# Phone Idle Process Draining Battery Overnite



## tbcpn (Jun 30, 2011)

Prior to a couple weeks ago, I could unplug my rooted VZW G-Nex at 9:00p, and at 5:30a the following morning, the battery would be at 93%--about 1% / hour drain. WiFi on, receiving usual emails, SMS, etc. No sync of FB, or other social sites. And, I live in a 3G-only area, but very strong signal (4G is just over the crest of the hill).

Then, for no reason I can determine, beginning a couple weeks ago, suddenly in the same eight to nine hours, it is down to 72%, or about 3% / hour drain. The "Phone Idle" process is now by far the biggest user of  battery overnite--almost 40%, compared to Android System, Android OS, Cell Standby, WiFi, which range from 20% down to 5%. What's strange, is that prior to a couple weeks ago, Android OS was the big overnite user of battery at 20%-ish, and Phone Idle was waaay down the list.

The shown usage of everything except Phone Idle Process is the same as a few weeks ago--no change.

I've wiped and done complete fresh installs of various AOKP (both 4.0.3 and 4.0.4), BAMF 1.2, "stock" 4.0.4 ROMSs, all with no TiBu restore of anything, tried various kernels, running Autorun Manager, Better Battery Stats, and CPU Spy, but I'm not able to determine what's causing this. CPU Spy shows typically 96-97% deep sleep overnite.

I've Google-ed the eff out of this, and just cannot find anything. Any insights from the good folk at RootzWiki would be most appreciated.


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## hotshotz (Feb 20, 2012)

Check for any differences in new apps u downloaded?

If worse comes to worse do a clean flash of a rom don't install anything and leave it idle overnight to see if u still get battery drain so you can narrow down what's causing the problem.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## dickenam (Jun 14, 2011)

tbcpn said:


> Prior to a couple weeks ago, I could unplug my rooted VZW G-Nex at 9:00p, and at 5:30a the following morning, the battery would be at 93%--about 1% / hour drain. WiFi on, receiving usual emails, SMS, etc. No sync of FB, or other social sites. And, I live in a 3G-only area, but very strong signal (4G is just over the crest of the hill).
> 
> Then, for no reason I can determine, beginning a couple weeks ago, suddenly in the same eight to nine hours, it is down to 72%, or about 3% / hour drain. The "Phone Idle" process is now by far the biggest user of battery overnite--almost 40%, compared to Android System, Android OS, Cell Standby, WiFi, which range from 20% down to 5%. What's strange, is that prior to a couple weeks ago, Android OS was the big overnite user of battery at 20%-ish, and Phone Idle was waaay down the list.
> 
> ...


Seems similar to the issues I am having....


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## tbcpn (Jun 30, 2011)

dickenam said:


> Seems similar to the issues I am having....


Yup, sounds similar. This was just sooo strange--sort of kinda one day Phone Idle process took over. Like you, I've swapped batteries, I have tried restoring older versions of G-Talk, Maps, Gmail, etc., from TiBu, but nothing makes any difference. I'm beginning to wonder if it's not a hardware issue, altho my particular GNex works great and always has. This appears to be, in my case at least, completely ROM / kernel independent. Something else going on.


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

I'm having this problem too. The only new variable i have introduced is a new 802.11n router.... was using standard verizon fios before but the signal in my room was terrible. My phone seems to drain 3-4% / hour on wifi/3g/4g whatever. I used to get near 4 hours on screen time over a 24 hour charge, and now this. Im a crackflasher too =x have i flashed my phone dumb?


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## garyd9 (Apr 9, 2012)

anotherfiz said:


> I'm having this problem too. The only new variable i have introduced is a new 802.11n router....


That might not be so strange. If the new router is pushing all kinds of traffic (such as ARP packets) that the old one would block, it might be keeping your phone awake.


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

Any way i can turn these off? I may have isolated the problem to a rogue app, but we will see...


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## BarberAE (Feb 23, 2012)

Have you installed Bettery Battery Stats and check if you have media scanner running constantly? May have a corrupt media file.


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

Better battery / bad ass battery show nothing out of the ordinary


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## garyd9 (Apr 9, 2012)

Check the kernel wakelocks in BetterBattery (as well as partial wakelocks.) What are the top 3 (along with times) for each? Using CPUSpy, what percentage of time is your phone in "deep sleep"?

Here's the procedure I like to use for checking things out:

Fully charge the phone and disable any "known" battery drainers (such as anything with the word "face" in it, skype, any non-google IM or social networking apps)

Make sure no apps are running that don't start with the phone (so reboot the device while it's still plugged in, and leave it for another 20 minutes to top off the battery.)

unplug the power, go into CPUSpy and reset the stats, exit CPUspy, turn off the display, and leave the phone alone overnight. Don't mess with it, don't start anything on it. Don't even look at it funny.

In the morning, turn on the display and take note of the battery indicator. Go into CPUspy and see exactly how long it has been since you left it idle, and what percentage of time it was in deep sleep.

Deep sleep should be 90% or higher assuming you didn't have a flood of email. Lower than 90% and you should start looking in betterbatterystats to try and figure out what was keeping your phone awake. If you don't have any push email or frequent pull email accounts, you should see quite a bit higher than 90% deep sleep.

If the phone was in deep sleep for > 90% and you still are seeing a high battery drain (>=3%/hr over a span of more than 5 hours), you might be in a weak signal area and the phone is chewing up power trying to keep connected to the phone towers. (It does this even if data is completely disabled... otherwise you couldn't get an incoming phone call!) If this is your problem, there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it.. try again with your phone left someplace with a better signal.

Another possible cause of high power drain while the phone is in deep sleep is a wifi network with packets that are making your phone's wifi chip work. I don't know what those are, but if your wifi is turned on, it has to use power. Part of that power is sorting through all the packets on your network trying to determine what information is useless and what information might be useful (which would result in the phone coming out of deep sleep in order to process it.) If the latter, it's also possible you'll see wlan related wakelocks near the top of the list in betterbatterystats "kernel wakelocks." If so, try the same test again, but with the wifi radio turned off.

(I know it's counter-intuitive that you might drain battery faster with data over wifi as opposed to data over 4g, but it IS possible - and there are even certain apps that will use more data (causing higher drain) than on 3g/4g.)

Once you narrow things down some more, it because easier (and more annoying) to track it down further. The above are the "easy" steps. 

Take care and good luck
Gary


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## WhataSpaz (Feb 20, 2012)

garyd9 said:


> Another possible cause of high power drain while the phone is in deep sleep is a wifi network with packets that are making your phone's wifi chip work. I don't know what those are, but if your wifi is turned on, it has to use power. Part of that power is sorting through all the packets on your network trying to determine what information is useless and what information might be useful (which would result in the phone coming out of deep sleep in order to process it.) If the latter, it's also possible you'll see wlan related wakelocks near the top of the list in betterbatterystats "kernel wakelocks." If so, try the same test again, but with the wifi radio turned off.


Right here. I get better battery at night without wifi on.


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## Axium (Jan 21, 2012)

That's odd. I get exceptional idle time at night with wifi on. Screen on time does a number if i'm on 3g though.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

It occurred to me that I've not truly done a "fresh" reload test. I always restore my apps from play market and titanium backup restore the few i require the data from.

I'm currently running a true fresh install drain-testy-thingy.

I should have been clearer earlier - I am using BetterBatteryStats/Badass battery. My deep sleep is 90+%, and my phone is not waking up. Nothing is being shown as using my phone excessively or keeping it awake. One time I did see an "AudioOut_1" on better battery stats.... other than that I am simply losing massive amounts of battery per hour. I thought, for a while, that my external battery charger may have been damaging my batteries (i cycle between two batteries on a daily basis)

I will have to experiment with wifi


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## hyatari (Jun 24, 2011)

anotherfiz said:


> It occurred to me that I've not truly done a "fresh" reload test. I always restore my apps from play market and titanium backup restore the few i require the data from.
> 
> I'm currently running a true fresh install drain-testy-thingy.
> 
> ...


I've been dealing with pretty much the same issues here for like 2 months. I've tried every radio available to date. Factory resets and flashing stock images but to no avail. I used to get awesome idle time but its been horrible for awhile now. Any chance you guys had any water damage to your phones before this started? I ask because it seems like this started happening to mine around the time I got mine wet. I dried it out for a day and threw away the battery that got wet and everything works fine on the phone except the idle drain. I've even had my sim card replaced. I too cycle a standard and extended battery and am thinking the external charger is damaging the batteries somehow so I got a new one on the way. If that doesn't work I guess I just gotta live with it.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

If you think it's your new router, ditch that crap stock firmware on it and flash either ddwrt, tomato or openwrt and configure it right. If you happened to get a router without support for any of them, return it, because it's probably not a very good router, lol. In the world of routers, the firmware that runs on it matters way more than the hardware or the brand name. Six or seven year old linksys wrt54g routers with something like those firmwares can run circles around many of the new routers with factory firmware on them still. Companies just cripple the heck out of routers on purpose even more than they do with phones.

I only lose 3-4% max overnight on wifi, just for comparison.


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## garyd9 (Apr 9, 2012)

yarly said:


> If you think it's your new router, ditch that crap stock firmware on it and flash either ddwrt, tomato or openwrt and configure it right. If you happened to get a router without support for any of them, return it, because it's probably not a very good router, lol.


That's a pretty short sighted statement. Most routers won't block internal (LAN) traffic, and if there's a device on the internal LAN causing packets which are causing problems (which is much more likely than those packets coming in from the outside), changing the firmware isn't going to help much. There are cases (AT&T fiber modem/routers in particular) where the router itself is responsible for the problem - but the router can't be switched for another brand in those cases.

Rather than "ditch that crap stock firmware" - it'd be better to track down the actual problem and deal with it... instead of trying to mask it.

If you are of the mindset that you prefer to stick your head in the sand and mask problems instead of resolve them, I'd suggest you go out and buy an Apple product.

Take care
Gary


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

garyd9 said:


> That's a pretty short sighted statement. Most routers won't block internal (LAN) traffic, and if there's a device on the internal LAN causing packets which are causing problems (which is much more likely than those packets coming in from the outside), changing the firmware isn't going to help much.


Sure you can.
http://www.dd-wrt.co...ptables_command

and

http://www.dd-wrt.co...hp/VLAN_Support

ddwrt also supports ebtables if you need additional filtering.

There's also wireshark for android to track down those packets.

Go find me an Apple router with iptables and a command line as well as vlan support.


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

i'm aware of the advantages with DDWRT, and might investigate it with my router.

I just didnt think that switching to a newer router with a better signal in my room would cause more battery drain then when compared to an older router further away.


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## anotherfiz (Sep 23, 2011)

update: 7hr40min idle time 4% drain. seems like fresh wipe did it


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## garyd9 (Apr 9, 2012)

yarly said:


> Sure you can.
> http://www.dd-wrt.co...ptables_command
> 
> and
> ...


iptables won't magically pull arp and random garbage packets out of the airwaves once a device puts them there... it might block them from getting through the interface within the router but can't do a damn thing about what's already there. A vlan won't help for arp broadcasts over the air (but can be used to isolate the wired/wireless.) A vlan might help with some things, but you'd actually be better off with a seperate LAN over wifi on a different channel. Nearly ever modern router supports both "guest" networks and VLAN's. (I'd avoid VLAN's, however.)

(I wasn't suggesting an apple router, though I do have one used as an extender and it supports both guest networks and vlans. My apple reference was a sarcastic remark pushing people to try and SOLVE problems instead of just mask them.)

Again, your best course of action is to actually investigate the issue and try to solve it. That's what wireshark is for, but you'll have to be patient for that one. It can spit out a LOT of data and sifting through it can be quite a bit of work. I haven't actually used it seriously myself, so I really can't comment on just how much work it would be.

Take care
Gary


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