Help New battery drain issue on the droid

[darkcyber]

Ok, I have had a Motorola Droid since they released the phone and my battery has been great. I could charge it overnight and take it off the charger around 6:30 am and when I put it back on the charger around 9 - 10 pm at night I would still have anywhere from 50% to higher battery life and this is after very heavy usage.

Beginning a few days ago I noticed that my Droid battery indicator is showing almost completely drained out by 6 pm and I really used my phone lightly yesterday and today. Today and yesterday both, the red LED was blinking and the battery indicator was showing almost completely dead by 6 pm. I pulled up the battery usage on the phone and it is showing the 'browser' as the biggest battery hog for some reason. Today it was showing 81% of the battery usage was from the browser. I hardly, if at all, used the browser today. I also checked the firmware version and it is showing 2.0.1, which I never updated it myself.

Are there any suggestions about why the browser would be draining the battery down so bad, when the browser has not even been used? Is there a way to close out the browser so it doesn't continue sucking the battery dry, besides using an app killer program?

I did search the forum and did not see a specific question/answer to my question. I know I had read that some people were seeing battery issues after upgrading to 2.0.1, but I did not upgrade my phone, it must have done it.

 

[Svejk]

I had the same issue and found the GPS was continually turning on because the browser was trying to find my GPS location. But I was inside a building where GPS does not function well. I solved this as follows:

- Open the browser and go to google.com and make sure you are in 'mobile' mode (near the bottom of the page it shows 'View Google in: Mobile|Classic')

- Click on 'Settings', which is located near the bottom of the page.

- Set 'Allow use of device location' to 'no', and click 'Save'

This solved the problem for me. But you could also turn off the GPS while in a location where GPS signals are blocked.

 

[cacophony]

Odd. I had similar problems yesterday was well.

Normally, I've been getting 2-3 days on one charge.

Yesterday, I looked at my phone (hardly used that day), and the battery indicator was showing 20%.

Battery usage showed "Cell standby" as higher (2nd only to standby) than I've noticed it in the past. Still not sure what that means.

Charged it, and unplugged that night. Woke up and 8 hours later, it was at 80%, which is unusual for my phone.

Anyway, I looked at wireless settings and noticed that Wifi was ON. That's strange, because I never use Wifi, and I know I didn't turn it on.

Turned Wifi off and charged again. Now, I'm at 15 hours unplugged and 90%.

 

[ladybadger2007]

I'm noticing the fast drain today. Usually right now I have more then 40 percent but it is almost in the red????????

 

[Geezer Squid]

There is a thread on another board right now about Dolphin draining batteries just recently. Are you using dolphin? If you are or not, you might want to set home page as blank and then navigate back to that when you're thorough browsing. Just a thought.

I use xScope mostly and have not experienced that kind of battery usage. I just checked and I'm at 5% browser usage for the day and I've browsed a lot today.

 

[cacophony]

My phone just did it again.

90% when I went to bed.

Woke up, and battery was at 5%.

This time Wifi wasn't on either.

No apps running except for the keyboard.

Plugged it in, and it immediately said 60% battery.

Maybe it's a software bug?

You know, today is my last day to return, and I was already thinking about waiting on the N1. This phone is giving me good reason now.

 

[Trapper31]

If you are using the default browser, try opening the Windows list under the menu options, and make sure you don't have a bunch of unneeded web sites open. If at some point you were getting directions, or maybe checking sports scores, and these windows were left opened, the browser might be constantly updating and draining your battery.

A while back I noticed I had about 10 browser windows opened and didn't need any of them, so from then on I always navigate back to Google and make sure it is the only window open before exiting the browser.

 

[teschoen]

Let the battery drain all the way, then charge it all the way. I've been told that in Li batteries this will 're calibrate' and then the battery meter will be more accurate.

Either that, or you have a cell in the battery going bad.

 

[sftl97]

I had a similar experience yesterday. Very little usage all day and in the early evening i noticed the red indicator was on. Checked and it showed 5%, i plugged in the charger and it immediately went to 60%. Went to a full charge in about an hour, left phone on all night and this morning it's showing 90%.
I have had my phone for about 7 weeks, and this is the first time this has happened.

 

[discohornet]

i had a motorola razr and they were famous for battery issues. Sometimes it took a pretty elaborate reset to get the phone to see the battery for what it really was charged at.

 

[Geezer Squid]

My phone just did it again.

90% when I went to bed.

Woke up, and battery was at 5%.

This time Wifi wasn't on either.

No apps running except for the keyboard.

Plugged it in, and it immediately said 60% battery.

Maybe it's a software bug?

You know, today is my last day to return, and I was already thinking about waiting on the N1. This phone is giving me good reason now.

My phone did this one time since I got it the middle of November. I did a battery pull and it got well immediately. It's never occurred again.

 

[Soultics]

I've had a similar issue twice now. One time I was just sitting here, then I saw the Red LED blink, I'd been home most of the day and there would be no reason for it to randomly die, but it did. Put it on the charger and it said 90% or whatever...so I pulled and never had an issue until the other night.

I was playing with my phone before bed, it was at about 70% and I was going to be around the house the next day so I didn't bother charging it, I woke up at some point and saw I had some email notifications, went back to sleep, woke up again and it was dead....

 

[remoteshoppe]

I have had the same issue for the past 3 nights. I will try shutting the GPS off to see if that helps but it seems odd that this problem just popped up over the past few days for several people. I am in Long Island, NY and was wondering if maybe there is a Verizon network issue over the past couple of days.

 

[jpetersen5]

My battery is never good Monday-Friday and I really looked to see why, just figured that I didn't use it as much when I was out and about on the weekend....but yesterday I looked into my battery usage information and Cell Standby was one of the highest things. When I clicked into it it showed that it had been on for 8+ hours and had 49% without a signal. My phone gets terrible reception inside my office. Never a 3G signal and sometimes even the 1X signal is weak....Anything that I can do to make it stop searching for a signal the whole time I am in my office as that appears to be what's killing my battery.

 

[nycebo]

Guys, battery consumption issues have been noted on the Nexus One also. It has much more to do with signal strength AND whether or not you've left Wifi/GPS on than anything else. Of course, if you have them off and they are turning on, you may have installed a program that is commandeering your phone.

 

[nycebo]

My phone gets terrible reception inside my office. Never a 3G signal and sometimes even the 1X signal is weak....Anything that I can do to make it stop searching for a signal the whole time I am in my office as that appears to be what's killing my battery.

That would be the secret. Mind you, you could always put it in airplane mode by holding down the power button.

 

[KeithG]

That would be the secret. Mind you, you could always put it in airplane mode by holding down the power button.

and then you can selectively enable wifi and still browse and chat & stuff

 

[JackT]

I think some of us are experiencing not a real battery drain, just the battery reporting incorrectly. Last night mine went red and said I had 5% left, I plugged it in to charge and it instantly jumped to 60%. I unplugged it was fine the rest of the night until I plugged it in again and today so far it has been fine.

 

[sooper_droid12]

Sounds like your batteries need a re-calibration. The only problem is you need to figure out where the battery is in its charge (like < 20%). Then run a deep charge cycle back up to 100% so that the chip in the battery knows it's 100% again.

 

[nycebo]

Ah, so Sooper, you'd recommended running it down to less than 20%? Would letting it complete run out of power and then recharging from there be worthwhile or is that harmful?

 

[teschoen]

I've heard to let it go all the way out... but not to do that too much. One Li battery maker suggested ever 6 weeks or so.

 

[gentlefury]

sounds like dolphin to me, I uninstalled it, I could literally watch my battery drain as I loaded sites!! I started using the stock browser...and while a little slower I can use it for hours and barely touch my battery.

 

[neemo6]

I have dolphin never notice any issues w/ battery, my biggest hog by far is voice calls.

 

[rothenbj]

sounds like dolphin to me, I uninstalled it, I could literally watch my battery drain as I loaded sites!! I started using the stock browser...and while a little slower I can use it for hours and barely touch my battery.

I use dolphin almost exclusively and use it quite a bit. I've not experienced any issues with battery drain. I'm up to date on all updates on the app also. It could be dolphin and some other app not playing well, but I haven't seen it.

 

[snoopyslove]

All:
I'm seeing the same drain as all of you I got my Droid the first week it was out and the battery was GREAT. The last 2 weeks it started going way down and now the last 4 days it won't go a 1/4 of the day without the battery going from 100% to red blinking light this is with NO usage. I don't know what to do! When I do use it the phone freezes most of the apps especially gmail. I am SO FRUSTRATED with my phone! What do I do???