Help Excessive Battery Drain (Even On Standby)

[digitaljeannie]

Today is only the second day I've had the phone. I had issues the first day. I had about 80% battery when I went to sleep. Woke up and the phone was completely dead. I had wifi on but the phone was in standby. Last night I charged the phone all night and so far so good today. I've been leaving the wifi off until I actually need it though.

Y5 - Batter Saver https://market.android.com/details?id=pl.polidea.y5
Very small app. Very effective.
It toggles wifi off and on automatically based on your proximity to known previously connected spots. I'm always on WiFi at home and at work, but I also have chargers handy there. And when I'm away from either of those locations it automatically turns off my wifi so it's not sucking battery while I'm out. And when I return, it turns it back on again. Only ~100KB installed. So far it's been very effective at doing what it says.

 

[tzzoooma]

Y5 - Batter Saver https://market.android.com/details?id=pl.polidea.y5
Very small app. Very effective.
It toggles wifi off and on automatically based on your proximity to known previously connected spots. I'm always on WiFi at home and at work, but I also have chargers handy there. And when I'm away from either of those locations it automatically turns off my wifi so it's not sucking battery while I'm out. And when I return, it turns it back on again. Only ~100KB installed. So far it's been very effective at doing what it says.

That works well for me.

Now just need an app to disable 3G when on standby.
There's one called Data on Demand, but won't work with the CDMA network.

 

[Lanzagas]

My battery is draining fast.

What worries me most is that I remove the battery I leave it out for about 5 mins I put it back in and turn on the phone.

I let sit the phone without using any app for about 10 minutes and is warm. I compare that with my blackberry and is always cold.

Is there any app that can log minute by minute what is using battery/cpu?

 

[KentInPhilly]

I'd put it in Airplane mode when you put it in the cabinet, it isn't doing you any good connected to the network when you can't get to it. I'd imagine that when you take it back out of Airplane mode it will catch up on voicemail/email/etc quickly.

I did that this morning.... only downside is not seeing any missed calls who didn't leave voicemail and having to remember to toggle it on and off twice a day...

I followed the other instructions about using the maintenance menu to toggle the CDMA setting on and off and it seems to mostly have solved the problem.

I'll try to check out the battery saver app also, as it would be nice to be automatically on WiFi when I'm at home and on 3G everywhere else. It's a bit of a nuisance to dig into the menus and toggle WiFi all the time to keep the battery from dying.

This thread has been very useful. I really like the phone, but the first couple of days experience with the battery life was almost enough to make me want to get rid of it. Seems like all the advice here will make it livable.

It's a little disappointing it's shipping with network settings that cause the battery to drain so fast, but so it goes.

 

[htchduser]

how did you fix the calender prob?

 

[Android Nubble]

Yeah, I'm a new VM Optimus V owner and when I first set up my phone I was getting about 10 hours of battery life without using the phone. I was using wireless+gps enabled and didn't activate my phone yet so it wasn't because of the CDMA/3g chipset.

So I didn't realize that the preinstalled "Where" app stayed logged in and was constantly using the gps module which drained the battery like nobody's business. So I made sure the preloaded bloatware wasn't logged in or running as a task, I kill all tasks and programs that aren't essential by the system and I'm getting ~1.5 days battery life while watching HD videos on Youtube making a few phone calls and using a few finance apps for about an hour or so.

So lesson learned: Keep your system clean of unnecessary tasks/apps running and make sure you're not using apps that constantly use your gps/wifi when you don't want it to.

 

[kth2011]

So lesson learned: Keep your system clean of unnecessary tasks/apps running and make sure you're not using apps that constantly use your gps/wifi when you don't want it to.

Do you care to share the step/process of killing those bloatware or unnecessary tasks/apps??

Thanks!

KTH

 

[atraum]

If you're having a 50% "time without signal" issue (I noticed that I am), every time you reboot the phone, wait for everything to load, then put it in Airplane mode, then take it out of Airplane mode and you should then be able to check your battery stats and see the time without signal number slowly going down.
This is the same bug my old Eris used to have which astonishes me that this phone also has it but that's the workaround.

Thanks for the tip! Tried it and the time without signal has already begun to drop and battery used from cell signal is the lowest its ever been! Cheers!!

 

[Android Nubble]

Do you care to share the step/process of killing those bloatware or unnecessary tasks/apps??

Thanks!

KTH

Sure, although I did it manually in the system settings, there are lots of apps in the android market that make the entire process really easy. The smallest free app for killing tasks I could find is "Task Manager" which once installed stays loaded in memory from that point on. You can open up your "Task Manager" and stop every task operating at the moment to immediately free up memory and a give your phone a quick speed boost. After you stop all running tasks, it opens up the "Applications Setting Menu" where you can manually stop tasks that keep automatically reloading. (The "Where" app is the most annoying example of this.)

After you've cleaned up your phone to your liking "Task Manager" stays loaded and automatically stops battery draining apps from loading. You may want to open up your "Task Manager" from time to time and kill all of the tasks running as well as rebooting the phone (turning it off and on) to keep the system lean and your battery drainage to a minimum.

OK, so that's it! It's really super easy once you try it so good luck and enjoy your better battery life.

 

[SaintKilla]

If you get 10 you're lucky! I'm getting about 4.

Dude I got 2h 12m 57s out my battery stop complainin lol

Got This answer from Battery Watcher Check it out and Thank Me lol if you want

 

[salb222]

Anyone else experiencing horrible battery drain? I can barely get 10 hours out of my phone, even when I barely use the phone. I would have expected a 1500mah battery to perform better than this! I also notice that the phone will heat up while just sitting in my pocket. Never experienced this with any other Android phone before. Please comment and let me know if this is happening to you as well.

See my post here: http://androidforums.com/sprint-her...ery-life-another-alternative.html#post2274399

 

[Android Nubble]

I'd also like to note that placing your phone in a location that has no cellular reception or 3g/evdo reception drains the battery like crazy due to the constant signal seeking of the phone.

It seems there're quite a few tips and tricks to extending battery life. Maybe I'll write an energy saving guide once I've had my Optimus V for a few weeks and I'm not such an Android Noob.

 

[Gedd]

So is there some consensus on what's reasonable to expect from the stock battery in terms of time between charging? I've had my Optimus V for about a week. After getting abysmal life the first day fully charged, I did the standard "time without service" tricks (changing the band and going in and out of airplane mode). I've also cut off all the non-essential features like GPS and wifi and disabled several apps with Startup Auditor. Basically done everything I could short of putting the phone in airplane mode when I'm not using it.

Every trick seems to extend the battery life a little, but yesterday the phone was dead after 12-14 hours. Most other days it's been in the 10-20% range after about 17 hours off the charger.

I'd consider my usage pretty light. I use it for about 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes at night, mostly browsing with a little bit of Angry Birds mixed in. The rest of the time it sits on my desk in standby.

I'm strongly considering going and exchanging the phone to see if maybe I just got a bad battery, but if those results are pretty typical, then I'm not sure there's much point.

 

[TVCCS]

So is there some consensus on what's reasonable to expect from the stock battery in terms of time between charging? I've had my Optimus V for about a week. After getting abysmal life the first day fully charged, I did the standard "time without service" tricks (changing the band and going in and out of airplane mode). I've also cut off all the non-essential features like GPS and wifi and disabled several apps with Startup Auditor. Basically done everything I could short of putting the phone in airplane mode when I'm not using it.

Every trick seems to extend the battery life a little, but yesterday the phone was dead after 12-14 hours. Most other days it's been in the 10-20% range after about 17 hours off the charger.

I'd consider my usage pretty light. I use it for about 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes at night, mostly browsing with a little bit of Angry Birds mixed in. The rest of the time it sits on my desk in standby.

I'm strongly considering going and exchanging the phone to see if maybe I just got a bad battery, but if those results are pretty typical, then I'm not sure there's much point.

I doubt you'll see much of a change...the best solution is to pick up a spare battery and charger...I got one for $9 off ebay, so I always have a charged battery handy. The price has even dropped to $8 for one battery and $10 for two, in case you like to carry a spare with you.

Battery+Charger for LG P500 Optimus GW880 GX500 GX200 - eBay (item 280628191970 end time Mar-12-11 04:20:01 PST)

2 Battery+Charger for LG P500 Optimus GW880 GX500 GX200 - eBay (item 290532931906 end time Mar-12-11 04:20:01 PST)

 

[sammmy]

Every trick seems to extend the battery life a little, but yesterday the phone was dead after 12-14 hours. Most other days it's been in the 10-20% range after about 17 hours off the charger.

I'd consider my usage pretty light. I use it for about 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes at night, mostly browsing with a little bit of Angry Birds mixed in. The rest of the time it sits on my desk in standby.

After disabling the obvious suspects like GPS, bluetooth, synchronization and reducing the screen brightness to minimum ..... I noticed the biggest battery drain actually comes from the 3G even on standby. So simply disable the 3G data stream, when you don't use it:

Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > uncheck "Data enabled"

The free application "Quick Settings" allows you to quickly enable/disable the 3G data/Bluetooth/WiFi/GPS.

Disabling the 3G data when you don't use it, either manually or through Quick Settings works astonishingly well conserving the battery - with your light usage the battery should last a few days. Note, I don't use application killers at all - I don't believe resident programs that don't use the data stream/GPS/bluetooth drain significant energy. I always "exit" a program by hitting the back key until I get to Home Screen, I don't know if that matters.

Disabling the 3G data does not influence making and receiving calls and texts.

 

[nightbreed813]

After disabling the obvious suspects like GPS, bluetooth, synchronization and reducing the screen brightness to minimum ..... I noticed the biggest battery drain actually comes from the 3G even on standby. So simply disable the 3G data stream, when you don't use it:

Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > uncheck "Data enabled"

The free application "Quick Settings" allows you to quickly enable/disable the 3G data/Bluetooth/WiFi/GPS.

Disabling the 3G data when you don't use it, either manually or through Quick Settings works astonishingly well conserving the battery - with your light usage the battery should last a few days. Note, I don't use application killers at all - I don't believe resident programs that don't use the data stream/GPS/bluetooth drain significant energy. I always "exit" a program by hitting the back key until I get to Home Screen, I don't know if that matters.

Disabling the 3G data does not influence making and receiving calls and texts.

There is a bug with the 3G. Turning it off does help, but you could apply the fix mentioned earlier that helps too. My battery last a lot longer after applying the fix.

 

[sammmy]

Gedd did the fix and was unhappy with the power savings.

My point was that much larger power savings can be achieved by completely disabling the 3G data when not needed; sounds like that user does not need it most of the time.

With Quick Settings you can disable/enable 3G with two taps.

My phone battery level does not change over night at all with disabled 3G.

 

[chrissurra]

Im at 18 hours unplugged and still have 53% battery. I have been using the phone moderately, with sending a hand full of texts two 15 minute calls and and streaming of pandora over wifi for about an hour. I then downloaded a podcast over 3g and listened to about 45min of it.

I have been using power saver pro along with setcpu to lower the processor to 245 mhz when the screen is off. I also disable 3g data using...settings>wireless & networks>mobile networks>data enabled, that it the only way to turn off the data. Quick settings doesnt turn off data it changes the apn so the phone doesnt connect, it doesnt stop the phone from pinging looking to connect which is what eats up the battery.

 

[lynx2cross]

My first use with the phone I experienced this, but this was before I had charged the phone for at least 24hrs, and plus when I get a new toy I play with it a lot and being new to Android I was testing everything out, browsing web, downloading apps, playing games, changing settings. All these things for a extended amount of time is going to run the battery down at a faster rate compared to normal everyday use. Now I can say the battery last about as long as my blackberry and they are known for long battery life. And I don't know of any smartphone that is getting moderate to heavy use to not have to charge the battery at least once a day, sometimes in the middle of the day if you are really using is it heavily. That is typical across the board with a smartphone, I've had the blackberry and palm pixi, and this phone doesn't do any better or worse. One thing I did notice that was draining my battery was the "Where" app. When you run that app it turns on GPS and keeps it running even after you close the app. If you go into the market and search for "Where" you can download the update and it fixes this problem.

 

[sammmy]

I also disable 3g data using...settings>wireless & networks>mobile networks>data enabled, that it the only way to turn off the data. Quick settings doesnt turn off data it changes the apn so the phone doesnt connect, it doesnt stop the phone from pinging looking to connect which is what eats up the battery.

You are right, I checked and Quick settings indeed does NOT disable the data in the settings menu. Last night I 'disabled' the 3G with Quick Settings and the battery dropped by 5% over night. That's not a lot but with the real data disabling, from the settings menu, the battery does not drop at all over night.

Does anybody know a handy application/widget that REALLY disables the 3G data?

 

[Leon14]

New to smart phones; recently got an Lg Optimus V and I have the same battery-draining-overnight-problem. Just tried turning off 3g as recommended by others here and will see if that helps. Although my tech skills are limited, I tried exploring a little to see what might be contributing to the battery drain. I went to Menu>Settings>Applications>Manage Applications> came to a screen with 4 buttons along the top:
Downloaded - Running - All - On SD Card. Clicked on "Running" and got long list of Apps (not sure if this includes all the apps on the Launcher). I clicked on one of the apps and got a screen titled Application Information and below were two toggle buttons;
Force Stop (lit up) and UNINSTALL (grayed out) below these it has storage info and below that 2 toggles : CLEAR DATA (lit up) and MOVE TO SD CARD (GRAYED OUT ). Under this is CACHE INFO, and under that in small print it says "Launch by default" (not a toggle switch). Should something be done with each of these apps, ie hit FORCE CLOSE? Or will this mess things up? Or be irrelevant? Thanks.

 

[TVCCS]

You are right, I checked and Quick settings indeed does NOT disable the data in the settings menu. Last night I 'disabled' the 3G with Quick Settings and the battery dropped by 5% over night. That's not a lot but with the real data disabling, from the settings menu, the battery does not drop at all over night.

Does anybody know a handy application/widget that REALLY disables the 3G data?

You might try this one:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sebastian.smodawidget

 

[TVCCS]

New to smart phones; recently got an Lg Optimus V and I have the same battery-draining-overnight-problem. Just tried turning off 3g as recommended by others here and will see if that helps. Although my tech skills are limited, I tried exploring a little to see what might be contributing to the battery drain. I went to Menu>Settings>Applications>Manage Applications> came to a screen with 4 buttons along the top:
Downloaded - Running - All - On SD Card. Clicked on "Running" and got long list of Apps (not sure if this includes all the apps on the Launcher). I clicked on one of the apps and got a screen titled Application Information and below were two toggle buttons;
Force Stop (lit up) and UNINSTALL (grayed out) below these it has storage info and below that 2 toggles : CLEAR DATA (lit up) and MOVE TO SD CARD (GRAYED OUT ). Under this is CACHE INFO, and under that in small print it says "Launch by default" (not a toggle switch). Should something be done with each of these apps, ie hit FORCE CLOSE? Or will this mess things up? Or be irrelevant? Thanks.

Force Close is the Android equivalent of the Windows Task Manager close procedure...you'll do better to use one of the battery manager apps discussed here such as Juice Defender, Green Power or others to reduce battery usage.

 

[chrissurra]

Smoda widget does work well to turn the data off then I use quick settings to turn it back on.

 

[Leon14]

Looking at Smoda widget and it says it has access to phone calls and can modify phone state/network without user's knowledge! Is this something to worry about?

Also looked at apps Juice Defender and Green Power. Both have mixed reviews. Any advice is appreciated.