yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Wannagotopopeyes:
I've been experiencing similar battery issues the past week or so too. It looks like turning on 2G only seems to fix it, but what I don't get is why I'm still getting horrible battery life?

I have tasker auto turn off my 3G all together whenever my screen is turned off, and yet I leave my phone on my desk untouched all day and I end up at 40% when I get off work.

Wouldn't turning off 3G via Tasker be the same (or close to it) as turning on 2G only in the settings?

Hope t-mobile gets this worked out pretty soon!!
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Big Smooth:
Glad I saw this thread. My wife and I both have N1s and have each been noticing unusually fast battery drain just in the last 3-4 days.

Last night I charged both phones to the same percentage, turned off 3G on hers and let them both sleep for a while. The phones are configured pretty similarly (stock, latest Maps installed, similar push settings etc). After about an hour and a half, my phone had lost 11% of its charge and hers had only lost 2%. That's enough of a delta for me to point to the 3G usage as the culprit. I guess I will be leaving my phone on 2G when I'm not using it if I am going to be away from a charger for a while.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
It's NOT the Google Maps update.

Well, I did my experiment yesterday to rule out the Google Maps 5.8 update as the cause of this issue.

I'm running CyanogenMod so it's possible for me to uninstall Google Maps completely, not just the updates. I did so on Saturday night. Still set to 2G only, I removed my phone from the charger Sunday morning. A few hours later I enabled 3G. Later that afternoon I turned 3G off again.

I think the screenshot speaks for itself. Again, this is without Google Maps installed at all.

I asked around this weekend, and my friend's wife (also here in Portland, OR) is experiencing the same issue on her G1 on T-Mobile. Reading online I've heard about the problem affecting the MyTouch 3G, the G2, and many here with the Nexus One. The common elements seem to be: T-Mobile 3G service, particular models of phones, and some particular geographic areas.

Bottom line (IMHO): T-Mobile has a problem with the configuration of their 3G service in some areas, and it's preventing many phones from being able to idle/sleep properly, resulting in huge battery drain.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] keenerb:
Here's mine, I posted this several days ago in the TMONEWS thread.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
That's interesting. Even locking the phone to 2G/EDGE didn't have an impact? (not a Nexus One there it appears, what model?)

How did you go about disabling the 3G connection? I'm not sure if there are multiple ways to do it, but I used:

Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks

Really strange that even pulling the SIM didn't seem to make a difference. Or maybe that's not the same as turning off the cell radio entirely? Perhaps the issue is lower-level, like the radio constantly polling the tower or something even in the absence of being able to successfully register on the network for active use.

Does enabling airplane mode fix the drain issue for you?
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] keenerb:
This is a G2.

2G has been much better than 3g, but still probably only 3/4 of my former battery life, optimistically. I checked "Use 2g networks only", same as everyone else. The graph above is a little misleading, since I really saw better battery life, that initial flat and quick drop actually averages out to "decent", rather than "horrific.

At the "Pulled SIM and SD card" mark I re-enabled 3g, so the drain afterwards is still 3g related.

Pulling the SIM doesn't disconnect it from the radio tower, you can still make emergency calls/etc. so it has to maintain a connection I suppose.

Twice I hard-reset the phone, pulled out SD and SIM, and still had huge huge battery drain. Powertutor said IDLE draw was 1437mw on average, no SIM, no WIFI, just sitting there on my desk.

In Airplane mode it'll last for days...
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
I'm not familiar with Tasker. However, maybe it's just disabling cellular data use, not actually disabling the 3G radio? From what we've seen it appears the problem is very low-level, perhaps something to do with basic communication/negotiation between the cell radio in the phone and the towers, as there's no indication of particular application activity or significant data transmission that the Android OS is aware of.

In the T-Mobile support thread there are reports that T-Mobile is now acknowledging there's an issue with changes to their HSPA+ network in some areas.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Big Smooth:
I've had 3G off all day and my battery life is back to normal. I'm at 87% after at least 6 hours on battery. Yesterday I was down to less than 50% by this time. Luckily, I am able to be on Wifi at work so I don't have to deal with EDGE speeds, which make the Baby Jesus cry.

deliamber, you probably noticed this already but I'm also in the Portland market. It's gotta be a network issue.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] SubatomicGenome:
I'm having the same issue on my N1 (I'm around the Portland area myself)

I did everything as well, 2g is the only thing that saves me..

Can't wait for a fix!
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wondercoolguy:
I'm in DFW on N1 running Cyanogen 7.1 I was getting with moderate use 16ish hours on one charge. Now I'm getting 10ish maybe lower not even touching it. TMO must be doing something....my wife complained the other night her phone battery wasn't lasting as long....I will call TMO today...if my phone doesn't die during the call I will find out....
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rod3:
I am here in Fort Worth and both my N1 and my wife's HD2 can't make it through the day anymore. I hope it get's resolved soon.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] extxn72:
It seems to coincide with this: http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/articles/t-mobile-faster-4g-network

I remembered getting a flyer in the mail about it, and started seeing my battery life tank over the weekend.

I'll try switching to 2g tomorrow to see if it makes a difference. At least it's getting some press

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-g2-users-suddenly-suffering-from-huge-battery-loss/

http://www.mgraves.org/2011/08/t-mobile-network-hspa-issue-plagues-users-of-htc-handsets/

I'm also seeing my 3g radio come on while I have wifi on, and it usually doesn't do that unless I'm receiving a text. I watched it for about 5 minutes and every 30-60 seconds the 3g icon would come up for a few seconds, then go back off.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wondercoolguy:
Just got off the phone with tech support and he called the super tech heads who couldn't confirm that work was going on in DFW they did say that we have 5 towers in our area that if were worked on would cause this. He said give it about a month or so.... Since I'm on the loyalty plan the guy could only credit me $5 bucks if you have other plans you may can get something out of them.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] waylo:
Wow wow wow. Glad I found this thread.

Definitely getting the same thing. Since last week. In Portland, OR. Getting >10% drain/hour just idling.

Been pulling out my hair with reflashing, new ROMs, freezing/uninstalling apps. Good to know it's nothing new I've installed.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] staticDischarge:
Convinced

This thread actually convinced me to register for an account here, rather than just reading everything quietly.

I have a stock N1 from January 2010 which I haven't altered in anyway. The GB install actually came OTA, as did all other installs. Starting about a week, maybe 2 ago, I noticed that I was having a significant battery drain as others are mentioning here. I'm located in Portland Oregon. My girlfriend, with a stock G2, has not seen any impact from this (she has yet to get her OTA GB upgrade).

I picked up a secondary battery for the phone thinking the battery may have finally died, but that seems to have not changed the behavior any. I've tried disabling the 3G band on the radio and see improved battery life, but what isn't certain is the amount of improvement received is from 2G vs 3G transmitters.

I did uninstall the Google Maps update and found it rather interesting. The updates bump maps to 12.5 MB in size on the phone, while the non-updated version drops to 3.51 MB. Unfortunately removing the Google Maps app has not shown any significant change in battery life (there was a little).

I think my next experiment will be to put my fully charged N1 (with 3G on) into a faraday cage used for RF testing at work. The idea is to get a general idea on the amount of battery drain the phone would exhibit when searching for a signal constantly and compare that to the rate of drain being seen today. My hope is that this is not an issue of the signal exceeding the hardware limits and thus dropping the connection.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
I've been having massive battery drains as well recently. It seems to have started at about the same time Google pushed out the latest update to the Gmail app. I haven't really had time to verify that that is the case though.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] extxn72:
It has to be related to something with the towers...towers that were upgraded vs those that weren't. I work on the opposite side of San Antonio from where I live. When I was at work, my battery tanked. When I got home, you can see, my battery usage flattened out. I didn't make any other changes.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baseballfanz:
My CM7 been having great battry life till about two days ago.

I did notice the "sync" symbol in the status bar more than usual.

Check in account & sync and see Google Music trying to sync everytime.

Have switch off music sync to test
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vzontini:
Seeing the same battery drain issue on my N1 with Kangorama (CM7.0.3) in Houston. Glad to see it's not just me. I wiped and re-installed thinking it was my phone, but there was no change. Will keep an eye on this thread.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sainttjames:
Don't have anything to add, but I've had pretty good battery life on my N1 for almost a year (stock) until the last couple of days. Switched to a new battery and still no joy. Also in Houston w/TMobile.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
Guys, I doubt very much that it is carrier or location specific. As I mentioned earlier, I had great battery life up until last week sometime, and I'm in Canada on Rogers -- nothing at all to do with T-Mobile or Houston, TX.

I think it most likely is due to one of the Google apps. (Personally I think it is the 2.3.5 Gmail update.)
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sainttjames:
"(Personally I think it is the 2.3.5 Gmail update.)"

I happen to agree 100% with that! It happened exactly after I allowed the GMAIL app to update.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] waylo:
Interesting theory, except the Gmail update is dated 7/29/11, and I definitely had problems for at least a day or two before.

To test this theory, I'm going to freeze Gmail 2.3.5 through Titanium Backup, while keeping 3g on, to see how battery drain goes today.

Stay tuned.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
Here are the dates of the updates of my stock apps:

Maps: Jul 27

Twitter: Jul 27

Facebook: Jul 29

GMail: Jul 30

I could very well be any one of these...
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] waylo:
Great you had a log of the dates of installation. That's helpful. Is that identifiable through the OS somewhere?

So far, after 2 hours of minimal use, down to 79%, with gmail frozen. Really bad battery life despite no gmail use, so that lead is not promising in my opinion.

I don't have Twitter, so I don't think that's it.

Maps is a possibility. Though I don't know what it would be checking without being run (Latitude is not turned on).
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Lost Dog:
Not so.... T-Mobile insiders have confirmed it is due to a tower side software issue. That's about all the information we've been able to learn other than they are aware of it and trying to find a solution.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
Strange then that some of us not on T-Mobile network have been experiencing the same issue at exactly the same time...
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
Not sure if it is accurate (I believe it is), but I just checked the date the file was modified in /data/app
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rod3:
Ok, I was on the bandwagon blaming TMO for my battery issues, but after seeing others post about Gmail update, I decided to test by uninstalling Gmail completely.

After uninstalling Gmail (not freezing in TB) my battery decreased 1% in 1hr 45 min with 3G enabled (untouched, no usage). Previously I was experiencing ~10% battery drain per hour with no usage.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] waylo:
Well, this is most confounding. Wouldn't freezing be the same thing?

Maybe the next step would be installing an earlier version of gmail to see if the power savings continue.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
Not sure. I'm don't really know what freezing does.

Does anyone have the apk?
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Lost Dog:
I'm currently traveling and left the Portland, OR area this morning. In portland the 3G battery drain was huge. I'm in Seattle right now and 3G is back to normal. Only slightly more drain than 2G.

I'm off to the mid west right now so I'll see how that market is doing.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rod3:
Just installed 2.3.4.1 gmail from TB backup and after an hour, my battery drain has still remained at 1%.

Here is the old 2.3.4.1 apk if anybody wants it.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] quick_:
Battery drain

FWIW, I have an N1 on t-mobile in houston. Experiencing the issue as well.

I don't have facebook or twitter installed. I uninstalled gmail 2.3.5, then installed 2.3.4, no change. Battery still draining 10%/hr.

My problem started after the market app update, I know this for sure.

Strange thing is there is nothing suspect showing under battery use, the phone is going to sleep properly as well.

IMO, this is either CM7 nightly I'm using (147) or related to the 3G/tower issue by t-mobile.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] waylo:
Freezing is essentially uninstalling. Can't be seen or run by the OS at all. Keeps intact all settings though, for easy "defrosting."

Well, we have some interesting test results, arguing for both gmail and for location.

@Rod3, thanks for the apk. Is it possible the 3g tower issue has been resolved in just your area? i.e. does switching back to the latest gmail cause power drain issues again?

Isn't it ironic that this latest gmail update was to save bandwidth and power? =P

@quick_: Don't think it's your ROM. I'm using a different one, and also recently updated to a newer version, and both have issues.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
It's reports like this that make it nearly impossible for me to believe the source of the problem lies in any particular application or the Android OS itself (though maybe a radio-specific driver, if it is an issue with not handling the new HSPA+ channel bonding well, or whatever change it was that they seem to have made?). Just moving to different areas of the 3G network shouldn't have any impact on a runaway application hogging the CPU or trying to constantly transmit tons of data. Yet the differences in battery drain are dramatic.

I've already confirmed the problem has nothing to do with Google Maps at all. I uninstalled Maps completely and saw the same steep drain issue on 3G, while 2G/EDGE was just fine.

I'd be willing to put money on the exact same outcome if I remove GMail completely. If folks are really convinced it's GMail, I can perform that experiment.

EDIT: Furthermore, if it's an application issue why does switching from 3G to 2G/EDGE show such a dramatic difference? If an application were constantly hogging the CPU the drain should be the same in both cases. If an application were constantly transmitting/receiving data the drain should be very similar, maybe a bit less with 2G/EDGE. Yet we're seeing a HUGE difference, with 2G providing the expected battery life, and 3G killing the phone in short order. It just doesn't add up to an application problem.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rod3:
I have been leary to reinstall GM2.3.5 as I was still having battery drain issues this morning. Until more details come out or a new update to Gmail, I think I am going to stick with the old .apk
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gsloop:
I've posted this a few other places, but I'll post a link to that message here - this problem appears to impact several handsets on TMo.

Summary:

A contact I have inside TMo engineering believes the problem was caused by [or was a result of] some changes made to the network on TMo's side.

They are working on a solution, but none is available at this point.

Locking to 2G will vastly extend battery life. [Using the power widget in CM will make this a lot handier.]

While 2G isn't a "fix" it will vastly increase battery life until we have a fix.

---

My full post is here:

URL: support.t-mobile.com/message/14371#14371

[I don't post enough to have link privs...

Someone who can fix it is welcome to, or cut/paste into your browser.]

-Greg
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
Link!- http://support.t-mobile.com/message/14371#14371

And thanks very much for the information! I'll wish T-Mo engineers the best of luck in fixing this quickly!
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] quick_:
Thanks for the updates above, greatly appreciated.

It sucks that we are at the mercy of t-mobile to fix the issue, it could take months/weeks before there is some fix, and then they have to roll it out...yikes.

My battery is dead after heavy usage in just over 3hrs, that's with the phone 50% of the time sleeping too.

Having to keep the phone in 2G mode is a pain because I like to stream music while driving, I hope there is some miracle hack/fix someone can come up with in the mean time.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] futuremonkey:
In the past 4 days, my T-Mo G2 has gone from getting 12-14 hours of moderate use per charge to draining the battery completely dry within 4 hours of sitting idle with data turned off, bluetooth turned off, wifi turned off, gps turned off, nothing set to autosync. So it would seem I have a problem different from the others described here.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
When you say "data turned off" do you mean airplane mode? If not, and you've just disallowed usage of data over the cellular radio:

Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Data Enable (unchecked)

I don't think that will save you from the problem. All signs point to something very low-level in the connection the radio is making with the towers. The configuration change T-Mobile implemented seems to cause the 3G radio to be constantly communicating whether or not any user data is being sent by the OS (maybe continually renegotiating the connection, or bouncing between channels, or something similar).

The problem has even been demonstrated to persist with the SIM removed from the phone! (since the radio still maintains a connection for emergency calls)

The litmus test would be to force your phone to only use 2G/EDGE for the cell connection:

Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Use only 2G networks (checked)

I'm guessing that'll bring your normal battery life back.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lilchicano:
wow i am so glad i found this thread. i thought it was due to something still being stuck from flashing a sense ROM and going back to CM7.1

i was just getting worried thinking it might have been the phone because i did like full wipes, and all and nothing!

i switched to 2g earlier today and it seems to have lasted abit longer so far. the real test would be when i got a full charge at night and leaving it idle to see if it goes down 10% /hr like it has been doing the past couple of days. i really hope it doesnt
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] efrant:
I also uninstalled Gmail 2.3.5 and installed the previous version, and all is back to normal for me as well.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] futuremonkey:
Very interesting. I've been screwing around with freezing apps and all sorts of things (a ton of updates came down right about the same time my problem started) but based on your info I will try forcing 2g today (shudder) and see what that does for my battery life.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wondercoolguy:
I believe its one of those "perfect storms" minus Mark wahlberg for us TMO users in DFW and for the latest update for Gmail. Last night I turned off Sync, 3g, and had my setcpu take the processor down to the lowest while screen was off. I didn't touch the phone from 6 - 11 and when I picked up my phone it had gone from 70% to 30%. I just installed previous version of gmail to see...
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baseballfanz:
Yeah Houston/Sugar Land here too.

Battery still bad:(

CM7 nightly on the N1
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] texiandave:
I jumped to the end without scrolling through all 58 messages so my apologies if this is redundant. Go here to be heard...

http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/3544?tstart=0

BTW, a little digging turns up that this is almost certainly related to a roll out of an upgrade to the T-Mobile HSPA network, not google maps or anything else. That's why it is intermittent, only hits a few phones and is only is 4G coverage areas. Also explains why turning off 3G helps. The quicker we complain to T-Mobile directly the quicker they will fix it.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deliamber:
Nope, not redundant, thanks for that. Just posted my details there, and I'd encourage everyone else to do so as well.

Looks like T-Mobile is finally acknowledging the issue publicly and are seeking info. Gives me more hope about a fix happening soon! They've already got over 100 posts to that thread and it's only been live for about 5 hours. :p
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] futuremonkey:
Well, I left my phone with "use only 2g networks" selected today, and it solved my problem. I've been on the battery 13h 57m and still have 54% charge left. Quite an improvement from going completely dead in ~4-5 hours idle.

Turns out Deliamber was exactly right. I had no idea that it would have made a difference even with the data network turned off.

I hope they get this fixed ASAP.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wondercoolguy:
I'm sure by now everyone has heard about this but I'm gonna post this anyway just in case..

http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/3544?tstart=0

TMO wants to know what device/area/and if switching to 2g helps.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wraith404:
could this issue be all about gmail?

In searching around to find this issue, I noticed complaints from people starting in the past few days that includes people on other networks. i.e. not just T-Mobile. It seems to me that perhaps T-Mobile doesn't have anything to fix, and we should be leaning on Google a bit more.
[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wondercoolguy:
I don't think its a google thing because I uninstalled gmail and maps and also did a factory reset and etc... Same result....in battery depletion...