I have been using two HTC 8X HSPA+ phones since November 2012.
Here are tricks and tips to improve battery life.
Note: If you have installed the Portico update along with the firmware update, your battery life is generally speaking at least doubled.
Following problems are solved with Portico: High standby drain in Flight mode, is reduced to 1% for 6 hours. It also seems to be the
case that Email will no longer try to sync in WLAN when it switches off in lock-screen. You can Enable WLAN on in lock-screen.
GPS power drain has been reduced significantly, you may leave it on. Steps 23 and 24 can be skipped if you have the update on a new phone
that came with Portico like ie. the HTC 8S.
*** First you need the following aps. ***
a) 'Battery Status' from "Tomaz Wisniewski", it seems to have the lowest battery drain of all battery apps.
b) ConnectivityShortcuts from "OU Dev." (FREE) (Setup to show 5 little tiles on start screen, WLAN, Bluetooth, Mobile Network, Location, Flight Mode) *(Thx to HG for finding this one, cause it is very good!)
c) Understand how to end "formerly opened apps". (Like this, keep back pushed, go into app, then use back until it exits that app, then that app is closed, repeat with all apps.)
c2) Skype: You may wish to close it that way... Note that in the Skype app, you click on your photo on the top right, there you can change your online status. Not sure if this also affects the app running in the background... so... take note until we get out of Beta Skype.
>1. LCD brightness, if you don't live in California and it is currently winter, you might want to set it to "Medium" and leave it there. Maximum brightness is a energy hog and uses a lot of power. If you use the automatic mode, it will go to maximum outside, when in fact you can read "Medium" well in your own shadow.
>1a) Beware of too much color in always "medium brightness"... red and orange affect less your night vision. Grey works great for the always medium setting, when it is dark, cause our eyes see B&W in low light. -> Try it, if find it less blinding when it is dark.
>2. NFC. Switch that thing off. Disable under Settings "Tap and send", then reboot.
>3. Location services... this GPS + Glonass = needs plenty of power = disable when not needed.
>4. Bluetooth, when not needed disable it.
>5. WLAN... when not needed disable it. Also if you have Portico and have WLAN at home and where you work, you might set it to "keep on with locked screen" and simply use 2G when you are in you car. Don't forget to switch off WLAN when you are on the move and no WLAN hotspot is around.
>5a) Under Settings, Wifi: Select Advanced: Disable Notify me when new Networks are found. Disable Send Information about WiFi connections...
>6. Mobile Network... select the lowest data speed or no data (no data only, with manual sync for all email accounts see Point 22!) in order to minimize consumption, when you are not in need of surfing the web. Your phones are CDMA... mine are GSM... So I use 2G most of the time, no data if the connection is real lousy.
>6a) Under "edit Internet APN", "edit MMS APN", select IP type: IPv4 only if you are often on WLAN. Many Firewalls do not yet allow for IPv6.
>7. Under settings, disable "battery saver", you can safely drain down to 3%... not an issue. Red light will blink on your phone when juice is low, at 10% or lower!
>8. Under settings, disable txt msg backup and photo backup... you can do it manually as needed, no need to send data all the time, battery killer and potential data plan blaster.
>9. Under settings, pan to applications (left or right). This one is longer:
>9a) Background tasks: disable all you don't need much. I have 3 running... limit yourself to 4 max.
>9b) Games: Disable Sync game requests.
>9c) Music + Videos: If you don't use the service... disable "Connect with Xbox Music" disable "Xbox Music cloud collection"
>9d) Photos + Camera: Disable, Press and hold camera button to wake up the phone, Enable: Prevent accidental camera launch when phone is locked.
>9e) Search: Use my Location, switch to OFF, Disable (Send location information for MS Tags), Disable: Allow search button from lock screen.
>10. Ease of access: Select Font size you need to be able to read quickly. Enable Screen magnifier if needed. (Double Tap)
>11. Find my phone. Disable, Send apps to my phone using push notifications... Most don't need it. You can buy from phone so...
>12. Phone update: Disable, Automatically download updates... (Reason is that it might download when you least need it to do that!)
>13. Feedback... Disable it if you have a low volume data plan
>14. Beats Audio: It is automatic, should be set to "off" if no headset is connected.
>15. Attentive Phone: Make your selection. (Seems to draw more power than you think! Try all off for a day!)
>16. If you use the HTC app, remove all locations and news feeds you don't need. (Danger for your data plan!)
>17. If you have a Google account, news are that you should set it to email only and check mail every 2 hours or manually. There seems to be a software issue in WP8 that can drain the battery. If your calendar is on Google, try using a Hotmail account. It might be best not to use a Google account as your Microsoft primary account because of issues with Google having changed some things recently, has to do with contacts and the calender. Note: Seems to have improved, try calendar and notes for a day.
>18. DO NOT DUPLICATE THE PRIMARY ACCOUNT BY ADDING IT A SECOND TIME AS A HOTMAIL/GOOGLE etc. ACCOUNT! This is also something that seems to drain the battery. I did that... I could see the phone battery go to zero in 3 hours. In any case your primary Microsoft account get synchronized like if it was an additional Hotmail/Google account.
>19. Under calendar settings, remove all calendars you don't use! (Avoid syncs for nothing.)
>20. If you use Hotmail, migrate to Outlook.com... this enables a more advanced type of push notifications.
>21. For each email account, make sure you enable only the sync settings you need. Don't sync contacts with an account that you don't need the contacts from.
>22. Take note: To all those that like me, put their phone into "WLAN only", with no data over their carrier, when they are at home. As the WLAN is cut each time we lock the screen, unless we select keep WLAN alive with the Portico update, this will not keep the email clients from trying to sync on wake-up. You notice this in the battery power consumption in the morning, when you first leave the "Flight" mode. The email client does NOT stop trying to sync in that mode and now will try to sync all you mailboxes. If now your phone is on "WLAN only" and you lock the screen, (the phone will disable WLAN after a short while, this while in full sync! if you do not select the keep WLAN alive option that comes with Portico!), you may lose 10% of your battery for being unable to sync email. Workaround is to either (if you have unlimited data) make sure you are at least in 2G or to set the screen timeout to 15 minutes and to leave it charging during those first 15 minutes. Do this, so that all the sync tasks can be completed. It is a weird misbehavior of the email sync timer! So TIP use the option to keep WLAN alive that comes with Portico!
>22a) Better to always be in 2G if you have unlimited data, because of the rather stubborn sync behavior of the email client. It does in fact consume less battery if your phone syncs over 2G rather than to sync with a "WLAN set to ON" but (off) in locked screen mode. I don't sync my accounts manually, neither do most of you.
>23. Do not do this until your phone is two weeks with you!
Maximizing the battery through a full battery discharge to calibrate the battery meter.
Step 1. Use your phone to the point that you come home with less than 40%
Step 2. If you have a good 3G/4G connection where you live, make sure the phone is on 3G/4G this under Settings/Mobile Network.
Step 3. Go to settings/lock screen, there remove your password if you have one. Switch "Screen times out after" to "never".
Step 4. Switch brightness to HIGH.
Step 5. Disable the "battery saver".
Step 6. Play a game or surf until the phones red light starts blinking informing you that you are at 10% battery left.
Step 7. Go to mobile network and switch to Edge/2G then disable data. Phone mode only (For cooling purposes as your hand is normally the heat sink.)
Step 8. Switch "ON" WLAN, browse some more until you are around 5%
Step 9. Switch the "Flight" mode to "ON"! (Now the CPU is not doing anything to files on the phone! Phone is cooling off.)
Step 10: Place phone on a table, let it discharge in the start screen mode using full brightness as main consumer, remember "timeout is set to never".
Step 11: When Phone has fully discharged, immediately (within 15min) plug it in to recharge.
Step 12: After the boot when you connect for charging, set the brightness to "Medium" and switch the screen timeout to your preferred setting.
Step 13: Switch off screen and let the phone charge over night.
Step 14: Restore your normal settings for password, connection mode etc.
Step 15: Next day When Battery hits 65 to 75% recharge early to full once.
>24. Should your phone only charge to 99%, restart it, use it and recharge it sometimes latter the same day.
>25. Facebook... Will always run in the background if you do not disable tile notifications. Decide if that is what you want. Also "The Facebook" is a nice addition or replacement for the Facebook app form Microsoft that will not run in the background.
>26. Sometimes a task will run away under WP8, your phone will become real warm and drain the battery. Simply restart you phone, it will stop to drain. If not, use a soft reset. (Keep power pushed until phone restarts to soft reset). I never needed a soft reset, but you never know...
>27. HTC has released a piece of info here in Europe telling people how to calibrate the battery charge % system. The thing to do to make sure that the 100% counter is in fact 100% of capacity, is to charge the phone until the charge light turns green. Then, while still connected to the charger, restart the phone. If the counter is not calibrated, the phone will charge with a red charge light. Restart the phone as often as needed, until the charge light stays green after the restart while on the charger.
All the points, steps I mention here have been tested on my two 8X. I no longer recommend you use an i-Pad charger to top off to 100% in the morning as a phone restart fixes the 99% issue (point 24).
If I forgot something, please feel free to add more tips. I now have 3 email accounts in push mode and my battery lasts me a day every day.
Update on my blue 8X. Now after two weeks of use and doing the above, yesterday my 8X gave me some good performance. Was all day in Edge / GSM + WiFi, I had a call, surfed, did Email for 4.5 hours. Was on this forum, had a 5 min phone call, I was using it from 06:30 to 01:30. End of the day I was at 63% power remaining. So now, unless your unit has a defective battery, I am confident my above list will help you! This will work for any WP8 device, from Nokia or HTC or Samsung.
Hope this helps.
***Rev 3. Nov 28th 2012
Moved Point 22 to 23.
Added Points 22 and 22a.
***Rev 4. Nov 29th 2012
Modified Point a: App 1 and added alternative App
Added Points a2 and c2 and 1a and 24
Updated point 15, 17
Fixed spelling/typos.
***Rev 5. Dec 18th 2012
Added a note about Portico and the firmware update and the major battery life improvements that come along.
***Rev 6. Mar. 7th 2013
Removed "Battery Level for WP8" from what you need, because it seems to drain the battery.
Modified point 5 to account for WLAN on under locked screen (Portico).
Modified point 22 to account for WLAN on under locked screen (Portico).
Modified point 24. I found a better way to fix the "charge only to 99%" problem.
Added point 25 about the Facebook app from Microsoft.
Added point 26 about the "hot" battery drain.
***Rev 7. Mar 21st 2013
Added point 27 as to adjust the 100% charged counter of phone, Info. via PocketPC.ch given out by HTC Europe
Here are tricks and tips to improve battery life.
Note: If you have installed the Portico update along with the firmware update, your battery life is generally speaking at least doubled.
Following problems are solved with Portico: High standby drain in Flight mode, is reduced to 1% for 6 hours. It also seems to be the
case that Email will no longer try to sync in WLAN when it switches off in lock-screen. You can Enable WLAN on in lock-screen.
GPS power drain has been reduced significantly, you may leave it on. Steps 23 and 24 can be skipped if you have the update on a new phone
that came with Portico like ie. the HTC 8S.
*** First you need the following aps. ***
a) 'Battery Status' from "Tomaz Wisniewski", it seems to have the lowest battery drain of all battery apps.
b) ConnectivityShortcuts from "OU Dev." (FREE) (Setup to show 5 little tiles on start screen, WLAN, Bluetooth, Mobile Network, Location, Flight Mode) *(Thx to HG for finding this one, cause it is very good!)
c) Understand how to end "formerly opened apps". (Like this, keep back pushed, go into app, then use back until it exits that app, then that app is closed, repeat with all apps.)
c2) Skype: You may wish to close it that way... Note that in the Skype app, you click on your photo on the top right, there you can change your online status. Not sure if this also affects the app running in the background... so... take note until we get out of Beta Skype.
>1. LCD brightness, if you don't live in California and it is currently winter, you might want to set it to "Medium" and leave it there. Maximum brightness is a energy hog and uses a lot of power. If you use the automatic mode, it will go to maximum outside, when in fact you can read "Medium" well in your own shadow.
>1a) Beware of too much color in always "medium brightness"... red and orange affect less your night vision. Grey works great for the always medium setting, when it is dark, cause our eyes see B&W in low light. -> Try it, if find it less blinding when it is dark.
>2. NFC. Switch that thing off. Disable under Settings "Tap and send", then reboot.
>3. Location services... this GPS + Glonass = needs plenty of power = disable when not needed.
>4. Bluetooth, when not needed disable it.
>5. WLAN... when not needed disable it. Also if you have Portico and have WLAN at home and where you work, you might set it to "keep on with locked screen" and simply use 2G when you are in you car. Don't forget to switch off WLAN when you are on the move and no WLAN hotspot is around.
>5a) Under Settings, Wifi: Select Advanced: Disable Notify me when new Networks are found. Disable Send Information about WiFi connections...
>6. Mobile Network... select the lowest data speed or no data (no data only, with manual sync for all email accounts see Point 22!) in order to minimize consumption, when you are not in need of surfing the web. Your phones are CDMA... mine are GSM... So I use 2G most of the time, no data if the connection is real lousy.
>6a) Under "edit Internet APN", "edit MMS APN", select IP type: IPv4 only if you are often on WLAN. Many Firewalls do not yet allow for IPv6.
>7. Under settings, disable "battery saver", you can safely drain down to 3%... not an issue. Red light will blink on your phone when juice is low, at 10% or lower!
>8. Under settings, disable txt msg backup and photo backup... you can do it manually as needed, no need to send data all the time, battery killer and potential data plan blaster.
>9. Under settings, pan to applications (left or right). This one is longer:
>9a) Background tasks: disable all you don't need much. I have 3 running... limit yourself to 4 max.
>9b) Games: Disable Sync game requests.
>9c) Music + Videos: If you don't use the service... disable "Connect with Xbox Music" disable "Xbox Music cloud collection"
>9d) Photos + Camera: Disable, Press and hold camera button to wake up the phone, Enable: Prevent accidental camera launch when phone is locked.
>9e) Search: Use my Location, switch to OFF, Disable (Send location information for MS Tags), Disable: Allow search button from lock screen.
>10. Ease of access: Select Font size you need to be able to read quickly. Enable Screen magnifier if needed. (Double Tap)
>11. Find my phone. Disable, Send apps to my phone using push notifications... Most don't need it. You can buy from phone so...
>12. Phone update: Disable, Automatically download updates... (Reason is that it might download when you least need it to do that!)
>13. Feedback... Disable it if you have a low volume data plan
>14. Beats Audio: It is automatic, should be set to "off" if no headset is connected.
>15. Attentive Phone: Make your selection. (Seems to draw more power than you think! Try all off for a day!)
>16. If you use the HTC app, remove all locations and news feeds you don't need. (Danger for your data plan!)
>17. If you have a Google account, news are that you should set it to email only and check mail every 2 hours or manually. There seems to be a software issue in WP8 that can drain the battery. If your calendar is on Google, try using a Hotmail account. It might be best not to use a Google account as your Microsoft primary account because of issues with Google having changed some things recently, has to do with contacts and the calender. Note: Seems to have improved, try calendar and notes for a day.
>18. DO NOT DUPLICATE THE PRIMARY ACCOUNT BY ADDING IT A SECOND TIME AS A HOTMAIL/GOOGLE etc. ACCOUNT! This is also something that seems to drain the battery. I did that... I could see the phone battery go to zero in 3 hours. In any case your primary Microsoft account get synchronized like if it was an additional Hotmail/Google account.
>19. Under calendar settings, remove all calendars you don't use! (Avoid syncs for nothing.)
>20. If you use Hotmail, migrate to Outlook.com... this enables a more advanced type of push notifications.
>21. For each email account, make sure you enable only the sync settings you need. Don't sync contacts with an account that you don't need the contacts from.
>22. Take note: To all those that like me, put their phone into "WLAN only", with no data over their carrier, when they are at home. As the WLAN is cut each time we lock the screen, unless we select keep WLAN alive with the Portico update, this will not keep the email clients from trying to sync on wake-up. You notice this in the battery power consumption in the morning, when you first leave the "Flight" mode. The email client does NOT stop trying to sync in that mode and now will try to sync all you mailboxes. If now your phone is on "WLAN only" and you lock the screen, (the phone will disable WLAN after a short while, this while in full sync! if you do not select the keep WLAN alive option that comes with Portico!), you may lose 10% of your battery for being unable to sync email. Workaround is to either (if you have unlimited data) make sure you are at least in 2G or to set the screen timeout to 15 minutes and to leave it charging during those first 15 minutes. Do this, so that all the sync tasks can be completed. It is a weird misbehavior of the email sync timer! So TIP use the option to keep WLAN alive that comes with Portico!
>22a) Better to always be in 2G if you have unlimited data, because of the rather stubborn sync behavior of the email client. It does in fact consume less battery if your phone syncs over 2G rather than to sync with a "WLAN set to ON" but (off) in locked screen mode. I don't sync my accounts manually, neither do most of you.
>23. Do not do this until your phone is two weeks with you!
Maximizing the battery through a full battery discharge to calibrate the battery meter.
Step 1. Use your phone to the point that you come home with less than 40%
Step 2. If you have a good 3G/4G connection where you live, make sure the phone is on 3G/4G this under Settings/Mobile Network.
Step 3. Go to settings/lock screen, there remove your password if you have one. Switch "Screen times out after" to "never".
Step 4. Switch brightness to HIGH.
Step 5. Disable the "battery saver".
Step 6. Play a game or surf until the phones red light starts blinking informing you that you are at 10% battery left.
Step 7. Go to mobile network and switch to Edge/2G then disable data. Phone mode only (For cooling purposes as your hand is normally the heat sink.)
Step 8. Switch "ON" WLAN, browse some more until you are around 5%
Step 9. Switch the "Flight" mode to "ON"! (Now the CPU is not doing anything to files on the phone! Phone is cooling off.)
Step 10: Place phone on a table, let it discharge in the start screen mode using full brightness as main consumer, remember "timeout is set to never".
Step 11: When Phone has fully discharged, immediately (within 15min) plug it in to recharge.
Step 12: After the boot when you connect for charging, set the brightness to "Medium" and switch the screen timeout to your preferred setting.
Step 13: Switch off screen and let the phone charge over night.
Step 14: Restore your normal settings for password, connection mode etc.
Step 15: Next day When Battery hits 65 to 75% recharge early to full once.
>24. Should your phone only charge to 99%, restart it, use it and recharge it sometimes latter the same day.
>25. Facebook... Will always run in the background if you do not disable tile notifications. Decide if that is what you want. Also "The Facebook" is a nice addition or replacement for the Facebook app form Microsoft that will not run in the background.
>26. Sometimes a task will run away under WP8, your phone will become real warm and drain the battery. Simply restart you phone, it will stop to drain. If not, use a soft reset. (Keep power pushed until phone restarts to soft reset). I never needed a soft reset, but you never know...
>27. HTC has released a piece of info here in Europe telling people how to calibrate the battery charge % system. The thing to do to make sure that the 100% counter is in fact 100% of capacity, is to charge the phone until the charge light turns green. Then, while still connected to the charger, restart the phone. If the counter is not calibrated, the phone will charge with a red charge light. Restart the phone as often as needed, until the charge light stays green after the restart while on the charger.
All the points, steps I mention here have been tested on my two 8X. I no longer recommend you use an i-Pad charger to top off to 100% in the morning as a phone restart fixes the 99% issue (point 24).
If I forgot something, please feel free to add more tips. I now have 3 email accounts in push mode and my battery lasts me a day every day.
Update on my blue 8X. Now after two weeks of use and doing the above, yesterday my 8X gave me some good performance. Was all day in Edge / GSM + WiFi, I had a call, surfed, did Email for 4.5 hours. Was on this forum, had a 5 min phone call, I was using it from 06:30 to 01:30. End of the day I was at 63% power remaining. So now, unless your unit has a defective battery, I am confident my above list will help you! This will work for any WP8 device, from Nokia or HTC or Samsung.
Hope this helps.
***Rev 3. Nov 28th 2012
Moved Point 22 to 23.
Added Points 22 and 22a.
***Rev 4. Nov 29th 2012
Modified Point a: App 1 and added alternative App
Added Points a2 and c2 and 1a and 24
Updated point 15, 17
Fixed spelling/typos.
***Rev 5. Dec 18th 2012
Added a note about Portico and the firmware update and the major battery life improvements that come along.
***Rev 6. Mar. 7th 2013
Removed "Battery Level for WP8" from what you need, because it seems to drain the battery.
Modified point 5 to account for WLAN on under locked screen (Portico).
Modified point 22 to account for WLAN on under locked screen (Portico).
Modified point 24. I found a better way to fix the "charge only to 99%" problem.
Added point 25 about the Facebook app from Microsoft.
Added point 26 about the "hot" battery drain.
***Rev 7. Mar 21st 2013
Added point 27 as to adjust the 100% charged counter of phone, Info. via PocketPC.ch given out by HTC Europe
Last edited:
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