Plexamp has been gaining attention for its rich audio features, beautiful interface, and tight integration with the Plex ecosystem. But not everything is perfect. Many users have noticed an alarming issue: Plexamp seems to drain battery life more quickly than expected on both Android and iOS devices. Is there a way to keep enjoying high-quality music without watching your battery percentage drop at lightning speed?
TL;DR
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Plexamp is a powerful music player that can use a significant amount of battery due to its high-performance audio features like upsampling, gapless playback, and visualizer effects. Users can reduce battery consumption by adjusting playback settings, limiting background activity, and keeping the app updated. Disabling certain features and managing local downloads may also improve battery performance. Minor tweaks can lead to a big difference in battery longevity.
Why Is Plexamp Using So Much Battery?
Plexamp is tailored toward audiophiles, and with features like bit-perfect playback, gapless transitions, and visualizations, the app is doing a lot behind the scenes. All these features work together to create a stellar audio experience, but they also place significant demand on a device’s CPU and GPU. Here’s a breakdown of the major culprits for the high battery consumption:
- DSP and Transcoding: When activated, Plexamp may resample or apply effects to audio files to ensure smooth playback or compatibility.
- Always-On Visualizations: The app includes animated wallpapers and music visualizations which can be resource-intensive.
- Background Access: Plexamp may keep running in the background even after you minimize it—especially if you’re streaming from a Plex server.
- Streaming over Mobile Networks: Constantly pulling FLAC files or high-resolution audio over a mobile connection is battery-intensive.
How to Reduce Plexamp’s Battery Usage
Understanding the issue is only half of the equation. The good news is that users can take several practical steps to reduce battery consumption without sacrificing too much quality.
1. Turn Off Visualizations
While stunning, things like waveform visualizations and artwork animations heavily tax the GPU. To disable them:
- Go to Plexamp settings.
- Navigate to “Library & Playback”.
- Turn off “Show Visualizations”.
This one change alone can noticeably improve both performance and battery life, especially on older devices.
2. Use Offline Playback
Streaming music from your Plex server over the internet requires constant background activity, including TLS encryption, audio decoding, and network access. You can ease this load by downloading playlists or albums locally.
- Pre-download your favorite music while on Wi-Fi.
- Use offline mode for travel or low-signal areas.
Local playback uses significantly less energy than streaming and avoids cellular data costs at the same time.
3. Disable Smart Crossfading and Advanced Audio Features
Features like Smart Crossfade, Loudness Levelling, and ReplayGain are excellent for audio consistency but need extra processing.
- Navigate to Settings > Playback.
- Disable Smart Crossfade or reduce the duration.
- Turn off Loudness Levelling and ReplayGain if active.
These configuration tweaks can reduce battery pull from your device’s audio processor.
4. Limit Background Activity
On both iOS and Android, Plexamp may remain active in the background. To limit this behavior:
- Android: Go to Settings > Apps > Plexamp > Battery and set it to “Restricted”.
- iOS: Disable Background App Refresh for Plexamp via Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
Be aware this may affect auto-download and syncing features.
5. Adjust Streaming Quality
Lowering your streaming quality helps to reduce decoding demands and thus battery consumption. Plexamp offers advanced bitrate customization.
- Go to Settings > Streaming Quality.
- Change FLAC to a compressed format like AAC, or reduce the streaming bit rate.
- Optionally, use “Convert to 320kbps MP3” or similar.
Lower quality does entail a trade-off in audio fidelity, but it’s barely noticeable with mid-range headphones or during casual listening.
6. Keep Plexamp Updated
Always use the latest version of the app. Updates frequently include optimizations for performance and power efficiency. Visit the Google Play Store or Apple App Store to check for updates regularly.
Other Things to Consider
If none of the above solutions reduce the battery drain, consider the following additional steps:
- Restart your device periodically to clear memory-hogging processes.
- Monitor Plexamp via your phone’s battery usage graph to observe its behavior across days.
- Check for server transcode activity: If tracks are being transcoded rather than directly played, it could trigger extra device processing.
When to Contact Support
In rare cases, the battery drain could be the result of a bug, particularly after a major update. It often manifests as continuous background activity even when the app appears to be idle.
If you’ve tried all the above steps with no improvement, it may be wise to contact Plexamp support with details about your system and usage. Logs and usage stats can also help them identify hidden bugs or misconfigurations.
FAQ: Plexamp and Battery Usage
- Q: Why is Plexamp draining my battery faster than other music apps?
- A: Plexamp uses more advanced audio processing features than typical music apps, such as high-resolution playback, visualizers, and upsampling, all of which consume more battery.
- Q: Will disabling visualizations help reduce battery usage?
- A: Yes, visualizations are GPU-intensive. Turning them off can lead to noticeable battery savings, especially on mobile devices.
- Q: Does using local downloads instead of streaming save battery?
- A: Absolutely. Local playback avoids constant network activity and reduces CPU processing required for buffering and decoding streamed files.
- Q: Can I lower audio quality to improve battery life?
- A: Yes, decreasing the streaming bit rate or converting your tracks to a more compressed format (like AAC) can reduce processor usage and save battery.
- Q: Are there differences in battery consumption between iOS and Android?
- A: Battery behavior can vary slightly due to how each OS handles background activity and iOS’s tighter restrictions, but the root causes and fixes are largely the same.
- Q: Is it okay to restrict background permissions for Plexamp?
- A: Yes, restricting background activity may disable some automation features but can significantly reduce power drain when the app is not in use.
Optimizing Plexamp for battery doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your music experience. With a few smart tweaks, users can enjoy uninterrupted, high-fidelity playback without reaching for the charger quite so often.
