This could be an issue with all apps where the screen is always on, but I can have my phone plugged into the charger and still drain the battery all the way to zero when Waze is running. I’ve tried just about everything I can try to correct this. When driving at night, the phone recharges. During the day, it discharges. Is there something that can be done in the software to reduce the battery drain?
There are other threads about this same problem.
Waze uses the display (more in daytime mode than nightime mode), the GPS, the data connection, and all are always active. The simple solution is that you need to make sure you have a car charger with the capacity to recharge while running Waze - I believe that it’s a 1 amp charger at the minimum…
Thank you Andy. I’ll check into my charger’s specs. I use a button USB plug that plugs into the cigarette lighter.
If you phone thinks it’s plugged into USB, then it will only take 0.5 amps. If it thinks it’s plugged into an AC wall socket, then it can take more. Some specialised in-car chargers will emulate AC rather than USB.
More tips on battery use and charging can be found in the Wiki: http://bit.ly/WazeBattery
I think that saying that we need a bigger charger is not making any sense. The problem of a draining battery during the use of Waze is a Waze problem.
It doesn’t occur with other navigation software that I use (Sygic) with the same phone (Samsung Galaxy S2) and charger. It’s even the opposite, during the use of Sygic my phone is charging instead of discharging.
I think Waze uses full brightness of the screen while Sygic adjust brightness according to how much light there is in the environment.
My 2 cents…
It actually does make sense because Waze is using more resources than sygic, it’s not only pulling down map tiles like Sygic and other nav apps but also user reported data, traffic flow data, and it is constantly transmitting data, not a lot but it still causes greater power use than a regular nav app.
Yes the screen on Waze is always at full brightness which could be improved, but overall Waze will use more power than a normal nav app because it does more. A larger charger is a simple and rather inexpensive user level fix.
I bought
GTMax 2-Port USB Car Charger Vehicle Power Adapter with Extra Socket for iPhone, iPod,…
Sold by: S&F Corporation
$2.00 each
on amazon.
and it works fine. I actually bought 2 of them, one for my wife’s car and one for mine.
They CHARGE her Iphone4 and my iphone3 up to 100%, while running WAZE.
It only takes a few minutes of driving to ‘top off the phone battery’.
during a 35 minute drive, battery drained 2% and only ~1500kB data was used. Like you said, not a lot but IMHO not a reason to drain the battery.
1.5 megabytes is a significant amount of data to transmit when you consider you are hopping towers requiring repeated tower negotiations at every hop, as well as periodic “I’m still here” signals between the phone and the tower inbetween Waze’s bits of data. It’s not just one thing. It’s the fact that Waze does far more than any other Nav app out there, It’s downloading map tiles, reading GPS data, pulling the relevant routing instructions from the servers and displaying it all on the screen as well as giving turn by turn instructions. But it’s also reporting your position, your speed, your direction of travel, any user reports you make, and pulling down user generated traffic data and a random subset of 20 users to plot on the map around you. Many users also use bluetooth headsets or in vehicle connections which adds another power drain.
It’s doing quite a bit. It could let the screen be dimmer but that’s about it. Oh and you can turn down the turn by turn nav volume, unless you want to actually hear it over the radio, A/C and road noises. Get the more powerful charger and be happy there is an easy fix. Also many such chargers now have a USB port on them so you can power or at least charge other devices as well. Mine can keep Waze charged and charge the external bluetooth GPS antenna I use as well.
I recently read up on this issue elsewhere, and basically it boiled down to all of the suggestions already listed, plus a few others*:
1*. Turn off the screen when possible. There is no need to have the screen on when you’re driving familiar, unclogged roads. You’ll still get warnings (police, etc) posted by other Wazers, and you’ll be less distracted visually, too. This one step was all I needed in order to arrive at my destination two hours later with a fully loaded battery.
2. Use a better car charger. I’m still using an inferior (.5 amp) one, but I’ll probably get a 1-amp charger soon, just to be safe. It’s really frustrating arriving somewhere with only 2/3 of a full battery charge even tho the phone was plugged in.
3. Change to a permanent night-time display.
4*. Keep your phone out of the sunlight; basically, do your best to keep it cool.
5*. Minimize your use of other battery-sucking apps. Some people run multiple power-hungry apps at once. If you can turn any of those off, you’ll use up less power. That kind of goes without saying. It doesn’t help me – I need to run what’s already running – but I guess it could help in a pinch.
I use a Mophie Juice-pack Plus with my iPhone 4s. It is a battery back/case that is always on my phone. It works well and will recharge my phone battery while Waze is running. This is a great alternative to using a car charger.
My Mophie: http://www.mophie.com/mophie-juice-pack-plus-iPhone-4-4S-battery-case-p/1160_jpp-ip4-blk.htm