Help ***Official HTC Evo 4g Battery Thread***

[dieseldum]

Has anyone noticed when unplugged the hard keys on bottom are still on with phone in standby. It's like a suttle glow. Barely on but can see it still on.

 

[dieseldum]

Anyone notice the from hard keys are still on when unplugged. It's almost like a glow get it in the dark and mine is doing this.

 

[nhuston]

All -

Kinda like adboll, I have tried a number of "fixes" for my battery issue over the last few days. I too was getting 6-8 hours (maybe less!) out of the battery before it was completely dead. Unfortunately, I do not have a second EVO to narrow my troubleshooting with, but wanted to mention that I DID try a couple of things last Tuesday and since then, my battery life has improved MARKEDLY. I'm now getting 12-14 hours with moderate usage. I wanted to throw my thoughts in here to provide one more data point.

First, I have NOT turned off the Talk auto-login. I also did not turn off any of the data roaming guards suggested by adboll.

Here are a couple of things I did differently on Tuesday that seem to me to have somehow improved my battery life:
- Turned OFF flickr synch. Someone mentioned something about it continuously updating the calendar, so I turned it off completely.
- Mail is set to update hourly. Google is set to synch, but I'm not sure how often since it doesn't show you a timeline
- Set Facebook and Twitter to update only once a day (vs hourly) - I found that this is not a big deal because when/if I want to get updates here, I'll just go to the app and it will update then (I have it set to)
- Turned off News & Stocks synch
- Set weather to update every 3 hours (vs. every hour)
- FINALLY - I'm leaning toward this, though I don't understand why - I actually plugged my phone into my car charger Tuesday morning, though I had only taken it off the home charger 15 minutes prior. Surprisingly, it "charged" (light was amber) for the entire ~30min ride to work. Someone somewhere mentioned that if the phone "thinks" the battery is full, it'll stop charging (even though it's plugged in). They said something about unplugging it while fully charged and plugging it right back in. Well, Tuesday is the first time I did anything like that it that's the day it started working better. It's been unplugged now for about 4 1/2 hours and I'm at 69% battery life with moderate usage (plus at least a bit of time searching for a good signal in a particularly bad part of our building).

Sorry to post such a rambling message. I'm going to slowly start increasing some of the update settings and see what happens. I'll let you know. Today, I've left my bluetooth on all day and though it seems to have at least a slight effect, the battery's still doing much better than it was.

 

[NewNoob]

Sorry about the stupid title. Wanted to make it easy to search. Here is what I did to extend my battery life.

First, I live in the country. So I usually only get 2 bars. There is nothing I can do to get a better signal. Moving is NOT an option. Like many, I was getting what I consider poor battery life. I was averaging 7-8 hours on a charge. My low was 5 hours. As of tonight, i have managed to get 15 hours on this charge. Pretty good, huh?

1) I let the battery charge all the way. Then I turned the phone off, charged it again while off, and turned it back on.
2) I let the battery drain all the way down. You should NOT do that. Let it drain to 5%. No lower. That's what I meant to do but it goes from 5% to turned off VERY FAST. Have it near a charger when it gets near. By the way, as others have noted, I got almost and 1 1/2 hours out of AFTER it hit 15%. Just so you're aware of it. REMEMBER : Let it charge to full before unplugging it and let it run till 15% before charging. You shouldn't let it get below 15% very often, rarely in fact.
3) I installed ATK and set it to auto, when the screen goes off. HIGH security setting. I have it kill everything except what I like. I like messages, clock, calendar, and voicemail. I added what I wlike to the exclusions so I don't have to look at them.Basically nothing I know will use CPU, waste memory, or use the wireless a lot. By the way, Facebook app is a BIG memory hog. As noted elsewhere, DO NOT TURN OFF ANY THING CRITICAL FOR YOUR SYSTEM TO RUN. IF YOU DON'T KNOW eekdayTHE DIFFERENCE, EITHER DON'T TURN IT OFF OR LOOK UP IF ITS IMPORTANT. I've been in computers for about 22 years, so I can tell the difference. YOU might not be able too. NO insult, just saying is all. If you start closing everything, you might start getting force close errors all the time, also as others have noted. I leave ATK on high security and it seems to be a pretty safe setting.
4) I turned off auto-snyc. Almost all the apps snyc when you open them. And I open them often. If not, a quick tap on refresh will force a sync. No big for me personally.
5) This, in my opinion, is the biggest one. I have WiFi at home. So i turned off Mobile Data with the widget and enabled WiFi. All day except when I went into town. I had it set to Always on yesterday, but I turned it to auto off after 15 mins. today and got an extra 3 hours. I got 12 hours yesterday doing the same thing, but with the WiFi set to always on. This setting is reached from the WiFi location page, then hit the menu key. The actual button on your phone. Then go to advanced.
6) I have the screen brightness turned down to low(around 15-20%) and Auto brightness turned off.
7) I have GPS, 4G, and Bluetooth turned off unless I'm using them. WiFi is turned on and Mobile data off when at home , and WiFi off and Mobile data on when around town.
8) I dont use a "live" background.
I get the distinct feeling turning off the 3G and using WiFi allowed me these great times. I will go back and up my brightness, enable auto sync, and disable ATK to see what happens. I'm not entirely convinced of ATK's relevance, so tomorrow it will get disabled and I will see what happens. Anyway, this is how I did it. Hope it helps.

******Update ******

I did a little heavier usage the day after posting this thread and still got 13.5 hours of battery life with ATK. I got the 15 on a day of very heavy web surfing and heavy txt' ing with some light phone calls, but little gaming. Still pretty good though.

Today I turned off ATK. And guess what? I got 8.5 hours of use. Now, I did spend a little more time in town than usual, but still. About the same 7-8 hours. I got home and put it on the charger and let it get to 90%. I usually don't do this, I let it charge till the light comes on. I was being impatient. Shame on me. Anyway, I took it off the charger and I turned ATK back on. Guess what? 5 hours later and still at 55%.

So, this confirms that it must be Some App draining my battery. Just gotta figure out which one. Also confirms that leaving the Mobile data turned off and wifi turned on saves battery. I'm going to do one more test tomorrow with a slight variation and report back.

******Update 2******
I did one more test. Today I left it on wifi but with mobile data off. I also left ATK off. I DID make it 9 hours 20 mins.. So, leaving the mobile data off, and the wifi on definitely saves on battery. So does letting ATK run and set to my specifications as I said earlier.

It does seem that ATK had the greater effect. Which suprised me. I didn't expect that at all. I'll be doing some more tess over the next few days, but unless something changes, I'm not updating the post.

In conclusion, The best combo is ATK with constant wifi, using 3G/4G only when absolutely necessary. I was able to extend my battery life from a max of 8 hours to 15 hours.

I hope this helps at least someone out there and encourages others to do their own testing, and see for themselves.

Also, not to put in a plug for a product, bc I know this is the wrong thread, but I downloaded Swype the other day and it freaking rocks. Like, its almost as awesome as my Evo. For real.

Http://beta.swype.com

 

[plopez12]

Here is my graph from the past day and a half or so...wasn't paying too much attention to my usage but I would say that it was light/moderate...will do the same thing tomorrow and monitor usage...

so unplugged at about 315 sunday after noon and at 9% approx at 915 monday night

 

[farva]

On most of these screenshots people are posting, I see "Android System" using 14-15% ... mine is consistently over 30%, what may be responsible for the increase?

edit: Here are all of the included packages under "Android System" - are any of these completely unnecessary?

Sync Feeds
Account and Sync Settings
HTC Function Test Program 1.00g
Settings Storage
Settings
Accounts & sync
Network Location
Checkin Service
VPN Services
HTC Checkin Service
HTC Widget Download Manager
Setup
BrcmBluetoothServices (<<< even when I have Bluetooth turned off?)
Android System
Rosie Utility

 

[iamtybaby]

It's no way some of you people are getting more then 15 hours on a charge and ur actually using the device...Anybody can get 2 and 3 days on a charge if it Jus sitts in ur pocket or desk...imma very popular dude so my phone is always in use, e-mail, text etc...everytime I see somebody's battery usage it says idle takes up most of there batter...So stop bragging about Ur battery life if u rarely use it please

 

[shandroid]

So should I NOT charge my phone while I sleep for 8hoursish? Also how often should you recalibrate the battery?

 

[NewNoob]

I leave it on the charger. This is a high tech, modern device. I assume that it runs off of the charger and charges the battery simultaneously while plugged in. I also assume it has over charge protection built in. So far that appears to be right.

 

[Tyzing]

My locale is using 88% of my battery....is that normal? Does that mean that if I know I wont be on a charge all day and I turn it off I'll get that much more battery use? Is it me or is that alot?

 

[4g4me]

Ill start from the begining. Got my evo- charged it for a few hours until light turned green. Got about 5 hours out of it.

Read online and did all of the tricks others were talking about, started reducing functionality and backing down syncing. removing apps, stopping automatic startup- even rooted with damage control, still didnt see much difference. at that time i was getting about 5.5 to 6 hours out of it with moderate use.

Did the "conditioning" noticed no real change



IF THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR THEN READ ON

So i decided to try something different.

I charge the phone turned !!!OFF!!! from around 15 % to full (green light) . Turn the phone on til green light (usually takes about 15 minutes)

Thats it



I now get at least 12 hours heavy use. I did not do that process last night and im 4 hours off charge -light use and am almost dead. so i really think this works.

try it out and post back if it did or did not work for you.


again i use phone until 15% or less. turn phone off. place on charge until i get a green light. turn phone on. wait for green light. unplug charger. enjoy lasting battery.

http://androidforums.com/tips-trick...y-conditioning-not-working-you-look-here.html

 

[EVO Pilot]

Lots of great tips here. Anybody bought a Mugen 1800 mAh battery yet?

 

[TambourineMan]

My battery life was good, but now it's gone to H3ll even while mostly idling now that I am off vacation and back to work at my office. I have added some apps (such as WeatherBug Elite (since removed)), plus my office has 4G (yea!). I thought I read that 4G did not use that much battery.

My Android System is using most of my battery life and I have many of the same things running as listed by Farva.

Is there any way to get a further breakdown of what's using the battery?

Where can we find which of these can be killed without a problem?

On most of these screenshots people are posting, I see "Android System" using 14-15% ... mine is consistently over 30%, what may be responsible for the increase?

edit: Here are all of the included packages under "Android System" - are any of these completely unnecessary?

Sync Feeds
Account and Sync Settings
HTC Function Test Program 1.00g
Settings Storage
Settings
Accounts & sync
Network Location
Checkin Service
VPN Services
HTC Checkin Service
HTC Widget Download Manager
Setup
BrcmBluetoothServices (<<< even when I have Bluetooth turned off?)
Android System
Rosie Utility

 

[355spider]

Now that my Evo is rooted and underclocked the battery seems to go forever.

 

[drdrewdown]

stock rom w/ unrevoked3 + setCPU

 

[kirbysawhoor]

made a thread about this but it's going to get bumped out really quick I'm guessing. So I'm putting it somewhere it'll stay around. Onestepahead from xda got a reply from htc about the battery and they said to do this.

To also help with Battery Life you can do these steps exactly: 1) Turn your device ON and Charge the device for 8 hours or more 2) Unplug the device and Turn the phone OFF and charge for 1 hour 3) Unplug the device Turn ON wait 2 minutes and Turn OFF and charge for another hour Your battery life should almost double, we have tested this on our devices and other agents have seen a major difference as well

I tried it and it seems to definitely help so far. They suggest to do it once a month but doing it just once ever would help I'd imagine. here's the link Official response from HTC RE: How to double battery Life (WORKS!) + 2nd Reply - xda-developers

 

[freeop]

Hi all and I know I am posting in a year old post, but just found this Gem and wanted to use all the tips.

I did go through the whole post and didn't see anything about the differences between Charging the EVO. I have 2 different setups and was trying to find out about each.

1. I have the Standard Docking station that I purchased from Sprint with the HD port (Which I never use) connected to my computer for HTC Sync and file transfers. I use this to charge the phone normally via the USB connection with the computer.

2. I have the wall plugin and the USB cable to charge mainly when I am away from the Docking station.

I guess my question is, what is the charging differences between using the USB Trickle from the computer and the Wall plug?

BTW thanks for all the great tips from the above posts. Haven't tried them all yet but sounds like a lot of Great pointers.

 

[freeop]

Well you have made me a believer. I tried some of the pointers and restarted some of the things I thought were needed by me, and have really noticed a big difference in the draining of my battery the first day. I did the meter calibration and drain to < 10% and recharged to full. Then did the thing that Kirbysawhoor mentioned.

Again am really impressed in the difference many of the items did to improve my battery life.

Thanks...