This page describes how to release a wake lock held by your app. It's important to release a wake lock as soon as your app is finished using it to avoid draining the battery.

## Release an active wake lock

To release an active wake lock, call its[`release()`](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/PowerManager.WakeLock#release())method. Doing so releases your claim to the CPU.

For example, the following code[acquires a wake lock](https://developer.android.com/develop/background-work/background-tasks/awake/wakelock/set), does some work, then releases the wake lock:

<br />

### Kotlin

```kotlin
@Throws(MyException::class)
fun doSomethingAndRelease() {
    wakeLock.apply {
        try {
            acquire(WAKELOCK_TIMEOUT)
            doTheWork()
        } finally {
            release()
        }
    }
}https://github.com/android/snippets/blob/95aeebd507b29719a9e7d5a839f101bbbe42ea72/misc/src/main/java/com/example/snippets/backgroundwork/WakeLockSnippetsKotlin.kt#L43-L53
```

### Java

```java
void doSomethingAndRelease() throws MyException {
    try {
        wakeLock.acquire(WAKELOCK_TIMEOUT);
        doTheWork();
    } finally {
        wakeLock.release();
    }
}https://github.com/android/snippets/blob/95aeebd507b29719a9e7d5a839f101bbbe42ea72/misc/src/main/java/com/example/snippets/backgroundwork/WakeLockSnippetsJava.java#L30-L37
```

<br />

Make sure to release wake locks as soon as they are no longer needed. For example, if you use a wake lock to allow a background task to finish, make sure to release the lock as soon as the task finishes.

### Key points about this code

- In this example, the method`doTheWork()`might throw an exception. For this reason, the code releases the wake lock in the`finally`block, to make sure the wake lock is released whether or not an exception is thrown. It's very important to make sure every wake lock you set is released, so you need to check every possible code path to make sure the wake lock isn't left active on any of them.

- It's best to acquire the wake lock with[`WakeLock.acquire(long timeout)`](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/PowerManager.WakeLock#acquire(long)), which automatically releases the wake lock after the specified timeout period. However, you should still release the wake lock explicitly when you no longer need it, so you don't hold the wake lock for longer than necessary.

## See also

- [Set a wake lock](https://developer.android.com/develop/background-work/background-tasks/awake/wakelock/set)