Basic Android Troubleshooting[How to Improve Battery Life and more] - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Note:
We all need to know a little about Basic Android Troubleshooting. If any engineer/programmer came up with a perfect phone, who could put a price on that? It’s somewhat like finding the fountain of youth, or anything perfect in this world. It simply doesn’t exist. We and the phones we make are imperfect—subject to the laws of entropy that dictate a gradual decline into disorder.
Thankfully, we humans can problem solve. But not all problems are intuitive. There are some common solutions to try, however, and certain information that you can collect that will greatly assist you in finding the answers. This is a guide to help you discover solutions and implement them as simply as possible.
Disclaimer: This guide is about promoting different fixes for common problems with Android devices, but it cannot guarantee that each type of fix will work with any phone. Therefore, it’s best to read carefully and see which ones apply to your device
How to Improve Battery Life
This is something practically every Android user runs into at least once in a while. Hopefully, you are somewhere you can load up on more juice, but this problem doesn’t only occur when it would be most convenient. That’s why a discussion on how to save battery life is a must when it comes to the basics of troubleshooting Android phones.
There are many reasons why a battery drain can occur. But it is good to detect it in time and figure a way to solve the problem before it is too late.
1) Go to the Source
Nearly every Android has a Battery section in Settings that will give you a breakdown of what is consuming the most resources. If there is anything unnecessary consuming your battery, get rid of it.
2) Disable Connections
If you aren’t using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GPS, turn them off.
3) Change Settings
You can take individual steps, like lowering the brightness of your display and limiting automatic syncing, or you can rely on Battery or Power Saving Mode to do it for you.
4) Check Charging Conditions
Does your phone have a broken or bent port? Does the charger fit too loosely? Have you tried a different charger? A different outlet?
5) Enlist Battery Saving Apps
Not all apps work against your battery. Some are here to help. For this, I’d recommend the Greenify App, it’s a pretty popular choice and has great reviews.
How to Fix a Slow Interface and Memory Problems
Even though memory problems tend to impact older Android more frequently, you could also find yourself dealing with this issue if you are a heavy user or simply like to store a lot of media directly on your phone.
If you have a ton of apps or photos, you can run into this on newer phones too. No guide on troubleshooting the basics of Android phones would be complete without addressing slowness or performance issues.
1) Outsource Your Storage
Store your photos on someone else’s server (in the Cloud) or on the SD card if you can. Services like Dropbox or Google Drive can assist. You can automatically backup to Google Photos by going to Settings > Backup & Sync; you can visit Accounts and enable Auto Sync.
2) Delete What You Don’t Use
Not only do photos and apps occupy digital space, but consider your music and videos also.
3) Backup & Restore
There are apps that will help you—one of the best is Titanium Backup – Free, but your phone must be rooted.
If your phone is not rooted, you should try Helium – App Sync and Backup – Free.
4) Close Apps
Ensure you are closing your apps when you are done with them; not just returning to the Home Screen while the app is still open and running in the background.
5) Reduce Animation Transitions
This won’t help your memory, but it can make your phone seem faster. Obtain developer status by visiting Settings > About Phone and tap on Build Number approximately seven times. Go back to Settings and a new choice should appear—Developer Options.
Tap on it, scroll down and reduce the Window Transition Animation Scale and Animator Duration to .05x. You can remove the settings altogether, but movement on your phone may not seem to flow as well, and your user experience may suffer.
6) Soft Reset
Most of the time a soft reset will cause your phone to snap out of its stupor. Long-press the Power key for approximately 10-15 seconds.
7) Clear Cache
You can start out by clearing the cache for any individual apps that are giving you problems. Go to your App Manager, select the app, and tap the Clear Cache option. If this doesn’t suffice, you can wipe the entire system’s cache partition.
8) Hard Reset
If that doesn’t cut it, consider performing a hard reset. This wipes data so you might want to backup what you wish to save!
How to Fix a Phone that Won’t Power On or is Frozen
A soft reset usually solves a host of issues, but what to do when you can’t even do that? Additionally, removing the battery can be very helpful, but what if you don’t have a removable battery? We will take you through some basics of troubleshooting unresponsive Android phones.
1) Try Safe Mode
To determine which app, it could be (or if this is the problem at all) try going into Safe Mode. Safe Mode only uses those apps that come with your phone without loading any of the third-party software that could be causing the issue.
The method by which you enter, Safe Mode can vary by device. If you do not experience the same problem in Safe Mode, try uninstalling any third-party app, one-at-a-time, that you think might be the culprit. If the phone still misbehaves in Safe Mode, your problem could be related to the hardware or a corrupted OS, which can be tougher to fix on your own.
2) Charge Battery
If you see the empty battery symbol when you try to turn the device on, it’s time for a charge.
3) Perform a Factory Reset
It’s easiest to do this from the Settings menu, but if you can’t access that you will have to use Recovery Mode instead. This wipes your phone like it just came out of the box. If you want to know more about the factory reset
4) Restore Firmware
This entails connecting your phone to your computer using the proper drivers, going into Download Mode, and flashing the stock firmware for your specific make and model. For Samsungs, this is best accomplished through Odin. For HTCs, Google your phone + ROM upgrade utility, and for LGs, use LG PC Suite.

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Related

[GUIDE]Better Battery Life 101, App/System Settings - It's not the ROM

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.☺😊😄😉

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....

Firefly Mobile Intense XL

My phone was serviced "reprogrammed" and when it came back I keep getting ads. I tried resetting the phone but it still keeps getting adware silently installed. Is there any way to fix this?
You are not alone. Bought this phone for my mom since she likes a bigger screen to do social media stuff. The malware popped in after the last ota. The official wirelessupdate app included on the phone silently installs random apks that pushes full screen ads and impersonates clicks even if the the phone is not being used. This is common with generic android phones coming from CHINA
I haven't figured out a way to root the phone as most rooting methods will fail(because of the sucky spreadtrum SOC which makes it difficult to root the phone).SADLY, rooting is the only way to disable/uninstall the wirelessupdate app.
However, here's a workaround I found that works.
1) restrict your network to limit background data usage (Found in settings).
2) **uninstall the malware app: finding the app may be difficult as It normally disguises itself as a system app with names like radio, settings, wifi or some application name that doesn't even make sense. It uses a lot of data and is always active. You'll know its the fake app if it poses as a system app but you have the option to uninstall it(System apps cannot be uninstalled without root/Su access).
Buttt....
The wireless update will probably install another malware app after uninstalling the current one.
3)disable notification of the app so it doesnt send fake notifications to you that opens ad based webpages as it also fakes notification, posing as a fake notif from FB, whatsapp
4) force stop it and stop the services from settings so it doesn't load or push apps while you use your phone
Restarting the phone will make the app run again
5) Remove the app's permission. By default its granted access to location, settings, storage and sometimes camera or mic. The wireless app doesnt detect this and wont turn those permission back on
6) lastly, you can contact firefly support AND PRAY TO THE GOOD LORD they know know what they're doing. Because I did and they were completely clueless on the troubleshooting or on the issue itself and even blamed the problem on the user. Ridiculously stupid.
I haven't really tried ADB yet because i don't have the time and the phone lacks resources online to restore it in case I brick it. Frankly, this phone is not worth investing time fixing especially with the quality of support it has from Firefly and the price it asked for.

[Question] "Alternative" Ways to Sideload Apps (Vodafone Smart A9/VFD 120)

Hello!
I've recently purchased what I thought was a feature phone with long battery life, the Vodafone Smart A9 (VFD 120) for the purpose of putting my "home" SIM card in while I travel. Surprisingly, this phone actually runs Android! Albeit a very locked down version of Android without Google Play Services. In hindsight I probably should've purchased a different cheap phone and turned off data and location to get a similarly long battery life, at the time the price of $49NZD ($32USD) didn't seem like a bad idea. For the sake of interest I decided to try and sideload an application onto this phone, it seems like a decent companion to take hiking as I lost my last phone off the side of a mountain.
I've tried a few things to sideload an app or gain some sort of privileged access to the phone. I haven't really been up to date with the Android Hacking/Dev scene in a good while as my personal need to root has diminished greatly in the last few years.
Things I've tried:
Enable ADB in Developer Mode by pressing Build Version a bunch of times. Unfortunately pressing Build Version does nothing.
Look for settings to enable applications from other sources. This doesn't exist in the security settings.
Tried installing an app from the file manager. This doesn't work either.
Boot into recovery to do "anything". The phone shows up in ADB as "Unauthorised". There aren't any settings except a bunch of hardware tests and factory reset.
The device only has OTA updates but I imagine that even if I grab the file and spoof the download URL with a modified ROM, it wouldn't pass a hash/signature check.
Is there anything else I could realistically try? I'd just like to know if I've missed anything glaringly obvious.
Thanks for taking a look at my post!
phone is now 13nzd from harvy norman did you ever work out a way to load apps
If Android device is Wi-Fi enabled and has browser installed, you at any time can install an app from one of the several existing app markets: Google Play Store isn't the only one though it's highly recommended to use it due to security reasons.
Hi I was wondering if You could tell me how to boot into Recovery mode for this phone.

Unable to "stick" App/Widgets to the Lock Screen

I'm trying to permanently view the controls for the app "Listen Audiobook Player" to my lock screen.
But it only remains there whilst the audio is playing or for a short period after the audio stops.
The app's controls are permanently displayed in the drop down notification window. Also the app isn't restricted by any battery management either.
Other apps like "VLC" don't "stick" either, they all time out. I'm not sure if it's an Android 12 - One UI4 feature or it's not configured correctly.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Android 12 is more a buggered Apple than Android
Try clearing the system cache.
Is it a clean load clean; no SmartSwitch transfer, etc?
If only some apps are doing it, it may be the apps themselves.
You could try installing either Digi Clock or One Handed Operation plus (both great to have apps) and then set a short cut to the app with them as a workaround.
blackhawk said:
Android 12 is more a buggered Apple than Android
Try clearing the system cache.
Is it a clean load clean; no SmartSwitch transfer, etc?
If only some apps are doing it, it may be the apps themselves.
You could try installing either Digi Clock or One Handed Operation plus (both great to have apps) and then set a short cut to the app with them as a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the suggestions, but they didn't work.
Cleaned cache in Recovery Mode. No transfers active.
I didn't install Digi Clock, but creating a shortcut in One Handed Operation +, I just got a prompt to unclock the phone before I could run the app.
0-0-0 said:
Thank you for the suggestions, but they didn't work.
Cleaned cache in Recovery Mode. No transfers active.
I didn't install Digi Clock, but creating a shortcut in One Handed Operation +, I just got a prompt to unclock the phone before I could run the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unclock the phone?
You're rooted? Did you remove, block or disable any of the numerous Samsung system apks?
They were added since Pie to preserve the UI appearance and functionality at least this is true with Android 10 with Samsung's.
In the Android 10 UI alone there are close to 100 new ones I believe, too numerous to count. I was amazed when I first compared it to my other N10+ running on Pie.
The N10+ Q variant appears to be fast and stable though. I left almost all of the new Samsung System apks alone to preserve functionality/usability. Oddly the newer N10+ looks and behaves almost identically to the Pie variant. As fast, maybe faster with near the same battery usage. Scoped storage appears to be dormant in the Q variant at least with older apps... I didn't expect that.
blackhawk said:
Unclock the phone?
You're rooted? Did you remove, block or disable any of the numerous Samsung system apks?
They were added since Pie to preserve the UI appearance and functionality at least this is true with Android 10 with Samsung's.
In the Android 10 UI alone there are close to 100 new ones I believe, too numerous to count. I was amazed when I first compared it to my other N10+ running on Pie.
The N10+ Q variant appears to be fast and stable though. I left almost all of the new Samsung System apks alone to preserve functionality/usability. Oddly the newer N10+ looks and behaves almost identically to the Pie variant. As fast, maybe faster with near the same battery usage. Scoped storage appears to be dormant in the Q variant at least with older apps... I didn't expect that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, unlock the phone with fingerprint scanner. The shortcut won't run otherwise.
No, not rooted.
Yes, I've removed things like Samsung Free and other ones I don't use with ADB. I've used battery management to restrict (i.e. not unrestricted or optimised) most apps, inc. the Samsung ones. Which makes the OS think they're disabled.
0-0-0 said:
Yes, unlock the phone with fingerprint scanner. The shortcut won't run otherwise.
No, not rooted.
Yes, I've removed things like Samsung Free and other ones I don't use with ADB. I've used battery management to restrict (i.e. not unrestricted or optimised) most apps, inc. the Samsung ones. Which makes the OS think they're disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have inadvertently removed a needed parent app or app that had dependencies. The names can be misleading. Many just sit there and do nothing unless needed. Be careful with the Samsung system apps...
Try disabling all power management.
Using it will cause erratic behavior.
Deal with power hogs on a case by case basis.
To verify it's disabled; Developer options>standby apps, all buckets should show as active otherwise power management is enabled (power management can't be disable here).
In Device Care only fast charging should be toggled.
I use Package Disabler as it's easier to use, works on the fly, and can be used for troubleshooting. Able to clear system app data and leave no null marks. I have about 80 apps permanently blocked, 7 that I sometimes use.
blackhawk said:
You may have inadvertently removed a needed parent app or app that had dependencies. The names can be misleading. Many just sit there and do nothing unless needed. Be careful with the Samsung system apps...
Try disabling all power management.
Using it will cause erratic behavior.
Deal with power hogs on a case by case basis.
To verify it's disabled; Developer options>standby apps, all buckets should show as active otherwise power management is enabled (power management can't be disable here).
In Device Care only fast charging should be toggled.
I use Package Disabler as it's easier to use, works on the fly, and can be used for troubleshooting. Able to clear system app data and leave no null marks. I have about 80 apps permanently blocked, 7 that I sometimes use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for the advice. I'll do some more investigating.
0-0-0 said:
Thank you very much for the advice. I'll do some more investigating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are welcome.
Another thing you can try is rolling back updates to the factory loaded versions* especially on the Samsung system apps.
Samsung Experience comes to mind. Updates tend to break things. It could also be a custom Galaxy theme that's incompatible if you loaded one.
Play with it... you'll eventually find the cause. Samsung's can be handful but their UI is my favorite... fast, very stable and extremely customizable. Nothing like the old TouchWiz.
Samsung's should to be optimized* to get the most out of them.
Lol, the first things I kill are little bixby and firmware OTA updates. Bixby Vision and Vision Framework however are needed for reading UPC and barcodes with the cam... dependencies.
Also try a Google search for your issue and include the Samsung Members forum in that search. Solutions can sometimes be found there.
*I use ApkExport to make copies of all my apps and updates. It has saved me more then once.
Get a .5tb OTG flash stick to do "dirty" critical data backups and restores for your internal memory. Keep at least 2 additional hdd copies as well that are physically/electronically isolated from each other and the PC to avoid data loss.
**it's trial and error until you get the hang of it.
blackhawk said:
You are welcome.
Another thing you can try is rolling back updates to the factory loaded versions* especially on the Samsung system apps.
Samsung Experience comes to mind. Updates tend to break things. It could also be a custom Galaxy theme that's incompatible if you loaded one.
Play with it... you'll eventually find the cause. Samsung's can be handful but their UI is my favorite... fast, very stable and extremely customizable. Nothing like the old TouchWiz.
Samsung's should to be optimized* to get the most out of them.
Lol, the first things I kill are little bixby and firmware OTA updates. Bixby Vision and Vision Framework however are needed for reading UPC and barcodes with the cam... dependencies.
Also try a Google search for your issue and include the Samsung Members forum in that search. Solutions can sometimes be found there.
*I use ApkExport to make copies of all my apps and updates. It has saved me more then once.
Get a .5tb OTG flash stick to do "dirty" critical data backups and restores for your internal memory. Keep at least 2 additional hdd copies as well that are physically/electronically isolated from each other and the PC to avoid data loss.
**it's trial and error until you get the hang of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really appreciate you taking the time to help.
Thank you

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