Best Task Killer App/Battery Saving Tips

[ProfessorChaos]

Hey guys, I'm sure this question/thread has been posed a million times, but I am pretty new to Android & am looking for an up-to-date answer, as I know it doesn't take long for apps etc to become "old".

So, what is the best task killer type app? I am having REALLY bad battery life on my Android, so I really need one.

Any other tips on saving battery would be much appreciated. My battery was 100% charged before going to sleep, & when I woke up, the battery was half drained. Is this normal? Should I turn it off over night?

Thanks in advance for any tips

 

[jtcady]

1. Do not use a task killer. Useless on Android and it does more harm than good.
2. Lower the screen brightness and timeout
3. Use WiFi whenever possible
4. Widgets use resources so pick the ones you really need
5. Uninstall rogue apps that drain battery

Advanced Options:
1. Root and flash a ROM. I noticed a huge battery gain when I left stock.

 

[ProfessorChaos]

Cool, thanks, mate. Can you explain what "rogue apps" are?

 

[jtcady]

Sometimes apps from the market are not the best "written" and like to drain battery. Easily detected by your battery monitor in Android or another app.

 

[ProfessorChaos]

OK. Thanks.

I have my screen set to auto-brightness, I am on Wifi most of the time & the only widget I have open is a clock/weather one, & I also have "Juice Defender" (is this bad?).

Yet, I have to charge my phone at least twice per day. Like I said, I am new to Android, so is this normal?

 

[jtcady]

The brightness is personal preference but it definitely helps having it lower than normal. I have mine turned all the way down, easy on the eyes.

And Juice Defender just depends. Sometimes it does good or in my case, as well as others, it makes battery worse. Do trial and error. Use it for a day and see what happens and then try without it.

Yea the widget should be fine. You can also change the refresh interval as well.

What kind of phone do you have? I charge mine through the night when I am asleep and then it goes back on that night at home, but I could last almost a day.

 

[ProfessorChaos]

I have a HTC Desire, running Android 2.2.

I thought the battery was draining so fast because it's new & I was always messing with the settings etc, but the last couple of days I've had low/average usage & I still have to charge it twice per day.

One night I turned it off overnight with a full charge & when I turned it on, some the battery was drained lol I didn't even know that was possible.

 

[jtcady]

It is true about new batteries going quickly but it should be fine after a few cycles. Another thing you can try is changing the sync intervals as well for like your contacts and email and any other program that you use. Try without Juice Defender and see what happens.

Haha yeah, I have seen that before. It is always good to charge it to full, unplug, and then plug it back in.

 

[Dark Jedi]

If you have your email sync then make sure its set to a higher interval than the default 15min. or turn it off. Make sure gps is turned off.

 

[ProfessorChaos]

Thanks, guys, I have turned off mobile data, GPS & my update intervals are all set to pretty far apart. My email is set to push, I don't know if this is good or bad (?)

Two questions-

1) Should I turn off Wifi when not using it to conserve battery? (overnight etc)
2) If I turn off mobile data, will I still be able to send/receive MMS messages?

(sorry if these a stupid questions lol I am not a "techspert")

 

[Rafalema]

1. Yes, you should (Same with bluetooth etc.)
2. I'm not sure

 

[BookLover]

When you're at home, keep wifi on, otherwise, your phone will default to mobile data, which is slower and uses up your quota.

When you're out and about, keeping wifi on doesn't hurt and turning it off won't hurt, so don't stress if you don't forget. Wifi chips nowadays are better on battery and doesn't cause drain like previous ones.

GPS -- I leave mine on all the time. GPS by itself does not drain battery. But using apps that use GPS does. So make sure you exit out of navigation apps the right way (use Back button to exit, not Home button). And if you have a weather app, make sure you set it to check as infrequently as you can stand (I have mine set at 3hrs).

To be honest, I'm not sure if Juice Defender is as good at saving battery as it is as saving and preventing unnecessary data connections. Some apps connect to data whenever you turn on your phone (Shop Savvy, AT&T Bloatware) -- I use JD to prevent my gaming apps, bloatware, and Shop Savvy, and a few others from connecting in the background. They only connect when "visible". So, in an indirect way, JD saves battery if you prevent the right apps from connecting to data unsupervised, so to speak.

 

[ProfessorChaos]

Thanks @BookLover~ & to everyone for the suggestions.
I've been following these tips & my battery is improved , though it is still pretty weak. I guess battery technology hasn't kept up with these smart phones that can do so much & have giant bright screens.

 

[AngryHatter]

Leave it plugged in whenever you may.

 

[Dan-droid]

Not sure these will help, but this is what I did on my MyTouch Slide and my battery life went from about 10 hours to WELL over 24 hours:

Fully conditioned battery several times.
Turned off syncing for everything but Gmail, google calender and google contacts.
Deleted Weatherbug widget and put a shortcut on my homescreen instead.
Switched to solid black wallpaper.
UNINSTALLED app killer.

I charge overnight, and generally when I go to bed, I still have around 30%-40% battery left from charging the night before, and I use my phone a LOT.

 

[tCizzler]

New member here, sorry if this is an old thread but i felt very strongly about a certain feature. Bluetooth absolutely destroyed my battery life on my current phone (Huawei Ascend on Cricket). My last phone, not android based, i left BT on all day everyday and got 2-3 days out of a charge. This phone however, with BT on, i only get about 5-6 hours, and that is in sleep mode!! I was amazed. I was late for work because my phone died overnight and my alarm didn't go off, and it was fully charged when i went to bed. Not sure why this phone is different, but it's something to consider

 

[Dan-droid]

Let's face it. Android phones do things no other phone does. In order to enjoy these benefits we sacrifice a bit of battery life. Sure, my old flip phone from 3 years ago went the better part of a week without needing to be charged, but it didn't check my email, tell me the weather report, sports scores, facebook updates, had no web browser, etc. Charging daily is a small price to pay for all of these features in my eyes. I also use bluetooth frequently, and while it does drain the batt slightly faster when it's on, I don't experience the drain you describe. Might be a problem specific to your phone model, and have nothing at all to do with the Android OS.

 

[tCizzler]

Let's face it. Android phones do things no other phone does. In order to enjoy these benefits we sacrifice a bit of battery life. Sure, my old flip phone from 3 years ago went the better part of a week without needing to be charged, but it didn't check my email, tell me the weather report, sports scores, facebook updates, had no web browser, etc. Charging daily is a small price to pay for all of these features in my eyes. I also use bluetooth frequently, and while it does drain the batt slightly faster when it's on, I don't experience the drain you describe. Might be a problem specific to your phone model, and have nothing at all to do with the Android OS.

I agree, that's why i named my particular model incase anyone else experienced similar symptoms with the same phone. Yes i charge my phone daily, but my battery draining within 6 hours when in sleep mode is less than acceptable, therefore i will never again leave BT on, just turn on and off when needed.

 

[bryandrummer]

i have an acclaim and have been on the hunt to get the most out of my battery. I set apps like facebook not to update and i manually refresh when i enter the app, and now they have push notifications so there is really no need to update regularly in my opinion unless you are using widgets. i found that the gmail app and sync uses alot of juice. i dont sync gmail anymore and i use push notifications through the maildroid app and that alone gave me almost 20% more by the end of the day. i also only use things like gps, blue tooth and wifi on an as needed basis. (wifi i mean turn off when there is a lack of networks). frequent email polling for non-gmail accounts use a lot of juice and maildroid offers push for most email types (aol, gmail, and i think hotmail to name a few) that offer it which it less work on the battery than fetching every 15 min. also when you have low signal the battery just drops because the phone is working so hard to find a signal. in really bad situations Ill put the phone in airplane mode for a half hour or so at a time when im in buildings that i know i dont get signal anyway just to save on power. those are things i found that help maybe it helps someone else out there.

 

[AngryHatter]

OK. Thanks.

I have my screen set to auto-brightness, I am on Wifi most of the time & the only widget I have open is a clock/weather one, & I also have "Juice Defender" (is this bad?).

Yet, I have to charge my phone at least twice per day. Like I said, I am new to Android, so is this normal?

Do not have the brightness set to auto unless you are in and out all day.
It causes the cpu to poll the light sensor every few minutes whether the phone is awake or not. Battery wasted.
Delete Juice Defender.

 

[Copleo]

Should I turn off Wifi when not using it to conserve battery? (overnight etc)

1) Overnight my phone is on its charger, so switching off WiFi doesn't serve any purpose.
2) I use the free 'Y5' battery saver app (in the market). It saves the battery by turning WiFi off in locations where you have never been before (so it doesn't keep continuously polling for available hotspots), while it turns WiFi on, and reconnects, when you are (back) in a known location with WiFi (like your home, office, or places you frequent). That way you use WiFi whenever available, saving on your dataplan's 3G/CDMA data usage (much more important than battery life).

 

[dvhttn]

I have a Desire HD and until recently I was getting a day out of the battery. By that I mean it was usually in the 'yellow' so charged it overnight. I also turn it off at night. If I'm asleep I'm not really wanted the mobile to go off ..... Anyway, when at home I have a PC to do all that email/web stuff so I started to turn off 3G AND wifi. I can now get 3 days out of a charge with "light" usage. Some calls and the odd wifi on to check things. BT is always on though.

Right, so it's not that "smart" being used like this but it's a tool. If I'm at home a better tool is the PC so that gets used.

Dave