This is for the iPhone 5. But I am quite certain it will work for the other iPhones as well
Hi everyone,
I have gotten alot of tips from different users in other battery related threads and I think I have solved my battery problem. I have gone through numerous solutions and trips to the genius bar. Done countless trial and errors. The only thing I did not want to do was to set up my phone as a new phone. I mean, whats the point of a back up if the conclusion is that a back up from your previous phone destroys your new phone. So my objective was simple, to achieve at least 9 hours and a half hours of battery life without resorting to "Set up as new iPhone".
While I am tempted to think that most of my issues were hardware issues, I found it hard to believe that I could be so unlucky to get one with a bad battery. Furthermore, my hesitation to swap for a new phone stemmed from the fact that there is a real distinct possibility that my next phone will have a good battery but some other flaw (yellow screen perhaps?).
**PS. you can just scroll to the bottom of this post for my final solution. But if you want to know how I got there or what other possibilities I eliminated, read on.**
I know for a fact that the iPhone 5 has a strong battery. My previous iPhone 5 (yes i got a swap. A few actually. More than 5) had great battery! Pushing almost 10 hours on a daily basis without breaking a sweat. This replacement phone on the other hand, was perfect in every single way but i found that the battery was really sub par.
Through my usage I found several things (also contributed by other users here):
1. BAD RECEPTION absolutely kills battery life. Whether 3G/4G/E. all the same. Anything below 3 bars is just a nightmare for battery. There are a few web articles on this. Go read up.
2. Phone calls have a massive draining effect. So don't be too concerned by that
3. Surfing the web on 3G/4G causes significant drain as well. It is definitely worse than wifi
4. Auto Brightness is crazy at times. My phone is usually on my desk under my lamp, so it causes the brightness to hit 100% the whole time.
5. System services also uses your location and not just your apps. Another hidden battery drain.
6. I finally understood the difference between Push and Fetch. Basically, Push doesn't consume as much battery as Fetch. Gmail is fetch, where the phone literally looks for email. Push is when the servers contact your phone telling you that you got an update(think along the lines of receiving an imessage). I even contacted a couple of app developers for my favourite apps to find out about whether their apps were fetching data. Apparently, its mostly push. They strongly avoid fetch. Or rather they try.
7. Messaging drains battery significantly. Regardless whatsapp/ etc
8. Software update to 6.0.1 through wireless caused my battery to go nuts. The battery would sometimes drop by 2% each time. A DFU restore solved that issue.
Objective: hit at least 9 and a half hours of usage. Without setting up as new iPhone
***SOLUTION***
1. DFU restore your iPhone 5 to 6.0.1. You HAVE to do a DFU restore. This is especially so if you updated through the wireless updater in ios. (Don't be lazy)
2. Restore from your favourite back up
3. In Settings>General>Reset, Erase Network Settings. Phone will reboot.
4. In Settings>General>Reset, Erase All Settings. Phone will reboot.
5. Set email notifications to every Hour
6. Turn off auto brightness and set to 25% to 35%. *I doubt anything more will be comfortable, but its really up to you. Just try to keep it as low as possible*
7. In Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services, turn off "genius for apps" & "location based iAds"
8. In Settings>General>Date & Time, turn off "Set Automatically"
9. In iCloud, turn passbook off. *optional if you actually use passbook*
10. It is important that you maintain these settings in the first use immediately after these changes. After the first 100% to 0% use to see if the changes actually worked, you can just use your phone and find out which app/perferred setting actually drains battery.
For my result,
- I spent about 3/4 of the day on wifi.
- Had 2 seven minute calls and quite abit of 2D gaming like lemonade tycoon.
- A lot of flipboard and Facebook.
- Constant checking of usage times in settings.
- 5 to 10 mins of apple maps navigation.
*I think I could have hit ten hours if I didn't use my gps for navigation during the day.
Alright guys, thats it. I hope this works for you. If you have more questions, just message me.
Below is my Before and After screenshots
but partly serious, does LTE use less energy than WiFi..?