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Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year?

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  Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Martin Schöön <martin.schoon@gmail.com> - 2016-11-13 10:39 +0000
    Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2016-11-13 11:10 +0000
    Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> - 2016-11-13 12:52 +0000
    Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2016-11-13 14:37 +0100
    Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Piso Mojado <conserje@trapeador.net> - 2016-11-13 10:13 -0500
      Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Nigel Wade <nmw@local.domain> - 2016-11-14 09:27 +0000
    Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? "(PeteCresswell)" <x@y.Invalid> - 2016-11-13 10:50 -0500
    Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Martin Schöön <martin.schoon@gmail.com> - 2016-11-18 21:31 +0000
      Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-11-19 00:44 +0100
      Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2016-11-21 18:18 +0000
        Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? M.L. <me@privacy.invalid> - 2016-11-21 14:45 -0600
          Re: Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-11-22 15:04 +0100

#35874 — Battery mileage down to 1/4 in a year?

A year ago I got my first smart-phone at work, a Samsung S5 mini.
Some of you may remember me asking for advice on apps for work.
This post is not about what I opted for and how they worked. This
is about battery life.

At first battery life exceeded my expectations by a wide margin.
I found I got four working days out of a charge -- I don't use
the phone off duty and switch it to 'ultra energy save' mode
when not at work. So I charged the phone twice a week.

Four or five months later I realized I had lost one day: 3 days
on a charge. At the time I could not recall a distinct change.
I think it crept up on me gradually and I had not changed my
use pattern. I still 'only' check emails, look at what's up next
in my calendar, place and receive a few calls. I access www
less than once a day and youtube has only been used once in
a year. My computer and its 24" screen is much better at that.
No social media.

Then there was a major Android/Samsung system up-date and I was down
to two days on a charge. There was a clear before/after experience
this time.

Now, a couple of months later, I get one day with some margin out
of a charge. Nothing I do including un-installing apps I never use
and reducing email syncing frequency to an hourly rate helps. In
'ultra energy save' mode the phone tells me it will last ten days
when fully charge but it is 'dead' after two days. So, yes, I
have re-booted the phone a couple of times.

Is this a Samsung thing? Planned obsolescence? Bad luck with the
battery of this particular device?

I have a couple of other devices to compare with and none of them
do this to me. My private 'smart phone' is a Nokia 700. It is
one of the last or even the last model with a Symbian heritage OS.
It is 4.5 years old now and despite Microsoft's effort in the last
OS up-date it still has roughly the same battery endurance as
when new.

I also own an LG phone I got when hawing worked for 20 years
for my employer (yes, I am that stupid). It is too big to
pocket I think and being happy with my Nokia I have only used the 
LG as a wifi web surf thing at home. As far as I can judge
there has been no major battery life reductions in the three years
I have had this device.

So what is the view of the jury? What's up with my Samsung's
battery?

/Martin

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#35877

Martin Schöön wrote:

> So what is the view of the jury? What's up with my Samsung's
> battery?

I wouldn't imagine it's the battery, but something taking more power, 
you say your usage hasn't changed, buy you did notice a step reduction 
in battery life when updating the O/S presumably you've also kept the 
apps updated and they may have more background activity that the 
originals you installed.

If you temporarily un-install or disable various apps, do you get 
battery life back?

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#35880

Martin Schöön wrote:
> A year ago I got my first smart-phone at work, a Samsung S5 mini.
> Some of you may remember me asking for advice on apps for work.
> This post is not about what I opted for and how they worked. This
> is about battery life.
>
> At first battery life exceeded my expectations by a wide margin.
> I found I got four working days out of a charge -- I don't use
> the phone off duty and switch it to 'ultra energy save' mode
> when not at work. So I charged the phone twice a week.
>
> Four or five months later I realized I had lost one day: 3 days
> on a charge. At the time I could not recall a distinct change.
> I think it crept up on me gradually and I had not changed my
> use pattern. I still 'only' check emails, look at what's up next
> in my calendar, place and receive a few calls. I access www
> less than once a day and youtube has only been used once in
> a year. My computer and its 24" screen is much better at that.
> No social media.
>
> Then there was a major Android/Samsung system up-date and I was down
> to two days on a charge. There was a clear before/after experience
> this time.
>
> Now, a couple of months later, I get one day with some margin out
> of a charge. Nothing I do including un-installing apps I never use
> and reducing email syncing frequency to an hourly rate helps. In
> 'ultra energy save' mode the phone tells me it will last ten days
> when fully charge but it is 'dead' after two days. So, yes, I
> have re-booted the phone a couple of times.
>
> Is this a Samsung thing? Planned obsolescence? Bad luck with the
> battery of this particular device?
>
> I have a couple of other devices to compare with and none of them
> do this to me. My private 'smart phone' is a Nokia 700. It is
> one of the last or even the last model with a Symbian heritage OS.
> It is 4.5 years old now and despite Microsoft's effort in the last
> OS up-date it still has roughly the same battery endurance as
> when new.
>
> I also own an LG phone I got when hawing worked for 20 years
> for my employer (yes, I am that stupid). It is too big to
> pocket I think and being happy with my Nokia I have only used the
> LG as a wifi web surf thing at home. As far as I can judge
> there has been no major battery life reductions in the three years
> I have had this device.
>
> So what is the view of the jury? What's up with my Samsung's
> battery?
>
> /Martin
>

Look in Settings/Battery. That shows which apps are draining it.

Ed

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#35882

Martin Schöön schrieb:

[...]
> So what is the view of the jury? What's up with my Samsung's
> battery?

You can check the battery usage in the settings and display a detailed
list of which apps used the battery most. Maybe some app update causes a
specific app to keep the CPU awake more often.


-- 
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
http://de-rec-fahrrad.de
http://fahrradzukunft.de

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#35886

On 11/13/16 5:39 AM, Martin Schöön wrote:
> A year ago I got my first smart-phone at work, a Samsung S5 mini.
> Some of you may remember me asking for advice on apps for work.
> This post is not about what I opted for and how they worked. This
> is about battery life.
>
> At first battery life exceeded my expectations by a wide margin.
> I found I got four working days out of a charge -- I don't use
> the phone off duty and switch it to 'ultra energy save' mode
> when not at work. So I charged the phone twice a week.
>
> Four or five months later I realized I had lost one day: 3 days
> on a charge. At the time I could not recall a distinct change.
> I think it crept up on me gradually and I had not changed my
> use pattern. I still 'only' check emails, look at what's up next
> in my calendar, place and receive a few calls. I access www
> less than once a day and youtube has only been used once in
> a year. My computer and its 24" screen is much better at that.
> No social media.
>
> Then there was a major Android/Samsung system up-date and I was down
> to two days on a charge. There was a clear before/after experience
> this time.
>
> Now, a couple of months later, I get one day with some margin out
> of a charge. Nothing I do including un-installing apps I never use
> and reducing email syncing frequency to an hourly rate helps. In
> 'ultra energy save' mode the phone tells me it will last ten days
> when fully charge but it is 'dead' after two days. So, yes, I
> have re-booted the phone a couple of times.
>
> Is this a Samsung thing? Planned obsolescence? Bad luck with the
> battery of this particular device?
>
> I have a couple of other devices to compare with and none of them
> do this to me. My private 'smart phone' is a Nokia 700. It is
> one of the last or even the last model with a Symbian heritage OS.
> It is 4.5 years old now and despite Microsoft's effort in the last
> OS up-date it still has roughly the same battery endurance as
> when new.
>
> I also own an LG phone I got when hawing worked for 20 years
> for my employer (yes, I am that stupid). It is too big to
> pocket I think and being happy with my Nokia I have only used the
> LG as a wifi web surf thing at home. As far as I can judge
> there has been no major battery life reductions in the three years
> I have had this device.
>
> So what is the view of the jury? What's up with my Samsung's
> battery?
>
> /Martin
>

Marty, next post: Clarity, Brevity, Focus

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#35904

On 13/11/16 15:13, Piso Mojado wrote:

> Marty, next post: Clarity, Brevity, Focus

Piso, next post:

Brevity -  don't quote an entire essay to post a one-line response.
Focus - post something useful, don't just waste bandwidth for everyone.

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#35888

Per Martin Schöön:
>What's up with my Samsung's
>battery?

My battery is no prize either.   As with yours, it started out giving me
impressive runtimes and now, after much less than a hear, has degraded
quite noticeably.

My understanding is that the "Fast Charge" feature ("Qualcomm Quick
Charge 2.0") is significantly harder on the battery than regular
charging.

Accordingly, I have switched over to either regular chargers or wireless
charging for most of my charging.

Maybe somebody who actually knows something can chime in on this.
-- 
Pete Cresswell

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#36021

Den 2016-11-13 skrev Martin Schöön <martin.schoon@gmail.com>:
> A year ago I got my first smart-phone at work, a Samsung S5 mini.
> Some of you may remember me asking for advice on apps for work.
> This post is not about what I opted for and how they worked. This
> is about battery life.
>
<snip>

Here is a follow-up. But first of all thank you all for your input.

Last Friday I had the phone fully charged before leaving for home.
It spent the following 46 hours in ultra energy save mode. When I
checked on it late on Sunday afternoon the battery was almost flat.

I checked the logs for what activities had drained the battery: None.
Android was the only ting showing up.

Poking around some more I found an eye-catching amount of data had
been sent and received. No, I don't remember how much.

I topped up the battery again and put the phone back in ultra energy
saver mode *and* flight mode. When arriving at work on Monday morning
I found the battery meter still read 100%. At the end of the working
day it was still in good charge. Yes, it had been in full working
mode and in use throughout the day. I put it back in ultra saver + 
flight mode when leaving for home. Tuesday was a repeat of Monday.

Late in the afternoon of Wednesday I had to charge the battery. So
almost three days instead of 1+ day on a charge and I felt battery
drain rate was down in day time use.

Next I tried ultra energy save + no data traffic outside working hours.
I charged the batteries again this evening: 2 days on a charge.

So, something drains the battery in secret and most of this is down
data traffic. I have yet to try out the tactic of temporarily 
uninstalling apps.

/Martin

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#36024

On 2016-11-18 22:31, Martin Schöön wrote:

> Here is a follow-up. But first of all thank you all for your input.

...

> I checked the logs for what activities had drained the battery: None.
> Android was the only ting showing up.

...

> So, something drains the battery in secret and most of this is down
> data traffic. I have yet to try out the tactic of temporarily 
> uninstalling apps.

Check the strategy used by google+ for backing up data. There is a
setting round there to do it only while charging. --> Settings,
Personal-google, data administration. Huh, no, it is not that one.

And apps such as google photos.

Google+, settings, adjustements... no.

Google photos. Settings. Security copy and sync: at the bottom it has
"only during charge".

There may be more apps, you have to search one by one...

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#36121

Martin Schöön <martin.schoon@gmail.com> wrote:
> Den 2016-11-13 skrev Martin Schöön <martin.schoon@gmail.com>:
>> A year ago I got my first smart-phone at work, a Samsung S5 mini.
>> Some of you may remember me asking for advice on apps for work.
>> This post is not about what I opted for and how they worked. This
>> is about battery life.
>> 
> <snip>
> 
> Here is a follow-up. But first of all thank you all for your input.
> 
> Last Friday I had the phone fully charged before leaving for home.
> It spent the following 46 hours in ultra energy save mode. When I
> checked on it late on Sunday afternoon the battery was almost flat.
> 
> I checked the logs for what activities had drained the battery: None.
> Android was the only ting showing up.
> 
> Poking around some more I found an eye-catching amount of data had
> been sent and received. No, I don't remember how much.
> 
> I topped up the battery again and put the phone back in ultra energy
> saver mode *and* flight mode. When arriving at work on Monday morning
> I found the battery meter still read 100%. At the end of the working
> day it was still in good charge. Yes, it had been in full working
> mode and in use throughout the day. I put it back in ultra saver + 
> flight mode when leaving for home. Tuesday was a repeat of Monday.
> 
> Late in the afternoon of Wednesday I had to charge the battery. So
> almost three days instead of 1+ day on a charge and I felt battery
> drain rate was down in day time use.
> 
> Next I tried ultra energy save + no data traffic outside working hours.
> I charged the batteries again this evening: 2 days on a charge.
> 
> So, something drains the battery in secret and most of this is down
> data traffic. I have yet to try out the tactic of temporarily 
> uninstalling apps.
> 
 Android also tracks download data usage. Check under Settings -> data to
see what's using up the data

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#36124

>> Last Friday I had the phone fully charged before leaving for home.
>> It spent the following 46 hours in ultra energy save mode. When I
>> checked on it late on Sunday afternoon the battery was almost flat.

>> I topped up the battery again and put the phone back in ultra energy
>> saver mode *and* flight mode. When arriving at work on Monday morning
>> I found the battery meter still read 100%.

>> So, something drains the battery in secret and most of this is down
>> data traffic. I have yet to try out the tactic of temporarily 
>> uninstalling apps.

Known Android battery hogs:
Facebook
Instagram
Google Play Services
Outlook
Twitter

Find Android background battery hogs:
Wakelock Detector
GSam Battery Monitor
Watchdog Task Manager
Better Battery Stats (requires root)

Android background app managers:
Open Channel - Open Channel’s smart algorithms work in the background
to increase standby battery life. Unlike other battery savers, there
is no need to configure any power management modes or block apps to
save battery.
Doze - For Better Battery Life
LeanDroid

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#36152

On 2016-11-21 21:45, M.L. wrote:

> Known Android battery hogs:
> Facebook
> Instagram
> Google Play Services
> Outlook
> Twitter
> 
> Find Android background battery hogs:
> Wakelock Detector
> GSam Battery Monitor
> Watchdog Task Manager
> Better Battery Stats (requires root)
> 
> Android background app managers:
> Open Channel - Open Channel’s smart algorithms work in the background
> to increase standby battery life. Unlike other battery savers, there
> is no need to configure any power management modes or block apps to
> save battery.
> Doze - For Better Battery Life
> LeanDroid

I intended to try Open Channel:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seven.oc

but it is incompatible with 4 out of 5 of my android devices.

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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