Battery LifeSupport

  1. I noticed an issue after having my phone pretty much connected to wifi for two days straight.

    The battery life is alot smaller having the phone connected to wifi. anyone else see this? I have the stock 4.3.

  2. electricpete

    electricpete Well-Known Member

    Just to clarify what the circumstances are. I can think of three general categories of heavy wifi battery usage. Maybe you can clarify which applies and provide more details on how you associated the battery usage with the wifi.

    1 - Due to lots of data transfered thru wifi. Shouldn't use more battery than data for the same MB transferred.

    2 - Due to weak wifi signal (example driving through city with wifi on)

    3 - Wifi causes wakelocks. Can be affected by phone wifi sleep policy and also by router. I don't know much about this one, just read about other people having this problem. This category more likely if the heavy battery drain while the phone is not in use and near a good signal. Better Battery stats may help confirm whether wakelocks are occuring and what their cause is. I also like gsam for general view of what's using my battery.
  3. What can i do to fixed the wake lock? i lowered the screen brightness and turned off the gps when not in use
  4. electricpete

    electricpete Well-Known Member

    Those can be good things to do... there's lots of things that affect battery. I'm assuming you have some problem related to wifi from your question. More details might help as to how/why you associated your battery usage with wifi.
    Is wifi sleep policy set to never? It should be... if it's not then that's probably you're problem.
    Settings/ connections / wifi / menu-button / advanced / "keep wifi on during sleep" / ALWAYS

    Beyond that, I'm not sure. You might try power cycling your router for general principle (I have to do that for mine every few days because it loses connectivity... if it can do that then maybe it can cause other problems like battery use).

    To investigate more on whether wakelocks are a problem:
    Settings / More / Battery. Then click on the graph and it'll expand giving a bigger plot with traces below it: gps on / wifi / awakw / screen on / charging. Maybe post a screenshot. Lots of awake time during periods when the screen is off would be a red flag for wakelocks. Again you can also download GSAM or bettery battery stats to investigate wakelock further.

    Maybe others have suggestions...
  5. Pretty much everything looks good but the screen. Here is the picture below. I made the screen brightness half and auto and also auto turn off at 15s

    Attached Files:

  6. electricpete

    electricpete Well-Known Member

    When you get to that screen, click on the graph at top. It will expand that graph and more importantly, it will replace the list of programs below with indicators for wifi on, screen on, awake, etc. Again lots of device awake time when screen is off would be a problem.
  7. This is what I get[​IMG]
  8. Mr. Lucky

    Mr. Lucky Well-Known Member Contributor

    OP: As you said in the first post, it does indeed seem like the highest drain occurs when you have wifi on. By any chance, do you have a bunch of apps in Settings > Connections > Data usage configured as "Restrict background data"? If so, that would explain it! Restricting an app there only prevents it from using mobile data for background usage. If that's the case, you really need to get a handle on the root cause. Download and install Wakelock Detector. Let the phone run with the screen off for several hours (overnight preferably). Then check the app for double-digit CPU wakes. Since your S4 is rooted, you can take remedial action with Greenify and/or Wakelock Terminator (Xposed module). Just be sure to read and understand the caveats associated with both apps (e.g., don't Greenify system apps or kill sync wakelocks).
  9. electricpete

    electricpete Well-Known Member

    I don't think it's a wakelock problem since the heavy usage only occurs within screen on.

    I've marked up with some lines.
    Wifi on in period A, off in period B, on in period C. These three separated by solid lines.

    Within these I break it up into subregions A1,A2 etc separated by dashed lines.

    Within period A, very heavy drop in time A1 when screen is also on. Could perhaps be some data transfer that occurs on wifi only. Period A2 has screen off and low usage. Period A3 again screen on and heavy drop.

    Period B screen off (and wifi off), low drop.

    Period C1, screen on (and wifi on), heavy drop. Period C2, screen off, low drop. Period C3 screen back on, heavy drop.

    So, the big factor from above seems to be screen. Which we might think ould be screen power or other things that take power when screen on. But from previous screen you used 69% of power with screen which which suggests the screen itself is the big factor and other items are lesser. You mentioned you "lowered" your screen. Is it on auto? Auto gives me by far the best battery life although I use my phone mostly indoors. Also think about setting your screen timeout to 1 minute or less.

    If you want to pin down/understand how much wifi and other things are contributing among the remaining 36% (100-64%), then I

    Attached Files:

  10. Mr. Lucky

    Mr. Lucky Well-Known Member Contributor

    I don't disagree, but the built-in battery stats app doesn't show partial wakelocks. So, it could still be an issue. I like the divide & conquer approach for problems like this. Try Wakelock Detector first to either rule it out or in. If it gets ruled out, then you know what it's not. At that point, move on to GSAM or Better Battery Stats and follow where that leads you.
  11. electricpete

    electricpete Well-Known Member

    I was typing my response and didn't see yours. Not trying to argue with you, just giving my opinion. Since the huge battery losses occur when screen on, I personally wouldn't waste my time hunting down wakelocks (Better Battery Stats is not an easy program to use/interpret without some study). On the other hand, if it loses a lot when sitting idle overnight, that's what I'd look for wakelock problems.

    I agree with you the quick drop in period A1 may have been data transfer that was "waiting" for wifi to be turned on (some data transfer doesn't occur unless wifi is on, depending on settings).
  12. I did notice an issue where my wifi would turn on and off, and I would notice the phone would show disconnected from Internet because it's instable. I am thinking it could be the issue.
  13. electricpete

    electricpete Well-Known Member

    Gsam will assign battery usage number to wifi, so you have an idea if you're looking in the right place for battery savings. It also assigns a battery usage number to "held awake" some idea whether wake locks are a problem

    Assuming you are concerned about wifi battery usage, two easy things I mentioned to check on wifi
    1-check wifi sleep policy set to never
    2-power cycle your router off and back on

    Other folks may have more...
  14. I believe i have found the issue and the phones working alot better now. I had xposed installer and wanax module. so i can hide the clock and change the battery icon. Seems to be working alot better.
  15. adtchris

    adtchris Member

    wifi constantly searches for a signal and does impact battery. i turn mine off when not in area w/wifi or not using it.
  16. jabbatwenty

    jabbatwenty New Member

    Hey there,

    Here is a video explaining the battery life on the phone and how to extend it by shutting off unnecessary hardware and also closing apps in the background.

    Hope it helps
  17. RRMan03

    RRMan03 Well-Known Member

    Ok. Iam going to be the one everybody says BS to. I have an S4 on US Cellular running 4.3. My battery will last 50 plus hours with normal usage. Normal usage for me is phone calls,texts,checking email,FB and Twitter with ocassional music or youtube. I have Battery Doctor app installed and I let it kill background running apps every 6 hours or so.My GPS is off,WIFI on all the time, I am in a 4GLTE area. The big thing I do not let the phone do is sync anything. I have to get my email,update FB and Twitter manually.I use the phone a lot for different things. I have the stock OEM battery nothing special. After I installed the Battery Doctor app my time when up by almost 24 hours. OK I know all this sounds impossible but I charge every 3rd day unless I am going to be when that is not possible. How is my phone getting this kind of hours on the battery I have no idea. My Nexus only got about 16 with the same apps and set the same except for the battery app,CM Security and Clean Master. all the other apps were on my Nexus. I carried 4 batteries for it. I do not yet own a spare battery for the S4. Now I like the rest have read about battery issues with the S4 but I just do not have them. My 4.3 was loaded around Nov 13 according to the date in the phone. I have not upgraded to KitKat as I have no reason to mess up a good thing. comments appreciated and questions answered if you want. I am just here to share and learn myself. Now to the Micro SD Card thread.
  18. adtchris

    adtchris Member

  19. I did see a dramatic change and better battery life on my s4 with the hyperdrive Rom. It's amazing how long it lasts. I use hyper drive over the stock rom. Used safestrap and installed hyperdrive over the stock rom, and now it has just one rom on the system. Thanks guys for the help. :)
  20. adtchris

    adtchris Member

    Where did you get the hyperdrive ROM?
  21. I been using hyperdrive for a while now, but always seen myself going back to stock because of the lack of memory. So what I did was installed it over the stock rom, and works wonders.
  22. I really dont believe yours last for 50 hours. Unless you dont use it that much. I dont think there is a smart phone out there that last that long. Also it depends on the user. I use my phone for a computer also. So of course the battery would be alittle lower. Hyperdrive fixed that for me.
  23. coulterjosh

    coulterjosh Well-Known Member

    post a picture of your battery screen in settings showing this data.
    adtchris likes this.
  24. adtchris

    adtchris Member

    OK. ThankS much for the hyperdrive info.

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