Touch Firmware 3.0.1 'Inaccurate' Battery Indicator

[AskzYDre]

Kobo replaced my Touch because the battery remaining depleted quickly (roughly 10 days with little reading activity, though I wondered if it wasn't just the firmware causing the problem). It seemed like earlier firmware ie 2.1 didn't really have the problem. The second Touch is nearly the same, now Tier 2 customer service is admitting there are 'inaccuracies' in the battery remaining indicator, ha! They claim that battery life should be the same (same as what??!) regardless of what the battery meter says. Has anyone else run into this, is this a known issue with all or just some Touches? It seems like customer service pastes responses whether they are related or not, and hope you will get tired of it and go away - without actually getting resolution. Suffice it to say that Kobo's customer service is terrible and I never thought I would say it but I think Amazon's is better.

[Thane1]

Just an FYI, 3.0.1 firmware has a new feature which makes your reader sync (automatically) every day without human intervention. You can turn this feature off if you don't need daily sync to kobo by going under 'settings' and then 'syncing and updates' and uncheck automatic sync.

Leaving it enabled I have noticed that the batter does get depleted faster; with it disabled I would say battery usage seems about the same as it was under the past versions of the firmware. As I recall they enable it by default so it could be part of the reason why your battery performance has gone sub par.

[icallaci]

I experienced extremely fast battery depletion on my Aura HD with FW 3.0.1. I had wifi and sync both disabled, so I believe the problem was caused by something else. Also, whether or not the actual battery was depleted (or it was just the meter reporting it incorrectly), once the battery was below 10% I was not allowed to use the reader until I charged it up again. The problem went away after I did a factory reset and upgraded the firmware directly to 3.1.1, bypassing 3.0.1 completely. (I originally tried upgrading from 3.0.1 to 3.1.1, but the problem remained. It was only when I bypassed 3.0.1 that the battery problem disappeared.) Good luck.

By the way, I emailed Kobo about this problem and they said they had never heard of it. I hope they aren't still saying that to people who contact them about this problem.

[AskzYDre]

Thanks Thane1 and icallaci. Question on the automatic sync - if you have wifi disabled, does the automatic sync override that to do its daily work? I'm pretty sure I have had that automatic sync disabled most of the time I have been testing and troubleshooting with them. I have since done a factory reset back to firmware 2.1 to see what happens. Wish that someone in authority from Kobo would reply to this. It is kind of frustrating to get different answers depending on when you contact them - first time they go to saying the device itself is defective and the second time they kind of admit it may be firmware but basically tell you to live with it. So yes, they are still saying that they have never heard of it - at least at Tier 1.

Here is what Tier 2 has said:
"We do not believe the latest firmware on the device is less battery efficient than previous versions and your overall battery time should be the same (regardless of the quick reduction to around 65%). To test this, please charge your device with a USB cable connected to a PC and use the device until you are prompted to charge it.

We have found that using wall chargers (and not connecting to a PC) to charge the device can cause the battery % remaining to become less accurate, although the overall usage time should stay the same.

As the battery meter is not hardwired to the battery then sometimes there may be some inaccuracies.

We do not believe that there is an issue with battery performance as a result of the latest update but acknowledge the accuracy of the 'remaining charge' that may not have been as apparent on older firmware versions. You can check if the battery is not affected by fully charging the device and using it until it is fully drained.

The latest firmware has features such as automatic syncing which can use more power. We have also found that charging a device using a wall outlet charger with give inaccurate readings of 'remaining charge', whilst he device will still charge.

We can pass your feedback to our development team and whilst we understand it is an inconvenience that the readings are not as accurate as they have been previously, we hope that your reading is not interrupted."

[filmo]

There is more than one place to turn off turn off reader connecting to internet I have them all turned off. Your router should be able to log mac address of every connection letting you know if your reader is connecting. Home screen for latest firmware on my Kobo Touch has last date of Sync.

Kobo, is not only reader having imperfect indication of charge state.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by AskzYDre

Thanks Thane1 and icallaci. Question on the automatic sync - if you have wifi disabled, does the automatic sync override that to do its daily work?

If you have the WiFi off, it does not get enabled for the automatic sync. It will only get enabled by an interaction with you. Either you turn it on directly, or you do something that needs the WiFi and it will prompt you to turn it on. The times I know of that this will happen is if you start a sync, open the browser, visit the store or try to download books.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by AskzYDre

Here is what Tier 2 has said:
"...We have found that using wall chargers (and not connecting to a PC) to charge the device can cause the battery % remaining to become less accurate, although the overall usage time should stay the same..."

This is absolutely not true in my case. I have 2 Aura HDs. The batteries in both stay charged for several weeks under every firmware EXCEPT 3.0.1. I noticed the problem because 3 days after I fully charged both Aura HDs to 100%, the one I was reading wouldn't wake unless I plugged it in (battery charge reported at <10%). So I plugged it in and went to get my other Aura HD so I could read. Tried to wake the other Aura HD (which was less than a month old at the time), and ... no go. It also reported a battery charge of <10%, and I hadn't used it at all since charging it to 100%, 3 days before. I have never experienced anything like this with any firmware other than 3.0.1. I am using 3.1.1 now and have been reading for 3 weeks on one charge, with 78% charge remaining.

[TechniSol]

It sure does sound like there is a problem for some with 3.0.1 as far as battery life goes. There were a couple of posts in another thread with the same issue on two Kobo Touch devices with the same firmware.

The other thing that has me wondering is why does Kobo maintain there may be a difference in battery monitoring if you charged with a charger vs. a USB port? The only explanation I could come up with might be current related, but unless they are integrating time against an A/D value I can't see how it'd make a difference. Further, considering the various current levels that can be supplied by different USB versions, I'm baffled as to how or why one might attempt such...

[AskzYDre]

As far as why Kobo maintains there may be a difference in battery monitoring, is anybody's guess. My impression is that they seem to say whatever and hope it sticks. I can't get a definitive answer from them. Not good customer service if Kobo is listening. Own any problems and fix them. They're really good at replacing a device (when they want to), but don't count on a lot of depth beyond that. I think the USB/PC charging is a slower charge so maybe in an older battery it may make a little difference but if the device controls how fast it charges (and 1.0 A is not THAT high or fast)...??

[Anak]

Originally Posted by AskzYDre

As far as why Kobo maintains there may be a difference in battery monitoring, is anybody's guess. My impression is that they seem to say whatever and hope it sticks. I can't get a definitive answer from them. Not good customer service if Kobo is listening. Own any problems and fix them. They're really good at replacing a device (when they want to), but don't count on a lot of depth beyond that. I think the USB/PC charging is a slower charge so maybe in an older battery it may make a little difference but if the device controls how fast it charges (and 1.0 A is not THAT high or fast)...??

Recharged my battery over USB connection to computer.
Green led light was off. Battery charged to 76%. Had to unplug/replug to continue the charging session. Green light on again. When done, the battery was charged to 100%.
Performed a sync. Nothing special, just the standard syncing stuff without any book downloads.

Battery levels
After charging/before sync: 100%
After sync: 89%
And disabled the WiFi after the sync.

My default WiFi settings are
WiFi: off (for a resync I need to manually activate WiFi)
Automatic sync: off (not activated)
Kobo notifications: off *
* Note: I activated notifications while syncing the device and switched it off again; no Kobo messages received.

Model: Kobo Touch (N905) old model
FW: 3.01 (644485e229, 11/21/13)

How long does a sync take? In the situation above less than a minute. Or a minute max. Haven't clocked it. Battery drain of 11%. IMO, that's a lot.

[AskzYDre]

Anak's findings are consistent with what I have seen. Imay be on the phone with Kobo's Tier 2 service this week or next to ask them about this.

[93terp]

I'm having same issue on my Aura HD with version 3.1.1. Charged up over wall adapter to 100%, read for about 4 hours on Sunday. WiFi was off the entire time. When I put it in sleep mode Sunday night the battery was at 94%. When I woke it up this evening from sleep mode the battery was at 64%. A 30% drop in about 48 hours doesn't give me a good warm & fuzzy!!

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by 93terp

I'm having same issue on my Aura HD with version 3.1.1. Charged up over wall adapter to 100%, read for about 4 hours on Sunday. WiFi was off the entire time. When I put it in sleep mode Sunday night the battery was at 94%. When I woke it up this evening from sleep mode the battery was at 64%. A 30% drop in about 48 hours doesn't give me a good warm & fuzzy!!

Did you update to 3.1.1 from 3.0.1? I started having battery problems with 3.0.1, which continued after I updated my Aura HD to 3.1.1. I had to do a factory reset and then upgrade directly to 3.1.1, bypassing all the intermediate firmware updates. Both of my Aura HDs have been behaving beautifully since I did this.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by icallaci

Did you update to 3.1.1 from 3.0.1? I started having battery problems with 3.0.1, which continued after I updated my Aura HD to 3.1.1. I had to do a factory reset and then upgrade directly to 3.1.1, bypassing all the intermediate firmware updates. Both of my Aura HDs have been behaving beautifully since I did this.

I'm pretty certain I did. I got the update over WiFi. I also did a factory reset last Saturday, which automatically gave me 3.1.1 when it was done. How would I do a factory reset and NOT get 3.1.1?

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by 93terp

I'm pretty certain I did. I got the update over WiFi. I also did a factory reset last Saturday, which automatically gave me 3.1.1 when it was done. How would I do a factory reset and NOT get 3.1.1?

I sideload all my firmware and books, as do quite a few people here. I mentioned bypassing 3.0.1 in case you also sideload your firmware. If you don't sideload your firmware, then you probably never had 3.0.1, since it apparently was not released for the Aura HD. (I put 3.0.1 on my Aura HD before I realized it wasn't meant for the HD.)

It's interesting (to me, not to you!) that you are now having battery problems with 3.1.1. I wonder if another factory reset and update would resolve it. I have two Aura HDs and both of them showed the battery problem after updating to 3.1.1 from 3.0.1, but maybe the problem is actually with 3.1.1 after all. It is just such a random thing. Not everyone has experienced it, so it's very difficult to track down. I wish you the best of luck. Maybe you should just contact Kobo and ask for a replacement reader.