Battery issues on Icon

[Rick Salvato]

So I made the jump from iOS to WP8 and so far so good, but I do have a few nagging issues. First is the battery life which at first was as good as my iPhone but has become increasingly poor. I'm at the point now that I cannot make it through the day without recharging and I have not added any new apps nor did I change any setup options. Originally the battery drain was very light and I could easily make it through a day with plenty to spare. Now I'm lucky to make it to 3-4 pm and it seems to be getting worse. I am by no means a power user. I have a minimal amount of apps on my phone. One thing I found after the fact that I wish I had done initially was to condition the battery but I have read many conflicting instructions on how to do it. One said to drain the battery untill the phone dies before charging it, three times in a row when you first get it (I believe this was on Verizon's website). Another said no conditioning really needs to be done, just don't allow the phone to get below 20% and make sure to fully charge it before removing it from the charger. So I'm confused as to what to do. Is it too late to attempt to condition this battery now? Do I need to swap the phone (before my warranty expires) or should I try Verizon's way now even though I have a few weeks worth of charges on it already?

My second issue is with Mint. I have a Citibank account and as we all know there is no WP8 app for Citibank. Someone on this site suggested Mint and it has been a fine substitute except it seems to update extremely slow. I don't expect it to be as fast as the original app but, for instance I had transactions done yesterday that have still not shown up. Is there another one that works a little faster that someone can recommend?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help!

 

[anon(7901790)]

I also have an Icon and my battery life has been pretty good. I never conditioned the battery at all. There have been times where I got severe battery drain, mostly from heavy use like taking photos and video, and posting to Facebook. Other times I've had battery drain was after using certain apps. Even after shutting down the app. And gaming ALWAYS drains it fast.

You have two options. First is try doing a soft reset (power + volume down buttons) until you see Nokia on your screen. This will recycle power and shut down anything that is running in the background that should not be. This works well for me when I get runaway battery drain. For some reason certain apps don't seem to shut down properly and start eating up battery and over heating the phone.

The next option if it gets worse is do a hard reset and DO NOT restore from a back up. Keep in mind, this WILL erase everything on the phone, so back up and photos and videos before doing this.

As far as the Citibank replacement app, I can't help you there. I use Mint too, but since it's a third party app, it only has access to what Citibank allows. My credit union does not have a WP app so, I just pinned the mobile banking website to my start screen. If you can, see if Citibank has a text alert function that allows you to get balance and transaction info.

 

[spicypadthai]

Are you running 8.1 DP or did you stay with 8?

 

[Whipped99]

So I made the jump from iOS to WP8 and so far so good, but I do have a few nagging issues. First is the battery life which at first was as good as my iPhone but has become increasingly poor. I'm at the point now that I cannot make it through the day without recharging and I have not added any new apps nor did I change any setup options. Originally the battery drain was very light and I could easily make it through a day with plenty to spare. Now I'm lucky to make it to 3-4 pm and it seems to be getting worse. I am by no means a power user. I have a minimal amount of apps on my phone. One thing I found after the fact that I wish I had done initially was to condition the battery but I have read many conflicting instructions on how to do it. One said to drain the battery untill the phone dies before charging it, three times in a row when you first get it (I believe this was on Verizon's website). Another said no conditioning really needs to be done, just don't allow the phone to get below 20% and make sure to fully charge it before removing it from the charger. So I'm confused as to what to do. Is it too late to attempt to condition this battery now? Do I need to swap the phone (before my warranty expires) or should I try Verizon's way now even though I have a few weeks worth of charges on it already?

My second issue is with Mint. I have a Citibank account and as we all know there is no WP8 app for Citibank. Someone on this site suggested Mint and it has been a fine substitute except it seems to update extremely slow. I don't expect it to be as fast as the original app but, for instance I had transactions done yesterday that have still not shown up. Is there another one that works a little faster that someone can recommend?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help!

Check out this thread... I made a few comments that helped with the bad battery life.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-icon/288031-4-hour-battery-problem-still.html

 

[DatabaseMX]

"First is try doing a soft reset (power + volume down buttons) until you see Nokia on your screen. This will recycle power and shut down anything that is running in the background that should not be. This works well for me when I get runaway battery drain. For some reason certain apps don't seem to shut down properly and start eating up battery and over heating the phone."

Exactly.
You simply have to reboot occasionally. Probably every 2-3 days, I get a minor runaway battery drain for no apparent reason. Each time this has occurred, a reboot has resolved the issue, most recently last night.

I can easily get 4 days on a charge, doing mainly a few texts, couple of voice calls, Facebook & Google News.

The bottom line is ... battery drain and the why of ... is an immensely subjective topic
​Soooooo many variables.

===

 

[Rick Salvato]

Hey thanks all for the great tips. I will try the soft reset and cross my fingers. I agree, there are soo many variables concerning battery drain but the thing is I really haven't added anything to my phone since the first week I got it. All of a sudden I'm not able to make it through the day were a few weeks ago I could easily. Is there a "proven" battery app that you guys could recommend maybe its reading the level wrong?

 

[Rick Salvato]

Oh sorry, no I have not loaded 8.1 Waiting on the official release, I dont need another monkey wrench in the soup

 

[spicypadthai]

A soft reset is quick and easy so worth a try. However, I'm guessing you'll eventually want/need a hard reset. Especially if you're seeing rapid drain while in standby. I never had that problem with 8. The battery doesn't hold up well under heavy use but for light to moderate, I averaged around 2% per hour.

 

[onlysublime]

try this tip... It did wonders to my battery life! I can go a full day of full phone usage and still have good battery life now...

grabbed from another thread:

Wow! I think this helped me out as well!!! Never thought about this. I had a bunch of apps I downloaded but didn't have a chance to load and set them up. Some of the Verizon apps I had never used as well. Went through, loaded every single friggin app, entered whatever account information the app needed, closed the app. Now my battery life is pretty darn great.

To be clear, I have the 8.1DP installed.

Hi all,

I'm on day 2 with my new Nokia Icon (jumped from Android S3) and noticed the 4 hour battery issue. I think it's related to an app(s) that may not have been fully setup after activation. I went through EVERY app on the phone and found that the NFL and the Verizon Tones and Navigator apps needed their setups completed with basic info. After doing this my battery shows 12 hours. Sweet!

I had to deal with similar incomplete app setup issues over on Android with new phones that would drain battery/performance.

So.... try opening every app installed on your phone, complete the setup. Maybe a restart after that for good measure?

Cheers!

 

[admorris#AC]

Conditioning of battery is bs. If you take the time and research, you will find that techies actually within the battery industry will tell you as much. The only thing you should consistently not do is let your phone completely die. Your battery will have a longer life the less you let this happen. Don't listen yo the keyboard cowboys who like to repeat stuff they know nothing about. Good luck with the battery, that is the only thing that has kept me from returning to windows phone at this point.