What does always-on mobile data do?

PPCGeeks4ME · #1 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 11:32 AM

In Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks there is an option called "Enable always-on mobile data." I've seen several sites recommend turning this off, with accounts of it doubling battery life in low-signal areas. When you turn the option off, Android warns you that some auto-updating data applications won't work correctly, but I've seen many reports that this is not the case - Gmail, FB, and other apps still update fine with the option turned off.

Before I disable it, does anyone know exactly what this option does? I can only think that if turning this off really can double your battery life without reducing functionality at all, it would be turned off by default. There must be some negative to having it off. So what is the tradeoff?

**mindfrost82** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 11:36 AM

I have it turned off and it did help with battery life.

With it on, it will keep your data connection alive and it'll never disconnect. As we all know, data can kill your battery, especially is a low signal area.

With it off, I believe it connects and disconnects when it needs to. If an app needs to get online, it'll connect, let it do its thing, then disconnect.

Since Android relies heavily on the internet, Sprint probably thought it would be better to have it "always on".

With it off, my wife still gets GMail alerts, and facebook still updates every hour, the weather channel app and sense weather widget still update as well.

dallas contractor · #3 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 11:36 AM

It disables weather update, emailing, and internet. Anything that needs data.

jhale83 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 11:37 AM

I disabled it on my phone as well as my wife's phone and shortly after that they both started re-booting on their own randomly so I wouldn't recommend it. Once I turned it back they've not re-booted on their own since.

slopokdave · #5 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallas contractor

It disables weather update, emailing, and internet. Anything that needs data.

WUT?

Not true, at all.

I noticed no negative affects of turning it off, EXCEPT my streaming music would timeout. 5minutes if I remember correctly.... :\

dakidobf · #6 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhale83

I disabled it on my phone as well as my wife's phone and shortly after that they both started re-booting on their own randomly so I wouldn't recommend it. Once I turned it back they've not re-booted on their own since.

Sounds like your phones have issues. I turned it off and left it off since the day after launch and have no issues. My email, weather, everything still syncs. It should work exactly how Mindfrost described in his post. And help battery life.

jrob · #7 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 01:47 PM

i also h ave experieced random rebooting, but i don't think it stems from disabling "always-on mobile data."

cmdauria · #8 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallas contractor

It disables weather update, emailing, and internet. Anything that needs data.

Not true at all!

D\/8 · #9 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 05:09 PM

No ill effects with disabling this feature... The only problem I encountered was with Pandora and SiriusXM... The streaming session times out every 5 minutes or so where I would need to wake the phone and allow it to reconnect...

Wish I could find a widget to check/uncheck this option from the homescreen...

carlosruizano · #10 (**permalink**) 07-02-2010, 06:02 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

Me too, I have had it off since day one. And the only thing I have noticed is Pandora and Slacker disconnect after 2 songs i.e. 5 minutes.