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stopping background activity during the night?

snadge

snadge

Newbie
Hello all, new to these forums.

I have got a Sony Xperia Miro (Ice Cream Sandwich) on Talk Mobile (Vodafone UK), had it for almost a week and the battery on it has been excellent while the sim was inactive whilst waiting 5 days for number port from Virgin, 2 days ago the Sim was activated and all has been well... until I looked at the battery life this morning... after charging it to 100% then unplugging it and going to bed, I got up aobut 11 hours later and battery had dropped to 67% (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS all off - apart from background data) - when I looked at the Battery Graph it shows a constant decline during the night with lots of activity, when I checked the following apps seem to be eating all the battery:

Google Services
Android OS
Facebook

they account for about 60-70% of the battery loss overnight.

after getting up and giving it some use the battery graph shows the decline stopping (flatlining) .. i find this odd? its as if it being idle uses more battery than when I use it??

here is screen:

zJyijLP.png


its obvious now that Google & Facebook sync/refresh are using the data connection constantly too check for updates and sync'ing...at least thats what I think it is... now I would rather not have to turn 'background data' off then on all the time as I may forget, is there anyway to stop these services during the night? or automatically disable/enable background data during certain hours? (i.e. during the night) without me having to interact? ...must be an app for this lol..

Iam quite new to Android but my GF has a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 so Ive played with it before.

If anyone can help it would be great :)

thanks
 
My solution is to use Settings Extended from the Play Store (it's free).

It gives you a toolbar of sorts at the top of your notification area. You can customize it in a variety of ways. At night I swipe down on notifications and at the top of the screen my left three buttons (of seven total) are: autosync, wifi and mobile data. I click all those off and the battery drain overnight is minimal by comparison. Then in the morning it is just as easy to fire them all back up.

I know you don't want to turn your radios off. But maybe just turning sync off this way?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hb.settings&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd

Also, you can check your facebook and gmail settings and have them check less often perhaps.
 
@ gtbarry - many thanks for your reply :)

I will try that app you recommend, I dont use Gmail unless thats the built in email app which I have setup with my hotmail account!

in 'settings' and under 'accounts/sync' everything was and is off, i cant find the checking delay settings in Facebook but I know it did have one.

there must be an app that runs in background that you can set to disable all whatever you set during times that you set? - guess I will have to have a look..

offtopic: is it possible for apps to conflict or cause problems with your phone? (ones from play website) - as tonight my HSPA wasnt working..soon as I uninstalled Carphone Warehouse Billing Angel it started working.. (this monitors calls, texts and data usage)


thanks again :)
 
Android OS and Google services will always be there. The only way to stop those would be to turn off the phone. Android OS is the phone's operating system itself. 11 hrs using up 37% points to approximately over 3% per hour, which is actually pretty good for a smartphone.
 
chanchan05 said:
Android OS and Google services will always be there. The only way to stop those would be to turn off the phone. Android OS is the phone's operating system itself. 11 hrs using up 37% points to approximately over 3% per hour, which is actually pretty good for a smartphone.
Click to expand...

Hi chanchan05 :) - hmm, I have to disagree with you... Iam on about while the phones not in use... 37% battery drain over 11 hours idle during the night is terrible? and it only done that once the sim was activated and the data connection was live - I dunno what phone you use and whether or not you leave all your radios on during the night but losing nearly 40% of the battery in 11 hours immediately after charging and its sitting on table idle with all radios off (except data connection) is not what I would consider to be "pretty good"..lol.. dont you agree?

Today I charged the phone to 100% at 5pm - its had a fair bit of use since then (maybe 10 minutes Wifi and 20 minutes 3G internet) aswell as playing with apps and at midnight (almost 7 hours later) the battery is at 86%.... thats good!! the battery graph shows nice straight lines which equate to v. slow battery decline... whereas last night it was a sharp decline with loads of blue dots at bottom all the way along indicating activity throughout the 11 hours... what these apps where doing I dont know as in 'accounts/sync' they are all off?

I guess what Iam after is an app that can automate the disabling of data-connection or make background services inactive (both preferably) during 'set' hours (i.e. midnight to 9am) ... do you know of a free app that can do this?

I have installed that app 'Settings Extended' and thats ok as I can now swipe down and disable data with one click (swipe down, click, swipe up) which will do for now...thanks... but I would prefer something a bit more automated.

someone recommended Juice Defender which seems to have exactly what i need in the Advanced Settings (timers) but its not free for the version that unlocks those options and Iam literrally skint lol

thanks again for the help guys :)
 
snadge said:
there must be an app that runs in background that you can set to disable all whatever you set during times that you set? - guess I will have to have a look..
Click to expand...

There are automation apps in the Play Store like Tasker and Automateit (there is a free version of Automateit if you want to try it) as well as profile schedulers that will adjust your phone and its settings according to time of day or location (using wifi names or cell tower locations).

Personally, using automation I find cumbersome, as I end up with so many rules that things are turning on and off when they should according to the rules I set up, but not when I want them to (i.e. my connection to nearby cell towers drop near one part of my house and so a whole set of rules kick in for not the reason intended).

Then with profile schedules, I run into the issue that I really have no set schedule except for when I wake up. So, I can't set anything for when I go to sleep.
 
Overall, the things that will drain your battery the most are the CPU and the radios. And of course the screen. The more often you can go without bluetooth, gps, mobile data, wifi (or any combination thereof) the better your battery life will be. Of course some of that is not realistic.

One way I do like the automation apps is that I have my phone set to turn on gps when I launch Navigation/maps, Nike Running or glympse. And to close when I close those apps. Don't have to think about GPS now that I have those set.

I used to have it set to shut off wifi when I left home, but then I just forgot to turn it on when I got to work or when I got back home.
 
I have a tasker profile that automatically turns on Airplane mode at night about the time I go to bed. If you don't want to pay for tasker, you can get the same functionality out of Battery Widget Reborn. Hope this helps. Alternatively, you might just have to shut your phone down at night.
 
Well I do have all the radios and everything set to autosync on my S3mini, which leads me to a usual of 3% per hour usage on standby. If you are looking for an app that turns off everything in a set time, you can try Easy Battery Saver. Its fully free and you can set a night mode for it. I tried it once and under night mode it used up about 4% over 7hrs. However its a bit buggy on my phone as sometimes during the day my data won't turn on unless I restart. I moved to GreenPower which has the same features, but night mode on this app is a paid feature.
 
PROBLEM SOLVED!

I managed to get Juice Defender Ultimate which has done a tremendous job... 12 hours idle last night was 3% battery drain!! and that was with the GPS on the whole time too as it was training my wifi location but was taking forever.. the Ultimate version is
 
oh dear - should it be sold then if he no longer wants too supply updates?

why has the dev abandoned it?

is there anything similar/better?
 
chanchan05 said:
I already mentioned currently supported alternatives: GreenPower, Easy Battery Saver, and you can also try Battery Defender.
Click to expand...

I find it odd that the dev has abandoned JDU but still sells it and offer support for it via his website for it?

I will have a look at the ones you mention too, thanks.
 
Settings Extended sounds like a good idea, but (a) I can’t even try it on my eensy Optimus Gingerbread and (b) I’m content with Connection Manager, a harmless little widget I tap to put data to sleep at night.
 
not that it matters anymore...but i edited my original post to include the screenshot seeing as now i can post them lol...

the screen was shortly after but when i first checked facebook was right up there as one of the culprits!

zJyijLP.png
 
I’ve been using Juice Defender Plus but am now trying Battery Defender, since learning that JD as gone to rest and BD has a modest size. BD’s settings are also easier to understand than JD’s.
 
@ Jeff

can you tell me if it can...

A) let you set the night time duration?
B) sleep radios when idle during the day but enable a connection every x mins or hours for x minutes to sync facebook/email
C) select apps to force connection to stay active when screen is off (idle)
D) allow you to set "wifi preferred" so it trys to use wifi first and if no connection available in 'x' seconds then it uses data

does it have anything else that may be of interest?


thanks
 
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