Which saves battery more: turning off background data or autosync?

[lorken]

Like others, I'm attempting to find ways to make my battery last longer. Now that I've finished my "new toy, lets play around with everything on it" phase, I find I use my vox primarily as an ereader, particularly on long commutes.

In order to conserve battery life, I always leave my vox in Airplane Mode and only turn on wireless when I want to use it (then I turn it off as soon as I'm finished).

I never use Sleep Mode; I always turn the vox off completely.

In addition to these habits, I have developed a routine every time I turn it on: I immediately go to running apps (I have a widget on my home screen so I don't have to go through the menu) and I force stop the following:

- Rdio
- Globe2Go
- Kobo Update Check
- System Update

The only apps I leave running are Settings and Android keyboard. (Every few days I will let the Kobo update check and system update programs run for a few minutes to let them do their updates, but mostly I leave them off.)

I also know from reading this forum that turning off Background Data and Auto-Sync will save on battery life. However, the vox only allows me to turn off one or the other -- it wont let me turn off both at the same time. (When I uncheck one, the other checks itself on automatically. I cannot figure out a way to uncheck both at the same time.)

So I'm trying to figure out which one will save me the most battery juice. Does anyone know? I will probably do a test by leaving it in one mode for a while, then the other, and then look at the battery life graph to see which has the slower drain...unless someone has done that already and can say which is better.

Or has anyone found a way to turn them both off?

Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks!

ETA: Oh, forgot to add that going through all the above gets me about 5 hours per charge...sometimes up to 5 hours 15 minutes.

[hieronymos]

There is no CPU scaling implemented in the firmware so the effect of all of this is near zero.

(Usually, 'ping' saves more battery but makes more problems.)

The only real way to save battery is to lower the backlight.

[Kboland]

Hey Lorken, I'd strongly suggest rooting the Vox (info can be found in the guides on this forum) and just permanently deleting rdio and Globe2go. It's simple to do and saves a lot of time/battery power down the road. I'd also try to find out if your Vox suffers from the 'wake from sleep' bug, in where if put in standby mode, it routinely turns itself on to display the lock screen for a few seconds. If so I'd suggest installing https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor&hl=en , as it will not only keep battery usage down during those 'phantom' events, but it will allow you to have dimmer reading at night if desired.

Cheers

[lorken]

Wow, two tips already, thanks guys!!

hieronymos -- So I've been doing all of this for nothing? bummer. (PS I forgot to mention that I do have the screen set to the lowest brightness, which I still find too bright.) Is 'ping' the same as autosync?

Kboland -- hmmm, you've given me lots to think about:

1) I'm not a real techie person so have been leery of rooting my vox...but after reading these boards I think I might be ready to try it at some point in the not too distant future.
2) I guess I should find out if it has the 'wake from sleeping' bug, even though I don't usually let it sleep.
3) I WILL install and try using the screen filter you recommend - It sounds like will definitely make use of it, since I find the screen too bright even at the lowest setting now.

Again, thanks to you both!

[Jesslynne]

It's actually funny I've never had such a bad battery and I tend to leave it in sleep mode all day and do suffer from the wake-from-sleep bug. I've always had it successfully stay charged all day, the power only draining while I'm physically using it.

That said, I am rooted and got rid of all the recurring bloat apps that keep opening themselves up in the background. And my brightness is at it's lowest setting and I use screen filter that Kboland linked you to. As well as turn airplane mode when not in use.

I'm not one who pays much attention to CPU use to keep battery loss at a minimum and I've never found the Kobo's battery too short lasted for me. The only time I charge it during the day is when I'm going to work in the evening - cause I use it as the demo unit.

That said, do root your Vox and us ES file explorer to remove rdio and globe2go, though you force quit on start up from experience before I removed them, they tend to reopen themselves when you're not paying attention. In Jeff's guide he also lists other apps that are safe to remove to free up some memory. You don't need to be overly tech savvy with the gingerbreak program and ES file explorer, just don't remove what you don't see is in the list as safe to remove.

- to do that versus what Jeff describes in ES file explorer, go to settings tick off root explorer and click the mount file system as writable.
- then back to the file folders and under favorites - click the directory that's just /, or depending on versions the sd card on the top right.
- go into system then apps, and you'll get a list of installed apps that are the ones preloaded.

And the app Kboloand linked you to can be also accessed through Getjar since he linked you to the marketplace and you need a rooted vox to get that app and following further steps that you may or may not be comfortable following.

[Kboland]

Originally Posted by lorken

1) I'm not a real techie person so have been leery of rooting my vox...but after reading these boards I think I might be ready to try it at some point in the not too distant future.

Yep, Rooting isn't scarey at all and is outlined well here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...05&postcount=2
As far as a file explorer to use, I use Root explorer:
https://market.android.com/details?i...RleHBsb3JlciJd
it's a paid app, and works well, but you'll need the market enabled to get it (unless you're adventurous and are willing to go through less 'legitimate' channels ) . I'm not sure if ES explorer can access the root folders (i assume it can).

Originally Posted by Jesslynne

And the app Kboloand linked you to can be also accessed through Getjar since he linked you to the marketplace and you need a rooted vox to get that app and following further steps that you may or may not be comfortable following.

True enough here's the Getjar link:
http://www.getjar.com/mobile/123466/...qm8w13&lang=en

Cheers

[Jesslynne]

Yeah ES can get to Root and it's free and available outside of the market.

As for Root explorer I heard some people have been having troubles with it.

[lorken]

Thanks Jesslynne and kboland, for all the info. Lots to think about there - I'll read up on it and I think I'll probably end up rooting at some point, when I'm ready. I've just started learning/reading about rooting though, and have a couple of questions right off the bat (and these might already be answered in the links you've given me, I haven't read them yet):

1) (question about warranty edited to say I got the answer to this one already from Jeff's root tutorial)

2) (question about unrooting edited to say I got the answer to this one too from Jeff's root tutorial)

3) if I decide later that I want the apps back, can I reinstall them?

(as I mentioned, if these are already answered in the other threads just tell me and I'll go look for them so I don't waste your time. )

[Jesslynne]

1) It has been discussed once before, but I believe the consensus was that the warranty is on the hardware, not the software. I've rooted my first Vox and was honest in telling them that I had and they still exchanged with me, as it was defective.. somehow.

2) You can unroot after uninstalling the apps, it's as simple as clicking the unroot button in the Gingerbreak up, just as it was just as easy rooting.

3) You can, the apps are available through the marketplace though, I'm not sure where else. As I'd gone through the steps of installing the market place it's been easy for me to get them back.

I will note that the facebook, gmail, youtube and twitter 'apps' that the vox comes with is only links to the online site, so uninstalling these will do no harm other than clearing up space, but there's no real replacing them I think. Other than with the actual apps. (in which if Facebook I suggest using Facebook 2.0 as the official one never works).

On (3) you can change the apk extension to bak and the app won't load. If you decide that you want the app back, change the extension from bak to apk.

[lorken]

Thanks guys. BWinmill, can I change the extension without rooting? (that seems so much easier...)

[mr_nobody]

No, you need root to rename them just as you would to delete them.