Battery Issues

[c84216]

Hey! My iPhone has been charging via the dock and USB outlet adapter since about 8pm last night. Its now 7am and it still says it is charging. This does not seem normal since both my MacBook Pro and iPod can be charged in 3 hours, max. Am I damaging my battery? Any suggestions?

[unity]

Something is not right. The iPhone comes charged. I would try the direct cable connection (no dock) and wall charger. Maybe the dock is somehow defective, there is more to the dock than meets the eye - for example, audio out - so more to maybe go wrong.

[Rooskibar03]

Having some issues myself.

It got mine right at 6 last night. Activated it and played for a while, put it to bed in the charger around 10.

Left it overnight and took to work this morning around 8am. Phone was totally dead by 2.

4 phone calls, lots of playing, but very little ongoing use. Didnt leave iPod on, wireless and BT were off as well.

Any other short term battery issues?

[unknownart]

FYI:
Y'all DID remember to charge the iPhone while your computer was not asleep, right?
The iPhone does not charge on a sleeping computer...

[Rooskibar03]

FYI:
Y'all DID remember to charge the iPhone while your computer was not asleep, right?
The iPhone does not charge on a sleeping computer...

Yep, set prefs for no sleep last night. Charging it at work now with the wall charger I bought.

Can't wait to try out my Shure headphones...

[AkenanM]

I'm having the same problem - moreso, I can't get it to charge 100%. I plugged it into the wall overnight and it was still not fully charged. I've had it plugged in constistently for the last 3 hours and it still won't charge totally. I even had a few minutes where the plug icon did show up but the "usage" part of the Settings did not activate. (Which is kind of what I'm waiting on...) It seems to be staying charged though, not really having issues with battery life itself - it just won't register a 100% charge. ???

[dr427]

Yeah, I had 50% battery life when I went to bed and woke up to 5%????:confused:

Someone suggested turning off the iPod function? If I hit home does that leave things running in the background possibly?

I just was amazed that I lost so much battery life. It is like I should plug it in everynight? Also, does anyone else feel like it gets pretty warm while charging?

I am concerned. My wife went to bed with 50% and woke up with very little battery lost.

[ZManChu]

hey everyone,

I ran into a similary situation last night.

I activated my phone around 10pm, went out to a movie, got home around 1am. Phone still had a good (75%) charge. I then messed with the phone (while plugged into my computer charging) till about 3am.

Went to sleep but did not plug it in. I woke up this morning to it being completely dead. I was kind of surprised being that the phone was in sleep mode with screen off any everything.

Is it possible that there is an app running in the background that didnt close correctly? It could be caught in some loop that is just draining the battery?

Either way, I have the phone plugged in now, giving it a full charge and i'll let you know the outcome.

-Joe

[dr427]

I forgot to add, I don't have bluetooth on and reduced my brightness to about 1/3 with auto brightness "on".

[surefire09]

my issue isnt that its not charging or being drained its that it wont change the battery fill icon.
i got my phone activated it and its always been around 90% charged. i plugged in in over night and the icon saying its fully charge(plug outlet) but the battery symbol isnt full its at 90% and when i used it for 8 hours videos/audio/web then went to charge it the lighing bolt came on then i saw a plugoutlet again meaning its charged all the way after charging for 4hours but when i unplug it its at 90% again.. it never fills or drops.. its stuck at 90%. so i guess i'm going to drain it today and see what happens.

[Dvee8]

I tried posting several times last night but I got a server error message. Probably just as well as my problem cleared up by itself.

You see, I had plugged the iPhone dock into my PowerBook USB port never considering the effect of sleep mode.

After plugging into the wall directly my charge went way up, but still not quite all the way according to the usage guide.

I solved that problem by turning the phone off for a few hours, and that did the trick.

btw, surefire09's comments have me confused. Can you change the battery status indicator like a laptop? (icon, percentage, time?) If so, how?

[cosmicdust73]

Add me to the list of users that are unable to fully charge their iphone. I've had it on for hours and while the meter filled up to what looks like 90-95%, it does not say fully charged and the usage meters do not recognize it as being fully charged. What are we supposed to do?

[synth3tik]

when the phone is charged it should just say unlock. You will still have the battery icon, but it should show a full charge.

[surefire09]

to reply back to the other 3 of you.
1.) sorry to confuse you but no you cant charge it but i'm giving you an estiment on how much the icon looks filled
2.) in the manual (pdf online) tells you that when you have it connected to a power source it either shows you a lighting bolt (charging) or a out let plug (charged) and mine does charge all the way but it doesnt show it on the status icon.

[SteveM8]

Only charges to 90% and the usage meter never activates. Can we exchange for a new phone at the apple store and keep the sim card?

[cosmicdust73]

You may not have to. I shut off my wireless connection and then it charged to full... giving me the plug icon. I wonder if the wireless signal pulls enough battery power out of the iphone to make it so that the battery never fully charges. Try it out and see if it helps. I'll run another test soon enough.

[Rooskibar03]

You may not have to. I shut off my wireless connection and then it charged to full... giving me the plug icon. I wonder if the wireless signal pulls enough battery power out of the iphone to make it so that the battery never fully charges. Try it out and see if it helps. I'll run another test soon enough.

I tried this today here at work and no go, still cant get a full charge.

[basicfiend]

Two comments:

1. Yes, if you're playing a song and you hit the home button or sleep button, the song continues to play. Suggestion: you can tell if a song is playing by pulling out your headphones and listening on the speakers.

2. I too am having battery issues and considering stopping by Apple store tomorrow. My computer went to sleep last night, but I still left this morning with ~90% charge. But with ~1 hr of usage (video, email, phone) + 10 hrs standby, I had less than 10% when I got home. I'm wondering if this is a calibration issue with the battery meter -- that I haven't been able to fully charge it yet so, like on our laptops, it doesn't have accurate power management, or if my battery is defective. I'm doing a full charge now and will report back.

I wish people who didn't have battery issues would glance at this thread and report what we _should_ be seeing :)

[Copperband]

I am having the same issues:

not getting 100% charged after charging overnight in dock, connected directly to power source
phone not charging (or charging excruciatingly slowly) with car charger


I stopped by the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store tonight and explained what was going on. The guy said it could be a software corruption issue that's affecting battery performance/reading. He suggested we reformat the iPhone and do a reinstall of the OS.

Unfortunately I had a bunch of photos on my iPhone and needed to email them to myself lest they get erased in the reformatting process (the fact you can't mount the iPhone and just copy photos off it is really annoying -- hoping that is patched soon). None of my pictures would send through email -- kept getting a "can't connect to server" error. Tried two different email addresses too.

So for now I'm going to wait a couple more days, see what happens, copy the pictures over (hopefully it will work here at home), and then go back to the store and have them reformat.

[gjg554]

My apple guy said the same thing. They acted like they have never seen it before even though a lot of people online are reporting it. He had me do a Restore through itunes but to no avail

[Dvee8]

Yesterday was my first day back at work since I got the iPhone, and everyone wanted to see it. By the time I was driving home my battery was in the red, and I think it even dropped a call and displayed a low battery warning message.

I resigned myself to a complete recharge, and turned the phone off for the night, plugging the dock directly into the wall. This morning I turned it back on expecting to see the usage reset again, but it still showed over 4 hours of usage and a larger amount of standby.

I was puzzled, but I really wanted to perform a sync to update my contacts since I took a zillion pictures of my friends at work for "visual voicemail."

The good news is that the usage was reset after the sync, so I'm good to go.

Perhaps a good sync makes a difference? I know that I definitely recommend charging the iPhone when it is turned off.

Hope that helps!

Dave

[basicfiend]

Can someone post a picture of what the battery looks like when it's full?

I _think_ mine is just short of charging fully. My usage timers have yet to activate despite two nights of full charging.

[pilotError]

I have the same problem. It charged to 100% the first night, but never again, the big battery only shows about 80%, but when you pull it off charge, the little battery icon does show 100%.

My wifes iPhone does charge all the way to 100%.

BTW, are you guys shutting the phone all the way down (press and hold the sleep button on top - slide to power off).

Some of the problems appear to be that people are leaving the phone on all night and waking up to a dead phone.

[Rooskibar03]

I think the key is to make an appointment to head over to the Apple store to discuss the problem.

Yesterday I stopped in at the Apple store and was told to make an appointment for the next day to talk with someone, thats a whole nother rant. Anyway, made the appointment for 9:45 this morning.

Last night battery was at 40% or so. Put the phone in Airplane mode and figured one last charge. Sure enough when I got up this morning the lighting bolt had changed to a plug and my usage read 44 mins of standby.

So that means it took more then 8 hours to fully charge the thing from 40%. That has to be the slowest charge in the history of batteries.

So now I don't have to go over to the Apple store. Its kind of like when your check engine light in your car goes off just as you pull into the service center.

[digdig]

I have experienced the same problem with my iPhone. My iPhone does not charge all the way, I have charged it overnight and it still doesnt have the "plug" full charge icon and the "Time since full charge" is still blank. I have also decided to make a digg post on this issue. Please digg up (http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_Users_Having_Battery_Issues) . It is very strange how everyone is experiencing the same problem and symptoms, I have a feeling this is something that can easily be fixed via a firmware update though.

[jujubee123]

I have the same 80% charge problem. I have 2 iPhones and the 2nd phone DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM, which makes me think it's a hardware issue. I've restored the device/reinstalled the firmware and tried a few hard resets- doesn't fix the problem.

Am going to the genius bar in a few hours to hopefully resolve this issue.

[jecapaga]

I am also having this issue. Went to bed with over 50% of battery available, set my alarm on iphone and woke up today late because the alarm didn't go off. Completely drained battery. Couldn't even get the screen to come on while it was charging. I did a reset and then the screen would be available and the battery was toast. Charging now. What is this??

[slffl]

I think I'm having battery issues as well.

I don't remember ever seeing a 100% charged plug icon and my battery seems to drain pretty fast.

Also, it seems to take a long time to charge. Just today, I plugged it in using the AC adapter. It had around a 50% charge. 2 hours later and it's showing only a 70-75% charge.

Does this seem slow to anyone? How long does it take for others to charge your iphone from 0% to 100%?

[dr427]

I think around 3 hours to charge. I finally got my first "plug". I let it drain and self shut-off then fully charge. Similar to MBP conditioning. I think it took 3 cycles since Friday to get to this point.

[slffl]

I think I'm having battery issues as well.

I don't remember ever seeing a 100% charged plug icon and my battery seems to drain pretty fast.

Also, it seems to take a long time to charge. Just today, I plugged it in using the AC adapter. It had around a 50% charge. 2 hours later and it's showing only a 70-75% charge.

Does this seem slow to anyone? How long does it take for others to charge your iphone from 0% to 100%?

4 hours later and the large green battery LOOKS full, but the icon in the upper right still has a battery icon with a bolt through it.

I've let it drain all the way once since I got it. I'll try a few more times before taking it in this weekend.

[jecapaga]

So I went to local apple store and all of the genuis folk looked at me like i was crazy. They asked how I charged the phone and i said dock>usb>laptop and they immediately said you can't do that, rather emphatically. They said you must use the wall adapter. They even tried to tell me that my method wouldn't even work. I said it most definitely charges via usb/laptop to which they said it may but that it is not a true charge. I left feeling like I was not talking to a genuis at all. I'll try the wall method and see if it is any better.

[powerbook911]

So I went to local apple store and all of the genuis folk looked at me like i was crazy. They asked how I charged the phone and i said dock>usb>laptop and they immediately said you can't do that, rather emphatically. They said you must use the wall adapter. They even tried to tell me that my method wouldn't even work. I said it most definitely charges via usb/laptop to which they said it may but that it is not a true charge. I left feeling like I was not talking to a genuis at all. I'll try the wall method and see if it is any better.

Good grief. I think the Apple service in the stores just gets worst and worst. They tell me crazy things like this every day. I might as well be at Wal mart.

Now there are some wonderful employees, but it's just too few of those anymore.

[whawhat]

wow, glad i found this post.

i am also having battery issues. when i first started up my iphone, the battery was about 75% charged. used my iphone until it shut down by itself and left it plugged in/charged overnight for about 8 hours on dock/thru wall outlet. just turned it on and it's still only 75% charged? it won't go to 100%?

just turned off wi-fi and plugged it into the wall outlet w/out the dock. hopefully that will work.

anyone know if apple has been cool about exchanging iphone's w/ battery issues? thanks.

[JOHNGAETANO]

I can't get my phone to 100%. I have ZERO Data of (-) in the usage and standby screen.

HELP

[whawhat]

I can't get my phone to 100%. I have ZERO Data of (-) in the usage and standby screen.

HELP

so i charged my iPhone w/ wi-fi off, turned off, plugged directly into the wall outlet w/ no dock - still can't get a 100% charge and ZERO date of usage as well. also reset my settings.....

anybody? :mad:

i guess i will use my phone all day, run the battery down and see what happens when i charge tonite....

[alep85]

Mine also will not charge to 100 percent.....tried powering it off for a while but it still did not help.....I'm thinking its the charger unit but that's just a blind guess.....

[Cybergypsy]

My sons will not show uptime, its said will show when fully charged, we ran it till it shut off and fully chargers it....help

We drained his last night and still does not show fully charged, now its on my dock, let see if its the dock or phone

Not the charger the phone itself.....will take it to apple if all else fails....

I can't get my phone to 100%. I have ZERO Data of (-) in the usage and standby screen.

HELP Same issue here....

[switters2007]

hey there....i'm having the same issues where my phone won't charge beyond 90% or so....but my real concern is this:

the first time i charged my iphone i got 6hrs usage and 2 days standby, and now (after 2nd charge) i have 15% battery left after just over 3 hours of usage and 1.5 days standby.....

i turned wi-fi off when i wasn't using it, haven't even really been using the ipod function mostly email, web, text, phone, but i'm hoping this doesn't keep happening.....anyone else having this?

[Sp71Supra]

Same thing happend to me last night... but I think my MBP went to sleep on me which explains it. Although, I never remember my battery saying 100% charge... I hope this is not a problem and if it is, apple better take care of it.

edit - just checked my usage setting and it says its NEVER been fully charged... I dont see what else it needs besides a 10 hour charge.. and it still never was fully charged!!!!!

[meandmyiphone]

Got iPhone Tuesday night. Works great, used all features including Safari and email over Edge and home Wifi. Have email set to check every hour. Used about 70% of battery from Tuesday night through Thursday morning (holiday with light email but did play with it quite a lot and use some music and YouTube). I ran into a new issue this morning. Got to office about 6:50. Around 7:00 got message “20% Battery Left”. By 8:00 I passed 5%. During that time, I had 2 one minute cell phone calls. Did 5-10 minutes of calendar and email. That’s it. Kept screen at about 20% brightness in hopes of conserving battery.

I am suspicious that the email downloads were killing it but I really don’t know. Could just be that the first time use of the battery is not realistic of how it will work over time.

Charging WAS going very slow. First three hours of charging (mostly through USB with computer awake) brought battery up to only 30% with no other use (Wifi was on though).

Switched to airplane mode to shut wifi and cell off and to using power adapter, not laptop. After just 30 minutes, battery is up to about 85%.

What's killing the battery????

[JPyre]

I had a weird issue the first day about not charging 100%, since then it went away.
My friend however let it charge all night and it didn't go past 80%, he's had it for 2 days and is unable to see "usage stats". It was plugged into the wall. I told him to wait till Monday and if it doesn't go away goto the apple store.

[basicfiend]

Took mine back to the Apple store today. Guy in front of me was having same problem. Tech replaced both of our phones, no questions asked. Have new one in hand and hoping this battery is not also a lemon.

[Copperband]

OK so after following the advice from this thread and others, I turned off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi before charging. That solved my full charge problem. I can now get to a 100% charge within a couple hours of plugging in the phone into the dock. I think it was the Wi-Fi constantly draining a little bit of power.

Not keeping Wi-Fi on all day has vastly improved my battery performance. Now I've been turning it on only when I'm away for home or the office and not in my car.

I have a standing appointment at the Genius bar and plan to tell them my findings. The other day when I mentioned the Wi-Fi/charge issue the staffer seemed surprised, so I will see what they say today. Because if it should charge to 100% even with Wi-Fi turned on, I'm going to have them re-install the OS on my phone or get it swapped out.

But I can live with it. At least I know how to charge it now.

[slffl]

4 hours later and the large green battery LOOKS full, but the icon in the upper right still has a battery icon with a bolt through it.

I've let it drain all the way once since I got it. I'll try a few more times before taking it in this weekend.

So an update.

After my last charge (which was from the AC adapter), I noticed it was lasting much longer than my first charge through the USB port. So I completely discharged it today and plugged it in using the AC adapter and let it do a full charge. I got a plug icon in about 2.5 hours.

My advice is to do at least a few full discharges and charges using the AC adapter before taking it back for service.

[TheWetWorks]

ok first off, HELLO EVERYONE!! :D
(i just joined this forum)

I had the same issue with the charging and such.

I have a question to ask you as well,

Is your iPhone unusually HOT?


my iphone was not charging (even overnight) to full and was getting hot (not hot enough to burn, but unusually hot for a device)

This worried me, but last night i devided to turn it off (hold sleep button till it ask you to turn off, then slide to shutdown)
then i charged it overnight again

this morning i was happy as my iphone was fully charged and was COLD too?!
(plug was still in)


Im not sure what it is, but i think there might be some wierd bug in the system, this got me thinking.

The iphone 'remembers' what you last did in the different apps
(last page you viewed on the safari, the last song played from ipod, who you were messaging with, etc...)
i wonder if the issue is much like a 'cashe' issue with other programs,
where continuious use of the apps is causing a 'leak' somewhere (not closing properly), hence causing the cpu to contiuously work, even while sleeping, thus getting hot (not sexy hot either, lol)

anyways, if im correct, then a patch is possible to correct this,
but for now tunring off the iphone 1-2 times a week should be good (or whenever it gets hot)

Note: I only turned off once last night, so I dont know if this issue only occurs once then clears from a shutdown or not; or even if syncing might cuase it, who really knows.

just thought i this might help,
please inform us if this does help you?

(and i want to know if your iphone is hot too)

thx in advanced

oh yeh, forgot to mention,

i read this earlier today and thought that i should warn ppl to turn off the iphones (which seemed to help) BEFORE its too late.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19614050/

(cliff-note: guy's phone was too hot and then died, guy had to replace it)

[whawhat]

well, i took the advice and tried every trick in the book but still no full charge = went to the genius bar at 7:30 this morning and they couldn't fix it either and gave me a new iPhone. we will see tomorrow if it works.

fyi-the store had about 50 iPhones in stock but there was a long line when i got there at 7:30 and a huge rush of people when the doors opened at 9.....

[switters2007]

i was having these problems, after last night's charge this morning it looked fully charged but the usage didn't reset so it's continuing since the last charge.....

also the first time i charged i got about 6-7 hours of usage and the second time i got about 3.5 hours of usage.....hoping this problem doesn't continue.

[uk_blaster]

I have the 8 gig phone.

I completely shut it off (red slider) when I came into work this morning at 9:30 am. and plugged it into the included wall charger.

It is now 5:05 pm. I just turned the phone on and the battery icon shows just over half a charge.

After seven and a half hours charging that is just piss poor. :mad:

[Offspring992]

I have the 8 gig phone.

I completely shut it off (red slider) when I came into work this morning at 9:30 am. and plugged it into the included wall charger.

It is now 5:05 pm. I just turned the phone on and the battery icon shows just over half a charge.

After seven and a half hours charging that is just piss poor. :mad:

yeah that is kind of odd. It shouldn't take that long to charge ir half way. You should definitely take that in to have that looked at. It only takes me about 3 hours to charge mine fully.

[uk_blaster]

yeah that is kind of odd. It shouldn't take that long to charge ir half way. You should definitely take that in to have that looked at. It only takes me about 3 hours to charge mine fully.

3 hours!!?!! come on! sheesh.. :eek:
Yeah, I would say I have a big problem on my hands. Thanks for the heads up, man. I had no idea that properly operating phones were only taking three hours to fully charge when powered off.

[Cybergypsy]

Mine also is charged in a few hours :)

[whawhat]

Mine also is charged in a few hours :)

just curious for those of you able to get a full charge in about 3 hours = how do you charge your phone?

1) do u turn off wi-fi and turn it off completely or

2) do u charge the iphone while it's in standby mode

thanks

[uk_blaster]

Mine also is charged in a few hours :)

ugh.. Man, this sucks.

Thanks for the info.

just curious for those of you able to get a full charge in about 3 hours = how do you charge your phone?

1) do u turn off wi-fi and turn it off completely or

2) do u charge the iphone while it's in standby mode

thanks

Well, it appears my phone is faulty. But I was turning the phone off completely (sliding the red slider after I had plugged into the wall)

[slffl]

so since my last full charge I've gotten about 4hr 50 min of usage and 1 day 6 hrs standby time.

Does this sound right?

The usage was a mixture of everything.

[Offspring992]

so since my last full charge I've gotten about 4hr 50 min of usage and 1 day 6 hrs standby time.

Does this sound right?

The usage was a mixture of everything.

How much do you have left? If you remember. Since my last full charge I have gotten 4 hours of usage and 1 day 10 hours of standby and I have around 60 percent left. The thing I noticed with mine is that it takes longer for the battery to go from full to halfway than it does to go from halfway to dead. Has anyone else noticed that or is that just normal?

[diamond.g]

I have gotten about 1 day of standby and about 8 hours of actual usage out of my iPhone.

Web surfing (using wifi and edge)
email checking
ipod
music (like 3 hours or so)
movies (half of Gone in 60 Seconds)

going to charge tonight as I won't be near a power source for a good part of tomorrow, and I don't trust my iPod adapter to charge the iPhone.

[UltraDean]

I'm curious how my last full charge stacks up against others.

With about 15% of my charge left my usage was at:
1 day 7 hours of standby
5 hours 7 minutes of usage

Usage was a mixture of:
Primarily edge for email, txt, google maps and web surfing
Wifi was turned off with the exception of about 15 minutes of web surfing
20 minutes of music
20 min of video
~2 hours of talk time (although I'm not entirely confident about this)

[Offspring992]

I'm curious how my last full charge stacks up against others.

With about 15% of my charge left my usage was at:
1 day 7 hours of standby
5 hours 7 minutes of usage

Usage was a mixture of:
Primarily edge for email, txt, google maps and web surfing
Wifi was turned off with the exception of about 15 minutes of web surfing
20 minutes of music
20 min of video
~2 hours of talk time (although I'm not entirely confident about this)

That's right around what I get if I am primarily using Safari on wi-fi. I'm right around 50 percent with 5 hours 40 min of standby and 1 day 12 hours of standby. It's mostly been iPod usage, some EDGE and Wi-Fi browsing and a few calls here and there I have been texting a lot throughout the day too

[JOHNGAETANO]

It sounds like a lot of you guys have battery problems. Take your iPhone to the Apple Store and let them look at it.

If you don't have a usage meter reading, they will replace your phone. Once they replaced mine, my battery life improved 4 times.

[Slava]

My battery didn't get full charge either, even after 8-12 hours of charging.

So I went to back to Apple Store where they did "Restore to the orignal settings" in iTunes. Well it did the trick. Sync your iPhone first if you going to do this. iTunes did a pretty good job restoring (almost) everything back.

I, personally, blame the old iPod charger I've used once I got iPhone.

[meandmyiphone]

It sounds like a lot of you guys have battery problems. Take your iPhone to the Apple Store and let them look at it.

If you don't have a usage meter reading, they will replace your phone. Once they replaced mine, my battery life improved 4 times.

What exactly do you mean by "dont have a usage meter reading"? My battery seems to drain fast. I can get it fully charged (the plug appears in the battery icon) but for the second full charge, the usage meter is acting wierd. After charging 14 hrs and repeatedly getting back to the plus, usage meter says:
Usage Time since last charge: 10hrs, 13min
Standby Time since last charge: 10hrs, 13min

I havent even done anything in that time period except turn on, check usage meter, turn off.

Prior full charge got 5hrs, 15min usage (mostly calendar, email, 30min of safari, no YouTube, no music, no video, 15min talk time).

Does this sound like bad battery?

[slffl]

How much do you have left? If you remember. Since my last full charge I have gotten 4 hours of usage and 1 day 10 hours of standby and I have around 60 percent left. The thing I noticed with mine is that it takes longer for the battery to go from full to halfway than it does to go from halfway to dead. Has anyone else noticed that or is that just normal?

That was with 5% left.

[swindmill]

I'm definitely not getting as good of performance as some people are reporting, but it's so bad that it would concern me if I hadn't heard how good some batteries seem to be.

As far as getting a full charge and resetting the usage stats, I have found that I usually have to turn it off for the last hour or so to get it to go to 100% and update the usage time.

[Madame Defarge]

I've been thinking about buying an iPhone too, but the battery issue is a major concern.

On the Apple discussion boards, the consensus seems to be that when WiFi is enabled it will search continuously for a network, and hence, drain the battery fairly quickly and it interferes with a the iPhone charging to 100%.

While that make sense, some posters have said that turning off WiFi makes no difference.

Also, according to the Apple discussion site, lithium batteries should only be drained once a month or so!

[JOHNGAETANO]

Mean,

My usage was blank. Well it has the reading as (-).

Battery life is a none issue with my iPhone. I can see my battery lasting for 2 days.

[meandmyiphone]

I've been thinking about buying an iPhone too, but the battery issue is a major concern.

On the Apple discussion boards, the consensus seems to be that when WiFi is enabled it will search continuously for a network, and hence, drain the battery fairly quickly and it interferes with a the iPhone charging to 100%.

While that make sense, some posters have said that turning off WiFi makes no difference.

Also, according to the Apple discussion site, lithium batteries should only be drained once a month or so!

Your wifi question is a good one. It would be great to get other comments. I am somewhat suspicious that Wifi is hurting my battery life but, even so, I am thrilled with the iPhone. A question for those knowledgeble about wifi and these devices. Do you think a weak wifi signal would cause more battery drain than a strong signal?

On a separate note, I see my battery drain from 20% to 0 very, very fast. Like with just 30-40 minutes of overall usage of email, calendar, etc. That is compared to 4:30 that it took to get to 20% with the same type of usage and tons of standby.

[Madame Defarge]

Does this seem like a hardware, or software issue?

If Apple can fix this with a patch, that's one thing, but if the batteries themselves are defective, that's a much bigger problem. Especially since:

1) Batteries aren't covered under the warranty, even with Apple Care.

2) The iPhone has to be sent in for a replacement battery and at an $89 charge to boot.

While it makes sense that WiFi would be a big drain on battery, there are still the related issues of overheating and the iPhone not showing the usage info.

I hope this issue gets resolved for everyone.

BTW, why didn't this come up in testing? Or did it?

[texasmafia]

Does this seem like a hardware, or software issue?

If Apple can fix this with a patch, that's one thing, but if the batteries themselves are defective, that's a much bigger problem. Especially since:

1) Batteries aren't covered under the warranty, even with Apple Care.

2) The iPhone has to be sent in for a replacement battery and at an $89 charge to boot.

While it makes sense that WiFi would be a big drain on battery, there are still the related issues of overheating and the iPhone not showing the usage info.

I hope this issue gets resolved for everyone.

BTW, why didn't this come up in testing? Or did it?


You are wrong. The battery is covered under the warranty.

[MikeGT]

Hey guys,

Like some of you, I'm also having a blank (-) Usage and Standby even after fully charging my iphone. It takes a lot of time to charge, maybe 5 hours or so. I don't know if this is normal. Tried everything...reset 3 times, shut down, drain...but no Usage/Standby data.

One thing I noticed is that, having a low signal from ATT easily drains it. When I use the airplane mode to shut the phone and edge service in low signal areas, it lengthened the battery life somewhat.

Those of you, who have replaced it, did you show your receipt at the Apple store. I bought mine from Cingular and I seem to have misplaced my receipt. Can I still exchange my defective iphone?

Please advise. Hate the hassle, but really love the iphone. And my MBP too!

Mike

[JOHNGAETANO]

Yes you need a receipt.

Yes it's worth the exchange, as my battery life is at least 4 times better.

[MikeGT]

Hey thanks John. What do I do now, can't find the receipt?:(

Mike

[Cybergypsy]

you will need it.....

[MikeGT]

I'm screwed. :(

[XjeffX]

Usage: 5 hours, 26 minutes
Standby: 9 hours, 10 minutes

I'm at about 10 or 15% battery. This is pretty pathetic in my opinion.

I listened to about 20 minutes of music and talked on the phone less than 5 minutes. The rest is SMS messaging, a little email, and just a bit of web browsing.

Does this sound abnormal? Shouldn't I expect more?

[matthutch]

I'm screwed. :(

Hey MikeGT,

It might be worth going to the store you got it from and seeing if they have another copy. I had a problem with my p'book a couple of years ago and needed the receipt for Apple Care, I went back to the Apple Store I got it from and they were more than happy to pull one from their records, just remember to say please :)

It might be worth a try.

[rwdebes]

Usage: 5 hours, 26 minutes
Standby: 9 hours, 10 minutes

I'm at about 10 or 15% battery. This is pretty pathetic in my opinion.

I listened to about 20 minutes of music and talked on the phone less than 5 minutes. The rest is SMS messaging, a little email, and just a bit of web browsing.

Does this sound abnormal? Shouldn't I expect more?

mine is the same... 5 hours my battery is on 10% .. a macbook have 5 hours battery.. an iphone should last 10 hours. damn its a 3.5" screen against 13" screen. pathetic i agree. need to charge my iphone at least 1 time a day.

[gr8tfly]

mine is the same... 5 hours my battery is on 10% .. a macbook have 5 hours battery.. an iphone should last 10 hours. damn its a 3.5" screen against 13" screen. pathetic i agree. need to charge my iphone at least 1 time a day.

I've been past 10% for the last 45min or so. Waiting for shutdown. Usage has been primarily wifi, BT on, some video playback, and :35 calls.

Currently showing:
6:00 Usage
16:10 stby
00:35 calls

Looks pretty much as advertised (6 hrs Internet). I also have a less than ideal cell signal, which will consume more power. I don't remember of Apple's "Internet" spec had BT enabled.

Edit: 5% alert
06:09 usage
16:19 stby

At shutdown:
06:26 usage
16:39 stby
00:35 calls

[whawhat]

i'm on my 2nd iPhone - i exchanged no. 1 after "usage" never worked - it's been charging for 7 hours (wall outlet not usb) and it's still not at full charge?

been reading thru this board about people getting full charges in 3-5 hours. People, how do you charge your phone?

1) do you shut off wi-fi and shut down the phone?

2) do you just leave it on, let it sleep and plug it in?

does anyone get full charges via usb/dock?

thanks

[Copperband]

The Apple Store folks confirmed to me that yes, you DO have to shut off WiFi to get a full charge. When the phone is constantly connected or searching for WiFi networks it always drains a little bit of the battery and can't fully charge.

Since shutting off my WiFi I've had no problem getting a full charge, and usually within 2-3 hours of plugging my phone into the dock and directly to a power source.

Also since I've drained the battery a couple times my battery performance is a LOT better. I've also kept WiFi turned off unless I really need it and that also makes the battery last a lot longer. That was the main factor that caused my battery to run down so quickly last weekend after I bought it...having the WiFi on the whole time.

[powerbook911]

The Apple Store folks confirmed to me that yes, you DO have to shut off WiFi to get a full charge. When the phone is constantly connected or searching for WiFi networks it always drains a little bit of the battery and can't fully charge.

Since shutting off my WiFi I've had no problem getting a full charge, and usually within 2-3 hours of plugging my phone into the dock and directly to a power source.

Also since I've drained the battery a couple times my battery performance is a LOT better. I've also kept WiFi turned off unless I really need it and that also makes the battery last a lot longer. That was the main factor that caused my battery to run down so quickly last weekend after I bought it...having the WiFi on the whole time.

It charges quicker with WiFi off, but you should be able to get a full charge, with the phone on. I have. Apple Store people make stuff up, unfortunately, and they really believe it.

[MikeGT]

hey everyone!

I exchanged my defective iphone today. I thought i was screwed because i didn't find my receipt. Got the iphone from Cingular. I called them earlier to find out if i can get a copy of the receipt and told them about my problem. The cingular guy connected me to Apple service, who then said that they have a copy of the transaction and after telling my battery and usage/standby no data problem, agreed to have it exchanged for a new one. The Apple guy called the nearest Apple store and made all the arrangements. When I arrived in the store, a genius checked my old one and after confirming the problem, they opened a new box in front of me. He took my old Sim and placed it on the new phone. Got home, went through the activation process again, unplugged it from my MBP, turned off the Wifi, charged it directly and after two hours of waiting to get it fully charged - it's working fine now.

Thanks for all the info here. Thanks Matthutch and Johngaetano.

And that's what you call my friends --> SWEET :apple: SERVICE! :)

[z400central]

usage = 1 day, 10 hours
standby = 2 days, 24 hours
iPhone has been plugged in since the last full charge


That's what mine says. I let it sit lastnight for over 8 hours until touching it. I had WiFi on and it was receiving emails.

Hmm.... I'm going to leave it plugged in as much as I can today and see if it can fully charge and re-set the usage meter. If not, then off to the apple store I go.

[whawhat]

hey everyone!

I exchanged my defective iphone today. I thought i was screwed because i didn't find my receipt. Got the iphone from Cingular. I called them earlier to find out if i can get a copy of the receipt and told them about my problem. The cingular guy connected me to Apple service, who then said that they have a copy of the transaction and after telling my battery and usage/standby no data problem, agreed to have it exchanged for a new one. The Apple guy called the nearest Apple store and made all the arrangements. When I arrived in the store, a genius checked my old one and after confirming the problem, they opened a new box in front of me. He took my old Sim and placed it on the new phone. Got home, went through the activation process again, unplugged it from my MBP, turned off the Wifi, charged it directly and after two hours of waiting to get it fully charged - it's working fine now.

Thanks for all the info here. Thanks Matthutch and Johngaetano.

And that's what you call my friends --> SWEET :apple: SERVICE! :)

i agree - been totally impressed w/ apple's customer service so far.

[humanliberty]

Battery life seems very low to me. I had my iPhone fully charged before I went to sleep, I had wi-fi activated, set the alarm, put it on sleep mode. When I woke up, the battery was drained and I hadn't heard the alarm.

Not good. You guys think I have a faulty battery? It also gets quite hot when using it.

[un1ty]

I've been having some of the same problems other people have been reporting. I found this thread via this post:

http://www.wirelessinfo.com/content/2-out-of-our-3-iPhones-have-faulty-batteries.htm

Which is exactly what is happening to me. My phone always gets stuck at around 95% charge. I've charged it via USB and wall outlet. Also I seemed to notice that if I turn it off before charging, it doesn't charge at all. I always try to charge in Airplane mode as well. My usage also always shows "-".

I made an appointment with the Genius Bar to have them take a look. I hope it's only a firmware issue.

[coolmaster121]

I had the same issue.
Tried charging the phone with the included power adapter. Charged to full in about 4 hours.
Seems like the USB on the computer does not have enough power to handle the mighty iPhone.

See if this help, and reply...

Good luck.

[AaronHeth]

To the people having the 95% charge only issue:

I think I may know what the problem is. I've experienced this, but not consistently, only a few times. Usually when I do, my battery isn't terribly drained (as in I have at least a third left), OR I have charged it or docked it before a full night's charge.

My Macbook Pro (and I assume Macbooks) does the same thing, although it is a FEATURE of the battery. If the battery has been run down a bit, but not too far, the battery will ONLY charge up to 97-99% in an effort to not overcharge the battery. The battery must be run down so much so that it can calibrate itself in a way. This is somewhere on Apple's support site, but basically, the lithium ion battery will not charge to 100% unless it has been depleted a good amount--and when it is charged to that 97-99 point, it stops charging and shows that it is using power from the outlet.

For the people having the issue, let your battery run down to nearly nothing, and do not dock it or charge it at all (make sure that in Usage, it does not say "The iPhone has been charged since last full charge" or something to that notion). Then, hook it up over night and see what happens.

[whawhat]

I've been having some of the same problems other people have been reporting. I found this thread via this post:

http://www.wirelessinfo.com/content/2-out-of-our-3-iPhones-have-faulty-batteries.htm

Which is exactly what is happening to me. My phone always gets stuck at around 95% charge. I've charged it via USB and wall outlet. Also I seemed to notice that if I turn it off before charging, it doesn't charge at all. I always try to charge in Airplane mode as well. My usage also always shows "-".

I made an appointment with the Genius Bar to have them take a look. I hope it's only a firmware issue.

I had the same problem. Go to the Genius Bar and bring your receipt and all the original packaging. It is a problem and they will give you a new one. My new one is working great.

Battery life seems very low to me. I had my iPhone fully charged before I went to sleep, I had wi-fi activated, set the alarm, put it on sleep mode. When I woke up, the battery was drained and I hadn't heard the alarm.

Not good. You guys think I have a faulty battery? It also gets quite hot when using it.

try turning off your wi-fi = i only have it on when i am surfing the net or youtubing and my battery life has been excellent ever since.

[St. Germain]

For the people who have exchanged theirs, what steps do you need to take?
Can you just stop by an Apple Store?
Or do you need to call Apple first?

[joekix]

For the people who have exchanged theirs, what steps do you need to take?
Can you just stop by an Apple Store?
Or do you need to call Apple first?

make an appointment with a genius. then your set to go.

[whawhat]

For the people who have exchanged theirs, what steps do you need to take?
Can you just stop by an Apple Store?
Or do you need to call Apple first?

make an appointment with the genius bar, bring your receipt, iphone/box/cords/etc. and most importantly go as early as you can (if you go and they are out of stock there is now way to exchange).

i went to the soho store at 7:50 and glad i did = doors opened at 9 and the few remaining iphones were gone by 9:30.....

[St. Germain]

make an appointment with the genius bar, bring your receipt, iphone/box/cords/etc. and most importantly go as early as you can (if you go and they are out of stock there is now way to exchange).

i went to the soho store at 7:50 and glad i did = doors opened at 9 and the few remaining iphones were gone by 9:30.....
Neither my wife's phone or mine have any times listed for Usage or Standby. What I'm afraid of is that this is so widespread that if we exchange it, we'll just end up with two more that have the same problem.

[joekix]

Neither my wife's phone or mine have any times listed for Usage or Standby. What I'm afraid of is that this is so widespread that if we exchange it, we'll just end up with two more that have the same problem.

well you'll never know unless you try. make the appointment and get it checked out. if you get bad ones again, take them back again. i took mine back and got a good one. good luck!

[starlabs]

Well, you can just wait it out (if you're intent on keeping it). Wait for a few weeks until supply catches up with demand... then you can take your iPhone in and odds are they'll have enough to get you a new one on the spot.

And if you wait long enough hopefully the battery issue will be ironed out.

If my iPhone has any battery issues this will be what I'll be doing.

(Hopefully, it will only take a few weeks before supply catches up with demand... unlike the Wii :rolleyes: )

[St. Germain]

well you'll never know unless you try. make the appointment and get it checked out. if you get bad ones again, take them back again. i took mine back and got a good one. good luck!My issue is that the Apple Store is an hour away. We'll be driving by it at 1:00 pm this Friday. I'm hoping they have some in stock at that point.

[Logik2000]

Hi, all. I actually found my way here from the wirelessinfo.com article (linked above), to which I found my way from a reply in a thread I made at my usual haunt - Logik's Ars Technica iPhone Battery Testing Thread (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/621002106831).

I had the same issue where things seemed ok at home, immediately after getting it, with lots of docking here and there. But, when I took it to work, both days, it was drained before I even left. And that was with some fairly light usage. I did have wireless, "ask", and email on, though. I won't rehash what everyone has already said. What I do want to ask, though:

For those with the great battery life/performance, at full charge, do you get the "radioactive glow" mentioned and seen in the wirelessinfo.com article. I definitely don't. The green makes it to the end of the battery, but I've never seen anything like that last pic. To waylay any thoughts of it just being a hazy pic, check the sharp line of the battery edge in the first two compared to the diffuse one in the third. Also, notice the greatly extended reflection and the haze over the 2 endcaps.

If this can be confirmed, it's off to Cingular I go. Heh.

[Natalia81]

So is the battery covered by warranty if it is deemed faulty?

[jsfried]

Well, I got mine replaced last week from Apple, they overnighted me a new 8GB iPhone, but I went to bed with a full charge last night and woke up with 60% life left. I had the alarm on, should it have dropped that much?

[iranintoavan]

I have the same...almost charged but no "radioactive glow" as http://www.wirelessinfo.com/content/2-out-of-our-3-iPhones-have-faulty-batteries.htm puts it. I always have the usage info and the little charging icon at the top of the screen changes to a plug instead of a lightning bolt but I am wondering if maybe my battery is not fully charging? I charge it every night all night and when I wake up, the big battery is still never fully glowing and when I check the usage it generally says about 5-6 hours of usage since last full charge. Is this normal? I have closed all the apps by holding down the home button, and I have wifi off also. Why would it come up as 6 hours usage when its been sitting there "not fully charging".

Should I contact apple about this? Also, I am in quite a sitiuation. I bought the iPhone at an AT&T store, out of state while I was on a vacation. Could I take it to my local apple store and get it checked out and possibly exchanged if it is faulty?

[vinhmen]

Good news for me! I bought mine last Saturday and charged overnight on Sat, Sun, Mon for at least 7 hrs, but could never get a full battery (indicated by the plug icon) and usage stats remained "--". Last nite, I turned off wifi, turned off email check, and shut down every app I'd used by holding down Home button. Begin charging via dock at 10pm and checked again at 1am - about 85% full. Went to bed and checked at 8am this morning - full! Even better - usage stats, woohoo! I couldn't tell if my batt was "glowing" or not, but the presence of usage stats is enough for me. Wifi and hard reset apparently does make a difference.

[jsfried]

Well, mine is now fully charged and there is no glow, people with normal battery life, do you all get the glow?

[St. Germain]

Good news for me! I bought mine last Saturday and charged overnight on Sat, Sun, Mon for at least 7 hrs, but could never get a full battery (indicated by the plug icon) and usage stats remained "--". Last nite, I turned off wifi, turned off email check, and shut down every app I'd used by holding down Home button. Begin charging via dock at 10pm and checked again at 1am - about 85% full. Went to bed and checked at 8am this morning - full! Even better - usage stats, woohoo! I couldn't tell if my batt was "glowing" or not, but the presence of usage stats is enough for me. Wifi and hard reset apparently does make a difference.
I had pretty much the same experience.

In my Settings > Usage screen I had " - " for both Usage and Standby yesterday, meaning that it had never actually fully recharged. That was after using it daily since launch.

Last night I simply disabled WiFi and recharged it with WiFi off for the first time since buying it. Bingo, I finally got the fully charged Battery graphic and my Usage and Standby settings are now showing actual times. I'm also showing the small plug battery icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

It looks like leaving WiFi on drains just enough battery to keep it from fully charging.

Another thing I've learned is to turn off the WiFi when I'm not planning to use it. I get much much better battery time if I do that instead of running WiFi all the time like I had been doing.

Well, mine is now fully charged and there is no glow, people with normal battery life, do you all get the glow?Yes, but it's very very subtle. I never would have noticed it if people hadn't mentioned it or I hadn't seen pictures showing the difference.

I'm guessing all of this will easily be ironed out with a simple firmware update in the very near future.

[Logik2000]

So... Armed with the new knowledge of battery funkiness, I paid closer attention. Attempting to get the "glow", I charged via the usb with everything off, while at work. Got up to the endcap, but no glow. Plug showed. Plugged it into my car adapter/charger on the way home, everything off. Took it inside, docked it, and the green had dropped to show that small gap (like 1 and 2 in the wirelessinfo.com link). Plug showed. Plugged it in the wall charger, everything off but the cell (I'm on-call). A couple/few hours later, it was up to the endcap. Plug showed. Left it plugged in all night. This morning, the gap was there again, plug showed, and both Usage and Standby showed "2 Hourse, 56 Minutes". I was sound asleep at that time. Heh.

On the "glow" thing... There is a guy at work who got one for his wife. I remember he "raved" about the battery life. Said they used it for 2.5 - 3 days before having to charge it at all, with all kinds of usage. I asked if they get the "glow" when it's full, if it looked "radioactive". He said - "Oh. Yeah. Definitely." I'm so confused. Heh. I wish I could see it myself, but I don't know him well enough that I could ask him to snag his wife's phone for an entire day.

[St. Germain]

So... Armed with the new knowledge of battery funkiness, I paid closer attention. Attempting to get the "glow", I charged via the usb with everything off, while at work. Got up to the endcap, but no glow. Plug showed. Plugged it into my car adapter/charger on the way home, everything off. Took it inside, docked it, and the green had dropped to show that small gap (like 1 and 2 in the wirelessinfo.com link). Plug showed. Plugged it in the wall charger, everything off but the cell (I'm on-call). A couple/few hours later, it was up to the endcap. Plug showed. Left it plugged in all night. This morning, the gap was there again, plug showed, and both Usage and Standby showed "2 Hourse, 56 Minutes". I was sound asleep at that time. Heh.

On the "glow" thing... There is a guy at work who got one for his wife. I remember he "raved" about the battery life. Said they used it for 2.5 - 3 days before having to charge it at all, with all kinds of usage. I asked if they get the "glow" when it's full, if it looked "radioactive". He said - "Oh. Yeah. Definitely." I'm so confused. Heh. I wish I could see it myself, but I don't know him well enough that I could ask him to snag his wife's phone for an entire day.

I'm personally very skeptical about trying to judge iPhone usage time based on someone else's experience. If they've never had WiFi on for instance, or use it only for minutes at a time then turn it off, you could go days without needing to recharge. If you're in an area that has bad EDGE coverage and you don't turn on WiFi, you could get even longer. My guess is this whole thing just has to do with how different people use their iPhones.

[iranintoavan]

So... Armed with the new knowledge of battery funkiness, I paid closer attention. Attempting to get the "glow", I charged via the usb with everything off, while at work. Got up to the endcap, but no glow. Plug showed. Plugged it into my car adapter/charger on the way home, everything off. Took it inside, docked it, and the green had dropped to show that small gap (like 1 and 2 in the wirelessinfo.com link). Plug showed. Plugged it in the wall charger, everything off but the cell (I'm on-call). A couple/few hours later, it was up to the endcap. Plug showed. Left it plugged in all night. This morning, the gap was there again, plug showed, and both Usage and Standby showed "2 Hourse, 56 Minutes". I was sound asleep at that time. Heh.

On the "glow" thing... There is a guy at work who got one for his wife. I remember he "raved" about the battery life. Said they used it for 2.5 - 3 days before having to charge it at all, with all kinds of usage. I asked if they get the "glow" when it's full, if it looked "radioactive". He said - "Oh. Yeah. Definitely." I'm so confused. Heh. I wish I could see it myself, but I don't know him well enough that I could ask him to snag his wife's phone for an entire day.

See that's my problem. The battery never reaches the end cap and never glows but it shows the fully charged plug icon at the top. Also I get the usage time under the settings but if i charge the phone when im sleeping at night when i wake up the usage is already at 6 or so hours usage "since full charge". Whats the deal anyone else having that same problem?

[ejuanpiman]

well I defenitly got the glow this morning when I woke up, and the battery shows full complete charge. I am going to check how long I can go without charging the phone, Ill get back to you guys.

[iranintoavan]

Well here is my usage so far today.

No Bluetooth or wifi on
half brightness
maybe an hour of surfing on edge
45 Min of iPod time
3 calls / all lasted about 10 Min each
Few Min in maps

I unpluged it from the wall charger this morning at 9 am and it is now 1:25 pm and I have about half battery left. Sounds bad huh.

[climhazzard85]

See that's my problem. The battery never reaches the end cap and never glows but it shows the fully charged plug icon at the top. Also I get the usage time under the settings but if i charge the phone when im sleeping at night when i wake up the usage is already at 6 or so hours usage "since full charge". Whats the deal anyone else having that same problem?

Yes, same problem here with the usage.

[jsfried]

I just got off the phone with Apple Tech Support and they said that it is highly recommended to charge with the USB port for a full 8 hours when you first get the phone.

We shall see if this gives me the glow.

[iranintoavan]

I just got off the phone with Apple Tech Support and they said that it is highly recommended to charge with the USB port for a full 8 hours when you first get the phone.

We shall see if this gives me the glow.

Too bad that isnt meantioned anywhere in the manuel or anything.

[brendanlim]

My battery life has been about 7 hours w/ heavy wifi browsing & video playback.

Got my battery all the way down to when I got the 15% warning. Plugged it up for about 4.5 hours and right now its showing that it's 100% charged (big battery pic battery is completely filled) but it the big battery meter isn't glowing.

[Logik2000]

I totally get what you're saying St. Germain. It's a perfectly valid point. In my case, my only real interest was finding out if that guy honestly saw the "glow", since I've never seen it. If I could actually see it with my own eyes, all doubt would be removed and I'd be headed to the store. The Sasquatch effect, I guess. Heh.

That's why I wanted to do some controlled testing in my Ars thread. My test is in there, but no one really joined in. So, there's really nothing to compare to. People can explain their general usage ad infinitum, but there are just too many variables to take into account. Thing is, it's probably pretty realistic to assume light-to-medium usage shouldn't require you to recharge by the time you've left work. I'm not complaining at the company at all. I think they've done an amazing thing here. I'd carry my iphone in my underwear if it wasn't too uncomforatable. My point is that it appears there could be an emerging battery issue and such problems do tend to come to light when new tech hits the masses. If there are any Sidekick 1 Color owners here, they may remember the battery issue plaguing many, where leaving it plugged in was actually degrading battery life. Turns out they were overcharging, because there was no trickle charge. They finally heard the masses, saw the problem, and sent out an OTA update to turn on trickle. It fixed the problem.

In any case, today on my iphone, with Brightness under the "e" and acidentally left auto-brightness off:

- Opened wirelessinfo.com (on wireless) to have it for the AT&T store
- Opened fandango.com (on wireless) to do 1 search for a movie
- Turned off wireless and headed to work
- Sleeped it
- Plugged into car adapter/charger
- Drove 10 minutes to work
- Sent/recieved 6 SMS
- Sleeped it
- Opened myspace.com and couldn't scroll it for whatever reason
- Sleeped it
- Sent/recieved 4 SMS
- Sleeped it
- Opened a few apps to show a guy (~1 minute of "Snatch", a few seconds of a Suzanne Vega song, 1 email fetch, and tipping the screen a few times on the previously loaded myspace.com page)

I have about 3/4 battery left. Subtracting the phantom 2h 59m usage I woke up to this morning from the current usage of 5h 2m, all of that above clocks at 2h.

2h 59m from 10h 51m of standby is 7h 50m total.

Given Apple's numbers (or half), for example, at maximum usage in 1 full battery cycle with no standby, I/we should theoretically be able to:

- Talk 1 hour (.25 hour)
- Surf 2 hours (1 hour)
- Watch 2 hours (1 hour)
- Listen 5 hours (2.50 hour)

If I duplicated my usage today 3 more times, I'd have:

- Talk 0 hours
- Surf ~1.5 hours
- Watch ~4 minutes
- Listen ~2 minutes
- Standby ~31.25 hours

I'm not math savvy enough to figure what that would equate with the standby time factored out (I had to actually draw and marcate (?) a battery to figure the Apple example), but I'm guessing it's not great.

Apologies for my inundation, but thank you for your indulgence. :D

[jsfried]

Well, looks like my replacement iphone was a dud as well! The battery was down to 50% after 2 hours of use and 2 hours of stand by so I took it to the Apple store and they replaced it for me.

Third times a charm...hopefully

[longofest]

We're gonna mark this as a bug in our tracker thread.

Just to clear up one point... You can only charge the iPhone when it is in Standby or ON mode. If you plug in the iPhone and then totally Power Off the iPhone, it will stop charging.

Most of the complaints seem to be about not being able to get a full charge, but I did see a couple of posts with people seeming to try to charge their iPhones while the power was completely off, which just won't work.

[Wagnel]

I was really worried that my battery was borked because I only got about a 95% charge on my second "full" charge. But today, I left it plugged in for a few hours and finally got that beautiful green glow.

Sorry for everyone still having problems.

[Performa]

I have the same problem. It charged to 100% the first night, but never again, the big battery only shows about 80%, but when you pull it off charge, the little battery icon does show 100%.

My wifes iPhone does charge all the way to 100%.

BTW, are you guys shutting the phone all the way down (press and hold the sleep button on top - slide to power off).

Some of the problems appear to be that people are leaving the phone on all night and waking up to a dead phone.

------------------------------------------------
I pressed and held my sleep button to turn off the iPhone completely. The screen went black. But when I put it into the charging dock (attached to wall adaptor) the screen lit up with all of the home icons. Is this normal? After a few minutes the screen faded slowly back to black.

[ariel]

I just found this thread last night...i hadn't paid any attention to the battery until i started thinking about how long i'd be able to play videos on my 6 hour plane ride next week - played some videos yesterday and after about 3 hours my battery was down around 5% :(

found this thread so now i''m testing with the wifi off and auto brightness off.

this morning, after charging all night, i still didn't have the 'glow'... but i realized i had left wifi running during charging and so i turned that off and watched some video and plugged back in to charge - after turning wifi off and auto bright off, the iphone charged fully and i got the 'glow'

so... i'm wondering if it all has to do with having either both turned off or at least the auto-bright... more testing but at least i got the 'glow' :)

right now, i'm more than 1 hour into watching video with wifi and auto brightness off and the battery indicator hasn't even budged off of full!

Mitch

[iranintoavan]

Well heres my situation as of last night/this morning. Yesterday I drained the battery (for the first time) all the way to the must connect to power screen. Plugged it into the dock, connected to the wall charger and let it be for a few hours. Came back and checked it, still not completely full (had the little sliver remaining). Checked again and it still didn't have the big battery bar completely filled with a glow, but the little battery icon showed the plug. Then I checked the usage and it was still - - saying it hadn't been fully charged yet. So I waited again and came back and finally had the full big battery bar with the glow! It took about 4 hours in all and showed the usage as 0 min / 0 min. I was happy.

Keep in mind that while the phone was charging I had it on airplane mode, with blue tooth off and email on manual. I thought, this is great, kept the phone plugged in and went to sleep. I woke up and checked to see if it was the same way as before and to my surprise, it went back to the little sliver left in the big battery bar, and no glow. The usage stayed the same (0 min/ 0 min). So today I will check and see how long I get usage for.

[powerbook911]

Why is auto brightness the key factor in battery life? You'd think it would save brightness. Silly Apple this time.

[un1ty]

The Genius at the iPod Bar did replace my iPhone no questions asked. The replacement seems to be working fine so far. I drained my battery completely when I first got it and then charged it in Airplane mode via USB. It took me 5-6 hours to completely charge it and I did get the green glow which isn't as noticeable as I expected. I got the impression as well that the phone seems to charge faster via USB, I could be wrong though.

Also, I think Apple could stem a lot of these problems if they changed the way the battery animation works. Once my battery got to ~90% it took another hour to go through several tiny graphical increments to reach 100%. I think it would be better if they just went in %10 increments. I really don't care to know if the battery is 98% charged. I just want to know when it's at 100%.

[cah87]

I've never seen a full battery charge on my iphone i thought that was just the way it was. Now i know better i guess

[iranintoavan]

Well for me at least, it now doesn't seem to be the ability to obtain a full "glowing" charge but to keep it. I get the glow, but if I keep it on the charger for much longer than that it goes back down to the "almost charged, sliver left" big battery, and the usage clock starts ticking. This is a problem for me because I normally charge my phone all night and I can't have my phone being fully charged at 3 in the morning but then drain all the way until I wake up.

[ariel]

Well for me at least, it now doesn't seem to be the ability to obtain a full "glowing" charge but to keep it. I get the glow, but if I keep it on the charger for much longer than that it goes back down to the "almost charged, sliver left" big battery, and the usage clock starts ticking. This is a problem for me because I normally charge my phone all night and I can't have my phone being fully charged at 3 in the morning but then drain all the way until I wake up.

try turning off wifi overnight - it might be sucking the power down?

[iranintoavan]

try turning off wifi overnight - it might be sucking the power down?

It is off...ugh.

[ariel]

see this TUAW report:

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/12/apple-says-iphone-battery-charging-problem-is-a-fixable-firmware/

[iranintoavan]

Just saw it, does it mean that the phone isnt fully charging and that a firmware would make it fully charge?!

[ariel]

Just saw it, does it mean that the phone isnt fully charging and that a firmware would make it fully charge?!

reading the story and clicking on the links http://www.wirelessinfo.com/content/Apple-says-iPhone-battery-issue-is-a-bug.htm
there says that apple says the batteries are fully charged, just not reporting it properly - however the other site is still thinking it may be a conditioning issue as well? Read everything you see :)

[iranintoavan]

reading the story and clicking on the links http://www.wirelessinfo.com/content/Apple-says-iPhone-battery-issue-is-a-bug.htm
there says that apple says the batteries are fully charged, just not reporting it properly - however the other site is still thinking it may be a conditioning issue as well? Read everything you see :)

That still doesn't answer the problem of people having bad battery life. Unless they need to condition it or something.

[question fear]

That still doesn't answer the problem of people having bad battery life. Unless they need to condition it or something.

Or the issue is that the battery meter is triggering the phone to claim its dead when it's not.

[Teh Don Ditty]

Same problem here. I get the Plug in the upper right but not the beautiful glow. I did notice that my battery performance is slightly abysmal, I think I'm gonna head over to the Apple Store tomorrow and get a new one.

[vlj9r]

Well, mine is now fully charged and there is no glow, people with normal battery life, do you all get the glow?

I got the glow once and that was the only day I enjoyed good battery life.

[iranintoavan]

I am pretty sure I have figured out my problem, if not a lot of peoples problems. I believe that the problem lies within the method of charging it. I assume most people use there phone all day and then charge it when they go to sleep, leaving it in all night. I know I do this and have with all my phones. Well yesterday I charged my phone during the day cause I forgot to at night. I noticed right around the 4 hour mark of when it's to be done charging, the plug at the top corner indicated it was done, but I had no need to use it then so I kept it in. I came back about 30 min later to check it, and it had the big battery completely full and I got the glow! I checked the usage meter and it said 0 min / 0 min. Great.

I still didn't need to use it yet so I walked away. I came back about 2 hours later because I was about to go out and was gonna grab my phone, but I noticed something. The big battery meter went back down to a little sliver left and no glow. I then checked the usage meter and it said 2 hours used/2 hours standby!

So the problem seems to be that when people go to sleep at say midnight and plug it in. It is done charging around 4, gets the glow, and then somehow stops charging and using battery power until you wake up. Therefore having quite a few hours already used before you even unplug it! Hopefully this can be fixed by an update. Sorry for writing a book here but hopefully this will give you guys an idea of whats wrong and possibly try this yourself!

[lanceuppercut]

My iphone has the same problem it does not charge fully, even if I leave it plugged in all night. Please email me if you guys here of a fix thanks,lance:)

[Gundampilotspaz]

Within the last few days I've seen a drop in battery performance, At first I didn't see a drop in the battery after 4 hours of audio usage, but now I see a 20% drop in half the time.

Could this be part of the on going software bug?

In fact, I find that plugging in my phone allows it to adjust the battery life. Sometimes up, sometimes down. This is within seconds of each other.

[javaGuru]

Would anyone happen to know how to display the battery percentage instead of the battery icon? It would be nice to know exactly how much battery life is remaining.

[snahrl]

So....can I charge via the DOCK? is that an acceptable way to charge?

Or should I always charge via the iPhone AC adapter?

I don't like having to unplug the damn cable from the dock just to charge it with the AC adapter, so I hope charging it while plugged into the computer is acceptable...is it, or is it not?

Thanks.

[jsfried]

I heard 2 different things, Genius said charge via AC, phone support said charge via USB.

so I'd say either are good.

[Joshua8o8]

I just got my 10% battery life warning. I was fully charged, seen the plug symbol and think I had the glow. I'm currently at 6 hours of usage and 2 days And seven hours of stand by. I had about 1 hour of talk time and the majority of the rest was Internet use on edge. I think my phone is going to die soon so I'm going to end This now l. Is this a good battery? Wifi and bluetooth was off the whole time and i did not plug it into anything since the last full charge.

[question fear]

I just got my 10% battery life warning. I was fully charged, seen the plug symbol and think I had the glow. I'm currently at 6 hours of usage and 2 days And seven hours of stand by. I had about 1 hour of talk time and the majority of the rest was Internet use on edge. I think my phone is going to die soon so I'm going to end This now l. Is this a good battery? Wifi and bluetooth was off the whole time and i did not plug it into anything since the last full charge.

Apple rates the phone at 6hrs of internet time so yes that's great battery life. Depending on what you are doing you'll get different battery times. Internet is one of the more intensive tasks so you get a lot less battery than, say, listening to music, where the screen can get turned off.

[SaleenS351]

...

[Joshua8o8]

WTF I plugged my phone In at 10 at night and woke up around 8 in the morning to find my phone about 95% charged with the lightning bolt showing in the little battery metter. The usgage was showing 4:30 and 4:30 of stand by. What's going on with this ? I think iranintoavan's theory is correct because my phone would charge fully in the day when I would check it once in a while. So I guess from now on I will charge it during the day and just wait untill I get the full charge. But this isn't rite all my other phones I had I was able to leave it charging over night and not have to worry about it. i hope this problem is fixable by a software update and we wont have to exchange our phones.

[mmccaskill]

When I exchanged mine, the first thing the Genius asked me, multiple times, was "Did you charge it with the wall adapter with the phone off?". Maybe that makes a difference?

[Npalettas]

I've always thought my battery was weak, and today i ran my own testing. After a full wall charge, my iPhone had a 17 hour standby time and four and half hours of usage. My bluetooth is off and my screen brightness is about halfway. So im just curious, am i paranoid or should my battery stats be better if not much better? Thanks!

[Joshua8o8]

mmccaskill: When I exchanged mine, the first thing the Genius asked me, multiple times, was "Did you charge it with the wall adapter with the phone off?". Maybe that makes a difference?


I did charge my phone with the wall adapter and with out the dock ( my phone wont fit in the dock because of the case I use ). How ever my phone was on, i never charged any of other phones when they were off. I never really turned off any of my other phones ever. Do you all think its alright to never turn the iphone off?

[SaleenS351]

I've always thought my battery was weak, and today i ran my own testing. After a full wall charge, my iPhone had a 17 hour standby time and four and half hours of usage. My bluetooth is off and my screen brightness is about halfway. So im just curious, am i paranoid or should my battery stats be better if not much better? Thanks!

I'm in the same boat as you, I got a little over four hours usage and 14 hours stand by, this is after about 3-4 charges, I would expect it to be a bit better than after tonight. So should our stats be better than what we're getting?

[polyun]

I'm actually having the same results with my battery life. Four and a half hours of usage (mixed usage: internet, calls, text, ipod, etc.). I also have the wifi turned off but the brightness at full. I've gone through about 4-5 full charges, have the glowing battery in the morning, etc.

I thought that this was way below the expected battery life so I returned two other previous phones with similar battery lives. Given the battery lives of other users it seems rather short.

[SaleenS351]

I'm actually having the same results with my battery life. Four and a half hours of usage (mixed usage: internet, calls, text, ipod, etc.). I also have the wifi turned off but the brightness at full. I've gone through about 4-5 full charges, have the glowing battery in the morning, etc.

I thought that this was way below the expected battery life so I returned two other previous phones with similar battery lives. Given the battery lives of other users it seems rather short.

Are you saying that your third phone has the same stats of your previous 2, at about 4 1/2 hours usage? What's your stand by time?

[Npalettas]

I went to the apple store during my lunch today and told them about my battery life as explained above. The Genius that was helping me told me the could send it in... and that turnovers were rather quick for the iphone... I asked him about a replacement and he said that their replacment policy was for phones within the first 15 days of activation. After a little bit he came around and swapped mine out for a new one!

I guess the point of my story is that 17 hours of standby time and 4 hours of use is well below the expect performance of the iphones battery. I would go visit your stores rather soon. espically if you fall within the first 15 days of activation! Hope this helps.

[SaleenS351]

I went to the apple store during my lunch today and told them about my battery life as explained above. The Genius that was helping me told me the could send it in... and that turnovers were rather quick for the iphone... I asked him about a replacement and he said that their replacment policy was for phones within the first 15 days of activation. After a little bit he came around and swapped mine out for a new one!

I guess the point of my story is that 17 hours of standby time and 4 hours of use is well below the expect performance of the iphones battery. I would go visit your stores rather soon. espically if you fall within the first 15 days of activation! Hope this helps.

I fall within the 15 days but everything else seems good with my phone, I'll give a few more days to see how it goes. Thanks for letting us know.

What was your typical use on the phone when you were getting poor performance.

[Cybergypsy]

I get 4 or 5 days and 7 hours of use :)

[SaleenS351]

sorry if im being paranoid here but after an hour and a half of light usage and three and a half hours stand by my battery drop to 90%. Should i just exchange it? I just dont want one with more problems

[Npalettas]

Saleen, my usage before replacement:

I've always thought my battery was weak, and today i ran my own testing. After a full wall charge, my iPhone had a 17 hour standby time and four and half hours of usage. My bluetooth is off and my screen brightness is about halfway. So im just curious, am i paranoid or should my battery stats be better if not much better? Thanks!

[polyun]

I get 4 or 5 days and 7 hours of use :)

It's hard to believe you get 7hours of Internet usage. 7 hours of mixed usage with the majority of it being non-Internet browsing is possible I imagine though.

[SaleenS351]

Saleen, my usage before replacement:

What kind of stats are you getting with your replacement?

[polyun]

Let's all try to be accurate and honest in our usage reports folks. I'll try to detail what my actual usage is like:

As with my replacements, and the current iPhone I have (#3) I've been using the internet (edge) for a couple of hours (~2) and emailing, texting, ipodding (~1hr) and I've been roughly getting a little over 4 hours with about 15-17 hours standby. The wifi is usually turned off unless I use it at home. I'm getting the same amount of usage time on all three phones leading me to believe this is about average and that people who post longer hours are simply not using it as intensely as I am doing so.

For the five hour stretches I have been using it in the mornings (with the abovementioned tasks), the battery seems to run down about halfway by the afternoon. The usage reflects about 2 hours. By the evening after a couple more hours of sporadic use I usually get the 10% warning by the evening when I plug it back in to recharge.

I'm coming to think that this is normal, based on the three phones I've used and the threads I've read here and elsewhere. Those who report much longer periods of time are probably not accurately reporting their usage. Try using the internet browser for two hours straight on edge and see if the battery doesn't go down by about 25-30%.

[SaleenS351]

I have read as im sure u have that it takes a couple charges to fully see the real potential. You say u have had 3 phones now ,what's the longest you've kept one? I have a little longer to go on my exchange date so i'm going to give another day or 2 and see if i see a change in stats before i do an exchange. Just food for thought.

[Teh Don Ditty]

Just got back from the Apple Store, and I got a brand new phone.

[SaleenS351]

Update:

After 4th full charge stats at 5% battery life left:

6hr. 1min. usage 13hr. 53min. stand by

normal? still bad?

After my third charge down to about 10% I was at:

4hr. 4min. usage 16hr. 16min. stand by

So I do think it is getting better. I'm going to give it a few more days, I don't think I'm going to run it down all the way over the next few days I'll charge it when I can for a day or two then run it down and see where its at.

Usage was pretty much the same maybe a little less web browsing but more talking and ipod use. Internet on both times was roughly 2+ hours with the majority of it being wifi.

[jamoses66]

Here is my question to all of those with usage times around 4hrs: Is your LCD of the 5 series or the 7 series variety? I ask this because I have now had 3 different iphones, where the first 2 were replaced for hardware defects (no sound out of external speaker, and dead pixel on #2) but both of those got amazing battery life (7+hrs of usage) AND were of the 5 series LCD batch.

However on the phone I currently have it has a 7 series LCD and it only gets around 4 hrs or so of mixed internet/phone use before hitting 10%.

So if those with battery problems could do the following procedure to find out if their LCD is series 5 or 7 and report back I think we might be able to potentially narrow this thing down.

1) Bring up your iPhone Dialpad
2) type *3001#12345#*
3) Press CALL
4) press Versions at the bottom of the list
5) Now your LCD Panel ID should be in that list under firmware version
6) Write down whether the number begins with a 5 or a 7 as that is the series designation of the LCD
7) Post your LCD series and latest battery times on this thread

maybe this will yield some useful stats, maybe not.

-Jordan

[SaleenS351]

interesting. Never knew about this. I have a 5 series with the above stats.

[mrJnC]

I have a 7 series phone. From a full charge to the 20% point:

8 hours usage
2 days, 16 hours standby

sum total... 3 days

[morg0052]

MrJnC, just wanted to know what you used in those eight hours, how much internet, phone, ipod use got those numbers? Thanks

[morg0052]

Just wanted to let everyone know, I just finished doing a test to see what kind of usage I could get if I let the ipod just play music all day and night and see when it died. I ended up with 19 hours and 35 minutes usage and 20 hours and 40 minutes standby, that was with continuous ipod use, about 6 2 minute phone conversations and about 15 text messages, and I was feeling like my battery life was a little bad before when I would talk a lot and use interenet, but I think that is pretty good battery life, for others how does this seem? I know apple got 24 but that was not using the phone at all and probably one long playlist, I had to keep turning it on to keep he music playing. Anyone else done something like this? With these numbers can i give up worrying about battery life?

[Schmoe0013]

I have a version 5 lcd phone

My battery life is good, getting 6+ hours a day of usage, with heavy wifi internet. When i plug it in at night, the battery is at 40-50%.

HOWEVER, when i wake up, i do get the plug, but not the full big battery in the middle. i charge using the wall charger.

I have noticed, 2 times, where i get a full charge with the wall, (plug, but big battery is at 90%..not full). I plug it into the computer, and cycle power (on/off), i get full big battery and plug.

that doesn't happen all the time.

So it looks like i have the software bug, but it doesn't seem to be affecting my battery life, since.. it is working fine for what i use it for. I guess it "could" be bettery, but really have no point of reference.

[mrJnC]

MrJnC, just wanted to know what you used in those eight hours, how much internet, phone, ipod use got those numbers? Thanks

Just a vague estimate...
ipod + video - 2.5 hrs.
phone - 0.5 hrs (I was on a BT link for about an hour but no calls on BT)
internet - 5 hrs? (easier for me to remember phone/ipod usage times and subtract it from the total)

I have mail set to check every hour. WiFi is on, but join available WiFi is not enabled. BT is normally off. 50% brightness setting, auto-brightness enabled. Auto lock set to 1 minute. No syncs were performed during the "test".

Keep in mind that it's taken nearly a month of ownership to get to these numbers. Battery life didn't perform like this out of the box, but it has been steadily improving.

[waterskier2007]

i have a 7 series

i have not noticed any problems whatsoever.

i also get incredible battery life compared to what i have heard. mine will last 2 full days with ipod use for 4 or more hours at least each day, and safari surfing for about an hour each day and talk time of about 20 minutes each day. at the end of 2 days i have about 20 percent remaining at which point i charge it

i do not have the checkerboard or white dots crap

[Kamera RAWr]

Ok, admittedly I didn't read through all 7 pages of this thread, so someone may have already got to this, but after the first 2 or 3 I saw people saying I only have 2 hours of usage and 20 hours stand by, etc. Others saying they have blank usage and standby. Usage seems to refer to something like how much you actually used the phone since the last charge and standby as the amount of time its been "sleeping" without your using it or completely turning it off. If you notice after a charge it goes blank. :o

[Giies]

ok, after reading all your posts, now i'm trying to test my battery life. i had it fully charged yesterday, and haven't sync nor plug it in, now my usage is 4hrs, 41 mins, and standby is 1 day and 1hr, and the battery icon show that it less than half way. i read some of you guys said that it's 80%, 40% or whatever %, is that just an estimation or does it show anywhere on the phone? because i can't find it anywhere. BTW, my usage is mostly music, mail, and web searching with Wifi on (just turn it off actually lol i didn't know you weren't suppose to have it on)

[0s and 1s]

OK. I have a 7* iPhone with a horrible battery life. You be the judge.

With a full charge, the battery died in 11 hours.

- 20 emails sent/received
- wifi off
- BT off
- 15 Min. call
- 50% brightness
- 6 Min. iPod usage (music only; shuffled songs)


Is this normal? It says I have 11 hrs 21 min for standby, and 4 hrs 20 min for usage.

[dominatrix]

i was gonna try to read all the posts, but its too much..

I would like some responses about my battery life , that in my opinion is SUX !!

I've been using a lot my iphone to check emails and internet and the battery is dying very fast.
Today i fully charged my iphone , and now at the end of the day since i unplugged from the power cord:

USAGE: 3:10 mins
STAND BY: 7:15 mins

Current period ( call time ) : 4 hours.

and my battey is almost dead.. just have one bar.

is that normal ?

i just talked a lot on my phone almost 4 hours, and checked email 2 or 3 times and went to some websites. I just cant see 8 hours of talk time , no way thats possible.

thanks.

ob: the CURRENT CALL TIME and USAGE is different things ? because 4 hours of talk time + 3 hours of internet/email = 7 , than im talking ****.. but otherwise, 4 hours is crap.

any help and responde is aprecciate thanks again.

how can i know the serie of my iphone and what that mean ??

[TheShovel]

Found this thread on battery chargers for iPhone and iPod touch.
http://www.touchtip.com/forums/search.php?q=ipod+charger

Looks like a pretty good community site.

[tonykenobi]

hi there, i have a series 5 lcd screen, and my stats are as follows

from a full charge- usage 4hrs 22mins
standby 1 day 19 hrs
call time current period 55mins
edge network data sent 284kb received 1.1mb

i had my 10% left warning a while ago, but it seems to last a good while on that final 10%.

note this is the first time since i got it in 2 weeks ive got my usgae indicator to work.but to be honest, im not really impressed with the above figures.

wifi is only on a few times in that period.no ipod use.auto brightness etc etc.
emails are checked every hour.mostly via edge.

are the above times normal?