[Q] Wi-Fi Sleep? Pro/Con? - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Greetings--long time reader of the forums but n'er a post'r. Hoping to change that obviously.
I'm currently working through what I believe to be a 'bug' in my Cappy, running a custom ROM (Apex) but am debating if it is a lost cause since it's been tough getting the dev to respond to a request.
I prefer my wi-fi to sleep when it's not being used since I rarely ever use 2g/3g data (I physically turn it off when not using it, and may go weeks before switching it back on) as I'm always at home or work, or at a cafe with free wi-fi. I use FB, Twitter, Google Reader, and some minor web usage via browser when at home/at work, so it's not like I'm constantly flipping my phone on to use the services.
I guess my question is: should I just say to heck with my wi-fi sleep bug (it doesn't sleep even though I select the "sleep when screen off" option--it will sleep but only once and the setting will revert to "never" after it wakes back up) and just deal with wi-fi being on all the time? If it's on and stays on throughout the day with very few calls from gmail, none from Twitter/FB since I have all that syncing turned off, does it really chew through that much battery since it's not turning the radio off and on?
There are two settings.db files that I believe are corrupted to some degree on my phone, and instead of piddling with it any more, I'm about to just give up and deal with it--I've goggled and checked to find some hard evidence that allowing it to sleep or allowing it to stay alive is better in some way for battery life. I get about a day and 3/4 of life out of it. A lot better than some folks but I feel I could squeak out another 1/2 day out of it if I had that sleep mode working.

Related

Wifi cuts out after standby

Every time I put the Nook Color in standby, it loses my wireless. Upon taking it out of standby, it doesn't reconnect automatically- i am forced to actually go into settings- wireless before it finds my wireless network.
I have installed Spare Parts and set the Wifi sleep policy to never, but it still doesn't automatically connect to my wifi network. Even if I turn off my wireless and turn it back on via the widget I have on my desktop, it won't connect. I am forced to enter into Settings- wireless every time.
Thanks in advance.
bumping once- seriously nobody else has this problem?
Yes I have this problem too but don't know how to fix it. I just turn wireless off then back on.
No issues here at all, reconnected within seconds. Rarely do I even notice it was disconnected at all.
Are still on the 1.0.0 firmware? I had this issue, but since updating to 1.0.1 (which stated it improved wifi) I haven't had this issue.
Yeah, I see this too. I saw there was a hack somewhere to make it persistent. But that would certainly drain your battery more. It didnt bother me all that much, but if you need it for Gmail/texting/Google Talk, I could see why you would want it to be persistent for notifications. Didnt bother me, since I have a phone too.
By any chance did you install the wpa_supplicant to enable use of adhoc networks? I've only had the issue since I did that. More info below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=868354
Gabryael said:
By any chance did you install the wpa_supplicant to enable use of adhoc networks? I've only had the issue since I did that. More info below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=868354
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here mine only does it since the install, but I knew that going into it as well.
I always had that issue, before the adhoc fix and after. Learned to livevwith it. Haven't upgraded yet... still on 1.0
Sent from my NookColor
Same exact thing is happening on mine. I have AutoNooter v1.01 currently and every time my device goes to sleep the wifi turns off, which hasn't been an issue until just recently.
In the past as soon as I would turn back on my device, the wifi would reconnect. Now I have to manually go to Settings> Wifi to get it to reconnect to the network.
I have tried the SpareParts fix, but it doesn't help. I have also tried on different wifi networks, but the connection issues still occur. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I also have the same problem, running auto-nooter. The only thing is that my signal never reconnects, I have to manually reset my internet router in order to get it back. Rebooting, or turning off Wi-Fi settings within the device doesn't help.
The only thing that works is never allowing my NC to fall asleep on it's own. If I manually put it into standby mode, it works fine.
I have the 1.0.1 update, and I called BN, but they only offered to replace it. I have it tricked out just the way I want it, so I'm just going to hold on to it for now.
CocoaGoddess said:
I also have the same problem, running auto-nooter. The only thing is that my signal never reconnects, I have to manually reset my internet router in order to get it back. Rebooting, or turning off Wi-Fi settings within the device doesn't help.
The only thing that works is never allowing my NC to fall asleep on it's own. If I manually put it into standby mode, it works fine.
I have the 1.0.1 update, and I called BN, but they only offered to replace it. I have it tricked out just the way I want it, so I'm just going to hold on to it for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue as well on 1.0.1.
I've found that the wifi doesn't turn off for me if it is plugged in and charging. I did enable wifi to never sleep w/ spare parts, but it still turns wifi off when it goes into standby when not charging.
My wifi stays connected with the screen off, but some times when I turn the screen back on the wifi disconnects. I know this happens because I am listening to Tune in radio and it does not disconnect until I turn my screen back on.
Sent from my Nook color using the XDA app.
hxxp://nookdevs.com/NookColor_Keep_wifi_alive_by_preventing_sleep_mode
This also explains why the wifi doesn't kick out when a music player is playing. I don't have enough posts yet to post a real link :/
aho43 said:
hxxp://nookdevs.com/NookColor_Keep_wifi_alive_by_preventing_sleep_mode
This also explains why the wifi doesn't kick out when a music player is playing. I don't have enough posts yet to post a real link :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dang, I wish I would have found that app before I made and released my own.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/softlocker-free/otis8.softlocker
Mine does it.
I have to turn off then on.
This is only after the adhoc patch. I think I'm going back to infrastructure only.
I'm using wake timer:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/waketimer/schaze.waketimer
Same idea as SoftLocker but lets you also setup a timer where after a certain amount of time the system will actually sleep. Useful for night time or other extended periods of non use where you don't want to drain the battery.
Problem is that it does not activate on boot like SoftLocker and also after the timer expires and it goes into sleep, WakeTimer does not reactivate on wake.
Edit- after testing both programs I think SoftLocker is better. Running battery tests, there was not significant battery drain having SoftLocker on all the time. A few % overnight, probably related to the accumulation of e-mail, tweets, RSS downloads etc, but really minimal. Like that Soflocker can be checked to start on startup.
+1 for SmartLocker
This has happened for me as well. My remedy was to create a Tasker task where it's set up to connect to my SSID whenever it's detected.
colorado_al said:
I'm using wake timer:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/waketimer/schaze.waketimer
Same idea as SoftLocker but lets you also setup a timer where after a certain amount of time the system will actually sleep. Useful for night time or other extended periods of non use where you don't want to drain the battery.
Problem is that it does not activate on boot like SoftLocker and also after the timer expires and it goes into sleep, WakeTimer does not reactivate on wake.
Edit- after testing both programs I think SoftLocker is better. Running battery tests, there was not significant battery drain having SoftLocker on all the time. A few % overnight, probably related to the accumulation of e-mail, tweets, RSS downloads etc, but really minimal. Like that Soflocker can be checked to start on startup.
+1 for SmartLocker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm the SoftLocker dev...so...I'm listening.
I saw the waketimer option for a timer and liked the idea...perhaps a future update?

[Q] WiFi Battery Drain

Alright I hate to ask this question, but my searching and reading is not leading anywhere. I recently upgraded to GB (Illuminance with Corn) and I'm loving how fast my phone is. The only problem I notice is how fast my battery drains while on WiFi (Wireless N with WPA2).
Example: I was at my parents house for 2.5 hours, but didn't bother turning wifi on. I only lost a few %. Once I got home, I kicked on the wifi and within an hour I lost 20%. It appears that when wifi is turned on it is almost constantly in use. I checked for rogue apps and data usage and found nothing. The only thing I notice is that every 5 seconds (yes, I actually timed it) it is polling for new networks.
After doing some reading I checked and the build.prop mods are in there (wifi.supplicant_scan_interval).
Any suggestions on where to go next?
Recap of phone config:
Rom: Illuminance 3.01
Kernel: Corn 7.06
Modem: KK4
Yeah...I've noticed that the build.prop tweaks for wifi scanning don't actually seem to change the scanning interval on gingerbread ;/
Try going to, Settings> wireless and networks> wifi settings> menu button> advanced> set wifi sleep policy to "when the screen turns off"
That'll help while it's asleep.
studacris said:
Settings> wireless and networks> wifi settings> menu button> advanced> set wifi sleep policy to "when the screen turns off"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
I switched my ROM from Apex to Illuminance to test a theory that this functionality would work as it had in the past on Apex ROMS. For whatever reason kernels/framework were swapped in a newer version of Apex that killed this very helpful functionality. Once I switched to Illuminance and enabled the functionality, it works again and I get 2+ days worth of battery life with moderate usage (rarely a video/music played, but I do a lot of browsing and email usage/fb/twitter usage is high).
It drove me nuts on Apex trying to figure out the issue. I had thought my settings.db files that control the wifi functions had gone corrupt and the dev ignored any requests for assistance.
Glad I made the switch.
studacris said:
Yeah...I've noticed that the build.prop tweaks for wifi scanning don't actually seem to change the scanning interval on gingerbread ;/
Try going to, Settings> wireless and networks> wifi settings> menu button> advanced> set wifi sleep policy to "when the screen turns off"
That'll help while it's asleep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was the first thing I noticed. The ROM defaulted to Always On. I changed that the first day. Unfortunately, I still have the issue. As it stands, I only get one day at most out of my charge. The only thing I let sync is the gmail account. I mostly browse and talk less than 1 hour per day.
I'll try to do a more statistical approach when I get a chance. I'll see about taking readings ever half hour with the wifi on and no other use.
I was under the impression that if the phone downloads data over WiFi it actually uses less battery than if it downloaded data over 3G. When I'm at home, I leave my WiFi on intentionally when my phone is asleep so that my incoming email is more efficient since I have WiFi available.
Am I wrong here? Just curious if I've been mislead all this time.
I don't think you're wrong. That is why I always use wifi at home. I think I found some errant scripts that were running and causing the excess battery drain. I have taken those off.
I'll probably master clear and reload when I'm no longer on call this weekend just to make sure I got everything.

[Q] Do you leave your GPS / WiFi always on?

Do you leave your GPS / WiFi on all day? I never leave the GPS on due to I believe it kills my battery in half the time. Though using a weather widget I would like to have it update based on my current location. WiFi is odd, I have the sleep policy set to turn off when screen is off but I have a feeling it only works 50% of the time. Also with GPS talk what is sensor aiding?
Any apps out there that can best control there features so I can leave them on at all times?
Thanks
chasesavestheday said:
Do you leave your GPS / WiFi on all day? I never leave the GPS on due to I believe it kills my battery in half the time. Though using a weather widget I would like to have it update based on my current location. WiFi is odd, I have the sleep policy set to turn off when screen is off but I have a feeling it only works 50% of the time. Also with GPS talk what is sensor aiding?
Any apps out there that can best control there features so I can leave them on at all times?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never use GPS.
Sometimes I let WIFI stay on for a whole day, mostly becuse I forget to turn it off.
I usually just shut mine off unless I am using them. I am consistently checking my notifications, so I notice if one is left on when I shouldn't need to use it.
You can try using the power control widget on your home screen. That way you can easily see what is on/off.
GPS is off unless I'm using it but WIFI is always one so long I know where ever I'm at has a connection. I've noticed my phone uses more battery while WIFI is on disconnected than actually connected. Although it is possible to fix that by tweaking wifi search intervals (I'm just lazy about it)
I leave them on all the time. I do toggle bluetooth depending on when I want it. I can't really see any significant abnormal drain due that.

wow turning off data and WiFi really helps battery life

I've always had my data on in all my phones.. .I got fed up of the gnote's battery life so I decided to turn it off when I was not using it and God I was surprised, I watched a whole movie and played that train game and I lost only about 15 -20% of my juice.....
so today I turned off my data and WiFi before i went to sleep and when I woke up 6 hours later I had only lost 1%
that has never happened before...
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wifi has been known to be a great battery hogger on the note, interestingly enough it should be the other way around
as for the data, the phone works extra hard in lower signal areas to boost reception, hence drinking juice
I always disable wifi and data when I'm not using them.
I use the Go Power Master widget to switch between different profiles I have set up for wifi, mobile data, wifi with autosynch and no data.
There are other widgets that do the same thing. Just saves you having to toggle each setting separately.
If I stay connected with wifi, it's not too bad, but if I move out of a wifi area, and leave it on, it seems to drain battery faster (I'm guessing because it keeps rescanning for connections?).
I have somwhere describe this
Any way you will find this solutione better.
Use phoneweaver, you can describe the time, it will stop data at defned time, as well switch on too at your describe time. So if you set data off time just after your time to sleep, N switch on time just b4 your wake up time, you even need not to bother do do it manually
same way this can be triggered by location too, you can switch on/off data/wifi at perticular place.
And there are lot action you can set.
agree to rechlum if you are connected to wi-fi is consume less battery thn you are connected to net with 3G, N keep wifi open with connected to data is draining battery too fast.
could it all mean that I wasted a lot of time trying to reduce my battery consumption with WiFi on?
so far by disabling the unnecessary apps strartups (Autorun Manager) and turning off non-essential syncs I was able to get down to ca. 7mA (Battery Monitor Widget estimates) in standby mode, BUT only when WiFi is off.
When it's on, the power consumption stays at ca. 60mA in standby mode, which is something I cannot comprehed - using CyanogenMod on my previous device I was able to stay below 15mA regardless of WiFi state.
Turning off data is pretty stupid. I don`t about you but my phone is actively working in the background.
checking email every 5mins
gmail syncing
facebook notifications
twiter syncing
Linkedin updates
ebay notification
3G data monitoring
weather updates every 30mins
Latitude monitoring
stocks updates
sports scores updates every 1min with your choice of espn, score mobile, fox sports...
bottom line is gotta use a smartphone as a smartphone. With data turned off notifications are not happening.
just_visiting said:
Turning off data is pretty stupid. I don`t about you but my phone is actively working in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I know I'm not going to be looking at my phone for a while, it's not much use wasting battery having wifi or 3G turned on.
I'm a teacher, so I often have 3-4 hour blocks of time that I won't touch my phone.
I just turn wifi or data back on when I'm ready and my updates still come through when I'm ready to view them. Any updates that might have come through if I had left data enabled, I wouldn't have seen any earlier...
If I'm watching a movie I'll often switch off data because I know I won't be looking at my phone for 2 hours.
I don't see how conserving the battery is "stupid".
One could argue that leaving data enabled when you aren't in a position to use it is "stupid"...
Just out of curiosity, is there some pre-made application that allows me to turn data and wifi off after 5-10 minutes after then screen has been turned off and then turn both back on when the screen is turned on? Or should I just code it myself?
WereCatf said:
Just out of curiosity, is there some pre-made application that allows me to turn data and wifi off after 5-10 minutes after then screen has been turned off and then turn both back on when the screen is turned on? Or should I just code it myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there's an option in Settings / WiFi Settings / Menu key to turn WiFi off when screen is off,
besides that there was one to do exactly what you need, but cannot remeber it's name, if you don't find anything satisfactory then try Lama - it has quite a large range of location-based triggers
Leaving wifi on when you're not using is awful. It completely prevents the phone from going to deep sleep.
I get awesome battery life simply by leaving wifi on only when the screen is on. My battery ranges from 18 hours to 1 day and 23 hours, depending on my use (temple run )
WereCatf said:
Just out of curiosity, is there some pre-made application that allows me to turn data and wifi off after 5-10 minutes after then screen has been turned off and then turn both back on when the screen is turned on? Or should I just code it myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greenpower will do exactly that. You can set it up so it turns off wifi and 3G/data after a set amount of time after turning off the screen and turn it back on when the screen is turned on. You can have it sync once every n minutes/hours so you still get Whatsapp, emails and other stuff without having to turn on the screen.
It's working like a charm for me, before I used to lose 15 to 20% every night, now with the same usage I've only lost 30% in 67 hours.
just_visiting said:
Turning off data is pretty stupid. I don`t about you but my phone is actively working in the background.
checking email every 5mins
gmail syncing
facebook notifications
twiter syncing
Linkedin updates
ebay notification
3G data monitoring
weather updates every 30mins
Latitude monitoring
stocks updates
sports scores updates every 1min with your choice of espn, score mobile, fox sports...
bottom line is gotta use a smartphone as a smartphone. With data turned off notifications are not happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everybody has different needs. If you need all this and to be aware of what i going on in your no-doubt busy social life, then you can do this.
On the other hand, it is utterly useless if you are not going to pick up the phone and see what the weather is (instead of looking out the window) and who is doing what on Facebook (or writing things in Facebook instead of actually doing things) as soon as it beeps at you. In those situations, turning of data will save battery with no loss of information.
Personally I love a 'pull' digital life, rather than a 'push' one. I have far too much to be getting on with to be constantly hassled.
Of course, in actually writing this, I am proving myself completely wrong, but what the hey?
I only care about my Google+ account and my e-mails, everything else matters only when I personally decide to check it. As such I've set my phone to turn data back on every 30 minutes, sync e-mails and Google+, and then turn data back off again.
I use Timeriffic (free from Market/Play) to disable Wifi/Data etc based on time of day.
I don't really care about emails when I'm sleeping!
A must have application IMO.

Mobile Radio Active being the main reason of discharge

Hello, I bought my Oneplus 3T recently and I'm using stick ROMwith ElementalX. The main problem I found is that everytime I look at what consumed the highest percentage of my battery are things like WA, Google Play Services, etc. If I click on the to see what is happening, I always get the Mobile Radio Active working like pretty much all the time.
For example, in a normal use for me which is between 26-30 hours until I decide to charge my phone(between 10-20%), I get a SoT of 4 hours and a half more or less. The problem is that from the total percentage of battery used, these applications which have the Mobile Radio Active problem drain between 10-15% of the total amount of battery, while my screen is like 7% of that total value.
Researching on XDA, I couldn't get any solution to this problem. I call this a problem because, every day I see new photos from people with between 7-9 h of SoT in maybe 20 hours of use. Of course, you can't really call this a bad performance of my phone but I think that this difference of hours with screen on is greater than the amount of time my phone stays with my screen off.
As a consequence, I wanted to know if there is a solution or some tips to reduce that Mobile Radio Active bug in order to extend the time between charges.
Thnk you very much.
Additional information: I cleaned flash stock today + ElementalX kernel + SuperSu to see if this kind of bug dissappears.
To "solve" the Mobile Radio Active bug you must take some extreme steps:
First, Root your device. This MUST be SuperSu unfortunately, as the app I'm going to suggest doesn't allow you to toggle the required settings with Magisk or Phh.
Install LeanDroid.
In settings, allow disabling of Wifi, Cellular Data, Bluetooth, Network Location and GPS Location.
Set to "0 min" after screen off. Click "Except".
Configure this screen to your taste, but I have "Except if tethering", "Except if charging (AC). Under Wifi I have "Except if connected to <my home WIFI>" and I have "Except if active: Limit" set to 100KB/s.
Bluetooth "Except if connected"
Location "Except if GPS in use"
and "Network Mode except if original strength OK."
Go back to the main panel.
Restore "After Screen Unlocked"
"Every 60 MIN after screen off" (Configure this to your liking)
With SuperSU and the above, turning the phone screen off disables the data modem when the transfer rate is low, this effectively shuts down the radio and prevents the Mobile Radio Active bug.
Run this with tools like Greenify and ForceDoze to really pump your battery life.
It's not unusual for me to see 8 hour screen on time with these apps and the above configuration.
and without root?
Just curious, how is the status of this bug ? I followed that Bug for like 1.5Years...since Lollipop i think. I myself tryed several things in Sultans ROMs in a OnePlusOne, but no Solution so far ;-(
Bug is still active. As far as I can tell, it remains active in Oero too.
The only option if you are not rooted is to close all apps and toggle airplane mode before you switch the screen off. This only solves the issue until the next time data is accessed by any app, though
THX for reply. Jepp on Wifi i get 4-5days @3-4h SOT. On Mobile only 2 days
Dressiel said:
THX for reply. Jepp on Wifi i get 4-5days @3-4h SOT. On Mobile only 2 days
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously, it takes more power to send/receive signals to a cell tower 10 miles away, versus a WiFi router that is 20 feet away.
Also using WiFi doesn't ensure the modem is Switched off. Modem power doesn't mean data.
damiensturdy said:
Bug is still active. As far as I can tell, it remains active in Oero too.
The only option if you are not rooted is to close all apps and toggle airplane mode before you switch the screen off. This only solves the issue until the next time data is accessed by any app, though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This this bugs even remain active in Oreo i will never use android again.
It's existed since Lollipop and I doubt Google will fix it any time soon.
To get 7 hours of on screen time, you will of course have to sacrifice something, the laws of physics are always with us, reminding us from day to day things that can and can't be done. But hey, if you live in a cardboard box next to a cell tower should give you much better battery time without sacrificing the phone-part of your smart device. ? ?

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