Battery Drain in Canada

[Joe4904]

I live in the metro Detroit area.  When I go across the river to Windsor, Ontario, with a fully charged battery on my Droid Charge, I get a low battery alarm after about 3-4 hours without overtly using the phone.  When I'm in the US, my battery lasts 24 hours under the same conditions.  Why is my battery running down so fast when I go to Canada?

[Elitist_Jerk]

your phone is trying to pick better towers

[WCMack]

Dear Joe,

I don't know, but can you tell us some things that might help us make a guess?

What level of network were you getting in Canada vs. at home? 4G? 3G? 1x?

Were you running any services in Canada that you don't at home, such as GPS?

Thanks.

[Joe4904]

I have the same things running in Canada as I do in the US.  Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and Mobile data are on.  Latitude is on.  I didn't change to CDMA mode in Canada.  The only thing I noticed was the Roaming signal coming on while in Canada.  Could the roaming cause the drain on the battery charge? 

[WCMack]

Don't know for sure, but it seems logical...

[JerryF · Accepted solution]

Joe4904,

Here is an answer because we get that all the time when we camp/park our motorhome near the border or just across into Canada.  First and foremost your phone keeps trying to connect to a cell phone tower in the US.  Once in a National Forrest where there were absolutely NO cell towers the phone used the entire battery up in about 4 hours trying to connect.   

Then, in your case, the Wi-Fi keeps trying to find  a Wi-Fi connection.  In between all this, if it did not automatically close itself down, the Mobile Data connection keeps trying to connect to 4G and if not 3G.  Then your follow-me GPS tracking is always tracking you.  That's a lot of mAh's being used up.

For the record, Its mostly the phone trying to find non-roaming towers or trying to connect to weak or non-exhistant signals, followed by Wi-Fi.

Joe...I am interested in one thing if you will share it with me, why do you keep Wi-Fi and Mobile Data on at the same time?

On my phone when I turn on Wi-FI and it finds a network the Mobile Data is automatically turned off by my phone.

Best of luck

JerryF

[Joe4904]

Thanks!

[JimBBerkeley]

Does running the phone on LTE setting when only 3g is available decrease battery life? 

Hello, 

Currently there is a 4g outage in California. I've been running the phone on LTE setting but only getting 3g service. The battery seems to be draining more than usual. Is there an explanation for this?  Is it better to change to CDMA setting? 

Any feedback would be appreciate. 

Thanks.