Help Need Help With These Battery Stats

[Barats]

So I charged my phone last night to about 97%. Left it by my bed all night without ever turning on and when I woke up about 7-8 hours later, it was all the way into the low 70s. So I checked the default Battery stats page and then a GSAM Battery app I have. Two things kind of stood out to be the culprit but I don't really know what they mean.

In this first one, the Phone Radio and Held Awake is pretty high. But I can't click on them to see any detailed info. Can anyone tell me why these would be that high with no use?

On this one, I see the Device Idle and Cell Standby is pretty high. Which sounds like different wording for the first pic, of Held Awake and Phone Radio.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

 

[El Presidente]

You look to have a pretty bad signal (both WiFi and cell signal), bad reception can have a huge impact on battery life. Are those signal indicators normal for where the phone is? Is this the first time you've experienced the issue?

 

[Barats]

You look to have a pretty bad signal (both WiFi and cell signal), bad reception can have a huge impact on battery life. Are those signal indicators normal for where the phone is? Is this the first time you've experienced the issue?

You know, that is kind of what I figured. No, we live in a bad cell reception area. We stay in a townhome complex and we are in the middle of it. It's a bad cell area until you get on the edge of the complex and move away from it. Any person that comes over, no matter the carrier, has bad signal. Texts come in late and sometimes calls never come through, ever receiving or dialing.

Wifi can be spotty in my room as well.

Well if this is the issue, I can live with that rather than a faulty battery.

 

[El Presidente]

I've a similar issue in my house, I switch to a 2g signal when at home and that improves things.

Is that an option for you?

 

[RJ Guerra]

I could be wrong but it looks like you have the Stay Awake option on. Under Settings > Developer Options > Stay Awake. Check to see if you have that on.

 

[Barats]

I've a similar issue in my house, I switch to a 2g signal when at home and that improves things.

Is that an option for you?

How would I do this? And let me try and differentiate. Is there a difference between cell signal and my network signal? Like do texts and calls run on 4G and 3G. I want to say no. I do get 4G LTE at my home but always like to stay on Wifi at home. Would this help to switch to my network signal? And yes, I am able to switch to the option called 2G Only.

I could be wrong but it looks like you have the Stay Awake option on. Under Settings > Developer Options > Stay Awake. Check to see if you have that on.

I checked but no, that box is not checked.

 

[NeoGrandizer]

If you go Settings>Battery, click on the graph. This will show Mobile network signal, GPS on, Wi-Fi, Awake, Screen on and Charging.

It will look like this:


If there is a solid blue bar under Awake, that means something (possibly a rogue app) in the background is running and keeping your device awake.

 

[Barats]

Thanks. I will definitely check that in the morning when I wake up.

 

[Barats]

That is what it looked like this morning. The Scorecenter app is fine. I just checked that once before I went to sleep but since I did nothing else until I woke up, the percentage will be that high.

 

[El Presidente]

How would I do this? And let me try and differentiate. Is there a difference between cell signal and my network signal? Like do texts and calls run on 4G and 3G. I want to say no. I do get 4G LTE at my home but always like to stay on Wifi at home. Would this help to switch to my network signal? And yes, I am able to switch to the option called 2G Only.

Cell signal relates to your mobile network signal, I suppose network would be the same, but it could refer to the WiFi signal too?

I always stay on WiFi at home too and I have a tasker profile setup so that when I connect to my home WiFi network, my phone will switch to a 2G cell signal (I go from 1 signal bar to 4). Because I only use the cell signal for calls/texts at home and I don't need 3G, it works fine. When I leave the house and disconnect from WiFi, that phone reverts to using the 3G signal.

So, using 2G at home, you might find you get a bit more out of your battery.

Make sense?

 

[NeoGrandizer]

Looks like poor signal is what's draining your battery as nothing is keeping your device awake. You also don't have Wi-Fi on constantly (unlike me; but I have strong signals-both network and Wi-Fi). Did you switch to 2G to see if there is any battery improvement overnight?

 

[Barats]

Cell signal relates to your mobile network signal, I suppose network would be the same, but it could refer to the WiFi signal too?

I always stay on WiFi at home too and I have a tasker profile setup so that when I connect to my home WiFi network, my phone will switch to a 2G cell signal (I go from 1 signal bar to 4). Because I only use the cell signal for calls/texts at home and I don't need 3G, it works fine. When I leave the house and disconnect from WiFi, that phone reverts to using the 3G signal.

So, using 2G at home, you might find you get a bit more out of your battery.

Make sense?

Ok so I can switch to 2G at home and still be connected to Wifi? I'd like the name of that task profile please. See if that helps. But if I have a poor Wifi connection, I guess it won't matter that much. Although on random days, the battery does not drain at all like it usually does. And I can never pinpoint why to try and duplicate that for the future.

Looks like poor signal is what's draining your battery as nothing is keeping your device awake. You also don't have Wi-Fi on constantly (unlike me; but I have strong signals-both network and Wi-Fi). Did you switch to 2G to see if there is any battery improvement overnight?

So do I need to have that box checked on the advanced settings under Wifi to always keep on even during sleep? Would this help?

Also, poor signal as in Wifi or network?

Thanks for the help.

 

[El Presidente]

Ok so I can switch to 2G at home and still be connected to Wifi? I'd like the name of that task profile please. See if that helps. But if I have a poor Wifi connection, I guess it won't matter that much. Although on random days, the battery does not drain at all like it usually does. And I can never pinpoint why to try and duplicate that for the future.

The WiFi radio uses much less power than the cell radio so even though the WiFi signal is poor, you might still see an improvement. It's definitely worth a go anyway.

I could give you the details of the profile, but it might not work with your device. I'm rooted and running a custom ROM and it only works on certain ROMs. I'll have a dig about and see if there's anything I can find on Play that would perform a similar function though.

 

[NeoGrandizer]

So do I need to have that box checked on the advanced settings under Wifi to always keep on even during sleep? Would this help?

I have my Wi-Fi set to always on during sleep. Only because I still have stuff data polling in the background when I sleep (emails, weather reports, etc). This prevents the device from using the carrier data network if Wi-Fi is off.

Also, poor signal as in Wifi or network?

I believe the poor network signal is what's causing the significant battery drain. My Wi-Fi is enabled 24/7 with little impact on battery life. However when connected using LTE data (even with a good strong signal), my battery takes a nose dive. 4G/LTE is definitely a battery hog.

 

[Barats]

Ok thanks guys. I have set my Wifi to never sleep while on so it does not switch to the LTE signal while the phone is idling. And will switch the setting to 2G only while at home since I never use anything other than Wifi there anyways and will see if this has any improvement at all. Most notably when I am sleeping and the phone is off for all those hours. There should not be a 25-30% drain on the battery during that time.

 

[Sokudo Ningyou]

The WiFi radio uses much less power than the cell radio so even though the WiFi signal is poor, you might still see an improvement. It's definitely worth a go anyway.

I could give you the details of the profile, but it might not work with your device. I'm rooted and running a custom ROM and it only works on certain ROMs. I'll have a dig about and see if there's anything I can find on Play that would perform a similar function though.

Is it a custom task, or is it on the wiki? I'm interested in looking at it, since some places I go to seem to have crap cell signals and I'd rather not have my battery drain when I can't charge it.

 

[El Presidente]

Is it a custom task, or is it on the wiki? I'm interested in looking at it, since some places I go to seem to have crap cell signals and I'd rather not have my battery drain when I can't charge it.

Custom, I've just checked and it's not on the Wiki.

When I've got the chance, I'll write up the instructions on how to set it up.

 

[Thatdad]

When you are sleeping go ahead and turn off mobile and WiFi data. Also make sure you're stopping apps running in the background.

And to get better signal search for the app boost signal. Its helped me quite a bit when I'm in bad signal areas.

 

[Thatdad]

Or maybe an external battery would be a worthwhile investment?

 

[El Presidente]

Also make sure you're stopping apps running in the background.

That's more likely to worsen battery life and will only work if you've installed poorly coded apps. It's always best to let the OS handle task/app killing.

 

[Thatdad]

That's more likely to worsen battery life and will only work if you've installed poorly coded apps. It's always best to let the OS handle task/app killing.

Not task killer. As in hold the pages button down like so.




Everyone knows task killers are no good. But if you don't swipe those apps that's bad on battery too. Also be sure to clear cache as well. You can do this through Settings-Apps. It'll say clear Cache. You can also get Clean Master and clear cache files from there. If you decide to get it just stay away from its task killer.

 

[Barats]

So instead of making a new thread, just will add this here. I have noticed a very huge thing with this phone now. The longer my phone stays on without a reset (turning off then on), the crappier my battery gets in terms of holding a charge. My phone died over the weekend after a night out, mainly due to it not holding a charge at all. I charged it, turned it back on and it's almost as good as new. I got a full charge yesterday around 1pm. It's now almost 11am here and it has used only 25% of battery. Before, the phone would be dead in less than 10 hours, usage or not.

Just a heads up for anyone. Because I do remember when first getting the phone, it would give me a prompt that I need to reset it soon if it has stayed on too long.

Which brings me to my question, what exactly is happening when you do a reset that would cause a better battery? Or on the flip side, why does the battery get worse the longer it stays on? This last time, it was on 300 hours straight with no reset. I'm not clearing cache or battery stats by the way.

Just thought this was interesting.