Guide: Reduce Android battery drain on Wi-Fi

Battery life differs greatly when you compare different mobile devices running Android. From devices that drain battery quickly to devices that seemingly can run for days without recharging.

Many factors play a role when it comes to battery life: there is the battery itself, the device's hardware and screen, settings such as the display brightness, and also applications that run on the device in the background.

Tip: applications like Battery Aid may help improve battery on Android devices.

What the device does or does not do when connected to a wireless network may play a role as well. Some Android devices are configured to keep mobile data on while on Wi-Fi while others are not.

While keeping mobile data enabled has advantages and may even be required for some functionality, it may also drain battery quickly.

Checking the setting

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If your Android device gets less screen time before you need to charge its battery than it should, you may want to check the following setting in the Developer Options of the device.

Note that there are hundreds of possible reasons why you need to charge the phone frequently; this is just one of the factors that may play a role if it is enabled.

1. Open the Settings on the Android device.
2. Scroll down to System and activate it.
3. If you see "Developer options" skip the next two steps.
4. Tap on about phone.
5. Tap repeatedly on build number until you see the "You are now a developer" notification.
6. Tap on Developer options under Settings > System.
7. Scroll down to "Mobile data always active" and make sure the setting is turned off.
8. If it is on, toggle it to turn it off.

Attention: Some features on the device may require the functionality to function properly or at all. You will notice that MMS sending won't work if mobile data is not active, and T-Mobile customers may not be able to use Wi-Fi calling anymore. Basically, what you want to do is test if turning the feature off impacts functionality.

When you may want to turn this off

Turning off the feature benefits users who noticed that their device's battery life is not as good as advertised. There are plenty of reasons why that may be the case, but if you are connected to Wi-Fi networks usually, you may want to check the setting to find out if the device keeps mobile data connections alive as well at that time.