[Battery] Fixes and Tips

[Rutgerskid]

I am trying to see how far I can stretch the battery on light use...I am now up to 28.5 hours with about 40 percent left. That's with light calling, txt messaging, GPS OFF, Mobile is OFF, Live Wallpaper is still on, WIFI is on.

I will post full results when I am done. I hope to get 36-40 hours out of it.

 

[-ebby-]

Because he's actually right?

Lithium Polymer batteries will not improve capacity with conditioning, and further have no memory.

In fact, it's to the contrary - the lithium polymer chemistry begins slowly degrading every single time it's discharged. It doesn't really matter what you or other people "observe" in a non scientific environment.

Physics > your experiences

The sensors in the phone telling it how low the battery is gets better after draining it a couple times to get it better calibrated

 

[rocke]

How is everyone determining the % of the battery?

I use Battery Indicator which is a free program from the Market. It puts the percentage (1%) in the notification bar so it is always visible.

 

[Lev16]

I've been on about 5-6 hours with moderate to heavy use. Initially I did two full cycles but haven't let it drop below about 25% since then. Today with no change at all, it's 1/2 way through the day and I'm still at 44%.

So without having read this entire thread, i was wondering if you think the main difference is attributed to the fact that you didn't let the charge go below 25%? Have been getting mediocre battery life so far. Thanks

 

[zamugustar]

With GPS on, Mobile off at home on when out, WIFI on at home off when out, moderate texting, light calling and light game playing I am able to get around 20-25 hours out of my phone. On the first couple days with the same average usage I got under 12 hours.

 

[jfunk]

How is it impossible that my battery goes on my desk at 7am, when I first bought it, I don't touch it all day, and its almost dead by 4pm. I do the same for the rest of the week, and then it starts to last overnight...with the phone being pulled off the charger, following overnight charging, at 6am. This comparing same size OEM batteries.

Its kinda hard to "fat finger" a 16+hr discrepency. I'm glad that all of your extra batteries worked to their full potential right out of the box.

Lol. Nice try. Actually read the rest of the post.

Oh yeah, you probably already did, which is why you chose to pretend it didn't exist in this response.

 

[czm2000]

Also people stop playing with it constantly....

Agreed. I think the newness is starting to ware off a bit. I know I'm just about back to regular use (meaning I can set it down every once in a while )

 

[rabernet]

Some app is eating away your Inc. Do you have Astro? It has a pretty nice task manager type app that breaks down usage for you

Astro File Manager? I don't see the Task Manager?

 

[wils]

Alright everyone...got something for ya. I'm connected to wireless at my house right now. I started at 100 about 1 hr 40 min ago. My battery is now at 70%. The screen is the brightest it can be and I've constantly been on the net, updating Twitter messages, and texting.

My battery usage is crazy:
94% Android system (seriously!!)
2% WIFI
2% Display
2% Cell standby

Now I have Favorites running, synchronizing every 2 hrs. with Facebook. My email retrieves every 15 min. I'm also running Earthrot live wallpaper that updates its map every hour. I still cant see why it's using so much of the system. Anybody with some suggestions or more q's of what I'm running?

Even at work it was still at 90+ %

 

[Outatime]

It seems like that first 30% really drops off fast, but after that it slows up a bit. Yesterday morning I woke up, unplugged it, browsed the web on Wi-Fi for about 10 minutes and I was at 88%. But it lasted until about noon when I had to recharge. Today was much better and I really didn't do anything differently.

 

[Outatime]

As soon as someone says they are not happy with the battery in their phone, you get the same cast of characters insulting the phone owners.

It's the Battery Trolls

Formerly known as the Memory Card Trolls. They have successfully proven in thread after thread that they know as little about batteries as they do memory cards.

 

[livspop]

Alright everyone...got something for ya. I'm connected to wireless at my house right now. I started at 100 about 1 hr 40 min ago. My battery is now at 70%. The screen is the brightest it can be and I've constantly been on the net, updating Twitter messages, and texting.

My battery usage is crazy:
94% Android system (seriously!!)
2% WIFI
2% Display
2% Cell standby

Now I have Favorites running, synchronizing every 2 hrs. with Facebook. My email retrieves every 15 min. I'm also running Earthrot live wallpaper that updates its map every hour. I still cant see why it's using so much of the system. Anybody with some suggestions or more q's of what I'm running?

Even at work it was still at 90+ %

I'm consistently at 96% system usage. Very similar to yours but I don't use WiFi. I'm really not sure what the heck that means. Doesn't really make sense. I get about 8 hours battery life with moderate usage in a strong signal area. I run an exchange account and a Gmail account. That's it for "push" stuff.

This is my first Droid. Been using Blackberry for about 8 years. Still kind of dumbfounded by this whole battery issue. I'm by no means an "idiot" like some of these people have been saying about people with poor battery life. Heck, I've administered an Exchange server and consider myself a cell phone expert. I've been scouring these threads since last week and using all the tips and tricks I can find. Unfortunately there's not really an option to shut off my mobile network at any time. That's why I have a mobile phone....

 

[Outatime]

96% does seem really high. Here's my breakdown:

Android System 29%
Cell Standby 16%
Maps 15% (I've been using that a lot today)
WiFi 14% (When I'm home I turn off the mobile network and use WiFi instead... it's faster)
Display 12%
Phone idle 11%

But as I had posted, my battery life just seemed to increase a great deal today. I've used it as heavily as I have in the past few days... the honeymoon is still on

 

[marubozo]

One of the things that delayed my Incredible purchase for a few days were the battery reports, but after using it for a few days now I don't have any complaints. Unplugged at 8 am and here it is nearly 11:30 and still 25% battery left.

I used my phone a lot and today and recorded about 5 one minute video clips, uploaded to youtube, took a few pictures, trolled facebook and twitter all day, played iMobsters off and on, had a few phone calls, surfed the web, replied to some email, played a little pandora, and was back and forth between wifi and 3G useage. Not to mention the non-stop dicking around with it while I sat on the couch this evening.

I don't know what more I could ask for. If I can unplug it when I get up in the morning and use it quite heavily throughout the day and not need to charge it again before hitting the sack, what more is there? I suppose if I was traveling and wanted to watch 4 hours of movies while on a plane or listen to music 8 hours a day I might find it lacking, but I also don't consider that normal use.

 

[snuggles]

WOW, what a difference!!!! When I turn off GPS & Mobile Network the battery stays full almost all day! It's like my BB Storm. I guess it should be no suprise that the battery drains sooooo quick because the INC is like having 400 hp engine under the hood. Dont expect gas mileage similar to prius (get your gas pedal checked).

 

[kayst]

Astro File Manager? I don't see the Task Manager?

Menu/Tools You can export those 3 programs (app manager, process manager, sd card manger) as icons on the home screen also, by selecting Menu/more/Preferences/Home Screen Icons

 

[Brausso]

Blackberries get monster battery life. It's not really fair to compare BBs to anything else. I often forget to charge my BB Tour. I leave everything on and push 5 email accounts, facebook, and twitter.

I get a kick out of these threads though. As soon as someone says they are not happy with the battery in their phone, you get the same cast of characters insulting the phone owners. I'd love to see the same gang cut up in the Toyota sudden acceleration threads. "My car works fine. You must be doing it wrong." lol

I'm not trying to compare the BB and the Inc. I love this phone and glad I made the switch. I was just simply saying, this battery life is crap and I'm not going to shut off all the functions that make this phone purposeful.

It's just weird to me that people are going on and on about try this try that. Turn this off turn that off. Just say the battery sucks and get over it. I guess I just call em like I see em. No beating around the bush for me.

Anyway, I do like the phone and I do appreciate everyone's input and ideas on the phone

 

[andrew53517]

It seems like that first 30% really drops off fast, but after that it slows up a bit. Yesterday morning I woke up, unplugged it, browsed the web on Wi-Fi for about 10 minutes and I was at 88%. But it lasted until about noon when I had to recharge. Today was much better and I really didn't do anything differently.

Okay, mine does that too! It dropped 9% this morning after I took it off the charger in a matter of 10 minutes and I'm not exaggerating at all. Anyone know why?! I'm thinking we need an update for some software bug if others have this. Because after that initial drop, it lasts me all day long and it's an awesome stock battery! lol. Just that horrible start!

 

[wils]

Menu/Tools You can export those 3 programs (app manager, process manager, sd card manger) as icons on the home screen also, by selecting Menu/more/Preferences/Home Screen Icons

After using that, I saw that my Android System was cycling from about 5% to about 24%. I also saw that the live wallpaper was taking about 25 MB of RAM.

I'll try and see what the battery usage is like tomorrow. Maybe my battery life will be a little better too (It wasn't that bad before).

 

[johnperkins21]

People with bad battery stats, please take a look at your total Up Time vs. total Awake Time.

Mine were identical due to what I've narrowed down to be an issue with the calendar process. After a lot of troubleshooting today, I've learned that by doing a Force Stop on the calendar process (no app needed, just go to Settings - Applications - Calendar - Force Stop), my phone will actually go to sleep and it's increased my battery life tremendously. The calendar will even continue to work as it restarts itself when you access.

I go into a decent amount of detail of the steps I used to reach my conclusion in this thread in the support sub-forum. But suffice it to say, I truly believe a lot of our battery issues could be related to this particular issue, and would love to get a larger testing pool.

What really got me started on the idea was the fact that my device would lose 30% of its battery life overnight, with everything turned off and put in airplane mode. If you have battery issues, please look to see if you have a similar issue and post your test results. Maybe we can collectively come up with a fix, or at least alert HTC to the problem.

 

[chasemyaccord]

One of the things that delayed my Incredible purchase for a few days were the battery reports, but after using it for a few days now I don't have any complaints. Unplugged at 8 am and here it is nearly 11:30 and still 25% battery left.

I sincerely hope that's 11:30PM

Glad to see all these recent posts about improved battery life. Also reading the thread about using the Imagio battery, I believe I'll be going that route if needed.

 

[amarryat]

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but after being unplugged for an 100 minutes, my battery is still showing 100%, and during this hour and 40 minute time period, I was talking on it for 16 minutes.

If I did this yesteday, there is no way the battery would still show 100%

 

[jbdan]

That is good news ehh!

 

[mochapenguin]

Hasn't been the case for me, I charged my phone overnight, when I wore up I installed the update, then called 2 automated message numbers and checked the weather. All this took probably 7-8 minutes, and my battery meter read 93%. Now, an hour and a half later after light-moderate use, 80%.

 

[paimon.soror]

I am in the same boat as mochapenguin