Help Smart Actions - Best Practices

[BullyDawg]

My only thought was why exactly do you turn the phone off?

Why not use Sleep Mode instead?

Thanks. Good point. I've always been a "turn off to charge" guy, from my days with Windows phones, where it was recommended.

I'll try "SLEEPing" and set a "Sleep" Smart Action. Guess I should still reboot every few days just for the hell of it or for the rare occasion of trouble / freeze up / etc?

 

[Szadzik]

Thanks. Good point. I've always been a "turn off to charge" guy, from my days with Windows phones, where it was recommended.

I'll try "SLEEPing" and set a "Sleep" Smart Action. Guess I should still reboot every few days just for the hell of it or for the rare occasion of trouble / freeze up / etc?

Yep, definitely reboot every 2-3 days.

 

[m3incorp]

I read every message above and tried a few of the settings that people were using....I did notice something that hasn't been mentioned... yes turning off cell data saves battery and you do get your text messages BUT you do not receive MMS (pictures, video texts..) you will get the text but the pic, video, etc will just say "downloading". For that reason, I decided to enable cell data when at home, since that is when I normally receive those type messages.

Though we all want better battery life, to get it, seems to require the phone to not do the things that we bought it for in the first place...ie 4G cell data, background sync, bright screen..etc.. Yes I understand that I don't need to be on 4G when on wifi, but as stated above, if I'm not getting pic, video then that defeats the purpose. I use a couple of these smart actions but in the meantime, so I can use my phone as it was designed, I bought an external battery charger. When smart actions become "smarter" I'm sure that I will use more.

 

[Szadzik]

Though we all want better battery life, to get it, seems to require the phone to not do the things that we bought it for in the first place...ie 4G cell data, background sync, bright screen..etc.. Yes I understand that I don't need to be on 4G when on wifi, but as stated above, if I'm not getting pic, video then that defeats the purpose. I use a couple of these smart actions but in the meantime, so I can use my phone as it was designed, I bought an external battery charger. When smart actions become "smarter" I'm sure that I will use more.

100% agreed. I want to be able to use my phone as it was designed to be used. Getting emails when they arrive, using its potential. Battery can always be recharged.

 

[jmt9779]

I read every message above and tried a few of the settings that people were using....I did notice something that hasn't been mentioned... yes turning off cell data saves battery and you do get your text messages BUT you do not receive MMS (pictures, video texts..) you will get the text but the pic, video, etc will just say "downloading". For that reason, I decided to enable cell data when at home, since that is when I normally receive those type messages.

Though we all want better battery life, to get it, seems to require the phone to not do the things that we bought it for in the first place...ie 4G cell data, background sync, bright screen..etc.. Yes I understand that I don't need to be on 4G when on wifi, but as stated above, if I'm not getting pic, video then that defeats the purpose. I use a couple of these smart actions but in the meantime, so I can use my phone as it was designed, I bought an external battery charger. When smart actions become "smarter" I'm sure that I will use more.

the bolded part explains a lot! thanks, man

 

[pm1066]

While I'm frustrated with SA limitations, I also realize there is a huge benefit. My son will soon be getting a his first smartphone, and since he will be on a tiered plan vs my unlimited plan, I see SAs or something like them helping to save his little butt from overage charges more than saving his battery life.

Under tiered data plans, more so than battery life, we really are driving Ferraris in a school zone!

 

[AllYellow]

1. Unfortunately I don't believe that it's possible to use GPS to trigger enabling WiFi at this time. If I'm not mistaken Smart Actions currently uses WiFi to do this.

2. Unless Bluetooth is already active I'm not sure what you could use to trigger a connection in your car. It seems to me that a Bluetooth connection with your car is the most logical trigger to indicate that you're actually in your car.

In order for you to use a GPS trigger, WiFi must be enabled in order to get an accurate location. If you have the WiFi disabled, I don't think you will be able to use GPS as a trigger. Try using a time frame instead.

 

[AllYellow]

Action Name
IDLE

Purpose
Turn off everything except phone calls and texts when not using phone.

Triggers
Motion Detector: No Movement
Display: Off
Charging: Not Charging

Actions
Background Sync: Off
Bluetooth: Off
GPS: Off
Wi-Fi: Off

What I have noticed
This action saves a tremendous amount of battery life.

When the action is turned off, it turns everything back on because I have everything turned on before the action turns off.

If my phone is charging, the action does not activate.

When my phone is just sitting around the house idle, I dont want to receive emails. If im at work, I'm already at my computer which receives my emails. When I'm sleeping, I dont want to receive emails... you get the point.

Because the trigger requires no movement, if I am out off the office and the phone is in my pocket, the action will not trigger.

What I have not tested is being in the car. Here is a scenario: I am at my office with the "IDLE" action triggered. As soon as I leave the office, the action should disable because I picked up my phone. The time it takes to leave my office and get to my car, the action should not activate because my phone is moving around in my pocket. When I get to my car, I should be able to activate another action called "CAR". Because everything is turned on, the bluetooth will pair with my car bluetooth and start the "CAR" action. I put my phone on the seat. Technically because there is no movement it should activate the "IDLE" action, but because of the bluetooth "CAR" action I would think it would overide the "IDLE" action. Even better, if I always charge my phone in the car, the "IDLE" action will not trigger because of the Not Charing trigger.

I can go 2 days without charging with minimal use. I look at it this way: If im not using my phone I don't need to be bothered with it other then phone calls and texts. If i get the itch to check for any new emails, I can easily pick up the phone, everything turns on and voila... email.

Thoughts?

I'm going to try this as well, very clever. But instead of turning everything off, would turning it on 'airplane mode' have the same effect?

 

[jroc]

I'm going to try this as well, very clever. But instead of turning everything off, would turning it on 'airplane mode' have the same effect?

No, Airplane Mode kills all connections, maybe even GPS too. Airplane Mode = no calls or texts coming in or going out.

 

[you2]

I have a trigger for sleep; which turns off data and auto sync; for 8 hours i seem to use 10% of the battery in this state. At work (work hours) the trigger set silence and wifi and turns off data (not sure if that is necessary). With these triggers Ic an use the screen for an hour and still have 60%-70% of the battery left after 24 hours.
-
The one thing I think would be nice is if the phone was a bit smarter. I.e, you could program in holidays and stuff. The other thing (and this really annoys me) is that if a trigger is active there is not a 'fast' disable that restores the phone to pre trigger state (like when a trigger expires). For example if work trigger is on; it would be nice if i could clik on it in the notifcation bar to toggle it.

 

[jroc]

Yea holidays... I had to try to make a new SA for Thanksgiving. I think that's when I decided to just use one SA at a time and no triggers, (all mine are labeled manual now) when it involved data.

A tip for those that don't know.. If you enable a SA and disable the time frame trigger(s) its not tied to any time frames anymore, then its set to manual.

Now I just use it as a one stop shop, condense multiple button presses into one.

 

[arlan_jacob]

My Smart actions
Home Trigger home AP wifi
Action
Vibrate 25% ringer
Background bada on

Work Ups driver I wood like a triger for motorola Auto dock to be added to the trigers
Triger
Bluetooth connection
charging
any sorce
Actions
Ringer 100%
display never off
gps on
wifi off
brightness 100%
launch Jango
Launch maps

Low battery saver

and sleep hours

 

[jfolliard]

newbie here. sorry for these basic questions (too bad there isn't a extensive manual for all the various tweaks for this and other stuff on the razr)

1. triggers - if you have multiple triggers, do they all have to be present for the actions to take place, or just one of them?
2. The Display trigger - "Off" - does that mean this trigger activates an action when the screen goes off? I have mine set to 30 secs. so depending on the answer to question 1 it might be problematic.
3. What does Background Sync exactly mean?
4. The pre made Battery extender smart action has three triggers - display off, not charging and no movement motion detector. The actions are turn GPS off, background sync off. What exactly does all this mean?

thanks

 

[Grey1001]

Haven't used that yet, but here is a thread on the subject.

http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-razr/443935-smart-actions-best-practices.html

 

[Szadzik]

newbie here. sorry for these basic questions (too bad there isn't a extensive manual for all the various tweaks for this and other stuff on the razr)

1. triggers - if you have multiple triggers, do they all have to be present for the actions to take place, or just one of them?
2. The Display trigger - "Off" - does that mean this trigger activates an action when the screen goes off? I have mine set to 30 secs. so depending on the answer to question 1 it might be problematic.
3. What does Background Sync exactly mean?
4. The pre made Battery extender smart action has three triggers - display off, not charging and no movement motion detector. The actions are turn GPS off, background sync off. What exactly does all this mean?

thanks

1. If you set up multiple triggers, all of them have to be present for the action to be activated.
2. Right. Why would 30 seconds cause a problem? Screen is on while you use it, nothing happens. You stop using it for 30 seconds, it goes off and action is applied.
3. It means that processes like GMail are able to sync on their own, without hitting refresh manually.
4. If you are not using your phone and it is not charging and it is not moving it will disable GPS and stop background sync.

 

[jfolliard]

1. If you set up multiple triggers, all of them have to be present for the action to be activated.
2. Right. Why would 30 seconds cause a problem? Screen is on while you use it, nothing happens. You stop using it for 30 seconds, it goes off and action is applied.
3. It means that processes like GMail are able to sync on their own, without hitting refresh manually.
4. If you are not using your phone and it is not charging and it is not moving it will disable GPS and stop background sync.

Thanks! Just so that I fully understand, background sync off means no fetching email or updating anything which routinely updates? My concern re: #2 above is that email would not be downloaded when I'm not using the phone after 30 seconds so I wouldn't know that I've received new email until I happened to pick it up, forcing me to check periodically. Is that correct?

thanks

 

[Raw Dodge]

Just a fyi,if you update to 2.3.6 via the leaked software..you will lose the ability to turn cellular data on and off via smart controls...I didnt use it anyway because my phone has major trouble reestablishing a data connection...it only does about 50% of the time.... so after the leaked software i was going to try it again to see if my connectivity had improved,and its no longer an option.....i feel the leaked software is still worth installing,as my data connection is noticably better...

 

[pm1066]

Just a fyi,if you update to 2.3.6 via the leaked software..you will lose the ability to turn cellular data on and off via smart controls...I didnt use it anyway because my phone has major trouble reestablishing a data connection...it only does about 50% of the time.... so after the leaked software i was going to try it again to see if my connectivity had improved,and its no longer an option.....i feel the leaked software is still worth installing,as my data connection is noticably better...

This is not entirely correct. I'm on 2.3.6, and can disable cellular data just fine. I don't understand why you are having this issue.


Did you have any rules at all that disabled cellular data, even ones you weren't using? Because mky old rules retained the ability to diasble cellular data, and I can create new ones that do it as well.

 

[Raw Dodge]

This is not entirely correct. I'm on 2.3.6, and can disable cellular data just fine. I don't understand why you are having this issue.


Did you have any rules at all that disabled cellular data, even ones you weren't using? Because mky old rules retained the ability to diasble cellular data, and I can create new ones that do it as well.

I had made rules but deleted them before updating because my data issues were made worse by the rule....now I do not have the option on my screen....its not there anymore.I set up the triggers,but the action is gone...maybe because you had it you didnt lose it?

 

[Raw Dodge]

I've got screenshots to post...can't figure out how to add images from the phone thru the app....edit,just did it from the laptop....this is the full list of my available options,after selecting the same triggers I used to use...screen off,and not charging...I used to have to option to turn off cellular data....that option is now gone ...

 

[Szadzik]

Thanks! Just so that I fully understand, background sync off means no fetching email or updating anything which routinely updates? My concern re: #2 above is that email would not be downloaded when I'm not using the phone after 30 seconds so I wouldn't know that I've received new email until I happened to pick it up, forcing me to check periodically. Is that correct?

thanks

Both correct.

 

[pm1066]

I've got screenshots to post...can't figure out how to add images from the phone thru the app....edit,just did it from the laptop....this is the full list of my available options,after selecting the same triggers I used to use...screen off,and not charging...I used to have to option to turn off cellular data....that option is now gone ...

Very weird. Here's mine (Screen timeout is missing due to the scrolling):

Clearly right there at the bottom. Have you asked over on XDA if others are having your problem? Also, have you received an update notification for Smart Actions? I keep getting the from the market. Looks like you are also either missing brightness control, or didn't scroll to the bottom for your screenshot.

 

[HTTR]

Holy smokes..I was not using this and now have set up a few. For work hours turn on data connection. I have not dropped signal once since that happened. Also to kick on to wifi when I get home. I hae power cords everywhere so battery not that much of an issue.

 

[Bodycount]

HEADPHONES:

Headphones plugged in
----------------------
Ringer 100%
Display 15 sec
Brightness 20%

WORK:

Wifi Connection at work
Timeframe during work hours
---------------------------

Ringer volume 40%


BLUETOOTH:

Bluetooth Connection to my car
------------------------------

Wifi off
Background sync off
Ringer Volume 100%
Display 15 sec
Brightness 25%


TIMEFRAME:

Timeframe overnight
Charging not charging
Display off
----------------------

Ringer Volume 46%
Brightness 4%
GPS off
Backrground sync off
Wifi off


TIMEFRAME:

Timeframe overnight
Charging wall adapter
----------------------

Ringer Volume 46%
Background Sync off
wifi off
Bluetooth off
GPS off


HOME:

Wifi my home network
Timeframe daytime
---------------------

Ringer volume 100%


BATTERY LEVEL:

Battery level <10%
Charging not charging
----------------------

GPS off
Background sync off
Cellular data off
display timeout 15 sec
brightness 5%

 

[Raw Dodge]

I'm at the bottom of my screen...there's no more time scroll ...I dont care about cellular data disabling ..I didn't like it anyway ....I have a data widget if I want to kill data....the only way I'd like it is if I could put a delay on it of a minute or so and Verizon got the data issues totally resolved so it would reliably pick up data after being disconnected.