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limiting background sync eats battery?

After having this phone since launch i have noticed something. I posted this in another thread but believe it needs its own discussion.

"Also I find that the more you limit background actions it can also have the reverse desired effect. The phone is optimized to run at a high level so when the background data is on it updates only the bit needed and for short spurts. When you lengthen the interval between updates in the syncing the syncing in turn lasts longer as more data is being synced as more time has elapsed and therefore uses more battery!"

So in summation even though the sync is set for once or twice a day for some of you who believe this helps, I found it did quite the opposite. Since so much data builds up during those intervals the syncs last way longer than if on all the time or the shortest interval possible and therefore while its syncing at a longer clip each time the battery drain is so much more than if it synced for a short amount of time with little data.

What do you all think?
 
So lets use an example that you sync 20mb worth of data a day. You are saying that 10 seperate syncs of 2mb of data each will consume less battery than 2 syncs of 10mb each?

what im saying is that over time i noticed that when the sync was shortened to lers say two hours or more the act of syncing lasted much longer and was a bigger drain on the battery. when I set it back to the settings i have now with shorter intervals the actual sync lasts much shorter and is a less of a drag on the battery
 
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I can see where this might make sense but think more testing is needed. I have my corp email set to push so it is always synching but Facebook, Twitter, and the like are set to check every couple hours.

Would be good to continue to test this theory more.


Yea I did it both ways and found that when I shortened the sync I got 8-12 hours when I brought it back I'm back to 15 + let me know what you get
 
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So lets use an example that you sync 20mb worth of data a day. You are saying that 10 seperate syncs of 2mb of data each will consume less battery than 2 syncs of 10mb each?

Going to have to side with Tony on this one...

With one exception. If you HAPPEN ot have poor signal strength when its doing its ONE update..and it has to sit there FOREVER trying to get the data...that COULD actually use more battery than if it had stronger signal strentghs available during the day while doing the short bursts. So...if you happen to be kinda out of range (relative to where you were all day)AT THE MOMENT of a large sync...yea, i get it. If you have a consistent signal strength all day...then i dont see it (as tony summed up above).
 
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Going to have to side with Tony on this one...

With one exception. If you HAPPEN ot have poor signal strength when its doing its ONE update..and it has to sit there FOREVER trying to get the data...that COULD actually use more battery than if it had stronger signal strentghs available during the day while doing the short bursts. So...if you happen to be kinda out of range (relative to where you were all day)AT THE MOMENT of a large sync...yea, i get it. If you have a consistent signal strength all day...then i dont see it (as tony summed up above).


I know it defies what we know but I'm telling you I saw the difference its crazy.
 
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Interesting theory Andrea, I'm willing to try it out. I'd disabled push on my phone and synced my exchange every 15 minutes, and google every hour. Everything else was also limted.

I'll go back to auto syncing etc and see what happens.


Yea when I did it I noticed that first thing in the am it synched a crap load but through out the day it was 2-3 seconds at a time.
 
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