Whats a good way to save your Battery?

[BrownB]

My battery goes down fast and i need to know some ways to save it.

 

[TisMyDroid]

Try these suggestions:

Check to make sure it is not on global data because it uses more battery searching all the possible global networks. Go to settings --->more... (under data usage) ---> mobile networks ---> network mode ---> select LTE/CDMA.

In Smart Actions, enable battery extender. It will turn off Wi-Fi, data, and sync when your screen is off and automatically turn it all back on when you unlock your screen (Wi-Fi, data and sync use a lot of battery...no reason to have it running when you are not using your phone).

Do a battery meter training:
*with phone powered off, charge it to 100% (you can check the % of charge by pressing the volume button).
*When it reaches 100%, turn phone on, unplug, use your phone without charging it until it gets to the low battery warning (10-15% charge).
*Turn phone off and charge it while off until it reaches 100% again.
*Turn phone on and use it and charge it as you normally would.

 

[jpcalhoun]

My battery goes down fast and i need to know some ways to save it.

Well there is a couple of things you can do. First you should calibrate your battery meter to your battery, this is called FoxKating...named for our distinguished Super Moderator who knows more about battery, battery life and how to manage battery life than anyone. Here is how you FoxKat your battery:
--Allow your phone to discharge down to 15% (low battery warning)...do not allow it to discharge any lower. A complete discharged battery or a battery discharged below about 10% causing the phone to do an emergency shut down and you won't be able to get it to turn on.
--Power off your phone completely. Place the phone on charge using the factory provided cable and charger. Charge the battery until full. You can tell when it is completely charged by pressing the power button and a battery charge indicator (a big one) will show on your screen. You can tell from that indicator if your battery is fully charged.
--After fully charging you phone you can take it off the charger and reboot.
--Perform this discharge/charge process every month of two. This keeps your battery meter in calibration with the actual charge on your battery.

Some hints on how to get the most out of your battery:
--It helps to power off your phone complete and charge to 100% every day or two. You get a strong charge that way and it is good to "clean the system" by powering off your phone. Motorola recommends this.
--The display uses more battery power than any other function/part of your phone. So, set your display to shut off to 1 minute of less...30 seconds is better. Turn the display brightness down to as low a level as is comfortable to you for INDOOR viewing...for most people that is around 20%. You can always increase your display brightness if your outside or in a very bright room. Display brightness, over an extended time like a day, makes a big difference in battery life.
--Widgets, although nice, use battery. Widgets run all the time, so they are using resources all the time. Limit the number of widgets you use and if they update periodically set the update or "sync" interval to as long a period as you can stand.
--Your phone came with an app/system called SmartActions. Many users use SmartActions to control when WiFi turns on and off, when data is disconnected and then reconnected etc. You might want to explore SmartActions and see if it will help you.
--When in a WiFi area use it instead of your phones 3g/4g data connection. WiFi uses less power than 3g/4g. Don't worry, you'll still receive text messages, phone calls and email.
--If you're not using Bluetooth or GPS then turn them off and turn them on only when you need a function that uses one of them.
--The background (wallpaper) you use makes a difference. A bright wallpaper (like white or gray) will use more power than a dark wallpaper like black or dark blue. LIVE WALLPAPERS eat battery...they are neat...but they are battery hogs.
--If you are using a Task Killer get rid of it. Task killers will usually use more battery than they save and they can cause other problems with the proper functioning of your phone.
--There are a couple of apps like Juice Defender (free and paid) in the Play Store that allow you to make settings that are designed to maximize your battery. Juice Defender is the most often recommend, but it will take you a little while to "fine tune" the settings.
--When all else fails and you are still getting poor battery life then you probably need to do a Factory Reset and start from scratch (in terms of apps installed etc). It is a good idea to do a Factory Reset before you FoxKat your phone...but you don't have to.

Hope these suggestions help. I'm sure other users will provide you more suggestions on how to maximize time between charges.

 

[TisMyDroid]

With jpcalhoun here, I'm not needed :-( lol! Excellent suggestions!

 

[jpcalhoun]

With jpcalhoun here, I'm not needed :-( lol! Excellent suggestions!

Not true my friend. Two minds are always better than one. If everyone comes up with the same answer then no one is thinking :biggrin:

 

[TisMyDroid]

Ahh thanks! Great minds do think alike but you included more great info!

 

[YellowJacket]

If you take a lot of pictures, set your phone to upload when on wifi and plugged in. It will hold onto them and upload only when plugged in and on wifi.
If you GPS and data sync. Especially if you are in a large building, your phone will search continuously for GPS, get hot and drain the battery fast.

Doing the above gives me at least two days of use between charges and I use my phone very regularly in a building with marginal signal.

David

 

[Dingbat]

Great stuff. Re "--When in a WiFi area use it instead of your phones 3g/4g data connection. WiFi uses less power than 3g/4g. Don't worry, you'll still receive text messages, phone calls and email.". How do you do this? Thanks!

 

[JohnnytheK]

For me turning off data and 4G and I get 2x-3x the batter life vs WiFi.

A full data reset is necessary it's not convenient but it helps a lot.

I wouldn't expect any improvement with FoxKating I do it every few months and I never have seen any difference.
That being said, everything else the great and powerful FoxKat says about battery is golden and worth reading his posts.
(digital battery meters aren't calibrated that way, but it does no harm.)

For me 4G really sucks, at work after 8-9 hours I only have 30% battery and I have to bump charge most days.
At home on WiFi I get 24-29 hours easy.

 

[jpcalhoun]

Great stuff. Re "--When in a WiFi area use it instead of your phones 3g/4g data connection. WiFi uses less power than 3g/4g. Don't worry, you'll still receive text messages, phone calls and email.". How do you do this? Thanks!

There are several way...SmartActions will turn off our 3g/4g data when it senses a recognized WiFi connection. Verizon has a free app that essentially does the same but only controls your WiFi were as SmartActions can control many more responses to differing variables like turning your your screen, data etc off after the phone has been motionless for more than 1 minute.

 

[jpcalhoun]

Great stuff. Re "--When in a WiFi area use it instead of your phones 3g/4g data connection. WiFi uses less power than 3g/4g. Don't worry, you'll still receive text messages, phone calls and email.". How do you do this? Thanks!

I don't use SmartActions so I'm not the expert on that (or anything else for that matter), but there are a number of very good threads submitted by SmartActon users that may be helpful if you're interested in learning more about SmartActions...just use the search feature.

 

[moset]

I get the black background thing but not sure about blue. I thought blue was the most power hungry color.
I've heard before that letting the screen time out was better than using the power button, I don't, when I'm done with whatever I'm doing it just power off rather than letting the screen time out.

Instead of FRD you might try formating system cache. Especially if keep awake time is high.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[moset]

On the black screen idea, there are some apps (including tapatalk) that have dark themes giving you black background with white text.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[TisMyDroid]

I don't use SmartActions so I'm not the expert on that (or anything else for that matter), but there are a number of very good threads submitted by SmartActon users that may be helpful if you're interested in learning more about SmartActions...just use the search feature.

Probably the best Smart Action is battery extender. When I used it, (I use automateIt now) it worked great. It turns off data, sync, Wi-Fi, etc when your screen is off with no activity and automatically turns everything back on when you unlock your screen.

 

[jpcalhoun]

I get the black background thing but not sure about blue. I thought blue was the most power hungry color.
I've heard before that letting the screen time out was better than using the power button, I don't, when I'm done with whatever I'm doing it just power off rather than letting the screen time out.

Instead of FRD you might try formating system cache. Especially if keep awake time is high.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

You may be right about blue...I was using that as an example of a dark screen...it might have been a bad example if taken literally.