Forma Sudden Battery Drain Syndrome

[enuddleyarbl]

I'm pulling this out of the latest firmware thread since I'm also having the problem with the previous firmware now (4.34). In general, my Forma's battery life is no worse than its ever been (call it 12 hours of reading with the settings I've always used). Starting with 4.35, I started experiencing sudden battery drain.

Basically, the Forma will either go to sleep on its own or I'll put it to sleep and the battery is at some reasonable amount. Usually overnight, but once while it was sitting on the desk next to me for about an hour, the battery will drain down to nothing. It will shut all the way down and sometimes display the warning that it needs charging. Other times, I don't even get that warning.

Just now, I picked up my Forma that I'd put to sleep last night with 41% charge, and even though it said it was sleeping, it was actually off. It was so battery drained that it wouldn't even come out of sleep. I plugged it in to the charger and after a while it powered on and showed 0% charge. It's charging now.

This started with 4.35, but I'm back on 4.34 and having the same problem. I've turned off automatic syncing and turned off its wifi. When it's sleeping, the screen "backlight" is off. Right now, I'm leaning towards it having something to do with connecting via usb to my Windows 10 computer for sideloading from Calibre. It seems like these events happen after doing that. But, what the problem could be, I don't know. I always eject the Forma from within Calibre and Windows never complains about any kind of dirty bit being set or any kind of corruption. I've also checked the database with Kobo Utilities and it finds no problem. I'm at a loss.

After this last instance, I'm going to do a full, manual factory reset and see if that helps.

EDIT: Also, I've edited all the books I've been reading to get rid of the publisher's horrible formatting and replaced it with mine. When I put the Forma to sleep, I'm out of the book and at the Home screen. So, it shouldn't be an issue with anything in the book. And, just for grins, here's the stylesheet for the latest book I'm reading:

@page { margin-top: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; }
body { /* Basic Styling for BODY Section of a File */
  height: 100%; orphans: 1; padding: 0; widows: 1 }
* + * {
  /* Lobotomized Owl Selector - what to do any time two objects follow each other - limit to margin-top */
  margin-top: 0.6em;
}
p {
  /* Basic paragraph styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}
h1, h2, h3 {
  /* Basic Chapter Heading Styling */
  page-break-before: always;
  page-break-after: avoid;
  text-align: center;
}
h1 + p, h2 + p, h3 + p, hr + p, .chapquote + p, .note + p {
  /* Non-indented Paragraphs Styling (for paragraphs that follow something and shouldn't be indented) */
  text-indent: 0;
}
h1 + p::first-letter, h2 + p::first-letter, h3 + p::first-letter, hr + p::first-letter, .chapquote + p::first-letter {
  /* First-Letter Styling (for the first letter following certain things (IOW, dropcaps)) */
  font-weight: bold;
}
h2 + p::first-line, h3 + p::first-line, hr + p::first-line, .chapquote + p::first-line {
  /* Make first line of first paragraphs smallcap */
  font-size: 1.05em;
  font-variant: small-caps;
}
hr {
  /* Thematic break to use 3 asterisks between parts of story */
  margin-top: 0.9em;
  margin-bottom: 0.9em;
  border: none;
}
hr::before {
  content: "***";
  display: block;
  text-align: center;
}
/*
 * This whole section is styling for specific page types of a book
*/
section.acknowledgmentspage {
  /* Acknowledgments Page Styling */
  font-size: small;
  margin-left: 5%;
  margin-right: 5%;
  text-align: center;
}
section.acknowledgmentspage p {
  /* Acknowledgments Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
section.alsobypage {
  /* Also By Page Styling */
  font-size: small;
  margin-left: 5%;
  margin-right: 5%;
  text-align: center;
}
section.alsobypage p {
  /* Also By Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
section.copyrightpage {
  /* Copyright Page Styling */
  font-size: small;
  margin-left: 5%;
  margin-right: 5%;
  text-align: center;
}
section.copyrightpage p {
  /* Copyright Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
section.dedicationpage {
  /* Dedication Page Styling */
  font-size: small;
  font-style: italic;
  margin-left: 5%;
  margin-right: 5%;
  text-align: center;
}
section.dedicationpage p {
  /* Dedication Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
section.drmpage {
  /* DRM Statement Page Styling */
  font-size: small;
  margin-left: 5%;
  margin-right: 5%;
  text-align: center;
}
section.drmpage p {
  /* DRM Statement Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
section.epigraphpage {
  /* Epigraph Page Styling */
  font-size: small;
  margin-left: 15%;
  margin-right: 15%;
}
section.epigraphpage p {
  /* Epigraph Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
section.epigraphpage p.signature {
  /* Epigraph Page Signature styling (basically right-justify) */
  display: block;
  text-align: right;
}
section.titlepage {
  /* Title Page Styling */
  margin-left: 5%;
  margin-right: 5%;
  text-align: center;
}
section.titlepage p {
  /* Title Page Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
/*
 * This is a section for types of chunks on a page
*/
div.chapquote {
  /* Chapter Quote (quote at top of chapters) Styling */
  display: block;
  font-style: italic;
  margin-left: 1em;
  margin-right: 1em;
  padding: 1em;
  text-align: justify;
}
div.chapquote p {
  /* Chapter Quote Paragraph Styling */
  display: block;
  font-size: small;
  text-indent: 0;
}
div.chapquote p.signature {
  /* Chapquote Signature styling (basically right-justify) */
  display: block;
  text-align: right;
}
div.note {
  /* Note Styling */
  display: block;
  font-size: 0.88em;
  margin-left: 2em;
  margin-right: 2em;
  text-align: left;
}
div.note p {
  /* Note Paragraph Style */
  display: block;
  text-indent: 0;
}
/*
 * A styling section for things that apply everywhere
*/
.footnote {
  /* Footnote Styling */
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 0.7em;
  padding-top: 0.1em;
  padding-bottom: 0.1em;
  margin-left: 4em;
  margin-right: 4em;
  text-indent: 0;
  border-top: 1px solid black;
  border-bottom: 1px solid black;
  page-break-inside: avoid;
}
.headline {
  /* Styling for a placard or headline */
  display: block;
  font-size: 0.88em;
  font-weight: bold;
  padding-bottom: 0.6em;
  padding-top: 0.6em;
  text-align: center;
  text-indent: 0;
}
.signature, .right {
  /* Signature styling (basically right-justify) */
  display: block;
  text-align: right;
}
.small {
  /* Small font style */
  font-size: 0.75em;
}
.smallcaps {
  /* Smallcaps styling (text should be typed normally and will be smallcapped) */
  font-variant: small-caps;
}
/*
 * Stuff Unique to Particular Books
 * Running "Remove Unused CSS Rules" Will Remove Unnecessary Stuff
*/
div.status {
  /* Status Styling for Computer Screen Responses */
  display: block;
  font-size: 0.88em;
  font-weight: bold;
  margin-left: 2em;
  margin-right: 2em;
  text-align: left;
}
div.status p {
  /* Status Paragraph Style for Computer Screen Responses */
  display: block;
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  text-indent: 0;
}

[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

it was sitting on the desk next to me for about an hour, the battery will drain down to nothing.

Is the desk metal, or in any way magnetic enough to silently trip the hall sensor?

[enuddleyarbl]

Nope. All wooden surfaces. No metal or magnetic stuff around it. It's an interesting suggestion, though. I wouldn't have thought about it even though I've heard people having issues with sleep covers because of it (and, I don't have a sleep cover, or any other kind of cover, either).

[Lys]

I don't know if it can be related, but I've been having some issues with battery drainage as well (on a Libra H2O).

Basically, in my case, it's the sync process that keeps running and it never finishes, causing the battery to drain. If I keep the wifi off, the drainage stop.

If I log out my account and log in again, the sync process does start working normally again, but after a few days, I'm back to the same sync-process-never-ending issue.

I'm trying to understand what is the cause (I started having this issue since mid december, without any update on the firmware: I'm running 4.34 and I've never been asked to update to 4.35 so far), but I'm a bit at loss.

I tried to download every book I purchased on kobo on the ebook, and the sync problem did persist
I tried to download only 4/5 books I purchased on kobo, and the sync problem came up again
The DB check through KoboUtilities always return a "no issue detected" on the DB.
I enabled dropbox integration on my Libra H2O (following the steps in the thread on the Developer corner) and the integration itself worked, but I'm wondering if there is something there that causes the issue. I've disabled dropbox again, and I'll monitor if the sync issue happens again or not.

(PS: I tried to sync through the KoboApp instead of over the WIFI, but the sync never finished as well)

[milady133]

How many collections do you have? I have this problem from time to time, login out and in, repairing the account afterwards fix this for some months, until next time it gets stuck trying to synchronize again.
From an older thread, it seems there's a problem trying to synchronize when you have a lot of collections, it's been a couple of months since I had this problem, so I was expecting to show again in my Forma when I read the problems with the last firmware, but so far it hasn't been triggered yet.
I don't know what's the number of collections to be consider large, I do have a rather large mix of books, Kobo bought and sideloaded (around 1500~) and the collections to go with them (45~)

[Lys]

Originally Posted by milady133

How many collections do you have? I have this problem from time to time, login out and in, repairing the account afterwards fix this for some months, until next time it gets stuck trying to synchronize again.

Umh, that's a good question and suggestion. I did change my collections system and indeed that may be the trigger. Currently I have around 80 collections on my Kobo (I had around 20 before), I will try and lower their numbers and see what happens.

I don't think the number of books itself is an issue.
I had around 2K files before and it was fine for months. When it happened and I thought the number of books (purchased/sideloaded) may be the issue, I deleted all sideloaded books and I put in the archive all purchased books I already read, and then I sideloaded again a small portion of the total (currently there are around 250 purchased from Kobo books and 50 sideloaded ones), but the issue happened again after a few days.

I'll try to lower the # of collections and see if it gets better

[enuddleyarbl]

In my situation, I've set the Kobo Touch Extended "Collections" field to be "tags." Looking at Tags in Calibre, I've got 73 of those. But, I don't see sync failing to complete (even when I had Automatically Sync and WiFi on.

For online connections, the only things I'm using are my Kobo account, itself, and Overdrive.

All my Kobo-purchased books (10 of them) are edited and sideloaded from Calibre. The one oddity there was that when I went to sideload my Calibre library back to my factory-reset and re-updated (to 4.34) Forma, one of those books did actually get downloaded from Kobo (I must have forgotten to Remove it from my Kobo library). I've now removed it and all books are, currently, from sideloading.

Based on NiLuJe's comment, above, I've also now turned off the Automatically Sleep and Wake Up option in Energy Savings and Privacy > Sleepcover (just in case something is wonky with the sleepcover sensor).

And, as an update, after resetting and re-sideloading, I read yesterday for a couple of hours and the battery use looks about normal. I put the Forma to sleep last night at 75% battery and this morning, 8 hours later, it was 74%. Again, normal. I'll see what happens over the next couple of days (with my usual USB connections to Calibre).

EDIT: I've currently got 433 books on the Forma.

[enuddleyarbl]

I read for several hours today and put the book down with 40% left in the battery. I did NOT put the Forma to sleep. But, shortly thereafter, it was sleeping. I picked it up 5 hours later and the battery was at 4% (wouldn't turn on until I plugged it in). I had noticed earlier in the day that it was using normal amounts of power (roughly 10% (less than) an hour) while reading and almost nothing sleeping.

This time around, I'm going to reboot the Forma after every disconnection from my computer. If that doesn't help, then I'm at a total loss.

[enuddleyarbl]

I guess this will finish this off.

After the last battery drain instance, I shut the Forma down and restarted it. I charged it to 100% and put it to sleep at the home menu. Here's the battery use until the battery drained again:

• Charge to 100%
• Sleep, 12 hrs: 100% to 98% = 2%
• Read, 11:45 (98%) to 12:45 (87%) = 1 hour, 11%
• Sleep, 2 hrs: 87% to 86% = 1%
• Read, 2:45 (86%) to 3:45 (75%) = 1 hour, 11%
• Sleep, 2 hrs: 75% to 75% = 0%
• Read, 5:45 (75%) to 6:45 (62%) = 1 hour, 13%
• Sleep, 2 hrs: 62% to 50% = 12%
• Read, 8:45 (50%) to 9:45 (41%) = 1 hour, 9%
• Sleep, 10 hrs: 41% to 40% = 1%
• Read, 7:55 (41%) to 8:55 (27%) = 1 hour, 13%
• Sleep, 2-1/4 hrs: 27% to 27% = 0%
• Read, 11:10 (27%) to 12:01 (12:00 10% Warning, then Shut down 1 minute later. Plugged in, came up at 6%.)

In general, except for that last reading gasp of something between 27% and 21% in 50 minutes, the Forma used about 11% of battery per hour. A year ago, it was using about 8% an hour. But, that's acceptable. While sleeping, except for one case, the battery use was negligible (0% to 2%, regardless of time).

The problem is with that one 12% drain while asleep for 1 hour and the final loss of battery to the point of shutdown while reading. Plus, the 10% warning popping up one minute before the Forma actually shut down and wouldn't start up without being plugged in.

All of the above is with a freshly factory-reset Forma with all communications turned off and with no connections to a computer. So, at this point, there doesn't seem to be anything I can do except replace the thing. Pretty irritating for a 1-1/2 year old device.

[Lys]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

All of the above is with a freshly factory-reset Forma with all communications turned off and with no connections to a computer. So, at this point, there doesn't seem to be anything I can do except replace the thing. Pretty irritating for a 1-1/2 year old device.

After the factory reset, did you have still the same # of collections - around 75 you said you had?
I haven't closely monitored the % drop while reading (but to give you an estimate, I went to sleep and the battery was around 96%, and after 20 hours - more or less - that included around 2 hrs of reading and some testing/taking screenshots around - the battery was at 86%), but after lowering the # of collections from 80 to around 20, my issue related to drainage I had hasn't come up again so far. I'm still monitoring it since last time it didn't appear straight away, but maybe it's worth to try and run a test with a low # of collections (if you had any in the test you ran to start with)

[Lys]

Originally Posted by Lys

I'll try to lower the # of collections and see if it gets better

After a week, and with about 20 collections around, the issue didn't come up again (the last time, it came up a couple of days after my "logging out/logging in"dance).
So far, so good: I've enabled Dropbox again, and I've added more files (now I'm at around 1300 files, 25% downloaded from the store, and 75% sideloaded).

I'll keep the situation monitored a bit more, but it seems the # of collections was the issue, indeed

[ownedbycats]

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that people have so many collections - are they using one for every single genre?

[Lys]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that people have so many collections - are they using one for every single genre?

Honestly, I didn't think they were soooo many. I was surprised by their number when I counted them (they were a mix of collections by genre - subdivided between fanfictions//fiction//non-fiction, length, year-I-bought-the-ebook <- this one was a futile attempt at guilt-shaming myself into reading those books on my TBR since 2008 or something)

On my defense, I was playing around with the collection template on the driver (as to have different collections scheme for different ereaders) and I got carried away

[enuddleyarbl]

I finally went through and winnowed out the chaff from my Collections. I'm down to 35 now. I don't think 70 or 80 are all that much, but in my case, it looks like many of them came down with my initial metadata link in Calibre. In Calibre's Preferences > Metadata Download, I've got "Prefer Fewer Tags" checked and "Max Number of Tags to Download" set to 5. But, sometimes I forget to double-check what gets downloaded and another garbage tag gets into the mix.

Anyway, I'll see if the smaller number of tags helps with my battery drain, but I'm not holding my breath. If the drain were constant across the whole battery capacity, it might help. But, my SBD seems to start up around the battery being at 50%-ish. I assume the battery isn't putting out enough voltage once it gets to that level. I'll just have to replace the device with something else. The problem is that I was so underwhelmed by the Sage's battery life a year ago that I returned it:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=343407

[Quoth]

I accidentally created 100s of collections on my Sony PRS-350 because by default the tag column was used to create collections. However even on the DXG and later for the Kobo H2O original I'd made a custom Collection column, so I changed the driver settings to use that and reloaded.

I'd not use tags as imported tags can be mad. So by default a newly added ebook isn't in a Collection. I have my own list of Collection names that suits me.