iOS battery usage misleading?

[LovingTeddy]

On battery usage section, you get your activities in past 24 hours.

I found this is very misleading and not useful at all.

I want to see my battery life and usage since last full charge, not past 24 hours. This does not tell me my real on screen time at all.

For example. See the above. How could I have 1.2 hours usage on Safari, but only 13 minutes since last charge?

And the 13 minutes usages does not fully reflect on screen time, since this number includes background processes.

I do find this very misleading and confusing... And I do hope to find true screen on time.

If there is any mistake or misunderstanding, please feel free to correct me. And I will learn from you guys.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Confusing and misleading? No. Helpful? Somewhat.

I completely agree with you that it "should" be only since last full charges, but it wouldn't work very well. It takes 2-3 hours of usage to even begin populating that list. Figure most batteries will be half way dead at that point so it wouldn't be the most helpful. The 24 hours gives you an idea of what is going on. The list to a tool to see what is using the most battery life over a day and a week, not live time.

Additionally, if you only have it showing screen on time, the battery would read a very low number for to its relative % remaining. Say I have 2 hours of usage. 1 hour of background Messenger usage with 80% remaining. If it only read 1 hour, it would seem like my battery life is terrible. But the background activity is using power and therefore should be counted as usage. My phone has technically Been in use for 2 hours, even if 1 of the hours were in the background.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Confusing and misleading? No. Helpful? Somewhat.

I completely agree with you that it "should" be only since last full charges, but it wouldn't work very well. It takes 2-3 hours of usage to even begin populating that list. Figure most batteries will be half way dead at that point so it wouldn't be the most helpful. The 24 hours gives you an idea of what is going on. The list to a tool to see what is using the most battery life over a day and a week, not live time.

Additionally, if you only have it showing screen on time, the battery would read a very low number for to its relative % remaining. Say I have 2 hours of usage. 1 hour of background Messenger usage with 80% remaining. If it only read 1 hour, it would seem like my battery life is terrible. But the background activity is using power and therefore should be counted as usage. My phone has technically Been in use for 2 hours, even if 1 of the hours were in the background.

The way Android display battery usage is very detailed.

I agree that background processes takes battery power. Though Apple can give as detail about actually screen on time vs Background activities. I think Apple already do that.

The reason why split actual screen on time and background time is to know which app takes battery power on background.


The reason i think usage should not be last 24 hours is that usage does not reflect true picture.

For example: the picture i posted, Safari on screen time is 1.2 hours. Which of 1.2 hours is from last full recharge? When I want to figure out actual battery usage. I want to charge it fully and drain the battery to almost empty. So I can see which app usages most battery. I repeat the experiment several times to figure out a pattern.

 

[Mlrollin91]

The way Android display battery usage is very detailed.

I agree that background processes takes battery power. Though Apple can give as detail about actually screen on time vs Background activities. I think Apple already do that.

The reason why split actual screen on time and background time is to know which app takes battery power on background.


The reason i think usage should not be last 24 hours is that usage does not reflect true picture.

For example: the picture i posted, Safari on screen time is 1.2 hours. Which of 1.2 hours is from last full recharge? When I want to figure out actual battery usage. I want to charge it fully and drain the battery to almost empty. So I can see which app usages most battery. I repeat the experiment several times to figure out a pattern.

As I mentioned earlier. It takes 2-3 hours of usage for that list to populate when it's completely empty. Therefore your phone would already be 1/3+ of the way dead before you even get usages stats. I will go 24+ hours without using my iPad and the list completely clears. It then tells you that you need to use the device for a bit before stats can be shown. Which is typically 2-3 hours worth of usage.

As for showing between background and on screen time, it already does do that.

 

[h9826790]

I think it depends.

If your usage pattern is similar everyday, that table can help you to reduce unnecessary battery usage right after the full charge. Otherwise all numbers are zero, that means nothing. Also, if the data pool is too small (very short period of time), the result can be very meaningless.

e.g. You accept a phone call right after fully charge. Then the table show 99% usage is because of phone. That won't help anything.

Of course, I agree that nothing to stop Apple add one more tab which is "after the last full charge". That will help if the phone suddenly drain lots of battery after the last full charge. Easier for the user to stop / identify the problematic apps, and save the battery for the remaining of the day.

 

[macfacts]

Confusing and misleading? ...
Additionally, if you only have it showing screen on time, the battery would read a very low number for to its relative % remaining. Say I have 2 hours of usage. 1 hour of background Messenger usage with 80% remaining. If it only read 1 hour, it would seem like my battery life is terrible. But the background activity is using power and therefore should be counted as usage. My phone has technically Been in use for 2 hours, even if 1 of the hours were in the background.

1 hour of background Messenger usage (or almost any app that is used in the background) uses very little battery. 1 hour of background usage with the screen off doesn't use the same amount of battery as 1 hour of foreground usage with the screen on, so why are those two different hours treated as the same? Apple includes background usage to pad that statistic.

If Apple sold a car, the dashboard would show how many hours the car has been on since last fill up/charge, including time the car is at a stop light. A Google car would show MPG or miles per charge.

 

[C DM]

1 hour of background Messenger usage (or almost any app that is used in the background) uses very little battery. 1 hour of background usage with the screen off doesn't use the same amount of battery as 1 hour of foreground usage with the screen on, so why are those two different hours treated as the same? Apple includes background usage to pad that statistic.

If Apple sold a car, the dashboard would show how many hours the car has been on since last fill up/charge, including time the car is at a stop light. A Google car would show MPG or miles per charge.

So ignoring the device doing something even if the screen is not on is somehow more realistic? You do realize that standing at stoplights gets accounted for and affects the MPG, since the analogy waa brought up.

 

[Mlrollin91]

1 hour of background Messenger usage (or almost any app that is used in the background) uses very little battery. 1 hour of background usage with the screen off doesn't use the same amount of battery as 1 hour of foreground usage with the screen on, so why are those two different hours treated as the same? Apple includes background usage to pad that statistic.

If Apple sold a car, the dashboard would show how many hours the car has been on since last fill up/charge, including time the car is at a stop light. A Google car would show MPG or miles per charge.

Believe it or not, Messenger running in the background does use quite a bit of power if you watch the mAh of the battery and the drainage rate. And C DM is completely right. Idling at a stoplight uses a lot of gas, more so than cruising at highway speeds, and it is definitely factored into the average MPG. I'm not entirely sure what the point of your analogy is..My car tells me both the average MPG and time since last fill up, which includes when the car is idling.

And if you want to talk strictly electric cars, when an electric car is idling, its using more power than cruising, because you are sitting there with the AC and radio on.

 

[macfacts]

...

And if you want to talk strictly electric cars, when an electric car is idling, its using more power than cruising, because you are sitting there with the AC and radio on.

So when the car is crusing, it has free energy from somewhere to power the AC and radio and movement?

My point of the anaology is the car is using more fuel when moving vs sitting at the red light.

Comparing fuel use of 1 hr sitting at a red light to fuel use of 1 hr of driving is misleading. The car us using more fuel when moving vs idling. Just like comparing 1hr of background usage to 1 hr of on-screen usage is misleading. The phone uses more battery when the screen is on vs. off.

Let's look at the example screen shot posted in this thread.

Apple is showing 63min of Messenger usage used 5% of the battery while Safari ran 2x as long but used 52% of the battery. It is so misleading to put those two different usages in the same time statistic. The only reason is to make the time statistic higher.

 

[Mlrollin91]

So when the car is crusing, it has free energy from somewhere to power the AC and radio and movement?

My point of the anaology is the car is using more fuel when moving vs sitting at the red light.

Comparing fuel use of 1 hr sitting at a red light to fuel use of 1 hr of driving is misleading. The car us using more fuel when moving vs idling. Just like comparing 1hr of background usage to 1 hr of on-screen usage is misleading. The phone uses more battery when the screen is on vs. off.

Actually that is inaccurate. Cars get 0MPG while idling. Its just straight wasted fuel. You get no return for the gas. Cruising, you can get endless MPG based on your engine and fuel consumption. My car burns over 1 gallon per hour idling. My car get 40MPG highway, or about 1.7 gallons per hour. But I am actually moving, so I am seeing a return for gas spent. Sitting at a red light for 1 hour and burning over a gallon of fuel is an entire waste.

And yes, when a hybrid is cruising downhill or braking, it takes that energy and charges the battery. Therefore it is 'technically' free energy because the car is developing it itself and is not requiring an additional power source.

I'm sorry, but whatever way you cut it, your analogy does not work.

When apps are running in the background, like Messenger. It is still consuming battery power. Not as much as screen on with Messenger opened, but it is still a decent amount of power. The only reason why more power is being consumed with Messenger open and screen on is well, because the screen is using the power. The processor is still performing the same function to run Messenger, just with added stress of the screen being on.

 

[C DM]

So when the car is crusing, it has free energy from somewhere to power the AC and radio and movement?

My point of the anaology is the car is using more fuel when moving vs sitting at the red light.

Comparing fuel use of 1 hr sitting at a red light to fuel use of 1 hr of driving is misleading. The car us using more fuel when moving vs idling. Just like comparing 1hr of background usage to 1 hr of on-screen usage is misleading. The phone uses more battery when the screen is on vs. off.

Let's look at the example screen shot posted in this thread.

Apple is showing 63min of Messenger usage used 5% of the battery while Safari ran 2x as long but used 52% of the battery. It is so misleading to put those two different usages in the same time statistic. The only reason is to make the time statistic higher.

It's not misleading to account for things that are in fact using resources even if less than at other times. Even with the screen on there is a wider variety of usage if you compare reading email or a book to playing an intensive game or watching a video that you are streaming. Even the signal strength on its own can affect battery usage in the same period of time doing the same things. Quite a bit of misleading numbers in that case no matter if you look at just on screen time or total usage time by that type of logic.

And again with the car analogy it would in fact be misleading to ignore gas used up when idling.

 

[cynics]

You are incorrect its not misleading, its just dumb.

I can understand why someone would say its misleading. The information isn't very useful when trying to diagnose battery life problems, its more for presenting you with a historical (albeit short) average of your usage and how it relates to battery life. Its misleading to you (dumb to me) because it presents this information directly above your current single charge battery usage.

You might as well look at 7 day because it will be a better statistical average of your usage vs a 24 hour period.

Don't even bother attempting to extrapolate a single charge app usage with the 24 hour information. There are just too many variables to account for. Right now Netflix is at the top of my 24 hour list, I used Netflix at the gym yesterday, two charges ago...it would be impossible to take things like that into account for every app.