Are Outside browsers just battery killers? - Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've got a ? From one of your fellow Thunderbolt users... he has installed only a few droid market apps, weather bug, juice defender(free), and the UC browser. He thinks its eaten his battery right now... are these assumebly the culprits? Should they be removed? Thanx for your help from another style.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

The rapid battery loss is probably stemming from browsing using 4G. Nothing to do with the actual browser. He could switch to 3G to save battery life by using the app LTEonoff. Other than that, he's pretty much out of luck. Either plug in the phone while browsing the web or get the extended battery.

If you don't turn off "background update" in WeatherBug it will eat up your battery. When you turn this off, it will still update when opened, so the only thing you lose are weather alerts.
Edit: This should be moved to "Questions".

Browsers arent the problem or any particular piece of software running in the background. Poorly coded software (which tends to be a problem at times on android, but it's improving all the time) is the problem. In the spare parts application, you can see what's using partial wake lock (what kills your battery when the phone is not in use) and you can also see what eats up your cpu, etc. A good application should be doing essentially nothing in the background unless you instructed it to (or was assumed it should be) and should be more or less hibernating in cache until activated.
As mentioned, LTE will eat your battery. Opera mobile browser has a known bug in it that caps your LTE connection at 120KB/s, though it doesn't affect wifi/3g, so browsing LTE with it is pretty useless.

Related

[Q] About Android....

Guys, don't ask me to search again... i really did... and didn't found any answer....
i am new on android.... and it's regarding the battery's life time...
i hope someone give me an answer here....
there're a lot android user saying about advanced task manager, juicedefender, v6 supercharger, cell standby, phone idle.... anyway... i got no answer at all....
few people using ATaskMan and improve their battery life, but few people said it just drain my battery... anyway...i don't see any improvement using that....
i used juice defender to keep the connectivity.... better than keep it all the time...
didn't see any improvement also....
i used setCpu too... keep it low at night.... i don't really know if it works....
all i want is keeping the data on as long as possible.... even on sleep.... to keep apps like viber, whatsapp, im+ and sometime to sync the apps like weather, facebook, twitter and email...
weather, facebook, twitter and email... these apps were set to manual... not automatic....
i don't call and messaging a lot.... just stay on in internet...
i don't play games a lot... maybe few minutes....
so my questions here...
1. did the apps on background really drain up the battery? because they are, who using v6 supercharger didn't have a problem with battery.... and it's not like ATaskMan... it's didn't kill the apps at all.... just manage the background apps...
2. did the widget also drain the battery? some people said so....
3. keep the data on all the time? i read in this forum... they keep their data on.... but, still having their phone more than a day... moveover... some guys get it over 2 till 4 days...
if it's about ROM, it should be same with other, who uses the same ROM...
and if it's about hardware... it should be from the first time i bought this phone....
i just want keep my phone as long as possible with data on.....
anyway.... i still keep tracking what drain my battery the most....
hope someone come with answer for this....
and sorry for my english.....
1. That depends on which apps are running in the background, but when your device is in standby it should go to "sleep", but if you've set some apps to update every 15 minutes, the phone will wake up (without turning the screen on of course) to update them. This will naturally use some battery. And remember that Android can handle all processes itself. You don't need to kill them yourself. That will actually decrease batterylife since the phone has to start the apps again everytime you kill them. A task manager is nice to have if an app is going rogue.
2. Widgets do use battery, and the widgets who are set to automatically update itself uses more battery (Facebook, Twitter, Weather etc.)
3. "This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
Source: AndroidCentral
Follow the two guides below, this will help you out.
1. Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life
2. How to Save Battery Power on an Android
And of course the easiest solution that is often overlooked:
Carry a spare battery and/or charger.
BazookaAce said:
1. That depends on which apps are running in the background, but when your device is in standby it should go to "sleep", but if you've set some apps to update every 15 minutes, the phone will wake up (without turning the screen on of course) to update them. This will naturally use some battery. And remember that Android can handle all processes itself. You don't need to kill them yourself. That will actually decrease batterylife since the phone has to start the apps again everytime you kill them. A task manager is nice to have if an app is going rogue.
2. Widgets do use battery, and the widgets who are set to automatically update itself uses more battery (Facebook, Twitter, Weather etc.)
3. "This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
Source: AndroidCentral
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks a lot.... i just read all article from androidcentral.... i thought, i found all my answer there... searching in the google doesn't really bring me to the best source... it's just too many choice....
anyway... i got another website to spend my time
febycv said:
Follow the two guides below, this will help you out.
1. Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life
2. How to Save Battery Power on an Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for another source...
it's really helpfull...
DirkGently1 said:
And of course the easiest solution that is often overlooked:
Carry a spare battery and/or charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah.... it's the last choice.... carring them is not the problem.... im just kind person who can't leave my stuff behind on the socket... and i spend too much time out there... where doesn't really have socket... except... library... plug the charger for 5 minutes, doesn't really help.... thanks anyway....
The android OS has a built in task manger so using ATK or ATM is actually worse than if you don't.
But honestly rooting has made all of the difference. If you have time for it READ about what it means to root and the how-to's, youtube instrutional videos, etc.... just get your feet wet a lil bit. When/if you feel like it is something that you might be interested in, go ahead and do it. You wont regret it and you will diffidently be able to improve battery life with titanium backup which allows you to freeze apps that you dont need running.
Warning 1) you might become addicted to flashing ROMS... and 2) if you screw up your phone you can't blame anyone but yourself.
petecraig612 said:
The android OS has a built in task manger so using ATK or ATM is actually worse than if you don't.
But honestly rooting has made all of the difference. If you have time for it READ about what it means to root and the how-to's, youtube instrutional videos, etc.... just get your feet wet a lil bit. When/if you feel like it is something that you might be interested in, go ahead and do it. You wont regret it and you will diffidently be able to improve battery life with titanium backup which allows you to freeze apps that you dont need running.
Warning 1) you might become addicted to flashing ROMS... and 2) if you screw up your phone you can't blame anyone but yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I did already.... waiting the new rom everyday....
2. Yes it is....
I need root to back up my phone... and it's already rooted... and there're a lot useless program coming with stock rom... need root to clean it also....
Sent from my LG-P920 using XDA App
at least for my phone: regarding setcpu, you can raise the minimum frequency, increasing performance while hardly affecting battery life (at stock i had 245/600; now i have 480/600). turns out that if you set the minimum frequency low, it will take some juice to ramp the cpu back up
just a little tip
Just wanted to add: besides titanium backup, I'd also recommend gemini app manager and better battery stats. You can use gemini to edit an app's autorun permissions (ie, automatically starting at boot) for those apps you don't, can't or shouldn't uninstall/freeze. If you're having issues with your phone not sleeping better battery stats will help you identify what's keeping your phone awake.
Lastly, there is only so much you can do to optimize your battery life. In the end you're going to have to sacrifice some functionality for better battery life or vice versa. You just need to find the right balance you can live with.
What is the longest running time did you had on your phone? I reckon batteries are getting thinner and thinner and will not last long.
Apps are there to help you avoid manual work. If you switch of automation on all the apps then you will have to spent time and do it all manually and on the other hand how much life will you save lets say %15. Not worth it!
Best solution is to stick your handset to the charger while you are going to sleep!
sweetnsour said:
at least for my phone: regarding setcpu, you can raise the minimum frequency, increasing performance while hardly affecting battery life (at stock i had 245/600; now i have 480/600). turns out that if you set the minimum frequency low, it will take some juice to ramp the cpu back up
just a little tip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i set it 300/300 at night... it's from 00.00 til 06.00 which i don't touch it.... i don't know, if it is a good idea.... i guess, background apps wouldn't using cpu so badly.... would it?
arsalan.haqs said:
What is the longest running time did you had on your phone? I reckon batteries are getting thinner and thinner and will not last long.
Apps are there to help you avoid manual work. If you switch of automation on all the apps then you will have to spent time and do it all manually and on the other hand how much life will you save lets say %15. Not worth it!
Best solution is to stick your handset to the charger while you are going to sleep!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im trying tasker right now... 15% fair enough for me.... without losing data....
i am almost 12 hours out there every day.... i wanna figure out, how to spare the battery life... cause i wanna buy tablet.... which consume more battery than a phone....

[Q] Mobile Data/APN ON-OFF Widget problems

I normally use wifi and thus mobile data is normally off. On my previous phone, I used extended controls which worked really well. I like having widget on the screen to turn the mobile data on or off, really not into screwing around with settings.
With the RAZR, with extended controls, the data off option seems to still allow the phone to "think" there is a mobile connection. I see the sync symbol appear and I think that this searching for a data connection is killing the battery life somehow.
I have now tried various widgets like APNDroid, extended controls, etc and they all seem to have the same effect. I think it is because they just rename the APN versus completely turning off the data.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on this issue? Thank you in advance.
Rob
I think you can set up smart actions to toggle it off for you whenever you connect to Wi-Fi. And then to toggle it back on when you leave the Wi-Fi area.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
Thanks for the suggestion Gary. Thought about smart actions but I leave mobile data off all the time until I need it.
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
I was using the smart actions our Razrs and with the mobile data off it wasn't downloading Voicemails or pictures in text messages until the mobile data was turned back on. Not sure if its something with our setup or not, but I disabled the smart action until I investigate it further.
Yeah, the not downloading MMS thing is fairly common when you turn off data. I don't receive many MMS so it is not something that I really concerned myself about.
After searching for some time now, I found that juice defender has a mobile data widget which is doing what I need. I do not have juice defender enabled but installed it just for the widget. In the widget list it is called "Toggle: mobile data". Seems to get the job done.
I will look into using the other features of juice defender as I have heard many good things about it. I am guessing it is similar to smart actions but maybe not as user friendly.
Many thanks.
Juice Defender was awesome on my Samsung Epic. I haven't looked at all the smart actions yet so I don't know if most of the features of juice defender can be accomplished with that or not.
Wasn't sure about the MMS, just wanted to mention in case it was an issue.
Good luck!
RobHunt said:
Yeah, the not downloading MMS thing is fairly common when you turn off data. I don't receive many MMS so it is not something that I really concerned myself about.
After searching for some time now, I found that juice defender has a mobile data widget which is doing what I need. I do not have juice defender enabled but installed it just for the widget. In the widget list it is called "Toggle: mobile data". Seems to get the job done.
I will look into using the other features of juice defender as I have heard many good things about it. I am guessing it is similar to smart actions but maybe not as user friendly.
Many thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just had the best battery life ever from this phone. Only real changes were the juice defender widget and setting almost all apps to close using task manager. Normal day at work, about 10 hours, used to come home with about 40-50% battery, today it was at 90% after work.
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
What's wrong with the stock Mobile Data Toggle widget?
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
Which widget is that one? I see airplane, GPS, wifi, etc but nothing for data specifically. It would be awesome to use a stock widget and have the same results.
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
This one. Is it not present in VZW firmware? Could certainly explain why it's grouped separately from the rest of the stock toggle widgets if so.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
Strange ... I do not see that widget in my list.
When you turn data off using that widget, does the data icon in your taskbar completely disappear or just go to an inactive state (icon grey all the time)?
With all the widgets I have tried so far, the data icon just goes inactive (icon grey all the time) but using the juice defender widget the data icon disappears completely from the taskbar.
When I had the data inactive (icon grey all the time), I would see the phone attempting to sync and this led me to believe that there is likely several things trying to find a connection. During that time, my battery life sucked hard, was worried that if my work day lasted too long that my phone would die (and I don't use my phone much during the day + wifi, BT, sound, etc all off). Since using the JD widget, I am rocking 80-90% remaining at the end of my work day so far.
Other items I have done to save battery are:
SetCPU profile - nothing special, just min CPU (300-300) for screen off, recharging or low battery
Task Manager - autoclose everything 2 min after screen off except the widgets I want running
Screen Brightness - about 30 or 40%
Data completely disappears when the switch is toggled. It's the same effect as disabling packet data from within the settings menu (normally under wireless & networks, RAZR has it under data manager).
I've seen that grey icon too. Suspect the blue/grey icon colours represent the heartbeat connection to Google, just like the green/grey icons in stock Gingerbread. So grey data icon = connected to network with no throughput, which an APN change could well accomplish.
I will investigate the possibility of extracting the widget, but assume it has been left out due to differences between CDMA/LTE & GSM/UMTS.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
I'm using JD and my data is blue (just the 3G /4G words) but no bars when I have my wifi on. I am using advanced mode with Location if that helps.
I have no complaints about battery drain either. Pretty constant use today and at about 35% after 11 hours.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[Q] What apps are the biggest battery killers?

What app (not just category but actual app) do you find is the biggest drain on your battery?
I get about 12 hours on a full charge and see about a 1% drain every 5-7 minutes!
I am about to put a new ROM on my Note and since I tend to run it loaded with apps that I collect, I was wondering if anyone has a list of biggest amp-drainers.
Some apps have settings that let you modify their behavior (K9 Mail comes to mind) but settings can be a bit confusing when it comes to balancing utility to power drain.
So...that being said...
Give me a list of apps that you run that you know kill your battery anyway some that are so stingy they get the Android Scrooge Award for battery use.
Also...
what are some of your best general power-saving tips for power-users?
Use a black background.
Turn off all your radios if you're not using them.
Leave your GPS off and just use WiFi for locations if you need to. If you don't use locations, turn them off.
Anything with a light background will drain your battery quicker on an AMOLED. Always use black wherever you can.
Never let your battery go below 20% charge.
Don't use a task killer - it was necessary for the older versions of Android, it's not now.
Set your Facebook/Twitter/Weather/Stocks etc. to sync every 3, 6 or 12 hours, as opposed to instantly (I still sync mail instantly).
These are a few of my runtime-prolonging tips. As for apps, anything that pulls data, displays a lot of white or moving pictures, uses a radio/GPS, and runs constantly will be the biggest drain. Things like turning off notifications in Tapatalk/XDA etc. can save you a lot of juice.
If you want to know exactly what is going on with your battery, you can look in the settings to see what exactly is draining the battery (sorry, I cant remember exactly offhand where it is).
Personally, I use an app called Battery Widget Pro by 3c that gives me more information than I ever wanted to know about exactly what is going on with my battery (just look at the screenshots on the market).
For me, the biggest drainer is the screen and phone calls but I only have a few apps installed.
All of those are good, and I want to add that under advanced in Wifi, there is an option to turn off Wifi during sleep mode.
Usually it is three choices, Always on, On when charging only, and off.
Make sure to turn it off during sleep if you don't need it. That can be a battery drainer as well.
C0BRA01 said:
All of those are good, and I want to add that under advanced in Wifi, there is an option to turn off Wifi during sleep mode.
Usually it is three choices, Always on, On when charging only, and off.
Make sure to turn it off during sleep if you don't need it. That can be a battery drainer as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do keep in mind tho that rogue apps or those that are scheduled to perform network activities will fall back to cellular data if wifi is off.
BeyondPod is one such app, I have it on a schedule to download new podcasts at certain times of the day and if wifi is off, it will use cellular data if available. However, BeyondPod does have an option to only download on Wifi, but not all apps offer this.

[Q] Battery life continues to drop on stand-by after high usage

Hi,
I was using facebook (3g) for about 5mins while listening to the radio on my galaxy s2 (i9100p), and obviously battery life drains during that time.
The weird this is that, once I've closed the facebook app, turned off 3g and screen, battery life continues to drop (about 6%h, usually about 1%h on stand-by) for a few hours. After a few hours, it goes back to normal.
is this normal?? Nothing is running, it doesn't even say the phone was awake (according to battery history details chart).
Note: I'm using battery widget monitor which displays the battery %
I apologize in advanced if this has been discussed already, but I couldn't find this topic anywhere.
Maybe Facebook app is still running on background as a service. After sometime, possibly Android kills it?
Make sure you sign out of the app and exit before disabling data.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Thanks for the reply.
I'll give that a try next time.
I hate how you have to go to the applications settings to force close everything, otherwise it will keep running in the background even if you close it from "Running" tab.
I got told all you have to do is hold the home button and slide it to remove running apps, but that just deletes the history.

[Q] G3 gets really warm

Anyone know why my g3 gets really warm even when doing simple tasks like texting and basic web browsing. Ive restored I've also had the latest update I installed a different rom the only thing I haven't tried is aosp rom but I don't know how good that works. When I've looked in battery status or cpu apps there's nothing really using my resources it just warms up like if I was charging the battery I don't know if it's normal anyone have a clue?
Sent from my LGLS990 using XDA Free mobile app
Turn down your brightness and when your done with a app clear it from your recents. You could also go into g3 tool box and make it to when you long press something it totally closes the app. Just try to closes every single app when your done and also make sure to keep your ram down.
Closing every app when you're done is bad advice. Android isn't Windows. Android abhors a [memory] vacuum, and will simply keep reloading apps into unused memory to keep them available for rapid use. Background apps, with few exceptions, aren't really "running." They just in standby mode, ready to be activated when called upon, and use no cpu. Constantly killing and reloading apps uses more CPU and battery than just letting Android do it's thing.
If your device is running really warm when not doing much, it could be a hardware issues, it could be an app or process running out of control. GPS will heat up the phone when actually in use, but shouldn't have any impact otherwise. What's your battery life like? In the battery screen, what apps are shown as using the most battery?
My brightness is down and I don't really do much on My phone it starts getting warm when I open an app and I've used it for at least 5 minutes it gets warm gps is always off only things I have on is either wifi or data everything else is usually off
Sent from my LGLS990 using XDA Free mobile app
Your data may be the problem, lets say you set your phone to "lte only" mode. Then the phone has to try harder to get lte. So maybe try changing network mode(s).

Categories

Resources