Saving battery with weak signals: My Guide - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III

I wanted to post a quick FYI for people that live or work in areas of weak signal, and therefore have crappy battery performance. I've been battling this for a long time and I finally nailed down some good, simple, reasonable solutions that will greatly extend your battery life.
The problem: A very weak signal means extremely slow data, if not a complete halt. We have all kinds of crap on our phones that utilize mobile data, even while the phone is lying on the desk doing nothing. You don't see it or know it. But it's doing it. Every time it tries to connect and do something, the phones in wakelock, not sleeping. With a strong signal, or wifi, these things happen very quickly and cause very little wakelock. However, with a crap signal, it basically becomes a never-ending task. Your phone can be in wakelock nearly 100% of the time while it stupidly tried to do something it will never be able to accomplish. Your google account alone has 19 different things it tries to sync. Then there is facebook. Exchange email. Dropbox, etc etc etc. Then there is NETWORK LOCATION! The phone tries to figure out it's location using the cell network. Since your signal sucks, it basically spends all day trying to do this. Even if you turn off sync, network location will still keep it awake trying in vein.
First I'll address network location since it is the easiest and shortest. This again is the phone using the cell network to triangulate a location rather than using GPS. The only way to resolve this is to turn it off and reboot the phone after doing so. In my experience, turning the checkbox off doesn't take effect until you reboot the phone. Settings > Location > Use Wireless Networks. Uncheck that. You can leave the GPS enabled. You can leave the Google Location enabled, unless you don't want google maps to work. This is not a setting that you can turn on and off with tasker. Sorry. And even if you could, it still requires a reboot to be reliable. So since network location is useless to me (duh, that's what the GPS is for), I elected to just turn it off and leave it off.
Now, how do we reduce or eliminate the phone trying to endlessly sync a billion different things that are impractical to sync with a weak signal? Three ways.
1. Just turn off sync. Pretty simple. Nothing will sync in the background anymore. If you open your email and manually refresh it, it will sync. But you will not get any push communication from any of those accounts configured to background sync. For some, this may be fine. I can't do that because I need to at least get my e-mail and calendar push notifications.
2. Use tasker to turn sync on and off. This is basically taking #1 and automating it. You can use any criteria you want to turn the sync on and off. Schedule it based on day/time for example. Or maybe tell it to only use sync while you're on wifi. Up to you.
3. This is what I did and I love it. Go to the play store and buy the "Synker". This is an app and tasker plugin. The tasker plugin will allow you to individually control every account's sync state. Where as #1 and #2 are global, all sync on/off. This allows you to pick and choose what you turn on and off. I configured mine to only enable sync on my gmail, calendar, keep, and tasks while I am not on a WiFi network. I need those things all day, every day. And the amount of data they sync is very very minimal. So I found it has very very little wakelock even with the weak signal. When I am connected to a WiFi network, I have it turn on most of the other account sync stats. Things like app data, contacts, photos, etc. You know, the other 15 things it does that are data hogs.
My results... Before, my phone would be dead after about 4-6 hours of sitting idle on my desk at work. After making these configuration changes, I still have 30% left after 10 hours. Success.

Related

[Q] Some apps not working when on WiFi with cellular data connection turn off?

Hi,
When using WiFi, and having cellular data turned off, some apps don't seem to be able to use the internet connection.
For example, my 2 RSS readers I have installed don't work. Probably other apps too.
Is this intended, or a bug?
Also I noticed this: again having WiFi on, cellular data off, when my phone is 'off' (locked/screen off), I think WiFi also turns off? Because when unlocking, I notice it is not downloading mails or updating other things. When I unlock it then it does receive the data when next scheduled.
Again: is this intended, or a bug?
Both things are really too bad, and don't make sense to me. When I'm home, or abroad, I really don't want to have my cellular data turned on. When I'm home I don't see the need, and want to safe my data bundle; when abroad I don't have it turned on because of the insanse prices you pay for data usage.
=7
the first, i haven't really noticed. does it happen to all third party apps? well for starters use the facebook app (not really third party as it's made by MS, but still should be the same) and see if that works over wifi only. if so, try a 3rd party app like shazam. if that works as well, then it's probably an issue with those particular apps and maybe you could get in contact with the developers and inform them of the issue.
the second, if you're not connected your phone to power source (ie charging it), it automatically disables the wifi on standby so it doesn't completely flatten your battery within a couple of hours. hence why you would be seeing this issue.
to be honest though, having data connection on whilst phone is in standby uses very little data as only the live tiles and email checks are done. and they're all quite minimal. but if you've got a dodgy company like i do (yes you are vodafone), where they charge minimum 50KB per session (how do i measure a session? twits...), then yea it can still rack up quite a bit even though the phone uses minimal data bandwidth in polling for info.

Battery XL for Nexus (Extending your battery)

If you haven't gone out to get an extended battery, try this and give feedback. I have tried it and it does great wonders for the stock battery for now. You can locate this in the market.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Seems counterproductive to have a program running that extends your battery.
JuiceDefender has been doing this for ages. I'll try it out to see how it compares, but I doubt it could improve on it at all. Doesn't look like there are any unique features.
IM trying this on my EVO 4G and I am not sure if it is really SYNCING my account at all with this program... I have left auto-sync turned on and all this program is doing is turning off data when screen is off and back on every 2 hours and also turns it on when I unlock the screen.
However, I dont know how this will sync my accounts.. if I data is off and a scheduled sync comes, will the data come back on?
so far I dont think it does.. I was testing GREEN POWER which had a setting to sync every so many minutes.. but it only went up to every 30 minutes which killed my battery syncing all accounts every 30 minutes..
I want to be able to use one of these battery saver programs but still be able to SYNC account to each accounts time schedule for EMAIL, facebook, weather, etc
some are every 2 hours.. some ever 6, every 8 etc
Thanks...
Hello everyone. My name is Michael and I'm the Product Manager for BatteryXL.
I'm very pleased and pleasantly surprised, to be honest, that someone made a thread about my app on such an awesome site, XDA.
First off, this app is in Beta. It's not perfect nor complete by any means and it will continue to be developed and polished for the foreseeable future.
About BatteryXL's Smart Schedules:
In the Smart Settings menu there is a field called "Smart Schedule"
Here you can select WiFi, Data, and(or) (Auto)Sync.
Then you select a Frequency to connect (15m, 30m, 45m, 1h, 2,h, 5h) and Duration of connection (30s, 1m, etc).
To answer the gentleman's question about Sync:
If Sync is selected, then WiFi or Data (or both) must also be selected. Therefore, whenever a Smart Schedule event occurs including Sync then an internet connection will be initiated (if available).
Hope this clears things up. AutoSync optimization is one of my goals for the future. I want this app to be able to save battery without any unreasonable lag time between emails, social network updates.
Again, please feel free to address any further concerns or questions.
Michael Malley | BatteryXL Product Manager
[email protected]
[email protected]
@BatteryXL
BatteryXL said:
Hello everyone. My name is Michael and I'm the Product Manager for BatteryXL.
I'm very pleased and pleasantly surprised, to be honest, that someone made a thread about my app on such an awesome site, XDA.
First off, this app is in Beta. It's not perfect nor complete by any means and it will continue to be developed and polished for the foreseeable future.
About BatteryXL's Smart Schedules:
In the Smart Settings menu there is a field called "Smart Schedule"
Here you can select WiFi, Data, and(or) (Auto)Sync.
Then you select a Frequency to connect (15m, 30m, 45m, 1h, 2,h, 5h) and Duration of connection (30s, 1m, etc).
To answer the gentleman's question about Sync:
If Sync is selected, then WiFi or Data (or both) must also be selected. Therefore, whenever a Smart Schedule event occurs including Sync then an internet connection will be initiated (if available).
Hope this clears things up. AutoSync optimization is one of my goals for the future. I want this app to be able to save battery without any unreasonable lag time between emails, social network updates.
Again, please feel free to address any further concerns or questions.
Michael Malley | BatteryXL Product Manager
[email protected]
[email protected]
@BatteryXL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still confused. If your program has turned data off but then one of my accounts is trying to sync based on its sync schedule in accounts and sync (in Android system settings), will data be turned back on to sync and then off again? I have the setting in your program to turn on data for 5 minutes every 2
Hours along with sync which i also leave that setting on for screen on and off. Let me know.
Sent from my Touchpad using Tapatalk
Sorry to say this, but this app looks like a Juice Defender rip off: it has exactly the same options (some are still missing) and it has a different interface.
Does it actually bring anything different from Juice Defender?
pedmond said:
Sorry to say this, but this app looks like a Juice Defender rip off: it has exactly the same options (some are still missing) and it has a different interface.
Does it actually bring anything different from Juice Defender?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it brings a GPS lock that doesn't turn off! Click off GPS in the app, exit and it comes right back up until I turned off GPS with the power widget. Having to bother with turning GPS on and off when I wasn't using any other app that needed it made it an instant uninstall. Honestly, the app seemed shady to me, and don't see a reason to use it over JuiceDefender if you are having battery issues.
cvmaas said:
Yeah, it brings a GPS lock that doesn't turn off! Click off GPS in the app, exit and it comes right back up until I turned off GPS with the power widget. Having to bother with turning GPS on and off when I wasn't using any other app that needed it made it an instant uninstall. Honestly, the app seemed shady to me, and don't see a reason to use it over JuiceDefender if you are having battery issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi cvmass,
The only GPS controls BatteryXL features are a manual on/off (which shares the same functionality as the Power Control widget) and automatic enable/disable based on various events like 'screen unlock'.
If your GPS is turning on or off unexpectedly then that is obviously a bug related to your hardware and not part of the intended user experience. If you want to send me your batteryxl.txt (log) I could work on fixing the problem.
We're not trying to rip-off JD, it's a matter of us trying to create the best app we can to help everyone get more out of their Android devices. Saying we're shady is like saying Android copied iPhone because both has touchscreens, apps, sync, phone, etc... This is a matter of convergent design were in order to save battery power, both apps are regulating your connections based on a series conditions and triggers. I'll be frank, we've used JD here in the lab, frankly we felt like we can do better and that's why we made this app.
dahauss said:
Still confused. If your program has turned data off but then one of my accounts is trying to sync based on its sync schedule in accounts and sync (in Android system settings), will data be turned back on to sync and then off again? I have the setting in your program to turn on data for 5 minutes every 2
Hours along with sync which i also leave that setting on for screen on and off. Let me know.
Sent from my Touchpad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently, the smart (sync) schedule only operates while the screen is off. but, this will change as of v1.2.4.
According to your settings mentioned above, BatteryXL will enable autosync every 2 hours for an interval of 5 mins. During this 5 mins, all your apps that have synced information are polled for updates.
The problem with the smart schedule now is with push services that assume you are constantly connected to the web. so sometimes, syncs get missed. we are working on it.
Let me know if you have more questions.
I've used and uninstalled BatteryXL twice now. It currently offers a night mode which juicedefender doesn't (for free anyway). First time I got rid of it due to instability (most likely culprit) the second time is because of the data finesse.
I only want to use cellular data when wifi is not available, but when you enable mobile data BXL first of all uses cellular data then wifi is turned on using that. If you turn off mobile data it actually switches off all mobile data so wifi won't work either for WAN transfers. I need option to keep cellular data disabled but leave mobile data on.
Thank you so much for bringing that to our attention - we'll add that to the features list to be added soon. So BatteryXL will basically disable cellular when wifi connects successfully and enable it when wifi is off or can't find a network.
It might be even better to make the mobile data button actually mean cellular data and not mobile data as this is what I thought it meant so was confused when it was turning off ability for wifi to fetch data. You could make mobile data an optional component elsewhere as I think this is a rarer item.
Or add an additional icon for cell data to the common row you have in every state paragraph. This makes the control more granular and ensures no cell data will ever be used even without wifi (which is what I would want for many scenarios anyway). Re-reading my post I can see how I misstated that! Certainly both scenarios could be provided for. Personally it depends when I need data, I can change my calling plan accordingly from month to month.
EDIT: Mobile data only seems to affect cellular data (as you'd expect) but why when it is disabled in BXL does wifi go 'grey' and not get any data, odd. This is why I thought it throttled any data and the toddle for cell was separate.
Does this app still make the GPS constantly look for a signal? I liked the UI a bit better than JD, but it just didn't work when I tried it.
9kracing said:
Does this app still make the GPS constantly look for a signal? I liked the UI a bit better than JD, but it just didn't work when I tried it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like GPS partially enabled, like the GPS is on but A-GPS isn't. When that happens to me apps like navigation constantly moan about finding location before they can function.
Fatila said:
That sounds like GPS partially enabled, like the GPS is on but A-GPS isn't. When that happens to me apps like navigation constantly moan about finding location before they can function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to set the program to turn off GPS when screen off. The program does something to my GPS that eats battery if I leave it on while using this program.
Sent from my EVO4G using Tapatalk.
BXL Uninstall question
I installed it on my I9000 but it was to complicated for me and could not get it to work along with my Email client so I uninstalled it, rebooted my phone and got something I have never seen before when my phone was booted, a message from Superuser stating that System is asking for superuser permission.
Is that natural or is it something that BXL left that caused this?
I'm using Doc's Master ICS V5 ROM.
Thanks
Ophir
I'm not too sure about this app. Been trying it for a day and can see somewhat of a difference, but nothing drastic..
One thing I do like about BatteryXL over JD or almost all the other similar apps is that it's not only free and not crippleware, but there are no ads. I hope it stays that way!
I have had some issues with the app locking up, but acceptable considering it's in beta - hopefully still under active development and improving.
i just tried this app and uninstalled it after it started to make phone calls all by itself to *22899. i would end the call and then it would call it right back. seems like a good app, and could work but that turned me off of it. not sure about the whole mobile data off option though.

Mystery outgoing SSL traffic. Lots of it

Few days ago I installed the new Kernel that fixes the network counters from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1468626 (thanks to ardatdat).
Immediately I noticed that the traffic is counting up way too quickly. I looked at my bills to see if this is new, and realized that since I got the phone, my monthly traffic was consistently at 200-400MB per month, even though I can explain maybe 30MB per month (I have access to wifi pretty much anywhere I go).
So, started digging. In the last 3 days there's been 25MB down and 50MB up. With all the testing I was doing, I can explain maybe 10 down and 5 up. So, using the TrafficCounter app, I found that a system app called "Task Manager" is responsible for the traffic (attached screencap displays traffic over 4 hours).
It doesn't slowly count up. Instead, it will stay at the same mark, then all of a sudden change by 2.2MB. Every time. So it looks like it packages something and sends it off. The most interesting thing? It only does it when on 3G. If I'm connected to WIFI, it's silent. Like it doesn't want me to see what it's doing.
So, installed Shark, and made a traffic capture. I was able to capture the outgoing SSL stream that was exactly 2.18MB. Destination IP 74.125.226.65 resolves to yyz06s07-in-f1.1e100.net. Browsing there gives google's front page......
Checked the TCP stream, right before the transfer, there's a DNS lookup for android.clients.google.com, which responds with that IP address.
Checking SSL Cert gives me *.google.com cert. Same one as for all of their sites
So it turns out every 3 or so hours there's a 2.2MB transfer from my phone to the google servers via encrypted channel.
Looking further, my wife's and my mother's androids are showing just as much data on their bills, they got Nexus S and Galaxy S. While I can see my wife using so much data, it's doubtful my mom has even figured out how to consume so much traffic.
Anyone else notice this?
What is the purpose of it? If it's legitimate, how can they justify using so much of my limited monthly bandwidth?
You've checked the "keep my phone backed up to my google account" button on setup. You can re-run the setup to uncheck that option, but until then it'll continue to send those big packages, and it prefers the 3G connection. I've taken to leaving my WIFI on and connected at all times. With a measly 200MB/month plan (AT&T can blow me for un-grandfathering my unlimited data), a 15MB backup nightly was killing me...
L4T
If it is the sync feature using all this data, you can disable the automatic sync from Settings > Accounts and Sync. It doesn't appear there's any way to tell it to only sync on Wifi, but I'm sure most of the data monitoring apps out there can stop apps from using mobile data. Onavo, for instance, claims to have this feature, but I haven't had cause to use it yet.
Lookin4Trouble said:
You've checked the "keep my phone backed up to my google account" button on setup. You can re-run the setup to uncheck that option, but until then it'll continue to send those big packages, and it prefers the 3G connection. I've taken to leaving my WIFI on and connected at all times. With a measly 200MB/month plan (AT&T can blow me for un-grandfathering my unlimited data), a 15MB backup nightly was killing me...
L4T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that was it! Didn't expect that setting there. It's upsetting that there's no way to configure that feature - such as how often to send data, to only send incrementals, or such an advanced setting as upload only when connected to WIFI.
Problem with leaving wifi on all the time is the fact that it eats battery a lot. If my wifi is on all the time, the battery life is about 40% shorter
kvantum said:
Thanks, that was it! Didn't expect that setting there. It's upsetting that there's no way to configure that feature - such as how often to send data, to only send incrementals, or such an advanced setting as upload only when connected to WIFI.
Problem with leaving wifi on all the time is the fact that it eats battery a lot. If my wifi is on all the time, the battery life is about 40% shorter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, could you append [SOLVED] to your original post?
Thanks
L4T

Location Service and Mobile Data Off Messages

Loving the phone so far. However, upon each reboot, it asks me to agree to letting Google track my whereabouts. It says ""Allow Google's location service to collect anonymous location data..." Of course, I have disagreed every time, but it keeps asking. How can I disable that.
Also, I use Llama to turn off mobile data while I am in range of various wireless access points. However, it keeps warning me about that, saying "Your mobile data connection is turned off. Unless you use WiFi, you will not be able to use the internet, email, or other apps...." Is there anyway to disable the pop-up/warning?
And last, how can I replace the weather and time widget on the lock screen, and replace it with something else?
Kindly
Michael
Did you ever find a solution to this issue? I'm experiencing the same thing using Tasker to regulate data on/off.

Possibility of Android networking hardware being physically disabled via ifconfig.

Using ifconfig Android to enable or disable a network device will effectively control it's powered state. I know this because I am an advanced Linux user. The basic function of ifconfig is the same between devices/architectures, and since all Android devices are based on Linux, i see no reason why this cannot be done.
Currently, when you shut off your wifi or mobile data, its never really off. To confirm this, I shut off my wifi, turned my phone to airplane mode to make sure I wasn't connected, but when I arrived home again later, I still received a couple of new messages from my yahoo mail and kik. My first though was "... The heck?" I knew I wasn't supposed to be able to receive anything. I even had autosync turned off also for good measure. I couldn't explain it at first... Upon checking the timestamp, it revealed to me that I received the notifications the exact moment I arrived home, but the original Sent time from the source is when I was not home. Remember, all data was turned off by me and I did not receive anything the entire time i was out. (airplane mode, and i have no active phone service)
I double-checked and surely enough, my settings were still all off according to what I could see and verify. That tells me it's not really off and it knew I was home and connected to wifi anyway briefly, even though I had it off. That tells me that even though I turned off the wifi and mobile data and set the advanced settings to never "always allow scanning even while turned off" for location services, its STILL on!! Unacceptable. Deceitful. Wrong. When I tell it to turn off I expect it to stay off, dang it...
Talk about unexpected battery drain. Imagine being comfortable in knowing you've shut off all these things, to then find out later that these settings are present just to trick you in to letting your guard down! The question is, why would Google put in place these settings if only to be overridden anyway? There is no reason except their own sneaky one.
My goal here is to recruit someone to build an app or widget for rooted users to physically disable the device via push-button widget or app, not just disassociate from any given wifi AP or mobile data service. (wifi_dassoc kernel command) Anyone with some spare time and knowledge of Android programming and use of ifconfig is welcome. I welcome more than one person also. A team even... Haha. You guys converse and figure it out. I'll be watching, and Thanks! Hope you find this to your liking and interest.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA Free mobile app

Categories

Resources