Any way to adjust or turn off motion sensitivity?
bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

I'm finding that often times the motion sensitivity that triggers the Droid Mini screen to activate and there by keeping the phone in "awake" mode gets triggered very easily when working out with the phone. This leads to the battery draining fairly quickly at times when doing activities such as just walking with the phone.

I've done some quick searching and there doesn't appear to be an option to adjust the motion sensitivity. Has anyone seen an app or found a way to adjust or even turn off the motion sensitivity on a Droid Mini?

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ryanc_vzw
Verizon Employee
bennor3814,

That's a great observation.I can understand your concerns, I personally live by my battery life since I'm always on the go. I'll be happy to help. Unfortunately, I am not finding any information of turning off the motion sensitivity for the Droid Mini but we can look at other ways to conserve battery life. Just to clarify, the screen turns on automatically while it's in your pocket? When did the draining start?

I've searched the manual and I am not finding this setting: https://goo.gl/SEifIh.

RyanC_VZW

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bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

Yes the screen turns on automatically in my pocket (actually while its on my hip in the holster) due to movement. I've had intermintent battery drain issues lately with the Droid Mini that is typically caused by the Google Play Services keeping the phone awake in the background even while the screen is off. It started after the last Android firmware update on the phone. There are numerous complaints of Google Play Services (or an app that uses it) draining the battery. I've got another thread running on the Google Play Services battery drain issue: Google Play services massive battery drain

The problem seems to be in this instance, once motion triggers the screen to activate something (an app or Google Play Services) is then triggered in the background and it is keeping the phone awake for a period of time causing faster battery drain even though the screen turns off and the phone isn't used. It doesn't happen consistently which is another frustrating thing which is making this hard to troubleshoot.

I've been searching around trying to find some method of adjusting the motion sensitivity, but because the phone cannot be (easily) rooted there doesn't appear to be a way to get at the motion sensitivity setting with an app or to install a battery monitoring app to see exactly which app or Android service/module is being activated in the background and keeping the phone in "awake" mode leading to battery drain.

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katrinan_vzw
Verizon Employee

Thanks for the details and the link to your previous thread. Having the best battery life is very important. You mentioned that the issue doesn't happen consistently. What actions were you preforming on your device prior to the start of the battery draining, on the day where Google Play Services uses the battery? I would like to submit your device issue to our device team for investigation. Please check your inbox for a message from me.

katrinan_VZW

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bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

No actions were being performed on the phone. The phone is typically either in a pocket or on a holster (Otterbox Defender).

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bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

More information. Took a long walk and once again the motion was triggering the screen and keeping the phone in "awake" mode causing battery drain. No calls or texts were made/received during this time. Phone was not used at all, was kept in an OtterBox Defender holster on hip. Location is set to Off. WiFi and cellular data are both set to off. Only Calendar, Contacts, Gmail are set to sync under the Gmail account.

Screenshot_2016-11-16-10-01_zpspld35dze.jpg

Screenshot_2016-11-16-10-02_zpsjsdxqxr8.jpg

Screenshot_2016-11-16-10-03_zpse9r3isxc.jpg

The following screen capture highlights (in yellow) the times the phone was on while walking. Not sure what the green indicates under Mobile network signal. As these screen captures show, if the phone was kept in constant motion the battery would be drained after approximately 16 hours even though it wasn't used.

Screenshot_2016-11-16-10-04_zpsrjzgaf52.jpg

Phone: Motorola Droid Mini

Android version: 4.4.4

Android security patch level: 2016-04-01

Baseband version: MSM8960PRO_BP_23255.132.03R

Kernel version: 3.4.42-g2730d20

hudsoncm@ilclbld3 #1

sat Apr 16 01:02:35 CDT 2016

Build date: Sat Apr 16 00:51:01 CDT 2016

Build number: SU-7.7

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Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

Green in the signal levels means a good to great signal strength. The muddy yellow is a poorer signal strength.

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Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

Use this or a similar application to figure out what is causing the wake locks. Wakelock Detector [LITE] - Android Apps on Google Play

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bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

Ann154 wrote:

Use this or a similar application to figure out what is causing the wake locks. Wakelock Detector [LITE] - Android Apps on Google Play

Thanks for the suggestion.

I've been experimenting for the last day using that app and it was quickly determined that Active Display was the partial culprit. What appears to be happening is the motion is triggering Active Display (which doesn't appear to have any option to set the motion sensitivity or threshold) which while its on and keeping the phone awake due to motion, then allows other apps (like Email and Tapatalk) to trigger or activate in the background (for what ever reason) which then keeps the phone awake in the background even though the screen shuts off there by causing battery drain until the offending app is released and goes dormant. I've previously set the Email app to check every four hours but for some reason the Email app was triggering multiple times in less than four hours per WakeLock which was keeping the phone in awake mode.

So far the only solution seems to be disabling Active Display since there isn't an option within the Active Display app to adjust motion sensitivity/threshold. Once disabled the awake issue after motion triggers the screen to activate disappears and there is no longer signification battery drain due to phone motion.

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Ann154
Community Leader
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Sounds like the Email application and Tapatalk are the real culprits. I use the Active Display on two of my devices and I don't see anywhere near the battery drain you are experiencing. Maybe you could change the Email to push notifications instead of the 4 hour sync you have now to see how the phone responds. You can also remove Tapatalk from the phone to see if there is a difference.

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bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

While the culprits may be the default Email app and Tapatalk, when Active Display is disabled they are not keeping the phone awake even though they appear to be triggering a wake attempt. I suspect its the interaction between the Active Display app and the apps, Active Display or the apps by themselves do not cause the drain, but when they interact with each other they appear to cause a drain.

The Email accounts that I'm using do not support push so I'm stuck with the 4 hour mailbox check frequency.

For now the somewhat happy medium seems to be enabling Active Display BUT disable all apps that one can choose to appear on Active Display and enable More Privacy with Active Display. This way the phone screen can still be unlocked with a swipe after movement activate the screen but there doesn't appear to be as much battery drain. Down side is the on screen notifications are not available because they are disabled.

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bennor3814
Contributor - Level 1

An update for anyone who was having a similar problem. I have turned off Active Display all together and the battery life is now significantly better. With light usage can go two or more days before recharging. Went four days at one point (see screen captures below) before charging.

Here are the current settings I use:

Normally I have Data off since I'm around WiFi most of the time.

I unchecked Active Display in the Active Display app.

Set the email update frequency to four hours.

Under Advanced Wi-Fi set Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep to Never

Enabled Avoid poor connections under Advanced Wi-Fi.

Enabled Wi-Fi optimization under Advanced Wi-Fi.

Under Display, Sleep is set to 30 seconds.

Under Display, Brightness is set to Auto.

Screenshot_2016-11-26-17-12-51_zps59fl3pzq.png

Screenshot_2016-11-26-17-12-58_zpsweyhznhc.png

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andrewt_vzw
Verizon Employee

bennor3814,

That is definitely helpful information. We want to make sure your phone works just as you need it at all times. Checking on a wake lock is definitely a good idea. It may just be regular use though. With a motion sensor different movements will effect it differently. By default there isn't a way to adjust this other than to disable active display. Active Notifications - DROID Mini / DROID Ultra / DROID Maxx by Motorola | Verizon Wireless

AndrewT_VZW

Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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