Frequently Asked Questions - GSam Battery Monitor

Why do some Apps show higher usage than I would expect?

If you are fairly confident that an app really isn't using as much power as GSam Battery Monitor reports, it could be a problem with how Android reports it's sensor usage.  Some devices coupled with certain levels of Android don't correctly report sensor usage by apps.  Specifically, it appears that an app has continuously used a certain sensor (such as the accelerometer), thereby triggering a very high power drain relative to other apps.    So if your app is showing that it has a high sensor usage - but you know it doesn't, then go into Preferences -> Device Power Profiles -> Include Sensors.  Uncheck this (do so when you are plugged in).  

Things should start correctly showing usage.  Unfortunately it means that the app can't take sensor usage into account, but if your phone isn't accurately reporting that to begin with, it's better off not included.

The notification icon doesn't update, and I have to open the app to see the latest.

The battery monitor has to run in the background to keep posting the latest battery stats to your notification bar.   Things such as task killers, or memory cleaners will stop the the background service.  It will restart on it's own, but if it gets stopped too many times in a certain time span, Android will lengthen the restart time.  Android itself will also stop background tasks automatically when it needs resources (hence why task killers are not a good idea - Android already does this).  If your phone is running too low on resources and has lots of apps competing for these resources, the battery app will get stopped by design.

If you want to override this behavior, enable the following preference:  Preferences -> Device Power Profiles -> High Priority.   Do this with care though.  It sets GSam to run in a mode where it will only get stopped if the system is really running low on resources.  If you don't have an update problem, don't enable this.

There are other reasons it could be happening - but try this first.  If this still doesn't resolve your issue, please contact us so we can help!

My tablet reports Phone usage - but it doesn't have a phone.  Why?

Some device manufacturers don't always correctly honor Androids API to determine if a device has Telephony support or not (that's you Nook).   Please email us and let us know the specific device - we'll update a table of specific devices so that it reports things correctly for you!