Related
In the interest of making things easy for those who are holding off on the KitKat OTA, I thought it might be a good idea to consolidate all of our experiences into one thread. This is intended to cover mainly the changes specific to this OTA over Razr M-flavored Jellybean.
I'll start with my experience/thoughts and edit in additional findings. (Note: I'm bootloader locked, and now unrooted.)
The Good
The UI is definitely smoother. It doesn't jitter or stall under heavy usage anywhere near as much as it did in Jellybean.
Battery life when the phone is asleep seems to have been improved a little.
USB audio out is now supported.
The occasional "screen jitter" that plagued the Jellybean build is gone.
KitKat's Quick Settings panel is quite handy.
The native lock screen now supports adding, removing, and rearranging widgets.
Although it can't be installed from the Play Store, the Google Experience Launcher can be sideloaded and works just fine.
The Neutral / Very Subjective
The AOSP keyboard has changed; the keys are smaller and, in landscape, very squashed. You may need to adjust to it (I'm trying, but it's a struggle) or find a replacement.
Battery life when the phone is actively in use has not been noticeably improved in my experience; but it hasn't been noticeably worsened, either.
There's now a shortcut to the camera from the lock screen, which can be used even if the phone is locked by a pattern/PIN/etc. (Great if you're a shutterbug; not so great if someone else decides to troll your Dropbox/Drive account.)
The Google Camera app works - but Photosphere can't be used, as the Razr M doesn't have a gyroscope.
The Bad
No more root, for those with locked BLs (me). (Saferoot fails, and many users are reporting losing root even when they try survival methods.)
Wi-Fi tethering via most apps (e.g., FoxFi) has been blocked, so now you must pay your carrier for the feature unless a new workaround is discovered.
All notifications I've seen so far now flash the notification light white, instead of unique colors. This may be frustrating for some who used the colors to decide whether to check the phone immediately or later. (Luckily, there are ways to address this.)
The Blur launcher is same 'ol, same 'ol. It uses a solid black background for the soft keys and notifications bar (rather than taking advantage of KitKat's transparency support), and it still has that Quick Settings menu on the left (which is redundant now). In addition, Holo Launcher (which I was using) doesn't account for the space used by the softkeys at all, making it difficult to use. (I've switched to Nova Launcher, which is working fine.)
I've experienced some weirdness with the application switcher. Sometimes it drops me to the launcher right after displaying the list, and sometimes apps will overwrite another's position on the list, or be dropped from the list entirely without reason (this is always temporary, however - just bring up the switcher again).
Some apps can no longer write to the SD card - or at least not wherever they please. We still have the Files browser, mercifully (but I favor Total Commander anyway, which seems to work perfectly).
The audio quick switch on the lock screen has been removed. Also, the buttons for entering a PIN are smaller.
(Leraeniesh) Under heavy usage, the Razr M may get hotter under KitKat than it did under Jellybean, and may drain the battery more.
(GPIX) Some users have noticed decreased network performance in some apps, such as Chrome or YouTube, while on Wi-Fi and with Wi-Fi power-saving enabled.
(GPIX) Several users have reported popping noises - when a sound begins to play, or in the middle of playback. (I haven't experienced it, however.)
Swype is no longer included. If you used it in Jellybean, you will need to purchase it on the Play Store after taking the OTA.
(ls3c6) Some have encountered problems with sharing the address book to paired devices over Bluetooth.
My opinion, overall:
It's a nice upgrade, but all of little problems I've encountered (bugs, Verizon blockades, the works) make this feel like a bit of a letdown after the 6-month wait. In the end, after just three days, I find myself wishing I could take the phone back to Jellybean.
Here's hoping for either some exploitable holes or maintenance updates.
My opinion
Leraeniesh said:
So I popped my sim back into the XT907 for the weekend, and heres what I've noticed (when compared to 4.1.2).
Higher temps - previously, my XT907 hovered around 85F-100F, but with 4.4.2, I've noticed it drift toward 110F with 5+ minutes of active use.
Worse battery life - On 4.1.2 I averaged around 20% after 16 hours moderate use. With 4.4.2, I'm averaging around 5% in the same span.
Lesser LTE coverage - This may be something with my area, but I can usually get 2-3 bars of LTE in the Livingston County area on 4.1.2 (I've noticed the XT907 accel in this category). While on 4.4.2, I could not get any LTE coverage in the same area, and could only find it within more populated areas.
Slower performance - I'll always be amazed by how quick the XT907 was on 4.1.2, beating out devices with similar specs in the same price category. With 4.4.2, I've noticed frame drops, stutters, and random reboots be a common occurrence over the last few days of usage.
Overall, I'm satisfied with 4.4.2, but I still prefer the overall usability with 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth noting that I am using an unlocked bootloader, with CWM and SuperSU (only really did this to remove VZW bloat and install Xposed)
Leraeniesh said:
So I popped my sim back into the XT907 for the weekend, and heres what I've noticed (when compared to 4.1.2).
Higher temps - previously, my XT907 hovered around 85F-100F, but with 4.4.2, I've noticed it drift toward 110F with 5+ minutes of active use.
Worse battery life - On 4.1.2 I averaged around 20% after 16 hours moderate use. With 4.4.2, I'm averaging around 5% in the same span.
Lesser LTE coverage - This may be something with my area, but I can usually get 2-3 bars of LTE in the Livingston County area on 4.1.2 (I've noticed the XT907 accel in this category). While on 4.4.2, I could not get any LTE coverage in the same area, and could only find it within more populated areas.
Slower performance - I'll always be amazed by how quick the XT907 was on 4.1.2, beating out devices with similar specs in the same price category. With 4.4.2, I've noticed frame drops, stutters, and random reboots be a common occurrence over the last few days of usage.
Overall, I'm satisfied with 4.4.2, but I still prefer the overall usability with 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On 4.1.2 the "signal bars" were calculated by a xml in, I believe, SystemUI.apk. You could simply adjust the figures to show more or less bars, which Moto adjusted to show more. But having no LTE maybe a bad radio or a problem stemming from a bad flash. My Razr M doesn't get hot, no random reboots, and battery life seems to be the same. I haven't had any problems on KitKat.
ATTACK said:
On 4.1.2 the "signal bars" were calculated by a xml in, I believe, SystemUI.apk. You could simply adjust the figures to show more or less bars, which Moto adjusted to so more. But having no LTE maybe a bad radio or a problem stemming from a bad flash. My Razr M doesn't get hot, no random reboots, and battery life seems to be the same. I haven't had any problems on KitKat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gonna be doing some more testing in that regard. Even my M7 with its garbage radios gets LTE just about everywhere in the Metro Detroit area.
So far my experience with 4.4.2 has been positive. I agree with OP's list and would like to add these under the issue category.
ISSUE:
Decreased WiFi effectiveness/throughput - There is a noticeable decrease in performance on apps like Youtube and Chrome web browser.
Audio Popping noises - Some experience a popping noise when the sound driver starts up while others experience it during playback.
I have had the KitKat OTA now for 2 days and haven't found anything major wrong. The changes to the keyboard bugged me but I use swiftkey so that was moot. I also have an issue I haven't seen listed yet. The new sound for screen taps....it seems to give that "popping" feedback (that ive seen listed as an issue on driver start-up) ALL the time. I maybe get 1 clear sound out of every 5-6 screen taps. That is the only real "problem" I can find as of this point though. Does anyone have any insight on that?
Also activated Dev Mode and changed to ART runtime. Might be placebo but app response seems to be noticeably better! Not groundbreaking by any means but better than 4.1.2 for sure. Overall I am happy with the upgrade. Rather, will be happy once a root exploit comes up (I miss my debloating! On that note though, disabling apps never seemed to work right with 4.1.2....after hitting disable the app would show back up in active processes after a short time. Now I've gone 24 hours and 3 phone reboots and that damn NFL app is STILL disabled and NOT running as a background process. Might just have been an issue with my phone in particular before, but its fixed now!)
I am generally happy.
It fixed all the issues I had with Dhackers KitKat.
and feels about the same once you have rid of all the Bloat.
I like and I am happy that we still surprisingly got the update unlike the Galaxy S3
Happy =)
Just wanted to comment on the heat issue mentioned above:
I have only had KitKat for 2 days but I have definitely noticed a difference in heat after extended use compared to JB. One of the things I really liked about my Razr M was lack of heat so hopefully this is a fluke and I wont notice it too much in the future.
---
With that said, no big issues.
I don't like the keyboard -seems smaller, or something, The heptic feedback seems to be different too (for the worse IMO).
The lockscreen number pad seems smaller - definitely liked the number pad from JB.
I had to change the messaging app (hated the all white/lack of contrast). Using "8sms" if anyone is curious.
I also changed launchers to use the google-now launcher so the "okay google" thing would work on the homescreen and also get the transparency notification bar. But, in doing that I did lose the circle widgets which I liked. Can't win for losing sometimes...
---
On a positive note, Chrome/google searches seem to be much faster. The UI seems about the same (no complaints with JB).
If battery life can increase then I'll be satisfied with update (so far, no difference).
My experience has been very positive. My phone was bootloader locked and not rooted before (and, of course, after) the OTA. I cleared the cache partition from the recovery menu post-install but have not done a FDR. General impressions:
-- UI is overall much snappier/quicker. Extremely noticeable.
-- Love the new quick settings panel that you can get to after pulling down the notifications shade.
-- KK's changes to how the SDcard works have not been a big deal at all for me. The native "Files" app seems to have complete read/write access, as does ES File Explorer.
-- Like the new clock feature to automatically add a "home" display when traveling outside a pre-defined timezone.
-- Hate the new way you set the alarm on the clock. (Really, whoever came up with that input method should be transferred to a department where s/he can never affect design decisions again.)
-- I miss the audio silencer/mute on the lockscreen.
-- Battery life has been interesting. When I first installed the update (morning of 05/15), battery life was definitely worse, probably by about 50%. It has gradually been getting better, however, and now is probably only about 20%-25% worse than JB. Why it would change I have no idea, but it definitely is (I've been keeping notes, and am sure it is actually happening). I have noticed, using the Battery History details screen, that there are a LOT less wakelocks in KK than JB. In JB, I used to see tons of "Awake" indicators on that screen that did not pair with "Screen On" indicators. In KK, there are very few incidences of "Awake" that are not paired with "Screen On." Someone smarter than me will have to explain how that translates into worse battery life.
-- It may be my imagination, but it seems like the battery charges faster w/ KK. If it's not my imagination, I wonder if that means that the apparent decrease in battery life is really an issue of improper calibration/accuracy.
I have not experienced some of the things others have reported:
-- No random reboots.
-- No changes to WiFi or 4G signals. I don't use Bluetooth so can't comment on that.
-- No popping noise when using audio. (Note: I have seen some reports in other forums that a FDR fixes this issue for those who have it.)
I'm on locked BL, definitly non root, and I happen to installed MotoCam from a store n IT DID INSTALLED. .
Opens up, takes pictures beautifully. .
Only problems are the slide in menu is glitchy AND after taking HDR pic, cam UI is not there. Only live cam feed.
Other than these issues, it's playing nicely ESPECIALLY auto HDR does work, surprisingly!
How can I make those problems go away??
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
4039995825
GPlX said:
So far my experience with 4.4.2 has been positive. I agree with OP's list and would like to add these under the issue category.
ISSUE:
Decreased WiFi effectiveness/throughput - There is a noticeable decrease in performance on apps like Youtube and Chrome web browser.
Audio Popping noises - Some experience a popping noise when the sound driver starts up while others experience it during playback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go into wifi settings...in the setting "uncheck" the box "wi-fi optimization" it made my WiFi significantly better..
Nidstang said:
-- No popping noise when using audio. (Note: I have seen some reports in other forums that a FDR fixes this issue for those who have it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Attempted a FDR on my phone, unfortunately it did not work for me. I will attempt to clear the cache partition to see if that may help the issue if
possible. So far i can only get the boot menu for a couple seconds and im lucky to get a selection in time.
EDIT: I cleared the cache partition, no effect. (NOTE: it seems to get into the recovery menu after selecting it at boot menu, you have to hold power & vol UP for a couple seconds)
crazy4android said:
go into wifi settings...in the setting "uncheck" the box "wi-fi optimization" it made my WiFi significantly better..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is an excellent point. I'll shut off the optimization and will edit my results in after tinkering with it for a while.
EDIT2: Without doing speedtests etc. It is very noticable that the wifi has improved. Youtube & other apps load as fast as they did on 4.1.2
Haven't looked into it so this MIGHT be a feature of the Google Now Launcher I installed, but I JUST noticed if you swipe down from the clock area of the new lock screen, you can add widgets! Am I crazy or is this a new feature on our phones? If so, LOVE it! Helps mitigate the loss of the quicklinks from our old 4.1.2 lock screen.
kashif87 said:
I'm on locked BL, definitly non root, and I happen to installed MotoCam from a store n IT DID INSTALLED. .
Opens up, takes pictures beautifully. .
Only problems are the slide in menu is glitchy AND after taking HDR pic, cam UI is not there. Only live cam feed.
Other than these issues, it's playing nicely ESPECIALLY auto HDR does work, surprisingly!
How can I make those problems go away??
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe you can uninstall updates to the cam in apps
bwer1233 said:
Haven't looked into it so this MIGHT be a feature of the Google Now Launcher I installed, but I JUST noticed if you swipe down from the clock area of the new lock screen, you can add widgets! Am I crazy or is this a new feature on our phones? If so, LOVE it! Helps mitigate the loss of the quicklinks from our old 4.1.2 lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lockscreen widgets were introduced in Android 4.2.2.
Just want to let people know that the Google Now Launcher is working great on 4.4.2 including the "ok Google" functionality.
You can't download it from the play store. I just grabbed the apk from this thread.
http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...-and-gpe-devices-apk-mirrored-for-all-others/
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
rooted + cwm
can't use "memory" feature under settings, while calculating settings app would crash
how can I go to hiddent menu? *#*#4636#*#* is failed until my M get kk updrade...
tieuvienson2005 said:
how can I go to hiddent menu? *#*#4636#*#* is failed until my M get kk updrade...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many "phone info" apps in the Market. Or create the short cut with Activity Launcher.
Also the Cam sucks on my Wife's m so get the Lenovo from my Moto x signature link.
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
So I received my moto 360 at the weekend, and it's pretty great, but the battery life so far has been horrendous. As in, 20%/hr, charge multiple times per day terrible.
I've uninstalled all Wear apps as far as I can tell, wiped my phone, reset my watch.
However, the top app for drain according to Android Wear app on my phone is an app with no name, and the default "little green android holding a package" app icon. I've no idea how to figure out what this culprit is, but I feel that my battery life should increase significantly if I do.
I've been on with Moto UK support, and described this problem to them. They've asked for a screenshot, which I provided, and said they'd get back to me.
Is there any way to identify all apps on my wear? I checked the storage stats but all the apps there have names and icons (except system apps)
Thanks!
For those wondering, it appears to have been WeChat. I had no idea that there was a wear component to that app, but Wear Battery Stats pointed me in the right direction.
Hi All
Disclaimer: I'm new to the forum so apologies if this is in the wrong discussion area etc!
I got my Galaxy S9 on Friday 9th, prior to that I had an LG G5 which is now gone. In the last few months of using my LG G5 the battery life was questionable - the phone would get hot (sometimes without even using it a lot) and the battery would drain by 30% an hour. I noticed, but didn't test fully, that Google Play Music seemed to really cane the battery and phone - i.e. was getting hot and draining quickly. As an example, I'd leave home at 7am taking it off charge at the last minute (100%) and get to my office at 9am and it'll be at 50% and very warm. Prior to that (can't exactly pinpoint when the drain started to really kick in) it would only drop to 85% - much more acceptable.
The G5 has a replaceable battery - 2800 if I recall . So I threw down £50 on an official LG site for a new slab of Lithium - slight improvement, but still terrible and warm. 55% instead of 50%.
"Right - time for a new phone" as I assumed that 2 years of app updates meant the CPU was lagging. Bagged a Galaxy S9 - today was my first commute into the office. Started on 100%, arrived at 55% with a 3000 battery! And it got super warm like the G5.
Most of that time I used Google Play Music, which according to AccuBattery the discharge speed was "33% per hour". Second was Google Chrome at 30% per hour (though I didn't use it much at all on the journey).
My question is - what logs can I check, or apps I can use, or something to find out what's going on? I need to test a few things of course to pinpoint the issue. If it helps - I restored from my G5 when I setup my S9.
seems like you might have have some options enabled in Google Play Music / chrome - that is keeping the phone awake
generally when you switch phones they apps and their settings get transferred automatically now - worth maybe uninstalling them for a day and see if you're still experiencing this issue
other than that it could be that your commute involves travelling thru areas of no signal where the phone keeps trying to find a signal - that can drain battery a lot
tim2london said:
seems like you might have have some options enabled in Google Play Music / chrome - that is keeping the phone awake
generally when you switch phones they apps and their settings get transferred automatically now - worth maybe uninstalling them for a day and see if you're still experiencing this issue
other than that it could be that your commute involves travelling thru areas of no signal where the phone keeps trying to find a signal - that can drain battery a lot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - I'll try that next time. Might also try a factory reset but not restore from the LG G5 backup to see what happens then.
how bright is your display? do you leave it on all your commute?
Got your wifi enabled which hunts for a signal even though you aren't using wifi? try turning it off. Same with location setting.
And how strong a signal do you have on your commute. Streaming lots of data on a really weak signal will kill battery, too.
Go into settings and see whats draining your battery.
Battery Drain Issue of S9 - Resolved
:laugh:Hi All,
I could resolve the Battery drain issue but not touching any other setting of the new phone by just disabling the backend data usage of all application expect few like Edge screen, Gmail, Flipboard etc... Now the android system power usage is back to 4-5%. Previously it was 21%-25%. So issue resolved. Need to find out the way to inform this to Samsung so they can identify which app is consuming full battery power.
dondit said:
:laugh:Hi All,
I could resolve the Battery drain issue but not touching any other setting of the new phone by just disabling the backend data usage of all application expect few like Edge screen, Gmail, Flipboard etc... Now the android system power usage is back to 4-5%. Previously it was 21%-25%. So issue resolved. Need to find out the way to inform this to Samsung so they can identify which app is consuming full battery power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, i'm facing ridiculous drains too and factory resetting hasn't seemed to help. I'm trying your resolution, but I don't entirely understand you. Could you kindly guide step by step? also, if you mean going to optimise battery usage, when i go there and select the 'apps not optimized' all the apps there are greyed out therefore not allowing me to select them.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.