Hi. I know there are other threads about battery life but I didn’t find an answer there, therefore this new post. (If I have overlooked something, please let me know.)
Here is the problem. My partner and I have the a fairphone bought at basically the same time (August 2014) and we use similar settings. Now, with fully charged battery, the lifetime of a battery cycle of my phone is only about 21 hours whereas hers is about 50 hours. Strange thing is that if we swap batteries, the lifetime of a battery cycle is also swapped. Thus, the problem seems not to be the battery.
Just to avoid confusion: What you are saying is that regardless which battery, in YOUR Fairphone it lasts a shorter time than in the other Fairphone, right?
Do you use the same apps as well? This is what I do when I get rapid battery drain: There might be an app that keeps your phone from ‘sleeping’. You could try to install a wake lock detector (for instance this one, but there are alternatives: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uzumapps.wakelockdetector). After you installed it, just use your phone normally for some hours and then check whether apps are keeping your processor awake. If so, there are several ways to eliminate such a problem; one is to use ‘Greenify’ or similar to freeze the wakelock-causing app when not in use.
Does your partner have 3G, WiFi or Bluetooth disabled while you have it enabled? Are you perhaps often in an area with bad cellular (3G) or WiFi reception?
I also suspect an app to cause this.
I noticed that some apps, for instance Orbot, are heavy on CPU usage. Others, like the Barcoo app and Swype, “call home” every now and then and (try to) report location data. The Guardian app (WTF o_O) also does this, to notifications based on your location, I assume. I noticed the this behaviour because I use XPrivacy (which itself seems to drain my battery, but not to badly).
Some apps, like K9, also have intervals in which they call data (here: mail) from the servers. K9 is configurable in it’s behaviour, but I noticed that some other apps seem to hide the options to change this somwhere deep in unexpected places. Can’t remember an example, though - usually, I just kick out this shit more or less instantly if it annoys me.
Also, if one of the phones is encrypted and the other is not, this might have an effect.
My advice (besides what @Jerry mentioned, of course) would be to look at the apps, one by one, and guess which one could cause this remarkable difference. Have a look at their WiFi and Data usage (either just using the settings menu, or this plus a firewall and/or XPrivacy). Then, use a proper backup software for backing up your data and your apps - and afterwards kick out the suspected culprit to see if the battery drainage changes. If it does not, restore the app.
If this does not help, contact the FP support - and be aware that you ppbl have to send in both devices…
Thanks for all suggestions. Problem solved. I have long battery life again (about 50 hours according to battery stats) although I am not 100% certain what caused the original problems.
I did two things:
Un-installed CM security app
Installed DU Battery app
I suspect that CM security was draining my battery quite heavily (though I am not sure).
