Very high battery consumption during tracking
I have been using the app for some years and I like it very much. But I found always the battery usage during tracking little bit too high comparing to other tracking apps like OsmAnd.
I can monitor the cpu usage of your app during tracking and it's constantly using around 1% of the cpu time. Which forces the governor to increase the voltage and by this it eats up my battery in about 4-5 hours which is just not enough for a tracking. If the tracking is paused the cpu is still used. Thus it's not related to the accuracy of the tracking and so on ... If no tracking the app is stopped when the screen is off so no problem.
Mobile data is disabled during tracking to conserve energy.
I attache a screen shot which was taken when your app and the OsmAnd were tracking movements.
The same problem 
Good day Plex,
I think that one time screenshot of current battery usage has no high value. A lot better is some long-term monitoring of battery usage of problematic app and comparing same time without using such app.
In case of Locus, you wrote that battery usage is based really just of active track recording (running, paused), right? What about "Enabled periodic updates", do you have disabled this option in settings?
I just returned from one small hike trip and I've recorded my movement for an 8 hours, together with 3 caches and a lot of watching on a map and it consumed around 30% of battery of my Z1C device (wi-fi and data connection disabled), so it should be some specific settings that cause this.
Good day Plex,
I think that one time screenshot of current battery usage has no high value. A lot better is some long-term monitoring of battery usage of problematic app and comparing same time without using such app.
In case of Locus, you wrote that battery usage is based really just of active track recording (running, paused), right? What about "Enabled periodic updates", do you have disabled this option in settings?
I just returned from one small hike trip and I've recorded my movement for an 8 hours, together with 3 caches and a lot of watching on a map and it consumed around 30% of battery of my Z1C device (wi-fi and data connection disabled), so it should be some specific settings that cause this.
Thank you for your reply.
I'm using the default Locus settings.
Looks like Locus battery consumption is fine.
According to you experience I gave a try today my Nexus 5 which has almost stock apps, pretty basic. And turned out you are right, it's possible to use Locus all day. I got about 3% battery drop per hour. That was surprising.
In the past, my experience was based on my S 2-3-4 devices with quite a lot of apps installed. There I got about 10% drop per hour
I'll have to investigate what causes the big difference.
I see Google Play Services as a big battery eater so will be not easy to locate the exact culprit.
Thanks again for sharing your experience.
Thank you for your reply.
I'm using the default Locus settings.
Looks like Locus battery consumption is fine.
According to you experience I gave a try today my Nexus 5 which has almost stock apps, pretty basic. And turned out you are right, it's possible to use Locus all day. I got about 3% battery drop per hour. That was surprising.
In the past, my experience was based on my S 2-3-4 devices with quite a lot of apps installed. There I got about 10% drop per hour
I'll have to investigate what causes the big difference.
I see Google Play Services as a big battery eater so will be not easy to locate the exact culprit.
Thanks again for sharing your experience.
Hello, you are welcome.
With SGS2 I had also a good values if I remember, but I've tested previously SGS5 and battery was drained really fast mainly due to some pre-installed apps. Also because of this, such measurements are quite complicated and usually un-precise. I'm trying to reduce battery consumption in Locus as much as possible, but of course it may happen that any problem appear. But should not :).
Wish you good luck with finding a real reason of these troubles and in case I'll may help with something or you really find some issue in Locus, feel free to contact me (simply continue in this topic).
Hello, you are welcome.
With SGS2 I had also a good values if I remember, but I've tested previously SGS5 and battery was drained really fast mainly due to some pre-installed apps. Also because of this, such measurements are quite complicated and usually un-precise. I'm trying to reduce battery consumption in Locus as much as possible, but of course it may happen that any problem appear. But should not :).
Wish you good luck with finding a real reason of these troubles and in case I'll may help with something or you really find some issue in Locus, feel free to contact me (simply continue in this topic).
In the default tracking mode you are leaving a wake lock on for the duration of tracking. I have experimented with various track point periods, the 5 second default & a lot longer. In all cases a wake lock is noted ( I have been using GSam battery, AccuBattery & the battery app that comes with the phone ). I have only ever attended a couple of Android programming lessons ( so what do I know ... ), rule 1 from my professor was look after the battery & by that rule wake locks are always bad.
By contrast when I select your assisted location option , the period of wake locks for locus is short, somewhat longer to a bucket GSam has as "kernel" , I assume/guess this is to cover the GPS interaction Google is doing on your behalf.
In both cases GPS is marked as on for the duration of the tracking. "On" suggests something being powered that doesn't need to be powered all the time . This is different with your GPS auto-off option; GPS is generally marked as off.
Today I have been doing short tests in town , 10 minute walks , not ideal. For these short walks the assisted-location CPU is higher. I'd need to walk a lot further, away from wifi & cell towers to know if the overall battery load is higher or lower.
I also saw Google Play Services as high when you are tracking. I suspect but have not proved that while you are using GPS, Google is using it as an excuse to increase the frequency of location history logging. We all have mixed feelings about Google location tracking, I am cool with it when I get something in return, but not when I don't. Anyway , when I opt out of location history on my Google account, the PlayServices load while you are tracking goes down to a more normal level. I flip the option back.. the CPU load doesn't go back , but I don't find tracks recorded on Google maps either, I suspect it gets enabled more slowly than it is disabled; disabled felt immediate.
More experiments to follow. On my previous phone, a Moto G6 , default walking tracking was draining the battery in less than a day. The phone died in the sleet on a Welsh mountain last Tuesday & its replacement ( Redmi Note ) is sufficiently different in its behavior to warrant a couple of long day walks.
In the default tracking mode you are leaving a wake lock on for the duration of tracking. I have experimented with various track point periods, the 5 second default & a lot longer. In all cases a wake lock is noted ( I have been using GSam battery, AccuBattery & the battery app that comes with the phone ). I have only ever attended a couple of Android programming lessons ( so what do I know ... ), rule 1 from my professor was look after the battery & by that rule wake locks are always bad.
By contrast when I select your assisted location option , the period of wake locks for locus is short, somewhat longer to a bucket GSam has as "kernel" , I assume/guess this is to cover the GPS interaction Google is doing on your behalf.
In both cases GPS is marked as on for the duration of the tracking. "On" suggests something being powered that doesn't need to be powered all the time . This is different with your GPS auto-off option; GPS is generally marked as off.
Today I have been doing short tests in town , 10 minute walks , not ideal. For these short walks the assisted-location CPU is higher. I'd need to walk a lot further, away from wifi & cell towers to know if the overall battery load is higher or lower.
I also saw Google Play Services as high when you are tracking. I suspect but have not proved that while you are using GPS, Google is using it as an excuse to increase the frequency of location history logging. We all have mixed feelings about Google location tracking, I am cool with it when I get something in return, but not when I don't. Anyway , when I opt out of location history on my Google account, the PlayServices load while you are tracking goes down to a more normal level. I flip the option back.. the CPU load doesn't go back , but I don't find tracks recorded on Google maps either, I suspect it gets enabled more slowly than it is disabled; disabled felt immediate.
More experiments to follow. On my previous phone, a Moto G6 , default walking tracking was draining the battery in less than a day. The phone died in the sleet on a Welsh mountain last Tuesday & its replacement ( Redmi Note ) is sufficiently different in its behavior to warrant a couple of long day walks.
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