New User here... How do you do this? I don't use visual voicemail, not exactly sure what it is.. but when I went to manage apps, there was no choice to uninstall. It is probably a mute point, since I never see it listed as an active app - but I am curious! I didn't even realize visual voicemail was something that needed 'canceled' with Verizon? Thanks
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Optimize your Droid Eris battery life (READ THIS)
- Thread starter Caddyman
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- htc droid eris
New User here... How do you do this? I don't use visual voicemail, not exactly sure what it is.. but when I went to manage apps, there was no choice to uninstall. It is probably a mute point, since I never see it listed as an active app - but I am curious! I didn't even realize visual voicemail was something that needed 'canceled' with Verizon? Thanks
I too noticed that using the 'back' button does not close apps, as some previous posts had advised... Must you go into settings and manage applications to do a force close or does the Advanced Task Killer do just that? I have been reading two opinions on 'task killers' some think they are great, others say they are a waste of time and use resources... so this confuses me greatly - any guidance? Common sense tells me the ATK is helpful, but you should be sure to also make sure it is 'check marked' to be killed as well (this is what I have been doing so far). I am brand new to smartphones and have only had my Eris for less than 2 weeks so like so many others I have been pouring over this forum for advice and tips. Thank you!
Bswartz95
Android Expert
I've read that using the back arrow does not close the programs, however, it does put them in "hibernate" or in the background, where they don't waste resources for other programs you need to use.
I've actually checked this using Advanced Task Manager and it is true. Then I quickly uninstalled ATM.
I've actually checked this using Advanced Task Manager and it is true. Then I quickly uninstalled ATM.
Thank you for the FAQ link... that helps. I am inclined to uninstall ATK now... but that leaves me with a question still: Should I get a task MANAGER (if so, suggestions?) instead to see exactly how things are/are not eating battery etc to become more educated? (The link indicated this kind of info may be helpful...) Thoughts anyone??
pkopalek
Android Expert
The Weather widget uses Network location to tell where you are, NOT GPS. ShopSavvy and Maps use most of the GPS in my phone.
In Settings > Location, you can allow it to use your wireless network to determine your location. Even if GPS is ON, and the check box to allow your wireless network to detect location is OFF, Weather will NOT know where your 'current location' is!
And as a side note, I leave GPS on ALL the time. Unless an app is USING GPS, I feel like it uses 0 battery. I can't discern ANY battery life difference leaving it always on or always off, unless I am using Google Latitude all the time.
It's worth keeping ATK installed, even if you don't use it. Sometimes when I use it, I check ALL the boxes, even ATK itself. I don't need ATK running at all times. Besides that, it can be useful to kill Mail and other programs. Even if you have 'Background Data' turned off in your Data Synchronization in your Settings, some apps (like Mail) have a tendency to use network/processing time (battery!) if you leave them running, more than if you KILL them with ATK.
I kill all processes, at night, when I'm setting the phone on my bed stand. It DOES reduce the battery used during the 8 hours the phone sits there idle. I promise.
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
Very cool post; great info.
I installed the Spare Parts application this morning and can see that it does, at the least, clear up a few mysteries as to what is using resources. Also, there are a few tweaks in the app that seem to help with speed of moving from one screen/app to another.
Ok, this phone is driving me crazy!! Battery is draining fast again--at 80% and all I have done is check email for about 5 minutes!! Been off of charger for 2 hours. I checked my posts from last week because I knew I had posted when it was doing better--I posted it was at 95% 4 hours off charger and I had only checked email. The ONLY thing I have done different is that I had downloaded dolphin and decided Saturday to just go back to the stock one because I thought it was fine. Just thought if stock one worked for me dolphin would be one less thing on it. Could that be it?? Does the stock browser use more battery when the phone is just sitting there??
Well, I did use it heavily Friday and Saturday, both days it lasted about 12 hours, but it was used alot--calling, texting and browsing.
Well, I did use it heavily Friday and Saturday, both days it lasted about 12 hours, but it was used alot--calling, texting and browsing.
Ok, ok, keep checking to see if anyone has any ideas. Battery was at 29% at 6 hours off charger.
I also remembered I downloaded and installed some other apps--backgrounds, astro file manager, wallpapers(deleted this one-didn't care for), spare parts and the weather channel(like their radar, but can uninstall if it is the problem).
When I checked my battery a little bit ago I decided to look at spare parts----this isthe partial wake usage since last unplugged: google apps, android system, facebook, dialer, mail, home, UID 9999(what is this??), calendar
Now for partial wake usage total in all time: android system, mail, google apps, cardiotrainer, handcent sms, facebook, dialer, media
Does this mean anything? Is the partial wake usage what I need to be looking at to try to figure out where my battery is going??
Really frustrated today. Going to need my phone this evening and doesn't look like it will last--is it okay to plug in for an hour or so to get a boost??
Thanks again for any help.
I also remembered I downloaded and installed some other apps--backgrounds, astro file manager, wallpapers(deleted this one-didn't care for), spare parts and the weather channel(like their radar, but can uninstall if it is the problem).
When I checked my battery a little bit ago I decided to look at spare parts----this isthe partial wake usage since last unplugged: google apps, android system, facebook, dialer, mail, home, UID 9999(what is this??), calendar
Now for partial wake usage total in all time: android system, mail, google apps, cardiotrainer, handcent sms, facebook, dialer, media
Does this mean anything? Is the partial wake usage what I need to be looking at to try to figure out where my battery is going??
Really frustrated today. Going to need my phone this evening and doesn't look like it will last--is it okay to plug in for an hour or so to get a boost??
Thanks again for any help.
I have been over this post numerous times over the last week or so. I played with it and did alot of the tips--did the battery drain/charge for 4 days, and thought I had it all figured out. The first week I had it(only had for 2 weeks now), it was doing what it has done today--but last week it did alot better--would still have around 20% at 15 hours off charger. I don't understand what I have done. It has to be going back to stock browser(had dolpin last week but uninstalled), spare parts, backgrounds or the weather channel. Just can't figure what! If I would have known this was going to happen last week, it would have gone back. But I thought I had it figured out so sent the rebate info in, so don't think I can now.
::sigh::
pkopalek
Android Expert
My battery drains EXTREMELY fast at my apartment, just like this.
As it turns out, at night, my bars drop to 2 or 1 or 0 consistently (which means my phone has to be "louder" for the tower to see it), which eats the battery alive. Check for this.
Check spare parts to see what's using CPU time.
Sometimes if you've left Browser open with something trying to process on a web page, it will eat battery like crazy.
Look for the Awake % time in your Settings > About Phone > Status, scroll to the bottom.
As it turns out, at night, my bars drop to 2 or 1 or 0 consistently (which means my phone has to be "louder" for the tower to see it), which eats the battery alive. Check for this.
Check spare parts to see what's using CPU time.
Sometimes if you've left Browser open with something trying to process on a web page, it will eat battery like crazy.
Look for the Awake % time in your Settings > About Phone > Status, scroll to the bottom.
Sorry.....should have said awake time is 15%, so that looks ok, I think. My signal is horrible, but it always is at home--signal was horrible and switching from 1x to 3g last week when battery was lasting better. Called my local verizon, the ladies just said they know, they have the eris too and have already had to charge theirs this afternoon......
Well, when my phone is at 95%, off charge for a little over 2 hours, and I have made several calls this morning and checked email. Yesterday right before it died, I downloaded dolphin and made it my default browser. So am I right in thinking the stock browser is what was draining my battery? Remember, I had dolphin last week, uninstalled it Saturday, really no reason except I thought the stock browser worked fine, so just thought I would go back to it.
javabennett
Lurker
i have been reading this thread today and I am a little curious... does anyone sleep? Who needs a full battery for 15 hours a day???
Here is my battery life story... When I got my eris, i drained the battery to less than 10% 3x a day for two weeks because I have never had a cooler computer, uh i mean phone.. this thing is faster than my desktop... I have d/l over 200 free apps in that time period...because of my app happiness i have also had to hard reset my phone 3 times and wipe my sd card twice in six weeks... anymore problems with my phone and vz will replace it... it takes me a week to replace my fav apps because i cant figure out which ones were causing the problems... load a few, wait a few days, load a few then wait a few days, etc.... the ones i have NOT reloaded and my phone has been stable for three weeks now with excellent battery life (at least for my lifestyle) are: panda home, atrack dog, ATK, and/or taskiller, bee battery meters, and a few games i can't remember the names...
my battery life goes as follows now... i run lightning bug at night while charging it (new update runs funny though), in the morning i listen to pandora while getting ready for the day, buzz off to kill my ringer at work two days a week, lots of fun surfing web when not at work, texting, calling, searching market, playing games, you name it i love it, my son also plays it all the time when i am driving... still a green battery before i go to bed... back on the charger running lightning bug... I do also have the widgets to toggle bluetooth, gps, wifi and mobile network, all are always off except mobile all the time... i have turned off all of the little tweaks that were mentioned here too, backlight, handcent, vib type, etc...
I even use it to shop at the grocery store, study, cook, pay bills, track my bank accounts... it even tracks personal fem stuff... I access it so much I put a neck lanyard on it so that it is within easy reach like a necklace... hoodies are your friend...lol!
i read in another forum that task killers are bad... in my experience it is true, mine were killing the phone app and my settings, my weather, my calendar etc which is seriously not cool... hence the hard reset every two weeks... but that forum that i read made sense, when the apps are stable, the phone knows what to kill and what to keep so that it is accessible when you need it while not sacrificing cpu usage, memory etc... the stable apps run faster if a portion are still running/idle/hibernating when you need it instead of having to start from scratch every time...and it also said the rules of a windows desktop do not apply to an android/linux phone operating system... oimho, if an app is causing problems turning the phone off and back on then uninstalling the app is the best task manager of all. Another forum said you may have to turn off and turn back on the phone several times before a serious problem resolves itself. But this does resolve problems better than a task killer...
so far this forum and the task manager forum have saved my eris from being replaced...
i think all smartphones are like human bodies, what you put in it effects how it operates and not everything works the same for each person...
now i just need to find a forum to run a windows mobile program on my android...
Here is my battery life story... When I got my eris, i drained the battery to less than 10% 3x a day for two weeks because I have never had a cooler computer, uh i mean phone.. this thing is faster than my desktop... I have d/l over 200 free apps in that time period...because of my app happiness i have also had to hard reset my phone 3 times and wipe my sd card twice in six weeks... anymore problems with my phone and vz will replace it... it takes me a week to replace my fav apps because i cant figure out which ones were causing the problems... load a few, wait a few days, load a few then wait a few days, etc.... the ones i have NOT reloaded and my phone has been stable for three weeks now with excellent battery life (at least for my lifestyle) are: panda home, atrack dog, ATK, and/or taskiller, bee battery meters, and a few games i can't remember the names...
my battery life goes as follows now... i run lightning bug at night while charging it (new update runs funny though), in the morning i listen to pandora while getting ready for the day, buzz off to kill my ringer at work two days a week, lots of fun surfing web when not at work, texting, calling, searching market, playing games, you name it i love it, my son also plays it all the time when i am driving... still a green battery before i go to bed... back on the charger running lightning bug... I do also have the widgets to toggle bluetooth, gps, wifi and mobile network, all are always off except mobile all the time... i have turned off all of the little tweaks that were mentioned here too, backlight, handcent, vib type, etc...
I even use it to shop at the grocery store, study, cook, pay bills, track my bank accounts... it even tracks personal fem stuff... I access it so much I put a neck lanyard on it so that it is within easy reach like a necklace... hoodies are your friend...lol!
i read in another forum that task killers are bad... in my experience it is true, mine were killing the phone app and my settings, my weather, my calendar etc which is seriously not cool... hence the hard reset every two weeks... but that forum that i read made sense, when the apps are stable, the phone knows what to kill and what to keep so that it is accessible when you need it while not sacrificing cpu usage, memory etc... the stable apps run faster if a portion are still running/idle/hibernating when you need it instead of having to start from scratch every time...and it also said the rules of a windows desktop do not apply to an android/linux phone operating system... oimho, if an app is causing problems turning the phone off and back on then uninstalling the app is the best task manager of all. Another forum said you may have to turn off and turn back on the phone several times before a serious problem resolves itself. But this does resolve problems better than a task killer...
so far this forum and the task manager forum have saved my eris from being replaced...
i think all smartphones are like human bodies, what you put in it effects how it operates and not everything works the same for each person...
now i just need to find a forum to run a windows mobile program on my android...
You may as well title this thread: To get decent battery life, don't use the phone as it was intended to be used.
I love the step about turning off the mobile network. Classic.
I love when people act like tapping an icon to turn on/off mobile network seems like some kind of tedious time consuming task. Classic
wilceaux
Member
His point is not that it is a tedious task (wtf?).
The point is that totally disabling the most basic feature (among every other feature that makes it a "smartphone") to achieve a little better battery life is silly.
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
You could probably post that on every thread here. Just kidding. But woven through all the repetition is still a lot of information, at least to this droid newbie.. especially the stuff about how to pare down things not needed, resulting in better battery life throughout the day; it made a quantum difference for me.
For example, until I read here in this thread that the weather application did not need the GPS running I was getting much shorter battery life. That's just one.
Calling someone silly because they want different things from their phone than you is, well...silly.