I know the 8900's default OS sucks battery like crazy but I've got the most recent OS. Both my wife and I are experiencing horrible battery life even on days when the phone is RARELY used. I know JiveTalk can be a culprit so I went a day without even signing in and it's still horrible. Literally, no use at all, if I let my phone sit all day, by nighttime it's either yellow or red. If I use it even a little it's red by the end of the night.


I know there are fancy extended life batteries you can buy but I'm curious if they work, or if there's anything else I can do. Since it's happening on 2 different phones, with 2 completely different app lineups, I find it hard to believe it's something we're doing wrong, but I've heard that most people are happy with their battery life, so who knows.

I would suggest you read this:
Battery Use Tips for your Maximum Battery Life | BlackBerryNews.com

What other apps do you have running in the backgroud?

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

How is the signal strength in your area?

Wirelessly posted

Do you have the latest carrier OS or latest OS found here..
The north american carriers have horrible OS revisions.. Like .96 to .133...
From what I've heard, 133 is nice but the battery enchancements start at 152

If you are still using the default OS that comes with the phone, I recommend upgrading to .174 Beta. It has improved my battery life remarkably. Also make sure you put your phone into standby when not using it, and if you are one to forget to do that constantly I recommend the application called AutoStandby. Good luck with your phone.

Also, setting it to turn off at night also helps, if you don't need to be awakened by emails in the wee hours.

I agree about .174 but never put my phone in standby. I have a boat load of apps including jivetalk and viigo and haven't had any issues with battery life and I am a moderate to heavy user....

I know I sound like a broken record on battery life, but to the OP: If your phone's sitting all day, not being used, and the battery drains from full to yellow/red by night as you say one thing is for 1000% sure: there's something running/searching on your phone. It cannot (let me repeat CANNOT) be the OS doing that. I can't tell you what it is, look at JSanders' link for that help, but it's a radio running the battery down. You need to look at settings for GPS and apps. Or you could delete apps one at a time and see. Battery life on an 8900 isn't that bad. I last charged mine Thursday night I've turned off Fri/Sat nights, but it's been on during the days, used not so much (mostly read emal and txt), and it's at 50% now. Original OS.

just tried the 8900, hoping for good things.... battery lasts for 24 hours tops.

after a week i just went back to a Bold.

i've used every Blackberry from the 8700g and the 8900 was by far the worst for bat life, i might still swap back if things improve.

Make sure you have disable the GPS when not in used, this thing really sucks up all the juice...

thanks for this. i'm a new blackberry user, came from the sidekick lx and don't regret it btw :], and this will help me save my battery.

I generally run BBWeather, JiveTalk, Viigo, Facebook all day, use bluetooth about 2 to 3 hours a day, and UMA most of the day (at work and at home). Anywhere from 10 to 15 calls, dozens of emails, dozens of Facebook updates, weather updated every half hour, Viigo updated every couple of hours...With .174, I'm still at 80% battery at the end of a 16 hour day.

Are you using the OEM holster? as this is the subject of a very long thread on Crackberry forums.

Seems that battery life is extended if you don't use it

I would definitely check this, too. I have noticed that when GPS is enabled the battery life goes down much faster. In order to disable mine I go to Options > Advanced Options > GPS and set the GPS Services option to Location Off. I also set the Location Aiding setting to Disabled. I noticed significant battery improvement once I did that, along with the other recommendations of making sure unused programs are closed when not needed. I can get at least 2 days of usage out of my device now before having to recharge.

is there anything in the background?

with .168 OS my battery life is much better, I use data and blluetooth all day.

You can turn off the WiFi when not using to extend battery life.

Hi, vinmontRD.. I have a question. Do you use standby whenever you are not using your BB? Or, you just lock your phone?
I also have 174, and I notice the battery is doing OK, but still not up to "8800" standard. With 8800, I can pretty much do a few days (with GPS, weather, IM, Viigo...) (night time I do auto-off) and it will still have 30-40%... I guess maybe then higher and brighter resolution screen do make a diff (BTW, i turn down my backlight to 70% already).

Just upgrade your Os to .174

I used to have a very bad battery life on my 8900 with OS .114,
but since I upgraded to .174 it's been marvelous.

Before it used to last less than 24 hours and now it goes 2 days +

I am on .174 and have great battery life as well!!

This is what drained my battery wifi, plus I'm now on build .168 which lets me go all the day I finish up on 80%/90% I am a moderate/heavy user, having said that .133 wasn't bad either...

It also helps to turn down screen brightness a bit. This helps to get more life from a charge.

So I followed all of the instructions in this thread...I'm running .199 OS
My phone came off the charger at 8:47am. I've done my normal moderate emailing/texing/talking.
it's now 4 hours later.


I have nothing running, disabled gps, and this is where my battery is. I'm calling T-Mo for a new battery. This is horrible.

Is your Wifi eating up the battery juice? Looks like your Wifi is on. But year its a good idea to get a battery replacement.

yeah I turned it on because I couldn't find my USB cord right away. it's usually off. they're sending a battery.

I used to have great batter life (more than 2.5 days) in the first three weeks I had the 8900 when I carried it in my pants pocket. Then I got a T-mobile holster with sleeper magnet, and now my Blackberry batter life is down to 1.5 days! The holster somehow drains the battery even if the device is Off!

Hi All,

For sure the OEM Holster with the 8900 causes battery drain. I used it for a week and with very little use (10 e-mails, 2 phone calls) I'd be down from 100% charge to less than 20% by evening. But... when I removed the phone from the holster, battery life only decreased by about 20% per day - giving me 4 days without charge!

So, I'd seen where some people have started to remove the battery. However, it's not necessary. All you have to do is de-magnetize the battery as much as possible. I've done it and I'm getting only 20% per day decrease. Not only that, because I was only able to weaken the strength of the magnet and not completely de-magnetize it, it works as it should! It turns off the phone when I insert it into the pouch.

Here is how I did it.

1) I used a coin (small piece of iron would work) to locate the exact position (and side of case) of the magnet.

2) I then used a strong magnet that I'd removed from a speaker years ago. I stroked from all different directions at random across the magnet. I even did it from the other side of the case too. It must be done randomly.

That's it! The magnet is so weak now it could barely pick up a Canadian 25c piece. Previously it grabbed it quite strongly.

So Rim should be de-magnetizing these magnets in the pouches before shipping them out and everyone would be happy.

Please let me know how it goes for you.

Paul

My biggest drain was the web usage, I'm using a 83xx case that I added a magnet to the back of it and put the phone face in and haven't seen any issues due to the holster mode.

Being on the web was the cause of the drain for myself. I typically go from 730a-330p (work day) and walk away with 80-85% battery left...and I visit a few pages, maybe a dozen emails, and like 400 texts...oh and toss in a few calls every so often

I had horrible battery life and heating issues the first 2 days I had my at&t Bold. I turned off the GPS function and voila! Problems solved...for me at least. If I need the GPS I will turn it on. Then I was thinking...I didn't recall ever turning off my GPS on my 8800...but it was not 3G.

I noticed you mentioned heating issues. This is the first BB I have owned that I can feel the warmth of the battery when it is charging (even through the skin case). Is that normal for the 8900??

I've been getting down to 40% after moderate to heavy use of the phone (web, email, text, im, etc) and that's just unacceptable. So, I called T-Mobile and they are express shipping out me a new battery and charger, and I can keep the old ones. Hopefully it fixes it.

Really they are replacing batteries? Hmm...maybe I should call

Call for sure. Thats out of control.... I would have done it a long time ago....