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[Q] Why does my Battery get sucked so much?

Hi there. Ive had my Nexus One for nearly a month. I barely use it but ive noticed that the battery goes down EXTREMELY fast. Looking at it right now, it says it has been unplugged for 13 hours, 11minutes, 54 seconds with 28% of battery left. Earlier today I was at 4 hours something with 48% left.
It says Cell Standby is using 35%, Phone Idle using 33%. Thats 68% of my battery and all my phone really does it sit on the desk next to me.
Why is it like this? Also, how can i make it last longer?
Thanks for all the help

Sounds like you are in a spotty coverage area. That explains why the Cell Standby is using so much battery trying to hang on to the 3G connection.
How many bars do you have? and which N1 model is it? TMO or AT&T?
Also do you use wifi?

Hi there Thanks for the reply . I actually turned my 3G off, and now just running on a 2G conection. I thought maybe it was trying to connect to 3G heaps and that was chomping through my battery. With my 2g connection right now I have full connection. Im pretty sure with 3G I was the same, maybe 1 or 2 less.
I do use Wifi, however I turned that off. Also, I live in New Zealand not America so I dont have AT&T - Not sure what TMO is.

He's referring to the version of the Nexus that you have. AT&T or T-mobile, and is a reference to the frequencies that are used, not the actual company,

Ahh ok Thanks. 900/2100 UMTS

I think you are confused about those numbers, those numbers are the amount of battery each item takes up. So Your cell standby takes up 38% of each instant your battery is running. It did not take 38% of your battery. Wifi is significatly better on battery then 2g or 3g, i would advise always use wifi when you can.

Are you using exchange push? 2.2 has a bug that if you are not rooted on a new rom can create this rapid battery drain on exchange.
I recommend getting os monitor and seeing what is taking up the load.
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

This sounds really similar to what was happening to me the first week with my N1. Cell Stand by was my biggest battery killer. A few posts above has it correct.
Ironically, by turning off wifi in an attempt to save battery I caused my phone to use the cell antenna which uses more power, and takes longer to complete each task. I now leave wifi on whenever I am near my routers, and even most of the time when I am not.
Turning off live wallpapers and disabling auto updates on social networking apps can also be a big help.
Run a few 24 hour tests changing some of those factors, but generally, think about wifi as a battery saver and you should get a bit better results. Your not using exchange right?

Yep. Wifi should be a priority over network connection. Make sure you also change the wifi sleep policy to "never" (settings > wireless & networks > wifi settings > hit menu button > advanced > wifi sleep policy > never).
Also I would double check the APN settings to make sure you are using the best/latest settings for your carrier. (settings > wireless & networks > mobile networks > access point names) Make sure the one selected matches the recommended settings for your carrier (you need to call your carrier or google the settings).
Other than that, maybe a reboot would help? pull and reinsert battery?
Hope that helps.

Ok Thanks for all the replies. I dont have any push notifications set to automatically update and I dont use any social networking apps. Ill turn Wi-Fi on now and even though I set it to "never" sleep - it still does when I lock the screen...but thats another problem .
Im not using any exchange push, not even sure what that is.
Cheers

Yes keep WiFi on will save you an enormous amount of battery, no question. The difference is huge for me. And your WiFi sleep policy should be set to never. If you have the bug where this setting does not work, then that stinks and you could install the new driver that fixes it. But for now you would need to be rooted until the fix is official.

I have now enabled Wi-Fi and put 3G back on. However my battery is still draining fast. It now says my Wi-Fi is using up 30+% of my battery. Im losing about 8-10% of battery every hour - Im pretty sure that isnt normal?

The other place to check is: settings->applications->running services.
See if there is something in there that you don't think should be running. Your display should be using the most battery, so it sounds like something is running automatically.

melwan said:
Yep. Wifi should be a priority over network connection. Make sure you also change the wifi sleep policy to "never" (settings > wireless & networks > wifi settings > hit menu button > advanced > wifi sleep policy > never).
Also I would double check the APN settings to make sure you are using the best/latest settings for your carrier. (settings > wireless & networks > mobile networks > access point names) Make sure the one selected matches the recommended settings for your carrier (you need to call your carrier or google the settings).
Other than that, maybe a reboot would help? pull and reinsert battery?
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have a similar problem with my battery i see that your on fido network like me whats the apn setting your using?

@adambenjamin: Thanks had a look. Everything that is running I want running, nothing that shouldnt be there.
@d.brown: Whats a fido network? I live in New Zealand, your flag is showing Canada - so we arent on the same network?
@everyone: So just a little update/recap. Basically my battery gets drained quite fast. Basically all my phone does is sit on the table next to me. I might send 5 or less texts a day, thats it - That will be all I do with my phone. I DONT have any push updates, no social networking. I have my brightness down to the lowest it can go.
I am on 3G, have set Wi-Fi to "never" sleep (However it does anyway).
Right now my phone has been unplugged from being charged for 8hours 24 minutes with only 45% of the battery left - I have sent two texts today and thats the ONLY time I have used my phone. My display is using 31%, Cell Standby 27% and phone idle 24% = 82%
Something I have changed recently is going from one network to another. The network I was one of the two biggest in my country (Which means it has alot of towers). I changed to another network which has been going for just over a year (Less towers). Could my battery be running down faster than normal because its harder to find a signal than before?
Also, my signal strength is -107dBm 4 asu (Absoloutley no idea what that means, but might be valuable to somebody out there who can help)
Thanks for all the help

Switch to GSM Auto (PRL) instead of WCDMA Auto. this helped battery life immensely for me. i can get to around 20 hours of moderate use usually
edit: to do this, you'll have to make a shortcut to the "phone info" activity using anycut or bettercut or another shortcut app.
once in "Phone Info", there's a drop down where you can select gsm auto (prl)

Dunno if it was mentioned, get OSMonitor (free from market) and see if Email.apk is stuck at full cpu load. It's been a problem since 2.1, it does that sometimes. If it's at more than 10%, kill it and re-launch it.

Hmm well strangley my Battery seems to be alot better now. Been on for 1day, 15hours, 23minutes and its on 73% remaining. Before it would last like 15 at most and be out. All I did was Turn W-Fi back on. Thanks everybody for there help

Been having the same issues as you, it's kinda getting annoying now.
I'm pretty much the same as you. I'll send a couple of texts a day or so, then put the phone to sleep and leave it for a couple of hours etc. No continuous usage.
From say, 8am till 9pm, I'm left with under 20% left, after EXTREMELY light usage. Sending a couple of texts and turning the screen on to check the time a few times shouldn't even be considered usage at all!
I'm just a bit envious of others who claim 2-3 days with light net browsing, a few texts etc. Thats more than me, yet they use less power.
On top of that, I'm running CM6 which includes an undervolted kernel a.k.a less power usage....ummm?
I've tried everything!
1) I've underclocked to max 384mhz when the screen is off (960 max when screen is on)
2) Wifi is usually left on
3) Data is usually turned off
4) No rogue apps detected
^
At the end of each day I check "Spare Parts" in my battery history to try and find an app that is using an abnormal amount of battery...Everythings fine.
5) Under "running services" all there is are my widget services (none data-related. eg Set Cpu widget, battery widget, Fancy Widget)
6) The screen is on auto brightness
7) Sync is off
8) GSM Auto is set instead of WCDMA preferred.
Everything!
I'm pretty much limiting the use of the phone just to make it through the day on standby.
And please, don't accuse me of someone complaining about their 12 hours, 32 minutes of "light usage" (6 hours web browsing, sync turned on, 4 hours of Angry Birds,constant calling/emailing)
I used to be able to leave my phone overnight for 8-9 hours and only have the battery go down 5-6 percent. Now its triple or more. And frustrating.
I really can't think of anything else.

From my experience, when I was running CM6 RC1, I was getting about 2 day's battery life with pershoots (pre-720p) 2.35 uv oc kernal. After upgrading to RC2, I no longer got good battery life, and I tried everything I know of with little luck.
I decided to try a new ROM and kernel. Now I am using Geo's frf91 stock deodexed blackbar v6.1 with the Stock kernel. This is now my favorite ROM/kernel combination. Try that one out and see how you run at stock levels, then maybe flash a new kernel if you want. Pershot, and Wildmonk are the local favorites, but I found them to leave me with sporadic overheating/ touch screen or reboot to X screen glitches. I would try a few days away from CM, to at least isolate some variables.
What version of CM6 are you running?

[Q] My phone was 100% battery 4 hours ago - now it's 45% :(

My phone was 100% battery 4 hours ago - now it's 45%
I haven't even hardly used it this morning.
This is ridiculous. Any ideas ?
Froyo 2.2 (bell i9000m)

Funkadelick said:
My phone was 100% battery 4 hours ago - now it's 45%
I haven't even hardly used it this morning.
This is ridiculous. Any ideas ?
Froyo 2.2 (bell i9000m)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe sounds silly, but do You have 3G / HSDPA full timeturned on and/or any data eating app(s) running in the background? Usually these drains my I9000 really fast. If I take care to turn stimes 3G off (only 2G allowed) and shutting down the app(s) which run in background make my phone usable for a day.

it's 100% normal to suck so much battery life if you are constantly using 3G or WiFi or long phone calls

I know how to disable HDSPA, but how to disable 3g? :S tnahks

You are using it or something in the background is using it.
Full-on use (gaming) burns about 20% per hour in my experience. Browsing might be a little less but not much because instead of using CPU/GPU power it uses data.
The screen is the major burn, how long does battery usage say the screen has been on?
My battery drain is always pretty much exactly 20%/hour screen time + 1%/hour on time. It will deviate from this if I've played alot of music (especially streaming) since it uses power but not the screen, this drain rate will depend on the player and type of music (built-in player playing from SD card is lean, Tune-in radio streaming over 3G is a hog that heats the phone up, Slacker is in between).

bandita81 said:
Maybe sounds silly, but do You have 3G / HSDPA full timeturned on and/or any data eating app(s) running in the background? Usually these drains my I9000 really fast. If I take care to turn stimes 3G off (only 2G allowed) and shutting down the app(s) which run in background make my phone usable for a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorta new - how do you turn 3G off and turn 2G on ?
I don't have hardly anything running in the background (not that I know of)

filippm said:
I know how to disable HDSPA, but how to disable 3g? :S tnahks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how to disable anything lol
can I still txt with this off ?

AllGamer said:
it's 100% normal to suck so much battery life if you are constantly using 3G or WiFi or long phone calls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
didn't use wifi - didn't make 1 phone call today at all

Could be a few reasons for that. If you've recently flashed a new firmware your battery stats may be messed up. Just run down your battery down a few times and it should sort itself out.
Maybe you turned your phone on while it was plugged in. This usually stuffs up the battery stats and can show as much as 30% extra battery when turned on that way. Always remove the charger before booting.
Also, to turn off 3g/hsdpa/data go to settings/wireless & network/network mode and select gsm only (2g). You can also download the widget '2g 3g' which will take you straight there. Also, you can uncheck 'use packet data'. This will kill all data which saves battery. I turn it back on with the widget whenever I need data again. The power button menu also has that option. I'm on 2.2.1 so it may differ if you are on 2.1.
Pretty sure you can still text with data off but may want to test it. If message fails then no. However mms send/receive won't work I think.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

haloimplant said:
Browsing might be a little less but not much because instead of using CPU/GPU power it uses data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i can do 5 to 6 hours straight of 3G browsing with screen on auto before it runs dry
3G + Screen = high power eaters
if i play 3D MMO (pocket craft) then it even less time

sxi200 said:
Could be a few reasons for that. If you've recently flashed a new firmware your battery stats may be messed up. Just run down your battery down a few times and it should sort itself out.
Maybe you turned your phone on while it was plugged in. This usually stuffs up the battery stats and can show as much as 30% extra battery when turned on that way. Always remove the charger before booting.
Also, to turn off 3g/hsdpa/data go to settings/wireless & network/network mode and select gsm only (2g). You can also download the widget '2g 3g' which will take you straight there. Also, you can uncheck 'use packet data'. This will kill all data which saves battery. I turn it back on with the widget whenever I need data again. The power button menu also has that option. I'm on 2.2.1 so it may differ if you are on 2.1.
Pretty sure you can still text with data off but may want to test it. If message fails then no. However mms send/receive won't work I think.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just recently upgraded to 2.2 froyo
i heard there's a battery stats trick, anyone know it ?

there's no battery stats trick . its just a logfile that's stored. nothing else. the trick you're probably talking about is calibration of the battery.
drain fully, charge to full while powered off. one or two charges like this should sort it.
Sent from another GALAXY

Hey I have a bell i9000 and I have to say that I'm extremely happy with my battery life, I've been unplugged since 9 am, its 7:30 now and my battery indicator is reading 37% with above average use (some phone calls, gaming, browsing...) I would advise you to do these things:
1) install darky's rom (9.2)
2) flash speedmod kernel 13b (very good on the battery)
3) use setcpu and set with these values, max:800mhz, min:100mhz (conservative), and add a profile for screen off with min/max @ 100 mhz and 100 priority level (don't worry, your phone will still feel snappy even @ 800mhz)
4) use a black wallpaper, since black is rendered by turning off pixels on an amoled display.
You should see some improvements, hope it helps!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Battery life in the last few days

Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.

Yes! I've had my N1 since January 2010. I stayed stock until recently when I installed CM 7.1 RC1 shortly after it was released. Battery life had always been great, both stock and under CM7, especially with SS4N1. Then, a few days ago it just fell off a cliff. I now get only about 7-8 hours, even with little to no usage. Before I'd barely lose anything if the phone wasn't being used (a percent every couple hours).
Now the Nexus One Battery Calibrator application shows a drain of ~200 mA or more constantly.
I've been tearing my hair out for the last few days, uninstalling apps right and left, trying in vain to figure out what's causing this. I even considered a full wipe and reinstall of CM 7, thinking that some system setting somewhere had gotten horked.
I've always had WiFi set to never sleep, since I'm usually either at work or home. I've also had preferred network type (*#*#4636#*#* -> Phone Info) set to "GSM auto (PRL)" for months.
I've not made any other changes I can think of that would've had such a drastic impact on power consumption. I didn't track all the app updates that happened around the time it started, so I suppose it could be one of those. But I've uninstalled just about everything and it's still happening.

I have the same issue! Just in the past week or so. I have about 50% battery then a hour or so later it's dead! I was going to get a new battery today but maybe it's a CM7 issue. I use the nightly as soon as they hit the mirror.

An update on this... There may be a big issue going on with T-Mobile or some recent update:
http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-g2-users-suddenly-suffering-from-huge-battery-loss/
Looks like other users on different phones have the same issue!

Thanks for that article, Lost Dog. Makes me feel a bit better. At least I know I'm not just going nuts.
My phone still has increased battery drain even if I put it in airplane mode though. It helps, but it's still much faster than before. This makes me really puzzled as to what the cause could be. How could the cell network still be causing increased drain if the phone's completely disconnected from it? Some sort of configuration information it received that persists even after the cell radio is turned off? EDIT: I may be wrong on this one, see below.
Last night I tried a complete wipe (using Temasek's full format "Format-signed.zip" first), and re-installed CM7.1 RC1 completely fresh. I installed only the minimal Google applications and a couple crucial tools (my password safe app). However, I'm still getting the same quick battery drain today.
I hope we (or T-Moblie) can figure out how to fix this. It really cripples my phone as a useful tool to have such short life!
EDIT: I'm going to try a workaround I've seen mentioned in comments on the TMoNews and Phandroid articles about this: limiting the cellular connection to 2G/EDGE only. It seems to have made a significant difference so far. I may have been incorrect then about airplane mode not having an impact. I'd only been checking current drain with the N1 Battery Calibrator app, and never left it in airplane mode for long. Anyway, I'll post back later this afternoon with results.

Ok, so switching to 2G-only for the cellular connection seems to have made a HUGE difference. The drain rate seems to be back at around what I'd expect. Everything else I left exactly the same (WiFi on, GPS enabled, same applications, etc.)
So, I'm starting to suspect something may be up with T-Mobile's 3G/3G+ service in some areas that's preventing phones from idling properly.
Anyone else want to give it a try?

Interesting, I'll switch over to 2G only and see how that affects my phone.
I've gone as far as wiping everything and that didn't help so if it really is a t-mobile issue then that would shed some light on the situation.

I see the same trend when switching to 2G only. Very steep power usage with 3G then a dramatic decrease in the discharge slope in 2G.
T-Mobile has an issue. The trick will be getting someone there to listen.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Here is my screenshot. You can clearly see when I turned on 3G. Dramatic difference. Looking on the T-Mobile forum there are many people seeing the same issue but there's mostly finger pointing and speculation as to the cause.

nir0th said:
Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.

ricky9237 said:
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm skeptical. If it were the Maps 5.8 application that was preventing the phone from idling correctly, or transmitting tons of data, wouldn't we expect it to happen regardless of whether the phone was using the 2G or 3G radio connection? Sure, there might be a slight difference in the drain rate, but we'd still expect to see it in both cases. And yet the accelerated drain is alleviated completely by using only 2G. I have the Maps 5.8 application and can fix the problem by using 2G only. That indicates to me it's not an issue with the application.
I'll try uninstalling Maps tomorrow (I'm using CyanogenMod, so it's possible to remove it completely). Then I'll put the phone back on 3G and report back on what happens.

I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!

Glad I saw this thread. My wife and I both have N1s and have each been noticing unusually fast battery drain just in the last 3-4 days.
Last night I charged both phones to the same percentage, turned off 3G on hers and let them both sleep for a while. The phones are configured pretty similarly (stock, latest Maps installed, similar push settings etc). After about an hour and a half, my phone had lost 11% of its charge and hers had only lost 2%. That's enough of a delta for me to point to the 3G usage as the culprit. I guess I will be leaving my phone on 2G when I'm not using it if I am going to be away from a charger for a while.

It's NOT the Google Maps update.
Well, I did my experiment yesterday to rule out the Google Maps 5.8 update as the cause of this issue.
I'm running CyanogenMod so it's possible for me to uninstall Google Maps completely, not just the updates. I did so on Saturday night. Still set to 2G only, I removed my phone from the charger Sunday morning. A few hours later I enabled 3G. Later that afternoon I turned 3G off again.
I think the screenshot speaks for itself. Again, this is without Google Maps installed at all.
I asked around this weekend, and my friend's wife (also here in Portland, OR) is experiencing the same issue on her G1 on T-Mobile. Reading online I've heard about the problem affecting the MyTouch 3G, the G2, and many here with the Nexus One. The common elements seem to be: T-Mobile 3G service, particular models of phones, and some particular geographic areas.
Bottom line (IMHO): T-Mobile has a problem with the configuration of their 3G service in some areas, and it's preventing many phones from being able to idle/sleep properly, resulting in huge battery drain.

Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.

keenerb said:
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?

Deliamber said:
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a G2.
2G has been much better than 3g, but still probably only 3/4 of my former battery life, optimistically. I checked "Use 2g networks only", same as everyone else. The graph above is a little misleading, since I really saw better battery life, that initial flat and quick drop actually averages out to "decent", rather than "horrific.
At the "Pulled SIM and SD card" mark I re-enabled 3g, so the drain afterwards is still 3g related.
Pulling the SIM doesn't disconnect it from the radio tower, you can still make emergency calls/etc. so it has to maintain a connection I suppose.
Twice I hard-reset the phone, pulled out SD and SIM, and still had huge huge battery drain. Powertutor said IDLE draw was 1437mw on average, no SIM, no WIFI, just sitting there on my desk.
In Airplane mode it'll last for days...

Wannagotopopeyes said:
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not familiar with Tasker. However, maybe it's just disabling cellular data use, not actually disabling the 3G radio? From what we've seen it appears the problem is very low-level, perhaps something to do with basic communication/negotiation between the cell radio in the phone and the towers, as there's no indication of particular application activity or significant data transmission that the Android OS is aware of.
In the T-Mobile support thread there are reports that T-Mobile is now acknowledging there's an issue with changes to their HSPA+ network in some areas.

I've had 3G off all day and my battery life is back to normal. I'm at 87% after at least 6 hours on battery. Yesterday I was down to less than 50% by this time. Luckily, I am able to be on Wifi at work so I don't have to deal with EDGE speeds, which make the Baby Jesus cry.
deliamber, you probably noticed this already but I'm also in the Portland market. It's gotta be a network issue.

I'm having the same issue on my N1 (I'm around the Portland area myself)
I did everything as well, 2g is the only thing that saves me..
Can't wait for a fix!

Getting the most out of your battery

Ok going to try and start a conversation here to get feedback from everyone on what you guys do to get the most out of your battery. I see alot of people always asking what kernal is best for battery life and some people seem to have horrible battery life and some have exceptional battery life. I personally get decent battery life. Nothing super amazing but that comes down to the way I use my phone.
My current battery I'm using - Andida 2000mah battery
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/280843217453...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_4497wt_1396
I also have - GTMax 3500mah battery
http://www.amazon.ca/GTMax-Extended-Battery-3500mAh-Microfiber/dp/B006VAP102/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_t_4
The Andida gives me generally a extra 2-3 hours more over the stock. I had to cycle the battery 4 times before I started seeing any real improvements. If I take these off the charger at 6:30am I can ussually make it to around 10pm without needing to charge.
The GTMax get me through a day (630am - midnight) with around 50% left.
Now keep in mind this is based on my usage habits, and when I'm at work my signal is horrible so it drains a bit harder for the 8 hours I'm at work.
I don't have LTE where I live or work, I do get LTE in areas close by but on a regular day I don't see it. With the bad signal at work I've started to switch to gsm only mode (phone was constantly switching from Edge to 3g/4g and wouldn't provide a stable connection most of the time). This seems to have helped my battery at work.
When I flash a new rom I always give it at least 2 good full battery cycles before judging the battery life on it.
Ok onto some apps. My first foray into getting better battery life started with wanting to control my data. I used Juice Defender to that but I found that having to wait for the data to turn back on was at some times taking way to long and even sometimes I would have to reboot to get it back. Tried a few others and had similar experiences. When it works its nice and I did see some gain from it but at the same time it seemed bloated and slow and I decided I like having my data on and readily available quickly. After some searching I found an awesome app...
Better Battery Stats
Play Store link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats&hl=en
XDA Forum link - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
I highly recommend reading up on this app and trying it out. If your seeing a big drain on you battery while the screen is off, it's probably because there is something that is keeping it from going into a deep sleep mode. This won't save you any battery just by installing it but with a little work it can make a pretty good difference.
Ok now this is where I'm looking for suggestions, are there apps that you find specifically run smoother or are lighter than their stock counterparts or rival apps that put less of a strain on the battery?
Instead of the stock messaging app I run Pansi SMS. It gives me a few extra options but I never really used the stock mms on ICS so I can only compare it to Handcent SMS and I think it is definitely lighter and a lil bit more battery friendly. It's not a huge difference but I try and squeeze everything I can w/o giving up functionality.
For a launcher I'm running apex right now, but for a lightweight launcher I'd recommend FTL. Runs really nice and smooth, nothing fancy about it, just fast and light.
Some apps sometimes can just be poorly coded and thus have a bad effect on battery life. Alot of people seem to feel the Facebook app is one such app that suffers from that. The app that gets the most recommendations as a replacement and being a bit easier on the battery is Friendcaster. I tend to agree with that, and would recommend trying it out.
I'd really like to hear about what everyone else does to try and squeeze out the most of their battery. Theres more stuff that I do, such as reducing the amount of things that are synced to only the stuff I actually want, default settings just sync everything and I don't feel I need to sync my contacts on a daily basis as I rarely change them around. So share your tips, experiences good and bad with apps in regards to your battery, and if theres enough feedback I'll try and re-organize this into a bit better structure.

I personally always leave data off. WiFi is on a lot. I wrote this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631831
I am very please to get a day and a half with the extended battery. Generally I am always texting,also.

iStatiK said:
I personally always leave data off. WiFi is on a lot. I wrote this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631831
I am very please to get a day and a half with the extended battery. Generally I am always texting,also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right here, this is the key. I have data off all the time. I only turn it on when I need to look something up or browse. IMO auto updates really kill the battery and aren't worth leaving your data on all the time. I'm on wifi a lot as well. Currently I'm on DarkRaider and I'm ending the day with around 30-40%, great improvement over stock.

It seems that with every new handset that comes out this is one of the hottest topics but the parameters all always the same with regard to battery life.
The 3 biggest things that drain our batteries are Display Usage, Data Connection & Radio Cell Connection. These are listed in order of current used. Of the 3 we can have some control over the 1st 2. Lower screen brightness and disconnect data when not needed and use wifi when possible. While wifi does use a good amount of current it's not as much as mobile data. The last one, Radio Cell Connection, we have very little control over. It's also the reason we see people having great differences in battery life. The further the phone is from the tower it's connected to the more juice it needs to make a good connection. So other than leaving the phone in airplane mode or planning your life around where towers are, neither of which are very practical, there is not much we can do there.
To get the best all around life from Li-ion batteries do not fully discharge them very often and also don't keep them plugged in after they're fully charged. It's best to recharge them when they get down to 20-30% and unplug them after they're charged. They also don't need to be fully charged every time, they have no memory. If your on the go and can only leave it plugged in for a short period of time that's fine. Also if you have more than one battery and your not going to use the 2nd one for a while don't store it at full charge. drop it down to 50-60% before pulling it out.
I'll update this post when I get home tonight with more info and links. Hope it helps.

slapshot30 said:
Right here, this is the key. I have data off all the time. I only turn it on when I need to look something up or browse. IMO auto updates really kill the battery and aren't worth leaving your data on all the time. I'm on wifi a lot as well. Currently I'm on DarkRaider and I'm ending the day with around 30-40%, great improvement over stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?

iStatiK said:
I personally always leave data off. WiFi is on a lot. I wrote this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631831
I am very please to get a day and a half with the extended battery. Generally I am always texting,also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With my 3500mah battery I don't really worry about turning anything off. That thing is great. Made a bumper case for it but I miss having a real case on it so I picked up the 2000mah andida battery so I could get a few more hours on some days. If someone ever made a real case for those big batteries i'd use it all the time.

citsong said:
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try 2x Battery from the store. It will shut off data as soon as the the phone sleeps, it reconnects at screen on after unlock almost instantly. It also allows you to white list apps, like Pandora. The free version only allows 1 app though.

citsong said:
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The DarkRaider ROM I am using has a nice extended settings menu in the notification bar with a data toggle. I also have a nice widget from switchpro widgets where I can customize what kinds of things I want to be able to toggle from my homescreen. Currently I have data/wifi/vibrate-silent/gps. Doesn't take long at all when I toggle the data on/off, it's pretty much instant.

citsong said:
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the 2X Battery app. When the phone goes to sleep, the app turns off the data radio. I can still get calls and text messages. I don't have a need for push notification of e-mail, etc., so this saves me some battery usage. Of course, if e-mail and other app notifications are important, this app will help only if you are willing to wait until you wake up the phone.

Here's what I do. I'm on the stock HTC battery.
I SetCPU screen off to 192/192 ondemand, in call to 810/192 ondemand, and regular use to 810/192 ondemand.
I listen to about 2 hours of music a day, have 3 GMail accounts on autosync, a Facebook account on hourly autosync and HTC Weather on hourly sync. Automatic brightness. Roughly 1.5 hours of cumulative web-browsing, no apps/games used.
I never use WiFi and I don't live in an LTE area.
I typically end the day (19-21 hours unplugged) with ~40% remaining.

Now I am not sure if living in area with LTE is a bless or curse....
I would unplug around 7am everyday, and by the time I get home (around 6pm) I would always in red mode (meaning, it is either 14% or under). Using the Holics-0.6 with the kernel that came with it, battery seems to die fast. Even when I am on the stock ICS before this, seems LTE would just bleed this baby to death....
Reading other comments, might as well start looking for a bigger battery....

It actually seems like I'm getting better battery since LTE came to my town. I'm on dark raider using kozmick's rc1 kernel and it's even better now. Try turning off vibration feedback...I think it's located in the sounds menu in settings. You can also try using automatic brightness or even just setting it to stay at 50% or lower. The screen is a battery hog. There's a stickied thread somewhere on here that has other things you can try too.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

Really is a shame that we have to disable or ease everything back so much to get through the day on a battery. Anyhow, I have a Velocity (which comes out of the box with the processor running at 1500) on Dark Raider. Therefore I use SetCPU to throttle the beast back, depending upon the circumstances. It only is allowed to run at 1500 when on charge and down to 400 when battery below 25 percent. I also use 2X Battery to take care of the netowrk and Wi-Fi and have purchased the andida battery for extended life. I also have JD installed, however it is rarely used - reason is that I am in agreeance with "citsong" that it takes too long to establish connections, even causing me general connection issues from time to time. So for around $25 AUD you can get through the day on a battery with moderate use and reasonable performance. I have not tried the extended battery pack, though I will probably get one of those as well...not sure which are the best???

I personally don't like the vibrate response thing, so I turn that off right out of the box, also, auto brightness is another that I set. When I go in the battery tab to see what is bleeding it to death, and most of it would be the display....
Though, vivid seem to have a smaller battery compared to other phones of similar functions and/or size, so that might be the reason I am not really seeing a very good battery life?

deathnai said:
I personally don't like the vibrate response thing, so I turn that off right out of the box, also, auto brightness is another that I set. When I go in the battery tab to see what is bleeding it to death, and most of it would be the display....
Though, vivid seem to have a smaller battery compared to other phones of similar functions and/or size, so that might be the reason I am not really seeing a very good battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually there are only a couple phones that have a larger battery...
The galaxy note and the atrix are the ones that come to mind...
And the note has a larger screen and Samsung's rediculious samoled screen which eats battery like potato chips...
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

rignfool said:
Actually there are only a couple phones that have a larger battery...
The galaxy note and the atrix are the ones that come to mind...
And the note has a larger screen and Samsung's rediculious samoled screen which eats battery like potato chips...
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My solution was to get a larger battery (2100mAh, the largest one with stock format) and using juice defender to control my Data Connection. I am getting about 60% more using time on a normal usage whan before!

I actually have both Motorola Atrix 2 and HTC Vivid. However, my Atrix 2 would last about two days between charges, which is kind of weird. I have my personal account and company account on that phone (personal is to activate the google stuff), so it eats up data twice as fast, yet it is almost twice as long battery life.
And to update a little bit from my post before, it seems I am getting better battery life now, after 4-5 days of flashing the new ROM, let's hope it is true....or I am just going to go hunt for a bigger battery
---------- Post added at 08:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:18 PM ----------
rignfool said:
Actually there are only a couple phones that have a larger battery...
The galaxy note and the atrix are the ones that come to mind...
And the note has a larger screen and Samsung's rediculious samoled screen which eats battery like potato chips...
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the Samsung Galaxy Note is way bigger than either Atrix or Vivid, so with a bigger body, I would assume that a bigger battery is possible. But if you look at current phones, I rarely see batteries that are above, say, 1800mAh, let alone 2000mAh and above, stock of course.

ideaLduK said:
My solution was to get a larger battery (2100mAh, the largest one with stock format) and using juice defender to control my Data Connection. I am getting about 60% more using time on a normal usage whan before!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you share the details on the battery?

Andida batteies are easily found on Ebay, but beware of Chinese fakes!! I got mine from a seller in Canada, all good.

I get good battery life by turning off data while I'm working . 70% with 8hrs unplugged
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using XDA

Droid 4 battery issues...unbearable.

I spent a few hours looking through other threads, but nothing seemed to quite fit my scenario.
Stock droid 4 with the latest over the air update.
I use the phone very sparingly during the day, and my battery drains very quickly...
Usually take off the charger around 8am and battery is below 20% by 2pm.
My usage is usually one or two 5 minute calls, and probably 10mins of facebook.
Is there a good smart action I could try?
I had one that turned off the 4g while the screen was off, but it made sending picture messages unbearable...
My battery use indicator blames screen, then OS, then facebook....
I feel as if it's not reporting the culprit correctly...
Any help is much appreciated.

F3M4 said:
I spent a few hours looking through other threads, but nothing seemed to quite fit my scenario.
Stock droid 4 with the latest over the air update.
I use the phone very sparingly during the day, and my battery drains very quickly...
Usually take off the charger around 8am and battery is below 20% by 2pm.
My usage is usually one or two 5 minute calls, and probably 10mins of facebook.
Is there a good smart action I could try?
I had one that turned off the 4g while the screen was off, but it made sending picture messages unbearable...
My battery use indicator blames screen, then OS, then facebook....
I feel as if it's not reporting the culprit correctly...
Any help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had similar issues, not sure what I did to cause them. When I first got the phone, 16hrs+ with what I would consider moderate usage was normal. I've flashed AOKP and the battery life is back to normal (on track for 15hrs today), but the stock rom is a disaster.
I'll let you know what I turn up (if anything), but I have a feeling I'll probably be wiping everything out since I actually like the stock ROM (plus no hw accel in ICS).
Edit: Also, how did you have a smart action turn 4G on/off? I was under the impression we can't control that at all, except via system menu. Is a downside to VZW's 4G...

I believe that was actually via the app Juicedefender.
even with it on i was still only getting about 8 hours...
I am semi interested in rooting/flashing a rom etc, but my last experience there was a disaster(thanks to a ****ty droid eris)

I disabled all widgets except for facebook, being that it's the only one I use...
The only non essential apps running all the time are battery circle, and facebook(widget i guess?)
I'm now charged to 100%, gonna see where these changes take me.

What are your settings as far as Brightness, Haptic Feedback, Screen Timeout, Vibration (Incoming Message/Call or End Call). Also, I recommend just using the FB app instead of the widget as I notice most of the widgets draw power even when the screen is off.
I am currently running Eclipse 1.3.7 w/ xrjxMod, Brightness all the way down, all vibration and haptic feedback is off. Since I am rooted I also used ROM Toolbox to adjust my scan interval to the minimum. I have the screen timeout to the max, but I always turn it off manually after use. I am constantly on either FB, XDA, txt messages or the occasional game/Netflix use and with the exception of watching a full episode or movie on Netflix, I am averaging about 6 to 8 hours on a full charge.

My battery is now sitting at 46%.
Since my last post I used the phone for 18mins of phone calls and nothing else.
The breakdown is 46% voice, 23% android OS, 12% display, 9% phone idle, 8% cell standby...
The brightness is as low as possible, haptic feedback is off, phone is set to vibrate(thats the only way I get calls)
All three location settings are on....Should I turn them all off? I dont know which are important...

I agree with azreal. Check your setting. Haptic feedback sucks up juice and unless you like it is more of an annoyance imo. There is an option for it in language and keyboard as well as in the screen menu for your soft keys.
Do you have your gmail setup to constantly sync? If its not needed un-check it in you accounts menu.
Are you leaving wifi on when your not in range of a remebered router?
If you are not in a strong 4g area set it to cdma only in your wifi and networks menu.
My opinion of apps to extend battery life is a negative one. Its an app that always runs to make things stop running???? Some work ok but most do not.
If all else fails I would suggest the eclipse rom for the d4. As long as you are safestrapped and follow directions properly you can't go wrong. In the case of a bootloop shut the phone off and reboot and you will come back to the recovery screen to try it again or go back to stock. Its nearly foolproof.
You may also want to do a battery stat wipe if your still having issues. Just discharge your phone completly, then fully charge wipe stats and completly discharge again then fully charge once more, and see if you notice a difference.
I get around 15-16hrs on stock and up to 22hrs on eclipse (varies with usage) by following these few things.
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

I have wifi permanently off...
I have 4g almost all the time.
I use a gmail, but I cannot find a way to limit it's syncing...I still want it to check for emails, I guess just not as frequently.

F3M4 said:
I have wifi permanently off...
I have 4g almost all the time.
I use a gmail, but I cannot find a way to limit it's syncing...I still want it to check for emails, I guess just not as frequently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would hazard a guess that having 4G on all the time is one of the main culprits. I leave 4G off unless I am browsing the web, forums, or something else where the extra speed is nice. I use the 4G Toggle widget from the market to turn 4G on and off. I always turn it off before hitting the power button to turn off the screen. No need for it to be sucking juice when I'm not actively using my phone.
Sent from my DROID4 using XDA

I just installed the toggle switch, I'm gonna give it a go.

To turn off the gmail sync go to accounts click on you tap the account. Then uncheck the sync box.
When you want to check your email go to the gmail app hit the menu and sync. Takes about 30 seconds extra but saves some battery.
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

I'm always skeptical when people blame gmail sync or 4G on battery issues. When the phone was new on stock, and on ICS now, I have three gmail accounts, a yahoo account, and one Exchange account all syncing in the background + 4G on 24/7 and getting around 16hrs of battery life. This was the case for weeks. Then I started having trouble with Verizon's Backup Manager, did a factory reset, and now stock battery life is ~ 8hrs, with 4G OFF
I'm thinking at the very least, there is an issue with the stock battery information panel. My feeling is it hides battery use by the stock bloatware...

podspi said:
I'm always skeptical when people blame gmail sync or 4G on battery issues. When the phone was new on stock, and on ICS now, I have three gmail accounts, a yahoo account, and one Exchange account all syncing in the background + 4G on 24/7 and getting around 16hrs of battery life. This was the case for weeks. Then I started having trouble with Verizon's Backup Manager, did a factory reset, and now stock battery life is ~ 8hrs, with 4G OFF
I'm thinking at the very least, there is an issue with the stock battery information panel. My feeling is it hides battery use by the stock bloatware...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that there is probably more to it than just 4G or syncing. Especially where people are getting only 8 hours or so battery life. I personally have noticed definite battery savings with 4G toggled off when not in use though. I can usually still go most of the day even with it toggled on all day but with 4G off, except when I actually need it, I usually get to bed with 30% - 40% battery left as opposed to 10% - 20% left with 4G on all day.
Sent from my DROID4 using XDA

I would also turn all 3 locations off. No need to run the gps when not using navigation. I keep my 4G on as I use it frequently but I am going to try the toggle as well for the extra savings on battery when not netflixing/browsing.
Sent from my DROID4 using XDA

Yep. I'm also having big issues with my Droid 4 battery. First I thought it was the firewall. But even after uninstalling the app, the drainage is absurd. The battery drains so fast, the phone gets warm.
I don't know where to look. I read something about logcat in another thread but could't find it anymore.
My Droid 4 can work about 5 hours on one battery charge. No gps, no 4g and no wifi. If I turn on wifi, it lasts about 8 hours, so I'm suspecting that some process loops when in non WIFI mode.

If you're out of options try using an app called watchdog. It let's you see if there is an app that's draining your battery unusually fast.

Thanks for the tip. But what whatchdog should I use? There are many apps called watchdog

vmu said:
Thanks for the tip. But what whatchdog should I use? There are many apps called watchdog
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Watchdog task manager lite (free version).

I tried that this morning. Still poor battery life on stock, but watchdog doesn't flag anything. Very weird
Oh well, I would definitely recommend AOKP for anybody having battery problems.
For me today: 4 hours 55 minutes since unplug, 80% left.
Screen time on: 50 minutes (!)
That being said, I do keep my screen on pretty low. Still, you can tell I've been using it...

Watchdog couldn't help me but. My data monitor showed that motorola.services was generating a lot of data the past few days (800+ MB :O ) and responsible for the battery drainage. I blocked it with droidwall. It's better now, but sometimes it still pops up and generates data despite the fact it's blocked.
So glad that I have an unlimited internet plan or else I was really screwed