How to calibrate your battery

[jigglynuts]

I have been seeing a pretty good amount of posts lately about how to properly calibrate your battery. This is a quick step by step guide on how to do so.

I will outline 2 ways to calibrate your battery.
The first way is using a free app from the android market (easiest IMO)
The second way is using CWM.

But first.... Some common questions.

Why would I need to calibrate my battery?

Anytime you flash a new rom it is recommended to calibrate your battery to optimize the battery life of your device.

You can calibrate your battery at anytime if you believe you should be getting better battery life.

How does it work?

When you calibrate your battery you are wiping your batterystats.bin. This allows for your operating system to create new battery stats that can drastically improve your battery life.

Using battery calibration app

First, install Battery Calibration by NéMa from the android market.

Once installed...

1. Charge your phone to 100%
2. Without unplugging your phone... open battery calibration
3. You will have to allow root permissions if first time using the app. Make sure the app says your phone is charged to 100% as well. Your voltage should be 4200mV or as close as possible.
4. Click on battery calibration in the middle of the screen.
5. Unplug your phone.

Now your battery stats are fully wiped. To fully create new clean stats follow the next steps.

6. Without charging your phone at all... let it die completely until it shuts off.
7. Plug your phone in and without a break let it charge to 100%
8. Unplug your phone
9. Let your phone die completely until it shuts off.
10. Fully charge your phone to 100% battery again.
11. Unplug your phone.
12. Let your phone die completely until it shuts off (last time)
13. Charge your phone back to 100% again.

CONGRATS! Your battery is fully calibrated!!

Note: it is recommended to do 4 full cycles to completely calibrate your battery but you should notice a difference after the first cycle.

USING CWM

1. Charge your phone to 100% full.
2. Reboot to CWM (recovery)
3. Scroll down using volume keys and choose advanced
4. Choose wipe battery stats
5. Reboot phone.

Now your battery stats are wiped. To fully create new clean battery stats follow steps 6 through 13 above.


As stated this is just a quick guide for reference for anyone having questions regarding calibrating your battery. If I have left anything out feel free to mention and I will add it in asap.



If this post helped you please hit the thanks button

 

[htaak]

These threads are useful too.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1334950&page=2

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16771651&postcount=41

The second is from the Tab forum, but apparently our phones have the same MAX17042 fuel gauge chip which reads open circuit voltage to provide battery stats. As Vlad_z states, deleting the log file does not actually calibrate the battery, this is done automatically with the MAX17042 chip. The 2nd link does give instructions on how to reset / calibrate this chip without a jig.

 

[jigglynuts]

I have definitely noticed a difference after using the battery calibration app as well as clearing battery stats through CWM.

I did try vlad_z calibration as well. I am still in the process of letting my battery die currently for a comparison. However it has been about 26 hours and I still have 37% battery left with moderate use.

I will be updating the OP to contain Vlad_z procedure as well

 

[hechoen]

Nice post. I always just calibrate through cwm when I hit full charge. I never do three complete drains and recharges though. Usually one complete drain one complete charge and then use my phone as normal. Have you really noticed a difference doing four full cycles?

also it step 6. I've found if you power the phone back on after it dies it will truly kill the battery.

Still cool to get over 36 hours of use on this phone. Almost as good as my old dumb phone(which I sorely miss).

 

[jon.01]

I have 5 batteries for this phone. 2 are 1500mAh and 3 are 1800mAh.

I assume I would have to recalibrate for each battery?

 

[Bassmanjames]

I have 5 batteries for this phone. 2 are 1500mAh and 3 are 1800mAh.

I assume I would have to recalibrate for each battery?

What do you need all that power for? Do you have five devices? I Would think you would calibrate based on which mah you are using since you are only deleting a file on your phone. I.e once for 1500 and only use those batteries.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

 

[Vlad_z]

I have 5 batteries for this phone. 2 are 1500mAh and 3 are 1800mAh.

I assume I would have to recalibrate for each battery?

Internal memory of the fuel gauge chip has room for two battery profiles, it cannot hold 5... so, if you are using all 5 then state of charge (soc) reported back to OS level would be pretty much inaccurate.

You can delete batterystats.bin all day long with cwm or apps - this is just as usefull as dancing with rainstick around your phone.

If you absolutely need multiple batteries then stick with same nominal 1500 or 1800. That way fg chip would report average value, granted your batteries should be the same age and health.

 

[xXxShAmRoCkxXx]

Posts like these are truly helpful, This should be sticked imho. I'm a complete noob to flashing, just performed my first two flashes last night, and it's a job trying to scour through these forums and read through all the posts trying to find the information you are looking for. I did it, and I'm very happy with the results. Damned if I was going to ask a question on these forums. you guys got me scared. hehe.

Anyway thanks, as this was the next piece of info I was hunting for!

 

[adlene72]

Hello,

I have three batteries : 2x Original 1560 mAH and 1x 2430 mAH

How to calibrate them with my HTC Sensation ?

 

[Juls317]

Hello,

I have three batteries : 2x Original 1560 mAH and 1x 2430 mAH

How to calibrate them with my HTC Sensation ?

If you are rooted, you can use the app from the market

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

 

[darkace007]

In charging after fully discharging the phone, do i charge it while it is off or can i charge it while it's on?

 

[jeffsf]

Battery calibration by deleting the file is now known to be complete snake oil. Confirmed in the code as well. Deep discharge cycles, along with heat, are enemies of Li ion batteries. While it seemed a very good idea at the time, following this procedure is now known to be only detrimental to battery life, even if it makes people feel good.

Posted from my SGS4G, thanks to Team Acid development

 

[jigglynuts]

Jeff is correct. Since these instructions the myth about battery calibration has been debunked

Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app

 

[darkace007]

Battery calibration by deleting the file is now known to be complete snake oil. Confirmed in the code as well. Deep discharge cycles, along with heat, are enemies of Li ion batteries. While it seemed a very good idea at the time, following this procedure is now known to be only detrimental to battery life, even if it makes people feel good.

Posted from my SGS4G, thanks to Team Acid development

So whats the proper charging way now? Thanks for the info though!

Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

 

[eollie]

So whats the proper charging way now? Thanks for the info though!

Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

Keep the phone between 20-85% otherwise heat will destroy the battery. Charge the phone as often as you can and avoid extra heat from charging.

 

[eiyen11]

help..

pls help me.after doing battery calibaration?my battery % was 0 only.how am i gonna fix that?even though i charge so many times.it get 0 % only.pls help me fix that problem.tnx

 

[jeffsf]

Necro-rez of a tread that has already stated "don't do this" ain't gonna fix it for you. Why don't you post what your hardware, firmware, and software are in another thread, along with very clearly detailed description of what you did and what happened (with what you expected to happen, if different).

Without that, "Not a bug" "Move along, nothing to see here."

 

[adhawk]

after pressing "calibrate" from app and unplug phone from charger, do i have to let the phone discharged without it being disturbed from any battery usage activities e.g. messaging, play games, browsing internet etc? or I can use the phone while it discharges? i hope to not defeat the purpose of calibrating the battery.

 

[jeffsf]

i hope to not defeat the purpose of calibrating the battery.

There is no purpose for this kind of "battery calibration" process. It has been thoroughly debunked. It is generally accepted, however, that deep cycling of the batteries shortens their lifespan.

 

[mr.darkside]

do i need to charge it off, after draining the battery ?