My friend and I both purchased Heros and we are both seeing pretty poor battery life. Using a couple of different things we believe we have figured out where the problem lies, but we are unsure how to fix it!
Here's what we know:
Menu < Settings < About Phone < Status < Awake Time
Both of ours have an awake time of 100%. According to other Android users, the lower this number is the better your battery life. So basically this is saying that even when the phone is off, it's not asleep. It is fully awake 100% of the time. Up time should not be the same as awake time.
Using an app called Spare Parts (Cyrket - Spare Parts) you can dig a little deeper.
Spare Parts < Battery History < Partial Wake Usage < Since Last Unplugged.
My phone is showing that the dialer has a wake lock for 16h. This appears to mean that the phone can't sleep because the dialer has locked it.
You can also check under "Other Usage." I have "Running", "Screen on", and "Phone on." Running says:
Wake lock that ensures that the CPU is running. The screen might not be on.
*If you hold a partial wakelock, the CPU will continue to run, irrespective of any timers and even after the user presses the power button. In all other wakelocks, the CPU will run, but the user can still put the device to sleep using the power button.
My friend and I both purchased Heros and we are both seeing pretty poor battery life. Using a couple of different things we believe we have figured out where the problem lies, but we are unsure how to fix it!
Here's what we know:
Menu < Settings < About Phone < Status < Awake Time
Both of ours have an awake time of 100%. According to other Android users, the lower this number is the better your battery life. So basically this is saying that even when the phone is off, it's not asleep. It is fully awake 100% of the time. Up time should not be the same as awake time.
Using an app called Spare Parts (Cyrket - Spare Parts) you can dig a little deeper.
Spare Parts < Battery History < Partial Wake Usage < Since Last Unplugged.
My phone is showing that the dialer has a wake lock for 16h. This appears to mean that the phone can't sleep because the dialer has locked it.
You can also check under "Other Usage." I have "Running", "Screen on", and "Phone on." Running says:
Time spent without sleeping: 16 hours (100%).
So now the problem is how do we fix it?!
That would certainly kill the battery. Have you restarted your handset? I'd start with that as it seems something got crossed somehwere.
Give it a few mins and see if you are getting any "sleep time"
__________________ You can get blood from a stone, you just have to throw it hard enough.
Wake lock that ensures that the CPU is running. The screen might not be on.
*If you hold a partial wakelock, the CPU will continue to run, irrespective of any timers and even after the user presses the power button. In all other wakelocks, the CPU will run, but the user can still put the device to sleep using the power button.
My phone has been restarted multiple times without any change. His phone is doing the same thing. They were purchased at two different Best Buy's across the country from each other.
Last edited by flipz; October 13th, 2009 at 11:55 PM.
My phone has been restarted multiple times without any change. His phone is doing the same thing. They were purchased at two different Best Buy's across the country from each other.
And you have killed the dialer using your task manager?
And you have killed the dialer using your task manager?
The dialer itself actually doesn't show up in the one I'm using (TasKiller). Can you make another recommendation? This is my first android phone.
Ok, using TaskControl I was able to find voice dialer and I killed that. We'll see if it makes any difference.
PROGRESS! Using Task Manager 1.10.7 (http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.wingtseng123.SystemMemoryMonitor) I was able to kill "Phone." After hitting the power button I immediately started getting a difference between Up Time and Awake Time (5 minute difference now). I was able to both call and text my phone. After doing so "Phone" showed back up in task manager however the phone is still sleeping properly. I'm not sure if a reset will cause it to break again yet.
Last edited by flipz; October 14th, 2009 at 12:30 AM.
I am going to continue this thread over on sprint.com because it's getting a lot more attention (Source of Hero's poor battery life) but I wanted to update you all with what I found.
So we have determined exactly when it happens. We tried all of the following:
receiving e-mail
checking e-mail
browsing the web
loading google maps and locking location
receiving text
reading text
making a phone call
receiving a phone call
Every single one allows the unit to go back to sleep without any issues. There are two things that prevent it from sleeping every time:
Send a text Turning the phone on with no activity
So sending a text is obvious. Every single time we sent a text, the phone would stop sleeping. Receiving a text is fine. What i mean by turning the phone on with no activity is if I turn the phone on and just let it boot up and disable the screen on it's own and never send or receive a text, it will stay awake even though the screen is off. The phone ends up turning the screen off before it actually boots 100%. Once I turn the phone back on and actually look at my home screen (after it's done booting) and then turn it off again, it will sleep properly.
Last edited by flipz; October 14th, 2009 at 10:44 AM.
I haven't tested all the combinations but like you I did notice an awake time of 99% and restarted the phone. I'm going to try and send a txt and see if it keeps the phone from sleeping just to verify your findings. This is a big issue.
Verification results: I sent a txt message and then went to home screen and left the phone to go into standby on its own (without me touching the end call button to force standby), and the phone stayed awake (screen off). You are right sending txts keep the phone from sleeping. This absolutely sucks, I sold my iphone to get this phone and the hero is suffering from a fairly large power management issue.
Verification results: I sent a txt message and then went to home screen and left the phone to go into standby on its own (without me touching the end call button to force standby), and the phone stayed awake (screen off). You are right sending txts keep the phone from sleeping. This absolutely sucks, I sold my iphone to get this phone and the hero is suffering from a fairly large power management issue.
Right, because the iPhone was so power efficient?! Most of the people I know with the iPhone have to charge their phones several times a day.
The Messages app is keeping the phone from sleeping, and the fix is to use a different app for texting:
Go download ChompSMS for free from Marketplace. Use that instead, it looks just like iPhone SMS and works great. I've tried sending/receiving a bunch of texts and Dialer is behaving!!! I LOVE ANDROID. No other mobile OS could you just download a different SMS client!
-----
More of a work around than a fix but you are 100% correct! Just tested and confirmed on my phone too. I don't really love the client heh. But My phone is sleeping properly after having sent a text through comp instead of through the original sms client. And I agree completely, no other phone would let you just do that.
-----
When you start up the phone, make sure you are the one putting it to sleep and it's not auto sleep (screen dims). Then it sleeps.
Finally when sending/receiving texts use either ChompSMS or another SMS client other than the built-in Messages app and you will be flying high!!
Make sure you reboot (poweroff/on) your phone before you start using ChompSMS or another SMS app exclusively so any issue caused by the Messages app has been cleared.
Not only is the battery drain gone for me my phone is charging twice as fast!
-----
Go to Messages (The app) > Settings > Notifications. You can turn it off there. I had been using chompsms since I got the phone, knew about it before I got it, and it's a great app.
YES! Nice find! I had a feeling it had to do with that, all Sprint needs to do now is make an adjustment to the messages app. I kind of like it actually, but to save battery power I'll make the sacrifice.
Rhinodoc, simply restart your phone and do not use the Messages app. In fact, hide the icon ;-) Once you have used it once you are screwed until you restart the phone.
Last edited by ron; October 14th, 2009 at 02:43 PM.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RhinoDoc
Thanks.
I also loaded Locale last night and saw my battery plummet today, so I just dumped it.
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?
Device(s): Galaxy Nexus, HP Touchpad.
Nothing exceeds like excess.
Carrier: Not Provided
Thanks: 16
Thanked 11 Times in 7 Posts
I want to make certain I'm understanding this... I've changed the setting in "Messages" and removed it from the "desktop". Then I installed Chomp (whose UI I really like). Then I restarted.
I'm only getting notifications from Chomp, but when I open Advanced Task Killer, it shows "Messages" and has a check box like I need to kill it. Can/should I ignore it?
I installed Locale a couple of days ago and haven't noticed much difference
Anyone have experience with it?
I use it constantly and don't find it significantly affect battery usage. As mentioned, tracking GPS sats will hammer the battery fastest. In urban areas though I find that the location awareness is precise enough just using the cell masts so I don't need GPS.
Just wanted to say thank you for finding a fix for this! I'd wondered about the poor battery life on mine but I thought it was just because I was using it so much lately. This has helped tremendously!
So I downloaded chompSMS and it looks like a great app. My question is, even though we use chompSMS isntead of the "Messages" app, wouldnt the Messages app still be active in recieving SMS's? In other words, when we recieve an SMS wouldnt we get TWO notifications - one from chompSMS and one from Messages? If there was a way to I guess "turn off" or disable Messages that would be cool...
Easiest thing is to just power off the phone and start it up again. As long as you never send a message with the Messages program again, you shouldn't have any problems.
I trust you guys. Although I still feel like Messages app would still be triggered/activated when a text is received regardless of never sending a msg with it or turning off its notifications...
I want to make certain I'm understanding this... I've changed the setting in "Messages" and removed it from the "desktop". Then I installed Chomp (whose UI I really like). Then I restarted.
I'm only getting notifications from Chomp, but when I open Advanced Task Killer, it shows "Messages" and has a check box like I need to kill it. Can/should I ignore it?
Thanks.
I am also seeing the Messages app running using Taskiller. I restart my phone, then hit the power button to sleep it, then turn it back on, run Taskiller, and see Messages in the list, and I haven't sent a text or anything.
I replaced it with Handcent SMS (seems cool) and turned off the Messages notifications, so now only Handcent notifies me of texts.
Maybe Messages always appears after a reboot, but doesn't become active and battery draining until after first use? Anyone know? I'll keep my setup like this for a while to test it out.
im still testing, but i restarted my phone and messages was still there active as well. i killed it using taskiller and i disabled notifications on the messages app, but it still would become active after i received a message using chomp. ill update in a few
i disabled notifications and use only chompsms now and the messages app is listed in yellow on taskiller and numbers still come up on the app to show me how many messages there are. any ideas? am i missing something?
I don't think you completely disable in the included Messages program to fix the issue. The problem is sending a text with Messages causes a setting to be flipped that won't allow the phone to go into full standby mode. No one ever said you needed to completely disable it to fix anything. Using Taskiller was just something people trying to fix the problem were doing to narrow down what was causing it.
Install chompSMS.
Power Cycle your phone.
Never use Messages again.
Done
Last edited by pdragon; October 15th, 2009 at 11:13 AM.
I don't think you completely disable in the included Messages program to fix the issue. The problem is sending a text with Messages causes a setting to be flipped that won't allow the phone to go into full standby mode. No one ever said you needed to completely disable it to fix anything. Using Taskiller was just something people trying to fix the problem were doing to narrow down what was causing it.
Install chompSMS.
Power Cycle your phone.
Never use Messages again.
Done
yea i did that and the usage dropped significantly. Im trying to see if the messages app being active but unused causes a battery drain issue as well
305Cane, I also have TasKiller and see the same as you when using Chomp. It still shows the stock Message indicator under the TasKiller list. I think it does that because it is still using the stock SMS to send...otherwise you have to pay for Chomp credits. My up time has since changed from 97% to 13% after installing Chomp. Hopefully it will lessen the battery drain anyways.
I still don't know what all the other indicators are in the TasKiller listing. All the "IQRD", "com.google.android.", HtcIQAgent", "OMADM", "Sprint Updater", "com.htc", "com.htc.providor". Anybody know if these need to be enabled all the time? And some won't kill even if i try.
You're one of those people that start up the Windows Task Manager and randomly kill processes that you don't know what they do then complain when you computer breaks aren't you?
If you don't know what it is, it's probably not a good idea to go forcing it to shut down. Especially if it has 'sprint', 'htc', or 'android' in the application's name. You could kill a process that needs to be running for your phone to work and corrupt something.
Android is an open application environment. Download the SDK and you'll find what a lot of the processes are for most likely.
Last edited by pdragon; October 15th, 2009 at 12:10 PM.
Ok. I am also experiencing ongoing battery issues even after implementing the discussed solution exactly.
Let me take you guys through the events of this morning for me. My poor battery life resulted in my battery running out last night, and because of circumstances I wasnt able to charge my phone until this morning for about 30-40 minutes before I had to leave home again. During those 30-40 minutes, I found out abuot and implemented the solution procedure (install chompSMS, restart, etc.) So my battery was at about 50% when I left the house. I listened to music for about 10 minutes, and noticed the batter went down quiet a bit, to low 40's. I figured it was understandable since I was listening to music. Then I got online via Browser to check this particular thread for any updates (not for long, maybe 2 minutes). Noticed battery was now down to 36%. Getting worried, I slept my phone and didnt touch it. After about 2 more minutes, I was curious so I checked my phone - battery had plummeted to 30%. in TWO MINUTES OF DOING NOTHING! 6 whole percent of battery! Then I really didnt mess with it for the duration of my classes...which was abuot 45 minutes, after which battery was DEAD. Now I'm home charging my battery while furiously writing this reply.
Please note that i had wi-fi DISABLED during the entire morning, and is stil disabled. No GPS, bluetooth, etc. I have Automatic Task Killer app enabled, which I set to kill basically all apps besides Mail, chompSMS, Browser, Music, Clock... and like maybe 1 or 2 other essential apps. In other words, each time I wake my phone the only apps alive and running are the ones I allowed.
Last edited by dvdqnoc; October 15th, 2009 at 12:21 PM.
Do you have the Task Killer set to kill some core application that keeps restarting possibly causing it to go into a kill loop and never letting it reach full standby mode? I would imagine an app constantly restarting over and over would be a battery killer. What is your Awake Time % after a reboot and letting it go to what you think is standby?
The following are the apps I have set to be killed each time the phone sleeps:
Abduction (market d/l'ed app)
AK Notepad (market d/l'ed app)
Albums
AudioManager (market d/l'ed app)
Battery status (market d/l'ed app)
Bible (market d/l'ed app)
Calculator
Calendar
Camera
com.amazon.mp3
com.coremibilityapp.vn
Device Self Service 1.1
Footprints
Gmail
Google Maps
Googly Sky Map (market d/l'ed app)
Google Talk
HTC Mobile Guide
IM
Labyrinth Lite (market d/l'ed app)
Messages
Nascar Sprint
NFL Mobile
PDF Viewer
Peep
People
Pkt AUctions eBay (market d/l'ed app)
Quickoffice
Settings
Sprint Navigation
SprintTV
Stocks
Task Manager 1.10.7 (market d/l'ed app)
Teeter
Voice Dialer
Voice Recorder
Voice Search
Weather
YouTube
The following are NOT killed each time phone is put to sleep:
Browser
Clock
com.p1.chomsms
eBuddy
Mail
Market
Music
Awake Time/%:
0:23:00 (72%) Note: I have chompSMS running normally, Messages app notification is disabled from previously, and Messages app was never opened since phone was restarted (thus i never sent a message with Messages).
I think an app that falls under the category you mentioned could be the "com.coremibilityapp.vn"... i dont know what that is, but i'll remove it from the task killer if you think thats a good idea.
Last edited by dvdqnoc; October 15th, 2009 at 12:42 PM.
Can someone else give some input as to why my awake time is at 0:23:00 (72%) though the solution procedure was properly implemented and the Message app not opened ever since phone restarted?
The following are the apps I have set to be killed each time the phone sleeps:
Abduction (market d/l'ed app)
AK Notepad (market d/l'ed app)
Albums
AudioManager (market d/l'ed app)
Battery status (market d/l'ed app)
Bible (market d/l'ed app)
Calculator
Calendar
Camera
com.amazon.mp3
com.coremibilityapp.vn
Device Self Service 1.1
Footprints
Gmail
Google Maps
Googly Sky Map (market d/l'ed app)
Google Talk
HTC Mobile Guide
IM
Labyrinth Lite (market d/l'ed app)
Messages
Nascar Sprint
NFL Mobile
PDF Viewer
Peep
People
Pkt AUctions eBay (market d/l'ed app)
Quickoffice
Settings
Sprint Navigation
SprintTV
Stocks
Task Manager 1.10.7 (market d/l'ed app)
Teeter
Voice Dialer
Voice Recorder
Voice Search
Weather
YouTube
The following are NOT killed each time phone is put to sleep:
Browser
Clock
com.p1.chomsms
eBuddy
Mail
Market
Music
Awake Time/%:
0:23:00 (72%) Note: I have chompSMS running normally, Messages app notification is disabled from previously, and Messages app was never opened since phone was restarted (thus i never sent a message with Messages).
I think an app that falls under the category you mentioned could be the "com.coremibilityapp.vn"... i dont know what that is, but i'll remove it from the task killer if you think thats a good idea.
Where in the settings can you pick which apps are auto-killed/closed upon entering sleep?
BTW thanks a ton guys my battery usage has gown WAY DOWN since using chompSMS (which btw is nice as hell )
Speaking of ChompSMS, my app settings says use phonebook pictures (which are synced with facebook) however the pictures are not showing up when in chompSMS? it was in messages app tho however...
Where in the settings can you pick which apps are auto-killed/closed upon entering sleep?
BTW thanks a ton guys my battery usage has gown WAY DOWN since using chompSMS (which btw is nice as hell )
Speaking of ChompSMS, my app settings says use phonebook pictures (which are synced with facebook) however the pictures are not showing up when in chompSMS? it was in messages app tho however...
You can't do it with Task Manager 1.10.7, you have to download a seperate app called Automatic Task Killer. Then it is pretty self explanitory after you install and open that app.
Seems to be working better by disabling the Messages app. My awake time is now in the 30%-40% range (yeah I can't resist playing with my hero throughout the day!) This is down from over 70%-80%, so it's definitely better
Device(s): My Touch 3g/Evo 4G/Galaxy S/Galaxy Nexus/Nexus 7/Nexus 4
Carrier: Solavei (Ask Me)
Thanks: 4
Thanked 9 Times in 7 Posts
WIFI is DEADLY!!!
Yesterday I did ran all day long without ever turning on my WIFI and checked my battery meter several times throughout the day. I went to the gym and streamed Pandora for 45 minutes. Browsed the web quite a bit and had my weather apps running all day. My battery did not go below 40% for 10 hours!!! Today I woke up and enabled WIFI but did not use it. 2 Hours later my battery was at 60%. Bottom line do not enable WIFI unless you have to and your HERO will last MUCH longer.
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!
Hi all I have done all you guys have said to do and mine is still at 100%. The battery doesn't last a day. I was using yahoo mail on it but deleted that since i thought that might be the problem. On chomp what would i search for for customized messge styles I have search for them on market place but can't seem to find any. Any other suggestions would be helpful. I have the wifi, bluetooth, gps off at all times as well. I hate the battery life but the phone rocks.
Source of poor battery life (now let's fix it)
_\oo/
)
