Android battery drains - suggestions?

[Inmytaxi]

After installing the latest version of waze and not having used it for a few months now the battery drains even while charging. This didn't happen before.

I use a mytouch 4g touchscreen.

[MicketsBR]

Hello,

First post on this forum, and recently introduced to Waze.

I left a comment/rating on the Play site, that mentions this:

GREAT! But uses LOTS of battery. Today I went out for just over 01:30, and at my destination battery was already below 50%. Checked battery status and found that Waze was responsible for 53% of the battery usage! Never seen an app use so much battery. It could be due to high GPS polling rate. I couldn't find an option to configure the interval between GPS updates. If there isn't one, then there should be one.

I've been using Android for some time, and, from my experience, apps that poll the GPS too often (or simply use Android's default polling interval, whichever that is), consume lots of battery.

Apps such as Locus Pro have the settings to change the GPS update interval, and that reflects directly on battery usage. Other apps that don't have the option (such as One Touch Locator), rely on Android to control the polling (as stated by One Touch Locator's support).

I guess one thing to do is to change the GPS polling interval. Another would be to change the data access interval (i.e., not have it on all times), and/or change to 2G (not really good from my experience).

But if this is not built in to Waze, then how can we achieve this?

The only way I can see this is using Tasker to:

• Detect that Waze is running
• Turn GPS on/off every pre-determined interval (e.g. every 2min)
• Turn data connection on/off as well (this will need root access and the Secure Settings plug-in

I'll try and do this next time I go out and see what happens.

I'll take my charger with me, just in case.

[xteejx]

Waze needs constant access to data and a charger. Any satnav app will use just as much battery.

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

[MicketsBR]

Waze needs constant access to data and a charger. Any satnav app will use just as much battery.

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

Hmmm... I have to disagree. Setup an app such as Locus Pro to poll GPS position every 60s. Observe the GPS icon on the notification bar. Notice it changes as it polls for position, every 60s. Notice that, the higher interval, less battery it consumes. It is a fact.

[Timbones]

Tip: Switch off 3G, and use 2G instead - that will use considerably less power.

Search the forum for more tips on limiting battery drain.

[xteejx]

Polling GPS every minute is simply not feasible for navigation. In a minute you could have taken an exit and be half a mile away...

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

[MicketsBR]

Polling GPS every minute is simply not feasible for navigation. In a minute you could have taken an exit and be half a mile away...

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

Absolutely. But every 20s, or 15s, or even 10s, is much better than 1s, for instance. I'm not sure what the polling interval is in Android, but a regular GPS receiver updates the position every 1s.

[xteejx]

The thing with waze is it needs to be very accurate for the uploaded tracks to be of any use to editors. Not sure but it does indeed look like waze uses a higher rate than most other apps.

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

[satownchevy]

I have a s2 skyrocket and had the same issue with battery running out but I just recently upgraded to ICS and battery life has gotten WAY better. If you already haven't upgraded, do so. Dont wait on ATT to push it to you, install samsung kies on your pc and connect your phone, a few mouse clicks and you're done. I think it only took about 10-15 minutes total to do my upgrade.

[Timbones]

There are some tips on this in the Wiki:

> Battery Usage (new)