Forma Is my Forma finally showing it's age? (Very minor power problem)

Joliet Jake · 12-24-2021, 09:14 AM

I got a Forma as soon as it was available (October 2018), so now it's a bit over three years old. It has a sleep cover, and I normally have the wi-fi off, auto-sync is off, and only use the light at night. As a result, it lasts 2-4 weeks between charges. (It probably lasts longer, but I usually recharge it from over half of it's energy every two weeks or so.)

And yet I kept hearing people complain about their Kobos not lasting long. I didn't realize how bad it could get...

So last night, my Forma had about 92% charge. I bought a 6 MB anthology from Kobo, and figured it was easier to download that book through wi-fi. Of course I had to update first (a very minor update). The book was taking forever to download despite it's not terribly large size and it was late at night, so I just left the Kobo on overnight.

I woke up this morning, about 8 hours after I had done so. The screen said the Kobo was asleep. I woke it up and went to wi-fi to turn that off, and saw that power was reduced to 45%. That was a big surprise! This was the longest I had ever left the Kobo attached to wi-fi since I had set it up.

I call this a very minor problem because nobody should be leaving the wifi on for hours, but I think a lot of people don't realize this and so see very rapid power drain. So advice to anyone newer than me: turn off your wi-fi! The power drain appears to be much greater than the drain from using the light.

davidfor · 12-24-2021, 07:35 PM

The issue is not whether the WiFi is on, the issue is whether something is using the WiFi. I rarely turn WiFi off on any of my Kobo devices. The only reason I do is for some sort of testing, or when I know there is an update and I don't want to do it right now.

By the sounds of it, the sync, including downloading the book, took longer than usual. I suspect that you rarely do a sync, so this one would have taken longer. It would not be typical, so it wouldn't be good to judge the battery life on it. Try it again and see what happens.

12-24-2021, 09:14 AM	#1
Joliet Jake Zealot Posts: 111 Karma: 3098438 Join Date: Feb 2021 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Sage	Is my Forma finally showing it's age? (Very minor power problem) I got a Forma as soon as it was available (October 2018), so now it's a bit over three years old. It has a sleep cover, and I normally have the wi-fi off, auto-sync is off, and only use the light at night. As a result, it lasts 2-4 weeks between charges. (It probably lasts longer, but I usually recharge it from over half of it's energy every two weeks or so.) And yet I kept hearing people complain about their Kobos not lasting long. I didn't realize how bad it could get... So last night, my Forma had about 92% charge. I bought a 6 MB anthology from Kobo, and figured it was easier to download that book through wi-fi. Of course I had to update first (a very minor update). The book was taking forever to download despite it's not terribly large size and it was late at night, so I just left the Kobo on overnight. I woke up this morning, about 8 hours after I had done so. The screen said the Kobo was asleep. I woke it up and went to wi-fi to turn that off, and saw that power was reduced to 45%. That was a big surprise! This was the longest I had ever left the Kobo attached to wi-fi since I had set it up. I call this a very minor problem because nobody should be leaving the wifi on for hours, but I think a lot of people don't realize this and so see very rapid power drain. So advice to anyone newer than me: turn off your wi-fi! The power drain appears to be much greater than the drain from using the light.

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12-24-2021, 07:35 PM	#2
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	The issue is not whether the WiFi is on, the issue is whether something is using the WiFi. I rarely turn WiFi off on any of my Kobo devices. The only reason I do is for some sort of testing, or when I know there is an update and I don't want to do it right now. By the sounds of it, the sync, including downloading the book, took longer than usual. I suspect that you rarely do a sync, so this one would have taken longer. It would not be typical, so it wouldn't be good to judge the battery life on it. Try it again and see what happens.

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