Droid X battery problems discovered!!!!!!!

[Sydman]

Didn't download spare parts, but my battery usage shows cell stand by as using 29 % of my battery and its the same amount of time that my battery has been unplugged. So guess my phone never sleeps either, still I am 14 hours unplugged and only down 50 %.

 

[Heralo]

...Turn off GPS and WIFI on the droid X when you are done using them. Again, this is not normally what you would do on an Android phone, but until the update, it looks to be the right thing to do.

Some people are also reporting that merely toggling them off is not enough and that a reboot is needed after their use, but this has not been confirmed. They may not be refreshing Spare Parts (the battery monitor app)...

I've been looking for problem apps for a few days prior to this since it seemed my battery was dieing faster than it should have. I downloaded spare parts last night and saw that my phone was not going to sleep like has been posted here.

Last night when I shut down my phone I had GPS off but WiFi on. When I turned it on this morning I toggled WiFi off like I normally do before leaving for work. When I got here I checked Spare Parts and it showed running 100% (no sleeping) for 49 minutes. Remembering this post about how toggling may not be enough I shutdown/started up my phone and now it looks like it is going into sleep mode like it should. So, after stopping GPS/WiFi power cycling the phone also appears to be needed (for me at least).

 

[Rishi P]

Ok, so after reading a few of these posts I downloaded the "Battery History" app and it is clearly showing that my phone never goes to sleep either and is running 100% even though I never have GSP or Wi-Fi on.

This question may have already been answered, but is there anyway I can get the phone to go to sleep everytime the screen goes black? And I am assuming, this is what is causing the battery to drain?

I switched the battery profile from saver mode to smart mode yday and charged my phone up until 90% last night right before I went to bed....woke up this morning and it was 70%. This is really starting to get frustrating and I was actually thinking of maybe going back to the store and picking out a new phone possibly, unless there is a way to make this phone go to sleep?

 

[michelle4439]

Is there another way to turn off gps without the spare part app? I was going to download it and the reviews for the app didn't seem to good. I was noticing my battery level and I couldn't understand what was going on until I read this thread. I went to sleep 2 nights ago with my battery at 60% and woke up and it was at 30%. How can the battery go down that much when the phone should be sleeping?

 

[aminaked]

Didn't download spare parts, but my battery usage shows cell stand by as using 29 % of my battery and its the same amount of time that my battery has been unplugged. So guess my phone never sleeps either, still I am 14 hours unplugged and only down 50 %.

(UPDATED TO HOPEFULLY ANSWER THE POST BELOW)

The high cell standby issue I was having (and that was solved with *228) is DIFFERENT FROM THE GPS NO SLEEP ISSUE. The problem occurred because my phone failed to properly activate. It will not hurt to try *228 so go for it. Note, it might be ok if your cell standby is high IF you don't use your phone much because then the only thing it is doing is standing by for a call/email. For example, if your phone runs 15+ hours on a charge and the highest user of battery is cell standby AND you haven't used the phone for anything then this seems normal to me. Still, you can try *228 and it can only help things.

***

I use the power control widget that comes with android. It has toggles for gps, wifi, bluetooth, sync, and brightness. Long press home screen to add widgets.

***

TURNING OFF GPS MAY NOT BE ENOUGH TO SOLVE THE NO SLEEP BUG:
-turn off wifi when done using (normally not necessary on android but on droid x until update, it may be)
-reboot after plugging your phone in (after charging, unplug phone from charger, shut off phone, turn phone on. again, here's hoping the update fixes this)
-check that other apps/widgets aren't using your battery too much (there was a bug with the Facebook app, for example, that caused the same no sleep problem. Updates to the app or the OS should fix this type of thing but for now you may have to uninstall)

You should not have to do this on an android phone. On the original droid, for example, I leave gps and wifi settings on all the time. The phone uses them when appropriate. The impending update will no doubt fix these issues on the X...crosses fingers.

One last thing, an entirely different issue is that some app/widget is just poorly designed and using a ton of battery power...totally unrelated to the no sleep bug. For this, check "what is using my battery" or use an app like Spare Parts to figure it out and uninstall the app/widget.

OK, one more thing, when you get a new battery you should charge it all the way, discharge it all the way, and then charge it all the way to calibrate the phone/battery. Do this at least once with a new battery and about once/month thereafter. There, that's all I know about this subject.

 

[Rishi P]

^when you say reboot after plugging in...do you simply mean turn your phone on and off with the charger plugged in?

also will dialing *228 help my phone go to sleep when its not in use? I'm still trying to find an answer on how to get my phone to sleep like it should....so anyone please

 

[rfranken]

Motorola DROID X detailed information (Phone Arena)

220 hours of standby.
yeah right.

 

[Phelgon]

Weird, and I kept hearing how much better the battery life is compared to the Incredible and EVO.

My Storm would last for almost 3 full days of similar usage, with GPS enabled all the time. So far I've had my droid less than a day, gave it the full charge last night, and not it's less than 10% after only using Pandora and reading Kindle for 40 mins (both combined, I do it on the way to work). Says it's been off the charger for 11 hours.

At this rate, I won't have any juice for the ride home from work.

I also find it odd that in the battery usage thingy, talking on the phone for 1m and 4s (All I've done today) was 4% of my battery used.

 

[Juicemane]

My battery life on my X is better then my Droid ever was... I havent done anything special to it other then removing some bloatware. I get through an 8 hour day with a single charge with pretty heavy usage. My droid running BB (all versions) with an ulv kernel was barely making it through the day with similar usage....


Whats the actual usage amount and time of battery life you guys are getting? It sounds to me like you guys havent had a smartphone with this type of performance/features... It destroys battery life.

 

[aminaked]

It sounds to me like you guys havent had a smartphone with this type of performance/features... It destroys battery life.

I've owned a droid 1 since dec. 25 2009. It sounds to me like you need to do more research into the "no sleep" bug. See the link to androidforums discussion and see if u change your mind.

Here's the link if you want to tell everyone over there that they're noobs too: Battery Drain due to Software Bug w/GPS? - Android Forums

 

[Essassani]

I noticed the same Issue.

 

[Mule65]

I get through an 8 hour day with a single charge with pretty heavy usage.

Condolences. My days are 24 hours.

 

[aminaked]

I get through an 8 hour day with a single charge with pretty heavy usage.

Condolences. My days are 24 hours.

Exactly, the guy's saying we're inexperienced smart phone users when he's the one who needs to read up on this cuz his battery life sucks.

 

[roach]

I'm not convinced that leaving GPS on drains the battery, but one thing that does seem to drain my battery is being in a location with poor service. When I am at work, I dont get 3g and the phone drains the battery within 8 hrs. Seems that searching for a signal uses more power.

This has always been the case. With almost ALL cell phones. Not just those running Android.

And to the OP, my phone goes to "sleep" just fine without extra battery use after using the GPS (Which I do, daily).

I'd say you have a rogue app thats not shutting the app down the correct way. When leaving GPS programs, and ALL APPS FOR THAT MATTER, USE THE "BACK" BUTTON! When you use "Home", the app just keeps running in the background.

ALWAYS USE THE "BACK" KEY FOLKS

:icon_evil:
What or where is the back button.

 

[smalltowngirl13]

I'm not convinced that leaving GPS on drains the battery, but one thing that does seem to drain my battery is being in a location with poor service. When I am at work, I dont get 3g and the phone drains the battery within 8 hrs. Seems that searching for a signal uses more power.

This has always been the case. With almost ALL cell phones. Not just those running Android.

And to the OP, my phone goes to "sleep" just fine without extra battery use after using the GPS (Which I do, daily).

I'd say you have a rogue app thats not shutting the app down the correct way. When leaving GPS programs, and ALL APPS FOR THAT MATTER, USE THE "BACK" BUTTON! When you use "Home", the app just keeps running in the background.

ALWAYS USE THE "BACK" KEY FOLKS

:icon_evil:
What or where is the back button.

It is the 3rd key button on the row of hard buttons...It has the arrow that is curving on it...