HTC M9 Poor battery life

[chezg]

Hello,

I've had a HTC M9 for around 9 months. Over the last 3-4 months, the battery life has become very poor. I have tried;

- Ensuring I'm always using the latest software and keeping up to date with updates

- Turning the brightness down

- Using Power Saver mode constantly

- Closing down all apps daily.

I don't use my phone excessively but am only managing 4-6 hours which is poor when I was previously on around 13. I've checked what is using the battery and it doesn't look anything different to usual.

I called vodafone this evening and was told I could send it back. When will vodafone learn that this is riduculous, who wants to send their phone back?! I was then directed to store but not too clear on what they could do other than offer my a replacement whilse they sent the phone back. Ultimately I just want a new battery!

Any thoughts?

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @chezg

I find calibrating the battery once a month by letting it discharge to around 20% before charging can help. 

I turn off wifi when I'm out and about which can help. 

I would suggest contacting Htc Uk Support to ask for their advice and what they can do under the manufacturing warranty. To note this wouldn't cover issues caused by a drop or liquid damage. 

A vodafone store coukd send it off if you acquired it through them. 

Take Time / Date stamped pictures of the device to show the condition you sent it back in and one of it turned on. 

"Also make sure when sending your device for repair that you keep hold of your SIM. You also shouldn't send your memory cards, battery and/or back cover (if they're removable) - if these are included with your phone when it goes for repair we can't guarantee their return."

[chezg]

Hi @bandofbrothers

No need to calibarate it as its always at under 10% or dead by the time I get to charge! I don't keep it charging all day or anything.

I may contact HTC UK Support then.

I really don't want the phone sending off even though I know it isn't working well as I still use it! Hate getting a new phone and having to configure it etc

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @chezg

It maybe the best solution to remedy the issue.

You could look to recent Apps to see if a rogue one is causing issues and create a back up and factory reset. 

The Manufacturer knows their Hardware and Software better imo. 

[BandOfBrothers]

@chezg

Have you seen this Htc Help page ?

Tips for extending battery life

[chezg]

Hiya,

Yes, seen this help page and am already doing 90% of the things on there. I hope HTC get back to me soon as its really getting boring. After about 2pm I basically can't use the phone for the rest of the day!

[hrym]

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@chezg wrote:

@hi @BandOfBrothers

No need to calibarate it as its always at under 10% or dead by the time I get to charge!

---

And therein lies your problem.  Lithium-based batteries don't like being allowed to go completely flat and doing so will shorten their life considerably.   The only fix for this is likely to be a repair.  I'd go directly to HTC for this.   The repair is likely to include a factory reset, so make sure you've backed up all your content first.

Generally speaking, turn on full power-saving when the battery gets to 20% and turn the phone off when it get to 10%.  In rare cases, the device is writing system files when the battery fails, those files get corrupted and the device become unusable.

[TimGriff6]

'And therein lies your problem.'

I  think that perhaps the original comment was a rueful one - something along the lines of 'if only the battery would last long enough so I could charge it while it still has some power left'

I have an older HTC phone and had this sort of problem which I pinned down to one particular thing.  I proved it by backing up, resetting it and not loading any apps, e-mail or anything personal at all.   Disabling all of the remaining apps that Vodafone wrapped up with the phone meant that there was no need for them to be using battery and turning off mobile data sealed that. Using the phone purely as a phone, the battery life went from less than a day to around a week.  It meant not having all of things that you expect to have nowadays but only for a week.  I then added stuff back in and made sure that each app was set up to do the minimum amount necessary of syncing.  In the end the battery life improved to around 2-3 days and I had what I needed.

It might be worth trying if you can live for a few days without stuff.