There have been many posts about the lousy battery life experienced by Incredible users. After buying this phone, I was draining the battery with almost no usage within 6 to 7 hours. I purchased and installed a new 1750MaH (the eris has a battery that works in the Incredible) battery and the problem persisted. I would turn the phone off fully charged, go to bed and in the morning, the battery registered as low and in need of charging. This was rather disconcerting.

At the time, I did not understand that the phone was not going to sleep, because a lot of apps continued to run in the backround, even when the phone was turned off. The apps that were running did not allow the phone to lapse into sleep mode. Go to settings>about phone>battery. You will note that "Up Time" and "Awake Time" are listed on the lower portion of the screen. If these numbers are the same, YOU have the same problem, so listen up and save yourself oodles of trouble. If the system is working properly the "Up Time" and the Awake Time" should be different. 

So after trying a number of things, I ran across mention of this app in one of the forums TASKPANEL. You can find it in the Market and it is free. After installing this app and using it to exit from all the running apps on the phone by short-tapping the power button on top o, the battery problem was solve. Go to TASKPANEL and press the "Kill ALL Background Tasks" before short pressing the power button to put phone to sleep and all those nasty apps that drain the battery are dead until you short press to see the screen, again. 

Current reading, just now, on my Incredible is as follows: Up Time =20:54    Awake time=2:45   and I still have 40% battery life. This is, of course, using the 1750Mah battery.

So, download TASKPANEL and make your life easier! I will not be returning my Incredible, now.

Great tip, thanks.

This is an interesting issue though, and I think it is highly dependent on what apps one is running.  I didn't have this problem at all.  Then one day it happened after I installed a new app (Gallery3D).  I solved it by simply turning the phone off (not sleep) then on again.  It hasn't happened since even though I use the Gallery3D app.  I have an app killer program (no taskpanel though), but find I don't use it much.  I just let things run and don't seem to have problems.

I too have the 1750mah battery and find that after a day of using the phone, surfing, running apps, I'll typically end up with about 30-40% battery life left after running it off and on from 7AM to 10PM.  Of course, all this varies with how much use I give it and if I use GPS.

Thanks again for a solution to those who may have this problem.

FB for HTC Sense was my problem.  I am just running the regular FB now.  Once I removed it and started using the power control widget, I am getting a full day on the stock battery.  I make between 1 -1.5 hours of calls per day and about 100 emails.  I don't use the internet much.   I may try the task panel, as there are other programs I would like to install that could drain the battery.  Thanks for the info.

Advanced Task Killer (aka ATK) is also free and is the one Verizon suggests. It is on the "Market"

What's FB for HTC Sense?

Face Book (FB)  for HTC Sense.  Check out your manual.

Have done some further reading and experimenting on the task manager issue.  Read some posts by folks who seemed to be knowledgeable on the subject who noted there is a difference in how Android and Windows handle multi-tasking.  In Windows, open programs do actually keep running in background taking up processor time and energy.  Apparently, in Android this is not the case and programs are essentially 'paused' so when you do go back to them you pick up where you left off, but they don't take processor time to keep them in background.  I checked this out with my Astro File Manager program and found that all programs that were "running" in background and that I could return to (e.g., press and hold "Home" button to see them) were taking up 0% of processor.  So that explains why folks who know the OS say in general don't worry about killing tasks.  Yes, every once in a while a program acts up and it's handy to be able to kill it.  But it's generally not necessary.  I tried aggressively killing programs vs just letting them remain "open" in Android OS and saw no difference in battery life.  It seems the things that kill battery life are the obvious ones like how much you use the device, display time out settings, display brightness settings, whether you have GPS turned on, etc.  All the obvious things.

No doubt battery technology is not keeping up with phones, but let's face it, the DInc's 1GHz processor is hard on batteries, but you are getting incredible performance for that toll.  Also, because these newer phones are so capable, people are using their devices more, so of course battery life suffers.  Finally, in my opinion (which is all any of this is anyway!), we consumers are part of the problem by demanding thinner and thinner phones as well as other, conflicting, demands.  I mean, how thin does a phone really need to be to fit in a pocket?  You can't have super thin phones and expect them to be able to be shoved in a pocket of spray on clothes without having screens occasionally crack.  And its hard to keep a phone super thin AND put a super processor in it AND provide tons of capability that people will use AND be able to fit a battery in it that will last.  This is one consumer that would much rather see a slightly thicker basic phone design that could accommodate a 2500-3000 maHr battery in the basic design so you wouldn't need extended batteries (and backs) that won't fit in the holders designed for the basic phone.

I agree that battery life is an issue, but my own personal solution has been to plug it in every night, but I am grateful for this information about the killer applications because I never use such things as Facebook or the ultra-insipid Twitter apps that seem always to be running on my phone.

My previous phone, an LG EnV2, never even had to be plugged in as often as once a WEEK, so this was an adjustment.

Actually it was an adjustment back to my behavior of a decade or so ago, when they all pretty much had to be plugged in every night.

I understand that a 2500mAh battery is coming soon for the Incredible.  I'm gonna git me one of THOSE.

I used to have the battery draining problem, but now thats all gone with using the battery the phone came with. I really didn't do anything much but just use the phone the more I used it the better the battery.

When I bought my phone the first thing she did was load task killer.  I did not realize what she had loaded till just now.

There have been numerous articles/posts about using task killers on Android phones. The simple conclusion of virtually all of them has been NOT to use any task killer apps on these phones. Not only don't they help, there's some evidence that they can actually hurt battery life and overall performance! Having said that I think we all need to remember that within the next 3-6 months we'll be getting Froyo, 2.2 which is going to DRAMATICALLY improve battery life. ANd when I say DRAMATICALLY, that's exactly what I mean. I've heard tech guys who have already tested Froyo vs. Eclair (2.1) say that the improvement is about 2-3x better than we're seeing using Eclair. So keep you chargers accessable for the next few months. After that we should all be (very) happy campers. One final thought. I applaud the post of 'atnbirdie' who (correctly) pointed out that we are part of the problem in that we keep demanding thinner and thinner phones that are capable of doing more and more. And then we want them to do that "more and more" at ever faster clips. At some point we have to recognize (and accept) that batteries that are 1-2 mm thick are just never going to be able to pump out the same voltage for as extended a period of time as your garden variety D-cell battery. There is a limit guys!

But please don't forget. Task killer apps do not belong on Android phones!!!

And the wifi sucks juice like a two year old in the mojave.... Turn it off when not in use.

I've had my HTC Incredible for 2-weeks and have spent much time getting acclimated to its awesome features and functionality.  Overall, I'm very pleased with the phone (especially with Android) and it’s my opinion that this phone does live up to its name.  However, the standard battery life is less than expected.  I agree with the previous posts regarding our constant appetite for smaller, faster, lighter, etc., but advancements in technology have made us hungry.  I'm very guilty of wanting more...I recently upgraded my HTC Imagio for the Incredible.  The Imagio was okay, but it was on the WinMo operating system (need I say more).  Anyway, I’m extremely satisfied with the “Incredible” and hopefully HTC and/or Android will develop an update to improve the power management.  At this point, I have no intention on replacing my Incredible.  Due to all the posts regarding battery life, I purchased a “92-hour” (3000mAh) Polymer Lithium rechargeable battery from Brookstone.  This battery is very slim, comes with a carrying pouch, and has several adapters that will allow you to recharge just about any electronic device.  The cost was about $80, but well worth it--especially if you’re a commuter using mass transportation and need the extra juice.  I just took a 5-hour flight and it worked like a champ.  By the time I arrived to my destination, the phone was charged and I only used a fraction of the recharger’s power.  Not trying to endorse any particular brand, but I’ve had other “so-called” rechargeable batteries that didn’t work so well.  So far, I’ve been able to fully recharge my phone (from approx 10%) about 3 times before I recharge the rechargeable battery.  Bottom line, I’m keeping my Incredible.  The iPhone has received a lot of hype b/c it is a great phone/entertainment device.  Although, I don’t like the exclusivity with AT&T.  We could spend all day throwing stones at any cell phone company and debate which one is better.  However, I applaud HTC’s efforts in developing solid phones for multiple carriers using various operating systems.  Hopefully, HTC will read our posts to refine their products even more and perhaps take a slice out of the “Apple”.        

Interesting observation on your WiFi experience.  I've found (from other posts and personal experience with my phone) that generally WiFi seems to take less juice than trying to pass data via 3G.  I have my home and work WiFi's set up on my phone and leave WiFi on most of the time as I'm at one or the other location much of the time.  It seems to me I'm getting slightly better battery life using WiFi in lieu of 3G when I can.  It's also 4-5 times as fast most of the time.  If I know I'll be away from home or office for an extended period, I shut WiFi off.  Bottom line is that I'm not seeing the battery drain you have experienced with WiFi.  Any chance it could be something else?

I've been carrying the Incredible only a few days, since Monday evening, June 7th. There is a Battery Use tool that lays out what breakdown as percentage since I last unplugged or turned on the power. The HTC Manual says:

Press HOME > MENU, and then tap Settings.

Scroll down the screen, and then tap About phone > Battery > Battery use.

it is march of 2011 with froyo 2.2 and the battery problems STILL EXIST!!! i barely get through a day of regular use it will die in the middle of the day very inconvenient for someone like me.