Help Several Questions, new to Droid..

[Skymrnlit]

[FONT=&quot]Hi, My name is Sky and I just bought my first Android phone, the Incredible 2. LOVING it so far… however I have a few things I am stumped on that I was hoping someone could help me with. They are probably really stupid little things, but frustrating me.. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]First I accidentally deleted the sound or phone “profile” icon; the icon that toggles between normal/vibrate/silent. I wanted to move it to a different home screen and thought I could do it by deleting it and pulling it back up on the screen I wanted, (I have since figured out I can drag from home screen to home screen -duh).. The problem is I cannot find that icon again anywhere. It is on the settings page, but it won’t shortcut to the home page. I know I can toggle with the volume button on side of phone, however, I like the visual of what “mode” it is in.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot](Forgive me if I am not using the right buzzwords… I sincerely want to become a droid snob… but it takes time to learn the lingo.. LOL [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Another issue I have is with my mail. I have my Google account which I use a lot and set up fine and then set up my ISP e-mail account, which worked fine too, however I have my mail program on my Mac also check my Google and I was just getting double mail, so I deleted the ISP account off the droid. No problem.. or so I thought.. I am still, off and on, getting double mail and crazy as all things, not getting ANY g-mail on my Mac anymore.. LOL aaaaaa I have triple checked the setting in Mail and they were not changed. Is it possible that once it downloads to the android, it doesn’t go anywhere else? Is this question making any sense?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And Lastly, at least for now.. I can’t figure out how you delete old sms messages… the threads are getting real long..[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thanks in advance for any help… I am sure I will have more questions.. but for now.. these are driving me a bit nuts and I am sure there are very simple answers I just can’t find being new to Droid (and being a Mac person –ex PC)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Have a great day![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sky[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As suggested, to the Mods.. if there is a better place for this... I would appreciate you moving it. [/FONT]

 

[lunatic59]

First I accidentally deleted the sound or phone “profile” icon; the icon that toggles between normal/vibrate/silent. I wanted to move it to a different home screen and thought I could do it by deleting it and pulling it back up on the screen I wanted, ...

What you got there is a toggle widget. Long press an empty area of the home screen where you want the widget to appear and when the menu pops up, select widgets. If you have beautiful widgets installed, you're looking for Beautiful toggle. And, if you want to move something from one screen to the next just long press it and drag it to the edge of the screen in the direction of the screen you want to move it to. The screen will flip and you can drop it wherever there's room.

(Forgive me if I am not using the right buzzwords… I sincerely want to become a droid snob.)

No you don't. Snobism is for iNsecure types and iDiots.

Another issue I have is with my mail. I have my Google account which I use a lot and set up fine and then set up my ISP e-mail account, which worked fine too, however I have my mail program on my Mac also check my Google and I was just getting double mail, so I deleted the ISP account off the droid. No problem.. or so I thought.. I am still, off and on, getting double mail and crazy as all things, not getting ANY g-mail on my Mac anymore.. LOL aaaaaa I have triple checked the setting in Mail and they were not changed. Is it possible that once it downloads to the android, it doesn’t go anywhere else? Is this question making any sense?

If you are using your mail client to check your gmail, it certainly is possible. Use the gmail app to check your gmail and it should leave the messages on the server. To check open the email app. If you see the account and not the inbox long press on the account and select settings. If you go right to the inbox, press menu>accounts and then long press, etc. Once there look for incoming settings. Select that and scroll down to make sure "delete messages from server" is set to "never".

And Lastly, at least for now.. I can’t figure out how you delete old sms messages… the threads are getting real long..

If you are using the stock messaging app, long press the thread and select "delete thread". You can also set a limit to the number of messages per thread by going (in the messaging app) to menu>settings and select text limit. I think the default is 200. That way if you go over, it will automatically delete the oldest message when you get a new one.

 

[Skymrnlit]

YES!! Thank you! The icon was a widget and it was no longer in my list, but was able to go to all the droid ones and found it again... THANK YOU..

and yes.. it appears that somehow my g-mail was also under mail.. and under g-mail.. so straighten that out too. (happy dance) And my

Slowly but surely learning this.. any other advice for a Mac user that might miss the nuances of the android system??

 

[Skymrnlit]

I have another question. The battery does seem to drain fast and I am accounting most of that to the fact I am messing with it a lot.. however, it still doesn't make it through the day. I have downloaded advanced task killer (per a recommendation) to close things down regularly.. but what are some other things I can do to help battery life. I want to be able to play with my phone..

 

[nate.kelmes]

I have another question. The battery does seem to drain fast and I am accounting most of that to the fact I am messing with it a lot.. however, it still doesn't make it through the day. I have downloaded advanced task killer (per a recommendation) to close things down regularly.. but what are some other things I can do to help battery life. I want to be able to play with my phone..

Well, so there are two threads regarding battery life that I started... read through them. A couple things you can do is make sure WiFi is not on if you're not actually connected to WiFi. The phone searching for a WiFi signal is a major drain on your battery. Also same with GPS. If you're not actually using navigation, turn off your GPS. That is a HUGE drain on your battery.

I used Advanced Task Killer on my Dinc1 and I feel that it helped, but numerous people felt that it didn't really help as much as I thought it did. With my Dinc2 i'm not using ATK and on a light use day (like today) where i'm sitting at my desk on a WiFi connection instead of using 3G, no GPS... I'll go to bed tonight with over 70% battery remaining.

 

[Skymrnlit]

wow... by noon my battery is 50%.. I don't keep my wifi or gps on.. hmmm

 

[nate.kelmes]

woah... that is significant.

Read through these... maybe you'll find the problem.

http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible-2/326546-incredible-2-battery-life-experiment-day-1-a.html

http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible-2/327159-incredible-2-battery-life-experiment-day-2-a.html

 

[Skymrnlit]

Deleting Advanced task killer.. that is about the only thing I see that I am doing different. Need to find where to turn off the 3G.. not sure I need it.. also going to go get the app you spoke of... Thanks again..

 

[Skymrnlit]

Do bump charges help or hurt a battery life..(I know it used to hurt them) or does it make no difference anymore..

 

[nateap87]

I have another question. The battery does seem to drain fast and I am accounting most of that to the fact I am messing with it a lot.. however, it still doesn't make it through the day. I have downloaded advanced task killer (per a recommendation) to close things down regularly.. but what are some other things I can do to help battery life. I want to be able to play with my phone..

get rid of the task killer. it constantly running kills your battery and also you'll shut down apps that shouldn't be closed. the only thing good about it is the cool little android guy in your notification bar

also, your battery will get better when the novelty wears off. when i get a new phone, i just turn it on and just flip through my home screens :/ you're also just learning it. you're still setting everything up and exploring. once everything is set the way you want, your battery will increase. also, many apps will drain the life out of your battery. try and be aware of what apps you've recently downloaded so if for some reason, you start experiencing worse drain, you can maybe try and pinpoint it.

THE BIGGEST THINGS (one being the wifi constantly scanning, so turn it off when not in use), mess around with the accounts and sync section in the settings menu. for example, how often do you really need facebook to update your contacts? do you use the stocks widget for it be need to be synced? also, the more email clients you have, the worse your battery. especially if you have them syncing pretty frequently. gps doesn't kill your battery unless you're using an app that utilizes it. an idle gps doesn't use power. it just allows apps to use it at their own will. i also found that when using the friends stream widget, my battery suffered just enough to notice. text a lot? set it so your phone doesn't vibrate on keypress. chat/video chat clients will also hinder your battery's duration through the day.

i hope you've found at least ONE thing in this that will help you. enjoy your incredible 2! it's a great phone!

 

[lunatic59]

I have another question. The battery does seem to drain fast and I am accounting most of that to the fact I am messing with it a lot.. however, it still doesn't make it through the day. I have downloaded advanced task killer (per a recommendation) to close things down regularly.. but what are some other things I can do to help battery life. I want to be able to play with my phone..

First thing you do it get rid of ATK, it is the most misused app in the Android ecosystem. Using ATK's autokill will drain the battery faster like running a searchlight off a car battery.

If you want to know the reasons, read up on it here.

I'd point out that your phone is new, you are most likely to be playing with it a lot in the beginning draining the battery faster, or at least appearing that way. To optimize battery life you should first "train" the phone as to what a full charge is. Let the phone run down until it shuts itself off (deep discharge). Then charge it to full uninterrupted using the AC adapter, not a USB connection to a computer. If the phone was off during the charge, unplug it and turn it on. If the phone was on, unplug it. In either case, wait a few minutes plug it back in and then trun it off while plugged in. It's important the you turn it off AFTER you plug it in because in many cases, plugging it in will power on the phone. Charge it for at least another hour. Now you have "taught" your phone what a full charge is and you should see markedly improved battery life. Mind you, you should only have to do this once since deep discharging a phone regularly can hurt the battery.

To get even better life from your phone only turn on WiFi and GPS when you are using them. Set the screen to Auto brightness. Also you should change your email settings to poll less frequently. Once an hour works for me. (gmail is push, so you'll still get that immediately).

If you think you are draining much too fast after that, try Watchdog Task Manager Lite - Android app on AppBrain and see if you have any misbehaving apps.

If this is your first smart phone, you have to realize that it will have horrible battery life compared to a dumb feature phone. Expect a day and a half charge with moderate use and less than a day with heavy use. At least at first.

 

[lunatic59]

Do bump charges help or hurt a battery life..(I know it used to hurt them) or does it make no difference anymore..

No, modern batteries are designed to take incremental charges. continually deep discharges with do more harm.

 

[Skymrnlit]

Thank you both... going to try everything you have said... This isn't my first smart phone, I have had a BB for yearssssss it IS my first Android OS... thanks again.. will let you know how it goes..

 

[Skymrnlit]

I LOVE this phone... and will welcome any other suggestions to help me settle in more and get the most from my phone.

 

[lunatic59]

I LOVE this phone... and will welcome any other suggestions to help me settle in more and get the most from my phone.

I currently have 84 apps installed. Maybe one of them you might find useful.

lunatic59's Apps on the Nexus One - Page 1

 

[Skymrnlit]

I currently have 84 apps installed. Maybe one of them you might find useful.

lunatic59's Apps on the Nexus One - Page 1

Very cool!!! Downloading more than a few!.. Thanks!

 

[Skymrnlit]

ALREADY notice difference in battery drain having removed the task kill!!!