Windows Phone 8.1 battery drain

[plasmarox]

Evening folks

 

I performed the update yesterday on my Lumia 925, and now the battery drain is much faster - was previously only 2-3% per hour, on standy (5.6 average)m but is now 10% per hour. Anybody else experiencing this?

[macoman]

Yup... My 1520 usually end the day in around 62%, now after the upgrade it end in the 40's

[1337ish]

Are you guys using Cortana or location services?

[macoman]

Are you guys using Cortana or location services?

Yup... Does that drain the battery?

[duddit2]

Went to bed last night with 100% battery, woke with 92% (8 hour sleep). Cortana was only activated today so I'll report back with any differences.

[UseLess]

Im using a 920 and have noticed increased battery drain also. I suspect that it is due to the fact I am now using facebooks Messenger app, rather than the more lightweight/efficient Messenging app when it still supported fb chat. Generally badly made/intensive apps are pretty obvious to me because my phone gets very hot to the touch. While the Messenger app doesn't get hot, it does get a very obvious level of warm.

[spenser.d]

You can use battery sense to figure out what's draining your battery. For me it seems to be Facebook, which I now don't allow in the background, and IE.

[duddit2]

Im using a 920 and have noticed increased battery drain also. I suspect that it is due to the fact I am now using facebooks Messenger app, rather than the more lightweight/efficient Messenging app when it still supported fb chat. Generally badly made/intensive apps are pretty obvious to me because my phone gets very hot to the touch. While the Messenger app doesn't get hot, it does get a very obvious level of warm.

The messenger app gets hot? ummmm ;)

[George P Global Moderator]

The added battery drain, depending on how much it is, could be a mix of the fact that with 8.1 more things can happen/run in the background now and also that we don't have any firmware updates yet so still optimizations with drivers and so on that should put it all back to normal.

 

Battery sense will show you what's using the most, btw,  for you guys who have said that facebook uses a lot, did you update to the newer 8.1.4.4 version that's just for 8.1 or are you using the older 5.x version from 8.0?

[BajiRav]

I have definitely noticed it on my 920 as well. battery sense shows Music and Podcasts as the culprits and I am not surprised - both are really slow and buggy.

[George P Global Moderator]

I have definitely noticed it on my 920 as well. battery sense shows Music and Podcasts as the culprits and I am not surprised - both are really slow and buggy.

 

The Music app is actually an old beta version,  I'm surprised It hasn't been updated though I have a feeling they're working on a new version for many apps that are specific for 8.1 and had to wait for the OS to be more final first.   It shouldn't be long till we see those though, not with new phones coming in May.

[JonnyLH]

The other way round for me, my battery drain has improved a lot.

[jakem1]

The Music app is actually an old beta version,  I'm surprised It hasn't been updated though I have a feeling they're working on a new version for many apps that are specific for 8.1 and had to wait for the OS to be more final first.   It shouldn't be long till we see those though, not with new phones coming in May.

 

WMPowerUser claim that an update to the Music app is on its way.

[George P Global Moderator]

WMPowerUser claim that an update to the Music app is on its way.

 

Wouldn't surprise me at all, I'm just shocked that they decided to drop in an old beta of it with 8.1 preview.   I also expect the update to be more of a universal app type deal and to get a update for Windows 8.1 devices to.

[AsherGZ]

Wouldn't surprise me at all, I'm just shocked that they decided to drop in an old beta of it with 8.1 preview.   I also expect the update to be more of a universal app type deal and to get a update for Windows 8.1 devices to.

I don't think the OS team is responsible for these apps anymore since now core apps are seperate from the OS to ensure faster updates and bug fixes. The Skype team develops the Skype app, the Office team Office and the Xbox team writes the Music, Videos and Games app. They all have their own priorities and aren't on the same schedule as the WP team. 

[George P Global Moderator]

I don't think the OS team is responsible for these apps anymore since now core apps are seperate from the OS to ensure faster updates and bug fixes. The Skype team develops the Skype app, the Office team Office and the Xbox team writes the Music, Videos and Games app. They all have their own priorities and aren't on the same schedule as the WP team. 

 

I'm sure that's the case but my point being that they can't ship a beta build of apps out with the final version of 8.1, specially on new phones.  So while the teams are split I'm sure they all share the same schedule as far as cutoff dates for adding new things and so on. 

[_neutrino Veteran]

starting to notice the drain and i think i have figured out what is going on. Due to how Cortana works it is constantly looking at your location. I am noticing that every time i unlock the device it is looking at the location and then depending on what i am doing it is looking at it as well. however, if you try to turn the location services off. Cortana will pop up and tell you she cannot do anything without location services enabled.

[Forjo]

One thing I've noticed about Windows Phone is that every time there is a major update, or if I get a new phone, battery life seems to suck at first. I noticed it on my new 920 and when I set up my wife's 1020.  But then after a few days, battery life seems to dramatically improve. 

 

Microsoft may be doing some use-based optimizations in the background. That, or we just use the phones more when they're new -- getting everything set up and all. I think it's a combination.

 

Short version is the first day my battery life was awful. Yesterday and today it's fine.

 

-Forjo

[vcfan]

no such issues on my ativ s. my use of the phone since yesterday has shown typical battery draw(mostly browser and music). haven't updated my wife's 920 yet,so cant say if theres a difference with that device..

[plasmarox]

I did a hard reset and a hard reset today (restoring from the backup) and the battery drain does seem to have improved. Obviously it hasn't been a day yet so haven't fully tested, will fill you in.

 

I'm in the UK where cortana isn't available yet, so don't have a problem there.

 

Also, when I looked at battery saver, none of the apps showed very much use in the foreground. Some of then showed reasonably high use in the foreground (facebook messenger!) but that is to be expected as I was using it.

 

That said I havn't signed into facebook Messenger yet after a reset, so will see how it goes, sign into it, and see if that makes a difference.

[jakem1]

starting to notice the drain and i think i have figured out what is going on. Due to how Cortana works it is constantly looking at your location. I am noticing that every time i unlock the device it is looking at the location and then depending on what i am doing it is looking at it as well. however, if you try to turn the location services off. Cortana will pop up and tell you she cannot do anything without location services enabled.

 

I've also noticed location services running each time I turn the phone on but I'm in the UK and don't have Cortana. 

 

Battery Sense says that the two apps using the most battery on my phone are IE and Music.  I always leave IE open but I have only opened Music once and haven't used it because performance is so poor.  However, they both run in the background and I think that's causing my battery drain.

 

No doubt updates will fix these issues over the next few weeks.

[Stokkolm]

Prior to the update my phone wouldn't go below 50% by 3pm, but now I'm sitting at 33%. I attached a screenshot of my battery saver report. It doesn't appear anything is using all that much battery, but nonetheless my drain is severely worse than before the update.

[+Elі Subscriber²]

Experiencing the same problem here with my HTC 8X.

[JustGeorge]

Something of note: A lot of background tasks that I had disabled prior to 8.1 got re-enabled with the update.

[plasmarox]

Now that I've been using it a few days, the battery life seems fine. I'll give it a few days in the office now that I'm back at work tomorrow and we'll see.