Battery Problems with 3.0? Try the "Battery Logging" Setting to gather Logs

[skoops]

Hey guys;

I have created a configuration profile that enables Battery Level Logging on the iPhone with OS 3.0
If you have bad battery life or an unusally warm iphone with a rapidly depleting battery you might want to install this profile in order to gather some additional verbose logging of your Power levels inside the phone.

There's a short description about this on the apple discussion forums here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9677682#9677682

I have replicated the configuration settings in this .mobileconfig file.
You can either use your iPod/iPhone (OS 3.0 only please) to surf directly to
http://bit.ly/powerlog

or download the file to your pc/mac and peek inside with a text editor. You'll quickly notice that it's a simple XML file which instructs your device to enable the PowerLog setting in the Springboard.app.

Sneak edit: After applying the profile you need to restart your phone.

You can un-install this config profile at any time you wish by going to Settings - General - Profiles - "Sync power logs...." - Remove

While it's installed it will automagically sync the power logs to your iTunes - they can then be found here:
Mac OS X: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/Device Name/Powerlog* -The tilde(~) represents the home folder. You can view the folder by clicking Finder> Go> Home.
Windows Vista: C:Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDeviceDevice Name\Powerlog*
Windows XP: C:\Documents and SettingsUsername\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDeviceDevice Name\Powerlog*

[dagomike]

How do we use this info to evaluate our performance?

[skoops]

How do we use this info to evaluate our performance?

You can identify the application that's waking your iphone and depleting your battery. Most power-issues after upgrading to 3.0 result from not-3.0 compatible third party apps.
For example an app might enable the GPS framework to locate you, but may fail to release control over the GPS unit, so GPS stays awake even when you turn the app off and put your phone into standby.

In the powerlog you could see this behavior.

Here's a sample of my very own power-log
http://img.skitch.com/20090624-ficu8t83t1ea8us82drfrn4mdp.png

[dagomike]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

How do you know what app is erroring out there?

[jaycarroll]

Interesting log, it'd be nice to know what to grep for as this grows quickly. Is there a particular string that would indicate an app waking the phone?

[skoops]

I have been using this for the last hour - so I don't have any long time experience analyzing those logs, but there are those recurring lines with the current battery level and usage times...

by combining the elapsed time (using the timestamps) and the remaining battery capacity data you could make out applications which are using a massive amount of energy in a short time period.

I'm sure there are much better options to analyse the logs... I need to find an app (or setting) which depletes my battery really fast in order to have some tangible results in these logs.
Maybe you guys find some useful clues in your own files.

[jaycarroll]

Weird - mediaserverd runs even though I have the phone on silent.

Power Assertions:
mediaserverd (pid 15):
com.apple.audio.VAD Aggregate Device UID 1.isrunning NoIdleSleepAssertion == 255 Held for 00:04:13
SpringBoard (pid 24):
com.apple.springboard.idle NoIdleSleepAssertion == 255 Held for 00:07:01

Note that during the period this log covers the phone was in standby, not being used, along with being switched to silent.

[jaycarroll]

What also stands out to me is that your battery level is at 43 (3812), whereas mine is at: Battery level = 97 [4190]

How is 43% = 3812 and 97% = 4190?? Math class was a while back, but that doesn't add up.

[skoops]

What also stands out to me is that your battery level is at 43 (3812), whereas mine is at: Battery level = 97 [4190]

How is 43% = 3812 and 97% = 4190?? Math class was a while back, but that doesn't add up.

My iPhone is a refurbished one and it's only about a month old. I wonder what these figures mean. It can't be mAh (like they display it on the portable macs) because I really doubt the iPhone has a 8000 mAh battery.

but spoken in pseudo-units it would mean that your battery has a max capacity of about 4300 units and mine is about 8000... What iPhone do you have?

[jaycarroll]

My iPhone is a refurbished one and it's only about a month old. I wonder what these figures mean. It can't be mAh (like they display it on the portable macs) because I really doubt the iPhone has a 8000 mAh battery.

but spoken in pseudo-units it would mean that your battery has a max capacity of about 4300 units and mine is about 8000... What iPhone do you have?

iPhone 3GS 32GB - so, that can't be right

[skoops]

it would be cool if someone else could post his battery data to have some comparison values... preferably with iPhone model information.

EDIT:
It's NOT the capacity information.
I just grepped for "Battery level" and this is what i got:

Wed Jun 24 23:12:24 2009: Battery level = 71 [3953] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:12:34 2009: Battery level = 71 [3982] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:12:36 2009: Battery level = 73 [3982] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:15:34 2009: Battery level = 73 [3964] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:15:44 2009: Battery level = 73 [3994] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:18:44 2009: Battery level = 73 [3970] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:18:54 2009: Battery level = 73 [4000] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:18:59 2009: Battery level = 75 [3988] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:21:54 2009: Battery level = 75 [3982] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:22:04 2009: Battery level = 75 [4017] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:22:06 2009: Battery level = 78 [4017] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:25:04 2009: Battery level = 78 [3994] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:25:14 2009: Battery level = 78 [4023] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA) Call active: no

[jaycarroll]

EDIT:
It's NOT the capacity information.


That's a relief.

I'll let this log for a few hours and grep through it later.

[jaycarroll]

No one else has any results with this? It'd be nice to have a point of comparison.

[MBHockey]

I installed the profile about an hour ago. I will post whatever I've got when I charge it up.

My battery is terrible. I'm down to 30% and haven't even gotten 3 hrs of usage yet. My iPhone 3G lasted well over twice as long with the same exact settings.

[badidio]

hi guys, i had this problem with my 3g 8gb, battery would drain in hours, get very hot an eventually stop charging, i suspect because of the overheating.
took it to apple and got a replacement iphone, worked great but after restoring back up same problems occurred. So def software related.
to solve this for myself i deleted beejive and my mail accounts then i made a new backup. I restored my phone then backed up with my new back up, and the battery problems have gone.
so i'm guessing that any push utilizing apps are going to be your problem here. my method is by no means a fix, more making my phone useable for the moment. its a wide spread problem apparantly and i imagine an update will be needed. Anyway hope this has helped anybody
adam

[dagomike]

I wiped my iPhone clean tonight and reset it all up. I upgraded from a backup, so starting out fresh. If there's a problem in there, or with problem apps, this should root it out. I installed no apps. We'll see how my standby goes tonight and usage tomorrow.

[badidio]

I wiped my iPhone clean tonight and reset it all up. I upgraded from a backup, so starting out fresh. If there's a problem in there, or with problem apps, this should root it out. I installed no apps. We'll see how my standby goes tonight and usage tomorrow.

i would check the push settings for your mail accounts to, this can cause a problem aswell i've been told.
adam

[dagomike]

i would check the push settings for your mail accounts to, this can cause a problem aswell i've been told.
adam

I was using Exchange push on my 2G with no problems. Shouldn't an issue. I don't use any app push.

[MBHockey]

Ok, i've got a ginormous PowerLog now. What should I be looking for? I don't really wanna post the whole thing here...

[kage207]

I like how Push is supposed to be a battery saver but drains "too" much battery for some people. :rolleyes:

Anyways, I got just short of 5 hours usage and over 11 hours of standby time on my original iPhone. I do have Push Notification on for AIM. I got down to about 30% because the notification about being in the 20% didn't pop up. But I usually get 15 hours of standby so I'm really not that worried.

[sseelman]

I like how Push is supposed to be a battery saver but drains "too" much battery for some people. :rolleyes:

I think the point is that Push is supposed to be save battery power compared to the option of having background processes/apps. However, using Push compared to not using it is a different matter. If I remember the stat that Apple used during the WWDC (or maybe the March dev conf), using Push would have about a 21% negative impact on the battery. That may be better than using background processes/apps, but it still is a 21% impact for some (so far) questionable value.

[greekpaz22]

I think the point is that Push is supposed to be save battery power compared to the option of having background processes/apps. However, using Push compared to not using it is a different matter. If I remember the stat that Apple used during the WWDC (or maybe the March dev conf), using Push would have about a 21% negative impact on the battery. That may be better than using background processes/apps, but it still is a 21% impact for some (so far) questionable value.

I thought that push was draining my battery...but i have turned it off today (in recent days i was using it a lot with text free and beejive)...my phone is still draining just as quickly..time to go back to the apple store..

[diamond.g]

My battery seems fine, but I will post the logs later tonight anyways.

[jaycarroll]

I like how Push is supposed to be a battery saver but drains "too" much battery for some people. :rolleyes:

How is push supposed to be a battery saver??

Apple recommends disabling it to increase batt life:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

[diamond.g]

How is push supposed to be a battery saver??

Apple recommends disabling it to increase batt life:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

It saves power relative to having applications running in the background.

[jaycarroll]

It saves power relative to having applications running in the background.

But there's no point of comparison, right? There's never been multitasking on the iPhone. So, we have no idea whether it saves batt life.

[hkip37]

i should of done this last night... went to bed with 20%, woke up with 21%..

[dagomike]

But there's no point of comparison, right? There's never been multitasking on the iPhone. So, we have no idea whether it saves batt life.

Not even close. Having multiple apps running in the background will not only destroy battery, but suck up the CPU for active apps.

PNS is the ideal solution for those who want background services. You should be able to have basically unlimited number of background services with only one connection. Obviously the more notifications you pass, the greater the battery drain, but it seems reasonable that if an app is not passing a notification, there is no additional penalty.

[jaycarroll]

i should of done this last night... went to bed with 20%, woke up with 21%..

Did you sleep or power off when you went to bed?

[diamond.g]

Not even close. Having multiple apps running in the background will not only destroy battery, but suck up the CPU for active apps.

PNS is the ideal solution for those who want background services. You should be able to have basically unlimited number of background services with only one connection. Obviously the more notifications you pass, the greater the battery drain, but it seems reasonable that if an app is not passing a notification, there is no additional penalty.

The biggest thing with push notifications is if you have sound and alert on. I would imagine having to generate a sound and turn the screen on takes more power than just changing the badge.

[tivoboy]

can someone explain how to read this?

[uberamd]

I was doing battery logging in 3.0 beta for Apple because mine was dying quicker in early beta's. An Apple engineer got back to me with the same battery profile. He also made a note to say

The logs are synced to your Mac through iTunes.... The logs have no impact on power, but logs can accumulate disk space if you leave Battery Life Logging on for a few days without syncing, so you will want to shut it off once you have provided the diagnostic information

Remember to do that.

[diamond.g]

I was doing battery logging in 3.0 beta for Apple because mine was dying quicker in early beta's. An Apple engineer got back to me with the same battery profile. He also made a note to say



Remember to do that.

Luckily I have 15 Gb free :D. Plenty of space for some logs.

[sseelman]

But there's no point of comparison, right? There's never been multitasking on the iPhone. So, we have no idea whether it saves batt life.

As Apple relayed at WWDC (or the March dev conf) - they did the testing themselves and found that apps running in the background caused even more than a 21% batter hit. I do not remember the exact number, but it was high. If the 21% hot for Notifications (e.g. Push) turns out to be true - that may be too high of a price to pay for me. Maybe when Facebook adds Notifications - maybe I will turn it back on.

[diamond.g]

Well here is a snippet of time:
Thu Jun 25 09:55:49 2009 (sleep)
Thu Jun 25 09:56:00 2009 (wake): Battery level = 82 [3990] (low = no, critical = no, charging = no) Call active: no
Current drain: -217 mA
Fully charged: no
Wake Reason: menu
No Power Assertions
Usage: 01:58:52 Standby: 04:04:35
Frontmost Application Identifier: SpringBoard
Next Scheduled Power Event:
PersConn-apsd-com.apple.apsd-push.apple.com
Scheduled Wake or Power On
2009-06-25 10:00:55 -0400
WiFi: Disassociated
Bluetooth: OFF Nike: OFF BTAirplaneMode: OFF Discoverable: OFF Connected: NO

Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): There are 3 assertions for PDP context 0:
Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): PersConn-aosnotifyd-com.apple.AOSNotification
Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): PersConn-MobileMail-FDFA78BD-6B8E-4CD6-AF7B-4AB1DD5C8A1E
Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): PersConn-apsd-com.apple.apsd-push.apple.com
Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): Telling PDP context 1 to go inactive.
Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): Telling PDP context 2 to go inactive.
Thu 06/25 09:55:49 (CommCenter:27): Telling PDP context 3 to go inactive.
Thu 06/25 09:55:50 (CommCenter:27): Deactivated PDP context 1 that supports connection types 0x2
Thu 06/25 09:55:50 (configd:20): network configuration changed.
Thu 06/25 09:55:53 (CommCenter:27): Telling CSI to go low power.
Thu 06/25 09:55:53 (CommCenter:27): CSI can enter low power, so now telling to do so.
Thu 06/25 09:55:53 (CommCenter:27): Will sleep. Heard from CSI in 0.00474101 seconds
Thu 06/25 09:55:54 (kernel:0): AirPort: Disabled AppleBCMWLAN (link 1, sys 1, user 1)
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleBCMWLAN::setPOWER() [kernel_task]: Setting power state to 0
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleBCMWLAN::powerOff Ready to power off
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleSynopsysOTGCore::notify : currentMode and calling driver mode doesn't match
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleBCMWLAN::setPowerStateGated() : Powering Off and sleeping
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleBCMWLAN::powerOff Ready to power off
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleMultitouchN1SPI: disabled power
Thu 06/25 09:55:54 (kernel:0): System Sleep
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): pmu wake events: menu
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): System Wake
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleBCMWLAN::setPowerStateGated() : Powering On
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AirPort: Enabled AppleBCMWLAN (link 1, sys 0, user 1)
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleBCMWLAN::setPOWER() [kernel_task]: Setting power state to 1
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (CommCenter:27): Telling CSI to exit low power.
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleMultitouchN1SPI: enabled power, scheduled bootloading
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleD1755PMUPowerSource: AppleUSBCableDetect 0
Thu 06/25 09:56:00 (kernel:0): AppleD1755PMUPowerSource: AppleUSBCableDetect 0
The rest is in the zip file below.

[allen099]

I just downloaded the battery log info from Diamond and scrolled to the bottom...looks like there is no battery drain (-5ma) when the battery is on the charger. I am getting a 76ma drain while it's at 100% and on the charger. Am I correct to think this is a problem?

[diamond.g]

I just downloaded the battery log info from Diamond and scrolled to the bottom...looks like there is no battery drain (-5ma) when the battery is on the charger. I am getting a 76ma drain while it's at 100% and on the charger. Am I correct to think this is a problem?

Actually a positive drain number indicates charging. The negative number shows an actual drain. So in my case the phone was 100% charged and it started to do the float charging (where the unit discharges to a certain point then recharges).

[allen099]

Yes so in my case, sadly the battery is draining even while it's on the charger and at 100% charge. How many charge cycles have you put yours through already, diamond? Thanks for the reply btw.

[diamond.g]

Yes so in my case, sadly the battery is draining even while it's on the charger and at 100% charge. How many charge cycles have you put yours through already, diamond? Thanks for the reply btw.

I believe the file says 6. I am not sure how often it updates.

[diamond.g]

Here is another upload, this time for the week of the 28th.

[allen099]

Thanks Diamond. How as your battery life been in the past few weeks since we've spoken? Has going through the charge cycle a few more times increased the life? What's your usage now? My average is about 6 hours on 3G with Push email/notifications on, and location services on.

[diamond.g]

Thanks Diamond. How as your battery life been in the past few weeks since we've spoken? Has going through the charge cycle a few more times increased the life? What's your usage now? My average is about 6 hours on 3G with Push email/notifications on, and location services on.

It run concurrent to my usage pattern. On days where I use a lot (internet movies and tv shows) my battery life is short. I will say I haven't had it die on me yet. I think I get about the same amount of usage, with same settings as you.

[gsand334]

i should of done this last night... went to bed with 20%, woke up with 21%..

They don't teach you basic grammar and spelling in Georgia? :cool:

[Fastfox]

Please help me i ve no Profil Menü in my controls
how can i manually deinstall the powerlog Tool
its buggin me with the Logs it created

I ve Terminal and ifile to use

[whbenson]

Hey guys;

I have created a configuration profile that enables Battery Level Logging on the iPhone with OS 3.0
...
While it's installed it will automagically sync the power logs to your iTunes - they can then be found here:

The iphone configuration utility refuses to install this on my iPod Touch 2G running iOS4. Do you have a version for iOS4? or can you suggest what needs to be changed in the XML?

FWIW, the battery drain may(?) be due to persistent wifi. There are entries in the log file like this:
Sun Aug 22 13:46:06 unknown kernel[0] <Debug>: AppleBCMWLAN::powerOff(): We are associated and Wake on WLAN is enabled, wifi is staying up!

Any ideas how to disable persistence? (other than airplane mode)

[diamond.g]

The iphone configuration utility refuses to install this on my iPod Touch 2G running iOS4. Do you have a version for iOS4? or can you suggest what needs to be changed in the XML?

FWIW, the battery drain may(?) be due to persistent wifi. There are entries in the log file like this:
Sun Aug 22 13:46:06 unknown kernel[0] <Debug>: AppleBCMWLAN::powerOff(): We are associated and Wake on WLAN is enabled, wifi is staying up!

Any ideas how to disable persistence? (other than airplane mode)

Turn WiFi off when you aren't going to use it for long periods of time.

I was under the impression that Persistent WiFi was only active when plugged into a power source. Is that not the case?

[whbenson]

Turn WiFi off when you aren't going to use it for long periods of time.

I was under the impression that Persistent WiFi was only active when plugged into a power source. Is that not the case?

nope. FWIW, you can get an idea what's happening by bringing up the free app called BatteryGraph and then putting the Touch to sleep. If you leave it that way overnight and then wake it up in the morning, the graph shows a steady decline from 100% to 75%.