TrainerRoad iOS app - Immense battery drain even when not riding

TrainerRoad Software
1

Hey everyone - for those who use TR on your iPhone (iPhone 14 Pro here), do you see a ton of battery drain when riding and also when its just left on the background? I’ve seen battery go down probably twice as fast as when not having TR in the background (i.e. completed my ride, exited out of workouts). Even when i’m out and about, and nowhere near my bike trainer/HRM setups.

I wonder if its because the app is still trying to ping for bluetooth connections when in background? If so, there should be some way to have it stop checking if there’s been no activity on the app for over 5 minutes?

2

Hey, @yansim!

This is likely a common experience with more complex and sophisticated apps. However, I’ll will check with the team to see if we are syncing in the background unnecessarily, and get back to you on that.

Nice idea to close out of apps when you aren’t using. That’s good practice and will save your battery, regardless. :+1:

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Okay @yansim, the developers were able to clarify how we prevent battery drainage on the mobile apps.

I am still looking into your case specifically to ensure everything is working as intended- I’ll get back to you on that. I thought I’d give you an update though.

We have most processes in mobile to go “lightweight” which means we will not scan for devices when it’s not necessary. When apps are in lightweight, they do not require as much processing power to operate.

We will only scan for devices if you’re actively on the device’s screen or if one of your paired devices has become interrupted. Active device connections will remain paired if the app is backgrounded, even though we’re not scanning for new connections. This allows you to watch videos, choose your music, etc, in another app during a workout.

So all that is to say, your battery shouldn’t be drained due to TrainerRoad more than other apps.

At the moment, my suggestions to minimise the battery drainage:

  1. Close out of the app when you are finished using the app whenever possible
  2. At the very least, disconnect your devices once you are finished a Workout.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of this!

4

One of our developers spent some time digging into this further for you, by profiling the app’s battery usage. Here is what they found:

  • “Going/gone lightweight” happens at around 2 minutes after exiting the workout player.

  • When backgrounding the app, the battery impact, along with CPU, GPU, Network, etc. goes to zero in about a minute.

  • Syncing in the background occurs for about two minutes. After that, all energy utilisation statistics dropped to zero.

I hope this helps you narrow down what is causing your battery to drain quickly! Let me know if you have any questions :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thank you Sarah! I will keep monitoring this and share if there are any updates!

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Interesting. I only use the app when riding indoors.

I don’t notice battery drain, and I’m doing 2 hour and 2.5 hour trainer rides. I have an HR monitor and my trainer connected, play podcasts continuously while riding, screen always on, with an iPhone 11 Pro max.
I mean, maybe the phone loses 10% battery life in two hours, but that’s not a big deal - takes about 20 minutes to recharge that…

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