# Stava app w/iPhone 4s battery life



## Broncstad (Aug 4, 2009)

How long does your battery last? If I do a four hour ride, it's toast. For those who use this set up, how's it working? Thanks in advance


----------



## mestapho (Sep 3, 2011)

That sounds about right. 
I added this.
Works great.
I keep my phone in my hydration pack though.


----------



## GlazedHam (Jan 14, 2004)

Broncstad said:


> How long does your battery last? If I do a four hour ride, it's toast. For those who use this set up, how's it working? Thanks in advance


Turn off push notifications, wifi and 4g.


----------



## TheCreative (Mar 18, 2012)

I would think having a external battery pack would be almost necessary on a long 4 hour ride. Do you mount your phone to your bike?


----------



## Sheepo5669 (May 14, 2010)

I charge mine in my car on the way to the trailhead. It helps a little.


----------



## forgiven_nick (Nov 7, 2006)

Put it in airplane mode.
I got 7.5hr on my android based htc device that way, still had almost 30% battery life left.


----------



## Broncstad (Aug 4, 2009)

I don't mount it on my bike. 

If I put it on airplane mode will strava app work?


----------



## forgiven_nick (Nov 7, 2006)

Yep. It should. Test it real quick. You will need to connect for the app to upload and show you're performance on the different segments you competed in though.


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

Broncstad said:


> I don't mount it on my bike.
> 
> If I put it on airplane mode will strava app work?


I don't think so. Airplane mode turns off the GPS receiver so Strava won't be able to measure speed, distance or location.


----------



## Broncstad (Aug 4, 2009)

Ive been turning wifi and cellular data to "off". Help a little. Weird that text messages still come through and I think I got a phone call too.


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

Broncstad said:


> Ive been turning wifi and cellular data to "off". Help a little. Weird that text messages still come through and I think I got a phone call too.


Phone and SMS messages don't require data service. They were both around well before we had smartphones.


----------



## Broncstad (Aug 4, 2009)

How do you turn those off without turning on airplane mode?


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

Broncstad said:


> How do you turn those off without turning on airplane mode?


AFAIK, You can't unless you remove the SIM card.


----------



## ImaFred (May 16, 2009)

R+P+K said:


> AFAIK, You can't unless you remove the SIM card.


Correct^^^

Also make sure and double tap your home button and close all unneeded apps


----------



## mestapho (Sep 3, 2011)

ImaFred said:


> Correct^^^
> 
> Also make sure and double tap your home button and close all unneeded apps


If you're jailbroken you can turn these off individually in SBsettings.


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

ImaFred said:


> Correct^^^
> 
> Also make sure and double tap your home button and close all unneeded apps


Not so much.....

How iOS multitasking really works | Macworld



> Except in a few cases, ..., the apps that appear in the multitasking bar are not currently running. When you press the home button, iOS will tell the app to quit. In almost all cases, it quits, it stops using processor time (and hence battery), and the memory it was using is eventually recovered, if required.


----------



## TheCreative (Mar 18, 2012)

R+P+K said:


> Not so much.....


RPK is correct. Closing out those apps doesn't do a thing. It's an app switcher not a multi tasking manager. I only close out apps that are misbehaving.

If you constantly quite all of your apps this way, you are actually slowing your iPhone down because it has to open your apps from stratch rather than a saved state.


----------



## thomllama (Oct 3, 2007)

TheCreative said:


> RPK is correct. Closing out those apps doesn't do a thing. It's an app switcher not a multi tasking manager. I only close out apps that are misbehaving.
> 
> If you constantly quite all of your apps this way, you are actually slowing your iPhone down because it has to open your apps from stratch rather than a saved state.


that's not 100% true...

there are many more apps running in the background that you'd think... Music and games are the worst 2 that keep using memory, though some are not "running" per say the memory they use though makes those items start up faster, they actually make everything else run slower on the phone and everything needs to play memory swap games to run/save/execute anything. GPS Apps are heavy use apps and will run faster/cleaner when allowed to use as much memory as possible. the lower the swapping of memory the lower your power consumption...

*before quitting back ground apps... notice the memory use pie chart...*









*now after*








I quit 7 background apps, Music, Pandora, 3 Angry birds _(yes I like pissed off birds )_ Trillion and Safari..
if you notice the numbers, nothing changes but the "free" jumps from 4 meg to 139 meg, that's an awful lot of swap files for the Iphone's limited memory that have to be moved around for the GPS to use it's high requirements of memory.. 
OK, ya when all said and done we're only talking about maybe adding 5 mins of run time with the GPS on the phone.. but it adds up 

if you really want to get the absolute most of of the battery quit all "waiting" apps but nothing is going to help as much as getting an external battery. I have wondered about getting one of those tiny Phone specific type Solar charger things... been wondering how well the little panel mounted to the top of the pack would help? :skep:


----------



## thomllama (Oct 3, 2007)

R+P+K said:


> I don't think so. Airplane mode turns off the GPS receiver so Strava won't be able to measure speed, distance or location.


I thought it turned off the GPS too.. but it didn't just now when I tried it.. all the location services are still up and running... hmmm ill have to try airplane mode next ride and see what it does :idea:

notice the location services are on and the little arrow in the upper right is on... hmmmm learn something new everyday...









(edit)

ahhh what I did find is with out a cell connection Strava wont work correctly as it can't get map info. Unlike some of the other GPS apps it doesn't allow for pre downloaded maps.

also just compared Everytrail, MotionX and Strava just now sitting here inside at my computer and both Everytrail and MotionX got a Sat signal in a few seconds, where Strava erred and said there wasn't a signal..  bummer as I kinda liked Strava's interface..


----------



## asphalt_jesus (Aug 13, 2010)

forgiven_nick said:


> Put it in airplane mode.
> I got 7.5hr on my android based htc device that way, still had almost 30% battery life left.


Yup. "Airplane mode" in other phones shuts off the GSM/Whatever radio and stops the phone from hunting for a tower. That is likely what's killing your battery.


----------



## TwoWheelMan (Jan 5, 2009)

Rather than use the Strava app, I use another app (Oruxmaps, free) which gives offline mapping and much more control over power-sensitive settings like how often a gps point is taken (1sec vs 2,3.. etc). On finishing the ride I email the track to [email protected]. Works a treat. This, combined with airplane mode, gives 5+ hrs easy and more utility too.

EDIT. Oops. Just realized this Q was iphone specific. I have an Android but there must be the same or similar apps for iOS.


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

thomllama said:


> that's not 100% true...
> 
> there are many more apps running in the background that you'd think... Music and games are the worst 2 that keep using memory, though some are not "running" per say the memory they use though makes those items start up faster, they actually make everything else run slower on the phone and everything needs to play memory swap games to run/save/execute anything. GPS Apps are heavy use apps and will run faster/cleaner when allowed to use as much memory as possible. the lower the swapping of memory the lower your power consumption...
> 
> ...


Reminds me of the time Windows 7 came out and everyone howled about how much memory it used. One of the lead technical guys came out with something along the lines of "Free memory is unused memory".


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

thomllama said:


> I thought it turned off the GPS too.. but it didn't just now when I tried it.. all the location services are still up and running... hmmm ill have to try airplane mode next ride and see what it does :idea:
> 
> notice the location services are on and the little arrow in the upper right is on... hmmmm learn something new everyday...
> 
> ...


Strava probably relies of A-GPS (assisted GPS) and so won't work in airplane mode. Interesting that you still had location services when in airplane mode. How long did you test it for? I wonder if it would eventually fail when trying to reacquire a position. - e.g. fully quit the app, and restart it.


----------



## thomllama (Oct 3, 2007)

R+P+K said:


> Strava probably relies of A-GPS (assisted GPS) and so won't work in airplane mode. Interesting that you still had location services when in airplane mode. How long did you test it for? I wonder if it would eventually fail when trying to reacquire a position. - e.g. fully quit the app, and restart it.


The GPS signal seems to work fine,.. the issue is it shuts off the cell/data system it seems. Basically it's still working it just can't access a map to draw on the screen of the phone. I didn't try to upload to the site or anything but I'd guess it's all good, it seems Strava is still tracking and when you upload to the website it would draw on their map like normal. Just can't see anything on the phone at the time of riding.

Like I said Everytrail and GPSkit and a few others allow you to pre-download map info.. so before you go you can get the tiles for the area you are going to ride. I've done this a few times as there are a bunch of areas I ride where the cell system is less than reliable. I have noticed that it saves a bit of battery life by pre downloading the maps as the phone isn't searching/ requesting, or downloading the map tiles as you ride. But still draws the map on the phone without issue when in the no reception areas, as long as you've downloaded the tiles are you are in.

GPS signal is receive only, where Cell/data is request-send-receive so it kinda makes sense that Airplane mode wont cut the GPS as the phone isn't sending out any info/waves/what ever's that could interfere with the plane... :skep: just my guess anyway.


----------



## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

Hmmm, a quick google would indicate Cyclemeter won't work in airplane mode. I might do a test at lunch time.


----------

