Massively saving battery life now

[CaptainTwinkie]

So I was getting sick of my battery getting constantly drained on me, and before the the fixes that I found that really saved my battery life was either during off 3G or installing Juicedefender, which helped, but it was still draining a ton.

Well what I did was I checked when facebook updated my contacts to once a day instead of the default. Which I believe the default setting was Every hour, because honestly I don't need it to check every hour for a profile picture change or a few things that I normally check on my own with the facebook app.

The way you do that is

Menu->Settings->Accounts and Sync->Facebook for HTC Sense->Account Settings->Change it to Once a day.

Also I recently found out that you can use your gmail account to have it check a work e-mail or another e-mail, by using pop e-mail, so I didn't have to leave my phone set to check my work e-mail every 15 minutes and drain battery life that way, and that works really well too so your just using your gmail account for e-mail, plus your gmail account pushes to your phone every time a new e-mail comes, which it can do for a work e-mail or your gmail e-mail.

The way you set that up is,

Login to your gmail->Settings->Accounts and Imports->Under Check mail using POP3->Click add POP3 account->Then start adding your work e-mail in there

You can also select Send mail as and add your work e-mail in there, so you can just use your gmail account to send e-mail, I would prefer to use IMAP, but since I am usually in front of a computer, cleaning up my e-mail isn't too much of a job to do.

But this is a great way to use less data and to save a TON on your battery, by the time I was done with work today, I was at 80% battery, when I am normally around 40% to 50%, and after a few short phone calls and showing my mom about 100+ phones from the 3D photo gallery I am still at around 60% on my battery.

 

[fussgeist]

sounds good, but hard to believe that changing the facbook sync from default 2 hour to 1 a day saves that much. I'm giving it a try though.
Changing the screen brightness to Auto or 1/3 seems to have helped the most for me.

 

[bjf88]

Bumping this, thank you! I was doing a little auditing of my battery usage and Android System (which includes syncing and like 20 other things) was at 93%... which is way up then it was at first. I'm restarting and will see if it makes a difference.

Oh, and I do have the 50% time without signal bug, but don't see if having much affect on the battery. Cell standby time is at like 3%.

 

[Frisco]

Changing the screen brightness to Auto or 1/3 seems to have helped the most for me.

Fwiw, I tested many settings in 1.5, and am beginning to in 2.1, as to their impact on battery life during the day's usage.

Screen brightness set at the highest point and dimming set to "never" had no noticeable effects at all; I was surprised.

My theory is that the other battery saving methods I use, such as leaving GPS off unless I know I will be needing it, etc, "put back" what the screen brightness settings might take away from the battery.

One other point about battery life; the meter itself seems to need a lot of time to synchronize accurately with the battery itself. Over weeks the device will appear to get better and better battery life; it of course does get better life with savings measures taken, but it is the charging cycles themselves which cause meter accuracy to settle in over time.

 

[bjanow]

sounds good, but hard to believe that changing the facbook sync from default 2 hour to 1 a day saves that much. I'm giving it a try though.
Changing the screen brightness to Auto or 1/3 seems to have helped the most for me.

I recently changed my weather widget to update every hour instead of every 3. Noticeable difference! Couldn't believe it. So don't knock it. Needless to say I'm back to every 3.
I'm not sure if it's been stated here or if it gets any air time, but have you tried charging the battery a second time after it goes green? I charge while on at night, (desktop night clock is my good friend) and then in the morning turn it off after unplugging. Immediately plug it back in and take a look at how much more charge it takes before it goes green again. I get at least an extra 4 hours of battery after doing that. (For the record, I do it a different way, albeit the same effect, but I'll save that for another day)

 

[mdeblaz]

I've been able to optimize my battery life and it's now lasting 1 1/2 days with normal use. I believe that limiting your syncing does indeed save on battery life. I've even turned full animations back on and am seeing my battery last just as long.

 

[bjanow]

I've been able to optimize my battery life and it's now lasting 1 1/2 days with normal use. I believe that limiting your syncing does indeed save on battery life. I've even turned full animations back on and am seeing my battery last just as long.

Agreed, I too have turned everything back on. I always leave 3G and Wifi on now with no ill effect.

 

[jbdan]

Great info glad you put it all together in a concise manner to help those new to Android. Well done!

 

[CaptainTwinkie]

Its now 6:30 PM, had the phone off the charger for 12 hours, at 71% battery, not bad if I do say so myself.

 

[BlazeD OnE]

Does anyone feel they will send out a patch once the OTA process is over with for all the buggys?

 

[jpgoggin]

I have a 1750 battery.
I set facebook sync to once/day
I uninstalled local which was showing to be really hitting my battery.
After a full 24 hours coming off of a full charge my battery was at exactly 50%.

 

[jondude11]

You can also select Send mail as and add your work e-mail in there, so you can just use your gmail account to send e-mail, I would prefer to use IMAP, but since I am usually in front of a computer, cleaning up my e-mail isn't too much of a job to do.

I totally thought for a second you were saying you could now send mail from any account imported to Gmail from your phone's Gmail app. That got me very excited! I still don't understand why you don't have that capability...

 

[CaptainTwinkie]

I totally thought for a second you were saying you could now send mail from any account imported to Gmail from your phone's Gmail app. That got me very excited! I still don't understand why you don't have that capability...

You can, there is a option in gmail under Settings->Accounts and imports->Send mail as->When receiving a message Reply from the same address the message was sent to

 

[debssx3]

I'm finally saving battery myself. My phone's been unplugged for 15 hours and still have 40% left of battery with moderate ussage. Very happy, although it was really crappy the first 2 days after the OTA.