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Nexus S Batt Life

d3zapped said:
Obligatory: "Hi, first post here".

I just joined this forum after reading posts here since buying my first Android phone a few weeks ago. I'm coming up to speed on what's causing my Google Nexus S to have poor battery life - meaning it would go critical & shutdown in the evening after light usage if I didn't plug it in to my PC's usb port at work to trickle-charge it a bit in the afternoon.

Like @jgallagh, I was also seeing the AndroidOS as the top user of battery. I had already tried to roll back sync times on email, facebook, twitter, news+weather widget etc to bare minimums (every 4 or 6 hours) and still wasn't seeing an improved battery life. I just didn't understand how it could be that bad.

Reading lots of forums led me to three other "smoking guns" with workarounds that I *think* are effective, although it's only my 2nd day since implementing them.

I read that there's an issue with suspend mode or the /init process chewing up CPU, and that turning on USB Debugging can help:
Issue 11126 - android - "suspend" process runs continually in background at ~40% CPU on HTC EVO 4G - Project Hosting on Google Code
Issue 13130 - android - The process "/ INIT" uses between 70% to 98% CPU - HTC Legend Froyo - Project Hosting on Google Code

Someone else had a theory that establishing any alarms in the built-in clock app can trigger the runaway /init issue:
Android 2.2 (FRF85B) /init process always eating 100% CPU - Android Help

Many folks have pointed out that Picasaweb album-sync-to-phone-gallery is a major battery hog. I know I have well over 1,000 photos online & was worried that my battery was draining just trying to make sure all those albums in my phone's Gallery were in sync with Picasaweb. More info:
Battery life observations.. - Page 2 - Nexus One/Nexus S Forum - Google Phone Forum

I'm still not sure which (if any) of these problems was the major contributor to my battery problem, but I went ahead and...
(1) Enabled USB Debugging
(2) Deleted all my alarms from the built-in clock (even though they were previously all inactive)
(3) Stopped syncing my Picasaweb albums by disabling it in my gmail account settings

I started out 7.5 hours ago at 96% and I'm at 70% now. This is much better than a few days ago when it seems like I'd be plugging the phone in at 50% or less around this time. I don't know the battery percentage where auto-shutdown happens, but it *seems* like I'm on track to do about 24 hours or more before running to 0%. I've had a text message or two, checked email five or six times, surfed nytimes.com a bit, peeked into Facebook twice, spent a few minutes looking at the map. Wifi off, 3G on, GPS off, Bluetooth off, I even have sync OFF now also.

Battery use is:
Display 39%
Cell standby 17%
Android OS 11%
Voice calls 10%
Android system 8%
Phone idle 7%
Facebook 4%
Maps 3%
OSMonitor 2% (a great app that details running processes, cpu load, memory load etc, which I had on for only about 5-10 minutes today)

One more minor point here: I never opened up the OEM Nexus S charger that came with my phone. Instead I've been using my old Blackberry micro-usb-ported AC charger and the aforementioned USB trickle charge from my desktop PC. Airplane mode every night while the AC charger was working. Just yesterday I opened the OEM charge and, boy, it seems to pump out the charge much faster.

Obviously this isn't very scientific - I'm changing too many variables to know what's helping the most here. And I've been so paranoid about battery drain rate that I honestly haven't been letting it get much below 50% recently before charging. Today & through the weekend I'll be trying to let my Nexus S go all the way to auto-shutdown before charging so I can quantify my results with these new settings. I'll reply to this thread when I have more data.
Click to expand...

I followed your instructions and have done the 3 changes you have suggested. But I have high dependency on the alarm and now I have removed all of them. If this is the solution I need to find other ways. Is it okay to download the 3rd party alarm app from market and use? Will that be fine from a battery usage prospective? Would you know one such good app which does not drain the battery?

Thanks for any help with this.
 
I think its clear, first thing ANYONE should do is shut off picasa syncing through the accounts...

Settings>Accounts and Sync>gmail account>Sync Picasa Web albums

If you just got the phone, do this first and you will see a difference right off the bat... besides that let your battery drain the first few times, and then realize your usage will determine your battery life...

for example i like having brightness up high, i leave things syncing more often, i never turn off blutooth, GPS, or wi-fi, therefore i do not expect to get 24 hours straight out of my battery... you have to realize some peoples battery life is higher because they are using things less, turning things off, etc...

I personally just need to get through my day 6am-10pm and leave it charging overnight... but i want to be able to actually use the features that make these phones so great...
 
Guys, if you are like me a new user to Nexus S and having the issue that I was having "Battery was dying in less than 9 hours"

Please do yourself a favor:
Go To Settings------look for Accounts and Sync-------Uncheck Background Data(Under General Sync Settings)

That is it.
Remember next time you'll go in android market it, you will have to check this option again. Once you are done with market go back to settings and Uncheck it again.
I have seen a massive increase in battery life of my phone.

You can also look for display settings, turn it off every 15 seconds. Nexus S I believe is the best phone if one knows how to use it.
 
halfasleep said:
Just download Juice defender and you'll be set, my Nexus S last for 2 days with pretty heavy Drag Racing play.
Click to expand...

today, i got under 3 hrs of battery life on a full charge. something is using data while it is on standby, cell standby was like 30%
i will try juice defender.
 
As a heavy user, I make maybe 20 - 30 calls a day (not alot I know) and mostly use it for internet and Facebooking etc. I use the Opera Browser in full desktop mode and switch from Wifi to 3g throughout the day since I'm not always around trusted Wifi. Even after about 3+ hours of internet browsing, checking the time, playing music and haveing background apps running. I generally get about 14 hours out of it and as I type this, it's been running 13 hours 41 mins and has 42% battery left.

This phone is simply amazing at battery life. I don't think I even need the new Nexus since this one does exactly what I need already. And will ICS have better battery life? I've been wondering if Google has made a few changes to help.
 
I got the Nexus S as a loner phone and the battery barely lasts! I take it off of charge at 6:55 am and it is completely dead by 12:30 (now). I hardly use it as i am in class from 8:30 to 11:10, checking a couple of messags and looking on facebook once. I keep the brightness low or on auto aand my screen is hardly ever on. The time today was approx. 57m before it died. I noticed that Android os is a huge problem with battery drainage but there must be something I can do. I need the battery to last until AT LEAST 6pm when i get home. Honestly, even for a loner phone <6 hrs of battery life is not good enough. Does anyone know what I could do to improve it?
 
Sounds like the battery could do with replacing which i guess you don't want to do if it's a loner. Maybe try switching off data at all times and drop to 2G. Means you can only make calls and text though, then have a shortcut to switch data and 3G on when needed
 
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