What's eating my Nexus 6P battery?
November 5, 2015 7:34 AM Subscribe
I got a new Nexus 6P the other day. Part of its appeal was all the reviews said the battery life was really good - and would last approx a day and a half with sensible usage. But for the last two days, I have come to work with it charged, listened to about an hour of music with the screen off on my commute, then left it on my desk, hardly used it apart from checking a couple of messages and yesterday it died after 11 hours, today after 11 hours it's down to 12%.
When I look at the battery usage graph and stats, it shows which apps used what percentage of the power. But that only accounts for about 25% of the power so there is another 60% or so that's gone with no explanation... The power usage graph shows it falling off a cliff when I know it was just sitting there and should have been using hardly any power... Any ideas please? Do you think it's faulty?
When I look at the battery usage graph and stats, it shows which apps used what percentage of the power. But that only accounts for about 25% of the power so there is another 60% or so that's gone with no explanation... The power usage graph shows it falling off a cliff when I know it was just sitting there and should have been using hardly any power... Any ideas please? Do you think it's faulty?
If you click on the graph itself, it should give you a more detailed view for cellular, wifi, gps, awake, etc. That might hint at whats wrong.
posted by TheAdamist at 7:44 AM on November 5, 2015
posted by TheAdamist at 7:44 AM on November 5, 2015
Response by poster: Hmm.. It all seems to be getting drained by wifi! Is that normal? Thanks!
posted by KateViolet at 8:11 AM on November 5, 2015
posted by KateViolet at 8:11 AM on November 5, 2015
No, it is not normal for WiFi to drain your battery that much. It should be going into a low power sleep mode most of the time when your screen is off. However, some apps are well known for causing battery drain issues. (Facebook is one of them, uninstall it and use the mobile site instead)
posted by wierdo at 8:30 AM on November 5, 2015
posted by wierdo at 8:30 AM on November 5, 2015
Google Play Services is the culprit on my OnePlus One. According to the OP forums, there are a lot of temporary solutions, but the LT solution is to wait for Google to update their Play Services app. This has been a periodic problem with the updates to Play Services. If you search about it, you will see there is a problem with it going back to 2013. It is corrected in the next update (usually).
I had terrific success fixing it by doing a factory reset. It is a pain to reconfigure your phone especially after you just did it, but it might work.
posted by AugustWest at 8:45 AM on November 5, 2015
I had terrific success fixing it by doing a factory reset. It is a pain to reconfigure your phone especially after you just did it, but it might work.
posted by AugustWest at 8:45 AM on November 5, 2015
Is it possible that you have a shitty phone and/or wifi signal? I don't have a Nexus phone, but my iPhone's battery drains a lot faster when there's weak signal.
posted by yasaman at 9:49 AM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by yasaman at 9:49 AM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
When was the last time you turned off your phone? I have a Nexus 6 and sometimes have battery drain issues that are solved by turning it off and on again.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 10:32 AM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 10:32 AM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have a Nexus 6 and sometimes have battery drain issues that are solved by turning it off and on again.
My Nexus 5 (old, not 5S, but running Marshmallow) similarly sometimes needs to be powered off and on again to stop something draining the battery.
posted by anadem at 8:59 PM on November 5, 2015
My Nexus 5 (old, not 5S, but running Marshmallow) similarly sometimes needs to be powered off and on again to stop something draining the battery.
posted by anadem at 8:59 PM on November 5, 2015
Definitely misbehaving! My 6P is sitting here after being off the charger for 6 hours and using it to stream music for an hour with 94% of its life left, and I had 80% left at the end of the work day yesterday.
I'd start by deleting or disabling any non-essential app. Add things back as necessary.
One relatively easy way to do this is to enable the developer options . Jump back to the main system settings and you should see the 'developer options' section toward the bottom. Go in there, scroll to the bottom, and there's an 'inactive apps' section. Inside that you can tap individual apps to disable them.
Possible there's something wonky with the corporate wifi, too. If there's a different network or an alternative way to authenticate, use that. If not, maybe just turn off wifi and see if that was the culprit.
If none of this works, google's RMA process is solid. It's an early production device and things can be wonky. Had to send back my first one because the autofocus on the camera was totally non-functional.
posted by woof at 9:11 AM on November 6, 2015
I'd start by deleting or disabling any non-essential app. Add things back as necessary.
One relatively easy way to do this is to enable the developer options . Jump back to the main system settings and you should see the 'developer options' section toward the bottom. Go in there, scroll to the bottom, and there's an 'inactive apps' section. Inside that you can tap individual apps to disable them.
Possible there's something wonky with the corporate wifi, too. If there's a different network or an alternative way to authenticate, use that. If not, maybe just turn off wifi and see if that was the culprit.
If none of this works, google's RMA process is solid. It's an early production device and things can be wonky. Had to send back my first one because the autofocus on the camera was totally non-functional.
posted by woof at 9:11 AM on November 6, 2015
Does your wifi at work require a login and password? When I am at work, my phone recognizes the network, but until I actually go to the page to login, it seems to use a lot of battery. Once I log in, it seems to settle down. Often I just turn off the wifi capability so it doesn't try to find it, but I also get very few 3G/4G bars in my building, so it spends a lot of time searching for phone service too (sigh).
I plug my phone in any time I am going to be sitting at my desk, just to avoid all the care and feeding of the battery.
posted by CathyG at 8:12 AM on November 8, 2015
I plug my phone in any time I am going to be sitting at my desk, just to avoid all the care and feeding of the battery.
posted by CathyG at 8:12 AM on November 8, 2015
« Older Suggest a good Tarot deck for me and my kids to... | DIY birthday workshops/activities for adults Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
This usually means that an app or process is keeping your phone awake even if the screen is off. You can verify this by clicking on "use since last charge" and comparing the Awake bar to the Screen On bar - they should be more or less the same with a few extra blips in the Awake bar. If it's just a solid bar even when the screen is off, that is why your battery is draining.
posted by muddgirl at 7:39 AM on November 5, 2015 [2 favorites]