.607 Battery Drain Solution
While I know this should be in the finding and fixes section, I am creating a new thread because I think it would be seen by more people who have probably had this issue and already checked there to no avail. I just did this to my Storm 2 last night so I can't say for certain that it has fixed my problem, but I am highly confident that it did given today's battery depletion rate. To some of you these instructions may seem like they are written for dummies but that is so people with barely any experience can follow them. Hopefully this works for everyone else. Before you begin, make sure you have a couple of hours to spare and do so at your own risk.
After the official update that was offered to me through VZW, I was losing battery power anywhere from 6-11% per hour (#s come from Meterberry) and that was even with all of the tricks to help save power and light use. My theory was that the problem stemmed from something during the back up and restore process during the upgrade. I downgraded then upgraded again. I then reinstalled everything and did a battery pull and charged the phone completely. As of today after being on for almost 14 hours I am still at 42% battery with a decrease of 4.3% per hour and have used it more than the past few days. I do not know why the backup and restore process would cause such a problem if it even did cause it.
To start, you will want to write down all of the Apps you have and even what ringtones you have set for each item. This is a little tedious but so is having to recharge your battery 2-3 times a day. The reason for this is that you are going to wipe everything and will want a reference point when you start reloading everything. You will also have to reassign each ringtone and alert and will need a reference point for that as well. You will also want to connect to DM and back up your contacts. If you have any registration codes to enter then you will want to copy those down as well. I found mine by looking at my application list through the CB Superstar Application (great app!). If you have any memos or tasks write them down, and make sure you back up your calendar somehow (I use google sync and my gmail accounts calendar).
After creating your reference list, go to Options>Security Options>Security Wipe and check "Emails, Contacts, etc." and "User Installed Applications." DO NOT CHECK THE MEDIA CARD BOX! It is not necessary to wipe your media card. You will then write "blackberry" at the bottom to clear your phone.
Now you will need to connect your phone to your computer and open DM. Click on Application Loader and then press Start under Update Software. If you currently are running .607 then you will need to select the box to downgrade to .320 and press Next. You will then follow the instructions to downgrade your system. Note: if your previous OS was a different version you should be able to downgrade to that one but I went from .320 to .607.
After the downgrade is complete you will probably want to perform a battery pull just to be on the safe side but I don't know if it is necessary. You will then upgrade again to .607 but this time you will do it differently. Go back through DM just like before and come to the screen where you select the OS you want to update to and select .607 and hit Next. At the next screen under "Device backup and restore options" hit Settings. Clear the top two boxes that are used for backing up data and check the box that deletes all application data (third one). This and the security wipe are the reasons why you went through the tedious process of creating that list.
Now you just have to follow the instructions during the OS Upgrade and wait. When it has finished, you will need to download all of your applications again and enter your registration codes again. Then you will need to connect to DM and upload your contacts again. For some reason, I had an issue getting my email icon back so I deleted my email account from my phone and went through the email setup wizard again to fix that issue. You are also going to have to change all of your ringtones and alerts back to where you would like them.
Most people say that GPS set to E911 and turning off Bluetooth will save battery. I have tried those before and in my opinion it doesn't save a noticeable amount. While it probably does slow down the drain I feel like it isn't enough to make a large difference and left my GPS on for Weatherbug and leave my Bluetooth on. WiFi, however, did seem like a huge drain on the battery. I only turn that on when I am wanting to use my WiFi connection. It appears to me that when you are actually in a WiFi zone that it isn't a big drain. When you are searching for WiFi it is though so turn it off when you are done.
I apologize for the novel I have just written but hopefully it is detailed enough for even the least tech savvy person to use. Like I said before, it hasn't been a full 24 hours since I did this to my phone but I feel like it did the trick. I will post updates below regarding the drain on my battery again if anyone wants to wait and see how it is working for me before going through such an annoying process.
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Battery Updates:
Prior to fixing - 6-7% decrease per hour and sometimes higher
Day 1 ~4%/hr decrease with a little more than normal use.
Ended Day 1 at 4.8%/hr. I couldn't get Slacker to run but my battery was already down to about 30% left so that may be why. Tomorrow will be the best test because it will be fully charged and I will use Slacker for at least an hour (if it works).
Day 2: Well I forgot to take my phone to work and ended up leaving it on the charger all day. It's been off the charger for about 2 hours now and I am draining at 2.7%.
Day 6: It's been about a week and here I am now getting around 2% drop each day. Some days more depending on internet radio usage. During that time it would go up to about 5% but then drop back down to normal. The solution clearly works if you follow it exactly. Only changes in apps was deleting Ubertwitter and downloading Smrtguard but I don't think those changed anything.