Consolidated Battery Saving Techniques Thread

[Lactose the Intolerant]

I just received the SEIDO 1750mAh battery yesterday and charged my phone... I have had it running now for 24 hours and have 16% left (according to battery left widget). Granted, I have not been "playing" with my phone (but have been actively using it for internet - texts - calls) since I took it off the charger -but- just for the heck of it, I have all my email accounts set for 5 minute updates, location on and WiFi on as well... I wanted to see how it would work for what is usually a normal day for me. Looks like the one thing that was a downer for me is now gone

right on! I really want (NEED) a bigger battery and I am sooooooo close to getting the 1750...but I'm going to wait until I see how much size/heft the 2150 adds. Needs to happen soon, I'm really hating that "oh-damn-gotta-get-home-and-charge" feeling.

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[Broon]

My 1750 is due tomorrow - so I guess I'll only have a day to see whether the above suggestions make much difference ;-)
And, as long as we're discussing batteries & power - Has anybody sprung for the Zaggsparq http://www.zagg.com/accessories/zaggsparq.php
or any other portable external power cells yet? $99 seems pretty pricey but I've gotta say I really like their InvisibleShield.

[zgirl8]

I tried the battery "FIX" I found on this forum (Battery force FIX found!), and it has worked WONDERS for my battery life. A week ago, I unplugged my fully-charged phone at 6:15am, and it was completely dead by 2pm. I was so frustrated I did a web search and found this forum and the fix trick. I tried it that night, and was amazed the next day when I didn't have to charge it until I got home after midnight.

But will it be the same with regular weekday usage, I wondered? I have done the trick only twice this week, and right now I'm on hour 35 of my last charge and still have 35% left. The only other battery-saving things I am doing are: no live wallpaper, keep gps off unless I need it, and disabled data always on (this does NOT interfere with my third-party email as some have stated.) I use the phone a lot. I have 1 pop3 account set up to refresh at 15 min. intervals, and one exchange activesync set to always on. I send several dozen texts a day, make several calls, surf the web here and there, browse the marketplace, check weather and traffic, play youtube videos, take a few of pictures a day, and play games every day. I am using the stock battery.

[mjs31]

I tried the battery "FIX" I found on this forum (Battery force FIX found!), and it has worked WONDERS for my battery life. A week ago, I unplugged my fully-charged phone at 6:15am, and it was completely dead by 2pm. I was so frustrated I did a web search and found this forum and the fix trick. I tried it that night, and was amazed the next day when I didn't have to charge it until I got home after midnight.

But will it be the same with regular weekday usage, I wondered? I have done the trick only twice this week, and right now I'm on hour 35 of my last charge and still have 35% left. The only other battery-saving things I am doing are: no live wallpaper, keep gps off unless I need it, and disabled data always on (this does NOT interfere with my third-party email as some have stated.) I use the phone a lot. I have 1 pop3 account set up to refresh at 15 min. intervals, and one exchange activesync set to always on. I send several dozen texts a day, make several calls, surf the web here and there, browse the marketplace, check weather and traffic, play youtube videos, take a few of pictures a day, and play games every day. I am using the stock battery.

Seems to help some with stock battery. Hour 35 with 35% and you are watching youtube, playing games, taking pictures etc? That is a stretch. The 35 hour has to be with less than this. Just not enough capacity, even if the battery was working correctly to do all of this on a consistent basis throughout the day.

[RPA-DROID]

I tried the battery "FIX" I found on this forum (Battery force FIX found!), and it has worked WONDERS for my battery life. A week ago, I unplugged my fully-charged phone at 6:15am, and it was completely dead by 2pm. I was so frustrated I did a web search and found this forum and the fix trick. I tried it that night, and was amazed the next day when I didn't have to charge it until I got home after midnight.

But will it be the same with regular weekday usage, I wondered? I have done the trick only twice this week, and right now I'm on hour 35 of my last charge and still have 35% left. The only other battery-saving things I am doing are: no live wallpaper, keep gps off unless I need it, and disabled data always on (this does NOT interfere with my third-party email as some have stated.) I use the phone a lot. I have 1 pop3 account set up to refresh at 15 min. intervals, and one exchange activesync set to always on. I send several dozen texts a day, make several calls, surf the web here and there, browse the marketplace, check weather and traffic, play youtube videos, take a few of pictures a day, and play games every day. I am using the stock battery.

I found that when I disabled data always on, the only way I could get my "other" emails was to atually go into the account. Are you saying that you were able to turn off data always on AND have the "other" emails notify you when you received them? I'm talking about Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, etc. and not Gmail... I was having difficulty getting anything in those accounts unless I actually opened my email up and selected the account... Please verify - thanks!

[zgirl8]

Seems to help some with stock battery. Hour 35 with 35% and you are watching youtube, playing games, taking pictures etc? That is a stretch. The 35 hour has to be with less than this. Just not enough capacity, even if the battery was working correctly to do all of this on a consistent basis throughout the day.

I'm just telling you my experience. I did the "fix" Wednesday night, and unplugged the phone at 11pm. Started using the phone at 6am and during the day I texted, browsed, shopped, scanned multiple items into calorie counter, played jewels and solitaire, looked at the weather widget several times, checked many emails, and played around with retro camera and fxcamera. I didn't do any gps stuff yesterday, so that stayed off, and I only had a couple of brief phone calls. I did read some on Aldiko. Last night I checked after dinner and it was at 56%. This morning at 6:30 it was at 49%. Right now (10:21am) it is at 34%. I play with this thing all day, but I'm not on it for huge hunks of time, just 5 minutes here and there. But there's rarely 15 minutes that go by that I'm not doing something with it.

I do always make sure to manually lock it when I'm not using it, instead of letting the screen time out on its own.

[zgirl8]

I found that when I disabled data always on, the only way I could get my "other" emails was to atually go into the account. Are you saying that you were able to turn off data always on AND have the "other" emails notify you when you received them? I'm talking about Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, etc. and not Gmail... I was having difficulty getting anything in those accounts unless I actually opened my email up and selected the account... Please verify - thanks!

I only have one pop3 account, and it is a mail.com (NOT gmail.com) account, and yes it does work with "always on mobile data" unchecked. I don't even have my gmail sent to this phone, it is a dormant account I set up just for syncing contacts.

FYI- mail.com is a free web-based account administered by AOL. It's just like hotmail, etc.

[RPA-DROID]

I only have one pop3 account, and it is a mail.com (NOT gmail.com) account, and yes it does work with "always on mobile data" unchecked. I don't even have my gmail sent to this phone, it is a dormant account I set up just for syncing contacts.

FYI- mail.com is a free web-based account administered by AOL. It's just like hotmail, etc.

well... then there has to be some other setting somewhere - I just turned off "always on mobile data" and I have not received any of the emails I sent to my other accounts (went to yahoo and sent a test email to AOL) and have not receieved any of the test emails... Having the setting turned off will stop your phone from checking for email on these other accounts unless you actually go into your email app (unless someone knows of a setting within the email that bypasses the "always on mobile data"). At least - on my phone, with this setting turned off - none of my emails from my other accounts (other than Gmail) will come thru...

can someone else test this and let me know what I'm doing "incorrect" when having this setting disabled? Or are others having this same issue?

[zgirl8]

Let me know if there are any settings on my phone or email you want me to double check! I looked back at the "always on mobile data" again just to be sure and it is still UNchecked and I am defenitely getting my pop3's. Ah...I just got one right now in fact!

Just running through my settings:

Protocol: IMAP
IMAP server: pop3.mail.com
Security type: none
Server port: 143

SMTP server: smtp.mail.com
Security type: none
Server port: 25

[RPA-DROID]

Strange... I actually just logged into my gmail account on my laptop and saw that I had 2 emails that didn't come thru to my phone sitting there (since having the setting off)... Not sure, but I guess I will turn it back on. lol