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Help Increased battery usage

S

stuarta

Android Enthusiast
Just noticed over the last couple of days that usage on my N4 seems to have increased.

I had been using Batteryguru and not seen any reason to question it but recently I've been able to see the battery drop 1% when just switching on the screen and checking emails/facebook and the overall life appears to have dropped.

I read some stuff about Batteryguru last night suddenly using more (although mine was only using 3%) so removed it and installed Green Power free, which I remember reading on here as being better than the Qualcomm product. However woken this morning and lost 20% battery overnight, wifi was already on and Green Power was using 22%, so I've removed it. Again though, in the 2 instances that I woke the screen, matter of about 30secs each, battery dropped in front my eyes and lost 3% in a matter of minutes.

I've got a feeling the wifi isn't switching off. Just tested it again by waking the screen and the wifi is on, not sure if something is keeping it awake and stopping it. Is there an easy way to check?

Only apps I've installed recently are Foursquare, GetGlue and a baseball game - although the baseball game does keep giving me announcements to say my team is ready so not sure if that's the culrpit but it doesn't show under battery usage.

I've also uninstalled the maps updates as I read that can kill battery as well.

Hope someone has some more suggestions.
Thanks
 
I personally use juice defender ultimate. Its never let me down yet. I couldnt tell u how much battery it uses itself, but the life of my battery is really good when its running. Dependent on usage, i get and extra 2-3 hours sounds like not a lot but when your out and about those hours ate crucial. Give it a shot.

With JD ultimate you can set advanced settings to turn off data and wifi streams plus control, cpu, brightness, apps, schedules and a whole heap of other stuff.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
use better battery stats to see if something is keeping it awake. There is a ton of analysis beyond me, but starting with this app you can investigate what's using your battery. Select Partial Wakelocks since boot or unplugged and look at both the time that something has held a wakelock and the number of times a wakelock is invoked (count). If the count is several thousand but the time is just seconds, that can still use up a good bit of power.

Also, some of the apps that are responsible for using up a ton of power may be doing so indirectly, for example I had a game that was staying awake but the game wasn't listed, it was mediaserver or audio_out2 or something like that.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809

I've found this to be more useful for cutting back power usage than trying to turn wifi on/off all the time
 
Thanks, had just installed that. All I can really see on the Wake usage is Google Backup Transport which is running for 8h 55m which says that if I were to stop or uninstall it would increase by 4h
 
Personally I use memory booster to get rid of running background apps.
 
stuarta said:
Thanks, had just installed that. All I can really see on the Wake usage is Google Backup Transport which is running for 8h 55m which says that if I were to stop or uninstall it would increase by 4h
Click to expand...

Just realised I'm using Battery Stats Plus rather than Better Battery Stats
 
tastycaramel said:
Personally I use memory booster to get rid of running background apps.
Click to expand...
DO NOT use any task killers or memory boosters/optimizers/managers! They are counterproductive and will actually waste power and reduce performance. Let Android handle processes and memory, relax and enjoy your phone.

Juice Defender is worthless or worse for most users, often using more power monitoring everything than it saves. Useful only in certain cases needing a particular specialized setup. True of so-called 'power savers' in general but JD is worse than some. For most users simply setting up the phone properly is more effective.

Installing an automatic wifi/mobile data switch such as Y5 *is* worthwhile. Very simple, effective, efficient and eliminates the need for manual control.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
 
Crashdamage said:
DO NOT use any task killers or memory boosters/optimizers/managers! They are counterproductive and will actually waste power and reduce performance. Let Android handle processes and memory, relax and enjoy your phone.

Juice Defender is worthless or worse for most users, often using more power monitoring everything than it saves. Useful only in certain cases needing a particular specialized setup. True of so-called 'power savers' in general but JD is worse than some. For most users simply setting up the phone properly is more effective.

Installing an automatic wifi/mobile data switch such as Y5 *is* worthwhile. Very simple, effective, efficient and eliminates the need for manual control.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
Click to expand...

For me, I hate android loading up unnecessary apps in the background. It makes my phone really laggy as my ram is being eaten up by all these apps.
 
tastycaramel said:
For me, I hate android loading up unnecessary apps in the background. It makes my phone really laggy as my ram is being eaten up by all these apps.
Click to expand...
This is not Windows. In Android/Linux unused RAM is wasted RAM. High RAM usage is normal and desirable.

Again, DO NOT use any task killer or memory optimizer. They actually waste power and may disrupt critical system processes and degrade performance. Android is excellent at handling processes and memory with no help from 3rd-party apps or user assistance. Just let Android do it's job, relax and enjoy your phone.

See:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
...for a full explanation.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
 
Crashdamage said:
This is not Windows. In Android/Linux unused RAM is wasted RAM. High RAM usage is normal and desirable.

Again, DO NOT use any task killer or memory optimizer. They actually waste power and may disrupt critical system processes and degrade performance. Android is excellent at handling processes and memory with no help from 3rd-party apps or user assistance. Just let Android do it's job, relax and enjoy your phone.

See:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
...for a full explanation.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
Click to expand...

Last night before I go to bed.....

I am using CM10 and this device is a galaxy note lte (n7005)
 

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tastycaramel said:
Last night before I go to bed.....

I am using CM10 and this device is a galaxy note lte (n7005)
Click to expand...

We can all get better (and worse, of course) battery usage if things are configured appropriately. Having decent battery life and a task killer doesn't mean task killers are good. The point is more that if a task killer improves anything, it's better done another way or there's a bad app. But generally, they are more likely to worsen performance than improve it if anything at all.

edit: If you use Better Battery Stats linked above, you may find the reason why your phone is awake more often than mine (and probably using more battery as well). I wouldn't be surprised if your battery booster was the cause, but I don't know what it's actually doing. But if something is syncing more often than you need, for example, it would be obvious and you can probably improve your battery life better by seeing what's actually using the power, rather than trying to constantly clear memory.
 

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Thanks. I will try better battery stats and observe if it will save my battery
 
What is this app even for? It simply just shows how long the background processes?
 
tastycaramel said:
What is this app even for? It simply just shows how long the background processes?
Click to expand...

I described it above, but as I said, analysis of the information can get deep beyond my understanding. However, looking at the time and count of partial wakelocks is enough to find obvious battery drainers. Is it an automated, user friendly method? Not quite, but it can get at the heart of the problem. The xda thread has more info, and there are probably many more discussing it. Thankfully, any cryptic process names can be googled.

I posted it specifically because the OP was worried about battery drain when the phone was off, and he suspected it was wifi. I usually keep wifi on and I don't get rapid drain, so this app will help find other causes of battery drain when the screen is off. Your screenshot shows that your phone is awake quite often when the screen is off, and you can find out if it's for a legitimate reason or something that you should fix to improve battery life.
 
OhSeven said:
I described it above, but as I said, analysis of the information can get deep beyond my understanding. However, looking at the time and count of partial wakelocks is enough to find obvious battery drainers. Is it an automated, user friendly method? Not quite, but it can get at the heart of the problem. The xda thread has more info, and there are probably many more discussing it. Thankfully, any cryptic process names can be googled.

I posted it specifically because the OP was worried about battery drain when the phone was off, and he suspected it was wifi. I usually keep wifi on and I don't get rapid drain, so this app will help find other causes of battery drain when the screen is off. Your screenshot shows that your phone is awake quite often when the screen is off, and you can find out if it's for a legitimate reason or something that you should fix to improve battery life.
Click to expand...

Thanks for elaborating on my question. So, I have identified that the device have been running tons of battery-eating background apps. Should I get rid of them?
 
You do not want to use task killers. Only app I found that actually works is Greenify. Apps like Advanced Task Killer can actually be harmful because it ends tasks before they are ready to be ended. Greenify hibernates apps after a period of time when not in use, like how iOS handles it's apps.
 
Well I've removed a couple of apps and wallpaper and gone back to black and taken the battery guru app off.

WiFi off seems to be ok, getting 1day 12hrs ish, but seem to be getting more drain when screen is on. Typing this I've noticed it drop a couple percent in front my eyes which I'm not sure if is correct. Didn't think it was like that when I first got it.
 
thebryceee said:
You do not want to use task killers. Only app I found that actually works is Greenify. Apps like Advanced Task Killer can actually be harmful because it ends tasks before they are ready to be ended. Greenify hibernates apps after a period of time when not in use, like how iOS handles it's apps.
Click to expand...

Testing it out now. So far, so good after one day. Works a little different from Juice Defender. I have to keep my mobile and wifi on due to using Talkatone/Google Voice as my primary phone app. So greenify would be better for my phone.
 
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