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Battery improvement apps?

msmigiel

msmigiel

Newbie
Hello all,

I'm relatively new to smart phones and have a Samsung Galaxy S5 with Verizon and Lollipop. My battery life seems to be OK but considering how little I use the phone, not that great (under minimal use it can drain over 50% a day, is that normal?).

I've done all the common sense things, like dim the brightness, disable Bluetooth, have a black stationary wallpaper, and keep my installed apps to a minimum. I've been doing some research into battery apps (like Battery Doctor and the such). From what I've learned, "task killer" apps are usually a bad idea but I can't seem to get a consensus on "battery saver" apps. Some people say they are great and help a lot while others say they make battery life worse.

Are there any good battery saver apps? Considering I've done the first line of battery saving techniques, would one of those apps really help?
 
There's no question - battery savers are just snake oil, and Battery Doctor and Clean Master are excellent examples of what to never use.

http://androidforums.com/threads/pu...k-killers-ram-optimizers-and-the-like.896663/

What you care about next is bloatware - disable what you can, consider rooting to get rid of all of it.

You want your phone to hibernate when the screen is off.

Often you can achieve that without any help. However, if it's a problem, you can look into Greenify or MacroDroid.

In any case, most everything you need to know to arm yourself against Android myths is in the linked thread. Including how to discover that many of the apps you're being told are running - aren't.

For the most part, let Android settle in and manage itself - it does an excellent job of that.
 
Good advice from EarlyMon as always.

A couple of things to add...

Black backgrounds only save power if your phone has an AMOLED screen. Makes no difference with LED. I know, sounds wrong, but true. I like dark themes anyway. Turning the brightness down does help.

If you like the effect of a spiffy live wallpaper go ahead. Live wallpaper only uses power while you see it, none when you don't, and never uses much. You'll never notice the difference. I use one just because...

Save rooting for later, after you have more experience with Android. For a while just live with it and learn. You don't really have to root to do most of what you can to save battery. Disable what you can and Greenify should handle the rest.

Have fun!
 
Just to add to what the total experts above have said, your battery life seems to be way above average right now so yeah, just enjoy your phone and don't worry too much :thumbsupdroid:
 
Thank you all for the advice. This is kind of where I was leaning towards already but it's confusing as in the Google Play store, most apps have at least a 4 star rating even if they are not very good so it's hard to know what to believe.

A battery draining roughly 50% in one day of minimal use is considered above average? I guess I'm coming from a flip phone where I got days of battery life with minimal use. :)

Some days the battery drains even more and the back of the phone gets a little warm and it acts sluggish. I wasn't sure if this was related to my battery life or there is some background process - but from what I read task killer apps are a bad idea. Is there any way to diagnose slowness in a phone? I'm comfortable with PCs but smart phones are relatively new to me.
 
A S5 is a fast phone and shouldn't feel laggy. You said you had checked into battery apps including the infamous Battery Doctor. Have you installed any task killers, RAM memory optimizers/boosters, battery savers/repairers, cache cleaners, antivirus, etc etc. None of that stuff is necessary and if you have installed any of them, they could be the cause of sluggishness.

A nice app called System Panel is good for basic trouble shooting of a sluggish device.

Look at the opening screen, 1st one the app opens. It gives the basic information you need. With the phone at idle (apps can be open, but nothing such as a running game or file transfer) check CPU and RAM memory usage (pie charts upper left corner). Normally, CPU should be less than 5-10%. CPU clock speed (top horizontal bar) varies but should be something less than max. RAM usage should be about 70-80%, maybe even a little more, unless you have recently rebooted and not yet opened apps to load RAM. You want to check these values after a fresh reboot, after some normal usage and when the phone has slowed.

If CPU is high, look at the app list on the main screen. Check the CPU usage for each app (small vertical bar on left edge, next to app icons) for offenders.

If RAM usage is too high, again on the main screen look in the Active Applications list. Check for a running app you have not used recently. It may not have closed or cached properly and is holding RAM.

If nothing seems unusual in the Active Applications, scroll down to Inactive (Cached) Applications. It may be harder to determine what belongs in this list and what doesn't, but if something looks iffy, particularly if it shows holding a lot of RAM, you can try long-pressing on it and select 'End Task'. If you select a required system process, no worries, it will just restart. If RAM usage returns to normal and/or the phone feels faster, that could be the offender.

Troubleshooting beyond this gets more complicated, but what is outlined above will find most problems causing sluggish performance.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.systempanel[/
 
^ This.

I think that funky and I looked more at the 50% left without focusing on what you meant by minimal use. :p

I would expect 5 hours or better of screen on time over about a 12 hour period or better with an S5, and have some charge to spare, unless you have a bad cell signal or something else up.

Keep an eye out for a Media process to always be running - it ought not be, and is the sign of a corrupted media file. This doesn't happen a lot but when it does it's usually a bad mp3 file or similar.

Facebook / Messenger are others known to watch out for.

There are a few games that mysteriously misbehave and eat power - Clash of Clans is one of them.
 
Thank you guys again for your input - all good things to think about.

You do bring up a good point - my cell signal strength both at home and at work (where naturally I probably spend 90% of my time) is very weak. At work, if I leave my phone in my pocket it always go to 3G - on my desk it goes to 4G LTE. At home, even just sitting there it will fluctuate from 4G LTE to 3G and sometimes even 1X. Sometimes it is those signals but slightly gray - any idea what that means? Usually I have to toggle airplane mode to get back into 4G LTE. If a bag signal can cause slowness and less battery life, then that would explain some of my concerns. Is there anything I can do to remedy that, ie stop it from signal searching so much?
 
Can you compare your signal strength with a coworker or someone on Verizon?

First, rule out that it's the phone itself because unfortunately, lemons do happen. If yours is lemony, go straight for a replacement.

If you're just operating in areas with a weak signal, you're going to want to manage between 3G and 4G by hand - in fact, you can turn off mobile data altogether for times you don't need it.

I believe that you'll find in your quick settings (pull down from the top with two fingers) that depending on where you tap the widget, you can turn mobile data on or off, or go into your mobile data settings for finer control.

There are apps that claim to boost the signal.

All they do is look at the signal and toggle airplane mode for you - forcing new signal acquisition, hopefully from a better tower. In a bad reception area they merely make your phone a hot mess.
 
This.
Was gonna say a hot idle phone is usually struggling to keep a signal and that will heavily drain your battery
 
Thanks guys - again all very good advice. Nothing is jumping out in "System Panel" but I'll keep watching it.

One other point I forgot to bring up earlier - you say that I can hibernate the phone when the screen is off, how can I do that? Will that still allow me to get notifications, missed calls/texts, emails, etc...? With the screen off and the phone just sitting there, it seems to drain about 1% an hour (so I usually leave it charging overnight so I have a full battery in the morning).
 
Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay - I just figured out how to take screenshots on the phone. :)

I've been playing with the System Panel app linked above and sometimes I see the CPU very high but with no apps running (like this screenshot). It's not always that high, but even with nothing running, the CPU seems pretty high. Any thoughts?

GJTYn3.png
 
Cpu does seem to be working hard. Is this with the phone idling?
You haven't messed around with kernel apps or anything?
Could it be system panel that's pushing it @EarlyMon?
 
It's normal for CPU usage to be high when it's needed. I'd not normal for it to stay high for long periods. Can't tell from a static screenshot which one is happening.

If CPU use is staying high, look at the vertical bar graphs at left of the app icons. That will tell you what is working the CPU hard. Not everything is visible in that shot but what can be seen looks normal.

Your storage doesn't look good though. Very nearly full, and being so close to out of room can cause problems. Recommend that you clear some space.
 
The app I am using is this one here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.systempanel

I have noticed that my free space is kind of low. I have probably 10 MP3s and less than 100 pictures and very few apps. Is there a way to find out where the space is being used? I found this, is it any good?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jzap.memorymap&hl=en

EDIT:

I found this app and it seems to work: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage&hl=en

I see that Download Manager has about 2.7GB of cache. Is it OK to delete cache for any app, including this one?
 
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System Panel will tell you where space is used.

Storage Truth (thanks Funky) will tell you how much space is left in /data. That is where apps are installed, email saved on the phone, text messages, photos and some other stuff. You can delete stuff like that to make space.

2.7GB in the Download Manager cache is a lot. Even though it doesn't really hurt anything to clear caches, I usually advise leaving them alone. But I think this is an exception. Clear that cache.
 
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