Battery life: 66% gone overnight without doing anything...

[Bruinx97]

Both a tablet and Android Noob here...

I recently purchased a 7042-4 for my wife and she just called me stating that the battery drained overnight without her doing anything.

It was at 66% when she went to sleep last night and this morning about 10 hrs later, when she went to check her email and it had powered off. At power up, it said the battery needed a recharge.

My phone gets a 2% drain (if that) on the battery overnight. Is this typical/Expected?

Is there anything I can do to tune the OS to use less power?

My only suggestion to her was to power it off at night, but I think that it shouldn't drain that fast in standby.

Thanks!

 

[jimbo7630]

Why would you leave it in Stand By? whichever Apps are running in the background are going to drain the battery big-time!

 

[jimbo7630]

Ask your wife to open Settings>Applications>Running Services and see what is draining the battery.

 

[J515OP]

Ask your wife to open Settings>Applications>Running Services and see what is draining the battery.

Yes, more than likely there were apps running in the background even while it was in standby and probably something using wifi like mail apps constantly checking for new mail. Also if this tablet has bluetooth make sure that is turned off if it isn't being used. If you find the drain is coming from an app or apps you can simply change the settings of that app or remove it to correct the issue. If you can't find the app(s) responsible you can try turning on Airplane mode before long periods of inactivity to see if that helps. If that still doesn't work powering down completely before long periods of inactivity might be required.

JP

 

[Teatime]

Install Juice Defender, if you haven't already. You can download it for free at the Amazon app store. I have mine set on "Aggressive" battery mode and it limits the Wi-Fi use and such. I had my tablet on just about all day yesterday because I had a bunch of appointments and it didn't get down to the critical battery level until the evening.

 

[jimbo7630]

What J5150P said, and remember the apps don't stop just because you go to Stand By.

 

[Bruinx97]

Thanks Jimbo, J515OP & Teatime,

She didn't pick up, so I'll have to check later.

She didn't comment after I told her to power it off at night, but she may have a reason, like using it as an alarm...of course a rather expensive alarm (battery wise).

Does that screen show you how much power it's using?
Or is it just a list of services running?

I had already set the email app for manual sync, so she has to manually 'refresh' to check for email, but I'll verify to make sure she didn't re-set it.

I'll also look into Juice Defender.

 

[jimbo7630]

It does give a bunch of Information but I think J5150P can explain much better and she CAN shut down running programs while on that screen.

 

[J515OP]

There are so many things it could be at this point. You should do a little more looking into it to help narrow it down. For example if she used a clock app or reading app that had a setting to never sleep it is possible that the thing just stayed on until the battery died.

Generally speaking the biggest battery drains are the screen, wifi, gps and bluetooth. To get longer battery life with any tablet turn down the screen brightness as low as you can (but obviously to a point that is usable), turn off bluetooth and gps if not in use and make sure that you don't have apps constantly accessing wifi. Also use a short screen time out. These things will allow the greatest conservation of battery and you can go from there.

 

[Joe88]

turn on airplane mode before you put it to sleep

its a simple switch by hitting the clock twice, it will be the first option when the menu pops up

 

[jimbo7630]

Does Airplane mode cancel when you exit Stand By?

 

[Tom T]

Does Airplane mode cancel when you exit Stand By?

No, you have to manually turn off airplane mode, it is just a quick way to turn off wifi and BT, and when you turn airplane mode off it will restart wifi and/or Bluetooth.

 

[Bruinx97]

I powered it up and went to settings -> Apps -> clicked on the "RUNNING" tab. I see the following:

Settings (1 process and 0 services)
Maps (1 process and 1 service)
Google Services (1 process and 2 services)
GetJar (1 process and 1 service)
Update Service (1 process and 1 service)
Android Keyboard (1 process and 1 service)

I'm assuming I can't stop 'Android Keyboard' or 'Google Services'?

I've already stopped 'Getjar', however it starts up at boot. 'Maps' doesn't go away, it comes back.

I thought I'd check with you guys on the other ones....since I'm a noob.

Any suggestions/guidance is greatly appreciated. I'm not afraid of reading up on this topic, so if there are threads or docs out there, I'd love to know about them.

 

[J515OP]

You might want to try a more robust app like Watchdog (https://play.google.com/store/apps/...sMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLnpvbXV0LndhdGNoZG9nbGl0ZSJd) to see what apps are running and using resources.

Aside from that what shows up in the general battery use tab (not the apps)?

 

[jimbo7630]

Doesn't look like a lot running, I think Joe88's advice to set Airplane mode before putting it to sleep is the answer, but see what the others think!!

Edit: Typed while J5150P was posting!!