I was very happy to see that the Jelly Bean upgrade was available for the T-Mobile branded HTC One S smartphone. I promptly downloaded and installed. Little did I know I would be having battery drainage issues.
A few days later, when I lost very important calls due to the lack of battery, I decided to ask for a replacement phone. This was after I read mixed reviews which made me think that I somehow had a faulty device (I read somewhere else that the upgrade should be performed with a battery almost fully charged to avoid a “memory effect” from the new OS – haven’t proved that it’s true though).
I opened a support ticket, and fortunately some folks have found certain work-arounds to reduce the battery usage. The same ticket was featured on the TMONews blog.
There is no official fix, however this is how I managed to reduce the power utilization (thanks to several folks that contributed):
- Completely Disable Wi-Fi calling.
- Disable Google Now, updates and cards.
- Disable Google now location report.
- Reboot your phone.
You can optionally tailor the background sync of your applications to reduce battery usage. For example, I allow automatic sync for Gmail, contacts, calendar and tasks. The rest is disabled.
It’s disappointing that Wi-Fi calling needs to be disabled as it was working flawlessly on this version; allowing me to go around the house and not losing a call.
HTC One S Battery Usage after the work-around
Someone else has suggested a workaround that avoids turning off Wi-Fi calling. I have not confirmed a power saving effect yet though:
- Disconnect your phone from Wi-Fi (mobile network only).
- Go to Settings > More (under Wireless & Networks header) > Usage…
- Make sure “limit mobile data usage” is checked (set the data limit to whatever you’d like), and “show wi-fi usage,” as well.
- You will find IPService and IMS Service in the list of apps/processes using Wifi data.
- Open each process and enable “restrict background data” on both of them.
- Since Wi-Fi calling is by definition is on Wi-Fi, these processes don’t need background (mobile) data. The user hasn’t had any problems making calls or checking voicemail with Wi-Fi calling so far.
I expect T-Mobile/HTC addressing these issues and work on a patch to reduce power consumption. Funny this update was being beta tested since December of 2012.
Update: Seems that T-Mobile has acknowledged the problem, and is working towards obtaining a resolution:
Battery Usage right after the upgrade:
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- HTC One S Battery Usage after the work-around
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- IP Service consuming the most power
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- Android OS consuming the most power
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- While in 2G, less battery was used. Green means charging.
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- IP Service consuming the most power
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- Android OS consuming the most power
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- How fast the battery was depleting. Green means charging.
