Purpose: I'm starting this thread to discuss the effects of using Latitude on battery life. Specifically, is there anything we can do to minimize the extra battery drain it causes. I like using latitude with family and friends and want to continue using the service (I'm sure I'm not the only one). I really need to find a way to use it without giving up on around 70% of my standby battery life.
Background: Over the past 2 nights, I've left my phone unplugged when I went to sleep. On the first night I was signed OUT of latitude and lost about 7% of my battery. On the second night I was signed IN to latitude and lost about 23%. To me, this doesn't make any sense and given what latitude does, its way too high. I noticed that in BetterBatteryStats, NetworkLocationLocator has 2h31m of partial wakelock time (Count: 2482, 16%) when latitude is turned ON. With latitude OFF, it was near the bottom of the list with a negligible amount of activity. I believe this is the primary contributor of the significant increase in battery usage when I use latitude on my device. I'm not an expert on BetterBatteryStats, but over the course of a day, I expect latitude to update my location a few dozen times. So, why is it showing a count of wakelocks in the thousands?
Specific Questions:
What might be causing the huge increase in NetworkLocationLocator wakelocks and is there anyway to get that number under control when using latitude?
I use tasker on my phone and I have profiles set up for higher battery life vs higher performance. Is there anyway to have tasker control latitude? If I can get an activity that would sign me in and another to sign me out, I'm sure I can incorporate that into my various profiles. (if tasker can't do it by itself, could a script be written to do it? I know tasker can execute certain types of scripts I just have no idea how to write them)
Has anyone used the program Latify (or something similar)? I know its an alternative client to the latitude service and I was wondering if it had better battery life than Google's client. This would be my last resort as I like having latitude integrated into Maps, which I also use often.
For the record, I'm running stock rooted KI3 (2.3.5). But, I have noticed huge battery drain with latitude on every rom so far with my GS2.
Thanks in advance to any and all who can help contribute to this problem and a solution.
Try this new app, from the developer of BetterBatteryStats: [APP] ALTitude, a Google Latitude updater with a low battery footprint
I think there are a lot of issues with Maps. Here is another thread where we think it causes wakelocks from Gtalk_async_conn: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1242519
Hopefully Google will fix these issues soon. But in the meantime, I think the solution is to freeze/kill Maps when you don't need it, and update Latitude through an alternative app.
Unfortunately, there's no way to control how Latitude will perform location updates, and it does stress the battery, even when you're not moving.
I would also advice to look into some third party apps to update your Latitude account.
As far as Latify is concerned (please note that I'm the developer of Latify), there are a lot of options in Latify that allow you to update your location. Not only the polling interval, but also WiFi / GPS usage, or a simple last known location republish without using the location manager can be configured). By hooking it up with Tasker, you can activate the polling profile that suits you best, allowing for accurate location updates while keeping battery life in mind. Many users have reported better battery life, and there's also a Battery Saving tips article at hemorrdroids.net that mentions Latitude/Latify
I'm usually signed out of latify from the Maps application, and only sign in to see my friends. I also see a battery life increase when not using Google Maps / Latitude, and using Latify to perform my location updates.
I only use latitude when I need it. So if me and my wife go out for the day with a couple of friends and split up, we can turn it on and locate each other when we want!
Otherwise I don't see why it would need to be on all the time. Also its good when traveling with more than one vehicle so you can see the progress of the other vehicles.
Its going to use battery as its checking for your location.
@Sparksltd : That's true, but some people like to use Google Latitude in a different way, updating their location more frequently, to make use of the dashboard features of Google Latitude (time spent at home / work , overview of places visited.....).
In order for the dashboard to work properly, you need a lot more data to be pushed in Google Latitude. For those users, they need to keep Latitude up and running most of the time, where it does eat up a lot of battery, without any control on how these updates are occurring.
I have over 150000 records in Latitude, and it gives a very detailed overview of when I was at home, when I was out working, when I'm visiting friends.... It also allows you to see all your trips abroad, and the places you visited there. It's nice sometimes to replay that, or if you need some kind of "Where was I / what did I do on a particular day" functionality.
When I'm at work for example, I don't want Latitude to constantly update my exact same location every couple of minutes, but I would like a more intelligent way of updating it (ex: update it every hour based on my last known location, or update it every 2 hours until I'm in my my car, and than resort to GPS based location updates as I'm probably going to be on the move, and in my car I can charge my phone).
That's why people resort to third party apps, as it gives them more control over how location updates occur, and how it will affect their battery.
Hello there! I have a suggestion. Is your phone rooted? If it is then this option is for you.
Install Titanium Backup Pro from Market and Freeze the Latitude app(I think it is bundled together with Maps) when you don't use it. When you need it then you can unfreeze the app.
Checked, this still happens when I do not use Latitude. The same service causes the partial wake locks. I am using Maps 6.0.2. I think the issue was accentuated since Maps 6.0.0, probably wowing to better integration with latitude and the core application?
IMO this looks like very bad programming from google. I doubt if they will ever fix this completely.
Well I have tried Backitude and it works fine for me. It has several options which you can configure like
- update interval (5 min - 60 min)
- Minimum change in distance (100 mts - 1000 mts)
- Real time tracking (Might cause huge battery drain)
I use update interval of 15 min and minimum change in distance of 250 mts. Set latitude to update manually and Backitude will do the rest for you. Enable Use wireless networks within location and security so that it uses your cellular network instead of GPS to track your approximate location.
This helps in reducing the partial wakelocks caused by google maps. Other similar apps are Latify and ALtitude.
Note : This app requests for google authentication token in order to access your account, you can create an application specific password by enabling two way account validation in your google account.
I use Latify, and find it works pretty well. In particular, the scenario described above applies to me - I don't want regular location updates when I'm at work or home. So I use Tasker to control latify - I only send an update once-per-hour when at home or in the office, but as soon as I go outside or to another location it switches to my 'out and about' profile, and Latify sends updates every 5 minutes. That way, I get granular updates while I'm in more interesting locations. I also have it switch to 'SatNav' mode when I launch Google Maps/Nav or CoPilot, which then enables GPS for hi-def location, and publishes updates every 30 seconds.
Works really well - you should give it a shot.
I have Location reporting/location sharing/location history all switched off in Google Maps, but still see the NetworkLocationLocator top of the list in BetterBatteryStats (14 minutes/count 221 in the last 2hrs 45mins). Does anyone have any idea why this service is still consuming so much battery if I have the Latitude options switched off??
(the phone is an S3 but presumably the issue is the same?)
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!
Hi, I have a stock i9300, rooted.
About 3 days ago, I noticed that my device, which normally gets through a day comfortably, was running out of juice by early afternoon.
I've checked the data usage meter and it shows that Google Services is doing something with data constantly. It's not a lot of data (500MB over 7 days) but it's enough to keep my "H+" showing data uploading and downloading all the time, which is not normal behaviour.
As a result of this, the battery is running dry. Even when plugged in, the charging isn't keeping up and eventually the battery runs out, and I have to leave the phone off for a bit to recharge.
I have since turned off background data for Google Services, and I'm hoping this works, although I don't know what I'm going to lose in terms of functionality as a result of doing that.
But I'd like to know what the problem is and why this has suddenly happened as it's really bugging me. Hoping someone else has experienced this. I have searched for other threads on this topic, all refer to battery drain but I don't seem to have the same issue. If I look at my battery stats I'm not seeing Google Services at the top of the list like others. Mine is more to do with data.
Cheers,
Pete
I cant answer why or what it is, but one thing I did notice wasted a lot of battery for me (other than google now of course) was the google backup. You know the one you tick when you first go through the set up wizard on the phone? "Backup this device with google".
piannetta said:
Hi, I have a stock i9300, rooted.
About 3 days ago, I noticed that my device, which normally gets through a day comfortably, was running out of juice by early afternoon.
I've checked the data usage meter and it shows that Google Services is doing something with data constantly. It's not a lot of data (500MB over 7 days) but it's enough to keep my "H+" showing data uploading and downloading all the time, which is not normal behaviour.
As a result of this, the battery is running dry. Even when plugged in, the charging isn't keeping up and eventually the battery runs out, and I have to leave the phone off for a bit to recharge.
I have since turned off background data for Google Services, and I'm hoping this works, although I don't know what I'm going to lose in terms of functionality as a result of doing that.
But I'd like to know what the problem is and why this has suddenly happened as it's really bugging me. Hoping someone else has experienced this. I have searched for other threads on this topic, all refer to battery drain but I don't seem to have the same issue. If I look at my battery stats I'm not seeing Google Services at the top of the list like others. Mine is more to do with data.
Cheers,
Pete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi,
if you have various system or user apps wakelocks, first do a monitoring it with your favorite battery monitor and analysis tool to details.
gmail, google services, backup, sync contacts, other syncs google plus, etc, localization services, call direct or indirectly other apps, bringing more wakelocks (partial, kernel, network - your case I think) ... and more battery drains ... facebook is a classic example ... hungry app
Wakelocks - read it ... enlight your questions
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Wakelocks
to monitorate and analyse the battery consumption, drain, and wakes use BetterBatteryStats - bbs
[APP][2.1+][16 Apr. - V1.13.4] BetterBatteryStats - thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
you can use traditional battery savers (i didn't recommend)
I do use greenify together with bbs (paid app - to full hibernate and extras, but very good - the "engine" is different, doesn't kill or freeze, but hibernate system (need root) or users apps. @oasisfeng created a smart and reliable engine - support him
[APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT* v1.85 beta 6 (Updated on Jun.6)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2155737
increase my battery and decrease unnecessary wakelocks ... excellent results ...
see other members comments in xda thread and user reviews in google play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify.pro
i recommend check this:
[GUIDE]Tips to Improve your android battery life
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2144661
best regards,
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.
The last week or so since I got my HTC One Max, I have been slowly configuring it and setting it up to my tastes. On my previous phone, an HTC Rezound, I used an app called Clean Master to manage the phones ram, and Battery Doctor to extend its battery life. I tried an application called Battery Guru on my Max, but it actually drained the battery faster while the phone was not doing anything. After uninstalling it, my battery life seems to have shot upwards. I have not re-installed Battery Doctor. I have read the following things about these battery saver apps over the last few days:
1. Some say the applications are not needed and you should not use them, especially if they include a task manager. The logic was that Android was designed to have multiple apps in memory all the time, and closing them, then opening them again from scratch, uses up the battery.
2.Others have said just the opposite. They claim the applications greatly increase battery life. If you read the reviews on the Android Market about these two applications, that seems to be the case.
Both of these applications I have used get rave reviews from the many folks that have used them. Is the benefit they are seeing just imagined? Do the applications actually work? Is it also possible that they work for some and not others, since there are a lot of models of Android devices out there?
Most things that are ram "cleaners" are just giving you a slight point in time speed boost. Your ram will fill up again (as it should). Most so called battery doctors cripple your phone to extend battery life (think extreme power saver on the Max). What you want is something that blocks the applications that you do have running from performing activities in the background that you dont need at that moment ( think facebook looking for your location even when not using it just so it will know it faster when you open the app).
I use a combo of firewall to block most apps from using the internet (radio takes a lot of battery) and greenify which hibernates the app while keeping it in ram so it brings me into the app where I was before.
mikekoz said:
The last week or so since I got my HTC One Max, I have been slowly configuring it and setting it up to my tastes. On my previous phone, an HTC Rezound, I used an app called Clean Master to manage the phones ram, and Battery Doctor to extend its battery life. I tried an application called Battery Guru on my Max, but it actually drained the battery faster while the phone was not doing anything. After uninstalling it, my battery life seems to have shot upwards. I have not re-installed Battery Doctor. I have read the following things about these battery saver apps over the last few days:
1. Some say the applications are not needed and you should not use them, especially if they include a task manager. The logic was that Android was designed to have multiple apps in memory all the time, and closing them, then opening them again from scratch, uses up the battery.
2.Others have said just the opposite. They claim the applications greatly increase battery life. If you read the reviews on the Android Market about these two applications, that seems to be the case.
Both of these applications I have used get rave reviews from the many folks that have used them. Is the benefit they are seeing just imagined? Do the applications actually work? Is it also possible that they work for some and not others, since there are a lot of models of Android devices out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try greenify
Sent from my HTC One max using xda app-developers app
Free ram is idle ram. Having a lot of ram usage isnt a bad thing... Don't know how many people think the opposite. Now if it gets too high then yea its an issue when opening new apps but this issue died with gingerbread in all reality. Some would argue task managers even died with froyo.
Sent from my HTC0P3P7 using xda app-developers app
Thanks everybody! I have installed Greenify, and removed Battery Doctor and Clean Sweep, and my phone is running great! I like it so much, I have put Greenify on my other Android tablets. No more battery saving apps or task managers for me!!
The trick is to properly manage the apps that you use.
The problem with task killers is that some apps that you kill will simply "respawn" themselves automatically in the background. Killing apps that do this just means your phone is constantly closing/opening the app again and again which is worse than not killing it in the first place. You will just have to experiment and check which apps respawn after killing them and avoid having the task killer auto-kill those apps, or uninstall those apps.
You also have battery saver apps that try to manage turning certain features on/off like WiFi, GPS and Blutooth. The most efficient way of managing this is to manually disable those features when you don't need them. Having an app do this for you means that app now has to be running all the time to manage those other features, which itself will ironically increase battery usage.
Avoiding as many apps as possible that need to constantly run in the background to perform it's function. These mostly include instant messenger apps or other apps that regularly check the internet for updates in the background. Either avoid them or if possible increase the delay between how often the app checks for updates/info. The Greenify app will allow you to "suspend/pause/freeze" specific apps when they are not currently on your screen. This keeps them from performing any activity in the background, and will help save battery if used on apps that would normally be doing tasks in the background. The downside is that if that app is suppose to be doing something while in the background, it won't be doing that anymore...like checking for updates, chat messages etc...
Keep screen brightness on automatic, so you don't waste power on a bright screen when in a darker environment.
These should be more than enough tips to help you better manage your battery.