# Better battery life on 4G than wifi?



## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

long time lurker, first time posting. i'll try to keep this short and to the point 

i've tried a variety of roms and kernels and it has recently come to my attention that i am getting bettery battery life while "out and about" on 4g/3g than i do while on my home wifi (i work from home).

does anyone know what settings i can check on my router or on the phone to see what may be causing this issue? i have a dlink dgl-4500 router and i set static ip for the phone. if i have wifi on the phone, i set the 'keep wifi on during sleep' to 'always'. i see a lot of people in the rom/kernel threads saying they're able to get 1-2 days on a charge using wifi. the best i can get on wifi is generally 12-14 hours, while the other day i kept wifi off and was able to get 24 hours battery life all on 4g.

current phone setup: axiom crossbreed b1 and i've been changing kernels fairly frequently. using cpuspy, betterbatterystats and badass battery monitor i can verify the phone does not sleep correctly while on wifi. if i leave the phone on wifi overnight from 100% i will be at 60% in the morning after ~8 hours, and usually 3 of those hours are "awake" due to wlan wakelocks, etc.

sorry, that didn't end up being that short. hopefully it's to the point though


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## partychick64 (Nov 5, 2011)

How frequently have you been changing kernel? Are you letting it sink in? You could possibly undervolt that makes your battery last longer sometimes

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

lately it's been every other day or so. i usually like to let it settle for a day before making any decisions. undervolting can be quite unstable on my phone, so i generally don't touch it.

the main culprit is the wakelocks from wlan. not sure what's causing it (router settings or phone settings).


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## holysnikey (Jan 8, 2012)

Kind of hard to say anything about this when you aren't using one or two particular kernels. This is a kernel issue though. Also do you use hotplug while screen off? I recommend trying Imoseyn's lean kernel and use interactiveX or hotplugX see how that goes.


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

i would think it's a kernel issue as well, maybe something in the wifi driver, but i've tried various versions of leankernel (including experimentals and notrim) with interactivex. hotplugx tended to cause SOD for me. i've also used several of franco's kernels with hotplug mod enabled. over the weekend i used trinity.

all of them have the same battery drain while on wifi. i'll charge to 100%, unplug and leave it overnight and i wake up with 50-60% battery left. 40%+ battery drain while not doing anything seems very excessive. if i turn wifi off all together and just have 4g on all night, i wake up having lost about 10% battery, with very little time spent awake.


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## partychick64 (Nov 5, 2011)

Have you tried different ROMs? That could be it as well having the right combination.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## holysnikey (Jan 8, 2012)

What's your wifi signal like? Have you tried toggling wifi on then off whenever you boot? Have you tried having your wifi off when you sleep?


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

partychick64 said:


> What's your wifi signal like? Have you tried toggling wifi on then off whenever you boot? Have you tried having your wifi off when you sleep?


signal varies depending on where i am in my house. when in my office, it fluctuates between 1-3 bars. when in my living room (where the router is) i get 4 bars, and in my bedroom i get 3-4 bars. i've toggled wifi on then off, doesn't seem to make a difference that i can see.

i suppose i could set the wifi on sleep policy to never, but that's really only a bandaid fix. everything i read says that wifi uses *less* power than the 4g radios, so in theory keeping wifi on at all times should give me much better battery life, but whatever is causing the wifi wakelocks kills the battery.

side note on syncing and apps: when i recently changed to axiom crossbreed, i purposefully kept my apps to bare minimums to make sure it wasn't a rogue app causing the issue. i can confirm that i see the same behavior no matter how many apps i have installed.
i also have most of my google stuff syncing, and an exchange account for work. even if i turn sync completely off, i get the same drain overnight on wifi. i even went so far as to delete my exchange account for a few hours to see if it made a difference. it did not, same battery drain while on wifi.

there has *got* to be a random setting on my router that's causing this, or the wifi drivers on the phone just really suck. does anyone know if there is a specific wifi frequency i should be using? or any other settings i can check on the router side?

i have an unlimited data plan, so i'm not *hugely* concerned about my data usage, but i would rather use my wifi than 4g, even if it's the same speed


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## nadebac (Dec 23, 2011)

Strange. I typically have MUCH better battery life on Wifi. I have always been on axi0m or AOKP while typically using Franco, lean kernel or Trinity. Cell signal at my house isn't very good, but it will drain less that 10% overnight with wifi active. I will test it again tonight out of curiosity.


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## holysnikey (Jan 8, 2012)

What's your router set up? Is actually connected because if you have a password sometimes the phone can be picky and won't connect causing grey bars in the wifi signal area so its not actually connected.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

nadebac said:


> What's your router set up? Is actually connected because if you have a password sometimes the phone can be picky and won't connect causing grey bars in the wifi signal area so its not actually connected.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


what specifically are you looking for in the router setup? i have 2.4GHz as the band, mixed 802.11n, g and b mode. using wpa2 encryption. sometimes when i turn wifi on (on the phone) it will take a moment to connect and obtain the ip, but once it's connected it stays that way, no grey bars.

i've thought about using the 5GHz band, but i'm not entirely sure the rest of my wifi devices will be able to use it :-/


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## nadebac (Dec 23, 2011)

Same as demon_knight69


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## holysnikey (Jan 8, 2012)

Hmm did this problem happen with stock? I would back all your stuff up and unroot and relock you phone. Then see if that does anything starting fresh? Sometimes constantly switching kernels can have weird effects so starting fresh resets everything

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

holysnikey said:


> Hmm did this problem happen with stock? I would back all your stuff up and unroot and relock you phone. Then see if that does anything starting fresh? Sometimes constantly switching kernels can have weird effects so starting fresh resets everything
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


luckily, i kept a screen shot of my battery after leaving it to sit overnight back when i first got the phone. drain and awake time look *similar*, though not as bad. i'd attribute that more to the battery being brand new than anything else though.

i suppose i could revert completely back to stock, but i'd rather do that as a last resort. i'm on-call this week and next, so i won't be doing much flashing in the meantime


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## rman18 (Jan 13, 2012)

Use a wifi analyzer app to sniff the channels in your area to make sure the channel you are using aren't to congested.


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

Screen caps of awake time with wifi on. This was a 30-40 minute test.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

15 min test with only 4g on for comparison.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

rman18 said:


> Use a wifi analyzer app to sniff the channels in your area to make sure the channel you are using aren't to congested.


Good advice. I checked and it looks like I'm the only one on the channel I'm using :-/

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

Really odd. Did you try putting the phone in to air plane mode and toggle wifi on. This way you know the radios are off? See if you get the same results.

Your 4g signal is so strong compared to your wifi you may just be better of not using wifi in the house.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

Also it seems like the 4.0.4 email exchange is causing problems for a lot of people. I only use Gmail, so I have exchange disabled. Maybe this is your problem. When its connected to wifi, maybe it is set to run more frequent as to not miss anything.

There's an easy fix, by just installing the 4.0.3 exchange apk

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

Art Vandelay said:


> Really odd. Did you try putting the phone in to air plane mode and toggle wifi on. This way you know the radios are off? See if you get the same results.
> 
> Your 4g signal is so strong compared to your wifi you may just be better of not using wifi in the house.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


yea 4g is pretty strong, which is funny because i live in the boonies. i'll try toggling airplane mode + wifi to see what that does. will report back in a bit.

just so i understand how things should work...when you toggle wifi on, it should connect to the network and turn off cellular data right? or is toggling wifi on keeping both 4g+wifi on at the same time, killing battery?


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

Art Vandelay said:


> Also it seems like the 4.0.4 email exchange is causing problems for a lot of people. I only use Gmail, so I have exchange disabled. Maybe this is your problem. When its connected to wifi, maybe it is set to run more frequent as to not miss anything.
> 
> There's an easy fix, by just installing the 4.0.3 exchange apk
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


actually, i originally thought my battery drain issues were due to exchange. i have everything set to "push", so it *shouldn't* be checking any more frequently while on wifi.


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

demon_knight69 said:


> yea 4g is pretty strong, which is funny because i live in the boonies. i'll try toggling airplane mode + wifi to see what that does. will report back in a bit.
> 
> just so i understand how things should work...when you toggle wifi on, it should connect to the network and turn off cellular data right? or is toggling wifi on keeping both 4g+wifi on at the same time, killing battery?


Yeah I am not really sure how it works. I know wifi overrides 3g/4g when it comes to data, but I am pretty sure the radios are still on. Thus I said try airplane mode this way you know the radios are not causing any conflict with wifi.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

demon_knight69 said:


> actually, i originally thought my battery drain issues were due to exchange. i have everything set to "push", so it *shouldn't* be checking any more frequently while on wifi.


It may still be worth installing the older e change apk. Its an easy thing to do and you pretty much know right away if your issue is fixed.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

~20 minute test, airplane mode on, wifi on. Still spending a good amount of time awake









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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

Art Vandelay said:


> It may still be worth installing the older e change apk. Its an easy thing to do and you pretty much know right away if your issue is fixed.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


I've had the issue on both 4.0.4 and 4.0.3 roms, so I don't think its the root cause.

When I flashed axiom last week, I didn't even setup the exchange account, just to make sure it wasn't causing drain. Same issues unfortunately.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## nadebac (Dec 23, 2011)

nadebac said:


> Strange. I typically have MUCH better battery life on Wifi. I have always been on axi0m or AOKP while typically using Franco, lean kernel or Trinity. Cell signal at my house isn't very good, but it will drain less that 10% overnight with wifi active. I will test it again tonight out of curiosity.


Lost 6% overnight (8 hours) on 1 bar of wifi using aokp axi0m b1 w/ Trinity flat line any kernel.


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## strikeir13 (Jun 7, 2011)

Just curious, is your wifi at home faster than your 4g? My apartment wifi isn't, and I would use 4g all the time if it wasn't such a ridiculous battery hog at the signal level I get in my apartment.

Do you have your router set to use a static IP? From what I've seen/experienced, my phone uses far more battery when the connected router is NOT using a static IP, like my university's network. Then wifi drain is quite high. If you're not doing that, I'd recommend trying it.

On the subject of recommendations, I'd add that Imoseyon's LeanKernel has been by far the best for me on battery. Check it out.


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## demon_knight69 (Jul 3, 2011)

nadebac said:


> Just curious, is your wifi at home faster than your 4g? My apartment wifi isn't, and I would use 4g all the time if it wasn't such a ridiculous battery hog at the signal level I get in my apartment.
> 
> Do you have your router set to use a static IP? From what I've seen/experienced, my phone uses far more battery when the connected router is NOT using a static IP, like my university's network. Then wifi drain is quite high. If you're not doing that, I'd recommend trying it.
> 
> On the subject of recommendations, I'd add that Imoseyon's LeanKernel has been by far the best for me on battery. Check it out.


right now they're pulling about the same speeds (according to speedtest). usually my wifi is a little more reliable, as far as speed goes. and while the phone is on and actively being used, i think wifi uses less power than 4g, but i don't have any data to back that up.

i've been using static ip for a while, yes.

prior to running axiom crossbreed, i was running aokp exclusively and about 90% of the time i was using leankernel. definitely a good kernel, and i've been following imoseyon's work since the droid x days . the only reason i've tried different kernels lately is to see which one my phone likes best.


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

Did you ever figure this out? I am having the same goddamn issue on wifi and it is driving me NUTS. It seems to have happened around the 4.2 update. I am using a DLINK DIR-655 router, 2.4ghz, 802.11n router.


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