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Purpose: I'm starting this thread to discuss the effects of using Latitude on battery life. Specifically, is there anything we can do to minimize the extra battery drain it causes. I like using latitude with family and friends and want to continue using the service (I'm sure I'm not the only one). I really need to find a way to use it without giving up on around 70% of my standby battery life.
Background: Over the past 2 nights, I've left my phone unplugged when I went to sleep. On the first night I was signed OUT of latitude and lost about 7% of my battery. On the second night I was signed IN to latitude and lost about 23%. To me, this doesn't make any sense and given what latitude does, its way too high. I noticed that in BetterBatteryStats, NetworkLocationLocator has 2h31m of partial wakelock time (Count: 2482, 16%) when latitude is turned ON. With latitude OFF, it was near the bottom of the list with a negligible amount of activity. I believe this is the primary contributor of the significant increase in battery usage when I use latitude on my device. I'm not an expert on BetterBatteryStats, but over the course of a day, I expect latitude to update my location a few dozen times. So, why is it showing a count of wakelocks in the thousands?
Specific Questions:
What might be causing the huge increase in NetworkLocationLocator wakelocks and is there anyway to get that number under control when using latitude?
I use tasker on my phone and I have profiles set up for higher battery life vs higher performance. Is there anyway to have tasker control latitude? If I can get an activity that would sign me in and another to sign me out, I'm sure I can incorporate that into my various profiles. (if tasker can't do it by itself, could a script be written to do it? I know tasker can execute certain types of scripts I just have no idea how to write them)
Has anyone used the program Latify (or something similar)? I know its an alternative client to the latitude service and I was wondering if it had better battery life than Google's client. This would be my last resort as I like having latitude integrated into Maps, which I also use often.
For the record, I'm running stock rooted KI3 (2.3.5). But, I have noticed huge battery drain with latitude on every rom so far with my GS2.
Thanks in advance to any and all who can help contribute to this problem and a solution.
Try this new app, from the developer of BetterBatteryStats: [APP] ALTitude, a Google Latitude updater with a low battery footprint
I think there are a lot of issues with Maps. Here is another thread where we think it causes wakelocks from Gtalk_async_conn: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1242519
Hopefully Google will fix these issues soon. But in the meantime, I think the solution is to freeze/kill Maps when you don't need it, and update Latitude through an alternative app.
Unfortunately, there's no way to control how Latitude will perform location updates, and it does stress the battery, even when you're not moving.
I would also advice to look into some third party apps to update your Latitude account.
As far as Latify is concerned (please note that I'm the developer of Latify), there are a lot of options in Latify that allow you to update your location. Not only the polling interval, but also WiFi / GPS usage, or a simple last known location republish without using the location manager can be configured). By hooking it up with Tasker, you can activate the polling profile that suits you best, allowing for accurate location updates while keeping battery life in mind. Many users have reported better battery life, and there's also a Battery Saving tips article at hemorrdroids.net that mentions Latitude/Latify
I'm usually signed out of latify from the Maps application, and only sign in to see my friends. I also see a battery life increase when not using Google Maps / Latitude, and using Latify to perform my location updates.
I only use latitude when I need it. So if me and my wife go out for the day with a couple of friends and split up, we can turn it on and locate each other when we want!
Otherwise I don't see why it would need to be on all the time. Also its good when traveling with more than one vehicle so you can see the progress of the other vehicles.
Its going to use battery as its checking for your location.
@Sparksltd : That's true, but some people like to use Google Latitude in a different way, updating their location more frequently, to make use of the dashboard features of Google Latitude (time spent at home / work , overview of places visited.....).
In order for the dashboard to work properly, you need a lot more data to be pushed in Google Latitude. For those users, they need to keep Latitude up and running most of the time, where it does eat up a lot of battery, without any control on how these updates are occurring.
I have over 150000 records in Latitude, and it gives a very detailed overview of when I was at home, when I was out working, when I'm visiting friends.... It also allows you to see all your trips abroad, and the places you visited there. It's nice sometimes to replay that, or if you need some kind of "Where was I / what did I do on a particular day" functionality.
When I'm at work for example, I don't want Latitude to constantly update my exact same location every couple of minutes, but I would like a more intelligent way of updating it (ex: update it every hour based on my last known location, or update it every 2 hours until I'm in my my car, and than resort to GPS based location updates as I'm probably going to be on the move, and in my car I can charge my phone).
That's why people resort to third party apps, as it gives them more control over how location updates occur, and how it will affect their battery.
Hello there! I have a suggestion. Is your phone rooted? If it is then this option is for you.
Install Titanium Backup Pro from Market and Freeze the Latitude app(I think it is bundled together with Maps) when you don't use it. When you need it then you can unfreeze the app.
Checked, this still happens when I do not use Latitude. The same service causes the partial wake locks. I am using Maps 6.0.2. I think the issue was accentuated since Maps 6.0.0, probably wowing to better integration with latitude and the core application?
IMO this looks like very bad programming from google. I doubt if they will ever fix this completely.
Well I have tried Backitude and it works fine for me. It has several options which you can configure like
- update interval (5 min - 60 min)
- Minimum change in distance (100 mts - 1000 mts)
- Real time tracking (Might cause huge battery drain)
I use update interval of 15 min and minimum change in distance of 250 mts. Set latitude to update manually and Backitude will do the rest for you. Enable Use wireless networks within location and security so that it uses your cellular network instead of GPS to track your approximate location.
This helps in reducing the partial wakelocks caused by google maps. Other similar apps are Latify and ALtitude.
Note : This app requests for google authentication token in order to access your account, you can create an application specific password by enabling two way account validation in your google account.
I use Latify, and find it works pretty well. In particular, the scenario described above applies to me - I don't want regular location updates when I'm at work or home. So I use Tasker to control latify - I only send an update once-per-hour when at home or in the office, but as soon as I go outside or to another location it switches to my 'out and about' profile, and Latify sends updates every 5 minutes. That way, I get granular updates while I'm in more interesting locations. I also have it switch to 'SatNav' mode when I launch Google Maps/Nav or CoPilot, which then enables GPS for hi-def location, and publishes updates every 30 seconds.
Works really well - you should give it a shot.
I have Location reporting/location sharing/location history all switched off in Google Maps, but still see the NetworkLocationLocator top of the list in BetterBatteryStats (14 minutes/count 221 in the last 2hrs 45mins). Does anyone have any idea why this service is still consuming so much battery if I have the Latitude options switched off??
(the phone is an S3 but presumably the issue is the same?)
I've been using GBX0* + 3.4.26.13 kernel for sometime on my uk rhod100. I know that it's not recommended for rhod100 but I have found it to work very well (a big thanks to the developers - hopefully the bug with bluetooth causing occasional reboots will be solved soon). After some reading around and experimentation I have found a setup that I am very happy with. Below I share my current setup in the hope that some find it useful. I stress that none of this is original and can be found scattered around the forums.
Initial Installation
Firstly, when installing the ROM I remove all the apks from the system/app directory that I have no use for. The apps I have removed without any detrimental effects are:
Bluetooth (I belive this is only required for file transfers via bluetooth which has never worked with any xdandroid build on my device)
GenieWidget (News and weather widget I never use but does cause device wakeups and launches when a data connection is found even if not used)
HTMLviewer
LatinimeTutorial
Mediauploader
PinyinIME (chinese android keyboard input)
Protips
Talk (Gtalk - never used this)
Vpnservices
I also uninstall launcher2 once I have installed an alternative after flashing (Lightning launcher with the least demanding settings and no wallpaper, as few widgets as possible and one screen is recommened)
Performance
The [[Speed Improvements]] Brainstorming & Testing Thread!! is full of useful tips and advice however was started sometime ago. I did use the V6 supercharger script for some time with good results however I now use and application called Android Tuner from the play store. With this app I can do many of the tips and tweak from the convenience of an app. I use it to do the following
1. Contolling the CPU frequency for overclocking. Stable upto 710MHz on my device
2. Controlling OOM settings (I use 8,16,32,64,96,128)
3. Controlling startup apps
4. Turning off the receivers for GoogleServicesframework
5. Performing tasks like FixPermissions / Clearing System caches / Wipe Davlik etc.
The app does a whole load more (changing SD cache / changing SysCtl settings/allowing uninstalling of system apps) - if people have other setup tips please share
I have also recently started using an app called Seeder (available for free to xda members) which seems to improve general performance. I am in the early stages of trying this but it does seem to help a bit. The reviews generally seem positive but the manner in which it works is debated. Any other experiences of this app would be appreciated. One drawback is claimed to be a decreased batter life - I have not seen this.
Battery Life
All the usual stuff re screen brightness and timeout apply here as well as data connections etc.
I have been using an app called One Power Guard which does seem to improve battery life mainly during standby without any discernible decrease in performance. This app causes various system and kernel tweaks,
Disabling data connections etc is well known to help improve battery life but I have also found a big difference by turing off Use Wireless networks in the Location and Security Settings.
A second battery with this ROM is recommended and I am very happy with the Mugen 1800mah battery.
Essential Apps
Notification Toggle by j4velin I would say is a must. It allows shortcuts (for apps and settings) and toggles (like CM7.2) for system settings to be placed in the notification area. With the rhod100 not reconnecting the wifi networks after a screen off having a rapid toggle function is essential. Highly recommended and light weight,
Leo AGPS injector app by tytung is essential for speeding up GPS locks. From reading around when using this app first extablish a data connection, then turn on GPS and then run the widget. Definitely speeds up GPS lock times. (Use GPS test to check)
Clock Sync by sergey baranov is another essential for preventing clock drift. Also I have read that an accurate clock time can improve GPS lock times so another reason for this app. As in the xdandroid FAQ I have it set to sync every hour. It may also be beneficial to change the NTP server to a local one.
That concludes my round up of my current setup. Please contribute any other tips that I have missed out. The above have only been tried with this ROM and work well on my Rhod100, I hope this is of help to someone.
Thanks akk29, very useful. I have now tried some of the things you have, some I will get around too as I play more and find more out (eg, controlling startup apps, uninstall inglauncher, GoogleServicesframewor). I'm constantly turning my backlight up/down - is there a fix for doing this automatically?
The jury is out as whether I'll switch back to WinMo... I love all the new apps I've got that WinMo just doesn't have.
The biggest problem, (at least I think it's what's causing problems), is speed (I'm running ok at 787 MHz at the moment!). The phone doesn't want to know about the Facebook App - it says it's loading it, but then bombs out after thinking for quite a while. Also it's very fussy about touching the screen. Trying to type using the screen keyboard is almost impossible. I love the hardware keyboard (which is why I've got the TP2), but sometimes I just need a quick soft-key entry. And whether I pressed a button or not, only time would tell.
But I'll use it and play with it for a little while longer, and most probably become too reliant on all the android apps to revert back!
[I had a WinMo tweak for boosting the volume which made my phone very loud, but now it seems quite quiet, especially playing songs]
-Jonny- said:
Thanks akk29, very useful. I have now tried some of the things you have, some I will get around too as I play more and find more out (eg, controlling startup apps, uninstall inglauncher, GoogleServicesframewor). I'm constantly turning my backlight up/down - is there a fix for doing this automatically?
The jury is out as whether I'll switch back to WinMo... I love all the new apps I've got that WinMo just doesn't have.
The biggest problem, (at least I think it's what's causing problems), is speed (I'm running ok at 787 MHz at the moment!). The phone doesn't want to know about the Facebook App - it says it's loading it, but then bombs out after thinking for quite a while. Also it's very fussy about touching the screen. Trying to type using the screen keyboard is almost impossible. I love the hardware keyboard (which is why I've got the TP2), but sometimes I just need a quick soft-key entry. And whether I pressed a button or not, only time would tell.
But I'll use it and play with it for a little while longer, and most probably become too reliant on all the android apps to revert back!
[I had a WinMo tweak for boosting the volume which made my phone very loud, but now it seems quite quiet, especially playing songs]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a old kernel/rom. Try the newer release like the 3.4.41 kernel.
Autobrightness was fixed in 3.4.26.
WizardKnight, I am using 3.4.35 Kernel - I've got a RHOD100, so the 41 didn't work very well (which is a shame, as fps has increased in that build). Thanks for the note about the autobrightness (looking at the changelog I have it working now I turn off/on the LCD).
Anyone had better luck with the Facebook app / integration?
This post is about getting great battery life for the average, every-day user. It is not inclusive or exhaustive, so it will reference other posts. What is talked about is what I did, the user-level stuff, explained in a more user-friendly fashion than some of the more diagnostic-focused posts out there (still invaluable reading, though).
Note: I originally wrote this for the Hyperdrive ROM on GS4 thread, but I've had many requests to break it out into a separate [GUIDE] post and update it here for ease of subscribing and discussing. Also note, that therefore, this should be considered sort of Android 4.2 specific and may not apply to all versions of Android. So, here it is. I'll link the old post to here shortly.
Preface
Okay, I'm writing this because I believe that @sbreen94 @eschelon @iceandfire @Imoseyon @TrevE and @ktoonsez all have done awesome, awesome dev work from which I have benefited. There are SO many other devs, as well. These are some from whom I directly benefit, regularly, daily, or did at one time. If you want a name added to the list, I'll update my post. This post, though, is sort of Hyperdrive specific since @sbreen94 has added a few tweaks that make it SO EASY to address some major offenders of ... sucking the life out of your battery.
Why do I mention this? Because does anyone truly think that a ROM dev or Kernel dev, compiles code, puts it on their device, runs it for days/weeks, validates it with experienced, community testers, and then releases it, all the time thinking, "well, the battery life sucks, but I'm gonna push this out anyways."??? NO! So, then, WHY does every ROM/Kernel thread have post after post, of people saying “Hey, I loaded this ROM and my battery life sucks now.” Do you REALLY think it's the ROM/Kernel?
We also have those that think they have no apps loaded, or “only 3, 4, 5, or whatever number” - so it can't POSSIBLY be an app! If you think that, then do this, Wipe your Dalvic Cache, reboot your phone, and tell me the number of apps it says Android is now optimizing. That is the number of apps you have on your phone, not the number you personally loaded. That means each one of those is a potential culprit for causing battery drain.
BTW – at one time or another, I've probably been guilty of every of the above mindsets. So, I'm not calling YOU out, if YOU are reading this and think that I am. I'm just saying, it's not the ROM, and it's not the Kernel.
Background Reading
The below two threads had everything I needed to know to get started increasing my battery life. I, probably like many reading this, had for a long time followed along, envious of screenshots of people getting those 3, 4, 5+ hours of screen time, and day+ or days of battery. After reading these threads, doing the analysis, and basically just changing some app settings, I can now get the 4-5 hours of screen and full day of battery out of my GS4. Kernel doesn't have much effect, ROM doesn't have much effect, most all of them do what they're designed to do, and do it well. Sweet.
In the next section, Real World Battery Saving, I'll explain what I did, so if you want to skip the background stuff, you can.
These two threads contain basically everything you need to know about improving battery life. They have great details about diagnostics, what's what, etc. What many threads/posts like these sometimes lack, is, the straight-forward answer of “This is what you should do after analyzing x, y, z.” That's what's in the Real World Battery Saving section of this post.
[APP][2.1+][09 Sept. - V1.14] BetterBatteryStats
[GUIDE] Wakelocks Definition and how to prevent them
Read those threads, and do some analysis, and the majority of what I've posted below you'll figure out on your own. If you just wanna jump into fixing things without the above understanding, then just go to the next section. Provided there aren't any seriously misbehaving apps on your phone, you should be able to get great results without becoming a Wakelocks, Alarms, Deep Sleep, etc., expert.
Real World Battery Saving
For those of you that don't want to read too much more about the analysis of apps, etc., to get to better battery life, here's the summary of what's in the section below:
Minimize screen brightness
Disable all Push
Disable all system sounds (Dialing keypad tone, Touch sounds, Screen lock sound, Haptic feedback)
Install Xposed Framework and use:
Greenify Donation (Experimental features)
NLPUnbounce
Greenify any app that you don’t need to notify you of things - Note: If you pay for Greenify Donation and use Xposed, you can still get alerts from any GCM-enabled app (look for the blue GCM icon next to apps in Greenify)
Greenify every Google app (except Voice and Hangouts, both of these may significantly delay or prevent proper message notification, despite being GCM-tagged in Greenify, and they seem to behave okay on their own)
Uninstall GMail (use any other client with IMAP)
Disable all GPS (enable as necessary upon use) Note: I really don't do this anymore. With apps under control with Greenify, I just leave my GPS on and let apps use it when necessary. I have noticed that GPS will stay active during Airplane mode, though, so as not to have my phone dead upon landing, I generally always turn off GPS when in the air.
Disable the autostart of almost everything, at almost any time, on an app-by-app basis. AutoStart Check delivers in spades for this function, at no charge, though, I recommend donating (as I do for all apps here, I have either donated or bought them all, Lux, Greenify, etc.). Note: With Greenify, I no longer worry as much about stopping apps/services from auto-starting. I do still use Xposed plugin BootManager to prevent certain apps from starting, mostly just to increase boot speed (or so I feel like it might). I don't use AutoStart Check at all anymore.
Continuing on with details...
Note: Required app functionality. You don't have to use these if you know another way to do it. But, to accomplish what I recommend, there are 3 key apps you absolutely must have. I'm not going to explain them all in great detail, as there are plenty of other places that go into great depth on all of them. The 3 essential apps that I use to increase battery by more than 50% are:
Lux (Pro - I'll explain why below)
Greenify
Xposed Framework
In general:
You want your phone to sleep when not in use.
You want apps to not be doing anything when you're not using them.
You want your screen to only ever be as bright as it needs to be, no brighter (including, off when you're not looking at it).
Display Brightness
Lux – Get it here Lux Auto Brightness
Thread here: [APP][2.3+] Lux Auto Brightness 1.51
Update: After posting this, and getting a lot of questions/comments that Lux doesn't really rock like I think it does, I checked it out on a phone without using the Pro version. Okay, I agree, the free version really doesn't deliver. It doesn't poll right, and you can't really set your custom lighting scenarios and lock them in correctly without using Lux Pro. Basically, if you want to save tons of battery life without a lot of constant manual intervention, you're going to have to purchase Lux.
Screen uses more battery than anything. You can do all kinds of things to address this, for me, Lux has been a (battery) life saver. It's easy, it reads the ambient light in your environment. Open its dashboard, slide the slider to the brightness that works for you at that lumen level, hold down the link button in the middle, and there you have it, locked in for those conditions. You only have to do this a few times and you now have custom lighting profiles that fit your eyes' needs under all conditions. Note, sometimes, when waking the phone in the sun, you'll have to wait a few second for Lux to activate and bring the screen up bright enough. This means that Lux is behaving extremely well and not constantly running in the background (Wakelocks) sucking up battery.
Applications
For applications, firstly, if you have an app that has Push available, disable it. Nothing keeps your phone from deep sleep like a Push-enabled application. If you can't wait 5/10/15 minutes for updates, then you can't achieve maximum battery life. Sorry, I don't make the rules of Android app-physics, I'm just sharing them with you.
In my mind, I think of applications in categories. I guess, I have 4 now.. I started with 2. Point being, there are different apps that behave differently so you treat them differently with different solutions for extending your battery life.
Category 1 Apps I want running and want notifications from them. When configured properly, they generally do not misbehave and eat my phone's battery
Category 2 Apps that I cannot seem to control, regardless of their settings, but I still want to be able to use, but getting regular or instant updates from them is not that important to me
Category 3 Apps behave without any special settings and without any Greenification. Just load them, run them, use them, don't worry about them. I haven't seen them cause any sort of bad battery drain.
Category 4 Apps are apps you DO think are vital/desirable (to you) but cannot control their battery consumption with mere settings. For those, only the developer can help you, or you have to accept the battery loss that app's notifications bring with it.
Category 1 apps, well-behaved when configured properly, along with the settings I used to make them behave well and still deliver their updates to me.
Corporate E-mail: Built-in e-mail, TW or AOSP. Disable Push for any account, use Priority settings for 15 minute interval on work days. Non-prioirty times set to 1 hour.
Maildroid: For every account, you must do this separately, under Preferences / Advanced – Connection Management, select first account, the rule (usually 1. Default), Connection Management, Wi-Fi: Close connection when I exit mailbox, GPRS, 3G: Close connection when I exit mailbox, Interval to check mail: 10 (or to your liking), Check Mail Periodically. Go back, go back in (confirm settings were kept, I've seen it not keep them and have to do this a few times, per account). Alternatively, select Let device sleep, and it will only check when you wake it up. Go back to Accounts and select your next account, do this again. You must do this for all accounts listed.
Note about all mail client: If you have more than 2 or 3 e-mail accounts, Maildroid and all other IMAP clients I have tried get moved to Category 2. Basically, they start to keep enough Wakelocks that they keep the phone from going into Deep Sleep as much as I'd like. This is a difference of 1-3% per hour at idle, but if you're looking for 4+ hours screen time, then you need to Greenify them and just check e-mail manually.
Viber: Just make sure your Wi-Fi sleep policy is set to device and not constantly on, and Viber seems to behave pretty well as far as messaging apps go, but it's probably going to make the Category 4 list, as well.
WhatsApp: This one appears to work well (better than Viber from a wakeup perspective) and not have any sort of unnecessary battery drain. I generally don't use it any more since I feel they bait-and-switched me from free to fee, but I dethawed it to check it out. If anyone sees problems with it, let me know.
Category 2 Apps. These apps were keeping my phone awake at night with nightmares, and no amount of settings changes seemed to fix the problem altogether. If you have a solution of app settings that would move these to Category 1, please let me know. When I say solution, I mean, you've done the Wakelock and Alarm analysis and they're eliminated or minimized. For these, I Greenify them all. None of these apps' updates are so important to me that I can't just check up on them when I have a moment.
Facebook: I didn't play too much with settings here, but it seems that if FB is running, it's keeping your phone awake. I Greenify it and check it manually. I'd be interested in hearing if someone knows settings that will get it to not wakelock / alarm constantly.
FB Messenger: I love the chat heads and ease of use, but it's a big-time battery offender. I keep it installed and Greenified. If I get messages, I'll see them when I open the FB app, and when I reply, FB Messenger takes over and I use it normally until the conversation is done. At some point, Greenify takes over, and FB Messenger's battery damage is contained.
Google Maps: You can't fix this thing. No amount of settings will stop it from going after your phone. I love its functionality, though, so, unlike many guides that say uninstall it, I say Greenify it.
Google Goggles: A fun one to have around sometimes, but it will also chew up battery. Just Greenify it.
Google Play Store: There are plenty of apps and Android wakeups for the Play Store. I'm not worried about missing an update notification, or whatever else it might be sending my way. Greenifying it seems to have fixed the Google Play Services Alarms issue.
Almost everything else: If it's an app that doesn't need to provide you updates, just Greenify it. Why not? One of the first things I do after loading a new ROM and getting most of the configuration stuff done, is I go into Greenify, and I add every mundane app on my phone, for example: Vonage, Adobe Reader, Airbnb, Angry Birds, APN Manager Pro, Google Authenticator, Barcode Scanner, Citibank, Craigslist, Google Drive, DroidVPN, ES Task Manager, Fast Charge, FasterGPS, Flashlight, GasBuddy, GNotes, GooManager, GPS Status, Hyatt, Lucky Patcher, Office Document Viewer, Office Suite, OpenTable, Opera Classic, PayByPhone, SoundHound, Squeezebox, Street View, etc. My list goes on... You aren't going to lose their functionality, they don't suddenly stop when in use, and you don't have to worry about them ever causing problems you weren't thinking you had to look for.
Category 3 Apps that behave, no special settings, no Greenification
Alarm Clock Xtreme: I don't use the built-in Alarm Clock. I like all the features of Xtreme, it's never failed me, and it doesn't show up in Wakelock/Alarm offenders lists in my analyses.
Google Voice: Of all the Google offenders, this isn't one of them in my experience, and I love its features.
Lux: Nuff said.
WhosCall: A caller-ID type app. I don't love it, but haven't gone looking for something better, that said, it hasn't popped up on my battery draining radar, so that's a plus.
Hangouts: While I don't care for the new Google Talk, it sure doesn't seem to be a battery offender, and I use it to chat regularly.
Category 4 Apps are anything that would have gone into Category 2, but you want them as active as possible.
Line: In Settings, Chats and Voice Calls, I turn off Receive Voice Calls. This made Line tolerable (as in, way better), but it's still a Category 4 until (if ever) its devs reduce its number of wake-up Alarms
Exchange Services: Despite Corporate E-mail being a Category 1 now, Exchange Services is still keeping my phone awake more than I'd like. Nothing I can do here, though, so I live with it.
Viber: As stated, it's not a terrible offender, but it's still on the radar for keeping my phone awake. We'll see what their “any day now” major update brings. (someone remind me to update this post if I haven't post-Viber release)
Have Your Google and Your Battery
The Xposed module NLPUnbounce is awesome. I've given it a nice test, and it seems to perform excellent. NLPUnbounce allows you to use Google services as usual, including Android Device Manager features, like Remote Locate and Remote Wipe, but not do the crazy, crippling and disabling of Google Play Services like many guides have you do. It changes the polling rate of NLP (Network Location Provider) to something VERY reasonable. I haven't modified any of its settings, and it's reduced average idle consumption from ~4-5% to ~2-3%. I tested locating my phone and ringing it, all working.
Automatically Launching Applications
Not so much needed anymore. Just make sure you Greenify. For the "big things", use Xposed BootManager module.
AutoStart Check - Get it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ro.rbrtoanna.autostartcheck&hl=en
Fire up AutoStart Check (or any other autostart configuration app), set your view to Group by App, and expand every one of them and look at just how many different places some of these apps are set to start. Your Gallery starts with your Camera? ES File Explorer starts when you mount media or remove bad media? Facebook fires itself up just because you plugged in your phone. Google Goggles sees fit to start with every picture you take - and of course, it will then either drain your battery trying to get a GPS signal while your GPS is off, or drain your battery by getting one – fail. If you use S Health, it starts when your time zone changes – that's important. YouTube, seriously, YouTube – change accounts, mount media, connect power, every boot – you obviously need YouTube to fire up. Yeah.
A note here, read some guides on these before turning off too many system services. For example, don't disable messaging, bad idea, bad things happen. But most of this stuff, turn it off. You aren't killing your ability to use it, you're just making sure it isn't turning on all the time. If you've also Greenified well, after using any of these, they'll hibernate in the background without you having to worry.
Disable all system sounds (Dialing keypad tone, Touch sounds, Screen lock sound, Haptic feedback)
This is explained in some of the other threads, but, if you don't want to do the research, basically, the background services in Android that manage these things keep your phone awake. Turn them all off, battery life goes up.
Media Scanner
@sbreen94 included in the Hyperdrive Tweaks tools a one-button solution to turning it off. If it's drainging your battery, or you just want to make sure it doesn't, go click the button. This thing is better than the Staples button!
I'm sure there's probably a more generic way of stopping/managing Media Scanner. Someone please let me know and I'll update this section!
Battery Save Apps
I used to be madly in love with 2x Battery. Others swear by JuiceDefender. I guess if you don't/won't want to take the time to optimize apps and Greenify, they might be beneficial. You know what I found, though, when I started down this path? Some of the biggest offenders of Wakelocks and keeping my phone from sleeping when it should, are these battery saving apps!!! I now get BETTER battery life WITHOUT 2x Battery!
Short thoughts on this and example concepts of what's going on...
It may sound counterinterintuitive, but it seems most of the apps are so vigilant they keep your phone awake when it could be sleeping. And the vigilance isn't so necessary when you've properly configure things to not need this sort of overactive management of things. I'd love to see 2x Battery properly manage my data connection for me, without Wakelocks, but what's to say that the app trying to sync when the data is off won't now stay awake with new Wakelocks trying to get out to the internet? There's a cascading effect of whatever approach you might choose, so try to think about that, and keep it in mind when you look at your Wakelocks and your Alarms and you do your analysis.
The End
Okay, so I think that's aobut it. I may have forgotten some things, and I know this is a long post. But, this leaves very little excuse for people to blame ROMs/Kernels, while at the same time giving you the straight-forward, real world answer to battery savings 101. Yes, there are apps and details I left out. If anyone thinks of some obvoius ones, just let me know and I'll happily update this post.
You don't have to analyze any statistics or logs to do this. The principles are sound, and you'll see a dramatic improvement in battery if you don't already get a day of usage and 3.5 to 4.5 hours of screen time on your GS4. You just make some of these relatively straight-foward, user-level, common-sense changes.
If these changes don't give you the results you'd like, then do the analysis work in the threads linked above and find out what's the real culprit. Profit, enjoy, be happy. And remember... It's not the ROM.
Thanks for the thread, Bill. Here are a few of my questions/comments:
Regarding Lux, I used it for a few days, but could never seem to get a setting that worked for me. Whether using periodic updating or any of the other modes, the brightness level always seemed to adjust either too frequently or too slowly. Then I started experimenting with night mode and it got even worse. Do you have any suggestions to a quick and simple setup that won't drive me insane?
In terms of greenifying different apps, I always make sure that my SMS app and alarm clock are not greenified, and I don't use any widgets on my homescreen, but what about apps like Better Battery Stats, Boot Manager (for Xposed) and Automagic (flow chart based automation app) that are monitoring events and automating my phone? Will Battery Stats stop recording data is I set it to hibernate? Will Automagic miss a trigger I've set if it's hibernating? I would like to greenify EVERYTHING that I know won't cause any issues, but notifications aren't the only thing happening in the background that I want to allow.
Then, expanding on the autostarts, I mentioned that I use the Xposed module Boot Manager. This doesn't seem able to handle all of the situations that you described, like apps being launched based on SD card state, network state, etc. Am I missing something in this app or will I need to go another route to get all the options you've descibed?
Regarding the SD media scanning, my current ROM is a very debloated lean and mean stock Touchwiz ROM that doesn't have a native way to disable media scanner like the AOSP ROMs I used to run. Is there an app that does ONLY this, as I prefer to use dedicated apps rather than giant monsters which can control tons of things I don't need.
Anyway, I already do a lot of the practices you're advocating here, but I'm always looking for ways to do things in a more efficient or streamlined way. Using Greenify, keeping the stock clock speeds, and making sure that nothing is syncing (I keep backgruond sync disabled, but use an Automagic flow to enable it periodically throughout the day and then turn it back off again), keeps my battery life pretty solid. Add to that Deep Sleep Battery Saver which automatically turns off my connections when the screen is off, but will periodically turn them back based on my preferences, keeps my battery level pretty much steady wheen the phone is idle.
This is the best written tips on battery saving I've ever found.☺
Battery Saving Tips
1. Keeping mobile data (i.e., 4G or 3G) or wifi on all of the time uses battery. Ask yourself if you really need to be notified in real time about every new email, Facebook post, or tweet. If it isn't that important, then keep mobile data and wifi off until you really need it. Although most devices make it easy to toggle wifi off and on, it's a little more inconvenient to toggle mobile data with the stock controls. I like Power Toggles, which is very customizable and easy to use; another popular choice is Widgetsoid.
2. The biggest power drain is usually from the screen. The longer it's on and the brighter it is, the faster your battery drains. Adjust your screen timeout so that it turns off after 30-60 seconds of idle. Turn the brightness down to 50% or less, which is usually more than enough for indoor lighting. Automatic brightness may or may not help save battery--some think that constant sensing and screen adjustment may actually contribute to battery use.
3. Many apps (e.g., Facebook) by default will try to refresh their data on the web at certain intervals. In order to do so, they have to partially wake the device up from sleep, then try to access the web, and then refresh data, all of which uses battery. If you don't need realtime updates, you can typically change to manual refresh in the app's Settings, which prevents the app from waking up the device. For Facebook, all you need to do when you open the app is just swipe down, and your newsfeed will manually refresh to what's current.
4. Google Currents is notorious for being a memory and battery hog. Many people have reported that battery life improved significantly after changing its refresh setting to manual and/or disabling Google Currents completely. (Update 7/2014: Google Currents has since been replaced by Google Play Newsstand, which manages memory much more efficiently, without the same battery drain.)
5. Along the same lines, consider turning off the device's Background Sync. You can find the switch to turn it on or off under Settings/Accounts/Google, but it's easier to use the stock Power Control toggle or the better Power Toggles or Widgetsoid apps. Turning off Background Sync means the device is spending less time and energy syncing your Google account. If Background Sync is off, you can always manually refresh any of the Google apps within their respective menus.
6. Some apps partially wake a device up from sleep (called a "wake lock") numerous times a day to do things like trying to check the web for data updates as well as reporting location data. Install an app to detect wake locks like Wake Lock Detector. Let it run for the better part of a day, then open it and find out what apps are responsible for the most wake locks. (Update 7/2014: KitKat no longer allows apps like this to report wakelocks unless your rooted.)
7. #6 is how I discovered that Google Maps was burning up a fair amount of battery due to its Location Reporting (previously for Latitude, now used for Google+). If Location Reporting is turned on, then Maps causes very frequent wake locks to check location and report it. I don't think Latitude was that popular--I certainly didn't use it, because I don't really want other people to know exactly where I am, so I turn off Location Reporting by opening Maps, tapping Settings/Google Location Settings, and turning off Location Reporting. Note that this does not affect the ability of your apps to use your location to refine searches, for example.
8. Widgets are definitely a cool feature that makes Android unique, but some of them also contribute to battery drain--specifically the ones that need to access the web to update their information (think weather widgets). Review your widget use and remove the ones you really don't use.
continue.....
9. Live wallpapers, another feature that distinguishes Android, can also use up power like crazy--typically the ones that are very graphics/animation intensive, or the ones that also access the web for information like weather. Use static wallpapers instead, but if they're too boring, here's a list of some of my favorite live wallpapers that use minimal battery:
ARTware ATOMium
Blox
Digital Hive
Fading Lines
Light Grid
Mystic Halo
Retro Contours
SwampWater
10. Vibrate uses a lot of power. Do you really need your phone to ring and vibrate at the same time? Do you really need the haptic feedback when you're typing (especially if you're using Swype-style gesture typing)? Turn off vibrate.
11. GPS is another big power-sucker. For most location-based apps, using Google Location Services (based on the wifi hotspot's MAC address or by triangulating your nearest cell towers) is enough, since it generally locates you accurately within about 100 meters. Use GPS only if you need a more precise location, like if you're driving and using Navigation. Otherwise, turn off GPS by changing the setting to "Battery Saving."
12. You never know what kinds of processes the bloatware on your device might be responsible for, but they might be contributing to battery use as well. Go to Settings/Apps/All Apps, go through the list, and disable any bloatware apps that you don't need. Be cautious that you don't disable an important system app--if you aren't sure, just post a question in one of the AC Forums, and someone is bound to know.
13. Understand how Android utilizes RAM, and resist the urge to use task killers. To understand how things work, read this article by the esteemed Jerry Hildenbrand here, as well as this guide by Ambassador extraordinaire Golfdriver97. Apps that you kill manually will often restart on their own, which in itself takes a little bit of CPU and battery power--so if it's happening hundreds of times a day, it can become significant. The main reason to use a task killer is if there is some runaway process that you know is bogging the system down and won't shut down on its own. It might still restart on its own--if the cycle keeps happening, it's probably a problem with the app, which should be uninstalled or disabled.
14. Poor cell reception kills battery, because the radio is working overtime to try to establish the connection. If you know you're going to be in an area of poor reception for a while, consider turning on Airplane Mode to temporarily shut off your cell radio. You can get some idea of how much time you're spending in an area of poor signal by going to Settings/Battery, tapping Cell Standby (if it's there), and seeing if it says how much time without signal there was.
15. If none of the above tips are helping, then try wiping the cache partition, which is the portion of memory where Android stores a lot of temporary data. It's a little different from clearing the cache of individual apps, because the cache partition also stores a lot of temporary data used by the system. You need to access your device's recovery menu in order to wipe the cache partition, and this process varies with the device, so the best way to learn how to do it is to do a web search
Hit thanks button for use full information. ...
Best ever collection of tips. nd thanks for this tips....
Hey everyone, I wanted to share some tips on how to improve your phone's battery life. However, I also want to point out some negative aspects of the customizations and privacy practices by Samsung and Google. Here are my recommendations:
Turn off all Wi-Fi intelligent services - they are not necessary.
Disable Google's digital well-being by restricting usage data as it can drain your battery.
Use LTE instead of 5G and manually register your network instead of automatic registration.
Create routines based on time and Wi-Fi, not location-based.
When you get a new phone, charge it from 15% to 100% for at least three days so the device can learn on usage. Then, toggle to protect the battery.
Disable all Google unwanted services in the "Google" settings page, including Nearby devices, casting, reset ads, location sharing, nearby share, find my mobile, earthquake alerts, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth scanning, and send diagnostic data.
Enable Google location accuracy and Nearby devices scanning under Samsung settings.
Disable UWB, Samsung customization, ads, and marketing things, and send diagnostic data from Samsung settings.
You can use QHD, 120hz, and light performance modes without worrying about battery life.
Do not use any battery monitor applications.
Use alternatives for original apps, such as Frost for Facebook and Sync Pro for Reddit.
Do not put any apps in deep sleep.
Install the battery tracker, thermal guardian, and battery guardian from the Galaxy Store and leave them running for at least 10 days. Battery guardian will help you find shady apps that run in the background.
Disable the My Galaxy application.
Uninstall Samsung apps if you do not use them, such as Samsung Smart Device, Smart Tutor, and Samsung Pay.
Stop backing up your data automatically all the time, unless you are at risk of losing your phone.
Use a Samsung charger and cable for charging.
Use the Always On Display sparingly.
You can play games on this phone for a long time without battery issues as the phone does not overheat.
Disable Nearby Share and Quick Share and only use them when you need to.
Be mindful of the apps that require notifications, otherwise disable notifications for the apps you do not need.
Do not run location all the time; instead, create a routine that enables location when you open banking, grocery, food apps, or maps.
Do not use modded apps as they may have serious security issues. Instead, subscribe to real apps, such as Spotify, Medium, and Balance for Meditation.
If you have a Galaxy Watch Classic, do not use the step counter in your phone, and do not provide physical activity permission to the Samsung Health app. Your watch will count the steps and other workouts, and then it will automatically sync to your phone.
Turn off sync if you are not using it, such as Google Calendar or Keep Notes.
Turn off Bixby and OK Google if you are not using them to avoid data collection.
Enable 0.5x in the transition settings under developer options.
Uninstall all meta inbuilt apps through adb, but do not uninstall Samsung apps via adb as it may cause issues.
Use the app booster in Galaxy Good Guardian and run it once, then run it monthly.
Do not update your Samsung firmware right after its release. Wait for a few days and ask peers for feedback before updating the phone. This way, you can skip the current update and update the phone directly to the next version.
Avoid clearing the cache partition every time after an update. Instead, it's recommended to run the app booster after updating and charge your phone to 100% at least twice before using the battery protection feature.
Lastly, review your app permissions again after using your phone for a month and take necessary action to turn off or limit permissions if needed.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment if you have any ideas or settings that are shady!
Thank you for this IMHO good list off possible actions to save battery life - a lot of things are part of my regular "optimization" routines but a few new aspects are there, I'm happy to try them out
Some of the items sound contradictory to each other, but maybe this is because I am reaading them wrong:
E.g. #11 and #23, but maybe I misread what you mean by "modded"
Also I would be interested in a bit more background on #12 because i would have assumed that apps in deep sleep indeed are good for battery life and on top OneUI is adding devices to deep sleep automatically, so does #12 mean that it would be advisable to disable this functionality (if it can be disabled, not sure right now) ?
AD 9. 120 hz will not drain battery more than 60hz? I don't think so...
Thanks for the post. I do many of the things listed already, and some variations of others. But funnily enough, I do it not because of saving battery (the vast majority of the time, I "finish the day" with 60-70% battery remaining, meaning I don't really use my phone much or in ways that "power users" would - therefore, I'm not overly concerned about saving more battery), but because of security - for example, disabling nearby devices would reduce the chance of being "hacked" by this attack vector.
This also means minimising the installation of "third party" software, or even non-default Samsung software, as all software security experts would understand that increasing amount of software code in a device also increases the "surface area" for hacking to take place.
I've previously owned the S7, S9+, and S21 Ultra (all Exynos chips), and the S23 Ultra has the best battery life of them all (obviously relatively speaking). I think I haven't noticed such good battery life since the S7. I do still miss the S7's amazing standby drain with AOD always enabled - it was as low as ~0.5% per hour by default, which is unheard of now. Now it's closer to 1% per hour, and over a 12-18 hour day, that can "hurt" battery quite a bit. However, the convenience of having AOD always enabled trumps any battery concerns for me, especially considering I still "finish the day" with 60-70% battery remaining.
I guess one of the points I'm making with this post is that having AOD disabled (or tap to show etc) is probably the biggest battery saving tip in the entire list! In my opinion, practically all the others barely save any battery, if any. However, users will need to consider the convenience of AOD always enabled (eg. acts as a night clock, or quick way to check the time during the day by just glancing at the phone) verses saving battery.
s3axel said:
Thank you for this IMHO good list off possible actions to save battery life - a lot of things are part of my regular "optimization" routines but a few new aspects are there, I'm happy to try them out
Some of the items sound contradictory to each other, but maybe this is because I am reaading them wrong:
E.g. #11 and #23, but maybe I misread what you mean by "modded"
Also I would be interested in a bit more background on #12 because i would have assumed that apps in deep sleep indeed are good for battery life and on top OneUI is adding devices to deep sleep automatically, so does #12 mean that it would be advisable to disable this functionality (if it can be disabled, not sure right now) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also curious about #12, as I'd have thought it would overall save battery by not being able to be spontaneously woken up and/or send notifications. One counter-argument would be that if it's an app that you use at least relatively regularly, having to frequently keep "waking it up" might end up using overall more battery.
For #31, why is clearing cache partition not a good thing to do? Can someone direct me to what "app booster" is?
s3axel said:
Thank you for this IMHO good list off possible actions to save battery life - a lot of things are part of my regular "optimization" routines but a few new aspects are there, I'm happy to try them out
Some of the items sound contradictory to each other, but maybe this is because I am reaading them wrong:
E.g. #11 and #23, but maybe I misread what you mean by "modded"
Also I would be interested in a bit more background on #12 because i would have assumed that apps in deep sleep indeed are good for battery life and on top OneUI is adding devices to deep sleep automatically, so does #12 mean that it would be advisable to disable this functionality (if it can be disabled, not sure right now) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks!
11 talks about alternatives
23 talks about modded apps like there are few modded apps like spotify premium modded where you don't require premium but still won't see ads.
12 will mess up your notifications at the initial, I would say that phone can handle that deep sleep recommendations so that you can take actions accordingly.
ssj100 said:
For #31, why is clearing cache partition not a good thing to do? Can someone direct me to what "app booster" is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App Booster is part of the "Good Guardian" package, an app that can be downloaded via the Galaxy Store
Make dumbphone from your smartphone guide...
android updates and roms said:
Hey everyone, I wanted to share some tips on how to improve your phone's battery life. However, I also want to point out some negative aspects of the customizations and privacy practices by Samsung and Google. Here are my recommendations:
Turn off all Wi-Fi intelligent services - they are not necessary.
Disable Google's digital well-being by restricting usage data as it can drain your battery.
Use LTE instead of 5G and manually register your network instead of automatic registration.
Create routines based on time and Wi-Fi, not location-based.
When you get a new phone, charge it from 15% to 100% for at least three days so the device can learn on usage. Then, toggle to protect the battery.
Disable all Google unwanted services in the "Google" settings page, including Nearby devices, casting, reset ads, location sharing, nearby share, find my mobile, earthquake alerts, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth scanning, and send diagnostic data.
Enable Google location accuracy and Nearby devices scanning under Samsung settings.
Disable UWB, Samsung customization, ads, and marketing things, and send diagnostic data from Samsung settings.
You can use QHD, 120hz, and light performance modes without worrying about battery life.
Do not use any battery monitor applications.
Use alternatives for original apps, such as Frost for Facebook and Sync Pro for Reddit.
Do not put any apps in deep sleep.
Install the battery tracker, thermal guardian, and battery guardian from the Galaxy Store and leave them running for at least 10 days. Battery guardian will help you find shady apps that run in the background.
Disable the My Galaxy application.
Uninstall Samsung apps if you do not use them, such as Samsung Smart Device, Smart Tutor, and Samsung Pay.
Stop backing up your data automatically all the time, unless you are at risk of losing your phone.
Use a Samsung charger and cable for charging.
Use the Always On Display sparingly.
You can play games on this phone for a long time without battery issues as the phone does not overheat.
Disable Nearby Share and Quick Share and only use them when you need to.
Be mindful of the apps that require notifications, otherwise disable notifications for the apps you do not need.
Do not run location all the time; instead, create a routine that enables location when you open banking, grocery, food apps, or maps.
Do not use modded apps as they may have serious security issues. Instead, subscribe to real apps, such as Spotify, Medium, and Balance for Meditation.
If you have a Galaxy Watch Classic, do not use the step counter in your phone, and do not provide physical activity permission to the Samsung Health app. Your watch will count the steps and other workouts, and then it will automatically sync to your phone.
Turn off sync if you are not using it, such as Google Calendar or Keep Notes.
Turn off Bixby and OK Google if you are not using them to avoid data collection.
Enable 0.5x in the transition settings under developer options.
Uninstall all meta inbuilt apps through adb, but do not uninstall Samsung apps via adb as it may cause issues.
Use the app booster in Galaxy Good Guardian and run it once, then run it monthly.
Do not update your Samsung firmware right after its release. Wait for a few days and ask peers for feedback before updating the phone. This way, you can skip the current update and update the phone directly to the next version.
Avoid clearing the cache partition every time after an update. Instead, it's recommended to run the app booster after updating and charge your phone to 100% at least twice before using the battery protection feature.
Lastly, review your app permissions again after using your phone for a month and take necessary action to turn off or limit permissions if needed.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment if you have any ideas or settings that are shady!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you do #2?
Why not put any apps into deep sleep?
I find #10 and #13 confusing... aren't those contradictory? also, couldn't find any battery guardian in the galaxy store...
carlosLondon said:
I find #10 and #13 confusing... aren't those contradictory? also, couldn't find any battery guardian in the galaxy store...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to download "Good Guardian" in the Galaxy Store, Battery guardian is part of that App....
Battery monitor apps like BBS of course need some resources to run in the background and they are running 100% of the time to track battery usage...
The apps mentioned in #13 are at least Samsung apps, but of course these also may use background resources/battery - I would think to a lower extend as they are not running contiously but rather on a (relatively loose) schedule or even need to be triggered manually....
carlosLondon said:
I find #10 and #13 confusing... aren't those contradictory? also, couldn't find any battery guardian in the galaxy store...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's part of Galaxy Good Guardians. I don't use it.
Oddly App Booster used to be a bomb but the newest version has an added option. Now it runs really fast and it did help to really optimize SD Maid Pro for one. Ok then...
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