The Spotify app on my iPhone 6 has 15%+ battery usage, even when I'm playing the music locally. This compares to about 1% usage for Google Play Music. Is this normal?
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High Battery Usage with Spotify
- Thread starter TigerMSTR
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sunking101
macrumors 604
Glad to know I'm not the only one. I love Spotify, but I'm going to have to switch back to Google Music if they don't fix this draining issue. I can't have this app using 20% of my battery.
I've never had a battery issue with spotify on my iPhones. Especially now since the 6 has better battery life. It does use around 15% usage but I would expect it to since its streaming at the highest quality for me.
Spotify gobbles our data. I don't even have the quality turned up. It still consumes far more data than Pandora ever did. I'm thinking of switching back to Pandora. I like everything spotify offers and I can get it around the same cost as Pandora so that's nice. But between eating my data and not being able to share an account with my wife (like we could with Pandora) to where we can simultaneously listen makes it so I DON'T use Spotify as much.
In fact, I think I'll go cancel it now.
In fact, I think I'll go cancel it now.
If you are going to listen to music at Extreme settings, offline or not, of course it's going to use 20-30% of the battery.
That's unacceptably high. Google Music uses less than 2% while streaming, less than 1% while playing local music. There's no reason for Spotify to be using 7.5x the power that Google does.
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Google Music doesn't.
Applejuiced
macrumors Westmere
I like how we have the option to see what is actually eating our battery life with ios 8.
Im with you on that no matter how much I like an app if its draining my battery like that then I'd rather switch to something else and not bother using it any more.
Im with you on that no matter how much I like an app if its draining my battery like that then I'd rather switch to something else and not bother using it any more.
No drain here whatsoever.
I use spotify 2-3 hours a day, locally and use ~2% per hour.
You have a problem, unless your app is different to the UK version.
I use spotify 2-3 hours a day, locally and use ~2% per hour.
You have a problem, unless your app is different to the UK version.
AustinIllini
macrumors G5
Small White Car
macrumors G4
You're reading that page wrong.
It's not 20% of the battery. It's 20% of however much power was used that day. (Add all the numbers on the list up. They equal 100.)
So an app that says 20% might mean that it used a lot of power OR it might mean you just didn't do that much else with your phone that day. (If you had only played music that day it would say Spotify used 100% of the power even if your battery was still at 90%!)
Maybe Spotify does use more than Google. I have no idea. But I do know that you need to go back and watch them both all over again since your past data is flawed. You weren't taking note of what else you were doing during those days which is critical information.
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
I just paid for three months of spotify for 99 cents. Figured it was a no brainer... see what all the buzz is about. I generally only stream for between an hour and two at the gym, but I will report how heavily that effects my battery. Generally speaking Music isn't even in the top 5.
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Percent total battery used divided by percent app usage will tell you what percent of total battery the actual app used. *
example:
I am at 73% battery for the day (started at 100). I have used 27% battery. Spotify used 20% of today's battery usage. 20% of 27% is 5.4% total battery used.
* Of course this is only going to be accurate if, at the beginning of the day, all numbers are zero, which they really can't be unless you don't use the phone for a 24 hour period. Or you restore your device (actually not sure on that last part)
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I like it too. What I don't like is that it doesn't necessarily give us meaningful numbers all the time. I wish the app and, for example, screen on time, were calculated separately, at the very laast.
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Percent total battery used divided by percent app usage will tell you what percent of total battery the actual app used. *
example:
I am at 73% battery for the day (started at 100). I have used 27% battery. Spotify used 20% of today's battery usage. 20% of 27% is 5.4% total battery used.
* Of course this is only going to be accurate if, at the beginning of the day, all numbers are zero, which they really can't be unless you don't use the phone for a 24 hour period. Or you restore your device (actually not sure on that last part)
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I like it too. What I don't like is that it doesn't necessarily give us meaningful numbers all the time. I wish the app and, for example, screen on time, were calculated separately, at the very laast.
acctman
macrumors 65816
try uninstalled and reinstalling... a lot of factors come into player. 1. Are actively on the Spotify app looking for songs 2. are you a premium user (yes it does matter) because its not pulling in ads and video ads too 3. are you playing stored songs... etc. You really can't compare Google Play Music to Spotify unless you're using both services exactly the same.
I regularly list to spotify from 9am - 5pm streaming on my phone without charge and ending the day with about 53% power left and that's with emailing, iMessage and other apps being used too.
cambookpro
macrumors 604
I find that Spotify rarely drains the battery more than the standard Music app when playing offline, and only slightly more when streaming on 3G/4G.
I do find that when it's set to 'extreme' it consumes a fair bit of data, but luckily I'm on an unlimited data plan so it's not a big deal.
I do find that when it's set to 'extreme' it consumes a fair bit of data, but luckily I'm on an unlimited data plan so it's not a big deal.