moggyman48

Hi

I'm a newcomer to smartphones so apologies if this is a dumb question.......

I got my Galaxy Ace yesterday and am still in the process of getting to grips with it. To extend the battery life I've turned off GPS, Bluetooth and the like but maybe I haven't turned everything off that I should have. I just took a look at my phone account call record and there are several entries stating "Internet Access" that took place when I wasn't using the phone but had left it in Sleep/Standby e.g. in the middle of the night.

I did download the facebook app but I set it up just so that I could access it when I wanted to i.e. I haven't had updates popping up on the phone all day. Apart from that it's clean - or I thought it was.

Can anyone suggest what the phone is doing or what service(s) I should look for (and how to get to them) and maybe disable? Or is this just what these phones do??

Thanks

GrahamF

Hi, do you have youtube/twitter/sky news/weather apps etc...? These can all sync at frequent periods? Go into the settings icon & then "applications" & then "manage applications", here you will see what apps you have & which ones are running. Check each app to make sure syncing isn't set too often. Hope this helps. Graham

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Mohy786

Turn off Background Data and 3g (they take alot of battery life), i get around 2 days battery life (I would really recomend downloading Advanced Task Killer and Easy Battery Saver Apps from google play store aka android market), i think 2 days battery is good for this phone (and i use it quite alot)

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socrates0

You might find this interesting Socrates?s experience: Samsung Galaxy Ace Useful points

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moggyman48

Oh I am going to sound soo thick here but we all have to start somewhere I guess.

First of all thank you for the app suggestions - I'll investigate those. Cheers. As for the suggestions on turning things off - be patient, I don't know where half the functions are at the moment )

I looked in to my apps and there are some there like Youtube/News/Weather but they came preloaded and if I go in to Manage Applications and select them I just seem to get a basic status screen with no option to configure or even remove them. Only the 2 apps I've downloaded thus far (Facebook and a missed SMS reminder app) are available for Uninstall it would seem. If I can't uninstall an app is the only way to configure it by actually starting it and hunting around inside for Options?

Sorry, where is Background Data and the option to turn 3G off? Also, what are the implications of doing this as far as usage of the phone?

I'm hoping that battery drain won't be too much of an issue having migrated from a trusty Nokia 6303 Classic which would even forgive me if I forgot to give it it's weekly 4 hour charge and continue for another week without complaining!! The first guys to produce some sort of new battery technology will make millions and I want shares in that Company!

In the mean time I've ordered a 2430mah battery to try and eek out the power.

Thanks all for your help thus far!!

Mohy786

2430mah battery is not good. Its more fake (the time it gets charged in etc), to turn off background data go to settings then accounts and sync and untick it, to turn off 3g go to settings then wireless an networks the mobile network settings then untick the packet data option



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Mohy786

Also give that 2430mah battery a go mate, if it works good and improves battery please tell me (and link where you got it from by.pm), all ive heard that its crap

moggyman48

Thanks all.

I did wonder about the battery because of mixed reviews in various places. However, there are shed loads of interweb shops and suppliers of these things so if they really are fake that's one hell of a scam!!

Can I mention a supplier by name here or is that against the rules? Playing it safe.......I looked for them on that major supplier named after a south American river and reviews were mixed and they wanted over £12. In the end I went to "that" auction site and paid about £9 from a 100% +ve feedback supplier who had sold loads of the things and offered a 2 year warranty - so if it doesn't work I'll just keep sending them back until I get a 'proper' one or a refund. I'll be sure to post the results here.

Cheers all.

GrahamF

haha, very good, so you didn't buy from Orinoco then!! Is that who u meant?? LOL! Give the battery a try you never know. As Mohy786 said, turn off the 3G, or rather tick "only use 2G" in the settings, where he said. To quickly turn off the packet data/internet, just long press the power button on the side & use "data network mode" to turn data on/off.
If you don't need Facebook/Twitter etc to send you your messages at night, then turn it off & just turn back on when you want to use the internet or send/rcve e-mails. Keep BlueTooth & GPS off until you need them - slide down the notification bar from the top of the screen & check/uncheck the icons! Hope this helps. Come back here if you need anything else, there are plenty of us on here who have already had the same questions answered for us long before you... Graham.

moggyman48

Cheers - thanks for coming back. Yeah I did wonder whether or not to mention companies by name but I thought better of it - didn't want the Administrator to send me to the naughty step on my first day at school!

Thanks for the tips - I'll experiment with them now I've got the 'alleged' high capacity battery installed and come back here with results. The results may be a bit skewed as I'm still exploring the phone. Normally I'd just have it in my pocket and not use it much. I didn't buy it to surf all day or play loads of games - I bought it mainly because I wanted a larger touch screen keyboard for texting. My old Nokia would still be in use if it didn't mean I had to hunt for my glasses every time I got a text message!! Age, horrible what it does to you.

OK, new battery has been on charge for 8 hours and the phone claims it's full.....let's see how we go!

moggyman48

BTW - my brief experience with this site has taught me more than reading the tiny user guide in the box ever could! Just wanted to say thanks to all who have replied.

Mohy786

Your welcome mate, but dont forget to post on here; how your new battery does (if it improves your battery life etc), and what difference has it made if any, and how long it takes to get charged from 0-5% to 100% full, and could you pm me the link where you bought it from (but first let me see the results first lol)

moggyman48

Well as I told Mohy786 it's now a little under 2 days since I installed the new battery and the phone is still showing the full charge icon. However, I must stress that all I've done during that time is send one or two texts, taken a couple of photos and periodically taken it out of sleep mode to check the battery status, maybe changed a setting or two and uninstalled one app. Apart from a few more texts and the odd call that's pretty much normal usage for me. I've also followed all the tips I was given re reducing drain and the 'data' mode has been turned off overnight. I can't vouch for how long it would last if you were using it every few seconds, listening to music, playing games etc. Someone else will have to take a punt on one and test it to check that kind of punishment.

If anyone else wants the link to the battery I bought just send a pm and I'll be happy to provide it.

Cheers

moggyman48

Would any of the battery saving changes I've made hinder the download rate from Google Play? I thought I'd download Angry Birds to try and thrash this new battery and it's taking an absolute age to download. I think the size is about 25Mb - it's been going about an hour and now stands at 50% done. I also had several connection timeouts while I was browsing the store. Is this normal?

trajikka

I've learned a lot in this thread about apps pulling data from the net that I was wondering about in the thread I just posted. I'd still appreciate some feedback there if anyone has some suggestions about detecting apps doing things silently.

But Graham... I don't see anything about syncing when I select an app from the list in the 'settings' > 'applications' > 'manage applications' menu, and go into each app's settings. I scrolled to the bottom of each but didn't find anything. Am I just missing it?

moggyman48

Just a quick update on this high capacity battery.......I eventually downloaded Angry Birds (after about an hour!) plus an eBay app and Apps2SD (although it seems to think my own downloads are already on the SD and there are no apps on the phone itself I can move there?). I used the eBay thing for about 10 minutes, played AB for 10 minutes and the phone reported low charge in the battery. Given my light usage, being in Idle mode for 2 days and today's lengthy download times I'm thinking that this is a pretty reasonable state of affairs given other users' posts?

GrahamF

Hi Trajikka, perhaps my post wasn't very clear, you need to go into each app through its icon (not through settings) & then hit the bottom left hand button next to the home button & select "settings" from there. You can scroll through the options & set "refresh" options, frequency etc...etc... Hope this helps Graham - London.

trajikka

Thanks for clarifying that Graham. Very helpful indeed. Whether or not there's any settings menu, or sync options tho' seems to be up to the app's authors. I see for many apps there's no settings menu at all. Adobe Reader for one. And the culprit that got me started on this, an old copy of Astro File Manager that was ad-free, has nothing in it's 'Preferences' pertaining to whatever is calling for a connection to the net, and completely disables the program unless it has that connection.

In a reply by socrates0 in another thread I started on preventing apps quietly draining data plans, he pointed me to an excellent article he wrote on free apps draining the battery/data plans.

Last edited by trajikka; April 16th, 2012 at 06:56 PM.

GrahamF

Hi Trajikka, happy to help anytime, but don't forget to hit that "Thanks" button on our replies, if Socrates & myself helped you!! lol. Graham - London :-)

trajikka

Ah... Si senior!