Android Auto massive battery drain on phone

[timbo343]

I've recently retro fitted Android auto to my car and my word, it's a massive battery drain on the mobile phone.

 

Has anyone got any tips to top the massive drain? If i knew this before purchasing I would not have retrofitted it to my car.

[TechMonkey]

Plug your phone in?

[Synkrox]

My car has wireless AA and Carplay and wireless charging built in.

I can feel my phone getting warm in my pocket.

Wireless charging can't provide enough power to compensate, and even if it did then the heat build up causes errors about phone getting warm, even with a snapdragon 8 elite chip in it.

Any more than a 10 minute drive across town, I just plug it in.

Android Auto and Carplay are definitely worth it but I get why you might be disappointed.

[timbo343]

42 minutes ago, TechMonkey said:

Plug your phone in?

 

I thought about that but it soon gets warm and the USB doesn't always provide enough charge to the phone.

 

24 minutes ago, Synkrox said:

My car has wireless AA and Carplay and wireless charging built in.

I can feel my phone getting warm in my pocket.

Wireless charging can't provide enough power to compensate, and even if it did then the heat build up causes errors about phone getting warm, even with a snapdragon 8 elite chip in it.

Any more than a 10 minute drive across town, I just plug it in.

Android Auto and Carplay are definitely worth it but I get why you might be disappointed.

 

I'm overall impressed with it but the high power drain was something I never considered. I always used Waze on my phone via a powered wireless phone holder connected to a USB-C socket and my phone connected to the car's ford inbuilt system which was never really an issue.,

 

I have seen that AndroidAuto does use both Bluetooth and a wifi connection to connect to the phone. 

 

Just wondered if there were any settings on the phone that I could turn off or limit as I've even set Android Auto not to run in the background which has made little difference.

[Synkrox]

Like you say the phone is essentially becoming a wifi and bluetooth hotspot doing realtime screen sharing.

If USB isn't giving it enough power then get a better charger, wired charging should certainly be able to keep up.

There's nothing you can do to calm down the power consumption as far as I know.

[synaesthesia]

This is why I decided to DIY my head unit system rather than use android auto - it's an older car with a space for a nav unit. Had a 7" android tablet in to start with, and now runs a raspberry pi 4 with LCD instead. Capable of android auto, but not worth it - just has android installed with apps for the audio, google maps etc  My phone just got too hot even when plugged in, and preferred not to have trailing cables nor use wireless charging.

 

[LeMarchand]

3 hours ago, timbo343 said:

 

I thought about that but it soon gets warm and the USB doesn't always provide enough charge to the phone.

 

 

I'm overall impressed with it but the high power drain was something I never considered. I always used Waze on my phone via a powered wireless phone holder connected to a USB-C socket and my phone connected to the car's ford inbuilt system which was never really an issue.

 

Just got a car with an aftermarket JVC unit. The only problems I've been having are little drop-outs in the music via Spotify and that the start/stop will often cause the head unit to reboot, which is a PITA. I suspect the latter is due to a poor wiring job (they didn't even spring for the steering wheel connector) and I wonder if the former is related.

 

I was initially using my old phone plugged directly into the unit and didn't notice any loss of power. At the weekend I added a wireless dongle to the unit and a newer phone >A11 and reinstated my wireless charger. Bit early to tell how it's going (it still has the above problems) but will be doing a longer journey on Saturday and will report back.

 

So far, not as smooth as using my phone as the display with a simplified launcher and connecting to the basic head unit via Bluetooth. However, the bigger screen on the JVC is much appreciated. Might experiment with screen mirroring to see if that helps with the drop-outs and/or reboots.

[timbo343]

Part of me is thinking just buying a cheap data SIM and use Waze and Spotify on the Android head unit as installed apps rather than using Android Auto. Then i'd have my phone attached to the Bluetooth side of the Android head unit for phone calls.

[FragglePete]

I use a Carplay unit with my Motorcycle and use Android Car Play to display the maps on it.  Either Google Maps or Sygic - you have to pay £20 a year for Sygic as it locally stores the maps on the device and you can search offline, whereas Google Maps you need a connection to search for a location even with the maps downloaded.  Useful when your up some remote Welsh Mountain Pass.....

 

Yes, it does drain the battery, more so if I'm playing music to my headphones - which, let's face it, it's doing a lot..... GPS, WiFi & Bluetooth Connection to the Unit and Bluetooth connection to my headset - not surprising really.  My phone is a Google Pixel 9 and the battery is pretty good on it and I can usually do a good day's ride but I top it up with an external battery pack when I'm taking a break, etc.  Could in theory have it plugged into the bike via USB, but I don't trust any motorcycle mount and it's good practice to have the phone on your person rather than attached to the bike.  I don't like charging it in my pocket as I have damaged USB ports in the past by doing this, but will put in my topbox connected to a battery pack if I feel it's getting too low for comfort.

 

When using it in my car, on a long run I'll have it plugged it with no major issues but I do use a higher output USB accessory connector (fast charge) as the standard USB port doesn't give enough juice when connected via USB while navigating.

 

Pete

 

[timbo343]

I suppose what with having a new Nothing 3 phone with a decent-ish battery in the phone, I kind of begrudge my phone being drained by Android Auto.

 

I have a PD charger in the car which is connected to a wireless charger but its only pushing 15W to the phone and then the phone gets warm.

 

Gah, nothing goes a planned 😒🙄

[LeMarchand]

Not the most scientific test, but I had 42% when I left work. After a 13 mile/30 minute drive using Android Auto/Spotify/Waze and wireless charging at a MAX of 15W (that's the max for my phone, who knows what the lighter charger/lead/basic mount provide) I had 58%.

 

TBH I found Google Maps to be a worse drain on my old phone, particularly if used with a Life360.

[timbo343]

Ive bought a Lebara SIM for £2.78 per month (first 3 months) - 20gb for the car. Once the offer expires in 3 months, I'll get another SIMS at another cheap price in January as I'll use them as burner SIMS as I don't really need to ring anyone off them and see how it goes.

[MartinT]

I had large power drain with my previous phone, an Oppo Find X3.  The new phone, a OnePlus 13R, is much more power efficient and retains full charge while plugged into the car's standard USB port while running wireless Android Auto via an Ottocast dongle.

 

So it's partially down to the phone.