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iPhone 3GS + 3.1 = AWFUL battery life?

mavis

mavis

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 30, 2007
4,771
1,558
Tokyo, Japan
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

Hey guys,

I've given this some time (I wanted to make sure it wasn't an isolated incident) but is anyone else noticing SUBSTANTIALLY reduced battery life on 3.1?

My 3GS is set like this: 3G, Location Services and Bluetooth are on. Wifi is off. Brightness is set at 50%, auto.

I commute to work by train, and use the same train every day. I'm on the train for exactly an hour, during which time I listen to my iPhone by A2DP and surf the web, use the FB app, and check the news (AP News app) ... Ever since "upgrading" to 3.1, my battery is down to about 50% when I get to work. That's after an HOUR of use. I realize I've got 3G on (this is Japan, there is no EDGE network to fall back to - 3G is all we've got) and I realize that BT sucks up quite a bit of power. But 50% after only 60-65 minutes of use?! Today I left the screen off, just listening to music without web/FB/whatever and the battery was at 53% when I got to work. That was after 67 minutes of use (at least 40 of which was with the screen off) and 90 minutes of standby.

Am I wrong in thinking that's a bit ridiculous? I mean, my old 3G was better than this ... Am I the only one having problems since 3.1?
 
Word of advice Bluetooth rapes your battery. Find something to turn off. For example do you REALLY need 3G if your making calls and just txting? Or maybe you have wifi on in the car.
 
Thanks, but as I stated in the original post: 3G is all we've got. Turning it off is not an option. Also, I'd love to use wifi, but this is Tokyo. There is no wifi in this city, except at my house. ;)
 
I didn't lose any battery life, and I consider my settings to be not very battery conserving.

3G on
WiFi on (not connected unless I'm home)
Bluetooth on (not connected unless my headset is on)
Location services on
Push on
30 minute email fetch
Notifications on
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

outphase said:
I didn't lose any battery life, and I consider my settings to be not very battery conserving.

3G on
WiFi on (not connected unless I'm home)
Bluetooth on (not connected unless my headset is on)
Location services on
Push on
30 minute email fetch
Notifications on
Click to expand...

Wow. You leave all that stuff on? After an hour of using your headset, is your battery halfway gone?
 
Oh wow -1 for not reading all that sorry about that! But like I said try and mess around with turning things on and off when you need them and don't. Like don't push mail as much and when you don't need Bluetooth turn it off.
 
Reset Network Services

outphase said:
I don't know. Most of the time I use my headset, I am on AC power.
Click to expand...

I had terrible battery after upgrading to 3.1, but noticed my wife's iphone was fine. I checked the usage and my "usage" for a regular day had pretty much doubled. I ran a quick test placing the iphone in standby and time contiued creeping up on usage even though the phone wasn't being used. I decided to RESET NETWORK SERVICES and now everything is back to normal!
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

nateo200 said:
Oh wow -1 for not reading all that sorry about that! But like I said try and mess around with turning things on and off when you need them and don't. Like don't push mail as much and when you don't need Bluetooth turn it off.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I try to keep stuff turned off most of the time because the battery life is very poor if you don't actively manage that stuff. I guess I should probably just jabreaking this thing so I can use SBSettings to toggle stuff on/off as I need it - sure beats ahving to close whatever app I'm in, open Settings, find the right sub-menu, hit the toggle, close Settings, find the app I was in, and re-launch it. :(
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

musicman0725 said:
outphase said:
I don't know. Most of the time I use my headset, I am on AC power.
Click to expand...

I had terrible battery after upgrading to 3.1, but noticed my wife's iphone was fine. I checked the usage and my "usage" for a regular day had pretty much doubled. I ran a quick test placing the iphone in standby and time contiued creeping up on usage even though the phone wasn't being used. I decided to RESET NETWORK SERVICES and now everything is back to normal!
Click to expand...

Hmm ... worth a shot. Thanks for posting; I'll try it now and see how it does over the next few days. Thanks again!
 
I've read a lot of stories about 3.1 killing battery life, but in my experience so far, my battery life has improved.

My habits haven't changed. I've been keeping everything off. MobileMe mail, calendars, contacts, etc are the only things set to push. My other mail accounts are all set to manual retrieval. Location services is off, 3G is never on because I don't have it where I live. Bluetooth is always off.

When I get home, I usually throw the iphone in the cradle until I go to sleep, then I take it out and put it at my bedside overnight.

With 3.0.1 and the settings listed above, going from a full charge - I would wake up with 85-87% battery life left.

After taking 3.1, all the same settings - I wake up and find my 3GS between 96-98%

So that's just standby performance, but over 10% better life is definitely a bonus for me.
 
I thought 3.1 killed my battery life on my 3GS too, but it turns out I had a bad battery. Took it to the Apple store, and they tossed it on a voltmeter and said my battery wasn't where it should be, like there was something wrong with it. Almost as if it was older than it should have been.

After about 10 minutes, the guy just gave me a refurb, which I'm happy with. If the battery starts crapping out again, I'll just take it back again. Seems like perhaps Apple got a bad batch of batteries or something, and the batteries declining just happens to coincide with the release of 3.1?
 
Same here, I had mine replaced two days ago for a faulty battery. So far the new one they gave me is doing fine.
 
Classic case of something run amok. Don't listen to those that are saying 'turn things off' I leave everything on all day. Check the usage and standby numbers. Lock the phone for 10 minutes then come back. If the numbers moved up at the same rate you've got a problem. You can try doing as suggested by resetting network settings. Another thing that may help is holding the Home and Power buttons to reset the phone. If that doesn't work, try shutting off your email accounts, if that doesn't work, restore your FW but don't restore from your backup, rather setup as new and see if you still have the issue (Checking usage/standby numbers). If that fixes it input all your stuff again

or you could just take it to apple...
 
few days ago i restored as new my 3GS, except i did it from the phone and then hooked it up to itunes. had all kinds of battery problems.

yesterday i restored as new again and did it via itunes and not it's great. battery life seems better and i can't get the phone to warm up anymore
 
outphase said:
I didn't lose any battery life, and I consider my settings to be not very battery conserving.

3G on
WiFi on (not connected unless I'm home)
Bluetooth on (not connected unless my headset is on)
Location services on
Push on
30 minute email fetch
Notifications on
Click to expand...

Those are exactly my settings. I had 3+ hours of use and 12+ hours of standby when I plugged in my iphone 3GS this morning - I was at 33%. Use was ipod, pandora, an hour-long phone call, and stanza. I think my battery life has stayed the same or improved slightly with 3.1.
 
I have bluetooth on all the time from eight in the morning. Use phone for about one and a half hours each day, browse internet and check emails all day.
At seven in the evening, I have between fort and forty five percent battery left.
This as about a ten percent improvement on my old 3g on 3.0.
 
My settings seem to work just fine:

3G: If I'm in a 3G area, 3G is always on and WiFi is always off (I may as well use the data I pay for!)
WiFi: On if not in a 3G area.
Location services: Always on
Bluetooth: On demand on/off switching (I only use bluetooth on long calls, so I toggle it mid-call)
Notifications: On
30 minute fetch

I can run through a whole day easily. I definitely charge nightly though.

iPhone 3GS 32GB White on 3.1 non-jailbroken and no hacks (ever).
 
kevingaffney said:
I have bluetooth on all the time from eight in the morning. Use phone for about one and a half hours each day, browse internet and check emails all day.
At seven in the evening, I have between fort and forty five percent battery left.
This as about a ten percent improvement on my old 3g on 3.0.
Click to expand...
I have last years 3G and noticed that 3.1 is killing my battery quicker than usual. Can they replace my battery even if I dont Apple Care? I guess Ill be paying for it since its out of warranty :p
 
Yeah, the Apple forum has a long thread about this. Mine's the same. I upgraded it to 3.1 and now the battery life is bad. It depletes pretty quickly. I just hope they release a fix soon.
 
My initial impression is that, after installing 3.1, my battery life is a bit worse with Bluetooth on, and maybe slightly better with Bluetooth off.

But this could easily be due to random BT interference, or Wifi interfering with BT, or even my BT device starting to go bad.
 
I have had this problem.

I just got an email from a person at Apple responding to my post on the apple discussion boards (I assume others did as well . . . ) asking a bunch of questions and asking to install a power logger app. they have sent to me.

So it appears Apple is giving at least some thought to the issue.
 
That's good to hear, Le Big Mac. I guess they can't turn a blind eye to it, as far too many people are having the same problem.

I read a post from someone who took their phone to their nearest store, got a replacement, then installed 3.1 on the new phone and the same thing happened. That proves it's related to the update and isn't anything to do with the battery/hardware.
 
Paul237 said:
That's good to hear, Le Big Mac. I guess they can't turn a blind eye to it, as far too many people are having the same problem.

I read a post from someone who took their phone to their nearest store, got a replacement, then installed 3.1 on the new phone and the same thing happened. That proves it's related to the update and isn't anything to do with the battery/hardware.
Click to expand...

The hardware explanation would make no sense in my case. Battery life was passable (down to 20-40% after a day's use) until the day I updated to 3.1 (less than 12 hours to hit 0%).

It certainly is connected to 3.1, but of course it could be some other application that is chomping the battery under 3.1 that didn't under 3.0.
 
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