I Found & Fixed an HTC Incredible Battery Bug

[jprow507]

Is there a good method to figure out what is keeping the phone awake? Today I had terrible battery life with uptime at 32 hours and awake time at 22 hours and my phone is down to 20 percent after absolutely NO calls made on it today (it sat on my desk most of the day)

Looking at the Task Manager app I downloaded I noticed a handful of apps at 22 hours usage. So it seems to me that if a single app is keeping the phone awake, other apps will stay awake as well. I have a relative with a HTC Hero and she NEVER has any of this sleep/awake issue and she has alot of the same apps installed and running. It appears to me that the issue is either related to Android 2.1 (so hopefully 2.2 is better) or something in the 2.1 version of Sense.

It is really frustrating because just when I think I've figured out my issue and the phone sleeps, it will start acting different the following day and not sleep. But I DEFINATELY think Advanced Task Killer is necessary as when I reboot my phone and look at what is running there are PLENTY of things running that shouldn't be. For instance, VLingo, a sleep timer app, FM Radio, etc. .... a bunch of things that don't need to boot with the phone!!

 

[mblais]

Is there a good method to figure out what is keeping the phone awake?

No, BUT there are two good ways to see whether or not the phone is sleeping like it should when the screen is turned off:

1) Home > Settings > About Phone > Battery
This screen lists the "Up Time" and "Awake Time". Go to this screen before you turn off your phone and MAKE NOTE of the Awake Time. When you turn it back on, the Awake Time you see should not be more than 30 seconds or so longer than what you noted before turning it off.

2) Look for the free app "Battery Detective" in the Market. This will display (among other things) the Sleep Time as a percentage of Up Time in a Notification (but only when not charging). You have to figure out for yourself if it's improving or not over time.

 

[ejkeebler]

I'm at the give up stage as well, I wiped the device for a 4th time, because after the 3rd wipe I decided ok, not installing a single thing (even though I was pretty sure I did this once before), day 1 16hours low use had not setup any accounts other than my google account, added facebook accounts and time looked like it was killing me, so i removed them, time still looked bad, added swype, looked like it was killing me, removed swype, battery still dying quickly with 3.5 hours of use and 1h of awake time i'm down to 79%, which is roughly 10% an hour, so I wiped it again and decided to just put some of the apps I know people are using on it, appbrain and astro file manager, doesn't look like I'll get much battery again....so screw it, I GIVE UP, adding back my facebook, and adding back some widgets like weather and astrid and calendar.....

 

[slinky317]

After adding Calendar to the auto-kill list in TaskPanel and deleting the Flickr Sync, I am having NO problems with my up/awake time ratio. Also, I changed Wifi to never sleep so when I'm in my office or my home, the phone's not gonna waste battery trying to look for a 3G signal when the Wifi goes to sleep.

With the 1750 Seidio battery, I am estimating that I now get about 30 hours per charge. I usually take the phone off the charger at around 8:00am and by the time I go to bed at around 11:00pm, I usually still have around 50% battery left, maybe a little less. I am now MUCH more pleased with the performance than I was a week ago.

 

[INTREPID-NY]

For me it was AccuWeather.com - Even with the app killed. Still kept the phone awake! I uninstalled and reinstalled to confirm. AccuWeather.com.
AccuWeather.com for Android

Most of these sleep problems are caused by apps. You just have to track it down. If you've been keeping an eye on your wake time, just start uninstalling the most recent apps. I recommend you use AppBrain Market Sync. http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.apps
This is a great app that coordinates with the website. You can view your installed apps by date and select apps to install and uninstall from the website.

 

[DroidPower]

What i'm testing now is charging the battery until the LED turns green, and then unplugging the charger without any re-charge or extended charging. I also killed the calender widget, and the weather widget which for me is a show tell thing that i really don't need or use, if i have to use them i'll open the App.

I'm just curious and don't really have a battery issue since installing the 1750 slim battery. Yesterday i use my phone, texting, and internet more than usual and didn't kill my battery, or drained it to a low life concern.

 

[lukem]

I'm going to do some more testing today but my problem seemed to be Flickr Syncing. I started with turning everything off under Accounts & Sync. Then I added each thing one at a time, then rebooted, then kept if off for about 10-15 mins and would check the Up & Awake time. The phone was sleeping until I added Flickr and synced. So I removed that one again and added the last two (Twitter and Weather) and the phone was sleeping. I gave it a full charge and left it off the charger overnight. When I woke up and checked it looked like only one bar used on the battery which normally would have been at least if not more than half way used if not plugged in overnight. I also checked the Up and Awake time and it was definitely sleeping all night.

Now I'm getting it back to a full charge and will see how long it lasts through normal use today. Definitely glad I decided to try this out.

 

[Bluesman2008]

Just wondering if a calendering app is running and when an alarm is due to sound (it might give it a 5-6 minute lead time) that's when it wakes up the phone to get ready to alert you to something...dunno...mystery to me. So far that hasn't happened on my incredible...it's ghosts I tell 'ya.

But lets face it, this is one incredible device and when you mention operating system, you think problems. How many incarnations of windows have we seen until they finally came up with a good/stable one (2k of course) then XP was (finally) stable after a time and they threw vista (puke) at us.

I don't expect perfection from these new toys and, for the basics, they do what they're supposed to do flawlessly and, when you stop and think about all the things it does, well, I'll cut it some slack. I'm sure the new Android OS update will be a smashing success and address most if not all of the concerns that are myriad and well known on the net. I'm sure they're aware of the bug/gripes/suggestions/prayers (aliens present us with a lifetime charged battery chip 1/20the the size of what we've got). Hmmmm. Are we havin' fun yet?

 

[servenus]

Thanks to JohnPerkins21 and now RoninId. At first, force quitting the Calendar *did* help, though it seemed for indeterminate periods of time. After disabling Flickr's sync, have had no issues with battery life: Awake <> Up at all. Up: 35:36 vs Awake: 3:58. Note: I did "restart" after charging, though not sure it was necessary.

 

[echeng]

4) My issue was the Google Contact sync was broken and kept syncing every second. You would see a very quick red circle flash for a split second very often under Settings->Accounts & Sync. I went into the Google account, unchecked Sync contacts and that was it. Battery life is much better now.

I've removed my Flickr and HTC Facebook accounts -- integration with those services are not worth having no battery life. However, I'm having the same Google contact sync issue that the original poster was having. It flashes an error message every few seconds when I try to sync Google contacts.

Has anyone found a fix for this?

In the meantime, I've unchecked "Auto-sync" and will initiate manual syncs with Google. This is not ideal, but it's better than a 4-hour battery life!

 

[mntbighker]

I think the pattern everyone is possibly ignoring is that ANY network sync failure, be it gmail or Exchange, calendar or Facebook, the underlying process can go bonkers and kill the battery. Turning any one of these off may be a solution in the short term but eventually something can bring the behavior back. What isn't clear to me is the trigger. Is it a server problem or on the phone side?

 

[MrSmoofy]

I have the same issue with the calendar app and am using a task manager to kill it when I turn the screen off.

Anyone know if there is a fix for the calendar app?

 

[Bearly]

Hmm, I don't have a Flickr account set up so I couldn't find a Flickr account to "remove." Is it possible that syncing the Facebook for HTC Sense account is causing similar power drain issues?

 

[cap'n crunch]

I found my Bluetooth being on was consuming 25% of my battery even though I very rarely use my headset. I assumed it did not draw power when not paired up with my headset. Semi-related - I read on another thread that someone tried a charging process of overnight/turn off charge for 6 hours/turn on charge for 6 hours and the person felt that it did some reset to the internal charging process. Is this something that should have been posted on April 1st?

 

[bjanow]

I turned off "automatic" on the date and time setting. Phone now sleeps, didn't before.

 

[cshellyg]

I rebooted my phone too and did not check off fb for syncing and did not register. If I want to go to fb I will go to the web page. It is way, way, way better. Still 60+ after being on all day with light to moderate use.
Be careful what you download. Reasearch first. I downloaded virus protection and it interferred with my best app. Got rid of it. Had to delete the app I like and re download it to get it to work.
Too much stess for me.

 

[Mastermind]

I just used Advanced Task Killer to kill everything. Now my times are drifting apart. I hope this fixes it forever...

 

[Dream]

I dont know how I missed this thread, but ive been battling battery issues since day 1. Taking the phone off the charger and 30 minutes later it was down to 89%! I have been chasing my tail with this trying different batterys.

I just went into my syc's > google > and there was a red (!) by the contacts, so I unchecked it. I hope this was the problem. I was tossing around the idea of taking the phone back

 

[clb]

I need help, and I know there are already so many posts about this, so sorry to add more. My battery life is unacceptable. I have been unplugged for 30 minutes and my battery already went from 100% to 87%. I haven't done anything but check a voice mail and looked at my battery stats. Cell standby is using 31% and Phone Idle is using 30%. That doesn't seen right to me, I don't feel like my phone should be draining battery while it's idle?? I'm very confused.

Here is what I have installed to sync:
Backup Assistant (every evening, once a day)
Weather (every 3 hours)
Twitter (manually, because I don't use it too often)
For Google Account I have Sync Calendar, Contacts and Gmail ALL disabled.

I have no facebook or anything set to sync. I do have the HTC calendar app on one of my home screens but that was added a couple days ago and I've had battery problems wayy before that. When I use pandora it is not even worth using because it drains my battery ridiculously quick.

I also have my brightness set very low, wifi off, bluetooth off, and gps off.

I use handcent sms for my texting, and I probably only send about 25-30 texts a day. So I don't know if that is causing a problem. I used to have a Task Killer but didn't know if that what causing a problem so I got rid of it, nothing good has happened from that. Should I download a different task manager, I wasn't getting good battery life even when I had it installed.

Can any one help? I've tried checking my radio to make sure it was on CDMA and it was, i've also tried charging and then turning the phone off and charging until green again, nothing works.

I appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

 

[DroidPower]

I need help, and I know there are already so many posts about this, so sorry to add more. My battery life is unacceptable. I have been unplugged for 30 minutes and my battery already went from 100% to 87%. I haven't done anything but check a voice mail and looked at my battery stats. Cell standby is using 31% and Phone Idle is using 30%. That doesn't seen right to me, I don't feel like my phone should be draining battery while it's idle?? I'm very confused.

Here is what I have installed to sync:
Backup Assistant (every evening, once a day)
Weather (every 3 hours)
Twitter (manually, because I don't use it too often)
For Google Account I have Sync Calendar, Contacts and Gmail ALL disabled.

I have no facebook or anything set to sync. I do have the HTC calendar app on one of my home screens but that was added a couple days ago and I've had battery problems wayy before that. When I use pandora it is not even worth using because it drains my battery ridiculously quick.

I also have my brightness set very low, wifi off, bluetooth off, and gps off.

I use handcent sms for my texting, and I probably only send about 25-30 texts a day. So I don't know if that is causing a problem. I used to have a Task Killer but didn't know if that what causing a problem so I got rid of it, nothing good has happened from that. Should I download a different task manager, I wasn't getting good battery life even when I had it installed.

Can any one help? I've tried checking my radio to make sure it was on CDMA and it was, i've also tried charging and then turning the phone off and charging until green again, nothing works.

I appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

I have a 1750 battery, i disable weather and all widgets, i don't need them, i have Back-up and Google syncing...google syncs mail, calender, and contacts... Back-up is scheduled to sync between 12am and 6am. I leave my Back-up and google syncing because i don't want to have to remember to do that stuff manually, and i listen to the weather reports enough that i don't need my phone telling the me the weather also.

I don't use task killers, live wallpapers, or social networks. My battery has been unplugged 19 hours 27 minutes, using 20-30 texts (Handcent/Swype) and 20 phone calls... i still have 63 percent of battery life left.

Tonight when you feel your done using your phone before bed, charge it, and use the unplug power down... and plug again till the green LED comes on again. When the green LED comes back on... power your phone back on and put it in sleep mode after it reboots shutting off the screen, and leave it alone, go to bed and see what kind of battery life you have in the morning.

When i do this (occasionally) i awake to find my battery life at 93-96 percent, i did this last night being one of those occasions.

Everyone has to use their phone according to their priorities, my priorities on my phone is practicality, no show and tell cool stuff. What my phone does is between me and it, i don't need to look at my phone and entertain myself with useless cool features/capabilities, but that's just me.

 

[Dream]

I need help, and I know there are already so many posts about this, so sorry to add more. My battery life is unacceptable. I have been unplugged for 30 minutes and my battery already went from 100% to 87%. I haven't done anything but check a voice mail and looked at my battery stats. Cell standby is using 31% and Phone Idle is using 30%. That doesn't seen right to me, I don't feel like my phone should be draining battery while it's idle?? I'm very confused.

Here is what I have installed to sync:
Backup Assistant (every evening, once a day)
Weather (every 3 hours)
Twitter (manually, because I don't use it too often)
For Google Account I have Sync Calendar, Contacts and Gmail ALL disabled.

I have no facebook or anything set to sync. I do have the HTC calendar app on one of my home screens but that was added a couple days ago and I've had battery problems wayy before that. When I use pandora it is not even worth using because it drains my battery ridiculously quick.

I also have my brightness set very low, wifi off, bluetooth off, and gps off.

I use handcent sms for my texting, and I probably only send about 25-30 texts a day. So I don't know if that is causing a problem. I used to have a Task Killer but didn't know if that what causing a problem so I got rid of it, nothing good has happened from that. Should I download a different task manager, I wasn't getting good battery life even when I had it installed.

Can any one help? I've tried checking my radio to make sure it was on CDMA and it was, i've also tried charging and then turning the phone off and charging until green again, nothing works.

I appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

Mine is setup the exact same way, with the same issue.

 

[DroidPower]

i'm almost at 24 hours since installing my 1800 battery, with very little usage, a few text messages, two phone calls, and some photos... i'm at 83% battery life left.

To night i will fully charge the battery before going to sleep, and foresee heavier phone usage for tomorrow.

So far so good... its only one day one charge.

 

[fortesquieu]

i'm almost at 24 hours since installing my 1800 battery, with very little usage, a few text messages, two phone calls, and some photos... i'm at 83% battery life left.

To night i will fully charge the battery before going to sleep, and foresee heavier phone usage for tomorrow.

So far so good... its only one day one charge.

Which and where did you get? Does it need a new back plate?

 

[DroidPower]

Which and where did you get? Does it need a new back plate?

I got the 1800 at Amzer.com... i was using the 1750 (seido) and i have no complaints and will keep it as a back up battery.

I'm now over 24 hrs and i'm at 76% battery life left, mind you my cell phone usage today was light. I don't use a task killer so my Incredible OS System has ran its course (Apps).

I did give the 1800 a full charge with a SEIDO PORTABLE BATTERY CHARGER... Multi Function Battery Charger For use with HTC Droid Incredible/EVO 4G

Tonight i'll give a full charge (BATTERY IN PJHONE) with the plug in get a green LED and power down, and then plug in again until the green LED light comes on and power on my phone before bed time.


THE BATTERY (1800) FITS JUST LIKE THE STANDARD BATTERY DOES, NO ADD ON (DOORS)

 

[fortesquieu]

How does it fair against Seidio 1750?