Massively high battery usage

[Kostya Vasilyev]

And more food for thought.

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, updated to Android 5.0.2 a day or two ago.

Hangouts and Google Play Services both have high battery use under this "mobile radio active" thing (5:28 and 8:45 hours) and yet very low "wake lock" times (in the minutes range).

Same pattern: the radio gets "stuck" in a high power state, apparently, after the respective apps are done with it.

This device never had AquaMail installed.

Hangouts wasn't used at all.

Hello Mountain View, you have a problem.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Same screenshots in English.

[The_Chemist]

I just upgraded my AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to Lollipop 5.01 earlier this week. Now Aquamail is at the top of the battery usage list. The Battery usage shows Aquamail using 26% battery, while the operating system and other apps are only using 1%. I have Aquamail set to manually check for mail every 15 minutes. I have push disabled. The Note 4 is stock AT&T, not rooted.

The interesting thing is that I also have an AT&T LG G3 on Lollipop 5.01. On that device Aquamail is at the bottom of the battery usage list around 1% usage. The G3 is stock AT&T, not rooted.

I wiped the cache on the Note 4, but it did not help. Aquamail is still the main user of battery at the number 1 position. Before upgrading to Lillipop, when the Note 4 was still on KitKat, I had no problems whatsoever with battery usage from Aquamail.

Hopefully someone can figure out what is causing this, since both my G3 and Note 4 are on Lollipop and the issue only exists with the Note 4. I don't get it.

I love Aquamail. It's the best email client I have ever used.

[The_Chemist]

How many accounts/folders are synchronized on Note 4? Do you have the same number on G3?

Exact Same 5 accounts on each. 2 Yahoo's, 1 verizon POP3, 1 Outlook and one work "Bizland" POP3.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@The_Chemist

Please click into AquaMail details, and check if it's same scenario:

If it is -- low wake lock time, high "mobile radio active" -- then there is nothing wrong with Aqua, it's this issue in Android 5.* itself, as proven by the discussions and the links and the screenshots above.

If not -- high wake lock time -- then that's something for me to look into.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Long discussion about this (not AquaMail, about Android 5 battery drain) on Google's own product forums.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/jD1xCGegQg8%5B1-25%5D

[The_Chemist]

@The_Chemist

Please click into AquaMail details, and check if it's same scenario:

If it is -- low wake lock time, high "mobile radio active" -- then there is nothing wrong with Aqua, it's this issue in Android 5.* itself, as proven by the discussions and the links and the screenshots above.

If not -- high wake lock time -- then that's something for me to look into.

Here are the stats from the two phones.

Note 4 (High Battery Usage):  Aquamail Battery Usage 10%,  CPU Total: 6m 18s, CPU Foreground: 37 sec, Stay Awake 33m 10s, Mobile Data Received: 14190, Mobile Data Sent: 12840, Total Connection Time: 8h 55m 39s.

G3 (Low Battery Usage):  Aquamail Battery Usage 3%,  CPU Total: 8m 9s, CPU Foreground: 26s, Keep Awake: 1h 3m 33s.

The Note 4 is actually doing much better today than yesterday.  Yesterday the Note 4 listed Aquamail as using 26% battery.  Today is is only 10%. 

The G3 gives much less information on Aquamail usage than the Note 4.

[Fcasoli]

I have two Note 4, kitkat and lollipop, Aquamail is not more expensive in battery than stock email client. I have two Gmail and one imap accounts in push. The best client for me, Aqua now.


Galaxy Note 4 + Gear 2

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@The_Chemist --

I don't question what you're seeing in Aqua.

But my point is, this is something that can happen with Android 5.0 (5.0.1, 5.0.2) and 5.1 to pretty much any app, at random, and that is a strong hint that this is an OS level issue.

Aqua always holds a wake lock when it talks to the network. The "mobile radio" times being much much higher than "keep awake" time is another.

---

The worst part is -- a bunch of manufacturers released 5.0 (5.0.1, 5.0.2) updates to their last year's models, and it's I'm very doubtful that they're going to put the effort into another round of updates (esp. since the issue is still present in 5.1).

[Kostya Vasilyev]

And three more. I saw a screenshot of same type of stats in Gmail last night, but can't seem to find it today.

---

Google's best recommendation (on their Product Support Forums, and coming from a Google employee) is "power down the phone, power back up, and charge to full battery". I'm skeptical.

[The_Chemist]

@The_Chemist --

I don't question what you're seeing in Aqua.

But my point is, this is something that can happen with Android 5.0 (5.0.1, 5.0.2) and 5.1 to pretty much any app, at random, and that is a strong hint that this is an OS level issue.

Aqua always holds a wake lock when it talks to the network. The "mobile radio" times being much much higher than "keep awake" time is another.

---

The worst part is -- a bunch of manufacturers released 5.0 (5.0.1, 5.0.2) updates to their last year's models, and it's I'm very doubtful that they're going to put the effort into another round of updates (esp. since the issue is still present in 5.1).

I really don't think the issue is with Aquamail, as I have 2 devices and the issue is only on one of them. I really feel this issue is caused by Lollipop and all the variations of the Android overlay that each manufacturer places on top of stock Android.

It took so long for Samsung to send out the Lollipop update this year, that as you said, I can't imaging a bug fix will come along any time soon. Looks like we all will just have to live with this until the next version of the operating system comes along.

There is no way I would give up on Aquamail. Each version just keeps getting better and better. It's a shame that Google allows each device manufacturer to put such a wide variety of overlays on top of stock Android.

My Samsung Galaxy Tab S just updated last evening to Lollipop 5.02. It will be interesting to see what bugs crop up here.

[crashdamage]

For the record, I've had no problems with AquaMail and power drain.  We have 2 phones and 2 tablets all with multiple Gmail and IMAP accounts in AquaMail and all is good.  In fact, Lollipop has been trouble-free on everything.

Google is working hard on the memory leak/power drain problems. A 5.1.1 version has been spotted and rumor is it's mainly a memory bug update.  But who knows when - or if - it will be released.  It could just as well go straight to 5.2.

It's too bad Google gets blamed so often for slow updates and allowing this or that with Android.  Google doesn't 'allow' UI overlays such as Touchwiz (aka Touchjizz) and Sense (aka Senseless).  The Android OS is open source and Google can't stop Samsung, HTC, Cyanogenmod or anyone else from doing what they want.  Google can threaten to withhold access to Google Services for leverage, but not much more.

If you want faster updates and less bloat buy Nexus devices, one of the Pure Series phones or at least something like a Moto X that runs very lightly modified Android.

This is too off-topic for an AquaMail forum...sorry.

And thank you Kostya, for an absolutely kick-butt email client!

Android since v1.0.  Linux user since 2001.

[mikeone]

@crashdamage:
What about these issues also on "their own" Nexus products? I guess that these devices are not running with TouchWiz or Sense?

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/jD1xCGegQg8%5B1-25%5D

[crashdamage]

@mikeone...I'm not quite sure what point you're making.  I made no claim that Lollipop was perfect on any devices.  Obviously it is not.  I just said that I have not had any problems.  And, in a nutshell, that users wanting faster updates and less bloat would probably be happier with devices running vanilla or nearly vanilla versions of Android.

Anyone who prefers one of the UI overlays is certainly free to buy and use it.  To each his own, Android is all about choice.  But to me such stuff is just unnecessary complication and increased opportunity for problems.

Anyway, this really is kinda off-topic for this forum...

Android since v1.0.  Linux user since 2001.

[mikeone]

I just wanted to reply on your following statement:

...
It's too bad Google gets blamed so often for slow updates and allowing this or that with Android.  Google doesn't 'allow' UI overlays such as Touchwiz (aka Touchjizz) and Sense (aka Senseless).  The Android OS is open source and Google can't stop Samsung, HTC, Cyanogenmod or anyone else from doing what they want.  Google can threaten to withhold access to Google Services for leverage, but not much more.
...

Furthermore i only wanted to point out that  even nexus devices running with "pure" Android version 5.0.x obviously have issues.