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iPhone 4 IOS 5 Battery Drain Continues...

J

Jonw123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 30, 2011
11
0
Right after upgrading my iPhone 4 to IOS 5 I noticed my battery draining much faster than on any of the IOS 4.x versions. I found several postings where people have tried the following with varying success. I tried the following with no change in battery drain.

1) Reset Network Settings: Tap on “Settings” > Reset > Reset Network Settings
2) Disable Bluetooth: Settings > General > Bluetooth > “OFF”
3) Disable Notifications & apps: Settings > Notifications > Turn OFF
4) Disable Timezone Adjustment: Tap on “Settings” > “Location Services” > ‘System Services’ > Setting Time Zone to OFF
5) Disable Location Service: Settings > Location Services > Disable
6) Disable Ping: Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Ping > OFF
7) Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports: Tap on “Settings” > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Don’t Send
8) Deleted iCloud account from the phone and stopped all iCloud syncing.
9) Disable Email account/s by heading to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Account Name > Delete Account.

After completing or verifying 1-9 I again reset network settings and rebooted. Then I re-add my accounts: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.

If there's some code bug what I did above shouldn't have accomplished anything, and it didn't. Two days later I resorted to a hope based strategy and did full restore on the phone and still the power drains. Even during the night on standby with no apps running the power drops ~20% over 8 hours. I used the app "System Status" to see if any processes were still running except the 14 mobile user procs, 13 root procs, 1 mdnsuser proc, and 1 wireless user proc.

I called Apple support and put in a ticket. They offered to replace the phone but after thinking about it I thought why? The phone worked flawlessly until the IOS 5 update. Apple has some work to do here and I hope it is soon. If I've missed something or anyone has any suggestions they would be welcome.
 
saving107

saving107

macrumors 603
Oct 14, 2007
6,384
33
San Jose, Ca
Try a complete restore and then don't load any apps or change any setting, leave it completely stock and then see if the problem persist.

If everything starts working normal again, then try adding your apps back on one-by-one to find the which app that could be causing the issue (any particular app could have worked fine with iOS 4.x, but may be incompatible with iOS 5 and may require and update from the developer). I know its a long process, but if it will help you find the source, it may be worth a try.

iOS 5 has improved my battery life dramatically (I did this test last week to find out how far I can push my battery).

img0093w.png


I have Push mail On
Location Based reminders On
Ping Off
Notifications On
Bluetooth Off
Most of the Location Services Off (except Traffic, thats On)
Diagnostic & Usage Reports Off
iCloud On
 
Last edited:
S

Scott-n-Houston

macrumors 65816
Apr 27, 2008
1,023
338
Houston (duh)
Mine was cured on my 4S when I turned off iCloud Contact and Cal syncing. I still use MobileMe, so I don't need these (yet).
When I had those syncing in iCloud, my battery was dead by mid day.
 
C

CoffeeBeantown

macrumors newbie
Nov 2, 2011
9
11
I too have a serious problem with battery drain. Mine lasts about 5 hrs on standby. If you look at the picture below, is shows 4 hours and 46 minutes of usage but the phone was sitting on my desk the whole time not being used. It also shows the battery at 5% after that amount of usage. I also notice that the spinning wheel next to the 3G indicator spins constantly when I open my contacts app. Is this normal?

36e00fca.jpg
 
Last edited:
Kyotoma

Kyotoma

macrumors 68000
Nov 11, 2010
1,996
46
Carnegie and Ontario
Jonw123 said:
Right after upgrading my iPhone 4 to IOS 5 I noticed my battery draining much faster than on any of the IOS 4.x versions. I found several postings where people have tried the following with varying success. I tried the following with no change in battery drain.

1) Reset Network Settings: Tap on “Settings” > Reset > Reset Network Settings
2) Disable Bluetooth: Settings > General > Bluetooth > “OFF”
3) Disable Notifications & apps: Settings > Notifications > Turn OFF
4) Disable Timezone Adjustment: Tap on “Settings” > “Location Services” > ‘System Services’ > Setting Time Zone to OFF
5) Disable Location Service: Settings > Location Services > Disable
6) Disable Ping: Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Ping > OFF
7) Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports: Tap on “Settings” > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Don’t Send
8) Deleted iCloud account from the phone and stopped all iCloud syncing.
9) Disable Email account/s by heading to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Account Name > Delete Account.

After completing or verifying 1-9 I again reset network settings and rebooted. Then I re-add my accounts: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.

If there's some code bug what I did above shouldn't have accomplished anything, and it didn't. Two days later I resorted to a hope based strategy and did full restore on the phone and still the power drains. Even during the night on standby with no apps running the power drops ~20% over 8 hours. I used the app "System Status" to see if any processes were still running except the 14 mobile user procs, 13 root procs, 1 mdnsuser proc, and 1 wireless user proc.

I called Apple support and put in a ticket. They offered to replace the phone but after thinking about it I thought why? The phone worked flawlessly until the IOS 5 update. Apple has some work to do here and I hope it is soon. If I've missed something or anyone has any suggestions they would be welcome.
Click to expand...

Something else you missed was the possibility of a corrupt contact that has also been suggested.
 
W

WildGuess

macrumors regular
Apr 29, 2010
163
0
I am using a new (to me) app: DataMan. Will show you a minute by minute record of data use. Still learning to use all of its features.
Get the pay version. All the details you will ever need.
 
ExGMan

ExGMan

macrumors newbie
Jan 15, 2009
2
0
Chestnut Hill, MA
iPhone4S Battery Drain - Apple Store Explanation

One of the mobile specialists the Apple Store near Market Street in SF told me that Apple has found that there may be problems with a sensor in the battery which is incorrectly reading the amount of charge left in the battery. He said to see how it goes over the next few days, and to bring it in for analysis if it doesn't improve.

I have the BT and WiFi off, some location services off, screen brightness turned way down and all apps closed after use. It was 100% at 8AM, and after some email, photos and about an hour of telephone calls, I'm at 75% at 1230PM. Provider is AT&T, FWIW.
 
C

CoffeeBeantown

macrumors newbie
Nov 2, 2011
9
11
I just watched my phone (it was just sitting on my desk) drop 5% in 10 minutes, from 20% down to 15%. That works out to be 3 hours and 20 minutes of standby battery life.
 
saving107

saving107

macrumors 603
Oct 14, 2007
6,384
33
San Jose, Ca
CoffeeBeantown said:
I just watched my phone (it was just sitting on my desk) drop 5% in 10 minutes, from 20% down to 15%. That works out to be 3 hours and 20 minutes of standby battery life.
Click to expand...

Can you describe your settings?

Settings> Location Services> System Services

  • Cell Network Search - on or off
  • Compass Calibration - on or off
  • Diagnostics & Usage - on or off
  • Location-Based iAds - on or off
  • Setting Time Zone - on or off
  • Traffic - on or off

Settings> Brightness
Level of Brightness

Settings> WiFi
Ask to Join Networks - on or off

Settings> General> Restrictions>Ping - on or off

Settings> General> Bluetooth - on or off

Settings> General> Spotlight Search - on or off (your iPhone will be caching the information of all checked items).

Settings> Notifications - on or off
(also, how many apps do you have sending you Notifications?).

Settings> iCloud - on or off

Settings> Music> EQ -on or off

Settings> Mail, Contacts and Calendar> Accounts
How many accounts do you have set?

Settings> Mail, Contacts and Calendar> Fetch New Data
  • Push- on or off
  • Fetch- how often (15,30, 60 min or manually)

  • Are you Jailbroken?
  • Do you have any Location based Reminders ON, if so, how many?
  • When updating to iOS 5, did you Set Up as New or from Back-up? (if from a back-up, when was the last time you set up your device as New? was it when updating to iOS 2.0?)
  • Do you routinely empty your Multi-task tray?
  • Are you normally more on 3G vs WiFi, or Vise Versa?
  • When charging your phone, how long do you let it charge for (until it reaches 100%, or longer?)(a 2 hr charge will only charge up-to 80%, but read as full, your iPhone needs to charge for at least 4 hrs for a complete 100% charge).
  • Do you ever let your Battery completely run down to the point that your phone turns off?
  • Are you more of a Web Surfer on your device or a gamer? (playing graphic intense games will reduce the battery more significantly, also watching Movies and YouTube.
  • Do you live in a area that normally has 5 bars, or is it always less (the less bars you have the harder your phone has to work to maintain that cellular connection, which causes battery decrease).

Their are so many other variables that can factor different results for everyone, like your Cellular Network provider, 3G speeds that you're web surfing, but I'm just trying to figure out what what role our settings play into all of these claims. In the end it call all just be imaginary or an actual battery defect.

Here is some advice from http://www.apple.com/batteries

Let It Breathe
Charging your iPhone while in certain carrying cases may generate excess heat, which can affect battery capacity. If you notice that your iPhone gets hot when you charge it, take it out of its case first.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Thetonyk123

Thetonyk123

macrumors 68000
Aug 14, 2011
1,627
1
Earth
saving107 said:
Try a complete restore and then don't load any apps or change any setting, leave it completely stock and then see if the problem persist.

If everything starts working normal again, then try adding your apps back on one-by-one to find the which app that could be causing the issue (any particular app could have worked fine with iOS 4.x, but may be incompatible with iOS 5 and may require and update from the developer). I know its a long process, but if it will help you find the source, it may be worth a try.

iOS 5 has improved my battery life dramatically (I did this test last week to find out how far I can push my battery).

img0093w.png


I have Push mail On
Location Based reminders On
Ping Off
Notifications On
Bluetooth Off
Most of the Location Services Off (except Traffic, thats On)
Diagnostic & Usage Reports Off
iCloud On
Click to expand...

Thats CRAZY battery life!! You must have been playing music 10 hours of it then play 1 hour of intensive 3d online game.
 
saving107

saving107

macrumors 603
Oct 14, 2007
6,384
33
San Jose, Ca
Thetonyk123 said:
Thats CRAZY battery life!! You must have been playing music 10 hours of it then play 1 hour of intensive 3d online game.
Click to expand...

I only played my Music.app for about 2 hours on my drive home from work that night (auxiliary to car stereo), I commute a 90 miles to/from work and like to listen to Podcast on my way home, so that left me with 9hrs+ of actual usage.
 
D

dknightd

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2004
334
1
Jonw123 said:
They offered to replace the phone but after thinking about it I thought why?
Click to expand...

I'd consider letting them replace the phone. If nothing else this will get you a nice new battery :) and rule out hardware problems.

I noticed less battery life when I first installed ios5 - but I think that was because I was experimenting with the new features. Once my use settled down so did my battery life.
 
Diode

Diode

macrumors 68020
Apr 15, 2004
2,444
126
Washington DC
CoffeeBeantown said:
I too have a serious problem with battery drain. Mine lasts about 5 hrs on standby. If you look at the picture below, is shows 4 hours and 46 minutes of usage but the phone was sitting on my desk the whole time not being used. It also shows the battery at 5% after that amount of usage. I also notice that the spinning wheel next to the 3G indicator spins constantly when I open my contacts app. Is this normal?

Image
Click to expand...

You should restore and set up as new and see if it fixes your issue.

I had a similar problem with iOS4 and that was the only method that worked.
 
jauhari

jauhari

macrumors regular
Mar 20, 2007
149
6
Battery issues each user will be different.. it's depend on what Apps, what user behavior, cellular network strength and many aspect.
 
agentphish

agentphish

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2004
1,140
0
Restore setup as new device. resync data. do not restore from backup.

Fixed it for me.
 
E

echo2011

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2011
143
0
I don't understand why Apple doesn't allow a simple downgrade back to iOS 4, what's the big deal with that anyways?
 
M

Murr420

macrumors newbie
Apr 12, 2012
9
0
This may be outdated? However update to new iOS 5.1.1, with bugs and etc signing window for 5.1 is even closed now. But check @Pod2g's blog or w/e for official news that it is safe to update to 5.1.1 as there are no new security features added. Updating fixed my app store bug of extremely slow downloads or apps hanging on the waiting to start to download. Cannot yet say on battery life improvements as I have not yet went through a full cycle charge on the new iOS. However with tons of use i have only drained maybe 20% since updating last night :) almost 12 hrs give or take
 
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