iOS 7 drains battery faster than iOS 6

kcamfork · Sep 18, 2013

I know it's terribly inconvenient. But if you do a clean install/restore from iTunes, and DO NOT restore from backup, your battery life will be fine. Stellar, in fact.

I had drain issues on iOS 6.1.4. I did the restore/clean install, and the draining ceased. I clean installed iOS 7. No drain issues. It's at least worth a shot.

Morac · Sep 18, 2013

I'm seeing a definite issue with Paralax (ie motion layers) that will effect battery life. Twice I've noticed that with "Reduce Motion" in the default of off, that the phone'a CPU usage skyrockets when I'm simply holding it in my hands and moving around. It goes back to normal when I put it down or turn on "Reduce Motion" and turn it off again.

As higher CPU usage equals less battery, I simply left "Reduce Motion" on. Paralax is a gimmick and if it's going to kill the battery I'm going to leave it off.

My guess is for the iPhone 5S it will use the motion co-processor so it won't waste CPU, but for other devices, best to turn off Paralax.

Casiotone · Sep 18, 2013

Morac said:
I'm seeing a definite issue with Paralax (ie motion layers) that will effect battery life. Twice I've noticed that with "Reduce Motion" in the default of off, that the phone'a CPU usage skyrockets when I'm simply holding it in my hands and moving around. It goes back to normal when I put it down or turn on "Reduce Motion" and turn it off again.

As higher CPU usage equals less battery, I simply left "Reduce Motion" on. Paralax is a gimmick and if it's going to kill the battery I'm going to leave it off.

My guess is for the iPhone 5S it will use the motion co-processor so it won't waste CPU, but for other devices, best to turn off Paralax.

Where do you see that CPU usage spike?

iPcdebb · Sep 18, 2013

I'm noticing a difference. I unplugged 51 minutes ago from a full charge, and I'm at 79%. Normal usage. I would normally be around 90% or so.

oplix · Sep 18, 2013

HOW DARE YOU POST SUCH INSOLENCE. I AM A MACRUMORS FORUM POSTER. I WILL CRUSH YOUR THROAT WITH MY BARE HANDS IF YOU DARE POST ANYTHING ANTI-APPLE. /sarcasm

Jimrod · Sep 18, 2013

Photogdave said:
Jesus Christ!!!!!!
Now I remember why I don't come into these forums
I've had the 4...the 4s and I now have had the 5 for a year
And I've never......NEVER had any of these issues that you guys in these forums complain about all the time
I swear, it seems that you guys live in these forums just complaining to no end about crap all the time.
Nothing Apple ever does is good enough.
You know, you reach a point where all the earth shattering improvements aren't there anymore
Things "plane" out.
I knew this was gonna be a topic before it was even seeded to public
How did I know
Because ever iPhone I have had this site has had people complaining to no end about battery life being worse with every new phone or iOS update!!!!
When in reality, ever new release from either the phone or iOS I have gotten better life or the same
And here's the problem, no one uses their phone exactly the same all the time
If I'm home, I get 10hrs usage out of my 5
If I'm in a **** area, signal low, it sucks!!!!
Does anyone ever just use their phone
Or does everyone just sit in these forums and complain all the time.
I come to this site for useful info
But the endless complaining is tiring

Would you like a hug? Here's a smiley face to tide you over -

Morac · Sep 18, 2013

Casiotone said:
Where do you see that CPU usage spike?

I use an app called SysStatsMon which shows CPU usage. Their are probably other apps that do so as well.

Jimrod · Sep 18, 2013

kcamfork said:
I know it's terribly inconvenient. But if you do a clean install/restore from iTunes, and DO NOT restore from backup, your battery life will be fine. Stellar, in fact.

I had drain issues on iOS 6.1.4. I did the restore/clean install, and the draining ceased. I clean installed iOS 7. No drain issues. It's at least worth a shot.

Everyone always says this but I've restored from back-up since my 3G and never had the battery issues. I just check all the settings when a new iOS is installed and make sure anything likely to be an issue is turned off.

I always do a couple of full cycles too - drain battery to 0 and charge to full, I'm not sure how clever battery management is in these devices but perhaps a new iOS needs to "learn" how much battery you have so a fresh install will naturally run down quicker until this is done? I could well be wrong

Jalu · Sep 18, 2013

I have experienced just the opposite: on my iPhone 5 as well as on both my iPads, battery life has actually improved since installing the iOS7 GM about a week ago. The same goes for my wife's iPhone 5 and iPad.

Just a sidenote: the Dutch site Tweakers.net has lately widely become known for an anti-Apple, pro Android bias, so anything they claim on the subject of Apple products should be taken with a slight grain of salt.

JonLa · Sep 19, 2013

kcamfork said:
I know it's terribly inconvenient. But if you do a clean install/restore from iTunes, and DO NOT restore from backup, your battery life will be fine. Stellar, in fact.

I had drain issues on iOS 6.1.4. I did the restore/clean install, and the draining ceased. I clean installed iOS 7. No drain issues. It's at least worth a shot.

Instructions for clean restore and then getting your contacts, at least, back? Simple as restore on the phone's settings?

KoolAid-Drink · Sep 19, 2013

I'll work tomorrow, so I can report how my iPhone 5 works in a "real world" scenario without it being plugged in all day, and if there's noticeable battery difference.

Imory · Sep 19, 2013

JonLa said:
Instructions for clean restore and then getting your contacts, at least, back? Simple as restore on the phone's settings?

While I don't believe it to be necessary, what you want to do is to save your contacts and everything you find valuable to iCloud. When you've done that you simply restore the phone through the settings, or by using iTunes.

k995 · Sep 19, 2013

Jalu said:
I have experienced just the opposite: on my iPhone 5 as well as on both my iPads, battery life has actually improved since installing the iOS7 GM about a week ago. The same goes for my wife's iPhone 5 and iPad.

Just a sidenote: the Dutch site Tweakers.net has lately widely become known for an anti-Apple, pro Android bias, so anything they claim on the subject of Apple products should be taken with a slight grain of salt.

Oh BS, tweakers is anything but anti-Apple they are actually quite neutral on the subject.

battery life is going backwards at least for a significant amount of devices, as shown by several sites and countless user experiences. As IOS7 is doing a lot more on the background that is actually quite normal .

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I noticed decreased battery life as well, quite significant actually. I have now disabled everything of background services that I dont need, I am hoping that this will improve it.

coco67 · Sep 19, 2013

Come on people stop complained the battery life.
After a fresh install you have to calibrate the battery.

It means you have to charge to 100%and drain the battery to 0% or 5%. Just do this few cycle and enjoy the new battery life.

The best advice is to them off the background app refresh.

Don't forget to do this every month to keep the best battery life.

See you soon.

glacies · Sep 19, 2013

With the right settings. It lasts....

Bluetooth off
Parallax off
Background app off
System services for GPS mostly off
Static wallpaper

Reset all settings with every update. It doesn't take that long to set up again. Smooth as silk.

Ps. Always updated from beta 2 then restored from beta 6 to GM. Restored from backup in iTunes each time.

JonLa · Sep 19, 2013

Imory said:
While I don't believe it to be necessary, what you want to do is to save your contacts and everything you find valuable to iCloud. When you've done that you simply restore the phone through the settings, or by using iTunes.

I assumed that restoring from the backup would just reintroduce whatever app data and other rubbish is draining the phone?

Merkie · Sep 19, 2013

bigchrisfgb said:
I love how iOS 7 has been out for less than 3 hours, people are busy playing with it if they have it and are complaining their battery isn't lasting long. Maybe it's because for the last 3 hours you have been doing an OS install and busy playing with it where as normally you would just leave your phone in the background and use it less?

The iOS 7 final has been released more than a week ago to developers (the GM). Tech sites have had plenty of time to thoroughly test the OS.

bigchrisfgb · Sep 19, 2013

Merkie said:
The iOS 7 final has been released more than a week ago to developers (the GM). Tech sites have had plenty of time to thoroughly test the OS.

Most developers are saying battery life is good, the majority of people complaining yesterday were the general public who have just got iOS 7.

kcamfork · Sep 19, 2013

JonLa said:
Instructions for clean restore and then getting your contacts, at least, back? Simple as restore on the phone's settings?

Forgive me, here you go:

1) Plug your phone into your computer and open up iTunes
2) In the top right section of the window there are two options: a) Check for update and b) Restore iPhone. Click on "Restore iPhone"
3) Follow the prompts. iTunes will download a "blank slate" iOS 7 file, and restore your phone with it.
4) After installation, the phone or iTunes will give you the option to "Set up as a new iPhone" or "Restore from backup". Do not restore from backup.
5) As long as your contacts/calenders/mail is backed up to iCloud, they will all come back after you sign back in to iCloud. No restoring from backup is necessary.

Instead of restoring from backup, set up the apps/music/settings as you want them. This will take some time but is way worth it.

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Jimrod said:
Everyone always says this but I've restored from back-up since my 3G and never had the battery issues. I just check all the settings when a new iOS is installed and make sure anything likely to be an issue is turned off.

I always do a couple of full cycles too - drain battery to 0 and charge to full, I'm not sure how clever battery management is in these devices but perhaps a new iOS needs to "learn" how much battery you have so a fresh install will naturally run down quicker until this is done? I could well be wrong

I agree that Apple should figure out the drain issues that occur from restoring from backup. You should try a clean install. Backup your phone first, so you can go back to the backup if you want. But I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at the performance/battery life if you don't restore from backup.

Imory · Sep 19, 2013

JonLa said:
I assumed that restoring from the backup would just reintroduce whatever app data and other rubbish is draining the phone?

Well, not really. iCloud will only save bits and pieces of your personal information (contacts, mail, notes etc).

Merkie · Sep 19, 2013

bigchrisfgb said:
Most developers are saying battery life is good, the majority of people complaining yesterday were the general public who have just got iOS 7.

This thread isn't about people complaining, it's about objective battery benchmarks. Didn't you read the OP?

Jalu · Sep 19, 2013

k995 said:
Oh BS, tweakers is anything but anti-Apple they are actually quite neutral on the subject.

No they aren't. They're just about the only tech site in the world that I know off who deemed it necessary to headline a separate article about this alleged battery drain increase, based on very limited data.

They're far from neutral. And they're infamous for it.

k995 · Sep 19, 2013

Jalu said:
No they aren't. They're just about the only tech site in the world that I know off who deemed it necessary to headline a separate article about this alleged battery drain increase, based on very limited data.

They're far from neutral. And they're infamous for it.

Oh BS they tested it and it sucks

And only site ?

http://www.techinvestornews.com/Mob...attery-life-is-significantly-reduced-by-ios-7

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/166884-iphone-5-battery-life-is-significantly-reduced-by-ios-7

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2013/09/19/iphone-5-battery-life-hit-from-ios-7/

First page of a Google Search .

You cant stand any bad news About Google ok got that , others DO like to know there are issues even if its with apple products .

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kcamfork said:
Forgive me, here you go:

1) Plug your phone into your computer and open up iTunes
2) In the top right section of the window there are two options: a) Check for update and b) Restore iPhone. Click on "Restore iPhone"
3) Follow the prompts. iTunes will download a "blank slate" iOS 7 file, and restore your phone with it.
4) After installation, the phone or iTunes will give you the option to "Set up as a new iPhone" or "Restore from backup". Do not restore from backup.
5) As long as your contacts/calenders/mail is backed up to iCloud, they will all come back after you sign back in to iCloud. No restoring from backup is necessary.

Instead of restoring from backup, set up the apps/music/settings as you want them. This will take some time but is way worth it.

----------

I agree that Apple should figure out the drain issues that occur from restoring from backup. You should try a clean install. Backup your phone first, so you can go back to the backup if you want. But I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at the performance/battery life if you don't restore from backup.

I did that with the beta and now the actual release . As of now I have 20% over the stats say 7h standby and 3h 30 of use ( all surfing) .

Jalu · Sep 19, 2013

k995 said:
Oh BS they tested it and it sucks

On all my iOS devices, the battery last longer in day to day use. That's all that actually matters to me. And I've been using it since september 10th, in the real world.

And the sites that you quote are hardly to be called tech-sites now are they, all quoting the arstechnica benchmark data, heck one of three links you gave linked to another one of the same three links...

Claiming that tweakers.net aren't biased on the subject is blatantly ignoring reality. They are, very much so.

OMAC83 · Sep 19, 2013

I'm experiencing excellent bat life with ios7 on ip5, I originally ran io7 beta 1 and had to remove it as it was my only phone a bat life was terrible and no podcast app would work, I'm quite happy now after spending the evening and finally updating all my ios devices

iOS 7 drains battery faster than iOS 6

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