Android Phone Battery

aliEnRIK

Hi all

I have a Samsung S3 mini and have played around on a few different android devices.
Over time my phone was randomly eating battery power so I thought I would give advice to other people like myself.

You don't need to follow all of this, but following any of it will help to some degree.

IMPORTANT : first up, if you haven't already, install some protection. Personally I have been using AVAST recently:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.avast.android.mobilesecurity&hl=en
This is so that when you install apps, you will know if they're safe or not
(To give you an idea of how important this is, just last weekend I had to reset a family members archos android tablet due to it getting infected with it not having any anti virus on it - however, an AV will likely only 'warn' you of malicious software. Its your call if you install AV - though most AV software uses very little resource)|
Download all apps on this thread direct from googles PLAY site/app

Open SETTINGS
Goto APPLICATION MANAGER (or similar, different devices seem to use slightly different displays which I find odd)
Under DOWNLOADED, UNINSTALL any apps you have personally installed but no longer want/need.

Grab the ACTIVE APPLICATIONS 'widget' and put it somewhere easy to get to (I have it on my home page). Not all devices appear to have this (Oddly?)

Download and install AUTO DATA DISABLE FREE (If you're using a phone or a device that uses data)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neetrath.mdd&hl=en
I set the interval at 12 hours and auto connect when screen on. I do this because I use WIFI where possible, but I have unlimited data on my virgin plan. Also starts when screen is on (So disabled when screen off). Set depending on your own circumstances.

Download and install WI-FI MATIC (Phone only)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cprados.wificellmanager&hl=en
Set it however you like. Mines :
ENABLE (Obviously)
Remember Wi-Fis (That you connect to)
Frequency 15 mins (Time inbetween rechecking - shorter will use more battery)
Schedule to deactivate (I set mine to deactivate from midnight to just before my alarm)
In use, when connecting to a new wifi, switch on wifi as normal and connect, and it will remember your location and switch off wifi if not near wifis you would normally connect to)

Download and install START UP MANAGER FREE (All devices)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=imoblife.startupmanager&hl=en

On opening, you will notice STARTUP MANAGER has a greyed out minus sign (Meaning you cant turn it off at start up otherwise there would be no point in installing it in the 1st place)
I disable everything manually except for all of the programs I have said to download (Anything disabled will have a PLUS sign next to it)

Restart your phone

Now it will only auto start (Within reason) the above programs

Further suggestions :
Facebook is a major killer of phones. Having tried a number of ways I suggest as follows :
Uninstall MESSENGER. If you want to chat via facebook, log in through the internet as normal
Use the APP if you use facebook a lot as it runs a lot better than the mobile internet version (I am pretty sure they made it that way to almost force people to use the app)
Goto SETTINGS and set facebook app to NOT show notifications (Unless you want it to)
Obviously if you don't use it much, uninstall the app and just use it via the internet when you want to.
many other apps can be treated similar to the above (Twitter etc)

Google forced apps:
I recommend going into GOOGLE PLAY and SETTINGS and turning off auto update.
Goto SETTINGS and APPS on your phone/tablet and uninstall updates of all google apps (Unless you really want them updated)
Personally I use MAPS a lot for driving so that needs periodically manually updating as does GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES (Maps needs it)
I am pretty sure a lor of people will use GMAIL app so update that (Personally I use my computer for emails, but sometimes use the phones internet for emails)

Other apps :
Open each app in the settings and press FORCE STOP and set to NOT show notifications

Now you're rolling.
In use, after using an app, you can use the ACTIVE APPLICATIONS widget to END an app from running if you feel something is still draining the battery from it.
If you sense your battery shooting down REBOOT the device.

To see how things are going, goto SETTINGS and BATTERY to see what drains the battery. You might for example want to change DISPLAY and BRIGHTNESS to something lower. Or the SCREEN TIMEOUT lower.

Some devices don't have much internal memory for apps. (In fact the afore mentioned ARCHOS had so little internal memory that the google updates couldn't even install!) If you have this problem but also have more memory to use via an SD card or external memory (Like the archos) then download APPMGR III
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd&hl=en
On opening it gives options for internally installed apps to be moved onto the memory card (Not all, but most downloaded apps, and includes advice when required)

I am no expert but the above will definitely help with battery life. If anyone has any other suggestions or better programs etc feel free to post below.
Any questions feel free to ask

Cheers

Rik

GunJack

good read that I've been trying to get to grips with android a bit more, and a lot of the stuff above I do. Will have to explore some of the bits I don't already

ballyblack

Good read.

But I find that the screen is a big culprit in draining battery. I have set it to 15 second time out.

That worked on my phone Nexus5 better than anything else!



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aliEnRIK

ballyblack wrote: »

Good read.

But I find that the screen is a big culprit in draining battery. I have set it to 15 second time out. That worked on my phone Nexus5

Good shout. Maybe I should edit my post. Personally I lower the backlight down a lot

Browntoa

I found antivirus ate battery life on my Moto G


its not strictly required as long as you only install stuff direct from Google Play Store and not 3rd party sites

aliEnRIK

Browntoa wrote: »

I found antivirus ate battery life on my Moto G


its not strictly required as long as you only install stuff direct from Google Play Store and not 3rd party sites

Sort of agree pal. AVAST barely uses anything (Currently 2% on mine). Plus I have to say people who know they're smart enough to only use PLAY (Although there have been viruses on play in the past), probably don't require an anti virus anyway.
Obviously my post is mainly aimed at the none techie who could follow it to the full. And those who are techie but don't know a great deal about android can make up their own minds.

indesisiv

AV is not really needed as Browntoa says.
You will find that in some cases ending all apps has a negative impact on the battery life as they will restart and use power to do so. As long as they are inactive in the background they will not use power.
Android is normally very good at managing the awake apps so generally just let it.
If you really suffer from bad battery in standby (When screen off) then you really need to find the culprit app, as the phone generally only eats power when an app wakes it up.

Regarding turning the data off, why? I leave mine on all the time so that I can receive messages etc. Otherwise what is the point. Also with delaying the data on some apps check more often to see if there is a data connection therefore "wakeup" the phone to check.

One last thing .. why would you uninstall all of the updates to google apps? Some of those updates I am sure will be efficiencies and bug fixes that will help the device sleep properly!

Oh, just spotted this ...
Other apps :
Open each app in the settings and press FORCE STOP and set to NOT show notifications

Bear in mind that if you randomly stop it showing notifications you can have some issues. The best way to stop notifications is to open the app and change the settings in there so that it does not send the notifications in the first place.

aliEnRIK

indesisiv wrote: »

AV is not really needed as Browntoa says.
You will find that in some cases ending all apps has a negative impact on the battery life as they will restart and use power to do so. As long as they are inactive in the background they will not use power.
Android is normally very good at managing the awake apps so generally just let it.
If you really suffer from bad battery in standby (When screen off) then you really need to find the culprit app, as the phone generally only eats power when an app wakes it up.

Regarding turning the data off, why? I leave mine on all the time so that I can receive messages etc. Otherwise what is the point. Also with delaying the data on some apps check more often to see if there is a data connection therefore "wakeup" the phone to check.

One last thing .. why would you uninstall all of the updates to google apps? Some of those updates I am sure will be efficiencies and bug fixes that will help the device sleep properly!

It doesnt stop messages, only stops from connecting to the internet (same as what wifi does)
I said about google because I have tried a number of ways. I want maps updates as I use it regular. Most people would probably want GMAIL updated. I would imagine most people neither use nor want BOOKS etc and I have found the above makes a definite change to battery life (Without knowing how the system actually works, which is way over my head, I can only go off 'cause and effect')

I wrote this post as (Similar to windows) time went on it got worse. So I have spent some of my time figuring out why that is.

Completely agree with 'culprit app'. But the techie people would figure that out anyway.

As for antivirus, the device I recently had to reset was well and truly stuck. If it had one on, I am sure I wouldn't have had to reset it Again, the techie people can decide for themselves. I am certainly not going on record to tell anyone to do anything. They either choose to follow the advice of someone who has bothered to systematically check battery life, or not.

JJ_Egan

Android .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/

See your phones thread .
Enough tips for those that do not want to modify phone for better battery life .

Mobile Data off all i can say is i receive messages .

aliEnRIK

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Android .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/

See your phones thread .
Enough tips for those that do not want to modify phone for better battery life .

Mobile Data off all i can say is i receive messages .

I don't think the answers were that great :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3-mini/help/battery-draining-fast-t3039391
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2715613


Although interestingly, the whole reason I did everything as above is because I too thought the battery was at fault (It wasn't)


And clearly if people don't want to connect there data they can of course manually switch it off (Mine is automatic with that program so saves me turning it on and off).
Again, the post id generally for the none techie (Which is probably over 80% of the MSE forums)

indesisiv

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Android .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/

See your phones thread .
Enough tips for those that do not want to modify phone for better battery life .

Mobile Data off all i can say is i receive messages .

As 99% of all the messages i receive are through FB messenger or whatsapp i can't receive them without data on.

As for XDA I am all for playing I am currently running CM12.1 nightlies.