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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!
So I will be getting a pebble sometime in the near future. I have a interesting idea to see if it would save on the battery life. Rather then keeping my phone always connected through Bluetooth (which I just learned our phone has Bluetooth 4.0 but no drivers for it, so my short battery life will get shorter), I was wondering if I could have tasker every time I get a notification for email, texts, whatever I want:
1. Connect to a Bluetooth device when I receive a notification (for instance Pebble, I know I can do the first part but in case anyone is reading this to find exact steps).
2. Push that notification to pebble if it does not show up since Bluetooth might take a bit to connect.
3. Disconnect from Bluetooth device.
Extra: The ability to turn Bluetooth on and off (if it will save more battery life).
This also has to be done relatively quickly, it would be pointless if this takes 20-30 sec imo, should take no more then 5 sec, but more around 3 if possible. So what do we think my friends, can it be done? I just started using Tasker, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
CptSamir
+1
I'm thinking about getting a Pebble as well and had the exact same idea!
I can't think of anything to get the actual notification, but having Tasker just "recreate" it, once Bluetooth connection is established, should do the job as well I guess?!
This isn't any help to your actual question, just wanted to mention a comment I saw somewhere from an app developer about smartwatch apps and battery life. Which was that most people report getting better battery life because your phones screen is what uses the most battery, and with a smartwatch most people end up not turning on the screen every time a notification comes in.
http://www.reddit.com/r/moto360/comments/2la6cg/noticed_i_can_get_my_moto_360_to_last_24_days/
A rudamentary discussion is over at the link above about an idea a couple of us have. The short of it is that with the ability to build profiles from an app on your phone, you could disable notifications/bluetooth (on the phone)/ ambient/ etc and that has been shown to dramatically improve battery life ( up to 3 days ). I'm curious if a developer with a Wear device would entertain the idea of putting something like this together. I would be happy to pay for an application that could make these types of adjustments through definable profiles, and I suspect many others would as well.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Quick update. Battery life on the watch is improved by ~40% in a controlled test by disabling bluetooth on the paired phone. More details on the thread at Reddit.
Wtf is the point of disabling Bluetooth on the phone? The watch can't do what it's supposed to do then?
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
I don't think that can be accurate. I've found that my watch has much worse battery life when not paired, as it is constantly searching for a bluetooth device to pair with... Maybe they mean airplane mode. But if that's the case, the watch is barely more featured than any normal old watch....
As discussed in the thread @ Reddit, the idea is that we're often in a situation where you don't need the watch. If I'm sitting at my desk, I have Chrome open, have my phone in front of me on a dock, etc. Using the watch is cumbersome if I already have my hands on a keyboard and mouse. Therefore, draining 7-12% per hour is a waste. If you consider that many of us are in a position for 6-8 hours a day where the watch will not be used, and the lifespan of the watch is anywhere from 12-18 hours, than turning off bluetooth can mean your watch may last longer than 24 hours and be more effective when you do require it.
This may not apply to you. But it will for many.
As for its effectiveness, I've done it two days in a row now. Using Wear Battery Stats, the results are consistently 40%+ reduction in battery discharge.
so what would be the conditions for matching the profile? meetings? GPS location? times of day?
also, you'd have to have an app present on the watch itself to make this functional, which would limit you to solely duration of time. so technically you'd be limited to the appointments on your calendar - but if you're in airplane mode, is this even possible?
i think the phone could issue a command to the watch to go to airplane mode, but how to get it back out is a bit more complicated. time is the only factor that i can think of. if you move locations, leave your desk, etc., you'd have to manually set it out of airplane, which is not something that interests me.
i'm still waiting for the ability to turn off teh motion sensor.
I just did a logical cheap DIY. (it does not put a stress in the battery)
I put my charger dock to my TIMER wall plug.
I wake up everyday at 05:45. When I go to sleep I have about 25% battery life, I put the watch on my dock and do not charge it.
At 04:00 my wall charger turns automatically ON and starts charging my watch, When I wake up it's 100% . Moto 360 did NOT charge all night, and it goes from about 10% - 20% (witch is almost best ) to 100%.
cvenk said:
I just did a logical cheap DIY. (it does not put a stress in the battery)
I put my charger dock to my TIMER wall plug.
I wake up everyday at 05:45. When I go to sleep I have about 25% battery life, I put the watch on my dock and do not charge it.
At 04:00 my wall charger turns automatically ON and starts charging my watch, When I wake up it's 100% . Moto 360 did NOT charge all night, and it goes from about 10% - 20% (witch is almost best ) to 100%.
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Click to collapse
1. not sure how this relates to the OP.
2. isn't the battery "sweet spot" 80-40%? theoretically reducing the battery to 10% puts more wear on the battery than charging overnight? what if you switched your timer to charge first, then disable?
Yes. What I'm envisioning at bare minimum would be:
- An application on the smart watch that can disable bluetooth locally. That way you can keep it on the phone for your car stereo, headphone, etc features. This could be used through Google Voice (Tap screen and say "Open Sleep Now" or whatever). Also have the ability to open from any standard launcher such as "Wear Mini Launcher" or a Swipe command so you can quickly enable it when you sit down at your desk.
- The application on the smart watch includes the ability to force dim the screen or show a black screen like Slumber until you press/hold the button or press the screen to wake it.
- The application on the smart watch would have a feature to keep bluetooth turned off/screen turned off until the watch detects feedback from the accelerometer that there is significant and consistent movement over X period of time. This would help some people configure it not to go off while at their desk but while walking around the office/home/etc.
A more advanced version could offer additional features from the smartphone such as location awareness based on Wifi/GPS, but my understanding is that such a feature would burn through the smartphone battery. If not, then the ability to disable bluetooth on the smartphone based on location or detection of wifi APs would be another way to approach this. However, I believe that many people would find the first few feature recommendations above beneficial enough.
i hadn't considered the accelerometer but i think it will be tricky to get it right. i feel like the watch would be turning off/on the BT a LOT. sorry to sound so pessimistic - i think some test cases are warranted here.
your last point i just don't see feasible given the limitations of the watch. sacrifice the phone battery for the watch battery doesn't sound like an ideal situation and I'm not convinced it would be effective at reducing battery usage on the watch either.
640k said:
i hadn't considered the accelerometer but i think it will be tricky to get it right. i feel like the watch would be turning off/on the BT a LOT. sorry to sound so pessimistic - i think some test cases are warranted here.
your last point i just don't see feasible given the limitations of the watch. sacrifice the phone battery for the watch battery doesn't sound like an ideal situation and I'm not convinced it would be effective at reducing battery usage on the watch either.
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Click to collapse
Agreed. Again, at bare minimum, if I had a bluetooth/wireless toggle switch on the smartwatch, that would be a huge benefit. I could turn it off while driving and sitting at my desk.
Also, as discussed on reddit, it does not only apply to bluetooth on and off. With profiles, you can turn off HR monitor, step counter, etc when you're seated at the office and just turn it back on when you leave. It can also be scheduled (if you leave office at 5pm, start the profile that enables most services by 4:30pm).
For me, the 8 hours a day that I work, I don't need email or social apps notifying me on my watch since I have a computer in front of me the whole time. I also don't need the HR triggering every so often. At the bare minimum, I just need calendar reminders and SMS via hangouts. If there is a way to set "Office" profile scheduled every 9am to 5pm then revert back to the default profile outside of those times, it would be great.
I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
I haven't had mine off charge long enough to really be able to comment about this yet but I can't complain with it so far.
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
bill3508 said:
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
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Click to collapse
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
supersquishy said:
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go. I'm guessing screen is only 6% because the tablet has been up now for 4 days, so 6 hours is a small portion of the activity.
supersquishy said:
I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
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Click to collapse
I really don't know. You may be right.
I guess the high wifi in battery stats is a reporting error / miscalculation. I have wiped the cache partition in recovery (to fix my ambient light sensor) and ever since wifi is at the bottom of my battery list.
And I did not get any better SOT, so there could not have been any real battery drain from wifi even when it held the top spot in the stats.
Still disappointed with only 4-5h SOT.
Thanks everybody for helping out.
ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
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Click to collapse
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
bill3508 said:
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
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Click to collapse
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
ZiggSVO said:
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that leaving WiFi on runs your battery down on any device when its connected and it takes all of 2-3 seconds to connect. No reason to leave it on full time when your not using it. Also, the device is continuously checking and sending small amounts of data to maintain that connection.
Were talking about the pixel here and not a cellular device.
Pretty happy with the C.
I haven't really payed attention to how long this device lasts, I use it pretty casually so it lasts me up to a week. I have used it to stream movies and it has lasted me the whole day (8 hours) watching movies with about 30% left. Compared to other tablets I've had including the nexus 9 this one blows them all away. My old nexus 9 would die after a few episodes (about an hour)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I streamed a good 6 hours of a live feed on battery and the device used around 50%, can not complain with the battery life at all with this device
bill3508 said:
Pretty happy with the C.
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Click to collapse
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
Ves said:
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
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Click to collapse
No, just WiFi, don't have a keyboard.
As a heads up, there appears to be a WiFi issue with MM itself. I'm seeing the same issue on my Nexus 7 2013 running a MM ROM, and I found a thread online talking about it...maybe from the Android Central forums or something, I can't remember now. People seem to be unsure as to whether or not WiFi is actually causing a battery drain, or if it's just reporting incorrectly. But at least on my N7, the battery can drop 40-50% in one day while on standby, and when I have WiFi set to Off when it's sleeping. And I used to get DAYS of standby time before going to MM.
Edit: Here's an XDA thread about it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guys-call-wifi-battery-drain-6-0-t3219870
I had the same issue with WiFi battery bug on the nexus 5. Fixed it via router by turning off the auto disconnect (the option where router decides if a device can connect based on signal strength) on both 2ghz and 5ghz. After this the Wifi went back down to the bottom of the battery list. Long shot, and most likely not even related, but hope it helps anyone.
On a Asus rt router.
I've got a brand new unlocked Moto Z play with the Offgrid battery mod. This morning I was disappointed to see my wifi, despite being disabled, had nearly drained my battery mod. I have the wifi configured to only maintain a connection while asleep and plugged in. The toggle for background location via wifi is absent from the advanced wifi menu.
Why is my wifi constantly on, despite it being toggled off?
I've attached a screen shot of the battery screen.
Edit: found the wifi scanning toggle in locations. I've just switched that off.
fourpointsix said:
I've got a brand new unlocked Moto Z play with the Offgrid battery mod. This morning I was disappointed to see my wifi, despite being disabled, had nearly drained my battery mod. I have the wifi configured to only maintain a connection while asleep and plugged in. The toggle for background location via wifi is absent from the advanced wifi menu.
Why is my wifi constantly on, despite it being toggled off?
I've attached a screen shot of the battery screen.
Edit: found the wifi scanning toggle in locations. I've just switched that off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. Android Marshmallow comes with Doze functionality, and if the user is not using or moving the phone, it cuts down all background app activity that may eventually drain your phone, thus preserving your battery. You'll still receive notification about emails, and messages in social apps, as they're considered priority, if I'm not mistaken.
I'd say the source of your mod losing battery is your cellular reception. By the print you've posted, the Cellular Network Signal bar is most of the time red, orange or yellow. Poor cellular coverage eats up your battery.
I thank you for saving me the trouble of creating this thread, also did turning off the wifi scanning help?
keep wifi during sleep?
Wi-Fi has been switched off most of the day, wifi location scanning is disabled, and wifi connections while asleep are set to never. Still, it's almost ALWAYS on. Even when my ATT connection is strong it's still sucking down my battery. Wi-Fi remains my largest drain. Larger than cell standby, play services, and the screen.
Edit, looking at my images again, it appears my Z Play is treating the battery mod as a charger. Once the main battery drops to 80% and it switches to the mod battery, the wifi never turns off (despite my settings).
I also have similar problem with my moto z play. I haven't used wifi but still showing top ahead of others. Pls help to resolve this issue.
I had a Moto X Play before for a good while. this problem also showed up there (on Marshmallow as well), but I did find out my battery did not actually get drained, it was a reporting error in Android.
I am not sure if that is the case here with you, is the total battery life definitely lower or is it hard to tell?
Battery is still good but it could be better without the wifi drain. Mine is also more than the total energy the screen consumes and I have battery saver on with wifi location scanning off and wifi on only while plugged in. Not sure what would cause this.
Well, this is interesting. Flew to Boston today around 8:30, and as you can see, toggling airplane mode for the relatively short duration of my flight seems to have fixed my wifi drain. Although the phone did reboot in my pocket around 1530. At the time of this screenshot my internal battery is at 80%, and the battery mod is at 55% with only ~2.5 hours screen on time.
Out of curiosity, when you go into settings>location>3 dot menu>scanning, is wifi scanning turned on or off? Not sure about exact menu location as I don't have a Moto Z play, so working off a custom ROM on my Moto E2. Not sure if it would make a difference, but....
Wi-Fi location scanning is disabled.
Interesting, 24 hours after my flight (both legs visible in the chart) I'm showing no more wifi drain. This is with ~3.75 hours SOT. I am disappointed to see the Offgrid mod lost ~30% over night though. I'll still easily get 2 full days out of one charge, but I was hoping for 3-4. Hopefully Nougat's improved doze helps.
I am thinking my phone is also suffering from the same issue. Take look at my other post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69486349&postcount=77
Mine is even worse. Even when i activate the airplane mode, wifi does not turn off. It is open literally 24 hours. Seems like it drains the battery but I still have 9-10 Hours of SOT, depending on usage this can go up to 13-14 hours.
I fixed mine by following this:
http://androiding.how/how-to-fix-wifi-battery-drain-on-marshmallow/
emailrob said:
I fixed mine by following this:
http://androiding.how/how-to-fix-wifi-battery-drain-on-marshmallow/
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Click to collapse
Didn't work for me, but I stopped caring. I computed total power usage, wifi does not seem to have that portion
Guys, you must confirm if the WiFi actually drains that amount of power. 8/10 times it is a reporting error in Marshmallow, experienced it myself as well. Gsam battery monitor could tell you more.
This solution is for the MotoZ, a similar issue, maybe it could help us a little
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-z/help/extreme-wifi-battery-drain-solution-t3476579