widget on one of your homescreens for easy access.
It wasn't heavy use I killed all apps and left it there. 30% are just from WiFi scanning.
I know I must turn off wifi, i have the widgy button, but sometimes i just forget i have to shut it down. (Though that's a bit killing, since i didn't have to do this on my iPhone. Actually this is the only shortcoming i can think of now, great phone. Seems i have to get used to killing extra stuff )
Sadly i couldn't find an option to tell it to scan on rarer occasion, just to help absent-minded people like me.
Try downloading "Y5 - Battery Saver" from the Market.
It automatically switches WiFi on and off depending on your location (as determined by cell location, not GPS).
It allows you to leave WiFi in locations where you know you have WiFi, and automatically switches it off when you leave those locations.
I've installed it, but not exhaustively tested as yet as I've not really been out of WiFi coverage since I installed it.
Regards,
Dave
Try getting the WiFi On/Off widget from the market.
It lets you turn off the WiFi with one touch. Will save you a lot of battery when not using it.
@Gana1991 - i've already noted that i have the widget (no need to download from market)
@foxmeister - thanks, i will try that. (I have been secretly thinking about some app with this function )
indeed, there is a WIFI widget builtin.
If you really want another widget, check the WiFi Toggle by "JQ Soft", nice design.
The Y5-Battery Saver is nice....it seems to work properly.
But i am affraid it was causing some problems here, so i uninstalled.
I will reinstall and do some more tests.
WI-FI usage is actually much better than using the network which drains the battery more.
But deffo only have on when using, not all the time.
Or you'd use the standard HTC energy widged or the android wifi switch wich can be found @ widged -> settings -> wifi
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
I leave my WiFi on all the time at home because of the data constantly changing between G/3G it drains the battery amazingly fast. leaving WiFi on helps me save battery and keep a data connection. I took my phone off charge at 9 this morning, WiFi has been enabled all day and I have 80% battery.
once the battery has had a week or 2 of charging it will run loads better. also charging with the phone switched off gets you a bit more juice because of a firmware problem.
Software Guru said:
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is this battery widget? I cant find it anywhere.
Oops, didnt know i had to look for it on the market. Found it.
Go settings, wifi, menu button and this brings up advanced settings. From there you can disable wifi after 15 mins of inactivity. When the phone wakes wifi kicks in. I have data turned off, wifi turned off, but if I forget to turn wifi off after using it, it's not too bad as it will be deactivated.
What's that widget called? All I can find is the power widget.
Ok found it
Only seems to be a meter though, no adjustments?
Go settings, wifi, then WiFi settings, then press the menu button,. From their you can select advanced WiFi settings.
When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using your data plan then your wifi wouldn't be on as the phone turns it off when your connected via 3G, it only uses one or the other not both at the same time.
That's the way it is on my Desire.
I've not used WiFi at all today yet apparently its consumed 25% of my battery. I've got it switched off via widget and its also set to disable after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Any thoughts?
thanks for any help
It's just occurred to me that perhaps the percentages run and run and are not reset after a charge?
Anyone know how it works?

Seeing equal or better battery life on wifi vs bluetooth

There were lots of comments (and still are) about how wifi is a battery killer on android wear. I'm not seeing this to be the case at all, when it's working like it's supposed to.
Since 5.1.1 my battery use has been around 3% and hour with all features on. Turning off bluetooth on my phone, with a 2/3 wifi signal on the watch, I'm seeing 2.5 to 3%.
Quick drain happens when walking around the edge of bluetooth range, as the watch switches back and forth between bluetooth and wifi. It seems that as long as it's not finding bluetooth, battery use is normal at worst for me.
I know that the moto 360 will switch to a state of only checking for updates occasionally to save battery, but I don't see this happening. Notifications are coming to the phone, and shortly afterward on the watch. I have not seen a time when a notification was delayed more than a few seconds.
The downside to wifi-only use: some apps that communicate with a phone app don't work. My watchmaker face doesn't update the phone battery level. Google voice commands fail too often, maybe half of the time.
I think google should change the frequency of attempting to reestablish bluetooth connection while on wifi.
Has anyone else tried this? Either turn off your phone's bluetooth, or make sure it is well out of range.
I'll give it a go tomorrow at the office and report back.
Sent from my Xperia Z3
Thanks to a heads up by DarkRazorZ, I learned wifi can be turned on in airplane mode. Will be looking to see if this makes any more difference.
Watch maker has been my biggest battery drain. It also makes the drop down menu laggy and impossible to use.
Yeah, I had that problem with watchmaker. I use intelligent and it seems to work well. Other people report facet works too.
I concur. Wi-Fi uses a lot less battery than Bluetooth, with an acceptable lag - 1-2 seconds on notifications. Bluetooth seems like a big battery drain on the phone and on the watch.
Sent from my Xperia Z3+

What keeps WiFi on at night?

On latest Android M updates, but this has been happening forever since upgrading to M. Some nights my N7 is well behaved, while other nights it chews through battery. From looking at BBS it seems that something keeps WiFi on all the time those nights, even though the WiFi advanced settings say that WiFi should be on only when plugged in. BBS doesn't show anything else interesting.
So, how can I find out what's preventing WiFi from sleeping? Android M bug? Some app?
And more importantly ... what can I do about it? The N7 used to have great battery life, now it's terrible (could be Android M or it could be that the battery is 3 yrs old and no longer performing as it should, though it doesn't happen all the time, so I suspect it's a software issue).
Same here. Fully charged Nexus is empty after a night. All due to WiFi. Suddenly.
I ended up installing this app to fix it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterwifionoff&hl=en
It's old and doesn't work well with multiple users on the same device, but it works well enough to fix the battery problems. My N7 sleeps like a baby now and battery drain overnight is barely noticeable. FWIW, I tried Greenify first but didn't really help. In fact Greenify has a problem if you enable aggressive doze mode where there's a constant wakelock which makes battery drain even worse.
I'm sure the same could be automated using Tasker, MacroDroid, Automagic or any other automation app but didn't feel like messing with them even though I own Tasker. Better Wifi on/off was the quick and easy way out. We are not getting any more updates for Android on N7 so I know it will work until the tablet dies completely.

how much battery does WiFi scanning even when off use

Usually, to conserve battery, I don't enable the scan wifi to improve location even when wifi is off option. I'm actually just wondering how much battery it actually uses.
I like the option that automatically turns on wifi when you get close to your home network but obviously this requires the above option enabled. Any thoughts on battery life effect?
I know when 5.0 came out it drained a ton, probably lost 20% a day. I'm sure it's a lot better now. I tried it for a bit and didn't notice a difference really. I just leave WiFi on all the time now and don't worry about it, standby drain is practically nothing.

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