make sure the phones regular messaging app is not running still, despite chompsms being your main one. Disable notifications in the messaging settings should eliminate the chance of it opening up without you wanting it. DL a task killer from the app store if you haven't already and see whats still running in the bg.
First of all, I turned off everything I didnt use all the time like GPS, WIFI, and Bluetooth. I just made shortcuts and added them to my homescreen. I left email and and most other things on, however I also turned off the Always-ON feature. I downloaded Handcent from the market to get around the dialer glitch. So as of now, i recieve emails up to date, all notifications and pretty much everything else. My phone has been on for 20 hours now and it hasnt gone above 5%!! I think thats a major improvement from 98% all the time!
I killed the resident SMS program and installed Chomp...killed GPS, IM, WIFI...made sure to turn off message notifications from resident program and now Im at 14%!!! So..works like a charm....
Indeed, I've gone over 30 hours without a charge, constant texting, app downloading, pandora, and web browsing and even some wifi, just now got below 30%, im extremely pleased with the battery now . Seeing a 21% awake time, but i'm thinking thats just due to my usage, still drastic improvement over my initial battery life.
Well I had some bad up / awake times (99% for both) so my phone was not sleeping at all. I went with Handcent SMS, rebooted phone and had a full charge today at 11am. Lots of texting, talked for at least 40 minutes, 30 minutes of non-wi-fi web surfing, IM'd for a good hour.
New Results:
Up Time: 10:12:20
Awake Time: 1:55:09 (19%)
I also have vizBattery installed and its reporting 60% charge, so IMO this is a million times better battery life than before.
I've installed Handcent and then went into the "Messages" program settings and turned everything off. No notifications, no sounds, nothing. I then rebooted and sent a few SMS messages. When I run Advanced Task Killer later I see that "Messages" is running and able to be killed, why is that? Do I need to disable something else to make it really go away?
Haven't played with it enough yet but folks here seem jazzed about the increase in battery life so I'm getting excited myself! Love the phone....
This post may be a lil long, but read it thru. I may not have the answer, but my questions and concerns may spark a thought from someone else.
I'm no novice, I understand the basics and well beyond on this phone. So this is very frustrating for me.
#1, Not being able to uninstall factory installed apps..."Messages" specifically is just plain dumb. No reason the user shouldnt be able to delete anything they want as long as it doesnt effect the system itself.
#2, from day one I started using Handcent and strongly suggest that to everyone. I checked it off to be my default Messenger. Before I force closed "messages" I unchecked the automatically check, and unchecked notify. Beyond that I have double checked to make sure "messages" app was down, and even did a Force close on it.
#3, this really shouldnt be surprising me. Ive been with sprint 9yrs, its never simple.
Problem is, occasionally for no reason, an incoming text will show up in my notifications ( twice ). once from handcent and once from 'messages'. regardless of which I click on, they both bring me to handcent. My worry here (brings me back to #1) is that "messages" is never really completely off. And this very well may be why the "dialer" fix works, but only for a short amount of time.
Problem is, occasionally for no reason, an incoming text will show up in my notifications ( twice ). once from handcent and once from 'messages'. regardless of which I click on, they both bring me to handcent. My worry here (brings me back to #1) is that "messages" is never really completely off. And this very well may be why the "dialer" fix works, but only for a short amount of time.
Go back and double-check your notification settings in Messages. Getting double notifications from both Messages & Handcent is exactly what happens when notifications are not disabled in Messages.
You shouldn't have to force kill the Messages program to avoid the battery drain bug. And killing it is futile because it just starts back up again. I'm only guessing, but it may be part of the core system that handles text messages. If you're using something like Auto Task Killer to keep shutting it down, you're going to have similar battery drain issues since you're forcing it into a kill loop.
I'm not having any trouble with my messaging widget personally. It still displays my newest message and such like normal, however if you need the space I would just get rid of it personally as it doesn't serve much purpose if your using a new messaging application.
Agreed, it shows the new messages but if you hit the compose or list messages buttons off the HTC widget you end up back in the HTC message client. However, if you doubl eclick a message you end up in the 3rd party message client. Strange, but that seems to be what I have noticed.
After downloading handcent I went back and turned everything back on except for gps, wifi, and Bluetooth. I only use those as needed. And after constant texting and talking and surfing the web,and posting this via my hero, all my notifications coming in almost instantly my awake time over a 30 hour period is 11%! So I think now the constant testing and rechecking awake time can stop. The hero has finally made me a believer! Best phone so far!
First off, awesome job on tracking down the source of this problem. I noticed that my Awake time was oddly high (85%+), but haven't had time to look into it. Thankfully there is a work around.
I installed Locale a couple of days ago and haven't noticed much difference (keeping in mind that my battery life was poor to begin with), but I LOVE the app. Might have to do some more testing and see how it impacts battery life. Anyone have experience with it?
Yes, I applied the SMS fix and was still getting 100% awake time. I noticed via Taskiller that there were two Locale processes running. (one if the Locale service was 'disabled' in the app)
I've been trying to save battery for a couple days by disabling WiFi and GPS, etc. without any luck. So I removed Locale and the three plugins and my phone sleeps as expected with the screen off.
It seems like an awesome app but I just can't have it running the processor all the time.
alright, i downloaded both handcent and chomp and stuck with chomp. i have gone into the default messenger and turned off all notifications and what not. the messenger still starts and i FC it often.
been doing this for several days now and still 100% wake time. anyone got any other ideas?
Last edited by UTnick; October 20th, 2009 at 02:38 PM.
It looks like it can compound into an issue. I just posted some more details on another thread about why Locale might cause the processor to go crazy. I think Archon's Google Code link is right on the money.
Long story short, there was a bug in location services of Cupcake that can spin out of control. Its sposed to be fixed in Donut, so hopefully we can use Locale again soon.
All I know is my awake time is much more reasonable since I removed it. Haven't tested with a full charge yet, but it looks like I'm on the right track.
Last edited by jeadly; October 20th, 2009 at 02:55 PM.
Reason: Attribute external link to Archon
I have applied the fixes and still mine shows 100% uptime. Anyone know of any other apps that keep the phone from sleeping. I don't have locale installed.
realizing that any higher end pda phone will NOT have good battery life
because us ( as consumers) want the fastest phones with the best battery life but we dont want it to be thick, we have to compensate somewhere.
sure the sms fix will help your battery life a little bit but in the end run you want a device to do a bunch of things? battery life will suffer
Kinda true... But you have to admit, this phone is literally riddled with massive bugs. Also, it has a massive battery. I really think it can do better.
realizing that any higher end pda phone will NOT have good battery life
because us ( as consumers) want the fastest phones with the best battery life but we dont want it to be thick, we have to compensate somewhere.
sure the sms fix will help your battery life a little bit but in the end run you want a device to do a bunch of things? battery life will suffer
ChrisPlague, yeah you've got a point about features vs form vs longevity. But this thread is about fixing bugs to drop awake status from 100% to well under 30%. I'm expecting three times the battery life today, and I don't think 15 hours is at all unreasonable.
Imagine how terrible your gas mileage would be if your car idled in the parking lot all day instead of being turned off. (Or more appropriately, if the tach was maxed at the red line all the time)
Well, having under 30% wake time is useless if it doesn't improve battery life, which it hasn't for me.
My awake time is 22% and I started off with 100% battery life at 7:30 this morning. It's now 9:30 and I'm at 83% and using Task Panel.
True smartphones take up a lot of juice, but HTC and Sprint had it in mind to build this phone to handle the rigors of its design. Something fell short somewhere and hopefully their fix will help the problem.
All in all, I still love the phone and am confident, the issue will get resolved.
About a week ago i installed ChompSMS and stopped using the stock message app. I also started using Advanced Task Killer religiously. My Awake Time dropped from 97% to 9% after reboot. I haven't turned the phone off since and now i show an Up Time: 145:48 and Awake Time: 18:42 (13%).
Battery life has improved dramatically. Now i'm able to easily get through the day without worry even with moderate use (that's starting with full charge at 8PM the night before, leaving on overnight, and using until 4PM next day).
As an example, I surfed the web, sent texts and downloaded apps for over 2-1/2 hrs straight the other day and it only drained from 97% to 63%. I was really happy with that.
One thing i've always noticed on the Sprint CDMA network is that with any phone the battery drains much faster when you have fluctuating signal strength. So i wouldn't blame all the battery drain just on the device itself.
One thing i've always noticed on the Sprint CDMA network is that with any phone the battery drains much faster when you have fluctuating signal strength. So i wouldn't blame all the battery drain just on the device itself.
One thing I've noticed is this phone fluctuates no matter how good your signal is. Coming from a Pre that, at my home and work would have a solid signal, the Hero goes from no signal to full bars constantly. Is it really that different, or is the phone's signal strength meter just a little to 'accurate' or 'fast?'
I also fluctuate from EV to 1X ALL the time, no matter how good my signal is. My other Sprint phones only went to 1X when the signal was really weak.
Is anyone experiencing missing SMS / text message from all this app killing?
My Hero started missing messages (though all sent from the Hero seem to arrive fine.) It was suggested that the missing SMS has to do with killing apps (aside from the stock Messenger one.)
After downloading handcent I went back and turned everything back on except for gps, wifi, and Bluetooth. I only use those as needed. And after constant texting and talking and surfing the web,and posting this via my hero, all my notifications coming in almost instantly my awake time over a 30 hour period is 11%! So I think now the constant testing and rechecking awake time can stop. The hero has finally made me a believer! Best phone so far!
30 HOURS!!?!???!!!
WOW!! that's awesome. How often does your Facebook, Twitter, Weather, Email update?
WOW!! that's awesome. How often does your Facebook, Twitter, Weather, Email update?
I think SNAKExBITE will have to clarify, but I interpretted his statement as meaning he had an Up Time of 30 hours, not necessarily 30 hours on a single charge. Up Time is tracked from Boot Time, not Unplug Time.
Not to say I wouldn't be floored if someone was seeing 30 hours from a single charge (and I'd do my best to emulate their behavior).
I think SNAKExBITE will have to clarify, but I interpretted his statement as meaning he had an Up Time of 30 hours, not necessarily 30 hours on a single charge. Up Time is tracked from Boot Time, not Unplug Time.
Not to say I wouldn't be floored if someone was seeing 30 hours from a single charge (and I'd do my best to emulate their behavior).
Hopefully he'll hop on and, in fact, clarify. I actually took it to mean the opposite. While I find that pretty hard to believe (unless pretty much everything is shut off), I'd like to know for sure....and definitely emulate his setup!
I can easily go 2 days without charging it. Now, the end of those 2 days I'm looking at below 25% battery left, but I do it.
Personally, I don't have multiple things constantly updating me. I use wifi around my house and mobile network around everywhere else. The only thing I really have syncing is my calendar & contacts (through google). I regularly text throughout the day and just manually check my Gmail when I feel the need. I use Google Maps and Sprint Navigation to get around. Google Maps for simple directions and finding my way around locally. And Sprint Nav for longer trips or really unfamilar areas. Since I'm usually using the Navigation in my car, I do have it plugged in a car charger during those times. GPS + Sprint Nav is a HUGE battery drain, but I doubt I'd be using it when I don't have a car charger.
I think SNAKExBITE will have to clarify, but I interpretted his statement as meaning he had an Up Time of 30 hours, not necessarily 30 hours on a single charge. Up Time is tracked from Boot Time, not Unplug Time.
Not to say I wouldn't be floored if someone was seeing 30 hours from a single charge (and I'd do my best to emulate their behavior).
Im going to have to agree with this thought. After 30 hours of up time, and not on a single charge, based on what he said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SNAKExBITE
And after constant texting and talking and surfing the web,and posting this via my hero, all my notifications coming in almost instantly my awake time over a 30 hour period is 11%!!
Those of you that think he got 30 hours on one charge should see how long you can talk, text, web surf and posting before needed to recharge. Im sure it wouldnt make 30 hours, I doubt it would even last 10.
Two days ago I changed from a Palm Pre (Sprint) to an HTC Hero (Sprint) and I've noticed the awake time issue. I found this thread today, and following what I believe to be the steps, I:
Disabled all notifications within the built-in messaging app
Installed chompSMS and configured its notifications
Turned the phone off then back on
I noticed that "Messages" was still running, but per several posts, ignored it, and haven't sent a single text message using the built-in Messages app.
I'm still seeing 100% awake time and I see posts from other people also still experiencing 100% awake time.
Anyone have any further suggestions of something I may be missing or something else I might try?
Sounds like you have another app running thats preventing the Hero from sleeping. So what else do you have running?
I've added various things that seemed relevant to the Ignore List in TaskPanel:
Calendar, Clock, Gmail (not sure about this one), Google Partner Setup (or this one), HTC Sense, HtcIQAgent, IQRD, Mail, OMADM, Peep, Sprint Updater, Touch Input, Voicemail, Weather, chompSMS, com.htc, com.p1.chompsms, com.smithmicro.DM
On the off chance it would help, I tried shutting down the phone all the way one more time, and now my Up time / Awake time is drastically different, so I guess one last reboot seems to have resolved it.
I'm still not sure why sending / receiving text messages launches the Sprint Navigation program, but that's not really a deal breaker, I guess. I've confirmed this several times, as well. I FC Sprint Navigator, send (or receive) a text, and Sprint Navigator is open again in the background (despite GPS being turned off, too).
I followed this forum and tried everything mentioned, even started deleting all my apps one by one, but still running at 100%. I decided to go ahead and do a fresh factory reset and wallah it works! My phone now sleeps as it should. I installed handcent and have been using it to avoid the issue coming back. I think those of you that are still having the 100% issue even after the SMS fix may want to bite the bullet and do a reset. It wasn't too bad since I have all my contacts setup on google and not on the phone so it automatically sync's them, even kept all my custom pic's! Only had to re-link my ringtones.
This worked for me, but about once a day I notice that the "messages" app is in the advance task killer. My awake time is never above 10%, but it still pops up there. All notifications are turned off and handcent is my default app.
It also appears when I reset my phone.
Last edited by sr1982; October 23rd, 2009 at 01:34 AM.
Ok, everyone that is posting that they are still running at 100% awake after switching the SMS, I was one of you until 5 minutes ago. Then I finally gave in to the one tip that I had simply refused to take that did the trick.
FACTORY RESET YOUR PHONE!!!! It is obvious that a commonly downloaded application from the Android Market is also a culprit. I will be installing my apps in groups of 3 and rebooting my phone each time to pinpoint which one may be the cause, and report back.
Also, a very helpful thing that I did before resetting my phone was downloading an application called "App Manager", which backed up all of my market selections. After the factory reset, reinstall the App Manager and you will have the majority of your apps stored to be reinstalled. But make sure to do this little by little, and monitor the awake time to notice any changes.
Also, I did notice that even running at 100% awake time wasn't that big of a deal after a few battery charges and drains. My phone lasted much longer after the first few charge/drains. But this thread started an awake time obsession with me that had to be addressed lol.
This worked for me, but about once a day I notice that the "messages" app is in the advance task killer. My awake time is never above 10%, but it still pops up there. All notifications are turned off and handcent is my default app.
It also appears when I reset my phone.
Once again, as has been stated many time, the Messages program cannot be permanently killed. It's most likely a core application for texting, even if you're not using it as a primary application for actually sending and receiving texts. Please stop killing it and complaining it won't stay dead. Read the entire thread.
I've seen some posts that say this Awake Time thing is due to the Messages app bug, and I've seen other posts that say that's a false rumor, and I've seen other posts that blame it on other things, etc.
It's pretty black and white, honestly. I rebooted my phone and sent a text using the built-in Messages app. I then turned off the screen. 3 hours later I turned the screen back on, went into Settings / About Phone / Status, and the Awake Time was 100% of the Up Time.
I then installed chompSMS, configured its notifications, turned off the Messages app's notifications, made chompSMS the default SMS app, rebooted the phone again, sent a text using chompSMS, turned off the screen and waited another 2 hours. This time, my Awake Time was 8% of my Up Time.
I repeated this process with 2 other SMS apps and had the same result every time.
Thanks to everyone who put the work into finding these workarounds!!!
I've seen some posts that say this Awake Time thing is due to the Messages app bug, and I've seen other posts that say that's a false rumor, and I've seen other posts that blame it on other things, etc.
It's pretty black and white, honestly. I rebooted my phone and sent a text using the built-in Messages app. I then turned off the screen. 3 hours later I turned the screen back on, went into Settings / About Phone / Status, and the Awake Time was 100% of the Up Time.
I then installed chompSMS, configured its notifications, turned off the Messages app's notifications, made chompSMS the default SMS app, rebooted the phone again, sent a text using chompSMS, turned off the screen and waited another 2 hours. This time, my Awake Time was 8% of my Up Time.
I repeated this process with 2 other SMS apps and had the same result every time.
Thanks to everyone who put the work into finding these workarounds!!!
Worked for me too. Yesterday I had over 50% left on my phone after using it all day. It's shocking how well the battery lasts now... It didn't happen overnight... I installed Handcent and set it all up, and it took a few days to get the battery good.
Also, I have cancelled all updates to Twitter/FB/Flickr and some other things in addition to fixing the SMS bug to get this kind of life out of it...
I have tried everything except resetting my phone and it say 100% always. never changes. I even deleted evey app, game and widget i could off my phone. re-started it at least 50 times. I even put the factory memory card back in because one member said that was his problem. Still 100%. my battery life sux. I left it on charge till i got up this morining which it was at 100%. i unplugged it at 6:15 this morning. by 9:00am i was at 72%....i did not use the phone for anything but the web for about 15 minutes. didnt make any calls, texts or anything. this phone is starting to suck. I'm almost wishing i hadnt traded my instinct HD in for it...plus the camera is horrible on the hero. 5mp of blurryness.
I've been a lurker in this forum, but I wanted to share my experience on this issue.
Preface: I did a factory reset (#3), and I installed no apps outside handcent, I changed notifications appropriately. I removed all widgets, icons, etc except for 3 pages. Main page: default clock, small calendar (1x3), People, Gmail, Browser icons, Handcent SMS widget. Second screen (1 to the right). Bookmarks. Third screen (2 to the right): Google search.
Result: This worked fine for me (for about 24 hours) until I did the voicemail upgrade, and I followed the instructions by the sprint rep in the sprint forum (different thread). Voicemail upgrade went flawlessly (again). However, immediately after the upgrade (and multiple reboots) my awake time is back to 100%.
Sidenote: I should add that I'm not using a task killer program and I'm not killing messages at startup as some people have suggested (because I haven't loaded any additional 3rd party apps, and because some people in report killing the Messages app even at the beginning of a reboot may cause SMS failures).
This is just my 2 cents, and my experience. I was trying to get to the lowest common denominator (i.e. not using any 3rd party apps other then for SMS). I'm convinced that although there is an issue with sending sms messages with the default app ... there is also another issue here (besides 3rd party apps).
. Seeing a 21% awake time, but i'm thinking thats just due to my usage, still drastic improvement over my initial battery life.
_\oo/
Battery life
