Hi all,
Just wanted to put this on the table. How many over here really use the Ok Google feature on the PixelXL. Granted it's a nifty feature, but I'm having this feeling that it could be linked to high google play services battery drain that I had raised in my other thread. Ever since I factory resetted, I haven't enabled this feature yet on the phone. And, the battery drain on google play services has been quite acceptable. In the 3 days that the phone has been off the charger, the google play services' CPU usage was about 35 mins. When I had Ok Google enabled, this had gone to about 3 hours per charge cycle although I used Ok Google just once...I know it's not quite mathematically accurate...
Can anyone here share their experience with the battery drain and Ok Google feature...if there's any correlation between high google play services battery usage and Ok Google
amirage said:
Hi all,
Just wanted to put this on the table. How many over here really use the Ok Google feature on the PixelXL. Granted it's a nifty feature, but I'm having this feeling that it could be linked to high google play services battery drain that I had raised in my other thread. Ever since I factory resetted, I haven't enabled this feature yet on the phone. And, the battery drain on google play services has been quite acceptable. In the 3 days that the phone has been off the charger, the google play services' CPU usage was about 35 mins. When I had Ok Google enabled, this had gone to about 3 hours per charge cycle although I used Ok Google just once...I know it's not quite mathematically accurate...
Can anyone here share their experience with the battery drain and Ok Google feature...if there's any correlation between high google play services battery usage and Ok Google
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never did find OK Google of any use, or the newly introduced Assistant for that matter, just doesn't go with me, really inconvenient, so always had it disabled, and never noticed Play Services taking up anything significant on battery stats, but just for the sake of that disabling on screen keys with the build.prop edit, I have now enabled OK Google so I don't get the FC every time I use Assistant, I will keep an eye on the battery stats now.
If you find it not useful then have it disabled anyway.
It seems that "Ok Google" is permanently on, regardless of if you manually set up the function or not.
I've had two previous Pixels and with both had set up the feature then disabled it a few days later. When saying the command on the Home screen, it would still work.
With my current device (#3), I didn't set up the hot word search at all yet it still activates from the Home screen just the same.
I think it's only possible to disable the "Ok Google anytime" functionality. It certainly has nothing to do with Google Assistant as my phone is set to Japanese language and the Assistant doesn't even support it thus isn't active.
Anyone else notice this?
I can vouch that as long as Ok google is not enabled and the hot words are not learnt by the phone, saying Ok google will not turn the phone on...that said @TokyoGuy I'm just curious why are you on device #3 and what happened to the other 2!
amirage said:
I can vouch that as long as Ok google is not enabled and the hot words are not learnt by the phone, saying Ok google will not turn the phone on...that said @TokyoGuy I'm just curious why are you on device #3 and what happened to the other 2!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd. I wonder if the problem then is specifically *because* Google Assistant isn't available in Japanese, that I can't totally disable the hotword. That's the only explanation I can think of as it's never happened before in any of the countless phones I've owned or used in the past.
As for what I'm on phone #3, my first was a US 32GB model but I filled up the storage rather quickly and which got scratched up due to debris in the case. The scratches ticked me off any when I saw a used/mint standard Pixel model in a local store so I figured why not give it a try to see if I liked the smaller version. Ultimately it was too small however and thus I was able to get a 128GB Pixel XL from Australia (my current unit).
Because the Pixel hasn't been launched in Japan yet, my losses involved with changing units twice are surprisingly miniscule. (Read: All demand, no supply.)
I'm curious though if anyone else has the permanently active hotword.
Ahhaa...good for you that you can easily switch phones...It's a rare commodity this Pixel XL 128GB...
TokyoGuy said:
That's odd. I wonder if the problem then is specifically *because* Google Assistant isn't available in Japanese, that I can't totally disable the hotword. That's the only explanation I can think of as it's never happened before in any of the countless phones I've owned or used in the past.
As for what I'm on phone #3, my first was a US 32GB model but I filled up the storage rather quickly and which got scratched up due to debris in the case. The scratches ticked me off any when I saw a used/mint standard Pixel model in a local store so I figured why not give it a try to see if I liked the smaller version. Ultimately it was too small however and thus I was able to get a 128GB Pixel XL from Australia (my current unit).
Because the Pixel hasn't been launched in Japan yet, my losses involved with changing units twice are surprisingly miniscule. (Read: All demand, no supply.)
I'm curious though if anyone else has the permanently active hotword.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I reenabled the Ok Google detection and can confirm that Google Play services goes haywire...Can anyone else please reconfirm if this is one-off case or universal?
amirage said:
Ok, I reenabled the Ok Google detection and can confirm that Google Play services goes haywire...Can anyone else please reconfirm if this is one-off case or universal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've always had OK google on any screen, even locked in smart lock. And never seen any Play Services drain or any unusual drain either. But I like using my phone. Between the insanely fast charging and having a car charger and charger at work (though I get through a day without needing them), I just like having that extra feature and convenience. I also have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth always on even when not using them (use Wi-Fi at home, not anywhere else), and use the Google Earth screen live wallpaper too.
Thanks, btw, have your rooted your phone? Just wondering how u got the clock to appear in the centre...
jesssiii said:
I've always had OK google on any screen, even locked in smart lock. And never seen any Play Services drain or any unusual drain either. But I like using my phone. Between the insanely fast charging and having a car charger and charger at work (though I get through a day without needing them), I just like having that extra feature and convenience. I also have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth always on even when not using them (use Wi-Fi at home, not anywhere else), and use the Google Earth screen live wallpaper too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I used it for quite awhile unrooted, unmodified stock. Wanted to play around and make sure I was familiar with it enough to help myself if I got into trouble, had couple days off, so I tried twrp and rooting. Back now to stock, though. This phone is the first for me to really feel stock is so good, it's not worth modding.
Related
Hi all,
I recently received an unlocked 32gb Fire Phone. I searched these forums often to see what the sub-community of Fire Phone users were up to.
Naturally, the first things I did when I received the phone were making it feel more like android by use of the tutorials provided here.
Following the step-by-step instructions for the most recent version of Fire OS, I ran into minor issues with google services.
These experiences are my own and don't reflect other users. I am providing this information for educational purposes and maybe so that someone can in fact help me out.
1 - Google Services forced me to update after I sideloaded it onto the device. Apps were locked without updating.
By doing this, every so often the device likes to alert me that my google account failed to authenticate. It's nonsense, because google play store and play music run flawlessly. In fact, I get updates via e-mail when ever I make a purchase.
2 - Gmaildoes NOT work. I'm not sure how users got it to work but it does NOT work on the device I am currently using. It tells me my name and password are incorrect and then I receive the "failed to..." message. I downloaded a decent replacement from the play store.
3 - Google maps froze after a half a block. I was forced to use Fire Phone's Maps app, which was almost perfect on an hour drive. No hiccups, lag, or freezes.
4 - Making phone calls makes the screen go black. I could not hang up or see my calls. If I unlocked the phone to get to the dialer while on the phone, it would reset to black. Quick fix was going to settings > accessibility > power button turns off call.
5 -From midnight to noon, the device was used on and off. Remember, Fire OS is running, but google ui and services are running as well. Google is taking over 40% of the battery life while Fire OS takes above 25%.
Midnight - 100% (Idle)
2 am - 3 am - 81% (Social Networking)
3 am - 5am - 61% (Idle)
5 am - 7 am - 59% (Idle)
7 am - 8 am - 51% (Browsing)
8am - 11 pm - 20% (Idle)
11pm - 11:20 - 18% (Streaming Tunes)
11:20am - 1 pm - 8% (Idle)
1pm - 1:57pm - 33% (Charging)
During this, light texting to and from occurred, but rarely during idling.
I text often and receive a ton of e-mails so I do worry this will be worse as time progresses and the device ages.
Reviews are unanimous in describing the battery life as mediocre, but seeing as there is a ton of tech packed in, it doesn't bother me entirely. I knew what I was getting myself into when I clicked buy, so I'm not offended as some people tend to get.
My questions to my findings are :
How do I get gmail to work?
How can I see the dialer when I require it?
Is there a method to promote battery longevity?
Do other users have similar findings when using Fire OS without google services?
I can only comment on stock Fire Phone functionality as I actually bought it for the Amazon ecosystem and UI, but battery life was an issue for me as well at first.
I haven't been able to narrow it down exactly, but it's something to do with location services. I have simply turned the location services off altogether and my battery lasts twice as long now, in fact, it lasts as long as my Nokia Lumia 735 did. I usually get up at 7 in the morning and to sleep at 11/12 in the evening. With the Fire Phone I have about 25% left at 11/12, even after watching some Netflix or Instant Video
I don't know how Microsoft does it, but I always have location services on on Windows Phone devices without noticing any battery drain whatsoever. On the Fire Phone all is fine now and when idle it doesn't drain any battery at all, or <1% per hour
I did also notice the battery drain from Fire OS, and it seems to be down to the Kinesis_service, which is an AWS stream for data. No doubt to do with linking everything to Amazon's services. Please note as well that I use auto-brightness too without issues.
MrDewitt said:
Hi all,
I recently received an unlocked 32gb Fire Phone. I searched these forums often to see what the sub-community of Fire Phone users were up to.
Naturally, the first things I did when I received the phone were making it feel more like android by use of the tutorials provided here.
Following the step-by-step instructions for the most recent version of Fire OS, I ran into minor issues with google services.
These experiences are my own and don't reflect other users. I am providing this information for educational purposes and maybe so that someone can in fact help me out.
1 - Google Services forced me to update after I sideloaded it onto the device. Apps were locked without updating.
By doing this, every so often the device likes to alert me that my google account failed to authenticate. It's nonsense, because google play store and play music run flawlessly. In fact, I get updates via e-mail when ever I make a purchase.
2 - Gmaildoes NOT work. I'm not sure how users got it to work but it does NOT work on the device I am currently using. It tells me my name and password are incorrect and then I receive the "failed to..." message. I downloaded a decent replacement from the play store.
3 - Google maps froze after a half a block. I was forced to use Fire Phone's Maps app, which was almost perfect on an hour drive. No hiccups, lag, or freezes.
4 - Making phone calls makes the screen go black. I could not hang up or see my calls. If I unlocked the phone to get to the dialer while on the phone, it would reset to black. Quick fix was going to settings > accessibility > power button turns off call.
5 -From midnight to noon, the device was used on and off. Remember, Fire OS is running, but google ui and services are running as well. Google is taking over 40% of the battery life while Fire OS takes above 25%.
Midnight - 100% (Idle)
2 am - 3 am - 81% (Social Networking)
3 am - 5am - 61% (Idle)
5 am - 7 am - 59% (Idle)
7 am - 8 am - 51% (Browsing)
8am - 11 pm - 20% (Idle)
11pm - 11:20 - 18% (Streaming Tunes)
11:20am - 1 pm - 8% (Idle)
1pm - 1:57pm - 33% (Charging)
During this, light texting to and from occurred, but rarely during idling.
I text often and receive a ton of e-mails so I do worry this will be worse as time progresses and the device ages.
Reviews are unanimous in describing the battery life as mediocre, but seeing as there is a ton of tech packed in, it doesn't bother me entirely. I knew what I was getting myself into when I clicked buy, so I'm not offended as some people tend to get.
My questions to my findings are :
How do I get gmail to work?
How can I see the dialer when I require it?
Is there a method to promote battery longevity?
Do other users have similar findings when using Fire OS without google services?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the screen going black on a phone call, my guess is you have a screen protector on this phone. Its blocking the proximity sensor. Take the protector off and see if that resolves your issue.
Xyth said:
On the screen going black on a phone call, my guess is you have a screen protector on this phone. Its blocking the proximity sensor. Take the protector off and see if that resolves your issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've got it but Its very hard to see where is the proximity sensor located. Normally in the other phones we will see it if we look close enough. However, it's almost invisible on the amazon fire phone.
And after a hard-looking few minute. I find it locates just about 1mm under the front facing camera (Using the sensor checking and check around haha)
However, most of the amazon fire phone screen protector now doesn't have the hole in this position. And I really want to use one to protect my screen.
How dumb are the screen protector manufacturers ? I may try to put a hole on this using the paper-hole-punch. Just don't know if it works ...
and with 3.6.8 and low motion (turn off all) my fire gives a very good battery performance !
Several things fixed
Wonderful responses everyone.
I keep location services off at all times unless GPS is being used. I am a stickler for turning it off!
At the time of my post, I was not using a screen protector. I was however using the cheap plastic that surrounded the phone, which became dirty in one day. That area was smudged enough to block the proximity sensor. When my case arrived, I put it on, and the screen is flawless during calls.
As for battery performance. I now went under 24 hours of battery life and have screenshots as evidence. There was a memory leak on my phone somewhere and that stopped! I did nothing to prevent or fix it. The apps that were consuming as much ram as they were are not any more, even under extreme use. I am impressed. Google services went from 40% usage to a miniscule 3%! I did nothing to change anything. So far, my phone has gone through three separate charges since use. After the second charge, for some reason, the phone works so well.
Still would love to know how to get gmail and maps to function correctly.
Google service runs hard at the first time to sync so many things in google account to your device, I suppose.
robocopvn said:
Google service runs hard at the first time to sync so many things in google account to your device, I suppose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe! When I install google now laucher, it also drains the battery life time so much.
Something I've discovered is closing apps through the Fire Phone Launcher. Below is a copy/paste of this section through the review I wrote up.
LilLowEK said:
2. How do I quit apps that I'm not using at the moment to extend battery life and free resources?
- If you double click the home button to access the "Quick Switch" menu you can swipe up which will close the app, remove it from the quick switch menu, along with removing it from the cluttered home carousel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
How in the heck do I get rid of the google play services drain...The dang thing is the highest on my device followed by android system...Please help
amirage said:
Hi,
How in the heck do I get rid of the google play services drain...The dang thing is the highest on my device followed by android system...Please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the play services process that does the draining, but another app that uses the service. It's simply a vehicle. With well behaved apps, you'd rarely see play services in your battery hog list. You can begin by disabling Play Store's app auto-updating.
quangtran1 said:
It's not the play services process that does the draining, but another app that uses the service. It's simply a vehicle. With well behaved apps, you'd rarely see play services in your battery hog list. You can begin by disabling Play Store's app auto-updating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done it but I'm really not so hopeful. I don't know if its the auto-update feature that's hogging the battery or if it has anything to do with the google now feature. Apparently google play services is high on the list of activities that use the location services.
I'm really not in a mood to factory reset but then I'm not hopeful that this would really solve the matter...The phone was setup from scratch and all the apps were downloaded fresh... Besides, I don't have that many apps either just the usual gmail, google maps, chrome, Facebook, WhatsApp ...I have disabled movies, games, play stand and other rubbish apps...Can u please share your experience with the battery? What's ur setup? Do you have the google now feature enabled? How do I disable it?
amirage said:
I have done it but I'm really not so hopeful. I don't know if its the auto-update feature that's hogging the battery or if it has anything to do with the google now feature. Apparently google play services is high on the list of activities that use the location services.
I'm really not in a mood to factory reset but then I'm not hopeful that this would really solve the matter...The phone was setup from scratch and all the apps were downloaded fresh... Besides, I don't have that many apps either just the usual gmail, google maps, chrome, Facebook, WhatsApp ...I have disabled movies, games, play stand and other rubbish apps...Can u please share your experience with the battery? What's ur setup? Do you have the google now feature enabled? How do I disable it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, I use the Dirty Unicorns ROM, but it shouldn't make a difference. Play services never bothered stock ROM either. I have 156 apps. Location, Bluetooth, WiFi are all enabled. I have 7 smart watches that are configured as well. NFC is the only sensor I disabled. I sync 4 mail accounts, 7 Google calendars, along with your FB, Twitter, Instagram crap. OK Google is always on. You can see in the screenshot that Play Services isn't on my list. I even use Gravity Screen that utilizes the gyro sensor instead of the built-in gestures. I like it better. I admit, my SOT is only about 4 hours a day on average, but my battery is off the charger for 26 hours. I do freeze marketing apps that came with the Pixel, unneeded keyboards, Verizon stuff (but leave the My Verizon app on though). I charge the phone in the car at 6:30am daily as I drive an hour and 20 minutes to work. If I were you, first, I would delete app cache in Settings/Storage. Then I would freeze a few apps at a time and narrow down your potential battery hogs.http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d32d248c9c/Screenshot_20170104-115902.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33248b82f/Screenshot_20170104-120311.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33514cbcb/Screenshot_20170104-120356.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d336274a12/Screenshot_20170104-120423.png?
quangtran1 said:
First off, I use the Dirty Unicorns ROM, but it shouldn't make a difference. Play services never bothered stock ROM either. I have 156 apps. Location, Bluetooth, WiFi are all enabled. I have 7 smart watches that are configured as well. NFC is the only sensor I disabled. I sync 4 mail accounts, 7 Google calendars, along with your FB, Twitter, Instagram crap. OK Google is always on. You can see in the screenshot that Play Services isn't on my list. I even use Gravity Screen that utilizes the gyro sensor instead of the built-in gestures. I like it better. I admit, my SOT is only about 4 hours a day on average, but my battery is off the charger for 26 hours. I do freeze marketing apps that came with the Pixel, unneeded keyboards, Verizon stuff (but leave the My Verizon app on though). I charge the phone in the car at 6:30am daily as I drive an hour and 20 minutes to work. If I were you, first, I would delete app cache in Settings/Storage. Then I would freeze a few apps at a time and narrow down your potential battery hogs.http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d32d248c9c/Screenshot_20170104-115902.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33248b82f/Screenshot_20170104-120311.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33514cbcb/Screenshot_20170104-120356.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d336274a12/Screenshot_20170104-120423.png?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info...woah...you have a whole of lot of things going for and I must say you are really using your phone's potential...The only issue with the suggestion is that I need to unlock the boot loader and root the device..it's so very new that I'd like to have it running like this for a while till I get bored of the stock experience...but yes I'll surely try out all the suggestions u have made once I root.:laugh::laugh::laugh:
I have a regular Pixel, and Google Play Services is constantly at the top of my list. I'm often around a computer, so my phone primarily spends its time in standby or being used for calls. Even the times when I use the screen for hours, Google Play Services still reports as using far more battery than anything else.
EDIT: After using Tasker and Toggle Network Type 5.0 to switch to WCDMA only when my phone is in standby, Phone idle has went to the top of the list and Google Play services usage has went down significantly to second on the list.
amirage said:
I don't know if its the auto-update feature that's hogging the battery or if it has anything to do with the google now feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have shut off Google Play auto-update and the Google feed. It's possible auto-update could be more aggressive than it used to be, but my previous phone with a smaller battery still could use about 1/3 the standby battery percentage as the Pixel, and I had auto-update over wifi on with that phone. I can't say how much affect turning off the feed had on battery life, but Google Play Services remains at the top of my list with it off. I haven't gotten around to seeing if something like Wakelock Detector could give me some clue about what is going on with my phone, but with auto-update and the Google feed off my battery usage is constantly being reported as primarily coming from Google Play Services.
I'm really not in a mood to factory reset but then I'm not hopeful that this would really solve the matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only suggestion so far that I haven't tested would be the idea about installed apps using Google Play Services, because a reset alone certainly did not solve my battery usage when I reinstalled my usual apps. It looks like I put a few apps on the new phone that I hadn't used on my previous phone, and I never tracked the battery usage without additional apps installed. I may try resetting and see if I get different behavior by installing apps over time, so I can check for changes in Google Play Services usage as apps are added.
amirage said:
Thanks for the info...woah...you have a whole of lot of things going for and I must say you are really using your phone's potential...The only issue with the suggestion is that I need to unlock the boot loader and root the device..it's so very new that I'd like to have it running like this for a while till I get bored of the stock experience...but yes I'll surely try out all the suggestions u have made once I root.:laugh::laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some suggestions provided here.
https://www.androidpit.com/google-play-services-what-is-it-and-what-is-it-for
The disable Auto-sync data suggestion from the link might save some battery, yet I've always turned that off, so it's not the cause of the issues on my phone. My prior Android phone had a short issue with Google Play burning through battery that was eventually fixed by an update, but I'm not sure what good it would do to uninstall Google Play Services updates, since all three OS versions have had the same issue. It's just silly that Google Play Services reports using more power than the screen, which is probably why I thought the iPhone 7 got a lot better battery life than the Pixel. Unfortunately Apple only provides Mac users a way to know notifications have been received without touching an iPhone, so hopefully I can eventually track down the Android battery usage to an app or some other similarly easy to correct problem. At this point I only have 5 apps from the Play Store installed, although it looks like safe mode also shuts off some of the default apps like Keep.
My phone reported about 200 mAh from Google Services while in safe mode over the past day, which is also labeled Google Play services when not in safe mode. The Pixel was mostly just idle with the screen off and not doing anything, so that may be around the minimum usage per day I can reasonably expect from Google Play services on the standard Pixel.
Edit: I flashed the January update and allowed the wipe. After shutting off most of the options for Google, like Google Assistant, the phone reported nearly 200 mAh from Google Play services in a day, so that seems around the minimum I can get by using the options the OS provides.
I seriously think it's a rogue app...I did a factory reset and so far it's been good.
amirage said:
I seriously think it's a rogue app...I did a factory reset and so far it's been good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you. Play services doesn't drain battery on its own. Some app has to misbehave or demand exclusive control of the play store app to cause play services to run wild.
So it all started when I decided to troubleshoot why google opinion was no longer working and found that it had no permissions and that it was using timeline from google maps. Then looking at timeline I noticed it was not tracking where I was going. I then started a chat with support and they noticed the same thing happening on multiple other phones. I asked if battery optimization would affect timeline and they stated no. I decided to disable it on google maps anyways and then found it to start working like it should. (Not sure if opinions is going to start giving me surveys but we will see) Since battery optimization was affecting maps it made me wonder if its affecting anything else so i stepped through each app and disabled battery optimization (would be nice if someone could write an app that does this because its quite tedious) Today I have not noticed any difference in battery usage and might actually be a little better.
Why have battery optimization if it causes issues with google's own apps preventing them from working correctly????
iirc, Doze only kicks in after the phone has been unused and stationary for a few hours. If you keep it in your pocket all day it doesn't have a chance to save power
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
Well it made a difference because the app started tracking my location after turning off battery optimization.
Google Opinion Rewards is now working!
Makes me wonder how many other devices are neutered by battery optimization instead of helping
My optimisation is on. And the google local survey working without issue when i visit places.
Yes but do you see every place in your google maps timeline. Mine shows driving and every location I have been now. Also I am talking about google rewards that pays you for answering questions not the maps app questions.
iofractal said:
Yes but do you see every place in your google maps timeline. Mine shows driving and every location I have been now. Also I am talking about google rewards that pays you for answering questions not the maps app questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry then,
I never turn on location history.
thats a confirmed battery drainer, and i kinda hate it if google know about every places i go/visit. LoL
I have had my P20 for about three month now... and it's OK but the Huawei "enhancements" and some other things are very frustrating.
1) Almost none of my "background" stuff works... Meaning things like Google Photo backup, SMS Backup & Restore scheduled backups, and other scheduled services don't run until I open the apps. Not much good to have automatic backups if they aren't automatic. Also, Google Rewards does not notify me of new surveys. Things that happen in the background seems to happen for a short time after you open the app, then they just stop.
2) Multitasking is a joke... On my old Moto G5+, I could have Facebook, Candy Crush Saga (don't judge, I have invested too much time to quit), Pandora, MeWe, Gmail, Messenger, Nine Mail, and a host of other apps running with no issues switching back and forth without them "reloading". On my P20 with the same RAM and supposedly a faster processor, if I am in Candy Crush Saga and switch to Facebook, then switch back, Candy Crush reloads when I was in the middle of level... Much less trying to have Pandora or a few other things going simultaneously. And yet I typically have 1.8-2.1GB of RAM available, it's impossible to actually multitask without apps restarting constantly.
3) Delayed or no notifications... From most apps... Gmail, Facebook, XDA, Nine (a real problem, this is my work email), Calendar, etc. Almost every app that isn't open gives delayed notification, sometimes a minute or two, sometimes hours, sometimes not until it is opened. Other times notifications show up, but no sound is given at all.
These things all seem to be related to how aggressive the memory and application management is to maintain the battery... Sort of making up for the hardware's inefficiencies through software. But it works, battery life is quite good.
4) Inability to change "default" apps like the Gallery... I hate the Gallery, but I love Google Photos as the "gallery" app. You can change it in the settings to the default, but few applications "honor" that setting. And for some reason the Gallery doesn't see all the photos I download with Photos. Weird... And even when you set other non-Huawei apps as defaults, it only works sometimes. This goes back to EMUI's software framework I think. Never had this issue on Motos, Nokias, Pixels, etc.
5) More of an annoyance than anything else, but what the heck is with the lock screen wallpaper? I can't get rid of the Huawei papers, they show up no matter what I do or how many of my own I add, the stock ones keep showing up. I have gone into the lock screen settings and disabled ALL of the embedded ones, and only my folder of about 50 or so images, and I keep getting the stock Huawei ones show up in the rotation.
Then there is the lockups... For example, open Google and search for something, switch to images, and maybe turn on GIF filter or something... This thing will grind to a halt in nothing flat, granted my old Moto would lag a bit, but it was 100 times better than this thing. I get the same thing in some apps but not others without consistency. Or if my UC-One app for work rings, sometimes it works, other times it locks up tight and needs a hard reboot to recover... No other phone out of the 80 or so at work does this. It's just so inconsistent.
And my last gripe is the data lag... At random times, regardless if on mobile data or WiFi, it will just lag out for 10 seconds to 2 minutes, usually once or twice a day, but not consistently... Everything looks fine, good signal strength regardless of source and other devices work fine, but no data will be moving and videos freeze and buffer, Facebook pictures don't load, etc. Granted, this really started after the May 2019 update.
It sounds like I hate this phone, but I do like a lot of things about it... The battery life if good, the charge times are good, the camera is excellent, the sound quality is acceptable, nice screen, not too big or overweight. But man, that new Pixel 3a XL at $20/month is sure looking pretty good.
Am I all alone here, or do others have the same issues?
Oh dude. 99 % of things you mentioned can be handled in the phone settings like telling phone not to shut apps in the background. You should Google before you write things down.
Ragarding your last point with lag: try doing a soft reset and install you carrier settings once again.
I've got the phone for half a year now and after searching and changing some settings it works better than anything else I've seen on a phone I paid 350 EUR for.
EuBir said:
Oh dude. 99 % of things you mentioned can be handled in the phone settings like telling phone not to shut apps in the background. You should Google before you write things down.
Ragarding your last point with lag: try doing a soft reset and install you carrier settings once again.
I've got the phone for half a year now and after searching and changing some settings it works better than anything else I've seen on a phone I paid 350 EUR for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take no offense from your comment, but I am not a noob... I have been working with Android since Eclair and smartphones in general much longer, including working on several ROM development teams and am an RC here. I did Google and DID turn off Huawei's "App Launch" management that I assume you are talking about trying to stop the optimizations from EMUI, and a few other things, but this is AFTER that. Although some of them seemed to help a little, it doesn't fix the problems.
Not only have I soft reset, I have done complete factory resets and all of my carrier settings are current... The lag also occurs on WiFi.
My post was kind of a rant, not necessarily looking for a solution unless there was one, and I was looking to see if I was the only one with these issues. Nor am I saying this isn't a good phone... Many of the things I have talked about would not bother many people.
In my case, I'm happy with the phone. Obviously I had some other problem, especially in some of the points you mentioned in the post. As the backup of Google Photos that did not work, but when I opened the app. However, selecting that all applications start manually has worked correctly for me.
I have disabled several applications using ADB. I know it does not erase them definitively, but hey, it's something. I also hate or just do not like the amount of applications that the phone has installed, I see them as unnecessary. I've always tried to use Google apps: calendar, dialer, calculator, clock, contacts, file manager, keep notes, etc. (that means I also disabled the original dialer).
But there is something that haunts me since I upgraded to EMUI 9. And it is a bug in recent applications that has a blue shadow that only appears when using a launcher. As I read, the solution is to disable the EMUI launcher, I did it once, but I prefer the appearance of recent applications of EMUI 9 than the previous ones. (Although I believe that this is poorly implemented).
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
The biggest issue is the wifi, very capricious
I have no problem watching a 1080p stream on twitch... but loading the newsfeed on FB, twitter, is sometimes impossible. I have to switch to 4g to load the newsfeed and it's very annoying ... Sometimes i can browse the internet for 5minutes, then nothing would load, for no reason ...
The battery management settings is also very aggressive, and notifications often displayed 1h, 2h late. Occasionally i get a "1 message from " " ... 1 day" on messenger app
One thing i really miss is viper4audio ... I did everything, i can't get this thing to work.
Appart from that, it's a good medium range phone.
maxime4611 said:
The biggest issue is the wifi, very capricious
I have no problem watching a 1080p stream on twitch... but loading the newsfeed on FB, twitter, is sometimes impossible. I have to switch to 4g to load the newsfeed and it's very annoying ... Sometimes i can browse the internet for 5minutes, then nothing would load, for no reason ...
The battery management settings is also very aggressive, and notifications often displayed 1h, 2h late. Occasionally i get a "1 message from " " ... 1 day" on messenger app
One thing i really miss is viper4audio ... I did everything, i can't get this thing to work.
Appart from that, it's a good medium range phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what phone you have.I think you are on a wrong thread.This is for Huawei P20 which is a premium phone not a midrange phone.
It's not a 800€+ phone, and there's the p20 pro. I bought it for 379€ in europe, just a month after it's release. So for me it's more a medium range phone ^^ the top medium range
costindaemon said:
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for this. I was so tired of having to reload recent apps. It was so bad on my phone that just switching between 2 apps would close the first.
maxime4611 said:
It's not a 800€+ phone, and there's the p20 pro. I bought it for 379€ in europe, just a month after it's release. So for me it's more a medium range phone ^^ the top medium range
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well,for me there are the specifications that make a phone premium/midrange or entry-level.The P20 has specifications that matches a premium 2018 phone.If you were so lucky to find a new P20 in spring 2018 for less than 400 euros,good for you.
costindaemon said:
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ryandos said:
Thank you so much for this. I was so tired of having to reload recent apps. It was so bad on my phone that just switching between 2 apps would close the first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to disable the Power Genius app, it can actually do some good... disabling it is functionally equivalent to going to Settings -> Battery -> App Launch and turning off "Manage All Automatically" and that will leave you like most other Android device with the kernel managing everything.
I disabled this at first after @costindaemon mentioned it, but Gmail app notifications, especially for non-Gmail accounts, got wonky... So I re-enabled Power Genius but turned it off as I stated above, then went through the apps and turned some on that I wanted "suppressed"... Gmail is an enigma here though, if it's management is turned off I had issues with notifications and accounts, and in App Launch it had a warning saying something like that, so I turned it on for that app and it's been good since. I have since just monitored the usage with GSAM's App Sucker and anything high on the battery usage list that I didn't want I turned on the Manage Automatically for that app and it no longer misbehaved. Think I have found the happy medium here.
I still have some issues with the phone, most just annoyances now... not to the level of frustration I was at before though. Still looking at that Pixel 3a XL though... it's in the cart, financing approved, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger yet. lol
acejavelin said:
You don't need to disable the Power Genius app, it can actually do some good...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. I made a mistake in thinking that disabling power genie worked, when in reality it was just rebooting my phone that temporarily fixed the problem.
I did a bit of googling into a "ram leak" on the P20 and it was actually because I was using a 3rd party launcher (Nova). The solution was to disable the stock Huawei launcher, and since I did that 2 days ago my free ram has not gone below 1000mb. I've installed another launcher in case Nova mucks up.
But it looks like you've moved onto the 3a now, hopefully it's better than the awful software experience that comes with this phone xD. I definitely won't be buying Huawei in the future.
Ryandos said:
You're right. I made a mistake in thinking that disabling power genie worked, when in reality it was just rebooting my phone that temporarily fixed the problem.
I did a bit of googling into a "ram leak" on the P20 and it was actually because I was using a 3rd party launcher (Nova). The solution was to disable the stock Huawei launcher, and since I did that 2 days ago my free ram has not gone below 1000mb. I've installed another launcher in case Nova mucks up.
But it looks like you've moved onto the 3a now, hopefully it's better than the awful software experience that comes with this phone xD. I definitely won't be buying Huawei in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I got my Pixel on Monday... Already think it's 10 times better, except the camera. That 2x "optical zoom" was damn nice although the Pixel's pictures seem a better quality even though they take longer to process. For the camera, I'm still giving the edge to the Pixel but I haven't played with it much yet.
All my issues are gone now and battery life is noticeably better. The Huawei will be going up on the local classified ad sites soon, hopefully the market for them isn't completely tanked.
Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk
Your lockscreen issue is solved by deleting the excess wallpapers from the lockscreen. As you cycle into the first one, tap it and...
Any issues you have don't exist for me. Likely because i always first disable/uninstall most major google apps immediately.
Any problems i've noticed don't appear to me as device specific but rather OS related. To me, this thing performs quite well with impressively low battery drain by comparison.
I don't know what's going on, but all of a sudden with same usage and room temp I got 50.8 degrees (123.4F) in 10m Genshin play, it burned to the touch when case got removed, maybe it becomes the new Note 7 one day.
Better stop whatever is causing that, it will shorten the Li's lifespan.
blackhawk said:
Better stop whatever is causing that, it will shorten the Li's lifespan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, rebooted, did the same and it didn't get warm at all, some software issue maybe, it only happened this time, if it continues to happen I'll RMA
Justarandomguy said:
Yeah, rebooted, did the same and it didn't get warm at all, some software issue maybe, it only happened this time, if it continues to happen I'll RMA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cloud apps can use a lot of resources ie Google backup Transport.
It may have been a system optimizer app running in the background. On my less than new Note 10+ I just noticed the other week one on those was enabled when I didn't want it to be. oops.
Cause of strange occasional behavior found
blackhawk said:
Cloud apps can use a lot of resources ie Google backup Transport.
It may have been a system optimizer app running in the background. On my less than new Note 10+ I just noticed the other week one on those was enabled when I didn't want it to be. oops.
Cause of strange occasional behavior found
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have it with few Google apps plus insta WhatsApp and Telegram, the rest are games, it works well all the time but that was really strange, looked at background services and so and it was all normal, it's working well but wow, maybe it was the Google update that made phones warm and battery drain, but that was too much, I rebooted, updated apps on PlayStore (Google was there) and it worked fine
My p6 was heating much after april update, and phone performance while using it while charging is sluggish, and i feel its charging slower than before
Justarandomguy said:
I have it with few Google apps plus insta WhatsApp and Telegram, the rest are games, it works well all the time but that was really strange, looked at background services and so and it was all normal, it's working well but wow, maybe it was the Google update that made phones warm and battery drain, but that was too much, I rebooted, updated apps on PlayStore (Google was there) and it worked fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would've been alarmed too and suspected the possibility of malware if no explanation could be found.
I don't allow firmware updates or upgrades. Same for Playstore, it's disabled. Results a fast and very stable phone; current load will 3yo in June. Still running on Pie. Security simply isn't an issue; no malware in all that time.
I rarely allow apps to update either; upgrades/updates can and do break things. On 3rd party apps updates can potentially deliver a malicious payload. Also no social media or sales apps are ever installed; browser login only. No online games, ever. I'm very careful about what I install and all email is kept in the cloud.
Justarandomguy said:
I have it with few Google apps plus insta WhatsApp and Telegram, the rest are games, it works well all the time but that was really strange, looked at background services and so and it was all normal, it's working well but wow, maybe it was the Google update that made phones warm and battery drain, but that was too much, I rebooted, updated apps on PlayStore (Google was there) and it worked fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, there was issue with Google update on Pixels.
Google fixes overheating and battery drain issue on Pixel
No user action is needed. Google is currently rolling out a patch that fixes the overheating and battery drain issue reported by some users, particularly...
www.gsmarena.com
Dayuser said:
Yes, there was issue with Google update on Pixels.
Google fixes overheating and battery drain issue on Pixel
No user action is needed. Google is currently rolling out a patch that fixes the overheating and battery drain issue reported by some users, particularly...
www.gsmarena.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like this was the issue, still, an app being able to mess things up that much, or a phone not being able to control itself are pretty bad things, the max temp I ever got was 45.9 degrees, on a sunny day, 34-36°, playing for half an hour with max brightness, I'll try to keep my device as much as I can, I'd like to have it until major updates end at least