Application Manager

[douglashh]

I am new to Android, just bought a Huawei Prism with Android 2.3.6.

I'm on a prepaid plan & can only talk and message.

The battery life is terrible and I have wifi, gps & bluetooth turned off.

Is there an android app I can download that will turn off, or permanently disable, all the apps that I do not want running when I power on rather than have to turn each one off manually.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Crashdamage]

Turn off mobile data and all sync functions. Let Android handle running processes for you. It does an excellent job without help from additional apps or user input.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

 

[T.M.M.L]

Greetings douglashh,

Welcome to the forums.

Android works differently than say windows. Apps are opened in Android and put into memory for faster access. The system will automatically kill a app if it needs the memory.

By manually killing apps, you are actually worsening your battery life instead of helping it. When you kill a app, it will either restart, or another app will open in its place. This constant tug-of-war will wear your battery down faster.

By turning off the auto synch and doing it manually, you can prevent your phone from constantly searching for any new messages.

Hope this helps.

 

[BroncoDroid]

Make sure that auto sync is off and if you need more life than that you can try manually setting screen brightness.

 

[douglashh]

Thanks for the suggestions. I should have said that I already have data and sync turned off as well as wifi, gps & bluetooth.

One of the reasons I bought this phone was for the long battery life, 16+ days shown on the T-mobile website site.

I was recently in Canada and the battery was dead every morning even though I made no calls and sent only 1 text message.

When I go to System/Applications it show a number of apps running such as Gmail etc. Don't those apps running take battery power?

 

[Crashdamage]

Just because something is listed as running doesn't necessarily mean it's using any power. Go to Settings > Battery to see what is actually using power.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

 

[douglashh]

Apologies for being so dumb. When I check the battery it shows 2 items running:

Cell Phone Standby 50% - battery used by cell radio
Phone Idle 50% - battery used when phone is idle

 

[Crashdamage]

That's not good. Power usage for standby and idle should be very low, like 5% or less each. Probably should contact your service provider.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

 

[Deleted User]

That's not good. Power usage for standby and idle should be very low, like 5% or less each. Probably should contact your service provider.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

Likely.

That being said OP, I'm compelled to ask: how strong is the cellular signal where you are using the handset? Is it struggling to maintain a signal, or are you at/near full bars?

 

[jefboyardee]

I suggest something like Connection Manager:

This is just a simple widget to disable your mobile internet connection.

That and keeping my screen at 25% gets me to last all day.

 

[douglashh]

Can you give me a little more info as to what might be causing this so I can talk intelligently with someone at T-Mobile and not be snowed because they don't want to deal with it?

 

[douglashh]

At home I'm usually getting 3 to 4 bars, don't recall what I was getting in Canada when my battery was drained overnight.

 

[lynnwilliam]

Autorun Manager app.

 

[alicemenezes]

Firstly, you turn off auto sync. And then every app has an option for "turn on on start- up" or something like that. You just uncheck it. Look at Battery usage and see whats taking it up so you can selectively turn off the apps.

 

[Deleted User]

Firstly, you turn off auto sync.

I believe the OP already did that, and only found the the phone idling to show up on what causes battery drain

 

[Deleted User]

At home I'm usually getting 3 to 4 bars, don't recall what I was getting in Canada when my battery was drained overnight.

Wait, so the battery died quickly in Canada? Is that happening at home as well? Either way, I think showing a rep the screen that indicated what the battery was used by will be your best case, provided that it stays the same and you don't fill it with apps that'll "spread the blame".

 

[chanchan05]

One of the reasons I bought this phone was for the long battery life, 16+ days shown on the T-mobile website site.

I don't know where T-Mobile gets their data, but not even the Razr Maxx with the biggest battery any Android phone has can last for 16days standby. It won't even last a week.

 

[Hadron]

It's not uncommon for manufacturers to quote a maximum standby time that's quite unachievable in reality: they presumably test (or calculate) the lifetime with screen off, data off, immobile in a maximum signal strength area, no interactions with anything except minimal network handshakes. But that's got nothing at all to do with the lifetime when actually used.

To illustrate, the "official" figure for my old HTC Desire is "up to 340/360 hours", i.e. 14-15 days. When the battery was new, and running a more efficient ROM than the HTC one, I think that was theoretically possible, based on overnight consumption when the phone was in deep sleep (2% drop over 8 hours was achieved). But 3-4 hours of use with the screen on will run it flat, so in reality most owners charged them daily. So there's nothing unusual about a huge gap between theoretical standby figures and real use.

A phone going flat overnight isn't right though, unless in fringe coverage. Dropping and reconnecting to the network constantly will however run a phone down really quickly, as will constant switching between 2G and 3G.

 

[Crashdamage]

Can you give me a little more info as to what might be causing this so I can talk intelligently with someone at T-Mobile and not be snowed because they don't want to deal with it?

Give them the standby and idle power consumption figures. The phone seems to be endlessly searching for a good signal to lock onto.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

 

[douglashh]

I took my phone into a nearby T-Mobile store and they couldn't find anything wrong with the phone but said the battery was 'not bad but not good either', not exactly sure what the hell that means but they gave me a new battery so I brought it home and gave it a full charge. Will see how that works. Will report back either way. Thanks for the great info Crashdamage, I sincerely appreciate it.

 

[douglashh]

Tried the new battery the t-mobile store gave me and was no better than the original. I bought a new higher powered batter, 1850mAh vs original 1400mAH, and for the first charge it lasted 9 days on standby with some occasional intermittent use. That is a big improvement in total battery life. Got less than 6 days previously.

Not sure about how it will work in Canada where I had 24 hour battery life but am hopeful that will be resolved too.