iPhone 3GS battery drained EACH morning ... ?

[mgpg89]

I have my iPhone 3GS for 3 days now (my first iPhone btw) and every morning so far, the battery has been empty.

Last night for example, I went to sleep with about half a charge left and this morning, it was empty. (WiFi was off, bluetooth was off)

Is there something I'm not seeing here?

thanks!

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

I don't mean to state the obvious, but if my battery was dead 'every morning,' I'd probably leave it on the charger overnight. ;)

[SFC Archer]

Two things to test and make sure you do not have a bad battery.

1) Close all open Safari Web pages unitl only the white blank page is left.

2) Before closing your eyes for the night...turn OFF your iphone for about 10 sec and turn it back on and do not touch anything.

3) If it still drains, remove all your apps and see what happens overnight.

If that all fails...take your phone back, you have a bad battery.

[mgpg89]

Two things to test and make sure you do not have a bad battery.

1) Close all open Safari Web pages unitl only the white blank page is left.

2) Before closing your eyes for the night...turn OFF your iphone for about 10 sec and turn it back on and do not touch anything.

3) If it still drains, remove all your apps and see what happens overnight.

If that all fails...take your phone back, you have a bad battery.

Thanks, I'll try that!

[JayLenochiniMac]

You're not fully charging it. You probably unplug once it appears full, but isn't really full.

However, why the heck would you go to sleep for 8 hours with half a charge when you could be charging all this time?

[Eddyisgreat]

3G/Push/Fetch(with short updates) will easily destroy battery life.

Display brightness also makes a difference (although not if its draining overnight).

[mgpg89]

However, why the heck would you go to sleep for 8 hours with half a charge when you could be charging all this time?

Because my dock (to charge) is in the other room and I want to use it as an alarm clock.

And because I expect my €675 phone's battery to last a night in sleep mode.

[geekmommy4]

Because my dock (to charge) is in the other room and I want to use it as an alarm clock.

And because I expect my €675 phone's battery to last a night in sleep mode.

The iPhone makes a great alarm clock, so after checking out your battery to make sure it's good, you might want to invest in another charging cable for your bedside table. I've been using mine that way for 1 1/2 years and it's the best alarm that I've ever had and I wake up with a full charge every morning!

[AustinSTI]

Two things to test and make sure you do not have a bad battery.

1) Close all open Safari Web pages unitl only the white blank page is left.

2) Before closing your eyes for the night...turn OFF your iphone for about 10 sec and turn it back on and do not touch anything.

3) If it still drains, remove all your apps and see what happens overnight.

If that all fails...take your phone back, you have a bad battery.

In addition to this when you go to sleep note the usage and standby times. When you get up in the morning note them again. If they aren't that divergant then you probably have an app running in the background or something running amock on your phone. This weekend my brand new 3GS has this problem. After taking it off the charger usage and standby numbers were identical and I basically just left it on the desk for an hour. That should not have been the case at all. What I think happened is something carried over from a backup because I restored the firmware, restored from backup and it was still occuring. I then took everything off my phone except my contacts (emails, Apps, everything), backed it up, restored the firmware again, restored the backup with just my contacts and then checked usage/standby numbers. From there everything looked like it was ok so I stated adding mail accounts and things back in. Everything is fine now. I'm not quite sure what it was but the phone works fine :)

[t0mat0]

I'd imagine Push/ regular fetch is a big part. Put it on manual for an evening and see how much charge keeps.

[synagence]

Regardless of whatever i've been doing on my iphone the sleep discharge rate for me is about 1% per hour .... i went to bed with iphone at around 38% last night and it was about 30% this morning ... i would take yours back ...

U shouldn't need to shut anything off prior to sleep to allow the phone to not discharge that much overnight

[mgpg89]

I'd imagine Push/ regular fetch is a big part. Put it on manual for an evening and see how much charge keeps.

I had it on manual ...

[mgpg89]

In addition to this when you go to sleep note the usage and standby times. When you get up in the morning note them again. If they aren't that divergant then you probably have an app running in the background or something running amock on your phone. This weekend my brand new 3GS has this problem. After taking it off the charger usage and standby numbers were identical and I basically just left it on the desk for an hour. That should not have been the case at all. What I think happened is something carried over from a backup because I restored the firmware, restored from backup and it was still occuring. I then took everything off my phone except my contacts (emails, Apps, everything), backed it up, restored the firmware again, restored the backup with just my contacts and then checked usage/standby numbers. From there everything looked like it was ok so I stated adding mail accounts and things back in. Everything is fine now. I'm not quite sure what it was but the phone works fine :)

How do usage and standby times work?
Standby = sleep mode
Usage = when you're actually using the device ?

So after sleeping, the standby should have increased and the usage should've stayed the same, right?

I didn't revert my 3GS from a back-up... configured it as a new phone.

[mgpg89]

Regardless of whatever i've been doing on my iphone the sleep discharge rate for me is about 1% per hour .... i went to bed with iphone at around 38% last night and it was about 30% this morning ... i would take yours back ...

U shouldn't need to shut anything off prior to sleep to allow the phone to not discharge that much overnight

I'll call Apple in a bit ...

[AustinSTI]

How do usage and standby times work?
Standby = sleep mode
Usage = when you're actually using the device ?

So after sleeping, the standby should have increased and the usage should've stayed the same, right?

I didn't revert my 3GS from a back-up... configured it as a new phone.

Yeah that's basically it.

Standby = Phone not doing anything but standing by
Usage = anything that the phone does with voice, data, sms. Send email, recieve email, send/recieve sms, browse web page, get a call, use an app all count to usage. therefore is something is running and running in the background like a leftover process, or an email account stuck in fetch mode, usage will just go up and up and up with Standby (cause the phone is never really standing by).

Usage should never be >= Standby

[AustinSTI]

I'd imagine Push/ regular fetch is a big part. Put it on manual for an evening and see how much charge keeps.


Meh that's not true. Push is dependent on how many emails the op gets in the overnight period. 1 email = 1 push. Fetch is dependant on the interval set. If its set to manual then yes push will always consume more.

If he has it set to fetch every hour, that's say 8 hours or 8 fetchs.
If he only gets 5 emails push will consume less battery than fetch.

[mgpg89]

I'll be out the house for a couple of hours now and I'll submit it to some on the field testing ...

Some calling, the occasional app while waiting somewhere, editing my calendar etc. I switched on battery percentage mode so I can report back when I get home in a couple of hours. Leaving with a full charge. Wish me luck haha

[Rat-Boy]

Actually, don't be fooled.

Standby Time = Time turned on.

Usage Time = Time phone is in use.

In other words, if you pull your phone off the charger in the morning at 8 AM, then by 5 PM, it will say 9 hours of Stand By time no matter how much you use the phone.

The Stand By label is really misleading.

Now, if those two times stay even, then you have something running in the back ground that shouldn't be.

[mgpg89]

Actually, don't be fooled.

Standby Time = Time turned on.

Usage Time = Time phone is in use.

In other words, if you pull your phone off the charger in the morning at 8 AM, then by 5 PM, it will say 9 hours of Stand By time no matter how much you use the phone.

The Stand By label is really misleading.

Now, if those two times stay even, then you have something running in the back ground that shouldn't be.

Alright, so usage time can NEVER be higher than standby time?

Quite a misleading label, indeed.
Good to know though, thanks!

I'll even add a Nike+ running session to the field testing ;-)

[crzy4ifone]

I just got my phone on Sat and last night wanted to see how much it drained overnight. I was at 91% when I went to bed and woke up at 85%. I have all my apps off when I'm not using like Push, GPS, Bluetooth etc...

Try charging fully, turn off all your apps and then see what it looks like in the am before taking in. Good Luck;)

[Rat-Boy]

Alright, so usage time can NEVER be higher than standby time?Nope.

Well, unless your phone is seriously messed up.

Never say never... :D

[JayLenochiniMac]

Because my dock (to charge) is in the other room and I want to use it as an alarm clock.

And because I expect my €675 phone's battery to last a night in sleep mode.

Fine, but that indicates you're charging it during the day and remove from the dock when you think it appears full, but not really fully charged. As in laptops, battery charges up quickly then slows down until fully charged. You've not been fully charging the battery. My suggestion is to get another cable (no dock) and plug it in next to your bed.

[Rat-Boy]

I don't pretend to be the iPhone battery king of knowledge by any stretch.

But I do the same thing with my 3GS that I did with my 3G.

I plug it up when I go to bed, let it charge over night, and then un-plug it in the morning when I get up.

I do this no matter where my battery % is when I go to bed.

Then, once a month, I let the phone run all the way down and fully charge to calibrate the battery.

[javaGuru]

Two things to test and make sure you do not have a bad battery.

1) Close all open Safari Web pages unitl only the white blank page is left.

2) Before closing your eyes for the night...turn OFF your iphone for about 10 sec and turn it back on and do not touch anything.

3) If it still drains, remove all your apps and see what happens overnight.

If that all fails...take your phone back, you have a bad battery.

I would even take this a step farther. After turning the iPhone back on set it to airplane mode so no network activity can occur. It will probably charge better this way.

[sseelman]

I too was unhappy with my 3GS battery life, but now it is really good. I let the 3GS die twice and recharged it to full. Now, I just top it off after I hit about 30%. I also turned off 3G, notifications and bluetooth. I turn them on when I need them. My latest numbers are:

Battery: 41%
Usage: 5 Hours, 14 Minutes
Standby: 1 Day, 3 Hours (e.g. 27 hours)
Call Time: 28 minutes

I use wi-fi at home all the time, and only turn on 3G when needed out of the home.

In a perfect world, I could have all services on and get the same battery life. It is not a perfect world, and I make compromises based on what is important to me.

[TroyBoy30]

I would even take this a step farther. After turning the iPhone back on set it to airplane mode so no network activity can occur. It will probably charge better this way.

It would be even better if they would allow you to charge the phone while it's off!

[samcraig]

"It would be even better if they would allow you to charge the phone while it's off! "


I charge at night with the phone turned off and have had no problem....

[diamond.g]

It would be even better if they would allow you to charge the phone while it's off!

You can turn the phone off after plugging it in.

[ntrigue]

Just to introduce a control:

I charge my 3GS to 100% then put it in Airplane Mode, set the alarm, and unplug it. It takes 6 hours to go to 99% and 8 hours to go to 98%.

Schedule a Genius Bar visit.

[mgpg89]

Alright, did some testing today:

Started with a 100% charged battery.

Use: 2h 47m
Stand-by: 4h 14m

Activities:
- 1 call
- 5 text messages
- a 30 minuten Nike+ workout with music
- taking some photos (max. 3 minutes)

All with WiFi off / Bluetooth off and a pretty dim screen.

Now my battery's 48% ... that's ridiculous, right?


Options:
a) there's a background app running that's eating away my battery life (I don't know how likely this is?)
b) my battery IS indeed seriously messed up.

a call to all long-time iPhone users out there ... what should I do?

[Rat-Boy]

Alright, did some testing today:

Started with a 100% charged battery.

Use: 2h 47m
Stand-by: 4h 14m

Activities:
- 1 call
- 5 text messages
- a 30 minuten Nike+ workout with music
- taking some photos (max. 3 minutes)

All with WiFi off / Bluetooth off and a pretty dim screen.

Now my battery's 48% ... that's ridiculous, right?


Options:
a) there's a background app running that's eating away my battery life (I don't know how likely this is?)
b) my battery IS indeed seriously messed up.

a call to all long-time iPhone users out there ... what should I do?How long was the call?

That battery % is good based on that usage (2 hours, 47 minutes).

So the question is, did you really use the phone for 2 hours and 47 minutes.

[mgpg89]

How long was the call?

That battery % is good based on that usage (2 hours, 47 minutes).

So the question is, did you really use the phone for 2 hours and 47 minutes.

The call was 3 minutes. Just checked.

And if I had to put my money on it, I'd say I actually used the phone for about an hour and a half.

[d21mike]

Alright, did some testing today:

Started with a 100% charged battery.

Use: 2h 47m
Stand-by: 4h 14m

Activities:
- 1 call
- 5 text messages
- a 30 minuten Nike+ workout with music
- taking some photos (max. 3 minutes)

All with WiFi off / Bluetooth off and a pretty dim screen.

Now my battery's 48% ... that's ridiculous, right?


Options:
a) there's a background app running that's eating away my battery life (I don't know how likely this is?)
b) my battery IS indeed seriously messed up.

a call to all long-time iPhone users out there ... what should I do?

The key is here: Use: 2h 47m
How long was that phone call? My guess is "a". This happens from time to time. When it happens to me I just reboot and I am ok until it happens again.

[diamond.g]

How is your signal strength, and are you using 3G or EDGE when making the phone calls?

[mgpg89]

How is your signal strength, and are you using 3G or EDGE when making the phone calls?

Signal strength was pretty good (4 out of 5 bars) and I wasn't using 3G ... don't really know what EDGE is, though? (sorry haha)

[paulsalter]

and I wasn't using 3G ... don't really know what EDGE is, though? (sorry haha)

3G is fastest
Edge is next fastest (E symbol)
GPRS is slowest (little circle symbol)

I dont have the 3GS, I have the original 3G and I notice exactly the same problems as you (during daytime the battery is fine, but dies very quickly over night)

IMO, its do to with not being on 3G, I only get GPRS at home, so wonder if it is constantly looking for a 3g signal even though it will never find it, causing the battery to drain quicker than normal

Be interested to hear a fix, for me though i just put it on charge over night

[Keebler]

as someone else mentioned:

1. change the push settings to manual (if not, the phone keeps cycling to check msgs)

and 2. turn your location services off. no need for the gps to be checking your location if you don't need it.

I found this made a huge difference to my 3G battery time (still waiting for my 3Gs :)

[mgpg89]

3G is fastest
Edge is next fastest (E symbol)
GPRS is slowest (little circle symbol)

I dont have the 3GS, I have the original 3G and I notice exactly the same problems as you (during daytime the battery is fine, but dies very quickly over night)

IMO, its do to with not being on 3G, I only get GPRS at home, so wonder if it is constantly looking for a 3g signal even though it will never find it, causing the battery to drain quicker than normal

Be interested to hear a fix, for me though i just put it on charge over night

Don't have a 3G subscription, but when I'm not using WiFi, I get that little circle symbol you speak of.


Does anyone know of an equivalent to Bossprefs in the jailbreaking community. A simple app that lets you toggle Wifi/bluetooth/3G/edge/etc ... on and off really quick, without having to scroll through layers of screens in the Settings?

[mgpg89]

as someone else mentioned:

1. change the push settings to manual (if not, the phone keeps cycling to check msgs)

and 2. turn your location services off. no need for the gps to be checking your location if you don't need it.

I found this made a huge difference to my 3G battery time (still waiting for my 3Gs :)

I left location services ON ... maybe that's what causing my trouble?

[anjinha]

I left location services ON ... maybe that's what causing my trouble?

Location services doesn't drain your battery just by being on. It will only drain your battery if you actually use an app that uses the GPS.

Before going to sleep reboot your phone. Sometimes an app doesn't close properly and keeps running, draining your battery. Rebooting makes sure everything is closed. If the battery still drains during the night just take it to an Apple Store.

[mgpg89]

Location services doesn't drain your battery just by being on. It will only drain your battery if you actually use an app that uses the GPS.

Before going to sleep reboot your phone. Sometimes an app doesn't close properly and keeps running, draining your battery. Rebooting makes sure everything is closed. If the battery still drains during the night just take it to an Apple Store.

Alright, I'll re-enable location services then and report back tomorrow morning ...

Thanks for the help so far, guys!

[mgpg89]

Oh and one more thing ... what does airplane mode do?

Would it be wise to enable that before going to sleep? Or won't I be able to receive calls/messages as well?

[Rat-Boy]

Oh and one more thing ... what does airplane mode do?It cuts off ALL network protocols.

WIFI, Edge, 3G, etc.

No data will be received by the phone.

[mgpg89]

It cuts off ALL network protocols.

WIFI, Edge, 3G, etc.

No data will be received by the phone.

OK, not doing that. Thanks

[myk13]

Oh and one more thing ... what does airplane mode do?

Would it be wise to enable that before going to sleep? Or won't I be able to receive calls/messages as well?

you will receive no phone calls/text messages anything like that.

[SFC Archer]

Base on your use and your descriptions and your lack of reply to my previous post. I know what most of your problem is and that is you need to understand and know how to use your iPhone.

1ST You need to know if you are in a 3G or Edge service area. If you are in a Edge or Lower service area ONLY then you need to turn OFF the 3G option...this will KILL your battery. Go to Settings, General, Network and it says right there in fine blue print "Using 3G loads data faster, BUT may decrease battery life" If you are in a non 3G service area, you will kill your battery while it is constantly trying to search for 3G service. Turn it OFF until you go to the big city and need it.

2ND If you have Safari Web pages open in Safari App...IT WILL continue to run in the background, refreshing and whatever else that page does. I told you to close all web pages until just the white blank page remains.

3RD There ARE poorly made apps out there that do not shut down properly when they are closed. The Google App used to do this to me and would drain my battery in less then 2 hours until I found out that this was the app doing it. You may have another bad app...thus the reason I told you to shut down your iPhone before you go to sleep...closes ALL apps...then turn it back on without activating any apps.

At this point note your Usage time and your Stand by time on a sheet of paper and go to bed. Then in the morning activate and compare the standby and usage time. This will ANSWER all of your questions. Do a battery test during the day while actively doing life things is not the way to test if you have a bad battery.

I tried to assist you and you did not even try...this is the last post I will make in trying to assist you and tell you how to do it....IT HAPPENED TO ME and this is how you figure it out.

Good LUCK

[mgpg89]

Base on your use and your descriptions and your lack of reply to my previous post. I know what most of your problem is and that is you need to understand and know how to use your iPhone.

1ST You need to know if you are in a 3G or Edge service area. If you are in a Edge or Lower service area ONLY then you need to turn OFF the 3G option...this will KILL your battery. Go to Settings, General, Network and it says right there in fine blue print "Using 3G loads data faster, BUT may decrease battery life" If you are in a non 3G service area, you will kill your battery while it is constantly trying to search for 3G service. Turn it OFF until you go to the big city and need it.

2ND If you have Safari Web pages open in Safari App...IT WILL continue to run in the background, refreshing and whatever else that page does. I told you to close all web pages until just the white blank page remains.

3RD There ARE poorly made apps out there that do not shut down properly when they are closed. The Google App used to do this to me and would drain my battery in less then 2 hours until I found out that this was the app doing it. You may have another bad app...thus the reason I told you to shut down your iPhone before you go to sleep...closes ALL apps...then turn it back on without activating any apps.

At this point note your Usage time and your Stand by time on a sheet of paper and go to bed. Then in the morning activate and compare the standby and usage time. This will ANSWER all of your questions. Do a battery test during the day while actively doing life things is not the way to test if you have a bad battery.

I tried to assist you and you did not even try...this is the last post I will make in trying to assist you and tell you how to do it....IT HAPPENED TO ME and this is how you figure it out.

Good LUCK

Sorry if it seems I just disregarded your previous post, but I simply haven't 'gone to bed' since my first post, so I couldn't have tried your suggestions yet ... I was planning on doing that tonight though!

I shut 3G down and closed all open Safari pages.
I'll note the times before I go to sleep and restart the iPhone down.

You'll hear from me in the morning!
Thanks a lot for your help

[JBaker122586]

I too was unhappy with my 3GS battery life, but now it is really good. I let the 3GS die twice and recharged it to full. Now, I just top it off after I hit about 30%. I also turned off 3G, notifications and bluetooth. I turn them on when I need them. My latest numbers are:

Battery: 41%
Usage: 5 Hours, 14 Minutes
Standby: 1 Day, 3 Hours (e.g. 27 hours)
Call Time: 28 minutes

I use wi-fi at home all the time, and only turn on 3G when needed out of the home.

In a perfect world, I could have all services on and get the same battery life. It is not a perfect world, and I make compromises based on what is important to me.


You should make the compromise of just plugging it in before bed every night, and then you wouldn't have to turn any of that other stuff off...

[MasterTick]

I wish there was a way the phone would turn on 3G when it leaves the WiFi zone.

[diamond.g]

I wish there was a way the phone would turn on 3G when it leaves the WiFi zone.

The downside is if you are in a call in EDGE you cannot switch to 3G. You have to start a call in 3G to be able to use data at the same time.

[Coraline]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have no clue when it comes to my phone's battery. Can anyone tell me if these are decent results?

The usage time includes multiple emails, texts, about an hour of listening to my iPod and a tiny bit of web surfing.

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/5818/usage.jpg

[JBaker122586]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have no clue when it comes to my phone's battery. Can anyone tell me if these are decent results?

The usage time includes multiple emails, texts, about an hour of listening to my iPod and a tiny bit of web surfing.

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/5818/usage.jpg

Those are good results. I'm about half an hour behind you in standby and just over 1 hour in usage right now, and I'm at 77%, so those results seem fairly consistent.

[Badandy]

For all the people just telling him to charge it change all his settings: There is something wrong with his battery.

3G
GPS: on
WiFi: on
Push: on
Fetch: 30 min
alarm: set

8 hour battery drain? ~15% max.

[mgpg89]

OK, just woke up, here are the stats:


I shut the iPhone down and started it back up when I went to sleep:
Battery charge: 89%
Use: 6h 30m
Stand-by: 8h

(WiFi and BT off)


When I woke back up, about 6 hours later (short night, have to work in a bit) these were the stats:

Battery charge: 0%
Use: 11h 27m
Stand-by: 14h 9m


Apparently the phone has been 'in use' for about 5 hours while I was asleep ...
so do you think it's time to:
a) find out which app is causing this trouble
b) call apple and get a replacement?

Thanks in advance

[deliriousfenk]

Could it be the alarm clock you're using? I have alarmtunes and i left it on without the charger, and the charge dropped 30% overnight. I guess that's nothing compared to 89% though...

[anjinha]

OK, just woke up, here are the stats:


I shut the iPhone down and started it back up when I went to sleep:
Battery charge: 89%
Use: 6h 30m
Stand-by: 8h

(WiFi and BT off)


When I woke back up, about 6 hours later (short night, have to work in a bit) these were the stats:

Battery charge: 0%
Use: 11h 27m
Stand-by: 14h 9m


Apparently the phone has been 'in use' for about 5 hours while I was asleep ...
so do you think it's time to:
a) find out which app is causing this trouble
b) call apple and get a replacement?

Thanks in advance

If you rebooted the iPhone it's unlikely that an app is causing the battery to drain. How is the signal at your house?

The battery meter actually showed 0%? Did you get the 20% or 10% battery warning? I would think that at 0% battery your iPhone would just turn off... Maybe it needs to be calibrated...

[Anonymous Freak]

OK, just woke up, here are the stats:


I shut the iPhone down and started it back up when I went to sleep:
Battery charge: 89%
Use: 6h 30m
Stand-by: 8h

(WiFi and BT off)


When I woke back up, about 6 hours later (short night, have to work in a bit) these were the stats:

Battery charge: 0%
Use: 11h 27m
Stand-by: 14h 9m


Apparently the phone has been 'in use' for about 5 hours while I was asleep ...
so do you think it's time to:
a) find out which app is causing this trouble
b) call apple and get a replacement?

Thanks in advance

A couple odd questions:

Do you have a cell signal where you put it at night? (My phone drains the battery *FAST* if I don't have a signal; which, in my bedroom, it often doesn't; so it tends to drain overnight.) Also, while EDGE may last longer than 3G, going one more step down generally makes it worse. Dropping to GPRS (the circle,) will drain the battery *MUCH* faster than being on EDGE. (At least, that was true of my two previous 3G-capable phones...)

Do you have it jailbroken? It's possible that some app is draining you. (From your posts, it sounds like you don't.)

Finally, unless you truly *MUST* be able to accept incoming calls/pages at night (job/personal requirements, whatever,) I suggest trying at least one night in Airplane Mode. Any voicemails or text messages will be delivered within a couple minutes of turning Airplane Mode off, but it would be a good test of the 'GPRS drain' or 'no-signal drain' theories.

[mrkgoo]

I thought it was fairly well established that 3.0 has some battery life issues for some people, at least on older phones.

Before I upgraded to 3.0 I could get 2-3 days out of my phone if I didn't use it heavily (I don't have 3G on). Now after upgrade, i can barely last through the night without even using it.

3-4 hours "usage", and 8-10 hours standby is what it seems before I'm in the red.

At least, my issue cannot be due to battery, as it started after 3.0. I sort of suspect push notifications, as when that's on my router reports all sorts of paging to Apple push servers.

I tried to ay with notifications off, but I still only managed the same (although I did do an hour long web session, and listened to a 2 hour podcast - on 2.2 I could do that easy, however).

I'm going to do a sleep over night with max charge and see how I go tonight.

[mgpg89]

Could it be the alarm clock you're using? I have alarmtunes and i left it on without the charger, and the charge dropped 30% overnight. I guess that's nothing compared to 89% though...

I use Apple's own 'Clock' app, so that can't be it ... right?

[mgpg89]

If you rebooted the iPhone it's unlikely that an app is causing the battery to drain. How is the signal at your house?

The battery meter actually showed 0%? Did you get the 20% or 10% battery warning? I would think that at 0% battery your iPhone would just turn off... Maybe it needs to be calibrated...

The signal's excellent.

My iPhone did in fact turn off ... I couldn't start it until I docked it for a few minutes.

[mgpg89]

A couple odd questions:

Do you have a cell signal where you put it at night? (My phone drains the battery *FAST* if I don't have a signal; which, in my bedroom, it often doesn't; so it tends to drain overnight.) Also, while EDGE may last longer than 3G, going one more step down generally makes it worse. Dropping to GPRS (the circle,) will drain the battery *MUCH* faster than being on EDGE. (At least, that was true of my two previous 3G-capable phones...)

Do you have it jailbroken? It's possible that some app is draining you. (From your posts, it sounds like you don't.)

Finally, unless you truly *MUST* be able to accept incoming calls/pages at night (job/personal requirements, whatever,) I suggest trying at least one night in Airplane Mode. Any voicemails or text messages will be delivered within a couple minutes of turning Airplane Mode off, but it would be a good test of the 'GPRS drain' or 'no-signal drain' theories.

Have a good signal where I sleep. How do you enable EDGE?

No, haven't jailbroken it.

I'll test the airplane mode tonight.
And a no-app phone tomorrow night.

[mgpg89]

I thought it was fairly well established that 3.0 has some battery life issues for some people, at least on older phones.

Before I upgraded to 3.0 I could get 2-3 days out of my phone if I didn't use it heavily (I don't have 3G on). Now after upgrade, i can barely last through the night without even using it.

3-4 hours "usage", and 8-10 hours standby is what it seems before I'm in the red.

At least, my issue cannot be due to battery, as it started after 3.0. I sort of suspect push notifications, as when that's on my router reports all sorts of paging to Apple push servers.

I tried to ay with notifications off, but I still only managed the same (although I did do an hour long web session, and listened to a 2 hour podcast - on 2.2 I could do that easy, however).

I'm going to do a sleep over night with max charge and see how I go tonight.

OK, please let me know how that worked out ...

[Vegastouch]

OK, just woke up, here are the stats:


I shut the iPhone down and started it back up when I went to sleep:
Battery charge: 89%
Use: 6h 30m
Stand-by: 8h

(WiFi and BT off)


When I woke back up, about 6 hours later (short night, have to work in a bit) these were the stats:

Battery charge: 0%
Use: 11h 27m
Stand-by: 14h 9m


Apparently the phone has been 'in use' for about 5 hours while I was asleep ...
so do you think it's time to:
a) find out which app is causing this trouble
b) call apple and get a replacement?

Thanks in advance

Yeah, that! Your battery blows!

[Eso]

When I woke back up, about 6 hours later (short night, have to work in a bit) these were the stats:

Battery charge: 0%
Use: 11h 27m
Stand-by: 14h 9m


Apparently the phone has been 'in use' for about 5 hours while I was asleep

I think you should start thinking about which family member is sneaking into your room at night to play with your iPhone!

[mgpg89]

Yeah, that! Your battery blows!

I'll call Apple in a few ...
especially because my dad's original iPhone can last for 2-3 days with Bluetooth and WiFi on all the time.

[mgpg89]

I think you should start thinking about which family member is sneaking into your room at night to play with your iPhone!

Hahahah, I'll put some mouse traps around my bed when I go to sleep tonight ...

[mgpg89]

I'll call Apple in a few ...
especially because my dad's original iPhone can last for 2-3 days with Bluetooth and WiFi on all the time.

[mrkgoo]

OK, please let me know how that worked out ...

Ok here's how it went. Not even a sliver of battery use. It was perfect. This has convinced me what was up. Checking the usage, it showed ONLY the 1 minute of usage before I went to bed and the 7 hours of standby.

This has convinced me - what has been causing the drain is a process running in the background while asleep (now see why apple doesn't want background apps? A rogue one could be disastrous). Now what is this background process? I don't know exactly. What I did was rebooting (the only thing different was I had a new version of skype installed and I had push notifications off). It was either some backgrond process was broken and running amok and the reboot cleared it OR it was the notifications process, and switching it off wasn't enough to kill the process - it needed a reboot too.

So I suggest you switch off both push services (email and notifications), reboot and see how you go.

My suspicion is that it's a bug related to push causing a process to function in background, thus explaining why only a few people experience this phenomenon and why the 'solution' only works for some. Perhaps the reboot is the most important part.

[SFC Archer]

OK, just woke up, here are the stats:


I shut the iPhone down and started it back up when I went to sleep:
Battery charge: 89%
Use: 6h 30m
Stand-by: 8h

(WiFi and BT off)


When I woke back up, about 6 hours later (short night, have to work in a bit) these were the stats:

Battery charge: 0%
Use: 11h 27m
Stand-by: 14h 9m


Apparently the phone has been 'in use' for about 5 hours while I was asleep ...
so do you think it's time to:
a) find out which app is causing this trouble
b) call apple and get a replacement?

Thanks in advance

Looking at your report, I would say, as others have, that you have either:

A bad app that is running in the background even after you turn off and on your iPhone. The only fix is to remove all apps and add one or two at a time back on until you find the culprit. This problem is probably your least likely problem.

Your biggest battery drainer right now based on what you stated is GPRS, this is a constantly running service even if it has a strong signal. You can not select between GPRS/Edge this is automated by the phone and can not be controlled. Only 3G can be turned on/off which I assume you did turn it off since you do not have that service in your area. I believe this is your biggest culprit.

Other battery drainers are Push...if it is on it will drain your battery. I would recommend that you turn it off at night while you sleep. Push is going to cause the most problem with user battery life on ALL users phones.

Safari is draining batteries with open web pages. Those pages continue to refresh and run their codes even in the background. This will drain batteries pretty quickly on heavily coded pages.

Bluetooth, Location, and Fetch are NOT battery killers. I have mine on 24 hours a day and it uses maybe 5% of the battery in a 12 hour period. I have 3 headsets paired to bluetooth and it does NOT search for them. It does not do anything until a signal is sent to the iPhone by the headset device which activates the iPhone Bluetooth Chip. Then it is on and uses power, if your headset is OFF then for all purposes so is the iPhone even if the switch is on.

Location is the same...it does not run in the background until you activate an app that uses the service. If you have a bad app that does not shut down properly then yes this can be a battery killer...so check those apps that use location service. But leaving it on does not affect battery life.

Fetch is brief check of your email .vs Push which is constantly active to receive the data transmissions and if active in Push mode or in Push Email mode then you will use battery power.

After all of that...I would recommend that you swap out your iPhone as you do seem to have at least a partially defective battery.

I also recommend you call AT&T and find out what type of tower services your area. This will answer a lot of your questions. All phone users should know what type of service their home area has. GPRS, Edge, 3G and soon others will be active. AT&T may have a tower down in your area...find out.

Good Luck.

[mgpg89]

Looking at your report, I would say, as others have, that you have either:

A bad app that is running in the background even after you turn off and on your iPhone. The only fix is to remove all apps and add one or two at a time back on until you find the culprit. This problem is probably your least likely problem.

Your biggest battery drainer right now based on what you stated is GPRS, this is a constantly running service even if it has a strong signal. You can not select between GPRS/Edge this is automated by the phone and can not be controlled. Only 3G can be turned on/off which I assume you did turn it off since you do not have that service in your area. I believe this is your biggest culprit.

Other battery drainers are Push...if it is on it will drain your battery. I would recommend that you turn it off at night while you sleep. Push is going to cause the most problem with user battery life on ALL users phones.

Safari is draining batteries with open web pages. Those pages continue to refresh and run their codes even in the background. This will drain batteries pretty quickly on heavily coded pages.

Bluetooth, Location, and Fetch are NOT battery killers. I have mine on 24 hours a day and it uses maybe 5% of the battery in a 12 hour period. I have 3 headsets paired to bluetooth and it does NOT search for them. It does not do anything until a signal is sent to the iPhone by the headset device which activates the iPhone Bluetooth Chip. Then it is on and uses power, if your headset is OFF then for all purposes so is the iPhone even if the switch is on.

Location is the same...it does not run in the background until you activate an app that uses the service. If you have a bad app that does not shut down properly then yes this can be a battery killer...so check those apps that use location service. But leaving it on does not affect battery life.

Fetch is brief check of your email .vs Push which is constantly active to receive the data transmissions and if active in Push mode or in Push Email mode then you will use battery power.

After all of that...I would recommend that you swap out your iPhone as you do seem to have at least a partially defective battery.

I also recommend you call AT&T and find out what type of tower services your area. This will answer a lot of your questions. All phone users should know what type of service their home area has. GPRS, Edge, 3G and soon others will be active. AT&T may have a tower down in your area...find out.

Good Luck.

Thanks a lot!
Helped me out big time.

I just deleted all apps but the original ones from my iPhone and my problems seem to have disappeared.
Then I re-added the apps that don't require internet access and the problem is still solved, so now I still have a handful of apps that need re-adding one at a time, before I can tell which one is the culprit.

Is WiFi a battery killer? (when not browsing the internet or whatever => when it's just 'on')

[gwfattwkr]

these shots were taken back to back no time spent on charger

[mrkgoo]

Thanks a lot!
Helped me out big time.

I just deleted all apps but the original ones from my iPhone and my problems seem to have disappeared.
Then I re-added the apps that don't require internet access and the problem is still solved, so now I still have a handful of apps that need re-adding one at a time, before I can tell which one is the culprit.

Is WiFi a battery killer? (when not browsing the internet or whatever => when it's just 'on')

While it's possible that it's a rogue app - adding apps one by one will not properly test which app is causing it unless you are willing to add just one app, playing with it for a day, checking push on and off and so on, before checking the next.

REad what I posted above. I have managed to switch from 'drain overnight' mode to my usual mode by disabling both push types AND a reboot. I didn't delete any apps (well, I updated to the newer Skype). Whether it's related to an app or push is not totally clear, but a reboot was necessary (or maybe a sync).

the key is this: during sleep you should be getting basically NO USAGE. I had mine on sleep all night last night and in the morning it hadn't changed from my 1 minutes usage before I put it to sleep.

[gwfattwkr]

these shots were taken back to back no time spent on charger

just went dead

[mrkgoo]

these shots were taken back to back no time spent on charger

I think Standby time is total time that it's not 'off' (ie. standby). This will include the time of 6 minutes of usage.

[mgpg89]

!!!! I FOUND THE CULPRIT !!!!

It's Beejive!
After re-adding all my apps and putting my iPhone in stand-by for 15 minutes and checking the battery status & usage levels afterwards, Beejive was the only one that was consuming any battery ...

Now, I'm performing the test again with different app settings .. if the problem persists, I'm uninstalling it until an update comes along that takes care of this.


To the people who had a similar problem:
Do you have (the latest version of) Beejive (with push notifications) installed as well?

[mrkgoo]

!!!! I FOUND THE CULPRIT !!!!

It's Beejive!
After re-adding all my apps and putting my iPhone in stand-by for 15 minutes and checking the battery status & usage levels afterwards, Beejive was the only one that was consuming any battery ...

Now, I'm performing the test again with different app settings .. if the problem persists, I'm uninstalling it until an update comes along that takes care of this.


To the people who had a similar problem:
Do you have (the latest version of) Beejive (with push notifications) installed as well?

Yes, I do. But AGAIN. Read my posts above. I think it is related to push notifications. The latest version activates push. I believe that push is what is causing it. Whether it be a buggy implementation, or push simply does this, I don't know. There have been dozens of reports that push is causing a drastic reduction to SOME people. Maybe a buggy implementation. I'm currently testing push notifications off (and after a reboot to kill any lingering process), and my phone survived the entire night without so much as a dent into the battery life, recording only 1 minute usage (before it had 3-4 hours over night doing nothing). I'm heading into 1 hour usage, and my battery still has not gone down. I'll let you know what happens at the end of today, but keep in mind, I have BeeJive still installed.

[mgpg89]

Yes, I do. But AGAIN. Read my posts above. I think it is related to push notifications. The latest version activates push. I believe that push is what is causing it. Whether it be a buggy implementation, or push simply does this, I don't know. There have been dozens of reports that push is causing a drastic reduction to SOME people. Maybe a buggy implementation. I'm currently testing push notifications off (and after a reboot to kill any lingering process), and my phone survived the entire night without so much as a dent into the battery life, recording only 1 minute usage (before it had 3-4 hours over night doing nothing). I'm heading into 1 hour usage, and my battery still has not gone down. I'll let you know what happens at the end of today, but keep in mind, I have BeeJive still installed.

You're right ... I performed the test again with the badge notifications etc OFF and it seems that solved the issue ...

Doing a 'longer' test tonight when I'm asleep.

[mgpg89]

Alright! Problem solved. Turned off push notifications for Beejive.

Only lost 4% of my charge during a 10hour stand-by with WiFi and Bluetooth ON. This, I can live with.


Thank you so much for your help!

[SFC Archer]

Glad you were able to discover the culprit and hopefully this gets passed on to others.

I have a feeling push is not going to be very popular with batteries. I also had to turn mine off unless i am really expecting something.

It is not just the Beejive app, there are others that are using push causing the same problem. Try using StarDefense with push on. NOW, not only do you have game graphics but push also draining the battery..you can almost see it moving it goes so quick.

Anyway...time for you to sit back and enjoy your new iPhone...I pick up my 3GS today so will now have all 3 generations to play with.:D

[angle]

Do you know if removing some of the push aspects (alerts / badges, but leave notifications on) would help? Beejive was appealing to me because it WOULD let me know if someone IM'd me. But, battery is DEFINITELY taking a hit.

EDIT: Also, have any of you noticed a decrease in battery life (noticeable decrease) while browsing the app store? I'm not talking about downloading the apps, I'm just talking about looking around the store. I browsed it for about 5 minutes today, and I'm pretty sure 4% (at least 3%) during those 5 minutes.

[SFC Archer]

Do you know if removing some of the push aspects (alerts / badges, but leave notifications on) would help? Beejive was appealing to me because it WOULD let me know if someone IM'd me. But, battery is DEFINITELY taking a hit.

EDIT: Also, have any of you noticed a decrease in battery life (noticeable decrease) while browsing the app store? I'm not talking about downloading the apps, I'm just talking about looking around the store. I browsed it for about 5 minutes today, and I'm pretty sure 4% (at least 3%) during those 5 minutes.

Two things to consider for your question...Did you have Beejive active and in push mode while you were using the Store App?

Did you have any Safari web pages open while you were using the Store App?

If the answer is yes to either of those then I highly doubt the App Store App is draining your battery at that rate.

As for your first question...I do not use Beejive so cannot answer. The other apps I have do allow you to turn of aspects of the push. StarDefense allows me a choice to shut off Sounds and Alerts. BillMinder allows me to choose between Sounds, Alerts and Badges. I am sure Beejive has these options as well unless the coder is totally brain dead.

Hope that helps.

[angle]

Two things to consider for your question...Did you have Beejive active and in push mode while you were using the Store App?

Did you have any Safari web pages open while you were using the Store App?

If the answer is yes to either of those then I highly doubt the App Store App is draining your battery at that rate.

As for your first question...I do not use Beejive so cannot answer. The other apps I have do allow you to turn of aspects of the push. StarDefense allows me a choice to shut off Sounds and Alerts. BillMinder allows me to choose between Sounds, Alerts and Badges. I am sure Beejive has these options as well unless the coder is totally brain dead.

Hope that helps.

By active, I'm assuming that you meant my accounts were logged on and Beejive was notifying me of any new IM's. That would be accurate. My safari was closed and all windows had been closed out (I'm OCD about that, I like opening Safari to a blank window).

I know that I can turn off all three aspects of push: badges, alerts, notifications...I'm just wondering if having two of those three off will help or if it doesn't make a difference: if one is on, it's draining the battery just as much as if three were on.

Wasn't Push supposed to be this awesome battery saving technology because background apps ate up so much power? Or was I missing something there? ;)

[Rat-Boy]

Hmmm...

I have had BeeJive since the night it came out and it isn't draining my battery any where close to that.

Of course, when I am not using it, I MANUALLY sign out of all accounts on BeeJive and DO NOT rely on the session time out time option, which I have set to four hours for whatever reason.

Are you saying that you log out of ALL accounts in BeeJive, and it STILL drains your battery?

If so, that is weird and I am not seeing that on my phone.

[angle]

Hmmm...

I have had BeeJive since the night it came out and it isn't draining my battery nearly that bad.

Of course, when I am not using it, I MANUALLY sign out of all accounts on BeeJive and DO NOT rely on the auto sign out time option.

So you're NOT utilizing the Push functionality, correct?

[Rat-Boy]

So you're NOT utilizing the Push functionality, correct?
Depends on what you mean.

I have Push Notifications turned on for BeeJive 24X7, 365 in Settings > Notifications

But when I am on a computer at home, or at work, I go in to BeeJive > Accounts, and then switch the master status thingy to Offline.

Why do I need the phone going crazy during the day when I am sitting behind a computer with Yahoo and Google installed? We use Yahoo at my job, so if I left it on all day, I am sure my battery would drain too.

What I am curious of, is, are you guys NOT signing out of BeeJive and have the timeout set to a crazy length of time so it is staying signed in over night?

[angle]

I leave it signed on all the time, day / night, with the automatic signout option set at 24 hours. However, I charge my phone all night, so that's not a major issue. But during the day....that's another story!

[Rat-Boy]

I leave it signed on all the time, day / night, with the automatic signout option set at 24 hours. However, I charge my phone all night, so that's not a major issue. But during the day....that's another story!Ah.

Well that is the difference for sure.

[xgman]

I think this is a battery defect. My Blk 16gb 3G-S was fully charged and powered it off completely. Now, I push the power button on in the a.m. and nothing happens, I hold it down and nothing happens, I plug in a charger and I see a thin red battery line and a charge symbol and nothing else happens. After a while plugged into the charger, it slowly started coming to life and finally fully recharged. Obviously if a fully charged phone is powered off, it should not power back on fully dead. Hopefully the Genius bar will replace it as there is obviously a defect. :mad:

[mrkgoo]

Alright! Problem solved. Turned off push notifications for Beejive.

Only lost 4% of my charge during a 10hour stand-by with WiFi and Bluetooth ON. This, I can live with.


Thank you so much for your help!

Great! Did you have to reboot as well?

After a few more slightly empirical tests, I confirm it's my push. With it on, I get 10 hours MAX, regardless what I'm doing - usage of 1 minute out of every 4 regardless of whether I use it or not. However, for me, I have to turn push off AND reboot to kill the lingering process, I guess, to stop usage while asleep. Did so and my phone slept through the night with 7 hours stand by and a couple minute usage (which was me playing around to check).

I also noticed that while plugged in and charging usage was climbing, even when asleep.

I wonder if push is just that intensive, or if it's a bug in push implementation.

So, in conclusion, if anyone is finding a drastic reduction in battery life from 3.0(and I mean drastic as in 20-50% of what you normally get) - check your push. Note there are two kinds of push - push email and push notifications, so I suggest checking both of these.

Under General -> Usage, "usage" should be zero when your phone is sleeping. If it is climbing up 1:1 with your standby time while asleep, this is a sure sign you have a background process running while asleep.

[xgman]

at the end of the day, battery time/technology is still in the relative stone ages and ends up being a real limitation to the technology at hand.

[Eso]

If it is climbing up 1:1 with your standby time while asleep, this is a sure sign you have a background process running while asleep.

Ironic when you consider Push is supposed to ne an alternative to background processes and yet it is what is causing issues.

[angle]

Is this something that the 3.1 firmware update could fix, or is it on the program's (i.e., Beejive) end?

[mrkgoo]

Ironic when you consider Push is supposed to ne an alternative to background processes and yet it is what is causing issues.

Indeed. But imagine what it would be like if you actually had a complete process running? At the moment, it registers like 1 minute out of 3-4 being in use. An actually app would probably count all - so your battery may reduce to 3-4 hours!

Chances are that this is also an imperfect implementation at the moment too. Like a bug. But that's still up in the air.

[SRSound]

!!!! I FOUND THE CULPRIT !!!!

It's Beejive!
After re-adding all my apps and putting my iPhone in stand-by for 15 minutes and checking the battery status & usage levels afterwards, Beejive was the only one that was consuming any battery ...

Now, I'm performing the test again with different app settings .. if the problem persists, I'm uninstalling it until an update comes along that takes care of this.


To the people who had a similar problem:
Do you have (the latest version of) Beejive (with push notifications) installed as well?

Yes - I just recently installed the latest revision of Beejive around the exact time when the "phantom battery drainage" started occurring!

[ntrigue]

Location services doesn't drain your battery just by being on. It will only drain your battery if you actually use an app that uses the GPS.

So far from true I won't waste any more characters.

[ntrigue]

I don't pretend to be the iPhone battery king of knowledge by any stretch.

But I do the same thing with my 3GS that I did with my 3G.

I plug it up when I go to bed, let it charge over night, and then un-plug it in the morning when I get up.

I do this no matter where my battery % is when I go to bed.

Then, once a month, I let the phone run all the way down and fully charge to calibrate the battery.

Your behavior is spot on! I will add that Li-Ion like to be between 20-80% so do not use car chargers unless it's well under 80%.

[-aggie-]

Your behavior is spot on! I will add that Li-Ion like to be between 20-80% so do not use car chargers unless it's well under 80%.

Why do you say that about car chargers? Why does the battery have to be "well under 80%"?

[matttye]

Haha this thread makes me laugh. Apple put in all that effort to come up with a battery friendly background notification system, and it seems to have failed miserably. I'm pretty sure true background task support would be less battery intensive for apps such as reminder apps.

Apple have added all these cool new features to the phone but you have to turn them all off to get through the day!

[St. Germain]

I see where to disable email push in my settings, but where is the push setting for notifications? I don't see any mention of notifications anywhere in my settings?

Nevermind. I now see that the Notifications menu item will only show up in settings if you have apps installed to take advantage of them. (AP Mobile for instance)

[jkozlow3]

I have the iPhone 3G running 3.0 software.

Wifi: On
3G: On
Bluetooth: On
Location Services: On
Push: On (for both MobileMe and Beejive)
Fetch: Manual

When I'm at home or work, my phone is plugged in and charging via my computer's USB port. Often when I go to bed, I'll turn off my MacBook. At this point, the iPhone's battery is 100% charged, but is no longer charging once I turn off the MacBook.

When I wake up, my battery has NEVER once been below 95%. The 3G doesn't come with the same built-in battery indicator as the 3GS, so I use 3rd party apps which report in 5% increments. I know that this is accurate however, as when I plug the phone in after getting to work in the morning, I typically get the "plug" symbol on my battery icon indicating that the battery is fully charged/not charging.

I fully drain (calibrate) my battery once a month, and probably let it get below 90% once a week. It's plugged in all other times. I have no idea what is wrong with some of your phones, but I'd surely say that something is defective with the battery or you have errant background processes that shouldn't be running. My battery life is still AMAZING 366 days later.

[ntrigue]

Why do you say that about car chargers? Why does the battery have to be "well under 80%"?

batteryuniversity.com

20-80% is the Li-Ion sweet spot.

[panzer06]

Haha this thread makes me laugh. Apple put in all that effort to come up with a battery friendly background notification system, and it seems to have failed miserably. I'm pretty sure true background task support would be less battery intensive for apps such as reminder apps.

Apple have added all these cool new features to the phone but you have to turn them all off to get through the day!

This is soooo true it is sad!

I can only have one e-mail account with push turned on and no 3G or wifi to make it all day on a single charge. I can't use the find my phone feature or the phone is dead in about 5 hours.

Very annoying. By far the best phone I've ever owned that I can't use because it's always plugged in.

Cheers,