K-9 battery drain

[shmn]

I installed K-9 on my Galaxy S4 (rooted, stock 4.2.2, Sprint) to replace Gmail since I really hate conversation views. I love the app but it drains my battery like crazy.

If I leave my phone on overnight with Gmail (no K-9 installed) then I lose about 8% of battery in 8 hours. With K-9 installed and running and Gmail uninstalled I lose about 55% in the same time period.

I read through the manual at https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/wiki/Manual and set up polling and syncing to simulate Gmail functionality but the app just keeps draining the battery.

Any suggestions or other user guides that show you the best way to set up K-9 so it simulates Gmail without hogging power?

My Gmail account is fairly vanilla...just an inbox and then I sort my incoming mail into folders/labels. I only need push service into the inbox and then the folder/labels to be synced.

Thanks.

 

[Crashdamage]

If you setup any email client to poll frequently it's gonna use power. If you only use Gmail, the native Gmail app is the way to go. Polling with the IMAP_IDLE command can't match the true push functionally of the Gmail app.

 

[shmn]

If you setup any email client to poll frequently it's gonna use power. If you only use Gmail, the native Gmail app is the way to go. Polling with the IMAP_IDLE command can't match the true push functionally of the Gmail app.

But do you need to poll for Gmail in K-9? I thought it was just straight push and polling isn't necessary. I had it set up to only push with no polling.

 

[Crashdamage]

Only the dedicated Gmail app does true push email. Anyway, you said you setup K9 polling to simulate Gmail functionality.

 

[shmn]

Only the dedicated Gmail app does true push email. Anyway, you said you setup K9 polling to simulate Gmail functionality.

You are right. Although I meant pushing not polling in my original post.

So you are saying that K-9 cannot truly replace Gmail efficiently?

 

[Crashdamage]

I'm saying that K9, Maildroid or other email apps cannot do true push email with any account, be it Gmail or other, POP3 or IMAP (except MS Exchange). They can only do ordinary polling (like POP3 accounts) or use IMAP_IDLE which is actually a kinda faux push via polling. If you want true push efficiency and functionality with Gmail, you must use the dedicated Gmail app.