Verizon Wireless → Re: Troubleshooting fast batt-drain....

Exactly what I was looking for.. however, I guess I've been too aggressive in the past, in forcing tasks to close, because i'd end up crashing the phone & it would restart (closing something that's needed by the OS) What task-monitor / killer do you recommend? --and is there a way to post a list of tasks that are related to the OS, and should always be allowed to run?

You should NOT be using a task killer on Android 4.x.

Android will manage the apps and shut them down.

When you kill things with task killers, they often just re-start right away and you're literally killing the battery in doing so. Your app kills it, it restarts, your app kills it, etc etc.

Instead of randomly killing stuff, get something like better battery stats which has a free "xda edition" available here.

Install that, fully charge the phone and then when you unplug it will start keeping track of things. Once you have a few hours or a day of usage (don't plug it in during this time), you can open the app and it will show you the processes using the most CPU, things keeping it awake, etc.

I was doing reading elsewhere, and I noticed an very interesting correlation... This ultra-fast drain has only happend twice before, and BOTH times, I was on a multi-hour trip on a bus! When I commute to/from work, the phone is on charge on the cradle in the car. Someone made a point that either GPS, or WiFI etc etc.. is searching and searching, and running the battery down. I see I have 'airplane mode' that turns the radio off, but then I wouldn't be able to send/receive calls. --I think there's a way to just turn off 'data', and leave T1xx up and running? (voice and SMS, but no IP / no apps)...?

On my phone to turn data off it is: Settings>More>Mobile networks>uncheck Data enabled and Data roaming

Great idea indeed !

Please stop spreading this FUD ! I've been hearing this since Android 1.6. Oh, and you forgot "Android is Linux-based - it doesn't need a task killer".

Why does HTC develop and include a task killer with their phones (others may as well but I've no experience - anyone know ?) ? Why does AOSP incorporate a task killer ?

It's not FUD. What YOU'RE spreading is FUD. If an app is written poorly and is constantly causing wakelocks and does not have a persistent service that restarts, killing it can help. But having an app that sits there killing things on an interval WILL cause worse battery drain with apps that aren't total junk.

The OP should be using better battery stats (or similar) to find the app that's misbehaving instead of running a task killer. Period.

GPS only "activates" when an app requests it to. My GPS is always "on", or more like, "ready if needed". The GPS icon will appear in the status bar when it's actually working.

For WiFi, since you're driving, there's no use for WiFi as you'll never be in range of any access point long enough. Turn it off. You could adjust how often it scans for WiFi access points (basically it wakes up the WiFi interface looking for connections and notifies you if it finds any). The default interval varies wildly ! Mine is set at 360 seconds (6 minutes). If I have to, I can *force* it to re-scan if I go someplace with WiFi.

See if your device has a "sleep" mode or "nighttime" mode. It's like a pseudo-airplane mode. It generally dims the screen brightness, turns off data (WiFi, 3G/4G), but leaves cell data on so you can receive calls and text.

»www.howtogeek.com/127388 ··· android/

»www.droid-life.com/2011/ ··· eed-one/

»geekfor.me/faq/you-shoul ··· android/

I could find a dozen more. But you get the point. The first link explains in detail exactly what I said - while killing a misbehaving app is good, it's like using a shotgun to kill a fly. Find the misbehaving app, remove or disable it. Problem solved.