With the launch of the Electroneum mobile miner just around the corner, you should start preparing for the big day. After you’ve created an Electroneum account and installed the app on your Android device, the next step is to optimize your phone’s performance.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to optimize your phone and ensure that it’s ready to mine maximum ETN coins.
But first…
Why is Optimization Necessary?
Let’s take a look at how the mobile miner will work vs. conventional miners.
Conventional computer miners solve complex cryptographic puzzles and need a lot of CPU power to do so. Although your phone won’t actually be solving real puzzles or use a lot of CPU power, the miner will behave as if you were mining for real – a mining simulation.
ALSO READ: How to Mine Electroneum with a Mobile Phone
The app will continually benchmark your phone and determine the amount of available CPU power. It will then assign your phone with a hash rate equal to the available CPU power, and you’ll get awarded ETN based on that.
If you have a faster phone, you will get a higher hash rate than a slower model. If you play a CPU intensive game, your hash rate will temporarily be reduced until the game is finished. So the miner will behave as if it is really using CPU power, but in actual fact, it is just a simulation.
The more available CPU power you have, the faster your phone should mine.
So let’s look at how you can reduce your current CPU usage:
Ideas to Reduce CPU Usage
Here are a few things you can try to speed up your phone. Each option will add a little bit of increased CPU capacity to your phone which ads up over time.
1. Update your Android version
The first step is to make sure your phone’s Android version is up to date. New versions always contain improvements and bug fixes that speeds up the phone. So open up Settings > About device and look for an option like Software update or Download updates automatically. You’ll be able to see if an update is indeed available.
If an update is available, make sure you’re connected to wifi before updating, as this might take a lot of data.
2. Uninstall or Disable any Unused Apps
Not only do unused apps take up a lot of storage space, but they also slow down your phone through processes that run in the background. It is, therefore, a good idea to disable or uninstall any app that you have not used in the last 2 months.
Go to Settings > Application manager and look for the All apps tab or filter. You can then click on an app and click the Uninstall button.
While you’re there, scroll the Running tab to view all apps that are currently running in the background. This will help you see which apps are taking up too much idle CPU power and have to be uninstalled.
3. Clean up your Home Screen
Since the Home screen is probably the screen you’ll view most on your phone, it can use up a lot of CPU power, especially if you’ve added lots of widgets. Widgets on the Home screen continually communicate with their back-end apps to display up-to-date information.
Long-press on your Home screen which will make it editable. You can then hold and drag widgets to the dustbin to remove them. In my opinion, you should keep the number of widgets on your home screen to a maximum of 1.
And while you’re at it, why not also remove all the unnecessary app shortcuts on the Home screen that you never use! When removing an app shortcut from the Home screen, keep in mind the app still remains installed, and you’ll be able to find it in the app drawer if you need it again.
4. Use a Still Wallpaper Instead of a Live Wallpaper
Live wallpapers are amazing to look at and interact with, but they come at a computational price. They use a lot of processing power to create and draw the animations you see on the screen.
Rather switch to a still wallpaper image, both on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen.
To do this, long-press on the Home screen and select Wallpapers. You can select a preloaded wallpaper or choose one from your gallery.
5. Reduce Auto-Sync
In order to provide you with up-to-date information, many apps sync automatically to servers across the Internet in the background. For example, your email program frequently contacts the email server and checks if there are any new emails.
This is good for apps such as messaging or email, but for rarely-used apps, this is an overkill.
You could disable all auto-sync functionality, go to Settings > Accounts and look for the Auto-sync on/off toggle setting. However, this might be too drastic for most people since it will disable all pushed notifications to your device, and is thus not recommended.
Rather look at the list of accounts and consider either:
- Removing any the accounts you don’t need (click on the account, then Menu, then Remove Account)
- Disabling selective sync features on some accounts (click on the account, then toggle certain options on/off)
- Reducing the frequency of syncing
For example, you can change your email app to sync once every 10 minutes. An email that arrives a few minutes late won’t hurt.
6. Clear Cached App Data
Some apps store information in a special part of memory called the cache. This enables them to start up quicker the next time you launch them, which is a good thing to have enabled for apps that you use frequently, like messaging apps or social media apps.
But for apps that are rarely used, this does not hold any advantages. The cache files of many apps add up over time and keep the cache occupied.
It is, therefore, a good idea to clear the cache of the apps you don’t use on a regular basis. Open up Settings > Application manager and look for the All tab or filter. Click on individual apps and then click on the Clear Cache button (you might need to select the Storage option first on some phones).
7. Try Another Launcher Application
Although Android comes with its own built-in launcher (the part that powers the home screen and app drawer), you have the option of using a third-party launcher.
In fact, many phone manufacturers such as Samsung already have their own launcher enabled by default when you buy the phone.
To increase performance, you could download a third-party launcher such as Go Launcher from the Play Store. Keep in mind that the performance increases that come with various launchers differ from phone to phone. You’ll need to download one and see how your phone reacts to it. Rest assured, you can easily switch back to the old launcher if the new one ends up making things worse.
8. Set Apps to Only Update Over Wifi
In most cases, people allow their apps to update at any time of day when an update is available. While updating is good for your phone, it requires frequent polling of the Play Store to see if a new version is available, and then requires a lot of processing power to download and install the new version.
Why not bunch all those updates together when you get home to wifi?
9. Try an Old, Trusty Reboot
If all else fails, sometimes the best thing your phone needs is a simple reboot. Rebooting clears all unnecessary RAM and starts your phone with a clean slate in terms of cache and memory. Frequent reboots (once every two days or so) could go a long way towards optimizing your performance.
Other Advanced Options
Some other advanced options you can try to improve your phone’s performance is to (recommended only for advanced users):
What else?
Do you know any other ways to speed up your phone? Let us know in the comments, so we can all learn from you.
I’ve mined more than 960 ETN on mobile until now. But when will the instant payments come out, and where can we use it? Will ETN be available to pay microtransactions on other games? Which games? Could you please help me? 🙂
The instant payment system is slated to launch sometime in the 3rd quarter (July – September 2018). A number of vendors have been accepted into the beta testing phase and is slated to launch soon. You’ll also be able to use ETN to buy airtime from certain providers and buy services from other people on Electroneum’s Gig economy website (launching soon as well). The team also promised to launch a vendor directory website that shows which vendors accept ETN.
As far as I know, Google’s terms of service prevent an app from accepting payments on the phone using a payment processor other than Google. So I doubt we’ll be seeing ETN purchases in a game anytime soon.
So I have three phones running the app using one account. Soes this increase the speed for that account or does it just cancel the other hashes?
Electroneum’s terms of service allow only one device per account. You might get banned if you continue doing this. Rather create additional accounts for each device – each with their unique email address and phone number. The overall mining output should be the same. I can’t find any information regarding more than one account per person, so I can’t comment on that.
1. Referral program earnings didn’t show properly. Earnings have been frozen for 2 days already, but all my referrals are still mining.
2. My hash-rate is 30 and I’ve been mining for 2 days but didn’t receive earning. Same, earning freezes…
3. Still can’t transfer pending balance to account.
4. Is the mobile mining still available after May 2018?
Thanks
1. I’ve heard some other people complain about this as well. I guess it’s a temporary issue.
2. Same as above.
3. Wait patiently. People are being paid in batches. It will come.
4. Yes, mobile mining is here to stay for years. Don’t let the fork worry you.
Benjamin
Je zegt dat ze weer begonnen zijn met uitbetalen maar ik heb toch al langere tijd niks gehad . Hij staat nu op 52 etn. Hoelang is nu de verwachting.
Alvast bedankt voor je reactie
Not sure how long before it’s all sorted out. Some people have reported success by logging out of the mobile miner app and logging back in. Perhaps give that a try.
The mobile miner has not paid out for several days. I have at the moment over 100 ETN but not in my account. I saw this also with another person with a Samsung Galaxy S7 and I have a Samsung Galaxy S5. Someone have an idea why this is happening?
Mobile miner payments have been paused temporarily due to high blockchain traffic but have recently been resumed again.
I mined 12 ETN with my phone. But my balance doesn’t show any number. What should I do?
Mobile miner payouts were halted for a while due to high blockchain traffic but were resumed some time ago. You should be receiving your coins sometime soon.
Hey there! Can I mine ETN using two phones at the same time?
One account, one device. So you’ll need a unique account for each device.
Hello. I was wondering why I was not loading myself in my two-week wallet? My phone is Samsung S8+. They only stay on the phone and will not transfer to the wallet. Thank you…
You mean you can’t transfer to a paper wallet?
I’ve been mining for 3 days now with a consistent hash rate 0f 30-31, and my pending balance has crept up to almost 35 now. Its not leaving my miner and i have no idea why. Do you have an idea why this might be happening?
Payments were paused for a while due to high traffic on the blockchain but have started going through again a few days ago.
I mined 10 ETN and after that it went back to zero. I know 10 is the minimum payout. My balance is still the same 🙁 Please help.
It takes a while to get to your wallet. Please be patient.
I run around a 35 hash rate most of the time on a Samsung Galaxy S6. Miner shuts down ever hour. When I start it back my pending balance increases. For the past 2 days my pending balance only increases after 3 or 4 hours or restarts instead of each time reducing my ETN payout.
I’ve heard from several people that they are getting a slower payout recently. Remember that the payout algorithm is in control of the ETN team. They will change and update it to best suit the growth of Electroneum.
My phone stops mining ETN a few minutes after you press the lock button 🙁
Make sure your the app’s background data is enabled. Perhaps this could help.
I just upgraded my Samsung S8 to version 8.0.0 and my hash rate has halved!! Anyone else had this?
Yeah, seems like a lot of people are getting this. Trying to get to the bottom of this.
Same here. Just had a system update and my hash rate has gone from 50 to 25 on a Note 8. Seems like they may have done this on purpose.
Hi, if I start mining, does my mobile screen have to be kept on for 24hr? Can I do sleep screen or Facebook online anything?
Miner runs in the background. You can carry on using your phone as usual.
I have over 20 ETN I have mined, still, haven’t received this amount in my wallet.
Is there a specific payment date to transfer earnings?
No. I think the team has a lot of payments to process. Most of the 50,000 miners have now probably reached the threshold and must be paid out, so I guess the there are a lot of transactions that need to go through. Your transaction is either in a queue, or the team is waiting for times when the blockchain is less congested in order to avoid high fees.
Can I run Electroneum at the same time with another mobile, connected to the same account? Is it possible if hashes are added up?
No, you’ll need a new email and account for each device. But don’t load more than 5 devices per IP address, else the system will ban you.
My app stops mining after every 0.20 ETN? How can I fix this?
Make sure background data is turned on for Electroneum. Also, make sure your phone is not in power saving mode. Those are the only things I can think of.
That doesn’t work 🙁 I mine with an LG G5. More people with this issue?
Guys, I’ve already mined 8 ETN, but they’re still on my pending balance. It’s almost two days that I have more than payout amount. How often does the app check pending balance in order to transfer it to the wallet?
You are able to mine them after 10ETN. Once you collect them, your wallet will get updated and new mining process will begin.
I have a HTC Android. The hash rate started at 7 H/s, and I have seen it as low as 2. Despite not doing anything on my phone, it still reduces down to 2, so how can it be a CPU-usage problem? I thought shutting down and rebooting would help but it didn’t make a difference. I have disabled a lot of apps, and that hasn’t helped. I have to keep my internet on, otherwise, it stops mining. and I don’t notice it immediately because I do things. I prefer to put my phone into Extreme Power-Saving Mode, but I can’t because after a while it disables my internet connection, which causes the app to stop mining… And I don’t notice it immediately.
It is not difficult to add a little script, patch, or bit of code which monitors the CPU usage while offline, then update my mining usage when I connect. Plus when I’m out and about I’m not my near my WiFi, and depending on where I go it depends on how strong and effective my mobile internet connection is. And if it is weak, it disables the mining. And I don’t notice it immediately.
In 3 days, I have mined just under 0.7 ETN.
Please help.
Thanks.
I understand your problem, but it will be difficult to write a script that does that and differentiate you from people that have stopped mining. Your phone sends a message to the ETN servers once an hour confirming that it is still mining. If the servers don’t get the message they think you’ve stopped mining. You’ll need to find a way to have the app running 24/7. You’ll need to keep your internet connection on, so power saving mode will be detrimental to your mining efforts.
I think the power saving mode is also what is hampering your hash rate. When in power saving the phone shuts off any unnecessary processes (meaning those that run in the background) to save power. So you might need to get your phone out of power saving mode to see an increased hash rate.
Thanks.
It won’t let me reply to you directly, so I’ll reply to myself!
I disabled a bunch of apps, and I now haven’t seen the hash rate be higher than 4 H/s (of course, I’m not looking at it constantly), but it does seem to have sped up, I think, but still being between 2 and 4 H/s.
Since about 14:30 on Wed afternoon to Friday evening (before I disabled the apps) I got from 0. 00 to about 0.70 ETN. After disabling the apps then, until about midday today (Saturday), it went up to just over 1 ETN. Now at 22:15 (London time), it is 1.22 ETN at 5 H/s (at the moment), at its latest update.
I suppose that’s better than a kick in the teeth!
Hello Benjamin. I hope next app update will add an advanced option. A custom setting – CPU thread – or any to increase the speed of mining. Thanks for good app mining.
I doubt that they’ll be adding those kinds of settings. It’s meant to be a very easy experience for people who are getting introduced to crypto for the first time. You can always move your mining efforts to a computer which has much more settings than the app.
I’ve been mining for 24 hours. I have 0.29 ETN at a combined hash rate of about 25-ish. Seems like I should have more?
Sounds more or less right. Remember that the team has announced yesterday that they will pay out 300% more ETN than what they’ve started with. So if you earned 0.29 ETN previously in 24 hours, you’ll now be able to earn 0.29 x 4 = 1.16 ETN in 24 hours.
Started mine on Monday, have 2.18 Etn. Been running most of the time around 25 H/s – 30 H/s right now. I find restarting when H/s is low (under 20 H/s) helps. It’s a slow process, be patient. I’m hoping to get 5 to 7 ETN a week and 20 to 25 ETN per month.
I’ve also seen a temporary increase in hash rate when you restart.
Has anyone actually had the ETN transferred to their wallet? I have 8.22 ETN and nothing has been transferred. Even though they said it will automatically happen when you hit 5 ETN… Any ideas?
Mine has paid out 30 ETN two days ago. Be patient, you’ll receive it in due time.
Is there a confirmed time for when the iOS crypto miner will be out?
Not yet. Apple still needs to approve it before it gets added to the App Store. And apparently, there are lots of red tape for cryptocurrency apps.
Android first… You know, it makes sense.
It’s crap that you are launching the Android mining before the iPhone. Unfair.
The iOS app has long been completed and submitted. The problem is that Apple won’t approve it.
Get a real phone. Problem solved.