Without a warning, the battery life on a recent Nokia smartphone dramatically dropped. Since mobile device batteries tend to gradually die after 12-24 months of regular use, we figured that the problem had to lie somewhere else. It was, but it wasn't easy to find. The tool that helped us discover the problem was a piece of software called ActiveFile.
There can be many reasons for unusual battery drainage on a mobile device. Extensive use of Wi-Fi, hours of MP3 play, watching videos, playing memory intensive Java games, or constant use of Bluetooth can draw so much power that you may not even survive a day without recharging the battery. If you are unaware of any exceptional usage patterns on the phone, but the battery still tends to dry faster than before, here are some clues for solving the mystery by yourself.
These tips apply to Symbian OS/S60 smartphones, such as the N-series and E-series devices from Nokia.
Tip 1: Check Active Data Connections
One possible reason for battery drainage is an Internet access session that's running in the background. To check the network status, go to your phone's main menu, open the Connect folder and launch the Connection Manager (Conn. mgr). Select Active Data Connections (Act. data conn.).
If the Connection Manager informs that there are no active data connections, you should keep an eye on the screen for awhile. An application may establish the data connection, end it, and re-establish it after a few seconds, minutes, or even hours.
If a data connection is active, you can close it by opening Options and selecting Disconnect. You may also view connection statistics by opening Options and selecting Details. The report doesn't, however, tell you which program is keeping the connection alive and slowly draining the battery.
You can view a list of applications running on your Symbian OS/S60 phone simply by holding the menu key down for a couple of seconds. If you can spot a task that shouldn't be on the application list, you may have discovered your culprit. Switch to that application and close it. If you don't need it, uninstall it (open the Tools folder, start App.mgr, and remove the software).
In our case, it wasn't so straight-forward. We could see that a power-hungry Wi-Fi connection was active in our system. When we disconnected it, the clever but annoying program almost instantly re-connected the Wi-Fi to the Internet. What the heck was going on? Fortunately, we discovered the ActiveFile utility.
Tip 2: Install the ActiveFile Utility
ActiveFile is a software product that lets you manage all files and folders stored on the phone and also manage all active processes and tasks.
In order to download correct version of the program, you have to know which edition of the S60 software your phone is running.
Tip 3: Explore Tasks Running on Your Phone
Once you have installed ActiveFile, launch it. The program's main screen lets you access phone's internal storage (C:), run-time memory space (D:), and memory cards. It is possible to copy, move, rename, or delete any files and folders. That's why you have to be absolutely sure that you know what you are doing if you want to manage files in ActiveFile. We recommend file management for advanced users only.
Task List in ActiveFile
Instead, we encourage all avid smartphone users to try ActiveFile for exploring tasks and processes running on the device. When you are in the ActiveFile main screen (the screen above), select Tasks. The program displays an exhaustive list of applications that are doing something on the phone. This list is longer than the task list displayed by the S60 menu key, showing also applications running in the background. For example, Shozu and tasks belonging to Internet telephony (VoIP) applications, like Truphone and Barablu will show up on the Task list displayed by ActiveFile, but they do not necessarily show up on the list displayed by the S60 menu key.
You may also list all processes running on the phone, but that information can be difficult to decipher. An application may have many processes, each performing a dedicated job for the application. The difficult thing is to know the relationships between processes and applications.
Tip 4: Eliminate the Cause of the Problem
When you have the Task list in front of you, you have to figure out which task is causing the problem. Unless you have good clues from other sources, like the Connection Manager, you might simply start eliminating tasks from the top of the list. Stop the first task. Check if anything changed. If the only way to find out is to wait for the battery to discharge itself, then wait.
If you discovered the problematic task, you might consider removing the whole application from the phone. Go to the main menu. Open the Tools folder, launch Application Manager (App.mgr), find the application and remove it.
In our case, we suspected that an application hiding in the background was accessing the Internet via Wi-Fi connection. We tried to find communication-related tasks on the list. The topmost task was something called Presence (it belonged to an VoIP application we didn't use, but for some reason, it remained installed on the device). We stopped the Presence-task, but the Wi-Fi connection hummed along uninterrupted. The next task on the list was an image uploader. We killed the task, and the Wi-Fi connection disappeared. The problem was solved. Next, we uninstalled the image uploader application so that it wouldn't automatically start next time the phone restarted.
There are many other options in ActiveFile that can be useful in other situations. Exploring the inner life of a smartphone can be educational and help you solve the next problem faster than a PC expert can send a text message for help.
There was one thing in ActiveFile that constantly bothered us. In most Symbian OS/S60 applications, the right menu key is used for going back in the menu hierarchy. When we started using ActiveFile, we were several times thrown out of the application, before we realized the right menu key was always Exit, regardless of the menu level.
ActiveFile is a useful tool for managing files, monitoring memory, applications, and tasks. Above all, it helped us solve the mysterious battery problem on our smartphone.
There can be many reasons for unusual battery drainage on a mobile device. Extensive use of Wi-Fi, hours of MP3 play, watching videos, playing memory intensive Java games, or constant use of Bluetooth can draw so much power that you may not even survive a day without recharging the battery. If you are unaware of any exceptional usage patterns on the phone, but the battery still tends to dry faster than before, here are some clues for solving the mystery by yourself.
These tips apply to Symbian OS/S60 smartphones, such as the N-series and E-series devices from Nokia.
Tip 1: Check Active Data Connections
One possible reason for battery drainage is an Internet access session that's running in the background. To check the network status, go to your phone's main menu, open the Connect folder and launch the Connection Manager (Conn. mgr). Select Active Data Connections (Act. data conn.).
If the Connection Manager informs that there are no active data connections, you should keep an eye on the screen for awhile. An application may establish the data connection, end it, and re-establish it after a few seconds, minutes, or even hours.
If a data connection is active, you can close it by opening Options and selecting Disconnect. You may also view connection statistics by opening Options and selecting Details. The report doesn't, however, tell you which program is keeping the connection alive and slowly draining the battery.
You can view a list of applications running on your Symbian OS/S60 phone simply by holding the menu key down for a couple of seconds. If you can spot a task that shouldn't be on the application list, you may have discovered your culprit. Switch to that application and close it. If you don't need it, uninstall it (open the Tools folder, start App.mgr, and remove the software).
In our case, it wasn't so straight-forward. We could see that a power-hungry Wi-Fi connection was active in our system. When we disconnected it, the clever but annoying program almost instantly re-connected the Wi-Fi to the Internet. What the heck was going on? Fortunately, we discovered the ActiveFile utility.
Tip 2: Install the ActiveFile Utility
ActiveFile is a software product that lets you manage all files and folders stored on the phone and also manage all active processes and tasks.
In order to download correct version of the program, you have to know which edition of the S60 software your phone is running.
Tip 3: Explore Tasks Running on Your Phone
Once you have installed ActiveFile, launch it. The program's main screen lets you access phone's internal storage (C:), run-time memory space (D:), and memory cards. It is possible to copy, move, rename, or delete any files and folders. That's why you have to be absolutely sure that you know what you are doing if you want to manage files in ActiveFile. We recommend file management for advanced users only.
Task List in ActiveFile
Instead, we encourage all avid smartphone users to try ActiveFile for exploring tasks and processes running on the device. When you are in the ActiveFile main screen (the screen above), select Tasks. The program displays an exhaustive list of applications that are doing something on the phone. This list is longer than the task list displayed by the S60 menu key, showing also applications running in the background. For example, Shozu and tasks belonging to Internet telephony (VoIP) applications, like Truphone and Barablu will show up on the Task list displayed by ActiveFile, but they do not necessarily show up on the list displayed by the S60 menu key.
You may also list all processes running on the phone, but that information can be difficult to decipher. An application may have many processes, each performing a dedicated job for the application. The difficult thing is to know the relationships between processes and applications.
Tip 4: Eliminate the Cause of the Problem
When you have the Task list in front of you, you have to figure out which task is causing the problem. Unless you have good clues from other sources, like the Connection Manager, you might simply start eliminating tasks from the top of the list. Stop the first task. Check if anything changed. If the only way to find out is to wait for the battery to discharge itself, then wait.
If you discovered the problematic task, you might consider removing the whole application from the phone. Go to the main menu. Open the Tools folder, launch Application Manager (App.mgr), find the application and remove it.
In our case, we suspected that an application hiding in the background was accessing the Internet via Wi-Fi connection. We tried to find communication-related tasks on the list. The topmost task was something called Presence (it belonged to an VoIP application we didn't use, but for some reason, it remained installed on the device). We stopped the Presence-task, but the Wi-Fi connection hummed along uninterrupted. The next task on the list was an image uploader. We killed the task, and the Wi-Fi connection disappeared. The problem was solved. Next, we uninstalled the image uploader application so that it wouldn't automatically start next time the phone restarted.
There are many other options in ActiveFile that can be useful in other situations. Exploring the inner life of a smartphone can be educational and help you solve the next problem faster than a PC expert can send a text message for help.
There was one thing in ActiveFile that constantly bothered us. In most Symbian OS/S60 applications, the right menu key is used for going back in the menu hierarchy. When we started using ActiveFile, we were several times thrown out of the application, before we realized the right menu key was always Exit, regardless of the menu level.
ActiveFile is a useful tool for managing files, monitoring memory, applications, and tasks. Above all, it helped us solve the mysterious battery problem on our smartphone.
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