[Q] How to determine which app is draining battery - HTC Aria Themes and Apps

I have been looking at a few apps in the market and I'm seeing more and more suggestions that the apps are a battery drain. How are these users so sure that one particular app is killing the battery? I can't find any way to see that, only the usage setting that shows display, phone idle, wifi and stuff like that.
Are live wallpapers really a battery hog when the device is not in use (display off and no other apps running)?
I'm using Tasker and have several (ok...17) tasker widgets that manage many settings and apps. I also have a few dozen profiles that manipulate tasks that are associated with those widgets. Any consensus that Tasker is a culprit? I do use it for alot of stuff.
Rooted Aria running FR006 (Liberated with Froyo).

duckredbeard said:
I have been looking at a few apps in the market and I'm seeing more and more suggestions that the apps are a battery drain. How are these users so sure that one particular app is killing the battery? I can't find any way to see that, only the usage setting that shows display, phone idle, wifi and stuff like that.
Are live wallpapers really a battery hog when the device is not in use (display off and no other apps running)?
I'm using Tasker and have several (ok...17) tasker widgets that manage many settings and apps. I also have a few dozen profiles that manipulate tasks that are associated with those widgets. Any consensus that Tasker is a culprit? I do use it for alot of stuff.
Rooted Aria running FR006 (Liberated with Froyo).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming that by 'usage settings' you mean -> settings, about phone, battery usage
If so, that should give you more of a breakdown than just what you had listed there...
Sent From My HTC Aria Using XDA App

I think you can use task manager to see what's running. It's a lot of experimentation . I'm testing itnow and it seems ok . I did a clean install of the sense Rom..( I prefer this UI) I installed no utilities no task killer no Setcpu nothing. I did not install Google voice disabled Google talk. Left background data but unchecked autosync. I put the HTC sync widget on desktop so I can hit it ever so often when I got the itch. Keeping gps WiFi bt off till needed will report back

Searched the market and found 191 task managers. Which dev are you referring to?
Sent from my Liberated Intruder using XDA app.

Related

task killers?

can anyone recommend a good task killer? ive tried atk on 2.2 but its very sluggish. i dl task panel x and it doesnt update frequently lol. i have autokiller memory but not sure if i am using it right lol. so if anyone is using a task killer, what r u using and r u getting good results? thanks in advance!
Do not use autokiller. I can't remember what problem it causes but it does indeed cause a problem on all galaxy phones. Or at laast my fascinate
Sent from my SCH-I500-Fascinate using XDA App
You shouldn't need one from all I've read about it.
but I use system panel to kill an app here and there.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Don't bother using a task killer. I used Advance Task Killer for the last two weeks but it probably hampered things more than it helped. Your phone will NOT slow down to a crawl. Most custom ROMs use good minfree settings that'll keep your phone snappy.
Just uninstall your task killer, or if you want to use it, turn off autostart, turn off autokill, and only use it for pesky apps that won't die.
toawkanavngthded said:
can anyone recommend a good task killer? ive tried atk on 2.2 but its very sluggish. i dl task panel x and it doesnt update frequently lol. i have autokiller memory but not sure if i am using it right lol. so if anyone is using a task killer, what r u using and r u getting good results? thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using ATK and could not verify any benefit. I read the following article and gained some more understanding. I have been running without a Task Killer since and I see no loss in performance or battery life. I could say I have less FCs and more reliability with syncing email.
Read This: http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
i have been getting random shutdown these few days (started like 3 days ago), about 1 shutdown per day. i'm not sure if it' the stock task manager, dolphin browser beta 4.0, or widget locker 1.2.7 causing it. i already removed stock task manager and downgraded widget locker to 1.2.4 to see what happens.
Task killers aren't generally needed on android. If its battery life you want then for one try not to compulsively look at your phone preventing the cpu from idling and screen from turning off. Get juice defender. It turns off data unless it is needed. Most apps don't use resorces when the phone is asleep unless they are designed to, like file sharing programs or apps that sync data in the background but there are also bad apps. In froyo Use the built in task manager (long prsss on home) to see what's running. If you havent used something in a while and don't need the process active then close it.
If it is performance you want then no task manager will help. You need to alter the minfree setting which manages memory and how apps use it. I use the one click lag fix app to do that. Other apps I used caused problems. I set the minfree to moderate. Its more agressive than stock but doesn't kill processes you might want running. Anything more agressive than that kills allshare while im streaming movies but there is a performance increase when set to optimal or strict however it is slight.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897

Random applications

Can someone explain to me why I always have different applications that I didn't specifically start listed in my task killer? I am trying to get a handle on the battery life of my CM7 14 NC. I am pretty new to android and have a hunch that it is something simple that I am missing. TIA.
No one else sees applications running on their NC that weren't implicitly started? Sometimes I look and twitter / facebook will be running even though I didn't start them.
That's pretty much how android works, and it's also the reason why you shouldn't be using a task killer...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
As has already been implied, don't use task killers. Apps start up and shut down on their own and Android has a built in 'task killer'. I found that when I was using a task killer, my phone ran at maybe 10% faster (due to less running on the ram), but the battery life actually was worse by a good margin. IMO, the Nook runs really well (especially if you OC it) and the battery life can better be controlled in other ways. Turning it off when not in use, unlike a phone (because you need it on to make a call, of course), will save a lot of battery. Also, SetCPU can be used to set profiles, they will save you on battery a lot. Disable auto-update and notifications for apps unless you really need them. use the power control and set it to where you can turn the brightness down low on the fly and keep it down unless you need it up. Sure, the screen looks beautiful when bright, but unless you're playing a game or watching a video, you don't need a bright screen.
Sorry for the rant, hope maybe it helps a little. Also, the more updates we have the better battery life will be.
Thanks for the heads up on this. I had not read that article before. I will uninstall the task killer and see what happens to my battery life. The other suggestions about turning off auto updates makes sense also.
JLCollier2005 said:
Also, SetCPU can be used to set profiles, they will save you on battery a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Donot use setcpu or set profiles with cm7!
luciferii said:
Donot use setcpu or set profiles with cm7!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why not? I know it has built in monitoring, but it seems to me they work together.
JLCollier2005 said:
why not? I know it has built in monitoring, but it seems to me they work together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cm7 already has profiles built into it under the cyanogenmod settings in the settings app! if you run both you are running the same thing twice and wasting both performance and power.
Sent via CyanogenMod7 Encore rc25/Tapatalk Pro

Battery life

I think the greatest problem with the sgm is batterylife. My wife and I have both the sgm. She've got stock rom and I custom rom md-utility. My battery life is a little better, but not so much. Her apps are fb whatsapp and mine fb twitter tapatalk. Tried to deinstall fb, but still it sucks. Is the batterlife better with mini2?
Verstuurd van mijn GT-S5570 met Tapatalk
battery life is always an issue for android and iOS smartphones
For good battery I guess Nokia still leads. Even with Windows Phone.
coolsandie said:
For good battery I guess Nokia still leads. Even with Windows Phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With great features comes short battery life but there are various ways in which you can extend the battery life uptill a certain extent .
Try these methods :
Use Android’s Built-in Battery Usage Screen
There’s a screen built into Android that most casual users probably don’t even know about, and it can tell you exactly what is killing your battery. Head into Settings –> About Phone –> Battery use to see what has been killing your battery life.
From this screen, you can usually see what apps are the worst offenders, and you will probably notice that the biggest problem—at least, the biggest one that we can fix—is actually the backlight on the phone. Personally I’d prefer to talk less to other humans, but that isn’t always an option!
Note: on my phone, I’ve already configured the backlight to not be very bright—normally that number would be a lot higher.
Adjust the Backlight to be Less Bright
Since we’ve already determined that the backlight is usually the biggest problem, you should probably adjust the settings. Head into Settings –> Display –> Brightness, where you can choose to automatically adjust, which usually works fairly well, or you can just turn the brightness down to the lowest acceptable level.
You should make sure that the screen timeout value is set to turn off quickly as well.
Disable Your Wi-Fi When You Don’t Need It
Wi-Fi can really speed up accessing data on your phone, but it can also be a big drain on the battery if you don’t need it enabled, especially when you are out and about… The phone will try and scan for a wireless network even though you may not want it to.
To enable Airplane mode, you can head into Settings –> Wireless & networks–> Airplane mode.
You can easily toggle the Wi-Fi on or off with a widget or shortcut—there’s a built-in widget included in Android phones, or you can use the AnyCut or BetterCut utilities to create your own shortcuts to directly turn them on or off without requiring a widget.
Disable Bluetooth if You Don’t Use It
If you aren’t using a wireless headset, there’s no reason to have Bluetooth running all the time, and you should probably cut it off to save the battery life. If you never use it at all, head into Settings –> Wireless & networks–> Bluetooth
You can also enable or disable the Bluetooth when you do need it, using the power widget.
Use the Power Widget to Easily Toggle GPS, Bluetooth, Wireless, and Screen Brightness
Android includes a built-in Power Widget that can easily toggle these settings on or off—just long press on the background of one of your screens, choose Widget –> Power Control to add it to the screen. You’ll notice in this example screenshot that I’ve got my GPS enabled but I’m not using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth at the moment—the icon all the way on the right lets you easily toggle the screen brightness settings.
This is probably the simplest and easiest thing that you can do to save your battery without having to dig into the settings all the time.
Disable Apps that Sync Constantly
The built-in Email application (not the Gmail one, which uses Push technology) can suck the battery badly, because it syncs on a too-regular basis, especially when you have lots of accounts—each one of them is set to sync every 15 minutes. You’d be better off setting it up to sync manually, but if you want it to sync automatically, you should set it to sync less frequently.
Open up the Email application, head to your account, and choose Account settings –> Email check frequency from the menu. Change this to something more like an hour… or never. You can always hit refresh manually when you want to read your email.
The same thing holds true for other accounts, like Twitter clients, which are even less important to update all the time. For Seesmic, you can head into Settings –> Background Updates from the main screen. For the official Twitter app, the settings are similar.
The Facebook application polls automatically in the background, and you can customize the refresh interval for that as well—if you don’t need Facebook updating all the time, you should set this value as high as possible.
From the main Facebook screen—the one with the icons—head into Settings –> Refresh interval from the menu.
Disable the GPS Location Features
One of the biggest battery sucking features on my droid is the GPS… When I have navigation going, the battery dies far too fast, so I end up having to keep it plugged in the whole time I am driving. This makes sense… but what you might not know is that a lot of other applications use the GPS as well.
You can also change the GPS to use wireless networks, and uncheck the option for Use GPS satellites—this will make the GPS a little less accurate, but it will save your battery. Note that you probably want the real GPS enabled if you’re using Google Maps Navigation.
Additionally, you should turn off the geolocation features in your Twitter client, weather application, or whatever other apps that you really don’t need them in. If you want to keep it enabled, that’s great, just realize that it does drain the battery, so uncheck this option to help.
Use a Task Manager to See What is Always Running
It is a wise decision to have a copy of Advanced Task Cleaner or a similar application installed on your phone to help you kill applications that don’t need to be running, but more so that you can see what exactly is launching itself repeatedly in the background. You can setup an auto-kill list for applications you don’t use that often—make them cut off when you shut off the screen, or after an interval.
Note: If you’ve configured your application settings to not pull down lots of data or do checking in the background, it’s not quite as important to keep tasks killed all the time—that’s really what kills your battery, not having them sitting idle.
You can also configure advanced task manager to show you CPU usage for each app, which is a more useful meter than memory usage when it comes to battery life.
Disable or Remove Applications That You Aren’t Using
Once you have identified the application that you don’t want running all the time, check in the settings to see if it can be removed from running in the background. Some applications will give you an option for notifications that can be turned off if you don’t need them, making the application not check in the background so often.
It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway—you should remove the apps that you don’t need anymore, especially the ones that are draining your battery as determined from the android battery panel or task manager. Head into Settings –> Applications –> Manage Applications and then you can click the Uninstall button for an app.
Disable Home Screen Widgets You Don’t Need
If you’ve got loads of widgets that are pulling data from the web, that means they are likely pulling down data in the background all the time. You should try not to go overboard with these, or remove the ones you don’t actually need.
Disable Animated Wallpaper
Yeah, that sweet animated wallpaper doesn’t help your battery any. Get rid of it for a small extra battery savings.
Keep the Battery from Getting Too Hot
One of the quickest ways to kill a battery is to leave it out in the sun—try and keep your phone somewhere that isn’t too hot whenever possible. You’ll end up needing to replace the battery a lot quicker if you don’t.
And my personal recommendation is to close your phone in the night which will save your battery . You can also use call forwarding if you get important calls in the night .
Hope this helps
All the credits of these tips goes to http://www.howtogeek.com
After rooting Battey really drains fast....
Shank73 said:
After rooting Battey really drains fast....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting is only to gain superuser access right ?!
I'm just thinking, where's the relation between gaining superuser access on the system and battery drain ?
For example with laptop,
If we logon with superuser user account, does it make the battery run out faster than logon if we logon with guest account ?
.:Sorry for bad English:.
Battery life is one of the biggest problems with android though it has got better with time
and will continuse to do so, you just have to wait
Sent from my GT-I9100P using xda app-developers app
arcootje said:
I think the greatest problem with the sgm is batterylife. My wife and I have both the sgm. She've got stock rom and I custom rom md-utility. My battery life is a little better, but not so much. Her apps are fb whatsapp and mine fb twitter tapatalk. Tried to deinstall fb, but still it sucks. Is the batterlife better with mini2?
Verstuurd van mijn GT-S5570 met Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can adjust the CPU frequency when screen-off around 122MHz-245 MHz, it helps, even not significantly affect the battery life.
I had a galaxy mini and i can say the battery life is really short for what it packs. I will give you some tips that helped me get more juice out of it.
Use flight mode at night. This really helps if you do end up with some battery left at the end of the day.
Disable network data when you are not using it.
Under wireless and network, mobile networks, change the network mode to gsm only. If your phone is on auto, it will constantly search for a better signal and will change fron 3g to gsm and back many times. This really drains the battery so having it set on one option will help, also gsm netork uses less battery by itself so you can get more talk time.
Go to play store and download an app like titanium backup. Uninstall all the apps that you don't use. Really, all the apps that you never enter.
Optional, get advanced task killer and kill processes from time to time.
After doing all that, your battery life should get considerably better, everything else is common sense.
Sent from my GT-I8160 using xda app-developers app
Battery life?
I only unmarked the 2 Google Services Locations on Settings + GPS.
Now I had battery at 51% during 25 hours and deep sleep 99%.
Only phone. No wifi nor 3G.
battery life is very weak on mini.
even with everything off and I mean everything (removed many system apps) battery lasts 2 days and maybe a half.
just by standing idle ( no background apps, services or internet running) it saps all of the battery

[Request] Process manager/Task manager

I am wondering if we have a task manager/process explorer app for Nexus 4? Currently I am using AirDroid v2 that includes a task manager, but I am looking for one with more options.
I travel a lot & would like to kill as much unwanted applications running in the background as possible to conserve battery.
There is no more need to use task killer to manage android systems any more. You will be doing more harm than good, in fact there is no good in killing tssks manually.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Point noted.
But when I use Airdroid task manager, I see a process when the corresponding app is not running the background.
To mention a few; Cut the rope free, stocks & Hill climb racing.
Few system process like picasa uploader, chrome etc.
As you said andoird may optimize most of them, but I would like some control when running thin on battery.
mohan_168 said:
I am wondering if we have a task manager/process explorer app for Nexus 4? Currently I am using AirDroid v2 that includes a task manager, but I am looking for one with more options.
I travel a lot & would like to kill as much unwanted applications running in the background as possible to conserve battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use greenify https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en to hibernate any persisting apps/processes (except system). apps relaunch when you open them.
Killing apps and then having to reload them actually uses more battery than them being dormant in the background and already loaded when called upon. The problem is when you have misbehaving apps that stay in the foreground eating up cpu, instead of going dormant into the background. And this does happen. I use an app called Watchdog that alerts me when this happens. It allows you to kill the app when this happens. It also allows you to whitelist and blacklist apps and processes.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
main phone setting, apps, running.. default task/process manager. in the top right will be an option to show cached process as well.
simms22 said:
main phone setting, apps, running.. default task/process manager. in the top right will be an option to show cached process as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We all know that is there. The op mentioned wanting more options, mainly monitoring and kill options.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
mohan_168 said:
I am wondering if we have a task manager/process explorer app for Nexus 4? Currently I am using AirDroid v2 that includes a task manager, but I am looking for one with more options.
I travel a lot & would like to kill as much unwanted applications running in the background as possible to conserve battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fernandezhjr said:
We all know that is there. The op mentioned wanting more options, mainly monitoring and kill options.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fast reboot(free), but the paid version i like better https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greatbytes.fastreboot&hl=en
rayiskon, I will try greenify & let you know how that helps.
fernandezhjr, I agree restarting app is not an optimal way, but I require to squeeze battery to atleast make phone calls when I am away from charging options.
simms22, fast reboot looks promising. I'll try the free one for now and take it from there.
It's kind of already been said, but I want to clarify as much as possible.
Apps running dormant in the background (using RAM) use no more power than if it weren't running. This is because all of the memory you have is being refreshed all the time, the controller has no idea whether there is actually data there, it still refreshes the entire space of memory.
Apps running "dormant" but using CPU do use more power than if it weren't running. I assume OP is wanting some sort of monitoring app that shows which apps are using CPU, in which case is fine. If OP is wanting to kill all apps that he isn't using at the time to conserve battery, then he would actually be doing the opposite of what he wants, as it requires to CPU to spin back up to restart it later. Again, the difference here is RAM vs CPU, one doesn't use battery (or rather, uses the same amount of battery, no matter how much of it is being utilized), and one can use more or less battery depending on how much it's used.
Johmama said:
It's kind of already been said, but I want to clarify as much as possible.
Apps running dormant in the background (using RAM) use no more power than if it weren't running. This is because all of the memory you have is being refreshed all the time, the controller has no idea whether there is actually data there, it still refreshes the entire space of memory.
Apps running "dormant" but using CPU do use more power than if it weren't running. I assume OP is wanting some sort of monitoring app that shows which apps are using CPU, in which case is fine. If OP is wanting to kill all apps that he isn't using at the time to conserve battery, then he would actually be doing the opposite of what he wants, as it requires to CPU to spin back up to restart it later. Again, the difference here is RAM vs CPU, one doesn't use battery (or rather, uses the same amount of battery, no matter how much of it is being utilized), and one can use more or less battery depending on how much it's used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I understand killing process, shutting down cached process or apps & later restarting them is only going to fire up the CPU usage which completely defeats the purpose of conserving battery.
Though not a daily ask, at times I am stuck in situation where a phone call or SMS is all I need to keep me going.

Optimizing Battery Life

My wife has just bought this phone and was just wondering what can be done to it to maximise the battery life without sacrificing too much?
Currently I'm thinking of installing an app called Power Toggles that allows toggling of things like Bluetooth, NFC, Wifi, etc.
I understand it's got a battery saver built in but unsure if it disables sync or not. Sync is required for emails, syncing Chrome stuff, etc.
I get 2 days with 4-6 hours screen on and do not use any kind of this crappy "battery safe" tools! Only NFC is off. And I sync with 4 email accounts every 5 minutes between 8am and 10pm.
What other apps do you have installed?
Its currently at complete factory settings with no apps installed. I'll just tweak around on it and see how it goes.
I have disabled the most crapware, like unused Google Apps, Linked In, Twitter, Dropbox, Face**** and so on ...
Yeah the HTC Sense Twitter, FB, etc I've managed to disable. For some reason, I'm unable to disable Blinkfeed!
Turned battery saving mode on (not the extreme saver) as it still allows sync whilst turning things off when the phones not in use as well as underclocking the CPU.
How do I disable Google Play Games?
I couldn't find it listed.
Also what other HTC Sense related stuff can be disabled?
For me Blinkfeed replaced the GenieWidget, but I use Nova as Launcher (see Screenshot). And here is my list of disabled apps.
I just can't disable Blink Feed.
Why you would like disable Blinkfeed? Use any other launcher and all is fine.
Because it's horrible and if the feeds can easily be accessed by opening the relevant apps. Just won't let me completely disable it. I don't want to replace it with another one, I don't want any at all.
Could I install a Google launcher without rooting it?
theme
tomatende2001 said:
For me Blinkfeed replaced the GenieWidget, but I use Nova as Launcher (see Screenshot). And here is my list of disabled apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could I ask what Nova theme you are using on the screenshot thanks
Standard Nova theme.
tomatende2001 said:
Standard Nova theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks
Wutang200 said:
I understand it's got a battery saver built in but unsure if it disables sync or not. Sync is required for emails, syncing Chrome stuff, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the built in 'Power Saver [1]' and 'Extreme Power Saver [2]' apps kill background sync/WiFi/data when the screen is off [1] and when the app is activated [2].
I use [1] as standard and it's really good for battery life, usually lasting me 2-3 days with minimal use or 1 day with heavy use. The sync is only killed when the screen is off so you receive notifications all at once when you check your phone so you're in control. As part of this, you can set [2] to activate at a particular % of remaining battery to further conserve power.
I'm also using Nova Launcher Prime as its much smoother and cleaner than BlinkFeed and probably uses less resources.
Sent from my HTC One mini 2 using XDA Free mobile app

Categories

Resources