[Q] Battery drain: blame it on Google Inc? - Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini

My CM7 u20i has a 20% nightly drain, even with WF, BT, GPS and whichever drain mongers turned off.
After extensive reading (and trying) on the issue and analysing all kinds of near voodoo reasoning, I decided to peek into real OS activity - the ultimate place to see what's going on. OS Monitor showed me some interesting issues, in the case its ps functionality works as expected.
My attention was first caught by the constant activity of Google Backup Transport process, accounting from CPU loads varying from 1 to 14%(!), rarely 0%, even though I never use cloud backup - in any case, in any of my devices. No can do.
The other significant mistery is the existence of a log that holds 1945 entries generated in the mere past 9 minutes. This intensive logging policy is something I myself would implement (#define switch) at pre-release phase, but just for debugging sake - never letting it slip into production environment. Does Google Inc still considers Android to be at beta phase? ;-)

Look at my signature for a battery drain thread. It's for X8's with 2.3 ROMs but you could try it anyway.

Google backup transport is related to syncing with Google. It automatically backs up your contacts etc to Google severs, just disable it in: Settings > Acccounts and Sync (and then disable background data

Some update, some more evidences
A closer look at OS Monitor output revealed hundreds (yes, hundreds, maybe reaching thousand scale) of sequential log entries tagged as [ERROR], as for the lightsensor being turned off. Seems a strange use of polling cycles [see attachment].
An even closer look shows a row of... bingo!, debug messages [see attachment]. Lots of them there.
As I forgot to mention it on the previous post, my detailed setup as for a 16 hours test period is:
Background data: no (Auto-sync and Market follows as "no", also)
Heptic feedback: not at all
Vibrate during/when...: none
OC: no (standard 614MHz)
Wallpaper: a black pic
Auto brightness: off
Animated wallpaper/other sort of animations: never
Task killers: not at all (not worth mentioning negative drawbacks)
GPS: off
BT: off
WiFi: off
2G/3G: off
Alerters, daemons and monitors (other than Lookout and OS Monitor): none
Screen timeout: 15 secs
Er... I've just found out I turned my smartphone into a GWBushphone, with much less battery life than my old Nokia 5130 (six days, heavy call usage, some texting).

@Chris95X8: Thanks for the hint. Will sure give it a look.
@coversnail: I came back to post an update and read your reply. I was already aware of the Accounts and Sync settings - my update includes it - but I thank you for your reply.

I was wondering, since I don't sync with Google, can't just uninstall the damn app ?
Sent from my U20i using XDA App

Generally speaking, it's more sensible to freeze an app than to uninstall it - Titanium Backup is my choice for doing this. In the case you end up messing your device, by unfreezing the app you restore all initial conditions of both the app and the associated system data. No harm done.
In the situation at hand you may want to simply turn off automatic sync: Settings > Accounts & sync > Auto-sync [off]. It's safer, besides being a system managed solution.
Always have in mind that uninstalling a system app is like walking along the edge of a cliff...

Solved for me
If you are rooted, you can navigate to: root/system/app/ -> search for GoogleBackupTransport.apk and rename it to (for example) GoogleBackupTransport.apk.disabled
Now it won't keep your CPU high or your device awake
Good luck to ya all

CapnMarius said:
If you are rooted, you can navigate to: root/system/app/ -> search for GoogleBackupTransport.apk and rename it to (for example) GoogleBackupTransport.apk.disabled
Now it won't keep your CPU high or your device awake
Good luck to ya all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you forgot a unskippable step... backup... backup first yo..

CapnMarius said:
If you are rooted, you can navigate to: root/system/app/ -> search for GoogleBackupTransport.apk and rename it to (for example) GoogleBackupTransport.apk.disabled
Now it won't keep your CPU high or your device awake
Good luck to ya all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, CapnMarius, I gave your hint a try. I will post my findings after profiling battery drain for a couple of days.
Cheers.

RGold55 said:
Thanks a lot, CapnMarius, I gave your hint a try. I will post my findings after profiling battery drain for a couple of days.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something new here?
freinet

freinet said:
Something new here?
freinet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No can do. Battery won't last 24 hours, even w/o usage. Hundreds of log messages still being generated.

Related

[Tips&Tricks] Tracking down and improving upon battery usage (ICS Razr)

Hello all,
I got frustrated with the unrealistic 10% step battery reporting and unknown battery eaters so below are the steps I've taken. Scroll down to skip the initial stats.
First you should study http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27927999 and use the tips given there. I will focus on more internal stuff that is in part specific to RAZR. This guide is for you if you see high battery usage of "Android OS".
Suggested apps:
- Circle Battery - free - it will report the real battery percentage as well as battery temperature. The higher the temperature the slower the phone will charge
- BetterBatteryStats - paid on the Market or free here on XDA
Measuring:
I would suggest to do measure any improvements during idle usage. It's a lot easier to track down the hungry settings.
Also, you should fully charge your phone between measurements so the battery stats get reset. There are also other ways to do it.
Establish the baseline usage of your phone with the current setup. You can assume a linear battery run down so you can extrapolate from the REAL 20% of battery usage that your phone will last 5 times more.
Go to Settings=>Battery and write down which apps used most of the battery.
If screen and cell standby are the biggest ones then you are mostly ok: cell switching for 2G->3G->4G switching is eating a lot of battery.
You can either: use WiFi for data (if available and has a good signal) or disable data altogether while in the problematic area. You can also disable high-speed connections and remain on 2G.
If Android OS is eating the most then write down the stats and read on.
Remove ALL the widgets on the home screen. Measure battery usage again as above. If still not satisfied, keep widgets removed and read on.
Go into Settings=>Accounts and disable unneeded syncing of accounts. You can manually sync your Drive app for example or the Books. For example, I have left only Browser, Calendar, Contacts, Chrome for my google account.
Set your email checking frequency to 1 hour for all email accounts, don't use push.
Measure and move on if not satisfied.
Open BetterBatteryStats and set the second drop-down as 'Since Unplugged'.
Select "Partial Wakelocks" from the first combo and study the output. It will tell you which apps are waking up the phone.
Select "Alarms" from first combo and study which apps are periodically waking up the phone to process data. Mostly email, calendar, facebook, but you might have a few surprises. Clicking on an alarm will show how many times the application has woken up the phone and how long it kept it up. There is a lot more information here on the forums about BBS usage so do a search.
Some other thing: high data usage would most like mean high CPU and battery usage. A friend with SGS noted that the News&Weather app ate 300MB of data in two days. While transferring, the phone is most likely not idle. You can check data usage in Settings=>Data Usage. From the options menu you can also enable the WiFi statistics and check those as well.
Hopefully by now you have identified what's keeping eating your battery so let's see the:
Actions
Is the app needed? If not, just disable it through Manage Apps=>App Info=>Disable
Does the app really need the data connection? If not, go to the data settings, set a limit to the data plan and you are able to disable background data for some apps.
Find battery-friendly alternatives for applications and widgets.
Use Tasker to set profiles. For example I'm automatically opening up the WiFi while near one of my home GSM Cells. This uses minimal battery as opposed to a GPS positioning. I'm disabling all data connections during night time, also good for sanity.
There's a lot more info about Tasker and building profiles on the Internet.
You can also use the built-in Smart Actions app, but it's not so flexible.
Increase the WiFi search delay from 45s to 90s or more.
[TODO: more measures]
Recommendations
On my phone MotoEmail was eating a lot of battery, even more while set as a widget on the home screen. I've replaced it with 'Inverted Mail', it's the stock ICS Google Email app with inverted colors. To replace it you have to use Root Explorer (or similar), set the /system as r/w and rename /system/app MotoEmail.apk to *.bak, copy the inverted app as MotoEmail.apk and install it. You will lose some options such as gestures, widget style and probably more.
Put a leash on location-aware apps like Latitude and Social Location, they will send a lot of work to Google Maps.
Use darker themes and low brightness for improved screen-on life.
Check live wallpaper CPU usage by enabling the checkbox inside the developer settings.
Give up your microSD card if you can live with 16GB.
Disable touch sounds and haptic feedback.
Disable automatic market update checking and notifications. Still at notifications, disable the notifications you don't really need.
Watch out for maps that automatically update graphically. Google maps live background or widget is nice but it kills the battery and performance.
Other stuff
There are also a lot of other options but I have not been able to confirm them on myr Razr since I have only had it since last week. These include underclocking, raising minimum CPU speed (worked on my other phones), using different colors for background and theme, disabling some logs, modifying buffer sync time, boot scripts etc.
Feel free to add to this thread by listing your changes that improved battery life.
TL;DR
Install Circle Battery Widget and BetterBatteryStats
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27927999
Gesendet von meinem XT910 mit Tapatalk 2
Thanks, I actually followed that thread but it mostly deals with improving the result not solving the root of the problem.
I would say it's mostly a complement to your thread, except the recommendations which are pretty similar.
I could have added to your thread but the information gets lost quickly if you are not within the first few posts.
Above is only one of the ways in which you can systematically track down battery usage, mostly tailored for an ICS Razr.
Thanks again for your reference, it's very helpful and all owners should read it.
Explanations for varios high-usage services:
com*motoemail*
This is the default email client included by Motorola. I had to replace it with the standard ICS mail client and chose the inverted version:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1634469
I have seen a high improvement since I made the switch and functionality is almost the same.
The Motorola email client is hungry for wakelocks so something is badly coded there. The situation gets even worse if you add the widget to your homescreen.
I'm on the leak so situation might be improved by the OTA.
spi_tty_wakelock
This is actually the data connection (2G/3G/4G) transferring data.
Could be caused by always-online applications (Facebook, Messenger, GTalk) and by network location service.
This name is specific to Motorola.
PowerManagerService
Grouping of partial wakelocks: https://github.com/asksven/BetterBatteryStats-Knowledge-Base/wiki/PowerManagerService
AudioOut
Caused by: phone ringing, audio notifications, haptic/sound feedback for selections and keyboard, listening to radio/music.
usb
Caused by the USB connection, of course.
Tip: by doing a complete dump of the file you can study the running services as well, it's the last section of the file. I'm still trying to make figure out what the all the com.motorola services are doing and what input (data, location, ...) they need.
brainwash123 said:
Explanations for varios high-usage services:
com*motoemail*
This is the default email client included by Motorola. I had to replace it with the standard ICS mail client and chose the inverted version:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1634469
I have seen a high improvement since I made the switch and functionality is almost the same.
The Motorola email client is hungry for wakelocks so something is badly coded there. The situation gets even worse if you add the widget to your homescreen.
I'm on the leak so situation might be improved by the OTA.
spi_tty_wakelock
This is actually the data connection (2G/3G/4G) transferring data.
Could be caused by always-online applications (Facebook, Messenger, GTalk) and by network location service.
This name is specific to Motorola.
PowerManagerService
Grouping of partial wakelocks: https://github.com/asksven/BetterBatteryStats-Knowledge-Base/wiki/PowerManagerService
AudioOut
Caused by: phone ringing, audio notifications, haptic/sound feedback for selections and keyboard, listening to radio/music.
usb
Caused by the USB connection, of course.
Tip: by doing a complete dump of the file you can study the running services as well, it's the last section of the file. I'm still trying to make figure out what the all the com.motorola services are doing and what input (data, location, ...) they need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great tips, a somewhat different approach to increasing battery life.
Can I add this to my thread, get an all in one?
Nice write up. Thanks!

[GUIDE]Better Battery Life 101, App/System Settings - It's not the ROM

This post is about getting great battery life for the average, every-day user. It is not inclusive or exhaustive, so it will reference other posts. What is talked about is what I did, the user-level stuff, explained in a more user-friendly fashion than some of the more diagnostic-focused posts out there (still invaluable reading, though).
Note: I originally wrote this for the Hyperdrive ROM on GS4 thread, but I've had many requests to break it out into a separate [GUIDE] post and update it here for ease of subscribing and discussing. Also note, that therefore, this should be considered sort of Android 4.2 specific and may not apply to all versions of Android. So, here it is. I'll link the old post to here shortly.
Preface
Okay, I'm writing this because I believe that @sbreen94 @eschelon @iceandfire @Imoseyon @TrevE and @ktoonsez all have done awesome, awesome dev work from which I have benefited. There are SO many other devs, as well. These are some from whom I directly benefit, regularly, daily, or did at one time. If you want a name added to the list, I'll update my post. This post, though, is sort of Hyperdrive specific since @sbreen94 has added a few tweaks that make it SO EASY to address some major offenders of ... sucking the life out of your battery.
Why do I mention this? Because does anyone truly think that a ROM dev or Kernel dev, compiles code, puts it on their device, runs it for days/weeks, validates it with experienced, community testers, and then releases it, all the time thinking, "well, the battery life sucks, but I'm gonna push this out anyways."??? NO! So, then, WHY does every ROM/Kernel thread have post after post, of people saying “Hey, I loaded this ROM and my battery life sucks now.” Do you REALLY think it's the ROM/Kernel?
We also have those that think they have no apps loaded, or “only 3, 4, 5, or whatever number” - so it can't POSSIBLY be an app! If you think that, then do this, Wipe your Dalvic Cache, reboot your phone, and tell me the number of apps it says Android is now optimizing. That is the number of apps you have on your phone, not the number you personally loaded. That means each one of those is a potential culprit for causing battery drain.
BTW – at one time or another, I've probably been guilty of every of the above mindsets. So, I'm not calling YOU out, if YOU are reading this and think that I am. I'm just saying, it's not the ROM, and it's not the Kernel.
Background Reading
The below two threads had everything I needed to know to get started increasing my battery life. I, probably like many reading this, had for a long time followed along, envious of screenshots of people getting those 3, 4, 5+ hours of screen time, and day+ or days of battery. After reading these threads, doing the analysis, and basically just changing some app settings, I can now get the 4-5 hours of screen and full day of battery out of my GS4. Kernel doesn't have much effect, ROM doesn't have much effect, most all of them do what they're designed to do, and do it well. Sweet.
In the next section, Real World Battery Saving, I'll explain what I did, so if you want to skip the background stuff, you can.
These two threads contain basically everything you need to know about improving battery life. They have great details about diagnostics, what's what, etc. What many threads/posts like these sometimes lack, is, the straight-forward answer of “This is what you should do after analyzing x, y, z.” That's what's in the Real World Battery Saving section of this post.
[APP][2.1+][09 Sept. - V1.14] BetterBatteryStats
[GUIDE] Wakelocks Definition and how to prevent them
Read those threads, and do some analysis, and the majority of what I've posted below you'll figure out on your own. If you just wanna jump into fixing things without the above understanding, then just go to the next section. Provided there aren't any seriously misbehaving apps on your phone, you should be able to get great results without becoming a Wakelocks, Alarms, Deep Sleep, etc., expert.
Real World Battery Saving
For those of you that don't want to read too much more about the analysis of apps, etc., to get to better battery life, here's the summary of what's in the section below:
Minimize screen brightness
Disable all Push
Disable all system sounds (Dialing keypad tone, Touch sounds, Screen lock sound, Haptic feedback)
Install Xposed Framework and use:
Greenify Donation (Experimental features)
NLPUnbounce
Greenify any app that you don’t need to notify you of things - Note: If you pay for Greenify Donation and use Xposed, you can still get alerts from any GCM-enabled app (look for the blue GCM icon next to apps in Greenify)
Greenify every Google app (except Voice and Hangouts, both of these may significantly delay or prevent proper message notification, despite being GCM-tagged in Greenify, and they seem to behave okay on their own)
Uninstall GMail (use any other client with IMAP)
Disable all GPS (enable as necessary upon use) Note: I really don't do this anymore. With apps under control with Greenify, I just leave my GPS on and let apps use it when necessary. I have noticed that GPS will stay active during Airplane mode, though, so as not to have my phone dead upon landing, I generally always turn off GPS when in the air.
Disable the autostart of almost everything, at almost any time, on an app-by-app basis. AutoStart Check delivers in spades for this function, at no charge, though, I recommend donating (as I do for all apps here, I have either donated or bought them all, Lux, Greenify, etc.). Note: With Greenify, I no longer worry as much about stopping apps/services from auto-starting. I do still use Xposed plugin BootManager to prevent certain apps from starting, mostly just to increase boot speed (or so I feel like it might). I don't use AutoStart Check at all anymore.
Continuing on with details...
Note: Required app functionality. You don't have to use these if you know another way to do it. But, to accomplish what I recommend, there are 3 key apps you absolutely must have. I'm not going to explain them all in great detail, as there are plenty of other places that go into great depth on all of them. The 3 essential apps that I use to increase battery by more than 50% are:
Lux (Pro - I'll explain why below)
Greenify
Xposed Framework
In general:
You want your phone to sleep when not in use.
You want apps to not be doing anything when you're not using them.
You want your screen to only ever be as bright as it needs to be, no brighter (including, off when you're not looking at it).
Display Brightness
Lux – Get it here Lux Auto Brightness
Thread here: [APP][2.3+] Lux Auto Brightness 1.51
Update: After posting this, and getting a lot of questions/comments that Lux doesn't really rock like I think it does, I checked it out on a phone without using the Pro version. Okay, I agree, the free version really doesn't deliver. It doesn't poll right, and you can't really set your custom lighting scenarios and lock them in correctly without using Lux Pro. Basically, if you want to save tons of battery life without a lot of constant manual intervention, you're going to have to purchase Lux.
Screen uses more battery than anything. You can do all kinds of things to address this, for me, Lux has been a (battery) life saver. It's easy, it reads the ambient light in your environment. Open its dashboard, slide the slider to the brightness that works for you at that lumen level, hold down the link button in the middle, and there you have it, locked in for those conditions. You only have to do this a few times and you now have custom lighting profiles that fit your eyes' needs under all conditions. Note, sometimes, when waking the phone in the sun, you'll have to wait a few second for Lux to activate and bring the screen up bright enough. This means that Lux is behaving extremely well and not constantly running in the background (Wakelocks) sucking up battery.
Applications
For applications, firstly, if you have an app that has Push available, disable it. Nothing keeps your phone from deep sleep like a Push-enabled application. If you can't wait 5/10/15 minutes for updates, then you can't achieve maximum battery life. Sorry, I don't make the rules of Android app-physics, I'm just sharing them with you.
In my mind, I think of applications in categories. I guess, I have 4 now.. I started with 2. Point being, there are different apps that behave differently so you treat them differently with different solutions for extending your battery life.
Category 1 Apps I want running and want notifications from them. When configured properly, they generally do not misbehave and eat my phone's battery
Category 2 Apps that I cannot seem to control, regardless of their settings, but I still want to be able to use, but getting regular or instant updates from them is not that important to me
Category 3 Apps behave without any special settings and without any Greenification. Just load them, run them, use them, don't worry about them. I haven't seen them cause any sort of bad battery drain.
Category 4 Apps are apps you DO think are vital/desirable (to you) but cannot control their battery consumption with mere settings. For those, only the developer can help you, or you have to accept the battery loss that app's notifications bring with it.
Category 1 apps, well-behaved when configured properly, along with the settings I used to make them behave well and still deliver their updates to me.
Corporate E-mail: Built-in e-mail, TW or AOSP. Disable Push for any account, use Priority settings for 15 minute interval on work days. Non-prioirty times set to 1 hour.
Maildroid: For every account, you must do this separately, under Preferences / Advanced – Connection Management, select first account, the rule (usually 1. Default), Connection Management, Wi-Fi: Close connection when I exit mailbox, GPRS, 3G: Close connection when I exit mailbox, Interval to check mail: 10 (or to your liking), Check Mail Periodically. Go back, go back in (confirm settings were kept, I've seen it not keep them and have to do this a few times, per account). Alternatively, select Let device sleep, and it will only check when you wake it up. Go back to Accounts and select your next account, do this again. You must do this for all accounts listed.
Note about all mail client: If you have more than 2 or 3 e-mail accounts, Maildroid and all other IMAP clients I have tried get moved to Category 2. Basically, they start to keep enough Wakelocks that they keep the phone from going into Deep Sleep as much as I'd like. This is a difference of 1-3% per hour at idle, but if you're looking for 4+ hours screen time, then you need to Greenify them and just check e-mail manually.
Viber: Just make sure your Wi-Fi sleep policy is set to device and not constantly on, and Viber seems to behave pretty well as far as messaging apps go, but it's probably going to make the Category 4 list, as well.
WhatsApp: This one appears to work well (better than Viber from a wakeup perspective) and not have any sort of unnecessary battery drain. I generally don't use it any more since I feel they bait-and-switched me from free to fee, but I dethawed it to check it out. If anyone sees problems with it, let me know.
Category 2 Apps. These apps were keeping my phone awake at night with nightmares, and no amount of settings changes seemed to fix the problem altogether. If you have a solution of app settings that would move these to Category 1, please let me know. When I say solution, I mean, you've done the Wakelock and Alarm analysis and they're eliminated or minimized. For these, I Greenify them all. None of these apps' updates are so important to me that I can't just check up on them when I have a moment.
Facebook: I didn't play too much with settings here, but it seems that if FB is running, it's keeping your phone awake. I Greenify it and check it manually. I'd be interested in hearing if someone knows settings that will get it to not wakelock / alarm constantly.
FB Messenger: I love the chat heads and ease of use, but it's a big-time battery offender. I keep it installed and Greenified. If I get messages, I'll see them when I open the FB app, and when I reply, FB Messenger takes over and I use it normally until the conversation is done. At some point, Greenify takes over, and FB Messenger's battery damage is contained.
Google Maps: You can't fix this thing. No amount of settings will stop it from going after your phone. I love its functionality, though, so, unlike many guides that say uninstall it, I say Greenify it.
Google Goggles: A fun one to have around sometimes, but it will also chew up battery. Just Greenify it.
Google Play Store: There are plenty of apps and Android wakeups for the Play Store. I'm not worried about missing an update notification, or whatever else it might be sending my way. Greenifying it seems to have fixed the Google Play Services Alarms issue.
Almost everything else: If it's an app that doesn't need to provide you updates, just Greenify it. Why not? One of the first things I do after loading a new ROM and getting most of the configuration stuff done, is I go into Greenify, and I add every mundane app on my phone, for example: Vonage, Adobe Reader, Airbnb, Angry Birds, APN Manager Pro, Google Authenticator, Barcode Scanner, Citibank, Craigslist, Google Drive, DroidVPN, ES Task Manager, Fast Charge, FasterGPS, Flashlight, GasBuddy, GNotes, GooManager, GPS Status, Hyatt, Lucky Patcher, Office Document Viewer, Office Suite, OpenTable, Opera Classic, PayByPhone, SoundHound, Squeezebox, Street View, etc. My list goes on... You aren't going to lose their functionality, they don't suddenly stop when in use, and you don't have to worry about them ever causing problems you weren't thinking you had to look for.
Category 3 Apps that behave, no special settings, no Greenification
Alarm Clock Xtreme: I don't use the built-in Alarm Clock. I like all the features of Xtreme, it's never failed me, and it doesn't show up in Wakelock/Alarm offenders lists in my analyses.
Google Voice: Of all the Google offenders, this isn't one of them in my experience, and I love its features.
Lux: Nuff said.
WhosCall: A caller-ID type app. I don't love it, but haven't gone looking for something better, that said, it hasn't popped up on my battery draining radar, so that's a plus.
Hangouts: While I don't care for the new Google Talk, it sure doesn't seem to be a battery offender, and I use it to chat regularly.
Category 4 Apps are anything that would have gone into Category 2, but you want them as active as possible.
Line: In Settings, Chats and Voice Calls, I turn off Receive Voice Calls. This made Line tolerable (as in, way better), but it's still a Category 4 until (if ever) its devs reduce its number of wake-up Alarms
Exchange Services: Despite Corporate E-mail being a Category 1 now, Exchange Services is still keeping my phone awake more than I'd like. Nothing I can do here, though, so I live with it.
Viber: As stated, it's not a terrible offender, but it's still on the radar for keeping my phone awake. We'll see what their “any day now” major update brings. (someone remind me to update this post if I haven't post-Viber release)
Have Your Google and Your Battery
The Xposed module NLPUnbounce is awesome. I've given it a nice test, and it seems to perform excellent. NLPUnbounce allows you to use Google services as usual, including Android Device Manager features, like Remote Locate and Remote Wipe, but not do the crazy, crippling and disabling of Google Play Services like many guides have you do. It changes the polling rate of NLP (Network Location Provider) to something VERY reasonable. I haven't modified any of its settings, and it's reduced average idle consumption from ~4-5% to ~2-3%. I tested locating my phone and ringing it, all working.
Automatically Launching Applications
Not so much needed anymore. Just make sure you Greenify. For the "big things", use Xposed BootManager module.
AutoStart Check - Get it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ro.rbrtoanna.autostartcheck&hl=en
Fire up AutoStart Check (or any other autostart configuration app), set your view to Group by App, and expand every one of them and look at just how many different places some of these apps are set to start. Your Gallery starts with your Camera? ES File Explorer starts when you mount media or remove bad media? Facebook fires itself up just because you plugged in your phone. Google Goggles sees fit to start with every picture you take - and of course, it will then either drain your battery trying to get a GPS signal while your GPS is off, or drain your battery by getting one – fail. If you use S Health, it starts when your time zone changes – that's important. YouTube, seriously, YouTube – change accounts, mount media, connect power, every boot – you obviously need YouTube to fire up. Yeah.
A note here, read some guides on these before turning off too many system services. For example, don't disable messaging, bad idea, bad things happen. But most of this stuff, turn it off. You aren't killing your ability to use it, you're just making sure it isn't turning on all the time. If you've also Greenified well, after using any of these, they'll hibernate in the background without you having to worry.
Disable all system sounds (Dialing keypad tone, Touch sounds, Screen lock sound, Haptic feedback)
This is explained in some of the other threads, but, if you don't want to do the research, basically, the background services in Android that manage these things keep your phone awake. Turn them all off, battery life goes up.
Media Scanner
@sbreen94 included in the Hyperdrive Tweaks tools a one-button solution to turning it off. If it's drainging your battery, or you just want to make sure it doesn't, go click the button. This thing is better than the Staples button!
I'm sure there's probably a more generic way of stopping/managing Media Scanner. Someone please let me know and I'll update this section!
Battery Save Apps
I used to be madly in love with 2x Battery. Others swear by JuiceDefender. I guess if you don't/won't want to take the time to optimize apps and Greenify, they might be beneficial. You know what I found, though, when I started down this path? Some of the biggest offenders of Wakelocks and keeping my phone from sleeping when it should, are these battery saving apps!!! I now get BETTER battery life WITHOUT 2x Battery!
Short thoughts on this and example concepts of what's going on...
It may sound counterinterintuitive, but it seems most of the apps are so vigilant they keep your phone awake when it could be sleeping. And the vigilance isn't so necessary when you've properly configure things to not need this sort of overactive management of things. I'd love to see 2x Battery properly manage my data connection for me, without Wakelocks, but what's to say that the app trying to sync when the data is off won't now stay awake with new Wakelocks trying to get out to the internet? There's a cascading effect of whatever approach you might choose, so try to think about that, and keep it in mind when you look at your Wakelocks and your Alarms and you do your analysis.
The End
Okay, so I think that's aobut it. I may have forgotten some things, and I know this is a long post. But, this leaves very little excuse for people to blame ROMs/Kernels, while at the same time giving you the straight-forward, real world answer to battery savings 101. Yes, there are apps and details I left out. If anyone thinks of some obvoius ones, just let me know and I'll happily update this post.
You don't have to analyze any statistics or logs to do this. The principles are sound, and you'll see a dramatic improvement in battery if you don't already get a day of usage and 3.5 to 4.5 hours of screen time on your GS4. You just make some of these relatively straight-foward, user-level, common-sense changes.
If these changes don't give you the results you'd like, then do the analysis work in the threads linked above and find out what's the real culprit. Profit, enjoy, be happy. And remember... It's not the ROM.
Thanks for the thread, Bill. Here are a few of my questions/comments:
Regarding Lux, I used it for a few days, but could never seem to get a setting that worked for me. Whether using periodic updating or any of the other modes, the brightness level always seemed to adjust either too frequently or too slowly. Then I started experimenting with night mode and it got even worse. Do you have any suggestions to a quick and simple setup that won't drive me insane?
In terms of greenifying different apps, I always make sure that my SMS app and alarm clock are not greenified, and I don't use any widgets on my homescreen, but what about apps like Better Battery Stats, Boot Manager (for Xposed) and Automagic (flow chart based automation app) that are monitoring events and automating my phone? Will Battery Stats stop recording data is I set it to hibernate? Will Automagic miss a trigger I've set if it's hibernating? I would like to greenify EVERYTHING that I know won't cause any issues, but notifications aren't the only thing happening in the background that I want to allow.
Then, expanding on the autostarts, I mentioned that I use the Xposed module Boot Manager. This doesn't seem able to handle all of the situations that you described, like apps being launched based on SD card state, network state, etc. Am I missing something in this app or will I need to go another route to get all the options you've descibed?
Regarding the SD media scanning, my current ROM is a very debloated lean and mean stock Touchwiz ROM that doesn't have a native way to disable media scanner like the AOSP ROMs I used to run. Is there an app that does ONLY this, as I prefer to use dedicated apps rather than giant monsters which can control tons of things I don't need.
Anyway, I already do a lot of the practices you're advocating here, but I'm always looking for ways to do things in a more efficient or streamlined way. Using Greenify, keeping the stock clock speeds, and making sure that nothing is syncing (I keep backgruond sync disabled, but use an Automagic flow to enable it periodically throughout the day and then turn it back off again), keeps my battery life pretty solid. Add to that Deep Sleep Battery Saver which automatically turns off my connections when the screen is off, but will periodically turn them back based on my preferences, keeps my battery level pretty much steady wheen the phone is idle.

Greenify Automator Device administrator

Hi all,
I did not have this enabled but the standing advice seems to be that it has to be enabled. What does this do exactly?
Loving the app though keep up the good work!
Jeroen1000 said:
Hi all,
I did not have this enabled but the standing advice seems to be that it has to be enabled. What does this do exactly?
Loving the app though keep up the good work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not needed except w/unrooted device to facilitate screen off operations.
Davey126 said:
Not needed except w/unrooted device to facilitate screen off operations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Davey126. There was an option in Greenify once to ensure compatibility with finger print readers. It was called "alternative screen off mode". I hoped this option got dubbed the Automator now but it doesn't look that way judging from your reply. I can't find it any more (maybe it got removed for some reason?). Sometimes the fingerprint reader on my OPO5T is a bit slow. I need to lift and touch it twice to get an unlock. Maybe I need to whitelist ...something as I have "Greenify system apps" checked. Amongst the optimised apps is "GFManager" which has a fingerprint icon.
At any rate, do you know what happened to "alternative screen off mode" option?
Jeroen1000 said:
Thanks Davey126. There was an option in Greenify once to ensure compatibility with finger print readers. It was called "alternative screen off mode". I hoped this option got dubbed the Automator now but it doesn't look that way judging from your reply. I can't find it any more (maybe it got removed for some reason?). Sometimes the fingerprint reader on my OPO5T is a bit slow. I need to lift and touch it twice to get an unlock. Maybe I need to whitelist ...something as I have "Greenify system apps" checked. Amongst the optimised apps is "GFManager" which has a fingerprint icon.
At any rate, do you know what happened to "alternative screen off mode" option?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know but removal is likely referenced (somewhere) in a change log or forum post. XDA search is your friend.
As for the fingerprint recognition issue why is "GFManager" and likely other benign system apps in Greenify's overt hibernation list? Only demonstrated 'bad actors' should be there; ideally the list will be quite small gravitating to zero.
Do you take 23 aspirin in the morning for the hell of it to protect yourself from some pain that has never materialized? Over greenification (new word!) is just asking for trouble.
Davey126 said:
Don't know but removal is likely referenced (somewhere) in a change log or forum post. XDA search is your friend.
As for the fingerprint recognition issue why is "GFManager" and likely other benign system apps in Greenify's overt hibernation list? Only demonstrated 'bad actors' should be there; ideally the list will be quite small gravitating to zero.
Do you take 23 aspirin in the morning for the hell of it to protect yourself from some pain that has never materialized? Over greenification (new word!) is just asking for trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't put GFManager in the Doze optimising list manually. It could just be the management app (judging by its name) for fingerprints for all I know not the actual code that does the detection. I just blame Apple for just having 2% drain per 8 hours idle and then some of us wanting that on an Android phone.
Jeroen1000 said:
I didn't put GFManager in the Doze optimising list manually. It could just be the management app (judging by its name) for fingerprints for all I know not the actual code that does the detection. I just blame Apple for just having 2% drain per 8 hours idle and then some of us wanting that on an Android phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android battery optimization (Android 6+) is different from explicitly adding items to Greenify's hibernation list (which I assumed you were doing as some [incorrectly] use the terms interchangeably). Most likely the intermittent touch recognition hesitation you are experiencing is not related to GFManager being "optimized" but rather the time it takes the device to arise from a deep slumber. Are you using Aggressive Doze by chance?
iOS and Android can both idle efficiently on appropriate hardware. I typically see 0.2-0.5%/hr idle drain on my various devices depending on conditions. Apple has the advantage as it controls both hardware and software. Android must accommodate a wide variety of hardware platforms (including crappy kernels) many of which are not well optimized for power savings.
Davey126 said:
Android battery optimization (Android 6+) is different from explicitly adding items to Greenify's hibernation list (which I assumed you were doing as some [incorrectly] use the terms interchangeably). Most likely the intermittent touch recognition hesitation you are experiencing is not related to GFManager being "optimized" but rather the time it takes the device to arise from a deep slumber. Are you using Aggressive Doze by chance?
iOS and Android can both idle efficiently on appropriate hardware. I typically see 0.2-0.5%/hr idle drain on my various devices depending on conditions. Apple has the advantage as it controls both hardware and software. Android must accommodate a wide variety of hardware platforms (including crappy kernels) many of which are not well optimized for power savings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am using aggressive doze. Via the whitelist you can access in Greenify, it seems almost everything gets Optimised (dozed).
I would assume the fingerprint scanner would be exempt from doze but the non-optimised apps list doesn't have anything in it that I can connect to the reader. I would likewise assume I'd have to look for something like com.qualcomm... instead of looking for an actual app name. I could use a tip as to what I'm looking for...
So to be clear, I did not add stuff to the hibernation list manually with regards to the fingerprint reader. Just some stuff that by far has nothing to do with it.
For full disclosure: Via a Magisk module, my Google Play Services also get dozed. It is called "Enable Doze for GMS Magisk Module".
a bit off topic:
I can get an idle drain around 0.5% and using HEBF optimiser's "Improve Battery" switch this goes down to 0.4%. What are you doing to get even lower? I'm betting turning off WIFI and nuking play services entirely?
Jeroen1000 said:
Yes, I am using aggressive doze. Via the whitelist you can access in Greenify, it seems almost everything gets Optimised (dozed).
I would assume the fingerprint scanner would be exempt from doze but the non-optimised apps list doesn't have anything in it that I can connect to the reader. I would likewise assume I'd have to look for something like com.qualcomm... instead of looking for an actual app name. I could use a tip as to what I'm looking for...
So to be clear, I did not add stuff to the hibernation list manually with regards to the fingerprint reader. Just some stuff that by far has nothing to do with it.
For full disclosure: Via a Magisk module, my Google Play Services also get dozed. It is called "Enable Doze for GMS Magisk Module".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, doze and hibernation are different things. I would expect every user app and virtually every system app (with exception to Google Play Services) to be 'battery optimized'. Observations:
- analysis begins with disabling referenced Magisk module as Google Play Services is deeply intertwined with most apps and services (system and user)
- disable aggressive doze; putting your device into a comma isn't helpful when trying to diagnose a responsiveness issue
- multiple deferred tasks often fire-up immediately when exiting aggressive doze temporarily overwhelming device and introducing lag
- nothing should be in Greenify's active hibernation list except apps/services that are demonstrated offenders
Pretty good chance you have created the problem you are trying to solve my over managing your device.
Jeroen1000 said:
a bit off topic:
I can get an idle drain around 0.5% and using HEBF optimiser's "Improve Battery" switch this goes down to 0.4%. What are you doing to get even lower? I'm betting turning off WIFI and nuking play services entirely?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Stock ROM (rooted/unlocked); stock Google Play Services, WiFi and mobile radios on 7x24, location services generally on and set to 'high accuracy', BT and NFC cycled as needed, other than Greenify no 3rd party 'power saving' tools in play. Full believer in lite-touch management with results to back-up religion on multiple devices. YMMV. Choose your apps wisely.
Thanks for the tips. I'll revert my changes one by one and see what turns up. Don't want to loose aggressive doze though... I will report back if I find the culprit.
I understand the difference between doze and hibernation. I was just trying to point out it's not me putting stuff manually on the hibernation list. And yes, I support your observation, using too many apps trying to get even lower drain often works counterproductive. Same goes for apps monitoring battery stats. They too use up some juice.
Jeroen1000 said:
Thanks for the tips. I'll revert my changes one by one and see what turns up. Don't want to loose aggressive doze though... I will report back if I find the culprit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suggest a reconsideration of position on aggressive doze. While the glossy looks great measurable benefits don't always offset liabilities. With AD active device will likely show reduced drain during extended screen-off operations. A win, right? Possibly - until you factor in higher drain rates as the device races to catch up after exiting doze which is often triggered by an overt wake request (ie: using your device). Several minutes of high CPU utilization at max (and often power inefficient) frequencies can wipe out hours of slow savings while introducing lag and other undesirable side effects. You should disable AD for a few days to see if it improves your situation.
As an aside, brief sprints at high CPU frequencies are not necessarily evil as finishing a task quickly and returning to idle (see "race to idle") can be more efficient than drawing it out over an extended period of time at lower frequencies. That said, servicing multiple tasks over several minutes when the device first wakes is often less efficient than allowing them to complete 'naturally' when the screen goes off (which is why doze doesn't kick in immediately) and/or during normal doze maintenance windows.
Aggressive doze can be beneficial in certain circumstances - but those are few and far between (at least based on my personal work flows and observation of others).

Help Setting Up Greenify 4.3.2.0 As It Looks Very Intimidating

I included a screenshot of all the options I'm given on the Greenify Settings tab. I've always avoided using Greenify because it seems very difficult to use; however, I keep hearing about all the miracles it does as far as battery life so I want to give it a chance.
My confusion comes from the fact that out of all the Tutorials, Reviews, Articles, etc. I've seen and read on YouTube & Google, everyone either has an older version of Greenify than me, or the options are a little different. Some versions have more options than mine, and some fewer. Some have specific settings enabled, some disabled.
For example, some tutorials said to enable Aggressive Doze and Automatic Hibernation, some said to disable them.
I would appreciate it very much if someone with more knowledge on the subject could explain to me what some of these settings do, and which would be better.
Merazomo said:
I included a screenshot of all the options I'm given on the Greenify Settings tab. I've always avoided using Greenify because it seems very difficult to use; however, I keep hearing about all the miracles it does as far as battery life so I want to give it a chance.
My confusion comes from the fact that out of all the Tutorials, Reviews, Articles, etc. I've seen and read on YouTube & Google, everyone either has an older version of Greenify than me, or the options are a little different. Some versions have more options than mine, and some fewer. Some have specific settings enabled, some disabled.
For example, some tutorials said to enable Aggressive Doze and Automatic Hibernation, some said to disable them.
I would appreciate it very much if someone with more knowledge on the subject could explain to me what some of these settings do, and which would be better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of Android are you running? If 7,8 or 9, most likely you will not need Greenify since Android itself handles the apps very well. Only apps which could not be controlled by Android and which drain battery excessively need control through Greenify or some similar app. Doze in these versions of Android is very capable.
If you want to know something more about this, search for posts from member Davey126 in https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/greenify/beta-greenify-3-1-build-1-1-23-2017-t3544311 thread.
tnsmani said:
Which version of Android are you running? If 7,8 or 9, most likely you will not need Greenify since Android itself handles the apps very well. Only apps which could not be controlled by Android and which drain battery excessively need control through Greenify or some similar app. Doze in these versions of Android is very capable.
If you want to know something more about this, search for posts from member Davey126 in https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/greenify/beta-greenify-3-1-build-1-1-23-2017-t3544311 thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@tnsmani obviously received my check ...
Kidding aside, his guidance is spot on. If you decide to experiment further ignore all the options. They are largely refinements; defaults are fine for most. Simply respond to initial setup prompts (including the all important 'root' query), add 'offending' apps to the watch list and observe whether Greenify helps to reduce background activity.
Wait...you don't have any "offending" apps, do not know how to identify bad actors have no idea if you actually have a problem with excessive (operative word) battery consumption?? If so Greenify will only work as well as your perception of good/evil/impotent which is often an inaccurate measure of reality.
Sadly, Greenify does not have magical powers. That said, It is an effective tool to address a specific type of 'problem': reining in undisciplined app driven background activity...plus a few other gems outside the scope of this discussion. If your device is rocking Android 6/7/8/9/27 native doze does a fine job managing cranky apps that want to eat your battery any small children within a 10 foot radius. Best part: no confusing knobs and dials! It just works.
Enjoy your device.
tnsmani said:
Which version of Android are you running? If 7,8 or 9, most likely you will not need Greenify since Android itself handles the apps very well. Only apps which could not be controlled by Android and which drain battery excessively need control through Greenify or some similar app. Doze in these versions of Android is very capable.
If you want to know something more about this, search for posts from member Davey126 in https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/greenify/beta-greenify-3-1-build-1-1-23-2017-t3544311 thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll definitely give that post by Davey126 a read, thanks.
I'm using a Galaxy Note 4 with Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. The phone is not officially supported anymore obviously, but with ROOT, it's still a great phone even today.
My only issue that made me consider Greenify; I don't know if this is typical of Android, is that I charge my phone to 100% before I go to sleep, and when I wake up it's at 86%. The battery is brand new and the phone has been restored to factory settings to start fresh.
Davey126 said:
@tnsmani obviously received my check ...
Kidding aside, his guidance is spot on. If you decide to experiment further ignore all the options. They are largely refinements; defaults are fine for most. Simply respond to initial setup prompts (including the all important 'root' query), add 'offending' apps to the watch list and observe whether Greenify helps to reduce background activity.
Wait...you don't have any "offending" apps, do not know how to identify bad actors have no idea if you actually have a problem with excessive (operative word) battery consumption?? If so Greenify will only work as well as your perception of good/evil/impotent which is often an inaccurate measure of reality.
Sadly, Greenify does not have magical powers. That said, It is an effective tool to address a specific type of 'problem': reining in undisciplined app driven background activity...plus a few other gems outside the scope of this discussion. If your device is rocking Android 6/7/8/9/27 native doze does a fine job managing cranky apps that want to eat your battery any small children within a 10 foot radius. Best part: no confusing knobs and dials! It just works.
Enjoy your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screenshot I posted are the default settings as of now for my version of 4.3.2.0 of Greenify on my Galaxy Note 4. Would it be okay to assume that if I leave "these" settings on default without changing anything, and all I do is start choosing application to hibernate that I don't use often or don't need push notifications from, it's a good start?
I do have to choose applications manually for Greenify to start working right? I keep looking at all these "Smart Hibernation" & "Automatic Hibernation" settings and my brain goes back to regular applications like the old App Managers that would start working in the background without me settings anything up or choosing applications.
I'll give your post a read as well, and see if I can learn something from it. For once, I wish I had an Android phone with good battery life like my last iPhone; it wouldn't loose any charge overnight. Loosing 14% battery life overnight without doing anything is a little annoying, but now that I've tried Android with ROOT, it's practically imposible to go back to IOS; specially with all the customizing I can do on my Note 4.
Merazomo said:
I'll definitely give that post by Davey126 a read, thanks.
I'm using a Galaxy Note 4 with Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. The phone is not officially supported anymore obviously, but with ROOT, it's still a great phone even today.
My only issue that made me consider Greenify; I don't know if this is typical of Android, is that I charge my phone to 100% before I go to sleep, and when I wake up it's at 86%. The battery is brand new and the phone has been restored to factory settings to start fresh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On 6, you may require the help of Greenify but only after you identify the rogue app/s. Unless you sleep for 24 hours a day, your idle drain is high (14% during sleep).
Visit the BBS thread, learn how to create an idle dump, install latest BBS beta from the PlayStore, take an idle dump and post it in the BBS thread and ask for help.
Merazomo said:
The screenshot I posted are the default settings as of now for my version of 4.3.2.0 of Greenify on my Galaxy Note 4. Would it be okay to assume that if I leave "these" settings on default without changing anything, and all I do is start choosing application to hibernate that I don't use often or don't need push notifications from, it's a good start?
I do have to choose applications manually for Greenify to start working right? I keep looking at all these "Smart Hibernation" & "Automatic Hibernation" settings and my brain goes back to regular applications like the old App Managers that would start working in the background without me settings anything up or choosing applications.
I'll give your post a read as well, and see if I can learn something from it. For once, I wish I had an Android phone with good battery life like my last iPhone; it wouldn't loose any charge overnight. Loosing 14% battery life overnight without doing anything is a little annoying, but now that I've tried Android with ROOT, it's practically imposible to go back to IOS; specially with all the customizing I can do on my Note 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reread previous post. Your first task is to identify which app(s), if any, are draining your battery while the device is idle. Adding apps to Greenify w/o justification is a fools errand and will likely increase overall power consumption vs reduce it. Let's keep it simple. What apps regularly appear near the top of the list in Android's battery page in settings?
There are very few "new" batteries for 4 year old devices. While you many have purchased it recently there is a very good chance it sat on the shelf for several years. Or was 'loaded' with substandard cells with less than stated capacity.
Davey126 said:
Reread previous post. Your first task is to identify which app(s), if any, are draining your battery while the device is idle. Adding apps to Greenify w/o justification is a fools errand and will likely increase overall power consumption vs reduce it. Let's keep it simple. What apps regularly appear near the top of the list in Android's battery page in settings?
There are very few "new" batteries for 4 year old devices. While you many have purchased it recently there is a very good chance it sat on the shelf for several years. Or was 'loaded' with substandard cells with less than stated capacity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery is good since I was still using Lollipop LOL not that long on my Note 4, and I felt it ran a lot cooler and battery would last longer than on Marshmallow, but app permissions were horrible in Lollipop; I had no control of my privacy whatsoever with apps.
The only top app on my battery apps list with 20% of the battery used overnight was ESPN. I don't even have push notifications enabled for this app, and I used it hours before I went to sleep and before I charged the phone. That might be the app that is harming my battery life. All the other apps are at 0.04% or less.
Merazomo said:
The battery is good since I was still using Lollipop LOL not that long on my Note 4, and I felt it ran a lot cooler and battery would last longer than on Marshmallow, but app permissions were horrible in Lollipop; I had no control of my privacy whatsoever with apps.
The only top app on my battery apps list with 20% of the battery used overnight was ESPN. I don't even have push notifications enabled for this app, and I used it hours before I went to sleep and before I charged the phone. That might be the app that is harming my battery life. All the other apps are at 0.04% or less.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ESPN app would be an excellent candidate to Greenify. Add it to the 'watch' list and observe device behavior over 24-48 hours.
Davey126 said:
ESPN app would be an excellent candidate to Greenify. Add it to the 'watch' list and observe device behavior over 24-48 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything is as you said. Greenify's default settings are more than satisfying, specially since all I wanted to do was to find the culprit that was killing my battery.
After using BetterBatteryStats & Greenify, it turns out "ESPN" and "Samsung Peel Remote Control" are both using more battery life overnight as I sleep, than the "System" itself.
ESPN behaves as it should when I hibernate it; however, Samsung's Peel Remote wakes up overnight; it won't stay hibernated.
I've been trying to use the scissor's icon to prevent other apps from waking the Peel Remote, but it gives me a failed message.
At least now I know that my problem is not the battery or the phone.
Merazomo said:
... however, Samsung's Peel Remote wakes up overnight; it won't stay hibernated.
I've been trying to use the scissor's icon to prevent other apps from waking the Peel Remote, but it gives me a failed message.
At least now I know that my problem is not the battery or the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me thinks you should consider another app:
https://fossbytes.com/peel-remote-use-remove-smart-remote/
There are ways to tame the monster using perfectly legal advanced tools (MAT, SD Maid, etc.) but such discussion is beyond the scope of this thread.
Davey126 said:
Me thinks you should consider another app:
https://fossbytes.com/peel-remote-use-remove-smart-remote/
There are ways to tame the monster using perfectly legal advanced tools (MAT, SD Maid, etc.) but such discussion is beyond the scope of this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I though I was the only one struggling with these apps. I installed an app that called AFWall+ though, that blocks Internet/Data access to the Peel Remote. I no longer get that annoying TV Guide, Ads, or VOD recommendations; just the ability to use it as a normal remote.
The last 3 days, I've only lost 5% battery life overnight with the Greenify & AFWall+ combination. If that keeps up, it's as good as it is going to get for me. If it changes back to 14%, I'm just going to uninstall Peel.
Merazomo said:
I though I was the only one struggling with these apps. I installed an app that called AFWall+ though, that blocks Internet/Data access to the Peel Remote. I no longer get that annoying TV Guide, Ads, or VOD recommendations; just the ability to use it as a normal remote.
The last 3 days, I've only lost 5% battery life overnight with the Greenify & AFWall+ combination. If that keeps up, it's as good as it is going to get for me. If it changes back to 14%, I'm just going to uninstall Peel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A software firewall (preferably VPN based) is an excellent way to block unwanted content and network communications including ads, tracking uploads and/or malicious downloads. I run some type of software firewall on every device I own. As for idle drain rates, I average 0.15-0.25%/hr on WiFi only tablets; 0.4-0.6%/hr on phones. Pretty consistent range regardless of brand, ROM or other variables. Greenify, which I use sparingly, is the only non-native power management tool in my arsenal. No silly alarm/wakelock squashing, doze tuners, etc. Mind your settings, behaviors and app portfolio. Pretty simple stuff. Depressing news for budding geeks with too much time on their hands.
Merazomo said:
I though I was the only one struggling with these apps. I installed an app that called AFWall+ though, that blocks Internet/Data access to the Peel Remote. I no longer get that annoying TV Guide, Ads, or VOD recommendations; just the ability to use it as a normal remote.
The last 3 days, I've only lost 5% battery life overnight with the Greenify & AFWall+ combination. If that keeps up, it's as good as it is going to get for me. If it changes back to 14%, I'm just going to uninstall Peel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First and most important, it's exactly as @Davey126 stated directly above. Second in order to support your decision: For many years now, I use Greenify and AFWall+ Pro, and I confirm your observation. All of our telephones (we don't own an Android tablet etc.) achieve overnight battery drainages between 0.5 - 0.7%/h including network connection and some non-greenified apps. In airplane mode the drainage decreases to 0.2 - 0.3%/h. For quite some time till about a year ago, I also used tools like Amplify, PowerNap etc. until I realised it makes no sense to try to turn on these knobs i.e. to fight effects but not the causes - and more important I didn't gain any battery life by their utilisation.
BTW: If you're interested in trying a different firewall, NetGuard by M66B, very well known among all users interested in privacy, is an interesting alternative. Based on VPN and no-root required. The only reason why I stay with AFWall+ Pro and don't switch to NetGuard is Android's inherent limitation to only allow one VPN tunnel at a time. And as I always enable my own secure VPN connection with my RaspberryPi in our home network before I connect to mobile data or a foreign WiFi, I can't use NetGuard.
Oswald Boelcke said:
First and most important, it's exactly as @Davey126 stated directly above. Second in order to support your decision: For many years now, I use Greenify and AFWall+ Pro, and I confirm your observation. All of our telephones (we don't own an Android tablet etc.) achieve overnight battery drainages between 0.5 - 0.7%/h including network connection and some non-greenified apps. In airplane mode the drainage decreases to 0.2 - 0.3%/h. For quite some time till about a year ago, I also used tools like Amplify, PowerNap etc. until I realised it makes no sense to try to turn on these knobs i.e. to fight effects but not the causes - and more important I didn't gain any battery life by their utilisation.
BTW: If you're interested in trying a different firewall, NetGuard by M66B, very well known among all users interested in privacy, is an interesting alternative. Based on VPN and no-root required. The only reason why I stay with AFWall+ Pro and don't switch to NetGuard is Android's inherent limitation to only allow one VPN tunnel at a time. And as I always enable my own secure VPN connection with my RaspberryPi in our home network before I connect to mobile data or a foreign WiFi, I can't use NetGuard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, after doing much research online, it came down to NetGuard - NoRoot Firewall - Droidwall(now Avast) - Afwall+.
I chose Afwall+ because it seemed easier to use. The other apps seem more customizable if you know what you're doing, but for what I needed Afwall+ is more of a "click and save" type of app.
Davey126 said:
A software firewall (preferably VPN based) is an excellent way to block unwanted content and network communications including ads, tracking uploads and/or malicious downloads. I run some type of software firewall on every device I own. As for idle drain rates, I average 0.15-0.25%/hr on WiFi only tablets; 0.4-0.6%/hr on phones. Pretty consistent range regardless of brand, ROM or other variables. Greenify, which I use sparingly, is the only non-native power management tool in my arsenal. No silly alarm/wakelock squashing, doze tuners, etc. Mind your settings, behaviors and app portfolio. Pretty simple stuff. Depressing news for budding geeks with too much time on their hands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curiosity bricked a few of my phones over the years LOL. I guess it's human nature.
Reading through a bunch of threads when I still didn't know what Greenify was, there were a few discussions about being able to get "push notifications" when an app was still in hibernation.
How much truth is there to those statements? I have Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, etc. installed on my phone not because I use them constantly, but because it's the easier/cheaper way for my family to contact me.
It would be great to be able to hibernate all those apps, and still know when my family is trying to contact me, even if I have to manually hibernate the apps again afterwards.
Or did I read too much into it and mixed things up?
Merazomo said:
Curiosity bricked a few of my phones over the years LOL. I guess it's human nature.
Reading through a bunch of threads when I still didn't know what Greenify was, there were a few discussions about being able to get "push notifications" when an app was still in hibernation.
How much truth is there to those statements? I have Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, etc. installed on my phone not because I use them constantly, but because it's the easier/cheaper way for my family to contact me.
It would be great to be able to hibernate all those apps, and still know when my family is trying to contact me, even if I have to manually hibernate the apps again afterwards.
Or did I read too much into it and mixed things up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Push notifications work with some Greenifed apps (must be GCM capable) but may be delayed by minutes/hours depending on Greenify settings, app design, GCM capabilities, availability of Xposed framework, timing of doze maintenance windows and a bunch of other variables. Best way to assess with your app portfolio is to try.

Pixel 3 - improve battery life

Opening this thread because battery life could be better even though it's only ~2950mAh. Currently I'm getting a bettery life of 20h with moderate usage. So I started to gather infos about how to reduce battery drain and usage.
Improvements:
- AlwaysOnDisplay: off
- Playing now: off
- reduce brightness
Are there any Google APPs which can be safely deactivated without getting the phone lunatic nor have heavy impact on the system?
And why is the Google APP so large? On my Moto G5+ it was around 35MB and now it's ten times bigger?
TGHH said:
Opening this thread because battery life could be better even though it's only ~2950mAh. Currently I'm getting a bettery life of 20h with moderate usage. So I started to gather infos about how to reduce battery drain and usage.
Improvements:
- AlwaysOnDisplay: off
- Playing now: off
- reduce brightness
Are there any Google APPs which can be safely deactivated without getting the phone lunatic nor have heavy impact on the system?
And why is the Google APP so large? On my Moto G5+ it was around 35MB and now it's ten times bigger?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wondered the same as you before receiving my Pixel 3. Comjing from a Galaxy S8 battery / SoT was always an issue, I barely made it trough a whole day of work without recharging at 5 PM.
With the Pixel 3 I did the following:
- Set it up and migrate everything from the S8 (via the Assistant in the Setup screen)
- Restored my ringtones and Notification sounds
- disabled the following Apps (because I don't use them): Action Services, Android Auto, Chrome, Connectivity Health Services, Device Health Services, Device Policy, Gmail (I use Aquamail instead), Google Connectivity Services, Google Play Movies, Google Play Music, Google Suport Services, Live Transcribe, Pixel Ambient Services, Youtube (I prefer Youtube Vanced and MigroG instead)
- Set up a ton of Cal and Carddav Accounts for my personal cloud services
- Disabled the automativ battery saver (which would kick in at 15% by default)
- Set up Automate: toogle WiFi on automatically when I reach a specific location (I know this is build in, but with the build in version it doesn't switch of when I leave the location) and disable it when I leave, Disable Bluetooth when not in use for 5 Minutes, automatically activate DnD when I'm charging after a specific Time (I charge every night) and disable it when I remove it from the Qi Charger
That's what I set up because of my experience with the S8 and because I want most things automatically done.
Yesterday I pushed the phone to the limit (a whole workday plus 2 Hours Spotify and 3 Hours Gaming):
imagebanana.com/s/1383/8vZEWmFF.html
P.S.:Sorry for the broken Link, just copy the Link into your webbrowser. I lost my old account and had to set up a new one, where I will be allowed to post links after 10 Posts
TGHH said:
Opening this thread because battery life could be better even though it's only ~2950mAh. Currently I'm getting a bettery life of 20h with moderate usage. So I started to gather infos about how to reduce battery drain and usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't just turn on Battery Saver? It shuts down some functions, like instant response for "Hey Google", idles background running apps etc. It also switches on dark theme at least in settings. I didn't measure exact battery life, but it feels, it lives longer. However, there were some days (I think, once in a couple months) when the battery drained almost in half in literally some hours. Since I registered it aftermath, I can not recall what could lead to that, but since I live in Los Angeles with some areas of pretty bad coverage (in hills areas, on some freeways), it's possible those caused the drainage. Also it could be the result of some glitches that Pixel is famous for, so I just rebooted it and it stopped drain the battery for that reason or because I was already out of bad coverage areas.
Since it's still April, don't forget about secret Google's signals to control all its gadgets and their owners.
Unlock
Root
Elemental kernel
Substratum swift black theme
Profit
TimLux said:
I wondered the same as you before receiving my Pixel 3. Comjing from a Galaxy S8 battery / SoT was always an issue, I barely made it trough a whole day of work without recharging at 5 PM.
With the Pixel 3 I did the following:
- Set it up and migrate everything from the S8 (via the Assistant in the Setup screen)
- Restored my ringtones and Notification sounds
- disabled the following Apps (because I don't use them): Action Services, Android Auto, Chrome, Connectivity Health Services, Device Health Services, Device Policy, Gmail (I use Aquamail instead), Google Connectivity Services, Google Play Movies, Google Play Music, Google Suport Services, Live Transcribe, Pixel Ambient Services, Youtube (I prefer Youtube Vanced and MigroG instead)
- Set up a ton of Cal and Carddav Accounts for my personal cloud services
- Disabled the automativ battery saver (which would kick in at 15% by default)
- Set up Automate: toogle WiFi on automatically when I reach a specific location (I know this is build in, but with the build in version it doesn't switch of when I leave the location) and disable it when I leave, Disable Bluetooth when not in use for 5 Minutes, automatically activate DnD when I'm charging after a specific Time (I charge every night) and disable it when I remove it from the Qi Charger
That's what I set up because of my experience with the S8 and because I want most things automatically done.
Yesterday I pushed the phone to the limit (a whole workday plus 2 Hours Spotify and 3 Hours Gaming):
imagebanana.com/s/1383/8vZEWmFF.html
P.S.:Sorry for the broken Link, just copy the Link into your webbrowser. I lost my old account and had to set up a new one, where I will be allowed to post links after 10 Posts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your setup of apps and syncing is very close to mine! Some of the services you mentioned are still running on my Pixel. That's a good starting point for further optimisation. Very appreciate your help!
Che Kirila said:
Why don't just turn on Battery Saver? It shuts down some functions, like instant response for "Hey Google", idles background running apps etc. It also switches on dark theme at least in settings. I didn't measure exact battery life, but it feels, it lives longer. However, there were some days (I think, once in a couple months) when......
Since it's still April, don't forget about secret Google's signals to control all its gadgets and their owners.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I applied already the standards for saving battery life (AoD, etc.) and as I don't use the Google services also those I was sure it doesn't break anything. Getting rid of the services I don't use is a good start for optimise it.
b1337 said:
Unlock
Root
Elemental kernel
Substratum swift black theme
Profit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlock and root will come by time but for now I keep it locked. ??
TGHH said:
Unlock and root will come by time but for now I keep it locked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
literally no point but ok
b1337 said:
literally no point but ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is. Loosing warranty.
Never had a problem with this since Nexus one
b1337 said:
Never had a problem with this since Nexus one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's not about the process of unlocking and rooting the phone, but just the legal side.
I would not get any service for free if I unlocked it.
I rooted every phone I had but as my Pixel is new I will wait till I'm sure that there are no hardware problems occurring.
TGHH said:
I applied already the standards for saving battery life (AoD, etc.) and as I don't use the Google services also those I was sure it doesn't break anything. Getting rid of the services I don't use is a good start for optimise it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean you applied that after special mode "Battery Saver" as additions to it? That standard mode was enough for me to keep my battery charge mostly over 50% after full day.
Che Kirila said:
Do you mean you applied that after special mode "Battery Saver" as additions to it? That standard mode was enough for me to keep my battery charge mostly over 50% after full day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's what I ment. I identified already one of the drainers - my Openvpn client is consuming quite a lot. After switching to Blockada (as AdBlocker) battery consumption is quite okay.
But let's see what can be achieved by further optimization.
Try to use the private DNS setting instead, I figured this would save even more battery than a locally hosted VPN
TimLux said:
Try to use the private DNS setting instead, I figured this would save even more battery than a locally hosted VPN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try, but one after the other. Otherwise I don't know what was a good setting.
Seems like I found descent settings to make battery last longer. So let's see how this turns out during the week (this is my normal use case - mail, some music, business stuff, photos; I don't play!).
I'll let u know what I did, so maybe others can profit as well.
While in standby/mails/some browsing the drain is descent. While listening to some music using BT the drain is quite visible as you can see.
What?? When you use the device it uses more battery then when it sleeps? crazy
b1337 said:
What?? When you use the device it uses more battery then when it sleeps? crazy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL - sorry, maybe misleading. Yes, I used it for reading mail, some websites. So maybe I should have written moderate use.
b1337 said:
Unlock
Root
Elemental kernel
Substratum swift black theme
Profit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which CPU mode do you use? I typically use "on demand"

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