ICS causes razr maxx to run extremely hot and slows email sync

[Duewester]

The ICS update does not appear to have affected my battery life span (except as I will explain in a moment). I got the update last Saturday morning at 0130 and have now been using the phone for a week without a reboot, a factory reset or anything. I have not noticed any change in the battery temperature. The only thing that seems slower to me are the screen changes. They are more fluid, but seem slower.

One thing I did two days ago was put the Power widget on my home page. I turn off/on what I'm not using (I wish Airplane mode was on it), things like wifi when I'm on the road, GPS off and airplane on when I'm in the plant, bluetooth on only when using hands free in the car. I'm actually getting better battery life than before because the power control features are easier for me to use. The 3G and 4G switch all the time just as they used to (I live in the country where 4G is still being implemented).

I don't sync up to Exchange Server for e-mail so I don't know very much about it. Maybe if you set up a Smart Action to only sync up once an hour it would help. I have a friend (using Razr - not Razr Maxx) who had other sync issues with GB and they set up a Smart Action to check for updates five minutes of every hour while at work and they increased their battery life by about 25%. You can tell if the phone is using a lot of power searching for stuff by looking at the Cell standby in the Battery section of the settings.

[ac2012]

In my case, I always keep GPS, Wifi, and Bluetooth disabled.  I almost always have a 4G connection with full bars.  The only time it drops out (confirmed by the native battery utility) is when I am on the subway for an hour in the morning and an hour at night.  This is the same as when I was running Gingerbread and could go two days on one charge.  Now that I've upgraded to ICS, I can only go one day.

Again I stress, my usage patterns and my environment have not changed.  The only thing that has changed is that I went from Gingerbread to ICS.

Gingerbread = 2 days on one charge

ICS = 1 day on one charge

ICS has reduced my battery by 50%.

[Duewester]

Did you have good 4G prior to ICS? I've read that 4G eats more power but I think it is probably more a relation to the use of data over 4G than phone services.

What do you show for the OS usage? About an hour ago mine (the OS power percentage) spiked up for some reason and the phone has just been setting there on the desk. I'm showing that the OS is using 30% of the battery but only 25 minutes of the 5 hrs 29 min the phone has been off charge. That's a pretty high usage when you think about it. Less than 8% of the run time on the phone and it eats 30% of the battery. OUCH!

[Duewester]

Just an FYI.

I just went into the apps manager and since I don't use Facebook or Netflix I did Force Stops on them. That alone knocked 8% off the battery use by the OS. When you consider the drain the OS puts on the battery, that 8% can be pretty significant.

[ac2012]

I believe I have narrowed down the issue.  There appears to be a bug in the Exchange services on ICS.  Again today my phone was just sitting on my desk (4 to 5 bars 4G - I always have 4 to 5 bars 4G), no Wifi, no GPS, no Bluetooth.  I touched it (didn't turn the screen on) and it was burning hot.  I checked and Exchange services has used 46% of my battery (the devices has been on battery for 4hrs and 50 mins).  So basically I can go 10 hours on a charge, under Gingerbread I could go 48 hours on a charge.

Under the Battery details it shows I've had a good 4G connection all day (Mobile network signal is green all the way).  So the phone has not been struggling for a signal.

I have asked our Exchange administrator to move my mailbox to our new Exchange 2010 servers in the hopes that this bug is only with Exchange 2003.

Again, I stress, this DID NOT HAPPEN under Gingerbread.  I HAVE NOT CHANGED my usage patterns.  I was connecting to the same Exchange system under Gingerbread and I NEVER had this issue.  I had the same 4G connection under Gingerbread and I NEVER had this issue.  I had the same apps installed under Gingerbread (more actually) and I NEVER had this issue.

This is a work phone, it is not an option for me to disable the Exchange services.  It is also not an option for me to only sync my email every hour, I am expected to check email pretty much constantly except during the middle of the night.

[Duewester]

Hmmmm....

Exchange server and Android 4.0.4? Gotta look into that one some more. When you did a factory reset, did you let the FR save all the settings or did you restore all your apps yourself? There are some issues apparently with old GB settings that don't get replaced with ICS settings. Said settings have been seen to be battery drainers.

I'm fortunate that I'm not tied to checking e-mail or phone all the time ( I am starting to get OCD about checking this forum though )

[B33]

Get an app Called System Panel App  it's in the Market they have a free or Paid Version but it can Tell you what the Phone is Doing. And will tell you the battery Temp. It sounds like you might have an app that is Constantly running in the back ground and a cell will or can get warn while you making Calls but When it get real Hot as you Described then i would be a little Leary about it.. But try that App i Mentioned if you have any Task Killers i would remove them..b33

[Duewester]

Hey AC, I just pulled this from a Exchange Server forum (it's a PDF) about using Android 4.0 pure Google devices. Ask the IT dudes about it.

Requirements

To support Android 4.0 running on pure Google devices, you must be running one of the

following versions of Microsoft Exchange:

● Exchange Server 2010 SP1 with Exchange ActiveSync 14.1

● Exchange Server 2010 with Exchange ActiveSync 14.0

● Exchange Server 2007 SP1 with Exchange ActiveSync 12.1

● Exchange Server 2007 with Exchange ActiveSync 12.0

● Exchange Server 2003 SP2 with Exchange ActiveSync 2.5

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/help/hc/pdf...

[ac2012]

Hi Duewester, I did not let Google restore any apps or settings.  Here are the exact steps I took.

1. Uninstalled all apps from my Google play account via the website.

2. Confirmed all apps removed successfully from the phone

3. Did a factory reset

4. Skipped all account setups during the initial boot of ICS

5. Let the phone sit with ICS installed and no accounts or apps setup.  After several hours the phone stayed cool and the battery was charged 100%

6. Only setup Exchange email (no Gmail, therefor my device was not registered with Google at this point. And I was not prompted to update any of the Verizon bloatware or the ICS apps)

7. Took Exchange services 1.5 hours to sync 1 weeks worth of mail (approx 40MB) on a full bars 4G connection, phone was burning hot, not plugged in, took battery down to 20%.

I ran two days with nothing but Exchange on the phone.  The battery would be around 50% by the end of the day.

Mid week I added Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and Twitter.  Battery still draining to around 50% by the end of the day (I had these same apps under Gingerbread and would only be at 20 - 25% battery used by the end of the day.

Today the phone has returned to getting super hot, the mail app is laggy and the battery is draining like crazy.

Because adding Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and Twitter did not significantly increase my battery usage and going off what the battery utility on the phone is telling me, I believe I have confirmed that the Exchange services are the problem.

now the problem is, that is the one app that I absolutely can not turn off.  If moving my mailbox to Exchange 2010 doesn't resolve the issue, i guess I will look into alternate apps for Exchange.

[ac2012]

My mailbox is currently on Exchange Server 2003 SP2 with Exchange ActiveSync 2.5