[BJCopes]

Guys,

I'm having a really, really bad time with the Z10. Let me first say that I love the OS and I think its fantastic, and I have no intention of taking my Z10 back. BB has done a great job, but there is one issue that I am having. I am on my second Z10 at the moment and I still have no solution. I am wondering if CrackBerry has gotten anymore information than I have, or looking for advice from folks who know more than I do.

Essentially, my Battery drains at a ridiculously fast rate. I can get max 5 hours of battery life, and this is when doing nothing. This has been a major problem. I picked up my first Z10 on Wednesday, and initially thought I got a lemon. After returning the phone on Saturday, I have been having the same issue. To answer the initial questions, I have read the Battery conservation guide on the site. I have turned off all radio signals. I have turned off LTE. I have dimmed screen. The issue is not my usage of the phone. I have thoroughly tested this.

Last night I spent 2 hours with Telus support, and eventually got escalated to BlackBerry. They scanned my logs, and gave me a pretty generic response regarding the fact that Battery Drain has been an issue with some phones, development team has been working on it, update coming, etc. While this is great news, I'm wondering if there is any more information known by the larger community. How frequently have updates been coming (I've only had a Z10 for 5 days). Had anyone heard different reports from other sources? Has anyone found a solution of their own to the Battery Drain issue.

Based on the explanation I received I thought reinstalling the OS could fix the problem. Unfortunately, it does not. If I could take the phone back and be sure that a 3rd unit would work, I'd happily do that. I can't make it through the work day, which is a real issue. I'm stressing a bit about this, not because I don't trust Blackberry to fix the problem, but because the nature of my new phone purchase 14 day warranty means that I have two weeks to return a phone, and then I'm out of luck. I'm really banking on it being a software issue as suggested, and not a hardware issue... but if there are three or four updates in the next month and I'm still having the issue, I'm going to be very displeased, and very unable to do much about it aside from send my phone away to BlackBerry.

Anyway, this is my situation as of now. If anyone has any additional information, any thoughts, or their own fix for the Battery drain (or even further ideas to conserve power) it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[koolpep]

Which OS version do you have on your phone. For me installing the leaked 10.0.10.xxx solved all Battery issues.

[BJCopes]

10.0.9.348

Would you say your Battery issues were similar to my own? Also, how easy is it to install a leaked update?

[Jerryg50]

We have a number of Z10's. On one of the phones we changed the battery to fix the drain problem. On another phone we got it exchanged because the display was not illuminated evenly and the battery was running down too fast. Overall, we can get 10 to 12 hours out of the phones without charging it up. They are receiving maybe about 30 to 50 emails per day. Some of these are being responded to on the phones. There is some web browsing and talking.

Normally when in the car we use a handsfree and also use a charging connection. This keeps the battery topped up. We also have chargers at each location for each phone. We use the phones more than land lines for calling. When in the office or at home we leave it on charge when not in use.

With charge cycling of the battery over time the battery life will improve. This is normal with this type of battery.

[peter9477]

BJCopes, it has appeared to me and some others that in the first few days, battery life is noticeably worse. This could be because of several things, one of them being a much greater amount of account synchronization (retrieving message headers, messages, calendar events, etc), and media file indexing (if you've restored gigabytes of videos, music, and photos from another device). As you've had the device for only five days, and possibly have wiped it once or twice while troubleshooting, you may never have gotten past this stage (assuming the effect is real).

Another possibility is that you're trusting the "% remaining" indicator too much, and in your case maybe it's miscalibrated. Have you done a full drain of the battery, right to when it shuts off, then recharged fully (to when it stops showing the lightning bolt symbol indicating that it's actually charging)? Doing this once or twice may trigger the OS to update the calibration and this can have the effect of making it appear that your battery life just got a lot better. (Example: if it's off by a lot, it may show 20% loss for each hour of use, but once recalibrated it might show only 10% loss for each hour of use.)

[koolpep]

Follow this link
It's not that complicated. Make a full backup before so you can always go back. And get the correct loader for your particular phone version of the Z10.
OS and Version overview: http://opensourcebb.com/bb10-oses/

I have the feeling that the problems came from the OS constantly checking my calendars or whatnot. No idea. But since the update, all gone, Battery life now quite ok. Means, 30-40% left after a full day with normal smartphone use (for me).

Alternatively wait until BB releases it officially (or any other version). But that might take quite some time.

[BJCopes]

Thanks for the responses.

I have drained the phone several times, and recharged to full several times. Yesterday alone I did it twice. I have heard from others that it takes a while for Battery life to optimize. While this is fine, most have said that they were never at a point where their battery life was as poor as mine. Having watched your Battery life improve, did you start at a time where you would drain 15-25% an hour with very minimal use? This morning I drained 20% in an hour. In this hour, I had all radio signals turned off, I received 5 BBM messages and 1 SMS message, and I sent 4 BBM messages and 2 SMS messages. That was it. That was all the phone was used for. 20% gone. While I can understand that it needs time to optimize, I do not think that is the full problem. If your phone started this way then maybe I'll be a little more confident, but those I've spoken with report about 8 hours of battery life to start, and improvement from there.

I may try installing a new version after work today, however I'm hesitant due to my lack of knowledge with such things. I really don't want to mess this up further.

I would purchase a 2nd battery to test, but again, if it is not a battery issue that's $50 wasted. I am not a heavy, heavy smartphone user. I have never needed two batteries before. Generally speaking I need the phone to last for my work day. I'm just not confident that this current device I am carrying will become capable of that. At the same time, I am not confident that returning for BB10 #3 will make any difference.

[sportline]

Mine is 3 weeks now so the charging crap is over. My friend.from carrier said that z10 has a lot of signalling hence poor battery.

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[BJCopes]

I don't know if I necessarily buy that this is an unfixable or problem with all phones. I have a friend with the same carrier (albeit he lives 8 hours away) who has had his Z10 and has had no battery issues since he booted it up. Most people I speak to online have absolutely no battery issues with their phone. If I could get my hands on one that works like everyone elses' seems to, I would be more than happy.

[htcwf]

I have once found that battery dropped to 40% from fully charged during a period of four hours in standby mode and it was very hot.
I believe it's a software problem, hopefully BlackBerry will fix this.

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[anon(5624621)]

I've had absolutely no battery issue since day 1. It lasts all day, with a little juice left over. Last night it was at 20% and I thought I'd let it get a little lower before charging - so I put on airplane mode and left it unplugged. This morning when I woke up, it was still at 20% (approx 7 hrs later).

Now, in fairness I am mostly on wifi during the day, but I do leave LTE connected as well for phone calls (NFC and bluetooth off unless needed). The only thing that used up battery pretty quick was playing Angry Birds for awhile (LOL).. that's why I was down to 20% last night!
I don't know why some people are having issues and some aren't, but I hope it gets sorted out for you!

[BJCopes]

I've had absolutely no battery issue since day 1. It lasts all day, with a little juice left over. Last night it was at 20% and I thought I'd let it get a little lower before charging - so I put on airplane mode and left it unplugged. This morning when I woke up, it was still at 20% (approx 7 hrs later).

Now, in fairness I am mostly on wifi during the day, but I do leave LTE connected as well for phone calls (NFC and bluetooth off unless needed). The only thing that used up battery pretty quick was playing Angry Birds for awhile (LOL).. that's why I was down to 20% last night!
I don't know why some people are having issues and some aren't, but I hope it gets sorted out for you!

I'd say your battery experience is representative of the majority. Its actually been very hard to find people having the same problem (although there are a few of us). Its frustrating, because I don't want to continuously return phones to Telus. Can anyone comment regarding what they battery drain was like when they first purchased their BB? What is battery drain supposed to be with all of the syncing and linking and email reading happening in the background? I know that 16 hours or so seems to be the norm for what it can ultimately reach, but what was the initial battery. Everyone has suggested that it improves, but I'm having trouble finding info on what it improves FROM. That would help me further work my issue if I do opt for a return of unit #2.

[peter9477]

Having watched your Battery life improve, did you start at a time where you would drain 15-25% an hour with very minimal use? This morning I drained 20% in an hour. In this hour, I had all radio signals turned off, I received 5 BBM messages and 1 SMS message, and I sent 4 BBM messages and 2 SMS messages. That was it. That was all the phone was used for. 20% gone. While I can understand that it needs time to optimize, I do not think that is the full problem. If your phone started this way then maybe I'll be a little more confident, but those I've spoken with report about 8 hours of battery life to start, and improvement from there.

I have no idea why yours might be so poor, but I agree that's very poor. I'd not encourage you to install a leaked update, since I see no reason to think it would resolve the problem. If I were you, I would probably go back for a third device, although you really have to wonder if it's something in your environment. You said you turned off all radio signals, yet you were still receiving messages? How is that possible without at least WiFi being on still? And if WiFi was on, then you should consider whether your wifi is causing trouble for the device.

Here's my picture from part of yesterday, during which I was frequently testing stuff on the device, as well as receiving emails (dozens, if not hundreds) and various other messages. You can see at 9:00 it was fully charged (white line), drained steadily till 15:30 when I played a half hour of Angry Birds Star Wars. It was then at 50% and continued draining until it was around 25% at 10:30 pm when I put it on the charger at bed time. (Sorry, Battery Guru for BB10 is still awaiting BBWorld approval so it's not available for purchase quite yet.)

[BJCopes]

Sorry for confusion. WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC were turned off and LTE was turned off in favor of a 3G to correct Battery Drain. I have not turned EVERYTHING off, as I do need to be able to receive phone calls.

I think it may be a matter of returning this phone for yet another unit, but its a very confusing and frustrating problem. I'm thinking of asking them to check serial numbers, and ensure that I don't have one similar to the one I have currently (and probably the first phone). Maybe a new shipment is on route and I can wait for that. I'm going to see what they say when I go in.

[nikgilbe]

Hi Peter. Nice to know Battery Guru is on its way. Will the BB10 version allow you to see what apps or processes are causing drain or is the OS still locked down for that sort of info?

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[cyberjunkie1]

I did a wipe recently and it seemed to have fixed my issues with the battery. Yesterday was the first day I managed to get 12 hrs with lots of browsing, playing games moderately, and constantly unlocking and checking my emails. I did the wipe because I deleted the voice mail icon shortcut. So that is my story about the battery. So on top of my love for the OS, I am glad to have fixed my battery issue.

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[mcjean]

I had exactly the same problem. It turned out I had accidentally enabled my location services permissions. Turn off your "traffic data collection" and your "gps" on all your location services. It made a huge difference. I found I was getting a maximum of 5 hours and now, I'm back to about 12 hours. Turn off "sync all email folders". All you really need are "inbox, draft & sent". Also, when not within wifi range - turn it off. I only use my wifi when I'm at home or at a known wifi area. It constantly tries to connect to wifi. This is a major battery-eater. Good Luck!

p.s. You shouldn't need to purchase a spare battery in my opinion. A fully charged battery should last you all day...at least.

[Highbeta]

I am also on Telus and running the same Os as you are. Battery life has improved moderately in the last week, which is as long as I have had the phone.


I took the phone off the charger this morning at 7:30 and it is now 13 hours later with the battery meter showing 5%.

I run exchange active sync, gmail imap, run about 100 text messages, 50 emails and about 1 hour of talk time.

Location svcs off, lte off, wifi off, blue tooth on half the day, maybe 45m of browsing on top of everything.

The battery life strikes me as very avg but I'm hopeful that an update or two will get things to turn the corner.

Don't give up yet if you can hold out, I would wait for an official release.

Good luck!

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[peter9477]

Hi Peter. Nice to know Battery Guru is on its way. Will the BB10 version allow you to see what apps or processes are causing drain or is the OS still locked down for that sort of info?

I'm afraid the OS is still quite locked down in that respect. There are some extra tricks I can bring to the app over time to do more in this area, but if I ever found any tricks that would do the sort of thing you describe they'd just close the hole in the next release and I would have wasted my time.

If in future they add an explicit API to capture such info (with appropriate user permissions to let people protect themselves from spying apps), I'd be all over it for Battery Guru.

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[stevepar]

I'm glad, yet concerned to see another Telus user with the same issue as myself. I'm on my second device, in case it's hardware, and own three batteries.

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[BBJonbo]

I am on Telus as well.
I average about 13 hours.
Here is my configuration

10.0.9.348
LTE on
Wifi on
Blue tooth on
NFC off
Location services on
Traffic data collection off
Location based ads on
Screen brightness 35%
Screen lock timeout 2 minutes
Allow gestures when locked off
4 IMAP push accounts w/ 24hr sync interval
2 EAS account
Sync everything I can including all folders
All email accounts receive emails <10 seconds
Heavy email usage
Lite txting usage
Heavy BBM uasage
15-45 minutes talk time
Moderate to heavy browsing
Very heavy CB10 usage

I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I leave most things on and average 13 hours.



Z10 + PB 64GB = Keeping Moving. Posted using CB10 App

[MGDania]

I am with Telus and have had the phone for 5 days. Battery life is horrible. I have stepped down off LTE, keep bluetooth off, location services off. turned gesture wake off and I am only getting about 5-6 hours with little use. Perhaps 50 emails, 15 min talk with the rest standby. I have a charger at home, work and in my car and try to use it as little as possible. Just bought a backup battery. LED charging indicators do not work, have not seen the green LED ever even though it shows 100%.

Love the phone so I am desparate to get this to work. Had a similar problem with iphone 3gs, 3 years ago that turned out to be OS and Microsoft Exchange make me think Active Sync is my problem.

SOLUTION - I think I have found a solution to my poor battery performance. I have 3 email account, 2 being gmail. I moved the gmail accounts from the default push if available setting to sync every 30 minutes. I left my Exchange Active Sync to push as the emails are more critical. Prior to the change the battery was depleting 20% per hour when using 3g (only 10% hour when wifi connected). After the change to sync every 30 min, the battery is depleting 10% in 3 hours. That is a 6x improvement in battery life.

[LockNLock]

you should turn the following OFF to improve your battery life:
- LTE
- wifi
- bluetooth
- location services
- brightness 5

I am on Telus as well.
I average about 13 hours.
Here is my configuration

10.0.9.348
LTE on
Wifi on
Blue tooth on
NFC off
Location services on
Traffic data collection off
Location based ads on
Screen brightness 35%
Screen lock timeout 2 minutes
Allow gestures when locked off
4 IMAP push accounts w/ 24hr sync interval
2 EAS account
Sync everything I can including all folders
All email accounts receive emails <10 seconds
Heavy email usage
Lite txting usage
Heavy BBM uasage
15-45 minutes talk time
Moderate to heavy browsing
Very heavy CB10 usage

I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I leave most things on and average 13 hours.



Z10 + PB 64GB = Keeping Moving. Posted using CB10 App

[lotuslanderz]

@BJCopes. Perhaps you have a rogue app that might be an issue? Have you downloaded or sideloaded any apps?

[lanemaster12]

@BJCopes. Perhaps you have a rogue app that might be an issue? Have you downloaded or sideloaded any apps?

Word. If not a rogue app then I'm guessing hardware problem. Your third device will be lemonade, it has to be!

For what it's worth my z10 was terrible for battery life but after a week or so it seemed to level out. Good luck OP.

Super stoked about battery guru too. Gold standard for sure.

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