Database Develop

Battery Drain. Help!

I have experienced it a couple of times in the 8 months or so I have had my Captivate (Galaxy S). One time it was due to a rogue application that was using heaps of CPU. Using OS monitor I discovered that an app/process had a load running consistently up at 50% or more.
Uninstalled the app, problem solved. For months I was getting 48-60 hours out of a single charge, which was absolutely brilliant.
Now I have a new battery drain, and it's proving very difficult to find. Checking OS monitor didn't help. No app sticking out like dogs balls hogging CPU this time.
I tried the advice in this thread;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=937080(preview)
Gone through it from end to end, and the battery drain is still there. The thread tells me I should be using roughly 1% per hour while on standby. Current widget tells me I am using 1% about every 5-8 minutes, which gives me 8-12 hours of battery life.
I have gone back and uninstalled a heaps of apps I no longer use, as well as uninstalling apps that I installed around the start of the time I noticed battery drain began. No good.
Checked all my settings, even experimented with turning off background sync (which I dont think is the problem, as I had it on when I was getting 2+ days of battery life), no good.
Using Titanium Backup, I went through and began "freezing" a couple of apps at a time, thinking I could find the application causing it that way. I sorted my apps by install date and started going back in time 2 or 3 apps at a time. No good.
However, I think I may have found a clue...
The other day, I turned my phone onto Flight mode, I can't remember why now. Anyway, I realised a few hours later that I forgot to turn Flight mode off. Looked at my battery and noticed, it had hardly dropped at all! Weird. As far as I can tell, I have the phone set up the way I did when I had great battery life. In some cases, I have even tried doing things I did not do when battery life was good (turning off background data, wifi etc). I still can't pinpoint the problem.
Who else has experienced battery drain on Android? What did you do to combat it? It's just frustrating knowing what my phone and battery are capable of and not being able to achieve it!

I have has that a couple of times too. The only way I have found to make it stop when it starts is to do a reboot. Like you it doesn't appear to be any specific app, the os is just eating battery. Once I reboot its great again. Hope this helps
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

Well from a lot of different articles I have read, having a weak signal around you can cause a drain on the battery. The fact that the phone has to try to grab the signal harder than it should on top of getting then losing and having to re acquire the signal drains the battery.
I haven't done any tests myself but I find that I get great battery life when using the phone heavily while at home on the wifi network.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App

jferg5 said:
I have has that a couple of times too. The only way I have found to make it stop when it starts is to do a reboot. Like you it doesn't appear to be any specific app, the os is just eating battery. Once I reboot its great again. Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah it's not that easy unfortunately. It's a problem I have had for a couple of months now. There has been many reboots in that time, none have solved the drain.
The only thing that did was putting the phone into airplane mode, which then make it a nice-looking paperweight.
FLAC Vest said:
Well from a lot of different articles I have read, having a weak signal around you can cause a drain on the battery. The fact that the phone has to try to grab the signal harder than it should on top of getting then losing and having to re acquire the signal drains the battery.
I haven't done any tests myself but I find that I get great battery life when using the phone heavily while at home on the wifi network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be that, but I don't think so. As I said, I had great battery life using this ROM, and in the same locations as I do now with terrible battery life. I haven't moved, I still use the phone where I did before.
Cheers for the responses anyway guys. I appreciate it.

Google maps is a known battery drain even if not using it thanks to latitude trying to determine where you are. I would try freezing or uninstalling Google maps.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

F1reEng1neRed said:
Google maps is a known battery drain even if not using it thanks to latitude trying to determine where you are. I would try freezing or uninstalling Google maps.
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Click to collapse
Thank you so much! It appears you are right. I "froze" Maps using Titanium Backup, and for 40 minutes my battery has been steady at 24% while on standby. Brilliant! Usually in that time I would drop 3-5%.
Now, the next question. How do I stop it? Does this mean I can no longer use Maps? I don't even use Latitude, but I see no option to uninstall it anywhere. Everything in it is turned off.
Not sure how to proceed from here. I do use Maps from time to time and would like to keep them if I can.

Just un-freeze it when you need it.

One thing that I did was start resetting my phone right before bed to terminate all the programs that I used through out the day.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

I have just upgraded to Serendipity 7, we'll see if that fixes the problem. If not, I may have to freeze Maps while not in use.

Well, after a battery calibration I am now getting 24-30 hours with moderate use. A long way from the 48-60 hours I used to get, but a lot better than the 10-12 hours of recent times. So I am half as well off as I was 3 months ago, but twice better off than I was a week ago.
Happy enough for now. Just wish I could pinpoint how I was getting that great battery life before!

[Q] My phone keeps dying!

In the last week or so I have picked up my phone three times and it has been dead.
The power button doesn't turn it on again.
I have to take the battery out and then restart it.
I'm running a rooted 2.35 JVT.
I have nothing untoward running ...
Settings
Sense analogue clock
DRM content
Software update
SnsService
Google Play Store
Samsung keypad
Apart from Angry Birds, there's almost nothing else, and nothing new for months except Bad Piggies.

deanbilly said:
In the last week or so I have picked up my phone three times and it has been dead.
The power button doesn't turn it on again.
I have to take the battery out and then restart it.
I'm running a rooted 2.35 JVT.
I have nothing untoward running ...
Settings
Sense analogue clock
DRM content
Software update
SnsService
Google Play Store
Samsung keypad
Apart from Angry Birds, there's almost nothing else, and nothing new for months except Bad Piggies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could it be a dead battery?
otherwise, tried to wipe and (re)flash a rom?

The battery is fine, and the ROM has been there for well over a year with no problems.

Finding the root cause of battery drain...
deanbilly said:
In the last week or so I have picked up my phone three times and it has been dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a number of standard steps to run through to find the root cause of battery problems, assuming the drain is caused by the OS or apps and not actually due to a physically failing battery.
I have been tracking a few battery issues myself recently and this is what I have learned from doing some reading on XDA:
There are two free apps on the app market that are typically used to diagnose battery problems:
Better Battery Stats
CPU Spy
I would recommend installing both apps. The third place to look is in the battery details in the system settings...sorry I can't remember what they look like on Gingerbread because upgraded to Jelly Bean a couple months ago, though I do remember there was less information in the stock battery info on Gingerbread.
IF you are not, indeed dealing with a physically dead battery, then the root of your battery drain is most likely caused by a background process or app that is keeping the processor in a partially active state even though the screen is turned off and one would assume the phone should not be using any power.
Android OS will automatically change the running speed of the processor in the phone based on the demand of the system. If only a few background tasks are running and updating information the speed might be 200 or 400 Mhz. If the system is running full out servicing a graphic intensive game the processor will likely be running at the full 1000 MHz speed. The speed of the processor will directly effect the battery drain.
The expectation is that when we turn the display off (not power down, just put the phone to sleep) the processor should need fewer resources and slow down, tending towards a state known as "Deep Sleep". At this point the processor us using very minimal amounts of power. Any app or process that is active in the background will prevent the processor from getting to Deep Sleep. The CPU spy app will allow you to check how much time the phone runs at various speeds. Once you install it and run it, then reset the timers in the menu and turn your screen off for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then 'refresh' the timers. Normally, you should see most of the time accumulated in Deep Sleep. There are standard background tasks such as syncing with the cell tower, updating time, mail, checking alarms etc. That will engage the processor momentarily but they should be relatively short compared to the deep sleep time. In my case, an errand process was keeping my phone at 100Mhz constantly preventing deep sleep.
Once you know that something is keeping the phone awake in the background, you can use Better Battery Stats to narrow down which process or app it is the cause. This app allows you to track the individual processes that are consuming the most time and preventing 'wakelocks'. Wakelocks are essentially an app preventing the sleep state and are very well explained in this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1827676
The battery info in the system settings can also be used to give clues though again, I can't remember how much detail was included in Gingerbread..
If your problem only started happening recently, then it could be a new app that you installed recently, a feature or setting you changed recently or possibly a recent update to an app that was already installed. Try to think back at any recent events that could have triggered a change in the system.
Common problem apps I have read about are:
- Facebook - seems to be bad at using lots of background processor time. (Don't run this app but reading several posts shows its a processor hog)
- Google Apps that sync - Gmail, Chrome (syncs browser history, tabs etc.), Google location stats.
The wakelocks link goes into a great deal of detail and is hugely valuable in nailing your issue down.
Good Luck, let use know via a post if you find the root cause...

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear about it being 'dead'.
The battery is 100% or thereabouts, no problems ever with the battery.
The phone looked as though it was turned off, but wouldn't turn on again with the power button.
I have to take the battery out and put it back again, then it starts on the button.
I've cleaned the contacts, and it still happened.

User error.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

To me, it sounds more like a rogue process messing up power managing or response, but it's hard to tell what it could actually be.
For instance, you might come a cross a game that leaves your phone locked in max cpu frequency, draining the battery without explanation.
If it was me, I'd re-flash the rom from Odin, perhaps with an sd card wipe too.
Sent from horseback.

[Q] Captivate not holding charge, showing excessive system usage

Hi,
I have had the captivate for a while and it has been a trusty little phone. For past few months , the phone is not able to hold the charge. I have tried multiple roms, stock roms, and tried to do as much as I can. But still not able to keep the phone on for more than 6 hours from 100%. I bought a new battery and no difference has been noticed. I was just wondering what else could I look into. I have a Note 2, but I really love this phone and want it as a good reliable spare.
Thanks

Install the Better Battery Stats app and let it run for a day and then see what the apps says is eatin up ur battery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

I would highly recommend the "SLIM" Rom. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2060386)
I've found that it's been extremely kind to my battery with its suite of inverted apps and generally inverted interface.
My battery running stock rom was dying in ~6 hours idling, very much like your situation. Running SLIM, I've seen battery life for ~1.5 days with light usage. Not a drastic improvement but it definitely helps.
I would also recommend grabbing "Gemini App Manager" and killing off some pesky background services that may be eating up at your resources/battery life. Be careful what you mess with, but you can change the startup for your services as well as fully disabling services. (Requires root)

ArchTyriel said:
I would highly recommend the "SLIM" Rom. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2060386)
I've found that it's been extremely kind to my battery with its suite of inverted apps and generally inverted interface.
My battery running stock rom was dying in ~6 hours idling, very much like your situation. Running SLIM, I've seen battery life for ~1.5 days with light usage. Not a drastic improvement but it definitely helps.
I would also recommend grabbing "Gemini App Manager" and killing off some pesky background services that may be eating up at your resources/battery life. Be careful what you mess with, but you can change the startup for your services as well as fully disabling services. (Requires root)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
His issue isn't coming from the ROM he's using. It's mostly a app draining his battery.
On a side note, app manager/killer don't actually give you more battery as the process simply restarts after being killed. Android itself kills w/e needs to be killed (without restarting them). Stop using it and you might actually see a improvement in battery life.

BWolf56 said:
His issue isn't coming from the ROM he's using. It's mostly a app draining his battery.
On a side note, app manager/killer don't actually give you more battery as the process simply restarts after being killed. Android itself kills w/e needs to be killed (without restarting them). Stop using it and you might actually see a improvement in battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All ROMs are certainly not created equally so I was making a suggestion based on personal experience.
No I agree, with your original post that he needs to track down the app that is killing the battery but the manager I suggested configures the startup parameters of the app (should this app start on boot/can it restart itself/etc). I found when using it that my dropbox was constantly hanging around in the background and started on boot. It allows for some select tweaking of what exactly you want to be running and when it is allowed to start.

thanks guys, I have been trying to figure out myself whats keeping the phone on but no luck yet. its just saying brightness consuming more than 50% battery and the other 25% is os ans system.
I installed slim rom last night, so will try it out today and see how this fares.

[Q] How do I solve my terrible battery performance?

I got a refurbished AT&T Galaxy Note 3 about a month or 2 ago. From the very beginning the battery has been awful. On a full charge--which takes at least 6 hours--I can get about 4 hours of regular use (i.e. no games, just web, maybe some maps, email, turning off Wifi & GPS when not in use, lowering the brightness, etc.) and sometimes up to 8 if I don't use it at all. If I play a game or listen to an audiobook, I get maybe 2-3 hours. Even if it's plugged in to the charger, the battery will slowly drain if I'm using it. The phone is also very often really hot.
As suggested on other threads about battery problems, I've downloaded Battery Doctor to help close open apps--and that's given me a tiny bit more time, but nothing substantial. I've also been using GSam to see what the problem might be. 25% is used by the Android Sytem, 22% is used by the screen, 11% by facebook (which I've started force quitting), 8% by the Kernel, 8% by the phone radio, etc.
Nearly everyone says what a great phone this is, but I just find my self seriously limiting how much I use it--which defeats the purpose of even having it.
Any ideas of what's going on? Anything else I should be looking at or trying? Between this and the fact that I can't root (I have KK), I'm about ready to sell it and go back to an iPhone.
Thanks.

conanh said:
I got a refurbished AT&T Galaxy Note 3 about a month or 2 ago. From the very beginning the battery has been awful. On a full charge--which takes at least 6 hours--I can get about 4 hours of regular use (i.e. no games, just web, maybe some maps, email, turning off Wifi & GPS when not in use, lowering the brightness, etc.) and sometimes up to 8 if I don't use it at all. If I play a game or listen to an audiobook, I get maybe 2-3 hours. Even if it's plugged in to the charger, the battery will slowly drain if I'm using it. The phone is also very often really hot.
As suggested on other threads about battery problems, I've downloaded Battery Doctor to help close open apps--and that's given me a tiny bit more time, but nothing substantial. I've also been using GSam to see what the problem might be. 25% is used by the Android Sytem, 22% is used by the screen, 11% by facebook (which I've started force quitting), 8% by the Kernel, 8% by the phone radio, etc.
Nearly everyone says what a great phone this is, but I just find my self seriously limiting how much I use it--which defeats the purpose of even having it.
Any ideas of what's going on? Anything else I should be looking at or trying? Between this and the fact that I can't root (I have KK), I'm about ready to sell it and go back to an iPhone.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have a bad battery, pop the back off and replace it!

First and foremost, try and figure out what might be hogging up all your battery.
Go to System Settings -> General Tab -> Battery
Look at this list of apps that are eating your battery up. The top 3 are usually 'Android System', 'Android OS', and 'Screen', depending on your current usage (unless you have been loving up a game or other resource intensive app recently, in which case it will be up top). If you see an app that seems to be eating away at it constantly, even when you aren't usuing it, try uninstalling it.
You might also have a problem with wake lock (where an app, or apps keeps your phone from going into its deep sleep). If your phone is rooted you can get the wake lock detector from the app store and use it to figure out what is causing the problem.
If its a system app that casuing wake lock, or just eating through battery like there is no tomorrow, it might be a known bug someone can help you with.
Also a thing to consider is the health of the battery. You say its a refurbished phone, who knows what that battery has been through (if its not a new one, no idea if they do that for refurbs). Its not a cheap option, but if all else fails getting a new battery might be the way to go. Also if no else fails there is as they say the nuclear option, as in doing a good factory reset once or twice.
Hope all that helps

conanh said:
I got a refurbished AT&T Galaxy Note 3 about a month or 2 ago. From the very beginning the battery has been awful. On a full charge--which takes at least 6 hours--I can get about 4 hours of regular use (i.e. no games, just web, maybe some maps, email, turning off Wifi & GPS when not in use, lowering the brightness, etc.) and sometimes up to 8 if I don't use it at all. If I play a game or listen to an audiobook, I get maybe 2-3 hours. Even if it's plugged in to the charger, the battery will slowly drain if I'm using it. The phone is also very often really hot.
As suggested on other threads about battery problems, I've downloaded Battery Doctor to help close open apps--and that's given me a tiny bit more time, but nothing substantial. I've also been using GSam to see what the problem might be. 25% is used by the Android Sytem, 22% is used by the screen, 11% by facebook (which I've started force quitting), 8% by the Kernel, 8% by the phone radio, etc.
Nearly everyone says what a great phone this is, but I just find my self seriously limiting how much I use it--which defeats the purpose of even having it.
Any ideas of what's going on? Anything else I should be looking at or trying? Between this and the fact that I can't root (I have KK), I'm about ready to sell it and go back to an iPhone.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery drain on Kitkat is a common problem, but that is ridiculous. Sounds like to me that you have a messed up battery. You should be able to call Att and have them send you out a new battery. Or Samsung might have to send you out one. I don't know who, but the battery should be covered under the warranty of the phone.
EDIT : Also, check if the battery has any bumps, dents, etc.

Might try turning off location services as well
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Free mobile app

Battery preservation strategy

I've been thoroughly impressed with battery life on the Moto Z as a result of normal use. Less so with idle battery consumption. That is, after installing my full complement of apps (including facebook and twitter), I did a few tests by going too bed on a full charge, and found that 7 or so hours later, it had burned down 15-20% doing nothing overnight!
I installed gsam batter monitor since the stock one is kind of useless. This provided a lot of valuable info, which is basically that Twitter is a huge hog, Facebook surprisingly isn't, and google play services also seems to be spinning its wheels a lot when I'm doing nothing. But most of my juice was going to powering the wifi radio.
Android M has a setting to turn off wifi when the phone is sleeping. I was reluctant to do this at first because I figured my apps would just start wasting my data instead. However, you also have the ability to selectively limit apps' ability to use cellular data when running in the background. In an app's settings you can click "Data Usage", then "Restrict app background data."
I did this for all the apps that gsam identified as being the wifi/battery users. And frankly there are almost no apps that I actually want using data when I'm not using the app itself anyway, except SMS and gmail. (I wish there was a way to just say "actually shut this app down when I close it", so I could activate it for most apps!)
Anyway -after doing this, I activated the setting to turn off the wifi radio when the phone was sleeping.
Result? 2% battery drain overnight, and minimal cellular data use. Amazing.
(Btw - I also uninstalled the twitter app and just put a link from chrome on my desktop. The web mobile app is very good anyway and I'm not much a twitter addict so this is a fine alternative that is a lot less intrustive for me).

jamtre said:
I've been thoroughly impressed with battery life on the Moto Z as a result of normal use. Less so with idle battery consumption. That is, after installing my full complement of apps (including facebook and twitter), I did a few tests by going too bed on a full charge, and found that 7 or so hours later, it had burned down 15-20% doing nothing overnight!
I installed gsam batter monitor since the stock one is kind of useless. This provided a lot of valuable info, which is basically that Twitter is a huge hog, Facebook surprisingly isn't, and google play services also seems to be spinning its wheels a lot when I'm doing nothing. But most of my juice was going to powering the wifi radio.
Android M has a setting to turn off wifi when the phone is sleeping. I was reluctant to do this at first because I figured my apps would just start wasting my data instead. However, you also have the ability to selectively limit apps' ability to use cellular data when running in the background. In an app's settings you can click "Data Usage", then "Restrict app background data."
I did this for all the apps that gsam identified as being the wifi/battery users. And frankly there are almost no apps that I actually want using data when I'm not using the app itself anyway, except SMS and gmail. (I wish there was a way to just say "actually shut this app down when I close it", so I could activate it for most apps!)
Anyway -after doing this, I activated the setting to turn off the wifi radio when the phone was sleeping.
Result? 2% battery drain overnight, and minimal cellular data use. Amazing.
(Btw - I also uninstalled the twitter app and just put a link from chrome on my desktop. The web mobile app is very good anyway and I'm not much a twitter addict so this is a fine alternative that is a lot less intrustive for me).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got the phone a couple days ago. I appreciate the info here. I have also read that if you just turn wifi to 2.4 GHz only that it will keep the battery drain from happening. I don't use twitter or facebook so don't have to worry about those. Google play services has been a problem since marshmallow. If we could root we could use something like Amplify to stop all the wakelocks, but root is getting hard to come by on these new phones.
I noticed on Gsam that my phone will sleep well for a while, then the "held awake" category starts to take off. I have to reboot to get it to doze again. I have agressive doze and doze on the go activated in Greenify. Not sure what gets it started, but it would be nice to be able to kill it off without rebooting.

I bought a USB C to regular USB and have been charging without the Turbo Charger and the battery is doing so much better.
I was getting frustrated with the battery performance.
Sent from my XT1650 using XDA-Developers mobile app