**** May 13, 2015 Update ****
With the latest Android release, Lollipop, Secure Settings will NOT be able to toggle Mobile Data without having root. This means that if you are running Android 5.0+ and don’t know words like “fastboot” or “recovery”, you’ll really only benefit from the Wi-Fi tasker profiles below.
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When Sprint finally got on board the LTE bandwagon, I was ecstatic. But as I soon found out, with great download speed comes great battery drain. I needed a way to get better battery life on my LTE network.
The two immediately available options for me were to either constantly switch my 4G on and off, or to utilize the “battery saver” setting that came with my new HTC One. I opted to try the HTC solution, and while it did dramatically increase my battery life, it came at the cost of performance. The HTC solution to battery drain was to basically put my phone into hibernation. This meant that when my phone wasn’t on and I wasn’t actively using it, I wasn’t getting any data. It killed any background syncs or pulls. No email. No MMS messages. Sometimes not even texts. After about a week, I had to find a new solution.
The solution came via Tasker from Crafty Apps EU and it’s ability to control almost every aspect of your Android device. Tasker is by far and away, one of the best apps for Android. It is, at it’s core, the true spirit of Android…the ability to customize and control your device in almost any possible way. Well worth the few bucks it costs.
If you’ve never heard of Tasker, don’t worry. I’ve attached all the files below to allow you to import them into the app. Am I a nice guy or what? The answer is “Yes.” You’ll also find screenshots below so you can double check to make sure everything imported correctly. An important note: As part of this adventure, you’ll also need to download Secure Settings by intangibleObject in order to get to some of the more granular controls.
To resolve the issue though, it meant understanding what was happening to kill my battery. Most 4G networks are not as amazing as the commercials would have you think. Big surprise, right? The bulk of the energy spent by your phone isn’t the act of pulling data…it’s the act of hunting for an LTE connection. Or a connection of any kind, depending on your network. (Looking at you, Sprint). So I had to figure out a way to control what my phone was looking for and for how long it would look.
Using the same principles, I also set up a series of tasks to manage my WiFi networks so I wasn’t constantly turning that on and off as well.
Long story short, these tasks are a series of controls to check your data connection and either disable or enable the best connection (WiFi or cellular data) based on criteria you can control (availability and strength of signal).
But of course, Tasker can do so much more than that. Their wiki and Google Groups are a wealth of hack-a-thon knowledge. I encourage you to go forth, and Android!
[heading margin_top=”40″]Step By Step Guide[/heading]
[callout title=”1. Get Tasker” caption=”If you haven’t yet, download Tasker from the Google Play store.” button_type=”rounded” button_color=”light-blue” button_text=”Google Play” button_icon=”play” button_url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm”]
[callout title=”2. Get Secure Settings” caption=”Downloading this app will help extend Tasker to cover some additional controls. Make sure you enable it after installing.” button_type=”rounded” button_color=”light-blue” button_text=”Google Play” button_icon=”play” button_url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin&hl=en”]
[callout title=”3. Download the Tasker Profiles” caption=”Download them individually or as a ZIP. After downloading them all, place them in a central folder on your device’s hard drive.” button_type=”rounded” button_color=”light-blue” button_text=”Download .ZIP” button_icon=”download” button_url=”http://rob.karlovetz.com/tasker-profiles/Tasker-Profiles.zip”]
[callout title=”5. Enjoy” caption=”If this works out for you, give me a shout out on Twitter. ” button_type=”rounded” button_color=”light-blue” button_text=”Shout out, Bro!” button_icon=”thumbs-up” button_url=”http://www.twitter.com/J_RKdesign”]
[heading margin_top=”40″]Download Individual Tasker Profiles[/heading]
This Profile is almost always running in the background of your device. It is the heartbeat of most of these other Profiles and Tasks. It simply records the state of your Cell Signal Strength. Since this information is already part of the device’s operating criteria, it takes virtually no additional battery.
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This Task is called several times by other Profiles. It is the fork in the road. It is responsible for turning Mobile Data on and off.
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This Profile is set to check Cell Signal Strength every 5 minutes so long as the phone isn’t connected to a known WiFi network. The time can be altered to be any interval, but I tend to be a heavy data user, so I don’t like to be waiting on data when I know that it is mostly available here in the city. The longer the time between checks, the greater battery save potential.
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This Profile tells your phone to re-check Cell Signal Strength once the phone is unlocked. Again, I am a heavy data user, so I want to know pretty immediately if I have data or not.
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Most Android devices do a pretty good job of auto-connecting to known WiFi networks, but what I have found is that they don’t DISCONNECT from WiFi networks. Again, this can be a big drain on your battery, so this is Part I of WiFi management.
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Part II, this Profile tells your device to look for known WiFi networks and connect if possible. It has a built-in delay just in case your WiFi networks tend to be spotty or you lose connection for a moment or two.
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Part III of WiFi management, this Profile sets a variable to let other Tasks know that the device has connected to Wifi.
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Let me know how everything turns out! Like what you find? Gimme some love on your social media channel of choice.
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