Battery Drain?

[IRobo]

I don't know if this is because I'm new to smartphones, or if this is a hardware issue and I need to take a trip to the VW store. Last night, I left my phone with about less than half battery left (30% maybe). When I woke up, the phone was completely dead. I have mobile data turned off, wifi on, and no visible apps were running. One thing I do have that I think might be a cause for high drainage is that I let all apps auto update. Is this normal, or is the battery discharging way too fast? Thanks!

 

[henry96]

Turn off WiFi and turn off sync if it is not necessary. (If WiFi is turned off, it is surely there won't be any auto update). cuz both of these drains battery. If both are turned off, your phone might reach 15 or 20% percent in the morning.

 

[tjh011]

I wouldn't turn wifi off if you have a wifi signal to connect. My phone gets way better battery life when hooked up to wifi, even in standby.

 

[wrecklass]

The Gnex shuts down at around 5-6% battery remaining to prevent data loss. Just plug in before you go to bed and you'll be fine. You can make it overnight with that little battery but as often as not the phone will shut down.

I've been watching and can make it about 48 hours on a charge with the Gnex and light usage. However, I still plug in most nights to be ready for a hard day with the phone.

 

[crankerchick]

All that said, your battery shouldn't die in a night with ~30% of the battery left. My phone loses about 2.5% per hour on LTE overnight with all of my sync options in tact. More likely you either have a rogue app keeping your phone from sleeping, your service area is poor, or you actually do have a bad phone. Try installing Better Battery Stats from the market and use it it to monitor your partial wake locks to see what is keeping your phone awake and burning up the battery. You can also go to Settings > battery and see what services are consuming the most battery and what your phone's signal looked like, but the Better Battery Stats just gives more information then the battery screen.

If everything looks kosher (post screenshots here the next time it happens if you aren't sure how to interpret the data) and you still have problems, try a factory reset and just install one program at a time for a while. If you have the problem still, and it is not your service that is bad, I would consider exchanging the phone.

 

[Tim K]

As posted above, DON'T turn off Wifi. If you are in a weak signal area and your phone is hunting for a good signal all night it will drain the battery. Also, as posted above, I am guessing you have some apps syncing data all night. My money is on google+ or facebook.

 

[IRobo]

I think that the biggest culprits were games that were running in the background...I stopped them using the stock Apps feature in Settings and that seemed to do the trick. Battery only goes down about 1% an hour. Next time I don't charge my phone overnight I will check to see if this happens again!

 

[dmodert66]

I don't use my phone like other people (during the day, usually just twitter and emails), but I just got a replacement phone from asurion. The battery would be completely gone after about 9 hours. It crashed a few times so I called them expecting troubleshooting, then replacement. The tech asked me to do a factory reset and expected to resolve the issue. If not, I could call back and get a replacement.

I am in the tech field (Community Manager for a video card company) and honestly, I expected the reset to do nothing. I couldn't have been more wrong. I have had zero crashes in a week and (for example) today I unplugged around 6:00 AM and it is now 10:50 AM and I am at 49% battery.

I'm not sure if my expectations of smartphones after using them for several years is low regarding battery life, but this did the trick for me. If you are having battery issues, try a factory reset.

**Note** I have not rooted my replacement phone yet, so if rooted, I am not sure of issues related to factory resetting a rooted phone.

 

[blahblahyoutoo]

I wouldn't turn wifi off if you have a wifi signal to connect. My phone gets way better battery life when hooked up to wifi, even in standby.

that doesn't make any logical or technical sense at all.
can you explain why this would be the case?

 

[Tim K]

In terms of power consumption....
4G > 3G > wifi

Since this is a smart phone with near constant updates, syncs, backups, etc. It is almost constantly doing something with a data connection. Since wifi is BY FAR the least power intensive data connection it is best to have wifi on any time a wifi connection is available.

Obviously if you don't need any data connection for some reason, airplane mode and wifi off is the lowest power setting.

 

[blahblahyoutoo]

In terms of power consumption....
4G > 3G > wifi

Since this is a smart phone with near constant updates, syncs, backups, etc. It is almost constantly doing something with a data connection. Since wifi is BY FAR the least power intensive data connection it is best to have wifi on any time a wifi connection is available.

Obviously if you don't need any data connection for some reason, airplane mode and wifi off is the lowest power setting.

ok, so when wifi is on, the phone will default to that connection to route data, but now the cellular radio is on, along with the wifi radio.

so you're saying that the power consumption over cellular alone (wifi radio shut off) is greater than the power consumption over wifi + an "idle" cellular radio?

 

[hotstuff5964]

My phone actually went from 100% all the way down to 5% over night. First time that's happened, I'm usually good for only about a 10% drop over night. I'm gonna chalk it up to a freak accident, we'll see what happens tonight though.

 

[Tim K]

ok, so when wifi is on, the phone will default to that connection to route data, but now the cellular radio is on, along with the wifi radio.

so you're saying that the power consumption over cellular alone (wifi radio shut off) is greater than the power consumption over wifi + an "idle" cellular radio?

Yes. By a long shot. Pinging the tower from time to time doesn't use power like transferring data does. If I am 100% wifi I can easily go 24 hrs on a charge. If I am on 3g/4g its more like 15. Obviously just idling isn't as intensive as actual use, but its a noticeable difference.

Keep wifi on any time you have a connection. Its simple enough to test. Leave your pone unplugged overnight on cellular data then again the next night on wifi and see.

 

[Tim K]

My phone actually went from 100% all the way down to 5% over night. First time that's happened, I'm usually good for only about a 10% drop over night. I'm gonna chalk it up to a freak accident, we'll see what happens tonight though.

Something was definitely up with your phone. Android os at the top of the list and all those blips under 'awake' tells me something kept running last night. Also seeing cell standby so high makes me wonder if you had a bad connection. If you click on it what does it say for time without signal?

If it happens again you should get better battery stats and identify the source of your partial wake locks. (What processes keep running the cpu with the screen off).

 

[IRobo]

What's a normal per hour battery loss rate? Mine seems to be around 2 to 5%?

 

[wrecklass]

What's a normal per hour battery loss rate? Mine seems to be around 2 to 5%?

What is your favorite color?

There is no such thing as normal usage, everyone uses the phone differently and rarely the same thing every day. Most days I go 20+ hours on a charge, but sometimes need to charge more frequently.

That's why we ask what you do with the phone before suggesting things to try.

 

[Tim K]

What's a normal per hour battery loss rate? Mine seems to be around 2 to 5%?

Do you mean while Idling/Sleeping? You should lose 1% or less per hour if you are on wifi and you don't have a bunch of crap syncing (facebook, google+, twitter, etc). I only sync my bookmarks, contacts, gmail, and calendars.

Here's a screenshot showing some of the different 'drain levels'.

In 9+ hours idling overnight my phone dropped about 7%.

NOTE: As posted a million times around the web, the first 10% (100%-90%) should not be judged as your phone is not reporting the true charge so the first 10% will drop at an accelerated rate.

 

[Crashumbc]

Just as a FYI also,

LithIon batteries are NOT like the old NiCads

Charging your phone more often and keeping it "topped" off is BETTER for the longevity of battery then doing full discharge cycles.