Stopping Apps

[AZgolfer]

I'm new to smart phones and it appears I'm using a lot of battery life unnecessarily. When I check my "running apps" I continue to see a "weather" app" and a "map" app that are running. How can I get to to automatically stop after I use them and close them? It's a pain to manually stop them after each viewing. Tks

[jstafford1]

How much battery are you using?

LLR0717

[AZgolfer]

After 10-15 min. of looking at weather/news etc. my Battery indicator says 90%.

I also have Advanced Task Killer and every time I open the phone from the lock position and open this app, the following apps are shown as running: Dictionary, Gmail, VZ Navigator, Skype movile, Text Messaging and Voicemail. Of these I only want voicemail and Dictionary but the others appear every time.

The News and Weather apps don't show up in the Adv. Task Killer but they do show when going menu/manageapps/running.

I'd really like to not have then run every time I unlock the phone.

[jstafford1]

Ok....first off. Lose the ATK. Its not needed and robs more battery than it saves. Next, the "running" apps is a bit of a misnomer. They aren't running persay, but held in memory to relaunch quicker when needed.
for the maps, turn off gps and everything associated with it.
For the new and weather, not sure why that's coming up. But if you're not using it, its not doing anything.

LLR0717

[kptphalkon]

He is correct sir. The task killer is not needed and gives no benefit. The "running" apps are merely kept in memory for quicker launch. If display, android system and cell signal are not the top battery users (assuming you didn't come off of a gaming binge) then and only then will you know that there is a rogue app eating your battery.

[AZgolfer]

Thank you both. I show 22% usage for "Phone idle". Is that about right?

[kparks]

Ok....first off. Lose the ATK. Its not needed and robs more battery than it saves. Next, the "running" apps is a bit of a misnomer. They aren't running persay, but held in memory to relaunch quicker when needed.
for the maps, turn off gps and everything associated with it.
For the new and weather, not sure why that's coming up. But if you're not using it, its not doing anything.

LLR0717

Agree with everything above I keep my gps on tho... Check all ur auto sync and turn whatever u don't care about off.. def lose any task killers and I make it a habit to restart my phone every morning just to kill any rouge apps..

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

[tamlin42]

Which version of android are you running? some of the past versions have had less than stellar battery life. the current OTA version, 2.3.4, has pretty good battery life in my experience. 3 days so far with very light usage.

[WookieClaws]

I can usually get 8-10 hours of light usage (texts, calls, email, 2+ hours of music, and a little browsing) since the last update... I don't use a task killer. By the end of the day my phone idle is about 22% so unless my phone is doing something wonky I'd say that's pretty normal.

I opt to charge my phone for a couple of hours before I leave work... so around 3PM it's charging and I have plenty of juice for the remainder of the night (where I use it much more). If you are going to use a smartphone then you will burn through your battery. Heavy use of my phone will drain it in about 4 hours (5 if I'm lucky). Just keep chargers and USB cables on hand to get you through.

The only time I stop an app is if it's not working, and I use the settings>manage apps thing to do that. Not something I have to do often. I find it good to check on what's using you battery so you can ID a rogue app (or bad update to an app you use).

Also, get a battery widget... that will help you see where you are really at as the one in the task bar doesn't tell you much. My wife got a D3 as her first smartphone and was perplexed as to how she could go from 3/4 to less than half after 20 mins of use. The battery widget is a much better view of this.

[BayouFlyFisher]

This list was actually written for the Bionic, but I think most, if not all, will apply to your phone. Just look through the list and try the items that fit with the way you want to use your phone and ignore the others:

Consider doing a factory reset. Do not sync apps, wifi connections, etc. with Google services as that may cause a problem. Install all apps and wifi connections from scratch. A bit of a pain, but not too bad.- install a home/launcher replacement. I use Go Launcher EX, which is free, and I love it. No reason not to try out an alternative launcher as you can always go back to how you had it.

- Don't use an automatic task killer--not even the one that comes with the phone. Reboot your phone and look at what's running. If anything that you've installed is running and there's no reason for it, then uninstall it and find an alternative that behaves. Ignore any stock apps that run on boot as I've found them to be more or less benign.

- Weather widgets, live wallpapers, news/social feeds, any app or service that you use that runs--do without it if you can. If you can’t do without it, lengthen it’s refresh time.

- Don't use antivirus

- Set your WIFI sleep policy to never. The default is "turn off when screen turns off". This will cause the wifi to reconnect every time you open the phone. From any Home Screen select Menu/Settings/Wireless & Networks/ and then use the Menu button to see some new options - select Advanced. Then select Wifi Sleep Policy and set it to Never. Home key to return to Home Screen.

- If you have access to wifi, leave it toggled on as it is more efficient than 3G. Wifi consumes less battery power than 3G.

- I leave GPS toggled on too by the way. Apps use it as needed. When I'm done with Maps or an app that uses it, I'm sure to return to the home screen so GPS can stop. Under wireless settings turn on "Google location services" so that an app is able to use network resources to get your location instead of GPS. I have "VZW location services" turned off--don't know why that option is even there. By the way, I increase the speed of voice output > text to speech > speech rate because I like the directions to get spit out faster. That saves a bit of battery. Turning off the display and just listening for directions help. Also, often I just get the directions and then exit back to the home screen: GPS uses so much battery I try to get it over with ASAP.

- When you get a 1) new battery, 2) do a factory reset, or 3) an OS upgrade - run your battery all the way down until the phone shuts off and then charge the battery all the way up. This will calibrate the phone's understanding of the battery's capacity. Do this once every month or two also, but don't do it too often if you can help it.

- I have my battery set to "Performance Mode" and data is on all the time because I am on call 24x7. If you don't mind, try out a more conservative battery profile to save more gobs of energy.

- Set screen brightness to "Automatic"

- Under Accounts, click on any account listed and turn off sync for any items that you're not interested in syncing. For example, Google Books if you don't use it. Don't use Backup Assistant--I prefer syncing my contacts with Google. You don't need both. Also go into your contacts > menu > display options > backup assistant > UNCHECK. Also do contacts > menu > more > settings > contact storage > and select your Google account and "remember this choice"

- Turn on Bluetooth only when you are going to use it.

- Consider turning off voice privacy. This may not be a big deal but it will save some processing (and therefore battery). It may also improve call quality.

-T off haptic feedback, animations, and any un-needed sounds in Android settings and in your apps

- Set your screen timeout to as low a time as you can stand (I use 1 minute) and manually turn the screen off when you’ve finished using the phone.

- Turn off in-pocket detection

- Keyboard: turn off vibrate on key press and sounds for any keyboards you use

- Use a red or black screen background. On the original Droid screen--not sure about this Bionic screen--red was the most efficient color that could be displayed.

- Camera app: I like keeping location on and flash on auto. Consider turning location off or at least returning to the home screen ASAP when using camera if location for camera is on.

- In stock browser the default home page is Google and it uses your location. This is a bad idea as it can waste your battery for no reason. Make something else your home page and make sure to close any web page that uses your location when you're done viewing it.

- Charge your phone via the wall charger instead of computer USB as it is faster. Also, don't use long USB cords--use regular power extension cords instead. I stick with the charger that came with the phone. Put the phone on charger when you go to bed every night.

- Consider install the Home Replacement app Zeam. It is basic app that uses very few resources and will help with battery power.

This is a link to some very good videos about saving battery power on the Bionic (there are 4 parts and the other parts will show up as available videos when part 1 finishes):

Battery Saving Video

Part 1:

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Concerning Factory Data Resets: These have gotten pretty painless lately by following these simple steps: 1. Make sure Backup and Restore are checked in the Privacy setting. 2. When going through the setup after the reset, turn on wifi as soon as you can (assuming it is available). 3. After you have entered your Gmail account info, you will be presented with a screen that has two check boxes. Basically they are "Do you want Google to backup and restore this phone”. Make sure you check both of those. Your apps will then automatically reinstall (paid and free). Set the phone aside for a minute or two and let the apps download and install. 3. If rooted, use an app such as titanium backup to restore data only to select apps such as Tapatalk and you will not have to re-enter all your login information. I do this for 3-4 apps (Tapatalk, SPB Shell, etc.).