Help Battery life = suck

jayn1321 · Jan 10, 2012

Well I was hoping to post a few screenshots, but I guess I can't as a new poster. To cut to the chase, my battery life sucks on my gnex. I am getting 4-6 hours of life on a full charge with minimal use. One night I had a full charge when I went to bed and woke up to a dead phone...I'm tired of having to bring my charger with me everywhere I go.

I have found a couple of things that may be contributing to the problem. First, I find that my signal is continually dropping and reconnecting. There are that many times I will pull my phone out of my pocket, dial whomever I may be calling and find that the signal dropped or had been dropped. Same goes with browsing any sites or apps. Mind you that I live in the DC area and it happens even when I am outside.

Secondly, looking at my battery chart, without heavy use I find that the CPU keep awake is up around 3 hours throughout a 5-6 hour life. I read an article on one of the Android sites about this a while back saying it varied phone to phone and is an issue with the kernel. Has this not been resolved?

I am seconds away from returning the phone for another, but I'd hate to have to go back through everything I've done so far with it. Plus I unlocked the bootloader, so I imagine I'd have to lock it if I was to bring it back to Verizon.

Anyway, any input or advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

zerocool79346 · Jan 10, 2012

First and foremost, go into Google Talk and sign out of it. If that doesn't improve it, PM me and I'll try to help you run it down a little more.

SeattleYanksFan · Jan 10, 2012

What apps have you installed thus far? Sounds like you have an app that is keeping the phone awake the majority of the time. If I go to bed with a full charge, I wake up with around 95% battery remaining.

And like suggested above, definitely sign out of Google Talk.

Mr. Poppalopolis · Jan 10, 2012

It should not have that much awake time. There's a chance it's a hardware problem, but it's most likely an app keeping the phone awake.

zerocool79346 · Jan 10, 2012

[APP] BetterBatteryStats adds battery history back to Gingerbread - xda-developers

OP, download this app and install it. It'll give you a better idea of what is keeping your phone awake if it is in fact an app.

jayn1321 · Jan 10, 2012

Gtalk will kill the battery that quickly? I had it on my BB curve running constantly and it didn't hurt that battery that much.

As far as apps running (under settings -> apps -> running tab), I have:
settings
facebook
circle battery
vzmessages
syncmlsvc
bip
goog services
exchange
maps
vzbackup
light flow
keyboard
live wallpaper

thanks guys, zero...i'll dl that app here and check it out.

artman540 · Jan 10, 2012

I'd attach the picture if I knew how to resize it, but I'm getting phenomenal battery life. 16 hrs of use and I'm at 9% life.

Graham84 · Jan 10, 2012

If you aren't against flashing custom roms, try this build of CM9:

[ROM][CDMA][4.0.3] CM9 Kang *Updated 1/8 1:55pm* - xda-developers

I've been running it for a while now and with the extended battery (and even without) I'm getting much better battery life than I was with stock 4.0.2

zerocool79346 · Jan 10, 2012

jayn1321 said:
Gtalk will kill the battery that quickly? I had it on my BB curve running constantly and it didn't hurt that battery that much.

As far as apps running (under settings -> apps -> running tab), I have:
settings
facebook
circle battery
vzmessages
syncmlsvc
bip
goog services
exchange
maps
vzbackup
light flow
keyboard
live wallpaper

thanks guys, zero...i'll dl that app here and check it out.

GTalk in inconsistent on Androids. It absolutely MURDERED the battery on my Eris when I had it, but I never had any trouble with it on my Inc. Seems that is being funky again with the GNex. If you don't use them, disable all of the VZW apps (can do this by going to Settings>Apps>All>find each app and click the disable button), I doubt they're using much, but its worth the try.

streetfish · Jan 10, 2012

try getting rid of vzw backup, heard that ones a killer. disable it!

SeattleYanksFan · Jan 10, 2012

streetfish said:
try getting rid of vzw backup, heard that ones a killer. disable it!

I don't see any place to disable that app. How would you do so?

thenew3 · Jan 10, 2012

there was a week when my nexus was burning through a full charge on the extended battery within 4 hours of doing nothing. (standby).

After a lot of trial an error disabling apps, in my case it was swype that was causing it. Eventhough swype didn't show up at all when you check battery usage.

After uninstalling swype, I'm getting much better life. yesterday had it unplugged for 16 hours with moderate use, at the end of the day, battery still had 57% left. This was on 4G about 90% of the time, the other 10% was 3G.

If you have swype installed, uninstall or diable it and see if it helps with your battery life.

jayn1321 · Jan 10, 2012

I disabled vzw backup...we'll see how that goes. Any ideas as to why my network connection drops so frequently? I dont know if this is a problem others are experiencing but i would think the constant searching and reconnecting would be a battery killer.

jayn1321 · Jan 10, 2012

Yanks...

zerocool79346 said:
If you don't use them, disable all of the VZW apps (can do this by going to Settings>Apps>All>find each app and click the disable button), I doubt they're using much, but its worth the try.

Sandroidfan · Jan 10, 2012

Is Gtalk also a battery hog on Nexus? Never heard it before.
But I heard about Google+ being culprit for drain. So I signed out and closed it in background and also uninstalled Facebook app. I'm using ICS browser for those SNS to reduce battery drain rate.

Also if you are in weak 4G area, I would put it in 3G/CDMA mode and keep WiFi on. I use my nexus this way at work as I do only some calls, check emails, browse news sites occasionally. Seems like mine can go over 20 hours when used lightly like this.

SeattleYanksFan · Jan 10, 2012

jayn1321 said:
Yanks...

Thanks. I was looking at the "Running" tab, which doesn't allow you to disable.

jse2480 · Jan 10, 2012

What is Google Talk doing? I use that all the time, and have it running constantly. I didn't realize there was an issue.

By the way, I just got 28 hours and 45 minutes off the first day with my extended battery yesterday, looks like i'm on my way to about 23 or so today with what's left. That's with wifi, 4g and 3g, and I don't get 4G in my office. I was getting ~16 hours on the std battery. Highest usages... Android OS and Screen.

On my third nexus. The first two were terrible on battery, like less than 10 hours, but it was a new toy.

streetfish · Jan 10, 2012

SeattleYanksFan said:
I don't see any place to disable that app. How would you do so?

settings, apps i believe

mntbighker · Jan 11, 2012

I noticed that Ebay has no options for connection rate and considering the nature of the application I wonder if it is a battery sucker?

jayn1321 · Jan 11, 2012

No luck so far (disabling vzw apps). I am at about 6 hours as of now with 20% left. My total Android OS Keep awake time is just over 2 hours, where I have only really used the phone for 45 minutes (according to the screen time on), much of it being emailing, texting, etc (no gaming, streaming).

I think I may resort to returning the phone. Not only is my keep awake time high, but I think the continual dropping of the network signal is taking its toll on the battery life too. Attached is a screenshot of today's battery graph.

Sandroidfan · Jan 11, 2012

jayn1321 said:
No luck so far (disabling vzw apps). I am at about 6 hours as of now with 20% left. My total Android OS Keep awake time is just over 2 hours, where I have only really used the phone for 45 minutes (according to the screen time on), much of it being emailing, texting, etc (no gaming, streaming).

I think I may resort to returning the phone. Not only is my keep awake time high, but I think the continual dropping of the network signal is taking its toll on the battery life too. Attached is a screenshot of today's battery graph.

If you don't always need 4G, you'd better keep it in 3G/CDMA and WiFi on. I also checked "don't keep activities" in setting/developer options. I found Gnex battery is lasting pretty long with this setting, especially if it's in weak or no 4G areas. But if you want to keep 4G on, you may try battery saver app like Juice Defender or 2X battery.

snuggles · Jan 11, 2012

I live in a 4G area and I can leave my phone sit idle while doing a couple texts etc for about 30 hours. Now if I play games the battery drops like a rock!!! I guess thats to be expected running a dual core phone.

NOTE: I'm using the standard battery because my extended battery only gets 12 hours with the same condiontions .

elmerjr128 · Jan 11, 2012

snuggles said:
I live in a 4G area and I can leave my phone sit idle while doing a couple texts etc for about 30 hours. Now if I play games the battery drops like a rock!!! I guess thats to be expected running a dual core phone.

NOTE: I'm using the standard battery becasue my extended battery only gets 12 hours with the same condiontions .

I'm having the same issue; standard gets MUCH better life than extended. What gives?

Deleted User · Jan 11, 2012

Are you sure that the extended battery actually gets worse battery life, or does the phone just say that the battery is dropping fast?

The meter on the phone needs to be calibrated - best thing to do is to charge it up, and then use the phone until it turns off.

ska.t73 · Jan 11, 2012

binary visions said:
Are you sure that the extended battery actually gets worse battery life, or does the phone just say that the battery is dropping fast?

The meter on the phone needs to be calibrated - best thing to do is to charge it up, and then use the phone until it turns off.

I'm using the extended battery and have been since day one, I bought it with the phone and we put it in before we even turned it on. I have went through a few cycles. I'm not having horible battery life, however I am not seeing what I would expect the extended battery to deliver.

I'm thinking about switching out to the normal battery and running on that for a few days to see if I can see a difference. Now I know that the extended battery isn't that big of an upgrade over the standard, however I would think that you would be able to see a gain in life. The way I'm seeing it, it is just the same as the standard.

If the poster above me is correct with getting 30 hours while mostly idle (I to am in a great 4G area and have it on at all times, few texts, no time without signal), then they are getting pretty much the same life as I am (actually a bit better). Since I am using the extended battery and they are showing that with the standard it would lead me to believe there is something not quite right with my battery.

Help Battery life = suck

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