Source
r/windowsphone•
Firepork

Lumia 920 ignores 'Keep WiFi on when screen times out' and drains battery fast

So I bought a Lumia 920 about 6 months ago and I have been happy with it until now.

It seems like the WiFi will NOT turn off when screen times out. If I have the 'Keep Wifi on when screen times out' option ticked, restart my phone and then untick it, the phone will turn off the WiFi for a while. However it does not take long for it to ignore this and keep the WiFi on.

This is causing my battery to last about 24h down from 3-4 days. I don't use my phone much and I don't need internet notifications on the fly, if people really need me, they can call me. So I want my WiFi to be off when I'm not using the phone to save power.

It seems like this problem started after the Black update, but it did work as it was suppose to for a few weeks after that, so the update might not have anything to do with it.

Have anyone else had this problem, it is incredibly irritating having to charge my phone every day when it should not be necessary.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

Posted Mar 10, 2014, 3:16 PM UTC

713
YouandWhoseArmyLumia 822•

Down from 3-4 days? I don't believe you.

9
Jar_of_FartsLumia 930•

im with you on that

7
stevenmcmanLumia 928•

And seriously complaining about 24hr charge time? Wth, that's really good. Guy needs to re-evaluate.

5
DracheMitchLumia 930,920 &520 HTC8X &Titan•

WiFi uses less battery than cellular data, especially if you use LTE.

If you're noticing a drain, it is because there is an app that will connect over WiFi, but not over cellular, and that's what is doing it.

Check your background tasks.

6
MegazorLumia 920•

So Wifi should always be on? What's better for battery life?

I have mine set to default disconnect when screen is off.

1
CyberInfernoLumia 1520 <- Lumia 920•

Yes, WiFi should always be on assuming that it's available to you most of the time. As others have said, power consumption of WiFi is significantly lower than 3G/LTE.

1
DracheMitchLumia 930,920 &520 HTC8X &Titan•

I've yet to see anywhere stating that LTE (or any 4G modems) use less battery than WiFi.

I'm actually not even sure why that option is there, it just means every time your phone is off, ot is chewing through your data allotment when WiFi is available.

1
kelchaLumia 830 ATT / Icon Verizon•

Wrong. Disconnecting conserves. Using data over WiFi is better for battery than data on lte. That said, your lte radio is still connected, when screen is out it is better to only have one connected ie lte. Have both connected drains more when data isn't being used.

Check what apps are using data in the background. You say that the WiFi is staying connected, are you sure its not disconnecting, it connects back as soon as your phone comes back on.

1
Not-an-accountMicrosoft Lumia 640•

Manually disable wifi, I guess?

2
samcode7Broken Lumia 920•

Got the same problem. I think it's a bug that yet to be resolved.

2
Trasteby920•

The settings works in a good but slightly counter intuitive way: if the phone is fetching some large piece of data, it can keep WiFi on behind a locked screen even with the setting on. And that's a good thing, fetching the same data over cellular networks would probably have used more power. So your problem isn't that the setting doesn't work, it's that you have some background process running that's using a lot if data.

1
Malatesta•

Try deleting the WiFi access point (Hold on AP, select delete). Reboot phone and try to reconnect.

1
nat_r•

As mentioned, you've probably got an app that's looking to retrieve data, which doesn't always work perfectly from your pocket. I've had the same issue myself since I got my 920 shortly after launch.

There's no WiFi at work, but you can get an open WiFi signal in some places from a nearby restaurant. If I use my phone it'll look for the signal and connect if it's in range, then try to connect throughout my time at work if it has tasks that need a connection to perform in the background. However it can't always get the signal so it will get caught in a loop trying to constantly connect which can take my battery from 3/4 full to battery saver mode in a few hours.

The way I circumvented the issue is I used an app called "connectivity shortcuts" to place a shortcut tile to the WiFi setting on my home screen then just flip the WiFi off if I notice the phone getting caught in that loop, or when I start work if my battery is at a lower charge and I don't want to risk it dying on me.

1