Windows Phone 8.1 battery drain

[George P Global Moderator]

I noticed faster drain on my 8X as well for the first 4 days or so but now I think it's starting to work it's way back to how it was before. It's still more than with 8.0 but I figure a update or two and a firmware update as well and all will be well.

[Stokkolm]

I noticed something interesting tonight. I have internet sharing turned off on my Lumia 1520, however when I view the available wifi connections from my surface lo and behold my Lumia 1520 is broadcasting that it's available. I can connect to it and once I do the toggle changes to on within my phone. This would definitely explain the drain I have been experiencing on my phone and also why battery sense isn't showing anything with excess battery usage.

 

This seems like something that the Lumia Cyan update will address. I hope so.

[George P Global Moderator]

I noticed something interesting tonight. I have internet sharing turned off on my Lumia 1520, however when I view the available wifi connections from my surface lo and behold my Lumia 1520 is broadcasting that it's available. I can connect to it and once I do the toggle changes to on within my phone. This would definitely explain the drain I have been experiencing on my phone and also why battery sense isn't showing anything with excess battery usage.

 

This seems like something that the Lumia Cyan update will address. I hope so.

 

Does sound like a either a bug in the feature itself or a combo of the software not talking to the hardware right in which case it gets the command to turn off but the hardware side doesn't.   Either way, a OS or a firmware update will fix many of these bugs and bring battery life back to what people are used to.

[jakem1]

I noticed something interesting tonight. I have internet sharing turned off on my Lumia 1520, however when I view the available wifi connections from my surface lo and behold my Lumia 1520 is broadcasting that it's available. I can connect to it and once I do the toggle changes to on within my phone. This would definitely explain the drain I have been experiencing on my phone and also why battery sense isn't showing anything with excess battery usage.

 

This seems like something that the Lumia Cyan update will address. I hope so.

 

Isn't that a new Windows feature?  I can't remember the details but I thought I read that the Surface would be able to turn on internet sharing on WP if you try to connect to the wifi.  In other words, internet sharing isn't really on but the Surface can activate it.  Can you see the connection from any other (non-Windows 8) device?

 

Ignore that.  I must be confusing this with something else because I just tried connecting my Surface to my phone and then turning off internet sharing on the phone.  I lost the connection as soon as I did and the phone disappeared from my list of available connections.

[ACTIONpack]

no issues with battery draining faster and I'm on a Lumia 925.

[plasmarox]

I've installed the update available today and am monitoring the situation to see if this improves battery life for me.

 

I'm currently getting 22 hours only on battery life with only moderate usage - a little web browsing during the day when I'm at work, nothing out of the ordinary. I've checked battery saver and that's reporting nothing unexpected. Internet Explorer is showing as the highest usage.

 

I've noticed that after the 8.1 update, the wifi stays connected when the lock screen is active. Prior to the update wifi switched off while the screen was inactive. Microsoft will hopefully provide a way to return to this functionality in a future update.

[notchinese]

I've installed the update available today and am monitoring the situation to see if this improves battery life for me.

 

I'm currently getting 22 hours only on battery life with only moderate usage - a little web browsing during the day when I'm at work, nothing out of the ordinary. I've checked battery saver and that's reporting nothing unexpected. Internet Explorer is showing as the highest usage.

 

I've noticed that after the 8.1 update, the wifi stays connected when the lock screen is active. Prior to the update wifi switched off while the screen was inactive. Microsoft will hopefully provide a way to return to this functionality in a future update.

 

The wifi functionality you describe is a setting, in advanced wifi settings. Has been there since one of the 8.0 GDRs. Also, wifi usually uses LESS power than mobile data.

[plasmarox]

The wifi functionality you describe is a setting, in advanced wifi settings. Has been there since one of the 8.0 GDRs. Also, wifi usually uses LESS power than mobile data.

Sorry - not seeing any advanced settings on my 925. Can you explain how to find it?

[ShadowMajestic]

The wifi functionality you describe is a setting, in advanced wifi settings. Has been there since one of the 8.0 GDRs. Also, wifi usually uses LESS power than mobile data.

Depends, Wifi goes on and off each time the phone gets locked/unlocked.

[plasmarox]

Depends, Wifi goes on and off each time the phone gets locked/unlocked.

Not on mine - can you explain how to enable this please?

[notchinese]

Settings -> Wifi -> Advanced button. There is a checkbox to keep wifi on when screen times out. (I have ATIV SE, 8.0 GDR3...might be slightly different in 8.1)

[+primortal Subscriber²]

The wifi functionality you describe is a setting, in advanced wifi settings. Has been there since one of the 8.0 GDRs. Also, wifi usually uses LESS power than mobile data.

I think they removed the setting in 8.1.  At least on my Nokia Icon it's not there anymore.

[plasmarox]

Settings -> Wifi -> Advanced button. There is a checkbox to keep wifi on when screen times out. (I have ATIV SE, 8.0 GDR3...might be slightly different in 8.1)

No advanced button here - like I said, this function has been removed.

 

[George P Global Moderator]

I have it on my 8X with 8.1 preview installed,  I think it's only gone from some phones, maybe specific to the device and something that needs a firmware update to show up again?

[plasmarox]

I have it on my 8X with 8.1 preview installed,  I think it's only gone from some phones, maybe specific to the device and something that needs a firmware update to show up again?

Interesting. Maybe if Nokia updates the firmware this will change.

 

Since the update last night, i've noticed significant gains in battery life. See attached screenshot from Battery, a third party app which I've been using to monitor battery life for over a year.

 

[_neutrino Veteran]

Yeah the Battery app is telling me i should get about 1 day and 4 hours of battery life on my phone now. I dont have any fear that it could actually do it. I usually unplug it at 7am and do not plug it in again until 2300 and usually have around 60% left on my battery.

[plasmarox]

Yeah the Battery app is telling me i should get about 1 day and 4 hours of battery life on my phone now. I dont have any fear that it could actually do it. I usually unplug it at 7am and do not plug it in again until 2300 and usually have around 60% left on my battery.

That's how I was doing before updating to 8.1

 

what I've noticed has changed specifically however is the period overnight after last night's update - compare last night to the night before!

[_neutrino Veteran]

So far other than a slight increase in battery performance the only thing i have noticed is that the cursor when you are trying to edit text is more responsive and easier to use.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

I've managed to go a day and a half without a recharge on my 520. That's using the internet, Cortana, Pandora, and YouTube. It helped me tremendously considering I was doing the same thing before the update, and my phone would only last for about half a day. Loving this update so far! (y)

[George P Global Moderator]

Yeah, so far it looks like my 8X is back to it's original 8.0 battery levels after this update, or at least very close to them. 

[Guest]

Still getting rapid battery drains on the 920. The problem is, they either happen randomly and I for some silly reason lose battery fast without Battery Saver giving the appropriate information, or the battery just drains faster.

 

I don't use my phone much when I'm at home, but always have data connection enabled. Thus, previously I was getting 3-4 days since I rarely touch the phone, and the only time it is active is when it gets a notification of some sort. Now with the 8.1 update, I get less than two days of battery life.

[HawkMan]

Hmm. My phone was just at 100% as it just came off the charger! then I changed region to US and rebooted, and it was at 64% :)

[George P Global Moderator]

Firmware is still needed I'm sure, though I can say my 8X has improved since they pushed out the first update to 8.1. 

[VISHALSIBI]

After-8.1-developer-preview-update:

 

my-lumia-625-is-draining-very-fastly-.

just-using-whatsapp-itself-takes-around-10%/hour

is-there-any-way-to-get-rid-of-this-problem????

pls-help-me

[+primortal Subscriber²]

After-8.1-developer-preview-update:

 

my-lumia-625-is-draining-very-fastly-.

just-using-whatsapp-itself-takes-around-10%/hour

is-there-any-way-to-get-rid-of-this-problem????

pls-help-me

Have applied all the latest updates?  Microsoft released a few updates that took care of most of the battery issues.

 

Lastly have you done a hard reset of the phone?  That cures a lot of the battery issues as well.