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very bad battery life on a new iPhone 5S

A

Ariel95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2014
20
0
Israel
I bought a new iPhone 5S last week, and i quickly notice how Terrible the battery lift is. I pretty much disable all the Features i could, everything!
bluetooth, LTE, no Notification (just sms, and phone),spotlight, background app refresh, brightness 20-30%, location services off, and also disable all options on icloud as well! resotred the phone couple of times as a new phone with no back up(on both ios 8.1 and 8.1.1)and did like 10 to 20 full cycle charges and even after doing all of this i can barely get more then 5 hours of usage mostly on safari usually i get about 4 hours. i had a new iPhone 5S before and it had the same problem as this but Fortunately i had the option to give it back. now i can't get the money back for it, and i am out of ideas. i saw people here lasting with there phone over 6 hours and i just can get there.
Any suggestions what to do?
thanks.
 
W

Winona Northdakota

macrumors 6502a
Dec 27, 2010
580
1
very bad battery life on a new iPhone 5S

Ariel95 said:
I bought a new iPhone 5S last week, and i quickly notice how Terrible the battery lift is. I pretty much disable all the Features i could, everything!

bluetooth, LTE, no Notification (just sms, and phone),spotlight, background app refresh, brightness 20-30%, location services off, and also disable all options on icloud as well! resotred the phone couple of times as a new phone with no back up(on both ios 8.1 and 8.1.1)and did like 10 to 20 full cycle charges and even after doing all of this i can barely get more then 5 hours of usage mostly on safari usually i get about 4 hours. i had a new iPhone 5S before and it had the same problem as this but Fortunately i had the option to give it back. now i can't get the money back for it, and i am out of ideas. i saw people here lasting with there phone over 6 hours and i just can get there.

Any suggestions what to do?

thanks.
Click to expand...


I have an iPhone 5S on iOS 8.1.1 and have great battery life. 78-80% at the end of the work day. I don't have LTE inside my office at work, only 4G and I rarely bother to turn off LTE, since I have it everywhere else. I don't know what to tell you except to read this. This helped me.

http://www.scottyloveless.com/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Winona Northdakota said:
I have an iPhone 5S on iOS 8.1.1 and have great battery life. 78-80% at the end of the work day. I don't have LTE inside my office at work, only 4G and I rarely bother to turn off LTE, since I have it everywhere else. I don't know what to tell you except to read this. This helped me.

http://www.scottyloveless.com/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain
Click to expand...

I'm often alresdy close to those levels by the time I leave for work. Do you basically not use your phone much/often during those days?
 
I

IFRIT

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2012
840
137
willmtaylor

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,314
8,198
Here(-ish)
Ariel95 said:
I bought a new iPhone 5S last week, and i quickly notice how Terrible the battery lift is. I pretty much disable all the Features i could, everything!
bluetooth, LTE, no Notification (just sms, and phone),spotlight, background app refresh, brightness 20-30%, location services off, and also disable all options on icloud as well! resotred the phone couple of times as a new phone with no back up(on both ios 8.1 and 8.1.1)and did like 10 to 20 full cycle charges and even after doing all of this i can barely get more then 5 hours of usage mostly on safari usually i get about 4 hours. i had a new iPhone 5S before and it had the same problem as this but Fortunately i had the option to give it back. now i can't get the money back for it, and i am out of ideas. i saw people here lasting with there phone over 6 hours and i just can get there.
Any suggestions what to do?
thanks.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't hVe to disable all of those features, making your smartphone a circa 1999 Nokia. You should be able to get 6-8 hours of normal web surfing. Which means there's obviously an issue (either hardware or software).

You said the phone is new, but you can't get the money back for it? What does this mean? Where are you? How'd you get the phone? You've obviosuly left out part of the story.
 
A

Ariel95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2014
20
0
Israel
Pelea said:
how strong is your cellular connection?
Click to expand...
mostly 4-5 bars,depending on were i am.
aristobrat said:
It'd be interesting to see a screenshot of Settings > General > Usage> Battery Usage from your phone.
Click to expand...
i will post it later.
willmtaylor said:
You shouldn't hVe to disable all of those features, making your smartphone a circa 1999 Nokia. You should be able to get 6-8 hours of normal web surfing. Which means there's obviously an issue (either hardware or software).

You said the phone is new, but you can't get the money back for it? What does this mean? Where are you? How'd you get the phone? You've obviosuly left out part of the story.
Click to expand...

you right,it's really sucks to disable all the features that makes the iphone what it is. anyway, i am from israel and there is no official apple store, so i bought it from a computer store and after you have used the phone you can't get the money back for it, it's not like in the U.S where you can just the money back after 14 days no questions asked . here is different.
 
mtneer

mtneer

macrumors 68040
Sep 15, 2012
3,179
2,714
Ariel95 said:
mostly 4-5 bars,depending on were i am.

i will post it later.
Click to expand...

Actually check the signal strength in field test mode. "Bars" have very poor signal strength resolution and can also be fudged.
 
A

Ariel95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2014
20
0
Israel
IpadSC400 said:
It would make total sense if you're on T-Mobile. Boy, they suck. :confused:
Click to expand...
I said i am from israel, there is no T-MOBLIE here.
mtneer said:
Actually check the signal strength in field test mode. "Bars" have very poor signal strength resolution and can also be fudged.
Click to expand...
even when i get the sim out of the phone, battery life still aint anywhere near where they sould be.
 
W

Winona Northdakota

macrumors 6502a
Dec 27, 2010
580
1
very bad battery life on a new iPhone 5S

IFRIT said:
Not really, as the phone just being sat on a desk for 8+ hours would drain the battery by at least 10%.
Click to expand...


Granted if I were to do processor heavy tasks for 8+ hours, Houston, we may have a problem. But my phone is on and operational and doing things I do check messages and use apps. Doesn't really matter. Really, as long as the phone is on, you are using it. I mean, how do you expect to know if you have a phone call or text message? It is how much responsibility a person chooses to take.

Edit. I went today, Thanksgiving, from11:15 AM to 2:15 PM with 5 texts, 2 phone calls, light web surfing facebook and I still have 98% battery.

Eit. At 8:30 PM, I have 39% battery, with pretty heavy phone use all afternoon-early evening.
 
Last edited:
Ecoh

Ecoh

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2009
653
26
USA
Are you able to take it to an Apple store ?

I had the same problem with my 5s. Battery was down to 10% by noon and I barely used it. Took it to the Apple store to have someone look at it. They ran diagnostics on it to see if the battery was good. The battery was in excellent shape, so they did a total restore of the software on the phone. The restore fixed my problem, I now have at least 30% by the end of the day.

They told me if the restore didn't fix the battery problem I could bring it back and they would swap it out for another 5s.
 
Last edited:
willmtaylor

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,314
8,198
Here(-ish)
Ecoh said:
Are you able to take it to an Apple store ?

I had the same problem with my 5s. Battery was down to 10% by noon and I barely used it. Took it to the Apple store to have someone look at it. They ran diagnostics on it to see if the battery was good. The battery was in excellent shape, so they did a total restore of the software on the phone. The restore fixed my problem, I now have at least 30% by the end of the day.

They told me if the restore didn't fix the battery problem I could bring it back and they would swap it out for another 5s.
Click to expand...

No. He already alluded to that.
 
R

rcckks96

macrumors member
Oct 4, 2013
78
30
Stamford,CT
I got about 3.5 hours of usage out of my 4s, about 4 out of my 5, a little over 4 on my 5s, and I get about 5 hours of usage out of my 6.

Yours sounds normal to me. Everyone else posting numbers much higher than that, I have no clue how they're doing it. But I've played around with settings for 4 years now and those are the numbers.
 
A

Ariel95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2014
20
0
Israel
rcckks96 said:
I got about 3.5 hours of usage out of my 4s, about 4 out of my 5, a little over 4 on my 5s, and I get about 5 hours of usage out of my 6.

Yours sounds normal to me. Everyone else posting numbers much higher than that, I have no clue how they're doing it. But I've played around with settings for 4 years now and those are the numbers.
Click to expand...
this is really Frustrating because i was expecting to get much more from the phone.
Anyway for those who asked this is my usage:
3Y7CwD5.jpg

I was on a full 3G signal most of the time(only 3G) didn't play any games(mabye for 2 mins) 30~40 percent brightness.
 
A

Ariel95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2014
20
0
Israel
maybe some of you who have an iPhone 5S can share a screenshot of there usage, to see where my phone is standing.
that can be really helpful.
 
I

IFRIT

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2012
840
137
4+ hours screen on time is pretty good in my good in my book. And i also see you were playing a game, playing games drains the battery really fast on any mobile device.
 
azhava

azhava

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2010
588
574
Arizona, USA
IFRIT said:
Not really, as the phone just being sat on a desk for 8+ hours would drain the battery by at least 10%.
Click to expand...
I would usually charge my iPhone 5 at night before I went to bed, then set it on the nightstand for 8 hours. When I woke up in the morning, I usually had 98-100% battery remaining. If a battery is dropping 10% in 8 hours just sitting there asleep doing nothing, I'd say that's not satisfactory unless you're in an area with bad cell coverage and it's fighting to keep a signal or something.
 
A

Ariel95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2014
20
0
Israel
IFRIT said:
4+ hours screen on time is pretty good in my good in my book. And i also see you were playing a game, playing games drains the battery really fast on any mobile device.
Click to expand...
At that usage that I showed,I didn't play any games(maybe fruit ninja for 2 mins ) the percentage that you see could be from the day before. i charged the phone to 100% and use safari and some whatsapp,nothing more.
 
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