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Help Note 4 battery drain

E

ELG1

Newbie
I just got a note 4 and I love it. Everyone raved about the battery life however and I'm not seeing this great long battery life. I've looked and sometimes the cell standby uses a ton of life. I've read up on that and from what I can understand (I'm not techy at all) the percentage it lists isn't all that accurate but nonetheless I will hit sorting like 18%, get the battery warning pop up, I'll hit ok and it will immediately go to 1% then turn off. My question is 1) is there a way to turn cell standby off? Where we live we only have WiFi calling (thanks for saying we had Excellent coverage in our area tmobile :( ) so I feel like the cell standby is redundant. If we leave I can switch or whatever but just wondering if there's an option. And 2) any other ways to preserve battery? My screen timeout is the lowest possible. I keep trying the auto brightness but it's often way too dark and I end up squinting to read. TIA!
 
The percentages you see in those rankings are miss leading, that is the percentage of the total discharge over a particular length of time..... and if the phone has been idle, then the OS will consume more than one of the apps or other item does.

I have a Note 4 with the OEM battery in it, it is currently almost 2 years old and the battery does quite well.

I have noted one thing though, if you leave DATA/WiFi on all the time the battery life is depressed by a factor of 2 or 3...... ie, if I leave the internet ON all the time, and look at the phone mid afternoon, it is down to 50% or 60%.

but, by leaving the internet OFF, the mid afternoon battery status is nearly always in the 70% rank or better...

I leave DATA turned off all the time, and I have WiFi auto switched on/off by MacroDroid. If the screen is unlocked then WiFi is on. If the screen is locked, then WiFi is off... seems reasonable to me....

If I am away from the house then DATA is turned ON.... that also seems reasonable to me....

The result is, if the phone is idle all night, the battery drop is typically 2% to 4%. It is hard to make a hard judgement on that, was it for 5 hours? or was it for 8 hours? I am retired, I am up and down all hours of the night.

I have a wireless charger in my Note 4 and if I am not using the phone, I just lay it on a charging pad. I have 3 of them scattered around the house...

* MacroDroid - Device Automation - Android Apps on Google Play

I have two S5 phones, and I use MacroDroid on them the same way. My wife's S5 will run 3 days between charges, simply because it is idle 98% of the time. She is not a smartphone user.

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So having the smart switch feature turned on isn't helpful in this situation? Or is it always going to be searching for a data/WiFi connection with that on? I'm a stay at home mom so I'm on our WiFi about 90% of the time. So should I just leave it on wifi and then when I'm leaving turn on smart switch or even just turn on data only?
 
Is there some reason you need to be connected to the internet all the time? I have a Note 2, and due to my setup, if I leave my phone connected to WiFi , it will use up about 15% overnight, as opposed to 4% if it is idle and disconnected.
 
Yes...we have virtually no data service through tmobile where we are. Every once in a while we will get one bar or only an edge connection, neither of which are sufficient for clear calls or any type of Internet connectivity and it's not reliable to stay connected at all. I have to leave wifi on or I'm not connected at all unfortunately.
 
Battery Life, just got back from a dental appt.... so finishing up my thoughts here:
in general the manufacturers recommend we keep the batteries above 40% to maximize longevity.
I do that by using Qi wireless chargers and have 3 of the charging pads thru the house.

if the phone is not in use, it is on a charging pad.

something you need to understand, if the DATA is left turned ON, and the cell site signal is very week, the phone has to Ramp UP the transmit power a bunch... and I mean a LOT!
this eats up battery life like there is no tomorrow.... so if you don't really need the internet, turn it OFF.



http://thewirecutter.com/2016/02/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-to-extend-your-phones-battery-life/
 
Last edited:
ELG1 said:
Yes...we have virtually no data service through tmobile where we are. Every once in a while we will get one bar or only an edge connection, neither of which are sufficient for clear calls or any type of Internet connectivity and it's not reliable to stay connected at all. I have to leave wifi on or I'm not connected at all unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I just now revisited this thread, and realized that I totally missed this post.

If I read you correctly, you are using WiFi to get telephone access to T-Mobile ?? and this is because you have very little cell site service in your home..... I can sympathize, me too.... Make sure you keep DATA turned OFF.

if that is so, then you need to turn off, uninstall apps that are trying to talk home to momma..
I just went back and verified you have a Note 4, so I will ask you to install this app:

* Package Disabler Pro for Samsung

Now, once that is installed, boot it up.
Scroll down thru the menu, all of the apps will be in Alphabetical order.

If it is something you don't absolutely need, "Disable it". No harm done, it can be turned back on just as easy.
Anything with the name: Amazon, turn it off.
Facebook: OFF
any Social app: OFF​

if you use Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: do it thru your desktop PC/Laptop preferably... as you are already "at home anyway". On the cellphone, use a browser, not their apps. Their apps are power hungry beasts of burden... turn them all off.

Ghostery is a very nice browser that will protect your privacy, and it stops adverts that drain the battery:
* Browser: Ghostery Privacy Browser - Android Apps on Google Play

Turn OFF all Notifications. All of them. Either do that in the app itself if it offers that, or go to:
Settings/Applications/App Manager/Downloads
Check each one and turn off the Notifications box.​

Settings/Applications/App Manager/ALL
Check each one you did not turn off in Downloads and turn off the Notifications box.​

If you use Email quite a bit, install Aqua Mail, and pay attention to the settings.
If configured correctly, it is very frugal of data use, IE, battery power needed.​
Make sure Sync is OFF, it will poll the server for you email each time you bring it up. Make sure the Notifications is OFF.

* Aqua Mail - Android Apps on Google Play

All of what I am telling you, is exactly how I have my two S5 phones and my Note 4 configured....
and all of them give me very good battery life.


Once you have done all of the above, watch how the phone works for a week or so....
then as you get more familiar with Android, you can turn ON anything that is turned off and watch just that one app to see how that effects the battery life.

Please let us know if any of what we suggested helps.
 
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