4.3 + Maps 7 Battery Drain?

[dmo580]

In order to replicate my 4.2.2 experience with Maps 6, which was overall pretty good for battery, I tried to setup my new 4.3 ROM to match my old settings:

Old settings:
- Location Access on with GPS
- Latitude OFF

You may ask why GPS, but not that many apps use GPS. I'm not on Maps or Ingress 2 hours at a time. I use those rarely on a typical day at work. Yelp and Facebook are only max for like a minute or two, so the GPS won't really hurt me.

New Settings:
- Location Access on with constant wifi scanning and GPS
- Google Settings Location Reporting: On
- Google Settings Location History: On
- Google+ Location Sharing OFF (to match Latitude)

I don't get why I'm getting 4-5% drain per hour. It's quite disturbing. Per this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2406517) it seems that Android Device Manager may be a partial culprit. It's disturbing that in order to remote locate/ring/erase my phone that it needs to constantly ping for my location. You'd think that ping when requested would be appropriate.

Second of all, regarding the new location settings, it seems in order to get Google Now I need Location Reporting in Google Settings to be ON. But if this is the main drain, then that's pretty disappointing too. 4-5% for Google Now? I can't imagine what my drain would be if Latitude were on...

Edit: I'd like to keep this discussion about 3G and not Wifi. Wifi is almost always great for most things and in general the battery life even with massive wakelocks via Wifi is typically pretty good. However, 3G is where bad wakelocks will show up as massive battery drain.

Edit 19-AUG-23 11:23 PM PDT: More details in Post #7 with example.

 

[Galaxo60]

In order to replicate my 4.2.2 experience with Maps 6, which was overall pretty good for battery, I tried to setup my new 4.3 ROM to match my old settings:

Old settings:
- Location Access on with GPS
- Latitude OFF

You may ask why GPS, but not that many apps use GPS. I'm not on Maps or Ingress 2 hours at a time. I use those rarely on a typical day at work. Yelp and Facebook are only max for like a minute or two, so the GPS won't really hurt me.

New Settings:
- Location Access on with constant wifi scanning and GPS
- Google Settings Location Reporting: On
- Google Settings Location History: On
- Google+ Location Sharing OFF (to match Latitude)

I don't get why I'm getting 4-5% drain per hour. It's quite disturbing. Per this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2406517) it seems that Android Device Manager may be a partial culprit. It's disturbing that in order to remote locate/ring/erase my phone that it needs to constantly ping for my location. You'd think that ping when requested would be appropriate.

Second of all, regarding the new location settings, it seems in order to get Google Now I need Location Reporting in Google Settings to be ON. But if this is the main drain, then that's pretty disappointing too. 4-5% for Google Now? I can't imagine what my drain would be if Latitude were on...

Have you seen my threat?.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2385843

I did many tests and also I think I found a solution to this and some other people reported to have a solution with the Android System/Android OS wakelock. No need to open another threat, you can ask whatever you want there.

 

[dmo580]

Have you see my threat?.

I did many tests and also I think I found a solution to this and some other people reported to have a solution with the Android System/Android OS wakelock. No need to open another threat, you can ask whatever you want there.

I did see your thread and I don't really agree with your solution. What we have is several variables:

- Settings > Location Access > Access my location
- Settings > Location Access > Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Location
- Google Settings: Location Reporting
- Google Settings: Location History
- Google+ Location Sharing

If you're saying that it's purely "Wi-fi & mobile network location," disabling that basically neuters ANY location reporting from your phone UNLESS the GPS locks. That means you throw out Maps, Yelp, Foursquare, weather widgets etc and require the GPS to fully lock until a location is even given. That's fine and all if you don't care about those apps/services.

However, my question to you then is what is the point of location reporting or even location access? Sure you can still get location based on GPS but what's the point? Almost every app out there just requests location based on a quick cell tower location triangulation or Wifi location. If you disable that, you might as well disable all your location services.

What was your conclusion with Location Reporting and Location History disabled?

 

[Galaxo60]

I did see your thread and I don't really agree with your solution. What we have is several variables:

- Settings > Location Access > Access my location
- Settings > Location Access > Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Location
- Google Settings: Location Reporting
- Google Settings: Location History
- Google+ Location Sharing

If you're saying that it's purely "Wi-fi & mobile network location," disabling that basically neuters ANY location reporting from your phone UNLESS the GPS locks. That means you throw out Maps, Yelp, Foursquare, weather widgets etc and require the GPS to fully lock until a location is even given. That's fine and all if you don't care about those apps/services.

However, my question to you then is what is the point of location reporting or even location access? Sure you can still get location based on GPS but what's the point? Almost every app out there just requests location based on a quick cell tower location triangulation or Wifi location. If you disable that, you might as well disable all your location services.

What was your conclusion with Location Reporting and Location History disabled?

I think you didn´t read the update part. There are all the tests after I wrote post. Basically, the latest update for Google Services Framework and Play Store seems to fix the issue with all the location options enabled.

Also I posted some screenshots to corroborate what I said.

 

[dmo580]

I think you didn´t read the update part. There are all the tests after I wrote post. Basically, the latest update for Google Services Framework and Play Store seems to fix the issue with all the location options enabled.

Also I posted some screenshots to corroborate what I said.

Hmm, well my complaints have been about my battery use yesterday and today. My Google Play services is up to date...

Also did you do your tests on 3G or Wifi? I notice the wakelocks are 10x as bad on 3G. Wifi battery life is almost always great.

 

[Galaxo60]

Hmm, well my complaints have been about my battery use yesterday and today. My Google Play services is up to date...

Also did you do your tests on 3G or Wifi? I notice the wakelocks are 10x as bad on 3G. Wifi battery life is almost always great.

I did the tests on normal usage, I think half of the time I was on 3G and the other half on WiFi.

 

[dmo580]

Specifically this is what I'm talking about.

2 hours of online time, but 38 minutes of non deep sleep.

Of course I immediately wanted to look for wakelocks. Other than NLP wakelocks I couldn't find anything else that would really add up to 38 minutes. The rest are negligible.

I used WLD to try to figure out which app it could be... Not very helpful.

What about the standard Android battery screen? Ok. Google Services or Android OS

This 11 minutes of wakelock is probably correlated directly to the network location protocol wakelock.

But what about this 17 minutes?

Before everyone jumps on me for the bad reception I have, these 2 hours were from when I woke up, showered, got ready, drove to work, and pulled into the parking garage. The garage has terrible reception and therefore 0-1 bars. I get a solid 9-10mbps HSPA+ connection at home, and this 2 hours was 100% on 3G.

Edit WTF. My GPS was invoked for 3 minutes? Notice the total SOT of 1 minute only, and I bet a good chunk of it was gathering screenshots. While the GPS could've caused drain, 3 minutes isn't enough to explain the 38 minute wakelock still.

 

[dmo580]

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/mobile/VoYaawQ88yI/YoPB46bOwGMJ

Looks like this is being discussed on Google forums as well. There seems to be some location services issue even with the newer Play Services.

 

[dmo580]

What I also noticed is that if you've already booted up and you disable the location services via Mobile Data/Wifi, then you end up getting 100% wakelocks. I can upload the screenshots after I get off work, but I tried several times resetting CPU Spy and BBS stats and it was 100% wake.

Once again in the water main example, if you turn off the water main while you shower, the water left in your pipes will continue to flow. It's not the same as turning off your shower which cuts off that water to you immediately. What probably happens is you're revoking location services permissions by unchecking the box, but apps like Google Now, Weather Widgets, etc. will continue trying to request for location. Since you've given the apps permission to use location services, it will try, but since there are no location services GPS, it will just continue to wakelock.

A reboot does solve it where I think the app will stop requesting for location services