Help Froyo battery life issues

[apocalypse_later]

Any idea on what is causing this. I've uninstalled most of my apps, disabled gtalk auto-sign in, disabled all syncing, updated the facebook app (which I dont use), and have been keeping the radios off and I still have much less life than with 2.1.

I ran unrevoked when I had 2.1. Did this break something? Is there another culprit? I went from being able to charge once a day to being forced to charge twice a day now.

 

[asaberan]

There are lots of suggestions on this in other threads (you may want to look at those) but one thing I didn't see you mention is if you have a task killer installed. I had System Panel Lite and my battery life improved when I removed it. I still get less battery life with 2.2 than with 2.1, but I have a 100% awake time issue that I can't get straightened out.

You may want to try a hard reset or follow the "How to Fix Froyo" thread suggestions.

 

[Slick1020]

Any idea on what is causing this. I've uninstalled most of my apps, disabled gtalk auto-sign in, disabled all syncing, updated the facebook app (which I dont use), and have been keeping the radios off and I still have much less life than with 2.1.

I ran unrevoked when I had 2.1. Did this break something? Is there another culprit? I went from being able to charge once a day to being forced to charge twice a day now.

Did you follow my tweaks thread in the sticky? I'm talking about every step. I don't know if you are talking about idle time drainage or usage drainage. However the phone drains through usage is upon you. I think people confuse the two: idle drainage and usage drainage.

 

[apocalypse_later]

Usage is roughly the same. The real issue is that I can feel it randomly get hot in my pocket for no reason and also in the morning when I unplug it from the charger the screen is on, which makes me think its not sleeping properly.

At this point the only thing I havent done is a factory reset. I'll probably do it when I'm annoyed enough.

 

[XOS THW]

Update your profile in settings. Its was an amazing fix for me.

 

[EarlyMon]

aLogcat free in the Market might help zero in on an odd condition.

With it you can pause the never-ending log and mail it to yourself as that is sometimes easier for reading.

It may help you find a rogue or babbling process.

No guarantees, but it's often effective, as is the How to fix Froyo advice.

 

[bananna]

Hi I am too having the issue where my battery is all of a sudden draining very quickly and the phone is becoming very hot. This just started happening three days ago but I updated to Froyo two weeks ago. Even after updating to Froyo I was able to get two days of use out of my phone. I have double checked to make sure that wifi, GPS and bluetooth are turned off I have done a hard reboot. I check to see if anything is running in the background that I didn't want running (its not) and phone is still having the battery issues. Yesterday I took my phone off the charger with a full charge made one 2 minute phone call and then 2 hours later when I used it to check the time the battery was almost gone and the phone was quite hot. The only thing that I did that was out of the ordinary for me was three days ago I used the google navigator to get to a new location but I have since triple checked to make sure it was turned off. I was considering going into Sprint to see if they know anything but I didn't want to seem like an idiot. Is there something I am missing or doing wrong? I have had the phone since early June and this is first problem I have had with it. Help!

 

[apocalypse_later]

Update: On top of all the things I've done from the various threads I did the following since posting:

1. Updated profile as suggested above as well as PRL
2. Removed all apps that I installed, save a few I consider core apps for me
3. Removed Task Manager & ATK, which I only installed to help troubleshoot this issue, although they may have also contributed to it.
4. Rebooted phone
5. Charged phone to 100%

Since then things are back to normal. I'm guessing some app was causing this and the housecleaning did the trick, but its impossible to know. The phone is properly sleeping now too: no hot pocket phone, awake and use time differ, etc.

 

[apocalypse_later]

Oh, I also shut off the traffic layer on google maps. It looks like that it updates traffic after I "close" the app.

 

[EarlyMon]

Hi I am too having the issue where my battery is all of a sudden draining very quickly and the phone is becoming very hot. This just started happening three days ago but I updated to Froyo two weeks ago. Even after updating to Froyo I was able to get two days of use out of my phone. I have double checked to make sure that wifi, GPS and bluetooth are turned off I have done a hard reboot. I check to see if anything is running in the background that I didn't want running (its not) and phone is still having the battery issues. Yesterday I took my phone off the charger with a full charge made one 2 minute phone call and then 2 hours later when I used it to check the time the battery was almost gone and the phone was quite hot. The only thing that I did that was out of the ordinary for me was three days ago I used the google navigator to get to a new location but I have since triple checked to make sure it was turned off. I was considering going into Sprint to see if they know anything but I didn't want to seem like an idiot. Is there something I am missing or doing wrong? I have had the phone since early June and this is first problem I have had with it. Help!

Welcome to the forum, wish the circumstances were better.

Android runs a number of services and processes not apparent from most user-level tools; it's likely something like one or more of those have gone haywire.

For example, I had a bad app update that resulted in the phone going into an endless 4G search loop with 4G off. The app had nothing to do with any of the phone's radios - it was simply a scrambled update.

In your shoes, I'd try this -
Remove any new apps, if any from the past few days;
if that doesn't help, pull the battery, wait half a minute or so, replace and restart;
if that doesn't work, then see http://androidforums.com/support-troubleshooting-evo-4g/141369-how-fix-froyo.html

See also the two posts above this one.

 

[bananna]

I just want to say thanks to both of you for the quick responding!!!

Did all that you suggested EarlyMon and apocalypse_later, I even went to some of your other threads EarlyMon and downloaded Battery Status Pro. The only thing that I haven't done is the battery calibration that you suggested in your thread about battery life. Do you think this is something I should do under my circumstances? While the battery drain is better it seems the temperature is still fluctuating more than it use to. Throughout the course of the day it has gone between 87.7F to 102.2F in a matter or minutes and sometimes it gets that hot even when I am not using it. Any suggestions? I just don't want my purse catching on fire or my usually awesome phone damaged!!! It's time like these I miss my simple little basic motorolla cell, didn't even have a camera, *sigh* R.I.P. 2004-2010, the old days!!!

Also, maybe this has already been done but it would be nice if there was an app or filter like appbrain that would recognize which version of android a phone is running and prevent or warn you that that app/widget is not compatible or hasn't been updated for that version. Is there something like that out there? A neophyte like me would pay handsomely for that.

 

[EarlyMon]

I don't think the battery calibration could hurt - I can't tell if when they came up with that it was true or could have been fixed with the factory reset. There's a similar debate about letting the battery drain then full charge, drain and then full charge...

The fact that your battery heats up so quickly is a sign that (high probability, I don't have x-ray vision ) the processor has gone into some mode working very, very hard. The processor on these advanced multimedia phones actually runs at _variable_ speed, not a simple 1 GHz - so, if something is going nuts forcing the processor to work very hard, then it all cascades into a quick, high battery drain.

While I'm at it - are you a Facebook user? Many have reported trouble related to that.

PS - I think we'd _all_ pay to have a white-list source of acceptable apps, by phone model, by OS revision - it's not just you!

 

[Slick1020]

I just want to say thanks to both of you for the quick responding!!!

Did all that you suggested EarlyMon and apocalypse_later, I even went to some of your other threads EarlyMon and downloaded Battery Status Pro. The only thing that I haven't done is the battery calibration that you suggested in your thread about battery life. Do you think this is something I should do under my circumstances? While the battery drain is better it seems the temperature is still fluctuating more than it use to. Throughout the course of the day it has gone between 87.7F to 102.2F in a matter or minutes and sometimes it gets that hot even when I am not using it. Any suggestions? I just don't want my purse catching on fire or my usually awesome phone damaged!!! It's time like these I miss my simple little basic motorolla cell, didn't even have a camera, *sigh* R.I.P. 2004-2010, the old days!!!

Also, maybe this has already been done but it would be nice if there was an app or filter like appbrain that would recognize which version of android a phone is running and prevent or warn you that that app/widget is not compatible or hasn't been updated for that version. Is there something like that out there? A neophyte like me would pay handsomely for that.

From my understanding the Market does not post apps not meant for the EVO. I don't use appbrain, but if I were you I would stick to the apps in the market only.

 

[bananna]

From my understanding the Market does not post apps not meant for the EVO. I don't use appbrain, but if I were you I would stick to the apps in the market only.

Then how come you can get apps that cause the problems like making the processor go haywire (see EarlyMon above)? What is the problem with appbrain? Also, in reply to you EarlyMon and your question about Facebook, no I am not.

 

[apocalypse_later]

Just to be safe, everytime I reboot my phone I do a force stop of the facebook app. Turns out sprint has it set to autorun and I dont see how it can be removed. Its really annoying that these built-in non-removable apps are now causing problems and we have no real recourse than hoping for an update in the future that might or might not fix it.


Uninstallable apps is the EVOs biggest fault. I mean, how many twitter clients is on this thing?

 

[Slick1020]

Then how come you can get apps that cause the problems like making the processor go haywire (see EarlyMon above)? What is the problem with appbrain? Also, in reply to you EarlyMon and your question about Facebook, no I am not.

The Markets is a little bit more liberal with what apps they allow in the market. They probably don't have the time to check and ensure updates for apps work as they should. But I'm sure you know the app market for the Droid X, Incredible, and HTC EVO are not the same right?

 

[EarlyMon]

What?

 

[bananna]

The Markets is a little bit more liberal with what apps they allow in the market. They probably don't have the time to check and ensure updates for apps work as they should. But I'm sure you know the app market for the Droid X, Incredible, and HTC EVO are not the same right?

Nope. As previously stated I am a total neophyte. Now knowing there are different markets I still want something that will stop me from putting harmful on my phone. I know that these are mini computers and maybe I am wrong but an app is a lot like a program and there are so many from so many developers and the problems that seem to be arising are quite frustrating. This is not a problem I have on my home computer since there are not thousands of programs being developed by thousands of developers that I need to optimize its capabilities. Thus, like I said I would pay to have an app/widget/website that would address this by trialing the apps and putting out a compatibility filter/report/app that prevented people like me, who know very little and don't want to spend much time dealing with the problem that I have now spent a considerable amount of time dealing with. Technology in my per view should make my life easier and/or richer. These problems detract from that.

On a lighter note EarlyMon, I cycled the battery and whether or not it makes sense it worked! My battery is cool staying withing the 80s and it has been unplugged since 8 am and it is currently at 85% capacity with my usual usage. Thanks so much for your help and patience.

I still have a question though. Both of you at some point in this or other forums eluded to having issues with appbrain. I really enjoy it. What are your issues with appbrain?

 

[Slick1020]

Nope. As previously stated I am a total neophyte. Now knowing there are different markets I still want something that will stop me from putting harmful on my phone. I know that these are mini computers and maybe I am wrong but an app is a lot like a program and there are so many from so many developers and the problems that seem to be arising are quite frustrating. This is not a problem I have on my home computer since there are not thousands of programs being developed by thousands of developers that I need to optimize its capabilities. Thus, like I said I would pay to have an app/widget/website that would address this by trialing the apps and putting out a compatibility filter/report/app that prevented people like me, who know very little and don't want to spend much time dealing with the problem that I have now spent a considerable amount of time dealing with. Technology in my per view should make my life easier and/or richer. These problems detract from that.

On a lighter note EarlyMon, I cycled the battery and whether or not it makes sense it worked! My battery is cool staying withing the 80s and it has been unplugged since 8 am and it is currently at 85% capacity with my usual usage. Thanks so much for your help and patience.

I still have a question though. Both of you at some point in this or other forums eluded to having issues with appbrain. I really enjoy it. What are your issues with appbrain?

That's why the market has a comment section for apps. Before I download an app I read the comments. If the app doesn't have a lot of comments or any at all I do not download the app. I only download apps with 4 1/2 stars or more. But reading the comment sections for the apps help.

Yeah, but even people who write software to run on windows have issues. Like my microsoft flight simulator game would force close or macafee would cause problems on my computer. Android isn't any different than windows except we get force closures from apps. To be honest, some software loaded on windows will force close like the browser or video games.

 

[brushrop03]

Mmm I don't think there are different Market's for each phone

 

[bananna]

Can someone please figure out whether or not there is a designated market for each device? How would they control for that? When a developer goes to submit an app do they check off the phone it works on? Or the version of android it works with? I would say that, that is going to get difficult to control given the proliferation of android phones available on the market. I know that before you download an app that there are sometimes notes saying which versions it works with but clearly that isn't always accurate.

I will agree with slick though, I really do wish there was a way to uninstall some of the preloaded apps like facebook and twitter.

Slick to respond to your comment that you read the comments and only download the ones that are 4. something or higher. I do the same but clearly that is not full proof. Also, I know that all software doesn't work perfectly with computers in theory that they should work on and I don't want to wrangle in an open source market. I just want someone that would be a trusted source like EarlyMon or even you to develop a list of apps for particular devices who has tested apps. App developers could even pay you to test and clear their apps. That way you could get paid on both sides of the app from the developers and users, win win!

I think the thing that is bothering me so much about the battery issues I was having is that it was greatly limiting my ability to have a reliable phone, which is my only phone. This scares me that if I had an emergency that I could have been stuck without a way to get help. I don't have that worry when it comes to my computer. It would stink if it wasn't working well but not potentially life and death.

One last time. Can anyone tell me the pros/cons or issues with appbrain?

Thanks!

 

[EarlyMon]

So far as I know, the Android Market's only sensitivity is to what carrier you're with. (In fact, I'm rather certain of it.)

During my first appbrain use, I had all sorts of hell break loose that hasn't seemed to affect others - including downloading a completely different Bubble app (different dev) than the one I'd had.

Following that, all of my internal processes were scrambled like crazy - including turning wifi on/off faster than once per second and also a constant lookup for WiMAX services, then error-out, then look again - with 4G turned off.

Perhaps I was unfair blaming appbrain - but I went from a working phone to chaos on my first use, so I've avoided it since.

 

[EarlyMon]

The issue with app certification comes from Google's approach to Java in the first place.

Sun had a vision of Java having _perfect_ platform independence and a _theory_ on the right way to do this on mobile devices.

Google had a different vision - and I'm not saying that they were wrong - but it did require Java programmers to re-think a little.

On top of that, the kernels vary by handset / maker - so you'll find that the ARM4/ARM7 processor models are alive and well in the Android Software Developers Kit, the truth is that there are some interesting processor differences in the real world - as well as how makers approach those differences.

And while the essence of the Android kernel is based on the Linux kernel, the Android kernel was a branch off the mainline that cause all sorts of infighting between the two communities - and has only _very recently_ started to be fully reconciled. (This seemed to center around - surprise! - power management.)

Here's a few interesting links, not really required and maybe revealing only in the sense that it might open a door to those interesting in reading / studying further. I've gone back in time because some people find how we got here to be helpful sometimes:

Android vs. iPhone: Why Openness May Not Be Best

Java Droid | Java.net

Initial Thoughts on Oracle vs Google Patent Lawsuit - Miguel de Icaza

How Much Linux Is in Android? - Linux Magazine Online

Google's Android code deleted from Linux kernel - The Register

Garrett's LinuxCon Talk Emphasizes Lessons Learned from Android/Kernel Saga | Linux.com

All of that adds up to great difficulty creating an app whitelist that we _all_ want.

If I can think of a way to solve this problem - I will.

Bottom line for me is that 4 or more stars are nice - _but_ I look first and foremost at EVO user comments and trust those over an aggregate comment score - and - practice your backup / restore processes, because even a good dev can introduce a boo boo that totally frags your phone.

 

[xgb788]

The same thing is happening to me, usage is probably less, phone gets hotter and battery dies a lot faster. Why is this?

 

[EarlyMon]

The same thing is happening to me, usage is probably less, phone gets hotter and battery dies a lot faster. Why is this?

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-support-troubleshooting/156845-froyo-search-sucks.html