Horrible battery/charging issues

[jigawatt]

the standard wall wart puts out supposedly 800mAh, whereas the USB port on your computer should be around 500mAh

 

[SylenThunder]

Admittedly, I've only had my Droid 4 since Friday, so I'm not an expert by any means. I have noticed that yeah, it can't charge on USB, but I pretty much expected that, my BlackBerry never did either. I was a bit surprised at how fast the battery drains sometimes, but doesn't others. I went for a day and a half with average use without any issues, but yesterday it only lasted about 8 hours. Today I had the worst experience, It took just a little over two hours to take the battery from 95% charge to 15%. Now, I admit, I did forget to shut down a couple of apps like Google Maps and Skype, but it's not like I had a lot of stuff running. I discovered it because I went to reach for something in my pocket and I noticed that the phone was HOT. Well not searing, but it was probably sitting around 100-110 degrees. (guesstimate as I didn't have a method for actually reading the temp in a client's house, if it does it at home I'll take a measurement.) I also noticed that the phone was in 3G. I know it drains the battery when it swaps back and forth between 3G and 4G, and I'm wondering if it was this more than it might have been the apps running. I'll have to spend a couple weeks playing around with the network settings to figure it out.

Now I just need to Root my phone so I can track it more and "fix" some of the battery drain issues.

 

[MrHaViK]

If it was getting that hot, something must have been actively running, not just idling in the background. More than likely, it was just a random bug that kept something in a processing loop and it probably won't happen often. If your phone is running hot however, it is most definitely draining the battery quickly.

If you do notice this happening often, go to manage apps and set the auto-shutoff for the apps that you use a lot like google maps to ensure that they stop using the cpu when you arent using your phone.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[hendricks026]

I haven't paid much attention to the forums as of late, but I must say I'm very surprised to see that the D4's battery is 'an established issue'. I've had mine since shortly after they were released and haven't had any issue with the battery. I won't deny that I've had quite a few instances of the phone dying, but the large majority of those were due to my stupidity/laziness to not plug in the phone, or just extensive use. I would estimate my average charge to last 12-16 hours. I am running Juice Defender which, imho, is an AWESOME app. It says its been roughly doubling battery life, with no obvious performance losses. What kind of battery life have you guys been getting?

I know your issue has been solved, but just a heads up from personally experience: when it comes to having an issue on your phone, it is waay easier to get VZW's tech support phone line to replace the phone than it is going in store. I replaced my D1 4 times via the tech support after claiming 'microphone dropout issues during a call', which usually was the case. But it was usually replaced with very few questions asked.

Sent from my DROID4 using DroidForums

 

[SylenThunder]

It just got hot that once, so yeah, i'm thinking I probably left Google Maps up and running so not only was my phone off swapping between 3G and 4G, but it was also sitting there polling the GPS unit and so forth.

In regards to hendrik's post, that is correct. Most Verizon company stores will not do exchanges. They say it's because they don't have an ample quantity of phones in stock to support it. It's even harder if you're at one of the privately owned Verizon stores.
Now off to research rooting my phone.

 

[southernburke]

Bad Battery DOA

I had the same problem. 5 hours to charge and the phone was dead after a 30 minute call.
Verizon called it a DOA, luckily I was still in the 14 day period. This DOA phone was mailed to
me directly from Verizon as a new phone but it had sign's of previous use, the phone was
filthy on the protective screen, there where fingerprints under the protective screen and scratches
on the back of the slider. The protective layer that the phone comes with was loaded with bubbles
and was placed on crooked.
When I finally got permission from Verizon to bring the phone to a corporate store for a swap, I
had asked to see all of the Droid 4's they had in stock, there was a lot of eye rolling about that
but they brought me about a dozen phones out. All but one had a perfect screen protector and that
is the one which I took. Finally I have a phone with absolutely no problems. I can go a whole day
on a single charge. Charge time from 10% to full is under an hour and the GPS works great.
On another note, I have never received a refurbished phone from Verizon that wasn't plagued with
problems. One Droid 3 replacement had the sim card retainer ripped out, if you turned the phone
upside down without the cover the SIM card would fall out. Do they really inspect these refurbished
phones? I don't think so, they just mail you someone else's problem and cross their finger's that you
are to dimwitted to notice.
These are smart phones for smart people. Smart people are getting fed up with Verizon's insurance/
return policy. I won't put up with it anymore, I hope all of you won't either.

 

[me_droid]

Thought I was lucky with my D4 and battery life until today. Basically after 8 hours of surfing, texting, email and about 10 minutes of voice calls battery was drained. Checking battery status, the display consumed nearly 50% and I have it set to less than 50% brightness! Is this normal?

 

[MrHaViK]

8 hours of continuous use? That seems pretty normal if that's the case. When i'm surfing or even reading google books i lose 1% every two or three minutes. So actually 8 hours is pretty good.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[balaramabeauty]

So I just got my phone on Wednesday so I'm still trying to figure out how to use everything. But I'm having the same problem, hours to charge and quick discharge. I installed juice defender but I haven't had time to set it up yet. But when I look at the pre-installed battery information under settings it says that I'm using the majority of my battery on display and I've got the screen brightness at like 9%, I turned the animations off, and apparently told it to lock my phone and shut off the screen every 30 seconds even when I'm in the middle of typing. I've probably got apps running in the background that I don't know about, but if i do they aren't showing up on the battery usage thing. When I actually use an app like to play a game, that shows up and tells me how much I'm using. I'm still within the 14 day period so I'm wondering if I should just take this back and get something else... I really like it, but battery life is kinda important especially since some days I'l probably end up typing papers on it on my way to school (I specifically bought it with that purpose in mind) Thoughts?

 

[Spydaz]

I have a D4 as a back up and the battery life is fantastic! If I use it with 4G on and 2 Gmail accounts syncing with about 2-4hrs screen time I get 14-17hrs.

My Nexus gets like 6-7hrs with a 2100mah battery lol.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[SylenThunder]

I'm using my D4 pretty heavily now and I'm getting 6-8 hours on a charge. I could probably get more if i could get these apps to stop starting themselves in the background.

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