The Truth About Your Battery

[anonuk]

Rooted my phone, froze a bunch of apps I rarely use

Wow I could only dream of that battery life!

 

[christopherT]

Also having a problem of my battery life span... quite so short any suggestion on how to make my GS3 have a long battery life.

 

[pinu12345]

When browsing these forums, you're bound to run across that thread where a frustrated user is yelling, "I hate my S3 the battery sucks!". It can't be avoided; there is always one similar on the first page of the forum.

You can't help but get sucked in, either because you feel sorry for the poster and want to help, or you're simply curious as to what it could be now. There are always some offering help (sometimes useful; most times not), some sharing that their battery is "just fine" while not offering anything useful, and some just making some statement to the effect that the original poster is an idiot... You know. You've read that thread. You may have even started that thread . Unfortunately, much of what you read in that thread is misinformation, so, before the next person starts yet another thread on that matter, I'd like to offer some truths about your S3 and its battery.

1. You have a bleeding edge, full featured 2012 Smartphone, with a huge, beautiful screen. It's gonna suck juice. 3G/4G/LTE data running in the background is the other killer of your battery life. Those 2 are the worst offenders, but that's what owning a smartphone is all about. It isn't all bad however, if you're not playing games or posting to Facebook 24/7, it really should last you the day without having to recharge, provided you go through and make sure you apps are set up properly.

2. Will turning off Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth significantly improve my battery life? No. In fact, it may shorten it. When your W-Fi is connected, the 3G/4G/LTE radio is basically in "sleep" mode. It's on, but it doesn't actually use any resources unless called up to do so. Since your S3 is getting it's data from Wi-Fi (which uses significantly less power than your cell radio), the only time your cell radio will use power is if it receives an SMS or other carrier related data that puts it to use.

Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth when they are turned on by themselves don’t drain your battery. What drains your battery are the apps running in the background using whatever connectivity you have turned on. So instead of shutting down features your phone uses, check your apps. Only use those apps that you really need. If you only need data when you open your app, then turn off background syncing, or if you need it, set the time limits to hours, not minutes.

Here's a good example. My phone was connected to Wi-Fi for a couple of minutes. The rest of the time, it was out of range of it's normal AP's, while in range of other AP's it does not normally connect to. Bluetooth was on, however there were no connections.

As you can see, the Wi-Fi and bluetooth used a combined 0.6% of the 61% battery power used over a period of almost 10 hours.

3. Will installing task managers and task killers boost my battery life? Not really. Android (and yes, even iOS) is "smart" enough to handle task management on their own. And if there is that rare occasion you might have a rogue app, there is always the built in task managers like the one on Android.

4. How about "Conditioning" my battery? Won't that increase my battery capacity? Battery memory does not exist in today's Li-Ion batteries. You may let it drain down all the way and recharge to 100% so the OS will "learn" your batteries actual capacity, but in general discharging to near 0% repeatedly will lower the life of your battery (which does wear out over the batteries lifetime).

So What Can You Really Do To Make Your Battery Last Longer?​

If your battery requires recharging several times a day then it's either an app that is causing that, or efective hardware. Get an app like GSam Battery Monitor (free) or BetterBatteryStats (paid) to find that rogue app, try replacing the battery, or even the handset if nothing else works (as an example, you could have a bad radio that stays on when it shouldn't).

Gsam Battery Monitor Download

BetterBatterStats Download

Manage the intervals certain apps have to update information (email, social networking, weather). These apps will wake the phone from sleep or stanby states to update. Do you really need to update Facebook every 15 minutes? Set it to every several hours, or even to "Manual".

Turn off vibration. It uses far more juice than ringtones.

If you use your phone indoors a lot, you can set your manual brightness to 20% or so which will give you a moderate boost, and just move the slider up as needed when outside. Removing "live" wallpapers will only save you around 2% or so of your total battery usage, so use at your discretion. If you found one you really like and it's cool to show off, then do so. It's not killing your battery

Turn off unnecessary notifications. It seems as though almost every app checks the Internet in search of updates, news, messages, etc. When it finds something, the app may chime, light up your screen and display a message, make your LED blink, or all of the above. All of this consumes energy.

Most newer Android phones such as the S3 include a Power Saver mode that helps manage the phone's various power-sapping features. Power Saver mode automatically prevents your apps from updating in the background, dims your screen, reduces the screen timeout setting, disables on-screen animations, and turns off vibration. By default, this mode usually turns on when your battery level drops to 20 percent, but you can set it to kick in at 30 percent instead.The sooner the phone switches to Power Saver mode, the longer its battery will last.

Anyway, i'll reiterate.. if you are having battery issues, check your apps! If not apps, try swapping batteries. Apps and defective batteries will account for almost all of the battery drain issues. Hope that helps if you are having problems!

Also, as a last resort, do a factory reset your phone, then check your battery usage. If it's fine, then slowly add apps while continuing to track your battery usage. When you add an app and then the next day notice a significant drain on you battery, you found the culprit!


Edit: I should clarify point 2 a bit further.. in addition to SURoot's comments below, since 3G/4G/LTE is one of the significant drains on the battery, it IS useful to use Airplane Mode (you can quickly access it from one of the buttons in the S3 Notification Bar) when in areas of no coverage, as this prevents the radio from constantly trying to seek a signal where there is none, which will have an adverse affect on the battery.

Keep in mind tho, if you're in a normal coverage area, turning off the data will have negligible effect, however if you're in a weak or non-coverage area, it will prevent excessive drain due to radios constantly trying to find/connect to a signal.

References & Useful Links:
GSam User's Guide
How multitasking really works on Android and iOS | ExtremeTech
Why Your Smartphone Battery Sucks | PCWorld

i had galaxy s3 for two months with ICS firmware. and i loved it. now i updated to jelly bean and with no additional apps. the same settings, battery is draining at twice rate.
do u know anything about it

 

[KOLIO]

Check the GOOGLE NOW settings,this is something that wasn't on ICS.
If adjustments to GOOGLE NOW don't make much of a difference,then the two things to do to isolate your battery drain would be to perform a factory reset & one by one add your applications back,until you find a culprit,or boot into safe mode & open up your apps one at a time to find the cause.

If you choose to perform a factory reset,this in of itself may solve the problem w/o any further action.

 

[pinu12345]

i will try that probably in couple of days.
does anyone else having this issue?
i also liked the MOBILE DATA on/off option which was available on the scroll down notification bar.
is there anyway we can go back to ICS?
thanks

 

[trale]

Just bumping this awesome thread, because I was searching for information battery life issues and related apps like Juice Defender, and this has helped so much.

This thread should really be stickied.

 

[funkylogik]

Theres actualy a link to this in the sticky "excuse me........." :thumbup:
Youre right man, its a really valuable thread

 

[jessOTR]

Okay, I may have to wait another discharge cycle, and test overnight, but I wanted to see if anything stood out to anyone here. I have an ATT S3, unrooted, using ADW Launcher. Until this weekend, I was getting through a full day without having to charge at all, and a couple of months ago, I was going to bed with 40% battery left after normal use. Today, my phone died completely at around 3:35PM after coming off the charger at 8am. I was at work, so I used it for a few texts, a few email checks, and a few rejected calls, and checking my clock a few times an hour. No surfing. No streaming of any kind.

Here are my screen shots (I'm plugged in, so my list isn't current, but it always shows "app usage" at the main process using battery).

Edit: woops! I meant to attach signal vs. signal, not temp











I thought that list was crazy long, but none of it means anything to me.

 

[funkylogik]

I think the kernal seems fine mate tbh. On GSam, what apps have been using most energy and what are your wakelocks like?
And can you post a pic of the second battery graph in the stock battery monitor?

 

[jessOTR]

I think the kernal seems fine mate tbh. On GSam, what apps have been using most energy and what are your wakelocks like?
And can you post a pic of the second battery graph in the stock battery monitor?

I'll have to look again in a little bit. I just took it off the charger.

Second graph? This is the only one I know about.


Wakelocks



If I do "num times waking device" I get Android system with 90 wakelocks, with this as the breakdown:


I seem to remember "maps" at the top of the list for battery usage, now that I think about that.

 

[funkylogik]

Just by looking at that graph, the phone is awake a LOT while the screen is off so somethings using juice when it shouldnt.
I cant see anything from the GSam pics but hopefuly someone who knows more about this stuff can tell you what else to show us to work out whats causing it. I know Maps is known to use GPS and data in the background if its set up wrong so it maybe is that :thumbup:
Do you remember if there was high GPS use on the main gsam screen?
EDIT i just looked at that graph again and when the big drop in battery happens, the amount of wakelocks is around the same as before it so i take back what i just said lol. Hmm

 

[jessOTR]

Just by looking at that graph, the phone is awake a LOT while the screen is off so somethings using juice when it shouldnt.
I cant see anything from the GSam pics but hopefuly someone who knows more about this stuff can tell you what else to show us to work out whats causing it. I know Maps is known to use GPS and data in the background if its set up wrong so it maybe is that :thumbup:
Do you remember if there was high GPS use on the main gsam screen?

Pretty sure I turned GPS off completely sometime yesterday or Sunday, after I got in from out of town. I don't generally turn on GPS unless I need it for something specific.

Thanks a lot for your help! I played with Maps settings but didn't really know what I was looking at. I've always used Maps, but maybe an update changed something.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah same.
Sorry i just edited my last post after lookin at the graph again mate

 

[gregg1100]

According to GSam, something called SYSTEM mediaserver is always up over 47%- seen it as high as 72%. What is mediaserver, where is it on the phone and what can I do about it, please??
Reading the above comments, I have turned ON power saving, turned off facebook notifications.
Just as a note, when I did a factory reset recently, battery life was brilliant- took ages to drop down compared to what it was, UNTIL I put my SD card back in(because it was acting up, I removed it again).Now battery life is as it was before reset, so will reset it again shortly.

 

[EarlyMon]

The mediaserver is a service, called by apps - like music players or web browsers.

If the mediaserver seems to be running away, it's an app trying to deliver media that's causing it.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah ive had a problem with mediaserver befor and i cant remember what app it was that caused it now but it wasnt an obvious one.
whats best way to narrow it down Earlymon?

 

[EarlyMon]

The best way is the most painful and few have the time or inclination to chase it - the infamous factory data reset.

That erases your apps and data sure, but it also clears out the operating system caches.

Run the phone a bit naked, just with your gmail account set up and contacts added in to ensure that the device isn't babbling to the mediaserver on its own. It's rare, but it's possible to get bloatware misbehaving so check that.

Then, add Facebook, g+ and Twitter if you use it, check again.

Then your productivity and utility apps, check again.

Then the goodies, add as few at a time as possible - browsers, media players and other enhancements - note and camera apps.

You can back up a non-rooted phone fairly well with a combination of Carbon backup and SMS Backup+.

If that's too painful or inconvenient, work backwards.

Start by removing widgets from your homescreens then back down through the list.

And think broadly about media when hunting - news, photos, videos, music and live wallpaper are all media. Even contact photos or notes apps that can get to the mic or camera - all touch media.

Remember to back up your internal storage / sd card and to verify that your contacts are safe either on the web or with a local backup, whichever applies to you.

 

[funkylogik]

Excelent info. I think most phones benefit from a good old reset once in a while. I do get that its a major PITA though

 

[EarlyMon]

Yep. Android works off of caches, just like your browser. And just like when it gets tangled and runs a lot smoother when you clear that out, so does Android.

Unfortunately for us, the mega-geniuses at Google and the phone makers won't let you get to the cache-clearing functions (that lose no data and do no harm at all) unless you're rooted and install a recovery that lets you get to that function.

For the rest of us, the only way is the factory data reset.

On the bright side - this way forces you into a good backup plan.

Phones aren't permanent, and we've all been there - oh no, I dropped it, I lost it, I gave it a bath, someone copped it, it died, etc etc - so a backup just makes sense.

With practice, you can get in and out of a factory data reset pretty quickly.

Otherwise - investigate to see if root is for you.

 

[funkylogik]

Dont US phones let you clear cache partition without root mate?
i cleared it in my mums unrooted Galaxy Ace in stock recovery last week and it did it a world of good.
Bit off topic but speaking of backups... will a nandroid backup work on another phone? (Same model obviously)

 

[EarlyMon]

Dont US phones let you clear cache partition without root mate?
i cleared it in my mums unrooted Galaxy Ace in stock recovery last week and it did it a world of good.
Bit off topic but speaking of backups... will a nandroid backup work on another phone? (Same model obviously)

Android = embedded Linux OS + Dalvik Virtual Machine + apps that (run in the Dalvik) and (call on Linux services)

There are two cache areas we care about - /cache and the Dalvik cache, often located at /data/dalvik-cache.

Many phones will let you get to a low level and "clear cache" - that's usually the /cache partition.

Clearing one without the other is like washing your feet and putting on dirty socks - ok to a point but it's just wrong because you're rolling the dice as to whether you'll hit the cache where the problems might be. In the case of your mum's phone, you had a 50/50 chance of it sorting out and you scored - bonus on that!

A nandroid backup (made by rooters) is transportable so long as it's to exactly the same model, same carrier and contains only the /boot, /system and /data partitions (the default nandroid). Four years ago, people used to share nandroids here rather the more sophisticated (and proper) rom flashes that are so popular today.

~~~~~~~~~

Because tangled caches can lead to misbehaving apps and because misbehaving apps can suck power, this is really all on topic.

 

[funkylogik]

Nice one man well explained
so whats the real difference between the two caches? Ive noticed when i clear Dalvik the phone takes ages to boot while "optimising" apps?

 

[EarlyMon]

Nice one man well explained
so whats the real difference between the two caches? Ive noticed when i clear Dalvik the phone takes ages to boot while "optimising" apps?

Here's the actual definition from Glossary | DD Systems & Dbase Developments -

Dalvik-cache
When your phone starts up, the Dalvik Virtual Machine looks at all your apps and frameworks, and creates a tree of dependencies which is stored in the dalvik-cache. This allows applications to run in an optimised state (and explains why your phone takes longer to boot up after applying a new rom, it

 

[jessOTR]

So, charged phone yesterday and went to bed around 10pm with 100% battery and left it off the charger. I woke up this morning and at around 8am, still had 92% battery left. It's 4:45PM, I've not charged since last night, and I still have 67% battery left! The only real thing that I think I did was change some settings in Google Maps. I think it kept waking the phone to try to locate.

So much prettier than yesterday!

 

[funkylogik]

Nice one :thumbup:
Something is still waking the phone regularly, probably something like facebook syncing but yeah thats much better. Glad you found the problem so easily