Solved! Phone battery drains very quickly

[CarterUSM]

Hi

I own a Wileyfox Swift smartphone (Android OS). After a few issues which have now been resolved (primarily relating to the upgrade to the latest version of Android), the phone is now working without any problems, with the exception of battery usage.

I have found that even with the battery in power saving mode, it is drained within 2 days (and often less) of a full recharge. Having just checked the current battery status, it’s 59% charged but seemingly with only 3 hours’ usage left. This implies that for every hour the phone is on, the battery charge is reduced by 20%. Surely this is too high a rate – it implies that the memory will be drained after only 5 hours?

Some of the current settings are as follows:

Wifi on; Bluetooth on; Mobile data on; Mobile data not set; Location services on

Could this be a problem which is specific to my actual physical phone, or the brand? If not, are there any steps which I could take to reduce this drain on the battery (e.g. by removing any unnecessary apps, although as it is I don’t have that many installed)? For example, I understand that location services consume a considerable amount of power; is this correct?

Finally – is this rate of battery drainage normal, and only to be expected for most smartphones nowadays? If not, I may have to consider buying a less power-hungry model…..

Many thanks in anticipation of your help.

 

[webworkings]

Well one would need to know the exact device to get more info on specs, including battery life. Some phones have horrible battery life.

Also, leaving things on that will drain power will always cause the battery to drain faster. What you have on will drain it, more so depending on where the phone is in relation to the other device/connection. Also, every app on the phone that is on, even if you aren't using it at the time, will drain it more. The length of time the display is lit also drastically changes how fast a battery drains.

 

[CarterUSM]

Thank you for your reply to my query.

I’ve now changed the settings as follows: Bluetooth now off; have disabled Facebook, Skype, Trip Advisor, Yelp (all of which are relatively power-hungry); have adjusted Brightness to auto-adjust

Hopefully these amendments will have the desired effect.

The data usage report stats indicate that my issue is almost certainly with wifi app usage, rather than mobile app usage. For the period 9th October to 9th November inclusive, mobile usage was 8.16 MB, which was dwarfed by wifi usage of 181 MB.

Of the wifi usage, 110 MB was accounted for by Google Play, 53 MB by Chrome, 6 MB by Google Services, 3 MB by Android OS, 874 KB by Google Drive.

Regarding stopping the background apps – are there any which I should definitely not disable as they’re integral to the operation of the phone? (e.g. I understand it’s not a good idea to disable Google Play Services). Would it help further if I stopped some apps starting on bootup?

Once again, many thanks in anticipation of your help.

 

[webworkings]

I would stick with what you have done so far and see how that goes first. Yes there are apps you should not mess with. However, different phones have different apps. Anymore companies are great for adding apps to their devices that others don't, so there is no way for me to know what ones are and aren't on yours. That said, most apps that can cause problems if removed, usually can't be removed. Start small. See if the changes you have made make a difference. Also, I would really suggest looking up the specs for the device to make sure that it isn't one that has horrible battery life anyway. Some of them have horrible battery life. Say 3 or 5 hours talk time. Not good.