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Hi all,
I just got my Transformer Prime this week, and as a new user both of Android (my phone is a WP7 device) and of tablets in general, I do have a couple of questions that maybe you guys can help me with...
1) Shut it down or not?
Being a tablet something in between my phone and my laptop, I'm still not sure exactly how to manage it. I know this will come with experience, but do you guys leave it always on like your phone or do you shut down like a laptop? I actually only hibernate my laptop, but I don't know how to do that on my TP... is it possible?
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
OK, so I got my TP and started downloading apps... Skype and Facebook were one of the firsts. I quickly realized that, by default, after opening them for the 1st time, they kept giving me notifications, even if I swiped them left of the task manager (i.e. closed them, AFAIK). This is OK for Skype, but I really don't want Facebook bothering me that much, so I disabled notifications on its settings. Is that all that is needed to remove these permanent services? Does the "services" tab under Settings -> Applications really show everything that is running or can some apps hide from there?
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
I still didn't fully understand how "closing apps" work on Android (ICS at least). If I have an app with notifications enabled (i.e. its service is enabled, right?), even if I close it from the task manager, the notifications keep coming. However, if notifications are disabled, is swiping them left from the task manager REALLY closing them? At the end of the day, to improve battery and responsiveness, should I keep closing my unused apps?
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
This is actually part of a more general question, coming below. But anyway, I read that the ICS launcher is much improved from previous Android versions, and at the same time I didn't find a good launcher comparison for tablets only. Many of the launchers reviews only apply them for phones, and only compare them to the Gingerbread launcher (or some device-specific launcher). Since many of the launchers are paid apps, I would like to know: is there any launcher that is really worth trying in my new TP? What do you guys use?
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
I don't have my TP for even a week and I'm already tired of reading great things about an app, only to download it and see that it is not optimized for tablets at all. So, is there any good source of info/reviews on tablet-optimized apps?
Many thanks!
Leo.
1) Shut it down or not?
Personally, I always leave mine tablet running. There is a price to pay from a battery perspective when shutting down / starting up, so unless you know you are not going to be using it for an extended period of time, I would recommend leaving it on.
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
I believe the 'Services' tab will show all the user app services that are running, but I am not sure if you can permanently prevent them from starting back up with ICS. I have seen task manager apps in the market that can prevent services from starting up. In all reality though, if you are concerned about background services draining your battery, the Prime has excellent battery life to begin with, especially if you have the dock, so if I was you I wouldn't get too worked up over the background services. Now if we were talking about a smart phone here (like my Thunderbolt for example which has horrible battery life), I would be much more concerned about this type of thing as I would want to do anything possible to squeeze as much life out of my battery just to get through an entire day.
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
From my understanding swiping an app on the Recent Apps tray won't actually kill the process. Swiping an app from the Recent Apps tray more or less just removes the app from the list of Recent Apps. ICS automatically takes care of shutting down processes and releasing memory when appropriate. If you want to manually kill an app you can Force Close it from the list of apps from the Settings -> Applications menu. But again, my personal preference is to let ICS do its thing and take care of process management. I will remove apps from the Recent Apps tray just keep the tray less cluttered with apps that I don't use or need to switch to that often but I normally won't kill apps manually from the task manager.
On a side note, I would think removing an app from the Recent Apps tray would signal the OS that I am not going to be using the app again any time soon and the OS is free to shut down the process and release its memory, but I am not sure if this is what happens or not. All I know is that I have read elsewhere that removing an app from the Recent Apps tray will not immediately kill the process.
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
Personally, I really like ICS so I haven't tried any of the other launchers that are out there (on the tablet side of things anyways). I used the GO Launcher on my phone for a little while but ended up switching back to the default HTC Sense launcher. This is one of the things I love about Android though; the ability to totally change the look and feel the device by simply customizing and switching between different launchers. If I ever get tired or bored with ICS, I can download a new launcher and just like that, everything will seem new and fresh again.
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
This is one of the big problems with Android and the Android Market right now; not just the small selection of tablet optimized apps but being able to find these apps in the Market. There is an 'editors top picks for tablet apps' section or something like that in the Android Market that I have used. Unfortunately, many of the apps in there are not that great, but at least they are optimized for tablets. Typically I will just do a google search for 'top android tablet apps' to get a feel for some of the best tablet optimized apps that are out there.
Try the Tablified website or app to find tablet optimized apps. Can't download directly from there, but the install link will take you to the market page for whatever app you want.
http://www.tablified.com
jordache16 said:
1) Shut it down or not?
Personally, I always leave mine tablet running. There is a price to pay from a battery perspective when shutting down / starting up, so unless you know you are not going to be using it for an extended period of time, I would recommend leaving it on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks for taking the time to reply me! Anyway, my point was exactly about the times when I will not use it for an extented period, like when I go to bed or something... But I guess since I don't want any notifications when I'm sleeping, I think it is wiser to shut it down. On the other hand, is there a quick-way to completely silence the tablet, i.e. turn off the volume AND the vibrations?
jordache16 said:
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
I believe the 'Services' tab will show all the user app services that are running, but I am not sure if you can permanently prevent them from starting back up with ICS. I have seen task manager apps in the market that can prevent services from starting up. In all reality though, if you are concerned about background services draining your battery, the Prime has excellent battery life to begin with, especially if you have the dock, so if I was you I wouldn't get too worked up over the background services. Now if we were talking about a smart phone here (like my Thunderbolt for example which has horrible battery life), I would be much more concerned about this type of thing as I would want to do anything possible to squeeze as much life out of my battery just to get through an entire day.
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
From my understanding swiping an app on the Recent Apps tray won't actually kill the process. Swiping an app from the Recent Apps tray more or less just removes the app from the list of Recent Apps. ICS automatically takes care of shutting down processes and releasing memory when appropriate. If you want to manually kill an app you can Force Close it from the list of apps from the Settings -> Applications menu. But again, my personal preference is to let ICS do its thing and take care of process management. I will remove apps from the Recent Apps tray just keep the tray less cluttered with apps that I don't use or need to switch to that often but I normally won't kill apps manually from the task manager.
On a side note, I would think removing an app from the Recent Apps tray would signal the OS that I am not going to be using the app again any time soon and the OS is free to shut down the process and release its memory, but I am not sure if this is what happens or not. All I know is that I have read elsewhere that removing an app from the Recent Apps tray will not immediately kill the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hum, ok, I will try to freak out less about open apps. What's still bugs me, for instance, is the behavior of Google Talk vs. Skype. After turning the tablet on, Skype doesn't open automatically, and after I open it, it will gracefully inform-me of its status on the notifications bar. However, today I just got surprised by a incoming IM from Google Talk, even if I did'nt open it! I realized that it is hidden under "Google Services" in the app list, but there is no setting in the app to disable it from running on start-up! I can only "sign out"... Anyway, on the other hand, there's no setting to have Skype launch automatically on start up...
jordache16 said:
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
Personally, I really like ICS so I haven't tried any of the other launchers that are out there (on the tablet side of things anyways). I used the GO Launcher on my phone for a little while but ended up switching back to the default HTC Sense launcher. This is one of the things I love about Android though; the ability to totally change the look and feel the device by simply customizing and switching between different launchers. If I ever get tired or bored with ICS, I can download a new launcher and just like that, everything will seem new and fresh again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll second that. I've quickly used the Iphone 4 a couple of times and its dullness just bores me to death... hehe
jordache16 said:
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
This is one of the big problems with Android and the Android Market right now; not just the small selection of tablet optimized apps but being able to find these apps in the Market. There is an 'editors top picks for tablet apps' section or something like that in the Android Market that I have used. Unfortunately, many of the apps in there are not that great, but at least they are optimized for tablets. Typically I will just do a google search for 'top android tablet apps' to get a feel for some of the best tablet optimized apps that are out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I saw that, but I hate that I cannot filter that list between apps and games... stupid Google or stupid me? hehe
wikedawsum said:
Try the Tablified website or app to find tablet optimized apps. Can't download directly from there, but the install link will take you to the market page for whatever app you want.
http://www.tablified.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip! I'm cheking it out right now...
reguarding open apps
At times i noticed my stock launcher was laggy to switch between screens. After swiping to close the recent apps it was a lot more responsive, so i think that swiping the apps from the recent list does close them, at least in mose cases.
As to optimization apps, usually they are intended for phones running older software. You need to remember that every phone (aside from the google phones) is running a slightly different version of android.
Since each version of android is different, even between the Froyo on my phone and your phone, because they have different modifications on them there is a chance that the customized software on my phone may be better at handling unused tasks than your phone (in fact HTC phones by default have a LOT of running processes in the background, whereas Samsung phones generally have fewer).
A lot of these optimization apps do several things:
Turn off wifi and bluetooth when not needed
Close tasks when they are unused
lower screen brightness
turn off 3g and use 2g if available and not in a call
Now this may be excellent for your phone, it spends most of its time in your pocket, soon as you unlock it it can connect to wifi again, turn on bluetooth, etc.
HOWEVER!
If you have, say, the weather widget, or a clock, or in my case battery monitor pro, and the task killer is killing those tasks those widgets will no longer update.
Some tasks, like Maps, tend to start up automatically, meaning your wasting MORE battery life closing this app and then it restarts and you have to close it again. It takes less battery life having it run in the background.
Sometimes an app will close (like the browser) that your not fully done using. Theres a difference between the app being frozen in memory and fully closed. Both do not require much power, however when you open that process again the frozen one takes a LOT less battery than the unfrozen one.
On a tablet, having a case that has a magnet in the apropriate spot and, say, tasker (very good app for custimizing your own triggers to turn things on and off) to detect that sensor and shut off wifi, gps, bluetooth, etc. would be very cool. Many apps use the proximity sensor to detect if its in a pocket and shut off everything, or the lockscreen. Because the way a tablet is used many of these battery saver apps will actually use more battery than what would be used in the first place.
You also have to remember that as android advances there are more tweaks for battery life put into them. For instance, you can have ICS close tasks that are not being used right away to save memory and its pretty good about freezing things in background memory.
Older versions of android lacked these features, or they were poorly implimented. I remember on my vibrant i was always going back to make sure all my tasks were closed properly when i was done with them. With newer devices its not an issue android takes care of that for me.
TLDR: Try as many battery saver apps as you like, just be warey as to what devices they are designed for and what version of android they were made for. Doesnt mean they wont work, just means they may do something thats useless for using on a tablet.
1) Shut it down or not?
Never. We got the companion core for a reason.
2) Services: my battery and OS responsiveness
No, everything is shown except core processes. You can get systempanel if you want to see.
3) Closing apps: should I care about it or not?
Don't unless you somehow got froyo or eclair onto your tablet.
4) Launcher: Is ICS launcher the best for tablets?
Depends on your tastes. I would suggest trying all of them.
5) Tablet-optimized apps???
What the other people said.
1) Mine is always on. I shut down when I expect it to be idle for a long time or when I want maximum battery conservation while idle. Pressing the power button is as close as you get to hibernate, officially with Android. I'm interested to know if any of the usual Linux power management stuff applies to these systems or if it's tied to ACPI (A PC thing), and if there would be a way to wake the system. It's certainly not supported by ASUS .
2) Google how Android services work and about the application life cycle. For the most part things like Facebook don't do all that much harm, unless it is dealing with a lot of data. If you do not want it to run and the application lacks a setting for turning the service off, uninstall the app. A startup manager may or may not be able to help but be warned: auto task killers are generally bad, you would actually want to manage the startup services not auto kill them!
3) No. Android will take care of this OK. Closing apps generally refers to the "Activity" not the service. Android has taken decent care of that since at least version 2.2 and this tablet runs 4.0.3 . Swipping stuff out of the multi-task menu is most useful for keeping it tidy, it will not generally improve your life in most cases. For a good explanation you should look for a post Dianne Hackborn reshared on G+, I believe Android Police even carried it.
4) Depends on what is best for you. It's great except for the lack of customization. Nova Launcher offers a bit more. ICS's launcher versus e.g. GB's is almost what could be called a basic custom launcher, i.e. all the important stuff is there but you can't tweak the hell out of it. For more serious work try ADW Launcher Ex (scrolling widgets currently broken) or Go (not quite fully tablet optimized yet but works). I use ADW Launcher Ex, and there is a free version with less features.
5) Tablified Market and XDA usually helps I guess. I rarely have problems except with rarely updated stuff.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
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.
Hey guys,
I had an idea - since I'm really not "using" my Android S3 phone all day long, it gets frustrating when the bettery runs at 30% at 2pm, without any real use.
So the concept would be:
1) either a "ROM" of Android, which would be seriously minimal - like the device is not a smartphone - so only wake up on incoming call or text message
2) or an app, which does the same thing - suspends the phone completely, and wakes it up only on the incoming call or text message
I was just curious - does something like this exist? I don't care about apps, notifications, wifi or sync, I was thinking more along the lines of would it be possible to use your smartphone like a typical "cell phone", and when you need other apps or full features (GPS navigation with maps, or Shazam, or whatever it is you need) - you just "reboot" or do a qucik switch to "full Android" mode, and use those features.
Does any of this makes any sense?
I feel that the battery life should be at least 5 days in that mode, with light usage?
Anyway, I apologize if I got the wrong subsection of the forum, but I was just curious to see if anybody else already though of this, or if they didn't, would it be plausible? I'm a web developer, but I would maybe even try to make something like this in case there's a big need..
It's called deep sleep. Basically, your phone is always in deep sleep when the screen is off, unless there's an active wakelock. Usually, apps request those (or the kernel.) What you can do is to remove (or freeze) apps that request too many wakelocks… You can search around for more detailed info.
In your case, since you only want to use your smartphone as a phone, you could remove all the user apps. You can also remove Google services APKs from /system/app (root required.) To check what apps are requesting wakelocks, you can use Better Battery Stats (read the tutorial inside the app.)
Oh wow, cool! So someone though of this before me. Awesome!
Hey thanks so much for your quick reply, I'll read into the "deep sleep" logic, and I'll take a look at the app right away..
Thanks again man!
Some additional things to help:
Greenify (requires root for most effectiveness) - lets you hibernate apps
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify
There's also the Donate package that will let you hibernate system apps.
That combined with something like this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2743316
or
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dianxinos.dxbs
Might help without having to do a bunch of crazy stuff.
This is the best written tips on battery saving I've ever found.☺
Battery Saving Tips
1. Keeping mobile data (i.e., 4G or 3G) or wifi on all of the time uses battery. Ask yourself if you really need to be notified in real time about every new email, Facebook post, or tweet. If it isn't that important, then keep mobile data and wifi off until you really need it. Although most devices make it easy to toggle wifi off and on, it's a little more inconvenient to toggle mobile data with the stock controls. I like Power Toggles, which is very customizable and easy to use; another popular choice is Widgetsoid.
2. The biggest power drain is usually from the screen. The longer it's on and the brighter it is, the faster your battery drains. Adjust your screen timeout so that it turns off after 30-60 seconds of idle. Turn the brightness down to 50% or less, which is usually more than enough for indoor lighting. Automatic brightness may or may not help save battery--some think that constant sensing and screen adjustment may actually contribute to battery use.
3. Many apps (e.g., Facebook) by default will try to refresh their data on the web at certain intervals. In order to do so, they have to partially wake the device up from sleep, then try to access the web, and then refresh data, all of which uses battery. If you don't need realtime updates, you can typically change to manual refresh in the app's Settings, which prevents the app from waking up the device. For Facebook, all you need to do when you open the app is just swipe down, and your newsfeed will manually refresh to what's current.
4. Google Currents is notorious for being a memory and battery hog. Many people have reported that battery life improved significantly after changing its refresh setting to manual and/or disabling Google Currents completely. (Update 7/2014: Google Currents has since been replaced by Google Play Newsstand, which manages memory much more efficiently, without the same battery drain.)
5. Along the same lines, consider turning off the device's Background Sync. You can find the switch to turn it on or off under Settings/Accounts/Google, but it's easier to use the stock Power Control toggle or the better Power Toggles or Widgetsoid apps. Turning off Background Sync means the device is spending less time and energy syncing your Google account. If Background Sync is off, you can always manually refresh any of the Google apps within their respective menus.
6. Some apps partially wake a device up from sleep (called a "wake lock") numerous times a day to do things like trying to check the web for data updates as well as reporting location data. Install an app to detect wake locks like Wake Lock Detector. Let it run for the better part of a day, then open it and find out what apps are responsible for the most wake locks. (Update 7/2014: KitKat no longer allows apps like this to report wakelocks unless your rooted.)
7. #6 is how I discovered that Google Maps was burning up a fair amount of battery due to its Location Reporting (previously for Latitude, now used for Google+). If Location Reporting is turned on, then Maps causes very frequent wake locks to check location and report it. I don't think Latitude was that popular--I certainly didn't use it, because I don't really want other people to know exactly where I am, so I turn off Location Reporting by opening Maps, tapping Settings/Google Location Settings, and turning off Location Reporting. Note that this does not affect the ability of your apps to use your location to refine searches, for example.
8. Widgets are definitely a cool feature that makes Android unique, but some of them also contribute to battery drain--specifically the ones that need to access the web to update their information (think weather widgets). Review your widget use and remove the ones you really don't use.
continue.....
9. Live wallpapers, another feature that distinguishes Android, can also use up power like crazy--typically the ones that are very graphics/animation intensive, or the ones that also access the web for information like weather. Use static wallpapers instead, but if they're too boring, here's a list of some of my favorite live wallpapers that use minimal battery:
ARTware ATOMium
Blox
Digital Hive
Fading Lines
Light Grid
Mystic Halo
Retro Contours
SwampWater
10. Vibrate uses a lot of power. Do you really need your phone to ring and vibrate at the same time? Do you really need the haptic feedback when you're typing (especially if you're using Swype-style gesture typing)? Turn off vibrate.
11. GPS is another big power-sucker. For most location-based apps, using Google Location Services (based on the wifi hotspot's MAC address or by triangulating your nearest cell towers) is enough, since it generally locates you accurately within about 100 meters. Use GPS only if you need a more precise location, like if you're driving and using Navigation. Otherwise, turn off GPS by changing the setting to "Battery Saving."
12. You never know what kinds of processes the bloatware on your device might be responsible for, but they might be contributing to battery use as well. Go to Settings/Apps/All Apps, go through the list, and disable any bloatware apps that you don't need. Be cautious that you don't disable an important system app--if you aren't sure, just post a question in one of the AC Forums, and someone is bound to know.
13. Understand how Android utilizes RAM, and resist the urge to use task killers. To understand how things work, read this article by the esteemed Jerry Hildenbrand here, as well as this guide by Ambassador extraordinaire Golfdriver97. Apps that you kill manually will often restart on their own, which in itself takes a little bit of CPU and battery power--so if it's happening hundreds of times a day, it can become significant. The main reason to use a task killer is if there is some runaway process that you know is bogging the system down and won't shut down on its own. It might still restart on its own--if the cycle keeps happening, it's probably a problem with the app, which should be uninstalled or disabled.
14. Poor cell reception kills battery, because the radio is working overtime to try to establish the connection. If you know you're going to be in an area of poor reception for a while, consider turning on Airplane Mode to temporarily shut off your cell radio. You can get some idea of how much time you're spending in an area of poor signal by going to Settings/Battery, tapping Cell Standby (if it's there), and seeing if it says how much time without signal there was.
15. If none of the above tips are helping, then try wiping the cache partition, which is the portion of memory where Android stores a lot of temporary data. It's a little different from clearing the cache of individual apps, because the cache partition also stores a lot of temporary data used by the system. You need to access your device's recovery menu in order to wipe the cache partition, and this process varies with the device, so the best way to learn how to do it is to do a web search
Hit thanks button for use full information. ...
Best ever collection of tips. nd thanks for this tips....
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.
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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.
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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?
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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.