Android operating system has transformed the way firmware works on smart devices. Owing to its open-source nature, it affords countless avenues to smartphone manufacturers to incorporate features that would otherwise be not possible or practical. Android, unlike iOS, is all about giving users control over their phones, tablets, smart TVs, and any other devices which runs on it. You may be using an Android powered device to perform daily tasks, for entertainment, to carry out photography or productivity activities, and much more. All this is made possible by the main firmware that communicates with the hardware to ensure the smooth operation of routine tasks.
The Android universe is full of opportunities for everyone who wants to utilize its potential to create new apps, games and to extract more out of their smartphones or other digital devices. The charm of Android devices having limitless features may prove irresistible for many but it could also put severe strain on the battery of your smartphone. This gets serious when in an attempt to unleash the full power of Android device its battery starts draining fast and becomes power hungry.
Although numerous big players in Android market, such as Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Huawei, Xioami, Oppo, HTC, LG and others are working hard to keep improving the standard of batteries slotted inside their handsets, but still it has to be said that batteries remain the biggest bottleneck in the modern smartphones. No tech firm has been able to design a battery that could last for longer periods on heavy use. Most drain out after a day’s use at most, and even less when using application that require excessive power.
Smartphone battery constantly features among one of the most complained about features, be it on iOS or Android device. So, in order to make things more bearable for customers, Google has introduced some features into its devices to help improve battery life. There have been significant improvements with the advancements in Android firmware from Android Jelly Bean, Kit Kat, Android Lollipop, Android Marshmallow, Android Nougat, Android Oreo, and now Android Pie. Google claims that battery life has gone upwards with each successive generation of Android firmware.
There can be any number of reasons behind fast battery drain. At times, apps consume more battery if they haven’t been updated by developers for a long time; optimized apps and games require less juice to run, sometimes the GPU and GPU sources that are utilized by apps and programs on your Android device put an extra drain on the battery and causing it to lose charge faster. That’s why it is recommended to always keep apps, games, and the operating system updated to the latest version since it’s likely to be free of battery killing bugs.
As long as you are sure that your device has a fully functioning battery that is operating at its full or near-full capacity, there’s a possibility that you can fix small issues around it to get extra performance out of it. This is exactly what battery optimization on your Android device does.
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What is Battery Optimization?
Battery Optimization basically resets the battery stats of your Android device and informs the system to note refreshed battery stats. You might have seen the battery panel under your phone’s settings app that shows battery stats. It has to be said that some of the information might be distorted and falls short of presenting the accurate picture of the battery, which might mislead the OS into thinking that everything is working fine thus resulting interruption in your tasks as it’s probably eating up extra battery power in the background without your knowledge and ends up shutting down your device unexpectedly.
This is what happened to me with my Galaxy S7 as it would shutdown at times. The main reason behind my S7 was remaining switched off inside its box and the battery lost its calibration. It had to rebuild battery stats file in order to accurately register stats. So after some research, i have compiled a few methods to calibrate battery on Android along with instructions on how to optimize battery on Android for both rooted and non-rooted devices in the following section.
How To Optimize Battery On Android
How to Calibrate Battery on Android Without Root
Battery calibration or optimization is easier on non-rooted Android devices. Follow the method that requires fewer tweaks. The one explained below might seem dreary to some users, but unfortunately there is no other way except this one that i know (do share your tips in the comments below, if you happen to known of a better alternative).
1 – To begin with, power on your phone and fully charge it to 100%. It is recommended that you charge your phone for an extra half an hour once its reaches 100% level.
2 – Now unplug the charger and turn your device off completely.
3 – Now plug in the charger and connect it to your device in order to charge it for at least an hour more.
4 – Turn on your phone and charge it for one more hour.
5 – Again, unplug the charging cable and power off your device completely, and then plug the charger to your phone again and charge it for an hour more.
6 – Once you’ve gone through all of the above steps, turn on your phone and use it as normal. Do not charge your phone until the battery drains out completely. Charge it to 100% once the battery goes dead.
That’s it. Your device should be back to working better than it was before. Now let’s see what you can do to calibrate battery on a rooted Android device.
How to Optimize Battery on Rooted Android Device
Use Battery Calibration App
1 – Make sure your Android smartphone is properly rooted.
2 – Download and install Battery Calibration app from Google Play Store.
3 – Charge your phone to 100%.
4 – When the battery is full and without unplugging the charging cable, launch the Battery Calibration application from your app drawer.
5 – Gran SuperSU access, when prompted by the app.
6 – Now, in the app, tap the Battery Calibration button.
7 – Unplug the charger now.
8 – Perform one full battery life-cycle to make it work properly. Then, let it drain completely and charge it to 100% again.
9 – That’s all.
Use Root Explorer
The Battery Calibration app basically deletes the batterystats.bin file. That’s the only way to let the OS create a new file from scratch without mixing previous stats. If the Battery Calibration is not possible for you, try Root Explorer to delete the batterystats.bin file manually. Deleting this file causes no harm to your device or OS, as your device automatically creates a new batterystats.bin file every time you plugin the charger to your phone or reboot it.
1 – Download and install Root Explorer from Google Play Store.
2 – Open Root Explorer app.
3 – Allow SuperSu rights.
4 – Go to /data/system folder and locate the batterystats.bin file and delete it.
5 – Restart your phone, and charge it to 100%. Then, let it drain completely and charge it again to 100% to complete one battery charge cycle.
6 – That’s it. Your battery should be working better now with more accurate stats.
Use Custom Recovery
Custom recovery comes with powerful customization options. Using a TWRP custom recovery makes it easy to wipe out battery stats before setting them as new. Here is how to do it.
1 – Make sure you have a custom recovery installed on your device.
2 – Next, boot your device into the custom recovery.
3 – Go to “Advanced” or “Wipe” option in TWRP menu.
4 – Wipe the battery stats and reboot your device.
5 – Now preform a complete battery life-cycle charge.
That’s all. On a custom ROM, you may want to consider wiping out your battery stats as previous stats file will result in causing a conflict and keeps your system from working properly. So these are the battery calibration method on Android. Leave a comment below to share your thoughts, or share any other method that you may know.
