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I have device which is used commonly by a layman kin. She does not really understand, why spares the battery if we do not wait until it goes to zero. She thinks, the device needs charge only if it was powered off due to battery exhaustion. I have no way to change her mind, but I can install or set up on her (non-rooted) Android as I want to (including adb access, if needed).

I think, maybe some app could power off her phone if battery level goes under, for example, 35% or so. Alternatively, maybe the battery load calibration could be changed to consider the actual battery level lower as it really is.

What to do?

peterh
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  • The command to shutdown the device requires root permissions. The battery calibration is as far as I know done by the battery controller itself. You may be able to clear the data but manipulate? I don't see a different way than to educate her. May be be she can only learn it the hard way if the battery dies or the flash memory gets corrupted if the phone is not able to shut down before the power is gone. – Robert Nov 10 '20 at 21:03
  • @Robert Also education is going on, but it is more hard as sounds logical. Thanks! What if an app annoys the user by "low battery" popups? And, maybe, even in audio form? – peterh Nov 10 '20 at 21:43
  • @Robert I could also control the phone over adb, and inject touch events into. This would be a way to power it off without root. But I do not want to hack her, I only want to spare the battery :-) – peterh Nov 10 '20 at 22:47
  • Without root, it's not possible because battery status is shown across launcher & all apps. There are gimmicky apps on Play Store (search for fake battery) that merely throw up a warning but that's not going to help as the person would soon discover //Try comparing battery to a human being while educating - being starved followed by being fully fed doesn't make an efficient person, it's eating less and much before you are very hungry or totally depleted //Likewise eating till you can't eat anymore doesn't help// see this – beeshyams Nov 11 '20 at 06:25
  • How deep does the battery goes (in percent) before the device shuts down? Is the device charged on "off state" or is it on/booted? If the device is charged while fully booted I may have a working idea. – Robert Nov 11 '20 at 08:07
  • @Robert To 0%. Various warnings happen before that, about low battery and offered energy spare modi, all of them are ignored. – peterh Nov 11 '20 at 10:55
  • And charging? Is the device running while charging? In that case an app pretending to be a (faked) system app could show a warning about "battery degeneration because deep discharge" may lead to battery explosion... Alternatively you may try to explain that Smartphones don't run with NiMH batteries. I assume someone educated the person you are talking about long time ago when NiMH batteries were state of the art... – Robert Nov 11 '20 at 11:12
  • @Robert It has ordinary Li battery. She does not know English, and she has no idea what is a nickel or lithium battery. She see a phone. If she wants to use it and it is powered off, and doesn't turn on for the power button, then she puts it to the charger. The warning problem could be overridden by translating the message, but I do not want to shock her, I want to spare the batteries. Bonus: this phone must be nearly completely dismantled for a battery replacement. – peterh Nov 11 '20 at 11:18
  • @Robert After it was powered off due to battery exhaustion, mostly it does not turn on for the power button. If it turns on, then it powers off very quickly again. The typical scenario is that battery exhausts, and device turns off automatically. Then it rests some hours. Then it is put to the charger, turned on, and is used. If it has luck, it remains on the charger after usage to reach 100%. Sometimes it can charge only while it is used. – peterh Nov 11 '20 at 11:25
  • Of course messages should appear it her primary language. And I don't see a reason not to shock her. Deep discharge and battery explosion are real problems if they can or can not occur on the phone is different question. – Robert Nov 11 '20 at 11:59

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