Or, it's just the usual "let's mess up OS upgrades so that owners are forced to upgrade". It works with the vast majority of iPhone owners because they're far from being tech savvy and the media (particularly the US media) also loves Apple, guaranteeing they won't make a fuss about such moves. As they haven't done in the past either.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 5 battery life still lousy on 7.1.1
- Thread starter sunking101
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Or, it's just the usual "let's mess up OS upgrades so that owners are forced to upgrade". It works with the vast majority of iPhone owners because they're far from being tech savvy and the media (particularly the US media) also loves Apple, guaranteeing they won't make a fuss about such moves. As they haven't done in the past either.
I wonder how much of this "my battery life is crap" after every update is simply because people are messing with their phones a lot after the update to see how the battery life is.
I've been running iOS since 4.x and I've never had a case where an update notably hurts battery life. The only things that have severely impacted battery life on my iPhones are:
- Using it a lot after an update, especially one that adds new features
- Skype. That app is evil and should be avoided unless you must use it.
- Being in a rural area far from a cel tower.
- New York City.
That's it. The latter two are challenging RF environments where packets get lost and the transmitter has to work harder. The first two are usage-based. OS version has never had anything to do with battery life in my experience.
I've been running iOS since 4.x and I've never had a case where an update notably hurts battery life. The only things that have severely impacted battery life on my iPhones are:
- Using it a lot after an update, especially one that adds new features
- Skype. That app is evil and should be avoided unless you must use it.
- Being in a rural area far from a cel tower.
- New York City.
That's it. The latter two are challenging RF environments where packets get lost and the transmitter has to work harder. The first two are usage-based. OS version has never had anything to do with battery life in my experience.
Hang on a second - firstly it's not unusual for battery life to be poor initially after a restore or a major update. The battery may need to be calibrated and there may be spotlight indexing and other stuff going on behind the scenes. Best not to judge for a few days.
Secondly - why are you so quick to turn all the features off? Some may actually save some battery if you leave them be - and all of them are designed to be running. Why not just leave your "new" phone running as it was designed to run for a while before going in with a slash and burn you-know-best approach?
This doesn't really make sense when the 5C is essentially the same phone with a plastic back. Also the vast majority of beta testing would have taken place on the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 5 is clearly better hardware than the 4S which is still sold, merrily running IOS 7.
I agree. I stopped posting battery life because all it was doing is pissing people off. My 5S has been excellent on battery life from day 1.
It may well not make sense, but I know several people with an i5 who have had crappola battery life since iOS7 arrived. Although I have no experience of it, the 5S seems to perform ok according to folk on here. Even my dad's i4 is ok with regard to battery life with iOS7. There is something fishy when it comes to the i5.
I say this as someone with not so good battery life since 7.1.1 - my iPhone 5 was fine with 7.0. I had all the stuff you're supposed to turn off, turned on, and it got me through the day every day no problem. It started to worsen a little with 7.1 and now 7.1.1 seems to have really fudged it, but it may well be a glitch somewhere that I can solve.
My wife's iPhone 4S has never lasted as well with 7 just like it never lasted as well on 6 before that, it's less efficient hardware with a a smaller battery, there's no mystery to that anymore than there's a mystery why the 5S - a phone with a more efficient processor and a bigger battery than the iPhone 5 - fares a little better than the phone it replaced. It's progress.
I remember the days of iOS 5 and my iPhone 4 where my battery would last ages. I use a golf score app that gives me yardages to the hole using GPS. I used it for a year before iOS 6, and after each round of a fully charged battery, I'd have ~70% battery left. Now, it's ~30% with iOS 7 and my iPhone 5.
My usage has always been the same. What's changed is newer and less efficient versions of the apps I use and what Apple lets these apps do in the background. Even with background refresh turned off, I still get crap battery life.
I'm not checking my phone more, or using it more, it's purely the apps I use that suck the life out the battery. I lose 1% a minute sometimes just by browsing the web, then chatting on Facebook Messenger.
Apple really needs to implement battery life rules for apps they approve. It's a really big problem, and it's no good Apple's ad campaigns showing off how good the iPhone is and all the available apps when you can barely get a day's usage out of it.
2 day battery life should be their target, and they can start by being really strict on inefficient apps they approve.
My usage has always been the same. What's changed is newer and less efficient versions of the apps I use and what Apple lets these apps do in the background. Even with background refresh turned off, I still get crap battery life.
I'm not checking my phone more, or using it more, it's purely the apps I use that suck the life out the battery. I lose 1% a minute sometimes just by browsing the web, then chatting on Facebook Messenger.
Apple really needs to implement battery life rules for apps they approve. It's a really big problem, and it's no good Apple's ad campaigns showing off how good the iPhone is and all the available apps when you can barely get a day's usage out of it.
2 day battery life should be their target, and they can start by being really strict on inefficient apps they approve.
Good post. I was playing a video on Facebook earlier and when I came out of the app, I still heard the audio. This is with background refresh off. I had to force-close the app.
My iPhone 5 had great battery life until this update. I updated a few days ago and I noticed durning the overnight hours my phone is draining for some reason while it's just sitting there doing nothing. I went to bed and the phone was at 86% and in the morning it was at 23%. Nothing is running in the background, all things like Bluetooth, location services, email, etc. are turned off. It's just all of a sudden the battery is draining without any activity.
It makes the phone useless because when I'm out and about the phone won't hold a charge very long at all when I'm actually using it's features. I hope another update comes to fix this problem, because prior to this my batter life was great and my phone always held a charge very well.
It makes the phone useless because when I'm out and about the phone won't hold a charge very long at all when I'm actually using it's features. I hope another update comes to fix this problem, because prior to this my batter life was great and my phone always held a charge very well.
You can try going back to iOS 7.1 as it appears to still be available based on various posts.
I have to disagree with you based on the following:
Work: 5 of my co-workers have iPhone 5's and at least 3 have the iphone 5S. None of them have approached me complaining about battery problems. I'm the "Apple/iPhone guy" at work so they always come to me for anything Apple.
Family: There are 7 iPhone 5's in my family. Again I'm the "iphone guy" of the family. No complaints from anyone about battery.
Either everyone you know has a defective iPhone, lousy reception or you're not representing information correctly.
I'm not saying I don't believe you it's just I'm puzzled as to why you have all these issues and all the people mentioned above including myself do not. Furthermore, Tech sites are raving about how much better battery life has gotten on 7.1.1.
Yeah and I've read some of those posts but cannot figure out how to do it, but if I could figure it out I would!
I estimate I got a 15% to 20% boost in battery life with iOS7.1.1. This is subjective, but the charge remaining after a couple typical days was noticeably greater than before upgrading.
To be fair, something has to be done to counter the ridiculous situation we have with 7.1.1, where because one Cnet journalist reported better battery life, every tech blog in existence reported the amazing battery restoring properties of 7.1.1 as gospel. It's pretty annoying when you're having lousy battery life since the update, to find that any google search on the subject returns only hundreds of gushingly positive headlines about ONE random person's subjective experience..
This isn't a single update issue for me, I have been experiencing dreadful battery life ever since 7.0 was released. To say that these threads come about ever update, that may be so but it is a lot more serious than that for me. I have never had problems with updates from iOS4 right through to 6.1.4, it is since iOS7 that my problems started. I'm not an iPhone noobie and I always do clean installs via iTunes and not OTA. I have tried numerous methods to fix my problem, going even so far as to completely delete my iCloud backup. I have reinstalled iOS more than ten times, setting up as a new phone on each occasion, and my battery life is still woeful. Each subsequent iOS7 update has not made my battery life noticeably worse, it was the initial 7.0 which did it and there has been no improvement since.
So to hear these 'user error' and 'mine is fine, you're doing something wrong' posts is unhelpful. Something within iOS7 categorically does not agree with my iPhone 5 and it's a fact. Even when setting up as a new phone from a clean install and not downloading any apps, my battery life is a good 2.5 to 3 hours down on what I achieved with iOS 6.1.4
So to hear these 'user error' and 'mine is fine, you're doing something wrong' posts is unhelpful. Something within iOS7 categorically does not agree with my iPhone 5 and it's a fact. Even when setting up as a new phone from a clean install and not downloading any apps, my battery life is a good 2.5 to 3 hours down on what I achieved with iOS 6.1.4
Yes, I have seen most of your posts and threads you have started. You have one big gripe about your battery. I have seen people give you different solutions, and in fairness you seem to have tried all of them alongwith some of your own. And still your battery is woeful as you say... And I believe you...
The next step left for you, from what you say, is surely to go to apple - right? Only they are the ones who can solve your problem - right?
You can check up on here regularly, if some other member has found a miracle solution which will work for you.
The point is, interests are best served for all the members with bad battery performance to discuss, complain and hopefully find solutions to their problem on the same thread...
But creating multiple threads is not helping anyone....
I did go to Apple a few months ago and the 'genius' said he was aware of the issue and told me to wait for 7.1, as that would fix it. It didn't of course.
There are two reasons why I haven't been back to Apple since 7.1 was released.
1) Several other people I know who have the iPhone 5 are also experiencing rotten battery life, so I'm figuring that we can't all have had coincidental hardware malfunctions immediately upon installing iOS 7.0
2) The nearest Apple store to me is a 65 mile 'round trip, plus city centre parking charges once I get there. After they were so much help last time, I'm not sure it's worth it.
I do genuinely believe that iOS7 doesn't 'agree' with the iPhone 5, and ARS Technica backed up my own findings when they tested it some months back.
Last edited:
I'm sorry you dislike it but people and situations just aren't that neat. There have been battery issues reported with every IOS update going back to 1.1 probably, so what do you suggest - one rambling "battery life" thread going back to 2007? That's unlikely to help anyone.
Even an "IOS 7 battery life" thread by now be a sprawling mess of conflicting information from conflicting sources on a plethora of entirely separate issues relating to the various minor versions released since September. Completely unworkable and useless to anyone, regardless of its size.
Multiple threads about multiple related issues affecting multiple people in multiple ways are a fact of life. If you see them as useless (because you've no problem) you can help them not to proliferate by not contributing and not taking them off topic to the point where the next guy feels he has to start another one.
----------
I still don't agree with this, just for the record. My phone worked great with IOS 7, and while 7.1 took the edge of it slightly, it's 7.1.1 that for me is making a really noticeable change for the worst. I've also done a DFU restore and am still finding sky-high phantom usage and dramatically shorter battery life. I'm now experimenting with various apps and services on or off to try and find the culprit.
It's possible of course that it's not the OS at all but one of the various apps that were updated around the same time..
Agreed that the issue here is apps, not iOS 7. If you run your iPhone with iOS 7 and have no apps, you'll have amazing battery life!
It's what the apps do in the background (even with background refresh off), and how much battery apps use when you have them active that's the problem.
Apple needs to have a crack at fixing inefficient apps. Or better (yet worse in terms of intuitiveness) is give us a battery saver mode where apps won't run as well but at least we'll get more than a day's battery.
This is from the other day with 7.1.1
On:
4G
WiFi
Off:
Bluetooth
AirDrop
Background refresh off for all apps except run keeper.
I used for texting, calling, surfing and games.
Email set to fetch every hour.
Brightness controlled manually normally little below 50%. I switch between 30-50% throughout the day, it depends where I am.
My battery became noticeable better with 7.1.1. It was bad at 7.1.
On:
4G
WiFi
Off:
Bluetooth
AirDrop
Background refresh off for all apps except run keeper.
I used for texting, calling, surfing and games.
Email set to fetch every hour.
Brightness controlled manually normally little below 50%. I switch between 30-50% throughout the day, it depends where I am.
My battery became noticeable better with 7.1.1. It was bad at 7.1.
Attachments
Anyone else have trouble with the phone just shutting off like a dead battery but when at something like 24% or even 37%? These days if I go below 25% I know I could be screwed at any moment for no reason. All versions of iOS I have used before this, which is all 6, my iPhone, no matter what model, would go right to 1% and then finally die, even my iPhone that ran iOS 6 previously. Now it will jut shut off at any low, or not so low, battery percentage. I am good about not running heavy stuff and shutting off wifi and bluetooth when not needed. And I have noticed amongst those I know with iPhones of many other models running that they all have the same problem.
Maybe someone on here can give me some insight because this is irritating. Oh and when I plug it back in it immediately kicks back on and gives the current percentage which is way above 1%. Before if you killed the phone it would wait exactly 5 minutes before it would kick back on and it would be at 5%.
Maybe someone on here can give me some insight because this is irritating. Oh and when I plug it back in it immediately kicks back on and gives the current percentage which is way above 1%. Before if you killed the phone it would wait exactly 5 minutes before it would kick back on and it would be at 5%.
What usually gives rise to threads like these is where - as in my case certainly - you find battery life dropping suddenly without any change to your own situation. I'm using my phone the same way in the same places and with the same apps and settings, but suddenly since 7.1.1 I'm getting masses of phantom usage and a battery that's flat by mid afternoon no matter what I do.