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bbplayer5

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 13, 2007
3,134
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Is it a myth that enabling push on your phone drains the battery? I have a low volume mobile me account on the phone, but was wondering if that is STILL draining the battery? I see people turning their push off for this reason... Any truth to this? I was under the assumption that push was to promote good battery life?
 
I for one THINK, I'm not sure, THINK that it doesn't affect battery drain too much. I leave 3G on all day with Push enabled on two accounts and location services turned on. I have at least 3-4 hours of usage time every day as well. It is off of the charger from 6 AM until 11PM and I frequently have more than half a battery left every night. :D
 
Is it a myth that enabling push on your phone drains the battery? I have a low volume mobile me account on the phone, but was wondering if that is STILL draining the battery? I see people turning their push off for this reason... Any truth to this? I was under the assumption that push was to promote good battery life?
No, it's not a myth -- push drains battery. Some people get confused becuase push was originally designed to conserve power on the iPhone. But that is no longer the case -- push will cut your battery life by about 20%.
 
I keep 3g and push on , my battery hasn't suffered at all.

Compared to regulare pulls, I'm saving battery life.
 
How about this... If im out and I get a new contact and put it in my phone. After that, I turn push ON for a minute to let it push my new contact to the cloud, then turn it back off. Will it work that way?
 
Well of course push will use more batter than manual (as long as you dont check it every 10 mins manually)

If you put fetch on and have it check ever 15 or 30 mins you will drain your battery faster than push. So if you want know about your emails without checking manually, push is the way to go. You get instant notification as well as saving battery by only getting messages when they come in and not checking the server every 15 mins
 
Well of course push will use more batter than manual (as long as you dont check it every 10 mins manually)

If you put fetch on and have it check ever 15 or 30 mins you will drain your battery faster than push. So if you want know about your emails without checking manually, push is the way to go. You get instant notification as well as saving battery by only getting messages when they come in and not checking the server every 15 mins


Perfect, thats what I wanted to know :) I love push, and cant see myself turning it off!
 
Some people get confused becuase push was originally designed to conserve power on the iPhone.



actually "push" was never designed specifically to conserve power for the iPhone. In fact when "push" there was no iPhone.

I think what you ment was the 2.0 software was designed with push, to conserve power on the iPhone. :p



On another note, Push DOES INDEED save battery life... FOR SOME. Before push, if you pulled your email manually, obviously push would use more power. But to those people who polled servers automatically every 15 minutes before push came out for the iPhone, IT DOES conserve battery, by A LOT.
 
It's not a myth. I can tell you absolutely without any doubt that it does have an effect. Is it huge? Well that depends if you use it in conjunction with Edge or 3G.

My BB Pearl only supports Edge...if I use my iPhone w/push over Edge the battery drain is very comparable to my BB. i.e. - not bad at all. It's more than if I turn it off, but really not a huge deal at all.

Now if I turn on 3G it drains a LOT faster.

So my conclusion is push in and of itself does effect battery life, but not in a major, major way...it's the technology you pair it with (Edge or 3G) that seems to have a much greater effect. At least in my case.

YMMV!
 
I was under the assumption that push was to promote good battery life?

Push's PRIMARY purpose is to get information to you as quickly as possible.

Using less battery (than a constant Fetch) is a secondary consideration, and doesn't necessarily happen. A push could easily end up pinging the server just as often as a fetch does, because it must keep the network connection open.

For example, on a EDGE phone, it falls down if you get a phone call that interrupts the data connection. Mobile carriers can also have as low as a ten minute connection timeout somewhere in their system, forcing a ping more often.

Note: We cannot compare push on the Blackberry to IMAP or Exchange push. Push on a BB does not require pinging the server to keep a connection open.
 
I'm using Push as it seemed to have a rather negligible effect on my battery life. Other factors, such as 3G and Location services seem to have a bigger impact on battery life for me.
 
Push's PRIMARY purpose is to get information to you as quickly as possible.

Using less battery (than a constant Fetch) is a secondary consideration, and doesn't necessarily happen. A push could easily end up pinging the server just as often as a fetch does, because it must keep the network connection open.

For example, on a EDGE phone, it falls down if you get a phone call that interrupts the data connection. Mobile carriers can also have as low as a ten minute connection timeout somewhere in their system, forcing a ping more often.

Note: We cannot compare push on the Blackberry to IMAP or Exchange push. Push on a BB does not require pinging the server to keep a connection open.

+1 on this post. This person knows of what they speak.

(also, I should point out, I have push on an email account and my battery is life routinely 5+ hour usage, 24+ hour standby, with plenty of battery bar left)
 
Someone else pointed this out earlier in a thread about blackberry and iphone.

Apparently iphone's push method is really a workaround, which the phone keeps the server connection alive by ping. Essentially it's the same as if you have the setting set as fetch at 5 second interval.

I am merely paraphrasing, but the above would explain why push drains battery.
 
Someone else pointed this out earlier in a thread about blackberry and iphone.

Apparently iphone's push method is really a workaround, which the phone keeps the server connection alive by ping. Essentially it's the same as if you have the setting set as fetch at 5 second interval.

I am merely paraphrasing, but the above would explain why push drains battery.

There's no way this is right.

Push does not drain the battery like fetching every 5 minutes (let alone every 5 seconds).
 
Why don't you offer your explanation.

I'll do some digging for support.

Well ... I mean from just use and real-world testing.

Have you tried setting your phone to fetch every 5 minutes, and then checked on it after sleeping for 8 hours? Is that the same as having push turned on and leaving it for 8 hours? On my phone it isn't.

(But, seeing as how some people on here need to restore their iPhones 13 times everyday .. I guess anything's possible)
 
Well ... I mean from just use and real-world testing.

Have you tried setting your phone to fetch every 5 minutes, and then checked on it after sleeping for 8 hours? Is that the same as having push turned on and leaving it for 8 hours? On my phone it isn't.

(But, seeing as how some people on here need to restore their iPhones 13 times everyday .. I guess anything's possible)
I guess you don't understand what I said. Fetch on iphone can only be set at 15 minute minimum. I am saying that "push" is essentially fetch without interval, and thus having it run in the background non-stop, it drains your battery. This explanation makes the most sense why push drains battery. Similar to why "location service" also drains the battery.
 
I guess you don't understand what I said. Fetch on iphone can only be set at 15 minute minimum. I am saying that "push" is essentially fetch without interval, and thus having it run in the background non-stop, it drains your battery. This explanation makes the most sense why push drains battery. Similar to why "location service" also drains the battery.

Ok fine ... change my "5" to a "15"; my point remains.


EDIT - and no, Push is not fetch without interval. Think of Push more like SMS. SMSes get sent ("pushed") to your phone, your phone isn't asking ("fetching") the network every second to see if there's a text message waiting - the network "pushes" those to your phone.
 
Ok fine ... change my "5" to a "15"; my point remains.


EDIT - and no, Push is not fetch without interval. Think of Push more like SMS. SMSes get sent ("pushed") to your phone, your phone isn't asking ("fetching") the network every second to see if there's a text message waiting - the network "pushes" those to your phone.
What point? Are you comparing leaving the phone on fetch at 15 minute interval and having push on?

Running fetch every 15 minutes as oppose to having push run in the background non-stop is not the same, how do they compare?

Edit as well: I am merely copying someone else' thought, which makes sense to me. That's why I said iPhone push is a "workaround", not a true push. If it is indeed a true push, there's no reason why it drains the battery if it's a true push.
 
What point? Are you comparing leaving the phone on fetch at 15 minute interval and having push on?

Running fetch every 15 minutes as oppose to having push run in the background non-stop is not the same, how do they compare?

Dude ... how can you say that Push drains the battery as much as setting fetch to 15 minutes?

Just, for your own sake, do a little test over the weekend - and YOU tell US what your findings are.
 
Personally, I haven't seen a difference in my battery life when I have 3 mail accounts to push.

However, I wonder since it runs all the time, would push affect the iPhone's performance?
 
Edit as well: I am merely copying someone else' thought, which makes sense to me. That's why I said iPhone push is a "workaround", not a true push. If it is indeed a true push, there's no reason why it drains the battery if it's a true push.

Right, exactly -- push barely drains the battery. We agree!
 
Buddy, again, you are not arguing with me, I am paraphrasing. I know push drains battery, it is tested and proven.

This is a phone dude, settle down...

I will refer you the original poster who has said that push is really a long fetch:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/536002/

haha, settle down? Man I'm just trying to tell ya the guy you're paraphrasing may be wrong. No all caps or flames from me, homes. :cool:

But still ... do a full day with Push/off and Fetch/15. Then do a full day of Push/On and Fetch/Off. Maybe you'll see what I've seen .....
 
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