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Help Having serious problems with Droid X battery life

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dabomb224

Android Enthusiast
My girlfriend and I both bought this phone from Verizon last Friday. We both let the battery run down completely before charging it up (which I was told by the Verizon rep was the "way to go"), and we have both been experiencing GOD AWFUL battery life. Strange battery behavior has included (but has not been limited to):

- Battery going from 100% to 5% after 5.5 hours straight of browsing, playing games, etc., followed by the Battery going from 100% to 5% after 5.5 hours of idle (with light texting and a few quick phone calls mixed in). Seemingly no consistency.

- Battery draining down to around 30% after about 8 hours off-charger with light to moderate use (a few web pages, a few apps downloaded, and about half a dozen texts). If this wasn't annoying enough, shortly after reaching 30%, the phone suddenly took a nosedive into the red, and warned me that I had 5% battery remaining.

- After the battery hit 30% (again with moderate use over a 6 hour period), I decided to pop the battery out and put it back in again. Phone held at a consistent 70% battery life upon reboot. When it reached about 30% hours later, it again took a nosedive and shut off within 5 minutes of informing me that I had 5% battery remaining.

Please note that I have already received the Over-the-Air update from Motorola and have noticed NO change in battery longevity or consistency whatsoever. This is especially frustrating considering that one of the major fixes in this update was supposed to be the battery monitor.

Is it really possible that the Droid X was shipped with enough faulty batteries to cause this many problems? It seems unlikely to be a battery issue, considering that both my girlfriend and I got the same phone, and have been having the same battery issues.

In considering this issue, please note that:

- My brightness is set to around 15-20%
- I have the "Water" live background on
- The only widgets I am running are the stock Weather widget, the Mail notification widget, the Calendar widget, the Sticky Notes widget, and three Contact quick task widgets. Of these, I know that the Contacts update their pictures from Facebook, but I'm not sure how often. Same with the Weather widget and the Mail widget.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
You sound as you might be new to Android. Hope some of this helps. I'd make sure to turn off GPS location and WiFi first off (unless you are using them). Then 86 that (and any other) live wallpaper. Pretty, but a hog. I'd use an app that you can control the weather update cycle. Be certain to check how your mail is set-up (push, fetc, intervals, etc). Anything that automatically updates with Social media is a no-go for me. I control when things sync, not 'it' :-)

Good luck and report back.
 
Best way to save battery life is:
1) No GPS unless you need it
2) No wifi unless you need it
3) NO LIVE WALLPAPERS
4) take screen of auto-briteness and change to 30%

You should be straight after that. My battery life is quite lovely.
 
- Ok I have since removed my Weather and Mail Widgets. No noticeable change in battery.

- I had assumed from the start that GPS and WiFi were battery killers, and have had them disabled since I got the phone out of the box.

- My phone is currently recharging: when it reaches full charge, I will make sure to remove the auto-brightness.

- I had returned to the Verizon store this evening and complained to the Tech guys. They advised me to RE-install Advanced Task Killer, stating that, "Any applications running in the background, regardless of whether or not they have any kind of Data or Internet access, will kill the battery." He instructed me to basically have it kill EVERYTHING, every 30 minutes. He also set my phone to 1% brightness, which to be honest, is simply ridiculous. His statement about any non-data-using programs running in the background killing my battery also didn't seem to mesh with what I've read on these forums. Any thoughts on this?

- I have been attempting to track down any programs that might be updating in the background without my knowledge. I've noticed that when I initially gave the phone my Facebook login info, it used it to add everyone on my Friend list to my Contacts. I then linked all of my original contact numbers with their respective Facebook profiles. I've noticed that as a result, the pictures on my Contact quick dial widgets are constantly updating whenever the person changes their Facebook picture. The same is true of any linked number's FB Status, which show up every time I call one of them. Is there a way to set the update interval on this?

I've also noticed that Back-up Assistant is auto-updating every night, and I am unable to turn it off or delete it. is this something I should focus on, or is it not a big deal?

Strangely enough, despite my getting rid of the stock Weather widget from my screen, my Droid X task monitor (the one that is part of the phone's OS) is still telling me that the Weather widget is loaded (even though Advanced Task Killer doesn't see it). Is this a bug? Could this "phantom" Weather widget be pulling data for updates, even though I don't have the widget on my screen? The same task monitor also picked up Google Talk running in the background: I've never used it once.

Lastly, I have read somewhere that you can actually "turn off" syncing on your phone. Would doing so prevent me from getting notifications about new Gmail and Youmail Visual Voicemail messages? I could live without constant picture/status updates on my contacts, but not without prompt E-mail/Voicemail.
 
Something new that I noticed: there is an option in under "Settings" called Data Manager. Within this option, there is a Check Box for "Background Data," which when unchecked, brings up a message box that states,

"Disabling Background Data extends battery life and lowers data use. Some applications may still use the background data connection."

Does this mean that I could prevent whatever Data Syncs might be draining my battery, without losing my Gmail and Visual Voicemail? Obviously going to this length shouldn't be necessary, but I'm willing to consider it if I were to know what it would disable, and what would still work.


EDIT: Phone fully charged last night, Data set to turn off after 15 mins of not using. Took phone off charger and left it on overnight with the screen off (no programs running, Task Killer on 1 hour auto-kill). Woke up this morning, battery is on 80%. What the hell!?
 
The thing I'm pissed about is everyone's battery life seems to have improved after the OTA. For me, I had incredible battery (20 + hours with moderate use) before the OTA and now it can't even last a full 12 hours. I think it might be Launcher Pro Plus but I'm not sure :(
 
'Removing some apps from the screen' does not mean they aren't auto-updating. You need to go into each (mail, weather, etc.) and physically (through settings) turn off automatic updates. Also go into general phone settings and make sure the Google apps don't autosync (contacts, cal, mail). DO NOT reinstall app killer pgms.
 
If I unsync google will I still get instant updates to my email? Or is there a way to set intervals for the stock email program and contact list (that updates through facebook)?

Also, do you know where I can access the update intervals for the stock weather widget? I can't seem to find an options menu for any of the widgets.
 
You say no wifi unless you need it. Do you mean to turn off wifi if I know I'm not in a wifi area (so it doesn't search for open wifi) or do you mean turn off wifi even at home and work if I'm not actively browsing/downloading/using the phone?

I can see why turning it off while away from wifi might be useful but everything I've seen has said that wifi is less taxing than 3G and to use/connect to wifi whenever possible.
 
Also got a problem with battery life after the OTA update.

Before, I could have light use and by the end of the day (14hr uptime) approximately 60-70% remaining.

Now, simply on standby with no more than 10 minutes of browsing and 10 minutes of talk, I'm at 30% after a 14 hour day.

I thought it might have been LaunchPro Plus, but that doesn't seem like it.

On the DInc, you could show "awake time" vs. "up time", but it doesn't look like you can with the Moto version.

Also, the "Battery Use" meter is useless -- it says 50% for my screen, and 40% for cell standby.

Any tips? I'd like to see what % of the time the cell modem has a connection, and whether there are some apps that are stopping it from sleeping.

I have my Data Connection to time out after 15 minutes on both peak and nonpeak. Autobrightness. GPS, bluetooth off. WiFi on.

The only widgets running are a battery meter, AccuWeather, and the built-in calendar.

Thanks for any thoughts.

-j
 
For me, I got rid of the social networking widget, email widget and the RSS widets. I have all GPS options turned off and WiFi turned on. Synching Gmail unknown since I cannot find the "schedule" under settings when viewing Gmail inbox. Exchange email is set to push. I have Facebook notifications from Bloo every 2 minutes. I use WiFi for the most part of the day.

Today was great. Unplugged charger at 7am with 100% battery and by 11 pm, battery was at 30% but this was with light usage (ocassional checking of Exchange email, couple of SMS texts, 30 minutes of MP3 audio and 30 minutes of internet browsing). I've been very skeptical of others who had this kind of incredible battery life before today. Since I removed unecessary widgets and no live wallpaper, this really helped battery life. I'm not even running any kind of task killer programs since I read they weren't needed (uninstalled yesterday). I do believe widgets draw a lot of battery usage.

I expect my with my regular usage (moderate) that I will need to charge twice a day. I've come to epect that smartphone batteries will not last an entire day with moderate usage. Once you've overcome that expectation, battery life is probably the best of the smartphones I've used (excluding Blackberries and older Windows Mobile): Droid, Droid Eris, Droid Incredible, HTC EVO, Hero, Palm Pre, Palm Pre Pixi, and Palm Pre Plus.

Hope this helps

Rick
 
If you turn off everything, including the phone, battery life will improve substantially. Gotta love a phone that markets itself with powerful tools but then requires that you turn the majority of them off for it to last through the business day. Just how stupid is that?
 
irmac said:
If your battery life sucks, will Verizon give you a new one for free?
Click to expand...

Yes. I just did today. I had to prove to them that my battery life sucks. With me coming in at 4 yesterday and my battery was at 30% (light use) and coming in today at 1 and my battery was at 50% (light use) they believed me. Yesterday they said to install a task killer (which i didn't) and uninstall the anti-virus that they installed in the first place. Now when I first uninstalled the anti-virus my battery life was great. I had 5 hours of moderate use and the battery only went down 10% Still had problems went back today and they gave me a new one at no cost.

Now today I did install a task manager and I have notice that apps you don't even pull up are running. Blockbuster, music, amazon mp3, and skype are just a few. All those are Bloatware that I do not want but yet they are running like they are open. Which is BS. I'm still not using the task killer. I just have it up to see the apps it wants me to kill. But I might use it to kill the bloatware apps every so often to see if my battery increases.

EDIT: Ok I will take that back. I did uninstall the task manager and installed SystemPanel. System Panel is pretty cool it will let you monitor your system and see your CPU usage and such. You can monitor your apps as well. Showing you what is active in the background/foreground, and inactive apps. Inactive apps do absolutely nothing. Its just in the memory to allow you to pull them up faster when and if you want them. If time has elapsed and the system realizes you don't want them it will kill them. (The system will kill them NOT System Panel)

All the bloatware apps i mention are inactive and just sitting there. The only app I mention is the system Music app is always active and always in the background. Not sure if it really is killing my battery or not.
 
Guys, I may have found the secret. I went into data manager and set my Social Networks to only update over Wifi. The Droid X must update its statuses and pictures every 2 minutes, because turning this off caused me to last 12 hours without going below 50%! Now if only I could finds a easy to set an update interval for contact pics and statuses, this phone would perfect. Oh well, I'll trade instant status updates for crap ton of extra battery life.
Every one, give this a try and let me know how it goes.
 
Guys, I may have found the secret. I went into data manager and set my Social Networks to only update over Wifi. The Droid X must update its statuses and pictures every 2 minutes, because turning this off caused me to last 12 hours without going below 50%! Now if only I could finds a easy to set an update interval for contact pics and statuses, this phone would perfect. Oh well, I'll trade instant status updates for crap ton of extra battery life.
Every one, give this a try and let me know how it goes.
 
dabomb224 said:
Guys, I may have found the secret. I went into data manager and set my Social Networks to only update over Wifi. The Droid X must update its statuses and pictures every 2 minutes, because turning this off caused me to last 12 hours without going below 50%! Now if only I could finds a easy to set an update interval for contact pics and statuses, this phone would perfect. Oh well, I'll trade instant status updates for crap ton of extra battery life.
Every one, give this a try and let me know how it goes.
Click to expand...

Are you using the MOTO widgets or the actual applications? I'm using the applications and will give this a shot. I already have the applications set to sync every 4 hours but I usually check and manually refresh them more than that.

Also how did you find out it updates statuses and pictures every 2 minutes?
 
I was exaggerating for effect with the whole 2 minutes thing. All I know is that I have a friend who loves updating his FB profile picture every 5 minutes or so, and that updated picture shows up almost instantly on my Quick Contacts widget.

Even if you don't use any Widgets, "Blur-lite" on this phone uses your Facebook info to update all of the Contacts that it pulled. I'm not sure of the interval: I only know that it doesn't look like you can set it, and that it seems to update quite frequently.

Utilizing my home's WiFi connection yesterday (which apparently uses less battery when connected), and after turning on the whole Social Networking Apps Sync Only Over WiFi thing, my phone went from dying consistently after 6 hours of light use, to surviving a 12 hour day of moderate use with 30% remaining.

Give those two a try and let me know how it is. Also, keep me posted if you find any other info about the update intervals of the stock UI, or if you find a way to control them.
 
dabomb224 said:
Guys, I may have found the secret. I went into data manager and set my Social Networks to only update over Wifi. The Droid X must update its statuses and pictures every 2 minutes, because turning this off caused me to last 12 hours without going below 50%! Now if only I could finds a easy to set an update interval for contact pics and statuses, this phone would perfect. Oh well, I'll trade instant status updates for crap ton of extra battery life.
Every one, give this a try and let me know how it goes.
Click to expand...

I also set my social networks to only update over Wifi. I took it a step further and deactivated my facebook and twitter accounts and I simply use the online websites for using those networks. It's just a few more clicks compared to using separate apps and it definitely helps save battery life as well. On a typical work day, I unplug my phone at 6am on a full charge, use it sparingly during the day (texts, check emails, some internet browsing, maybe using a chat client like yahoo for a bit, etc.), and then use it more heavily starting at 5pm (turn Wifi on, heavy texting, browsing, Market downloads, use GPS, etc.), I can usually make it to 10pm or a little later before the phone gets down to 15%. That's not too bad. I also am using Launcher Pro and cleaned up my homescreens and am not using a ton of widgets and turned the news feeds off. I think the battery life is decent considering all this phone does, and I may upgrade to the extended battery once it becomes available. That should easily meet my demands over the course of any day, whether it's a work day or a weekend.
 
A friend told me to let my new cell phone go completely dead before chargeing it up, so i looked online to see what i could find out about Lithium Ion batteries and it seems you should never let it fully discharge.

"Initialize a new battery. New batteries should be fully charged before their first use to obtain maximum capacity.
Nickel-based batteries should be charged for 16 hours initially and run through 2-4 full charge/full discharge cycles, while
Lithium ion batteries should be charged for about 5-6 hours. Ignore the phone telling you that the battery is full--this is normal but is not accurate if the battery is not initialized. #DO NOT fully discharge a lithium-ion battery! Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries' life is shortened every time you fully discharge them. Instead, charge them when the battery meter shows one bar left. Lithium-ion batteries, like most rechargeable batteries have a set amount of chargers in them."

How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer - wikiHow
 
Since the ota update my battery usually lasts less then 8 hours. I have screen brightness to less than 10%, wifi off, gps off and use task killer. This is terrible, before the update it still wasnt much better. I do some texting n browsing and only a few mins of talk time a day. I just turned to only sync social apis while on wifi which should help. But 8 hrs is not going to cut it since I don't go crazy using it during the day. If I had brightness up forget about it. Any word on fixing battery issues with new update?
 
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