The Ultimate Hero Battery Life Thread (Tips & Discussion)

[nick325i]

As far as my tests conclude back = close app. I think the reason the dolphin browser has the hold back to exit feature is because browsing is one of the only applications where if you press back it doesn't exit the program on the first one or two presses if you've been browsing for 15-20 minutes you'd have like 30 pages to go through and that would be annoying. I use dolphin specifically for this feature

 

[TF1984]

As far as my tests conclude back = close app. I think the reason the dolphin browser has the hold back to exit feature is because browsing is one of the only applications where if you press back it doesn't exit the program on the first one or two presses if you've been browsing for 15-20 minutes you'd have like 30 pages to go through and that would be annoying. I use dolphin specifically for this feature

I believe you. somehow I missed that point when I first read your thread.

One question, I tried the back button with Gmail and it didn't close. Are you Holding back or pressing back?

 

[nick325i]

I believe you. somehow I missed that point when I first read your thread.

One question, I tried the back button with Gmail and it didn't close. Are you Holding back or pressing back?

Press the back button as many times as it takes to get back to one of your home screens, if your in a message you'd need to hit it twice.

 

[pkts]

Excellent post Nick. I uninstalled ATK and set weather to not auto update based on GPS/location and have definitely noticed a huge difference today. Phone has been on 10 hours...radio and data on for 5. Had GPS on for 3. Some IMing, market, a phone call, decent use. At 83%. Very happy with that.

Apps I'm running that seem to be no problem - battery wise.

Weather Widgets
Astrid
Dolphin
Listen
3G watchdog
Calendar
Google Talk
PC Sync
Handcent
Locale
Gmail
Battery Widget

 

[acp]

I had no idea about that dolphin browser trick, thank you so freaking much

I was actually using the stock browser again because I like the way it looks in full screen mode, dolphin has a random orange bar at the top, it must be for branding, nonetheless I'm not going back, exit and clear cache is brilliant

 

[acp]

I did an exit-clear cache and according to applications > manage applications dolphin still had cache....weird

 

[pkts]

LOL, well I guess I jinxed myself. I woke up this morning with battery at 85%. I had charged it 7 hours earlier. Radio was off except for 1 and half hours in which the wifi and voice was on but phone wasnt being used (except for a couple of emails coming in). WTF? Yesterday it went for 5 hours with a lot of usage before 85% battery? Don't get it. Then I checked the awake time and its been awake the ENTIRE time I was asleep even though airplane mode was on and the exact same apps were running and I hadn't installed any new apps yesterday and the phone was still up (hadn't powered off and on). I did install two games (mole miner and robo defense) but never opened and ran them yet.

I charged and restarted the phone thinking something was running and had screwed things up. Well, five minutes into powering up I am down to 95% and its been up the entire five minutes even though phone was just sitting there.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[nick325i]

LOL, well I guess I jinxed myself. I woke up this morning with battery at 85%. I had charged it 7 hours earlier. Radio was off except for 1 and half hours in which the wifi and voice was on but phone wasnt being used (except for a couple of emails coming in). WTF? Yesterday it went for 5 hours with a lot of usage before 85% battery? Don't get it. Then I checked the awake time and its been awake the ENTIRE time I was asleep even though airplane mode was on and the exact same apps were running and I hadn't installed any new apps yesterday and the phone was still up (hadn't powered off and on). I did install two games (mole miner and robo defense) but never opened and ran them yet.

I charged and restarted the phone thinking something was running and had screwed things up. Well, five minutes into powering up I am down to 95% and its been up the entire five minutes even though phone was just sitting there.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Something is keeping your phone awake and thus eating the battery. You need to figure out what that might be. Sometimes programs hang on boot. Sometimes they hang after you try and exit.
I use "close everything" 1-3 times per day just make sure my processes are clear.

 

[stinky]

For me the HTC Clock widget with built in weather was a major culprit. Even when I unclicked the auto weather update, it would still update my weather constantly.

Great list. The Wifi toggle is handy, I dont use Bluetooth, and GPS only runs when I run Google Maps or certain apps.

I went through and made most of my widgets not update or only update eevry 2 hours or so. Most of my social networks send notifications to my gmail anyway, so I was getting notified twice every time. For now Gmail is my main source of updates.

 

[howiesf]

So, I still do not get it. Is it more efficient to leave Gmail set to automatically update or , is it better to manually check it, in regards to power consumption? Also, what about my Excchange email? Right now I have that set to manual. Would setting it for every 4-8 hours really degrade my battery that much more? Please HELP !

 

[dmm5157]

So, I still do not get it. Is it more efficient to leave Gmail set to automatically update or , is it better to manually check it, in regards to power consumption? Also, what about my Excchange email? Right now I have that set to manual. Would setting it for every 4-8 hours really degrade my battery that much more? Please HELP !

Follow-up question regarding mail/Gmail:

I had originally set up my Gmail acccount using the Gmail app, but I don't like the functionality as it's not as intuitive to delete, forward e-mails, etc. I decided to set up Gmail on the regular MAIL app and then turned off the Gmail "auto retrieve" and notification settings. Just noticed today that the Google sync setting for "MAIL" was still set to AUTOMATIC. I just turned it off and am testing if that helps my battery.


Here comes the question: What is better, from a battery perspective: Using the Gmail app or the Mail app? Is there a consensus on this?

 

[dmm5157]

Follow-up question regarding mail/Gmail:

I had originally set up my Gmail acccount using the Gmail app, but I don't like the functionality as it's not as intuitive to delete, forward e-mails, etc. I decided to set up Gmail on the regular MAIL app and then turned off the Gmail "auto retrieve" and notification settings. Just noticed today that the Google sync setting for "MAIL" was still set to AUTOMATIC. I just turned it off and am testing if that helps my battery.


Here comes the question: What is better, from a battery perspective: Using the Gmail app or the Mail app? Is there a consensus on this?

Well, switched over to the stock Gmail app rather than the Mail app and after having my phone on for the past 3 hours texting and downloading a couple apps, my phone is stil at 90% charge! And it stayed at 100% charge for more than a few minutes. Usually once I pull it off the charger and then take my shower the phone is already down to 97% in just those 10 minutes. Now, it seems, the phone stayed at 100% for those first 10 minutes. I've never seen it do that!

I've also never seen 90% charge after 3 hours, even if I do NOTHING with my phone.


Huge improvement over something seemingly small. I can get used to the Gmail app. I kept my e-mail configured on the regular MAIL app, but just changed the sync setting to MANUALfor when I need it.

 

[beldorian]

Close Everything is a program freely downloadable from the market.

ACP - As far as the facebook setting, it is inside the official facebook for android app.

Sorry for the question, but I have been looking and cannot seem to figue out how to access the "official facebook for android app" If I go into Settings > Social Networks > Menu > Account Settings > Facebook - the only options there are Update notifications automaticall every: x hours and Download notifications when roaming.

If I go to the Facebook Bookmark which came as a default bookmark installed on the HTC Hero and then go to Menu, it pulls up the browser menu with nothing that I can see specific to Facebook, like the "shake to update" that you mention

If I click to open the Facebook app, which I downloaded from the app store (it was at the top of the list based on popularity), it brings up a homescreen which shows News Feed, Friends, Photos, Take Photo, Profile & Notifications - If I go to Menu > Settings from this screen, I can set a Refresh interval based on time, but still do not see any setting to update on a shake. Finally, if I click on Notifications and then Menu, all I get is a refresh option. If I click on Profile and then Menu, I see the same thing.

Would really appreciate a little more detail on how to access this option as it sounds useful to me.

Best regards, and thanks for the great tips!

 

[nick325i]

So, I still do not get it. Is it more efficient to leave Gmail set to automatically update or , is it better to manually check it, in regards to power consumption? Also, what about my Excchange email? Right now I have that set to manual. Would setting it for every 4-8 hours really degrade my battery that much more? Please HELP !

Manual VS Automatic checking is always better for battery when you manually check. Having it at 4 - 8 hours would be pretty good on your battery though.

 

[howiesf]

Manual VS Automatic checking is always better for battery when you manually check. Having it at 4 - 8 hours would be pretty good on your battery though.

Well, this is where I am getting confused. Right now I have Auto-Sync disabled but have background data turned on so I can use the Market and other things. I have read conflicting reports about leaving Auto-Sync on and checking manually. Even checking manually and using my phone for about 20-40 minutes, checking email about 5 times/day and soem web browsing, my battery is almost dead around 9 PM. I still want to know why a "few" people report that they have everything turned On and get over 1 days use out of a single charge. I am on my 3rd Hero and while this one is definitly better than the first two, I still don't understand why my battery life seems to be decent one day and then sucks the next day, with the same usage, etc.

 

[SuperSamson]

Yes please, step by step on how to access the shake setting on the facebook app.

 

[nick325i]

Yes please, step by step on how to access the shake setting on the facebook app.

Open facebook for android. Hit menu > Home > menu > Home > Menu > Settings > aww crap I think they took it out in the lastest version..

Refresh interval is still in this spot though.

 

[acp]

Using some of your tips I am getting 12-16 hours with moderate usage. I really never thought that was possible and I can't thank you enough

 

[FearTheElf]

This is a great thread, lots of good tips. I have had my phone about a week, and have yet to make it more than about 8 hours before getting the "plug it in now, ya moron" warning. I'm sure the first few days were because I was using the phone so much, trying out new apps and widgets, etc. Since then, I have adjusted my phone even more based on these recommendations (I was already doing a few of these things).

Today is my first day running with these tweaks, and so far I am very disapointed with the results. I took it off the charger this morning with a full charge. All I did was read an email, check a website and check a score on the Scoreboard app. I then closed those items and put the phone down. Within twenty minutes my battery was at 93%, within an hour it was at 89%! I close the apps I don't use with a task killer, and I am running the following widgets:

• Scoreboard app
• HTC People
• HTC Stocks
• Search (Android)
• Weather (by Android)

I'm guessing the Scoreboard app is a hog, but I really like the functionality. It will be very disappointing if to get through the day I have to turn off widgets, which is one of the great customizable benefits of this phone over the iPhone...

Any tips?

 

[TF1984]

This is a great thread, lots of good tips. I have had my phone about a week, and have yet to make it more than about 8 hours before getting the "plug it in now, ya moron" warning. I'm sure the first few days were because I was using the phone so much, trying out new apps and widgets, etc. Since then, I have adjusted my phone even more based on these recommendations (I was already doing a few of these things).

Today is my first day running with these tweaks, and so far I am very disapointed with the results. I took it off the charger this morning with a full charge. All I did was read an email, check a website and check a score on the Scoreboard app. I then closed those items and put the phone down. Within twenty minutes my battery was at 93%, within an hour it was at 89%! I close the apps I don't use with a task killer, and I am running the following widgets:

• Scoreboard app
• HTC People
• HTC Stocks
• Search (Android)
• Weather (by Android)

I'm guessing the Scoreboard app is a hog, but I really like the functionality. It will be very disappointing if to get through the day I have to turn off widgets, which is one of the great customizable benefits of this phone over the iPhone...

Any tips?

@Fear - There is a possibility one or multiple apps you're running is keeping your phone from "sleeping". In order to diagnose I suggest you do the following:

1. Open market, locate "Spare Parts" & Download
2. Open Spare Parts> Battery Information
3. you'll see two drop downs and a list of apps/services below. The "CPU" drop-down should be changed to "Partial Wake Usage" and the "since last unplugged" can change to whatever.

The top services and apps below are the ones keeping your phone from sleeping (partially). Note that there should be some apps there, but "android" should be on top. If you notice another app you have at the top, then you should delete it and find a replacement.

I am getting a FULL DAY of moderate to heavy usage, without running task killer and with many widgets and added apps. good luck.

 

[FearTheElf]

@Fear - There is a possibility one or multiple apps you're running is keeping your phone from "sleeping". In order to diagnose I suggest you do the following:

1. Open market, locate "Spare Parts" & Download
2. Open Spare Parts> Battery Information
3. you'll see two drop downs and a list of apps/services below. The "CPU" drop-down should be changed to "Partial Wake Usage" and the "since last unplugged" can change to whatever.

The top services and apps below are the ones keeping your phone from sleeping (partially). Note that there should be some apps there, but "android" should be on top. If you notice another app you have at the top, then you should delete it and find a replacement.

I am getting a FULL DAY of moderate to heavy usage, without running task killer and with many widgets and added apps. good luck.

Thanks for the tip... I did that and looking at the "total since last boot" all looks normal (last boot was this morning). But when I looked at it for "total in all time" it shows the Dialer as the far and away the heaviest user: over 50 hours in about a week's time. Perhaps something was hung with the Dialer... I assume that is just the phone itself?

 

[greatcasa]

Hey everyone. I'm new to the Hero/Android platform coming over from a Blackberry 8830 that has served me well over the last 2 years with the exception of the low amount of internal memory and memory leaks that required a battery pull every couple of days (no biggie). I have to say that I love the functionality of the Hero and it's OS, but the battery time on this thing is ridiculous. I've done most of what is described above, and Yesterday with moderate use only got about 8 hours before it needed to be charged again. I've barely installed any applications so far, and just tried getting used to the phone itself. If a phone is made to run all kinds of applications, but you have to go in and turn off/"dumb down" everything, what is the point of having the phone? I had my BB 8830 for 2+ years with apps and GPS on all the time, and still with the same battery was only having to charge every couple of days, with a much smaller battery. I love the functionality of this phone, but what's the point if you have to constantly be monitoring everything that's installed and ensure that every setting is exactly right for optimal battery life and NOT performance, to not even get a half a day of minimal use?

There has to be more going on here, then all of these small things being changed, that are somewhat beneficial for some people and have barely any affect for others (myself included). I also don't like the fact of having to turn GPS on and off. What's the point. My 2+ year old and even older technology BB GPS didn't drain the battery, so why is the latest and greatest in modern phone technology and OS's having such an issue?

Has anyone contacted HTC or even Google support with these issues? Can we expect/hope that future OS updates will alleviate these battery problems? Or are we stuck having to worry more about battery life on a hourly/daily basis, then just having a phone and expecting it to work and not die on us in less than a day. It's nice that there are all these small and somewhat helpful workarounds that people have found, but has anyone pressed the questions as to why we should have to be doing this at all and putting up with it for what we pay for these phones and the service?

Someone please enlighten me, assure me, explain to me, if there is hope of these issues getting fixed with future OS updates, etc and if this phone is worth keeping if they are not. The technology and the functionality is great, but with less than a day

 

[nick325i]

Hey everyone. I'm new to the Hero/Android platform coming over from a Blackberry 8830 that has served me well over the last 2 years with the exception of the low amount of internal memory and memory leaks that required a battery pull every couple of days (no biggie). I have to say that I love the functionality of the Hero and it's OS, but the battery time on this thing is ridiculous. I've done most of what is described above, and Yesterday with moderate use only got about 8 hours before it needed to be charged again. I've barely installed any applications so far, and just tried getting used to the phone itself. If a phone is made to run all kinds of applications, but you have to go in and turn off/"dumb down" everything, what is the point of having the phone? I had my BB 8830 for 2+ years with apps and GPS on all the time, and still with the same battery was only having to charge every couple of days, with a much smaller battery. I love the functionality of this phone, but what's the point if you have to constantly be monitoring everything that's installed and ensure that every setting is exactly right for optimal battery life and NOT performance, to not even get a half a day of minimal use?

There has to be more going on here, then all of these small things being changed, that are somewhat beneficial for some people and have barely any affect for others (myself included). I also don't like the fact of having to turn GPS on and off. What's the point. My 2+ year old and even older technology BB GPS didn't drain the battery, so why is the latest and greatest in modern phone technology and OS's having such an issue?

Has anyone contacted HTC or even Google support with these issues? Can we expect/hope that future OS updates will alleviate these battery problems? Or are we stuck having to worry more about battery life on a hourly/daily basis, then just having a phone and expecting it to work and not die on us in less than a day. It's nice that there are all these small and somewhat helpful workarounds that people have found, but has anyone pressed the questions as to why we should have to be doing this at all and putting up with it for what we pay for these phones and the service?

Someone please enlighten me, assure me, explain to me, if there is hope of these issues getting fixed with future OS updates, etc and if this phone is worth keeping if they are not. The technology and the functionality is great, but with less than a day

 

[greatcasa]

I'm not the only one that's getting that kind of battery life. From what I've been reading, its more people that have battery life issues than do not.

What is the latest build? I have gone to the update firmware section of the fun and run it everyday since I got the phone on Monday. It always says I have the latest build.

 

[nick325i]

I'm not the only one that's getting that kind of battery life. From what I've been reading, its more people that have battery life issues than do not.

What is the latest build? I have gone to the update firmware section of the fun and run it everyday since I got the phone on Monday. It always says I have the latest build.

Your software version should say 1.56.651.2
Menu > Settings > About Phone

Also what is your awake time %?
Menu > Settings > About Phone > Status