Help Droid Incredible Wi-Fi battery consumption

[plnelson]

As an experiment I set all my internet apps - backup assistant, gmail, people, calendar, news, weather, amazon, stocks, facebook, etc, etc, ETC, to not automatically update, sync, refresh or do anything on the internet without my say-so.

I then turned off my phone, put a full charge on it and turned it back on again to reset the timer for Settings > About phone > Battery > Battery use.

For the next 6 hours I made a few phone calls while I was not in range of any wifi; I used a few local (non-internet) apps like calculator and stopwatch and camera but I did NOT use any internet apps. At the end of that time "battery use" showed Wi-Fi at 30%, Cell standby at 28% and voice calls at 6%.

So why is WiFi so high? Is that just from some "keep alive" or beacon or polling feature? Or is there some app or process I don't know about using the WiFi connection, and how do I tell?

Thanks in advance.

 

[woop]

This may be a dumb question, but having read your story, you never said you turned off wifi. Did you make sure wifi was off and that you were strictly on 3g?

 

[howarmat]

ok list all your % cause that is not all of them

just because you see 30% that means nothing. its just 30% of the total battery use. mine is 24% right now but i have been unplugged for 15 hours and still have 45% off my battery left

 

[Terabethia]

This may be a dumb question, but having read your story, you never said you turned off wifi. Did you make sure wifi was off and that you were strictly on 3g?

This. You simply said that you made sure you weren't in range of a WiFi, but you didn't say you actually turned OFF WiFi. Did you? Because it's entirely possible that you were on WiFi and didn't realize it...

 

[DGRYAN1977]

I am still not sold that WiFi saves battery. When I am at home, sitting in my comfy recliner approximately 5 feet from my router, my battery drains quicker than on 3G.
I am still experimenting though because everyone here swears the battery lasts longer this way.

 

[woop]

I am still not sold that WiFi saves battery. When I am at home, sitting in my comfy recliner approximately 5 feet from my router, my battery drains quicker than on 3G.
I am still experimenting though because everyone here swears the battery lasts longer this way.

Wifi lasts longer because it is a constant source whereas the 3G radio is constantly scanning to try and get the best signal. It gets even worse when you have low to no signal as the radio must work even harder to connect.

 

[howarmat]

i consistently get probably 2 times the battery life on wifi with mine over 3G

 

[DGRYAN1977]

I turned my WiFi on with my battery at 88%. 15 minutes later my battery is at 81%. WiFi using 14% of my battery. The phone has been sitting still minus 2 texts sent.

 

[K2e2vin]

I think what he's saying is why does WiFi use so much battery when its not being used(WiFi on but no data/signal).

 

[kayst]

When I first got my phone, I got much better battery life with WIFI on all the time at the house, with it set to Never Sleep, as opposed to 3G or wifi on but with a timeout. Since upgrading to Froyo, it seems the wifi is using more battery than it used to and I get better battery life with wifi set to sleep after 15 mins (wireless settings/menu/advanced).

I don't know why this is, perhaps the new radio that turned on wireless N has something to do with it. I do NOT have a wireless N router however.

 

[Mr. Incredible]

The froyo update definitely modified the 802.11g radio settings. Before, I could only DL about 5MB from my G router before it would drop. I haven't had it drop a single time since the update. The obvious guess would be they pumped up the juice to the WiFi.

- To the OP. The WiFi will burn more juice when not connected than when it is connected. It will constantly send out SSID requests of known networks and look for a network to connect to. My WiFi is on at home and work, but off everywhere else.

 

[jwm1986]

I found a setting for WIFI that made a nice difference on my Dinc... Still not quite as good as back on 2.1 but much better!

Try it:
Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wi-Fi Settings > Now hit "menu" then "advanced" > Wi-Fi Sleep Policy > From here the choice is yours... I changed mine from "Never" to "After 15 min"

*whoops - just saw this was basically already stated, oh well

 

[woop]

I think what he's saying is why does WiFi use so much battery when its not being used(WiFi on but no data/signal).

If thats the case, then it should be pretty self explanatory. Same reason why leaving your bluetooth/GPS on will kill battery. If you leave your wifi on without an open port to connect to, your phone will keep scanning to look for one.

 

[kayst]

I think this thread
http://androidforums.com/incredible-tips-tricks/186318-may-have-found-ota-froyo-battery-killer.html
may have solved my wifi problem. I changed the settings in the Amazon MP3 app as described and my battery is lasting much longer and wifi is no longer the top user in the battery statistics. I have even changed the wifi sleep policy back to never sleep and it still seems to be working better.

 

[jwm1986]

I have since removed the Amazon app completely, and it hasn't made a difference on mine. Even added it back, and changed the setting for fun, no dice.

 

[K2e2vin]

WiFi still uses a lot of resources for me...even if there is a connection. I'm trying out Juice Defender and see if that helps.

 

[Mr. Incredible]

WiFi still uses a lot of resources for me...even if there is a connection. I'm trying out Juice Defender and see if that helps.

What's the network strenght where you're at? It's more an issue of 3G sucking a lot of juice at < 2 bars as opposed to WiFi being a great low power connection.

 

[K2e2vin]

Full Wi-Fi strength, zero 3G(inside of a building). If 3G is the issue, why does it say WiFi is using a lot of resources?

 

[tommy_ed]

If thats the case, then it should be pretty self explanatory. Same reason why leaving your bluetooth/GPS on will kill battery. If you leave your wifi on without an open port to connect to, your phone will keep scanning to look for one.

gps actually doesnt use battery power unless it's actually being used by an app... its not working unless you see the little satellite dish in your notification bar. notice it pops up when you open google maps or navigation

 

[jwm1986]

gps actually doesnt use battery power unless it's actually being used by an app... its not working unless you see the little satellite dish in your notification bar. notice it pops up when you open google maps or navigation

Something to add to your statement:
Some apps that follow you like weather widgets will use it quite often to keep themselves updated.

 

[howarmat]

trust me, wifi uses less power than 3G. today is a great example.

Last 2 days, 3G connection only in a decent but not good 3G area and battery was down to 10% both days.

today i was able to get on WIFI and battery was only at 45%.

Exact same usage pattern and room all 3 days.

WIFI still showed 27% of overall use. But that number means nothing. There is no number for "3G" connection btw to compare to really.