New to WP from Android - Purchased Icon - Having Problems with Battery - Please Help

[BelleGOBLUE]

Hello everyone,

I just took the plunge into the WP world, and so far I really like the OS a lot. I've been on android and iOS for the past 6-7 years, and was ready for a change. My upgrade was available and so I thought that I would try out the Icon. As soon as I got it I updated to 8.1 and have the latest version on the device. LOVE the features and simplicity. So much smoother than my android phones of the past, and much more customizable than my iOS devices. Here is my biggest problem... battery life. On my old Motorola Razr M (not the MAXX) I was able to get much, much better battery life. I expected this 2 year newer phone to perform better, not worse than my Razr. Is this just a fault of the WP OS (poor optimization), or am I having a unique issue on my Icon?

My battery will drop 5-8% per hour on idle, with me doing NOTHING on my phone! And thats with Cortana is off, GPS is off, brightness to low, only 2 email accounts at push (not extremely active), WiFi on, and nothing else running in the background. If I have Cortana on, GPS on, brightness auto, WiFi on, I drop 8-12% per hour on idle! Again, this is IDLE performance. If I actually surf the web, read, use the camera, it drops even faster... I've only had the phone for about a week, and I can't make it through the day without it dying before 8pm. I'm not expecting 3 day performance here, but with the same usage on my Razr I would finish the day with 55%.

Please let me know what can be done to improve the IDLE performance. I understand that it will drain faster when using HERE maps and the camera, but this is making me really consider returning the phone for a GS5... which is so frustrating because this one flaw is ruining an otherwise excellent WP experience. Please help.

Thanks

 

[RefractedPaladin]

I'm no expert but I do own the Icon and I do not have similar issues. I have most things turned on, am a fairly heavy user and I make it through the day with little issue unless I stream tons of Video or shoot tons of Pic/Video.

Without more info I'd be inclined to say it's just your phone....FWIW

 

[drufranco]

The upgrade to 8.1 is the issue. Without the firmware update which has yet to be released your issues could be from a variety of things.
What it comes down to is a complete hard reset WITHOUT a restore from backup usually fixes most of the upgrade issues.
From other posts (and ideas that I have come up with in the past) and things I have tried you can let it sit for a few days and it usually irons itself out battery wise but other things may arise so a hard reset usually is the best option IMO and then reloading apps and reconfiguring.

Update: And BTW I have everything running but WIFI sense with Cortana pinned to the home screen and running (this was an issue for some) and all apps allowed to run in the background and I get on average 2-3 days without a charge.

 

[aikidaves]

There's a pinned thread in the 8.1 Developers Preview forum about battery issues. Lots of good ideas in it, along with a fair bit of noise. What helped me with my L920 was turning off NFC, turning off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cell data when I don't need them, soft resetting my phone (I keep thinking about a hard reset, but haven't done it yet), going into Battery Saver and turning off background execution on every app that doesn't really need it, and the biggest gain, turning off Battery Saver itself. With all that, my idle usage is below 3% per hour, and there's only a couple apps that push it above 5% (sadly, WPCentral is one of them).

I'm hoping the Cyan update helps.

I strongly recommend turning off Battery Saver and doing a soft reset anytime it's running high.

 

[JohnStrk]

Battery life does seem to return to normal 2-3 days after updating to 8.1 but your e-mail account syncing could be a big factor. Try setting your e-mail accounts to sync every hour, manually or once a day to see if that improves. Gmail especially has been known to kill the battery if it syncs too often.

Also go into the new Battery Saver app and disable all the apps that you really don't need to run in the background. Maybe also turn off Battery Saver and disable that from running in the background.

For me if I do all this and also disable Location and Cortana, I am getting great battery life on a Lumia 920 and barely any battery usage at idle. I've been off the charger now for 4 hours and mine is still at 100%.

One more thing, lately I'm finding that the main Facebook app (or Facebook Beta app) are draining the battery very quickly since the last two app updates. Hope an update comes soon!

Good luck! :smile:

 

[BelleGOBLUE]

Thanks for the responses, it is encouraging to hear others not having this problem currently. Ok, so it needs a hard reset, I'm going to need some schooling on the best way to do that (I've only had the phone for a week and totally new to WP). Is there a good guide on these forums somewhere? Any tips/tricks you would recommend?

Also, do we know when the firmware update will come?

Thanks

 

[Existence_Inc]

My Icon has been a real breath of fresh air from a battery perspective. I can get 3+ days of battery life with light usage, 1.5 with much heavier usage. I have all features turned on (BT, NFC, GPS, Cortana, Weather, Push Email) except WiFi and Skype (installed, but not running), simply because I never use WiFi. I don't use battery saver until the last 20% or so (using the preset). Brightness it set to auto, but only because it is too bright for me on low. I have WP8.1 with the latest updates and battery life has only gotten better since I purchased the device. I average less than 1% battery drain at idle, even with light usage.

However, unlike most smart phone users, I don't use any social media (not my bag). That is probably my biggest contributor to great battery life.

~Ex

 

[petersun21]

My biggest problem is 8.1. After two new updates, there is still overheating issue while "loading". My biggest one hour drop is 42% / hour. I have gmail, outlook, yahoo, and my company e-mail. they have never been an issue. Use battery saver to check which feature is consuming battery the most.

 

[drufranco]

Thanks for the responses, it is encouraging to hear others not having this problem currently. Ok, so it needs a hard reset, I'm going to need some schooling on the best way to do that (I've only had the phone for a week and totally new to WP). Is there a good guide on these forums somewhere? Any tips/tricks you would recommend?

Also, do we know when the firmware update will come?

Thanks

Under Settings, About, "reset your phone". Remember not to restore because then you are just restoring back the issues you had before.
Looking at mid to late summer possibly for the Cyan update from what I have read, at least for Verizon users, could be longer.

 

[BelleGOBLUE]

Under Settings, About, "reset your phone". Remember not to restore because then you are just restoring back the issues you had before.
Looking at mid to late summer possibly for the Cyan update from what I have read, at least for Verizon users, could be longer.

Thanks for the follow up. You guys are all awesome! I'm going to try some of the suggestions above (turning battery saver off, set gmail to sync every hour vs push, etc.) and see what happens. If these don't work, then I think I will attempt the reset.

Thanks

 

[jazz70]

I also just made the switch from a 6 year stint with android (razr maxx was my last phone) and made the switch to a Icon so I was worried about my battery life also but every thing has been good on WP 8.0, getting about 1 day per charge with moderate use and pushing all my email looking at the the battery stats of Insider Pro

I have resisted the urge to update to DP 8.1 so far because the phone is working great now and I am trying to wait till the official release even though I am dying to use the new features of 8.1

If the reported June 24 release date of 8.1 is correct and the update is nowhere to seen on Verizon that is probably the time I will pull the trigger on the update

 

[drufranco]

Thanks for the follow up. You guys are all awesome! I'm going to try some of the suggestions above (turning battery saver off, set gmail to sync every hour vs push, etc.) and see what happens. If these don't work, then I think I will attempt the reset.

Thanks

NP. Regardless I would definitely change the email settings. I have Google and iCloud to every two hours and my work email to every hour. I know that won't work for everyone but I really don't care about the first two much and work, who wants to be bothered every minute!

 

[radmanvr]

I took my phone off the charger @ 6:30am, time now is 11:53am (Central Time)

I have 89% battery life. I am using Icon on developer preview. so.... 11% in 5 hours and 23 minutes.

Not sure if this helps.

 

[ibkevin]

Hey I'm also a new icon/windows phone owner and I wasn't really having any major issues but I did notice my battery starting to die faster lately. Then last night I went to bed with a full charged phone and when I woke up, it was dead. As in it shut off, battery down to 0%. I only slept 6 hours! I was getting almost 2 days battery when I first installed 8.1 on my icon, but now I'm thinking I need to do a hard reset, correct?

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[ibkevin]

Also, if I did reset my phone, would it restore on the 8.1 developer preview or back to windows 8? Sorry if that's a newbie question, although I am new to windows phone.

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

 

[drufranco]

Also, if I did reset my phone, would it restore on the 8.1 developer preview or back to windows 8? Sorry if that's a newbie question, although I am new to windows phone.

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

It will restore to your latest software / update.

 

[drufranco]

FYI Don't forget to put back on the developer preview app and sign back in for any future updates if there are any more before the official release.

 

[SquishyGirl83]

I've had an Icon since day one. I was experiencing a lot of the same issues when I installed the 8.1 preview. The battery would drain fast and get hot to the touch. The thing that solved it for me was doing a hard reset without backup. I currently have 87% battery, the time since my last charge is 12 hours, and battery saver says i have 2days 15 hrs remaining. I am a light phone user. I play around a little bit, but it's mostly checking email, and using cortana for news and weather. Also, i only let cortana, weather, and blue skies, and the store to run in the background. I rarely use wifi thanks to my grandfathered unlimited data. I hope this helps you out

oh, and by the way, i found that games such as frozen free fall and maleficent free fall drain the battery like crazy. I stick to color sheep now.

 

[davesannie]

Yup a hard reset will solve most problems

 

[BelleGOBLUE]

FYI Don't forget to put back on the developer preview app and sign back in for any future updates if there are any more before the official release.

If I decide to hold off on doing the hard reset until the official release, will the official release effectively correct the issue, or will I have to hard reset for the official release to solve this problem?

Thanks!