Battery life in the last few days - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.

Yes! I've had my N1 since January 2010. I stayed stock until recently when I installed CM 7.1 RC1 shortly after it was released. Battery life had always been great, both stock and under CM7, especially with SS4N1. Then, a few days ago it just fell off a cliff. I now get only about 7-8 hours, even with little to no usage. Before I'd barely lose anything if the phone wasn't being used (a percent every couple hours).
Now the Nexus One Battery Calibrator application shows a drain of ~200 mA or more constantly.
I've been tearing my hair out for the last few days, uninstalling apps right and left, trying in vain to figure out what's causing this. I even considered a full wipe and reinstall of CM 7, thinking that some system setting somewhere had gotten horked.
I've always had WiFi set to never sleep, since I'm usually either at work or home. I've also had preferred network type (*#*#4636#*#* -> Phone Info) set to "GSM auto (PRL)" for months.
I've not made any other changes I can think of that would've had such a drastic impact on power consumption. I didn't track all the app updates that happened around the time it started, so I suppose it could be one of those. But I've uninstalled just about everything and it's still happening.

I have the same issue! Just in the past week or so. I have about 50% battery then a hour or so later it's dead! I was going to get a new battery today but maybe it's a CM7 issue. I use the nightly as soon as they hit the mirror.

An update on this... There may be a big issue going on with T-Mobile or some recent update:
http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-g2-users-suddenly-suffering-from-huge-battery-loss/
Looks like other users on different phones have the same issue!

Thanks for that article, Lost Dog. Makes me feel a bit better. At least I know I'm not just going nuts.
My phone still has increased battery drain even if I put it in airplane mode though. It helps, but it's still much faster than before. This makes me really puzzled as to what the cause could be. How could the cell network still be causing increased drain if the phone's completely disconnected from it? Some sort of configuration information it received that persists even after the cell radio is turned off? EDIT: I may be wrong on this one, see below.
Last night I tried a complete wipe (using Temasek's full format "Format-signed.zip" first), and re-installed CM7.1 RC1 completely fresh. I installed only the minimal Google applications and a couple crucial tools (my password safe app). However, I'm still getting the same quick battery drain today.
I hope we (or T-Moblie) can figure out how to fix this. It really cripples my phone as a useful tool to have such short life!
EDIT: I'm going to try a workaround I've seen mentioned in comments on the TMoNews and Phandroid articles about this: limiting the cellular connection to 2G/EDGE only. It seems to have made a significant difference so far. I may have been incorrect then about airplane mode not having an impact. I'd only been checking current drain with the N1 Battery Calibrator app, and never left it in airplane mode for long. Anyway, I'll post back later this afternoon with results.

Ok, so switching to 2G-only for the cellular connection seems to have made a HUGE difference. The drain rate seems to be back at around what I'd expect. Everything else I left exactly the same (WiFi on, GPS enabled, same applications, etc.)
So, I'm starting to suspect something may be up with T-Mobile's 3G/3G+ service in some areas that's preventing phones from idling properly.
Anyone else want to give it a try?

Interesting, I'll switch over to 2G only and see how that affects my phone.
I've gone as far as wiping everything and that didn't help so if it really is a t-mobile issue then that would shed some light on the situation.

I see the same trend when switching to 2G only. Very steep power usage with 3G then a dramatic decrease in the discharge slope in 2G.
T-Mobile has an issue. The trick will be getting someone there to listen.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Here is my screenshot. You can clearly see when I turned on 3G. Dramatic difference. Looking on the T-Mobile forum there are many people seeing the same issue but there's mostly finger pointing and speculation as to the cause.

nir0th said:
Anyone notice a change in their battery life in the past few days? My girlfriend and I both are going through our batteries in just over half a day with no use. It's like the phone isn't sleeping. Looking at battery use Display is using all of the battery. I'm running CM7.0.3 and she's on stock. Looking at mine right now the phone has been on battery for 1 hour 34 minutes, and Display is taking 57% of the battery and I'm down to 84% battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.

ricky9237 said:
I also got the same rapid battery drain since last Wednesday. At that time, I thought there may be a hardware/battery issue for my nexus one. To test this, I switched my rom from CM7 back to GB stock. After a few updates for the GB stock and used it for a day, same battery drain happened. So, I changed to use another backup battery yesterday. It did not help also. I thought it may be a real hardware issue.
Then, I found this thread and research a bit in the web. I found out it could be either caused by tmobile or google map updates. I first uninstall google map and reinstall the new version right from the market again. I also switch off 3G as well. No rapid battery drain for the entire day. The battery runs normally. When I came back home today, I turned on 3G, let it for a couple of hours, checked a couple of emails and received a 20min phone call. Everything seems to work fine. No noticeable rapid battery drain was observed. My conclusion so far is: this is caused by google map 5.8 update.
Try to uninstall it and reinstall the google map from the market to see if it helps.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm skeptical. If it were the Maps 5.8 application that was preventing the phone from idling correctly, or transmitting tons of data, wouldn't we expect it to happen regardless of whether the phone was using the 2G or 3G radio connection? Sure, there might be a slight difference in the drain rate, but we'd still expect to see it in both cases. And yet the accelerated drain is alleviated completely by using only 2G. I have the Maps 5.8 application and can fix the problem by using 2G only. That indicates to me it's not an issue with the application.
I'll try uninstalling Maps tomorrow (I'm using CyanogenMod, so it's possible to remove it completely). Then I'll put the phone back on 3G and report back on what happens.

I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!

Glad I saw this thread. My wife and I both have N1s and have each been noticing unusually fast battery drain just in the last 3-4 days.
Last night I charged both phones to the same percentage, turned off 3G on hers and let them both sleep for a while. The phones are configured pretty similarly (stock, latest Maps installed, similar push settings etc). After about an hour and a half, my phone had lost 11% of its charge and hers had only lost 2%. That's enough of a delta for me to point to the 3G usage as the culprit. I guess I will be leaving my phone on 2G when I'm not using it if I am going to be away from a charger for a while.

It's NOT the Google Maps update.
Well, I did my experiment yesterday to rule out the Google Maps 5.8 update as the cause of this issue.
I'm running CyanogenMod so it's possible for me to uninstall Google Maps completely, not just the updates. I did so on Saturday night. Still set to 2G only, I removed my phone from the charger Sunday morning. A few hours later I enabled 3G. Later that afternoon I turned 3G off again.
I think the screenshot speaks for itself. Again, this is without Google Maps installed at all.
I asked around this weekend, and my friend's wife (also here in Portland, OR) is experiencing the same issue on her G1 on T-Mobile. Reading online I've heard about the problem affecting the MyTouch 3G, the G2, and many here with the Nexus One. The common elements seem to be: T-Mobile 3G service, particular models of phones, and some particular geographic areas.
Bottom line (IMHO): T-Mobile has a problem with the configuration of their 3G service in some areas, and it's preventing many phones from being able to idle/sleep properly, resulting in huge battery drain.

Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.

keenerb said:
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?

Deliamber said:
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)
How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:
Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks
Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.
Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a G2.
2G has been much better than 3g, but still probably only 3/4 of my former battery life, optimistically. I checked "Use 2g networks only", same as everyone else. The graph above is a little misleading, since I really saw better battery life, that initial flat and quick drop actually averages out to "decent", rather than "horrific.
At the "Pulled SIM and SD card" mark I re-enabled 3g, so the drain afterwards is still 3g related.
Pulling the SIM doesn't disconnect it from the radio tower, you can still make emergency calls/etc. so it has to maintain a connection I suppose.
Twice I hard-reset the phone, pulled out SD and SIM, and still had huge huge battery drain. Powertutor said IDLE draw was 1437mw on average, no SIM, no WIFI, just sitting there on my desk.
In Airplane mode it'll last for days...

Wannagotopopeyes said:
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?
I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.
Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?
Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not familiar with Tasker. However, maybe it's just disabling cellular data use, not actually disabling the 3G radio? From what we've seen it appears the problem is very low-level, perhaps something to do with basic communication/negotiation between the cell radio in the phone and the towers, as there's no indication of particular application activity or significant data transmission that the Android OS is aware of.
In the T-Mobile support thread there are reports that T-Mobile is now acknowledging there's an issue with changes to their HSPA+ network in some areas.

I've had 3G off all day and my battery life is back to normal. I'm at 87% after at least 6 hours on battery. Yesterday I was down to less than 50% by this time. Luckily, I am able to be on Wifi at work so I don't have to deal with EDGE speeds, which make the Baby Jesus cry.
deliamber, you probably noticed this already but I'm also in the Portland market. It's gotta be a network issue.

I'm having the same issue on my N1 (I'm around the Portland area myself)
I did everything as well, 2g is the only thing that saves me..
Can't wait for a fix!

Related

What has the greatest effect on battery life?

Hi all, searched and couldn't find what I was exactly looking for.
when i first got the phone, the battery life was short but since a couple of weeks ago, it's gotten much, much worse. i've had the phone for maybe a month or so.
i'm talking about the battery draining 10% in 30-40 minutes on standby with nothing like bluetooth or wifi on. at least the phone used to hold a charge decently if it was on standby, now it drains like i'm using it even on standby.
what are the greatest factors that affect battery life? when i first got the rom i have now, it wasn't this bad so i don't think it's the rom itself. plus i absolutely hate changing roms (it takes hours to get all my settings back)
some things i thought of:
i could use g-light but i noticed this makes my memory use quite higher and this doesn't do anything for when it's on standby anyway.
how often the accelerometer checks for rotation, right now it was at every 200 millisecond. I've changed it to 750 now, i'll see what effect this has.
same thing for light sensor. right now it's at 500 ms now.
radio. but again it was fine at first with this 1.09.25.23 radio.
anything else?
With my original 900 mAh battery the consumption was about 15% every hour. This was with the data connection always on. Without this on, it would last 2 days at least.
I also loose quite a bit of power when I'm in a bad phone reception area.
But not knowing where the battery consumption is being used up can be very annoying.
Whenever I'm abroad (and thus have all data connections disabled with NODATA) I always get a massive boost to battery life so it could be some process sending/receiving loads of data that you're unaware of? To test that you could install NODATA and kill all the data connections temporarily to see if that helps? Not that that would narrow down what was happening completely but it might help point you in the right direction.
i also suspect it might have something to do with data. what i've noticed is that my emails don't download fully, only the titles download and i think it stays connected while it's 'stuck' trying to download the rest of the messages, i notice this because it says in the menu 'stop send/receive' meaning it's still trying to send/receive. normally, i have it set to check every half hour. but i guess now it's always connected to data... anyone know why it's doing this? (maybe i need to start a new thread as i can't find an answer for this email send/receive problem by searching...)
kill the 3G chip that works for me but be sure the the provider has a GSM network
yup, 3g is turned off. these days the usage is more like 5% used up every hour in standby with email checked every 30 minutes. i guess that's acceptable...

Battery and no signal

Hi all, I just got my HTC Pure over the weekend and I had a question from those with more experiecne.
First I know (or I think) that the battery life will improve over the next week or so as the battery gets used and charged. Today however was an issue. The phone came off the charger this morning at 100% and then went to work. While at work there is absolutely no signal in the building. (never has been) The only time it was on the network was a 1 hour lunch, and then light internet use for approx 25 minutes this evening. That is all, no calls, nothing, and it had 19% battery left in only 12 hours off the charger.
Again, I am sure that it will improve, but the question is ... does being off the network (GSM) drain the battery faster? Does the phone use a lot of charge "searching" for signal?
I am sure that there are a lot of things that I could do to extend battery life, as a work around (no bluetooth, plug it in to the USB on the computer at work, turn off 3g etc) but I was just curious if someone in the know on how the network and battery use go together if the dead zone is the biggest problem.
Thanks
Not exactly scientific results, but before att put decent coverage in my neighborhood, the battery seemed to drain a lot faster. I guess turning it off would help, but down to 19% that quick just seems ridiculous
cmstackar said:
Not exactly scientific results, but before att put decent coverage in my neighborhood, the battery seemed to drain a lot faster. I guess turning it off would help, but down to 19% that quick just seems ridiculous
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny enough it is my wifes first smart phone. I was just looking at it to change some things to better suit her needs. When I opened the task manager I discovered that a) the programs would only minimize when the X button was pushed, not close and b) windows Live messenger was loaded. I would guess that even though she was not signed in on live messenger it could have killed the battery. Gonna make a couple of tweaks to ensure that it does not fire up again, and see what it looks like tomorrow.
So today was better, but she seems to have had intermittent service. Her media net indicates that it was connected all afternoon. She burned through 40% battery in the AM and only 18% in the afternoon.
I would imagine that the location services for the weather on the sense home screen as well as possibly push email running out of control searching for the signal. I will turn things off 1 at a time until I find out what is driving the battery loss.
Is there any software to monitor battery use and what was using the battery? There is in android.
O.k. continue to have issues with this phone.
Tested last night. Charged to 100% and then light use. Approx 10% down after 3 hours.
Set commmanagerpro to turn off the data and phone radio during the hours my wife is at work. She called today and the screen is showing that the phone radio is off, but it has lost 90% in less than 4 hours. She also said it is hot.
Maybe her purse is somehow turning the screen on? Would the screen being on without any radios cause the phone to plow through battery?
I am gonna try a battery monitoring app and see if it will tell me anything. Its freekin weird.
What radio version are you running?
You may want to consider flashing to a different Radio ROM.
try to see if there are any TSR, residente program, active, maybe be the the problem...
as far as radio versions the 4.49.25.91, for my exprience run far...
you can try to swcht to other radio version...
I am using the AT&T stock radio. I flashed to the energy ROM, but the battery issue is so extreme that I doubt that the radio or the ROM are the driving factor.
She does have 3 magnets in her purse. 2 magnetic catches on her side pockets and 1 on her wallet. While I could not reproduce the device turning on by itself from the magnets, that does not mean that it is not.
The other thing is that there was some warning on the screen about the GPS signal. I imagine that is a side effect of turning off the radios, but maybe not. Is the GPS always on normally? Would a GPS pop up cause the screen to stay on for possibly 3 hours.
This afternoons test will be having her leave her phone in her jacket pocket rather than her purse. We will see how it goes.
saunet_ptg said:
try to see if there are any TSR, residente program, active, maybe be the the problem...
as far as radio versions the 4.49.25.91, for my exprience run far...
you can try to swcht to other radio version...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will look at that radio. I doubt its a program since I had no problems with it at home last night. It has to be environmental. My money is on the purse, but we will see. I'll post later and let you know what we came up with.
There was a few days ago where she lost 60% of her battery in the morning but only 12% after lunch, so that convinces me that it should be something that we can identify and work around.
Energy's ROM may have included the radio.
I had horrible luck with .91 and flashed back to .17.
Symptoms of a bad radio are rapid battery drain and device heating up.
Also, if the device heats up, it will no longer charge until the battery cools down.
If you have AGPS enabled, that was likely your error message when you turned off the radio.
A couple of pointers;
Make sure you monitor which programs are running as you may just be minimizing instead of closing.
Check your power settings and make sure to turn off screen after X minutes
make sure all updates (weather, e-mail, stocks, etc) are set to every hour.
Bruce Inman said:
Energy's ROM may have included the radio.
I had horrible luck with .91 and flashed back to .17.
Symptoms of a bad radio are rapid battery drain and device heating up.
Also, if the device heats up, it will no longer charge until the battery cools down.
If you have AGPS enabled, that was likely your error message when you turned off the radio.
A couple of pointers;
Make sure you monitor which programs are running as you may just be minimizing instead of closing.
Check your power settings and make sure to turn off screen after X minutes
make sure all updates (weather, e-mail, stocks, etc) are set to every hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your advise. The biggest area of opportunity from your list for me is the Radio I think.
The rapid discharge of the battery due to a bad flash, would that be location specific? The rapid drain only seems to happen in a spot where she has no signal (thus the reason I programed it to turn off the radio in those hours)
The running program should no be an issue. To prevent that, as a matter of standard setup for my phones, they have a small script that soft resets them every morning a 4am, so that they are fresh and clean for the start of the day.
As for updates, I have adjusted everything that I can, and some did not have any effect (mostly because the radio was off, can't save much more than that).
I do leave the bluetooth on all day. That should not be draining the battery in 3.5 hours though. I have read a lot of the battery life threads and many of the ideas would cripple the phone, and I am not going there. Sure maybe I don't need weather updated every 30 minutes, but I want me email when it comes in, not once every few hours. I also don't want to have to push 20 buttons each time I want to make the internet work. Its this kind of usability that sells iPhones... I hate them, but they really do just work... and my wife wants a phone that you don't need to be an expert to use.
boufa said:
Thank you for your advise. The biggest area of opportunity from your list for me is the Radio I think.
The rapid discharge of the battery due to a bad flash, would that be location specific? The rapid drain only seems to happen in a spot where she has no signal (thus the reason I programed it to turn off the radio in those hours).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know how to view your radio version? Its listed on the bottom of your phone when you reset, the 3 numbers that display, R is the radio version.
You can go to the radio thread and flash another version, just keep testing different versions until you get one that works well. Radio ROMs will not overwrite your data.
Radio's are definitely location specific in regards to region and carrier.
Borderline coverage is a major battery killer, but you're disabling the radio, which should resolve that issue...
G-Profile is a nice app that allows you to set what type of connection and when.
Bruce Inman said:
Energy's ROM may have included the radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine didn't and I used the May 1st update. Still Stock.
If no signal is happening in the building, I would think it's the various things continuously trying to run, like Email, GPS etc. Constant failed attempts to update your phone's apps would definitely drag the battery down in a hurry. I have my email set to 3 hrs. updates along with weather updates. Nothing I do is so important at this point in my life that faster than 3 hr. responses are required. I also don't use things like Tweeter and FaceBook so those aren't constantly eating my battery. I get about 1.5 to 2.0 days from my battery currently.
Here is the current (no pun intended) testing results...
This AM 3.5 hours used 100% of the battery (in the purse)
This PM 4 hours used 21% of the battery (in the jacket pocket)
Gonna try to leave the phone outside of the purse all day friday and see what the results are. Then see how it works around the house on saturday, in a standard limited use type scenerio. Then Sunday put it into the purse and see if it becomes an issue again.
If all of this works out that the purse it the problem, then I will start tweaking it out, and changing radio's etc to get the max I can out of the battery.
boufa said:
Here is the current (no pun intended) testing results...
This AM 3.5 hours used 100% of the battery (in the purse)
This PM 4 hours used 21% of the battery (in the jacket pocket)
Gonna try to leave the phone outside of the purse all day friday and see what the results are. Then see how it works around the house on saturday, in a standard limited use type scenerio. Then Sunday put it into the purse and see if it becomes an issue again.
If all of this works out that the purse it the problem, then I will start tweaking it out, and changing radio's etc to get the max I can out of the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So today we left it out of the purse. Here is what we got...
On the table next to the computer, so confirmed that the screen is NOT activating at all. Phone radio off, data off.
AM... used 40% in 4 hours.
Better, but still not good. Gonna try to ensure that the email is set for longer, currently it is set for 10 minutes, and then try to turn off a-gps and the regular gps and make sure that those things are not killing the battery. Then flash a new radio. We'll see how that works next week.
First, test it and watch it over normal, with signal, average 4 hours at home this weekend. I think it will do great... meaning that it is the purse, or the environment that is causing the problem.
I don't know if anyone is following my personal drama, but maybe it will come up in a search some day and help someone.
Here is the saturday update.
Took the phone off charge at 2am and looked at it at 11 am this morning. Used only 2% in those 9 hours. So it is definitely NOT a defective device, or battery. (it actually charges up in only a couple of hours)
So looking into the profile schedule manager that I installed, turns out it has not been running. So the whole purse/no purse thing may be horse hockey still. Monday I will be setting it manually to airplane mode to verify that it holds a charge, then finding a new program to do the scheduling. (looking into phonealarm)
If the radio was on, at full power searching for a signal, it would only last approx 4 - 5 hours at best. So it makes sense that this is what is happening.

Power recommendations...

Ok Guys,
Kind of a weird question, but I'm using one of the ICS leak ROMS.
With general usage, 4G/wifi, I would get between 18 to 20 hours, which for me is perfectly fine. The more wifi, the more battery time. No issues at all.
Recently, our office moved where we have a dead zone. I do have full wifi access, however being in this area absolutely kills the battery. I lose 12% every hour. As a precaution, I have disabled the mobile data, and confirmed wifi is working. I have confirmed that I can make and receive calls, and send/recivee txt msgs. However, battery results are the same. Is there anything else I could try?
I'm guessing, being in a deadzone, the phone is putting in overtime trying to find a tower....
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance...
Interesting... On my Bionic with the .232 leak the option to change network types is grayed out. I was thinking if you set it to 4G or 3G only it would save some battery since the analog radio sure do suck down power (if it even tries to use that as an option).
Not sure what to do. Hopefully somebody can provide something useful.
Apps to change radio
Drunkula said:
Interesting... On my Bionic with the .232 leak the option to change network types is grayed out. I was thinking if you set it to 4G or 3G only it would save some battery since the analog radio sure do suck down power (if it even tries to use that as an option).
Not sure what to do. Hopefully somebody can provide something useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can definitely try out a couple of apps from the appstore to change your radio settings in one of the ICS leaks. The first is called "Phone Info" and the second is called "LTE OnOFF - HTC Thunderbolt". See if going with 3g (CDMA auto prl works well for me) only will help your cause.
You could turn the radio completely off, but then you obviously wouldn't get calls, texts, etc.
Ok Guys
Here are my findings...
Looking back, it seems during my move, I also upgraded from Eclipse 2.1 to Liquid ICS around that timeframe. So I back tracked and installed eclipse 2.1 and tested. Here are my findings:
on Liquid ICS 1.5mr:
In deadzone in my office, with wifi turned on, mobile data disabled, I get barely 1 hour per 10%
Everywhere else, 4g/wifi mixed. More wifi, the better, but I get roughly 2.5 hours per 10%
I re-flashed Eclipse, this is what I found
on Eclipse 2.1
In deadzone in my office, with wifi turned on, mobile data disabled, I get approx 2.5 hours per 10%
Everywhere else, 4g/wifi mixed. More wifi, the better, but I get roughly 2 hours per 10%
Overall, the ICS battery usage seems to be much better under normal conditions. In a deadzone, seems to eat away much more battery, even when mobile data is disabled. I'm geussing that its prob checking for a tower much more often then GB?
Any help would greatly be appreciated.....Thanks!
Hey Guys
Just wanted to update you on my findings....
Ok, after playign around, here is what i did. With WIFI turned on, I was getting barely half a bar in the radio signal. For a goof, with WIFI turned on, I went into phone info, and disabled the radio, and re-enabled it. within 2 sec, the radio came up and got half a bar again, but a few sec right after that, I got like 4 or 5 bars. After testing in this state, i get roughly 5 to 6% depletion per hour. WHich is MUCHHHH better.
I have a feeling that with WIFI turned on (mobile data seems to be disabled when in wifi mode), and u turn on the radio, that it connects to a different tower entirely. Because when I walk outside, and disconnect wifi, it goes to 4G, but then u can see it go from 4 to 5 bars, to 3 bars which is normal for me for that area.
Hope this helps someone....but it helped me a great deal.

Battery Drain On s3 i19305

Hi, need some help,
I got this phone a couple of days back, its an unlocked one. Battery on the phone seems to be draining faster than i expected it to. The first time i charged it, it took 3 hours in the afternoon. By night it was 20% this was after playing games and downloading through wifi, so it seemed ok. I then put it for charge overnight. The next day it still seemed to drained by 7pm only used whats app this day, so i had to put for charge again.
Once fully charged (2 hrs) I shut off wifi, bluetooth, nfc and others. Switched off smart stay options and the display is set to lowest brightness (not auto). The wallpapers is also black so it will not drain battery. Overnight without the phone being used (only thing i set was alarm) the charge went from 89% to 78%. During the day I also find the charge still dropping pretty rapidly. I have included the screen shot of the battery from the same day. Between the first pictures there is no difference in use and still drops by 3% in 20 mins or so.
Is this a problem with the battery or is that how it is?
(Stock, no changes to rom)
Not sure if this is your specific problem - but one thing I've found that kills this phone fast is bad 4G cell reception. By default the phone runs as LTE/GSM/WCDMA (Auto) in Settings->Mobile Networks . If you are in a location with patchy (or none at all) 4G Coverage, the phone wastes an inordinate amount of juice switching to high-power mode on the cell radio searching for the elusive 4G/LTE ... Just like a 3G phone will deplete its battery extremly fast in a location with no/poor 3G connectivity (inside the 'secure' datacentres I wander into occasionally that have cell blockers, I can deplete the battery in a phone in about 3 hours just due to it constantly switching to high-power 'cell search' mode as it has no details on any cells to 'hand off' to....)
The difference is palpable... inside my office, if I have the phone on the right side of my desk closest to some windows, it will receive 'patchy' 4G and I'll go through about 60% battery over about 8-10 hours with intermittent phone use (most of the battery goes to screen time as I'm a 'fiddler' whenever I leave my desk for a coffee/break/etc...) If I place it on the left side of my desk, where the reception is much worse, it'll fall back to 3G and I'll go through about 80% battery doing nothing different...
I'm now in the habit of switching the phone to WCDMA Only when I'm going to be working in the bowels of the building, as there aint no hope of 4G there...Doing this drastically improves battery life.. Likewise if I'm stuck at home over the weekend, I leave it on WCDMA, as where I live has very patchy 4G as well and I only get it if I walk outside and down the street...
Just a possible reason for the excessive drain... at least worth trying anyway... *shrug*
adr6ian said:
Not sure if this is your specific problem - but one thing I've found that kills this phone fast is bad 4G cell reception. By default the phone runs as LTE/GSM/WCDMA (Auto) in Settings->Mobile Networks . If you are in a location with patchy (or none at all) 4G Coverage, the phone wastes an inordinate amount of juice switching to high-power mode on the cell radio searching for the elusive 4G/LTE ... Just like a 3G phone will deplete its battery extremly fast in a location with no/poor 3G connectivity (inside the 'secure' datacentres I wander into occasionally that have cell blockers, I can deplete the battery in a phone in about 3 hours just due to it constantly switching to high-power 'cell search' mode as it has no details on any cells to 'hand off' to....)
The difference is palpable... inside my office, if I have the phone on the right side of my desk closest to some windows, it will receive 'patchy' 4G and I'll go through about 60% battery over about 8-10 hours with intermittent phone use (most of the battery goes to screen time as I'm a 'fiddler' whenever I leave my desk for a coffee/break/etc...) If I place it on the left side of my desk, where the reception is much worse, it'll fall back to 3G and I'll go through about 80% battery doing nothing different...
I'm now in the habit of switching the phone to WCDMA Only when I'm going to be working in the bowels of the building, as there aint no hope of 4G there...Doing this drastically improves battery life.. Likewise if I'm stuck at home over the weekend, I leave it on WCDMA, as where I live has very patchy 4G as well and I only get it if I walk outside and down the street...
Just a possible reason for the excessive drain... at least worth trying anyway... *shrug*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thanks for the reply. My phone does not show WCDMA in settings. It just has 2g/3g/4g/ auto OR 3g in network modes under mobile networks.
varun.k said:
Hi thanks for the reply. My phone does not show WCDMA in settings. It just has 2g/3g/4g/ auto OR 3g in network modes under mobile networks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used an app called "Radio Switcher" to activate "gsm auto (prl)", when i open the app it seems to go into "Device info". It seems to work but "Network mode" does not seem to change.
I have uploaded the screenshots
Seems as though the system is using more battery than the screen itself.
The system seems to really take up way too much battery power. Mine is at 4%.
What are your sync settings? Especially for things like Weather, stocks, news etc. If you set them to sync every hour or so, your phone will keep running on the 3G network which will end up draining your battery.
Also, switch off motion. It's a cool feature, but it's not necessary. Same with auto-rotate.
Finally, use WiFi instead of 3G where possible. That saves battery too.
If you're rooted, download noFrills CPU control and reduce your max clock frequency on days where you won't get a charge. Phone runs well enough on 800mhz, but has a tendency to keep going at 1.4Ghz for no reason.
Otherwise, get a higher capacity battery
Snowstormzzz said:
The system seems to really take up way too much battery power. Mine is at 4%.
What are your sync settings? Especially for things like Weather, stocks, news etc. If you set them to sync every hour or so, your phone will keep running on the 3G network which will end up draining your battery.
Also, switch off motion. It's a cool feature, but it's not necessary. Same with auto-rotate.
Finally, use WiFi instead of 3G where possible. That saves battery too.
If you're rooted, download noFrills CPU control and reduce your max clock frequency on days where you won't get a charge. Phone runs well enough on 800mhz, but has a tendency to keep going at 1.4Ghz for no reason.
Otherwise, get a higher capacity battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My sync is off, plus i have disabled sync for everything individuality and disabled all unwanted apps. Data service is also off, only use wi-fi. under motion only smart call is on and auto rotate us off.
I have uploaded a screen shot off after ti disable all these apps.(went to bed with 35% and was 28% in the mornin, turned wifi off before)
Will upgrading (official) phone to android 4.1.2 help (current ver is 4.1.1)? Current base band version is i9305BVALI5 i got an update on kies to i9305BVALI3. I don't think this is update to 4.1.2 is it?
I have updated to 4.1.2, and applied only gsm setting in mobile network. All apps are still disabled as before. The system still seems to be suing most amount of battery, more than the screen. I do not know what is using the system.
I have stared having the same problem a couple of days ago. Though I have sync enabled 0-24 for 3 gmail accounts, motions are on, screen auto rotate is also on. I am using nova launcher, almost all Samsung apps are frozen and most of time I am on wifi.
Now, this drain has nothing to do with the stuff I just mentioned (Enabled sync, motions...). I have all that things enabled all the time, and yes MPU and GPU are OC to 1600 and 640 MHz. But I was always getting >= 24h with ~3,5 h of screen on time. As I already mentioned, problem started a couple of days ago. Only thing which comes to my mind is that I have played with freezing / defrosting apps and I probably installed a couple of apps too. Like Beautiful Widgets and that's my main candidate to blame for this at the moment.
Though I am still not sure... Better than battery stats didn't show anything what could help. Network location locator or similar is at the top of the list of partial wake locks. But the time it hold the lock (About 25 min.) can't be the reason for such a high drain.
I have switched to HD Widgets, what I was using before (With this app one can disable auto location.) removed Beautiful Widgets, and turned off'Use wireless networks' and GPS in location services hoping it will help... So we'll see...
For me it still shows that adroid system and cell standby time is using a lot battery.
I don't get why android system and OS is using so much battery, everything is disabled. Network is on only GSM setting and i have network all the time, why is that also high? Does someone else also have the same problem?
If possible, install Better Battery Stats, maybe it will help you to identify the problem... In my case it is not of much use at the moment.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda premium
Strange idea: download an anti-virus and let it run.
Might as well give it a shot now, especially since AV is free.
Snowstormzzz said:
Strange idea: download an anti-virus and let it run.
Might as well give it a shot now, especially since AV is free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using AVG, but i removed it thinking it could drain battery.
Sv: Battery Drain On s3 i19305
varun.k said:
I was using AVG, but i removed it thinking it could drain battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he meant that it could be a virus that drains all the battery.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
sebbe312 said:
I think he meant that it could be a virus that drains all the battery.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did an upgrade using odin to 4.1.2, the issue still remains though. The screen shots i posted is with the update.
So any virus should also be wiped out right?
varun.k said:
I did an upgrade using odin to 4.1.2, the issue still remains though. The screen shots i posted is with the update.
So any virus should also be wiped out right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyways i tried it, does not seem to work though.
!crazy said:
If possible, install Better Battery Stats, maybe it will help you to identify the problem... In my case it is not of much use at the moment.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have installed better battery stats, and it says that battery drain is 6% an hour at idle. I have attached the screen shots. I do not have root access to access some of its functions though.

T-mob Galaxy S6 5.1.1 Updated -> Significant power draw when WiFi enabled

For some reason after the 5.1.1 update on my T-mobile Galaxy S6 it was running hot and looking at the power consumption it was draining the battery quickly. It drained about 15% of the battery in less than an hour w/ nothing running in the background, and the battery usage is displaying 1% for everything for some reason. The one on top is com.tmobile.pr.adapt.
I wasn't sure if T-mobile pulled something stupid like making one of their apps that communicates to their network, but only over their data (i.e. not over wifi - like they do with showing your account information.) So, I turned off the WiFi to let it run off of LTE for a while. It cooled down and power consumption went back to normal (for being on LTE.) I let it sit for a couple hours that way, then switched back to WiFi and within a few minutes it was heated back up and power draining fast for some reason. There's no indication of things being downloaded but it's drawing way too much power.
Note I've rebooted it 3 times w/ same type of power activity.
Any thoughts, and anyone know how to role back to 5.0?
If you took the ota or used Odin to update you can't downgrade. I told everyone first thing this morning a downgrade won't be possible. Have you done a factory reset since updating?
I did a factory reset when I updated and battery life has been good with no strange issues.
mikeyinid said:
If you took the ota or used Odin to update you can't downgrade. I told everyone first thing this morning a downgrade won't be possible. Have you done a factory reset since updating?
I did a factory reset when I updated and battery life has been good with no strange issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried a factory reset yet. I figured I couldn't downgrade as that's typical. I left it overnight w/ WiFi enabled and it drained downfrom 100% to 60% within the first 2hrs and then started draining slower to about 36% over then next 10hrs.
I topped it off w/ WiFi turned on and it felt like it was running hot. Left the house to run some errands for an hour and it only dropped to 96% (WiFi turned on but not connected.)
I've just got back from that, I'm going to let it sit for an hour w/ WiFi on but will leave it sit and see what happens. Personally I don't want to do a Factory Reset but if I'm still having the issue that's where I'll go. I had a similiar issue for a while on my S4 but it went away after a couple weeks.
EDIT: Ok, almost an hour later and it's only dropped about 3% while the WiFi was enabled and connected. I guess whatever was causing that has settled down. Thankfully no Factory Reset was required.
It is because of a stupid bug on WiFi calling (the mobile antenna does not turn off and it drains the battery). If you want to use wifi, just disable wifi calling, and you should be ok
I'm having a similar experience as TAZ427. Just updated my T-Mobile GS6 edge to 5.1.1 with OTA. I immediately noticed the phone was somewhat warmer. Battery monitor reveals that com.tmobile.pr.adapt is now #1 on the list. I tried killing that process several times but keeps coming back.
I also notice that despite being connected to my home WiFi, the "4GLTE" icon comes on and off constantly (1 second on, 3 seconds off, repeat...). Before the update, 4GLTE rarely came on while on WiFi. So probably the increased battery drain and heat are due to radio usage, not necessarily extra CPU utilization.
Not sure what com.tmobile.pr.adapt is for, or if it can be disabled. Would love to hear any guidance on that. As a side note, I had TMO grant me a SIM unlock -- I'm actually on Straight Talk (AT&T MVNO). So this service is running despite my phone not actually using the T-Mobile network.
I'm going to continue observing for the next couple of days before doing a factory reset. Really hoping to avoid that...
rico-b said:
I'm having a similar experience as TAZ427. Just updated my T-Mobile GS6 edge to 5.1.1 with OTA. I immediately noticed the phone was somewhat warmer. Battery monitor reveals that com.tmobile.pr.adapt is now #1 on the list. I tried killing that process several times but keeps coming back.
I also notice that despite being connected to my home WiFi, the "4GLTE" icon comes on and off constantly (1 second on, 3 seconds off, repeat...). Before the update, 4GLTE rarely came on while on WiFi. So probably the increased battery drain and heat are due to radio usage, not necessarily extra CPU utilization.
Not sure what com.tmobile.pr.adapt is for, or if it can be disabled. Would love to hear any guidance on that. As a side note, I had TMO grant me a SIM unlock -- I'm actually on Straight Talk (AT&T MVNO). So this service is running despite my phone not actually using the T-Mobile network.
I'm going to continue observing for the next couple of days before doing a factory reset. Really hoping to avoid that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm noticing the exact same thing as far as the 4G LTE icon + WiFi and it's pissing me the f*** off. I've Factory Reset and everything after 5.1.1 update. I'm on MetroPCS with a TMO phone.
I never had this issue before the update
Sent from my SM-G920T using XDA Free mobile app
rico-b said:
I'm having a similar experience as TAZ427. Just updated my T-Mobile GS6 edge to 5.1.1 with OTA. I immediately noticed the phone was somewhat warmer. Battery monitor reveals that com.tmobile.pr.adapt is now #1 on the list. I tried killing that process several times but keeps coming back.
I also notice that despite being connected to my home WiFi, the "4GLTE" icon comes on and off constantly (1 second on, 3 seconds off, repeat...). Before the update, 4GLTE rarely came on while on WiFi. So probably the increased battery drain and heat are due to radio usage, not necessarily extra CPU utilization.
Not sure what com.tmobile.pr.adapt is for, or if it can be disabled. Would love to hear any guidance on that. As a side note, I had TMO grant me a SIM unlock -- I'm actually on Straight Talk (AT&T MVNO). So this service is running despite my phone not actually using the T-Mobile network.
I'm going to continue observing for the next couple of days before doing a factory reset. Really hoping to avoid that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys are finally confirming what I noticed since first time I upgraded. Data turns on automatically and that only happens when wifi is on. Sucks.
FatalIll said:
I'm noticing the exact same thing as far as the 4G LTE icon + WiFi and it's pissing me the f*** off. I've Factory Reset and everything after 5.1.1 update. I'm on MetroPCS with a TMO phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SM-G920T
ambervals6 said:
You guys are finally confirming what I noticed since first time I upgraded. Data turns on automatically and that only happens when wifi is on. Sucks.
Sent from my SM-G920T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I found a semifix, someone else will have to investigate because I have no idea what I actually did or if it's a longterm fix...
Go to Data Usage in Settings, find com.tmobile.pr.adapt or whatever it is, turn OFF Background Data. Go to Application Manager, find com.tmobile.pr.adapt and Force Close, Clear Data. I wasn't able to disable it but it seems the Background Data being turned off fixed it.
FatalIll said:
I think I found a semifix, someone else will have to investigate because I have no idea what I actually did or if it's a longterm fix...
Go to Data Usage in Settings, find com.tmobile.pr.adapt or whatever it is, turn OFF Background Data. Go to Application Manager, find com.tmobile.pr.adapt and Force Close, Clear Data. I wasn't able to disable it but it seems the Background Data being turned off fixed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that. Will let you know
Sent from my SM-G920T
rico-b said:
I'm having a similar experience as TAZ427. Just updated my T-Mobile GS6 edge to 5.1.1 with OTA. I immediately noticed the phone was somewhat warmer. Battery monitor reveals that com.tmobile.pr.adapt is now #1 on the list. I tried killing that process several times but keeps coming back.
I also notice that despite being connected to my home WiFi, the "4GLTE" icon comes on and off constantly (1 second on, 3 seconds off, repeat...). Before the update, 4GLTE rarely came on while on WiFi. So probably the increased battery drain and heat are due to radio usage, not necessarily extra CPU utilization.
Not sure what com.tmobile.pr.adapt is for, or if it can be disabled. Would love to hear any guidance on that. As a side note, I had TMO grant me a SIM unlock -- I'm actually on Straight Talk (AT&T MVNO). So this service is running despite my phone not actually using the T-Mobile network.
I'm going to continue observing for the next couple of days before doing a factory reset. Really hoping to avoid that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having the same issue and my phone is not usable now since the battery is awful. My s6 is temporary unlocked for a month since I am out of the states. I am afraid this is happening for unlocked s6's only. The trick of restricting background data for the "com.mobile.pr.adapt" seems to be working for now.
kojaraty said:
I am having the same issue and my phone is not usable now since the battery is awful. My s6 is temporary unlocked for a month since I am out of the states. I am afraid this is happening for unlocked s6's only. The trick of restricting background data for the "com.mobile.pr.adapt" seems to be working for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My S6 is not unlocked, it's a T-Mobile variant right out of the box activated on MetroPCS. If I had to venture a guess it would be that this is only happening to phones not on T-Mobile, not necessarily just unlocked. I'm assuming that com.tmobile.pr.adapt is some kind of phonehome or data reporter for T-Mobile but since we're not on T-Mobile it keeps bouncing back and getting stuck in some stupid loop.
I have the same problem with my unlocked t-mobile device (running on att). I wouldn't be so pissed if the update at least fixed the memory drain, but noooooope. Now I'm stuck with a 450mb phone that crashes and has bad battery (last two are new).
I did that small hotfix, and will check back.
Has everyone cleared the cache partition? Since the update, is the download booster automatically set to on?
troysyx said:
Has everyone cleared the cache partition? Since the update, is the download booster automatically set to on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The download booster is set to off after the 5.1.1 update
Happy to report that for me, this "com.tmobile.pr.adapt" issue has effectively gone away. Things started getting better after I cleared the cache and data for this process. I also restricted its background data as was suggested by others. Not sure which of those actions did the trick. Just theorizing, but another possibility is that T-Mobile was simply collecting post-update metrics from their phones for QA purposes, and that this was all just a short term annoyance. Anyone still seeing battery drain and heat higher than normal due to this process?
Anyway, "com.tmobile.pr.adapt" is no longer registering on my battery usage menu, or on CPU utilization list when I run OS Monitor. The phone is performing well overall (no worse than before the 5.1.1 update, anyway).
Excellent battery life for me. I had over 17 hours in total & 3+ hours on screen time. Only problem is i cant seem to install downloaded apps manually
Thanks
FatalIll said:
I think I found a semifix, someone else will have to investigate because I have no idea what I actually did or if it's a longterm fix...
Go to Data Usage in Settings, find com.tmobile.pr.adapt or whatever it is, turn OFF Background Data. Go to Application Manager, find com.tmobile.pr.adapt and Force Close, Clear Data. I wasn't able to disable it but it seems the Background Data being turned off fixed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After the 5.1.1 update this morning my S6 went from a 100% charge to 10% in about 2.5 hours which was disheartening. Tried a factory reset which didn't help. Even charging from a USB port didn't stop it from draining the battery (just drained slower)! Called TING and they had no idea. But this seems to be working for me too. Thanks!!! I'll email TING to let them know about the fix, may help with a future update?
Adam Longaway said:
After the 5.1.1 update this morning my S6 went from a 100% charge to 10% in about 2.5 hours which was disheartening. Tried a factory reset which didn't help. Even charging from a USB port didn't stop it from draining the battery (just drained slower)! Called TING and they had no idea. But this seems to be working for me too. Thanks!!! I'll email TING to let them know about the fix, may help with a future update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it has more to do with T-Mobile pushing a fix or an update, because whatever they did to 5.1.1 on their end royally screwed anyone using their branded S6 on another carrier. I don't know the proper channels to make T-Mobile aware of this.
I have the same annoying problem on my 920T. I bought it from t-mo, unlocked it and am using it in Italy. As soon as I got the 5.1.1 update, com.tmobile.pr.adapt started killing my battery. I just enabled the "restrict background data" and will let you know how it goes...

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