Google Services uses more battery as it encompasses more things, but that doesn't help with the confusion factor
Jonathan wrote in with a concern:
Battery drain since 4.3 and/or new PlayStore
Am I the only one to have this problem? I have the same situation on both Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 10. Play Services takes a great chunk out of the battery.
Thank you.
It's not just you, Jonathan. Seems like everyone running the combination of Android 4.3 with the new Google Play services (which, really, everyone should have by now) is seeing the Google Services entry in their battery list with bigger numbers than we're used to seeing. This makes sense — it's doing more than ever.
The good news is that for most people it's not really keeping the CPU awake very often. That's what abnormally kills your battery. After some investigation and discussion, we think that the Google Services now encompasses more "stuff" so it uses more battery, and some change in the way it gets reported are the cause of what you, and everyone else is seeing.
But that's not the root issue.
Google needs to change the look of the Battery information screen in the settings, because what the numbers show us isn't the whole story. Follow along.
Have a question you need answered? (Preferably about Android, but we're flexible.) Hit up our Contact Page to get in touch!
That's Jonathan's Battery statistics screen. Before we go any further, thanks for making me look at the Jungle Heat game — it looks pretty damn awesome. Enough of that, let's look at those numbers.
We see what we're used to seeing, but what we're used to seeing is pretty useless without doing a little calculation. In Jonathan's case, Google Services did not use 20 percent of the battery. It actually only used 5.4 percent. Don't pay attention to the numbers, instead pay attention to what they mean.
Jonathan's Nexus 10 has 73 percent of a battery charge left. That means, only 27 percent of it has been used by everything that used any of it. That 20 percent figure you see for Google Services is really 20 percent of 27 percent. You need to do a little math, even though we all hate math.
((100-73)*.20) = 5.4
That means 100 percent (the fully charged battery), minus the amount of charge left (that's 73 percent per the top of the screen) leaves us with the total amount of battery used — in this case, that's 27 percent. Of that 27 percent that's been used, 20 percent of that went to Google Services, meaning that 5.4 percent of a full charge has been used in the 1 day, 13 hours, 22 minutes and 20 seconds the Nexus 10 has been off the charger. That number is bigger that we used to see for Google Services, but it's not an abnormal amount compared to everyone else. The screen is just confusing, and has always been.
Google needs to fix this. Somewhere in the mix of numbers and percentages, they need to tell us the amount of the overall charge that each entry has used, not the percentage of the used percent each has used. See — I told you it was confusing.
This is a better representation of exactly what's been eating away at that battery. Make it a card that opens when you tap or long press on something, We all love cards. Or do it some other equally simple way, just show us what those numbers and percentages mean so we're not switching from the Battery settings screen to the calculator app to figure it out for ourselves. You can do it, Google.
Reader comments
Google Services, battery usage and other areas of confusion
This math makes no sense. When the battery reaches 0 google would still have used 20 percent.
In my case my battery had 2% left in 16 hours, and google services used 29%. And this is S4 phone.
I like the pie chart. I really do. It should be a long press on battery in settings or something.
As long as the NSA doesn't record it.
You for example have a "all other" in the pie chart. Is that where the phone usage is? Or you just don't make phone calls?... Doesn't matter, they record every keystroke of what you do no matter where or how you do it...
Thanks Edward Snowden. He showed us the high cost of stepping forward, we need more heroes like that to engage honest investigative journalism. I could never learn to speak Russian, holy cow.
Could CyanogenMod be used to curtail "Big Brother's prying eyes?"
I've always assumed not. One can always use Airplane Mode. Or use it as a decoy. Leave it at the rental while you go home. I'm not that paranoid, but I am seriously self reliant. My folks brought me up that way so I could enjoy being free and independent. So while I am here on my soapbox I will digress with a link to my page, and beg your pardon, but I'm all lit up about being lied to.
http://lango.us
why don't show all my last comment in all lenght?
and when this problem will be fixed? still showing that same "math problem" when we get, all, fix of that problem on all devices?
I don't care what percentage of the battery is used by what. I want to know "what can I turn off so the battery lasts overnight and the phone isn't warm in the morning". If I can't turn off any of the things included in Google Services then it's irrelevant what they use. Unless of course the answer is "nothing you do can significantly reduce battery usage except powering off".
Ok, that seems to have fixed it. But now I need to restore my phone. Joy!
This started happening to me yesterday morning. Phone lasts about 5 hours, Google Services taking upwards of 2/3 of the battery.
Wakelock Detector shows phone can't achieve deep sleep at all, unless I disable all data connections and clear data of the Google Services Framework application. Then it will achieve sleep, until I reenable data, at which point it's back to behaving like a dick.
After trying several things to remedy this, now even Google Now, Google+ and location services are broken. Google Now says there's no connection available, Google+ can't reach server, location services says I'm not signed in and calendar has problems syncing. WTF is going on?
I'm gonna do a nandroid backup and a factory reset... bbl
great - where did you go to school Jerry? The battery chart shows the percentage of battery usage since fully charged till present time! everyone knows that . You logic is flawed. No one said it takes 20% of total battery capacity - but every one knows it means it is using 20% oif battery usage thus far.. stupid article...
Before Android 4.3, my top 3 services: Phone idle, Screen, Cell standby, Android OS. Battery level went down 1.5% per hour on average. Since 4.3, battery reduces at 5.5% per hour on average, with Google Services at the top of the list. Its Keep Awake value in hours is 40% of the time "on battery" value. So something is wrong and it's recent.
Since updating to 4.3 my battery life us plummeted. And Google services is at the top....
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android does not seem to care about battery life. I have noticed this going from 4.0 to 4.1 to 4.2 and so on. every new release just rapes battery more and more. the android solution is to dump more battery capcity. when will Google learn to optimize battery usage? so far I have not seen any effort in the battery usage reduction whatsoever.
Wow. That makes so much more sense.
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I think Google services issue of battery drain is present in non 4.3 devices because it's constant drain on my Galaxy S4 since recent Google play update but on my Nexus 4 & new Nexus 7 Gen 2 it's not a constant drain. I think Google changed things with the playstore to run with 4.3 specifically & didn't take into account devices running below 4.3 because it seems to only affect phones running those lower versions. Google shouldn't have updated Google play for devices running less than 4.3.
If you can't intuit that Google Serices in the example has consumed 20% of the 27% total consumption up until the point of the reading, then you might consider switching to Iphone. Really, this is hardly rocket science. How is this even remotely confusing?
Nice explanation, BUT that doesn't negate the fact that my battery life has been halved since my GNex updated to 4.2.2 . That on top of all of the charging bugs. An in the end, the "good thing" I get is a screen that keeps popping up when I don't want it. I'd rather shut off google now altogether.
I believe Google has it right. The above is tested on 27% battery used. The ratio is still correct, 20% of the usage was Google Services. Not sure why the user was complaining that his battery doesn't last long when he has 73% after 1 day but if we were to see a screen shot when his battery is down to 10%, it's possible that Google Services will still be around 20%, and not 5.4% like he says.
To put it simply, a car shows you miles per gallon, not how many gallons it has used so far. The ratio is the ratio.
This post probably made sense late at night, but probably should have been reviewed after a little sleep and then deleted. The system is currently displaying exactly what it should. I want to see the percentage contribution for each program to the current battery drain. The percentage of the total battery capability really isn't very useful.
Thanks to boomerb5 for the tip on the rescan media app. Media Server was sucking a lot of juice on my S3.
I just want to know why in the span of a couple hours Google feels the need to have my GPS running for 8-10 minutes. Relax guys, I'm at work. In the middle of a building without visible windows.
If I kill GPS I instantly add hours to my battery for the day. It's annoying to re-enable it when I do use the Nav but I'll take the increased battery life. Based on the location of the wifi I'm on the GPS usage is a bit over the top IMO.
The keep awake stats are higher than I'd like but the GPS is really the biggest culprit.
What I find frustrating on the battery stats is that my phone is on and off charge several times a day. I charge whenever I am in the car or at my desk, however the time on battery seems to only reset if I reboot the phone or hit 100%. So when I have 88% battery left and it tells me I have been on battery for 6 hours, *BUT* I have charged during my commute and for a couple hours at my desk, how do those numbers work? Is it only gathering stats when actively discharging? What about when I am charging in the car and using Navigation, (which will slowly drain the battery in my GNex even when plugged in)? At best the battery information screen is an approximation with too many details missing...
Honestly, I think what you propose would be more confusing, not less. What they need to fix is Google Services sucking up all the battery! ;)
Loving the pie chart breakdown idea, Jerry!
Nonsense.
No guys (at Android central), your analysis is correct, we all know that the percentage shown is not the absolute percentage of battery that has been used by the service, but here the problem is different.
For the last 2 years, I've always put my phone in airplane mode during the night. I've never used more than 1% of the total charge and google OS has never used more than 2-4% of this charge.
The situation changed dramatically, with the phone using sometimes up to 15% ot the total charge in one night with airplane mode on (no wifi, no network) and with google os taking up to 40-50%.
An analysis with Better Battery Stats shows that the service is preventing the cpu from going in deep sleep mode.
At first, I was able to solve the problem by disabling background location tracking in gmaps, then the problem came back and I had to globally disable all location services in the global android preferences.
This is not just a matter of interpreting battery stats, this is a major problem that google should address soon.
Exactly. This is currently ruining my nexus 4 experience and has me looking at other os's. Google's reluctance to address their services battery drain means at 3 pm I need a charger.
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Yup. Google hasn't been on my good side lately with making all their apps less user friendly for the sake of being better looking. Combine that with the forced google + BS for everything, YouTube ads, and the huge battery consumption has me thinking they really aren't running google as a whole worth a crap right now. I've been with Android since 2.0 and I feel like they are taking a dump on me and I am also looking into other operating systems.
Ditto!
I think, Jerry, that you must consider us imbeciles. The figures provided by Android are correct. Google services has used 20% of the battery consumed since last reset. There is no reason to suggest that if we continued to use the phone in the same manner, when the phone died Google Services would have accounted for 20% of the total battery consumption. You can try and call it 5.4% or whatever you like but it's still hogging the battery. The way that Android displays battery usage is not 'the real issue'!
@Jerry you state that it would be better to show how much a given app consumed of the whole charge. But that number would be misleading, too! If the battery consumption was improved to hold twice as long as usually, your suggested numbers will not show this.
The best would be to show how much of the whole charge was consumed per time!
Think of it like this: in 4.3 Google has made some improvements that made every app consume less battery. The percentage will decrease for normal apps. As the percentage still needs to sum up to 100 it will need to increase for something.
It is always a good sign if the system takes more of the percentage. It means low battery usage overall.
^^^ THIS^^^
But why does the battery life increase so much when wifi and network location is unchecked?
Because a large percentage of the users of this site, including some of its writers apparently, feel it is impossible for Google to release something with a bug.
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Completely untrue. But many visitors of this site, and (I believe) the authors, feel that it's important not to run around yelling that the sky is falling.
5.4% of the battery over a span of 37+ hours is hardly a "battery hog". I have no doubt that disabling network location would lower that even more. Especially since Google Now is going to be querying for the device's GPS location fairly frequently. However, that doesn't make it a bug, nor a battery hog.
We're not talking about 5% consumption in an hour or two here. We're talking about less than 0.15% battery per hour, which is quite efficient for something that has to do so much background work, especially when that work frequently requires turning on the device's radios.
And none of that is to say that it isn't possible that Google could make that even more efficient. I'm just saying that it's nothing to panic over.
I can't agree with that since the overall power consumption has increased. It is not just a question of proportions being different.
The abnormal battery drain stops completely if you uncheck wifi and network location. This is found in location services. It is a Google problem with recent update.
The abnormal battery drain stops completely if you uncheck wifi and network location. This is found in location services. It is a Google problem with recent update.
On my N7 (2012 model, unrooted, stock) I have not experienced any issues for the year of ownership until the 4.3 update. After the 4.3 update, amongst other new errors, I was experiencing the exact issue from Google services consuming more battery than I would expect (or have ever noticed). The N7 battery life went down to only a couple of hours after pulling it from an overnight on the charger, and the device now presented periods of significant lag doing anything (upwards of 5 seconds for any input). The device also had to be shut down to charge at all if I was using anything but the default charger it shipped with. I contacted Google device support and they suggested that I back up my device and to a full wipe/factory reset. "Yeah sure, wipe and factory reset" I thought, (this reminds me of any PC service help desk asking you if your PC is plugged in).
I unnervingly did the wipe/factory reset. It took one login and about 30 minutes, but the device restored itself automatically. I restored my personals from my backup.
My N7 has been restored to buttery smooth response, and loads up apps as fast as I can select them. Google services battery consumption does not even show up on the battery stats, and my device has returned to passing my personal "light surfing + three movies on a charge" tablet battery gage. Heck I just spent the last three hours playing youTube videos and I am sitting at 67% battery left.
I am not going to speculate on the cause, but a factory reset did correct the issues for me.
- happy days in the magical world of gadgetry we live in :)
The only time I see Google services at the top of my list, is on days my phone is idol. The display is your biggest battery hog. If you aren't using the display, obviously other things will show as using a higher percentage...but the battery is still almost full.
I have Location Reporting, Location History and Google Now ALL OFF.
For example, at the moment, 46% of my battery has been used after 9 hours and Google Services took 11% of that, consisting of:
CPU total: 3m 21s
Keep awake: 43m 58s
GPS: 10m 43s
Why did Google Services keep my phone awake so long? Why did it use GPS so long? What did it do when I have most location stuff off?
Jerry! You are letting me down. As your explanation is technically accurate. The consumption is still 20% of the battery used so far. And 20% is too much in my opinion for Google play services.
I hope this is improved soon.
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Remember the percentage has to sum up to 100%. If the system does not take that 20%, other apps have to take it!
I rather have most of the battery be consumed by a system apps. It means low battery usage overall.
agreed, i think this article needs to be taken down lol
Can anyone please help explain to me how Google Services ate 500+MB of my data? Like seriously, wtf? Luckily, I have unlimited data, but still...
http://i.imgur.com/wnjVKdR.png
Thanks!
Everything on Android takes data. You can't do shit on these phones without sucking huge amounts of data. Without unlimited it's a pain.
HTC ONE ~ Android Central App
Maybe it's the same amount as before, but now it just counts as playservices.
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Google Play Services is responsible for syncing pretty much everything Google-related on the device. So, if you've got all your photos set to automatically sync up to Google+, or if you're got docs on Drive that you update a lot and they're set to sync, or if you frequently get large email attachments, etc...
Or any combination of the above. I think *part* of the problem here is that all these tasks are being displayed under a single "umbrella", so people are not understanding what all is going on behind the scenes.
double post. . .
There is nothing wrong with the battery depictions and stats. We've used them with Better Battery Stats, Greenify, Battery Stats Pro/Battery Saver and even Juice Defender to identify and limit apps that won't sleep or overuse our power.
Simply put, Google services are battery hogs.
- Maps uses significantly more battery than mapquest
- Google now eats battery like few other apps
- Google+, and now the new Google play with 4.3?
Switching from Maps to Mapquest made a noticable improvement to my battery life. (And it limits Google's tracking of my every location!) So too, opting out of Google Now helped a lot as well.
I'm experiencing this issue with my GS4 running 4.2.2. :(
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Thanks for answering a question that bugs me whenever I look at CPUz (great, simple app) info on my Nexus 10.
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I noticed same pattern today. Stock Verizon Galaxy Nexus 4.2.2. After 8+ hours on battery and 47% remaining it doesn't bother me.
4.3 has been magnificent on my N4. Just today, from a full charge to 1%, I had 12 hours 5 minutes 36 seconds with 5 hours 42 minutes of that being screen-on time. I made a post on the Verge forums about it earlier this afternoon. My biggest complaint about the N4, but now that's been fixed and I'm as happy as a pig in the mud. Now, where's my Moto X, lol.
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BTW, all my apps including Google Services are up-to-date.
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My dude!!
HTC ONE ~ Android Central App
I have a Nexus with 4.3 the battery seems to last no more than 2 days with almost no use. This is very very annoying.
I have experienced this on my phone for quite some time, and I'm on Android 4.0.4! It started a few versions of the Play Store ago but can't remember which one. Google Services is consistent in being among the Top 3 battery killers, at least according to the inaccurate Battery Statistics screen.
The percentages are correct!
We don't need or want to know how many percentage from our battery were sucked up from an app! That's confusing and useless information!
20 percent means from all things sucked on my battery THIS sucked 20 percent of it. With 90, 50, or 10 percent battery left - if the sucking stays the same - the 20 percent stay the same.
This is right and good so!
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Agreed. Knowing that something took up 5% of the depleted 27% is silly. OCD people may need to know the exact amount but I prefer to know what made up the ratio of the depleted battery.
My stock unrooted Nexus 10 on 4.3 is running at 8+ hours on battery right now, Screen is 62% usage & Google Services is 3%, that's acceptable to me. My stock unrooted Droid 4 on 4.1.2 is at 8+ hours on battery, screen is 41%, Google Services is 2%, also acceptable. Both have tracking & remote wipe activated on Google Services.
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I'm running Android 4.2.2 on my Nexus 4 (custom ROM) which all of a sudden, a few weeks ago, was draining battery something shocking.
Google Services was at the top of the usage meter - above display/screen. I tried everything to work out what was causing it, including removing and adding my Google Account, clearing the cache and uninstalling and then installing all Google apps again, I even tried stopping the system update receiver using ROM Toolbox - I thought maybe the 4.3 update was trying to get through.
Nothing at all worked. In the end I had to do a full wipe/format and flashed the ROM again. Today, two weeks on, everything is running extremely well. No battery drain issues what so ever.
I never did find out what was causing the issue but it happened overnight. One day it was fine - everything running perfect, the next day it was not.
Jerry, I am a fan, but you lost me on this one. The current implementation shown the overall percentage each service is using as it should. The overall capacity of the battery should not be part of the equation. If the device has used 500mah or 1000mah from the battery, the current system shows the overall percentage of the energy used at it's current state.
You will redeem yourself on the next one I'm sure!
I think people need to realise Google play services has a lot to do with how our phone works ie syncing game achievements, app data, g+ syncing etc ie removing a notification on a tablet removes it on other devices is done all through Google play services I think and even then the actual CPU usage out Google Play services is very slim.. I remember one time on my s4 Google play services has a usage of 48% but the CPU usage was only like 10min or less and I also had over 4 hours of on screen time...
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That's largely because Google Services does a lot of send/receive operations over the cellular radio, which can be quite battery expensive but doesn't require much CPU power to do it.
Lol at the article. I am not interested to know how much battery has been used by an app when it was fully charged once upon a time ago. I am interested to know how much a service uses battery from the charge it has now.
Jerry - I agree and disagree at the same time. I agree the pie chart would be the best. But in the absence of going to a pie chart I think the current display (20%) is better than your proposal (5.4%). I don't think it is important in this display what the exact amount of battery used is. What is important is finding out what is using the most (compared to other apps) and how much more they are using.
If we apply the same formula for the screen, we get 7.8% (versus 5.4%). So, Google Services is taking almost as much battery as the beefy super hires screen in the Nexus 10.
It's too much, even if Google Services has more to do in Android 4.3. What Google needs to fix is this abnormal Services consumption, not the way it's displayed.
If google services is using 50% of your battery it's using 50% of your battery. If you've used 25% or 100% of total battery life. Also the google services battery drain goes to nearly 0 if wifi and mobile location is switched off!
Wow excellent breakdown. I sent my email this morning and already all that info. Pretty neat! Great article.
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Yeah, the more I read this, the more this doesn't make logical sense.
To give a comparable example:
About 90% of commentators here disagree that this is a better way to look at battery life
However this only takes account of a small percentage of the overall AC membership, so by the suggested logic the real way to view the overwhelming feedback here Jerry is to say that only about 0.2% of registered AC Central users disagree ;)
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This is on my sgs4 with 4.2.2 already the same for a long time.
Today 48% battery left, 13h 22m on battery, 48% used by Google services, 23% by the screen, screen on time 1h 5min
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Well said SNOWDROID
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I cannot believe how stupid this article is.
Whatever you are smoking, stop it now.
What android is currently displaying is correct. If the current usage pattern continues until the battery is dead, the percentage numbers will not change
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Great information, but is it necessary to condescend to us by suggesting that math is hard and everyone hates doing it? This was easy to understand and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks so.
If you haven't read many of Jerry's articles, let me fill you in:
He's frequently sarcastic, and sometimes a bit snarky, but rarely wrong or condescending :)
My Nexus 4 is currently at 14% (1d 12h on battery) and only 2% has been used by google play services.
I like the current way of showing the battery usage and don't think they should change it :)
Do you have a chromecast?.... when I use my device with chromecast my Google service battery kill percentage is always very high.
If this question was meant for me: no I don't have a Chromecast.
I live in the wild region of far far away Canada where we don't have Music, Wallet and Chromecast. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to kill a bear and start a fire before the shinny circle of fire falls down again, ay!
Lawlz!
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Is that a little sarcasm i notice in your voice. Lol
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The way it's displayed now makes perfect sense to me but I have noticed that most people don't really understand it. These people aren't necessarily any less intelligent, they're just not "math people." When I look at that screen and see my battery at 73% and screen usage at 29% that my screen accounts for 29% of the power I have used SO FAR. However, there are many people out there who would never see 73% remaining and 29% used and say, "those numbers just don't add up." Jerry is proposing that we help those people out because they just aren't able to see things the way we do. Thanks, Jerry.
+1 exactly
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Fuzzy math! I want to know what's killing my battery... So I NEED to know the percentage of what's killing it.... 20% is to high for Google services. So if you use the whole battery, Google services will still kill 20% at that rate..
However you represent, absolute or relative, Google Play services will eventually consume 20% of the total charge for this case. Add a few phone calls (30-40 mins), some SMS, a Whatsapp account, MS Exchange email for work, a personal GMail account and you are looking at battery low warning around 6 PM, possibly every day. Much earlier if you use any extra messenger app (avoid Hangouts in this case)
Is there a willingness from android dev. team to address the battery consumption problem? Going by experience(mine only) on progressive JB releases, I don't see that. In its description on Play Store:
"Google Play services is used to update Google apps and apps from Google Play. This component gives you access to Google Settings and helps apps speed up offline searches, provide more immersive maps, and improve performance."
I don't know, so I ask:
Which part of these wasn't being done without Google Play services in earlier versions? How has performance improved?
In *my* experience, even updating apps from Google Play on my device is slower since I upgraded to JB releases. Is it all worth that 20%? If not, can i just uninstall it?
Nope, says the same description of this 3.3 rated service: "Apps may not work if you uninstall Google Play services. You probably need this component." (e.g. Youtube app wont work)
You're logic is a bit off.
1) This clearly shows that the device has already been running for over 37 hours, so the argument that Google Services would kill your battery in a day is moot.
2) You're making an assumption that the Google Services drain is consistent. As mentioned above, it may be tied into using a particular app.
3) You're math is flawed: Even if the Google Services accounted for 20% of all battery usage when the battery is dead, that doesn't automatically mean that it will cause your battery to drain super quickly.
In the screen shot above, the device lists 37 hours, for 27% battery usage. Using a quick equilateral equation says that under this same level of drain, the device would last for a total of 137.037 hours. That's 5.7 days.
Just because something is consuming 20% of all battery usage doesn't mean it will kill the battery quickly. You have to take into account the *rate* at which the battery is being drained.
In this case, that's 0.7% per hour, which is actually really good.
Your logic is flawed
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So... you are saying that Google Services used 20% of the amount of battery life it used from full charge to now, which is in this case 27% of a full charge. And this comes up to about 5%. Okay. But what happens when you have used 100% of your battery? What's 20% of 100%? Google Services will have taken up 20% of your battery charge, not 5%. 20% is 20% is 20%. You will have used 5% of the overall battery charge when you have used only 27%, but when you have completely used up your battery, you will have given 20% of that charge to Google Services. And that's pretty bad
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Not necessarily. It may have just been actively using battery during the time you've used it so far, but then not use anymore the rest if the day. It's not a constant battery drain.
twolastnames' experience mirrors mine. Additionally, if you use a wakelock detector or battery use inspector app you will notice that NlpWakelock and NlpCollector cause the device to come out of Deep Sleep A LOT. Contrary to the article, it is waking up the device, using the CPU, and draining the battery.
Disabling Network and Wifi Location causes this drain to vanish completely and Google Services to drop to the bottom of the battery usage list.
This bug also appeared in 4.2.2 and was associated with a previous version of Google Play Services. It then seemed to be fixed in an interim version and has reappeared with 3.2.25.
5.4% of the HUGE Nexus 10 battery in 1.5 days is too much!
BTW, I like the screen as it is.
My GS4 gets terrible battery life it I let Google use wifi for location and I'm not connected to wifi. And always in that case Google services is the cause. 4 hours screen on time with wifi location off, 1 to 1.5 hours screen on time with it on. Makes me crazy because Google only works with wifi location, unless I'm missing something.
fart
You're missing something. Google will happily use GPS and network location to determine location. I do not let it use WiFi for location, and it works fine.
Really? You actually had to write an article to say that the percent used by a service is not the percent of the whole full battery? Of course it isn't they mention what was used so of course it's 20% of the 27% used...
It's the same thing no need to add more confusion by bringing out a calculator or saying you need to bring one out.
I wonder if that's standard background Google play services usage, or if jungle play isn't making use of Google play services and looking like it's play services using the battery.
That's actually a really interesting idea. Presumable, the Google Services entry here would also include Google's new "Games" framework that could be syncing high-scores and watching for other nearby players.
If this person frequently plays a game that has been updated to make use of the new Games Framework, that could easily account for some added Google Services battery usage.
Although, I feel the need to point out, yet again, that 5% of the battery in 37 1/2 hours is really *not* a "battery hog".
Do you think is better to see 7.83%, 5.4%, 3.24%, 2.16%, 1.89%, 1.62%, 1.62%, 3.24% instead of 29%, 20%, 12%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 6%, 12% ?!?
For me is better the way it is implemented right now.
With one look you can know what's eating up your battery.
At least this way you'll know that about 1/3 of the battery discharge is done by display and 1/5 of the battery discharge is done by the Google Services.
Instead 7.83% and 5.4% doesn't tell me anything... Is it bad or is it good? I cannot know.
I'm on the latest (4.3/N4) and it's the very last in the list of apps taking battery. 3% to be precise. That's after a full days usage (it's 23:21 here).
Well I'm on 4.3 with a Nexus 4 and Google Services doesn't even appear on the list let alone top it.
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Maybe related to the battery meter change, there is a forum thread on HTC One GPe due to the fact that battery stats actually are wonky. It shows system using tons of battery, screen using not much, and rarely shows other apps use for me.
Thanks for the Jungle Heat tip. I'm on it and that is using battery now. Just because its fun haha :-)
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+1 yeah it's a battery drain but muchos fun!
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Yeah, Google needs to borrow a page from Microsoft, where they use "System Idle Process" in the Task Manager so that all of the active processes will add to 100%. That pie chart does this as cleanly as anything.
And for people who are seeing larger battery drain following an update, if "media server" is a significant contributor, download the "Rescan Media" (or "Rescan Media Root" if you are rooted) app from the Play store. Run it once and it will prevent the OS from re-indexing every media file (including photos). Also check which Google services are syncing. I have my photos auto-upload to G+; if I'm in a dead zone, my battery will drain quickly because the phone is trying (in vain) to upload.
I respectfully disagree. I like the current system because it shows which apps are draining more battery than other. It helps to see what is killing battery when you still have a lot left. But, it's not a big deal. What you suggested could be a nice addition.
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No, it would be a useless addition
Well i actaully reverted some of my phones back to ICS because on Jelly Bean the battery usage was so badly it wasnt normal anymore. i will take for example the LG 4X HD even with a 4500 mah battery the phone didnt last longer then 10 hours if even. Now on ICS it will lst easly 2 days. Something extremly left the battery just draining and even with apps that tell u what the cause is i couldnt find the battery drain. i uninstalled and disable a bunchof apps and it still didnt help. ICS was the savior. So not sure why but but Jelly Bean just was extremly bad on the battery. Like i said i took the LG 4X HD as example. I rather have some options less but battery better and Jelly Bean isnt really such a big difference besides google now. Project Butter still often makes some phoes even slower or still sluggish. And if ICS works better then i certainly downgrade. This is just my experience. Not that anyone else has to do this. For me it was the best option for battery life.
Did you try Gsam Battery Monitor and Wakelock Detector?
Two great tools to find your battery suckers.
What apps did you use that tell you what the problem is?
A good app to try is better battery stats in the XDA forums. It'll help you find your wake locks etc...
It could have been an app and not the OS. Most (but not all) people should see better battery life with JB.
Use better battery stats paid version. And the wake up is wifi mxl or mls mediaserver scan and some other things that is all software related. Seems that lg really did some screw up in jelly bean for that particular phone. I never really had that bad battery life n any other jelly bean phone.
Do you have music files stored on the phone itself? I ask because, historically, issues with the "MediaServer" running non-stop have been traced to "bad" or corrupted audio files. Some report that it's just the ID3 tags, but I haven't seen anyone declare this for certain.
This has been something of an on-going problem in Android since the early days. I had the problem myself at one point.
The Google Services predominance is there for me in 4.2 (wasn't there in 4.1), however, my battery is vastly better with 4.2 than 4.1, so I'm all for it!
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Why would I want to see the percentage of a full discharge cycle the app has used when the battery is still charged? Makes no sense at all.
Android does it right. It's showing me the percentage a service has eaten from my full battery until now.
Absolutely agree!
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Agreed 100%! The reason you want to see these numbers is to find out the fraction of battery power being used by different programs and services, so that if you are not getting sufficient battery life you can figure out why. This is exactly what Android is reporting.
This is for the millions of people that don't know what us geeks know. You know the type: The ones that think they will get the best Android experience out of a $50 Android device.
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I have never seen a $50 android device, unless you mean subsidized. The cheapest android handset is a Nexus 4, every other phone is from $500-650 new
Eh?
All those Galaxy Ace, Face, Ass, Fingernail, Toenail etc phones?
And these?
http://www.knowyourmobile.in/android/7311/top-10-cheapest-android-phone-...
And all those Chinese toys and KIRF phones that sell for anything from $50 to $100?
You need to realise there's a whole world of Android phones outside of the high-end flagships.
Hahahaha come to Nigeria.
Maybe you have never heard of Tecno ,Gionee etc selling for less than $50
Completely agree!
After reading this article, I'm hoping nothing like this comes along. We need more information, not less. What this article suggests is actually less information as it's taking a step back. To get anything meaningful out of the number this article suggests, you would have to calculate the percentage that Android is currently showing.
Personally I would like to see something similar to what BetteryBatteryStats or Wakelock Detector show. On the main screen show Google Services, but when we click it for more information it would be nice to see a breakdown of exactly what service within Google Services is using up the CPU, battery, etc.
Jerry is suggesting this IN ADDITION TO not replacing what Android does now. Both are useful, but the way it is presented now is confusing to people like the guy writing in.
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Sorry, but the guy writing in was only asking whether the new Google services would eat a lot of battery.
I don't even know why Jerry came up with the idea of wanting to see the percentage used from a full battery from the initial question.
I agree. Jerry's explanation changes nothing, google services is a battery hog and in this case is almost equal to the screen being on! NO APP should suck that kind of power except for gps nav fo a few hrs straight. Now google services borks older devices, just look at all the reviews for the app on playstore. I tried to use an old phone today via wifi and half the updated apps won't work because of how svs work now with the same sign on.
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Depends how much you use the device. If it's not much then screen percentage comes down
Galaxy S3
Transformer Prime
Nexus 7
Whooosh!
No shit Sherlock!
Well if only 27% of the battery has been used in over a day, you could pretty easily guess that the device wasn't used a whole lot. So why should you expect the screen to have used a bunch of power? Just because Google Services has used a high percentage in this case doesn't mean that it's hogging battery, just that nothing else has used much of the battery.
I believe *this* is exactly what Jerry was trying to explain, in the article, is not being properly conveyed to end users.
For an "app" that handles all the syncing and such on the device to have only used 5% of the battery during a period of more than 24 hours is actually *really* good.
IMO, this device was used a whole lot. this is a Nexus 10, which has a 9000mah battery. 27% is a big chunk of that.
Exactly.
I'm really surprised to keep seeing people saying that this is confusing... If you don't understand that [100-(29+20+12+8+7+6+6)] equals a LOT less than 73 and that doesn't raise a red flag to your perception, then you probably shouldn't look at this screen. Ever. Because you're not going to get it.
Android is absolutely doing it right, but maybe Google with satiate the 4th grade level math people with a toggle setting or something. Maybe Google should also provide absolute endless decimal places so that they don't have to round, either? Because I'm sure people would be right back here going "Wait - all these numbers don't add up to what I've used..."
The author didn't answer the original question and then went on a tangent of useless information.
The display is correct... App YYY is responsible for XXX of the power drain to date.
I suspected this, thanks for the clarification
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Excellent breakdown, thanks for this!