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Help Somebody Please Explain These Extremely Bizarre Battery Stats

Dankees

Dankees

Android Enthusiast
I just factory reset my phone yesterday, and I reinstalled most of the applications that I had before. Check out these weird battery stats...

The battery life goes up without charging? The phone shuts itself off, is turned back on, and suddenly has over 12% less battery life???

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In the first part, I would guess that your phone is auto syncing while it is off. Some apps will auto sync at set intervals to make sur you are always up to date. Eg. I could set my calendar app to auto sync every minute; instead i switch off auto sync and only manual sync when i want to save battery.

The somewhat bizarre middle part may be your battery level indicator recalibrating itself. PErhaps run your phone a couple of days and see what happens.

THE final part may just be normal. With newer phones, dual cores, higher processing speed,bigger screens and more pixels, rapid battery depletion is a fact of life.

Is this a new phone? If so you may just need to run it a few days to get used to it. If it is an old phone the battery could deteriorate over time
 
Well, I have JuiceDefender on, and it auto-syncs every 15 minutes.

As for the battery going up, that's a good guess. I don't know much about it. I got the phone on February 29th (as a replacement after 3 days), and the phone was ghost dialing for about 2 weeks. I factory reset it twice. The latest time was yesterday and it didn't ghost dial *22899 this morning, so that's good.

Here is a thread I began after the phone started ghost dialing the *22899 number:

http://androidforums.com/android-lo...-battery-drain-due-ghost-dial-prl-update.html

Upon both factory resets, the PRL stayed at 52686.

And, sometimes I have found that the "kworker" entries in BetterBatteryStats are just really high.

Before the ghost dialing, my phone didn't drop 30% in an hour of web surfing (not playing movies, music, or games, or speaking on the phone).

If I were to run Waze, or talk on the phone, or play "Angry Birds" - it would surely drop more than 30% in an hour, right?

Is my SIM Card bad? I'm thinking of getting it replaced as early as Monday, what should I do?
 
Here's the thing, I disabled JuiceDefender and it still dialed that *22899 number. So, I then uninstalled it - the next morning - it dialed the number again, so it isn't that. I did the same thing with Go Launcher.
 
Something is definitely not right. I just fully charged my phone (while off), and I am at 100% battery life. JuiceDefender says I am getting x1.18 battery life.

That's crazy! How can that be?
 
If the phone itself is not faulty, it has to be an app. I suggest you factory reset again, and DON'T install ANY apps, and see how it goes for a day. If it runs OK, then install ONE of your apps (choose any one of them), and see how that goes for a day. Don't assume any app is good or bad! Just install them one at a time as I described.

You can't solve the problem by reinstalling everything after a reset. You're just hiding the cause from yourself. Once you find an app that seems to be the cause, you can decide whether to keep it and try to fix it, or drop it like a hot rock. (I'd just dump it and be done)

Now, CONTINUE installing the rest of your apps one at a time to be completely sure there are no other bad ones.

Take your time. You are doing an investigation one little step at a time. Be patient. You'll find the solution.
 
Sideman said:
If the phone itself is not faulty, it has to be an app. I suggest you factory reset again, and DON'T install ANY apps, and see how it goes for a day. If it runs OK, then install ONE of your apps (choose any one of them), and see how that goes for a day. Don't assume any app is good or bad! Just install them one at a time as I described.

You can't solve the problem by reinstalling everything after a reset. You're just hiding the cause from yourself. Once you find an app that seems to be the cause, you can decide whether to keep it and try to fix it, or drop it like a hot rock. (I'd just dump it and be done)

Now, CONTINUE installing the rest of your apps one at a time to be completely sure there are no other bad ones.

Take your time. You are doing an investigation one little step at a time. Be patient. You'll find the solution.
Click to expand...
This ^^^ and don't install juice defender until last....it messes with too many settings on its own...
 
Googling for *22899 Galaxy Nexus, it looks like it's getting updated PRL from Verizon and is something the phone does automatically particularly if you have bad reception. If you have bad reception, then awful battery life is kinda normal. My mom's LG Thrive is usually dead by the end of the day when she brings it to the office where she gets 1-2 bars even if it's on standby almost the whole time. Given similar usage at home with full bars, battery lasts 3 days.
 
My phone doesn't have blue Wi-Fi when I am at home, in the same room as my router, a lot of the time. Is that weird?
 
Your battery usage stats will be all over the place for a day or two after a reset, as previous data is lost and it takes time for it to be rebuilt. That's why you see apparent increases for no reason - the handset is adjusting actual remaining capacity versus its estimate.

About the wifi indicator.... that is only shaded blue when connected to Google's services. Otherwise it will remain grey.

Finally, I think as this topic is specific to the Galaxy Nexus section it's best moved.
 
Should I take out my SIM card and put it back in? If so, how?

My phone hasn't ghost dialed in days, but my battery is still not where it once was.
 
I want to test the phone by removing and reinsterting the SIM card.

How should I do this properly?
 
Try this. Power down. Pull your Sim card and battery for about a minute. Reinstall the Sim Card and Battery and power back up. It will take longer than normal to boot up. This will give you at least a decent reset. Now you can keep an eye on your batteey usage. I have a GNEX since day one. It is a batttery hog but I have a ton of apps on it but I keep the running ones to a minimun with Astro or Task Killer. You may find you have a lot of stuff running you did not know. Also if you are in a weak signal area your battery will not last no time as the phone constantly hunts for a signal. Also if ou have the GPS or any location services turned on they eat batteries fast. I turn on all the things I need when I need them and off when I do not. If I am not worried about battery which I am not because I carry a spare or 2 I have every thing on and running at top performance. The batteries are just not equal to the phones and probably never will be. If you want fast performance from a full smart phone it is not going to last all day. I get not great but good enough battery usage. My issues with the GNEX is the volume is just to darn low. I have a rezound and the volume is great signal is tremendous but it is a battery hog also. I have almost the same apps running on both. They are as close to clones as you can get except for GNEX ICS and Rezound on 2.3 or 2.4. I actually prefer the Rezound as a phone and the GNEX as a data device and that is how I use them most of the time. Give your phone at least a week to settle in as a poster before stated the dual processors need to be run some to adjust.
 
Well, I pulled the SIM Card earlier and restarted without it. Then, I shutdown, put the SIM Card back in, then started back up again. The battery really wasn't dying fast at all. It was like before, and like my wife's phone, losing about 2%-3% per hour of no usage. Then, we went out, I left my phone in the car (not a great reception area), and the phone's battery dropped a little. Then, I began to use it a little, and it really started dropping again.

I am really trying here. I thought I had fixed it before when I only lost about 5% battery life in 2 hours (with no usage).

But now, it's dying a lot, ever since I began using it a little bit.

Now, I guess I will wait a week or so to see how it goes. I suppose the battery life should gradually increase over the course of the next week.

I used to be able to have the phone on, with average usage for like 8 hours and only lose about 40% battery life. I was a rockstar.

Now, I just had it on for 4.5 hours, and I maybe had the screen on for 45 minutes and it is already down 33%. And, in the past, approximate 30 minutes I had the screen on (auto-brightness, surfing the web), it dropped 15%.

That's crazy, right?
 
I agree with sideman 100%. You have to stop re-installing all your apps....and as I and others have recommended, STOP installing Juice Defender. You are trying to find the cause of your problems yet you keep installing the same apps again and again. You'll never figure out what's causing it that way. Installing an app that constantly shuts off core services (Juice Defender) and then wondering why things are acting strangely is counter-productive.

I know you used JD previously with good results, but quite frankly, its not playing nicely with something.

As for the battery behavior, keep in mind that there is no such thing as a "battery meter" as the 'power remaining' of a battery can't actually be measured by the phone. All it can do is calculate an assumed usage and estimate the remaining life. Seeing the % change after powering off / on the phone is not unusual....up or down.

Reading your battery charts tells me a few things.
1. You are using Dolphin browser (tunny browser stat). Uninstall Dolphin browser. Google "dolphin HD battery drain" and you'll see lots of complaints.
2. The rapid battery drain with screen on tells me your screen brightness must be set too bright. Even Auto can be too bright.
3. You were listening to 47 minutes of music/audio - was it streaming? That will drain battery quickly.

To summarize. Uninstall everything. Don't run Juice Defender. Use the stock browser. Turn down your screen brightness.

Run your phone like this for a day and see how everything works.

If its good, start installing the apps you NEED, one by one and run for a day. See how everything works. Keep doing this until you find your battery problems or *2289 problems return. Then you will know the culprit.
 
I appreciate all of your help, Tim. With regard to installing each application separately, how will I know which one it is? I mean, do I have to only install one each day and see if it ghost dials the following day? It hasn’t ghost dialed since at least last Thursday (I completely reset my phone on Friday morning).

I know that the JuiceDefender application can’t be the issue, because one day, I disabled it and the next day, it ghost dialed. Then, I uninstalled it, and it ghost dialed the next day, so it can’t be that.

As for the Dolphin Browser, should I really ditch it? I really like it, I’ve had it since the beginning, and I used it all along, before I had any problems. I didn’t have any issues for weeks when using it.

Maybe the bar is long for Dolphin Browser because I use it the most out of anything else on my phone? I don’t know how to read the BetterBatteryStats application, but Dolphin shows mostly a blue line. What does that mean? If I switch to Chrome and I use that, won’t that just show a long blue line because I would use it so much? Stock browser, not Chrome?

With regard to the auto-brightness, I’ve used auto-brightness from the beginning and I never had a problem until the new PRL 52686 was in my phone. (I wish I took battery screenshots when I first got the phone, but there was no point to taking screenshots, since I didn’t have any issues.

With regard to listening to music/audio – I really don’t know what that is. The only thing I can think of is that I maybe played a couple of games, although, I don’t think it was anywhere near 47 minutes. I did not stream/listen to any music at all.
 
Check this out, please - this is what is killing my battery.

I had the phone fully charged. I didn't touch it for an hour and it dropped 4% (it used to drop 2% - my wife's still only drops about 2% each hour without putting the screen on):

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Dankees, I've read all the posts in this thread. You have been given several suggestions, or procedures, to find the source of your issues. But in every case, you only "reason" your way out of using that help. No one can give you the one perfect answer, because your issue is rather unique, and it's cause is hard to find.

If you are not willing to do the things posters are advising, why keep asking? Don't you want to get the issue fixed? If you go to the doctor with a sickness, wouldn't it make sense to take his advice in order to get well?

You phone worked fine at one time, but it doesn't work fine now. So, work with us to fix it as it exists now. SOMETHING happened to cause you problem, right?....we're trying to guide you to the solution.

You need to understand...one piece of software can interact with other pieces of software. Even though you uninstall one offending program, the damage it caused to other programs can still continue. You've been advised that JuiceDefender doesn't play well with other programs at times, and that you should uninstall it. Yet you insist on reinstalling it. We can't help you find your solution if you won't take our advice. Doing a reset removes all the apps and gives you a "clean slate" from which you can start troubleshooting.

Please let us help you. There are many expert members on this forum. But they can't do anything to help you until you take their advice and post the results. These things are often a step-by-step process. Lets work together and fix your problem, OK?
 
I appreciate everyone’s help, and I have been trying all sorts of ideas that have been offered. After I ditched JuiceDefender, it still ghost dialed. So, I figured that that wasn’t the culprit, so I put it back into the phone. Should I just uninstall it, even though it wasn’t causing the ghost dialing of the *22899 number?

I also did a factory reset (twice), and since the last one, it hasn’t ghost dialed, so I am thankful for that. However, the battery still tanks, and my “kworker” is still off the charts (which isn’t always the case).

Are you telling me that I should do a factory reset (for a third time), and slowly reinstall every application? The thing is, you want me to do one each day, right? That could take two months or more. That’s craziness. I also removed and reinserted the SIM Card this weekend. I shut off the phone, took out the SIM Card, turned on the phone. Then, I turned it off again and put it back in and started up the phone again.

It’s just so weird that this really just happened like out of the blue, and I don’t even recall installing anything that day or the day before.

Meanwhile, it’s not ghost dialing anymore, so that is good.

 And, the weird thing is, I lost about 6% in the first hour of not using the phone.

I just checked it again and it went down about 2%-3% in the second hour (of no usage) – so that’s good. That’s what it should be.

But, it went down 8% in two hours, and I didn’t use the phone.

 It’s weird, sometimes the battery drains, and other times, it doesn’t. Nothing is consistent.

Do you recommend me asking for a new SIM Card?
 
No, you don't need another hard reset. Just uninstall any apps that you've manually installed.

As for your charts, the battery % fluctuations are normal as the phone is only trying to calculate/estimate remaining charge so its not really accurate.

I've taken the liberties of playing with your chart....since you posted a PNG that made it nice and easy!
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The part in the RED is what I would expect. Screen on. Processor Awake. Wifi On. Battery dropping significantly. I don't find this usage unusual at all. The big dip at the end....well, it looks like 70-80 min of screen time and 30% drop and yes that is entirely possible. It really depends on what you are doing during that 80min and how bright your screen is, but yes, that's not hard to believe at all. With my screen settings (low brightness - 10% mostly) I regularly see that an hour of screen time uses anywhere from about 20-30% of the battery.

What I would focus on is the part in the GREEN box. During that 6 hours you only touched your phone 3 times and activated the screen. I expect to see the phone wake up and, presumably since you are using JD, Wifi come on. That doesn't explain why the phone is "awake" and why wifi is running all those other times. That means that background processes are using your processor and triggering wifi. They could be as simple as gmail syncing, or something else. That's what better battery stats shows.

For comparison, here's what my phone chart typically looks like. Its rarely "awake" unless the screen is on. That means background stuff isn't chewing up my battery unnecessarily.

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What you need to do is ignore "processes" in better battery stats. kworkers are going to appear all over processes. They aren't what we are concerned with. Only worry about "partial wake locks" for now. To put it simply, Partial wakelocks are events that trigger the processor without the screen being on. Basically, background processes. Many of them are harmless or necessary... even music playing while the screen is off. What you are looking for is something out of the ordinary causing usage.

AudioOut had your processor running for 47 minutes. If you were listening to music or something that would be expected.
JuiceDefender had your processor running for 10 minutes. To me, that's a BOATLOAD of processor time.
KikMessenger had another 10 minutes. Again, that seems like a lot. In comparison, Google Talk, which I leave running all day on my phone, has 9 seconds of Partial wakelock.

I'd run without JD or Kik and see if your battery life improves.
 
I've notice a rapid drain being reported after the first hour of unplugging from a full charge, but then noticed that it leveled off though the day and I still got a typical use out of it, which for me is having about 55% remaining when I get home from work. I think, if you watch too closely, you'll go nuts. As long as it's not dead in 10 hours or moderate usage, don't worry.
 
Thanks. I definitely lose a ton of battery life on the weekend, because I use it a lot. But, I just used it for about a half hour (surfing the web), and I lost about 10%. Is that normal? I don’t think that happened before.
 
mbrainerdii said:
I've notice a rapid drain being reported after the first hour of unplugging from a full charge, but then noticed that it leveled off though the day and I still got a typical use out of it, which for me is having about 55% remaining when I get home from work. I think, if you watch too closely, you'll go nuts. As long as it's not dead in 10 hours or moderate usage, don't worry.
Click to expand...

When you first unplug, the battery drain will be more rapid than expected. Its not unusual, in fact its just the way the battery reporting is 'handled' to actually make it less shocking.

Read this:

Your Smartphone’s Battery Gauge is Lying to You (and it’s not such a bad thing)
 
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