Browser eating battery

[joef78]

A friend of mine came to me last night asking why his GPS icon is always showing in his status bar because it's been killing his battery. I took a look at his battery usage and it was actually his browser that had been killing his battery (76%). I took a look at my battery usage and the browser didn't even show up. My GPS icon only appears when navigating through MAPS or initially starting the browser. And I have a weather app constantly running....never see the battery issues that he is seeing.

What would cause his browser to be eating up so much of his battery and why would the GPS icon be regularly appearing in the status bar?

Thank you

 

[hookbill]

A friend of mine came to me last night asking why his GPS icon is always showing in his status bar because it's been killing his battery. I took a look at his battery usage and it was actually his browser that had been killing his battery (76%). I took a look at my battery usage and the browser didn't even show up. My GPS icon only appears when navigating through MAPS or initially starting the browser. And I have a weather app constantly running....never see the battery issues that he is seeing.

What would cause his browser to be eating up so much of his battery and why would the GPS icon be regularly appearing in the status bar?

Thank you

I'll bet he's got an app thats using that browser constantly. Don't have a clue as to what it is.

First thing I would try is simply kill the browser (you don't need an app killer to do this). If that didn't work and it continued then a factory reset may be in order to figure out what app he has that's constantly using the browser.

Definitely something strange going on there.

 

[joef78]

Thanks for the quick response hookbill. How does one go about killing the browser w/o a task killer? I've looked around on my droid and haven't found anything.

Thank you

 

[jimnutt]

From the home screen: Settings|Applications|Manage applications
You may have to hit the menu button and select "Filter|All" to show the browser.
Select the browser, then "Force Stop" to kill it.
This works for all applications, a separate task killer isn't needed.

 

[joef78]

Ahh....fantastic! Thanks for the help. The filter was why I wasn't seeing it. Hopefully this will help him out. He's been getting a little cranky about the whole battery usage.

 

[krazykarl]

My wife and I have both experienced this (though I'm not entirely sure that it's gps usage that kills the battery, it might be data usage as well)

It only happens if I open the browser myself and don't kill it with taskiller when I'm done, so I'm reasonably sure that it's a flaw in the browser itself, not some app that is constantly calling it, since I've never seen the browser show up in taskiller without me opening it. It's very annoying though, and about the only reason I actually have taskiller still.

 

[myriad46]

It's the location feature. I have my homepage as Google. It wants to find my location. So, when I return to the home screen before exiting the browser, if I back out before it acquires a location, it will just keep searching. The GPS icon stays there flashing until I force close, or go back in and wait for it to acquire a signal.

Some applications use information from stock apps. Ever wonder why your alarm clock is always running, even though you don't use it? If another program wants to know your location, such as a weather app, it could be using your browser's location feature to find you.

 

[LifeIsABeach]

I agree with myriad46. We had a similar discussion and came to the same conclusion.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/15519-battery-loss-mystery-dolphin.html

 

[joef78]

It's the location feature. I have my homepage as Google. It wants to find my location. So, when I return to the home screen before exiting the browser, if I back out before it acquires a location, it will just keep searching. The GPS icon stays there flashing until I force close, or go back in and wait for it to acquire a signal.

Some applications use information from stock apps. Ever wonder why your alarm clock is always running, even though you don't use it? If another program wants to know your location, such as a weather app, it could be using your browser's location feature to find you.

I agree with myriad46. We had a similar discussion and came to the same conclusion.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/15519-battery-loss-mystery-dolphin.html

This is what I had originally thought. I added the Power Control Widget to his home screen and had him turn the GPS off. His battery usage of the browser since has dropped considerably. It was 76% last night, was about 7% an hour or so ago and he just informed me that it was down to 4%.

That leads me to agree with these two posts. Perhaps a different home page is in order or disabling location. Probably not the best solutions as this is not happening on my Droid.

 

[bigthinker]

I have the Advanced Task Manager and whenever I don't want or need any of the apps running, I use it.....Probably 7 to 10 times a day and it saves my battery Big Time!!!