Android newb wants better battery life. (edited 1/15: Google Maps sucks. Fixes?)

[phucheneh]

As another "freaking old man," here is what I do - only need a charge every week or two. I keep the damn phone OFF unless I want to use it. <vbg>

If you are, in fact, of an age that one would consider an 'old man,' I apologize if my terminology was offensive. Heh. Posts can change a lot depending on the tone you read them in.

I was calling myself 'old' in more of an ironic way. I was always ahead the curve with tech...building my own PC's when I was 12-13. Learning expensive (slightly pirated) programs in my teens. Lots of techie stuff done just for 'fun.'

But as the world has caught up (sort of), I've just become grumpy and anti-tech (especially toward some of the companies making it, and how they market it).

So I'm around 30 years of age. But sometimes I feel like I fit in with a crowd of people who sit on their front porch and shake their fist at various things.

You could look into the apps "juice defender" or "deep sleep battery saver" they might help.

Juice defender has a bit more of a learning curve but does a bit more. Don't run both at once.

I've heard of juice defender, now that you mention it. I'll give that a try.

I had already know about the built-in battery app, but it doesn't really do anything but provide info. I have, on occasion, seen something running (like google maps) and eating most of the battery, despite the program being closed. I like that I can 'force stop' it...but dislike that is happens in the first place, obviously.

Really dumb, basic question: Is the 'app button' (the thing that pulls up open apps, which can be swiped away) basically to be looked at as a taskbar? In the first day or two of having this phone, I didn't know about that...talk about some shitty battery life...

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

Turning everything off on a smartphone to save battery is pointless imo, may as well buy a dumbphone if you're going to do that.

Remembering to charge a phone every 3 days or so sounds like more hassle than charging it nightly to me. All you need is a days juice.

People do tend to exaggerate their battery life also, I hear people talk about 20 hours on a Nexus 4 with 'heavy usage', yeah right.

 

[WelshBloke]

Turning everything off on a smartphone to save battery is pointless imo, may as well buy a dumbphone if you're going to do that.

Turning off things that you don't use or arnt using makes sense though. Particularly if it saves you some battery and it's done automagically.

Remembering to charge a phone every 3 days or so sounds like more hassle than charging it nightly to me. All you need is a days juice.

You can still charge it nightly either way. It's just less likely to let you down under heavy use or if you miss a charge.

 

[gorcorps]

As another "freaking old man," here is what I do - only need a charge every week or two. I keep the damn phone OFF unless I want to use it. <vbg>

You're willing to wait for your phone to boot up if you fall and break your hip?

:awe:

 

[phucheneh]

bump for edit. Added at beginning of post. I think I could get 2-3 days on a charge if Google Maps would die in a fire.

 

[zerocool84]

bump for edit. Added at beginning of post. I think I could get 2-3 days on a charge if Google Maps would die in a fire.

Killing apps only makes them reopen and use more battery life especially apps like Maps. The fact of the matter is that you got a low end phone and they all have horrible battery life.

 

[techie81]

Killing apps only makes them reopen and use more battery life especially apps like Maps. The fact of the matter is that you got a low end phone and they all have horrible battery life.

Not if you don't use them.

 

[quikah]

If you actually have Maps showing as 90% under your battery use there is a problem. I have had this happen a couple of times before, somehow maps gets into a state where it won't let the phone sleep. I have solved this in the past by opening maps and Local/latitudes/whatever they call it now and then closing them. This seems to happen after a maps update.

Uninstall map updates, clear data, clear cache under maps app. Restart phone. Install map updates, open maps, open latitude/local/whatever. See if that helps.

 

[phucheneh]

Killing apps only makes them reopen and use more battery life especially apps like Maps. The fact of the matter is that you got a low end phone and they all have horrible battery life.

Sorry, AT billionaire. Go troll P&N or whatever you do; I was looking for generic Android advice.

People are having this problem with Google's own phones.


Anyhow, I did realize that even with GPS 'off' with a quick button press, the other two options (Google Location somethingorother) were staying on. I disabled both of those and Maps has quit popping up...for now. I'm guessing maybe I fixed the 'launch at random' issue, but I doubt I fixed the 'stay running even after the program is closed' one.

I think I'm just going to root the damned thing. I'm tired of having to put up with crap control of an 'open source' platform.

 

[soccerballtux]

if you overclock or undervolt AT ALL set it back to normal and clear your Dalvik VM and normal cache (not app cache, phone cache, ie the /cache partition). In fact, do this anyways.

I have had apps enter completely broken states because I was undervolting a little too far once and it cooked some bad behavior into the cache and was causing endless CPU cycles to eat battery and crash or something. When I cleared the cache, was fine.

 

[corkyg]

You're willing to wait for your phone to boot up if you fall and break your hip? :awe:

Yep! Chances are I would fall on the phone and smash it anyway.

 

[phucheneh]

if you overclock or undervolt AT ALL set it back to normal and clear your Dalvik VM and normal cache (not app cache, phone cache, ie the /cache partition). In fact, do this anyways.

I have had apps enter completely broken states because I was undervolting a little too far once and it cooked some bad behavior into the cache and was causing endless CPU cycles to eat battery and crash or something. When I cleared the cache, was fine.

...what?

I'm guessing you saw 'root' and figured I knew a little bit more about this than I do. I know what the Dalvik VM is, in a general sense, but what do you mean when you say to clear its cache? I have nothing actually bearing the 'Dalvik' name...could you explain to me, in android-retard terms, what specific cache you're talking about? Heh. 'Retard' might be a bit much; I have a basic grasp but this is not unlike trying to learn a new PC OS once you start going past basic settings and apps. Call me an 'aspiring beginner android poweruser,' perhaps. :hmm:

I did go ahead and root the phone (a first for me). I'm not going at this totally blind, but I'm no programmer and only use simple GUI-based Linux on my laptop.

After rooting, the maps thing may actually be somewhat fixed...I'm not sure why. I still have to force stop Maps after running Nav, but it doesn't seem to be coming back. I'm guessing I got rid of the process that was calling up Maps for no damn reason? So, essentially, Maps was using power it didn't need to when running, but another program was responsible for it being there (outside of Nav use). So it's only partially to blame. I wish it would murder itself when I close Nav, though...maybe someone has an app for that. 'Intermittent Google Maps Killer' or something would be nice.:wub:

edit: And I still think this phone is amazing for fifty bucks. I think I will actually buy a backup. Would rather smash a few of these than spend 200-300 or more to get a high-res screen and extra processing power that I really have no need for. Plus I lose my keyboard, dammit. My blunt, calloused fingertips just plain cannot do touchscreen typing.

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

You can't just guess at what's killing your battery life. Poor battery life is almost always certain apps stopping your device from entering it's low power sleep mode when not in use. Install Better Battery Stats and read the documentation on wakelocks to do this.

Android really needs the ability to alert users about apps which are substantially impacting battery life. Specifically those with aggressive use of wakelocks. Saying that, the problematic wakelocks on my Google devices are either Android kernel based or A Google app (G+).

 

[phucheneh]

Oh, and I know I'm getting way off of the battery topic now, but if anyone has had similar experiences* to me, I'd be very grateful for any general suggestions. As in, things I may need to look out for after rooting, apps I should have, and whatnot. General 'AT approved' links are enough; there seems to be a lot of bad advice out there.

*as in being new to Android, perhaps not having a super-spiffy phone, but being willing to do a little work/experimentation to get the phone as efficient and controlled as possible.

 

[soccerballtux]

You can't just guess at what's killing your battery life. Poor battery life is almost always certain apps stopping your device from entering it's low power sleep mode when not in use. Install Better Battery Stats and read the documentation on wakelocks to do this.

Android really needs the ability to alert users about apps which are substantially impacting battery life. Specifically those with aggressive use of wakelocks. Saying that, the problematic wakelocks on my Google devices are either Android kernel based or A Google app (G+).

if they did that it would be half baked like usual and bother you every 5 minutes that media player is using CPU cycles in the background, do you want to stop it? You haven't responded within 15 minutes so we decided to kill it anyways even though you were driving and listening to music....

 

[soccerballtux]

...what?

I'm guessing you saw 'root' and figured I knew a little bit more about this than I do. I know what the Dalvik VM is, in a general sense, but what do you mean when you say to clear its cache? I have nothing actually bearing the 'Dalvik' name...could you explain to me, in android-retard terms, what specific cache you're talking about? Heh. 'Retard' might be a bit much; I have a basic grasp but this is not unlike trying to learn a new PC OS once you start going past basic settings and apps. Call me an 'aspiring beginner android poweruser,' perhaps. :hmm:

I did go ahead and root the phone (a first for me). I'm not going at this totally blind, but I'm no programmer and only use simple GUI-based Linux on my laptop.

After rooting, the maps thing may actually be somewhat fixed...I'm not sure why. I still have to force stop Maps after running Nav, but it doesn't seem to be coming back. I'm guessing I got rid of the process that was calling up Maps for no damn reason? So, essentially, Maps was using power it didn't need to when running, but another program was responsible for it being there (outside of Nav use). So it's only partially to blame. I wish it would murder itself when I close Nav, though...maybe someone has an app for that. 'Intermittent Google Maps Killer' or something would be nice.:wub:

edit: And I still think this phone is amazing for fifty bucks. I think I will actually buy a backup. Would rather smash a few of these than spend 200-300 or more to get a high-res screen and extra processing power that I really have no need for. Plus I lose my keyboard, dammit. My blunt, calloused fingertips just plain cannot do touchscreen typing.

I don't have time to explain /jackbaur
Dalvik cache caches frequently used codes so that the java interpreter doesn't have interpret every time. If CPU miscalculated, the cached instructions are wrong and do wrong things. For me, clearing the cache solved some wonky Gmail behavior that apparently started when I was undervolting. Kyocera is not main name brand phone (Samsung, HTC, Moto, etc) known for quality or anything in particular so don't assume it (software, hardware) will function 100% like a quality phone, problems could have crept in where not expected, cached, stuck, Maps boned. Also try uninstalling Maps/Maps updates, reinstalling them.

 

[zerogear]

I personally don't bother with JuiceDefender -- I find that when you turn off and on your smartphone often, JuiceDefender actually drains more since it's constantly switching mobile data on and off.

That said, I personally use WatchDog, it monitors for abnormal cpu behavior (wakelocks, etc). And asks you if you want to whitelist/blacklist certain apps.

 

[phucheneh]

JuiceDefender just broke things. Didn't really seem to do anything positive.

However, having rooted and installed VM Heap and SetCPU, I am now quite happy. I think an underclocked screen off profile will help a lot, in addition to the general settings. With 1024 (stock) max and 245 min, it is spending the vast majority of its time at 245 with the 'ondemand' rules. Screen off or low batt are 768/122.

Also it's a shitload faster from just upping the heap to 36.

Ahhhh I feel like a proper nerd again.

 

[Yuriman]

Just skimmed the thread, but here are my thoughts:

The best I've managed on my Galaxy S2 is about 4 and a half days, which comes comes to almost 110 hours off the charger. What eats battery most (in most cases) are wakelocks, or frequent wakes from sleep. On my particular phone, some wifi networks with multicast wake my phone up every couple minutes, so my default is to have wifi off. Other things that can cause frequent wakes are apps that constantly sync. I have a weather widget that updates once every 3 hours, and when I go to bed at night, I wake up and my phone has *only* woken up twice and that's to update the weather.

@OP, the app you want is "better battery stats", it will watch your apps and count the wakelocks caused by each one, and you can look for individual solutions to each wakelock.

 

[gorcorps]

JuiceDefender just broke things. Didn't really seem to do anything positive.

What did you do to it? By default if you just enable it and don't change anything else, it'll keep your data connection off most of the time and turn it on every once in a while for updates. It won't really seem to do much if you have a strong connection all of the time (or have all sync/push disabled already), but it helps those of us who are in areas with less than stellar signal but still want things updating.

 

[gorcorps]

Just skimmed the thread, but here are my thoughts:

The best I've managed on my Galaxy S2 is about 4 and a half days, which comes comes to almost 110 hours off the charger. What eats battery most (in most cases) are wakelocks, or frequent wakes from sleep. On my particular phone, some wifi networks with multicast wake my phone up every couple minutes, so my default is to have wifi off. Other things that can cause frequent wakes are apps that constantly sync. I have a weather widget that updates once every 3 hours, and when I go to bed at night, I wake up and my phone has *only* woken up twice and that's to update the weather.

@OP, the app you want is "better battery stats", it will watch your apps and count the wakelocks caused by each one, and you can look for individual solutions to each wakelock.

You got 4 1/2 days out of the stock GS2 battery? How in the hell... Even with the 3200mAh battery and relatively little use I only got 2 days out of it.

 

[notposting]

The best solution I've seen to Android battery life problems is switching to iPhone, Windows Phone, or Blackberry.

I haven't had to look at wifi, gps, or bluetooth settings since getting my WP7.

At one point I was pulling 30+ hours out of my OG Droid...running Bugless Beast v0.4 I believe (so Froyo era). JuiceDefender, battery saving kernel...then Google introduced a bug in their stock email app which would put the little bastard into a constant wakelock. I fought that for a year before moving on.

 

[phucheneh]

I'm using GSAM battery monitor right now. The other one recommended has no free version, and I don't really want to buy something I might just delete.

It's pegging my average expected battery life at between 40-70 hours, depending on how active I am. Over about eight hours of sleep, it used about 5% of the battery. That's a nearly an entire week of standby.

CPU throttling seems to have seriously helped.

Of course, if I get bored and sit there and play games or something, I'm sure I could kill it in a couple hours, tops. But the only intensive thing I use is GPS, and I generally have learned to plug it in or otherwise account for that.

As far as JuiceDefender, I just had it at stock settings and it broke my speakerphone, among other things. That gets an instant delete for me.

 

[zerogear]

The best solution I've seen to Android battery life problems is switching to iPhone, Windows Phone, or Blackberry.

I haven't had to look at wifi, gps, or bluetooth settings since getting my WP7.

At one point I was pulling 30+ hours out of my OG Droid...running Bugless Beast v0.4 I believe (so Froyo era). JuiceDefender, battery saving kernel...then Google introduced a bug in their stock email app which would put the little bastard into a constant wakelock. I fought that for a year before moving on.

Nah, Galaxy Note II has steller battery life. Though 3100 mAh

 

[Yuriman]

You can get better battery stats for free from the author's XDA thread, the market version is more of a "donate" option - buy it if you like it.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809

@gorcorps, this is from my wife's GS2, running AOKP ICS Android:

^ The small blue lines below the charge graph indicate when the phone was awake and/or being used.

She has a lot more wakelocks than I do (social apps and whatnot) but tends to use her phone less as well. Most of the wakelocks are lumped under "Android OS" in the stock battery monitor, but better battery stats lets you see the individual processes that are waking the phone (so you can address them individually). I use ShoStock3 (which is built off of the official Samsung Jelly Bean leak for the international GS2) for my ROM, and I'm on the fence as to whether I like it or AOKP better.