Droid battery life
 

can anyone help me figure out why my Droid's battery life isn't going all day? If I use it at all it dies early. I lost it mid-day in Disneyland :(

Re: Droid battery life
 

Bloatware, for starters. :-/

Re: Droid battery life
 

I don't know what that is :O or what to do about it :scratch

Re: Droid battery life
 

Bloatware is the derogatory term :shifty for all of the ...um, rubbish :shifty that Droids come pre-loaded with, that you'll never use, and that you cannot delete. :banghead For me, it's the number one drawback to the Droid. :-/

You can also check to see if any of the programs you do want and use are using power running in the background when they're not actually needed. I can't advise much on how to check for that or turn it off :bag but I know it's the next step. :giggle

Re: Droid battery life
 

A lot of things will run in the background and drain it. If you don't have an app manager, I'd download one. It will show you everything that is running and allow you to kill them from there. Also, make sure your GPS is turned off, and wi-fi if you can live without it. If the screen is set to bright and stays on a long time before going to sleep, that will drain it too.

Re: Droid battery life
 

I got a battery life optimizer app for abbi's droid. It helped me figure out what things were running in the background and killing her battery so quickly.

Re: Droid battery life
 

do you know which one you downloaded?

I know about the GPS--turned that off.

will have to find a battery life optimizer or app manager (probably the same thing, hunh?)

Re: Droid battery life
 

I downloaded the "droid" one :shifty

that is to say, "I have no idea." :bag

Re: Droid battery life
 

I just downloaded Android Optimizer so we'll see what I learn :)

Re: Droid battery life
 

:cup - My droid battery dies quickly and my wall charger broke so it can only charge in the car :doh

Re: Droid battery life
 

If you have WiFi at home, then have the wifi on your phone on when you are at home. Saves us tons of battery life, because the phone isn't constantly cycling in and out of 3G. I turn off the WiFi when I leave home, and keep GPS and Bluetooth off unless I am actually using them.

I also use an app called Juice Defender.

Re: Droid battery life
 

Bloatware is why The Hubs and I have rooted our phones and run custom ROMs. Our battery life is much better now. I can go all day long and still have about 30% when I plug it in at night. When I'm in the van and on Bluetooth, I plug it into the car charger. I think a car charger is pretty much a must with an Android, especially if you use the GPS at all.

If you go to your settings, click on "About Phone." Then click on "Battery Use" and it will tell you what is sucking your battery. It will also tell you how long it has been since you unplugged your phone. On Andoroids, the display usually takes up the greatest amount of your battery, so make sure your screen is set to dim and shut off after a few moments, or lock it yourself when you aren't using it. For me that's a button on the right side. Click it and my phone goes dark and is locked.

Also, if you go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Running Services it can show you what you have running. There will be a lot on that list, and the system stuff you'll need to keep running. Right now I see that my Lightning Bug (sleep sounds) app is still running so I clicked on it to force stop.

Re: Droid battery life
 

Even that seems pretty quick for a phone battery. Do all smart phones go through battery power this quickly?

Re: Droid battery life
 

:popcorn

Re: Droid battery life
 

Yes, smart phones run through battery life considerably faster than older phones. The little bar phone I had before my smart phone couldn't even run games. It needed to be charged only once a week. You will not find a smart phone yet that doesn't need charging every night. (My husband keeps a USB charger in his computer at work, so that his phone is plugged in as often as he's at his desk.)

I used to have an app to manage my stuff, but now, when I get up in the morning, I go to "manage applications", check the "running applications" tab, and turn off anything and everything that needs turning off.

In addition to bloatware, a lot of the apps I love (Nook, for instance) don't have kill or quit switches. So they continue to run in the background, a week after you last used them, until you "force close" either with an app manager app, or the "manage applications" option.