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Location Services key to saving battery life

N

nyc4lifedt

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 19, 2009
49
0
I've been reading a lot of posts and articles on how to save the battery life on iPhone 3GS. I rarely got through the day without having to charge the battery during the day.

I usually got about 5~6 hours of usage with about 12~13 good hours of battery life, but was hesitant on turning off any features on the iPhone. For example, turning down the brightness or turning off 3G didn't change much in the battery life.

I now have most of the features on during the day. Except for Location Services until I need it.
My screen brightness is set to 100%, fetch every 15 minutes, use push for applications and emails that is capable of push.
I do use WiFi when there's one available, but the location services was the big change.

I now go through the day and still have 30~40% of battery available before putting it in a charger before going to bed.
That's about 5~6 hours of usage with about 15 hours of standby.
That's good enough for me, since I never expect the iPhone to last a few days like my previous regular cell phones did. It is a smartphone, and if it can last one day, I'm happy.

Try turning off location services until you need it, if you have issues with 3GS battery life.. That will be a big difference.
 
Not my experience at all. First the fact that cutting off 3G doesn't have significant affect on battery life, and second the fact that cutting off location services does.

My experience, and I could have this wrong, with LS its only on when you're using a program authorized to use it. So, if you're rocking Google Maps all day long, then sure, it'll drain the battery down.

I guess YMWV, but, my experience is different.
 
This is what I've learned, or have heard, and I could be wrong.

But when Location Service is on, you're constantly being tracked on the GPS. Even if you're not running the location apps, it's tracking you down on where you are.
Having that in mind, that's my experience with the battery. Nothing else really improved my battery life until the Location Service being turned off. I don't think I've made any other significant changes except for location services.

Is your cellular service weak? I live in New York City, and I mostly have five bars throughout wherever I am. Maybe that's another issue.
 
nyc4lifedt said:
This is what I've learned, or have heard, and I could be wrong.

But when Location Service is on, you're constantly being tracked on the GPS. Even if you're not running the location apps, it's tracking you down on where you are.
Having that in mind, that's my experience with the battery. Nothing else really improved my battery life until the Location Service being turned off. I don't think I've made any other significant changes except for location services.

Is your cellular service weak? I live in New York City, and I mostly have five bars throughout wherever I am. Maybe that's another issue.
Click to expand...


GPS will only be tracking you when an app requests it.
The purpose of that switch is not to turn on or off anything, it's a privacy settings in case you refuse to be located using gps (for photo geo tagging e.g.). Turning it off in springboard will make no dif.
 
I find (at least for my 3g) that the real killer is push. With push enabled my battery last maybe 3 hours of usage with it off it will last about 5-6 hours.
I always leave location services on and wifi.
 
I leave everything on, push contacts/email/calendar, notifications, 3G, location services and my battery lasts between 1 and 1.5 days and sometimes two days depending on usage. I get between 3-9 hours usage without plugging the phone in once.

I did have to restore the iPhone as a new phone to get these stats. When I restore from my previous backup, it would last less than a day.
 
nyc4lifedt said:
This is what I've learned, or have heard, and I could be wrong.

But when Location Service is on, you're constantly being tracked on the GPS. Even if you're not running the location apps, it's tracking you down on where you are.
Having that in mind, that's my experience with the battery. Nothing else really improved my battery life until the Location Service being turned off. I don't think I've made any other significant changes except for location services.

Is your cellular service weak? I live in New York City, and I mostly have five bars throughout wherever I am. Maybe that's another issue.
Click to expand...

If the GPS was constantly tracking you when location services were on battery life would be a lot worse than that. Having location services on won't impact your battery life, using apps that make use of the GPS (Maps, camera apps...) will.
 
Dorv said:
Not my experience at all. First the fact that cutting off 3G doesn't have significant affect on battery life, and second the fact that cutting off location services does.
Click to expand...

For me and my wife, turning off 3G has a significant impact on battery life. I think that's apple's stance as well because they have that little blurb about decreasing battery when you go to Settings->General-Network->Enable 3G
 
nyc4lifedt said:
This is what I've learned, or have heard, and I could be wrong.

But when Location Service is on, you're constantly being tracked on the GPS. Even if you're not running the location apps, it's tracking you down on where you are.
Having that in mind, that's my experience with the battery. Nothing else really improved my battery life until the Location Service being turned off. I don't think I've made any other significant changes except for location services.

Is your cellular service weak? I live in New York City, and I mostly have five bars throughout wherever I am. Maybe that's another issue.
Click to expand...

you are definitely wrong. obviously you're not being constantly tracked when location service is on. that would be completely ridiculous.
 
I'd also point out that if you disable Location services and lose your iPhone. Locate my iPhone will no longer work.

Think of the kicking you'll give yourself if you disabled it just to get a bit of extra battery life!

M. :D
 
Well, yesterday I got over fifteen hours of standby and over five hours of mixed usage (everything on except Bluetooth, extensive use of Push for IM, watched Youtube videos for at least a half hour, mix of Wi-Fi and Edge data -- no 3G here yet) and still had 40% of my battery left. So I don't really find all this fiddling necessary.
 
my tests

I did a bunch of tests when the 3gs was first out.

My results were:

GPS radio when in USE was highest.
PUSH was 2nd biggest drainer (this should be fixed in a sw update)
location services was next, when I turned it off all together, my numbers went from 14 hours to 36 hours standby, no apps on.
3Gs radio use, especially when in a bad area.
WIFI,
2g radio.
 
jmmo20 said:
GPS will only be tracking you when an app requests it.
The purpose of that switch is not to turn on or off anything, it's a privacy settings in case you refuse to be located using gps (for photo geo tagging e.g.). Turning it off in springboard will make no dif.
Click to expand...

anjinhamarota said:
If the GPS was constantly tracking you when location services were on battery life would be a lot worse than that. Having location services on won't impact your battery life, using apps that make use of the GPS (Maps, camera apps...) will.
Click to expand...

QFT. If you had LS on, and you used Google Maps, for example, then it would be a huge drainer, but with off it does nothing. I'm not sure why the OP came to the conclusion he did, but that's not it.
 
I turn everything OFF until/if I need it. Wifi, LS, 3G - screen brightness ~60% and can go several days without a charge.
 
nyc4lifedt said:
But when Location Service is on, you're constantly being tracked on the GPS. Even if you're not running the location apps, it's tracking you down on where you are.
Click to expand...

This is a misunderstanding of how the GPS works. GPS doesn't "track" you; if it did, you wouldn't have to wait for a GPS lock when you use a location services-enabled app. When you close an app, you lose your GPS lock.
 
well here is my question, if you have location services turned off, and in the unfortunate situation you lose your phone or it is stolen, I don't think I would be able to use find my iPhone through mobileme, unless that service somehow automatically turns on location services. To me, the slight risk to having it off and not being able to recover it outweighs the extra maybe 3 hours of standby time I would have with it. Although like I said, if Find My iPhone automatically turns on location services, I would have to consider it.
 
nyisles84 said:
well here is my question, if you have location services turned off, and in the unfortunate situation you lose your phone or it is stolen, I don't think I would be able to use find my iPhone through mobileme, unless that service somehow automatically turns on location services. To me, the slight risk to having it off and not being able to recover it outweighs the extra maybe 3 hours of standby time I would have with it. Although like I said, if Find My iPhone automatically turns on location services, I would have to consider it.
Click to expand...

LS on does not drain the battery unless you use something that requires LS. Sooo, keep it on.
 
iphone.aggie said:
LS on does not drain the battery unless you use something that requires LS. Sooo, keep it on.
Click to expand...

Apple disagrees with you..

From their site http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
 
nyc4lifedt said:
This is what I've learned, or have heard, and I could be wrong.

But when Location Service is on, you're constantly being tracked on the GPS. Even if you're not running the location apps, it's tracking you down on where you are.
.
Click to expand...

Wrong. Turning ON location services just means that programs (when running) are allowed to access core location APIs. It has nothing to do with turning GPS on or off.

If you want to see truly significant boost in battery life, change the fetch to every 30 mins or 1 hr.
 
aarong50 said:
Apple disagrees with you..

From their site http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
Click to expand...

No, no, no. That doesn't mean that Location Services uses battery when no apps are open, it just means that you can use location-enabled apps like Maps without running your battery down if you first turn or Location Services.
 
aarong50 said:
Apple disagrees with you..

From their site http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
Click to expand...

Can you even read? It's not having location services on that drains the battery, but using apps that use the GPS that does it. If you use apps that use the GPS all the time turning off location services will make a difference in your battery life. If, however, you don't use those apps turning location services off won't make a difference.
 
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