Develop Bugs

3G or Wifi for longer battery?

Clear question, What will take up less power? Say no actual usage apart auto sync
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

no usage (almost)? then the answer is obvious to me: 3G.
your CDMA radio will already be running, so turning on WiFi will be adding a 2nd radio to draw from the battery.

I was thinking that myself, But just thought I'd ask for other peoples thoughts on it
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Im going with 3G as well

Um, i'm not sure that is correct, if you switch your mobile data connection to off and wifi to sleep and you dont have lots of things polling likw weather widget but literally just autosync then wifi could be less use, it does depend a bit on whether or not you are using gmail push or mail app and how often it is set to check as obviosuly it could end up keeping the wifi on the whole time.

Turn off 3g?

Anyway to turn off 3g in our cdma phones. Might save a lot of battery.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

turn off "mobile network" and just use wifi at home?

I've read that the phone constantly searching for 3G and/or using 3G is a big battery drain. Also that unless you require the bandwidth you can do just fine with 2g. There are apps on the market to let you switch 3g off but the ones I found don't work with cdma phones.

Turning mobile network off like said above will turn off 3g...
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Doesn't it turn off 2G or edge also. I want data when I don't have wifi. I also thought the phone switched off mobile network when connects wifi automatically.

If you hold the power button and turn off mobile network it turns off 3g. It goes to 1x and you basically receive text and phone calls..it helps turning it off in my house because I don't get great reception so its not always looking for that 3g
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Thanks. Is that only 1G? That's partially what I want. Better would be to be able to get 2G which would be ok for web browsing. 1x is painfully slow and useless. I'd like to be able to switch to 3x just for streaming video, downloading, or other high data needs.

marcmarshall said:
Thanks.
Is that only 1G?
I'd like to be able to switch to 3x just for streaming video, downloading, or other high data needs.
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Click to collapse
Yes.
Hold power down.
I think ATT when you turn off 3g it goes to 2g.but if um not using 3g I keep it in 1x
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

If you still have sense, there is a widget from the settings that you can add to do this instead of having to hit the power button. Make it a 1 step process!

So it is not possible to shut off 3G and keep 2G?

analog = 1Gen network
1X = 2Gen network
EVDO = 3Gen network
EDGE is GSM 2G, does not apply to this discussion.

patches152 said:
analog = 1Gen network
1X = 2Gen network
EVDO = 3Gen network
EDGE is GSM 2G, does not apply to this discussion.
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Click to collapse
Well Verizon 2g is hella wack then cause I tested Facebook mobile site on my phone and a Iphone 2g and the iPhone got thru way faster. I thought it was cause I was on 1g but...
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marcmarshall said:
So it is not possible to shut off 3G and keep 2G?
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Click to collapse
No.
An easy way to see what you can and can't do is to install the HTC Widgets (found under "Widgets", then "Settings").
The one's relevant to the topic are:
Mobile Network and Wi-Fi.
I also use Bluetooth and GPS widgets, and between the four, manage battery consumption as best I can depending upon what I'm doing and whether or not I have wi-fi coverage available. If I'm just doing calls and SMS text messaging, I turn them all off.

OK. Thanks all

Aesir Rising said:
No.
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My phone can turn off my 3g to 2g. What kind of phone do you have?
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jager420 said:
My phone can turn off my 3g to 2g. What kind of phone do you have?
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Click to collapse
I have an HTC incredible.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

jager420 said:
My phone can turn off my 3g to 2g. What kind of phone do you have?
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Incredible. The OP is looking for wireless data (see his post #5) when 3G is off. If you can do that, post a how-to. When I disable 3G and wi-fi, I get 1x - which is 2G, as explained - but isn't what the OP is trying to ask for (but getting terminology mixed up).

4g Data On/Off Program?

Has anyone found an app to toggle the 4G on/off yet? I realise it is disabled in Android 2.3, but I see they have it working for the Evo and maybe others. I also saw at least one paid app that says it works, but I don't want to pay for it and then find out it doesn't work.
Thanks,

All the 4g toggles I've tried work on WiMax only

Why do you want to disable 4g? Its not like an lte out Wimax radio that causes massive battery drain so why turn it off?
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.

Data Enabler Widget
really? i did not know this. I'm not sure what Sprint uses, but i know when i had sprint if i disabled my mobile data it made my battery last MUCH longer.
most of the standard 4g toggle widgets included in most widget packs, i.e. widgetzoid, do not work on this phone.
the one toggle i have found to work is called "Data Enabler Widget" by "farproc" it is available on the market.
Be aware that picture messaging does NOT work without 4g data on, and you must re enable it before you use it. (wifi too for some stupid reason)

why disable?
I want to disable it primarily because i don't have unlimited data, but also to extend battery life as well. If there is no toggle switch that works I will just have get used to the extra steps of turning it on and off through the settings menu.
Yesterday I used 50% of the data that I would normally use in a month, because I thought I was using wifi, but apparently was not. That tells me that the phone either is not holding the wifi signal at home very well or the wifi is not overriding the data connection. Either way, I need to be turning off the data connection when I am at home or using a wifi hotspot.

if you would take the time to read my post, i just provided you with the exact app you are looking for. it is a widget available on the android market. it is called;
DATA ENABLER WIDGET by farproc.
kthx.

bikemaker said:
I want to disable it primarily because i don't have unlimited data, but also to extend battery life as well. If there is no toggle switch that works I will just have get used to the extra steps of turning it on and off through the settings menu.
Yesterday I used 50% of the data that I would normally use in a month, because I thought I was using wifi, but apparently was not. That tells me that the phone either is not holding the wifi signal at home very well or the wifi is not overriding the data connection. Either way, I need to be turning off the data connection when I am at home or using a wifi hotspot.
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Another option then is any this party power control app. You can turn off mobile data through those.
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.

I always used the power control app on my Hero, but unfortunately the one for this phone doesn't include a data toggle.

reata Enabler Widget
ApexZeph,
I tried the Data Enabler Widget you mentioned and it works perfectly! Thanks!

Sprint's 4G is not the same as HSPA+. HSPA+ is just 3G, or if you wanna feel better, 3.5G. It runs all the time and doesn't use extra battery because you're still only using the 3G radio. Sprint's 4G is WiMax, which is basically glorified Wifi and requires a totally separate radio. It works like Wifi; you turn it on, wait for it to scan and connect to the 4G network (which doesn't even deserve to be called 4G because it sucks ****).
Since you guys are on GSM, what you could do is disable 3G data and that would do it. You'd go to EDGE, but you'd save a ton of battery. Again, 4G is just a marketing term for you guys; you're still just using fast 3G.

kenvan19 said:
Why do you want to disable 4g? Its not like an lte out Wimax radio that causes massive battery drain so why turn it off?
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not?
4G on idle 2 hours: 18% drain from 100%
EDGE idle 2 hours: 5% drain from 100%.
4G is a bleeder.

kenvan19 said:
Why do you want to disable 4g? Its not like an lte out Wimax radio that causes massive battery drain so why turn it off?
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.
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Click to collapse
HSPA+ uses a lot more power than EDGE. Programs like Juice Defender use this fact to their advantage and disable HSPA when the screen is off, and I hear it just about doubles idle battery life.

manekineko said:
HSPA+ uses a lot more power than EDGE. Programs like Juice Defender use this fact to their advantage and disable HSPA when the screen is off, and I hear it just about doubles idle battery life.
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HSPA+ = 3G. Yes, 3G uses more power than EDGE. It has always been and will always be that way. There is no magical "4G" toggle because HSPA IS 3G. So the only way to turn off your faux-G is to turn off 3G data and fall back to EDGE.

There is no 2g/3g(4g) toggle that works on the stock roms. It will just take you to the settings page where you have to choose GSM/HSPA, GSM only, or HSPA only.

knickfan5745 said:
There is no 2g/3g(4g) toggle that works on the stock roms. It will just take you to the settings page where you have to choose GSM/HSPA, GSM only, or HSPA only.
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Click to collapse
GSM only = 2G only
HSPA = 3G/4G only (remember, they use the same radio)
GSM/HSPA+ = whatever is available, with HSPA having priority.

Hey everyone,
I spent 4 hours this evening reading up on how to Root, CWM, and Flash a ROM onto my SGS2. Contained in one of the threads (I believe it was [ROM][NOV 14]Bombaridier V.2.0) I came across a brief mention of a program which allows the user to toggle 4g Data on/off simply by clicking the icon. I downloaded it, and just now I flashed Bombaridier (awesome ROM btw). That problem is now gone (obviously) and I can not, for the life of me, remember what it was called. I'm hoping someone can throw me a bone here so I don't have to sift through hundreds of pages again in order to find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks
Nate

You are probably speaking of Juice Defender but Ill let you know of another program that is better IMO. It's called LLama its event based. I have two events 1. Mobile data on when screen is on and 2. Mobile data off when screen is off. Juice defender does the same thing but every fifften mins turns on 4g grabs emails etc and then turns off again. The reason I think LLama is better is because in my job Ill forget about my phone while working and pick it hours later. yesterday my phone went 2hrs before it dropped from 100% to 99%.

the only problem I find with having mobile data off when screen is off (llama) personally is that I use GV as my text app. and if my mobile data is off, then I won't know that I've received any text.
When in the office, i do not have wifi, so I rely on my data connections for texts. Is there a condition where when the screen is off for 1 minute, then mobile data will be turned off and turn on again every 10 minutes or so (like juice defender) to help me check if i received any text?

Battery drain on bad reception

Hey, guys.
I have my phone now for 4 month and I've checked following thing: the battery drain is incredible on bad mobile coverage. In my apartment I have really pur reception, all phones loose the reception permanently (in this way one x is much better than my wife's Iphone 4).
It is normal, that the phone consumes much energy, but one x consumes just to much. For example, if I'm at home, the drain is like 2 or even 3 procent in hour even on sense roms, and if I'm in place with good reception, it's like 1 procent in 2 and more hours, so the overall batter life is waaaay much better...
Now the question is, if I could do something to make my phone to be not so aggressive on searching for the network? I know, it can bring worse network, but it is not really a problem for me.
P. S.:switching to flight mode is not an answer for me
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

flight mode is the first thing i would have said, but not an option, so the next thing i would look at is something like vodafone suresignal - check with your network provider, they might offer a service similar, basically you get a little box from them, plug into your internet connection, and it will give your phone signal.
can't really think of something apart from a kernel tweak of some sort that would stop the phone scanning so much for cell towers, but i'm not sure where that would be, or even if it is possible..

its normal when signal drops out the phone turns the phones radio on full to scan for a network.
i would try going to settings > mobile network ( click the word not the switch) > network mode
and set it to GSM only, this will force the phone to only use 2g signal, means you don't get 3g internet so it will be very slow for internet, but 2g uses less power than 3g.
i do this alot as where i live there is low/2g signal only so i force it on to the 2g to stop it looking for a 3g network
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app

treebill said:
its normal when signal drops out the phone turns the phones radio on full to scan for a network.
i would try going to settings > mobile network ( click the word not the switch) > network mode
and set it to GSM only, this will force the phone to only use 2g signal, means you don't get 3g internet so it will be very slow for internet, but 2g uses less power than 3g.
i do this alot as where i live there is low/2g signal only so i force it on to the 2g to stop it looking for a 3g network
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
I use this option a lot, this is not directly what I asked for. I just want my gsm radio to be not so aggressive. Just like changing cpu governors values
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

Hi
Zlotin said:
I use this option a lot, this is not directly what I asked for. I just want my gsm radio to be not so aggressive. Just like changing cpu governors values
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
If there is no reception at all the phone radio shouldn't use much power, this is because it is just listening for a signal and will not be transmitting anything. If the radio is consuming more power, it is likely because it can hear the transmitter (they obviously transmit with much more power) and so the phone on hearing the mother ship is trying to reply at full transmit power available to it, but this isn't enough to be heard which drains more power. It doesn't taking many attempts at transmitting at full power to have a battery draining faster than usual.
Some applications on having no data connection might start waking the device a lot in a panic and don't back off trying, so every few seconds they will be waking the phone trying to connect to a remote server somewhere. Do you have Wi-Fi on to keep applications happy if they want to keep phoning home?
You have few options really,
1) is to just the mobile phone part off and leave Wi-Fi running which should help. You can do this by switching to flight mode then enabling just the Wi-Fi, or there will be widgets available I'm sure to just turn off the mobile phone part.
2) Turn off syncing to see if it is an application getting panicky, again you will have widgets you can add to your home page to easily switch this setting
3) You can use a Phone Schedule type application and have your phone go to flight mode automatically timed for when you are usually at home and overnight to save battery drain, free ones at the Play store.
4) If you have internet access at your apartment and depending on your mobile phone operator you might be able to get a femtocell, this will give you a full signal and service at home.
Regards
Phil

Its not just the HOX that does this, its all phones and it is bloody annoying.
My wifes parents live in the middle of nowhere and if we didnt' change our phones (inc, hox, s2,n900,iphone3...) to flightmode when there over night they would be flat.

treebill said:
its normal when signal drops out the phone turns the phones radio on full to scan for a network.
i would try going to settings > mobile network ( click the word not the switch) > network mode
and set it to GSM only, this will force the phone to only use 2g signal, means you don't get 3g internet so it will be very slow for internet, but 2g uses less power than 3g.
i do this alot as where i live there is low/2g signal only so i force it on to the 2g to stop it looking for a 3g network
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have that option. What's up with that? Does AT&T lock that option on their phones?

Tcndeb said:
I don't have that option. What's up with that? Does AT&T lock that option on their phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dial *#*#4636#*#* and goto phone information, scroll down, and you'll have all different modes there.
sometimes this doesn't stick though
that option would probably be there on a normal custom rom (unless this isn't actually possible on at&t??)
i could be misinformed, im from uk, so a little un educated on how the networks work over there..

[Q] How to totally disable Cellular network ?

I have N7 LTE 4G and most of the time I use it with Wi-Fi only. Yesterday I decided to get a pre-paid Sim to use for Data only when I am in a place that doesn't have Wi-Fi with 1GB per month data for $2.90 (yes it is THAT cheap in Egypt ) but only 3G/HSDPA/HSPA+
Now the problem is, Cellular network is always running and battery drains fast even though I use the internet on Wi-Fi and turned Mobile Data off.
I've read that I can turn on 2G to save battery and disable the cellular signal and indeed when I check 2G, I get no bars in cellular top icon and it says No Service (Network Name) BUT..... as soon as I open internet browser or any internet app, the cellular network works again by itself although 2G is still checked !!
Is this some kind of bug ?
The only solution I can do is to turn on Airplane Mode and turn Wi-Fi on afterwards which is not ideal
Any help would be much appreciated.

There is an app called Battery Monitor Widget that has "Tests" tab when I press on it, it opens "Testing" page in which the first option is Tablet Info. There is a list called "GSM Only" in which there is a toggle to Turn Off Radio and indeed it turns it off

I use airplane mode then just turn wifi back on to keep the cellular radio off.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

Que_Ball said:
I use airplane mode then just turn wifi back on to keep the cellular radio off.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
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How much battery does this save ?

r9800pro said:
How much battery does this save ?
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Click to collapse
It really depends on your signal strength. If you have strong signal you shouldn't see a huge difference. If you have a weak signal then it could be a big boost to your battery life.
And I'm not sure why you said that it was "not ideal" in your initial post. That's really the best way to go about it.

raptir said:
It really depends on your signal strength. If you have strong signal you shouldn't see a huge difference. If you have a weak signal then it could be a big boost to your battery life.
And I'm not sure why you said that it was "not ideal" in your initial post. That's really the best way to go about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signal is always good but I don't even need it to be there when I am on Wi-Fi as the tablet has no GSM phone functionality.
I think there is something wrong elsewhere with the battery draining so fast other than the GSM Radio being On.
The battery was good and lasted 2 full days with moderate usage and Wi-Fi always On but it started draining fast when I left the tablet untill it totally discharged and woke up to find it powered off and then charged it till 100% and battery reached 55% in 10 hours with very light usage

It sounds like you have an app draining your battery in the background. Try installing Better Battery Stats and see what's using all your power.

raptir said:
It sounds like you have an app draining your battery in the background. Try installing Better Battery Stats and see what's using all your power.
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Click to collapse
Is that the $2.76 app from Play store ?

r9800pro said:
Is that the $2.76 app from Play store ?
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Click to collapse
Yes, the developer also posts it here on XDA.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809