iOS 5 GM Battery Life

[jauhari]

I've had iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 since the GM was released on wednesday and I would actually say that my battery life has improved since iOS 4.3.5

I did a test over the weekend and I managed to get 8 hrs of full usage out of my phone (before it hovered around 6 1/2-7hrs) with almost 36 hours of standby time.

• I have 3 location based reminders set
• I played multiple games (Words with Friends, World of Goo, Real Racing 2, Osmos etc...)
• Streamed audio from rdio (while on wifi)
• Made phone calls
• Used twitter
• iMessage
• Took pictures
• Wirelessly sent music and photos to my iPhone
• and a full iCloud back-up (first time)

It's really awesome stats... can you share your screenshot on Setting > General > Usage with Battery Percentage On?

 

[mkaen]

True, no "evidence" But I do wonder why everyone is suggesting that a clean-slate'll solve this problem :/ Hmm

They're not. They're just commenting that they like a clean slate. Simply saying that avoiding a restore from backup improves battery life doesn't make it true.

 

[Justim]

For me, it's been hit or miss with iPhone battery life and iOS 5. If it is draining the battery, I just DFU restore the phone and it usually behaves.

 

[db1408]

I found it drained fast on the 1.5h charge especially with high usage due to playing around with settings a features. When the 3h charge was done the battery was the same as the previous. Leaving apps open doesn't drain my battery, the only thing that does is the location features introduced. They show as purple compass, meaning they are active, such as Reminders.

 

[jauhari]

Battery life I'd say has been the same for me using my iPhone 4 for usage. However standby has improved massively.

I restored from backup.

I am agreed, Standby time has been improved but on usage have same result

 

[roastspud]

Best I have had is

USAGE - 7Hours, 54 Minutes
Standy 2 Days, 4 Hours

I charged at 2%


http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/abzqnlmcaaakyqw.jpg/

 

[Gdgtguru]

Something is definitely running in the background or not working right in the GM (at least for some) that is absolutely killing battery life. Last night my phone was at approximately 70% battery, this morning it was at 5%! In beta 7 and all versions of 4.x, it would have dropped by no more than 5% overnight, so 65% is obviously not normal.

 

[auero]

Something is definitely running in the background or not working right in the GM (at least for some) that is absolutely killing battery life. Last night my phone was at approximately 70% battery, this morning it was at 5%! In beta 7 and all versions of 4.x, it would have dropped by no more than 5% overnight, so 65% is obviously not normal.

It's odd how not everyone is experiencing this. It seems hit or miss.

 

[Gdgtguru]

It's odd how not everyone is experiencing this. It seems hit or miss.

I know, that is what is strange about it. I am sure there is something common between all of the affected phones, I just don't know what. I was originally leaning towards an Exchange account being setup on my phone for work. It seemed that if I removed it, the battery life would return to normal. Also, if I set it to fetch only, it would return to normal. That worked fine for a couple of days, and now it is back to its normal battery draining self.

Hopefully the public release tomorrow will resolve it, otherwise I am going back to beta 7 until they figure it out.

 

[bbplayer5]

Why do you guys keep talking about leaving apps open? Once you leave an app, it goes into stasis.. not using battery. Something draining your battery would need to be a system service or something that is "allowed" to run in the background like pandora or GPS.

That being said, try reinstalling the GM from a DFU boot.

 

[The Tos]

i am also seeing the same issues as the op. I feel like every few days the battery life just goes right down. It seems to drop a % every 3-5 mins when just in standby. I have messed around with troubleshooting it and havent come up with anything yet. I also see sms issues when this is happening. Meaning i will receive a group of sms messages at once. I tried re-installing beta 7 on my phone and it told me it couldnt verify my device was registered as a dev. Which it is. I was able to put the GM back on fine. Do i have to re-install itunes 10.5 beta 7 to install ios5 beta 7? Very frustrating. Anyone have any advice? I have an iphone 4 GSM, running legit iOS 5 GM.

----------

Why do you guys keep talking about leaving apps open? Once you leave an app, it goes into stasis.. not using battery. Something draining your battery would need to be a system service or something that is "allowed" to run in the background like pandora or GPS.

That being said, try reinstalling the GM from a DFU boot.

I have reinstalled from a DFU boot, it works for a day or two then battery life drops off the table.

 

[big samm]

Im using ios 5 gm and for me the battery is no problem! People with problems should restore and see if there's any difference! Im not a dev by the way! Ios 5 rocks!

 

[Gdgtguru]

I found this on another forum. I checked what it says about the usage when Wifi is on and sure enough, my phone is doing the same thing this poster mentioned. Once I turned my Wifi off, the usage and standby are not the same which would definitely indicate the phone is doing something in the background while wifi is on that is killing the battery.

Curious and looking to see if anyone else is experiencing this. Perhaps you aren't aware. Take a look.

What I am experiencing is that the usage statistics are showing almost identical numbers for both standy by and usage. Here is the catch however...

When I turn off WiFi, all goes to normal. Usage time does not increase unless I am actually using it (like it should).

Has anyone else noticed this with the GM? Perhaps you are experiencing battery drain and can't locate the issue. Well, try this and give me some feedback.

I am 100% positive that it is Wifi giving the issue. With that being said, I have disabled and re-enabled everything in this iOS 5 that I can and have found that iCloud in the background is not doing it.

Any ideas on why having WiFi on and connected it would make the usage go up while in standby and therefore drain the battery. I have never had this issue.

By the way, I have tried setting up as new, I have also done it from a backup; there is no difference.

Give me some feedback. I would like to know if anyone has any ideas or if I am the only one that WiFi is affecting this way.

 

[The Tos]

I found this on another forum. I checked what it says about the usage when Wifi is on and sure enough, my phone is doing the same thing this poster mentioned. Once I turned my Wifi off, the usage and standby are not the same which would definitely indicate the phone is doing something in the background while wifi is on that is killing the battery.

Like i mentioned earlier, i am having the same problem. I am going to test the WIFI method now. I did notice that since i setup as a new phone, the "ask to join" networks was sent to us. Causing the spin wheel to always be on next to wifi when your under the wifi settings. Maybe it is always looking for a wifi network or trying to connect to networks with weak signals. I turned wifi off and am going to watch the battery now. I hope this fixes it.

 

[Gdgtguru]

Like i mentioned earlier, i am having the same problem. I am going to test the WIFI method now. I did notice that since i setup as a new phone, the "ask to join" networks was sent to us. Causing the spin wheel to always be on next to wifi when your under the wifi settings. Maybe it is always looking for a wifi network or trying to connect to networks with weak signals. I turned wifi off and am going to watch the battery now. I hope this fixes it.

Unfortunately it isn't looking good for me. While having wifi turned off seems to help with the incorrect usage stats, my battery is still draining by 1% every 10 minutes or so. The strange thing is that it didn't do it for a day or two, and now it is back to doing it again...very inconsistent.

 

[snowmoon]

3GS user here; I installed ios 5 GM and restored my backup. No solid "evidence" but it feels a lot quicker and battery life seems to hold a lot longer now.

 

[Gdgtguru]

In an effort to attempt to find a trend, could those that have or don't have the issue answer the below questions to see what my be different between those that have the issue and those that don't. My wife has an iPhone 4 that is now running the GM release and she does not have the issue. The only difference I can think of is that she was not running the betas prior to me putting the GM on her phone.

Thanks

Questions:

Do you have the battery drain issue?

What iPhone model?

Were you running a iOS Beta when you installed GM? If so, which beta?

Did you do a DFU restore, or Shift/Option restore in iTunes?

Did you set the phone up as new, or did you restore from backup?

Do you have an Exchange account setup (exclude Gmail)?

Is your wifi turned on?

 

[The Tos]

In an effort to attempt to find a trend, could those that have or don't have the issue answer the below questions to see what my be different between those that have the issue and those that don't. My wife has an iPhone 4 that is now running the GM release and she does not have the issue. The only difference I can think of is that she was not running the betas prior to me putting the GM on her phone.

Thanks

Questions:

Do you have the battery drain issue?

What iPhone model?

Were you running a iOS Beta when you installed GM? If so, which beta?

Did you do a DFU restore, or Shift/Option restore in iTunes?

Did you set the phone up as new, or did you restore from backup?

Do you have an Exchange account setup (exclude Gmail)?

Is your wifi turned on?

I have the battery drain issue.

iPhone 4 GSM

I went through all the betas in a row. Then to try and solve the problem, downgraded to 4.3.5 then reinstalled the GM. All of which set up as a new phone.

I did use the DFU restore

Setup as a new device

No exchange account

i had wifi on. I am now testing the battery with wifi off.



hope this helps.

 

[The Phazer]

Questions:

Do you have the battery drain issue?

Yes, I think I've lost roughly a third of my battery life.

What iPhone model?

Launch day black iPhone 4 GSM.

Were you running a iOS Beta when you installed GM? If so, which beta?

No, installed from 4.3.5.

Did you do a DFU restore, or Shift/Option restore in iTunes?

Shift/option restore in iTunes.

Did you set the phone up as new, or did you restore from backup?

Restored from a backup. It's not plausible for me to lose the data I would otherwise.

Do you have an Exchange account setup (exclude Gmail)?

No, though I do have Gmail set up.

Is your wifi turned on?

At night, but during the day (when the majority of the battery drain occurs) then no.

Performance on my phone is worse - I'm losing (at least) 5fps on Infinity Blade, it's become really quite jerky. Emptying out my multitasking tray doesn't help. I do have Skype installed but not logged on, so I can't see how this would do anything. My phone isn't jailbroken, nor upgraded from a jailbreak.

Also worth saying I don't have iCloud set up at all yet, nor have I set up any reminders to trigger location services.

Phazer

 

[Gdgtguru]

Thanks for the replies so far. I realized I didn't even answer my own questions, so here they are:

Do you have the battery drain issue?
YES

What iPhone model?
Release day iPhone 4 GSM

Were you running a iOS Beta when you installed GM? If so, which beta?
Yes, beta 7. Installed just about all betas in order

Did you do a DFU restore, or Shift/Option restore in iTunes?
Option Restore in iTunes

Did you set the phone up as new, or did you restore from backup?
Restore from backup

Do you have an Exchange account setup (exclude Gmail)?
Yes, work account

Is your wifi turned on?
Yes. Although currently off to see if it makes a difference.

 

[adztaylor]

In an effort to attempt to find a trend, could those that have or don't have the issue answer the below questions to see what my be different between those that have the issue and those that don't. My wife has an iPhone 4 that is now running the GM release and she does not have the issue. The only difference I can think of is that she was not running the betas prior to me putting the GM on her phone.

Thanks

Questions:

Do you have the battery drain issue?

What iPhone model?

Were you running a iOS Beta when you installed GM? If so, which beta?

Did you do a DFU restore, or Shift/Option restore in iTunes?

Did you set the phone up as new, or did you restore from backup?

Do you have an Exchange account setup (exclude Gmail)?

Is your wifi turned on?

No battery drain issue

iPhone 4 GSM, bought August last year.

Nope installed from 4.3.5

Option restored from iTunes

Restored from backup

No exchange account

Wifi is turned on.

 

[Gdgtguru]

Here are some stats I just started collecting on my drainage. In between collection, I have not even touched the phone, so the usage incrementing is interesting. I realize it is supposed to go up during certain background functions, but I have nothing running.


Time Battery % Usage Standby
10:53 80 1:32 1:57
10:59 80 1:37 2:02
11:05 79 1:37 2:08
11:12 78 1:45 2:15

 

[Gdgtguru]

Here are some stats I just started collecting on my drainage. In between collection, I have not even touched the phone, so the usage incrementing is interesting. I realize it is supposed to go up during certain background functions, but I have nothing running.


Time Battery % Usage Standby
10:53 80 1:32 1:57
10:59 80 1:37 2:02
11:05 79 1:37 2:08
11:12 78 1:45 2:15

A couple of other items to note: I have locations services, wifi, and bluetooth all turned off and yet the problem appears to remain.

Based on the replies so far, the only two things that stand-out as being a potential source of the issue are an Exchange account being setup on affected phones and when the phone was purchased (and thereby when it was manufactured?).

 

[diamond.g]

Is anyone using iCloud?

 

[The Tos]

Is anyone using iCloud?

I do. I enjoy it.