Battery Saving - Dummies Guide

[ironass]

This thread is not intended for questions.​

Please do not clutter the thread up with questions. If you have a question then start your own thread.

Since this section of Android Forums is for rooted Samsung Galaxy SII's and rooting, by its very nature, offers a lot more scope for the user to take control of their phone, I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread devoted to what is probably one of the most often asked questions, namely... "How can I improve my battery life?".

Since there is no one simple answer to this question, but rather a whole series of tweaks and compromises to be made depending on your app's installed, your usage, ROM and kernel, then it would be useful in your tip if you could state...

Rooted (for your tip to work)

ROM (is your tip related to a particular ROM)

Kernel (is your tip related to a particular kernel)

Theme (is your tip related to a particular theme)

App's (is your tip related to a particular app)


Please go into as much detail as possible so that those new to rooting can follow it and not just put... "Install XYZ".

Also list any disadvantages, as well as advantages, where appropriate.

I know that from my own experience that my battery life has almost trebled, from around 10 hours, since I first received my SGSII.

Re-calibrate your battery

The fuel guage in the Galaxy S2 is set to automatically re-calibrate itself periodically. This is why battery re-calibration app's are useless for this phone. You can hasten that re-calbration by following the steps, here, "The Best Way to Calibrate our S2 Battery", in post #1.

So... come on! What's your tip?

 

[ironass]

UPDATED FOR ICS & Jelly Bean

I make no apologies for repeating this tip here as it can really help improve your battery life a lot.

Please read carefully.

Bloatware is the in-built app's that carriers and, or, handset manufacturers add to the stock Android firmware. At best, they can just clutter up your app drawer and at worst they can slow your phone down and use up your battery.

Remember... one persons bloatware can be another persons, "must have" app.

Some bloatware can be got rid of by rooting and flashing a generic (non-carrier) firmware. This can rid you of a particular operators app's that you may not use or want.

However, you cannot remove the built-in app's that carriers and manufacturers include in their ROM's by using uninstall.

To prevent these from running you will need to do the following:-

1. Your phone must be rooted. Sorry, but there is no other way to remove these app's.

To root your phone, see here:-

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-...t/482994-rooting-galaxy-s2-dummies-guide.html

2. You will need to download and install Titanium Backup, free, from the Android Market. See here:-

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&feature=search_result

3. You will also need to download and install Titanium Backup PRO Key, about

 

[simes6600]

my 10p's worth...

1. don't use a rom below 2.3.4. (2.3.3 battery life was dire). most custom roms have all the sammy bloatware removed, so a custom rom is def the way to go. i've only ever tried villainrom and checkrom v4, and checkrom is def the way to go.

2. juice defender app. works for some, not others. works for me

3. keep screen brightness down as much as you can. i keep mine at around 20%, not *too* dark, but still nice.

4. don't use bright wallpaper, icons etc (ie, lots of white). dark is more sexy anyroads. live wallpaper can be a battery crusher too, although the less complex ones (numerous ICS clones) can be less draining than say santa riding his sleigh through a snowstorm on your homescreen etc..etc!

5. turn off data/wifi when not in use. either install jkay settings to set a data toggle on your notifications screen, or install an app like extended controls to set a data toggle widget. if you need to keep data on, and are in a 2G network area only, in mobile network settings>network mode, set it to GSM only.

6. install betterbatterystats to see what's going on in the background. it'll highlight what apps, services are consuming battery, wakelocks etc.

7. install titanium backup to freeze apps that suck resources. if you're on a stock rom, this is a must, not so much for a custom rom as a lot of the offending bloatware has been removed.

8. flash a decent kernel. siyah always works for me, and just keeps getting better and better with every new version.

9. install 3g watchdog pro. this will show you what apps are consuming the most data, and in turn, usually hinder battery life. i installed the sky news app and didn't realise it was set to check news in the background every hour, by default. it ate battery and data until watchdog pro detected it.

10. keep widgets to a minimum. only use ones you *really* need. if you have social network, news, or weather widgets, they normally consume a lot of battery due to being constantly updated. if you do *need* them, adjust the update interval to something less aggressive.

 

[ironass]

Rooted tip.

As mentioned above, your choice of kernel, and its settings, can have a massive influence on your battery life.

For anyone wanting to install a custom kernel, (not to be confused with a ROM), I would suggest at this time that the Dorimanx, Siyah or N.E.A.K. kernels offer a lot of scope for battery savings.

Dorimanx:-

ICS & JB kernels

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-...804-dorimanx-kernel-ics-jb-dummies-guide.html

Siyah:-

ICS kernels

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-international-all-things-root/518798-siyah-ics-kernel-v3-x.html

Gingerbread kernels

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-...0-11-dummies-guide-installation-settings.html

N.E.A.K.:-

ICS kernels

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-international-all-things-root/523329-n-e-k-ics-kernel-v2-x.html

Gingerbread kernels

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-international-all-things-root/471773-n-e-k-kernel.html

There are a wide range of other custom kernels available. For instance, if you have installed the custom ROM, CheckROM v4, this offers a number of kernels in it's, "Kitchen", app, that you can flash and experiment with.

 

[Hawker]

In addition to Simes great pointers above, I would like to add the following.

There are basically 2 areas to focus your attentions to on battery life.
1. For when your screen is on
2. When your screen is off.

Obvious eh? But just think about this for just a second...
* The screen is THE biggest battery drainer there is. Full stop. Its one of the pitfalls of having such a good one!
* The most used state of your phone is when its on idle.

Therefore, if you can make inroads into improving the efficiency of your phone in one or ideally both of these states, then you will be enjoying your phone for much longer periods between charges.

Screen-on battery saving tips:
1. Turn off live wallpaper.
2. Use the auto-brightness setting for your display. (menu>settings>display>brightness>automatic brightness)
3. turn off dynamic screen mode. Use movie or standard (menu>settings>display>screen mode)
4. set your screen timeout to as short as possible without it becoming annoying. I set mine to 30 seconds.
5. menu>settings>display>touch key light duration. Set to 1.5 seconds. Believe it or not, these LEDs use a LOT of power. Some people say they do not, but they really DO. If you have BLN, send yourself a message so the LEDs stay on, and look at the battery usage graph a few hours later and see how it plummets.

Screen off battery saving tips
1. Scrutinize the applications you have installed. Think about what they actually do. Do they need to grab information periodically? If so, do you need the app in the first place? If not remove it. If you do, find out if you can define the period/frequency at which it grabs its data, and set it to as long a period as possible without spoiling the usefulness of the app itself.
2. Dont clutter you homescreens with scores of widgets. Only keep what you actually need. If you have a widget on there that you dont really use, remove it.
3. Almost everyone seems to have a weather widget. I use Fancy Widgets for this. I set this to update once per hour, but this can be turned off completely overnight. Many other weather widgets do not have this switch-off feature. It DOES make a difference!
4. Check your battery useage with betterbatterystats. Look for any Partial Wakelocks. Are there any processes that are taking a lot of CPU that perhaps shouldnt be? If so, identify the app and if you dont really want it, remove it.
5. Check your CPU states using CPU Spy. Overnight you should get around 97% deep sleep barring too much internet-based apps requiring data.
6. I dont bother switching data/wifi/gps off overnight. As long as you dont have too many of these wakelocks overnight, there wont be much of a hit battery wise
7. Dont turn your router off overnight!!!! You will use far more battery when your handset cannot find your wifi as it attempts to reconnect. Also, data battery drain is more than wifi battery drain, so therefore any overnight data downloads due to no wifi connection would make a big impact on both your data usage allowance, AND battery. If your insist on turning off your router, then I would advise you switch off wifi AND data on your handset.
8. Make sure you are on the latest Google Maps. Some older versions have a NetworkLocatorPassiveCollector wakelock bug.
9. Check your running services for any you dont need. Settings>applications>running services. Apps like NoLED will drain your battery, not only when its displaying an "LED" on the screen, but just by running in the background. If your rooted, then BLN will use battery, but not as much as NoLED (just to run). Remember, anything running on your hanset needs power, whether it is something you see running on your screen, of if it's running hidden in the background. So for this reason, be aware of applications such as JuiceDefender and similar. If your phone is already in an optimal state, then such apps will have a negative impact on your battery.
10. Before you leave your handset overnight, go into Task Manager and exit all running apps. Reason being, for example, you may have an internet session open that automatically updates, and this will take a big hit on your overnight drain.

Tips for rooted users
1. Use Voltage Control to tweak your CPU+GPU voltages. These settings will be almost unique to your particular handset in a way, so it can be very much a trail and error thing. Tweak as much as you can out of it without the dreaded screen freeze.
2. If you use BLN and are on the paid app, disable BLN overnight (for reasons stated in point 5 in the first section above. If your on the free app, limit the LEDs to stay on for a max of 1 or 2 hours.
3. Try different kernels. Find out which one suits you best. Siyah and NEAK are the best for me by a country mile. Both are extremely smooth. However, for me (and I stress me!) I find NEAK to be almost twice as good as Siyah with regard to overnight battery drain. I strive to get approx 0.5% battery drain per hour overnight. This is my yardstick. Overnight drain is the only way I can accurately see how my battery is coping, as this overnight state is pretty much a constant, unlike the randomness of battery drain during actual use. I used to get 0.5% per hour with older version of Siyah, but the more recent ones, although super smooth compared to the older versions, I get more like 0.8% - 1%.

People tend to dismiss the GS2 too quickly with regards to battery, writing it off as a resource hog. Its just not true. As long as your sensible you can keep your battery going for far longer than the doom and gloom merchants claim.

 

[ironass]

Rooted tip for Gingerbread.

Personally, I prefer using Auto-brightness for my screen display as I do not want to be fiddling around changing the brightness manually just because I've gone from indoors to outdoors or the sun has come out.

Therefore, with reference to hawker's tip, #2, in Screen-on battery savings regarding the use of Auto Brightness for screen display you can, if you are using a JKay theme that comes with Deluxe settings, further tweak the brightness as follows:-

Deluxe Settings > Auto brightness profile > Select from Darkest/Darker/Dark/Normal/Bright/Brightest

Your Display in Settings has to be set to Auto brightness for this to take effect. When you select a different Auto brightness profile then it wont take effect until the light sensor detects a change in the ambient light level.

Download here in post #2:-

[Theme/Mod/Apk] XWKL1/KK5 - JKay Deluxe v13.4.1 - How the SGS2 should be! 2012-01-02 - xda-developers

 

[Kuragari]

I prefer Auto-brightness as well, however I like mine to run slightly lower than the darkest JKay profile. So I use the following app:

Lux Auto Brightness
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vito.lux&hl=en

It allows sampling of lux readings and then linking them with brightness values to create a profile that suits your own needs.

No idea as to how much battery it will save compared to simply using JKay settings (

 

[Sydney99]

One of my biggest saves has been changing the email sync settings. Previously was set to push, causing a big drain, especially when the Microsoft exchange server goes down (which it seems to often for my work email). So changed to manual for when at work, and hourly when not. Big battery save.

 

[ironass]

I don't know why this gut in Pakistan doesn't call his web site, "Android Forum", and have done with it.

He's claiming this thread as his own:-

Android Battery Saving Tips... rooted SGSII in Pakistan

Unfortunately... he's forgotten to include the battery saving tips part!

 

[Slug]

Just a FYI-type aside....

The above site appears to be hosted on a US-based server (at least that's where replies to a PING originate, 184.173.10.196) so perhaps a polite complaint is in order?

The Planet Abuse
The Planet Internet Services Inc
315 Capitol
Suite 205
Houston
TX 77002

email: abuse@theplanet.com

Incidentally, ThePlanet also hosts the pakistanmobiledekho.com site....

 

[ironass]

Thanks Slug!

Consider it done.

 

[saleando]

thanks for this thread!

 

[ironass]

If you are on ICS and are rooted, you may want to consider un-checking, "Back up my data".

Settings > Back up and reset > Back up my data

Whilst this is a very useful feature for un-rooted users it is perhaps redundant for those of us who are rooted and have Titanium Backup and nandroid backups.

This feature sync's continually with Google and incurs a battery drain.

 

[speedycolzalez]

SystemPanel is a great app for checking CPU usage. Leave the monitor running for 24 hours (its doesn't consume much cpu) and you can see when and how much cpu apps and widgets are using.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=systempanel&c=apps

 

[naith_kk]

This is rather recent news. Therefore, the gist behind it is... not all apps are optimized for the OS in use. So try to:

• Install apps on a need-to-use basis instead of a want-to-use basis. (Safe practise: Unless you know how to deal with the situation. Minimize risk.)
• Installing a new app and conducting checks to ensure its wakelock properties are in proper order before installing another is good practise. (Advanced, and if you know what you're doing)
• Update your apps if the app changelog has updates/optimizations/improvised features for the OS your phone is currently using. (The developer has a responsibility to update their apps and you have a responsibility to ensure you get your apps updated accordingly.)

 

[daringsmart]

i freezed the apps using bloat freezer bt the when i gave defrost its not getting defrosted help mee

 

[ironass]

If I had to choose one app to help me in improving battery life, it would be BetterBatteryStats.

This app monitors your phone's battery usage, both asleep and awake, and helps you track down what is eating your battery.

Unfortunately, for some, it does require some time and effort as well as searching and reading.

A thread by ahalford over on xda developers goes a long way to helping you by explaining how to use BBS and discussing what the various readings mean. See here:-

How to prevent & handle wakelocks & save battery life

Another useful article is Known identified battery drainers by Entropy512.

 

[ironass]

How to increase your battery life steps on Jelly Bean.

There is no point in going into specifics because we all use our phones differently.

1. Enable all the Power Saving options in Settings. This will not suit game players as it knocks the CPU down from 1200 MHz to 800 MHz. However, I can play HD videos quite happily and there is no lag or freezing.

2. Read Hawker's post here.

3. Go through every app and look at whether it needs to keep connecting to the web. If it does... does it need to be so often.

4. Go to Settings > Application manager > Running... and look carefully at all the app's you have currently running... then go to.. Show cached applications. Do you need them all... if not, go to item #5.

5. Using Titanium Backup and the instructions, here, go through all the installed app's on your phone and freeze those you do not need by referencing the spreadsheets in the instructions. I currently have 76 system app's frozen that I do not use on NEAT ROM full.

6. See if you can replace app's with more battery friendly ones. For example, Fancy Widgets from the Play Store, can replace your stock clock and weather widgets and has the advantage of being able to set a sleep, non update, period. Saves about 8 hours of updates/battery usage on one app alone.

7. For about a week, using BetterBatteryStats, set a Custom Reference before going to sleep and then take screenshots of all the states when you wake up. Then you can build up a picture of what is using battery and keeping your phone awake when it is not being used. Doing this, eventually, allowed me to track down and eliminate a lot of wakelocks that were consuming my battery 24/7. For more information on BetterBatteryStats and what the wakelocks mean, see here. Please, don't anybody post loads of BBS screenshots... I'm not interested. Do what I do... read and Google them.

 

[ironass]

Jelly Bean tip.

These 2 tips can save you an awful lot of juice on JB and prevent constant wakelocks.

If you do not need the features in the stock browser to determine your location then just disable the following...

Browser > Menu > Settings > Privacy and Security > Enable location un-check.

Likewise, the Local, stock app, can also be a battery drainer with constant wakelocks and can be disabled as follows...

Local > Settings > Location settings > un-check everything

You can always re-enable these features should you need them but personally, I know where all the local pubs are within a 10 mile radius.

 

[Hawker]

Jelly Bean tip.

These 2 tips can save you an awful lot of juice on JB and prevent constant wakelocks.

If you do not need the features in the stock browser to determine your location then just disable the following...

Browser > Menu > Settings > Privacy and Security > Enable location un-check.

Likewise, the Local, stock app, can also be a battery drainer with constant wakelocks and can be disabled as follows...

Local > Settings > Location settings > un-check everything

You can always re-enable these features should you need them but personally, I know where all the local pubs are within a 10 mile radius.

and the brothels too!

 

[hippityhop]

Why isn't this thread stickied?! Many thanks to ironass!

 

[tim1989]

Screenshot_2012-12-10-08-12-02 by tim_1989, on Flickr

Took this screen shot this morning. Im rooted using Dorimanx kernel and LPZ NeatROM full.

I only managed to get this much life from one cycle by having data switched off (except for the odd snoop on facebook and the internet), flight mode on at night and screen brightness turned right down. I set the kernel specific option to battery mode through recovery mode, and I am running extweaks with it set to extreme battery mode (I think!)

This is with MINIMAL use. just the odd text and phone call. Still pretty impresive though!

 

[parag1dubey]

Ironass, How much screen on time are you getting on Neatrom JB? I barely get 2 hrs 26 minutes.....

 

[ironass]

Ironass, How much screen on time are you getting on Neatrom JB? I barely get 2 hrs 26 minutes.....

With all due respect parag1dubey, were I to reply to your question, I doubt that you would either read or comprehend it!

 

[parag1dubey]

With all due respect parag1dubey, were I to reply to your question, I doubt that you would either read or comprehend it!

With all due respect to you ironass, I am unable to comprehend this post by you as well, since I fail to understand why my question should elicit such a Gordian Knot of an answer