I'm wondering what are some known battery-killing apps, tweaks, themes, etc. from jailbreaking your iDevice. My battery has been suffering and I'm thinking I might have one (I'm guessing it's my word clock theme but I like that too much to get rid of it), so if it is a known battery-killing culprit, I'd like to look into getting rid of it.
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Known battery killers
- Thread starter brayhite
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Really? What alternatives are there to winterboard besides manual changing of icons, etc?
Alveezy said:
Really? What alternatives are there to winterboard besides manual changing of icons, etc?
Running Cydia runs my battery down. Playing games runs my battery down. Talking on the phone for a long time runs my battery down.
I have WinterBoard and run some mobile substrates and other tweaks. My battery goes down to about 95% after a day of standby only. If I use it for some calls, some texts, some Cydia, some music, it may go down to about 70%. If I do a lot of Cydia and a lot of SHSHing, it might go down to 50%. I've never run the battery down in a day. I charge every night, but I have no issue with that.
If you have some tweaks on your phone, it shouldn't really affect battery power more than 5-10%. If you need that percentage, then run a stock phone or add no tweaks. For me, I hate how the stock phone looks, so I change it.
I have WinterBoard and run some mobile substrates and other tweaks. My battery goes down to about 95% after a day of standby only. If I use it for some calls, some texts, some Cydia, some music, it may go down to about 70%. If I do a lot of Cydia and a lot of SHSHing, it might go down to 50%. I've never run the battery down in a day. I charge every night, but I have no issue with that.
If you have some tweaks on your phone, it shouldn't really affect battery power more than 5-10%. If you need that percentage, then run a stock phone or add no tweaks. For me, I hate how the stock phone looks, so I change it.
Agreed. My personal experience with an iPhone 4 running first 4.0 and now 4.2.1 has been that a lot of this "jailbreaking/Winterboard will kill your battery" is nonsense. I run a phone with 133 packages, according to PkgBackup, which many people here will tell you is insane. The phone is neither bogged down nor does it lose battery any faster than my husband's virgin, absolutely stock firmware. I've run side by side comparisons to check. We both charge every night as well--and always have, even when I was running stock. My phone has been restored exactly once, when I went to upgrade to 4.2.1. As Saurik has recommended, I reboot it every few days or so. And I routinely kill backgrounded apps.
What does kill my battery?
Bluetooth is THE single biggest culprit on my phone. Every time I start to think I've got a battery problem, I look up and realize I've left BT on again.
The rest--
Brightness above 45% or so (I'm typically indoors, so keeping it lowered isn't an issue, and I crank it up when I'm out driving, etc.)
Actual usage as a phone (heaven forbid we actually USE the damn thing as intended)
Games--even theoretically low impact ones such as Solitaire have animations
Surfing
iPod--though this is in part because I leave the screen on full time when I'm playing anything
Navigon (which, to be fair, is usually used with brightness up at 100%, the iPod backgrounded and streaming audio via Bluetooth while the phone wrestles with varying degrees of 3G signal strength. Do all that and you too can watch your battery drop 10% in 20 minutes! LOL)
Resprings
Note that only ONE of these things is JB related. Running a theme (or even multiple themes) has no noticeable effect my battery--but tweaking that theme six ways to Sunday while it's on the phone, respringing between changes, will drop my battery life in a given day considerably.
Especially for brand new jailbreakers, who are typically non stop playing with their phones--before you start pulling everything off your phone or restore it, reboot it and then try actually running it for a day of normal usage without changing a single thing on it. Maybe two or three days. Stay out of Cydia, don't change themes, don't respring more than once and only if you feel the phone is sluggish. I think most people trying that are going to find that at most, their battery difference is in that 5-10% range that dudeabiding mentions.
Ignoring your first part as it's largely sarcasm, my reason for posting in the first place was because I've watched my phone drop 3% in a 5 minute time span, using it to text and change settings. Spread that over a course of a day, and I'm looking at losing my phone's battery in about 2 hours if I sat and used it for that long. Before, I was getting around 10 hours usage, 20 hours standby before getting down to even <20%. So it's much more than an extra 5-10% I'm losing.
This is what I've done the past two days, thinking what you've suggested, only changing icons a couple times throughout. Yet, I still lose about 5% over two hours standby, about the same over 5-10 minutes of use, depending on how many resprings I do. But again, I'll go a day without changing anything (or only respringing a couple times) and I still lose much more in standby mode than I did before. So I thought something I left running in the background was causing it, hence asking what is known to kill the battery.
I don't believe my "first part" is largely sarcastic. Those uses run the battery down. You gave little in the way of information in your first post as to what you are doing with your phone.
If, as you now post, you lose 3% in a 5-minute span, you've got an issue. I suspect it is an issue with your system, as many of us are posting that we have lots of tweaks on our phones and we get good battery life. I would, if I were you, do a full restore. I would NOT do a restore using your backup but would setup as a new phone, and then manually bring over your media, etc. I would run the phone as stock for a few days and see how battery life is. THEN I would jailbreak and put one thing on at a time.
Otherwise, it could be anything causing this issue, including a bad battery, a short inside the phone, anything. In fact, certain firmwares were known to do that which you describe.
Oh, and being rude to someone trying to help is not the way to go here. You may be frustrated, but taking it on on me is not going to solve your problem.
If, as you now post, you lose 3% in a 5-minute span, you've got an issue. I suspect it is an issue with your system, as many of us are posting that we have lots of tweaks on our phones and we get good battery life. I would, if I were you, do a full restore. I would NOT do a restore using your backup but would setup as a new phone, and then manually bring over your media, etc. I would run the phone as stock for a few days and see how battery life is. THEN I would jailbreak and put one thing on at a time.
Otherwise, it could be anything causing this issue, including a bad battery, a short inside the phone, anything. In fact, certain firmwares were known to do that which you describe.
Oh, and being rude to someone trying to help is not the way to go here. You may be frustrated, but taking it on on me is not going to solve your problem.
Are you running SBSettings? If so, check what's running under Processes. Something there may be your issue.
BatteryDetective in Cydia is another option for finding the culprit. Several people on here have recommended it, though I haven't personally used it.
Really? Because the following bolded parts don't at the very least IMPLY I'm referring to jailbreak-related factors? Oh, and the fact it's posted in the Hacks section.
I think I'll take Vixen's advice first, and see if maybe a second battery cycle (as I did one last night) and one full day with no changes at all proves fruitful. Then I'll try a full restore.
Please. How I'm talking to you now could be interpreted as rude. What contextual clues in my response gave off signs of being rude? Maybe it was my first sentence calling part of your post sarcastic, which I believed it was, therefore you read the rest as if I was some snotty kid trying to prove something in a forum. Which I'm far from. Obviously there are two ways to reply, as Vixen did in a much more helpful manner. Your "first part" that I referred to might as well have said, "turning the phone on runs the battery down." How helpful can that advice be?
And here we go.
Seriously, you don't think calling my reply sarcastic isn't rude? You post a minimal description of your issues
I'm wondering what are some known battery-killing apps, tweaks, themes, etc. from jailbreaking your iDevice. My battery has been suffering and I'm thinking I might have one (I'm guessing it's my word clock theme but I like that too much to get rid of it), so if it is a known battery-killing culprit, I'd like to look into getting rid of it.
and I suggest that this could be caused by any number of things, not only mobile substrate tweaks. There is no way of telling what you are doing with your phone (or, for that matter, what phone or firmware you are using) and I suggested that many things can run your battery down. How can anyone here know what is causing your issue without more info. I also gave an overview of my experience with my phone and its battery life, to suggest that WinterBoard does not necessarily have to be a battery-killing suspect.
So you get another response, also saying what I said- that WinterBoard and tweaks don't run down her phone, and reiterating that using Cydia and playing with the phone can run down the battery quickly. Among other things, such as BT, which, the last time I looked, is not related to jailbreaking.
So, I post back, stating that I don't think I was being rude (clear is not rude) and then offering you more advice based on your next post, which contained more definitive info about your issue (though still without phone or firmware info). To which you again insult me and again accuse me of treating you as some "snotty kid" and of being unable to understand that you are only talking about jailbreaking issues causing your battery to run out quickly.
Really?
Poor battery life in an iPhone has been linked to phone type, firmware, and general use. It does not HAVE to relate to jailbreaking (though it might) and my attempting to suggest such was to the point. That you took it as being off-point is an indicator that you are focused only on the jailbreaking aspect, not on the issue as a whole. My advice, even after you insulted me the first time, was helpful and was based on knowledge of battery issues that have been talked about for several years (especially for 3GS phones). I have not insulted you, regardless of the fact that you have responded in a most impolite manner several times to my attempts to help you with your problem.
So, good luck to you.
Seriously, you don't think calling my reply sarcastic isn't rude? You post a minimal description of your issues
I'm wondering what are some known battery-killing apps, tweaks, themes, etc. from jailbreaking your iDevice. My battery has been suffering and I'm thinking I might have one (I'm guessing it's my word clock theme but I like that too much to get rid of it), so if it is a known battery-killing culprit, I'd like to look into getting rid of it.
and I suggest that this could be caused by any number of things, not only mobile substrate tweaks. There is no way of telling what you are doing with your phone (or, for that matter, what phone or firmware you are using) and I suggested that many things can run your battery down. How can anyone here know what is causing your issue without more info. I also gave an overview of my experience with my phone and its battery life, to suggest that WinterBoard does not necessarily have to be a battery-killing suspect.
So you get another response, also saying what I said- that WinterBoard and tweaks don't run down her phone, and reiterating that using Cydia and playing with the phone can run down the battery quickly. Among other things, such as BT, which, the last time I looked, is not related to jailbreaking.
So, I post back, stating that I don't think I was being rude (clear is not rude) and then offering you more advice based on your next post, which contained more definitive info about your issue (though still without phone or firmware info). To which you again insult me and again accuse me of treating you as some "snotty kid" and of being unable to understand that you are only talking about jailbreaking issues causing your battery to run out quickly.
Really?
Poor battery life in an iPhone has been linked to phone type, firmware, and general use. It does not HAVE to relate to jailbreaking (though it might) and my attempting to suggest such was to the point. That you took it as being off-point is an indicator that you are focused only on the jailbreaking aspect, not on the issue as a whole. My advice, even after you insulted me the first time, was helpful and was based on knowledge of battery issues that have been talked about for several years (especially for 3GS phones). I have not insulted you, regardless of the fact that you have responded in a most impolite manner several times to my attempts to help you with your problem.
So, good luck to you.
If I started a thread and said "Hey guys, my phone's battery is dying real fast. And it's jailbroken. Help." then your post would be relevant. But I specifically asked what jailbroken-related factors can cause your battery to drain faster. Why does my firmware or iPhone model matter? If I ask you for the most traffic-ridden part of the highway between San Fran and L.A., does it matter what car I'm driving and what size the engine is? Or can you simply say what parts of the highway I should avoid?
If you felt like Vixen, in that you don't think any jailbroken-related tweaks can really hinder battery life, you could've easily said so. Your very vague and over-generalizing answers seemed sarcastic to me, and if they weren't, my mistake and apology. I thought my question was pretty specific, as did other users based on their answers, so I felt like you were being sarcastic and rude to me. If not, again, my apology.
And thanks for the luck.
Checked Processes, only biteSMS, Mail, Calendar and Phone. Down to 76% after being at 99% this morning, no tweaks, themes, or even resprings that I can recall yet today, and with minimal text and Safari use. Perhaps a full restore is in need. I'll try BatteryDetective as well before going through with the restore and see if it sheds any light on anything. Thanks.
Since you're worried it might be your word clock theme, try turning that off for the rest of the day (or for tomorrow for comparison's sake). It can't hurt. Typically themes with weather are bigger culprits, though really that mostly depends on how often they're polling Yahoo Weather and refreshing. That interval can be changed in the HTML.
What else do you currently have loaded on the phone? The only other culprits that I see complaints on regularly are ultrasn0w and iblacklist (I think)--again, I'm not running either, so no personal experience there, and you'll probably hear from others that they have no trouble with either. LOL
Also, you can tell if you've resprung by going into usage under Settings. If you show any times at all since the last full charge, you haven't done a respring. If those sections are blank, you did at least one. I tend to forget I've done them, they're so routine to me at this point.
I'll keep that in mind. I thought it was Pop-Up Blocker, as the morning I downloaded and enabled that, I noticed a sudden drop in battery percentage. Disabled that yesterday morning, and throughout the day it still happened. Like I said, I let it die and charged it.
I did let it sit in standby mode overnight, and it dropped 1 percent (hence why I started the day at 99%). So I don't think it's a process, but an app or tweak or theme running while the phone is on and possibly shortly after putting it to sleep. I don't have either app or JB you mentioned (used Redsn0w on 4.3.3 [iPhone 4 if necessary to know
]), so neither one of those are the culprit. I'll turn off my Word Clock theme and see how that goes. Hopefully that's not it though. I really like those word clocks.
Just for reference--out of curiosity, I figured I'd test my battery life today since we're discussing it. The first attachment is my current stats today, the second is a screenshot of just how many themes I'm running. Obviously, you can tell just by the screenshots this is a pretty heavily themed phone, running a full UI and an icon theme, plus springboard and lockscreen widgets that have both clock and weather. Brightness has been between 45-55%. 3G and Wifi both on, Bluetooth off.
Usage breaks down into 54 minutes of iPod according to the album info--about half of that backgrounded while using other apps. About an hour of app usage (with and without music, so there's some overlap there), all over wifi with 2-3 bars signal. A half dozen emails, a half dozen texts both sent and received. One 3 1/2 minute phone call that sucked down 2% of my battery all by itself (3 bars on 3G; rest of the call time shown is previous to this charging period).
Honestly? Extrapolated out over a whole day, this would be pretty average life on any iPhone 4, stock or JB. I'm going to continue checking it for the rest of the day, but offhand, I can't be disappointed. And this is why I tend to think it's not your word clock, and tend to discount the "Winterboard is evil" comments--on an iPhone 4, WB & most themes don't seem to be the issue when it comes to battery life, unless you're regularly respringing. Every respring I do takes 1-2% (presumably due to the heavy theming).
If you do determine it's the clock theme that's the culprit, please post a link or let us know where it came from. I'd be interested in looking at the HTML.
Usage breaks down into 54 minutes of iPod according to the album info--about half of that backgrounded while using other apps. About an hour of app usage (with and without music, so there's some overlap there), all over wifi with 2-3 bars signal. A half dozen emails, a half dozen texts both sent and received. One 3 1/2 minute phone call that sucked down 2% of my battery all by itself (3 bars on 3G; rest of the call time shown is previous to this charging period).
Honestly? Extrapolated out over a whole day, this would be pretty average life on any iPhone 4, stock or JB. I'm going to continue checking it for the rest of the day, but offhand, I can't be disappointed. And this is why I tend to think it's not your word clock, and tend to discount the "Winterboard is evil" comments--on an iPhone 4, WB & most themes don't seem to be the issue when it comes to battery life, unless you're regularly respringing. Every respring I do takes 1-2% (presumably due to the heavy theming).
If you do determine it's the clock theme that's the culprit, please post a link or let us know where it came from. I'd be interested in looking at the HTML.
Attachments
Appreciate the insight. Hopefully whatever is causing the battery issue is easily fixable, i.e. not going to involve a restore as a new phone and having to re-add apps, music, settings, etc. I don't have a day or a few hours to devote to sitting down on my iPhone and iTunes reestablishing settings.
For more of my battery life today, I left work at 5 p.m., had 68% battery. I checked email, sent and received a few texts, watched YouTube (listened to music videos on the way home) for about 20 minutes of the drive home, and resprung after turning my word clock off, and it's at 56% now after getting another email. So for about 45 minutes worth of use, I've lost 12% of battery. Maybe I'm being biased due to having jailbroke and keeping a closer eye on my battery (I used to not even keep the percentage on but I wanted to see how my battery was affected) but it just doesn't seem like 12% of lost battery was normal after that much use. At that rate, I only get about half of the 5-6 hours of 3G internet use I'm supposed to see.
For more of my battery life today, I left work at 5 p.m., had 68% battery. I checked email, sent and received a few texts, watched YouTube (listened to music videos on the way home) for about 20 minutes of the drive home, and resprung after turning my word clock off, and it's at 56% now after getting another email. So for about 45 minutes worth of use, I've lost 12% of battery. Maybe I'm being biased due to having jailbroke and keeping a closer eye on my battery (I used to not even keep the percentage on but I wanted to see how my battery was affected) but it just doesn't seem like 12% of lost battery was normal after that much use. At that rate, I only get about half of the 5-6 hours of 3G internet use I'm supposed to see.
Everytime I see one of these threads come up I recommend the same thing. Turn off the battery percentage and don't obsess over it. You'll know if you have a real battery drain (like the iOS 5b1 was). Half the time people kill their battery just turning on the screen checking their battery life.
12% is probably a bit high, but streaming 20 minutes of YouTube over 3G while on the move from cell tower to cell tower so the signal strength varies? It doesn't surprise me at all. Streaming over wifi is typically a high demand on the battery. Over 3G is a lot worse. [Edited to add--it's YouTube. Just streamed twenty minutes of MLB's Home Run Derby interviews over 3G and lost 10% of the battery. Streaming 20 minutes over wifi cost me 5%.]
Without making light of this, because there certainly may be a genuine issue--if you didn't normally have battery percentage on before the JB, turn it off. It's easy to get sidetracked by watching it drop and think there's a problem when there isn't one, because the battery monitors aren't that accurate, and the rate doesn't drop in a linear fashion. It takes longer to go from 100% to 98% than from 10% to 8%, for example. Plus, if you're expecting to see an issue, you probably will, and if you hadn't been monitoring it that way before you jailbroke, then you don't have an accurate baseline for comparison. For these reasons, I don't usually leave it on myself. I'll obsess over it if I do--even worse on the iPad, and that's on stock firmware still!
What I typically do when I think there might be a problem (after turning off Bluetooth, LOL): Check the percentage after charging to make sure it fully charges, then turn it off, use the phone normally all day, check it before charging at night. Repeat for a couple of days, adding nothing from Cydia (not even updates unless they say something about battery life) and doing little to no respringing during that time--preferably none so I can see the actual usage stats. You're looking to average things out over time in case a day's usage here or there is heavier or lighter than usual. If after a couple days of this, you feel aren't getting a normal day's usage out of it on average, then yeah, it might be time for more drastic measures. But if you're getting through an average day on without needing a recharge, then you're probably not much worse off jailbroken than you were before and probably don't need to go through the hassle of a restore.
Obviously if you see any dramatic changes, my advice would be different.
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LOL--dunno what good that would do you? But all the ones that are checked in that screenshot are all the ones currently running in WB (some available in Cydia, some from here on this board, a few are fully custom), and there are about 6 other icon only bundles that I swap between that are also stored in WB's Themes folder. The list of ALL the widgets and such currently on the phone would number around 40 or so, I think; I have them stored in the var/mobile/Documents section and move them in and out of WB as I need them through iFile, though they previously were ALL in WB. That was too unwieldy for finding any given theme, even with special naming conventions, so I moved out all except the ones currently in use. The main file of the rest (not including the ones I'm currently running) has 4770 files and is 217,713,025 bytes according to iFile (about 207 MB).
No, I just really like your theme.
I'll PM you the details. Most of what you can see here will be easy to get.Yup, I have yet to notice any significant battery drain from using Winterboard on both 3GS & iP4.
For me the the Battery Killers have been keeping Beejive & Twitterrific ruining in the background all day.
Other than that I have 3G, Wifi, Bluetooth, and Exchange pushed at all times, with Winterboard and battery life is good.