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
Related
Hi everyone,
Coming from Windows Mobile & iPhone system, I realized Android system doesn't automatically enable/disable 3G, thus it drains the battery if I leave it on, or have to go through the inconvenience to manually enabling it before starting browser, chat, or Facebook.
Since this is only my 4th day on the Streak, I'd like to ask if anyone knows there's a widget or app like this?
With many thanks,
Tom.
Tasker is a pretty useful app for that kind of stuff, I have it configured to turn on airplane mode on launching certain apps, but you can just as easily set it to turn on data and have it default to data off.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
tom_tui said:
Hi everyone,
Coming from Windows Mobile & iPhone system, I realized Android system doesn't automatically enable/disable 3G, thus it drains the battery if I leave it on, or have to go through the inconvenience to manually enabling it before starting browser, chat, or Facebook.
Since this is only my 4th day on the Streak, I'd like to ask if anyone knows there's a widget or app like this?
With many thanks,
Tom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i am not wrong the windows/iPhone never enable 3G or 2G automatically. you have to toggle 3G on and off manually
Two ways to do this. first, if it's a widget you want, there's one built in. Long press the home "room" and select widgets. Then select the Power control Widget. It gives you single button push for bluetooth, wifi, gps, active sync, and brightness control.
The other way is press on the little tray that has the battery and other icons in it, and you will see the button to turn wifi on or off, as well as bluetooth.
Juice Defender does what you want. It disables 3g when asleep, turning on periodically to check for email and stuff and enables 3g when your phone is awake. Very customisable too!
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
You can automate this with 3GBattery.
3GBattery|Google Play
HTC EVO 3D BATTERY SAVERS GUIDE BY LEO72793
I have many tips on saving the battery from death during the day.
1. When charging the device, after you unplug it, wait about 2 minutes and plug it back in until the green light returns. This adds the discharged amount back to the battery from the trickle charge kernel.
2. Go into settings> wireless and networks> mobile networks> roaming> set to sprint only
3. Go to settings> wireless and networks > mobile networks> > disable mobile data always on.
4. Use the HTC settings Widgets in personalize to ad the 4g, 3g, Bluetooth, mobile network, profile, GPS, and airplane mode to toggle them on and off most of them off unless needed.
5. Go into settings> display> brightness> and set it to a comfortable viewing brightness level.
6. Disable live wallpapers.
7. Use darker wallpapers to conserve on the light emitted from the screen.
8. Go into settings> accounts and sync> and turn off auto sync.
9. In the email client aka mail NOT gmail if you use it instead of gmail, hit menu> settings> send and receive and set all to manual and peak to the same time such as 12am to 12am.
10. Use wifi at home instead of 3g. it saves battery and does not search for the signal consistanly.
WILL UPDATE WITH OTHER TIPS SENT TO ME. HOPE IT HELPS ALL!!!!
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Nice, thanks for the tips
Awesome!! Thank you!
Bang!! The sound of my Shooter
No problem. They increased my battery life while tethering VIA bt and music to about 2 days.
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Not to be a stick in the mud... but isn't this already covered here..?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1141221
More than likely. This is just my thread for noobs like me. Also I will be putting more into this thread such as my own tutorials and reviews for people who want to know the development of some roms and which ones do what they need. Is that ok with you??( pls say yes xD)
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
leo72793 said:
8. Go into settings> accounts and sync> and turn off auto sync.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't this setting turn off any accounts from syncing automatically if they are setup? (I.E. Gmail, Facebook, News, Stocks, etc., etc.)
Maybe say that as a disclaimer for this one, I'm sure that most people here actually use gmail and other apps that autosync.
Also, and I'm not trying to start the fire here, this isn't exactly Development Material. Your intentions are honorable and commendable, but misplaced. This should be in General or maybe Q&A with a title similar to <Battery Life Tips> or something of that nature.
This isn't exactly tips on anything, it's battery life tips. When that changes, you can change the title to something else.
But either way, thanks for the tips.
Cheers.
Turning off mobile data what will do?I guess you should explain, right?afaik unchecking this box, you will not lose your data, but when the phone its inactive it will be disabled right? And re activate data when its active again the phone, having this option checked your data will never be disabled....i'm wondering what happen with apps like whatsapp? When you don't even wake up your phone, you will not receive the Messages
.......................................................
Sent from my loved EVO 3D ;D
Don't drop your evo 3d in water. It causes faster battery drain and some of the buttons may not work.
Sent from my EVO 3D using Tapatalk
leo72793 said:
7. Use darker wallpapers to conserve on the light emitted from the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't true for LCD screens. LCDs use roughtly the same power to display black vs white. If you are talking about an AMOLED screen, it would be correct.
leo72793 said:
HTC EVO 3D BATTERY SAVERS GUIDE BY LEO72793
I have many tips on saving the battery from death during the day.
1. When charging the device, after you unplug it, wait about 2 minutes and plug it back in until the green light returns. This adds the discharged amount back to the battery from the trickle charge kernel.
2. Go into settings> wireless and networks> mobile networks> roaming> set to sprint only
3. Go to settings> wireless and networks > mobile networks> > disable mobile data always on.
4. Use the HTC settings Widgets in personalize to ad the 4g, 3g, Bluetooth, mobile network, profile, GPS, and airplane mode to toggle them on and off most of them off unless needed.
5. Go into settings> display> brightness> and set it to a comfortable viewing brightness level.
6. Disable live wallpapers.
7. Use darker wallpapers to conserve on the light emitted from the screen.
8. Go into settings> accounts and sync> and turn off auto sync.
9. In the email client aka mail NOT gmail if you use it instead of gmail, hit menu> settings> send and receive and set all to manual and peak to the same time such as 12am to 12am.
10. Use wifi at home instead of 3g. it saves battery and does not search for the signal consistanly.
WILL UPDATE WITH OTHER TIPS SENT TO ME. HOPE IT HELPS ALL!!!!
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Issues with these tips (should disclaimer OP):
Most of these tips are for battery savings only and will disrupt regular data. For a user like me, that uses exchange email and have programs that need always on data, this would cause me issues.
Individual issues:
1. Not really sure this works.
2. If you are in a spotty area and you lose Sprint data service, this would stop your phone from roaming which would cause you to lose data service until you are back into Sprints service area. Roaming does drain your battery as your phone is constantly looking to get back on Sprint's network but for people like me, this is not an option
3. Disabling this setting disables push email.
4. Good tip
5. This setting only saves battery if you set it to a very low level. This could be frustrating to people that use there phone alot indoors and outdoors. As such, if you set it low indoors you will not be able to see the screen outdoors so you will have to change the setting to something higher. Better off letting the phone decide.
6. Good tip Live wallpapers are a cpu hog and can be battery hogs.
7. Does not matter. LCD uses a backlight that shines through a screen of colors. The brightness of the backlight is what causes battery drain. If you had your backlight (brightness) at 100% and you had a pure black background, it would use more power than if you had a pure white background and had your brightness set at 25%.
8. Once again, this would cause issues with people using their email client for emails such as myself that uses their phone for work. I want to get my emails when they are pushed. Push technology does not constantly use data, it keeps a TCP connection open with the servers and when an email comes in, it sends a small data packet to your phone to tell it to check for email as there is an email message waiting.
9. See 8
10. +10000 If you can use wifi, use it. It is a battery saver.
This is not a post bashing your list, I just wanted to make sure that people knew of the consequences of doing these tweaks.
Great info
listening dl-_-lb to MP3s on my Shooter 3D
The tip #1 works great for me because sometimes I have picked it up AFTER charging it and it reads 95-97% and it charges immediately after charging replugged. hope someone tries to confirm it does help some.
Great topic. Thanks for the tips
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
3 does not disable push email.
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515a using XDA App
spectralblue said:
3 does not disable push email.
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515a using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does. This has been tested over and over again. Why don't you try it yourself. I have tested multiple times with my hero, evo, and now evo 3d.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
tgruendler said:
Yes it does. This has been tested over and over again. Why don't you try it yourself. I have tested multiple times with my hero, evo, and now evo 3d.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is off and my push mail works fine.
As a general comment tho, most of the orig tips are well known and sadly turn your "always connected smart phone" into a pretty dumb phone.
Evo3d's battery life when not actually "USING" it is pretty darn great, esp compared to the Evo or Evo Shift. Most folks are within 12 hours of a charger of some kind, and since it's a generic type charger, you can keep several at home, some at work, one in your car, and probably most of your friends have one around.
My opinion is that everyone needs to worry less about the battery and more about enjoying your smart phone the way it was meant to be used.
For people who don't want to leave the data on because of email, if you setup your Gmail with forwarding and use your Sprint phone number text messaging email as the forwarding address, you get a text message when you get an email and then you can download the entire message manually at that time if you need to. It works instantaneously.
Your Sprint text email address is [email protected]. Replace the x's with your 10 digit phone number.
I use Google talk too much to allow any data disruption in an attempt to save battery.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
I don't want to be too critical but many Smart Actions I found here or other Razr forums tend to be very restrictive on your use.
Com'on, you bought an expensive fancy phone which uses the fastest 4G LTE network, you paid some premium on those joy. It is never a Verizon LTE Razr if you turn 4G off.
So my bottom line is :
1.I want to be able to surf web/watch youtube/check email on 4G or wifi network when I want to (as opposed to wait for 5 seconds because it was off when screen was off)
And
2. I want to have reasonable battery life.
After some testing, Smart Actions that work on my Razr is
1. At Home: when it detect my wifi, it will switch there.
2. In call: When there is incoming call, turn off Data Connection and Screen turn to 0% brightness. (This is CDMA network, so you can't surf and use data at the same time anyway. Or do you really do a lot of such things? If so, please ignore this)
This #2 will help if you have constant phone conversation of about 30 mins daily. You won't want to burn unnecessary juicy while you are only talking.
3. At work where no wifi is available (for security reasons), I turn it off. I sit in office most of the time of the day, so you won't want wifi keep scanning and eating juice. I used TImeFrame to identify this, not geo location because wifi will need to be turned off.
4. In the night, using the night saver sample, I turned off cell data and background sync.
5. Low battery saver: surprisingly, in this action I only turned it to 0% screen brightness. Why? Just imagine you are using it as GPS or some important task on the road, you dont want to lose the GPS/Data if the battery dropped below a threshhold?
6. Most helpful action:
No Action At Work.
If you are working in office most of the time, your cellphone is quietly sitting on your desk mainly. So if you specify
1. at work
2. movement detection found nothing moving
then disable background sync. it will save the juice and when you turn on the screen to check email, the 4G is always there.
The whole idea , is not to disable data connection whenever you turn off screen. Many times you will have background downloads and sometimes when you turn on the screen, the phone takes some time to restore the data connection. which makes you staring at your phone can wait for a while. quite unfortunate if you have an Iphone user sitting beside you immediately pull the data out, right? =)
Personal settings, hopefully it helps you. It will easily give you 12 hours of usage. and for my charge now: 10 hours later it is at 80%, of course it has 6 hours of night standby.
Let's discuss more TESTED smart actions here? =)
note: if your phone is in your pocket a lot during a working day, don't use motion detection and you know why...
You can use voice and data simultaneously when on 4g. Just fyi.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
Yup, it's definitely useful too.
Example: talking to friend on phone about hanging out, go to home screen open Google maps to check when the next bus comes, while still talking to friend
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
"Movement Detection"
Is there such an option? Been looking for it, can't find it.
opensourcefan said:
"Movement Detection"
Is there such an option? Been looking for it, can't find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's motion
+ you need to update to get it
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
Copy that, update req Glad moto is updating though, it could be a uber powerful app.
opensourcefan said:
Copy that, update req Glad moto is updating though, it could be a uber powerful app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think if they make it more granular it will be great
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
thank you for the tips.
Hi I just purchased my Amaze two weeks ago, and am pretty pleased with it so far. There are a few small issues I've had with it, mostly with the HTC Sense UI (I'm used to stock Android on my N1 and G2X). One that is particularly annoying is the inability to disable the data connection.
For battery maximization I usually keep my Amaze on 2G, since I don't need my apps to update or sync at the speed of light, and only use 4G when I'm actively using the browser, using maps, or streaming music. (A capability the phones on crap AT&T don't even provide)
However, sometimes I would like to be able to turn it off altogether, such as in the rare case that the signal is not strong enough for data anyway or if the battery is really low. My Gingerbread Nexus One and G2X both allowed me to cut the data, but the Amaze only has the "always-on" option which doesn't guarantee that the data will shut off (originally it did, but doesn't seem to anymore).
Another more annoying problem that I have, which oddly enough I also had with my G2X, is that after some long calls the phone will refuse to download data, but will be stuck in "upload" (looking at the status bar icon). The only way to correct this is a restart or turn airplane mode on and off.
realtype said:
Hi I just purchased my Amaze two weeks ago, and am pretty pleased with it so far. There are a few small issues I've had with it, mostly with the HTC Sense UI (I'm used to stock Android on my N1 and G2X). One that is particularly annoying is the inability to disable the data connection.
For battery maximization I usually keep my Amaze on 2G, since I don't need my apps to update or sync at the speed of light, and only use 4G when I'm actively using the browser, using maps, or streaming music. (A capability the phones on crap AT&T don't even provide)
However, sometimes I would like to be able to turn it off altogether, such as in the rare case that the signal is not strong enough for data anyway or if the battery is really low. My Gingerbread Nexus One and G2X both allowed me to cut the data, but the Amaze only has the "always-on" option which doesn't guarantee that the data will shut off (originally it did, but doesn't seem to anymore).
Another more annoying problem that I have, which oddly enough I also had with my G2X, is that after some long calls the phone will refuse to download data, but will be stuck in "upload" (looking at the status bar icon). The only way to correct this is a restart or turn airplane mode on and off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You CAN turn off data: go to:
settings, wireless & Networks, UNCheck Mobile network...done no more data,
another way: pull down the notification bar, on the bottom go to quick settings, then UNCheck Mobile Network.
If you want to completely cut off your cell reception put your phone in plane mode by holding the power button, then enable wifi only!!
Wow I feel really stupid...I always assumed "mobile network" meant total network connectivity meaning switching it off would have the same effect as airplane mode. I guess I still haven't fully gotten used to Sense and its interesting choice of terminology. Just today I found out I can't set a wallpaper that stretches over onto multiple home screens like stock Android.
Thanks for the help seansk!
realtype said:
Wow I feel really stupid...I always assumed "mobile network" meant total network connectivity meaning switching it off would have the same effect as airplane mode. I guess I still haven't fully gotten used to Sense and its interesting choice of terminology. Just today I found out I can't set a wallpaper that stretches over onto multiple home screens like stock Android.
Thanks for the help seansk!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct, you cannot use scrolling background with sense UI, but you can with 3rd party launchers.
You can also turn off Data by...Dropping the Notification bar, on the bottom there will be a tab called Quick Settings. Select it and it will show a list of items to turn on and off....Turn Check OFF for Mobile Network.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Tapatalk
Double0EK said:
You can also turn off Data by...Dropping the Notification bar, on the bottom there will be a tab called Quick Settings. Select it and it will show a list of items to turn on and off....Turn Check OFF for Mobile Network.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for repeating what I just told him in the second post!
Oh..my bad..hahaha
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Tapatalk
Just download "apn onOff" app on the market.. Then place a shortcut on your home screen
With the shortcut you can easily turn off/turn on ur data connection with going through steps
Old Sense was able to scroll wallpaper, but probably as 3d is ressources consuming, wallpaper scrolling would be a cpu kilker.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using XDA App
I have unsuccessfully tried to set up smart actions to disable wifi and enable gps when I am not connected to a wireless network(or no wireless signal), and enable wifi and disable gps when I get to certain places. Can anyone give me some guidance on how to accomplish this? Any other power saving smart actions are welcomed.
I would also like to ask if theres any tweakes for better performance and better battery life. Im running stock ICS and am rooted.
Juice Defender Ultimate has some nice location-based controls for WiFi. Not sure about GPS...but it saves me so much battery even on stock ROM that I just leave GPS enabled all the time. Worth the money for Ultimate.
If you don't require data for emails and facebooking or whatever else the kids do these days, I use a smart action to disable data and background data sync when screen is off.
It doubles my battery life. I can now go two days on my maxx with medium use.
I can kill it in a day if I want to. Usually it takes two though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
What exactly does cellular data disable? Well i not be getting messages from contacts? How about background sync, what all does that eliminate ? Is there any action to turn off wifi when not connected to certain ones?
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Cellular data is data(3g/4g/1x). It stops your phone searching for a signal or downloading anything or uploading for that matter.
Background sync is what gives you emails and messages from various polling services such as Facebook.
I don't need to get emails except when I turn my screen on.
Juice defender does allow periodic data and background to check for emails and such.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
bwheelies said:
If you don't require data for emails and facebooking or whatever else the kids do these days, I use a smart action to disable data and background data sync when screen is off.
It doubles my battery life. I can now go two days on my maxx with medium use.
I can kill it in a day if I want to. Usually it takes two though.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have the same features for data and background sync, my battery life is so much better now (xt910)
Sent from my MZ601 using XDA Premium HD app
Thanks for the tips, i don't think disabling background sync is an option for me cause I get emails atoll the time.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
I would recommend trying to do what you need with Juice Defender, since that helps battery life dramatically, at least for my uses.
If you need to set up something more complicated/specific, Tasker seems to work well.