• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Battery Drain due to Software Bug w/GPS?

Are you able to replicate this same issue?


  • Total voters
    112
mine did the same thing. i go good batt life after i rebooted with a new batt from vz and then when i docked it and it used the weather widget batt life went to crap. spair parts is awsome. and u guys are awsome too. thanks alot. i called vz and u could have swore i was speaking anouther language i called level 2 too at 866 406 5154 thats level 2 tech support they actually know stuff.
 
Upvote 0
Yes, the rep uses a task killer and makes sure to turn off GPS when not using it, which fully explains why they couldn't reproduce the issue. Tell them to temporarily disable the task killer and do not manually turn off the GPS, then see if they reproduce it.

Beyond that, since I found this thread and confirmed it on mine (and disabled GPS), I have gone all day, 10 hours worth, of a couple calls, some texts and a few emails, and I just now ticked down to 60%. Probably not the best battery life, but knowing I could go another 10 hours of similar usage and STILL have around 20% charge is nice.
 
Upvote 0
For whatever it's worth, after a few days now, I can safely say this has made a big difference in battery life.

I don't always activate the GPS every day, so it wasn't killing me every day, but it's got to be something in the range of a 30% to 50% improvement. The last couple of days with light to light-mid usage, I've been at 50% after like 14-15 hours. Very impressive.

Also, I've found that I really don't need to use the GPS as much as I thought. Locating me by cell tower/wireless network really suffices unless I'm using navigation.

Even for looking up traffic in google maps, it's fine to not use the GPS. Still locates me to within 70 meters or so, which is plenty fine for them pulling up traffic from there.

Basically, I haven't even turned the gps back on for days now.
 
Upvote 0
For whatever it's worth, after a few days now, I can safely say this has made a big difference in battery life.

I don't always activate the GPS every day, so it wasn't killing me every day, but it's got to be something in the range of a 30% to 50% improvement. The last couple of days with light to light-mid usage, I've been at 50% after like 14-15 hours. Very impressive.

Also, I've found that I really don't need to use the GPS as much as I thought. Locating me by cell tower/wireless network really suffices unless I'm using navigation.

Even for looking up traffic in google maps, it's fine to not use the GPS. Still locates me to within 70 meters or so, which is plenty fine for them pulling up traffic from there.

Basically, I haven't even turned the gps back on for days now.

Lex,

Just got my X yesterday and this GPS/Battery issue has me a bit concerned. Would you be willing to take a look at the thread I just posted (http://androidforums.com/support-troubleshooting-droid-x/142356-can-someone-explain-3-gps-location-settings-use-when.html#post1310837) and possibly explain the GPS/Location services to me? Sorry, didn't want to go off on a tangent in this thread.

Also, regarding the switching of the GPS on and off, my toggle widget didn't seem to work. Do I need to shutdown and power back up (is that the only way to reboot? Sorry, total android newb here).

Thanks!
 
Upvote 0
yep i got over 24 hours today on my charge and it still had 60% on it. i just dont know why more people arn't jumping on this. and people in other forums are like wha??? u could swear im speaking greek or something to them.

Agree, but I even had a hard time getting this jump started here. I had started a different thread with a slightly different title first and couldn't get anyone's attention.
 
Upvote 0
Just thought I would post some more screenshots to highlight exactly what we are talking about in the spare parts graphs...

Off charger at 5:10am. Turned on camera (I have geo-tagging turned on, so the gps activated) then closed out of it (backed out, so it was not running in background). I DID NOT toggle to gps (so I could do this testing).

Here is what spare parts showed at 6:12am after taking my dogs for a walk
snap20100805_061223.sized.png

My phone was awake the ENTIRE time, it never went into idle

snap20100805_061229.sized.png

Android System is pegged for usage and my battery had dropped 10%

I then went into settings > location and security and toggled the "Use GPS satellites" off, then right back on (never left the screen, just touch to uncheck, touch again to check)
snap20100805_061311.sized.png


I finished getting ready for work and then took another screenshot at 6:44am (1:34 off charger, 0:32 after toggling gps)
snap20100805_064430.sized.png

Now showing that my phone is going to sleep, just like it should.

snap20100805_064438.sized.png

Android System usage is now dropping

I went to work, push Gmail all day (with replying to multiple), decent amount of texting, 1 hour streaming pandora, and some web browsing. This was at 8:52PM and I was at 60% battery.

snap20100729_205225.sized.png

Clearly showing that phone is going to idle mode when not in use

snap20100729_205232.sized.png

Android System usage back at acceptable level

Hopefully this makes things a little more clear for some that a still a little unsure of what we are referring to. :) Now if we could only get moto/vzw to fix it :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: PSUlion01 and jroc
Upvote 0
Good screen shots. I wish there was a way to get get someone to pay attention to this though.

EDIT: I called that tier 2 # posted above.

Spoke with a nice woman who had a Droid X. She opened a formal ticket and included this forum link. Hopefully, this will get into the right hands now.
 
Upvote 0
Just thought I would post some more screenshots to highlight exactly what we are talking about in the spare parts graphs...

Off charger at 5:10am. Turned on camera (I have geo-tagging turned on, so the gps activated) then closed out of it (backed out, so it was not running in background). I DID NOT toggle to gps (so I could do this testing).

Here is what spare parts showed at 6:12am after taking my dogs for a walk
snap20100805_061223.sized.png

My phone was awake the ENTIRE time, it never went into idle

snap20100805_061229.sized.png

Android System is pegged for usage and my battery had dropped 10%

I then went into settings > location and security and toggled the "Use GPS satellites" off, then right back on (never left the screen, just touch to uncheck, touch again to check)
snap20100805_061311.sized.png


I finished getting ready for work and then took another screenshot at 6:44am (1:34 off charger, 0:32 after toggling gps)
snap20100805_064430.sized.png

Now showing that my phone is going to sleep, just like it should.

snap20100805_064438.sized.png

Android System usage is now dropping

I went to work, push Gmail all day (with replying to multiple), decent amount of texting, 1 hour streaming pandora, and some web browsing. This was at 8:52PM and I was at 60% battery.

snap20100729_205225.sized.png

Clearly showing that phone is going to idle mode when not in use

snap20100729_205232.sized.png

Android System usage back at acceptable level

Hopefully this makes things a little more clear for some that a still a little unsure of what we are referring to. :) Now if we could only get moto/vzw to fix it :)
Let me get this straight, you're saying that by turning GPS off then back on your phone began to function properly (i.e., it actually went to sleep and didn't kill as much batter)? If this is the case, that doesn't really seem logical.

Either way, I'm more confused about the distinction between "Running" and "Screen on". Can someone please explain this? If the phone is considered to be sleeping when the phone isn't "running," and the screen must (to my understanding) be off while sleeping, aren't "running" and "screen on" more or less synonymous? I know that there could be other things running like auto-sync, but to me there shouldn't be much of a discrepancy between the two.

My DX, which has been unplugged for about 2 hours now, is showing that the screen has been on for 42.4% (yes, I play around with it a lot), but running for 100% of the time. Doesn't this seem wrong? Just yesterday I was at the gym for two hours and didn't touch my phone once, and the battery dropped from 70% to 20% in this time. Could the fact my DX is always "running" explain why my battery is draining so quickly? I think I may have a faulty battery, because I hardly ever use GPS/Nav, and definitely not yesterday...
 
Upvote 0
Let me get this straight, you're saying that by turning GPS off then back on your phone began to function properly (i.e., it actually went to sleep and didn't kill as much batter)? If this is the case, that doesn't really seem logical.

Thats exactly what I am saying. Any program that accesses the gps, even though you close it, something keeps running in the background that we can't see. We don't think it is the GPS itself, because it icon goes away from the taskbar. By toggling the GPS, it kills whatever process is keeping the phone awake, until you open another program that uses the gps.

Either way, I'm more confused about the distinction between "Running" and "Screen on". Can someone please explain this? If the phone is considered to be sleeping when the phone isn't "running," and the screen must (to my understanding) be off while sleeping, aren't "running" and "screen on" more or less synonymous? I know that there could be other things running like auto-sync, but to me there shouldn't be much of a discrepancy between the two.

Think of it like a human body....During the day, you are up and around and actively doing things, so your screen is on and you are "running". When you go to bed at night, your body still does small things in the background (dream, digest, etc) but you use a SIGNIFICANTLY less amount of energy. Now to the phone: whenever you are actively using the phone (doesn't have to have the screen on: for example; running pandora) it is counted as "running". When you are using the phone to text, browse the web (anything you need to screen for) you will get "screen on" and "running" at the same time. When you are not using the phone (sitting in your pocket) it is supposed to go to sleep (or idle) and use less energy. It will ping the towers every so often to watch for calls, emails, update weather, etc. This, however will be a very small amount of time the phone is actually active. This "bug" is keeping the phone "running" 100% of the time. We aren't sure what it is doing, but the phone never goes to sleep....it would be like a person all hopped up on meth....never go to sleep, use a ton of energy, then crash (dead battery).

My DX, which has been unplugged for about 2 hours now, is showing that the screen has been on for 42.4% (yes, I play around with it a lot), but running for 100% of the time. Doesn't this seem wrong? Just yesterday I was at the gym for two hours and didn't touch my phone once, and the battery dropped from 70% to 20% in this time. Could the fact my DX is always "running" explain why my battery is draining so quickly? I think I may have a faulty battery, because I hardly ever use GPS/Nav, and definitely not yesterday...

That depends on what you were doing if that seems wrong. Did you have the screen on 42.4% of the time and stream pandora or play music (even with screen off) for the entire time it had been unplugged? If so, then yes 100% would be right. If you used the phone with the screen on for 42.4% of the time and the rest of the time your phone was in your pocket, bag, whatever then that would be wrong. That would mean your phone is never going into idle mode to save energy. The "running" 100% of the time is EXACTLY why your battery is draining so quickly. Also, navigation and maps aren't the only thing that use the gps.....

- The camera uses it for geotagging (turned on at factory, so unless you turned it off, you use it everytime you turn on the camera)
- Alot of weather apps can/are be set up to use it
- The internet browser will use it to locate you on certain webpages (google)

There are plenty of other apps that use the gps that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Also, once you activate the gps, this unknown process (bug) will stay active and keep your phone at 100% running until you reboot the phone or toggle the gps....that is until something accesses the gps again....
 
Upvote 0
I ran into this last night. My battery drained fast which is unusual, installed spare parts and it said it was awake 100% of the time.

I am a bit confused about the temporary fix though....are we to toggle the GPS and leave it on? Or toggle the GPS and leave it off?

I just toggle it off, then right back on again. Never even leave the screen. :)
 
Upvote 0
That depends on what you were doing if that seems wrong. Did you have the screen on 42.4% of the time and stream pandora or play music (even with screen off) for the entire time it had been unplugged? If so, then yes 100% would be right. If you used the phone with the screen on for 42.4% of the time and the rest of the time your phone was in your pocket, bag, whatever then that would be wrong. That would mean your phone is never going into idle mode to save energy. The "running" 100% of the time is EXACTLY why your battery is draining so quickly. Also, navigation and maps aren't the only thing that use the gps.....

For the 42.4% of the time that the screen was on, I downloaded and listened to one song, did a little bit of internet browsing (maybe 5 min), updated 4 apps in the market, fiddled around with some system/LP settings, talked on the phone for about a minute, and sent a couple of texts. My phone is already down to 40% battery after disconnecting it from a full charge at 7 am (~3 hours ago). The rest of the time my phone screen was off and was supposed to be "sleeping" but I guess it's been running the entire time. Regardless, doesn't it seem like I might have a faulty battery (possibly on top of the bug described in this thread)? My battery lift certainly seems subpar.
 
Upvote 0
For the 42.4% of the time that the screen was on, I downloaded and listened to one song, did a little bit of internet browsing (maybe 5 min), updated 4 apps in the market, fiddled around with some system/LP settings, talked on the phone for about a minute, and sent a couple of texts. My phone is already down to 40% battery after disconnecting it from a full charge at 7 am (~3 hours ago). The rest of the time my phone screen was off and was supposed to be "sleeping" but I guess it's been running the entire time. Regardless, doesn't it seem like I might have a faulty battery (possibly on top of the bug described in this thread)? My battery lift certainly seems subpar.

How long have you had it? I let mine completely die (shut off) then charged it to 100% full before turning it back on. I did it twice and noticed that my battery was more consistent. There are plenty of conflicting arguments about having to do this with LiIon batteries, but I won't get into that.



Thanks, so it seems like you actually need to leave GPS on after toggling to fix the bug. So what if awake time goes back down to normal...can you toggle GPS back to off?

I think just toggling it off kills whatever it is. My guess is that you can just leave it off or turn it back on again (like me). I just turn mine back on again so I don't have to do it later :)
 
Upvote 0
Thanks, so it seems like you actually need to leave GPS on after toggling to fix the bug. So what if awake time goes back down to normal...can you toggle GPS back to off?

it doesn't matter if you leave it on or off after you toggle it...

it seems that as soon as you manually turn of the gps it kills whatever script is still running in the background (no matter if you turn it back on or leave it off)...

that being said, ANYTIME the gps is then accessed afterwards, the "evil" script comes back on so you have to toggle the gps again...

for now i'm just leaving my gps off...i'm getting much better battery life...it sucks that something that should automatically work doesn't but i'm really fine with for now just manually adjusting the gps when i need it...
 
Upvote 0
How long have you had it? I let mine completely die (shut off) then charged it to 100% full before turning it back on. I did it twice and noticed that my battery was more consistent. There are plenty of conflicting arguments about having to do this with LiIon batteries, but I won't get into that.

I've had my DX since 7/28 and I have let it die at least twice already. Will call VZW today to at least get a new battery shipped here. Couldn't hurt.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones