Incredible 2 Battery Saving tips thread

[TheAtheistReverend]

I have been using juice defender plus for a couple days now and it has almost doubled my battery life. I'm sold on this.
I have it checking for wifi every half hour and updating my email and accounts every hour. Set to turn off data for when I sleep, and it will still check for and make a data connection whenever I wake the phone and/or open an app that needs a data connection. Awesome.
I also deleted news, stocks, friendstream, and stock weather apps and Widgets plus a few more.
No need for an oversized battery now.

 

[Lars]

Doubled? What does that mean? I'm just trying to get an idea as I go through half thebbattery on a normal day without juice defender.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Doubled? What does that mean? I'm just trying to get an idea as I go through half thebbattery on a normal day without juice defender.

Before any of the previously mentioned alterations were made I was at 20% by 2000. Phone was unplugged around 0500 every day and is used relatively heavily all day.
Now I can usually make it almost all the way through my second day getting down to 10% or so.

 

[victek]

Doubled? What does that mean? I'm just trying to get an idea as I go through half thebbattery on a normal day without juice defender.

Juice Defender provides stats. Specifically it says "juice defender increased your battery life by 1.XX (estimated over 48 hours). I commonly score 1.8X-1.9X. Before using JD I would take the phone off the charger in the morning and be down below 40% at night. Now I'm usually about 70% This is using JD Plus. The free version is also quite good, but Plus gives more granular control over more phone functions.

 

[Masamune]

Victek, you mind sharing your jd settings?

 

[victek]

Victek, you mind sharing your jd settings?

No prob I use JD Plus. On the "About" screen "mobile data" enabled (in the Disable on WiFi section) and "enable after unlock" (in the Screen section). On the "Status" screen under Profile "Customize", Notificaiton=text (don't think this matters much), Quickbox enabled. "Settings" screen Mobile data enabled, WiFi enabled, WiFi preferred, Location enabled, Schedule enabled, Frequency 15 minutes, Night enabled, Apps disabled (enabling apps involves too much fussing for my taste and I don't see the need/benefit).

Hope this is useful. I also have the JD widget on my home screen since it shows JD turning on/off WiFi and 3G in real-time - that's useful to confirm it's working properly (I find that occasionally it doesn't turn on WiFi when it should, so I pull down the Quick Settings to turn it on).

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Also been getting 1.8-1.9 X improvement, though I have had to do some tweaking recently to keep Pandora running. The settings to wake connectivity for that specific app weren't working, so currently I am running without apps enabled and without wifi preferred. We'll see how my numbers look in another week.

 

[zschiffman]

i got a dinc2 to replace a faulty droid2 and 2 other droid2 replacements vzw sent me that also had issues (go figure).

i was pretty upset with the inc2 battery life. i was in the red around 12-13 hours every day...everyone on here is saying it is so great...i dont know whats wrong. i don't update twitter/news/etc too too often...only thing i do have is push exhange for work...but i didnt have that the first day and it still had battery issues.

i tried juice defender...but it cant toggle mobile data on gingerbread, so i don't really see a big advantage there...do others on GB?

i'm doing 2 factory restores right now and seeing if it helps at alll.....hope so.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

i got a dinc2 to replace a faulty droid2 and 2 other droid2 replacements vzw sent me that also had issues (go figure).

i was pretty upset with the inc2 battery life. i was in the red around 12-13 hours every day...everyone on here is saying it is so great...i dont know whats wrong. i don't update twitter/news/etc too too often...only thing i do have is push exhange for work...but i didnt have that the first day and it still had battery issues.

i tried juice defender...but it cant toggle mobile data on gingerbread, so i don't really see a big advantage there...do others on GB?

i'm doing 2 factory restores right now and seeing if it helps at alll.....hope so.

I hope those factory restores help you, but keep in mind it can take some people a while to see the full potential of their battery life. It took my phone almost 3 weeks before the battery life was near what everyone else was claiming. Not sure why that is, but maybe it has something to do with breaking in the battery (though many claim this isn't possible), or my repeated efforts to tweak the battery life through settings (and finally adding juice defender).

My battery life was darn good before juice defender (plus) but has relly improved since adding it.

I don't always believe the stats in battery useage. Data and Wifi were never listed as high users of battery, but once I began using JD to toggle off data and customize the useage of data connections I saw a large jump in battery life. And yes, I am on GB debloated)

 

[victek]

i tried juice defender...but it cant toggle mobile data on gingerbread, so i don't really see a big advantage there...do others on GB?

Are you using JD Free or JD Plus? I noticed a marked improvement when I moved to PLus because it can toggle WiFi and 3G based on a number of criteria. It also has a night scheduling option. I'm not noticing any problem using it since the GB update. Have you tried putting the JD widget on one of the home screens so you can see it turning things on and off?

Another free utility I like is Screebl Lite. I use it to keep the screen on when I'm viewing and turning it off ASAP when I'm done. Also try "Auto Kill" for memory management and get a task viewer to see if there's a process hogging the CPU and running the battery down. Hope this helps.

 

[zschiffman]

Are you using JD Free or JD Plus? I noticed a marked improvement when I moved to PLus because it can toggle WiFi and 3G based on a number of criteria. It also has a night scheduling option. I'm not noticing any problem using it since the GB update. Have you tried putting the JD widget on one of the home screens so you can see it turning things on and off?

Another free utility I like is Screebl Lite. I use it to keep the screen on when I'm viewing and turning it off ASAP when I'm done. Also try "Auto Kill" for memory management and get a task viewer to see if there's a process hogging the CPU and running the battery down. Hope this helps.

in the app itself it says it will not be able to toggle data (wifi it can, obvi) on a GB phone because of the way the system handles things now. i cant even click on enable on that setting. i was using plus

JD i think caused me more harm than good...but i didnt give it a lot of time to try. i live in a building where cell service sucks right when you walk in....i have a network extender to help. so when it turns of wifi, i think that hurts me more because its looking for 3g and cant find it inside.

i also use gchat a lot so JD only lets me get my messages every now and then when screen is off.

i did the factory reset...we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

 

[zschiffman]

there is an app that works on GB, green power. i may give that a try if tomorrow is no better w/o.

 

[victek]

in the app itself it says it will not be able to toggle data (wifi it can, obvi) on a GB phone because of the way the system handles things now. i cant even click on enable on that setting. i was using plus

I looked through the Juice Defender Plus UI and can't find any mention about not being able to toggle data on Ginger Bread. I'm using 3.5.8 which is the latest, and I can watch the JD widget toggling data on/off in real time. Maybe you didn't have this version?

 

[zschiffman]

I looked through the Juice Defender Plus UI and can't find any mention about not being able to toggle data on Ginger Bread. I'm using 3.5.8 which is the latest, and I can watch the JD widget toggling data on/off in real time. Maybe you didn't have this version?

i dunno...i got it from amazon market. read about it too if you google it. beats me

anyways so this is day 1 since doing a factory reset on the phone. i unplugged it 1 hour and 15 min ago and I am at 88%
Voice calls take 39% (7m 30s)
display 38% (8m 54s)
dialer 9%
wifi 6% running the whole time, though w/o a signal for 30 min or so when I went out for lunch
cell standby 4%, 11% w/o a signal
idle 4%

maybe the standby is killing me? but i was on wifi and have a network extender....was never really an issue with my Droid2 when i had it.

12% in an hour seems shitty, no?

 

[victek]

12% in an hour seems shitty, no?

Well, there's that business about the battery not really being at 100% when it says 100%. That's why the first 10% falls off so quickly, or so I've read in another thread.

 

[zschiffman]

Well, there's that business about the battery not really being at 100% when it says 100%. That's why the first 10% falls off so quickly, or so I've read in another thread.

yeah, it does seem that first 10% is always the quickest. though last night i did charge it to full, turn off, unplug and replug, and charged it again to full....but who knows.

just sucks to see everyone on here saying they can go a long time on battery, and i last about 10 hrs before in the red sometimes.

i spent 10 bucks and ordered 2 replacement batteries and a charger for them off ebay...this way i can always carry a spare if needed and i know i wont be able to plug in.

 

[zschiffman]

this is all old news for me now...as it looks like a GB root just came out...once I can get Miui on this guy I should (hopefully) be golden!

 

[zschiffman]

put miui on last night after rooting. 14 hrs unplugged and at 45%. much better.

 

[shibbi]

I love JD. Upgraded to pro after a week of use, and the customizability makes me quite happy

Edit: I got about 1.7x max for the free version. After some customizations the max I got on the pro version is 2.0x

 

[zschiffman]

I'm now getting 24+ hours without JD just running MIUI Rom.

 

[danncodyy]

Im team Droid for life but now im thinking about getting an iPhone ... i got the droid incredible 2 about 3 weeks ago, and the battery life is absolutely HORRIBLE ... i take it off the charger at 8:15 and its at 25% by 12:30pm ... I RARELY GO ON THE INTERNET,NEVER PLAY GAMES,DONT LISTEN TO MUSIC, STAY ON THE FONE FOR ABOUT 5 MINS AT A TIME... the only thing i really do is text alot and go on the facebook app... nothing is running in the background wifi off, gps off, bluetooth off, i turned all my syncs that im not using off. including weather, tango, news, i even turned gmail off .. so yesterday i went back to verizon and got a new battery hoping it would make a difference .. 2 day i took to fone off the charger at 8:30am made a few text , one fone call to my mom for about 3 mins .. didnt go on the internet its been off the charger for exactly 2 hours now and its down to 77% ..... IM REALLY ABOUT TO CHANGE TO AN IPHONE ... IDC IF ITS NOT AS GOOD AS ANDROID BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW ITS NOT ... But whats the point of having a great fone when you can only use it for 5 hours .. i cant even go to the mall with out bringing my charger with me ...

 

[nate.kelmes]

What you have going on is definitely not normal. Something is causing your battery to drain quickly. Likely a program is running in the background and is spinning out of control.

List off what all is using your battery. Go to Settings>About Phone>Battery>Battery Use.

But it makes sense that after changing the battery the drop isn't as severe.

How is your reception? Is your phone struggling to get a 3G connection? Or bouncing between 3G and 1x frequently?
Are you near WiFi for any part of the day? At home maybe?

Try using WiFi instead of 3G for your data and see if there is an improvement in battery consumption. If there is then it could point to poor 3G reception and that is stressing out your battery.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

I hate to say it, but-factory reset.
If that doesn't work trade in your phone, its broke. Defective. No good. Crappola. It happens, don't get too bent outta shape about it.

 

[nate.kelmes]

So reading through this thread since it's inception i'm curious as to what Juice Defender really does to your phone, performance, battery life, etc. Does it really work or does one think it's helping because they have the power to physically kill a task and thus making them think they are cutting back on running processes that will drain their battery.

On my Dinc1 I used Task Killer and I think the results were mediocre at best. Maybe it squeezed an extra hour of battery life on a daily basis. It seems that a good number of folks have seen really positive results with JD running and a few who haven't seen the same results with JD running. For those of you who live by JD turn the application off for a day or two and toss up some comparisons on this thread. I'd really like to see the difference between running it and not running it.

That being said... I don't use any task killer or Juice Defender on my Dinc2. I've gotten stellar battery life since day 1 (release day). A co-worker of mine has had the Dinc2 for a couple of weeks and complains about battery life. I wonder, and I don't really know the answer here so if you do please chime in, is there possibly differences between builds and releases of the phone. I got mine on release day and my buddy got his after GB came out. Could there be a difference with hardware used during the retail life span of the phone that can cause drastic differences between battery life and consumption?

Speaking of stellar battery life... My phone has been off the charger since about 730am yesterday morning (just shy of 30 hours). My battery just hit 30% remaining. I'll post a screen shot of battery consumption if anyone would like to see it, or if anyone cares. I am truly stumped as to why other people don't see such great battery life...

 

[victek]

So reading through this thread since it's inception i'm curious as to what Juice Defender really does to your phone, performance, battery life, etc. Does it really work or does one think it's helping because they have the power to physically kill a task and thus making them think they are cutting back on running processes that will drain their battery.

I would describe Juice Defender (JD) Plus or Ultimate as a highly granular scheduling app, not a task killer. One problem is it's a nuisance to turn things on only when you need them and then turn them off, such as GPS or WiFi. If you turn everything on and leave it on though the battery takes a hit. JD is the answer to this issue because it will turn things on when you need them and turn them off when you don't. The better you understand the app the more you can refine how it works and save more battery. For instance instead of turning the phone off at night I use the JD night schedule which disables all the network checking/syncing. JD will also automatically turn off 3G when it connects to my home WiFi. So no magic involved, just a lot of micro-management which would be too annoying to do manually.