Meshare android app battery drain

fleshinchair 2016-04-22 17:16:46 UTC #1

Anyone else noticed that the Meshare app is the biggest drainer of the battery in android devices?
I end up having to kill the application so that my battery doesnt die earlier on in the day.

rick.curl 2016-04-25 21:17:01 UTC #2

I'm seeing the same thing. Today the app has used 18% of the battery The next highest battery usage is my mail app at 5%.
Observations: Zmodo app and Meshare app seem to behave identically.
Neither app uses much battery until AFTER motion is detected on my Greet doorbell, and then the battery usage gets really high until I force it down. .
I hope we can get quick resolution of this issue, since stopping the app means I don't get notification of someone at the door.

-Rick

Patty 2016-04-26 16:58:43 UTC #3

What is the model of the phone you are working with?

rick.curl 2016-04-26 17:20:25 UTC #4

Google (LG) Nexus 5. My wife and I have identical phones and the same thing is happening on both.
My Android version is 6.0.1 with security patch dated April 2, 2016.

Thanks for looking into it.

-Rick

fleshinchair 2016-04-26 18:08:22 UTC #5

Mine a Moto X Play. The app also only reports alerts intermittently and not as often as email alerts did before Zmodo decided to stop supporting it. I'll be ditching these devices and advising my clients to do the same if this continues. The devices are cheap but ultimately don't work as described.

rick.curl 2016-04-26 19:31:49 UTC #6

Update: I just checked my data usage, and the Zmodo app used 637 megs yesterday. The screwy thing about this is that I did not look at any video on it- I just received two motion detection alerts.

-Rick

rick.curl 2016-05-02 00:54:22 UTC #7

Out of desperation we uninstalled the Zmodo app from both of our phones. Unfortunately, this means we are no longer receiving notifications of motion detected or someone ringing the Greet doorbell. Is anything being done to resolve this problem?

Thanks.

Patty 2016-05-02 18:04:50 UTC #8

The issue seems to be present only on some mobile devices. I have an LG G3, and I do not experience an issue with substantial battery drain or data usage, although my coworker with a Motorola G does seem to experience the issue.

There is a setting that I have found helpful with certain apps that restricts background data usage by app. That should prevent the app from using data while you are not actively accessing the app unless you are on WiFi. We haven't tested it yet, but we are in the process of looking into different mobile devices to see where the common issues are.

rick.curl 2016-05-02 19:32:18 UTC #9

Thanks very much for the update, Patty.
Please bear in mind that the issue is not battery drain alone, but data usage too. Without looking at any video on the Zmodo app it used 637 megs in a 24 hour period. Most of the time it is much lower- but I can't risk having this happen two or three times and using all of my data for the month..

Patty 2016-05-02 19:54:39 UTC #10

Correct, that is why I recommended trying the setting to restrict background data usage by app.

That will for sure limit the data usage, and I am currently thinking it might also control the battery drain, because I would think the 2 are linked.

rick.curl 2016-05-02 20:40:20 UTC #11

Sorry- I misread your post.
I have re-installed the app and restricted cellular data for that one app only. I'll report back after I have let it run for a day or so.

Thanks.

-Rick

rick.curl 2016-05-03 20:11:38 UTC #12

Hi Patty-
I've had the Zmodo app running on my Nexus 5 for the last 24 hours with cellular data restricted for the one app. Here's what I observed:
While at home with Wi-Fi turned on, everything works great- including motion detect alerts and an indication that someone has rung the Greet doorbell.
At work, with Wi-Fi turned off, I do not get notifications of motion or the doorbell being rung.
If I open the app I can see the Greet's live view.
Data usage has dropped to almost nothing.
Battery usage is so low that the app is not included in the list of apps (meaning less than 1% battery usage)

It looks like this is a big step toward diagnosing the problem. Now if it were only possible to find a happy medium on the data and battery usage...

I would be more than happy to collect any additional information you may need. I'd also be interested in testing any possible Beta releases. For now the Greet is not very useful since I have to have Wi-Fi turned on to get notifications. Looking forward to getting resolution on this!

-Rick
.

rick.curl 2016-05-05 16:30:58 UTC #13

One more piece of information- I just realized that the Android operating system keeps separate track of Foreground and Background data usage for each app. For the last 28 days, the Zmodo app has used 7.71 megs foreground and 633 megs background.

-Rick