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Help Bluetooth Draining Battery, But Disabled

lmr1121

Lurker
I'm new to smartphones -- I have an entry level model, an LG L34C (Fuel).

In trying to extend battery life, I've been looking at what's using up power. Bluetooth is always near the top of the list, but, I don't have Bluetooth enable. It's off. I've even gone into apps and did a force stop, which reverses itself.

Can anyone tell me why Bluetooth is sucking up energy when it's disabled?

Thanks!
 
You are not alone!
I have the same problem and have the LG34C also.
Its interesting that I found another case with this same issue after they rooted their phone to the Android 4.4.4 update. They were not even experiencing the problem until they rooted. Then they reverted back to stock 4.4.4 and issue disappeared until rooting again. They thought issue might be an error with Settings/Battery/drain charts.
I am testing using All In One Toolbox under BootApps/Bluetooth/Disable. It seems to help extend battery life but Settings/Battery still shows Bluetooth at top of list so I dont know.
 
It's good to know I have company. I still haven't found a good solution to killing Bluetooth completely.

As for the battery -- sometimes the battery will hold up ok, then, seemingly randomly, in one night, it will be completely drained. I turned off auto updates to see if that helps. Nothing to report there yet, since I just turned them off last night.

I have not rooted my phone, so for me, that's not what did it.

Like the ways of the web, it's a mystery.
 
Settings is broken.

Either it's not turning off Bluetooth or the battery history is flat wrong.

I've seen both types of errors over the years.

If the set won't turn off Bluetooth radio power, no amount of force stopping or add on apps is likely to save you.

Nonetheless, maybe they missed something so go at it from another angle.

Check out "Power Toggles"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc

If you're using an add-on task manager, stop, most of them flat out lie, and try GSam Battery Monitor.
 
I am testing using All In One Toolbox under BootApps/Bluetooth/Disable. It seems to help extend battery life but Settings/Battery still shows Bluetooth at top of list so I dont know.

I just tried All In One Toolbox. Has some great features, but, like you discovered, Bluetooth is still on, despite taking off the boot list and killing it in one other spot, shutting down and restarting phone. ::shrug::

I'm going to try the battery monitor EarlyMon suggested to see if that gives me more insight into what's sucking up the battery.
 
That an idea on turning off auto updates.

Night before last it happened again. Went to bed fully charged, woke up with only 30% remaining. Bluetooth had wopping 26% of total battery drain. That proves All In One Toolbox does not help, so I removed it yesterday morning.

Surprisingly Bluetooth has behaved itself since then and havent charged battery in 24 hours. Still have 65% charge remaining.

Whatever the problem is, its intermittent and comes & goes.

I keep an old smartphone close to the LG34C at nights. Maybe I will turn off other phone at nights to see if that makes a difference.
 
Turning Auto Updates off *seems* to have helped. For the last few days, battery life is better, and I haven't found the phone drained in the morning. I"m keeping my fingers crossed.



That an idea on turning off auto updates.

Night before last it happened again. Went to bed fully charged, woke up with only 30% remaining. Bluetooth had wopping 26% of total battery drain. That proves All In One Toolbox does not help, so I removed it yesterday morning.

Surprisingly Bluetooth has behaved itself since then and havent charged battery in 24 hours. Still have 65% charge remaining.

Whatever the problem is, its intermittent and comes & goes.

I keep an old smartphone close to the LG34C at nights. Maybe I will turn off other phone at nights to see if that makes a difference.
 
Hi lmr1121,

You should join the Tracfone_Users Yahoo Group. There is more than one tracfone group at yahoo, but tracfone_users is the largest and most active.

The Knowledge base there is good, especially for questions concerning TracFone activation policy.

See you there!

(joshiii/sc)
 
Am I right in thinking that Bluetooth doesn't use any battery unless it's actively communicating with something?
Not sure where I'm going with that tbh :D
 
Bluetooth is OFF.
Android 4.4.1 does not allow Disabling Bluetooth, and Force Stopping it only lasts couple hours at best before Android turns it back on.

Settings/Battery/drain chart shows Bluetooth at the top of the drain chart.

Problem is intermitt, meaning, most of the time Bluetooth is at the bottom of the drain chart list and battery life is normal.

Other times wake up in morning and battery is almost depleted with Bluetooth responsible for 25% of total drain the previous 3 hours.

Who knows what the cause is.
 
Good news and bad news: Good news is I can fix the Bluetooth battery drain problem. Bad news is with this fix Apps saved to SD external memory can't be used, and are not listed on the Home screens anymore until get back to Normal Boot .....

Procedure: Press ON/OFF switch brings up the Power Down Menu. Choose Power OFF, but hold the button until the Safe Boot menu appears. Choose to start Safe Mode.

Safe Boot in Android works like Safe Mode in Windows.

This proves the Bluetooth battery drain problem is related to downloaded apps, but that is as far as I have gone
 
I still can't turn Bluetooth completely off, but, I stopped email from synching, which extends my battery life significantly. It's not a big deal to synch email messages when I want to check them.

Good news and bad news: Good news is I can fix the Bluetooth battery drain problem. Bad news is with this fix Apps saved to SD external memory can't be used, and are not listed on the Home screens anymore until get back to Normal Boot .....

Procedure: Press ON/OFF switch brings up the Power Down Menu. Choose Power OFF, but hold the button until the Safe Boot menu appears. Choose to start Safe Mode.

Safe Boot in Android works like Safe Mode in Windows.

This proves the Bluetooth battery drain problem is related to downloaded apps, but that is as far as I have gone
 
Notice Bluetooth listed twice on the Android 4.4 (KitKat) Settings/Battery/drain report.

That day I was using Bluetooth and had it ON (reason for the 2nd Bluetooth listing).
 

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If all else fails to resolve the bluetooth battey drain problem then turn off wifi when not using your smartphone.
 
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