Sad battery life...

[Wpguy5498]

Well title says it all, I've had this Nokia Lumia 920 for about 5 months now and am really enjoying the OS, problem is that the battery literally drains within 5 hours. Doing simple things such as texting and turning on the phone for 5-15 causes it to get very warm at the top right corner of the phone, and drain the at a high discharge. I've disabled almost every feature, disabled all but a few background task, and even replaced the battery this month but still the problems persist. Can anyone share any helpful info as to how to fix it or help improve my battery life?

 

[palandri]

Bad signal area and your phone is always searching for a signal and draining the battery?

 

[abel920]

NFC should be off.
Glance should be kept to Peek.
Battery Power should be turned on.
Screen Brightness should be turned automatic.
Double tap to wake should be turned off.

Those are the few things I keep in mind to preserve my battery life.

 

[Laura Knotek]

NFC should be off.
Glance should be kept to Peek.
Battery Power should be turned on.
Screen Brightness should be turned automatic.
Double tap to wake should be turned off.

Those are the few things I keep in mind to preserve my battery life.

I have NFC off, since I have no use for it. However, I have all the other settings you mentioned enabled (double tap to wake, Glance) and I don't have battery issues.

 

[sequoia464]

problem is that the battery literally drains within 5 hours.

Has it been like this from the start?
I just sent my six week old 920 in for service, it was doing the same things as yours, would get VERY hot when charging wirelessly, and I was lucky to get 4-5 hours the last few days.
My battery life was acceptable (barely) for (about) the first four weeks, then the phone started getting hot during charge and my battery life seemed to get worse every day. The last day before I sent it in I had to recharge after 3 hours. I had it set up identically to a 520 that I also use, no battery problems with the 520.
Hoping it is just a battery, rather than a design fault with the 920.

 

[Wpguy5498]

Bad signal area and your phone is always searching for a signal and draining the battery?

I have it set to where it only uses 3G and I get 3 bars in my area, so I don't think that's the problem.

 

[Wpguy5498]

Has it been like this from the start?

No it worked perfectly fine the first month, I was getting up to 16 hours of battery life. I changed the battery myself 2 weeks ago thinking it was a faulty battery as I heard they sometimes have faulty batteries installed but still the problem persist.

 

[Adriaan NL]

NFC should be off.
Glance should be kept to Peek.
Battery Power should be turned on.
Screen Brightness should be turned automatic.
Double tap to wake should be turned off.

Those are the few things I keep in mind to preserve my battery life.

I understand you mentioned these - but it's just ridiculous that you need to turn off lots of features just to make it through the day. The Moto G can do everything (GPS, Bluetooth, lots of apps in the background) for almost three days on a single charge with moderate usage and without turning the battery saver on. This means there's something seriously wrong with WP (and/ or Nokia).

I've come to tolerate this because the 920 is very awesome, but the Moto G is way more functional and reliable for a day without a charger nearby. I really love WP and my 920, so I really hope the battery life issue is addressed soon, because it's ridiculous you need to turn almost all features off to make it through the day.

 

[lafn]

I would hard reset it and try it a few days before you start reinstalling all your apps 1 at a time to see if one is causing issues.

 

[David Hegedus]

my brother had his phone set up with a gmail account. He said he has to charge it midday and at the end of the day. I said no way and checked his settings. His gmail drained the phone's battery like hell! I helped him migrate to outlook and now everything is perfect. 1,5 half day with heavy usage.

 

[Adriaan NL]

my brother had his phone set up with a gmail account. He said he has to charge it midday and at the end of the day. I said no way and checked his settings. His gmail drained the phone's battery like hell! I helped him migrate to outlook and now everything is perfect. 1,5 half day with heavy usage.

Then you are doing something I cannot do... Yet, how do you define heavy usage?
My heavy usage pattern is: WhatsApp for like 4 hours, music for like 5-6 hours, surfing for an hour, and video for like 1-2 hours.

 

[David Hegedus]

Sorry I did not state that he has a LUMIA 520! I wanted to highlight only the gmail battery drain.

 

[Adriaan NL]

Sorry I did not state that he has a LUMIA 520! I wanted to highlight only the gmail battery drain.

Ah that explains it! But your tip is a good one - I've read that email apps, but also WiFi, when they have trouble connecting can drain the battery within a very short period of time.
So, Wpguy, how do you use your WiFi? I've turned the ''always notify me when there's a new WiFi connection"-option off, as this way, when your phone is not connected to a WiFI-source, it will continuously look for a connection - when there is none, it will waste a lot of power for it.

 

[palandri]

I have it set to where it only uses 3G and I get 3 bars in my area, so I don't think that's the problem.

So why did you change that setting? Doesn't Net10 have LTE through AT&T? Did you get the Black update?

 

[Wpguy5498]

So why did you change that setting? Doesn't Net10 have LTE through AT&T? Did you get the Black update?

There's no 4G LTE coverage in my area, and yeah I installed the black update. I read some articles that your phone constantly searches for a better signal(My case 4G) and this drains the battery fast but this only helped minor.

 

[Wpguy5498]

Do you think there will be fixes in the 8.1 update? Or some type of battery management tool to see what's using so much resources?

 

[alpha beta gaga]

can battery life really be 'sad'? a pet dying maybe. but 'battery life'? dont think so.

 

[Wpguy5498]

can battery life really be 'sad'? a pet dying maybe. but 'battery life'? dont think so.

When a battery that's supposed to last a day or two days with moderate usage only last 5 hours with little to no use, yeah that's pretty sad and depressing.

 

[sdreamer]

Turn off data your data for a while and see if that helps. If you notice a huge difference its because you have a really poor signal and whatever apps are running in the background are getting stuck and are constantly trying to get data but the signal is poor. Work around for me before my area got lte was put WiFi on all the time (have WiFi everywhere) and check off always restrict background data under cellular (if you have data sense it will be located there). This basically turns off data requests when you aren't on WiFi, essentially turning data off without actually having to turn it off. Once you enter WiFi your background data pulls will turn on again and all your live tiles will update. Works well if youre always around WiFi. I was easily getting 1-2 days of battery on moderate to heavy use. 5 hours seems more like your phone might need a warranty trip though.

 

[palandri]

Turn off data your data for a while and see if that helps. If you notice a huge difference its because you have a really poor signal and whatever apps are running in the background are getting stuck and are constantly trying to get data but the signal is poor. Work around for me before my area got lte was put WiFi on all the time (have WiFi everywhere) and check off always restrict background data under cellular (if you have data sense it will be located there). This basically turns off data requests when you aren't on WiFi, essentially turning data off without actually having to turn it off. Once you enter WiFi your background data pulls will turn on again and all your live tiles will update. Works well if youre always around WiFi. I was easily getting 1-2 days of battery on moderate to heavy use. 5 hours seems more like your phone might need a warranty trip though.

Ditto. I think it's signal causing his problem. He could even try putting his phone in airplane mode for a day and see how his battery life is.