Why Android is running low on battery

Today we can no longer imagine our life without mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets on the platform Android. And this is not surprising, because with their help we can easily contact friends, colleagues and family, solve various everyday tasks, perform financial transactions, etc. However, such gadgets have one problem – low autonomy. In this article, we will figure out why the battery at Android is quickly discharged and how to deal with it.

Causes of the problem

In fact, there are quite a few reasons why the battery quickly loses its charge, and it is simply pointless to list them all. However, there are several of the most common factors that affect the autonomy of work:

1. Small capacity of the battery (storage battery).
2. Battery worn out.
3. Using a large number of applications that are constantly running in the background.
4. Weak or unstable mobile signal.
5. Always on GPS sensors, modules Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
6. High screen brightness.
7. Automatic synchronization of user accounts.

Here you can add several more reasons why the battery quickly discharges to Android: for example, a poor-quality battery, shorting of the battery contacts (as a result of water penetration or mechanical damage), etc.

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Battery capacity problem

Probably the most obvious reason for the low autonomy of the gadget is the fact that the manufacturer himself, in order to save money (reduce the cost of the final product), installs batteries with a small capacity. In this case, as a rule, not the highest quality materials are used. In this matter, you just need to be careful. After all, some users don't really care about autonomy. And the mobile devices themselves, in order to reduce the cost, are made with weak components that consume less energy.

It's not even a problem. After all, the manufacturer indicates all the parameters of the device in the instructions and technical specifications. Therefore, when buying a smartphone or tablet, always pay attention to the battery parameters – the choice of capacity depends on your needs.

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Battery wear

It's no secret that rechargeable batteries have their own resource, which is consumed over time. Under ideal operating conditions, this resource is 3-5 years (depending on the type of battery, materials from which it is made, and other factors). That is, no matter how you try to save the battery, it will still exhaust its resource. Its capacity will simply decrease over time.

The second factor of wear depends on the users themselves. Take into account the type of battery, it must be used correctly. Few people think about how to properly operate batteries, which is why their service life is significantly reduced. We will talk about how to use the battery correctly below. Now let's move on to the next reason why Android the system is eating up the battery.

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Background applications

Each user should understand that the program requires certain resources. That is, the processor, RAM and video chip must process data, while the CPU, RAM and video card need energy to operate. It's very simple – the more applications you install on your gadget, the greater the load on the battery.

And there is one caveat here – often we do not close the application, but simply press the 'Home' button – and all programs are minimized, but they do not stop working. Therefore, always close games and other software correctly. In addition, many applications run in the background and are constantly consuming energy, you won't even know about it. For example, applications for communication over the Internet (Skype, Viber, etc.). They are in constant scanning mode.

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Widgets and other active apps

Another reason why Android quickly runs out of battery is because we really love beautiful widgets. What is a widget, probably every owner of a smartphone or tablet knows. In a nutshell, this is an active application for displaying time, weather, photos right on your desktop.

Here it should be borne in mind that only active widgets consume the charge. Of course, they are convenient, and many of them are very beautiful, but it is important to understand that they constantly scan the Internet connection, and when connected, they constantly refer to certain sites. For example, if it is a weather widget, it requests information from weather sites. At the same time, they display information on the desktop – most often with animation. All this creates a rather significant load on the battery.

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Automatic synchronization of user accounts and data

In our time, cloud storage has become widespread. Remember how many different accounts you have – all sorts of social networks, different sites (where you register and constantly visit), mail (and each has at least 2-3 mailboxes on different services), clients of multiplayer games (for example, WoT Assistant, etc. .). All of these records are constantly synchronized with servers and clouds to display the latest information and track changes.

The synchronization of most of these applications can be disabled only through the application manager, that is, you will have to stop each program separately. Also, modern smartphones have an automatic sync function – you can simply disable this function, which will reduce the load on the battery.

But this is not a panacea. You should understand that many applications (such as VK, cloud clients and game clients) still remain active and, when connected to the Internet, begin to actively communicate with the servers.

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Weak or unstable mobile signal

One of the most energy-consuming elements of any smartphone (or tablet with a GSM call function) is a GSM modem. This is an adapter that allows you to use cellular communications. You can turn it off by activating the offline mode ('Airplane').

This will significantly increase the autonomy of the gadget, but you will no longer be able to call or send SMS.

In this case, the weaker the signal, the more power consumption, since the modem tries to find the network and constantly searches (scan). And it is not surprising that Android communication with the mobile network is eating up the battery. And this applies not only to Android, but also to any other operating system. Nothing can be done about it. You just need a strong, stable signal.

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GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modules included

You shouldn't be surprised that when you turn on features such as Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi, the autonomy of the phone decreases. It should be noted that the most economical is Bluetooth, Wi-Fi comes in second place, but GPS consumes the most energy. However, the Wi-Fi adapter itself consumes a bit of charge, but with its help the device goes online. And the more widgets you have, various applications for social networks, the more data the phone will have to transfer for synchronization, the greater the load on the battery.

In other words, the more traffic you use, the more battery consumption. So don't be surprised that Android Wi-Fi eats up your battery. Rather, not Wi-Fi, but applications that use a wireless connection to access the Internet. This also applies to Bluetooth with GPS. The stronger the load on the adapter, the more they consume energy: Bluetooth – speakers, a headset or always-on navigation with geodata – all this greatly loads the battery.

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Display brightness and auto rotate function

It is logical to assume that the brighter the screen, the more energy it consumes. To increase the brightness, it is necessary to increase the voltage to the LED backlight of the matrix (or apply a higher voltage to organic LEDs). It's simple – make the screen dim to extend battery life. If we talk about the auto-rotate function of the screen, everything is explained by enabling or disabling the operation of the gyroscope sensor. This requires electricity.

So, the screen Android is eating up the battery along with the above factors. Auto-rotate, on the other hand, consumes the least charge.

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Media Server Process Android

Media Server is a process (service) that is responsible for scanning media files in the memory of a smartphone (tablet). Moreover, both internal and external memory are scanned. At first glance, there is nothing complicated and especially energy-consuming. But this service is often associated with the problem of quickly draining the battery.

The thing is that under ideal conditions, the service scans the memory and after finding all media files (music, video, photos, etc.), the process stops. But, if there is a damaged file in the device's memory (or the memory itself has errors), then the process loops and repeats endlessly until you delete the damaged file or disconnect the device. Due to such failures on Android, the media server is eating up the battery, and is able to consume the entire battery charge in a matter of hours.

To prevent this from happening, use the recommendations:

• Do not defragment files (this only applies to flash drives and memory cards of mobile devices).
• Use only high quality SD cards.
• When connecting your smartphone to your PC as a storage device, always safely remove the device after you finish working.

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Apps that consume the most energy

Above we have already talked about programs that consume battery power. Everything is pretty simple here. The more complex the program, the more battery consumption will be. For example, complex 3D games are also programs. However, they are very demanding on the CPU, video adapter and RAM, which is why games are the most energy-consuming applications.

You can make a short list of energy-consuming programs in descending order:

• games;
• programs for processing video, audio and photo (media files);
• video viewing applications;
• social networks and applications that require Internet access;
• widgets;
• music players;
• simple programs for reading books, displaying photos, calculators, calendars, etc.

To find out how to find out which application is eating battery at Android, follow these steps:

1. We go into the settings.
2. Find the section 'Battery'.

Detailed information will be displayed here. If it is not displayed, click the 'Statistics' button.

Below you can see the battery consumption since the last charge. Everything is displayed as a percentage. Knowing the statistics, you can close those services and programs that require more energy and at the same time you do not need.

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What to do when the battery runs out quickly

So, we come to the question of what to do if the battery at Android runs out quickly. First of all, we look at the battery statistics, calculate which services consume the most. After that, you can close them through RAM management or active application management. To do this, go to your device's settings and find the Application Manager section.

Next, go to the 'Active' (or 'Running') tab using a swipe (from right to left or vice versa, depending on the device model).

The active programs will be displayed here. You can find the application you want and stop its process. But you should understand that it will still start after a reboot or on its own when you start certain programs. Therefore, in order to avoid large energy losses, try not to install too many programs, remove those that are no longer needed. Also, remember to unplug Bluetooth GPS and Wi-Fi adapters when not in use. This will significantly increase the autonomy of work.

Reduce the brightness of the screen in the evening and indoors. Strong brightness not only consumes power, but also irritates the eyes when it is dark. If you find out that the MediaServer is causing the problem, then there are different options for solving the problem. But first of all, you should check for corrupted files, and also check for errors in the files via a PC. As a last resort, if a complete memory cleaning and checks do not help, there is the Media Server Killer application. But it requires root access.

For more information on this topic, see our article 'Saving battery power by Android'.

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Correct operation of the battery

Finally, let's talk about how to properly use the battery on mobile devices. Typically, the vast majority of manufacturers use two types of batteries:

• Li-Pol (lithium polymer) – such batteries deteriorate from the number of charges (charge cycles).
• Li-Ion (lithium-ion) – deteriorate from time to time. No matter how you take care of them, they will still fail over time.

The conclusion suggests itself. If you have Li-Pol, charge it to 100% and use the device until the battery runs down to 5% (maximum). If such a battery is completely discharged (deep discharge), it will negatively affect its performance. If you have a Li-Ion battery, it doesn't matter how you charge and discharge it, but it's better according to the above principle.

No battery 'likes' deep discharge. But to recharge it is simply impossible. The fact is that a charge controller is installed in the batteries and in the phones (tablets) themselves. It simply blocks the reception of charge for the battery when it reaches 100%.

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The battery is running low on Android: Video