Overall, since mid-November, my Droid Bionic with 4.0.4 has been working great after I did a clear system cache and got most battery-drain issues adjusted (off). On three occasions, though, my battery has gone from 60-70% to 0 (and turns the phone off, of course) in a matter of an hour or two just sitting doing nothing. Once I plug it in and give it a few minutes, it will let me turn it back on, usually showing about 5% charge. Here's the strange part though - it will totally charge to 100% in an hour or so. (Normally, going from 20% or so to 100% would take 3-4 hours.)
Specifically, one time this happened was mid-day on Nov. 20; another time was at about 8:00 PM on Jan 16. The third time actually happened overnight Jan. 2 or 3. Obviously, I can't say for sure how quickly it drained that time, but it did charge back up more quickly than normal, like the other two times I had this quick battery drain. (My normal overnight battery drain has been fairly consistent at only 10-12% since mid-November.)
Any ideas what could be causing this sporadic issue?
Thanks!
Maybe the battery is going bad?
That has crossed my mind. I don't know what the signs are that a battery is going bad, other than probably not holding a charge for a reasonable period of time. Except for these three incidents, this phone has been doing great since I cleared the system cache after going to 4.0.4, per your suggestion. (I kept notes on these incidents cause I was so "floored" when it happened the first time.)
I thought I'd see if anyone else has had a problem like this before I visit the Verizon store. I assume the phone (and battery?) have a year warranty, which will be up in mid-February. (Guess I need to dig out the paperwork on it!) Don't want to let it go past that if it has a physical problem!
I have the same problem. The battery life is pathetic. Even as I type this, I'm trying to recharge despite the phone only being turned on for about 6 hours and I haven't done anything with it. A friend suggested turning off some apps I had running and I tried that but no change. Half way through the day and the battery was down to 5%. That's just ridiculous.
Overall, I hate this phone. It's a real POS in my opinion. I've contact Verizon about switching to another brand. This is just a waste.
Hi ginnypres! I'm glad your phone has been working well since your you made your adjustments. Since this trouble with the rapid discharge has only happened on three occasions over a two months span, the most likely culprit would be application updates and not a defective battery. Most of the applications on your phone have frequent updates, separate from the full device software updates. I've personally come across multiple occasions where I will have a dozen or more application updates one day and then no updates for weeks. Those updates take a lot of power to process and it's very likely to drain your battery quicker than normal. Are you only using the charger & battery that came with your Bionic? Have you noticed if your phone is hot to the touch when the battery drain occurs? It's normal to be warm, especially when it's charging or working hard at updates, but excessive heat can be an indication of the battery needing replacement.
Thank you
JenniferH_VZW
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Thank you for the thoughts, JenniferH . . . My battery is the original battery and I usually charge it with the charger that came with it or the car charger I bought at Verizon. On the 3 occasions that the battery has totally drained, the phone had already turned itself off by the time I discovered it had drained, so there was no heat remaining. The only time I've noticed it REALLY warm is when I'm using it as my Hotspot and doing something major on the computer, like a large download or live stream of a TV show. When I plan to do something like this, I put the phone on the charger before I start. Under normal Hotspot use, it just gets barely warm.
Regarding "surprise" app updates, I'm not sure that's very possible, as I keep background data restricted and sync off, along with trying to have apps set to not allow them to auto-update. (I guess some could "slip through" occasionally, but wouldn't I have some notification that an app had updated?) In fact, there have been times when I want to update an app, and it is not successful, even after I enable background data (which most ask for) and turn sync on. (This problem started with the 4.0.4 update.) My backup assistant, which is set to run overnight, hasn't been successful, either, since the 4.0.4 update. (These update issues and its inability to run backup haven't been high on my "to do" list, but I hope to figure this out at some point.)
Thanks for any further ideas.
Are you aware that you can buy OEM HW4X (Bionic Batteries) for as little as $7 a piece and I even purchased five non-OEM (Chinese made) HW4X batteries for $3 a piece and so I keep the eight batteries, charging them by rotation, with me at all time and even though this does require a power down, battery change and reboot when you have docking stations, car chargers and car docks etc. also which again I purchase for very as little as 5-10% or what wireless phone companies are charging you will not have this problem too often. Just use the best Android/IPhone shopping apps using the product/model # and you too will not have these kind of issues no matter what kind of phone you are using. Note: I have noticed that every battery seems to have its own lifespan, not sure why, but all of the eight that I have seem to be different quality-wise but this is really hard to ascertain considering who many different things we can do with these phones. I do know the Chinese HW4Xs are about 75-80% of the OEMs for sure as I have done a few tests, apples to apples.
For Random discharge (not consistant daily) I would say the culprit is more likely an application trying to update and getting stuck in a loop such as Mail, or Facebook, or Backup Assistant.
The first thing I would do is go in and disable ALL of the Bloatware on the phone (that you do not use). Change the password on Backup Assistant (fromt eh computer) so it cannot sync with your phone and let the contacts backup to Google which is more reliable anyway. (I would go as far as an FDR and not set up Backup Assistant to begin with).
A decent list of what to disable is located below (but that varies from user to user as some people insist on using one or more of these).
Amazon Kindle
Amazon MP3
Apps (this is a Verizon Apps Store)
Backup Assistant (can be one of many variations of this)
Google Play Books
Google Play Movies & TV
Google +
MOG Music
Music Store
My Verizon Mobile (also one of the largest Data Hogs)
NFL Mobile
Slacker Radio
Slingbox
Smart Actions
V Cast Tones
Verizon Video
VZ Navigator
YouTube
Quick Office
I don't really think I have any apps that are trying to update, as most mentioned as ok to disable are disabled and I have background data restricted on all others. (I've found most apps want this fully enabled to update.) A few days ago, though, it did the "dump" again. This time, it was about 11:00 AM, and the battery had been at about 80% when I put it down. About 15 minutes later, it had gone to zero and shut down!!! I put it on the AC charger, and managed to get it to turn back on in a few minutes. It charged up to about 18%, and then stayed there for a long time, then suddenly jumped straight to 100%!!! Strange!!!
Think it's time to visit the Verizon store! My husband wonders if it could have some kind of short in the battery/charging system with that kind of erratic behavior. Don't know if they can test anything, but think it's time to see what they think.
Ginnypres. Do you use Facebook on the phone? Is backup Assistant loaded on the phone? Both of these update throughout the day and if the system is NOT available when it first tries to update, it will try again shortly. I have seen Backup Assistant run for 72 hours straight trying to update itself and the contacts on your phone. That killed the battery.
So if you have Facebook try this.
Click on Menu> Manage Apps> Facebook
Delete the Cache and Data then log back into Facebook. you will need to enter your user name and password again but everything else will be there.
Do the same with Backup Assistant but do NOT log back into Backup Assistant. Let your phone backup contacts to Google as it does a much better job and less resources used on the phone itself, plus Google does NOT try to take your information from your backed up contacts for marketing purposes like Verizon does.
If you currently use Backup Assistant, change the setting to back up to Google, then go to Backup Assistant on your computer and change your password. Do NOT update it on your phone.
Lastly and this is one of the most secure and accurate ways to stop apps from using data / resources is to download Onavo Count from Google Play. Once it is on go into all of the apps that you disabled and change the way it uses Data to only update using Wi Fi. Se backup Assistant up this way as well and MyVerizon. When you have turned OFF background Syncing of Data that will usually work unless the app itself has an override built into it like Backup Assistant does (most of the Verizon Apps are like this) so even though you set your phone to NOT backup in the background, the Verizon Apps do not listen to the rule and do it anyway.
Also disable Smart Actions if you do NOT have any elaborate rules set up as Smart Actions is a battery hog in itself if NO rules are set as the system keeps looking to Smart Actions to see if there is a rule to run.
Lastly for a Cache Wipe on your phone (you will NOT lose anything it only cleans up unused bits of code left int he Cache Partition that can interfere with the operations of your phone.
1) Press and hold the Power button and turn the phone off.
2) When the screen turns off, press and hold Volume Down and Power.
3) When the white HBOOT screen appears, use the volume button to move down to “RECOVERY.”
4) Press the Power button to select “RECOVERY.”
5) When the triangle and exclamation appears, hold the Volume Up and Power button at the same time.
6) Using the volume button, scroll down to “Wipe cache partition” and select it.
7) Select “Reboot system now.”
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