Battery drain while off?

[Mule65]

Had my Droid since Monday and have yet to get 24 hours on a charge. Killed apps then powered off last night with ~80% juice. Powered up this morning with ~15% juice. Is this normal? I've kept GPS/WIFI off.

Charging this thing is getting old. My old ENV2 would last 7-14 days on a charge. Is it possible to make it through a weekend without charging?

 

[LifeIsABeach]

You will never get 7-14 days and even getting a whole weekend would take not using your Droid much, but the battery draining that fast while the phone is turned off is not normal. When you say powered off do you mean powered down or just hitting the power button to put it to sleep? Also, check Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Usage to see what is taking up all your battery life.

 

[Mule65]

Power off: Long hold button on top edge, tap Power off on the screen then confirm ok. I've noticed that sometimes it just restarts by itself so maybe that's what happened. Yet another glitch?

Edit: I suppose restarting is normal while charging.

 

[ShowTime]

This is actually fairly common. If you search the boards for something like "battery drain while off" you should find quite a few posts by others experiencing the same thing. For most, there has been no real explanation and no consistent solution other than just always leaving the phone on. Just leave it on and plug it in overnight if need be, there's no danger of "overcharging" these batteries. Also, the phone is designed to always be on while charging, so its always going to restart if you turn it off then plug it in. And even a full 24 hours on 1 charge with even moderate use is a dream for some. My old dumb phone (LG Env) would get a solid 4 days or so... I'm getting what I'd consider good battery life with my Droid, averaging about 20-24 hours.

 

[jsh1120]

Had my Droid since Monday and have yet to get 24 hours on a charge. Killed apps then powered off last night with ~80% juice. Powered up this morning with ~15% juice. Is this normal? I've kept GPS/WIFI off.

Charging this thing is getting old. My old ENV2 would last 7-14 days on a charge. Is it possible to make it through a weekend without charging?

As others have noted, you won't make it through a weekend (48 hours) without charging if you use your phone. Also, as others have noted, when you say you "powered off," you need to completely "power off," not just turn off the display. Even if you're not using your display, your GPS, and WiFi off, if you have "synch" on it will use the 3G network to poll for data some of your apps may need. Finally, even with your phone completely off, the battery will still drain slightly. It would drain if you took it out of your phone and put it on a table. But only a bit.

If you've done all this and you're still using 65% of your battery with your phone completely off overnight, you have a problem with a battery, a battery monitor, or your phone.

 

[Joker]

My spouse's Droid does the same thing. Would power off (long press, power off) would return a few hours later and the battery is completely drained. Phone gets powered off vs leaving it on because in the basement there is no reception so it would tend to drain anyways as it tries to search for a signal. Is the phone doing the same even when it is powered off?

 

[Mule65]

As discussed on another thread, I'm using Apollo Task Killer to Auto-Kill everything but Alarm Clock, Mail and Messaging one minute after the screen turns off. Now I'm not seeing any substantial drain while in sleep mode -- even overnight. Great tip.

 

[searayman]

Try juice defender, it will save lots of battery power when asleep! Review of it in my sig:

 

[ShowTime]

As discussed on another thread, I'm using Apollo Task Killer to Auto-Kill everything but Alarm Clock, Mail and Messaging one minute after the screen turns off. Now I'm not seeing any substantial drain while in sleep mode -- even overnight. Great tip.

Since you're the OP, was your original post about significant battery drain with the phone asleep or with it off? Draining while it's off is a well known and documented occurrence. The only real solution being to leave the phone on and plugged in overnight if need be. Significant drain with it just asleep points to a setting and/or app issue. But a task killer should not be needed to prevent battery drain while asleep.

 

[Mule65]

Since you're the OP, was your original post about significant battery drain with the phone asleep or with it off?

Off -- Long hold button on top edge, tap Power off on the screen then confirm ok. I agree a task killer should not be needed to prevent battery drain while asleep -- but it seems to be helping my battery.

 

[gfc55]

I have changed my approach to saving power. I experienced the power off symptoms you described, and I tried using Airplane mode instead. That works well for me since none of the apps have access to the network and the phone is not polling anything. I now use Airplane mode whenever I would have powered the phone off in the past. I can usually go for two days between charges with regular use. Give it a try!

 

[Joker]

I have changed my approach to saving power. I experienced the power off symptoms you described, and I tried using Airplane mode instead. That works well for me since none of the apps have access to the network and the phone is not polling anything. I now use Airplane mode whenever I would have powered the phone off in the past. I can usually go for two days between charges with regular use. Give it a try!

This worked out great thanks for the tip.:icon_ banana: