Help Getting atrocious battery life on Nexus 5. Help!

ncbowman · Feb 17, 2014

So I just switched over from the iPhone to the Nexus 5, and I've been getting absolutely awful battery life with middling usage (basically I'll be down to 35-40% by about 4pm and lose about 20% if I leave it unplugged overnight). Is there anything in particular that could be causing this? I've had to keep my screen brightness down to 10% or so just to get the battery life I have now, and have turned on most of the battery-saving location settings.

I've included a link to my usage from today--it's at less than 3 hours of light use and over a quarter of the battery life is drained. Help!

http://i.imgur.com/pwXOhSg.png

Rxpert83 · Feb 17, 2014

You should definitely NOT be losing 20% overnight. It sounds like it could be a wake lock, but we're going to need a lot more information.

What do you have syncing under your google account? What about facebook? Do you use wifi? Bluetooth? Whats your location settings set at? Whats your brightness set at? How much of that was screen on time?

Really, I'd suggest downloading an app like betterbatterystats or GSAM battery monitor. They will let us know exactly what is eating up all that batter.

ncbowman · Feb 17, 2014

Rxpert83 said:
You should definitely NOT be losing 20% overnight. It sounds like it could be a wake lock, but we're going to need a lot more information.

What do you have syncing under your google account? What about facebook? Do you use wifi? Bluetooth? Whats your location settings set at? Whats your brightness set at? How much of that was screen on time?

Really, I'd suggest downloading an app like betterbatterystats or GSAM battery monitor. They will let us know exactly what is eating up all that batter.

Brightness is turned almost all the way down (somewhere around 5-10%), I use wifi where it's available otherwise I have it turned off, bluetooth is never on, location settings are at "battery saving mode," as are Google Play and Google Search settings. Also have Google Location Reporting turned off.

How do I find out what I have syncing under google/facebook? Just downloaded GSAM battery monitor, so once it finishes calculating I'll more info. In the meantime, is there anything else I can do? Thanks!

jj14x · Feb 17, 2014

ncbowman said:
I've included a link to my usage from today--it's at less than 3 hours of light use and over a quarter of the battery life is drained. Help!

http://i.imgur.com/pwXOhSg.png

That screen capture, on its own doesn't really tell much. Next time you take a screen print of this screen, also click on "Screen" and see how much screen on-time you had.

If you had 30 minutes of screen on time in those 2 hours 47 minutes, and your battery dropped 28%, that may not be atrocious. Most people report getting anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of screen on time from the N5.

ncbowman · Feb 17, 2014

So here's my brightness and screen usage monitor (its at about an hour and 42 mins, making up about 25% of usage with the battery now down to 5%). Is that normal? I feel as though less than 2 hours of screen usage shouldn't be murdering my battery this much, especially with the brightness cranked all the way down like that.

http://i.imgur.com/7WDmdAr.png

http://i.imgur.com/G5Yao0o.png

DroidVision · Feb 17, 2014

Howdy folk's I have mine on auto brightness Battery save is on in the location & I use my wfi for maybe 50% of the day and I'm dam near getting 12 hrs of mild use out of mine and when I do have to put the charger on it after that 12 hrs I still can have 35% left on the phone

aagha · Feb 17, 2014

My recommendation would be to flash the franco kernel. I had terrible battery life and after two days of the new kernel, I'm going a full day with heavy usage and battery left over!

ncbowman · Feb 18, 2014

aagha said:
My recommendation would be to flash the franco kernel. I had terrible battery life and after two days of the new kernel, I'm going a full day with heavy usage and battery left over!

How would I do that? I'm pretty new Android, so I'm learning a lot for the first time. Thanks so much!

Rxpert83 · Feb 18, 2014

Flashing a kernel requires root, which you likely wouldn't have.

There are plenty of non root options we can try once gsam tells us more about what's going on

akmsr · Feb 18, 2014

probably you checked this already but do you happen to live in a weak signal area? that is one of the main reason for quick battery drain.

jj14x · Feb 18, 2014

ncbowman said:
So here's my brightness and screen usage monitor (its at about an hour and 42 mins, making up about 25% of usage with the battery now down to 5%). Is that normal? I feel as though less than 2 hours of screen usage shouldn't be murdering my battery this much, especially with the brightness cranked all the way down like that.

http://i.imgur.com/7WDmdAr.png

http://i.imgur.com/G5Yao0o.png

so, with under 2 hours of usage, your battery went down from 100% to 6%? (you started at 100%?)

What else shows up on the battery usage? Were you playing a game (or something else that taxes the CPU?) Share the first screen print (that you had posted in your first post on this thread) also

If you had no other CPU taxing activity going on, this battery drain is not normal.
As akmsr said - check if you are in a weak coverage area (which carrier are you with?). Check if your location is set to battery saving. And most importantly, reboot and recharge to 100% and then see if the same problem persists.

nx1977 · Feb 19, 2014

Try installing this.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xiam.snapdragon.app

Rxpert83 · Feb 19, 2014

While many do find that useful, I think we need to pinpoint what's killing the battery first.

He/she def has something strange going on

nx1977 · Feb 20, 2014

With apps like Facebook and Twitter and other social media apps are set out of the box to check constantly for updates.

If the culprit can't be found, battery guru should stop or at least slow it down.

Could be playing games, or lots of screen on time.

If the OP could post what is listed under battery usage that'd help.

ncbowman · Feb 21, 2014

Alright, so I finally got some usable data after leaving my phone unplugged overnight. It looks as though "Media" is using up a vast majority of my battery power when my phone is idling. Is there any way I could stop this from happening? I've included screenshots below (My phone lost 20% of its battery life overnight just sitting on my nightstand).

Thanks everyone for your help!

http://i.imgur.com/ixxTkEp.png

http://i.imgur.com/8oYz2wu.png

JBentleyR · Feb 21, 2014

ncbowman said:
Alright, so I finally got some usable data after leaving my phone unplugged overnight. It looks as though "Media" is using up a vast majority of my battery power when my phone is idling. Is there any way I could stop this from happening? I've included screenshots below (My phone lost 20% of its battery life overnight just sitting on my nightstand).

Thanks everyone for your help!

http://i.imgur.com/ixxTkEp.png

http://i.imgur.com/8oYz2wu.png

Isn't 'media' the same as 'downloads'?

edokid · Feb 21, 2014

I don't have suggestions but wanted to say I just switched from iPhone and can't believe how long the battery lasts. I charged it 2 days ago then used it a bunch, didn't touch it most of yesterday and then used all day today and I am at 35%. So it definitely sounds like something is wrong with your phone.

redf4rr · Feb 22, 2014

I was getting good battery life when new, then got worse and worse as adding apps. I turned off background data on apps and now battery last way longer. I turned them off by going to data usage display and touching app. Then scroll down till I saw background data and turned off. Did to every app. Hope this helps.

Omar Days · Feb 22, 2014

redf4rr said:
I was getting good battery life when new, then got worse and worse as adding apps. I turned off background data on apps and now battery last way longer. I turned them off by going to data usage display and touching app. Then scroll down till I saw background data and turned off. Did to every app. Hope this helps.

I could be wrong, but turning off background data stops your phone getting emails pushed, right?

jhawkkw · Feb 22, 2014

Omar Days said:
I could be wrong, but turning off background data stops your phone getting emails pushed, right?

If you do it system wide rather than app by app. You can leave background data on for your email app if desired.

akmsr · Feb 22, 2014

one more thing to consider.
looks like you have your wifi on. most of the time apps are designed to use updates and sync while on wifi to save on used data. that could be a reason all apps and services are updating and syncing overnight while wifi is on resulting in a spike on media as the highest drainer.
i usually choose the apps to notify me for updates and i do them manually. nothing automatic.

GuitarG20 · Feb 22, 2014

I think it could be a corrupt music or media file that is driving mediaserver crazy. I remember this used to be a huge issue; files that weren't perfect would cause mediaserver to go crazy trying to process them, and this would drain the battery like crazy while showing up as media. I would be interested to hear if the OP has any music or audio files stored on their device.

thisISjoel · Feb 26, 2014

My Nexus 5 is absolutely chewing battery today

2 hours 17 mins on battery, down from 100% to 78%

25% Exchange Services

25% Android System

11% Android OS

8% Email

8% Screen

7% Google Play Services

3% Wifi

3% Phone Idle

3% Google Plus

2% Mobile Standby

Might need one of those battery monitoring apps to see what's up?

Jason71 · Feb 26, 2014

Try "better battery stats" particularly the wakelocks and CPU states. Most of the time CPU should be in deep sleep. For you it almost certainly is not. Hopefully wakelocks may give a clue as to why.

thisISjoel · Feb 26, 2014

I think my hotmail account may be the culprit. I just checked the settings and it was flashing "syncing now" constantly. Not sure what to do to try to resolve it.

Help Getting atrocious battery life on Nexus 5. Help!

Lurker

Dr. Feelgood

Lurker

Android Expert

Lurker

Newbie

Lurker

Lurker

Dr. Feelgood

Android Enthusiast

Android Expert

Android Expert

Dr. Feelgood

Android Expert

Lurker

Android Enthusiast

Lurker

Newbie

Android Expert

Chinchillin'

Android Enthusiast

Clueless Senior Member

Android Enthusiast

Well-Known Member

Android Enthusiast

BEST TECH IN 2023

Smartphones

Best Android Phones

Upcoming

Best iPhones

Upcoming

Tablets

Best Tablets

Upcoming

Laptops

Best Laptops

Upcoming

Televisions

Best TVs

Upcoming

Game Consoles

Best Game Consoles

Upcoming

Wearables

Best Wearables

Upcoming

Smart Home

Smart Home Tech

Upcoming

Similar threads