I've had my htc incredible for a few days and I absolutely love it. However, I am less than pleased with the battery life. I run a good amount of apps and widgets and am sure this is causing the life to drain. I downloaded ATK in order to close apps when not in use, but I've noticed a strange occurrence. It seems that w/i 10 minutes of closing unneeded apps a bunch of programs that I have not been using open up. Is there any explanation for this? Also, is there a way to immediately close an app when I'm done using it rather than having to find the ATK widget?
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Help Maximizing Battery Life / Closing Apps
- Thread starter theboon12
- Start date
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- htc droid incredible
Those apps aren't actually running or using any battery life. They are just frozen for when you eventually open them up in order to get going quicker. It's just how Android works. ATK is a useless application unless you have a specific application that's on the fritz and needs to die, which I haven't seen in the 1.5 years I've been running android.
What DOES nuke battery life is leaving your wifi/GPS/Bluetooth on all the time, or having programs that are constantly polling the internet for info.
Here are some steps I have taken to curb my battery suck:
1. I kill GPS and wifi and Bluetooth whenever I am not using them (I use the power control widget on one of my homescreens to have a quick look at what is on and what is off.
2. I take a careful look at widgets and Apps that are hitting the internet a lot (weather widgets can be bad about this...turn down the frequency of updates and it will save battery life)
3. I turn screen brightness down unless I need it bright (I have that on the power control widget bar too)
4. I take a scan through on Settings> applications (or using a task killer) to see what applications are actually running and look into suspicious Apps to see about keeping them off.
Try those steps and see how it works for you
Cheers
This is typical of new phones. You need to let the battery drain completely to the point that the phone shuts off. Then charge it completely using the charger, not the USB cable and leave it plugged in for at least an hour past the point where it shows full. You need to train your phone to recognize the capacity of the battery. However, once you do this, don't do it frequently. Deep discharging Lithium Ion batteries can damage them.
Get rid of ATK for now. I doubt it's doing you any good. In fact, it may be part of the problem. Android wants to keep the most used apps loaded in memory. It's more efficient, however if ATK (the widget) is set to kill these apps, Android will reload them as you've found out. Constant killing and reloading is going to suck juice.
To conserve battery life, use WiFi when available. Even though the WiFi antenna draws more power while it's transferring data, it transfers data much faster than 3G so it ultimately uses less power overall. Keep the screen set to auto brightness for now. If you want it brighter, go ahead with the knowledge that the screen is the single biggest draw on the battery. Turn GPS and Bluetooth on only when you need them.
Even with heavy use, I get a full day, and two with moderate use.
Get rid of ATK for now. I doubt it's doing you any good. In fact, it may be part of the problem. Android wants to keep the most used apps loaded in memory. It's more efficient, however if ATK (the widget) is set to kill these apps, Android will reload them as you've found out. Constant killing and reloading is going to suck juice.
To conserve battery life, use WiFi when available. Even though the WiFi antenna draws more power while it's transferring data, it transfers data much faster than 3G so it ultimately uses less power overall. Keep the screen set to auto brightness for now. If you want it brighter, go ahead with the knowledge that the screen is the single biggest draw on the battery. Turn GPS and Bluetooth on only when you need them.
Even with heavy use, I get a full day, and two with moderate use.
loomer
Android Enthusiast
I have even found that setting the brightness of the screen maybe a notch above the lowest setting saves a lot of battery drain. The auto setting seems to always set it higher than you actually need it to be. Since display is always at the top of the list as far as battery usage, it actually makes quite the difference.
I can attest to this. I keep my display brightness way down most of the time. Indoors it's just fine that way. The only time I need to increase it is when I'm outside in bright sunlight.
First of all, you have to get out of the windows mindset.
Apps that are 'on' in the background are not by definition hogging resources. You can & must trust linux to do proper resource management.
Besides, programs like Task Killer Pro actually cause a quicker battery drain and a less than favoured user experience: you have to start up every application again when you want to use it and the task killer itself is one of the few applications that IS using resources when run in the background (it has to check for running applications, right?).
(I now see this has already been stated in this topic, cheers lunatic59 =])
Things that drain your battery the most (as stated above) are GPS, WiFi, screen light & datatransfer. Kill the first 3 and you'll have the best user experience / battery life ratio if you ask me (and if you have a data contract). Stop wanting to 'do better' everything that Android has already taken care off, it's not Windows Mobile.
Apps that are 'on' in the background are not by definition hogging resources. You can & must trust linux to do proper resource management.
Besides, programs like Task Killer Pro actually cause a quicker battery drain and a less than favoured user experience: you have to start up every application again when you want to use it and the task killer itself is one of the few applications that IS using resources when run in the background (it has to check for running applications, right?).
(I now see this has already been stated in this topic, cheers lunatic59 =])
Things that drain your battery the most (as stated above) are GPS, WiFi, screen light & datatransfer. Kill the first 3 and you'll have the best user experience / battery life ratio if you ask me (and if you have a data contract). Stop wanting to 'do better' everything that Android has already taken care off, it's not Windows Mobile.
gocardinals
Well-Known Member
So which is it? Is it better to use Wi-fi if available, or not????
If WiFi is available, use it. If not, turn it off. It will maximize your battery life AND your mobile data usage.
The problem happens when you have a decent 3G signal and a marginal WiFi signal. If the phone keeps jumping between the two it's going to chew up the battery. So here's the skinny on use recommendations:
Strong WiFi available = use WiFi
Weak WiFi, Strong 3G = turn off WiFi
Weak WiFi, Weak 3G = turn off WiFi or turn off 3G but don't enable both.
Just remember that if you have weak signals and the phone needs to renegotiate frequently it will use more battery.
D
Deleted User
Guest
Thank you, I have stated this in several threads, including here: http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible/164940-post-froyo-ota-your-battery-life.html
Nobody seems to listen to me, maybe you'll have better luck.
If you don't believe all 4 people in this thread who have said the same thing, here's a fifth and very detailed source. http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Not sure where to post this so mods can move where they think.
I'm using launcher pro right now and got the froyo update this morning. After installing the update sense keeps restarting itself after I close it. Other issue is many apps that used to stay closed are now restating themselves. In addition skype was pushed to my phone by verizon and won't close/keeps restating.
What swings got add changed so I can stop this and or stop some things that didn't used to start at boot from starting? (checked each app and there's no option to change).
I'm using launcher pro right now and got the froyo update this morning. After installing the update sense keeps restarting itself after I close it. Other issue is many apps that used to stay closed are now restating themselves. In addition skype was pushed to my phone by verizon and won't close/keeps restating.
What swings got add changed so I can stop this and or stop some things that didn't used to start at boot from starting? (checked each app and there's no option to change).
jayjay1122
Android Expert
This will probably get merged, but to try and answer your question, there have been changes to the way 2.2 handles resource management.
The fact is these apps simply cannot be terminated as they were in 2.1. This is normal behavior. As such, it is not wise to kill these apps because it will consume resources as they start back up and actually negatively affect battery life.
It has been confirmed though that these apps do not consume resources when they are dormant.
I hope that helps!!!
The fact is these apps simply cannot be terminated as they were in 2.1. This is normal behavior. As such, it is not wise to kill these apps because it will consume resources as they start back up and actually negatively affect battery life.
It has been confirmed though that these apps do not consume resources when they are dormant.
I hope that helps!!!
AnotherHiggins
Android Enthusiast
When I first got my Incredible, which was my first Android device, I downloaded 5 - count 'em, 5 - different Task Killers to evaluate with the intention of narrowing it down to the best performer and keeping only that one.
I noticed that different ones would report back that different apps were still running. It was rare for any two of them totally agree.
I wound up putting all 5 shortcuts on a single homescreen. So for a couple of weeks I would go through and kill all apps with all 5 task killers. I did that several times a day. I was King of the Droid, right?
I started reading lots of posts here on AF stating that task killers were actually bad for your battery life. Pshaw. My battery life seemed to have gotten better since I had first started using task killers. (5 of them.) I wasn't "buying the hype".
Then I read this article by an Android developer explaining how Android deals with multitasking.
I decided to give it a shot and uninstalled all of the task killers from my phone. Sure enough, my battery life improved markedly.
Believe me - I understand how satisfying it is to KILL CityID every half hour. I don't want it on my phone and don't like seeing it in my list of processes. But you've gotta understand that seeing it doesn't mean it's taking any resources. If you really want to get rid of CityID (and Verizon Navigator and all other bloatware), then root your phone. Otherwise sit back and let Android be it's awesome Android self.
I noticed that different ones would report back that different apps were still running. It was rare for any two of them totally agree.
I wound up putting all 5 shortcuts on a single homescreen. So for a couple of weeks I would go through and kill all apps with all 5 task killers. I did that several times a day. I was King of the Droid, right?
I started reading lots of posts here on AF stating that task killers were actually bad for your battery life. Pshaw. My battery life seemed to have gotten better since I had first started using task killers. (5 of them.) I wasn't "buying the hype".
Then I read this article by an Android developer explaining how Android deals with multitasking.
I decided to give it a shot and uninstalled all of the task killers from my phone. Sure enough, my battery life improved markedly.
Believe me - I understand how satisfying it is to KILL CityID every half hour. I don't want it on my phone and don't like seeing it in my list of processes. But you've gotta understand that seeing it doesn't mean it's taking any resources. If you really want to get rid of CityID (and Verizon Navigator and all other bloatware), then root your phone. Otherwise sit back and let Android be it's awesome Android self.
zemerick
Android Enthusiast
Just to clarify on this: Theres a satellite dish symbol with green beams coming out of it that will appear on your notification bar when GPS is being used. Even if you load up something like google maps, it rarely uses GPS. I had maps open for 10 mins, and total usage time of GPS was like 30 seconds. So yea, you should be able to leave GPS on all the time.