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Apple Working with iPhone 4S Owners to Address Battery Life Issues

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,538
30,848



Since the release of the iPhone 4S, some users have been complaining about poor battery life. Even with Apple having quietly reduced the standby battery life from 300 hours on the iPhone 4 to 200 hours on the iPhone 4S, active-use battery life for the iPhone 4S was supposed to remain the same or better than on the iPhone 4. But some users are indeed seeing rapid battery drains, both while in active use and in standby, suggesting that some sort of background task is sapping the device's battery under certain circumstances, according to The Guardian.

iphone_4s_battery_specs.jpg



One user in particular noted a battery drain of 10% per hour even in standby mode. The user was able to replicate the issue with all features such as Siri and location services turned off, and even on a relatively clean phone with no apps installed, hinting that the battery drain was coming from a core functionality on the device. The user does report, however, that Apple has reached out in an attempt to research the issue, asking to install system monitoring software on the device to help figure out what is going wrong.
"I then got a call from a senior [Apple] engineer who said he had read my post and was 'reaching out' to users for data and admitted this was an issue (and that they aren't close to finding a fix!) and asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file below and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info. I extracted the file from my Mac after a sync and emailed it to him. He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!"
Click to expand...
Apple has yet to offer an explanation for the battery life issue, but anecdotal reports suggest that corrupted contacts may be responsible. Some users have reported that a backup and restore through iTunes can help, but until Apple offers an official solution those affected by the issue may need to experiment with various solutions.

Article Link: Apple Working with iPhone 4S Owners to Address Battery Life Issues
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/28/apple-working-with-iphone-4s-owners-to-address-battery-life-issues/
D

DESNOS

macrumors 6502
Aug 24, 2011
374
1
I love Apple, truly. This is above and beyond what I expect from any customer service, even Apple. I'm impressed.
 
L

lapis

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2007
19
0
One definite problem is the Setting Time Zone function in Locations (under system services). It never turns off location searching so it drains the battery. Turning off the Time Zone feature eliminates that particular problem.
 
G

GatorSF

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2011
1
0
iPhone 4 with iOS 5

I've had terrible battery performance ever since upgrading to iOS 5.
 
A

au1489

macrumors newbie
Oct 7, 2011
4
0
Wish it was better

Even with turning the location services off my battery still seems to drain like crazy, even with minimal use of data services as well.
 
Mike Oxard

Mike Oxard

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2009
804
458
Location based reminders seem to hammer the battery on my iPhone 4, though no surprise there I guess.
 
Friscohoya

Friscohoya

macrumors 6502a
Jun 16, 2009
708
0
Oaktown
Both my wife and I are having this problem on a 4 and a 4S. It seems to have improved a bit, but nothing like it was with prior operating system or when I had my prior phone. Glad they are evaluating this.
 
rosalindavenue

rosalindavenue

macrumors 6502a
Dec 13, 2003
855
282
Virginia, USA
CortexRock said:
My iPhone 4 battery is getting caned since I upgraded to iOS5... if it's bad on the new phone too, surely there's got to be a bug in the software?
Click to expand...

Mine was too. I had lockscreen notifications on for emails (and I get a couple hundred a day). I turned those off and it improved markedly. Also a lot of forum posters are blaming Time Zone support -- Go to settings--> Mail Contacts Calendars --> scroll all the way down and switch "Time Zone Support" off. With those two actions (and turning off a few location services I did not use) my battery like on my iPhone 4 with iOS 5 seems normal again.
 
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S

Streamer

macrumors member
Apr 18, 2008
70
0
GatorSF said:
I've had terrible battery performance ever since upgrading to iOS 5.
Click to expand...

Likewise, my battery life is way worse now with the plain iPhone 4 and iOS5. Done a lot of stuff etc. It has made it better but then it'll behave for a while then start draining.
 
A

AxeluteZero

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2011
9
0
iCloud absolutely BURNS through battery, either on WiFi or 3G (esp. 3G, no surprise).

My battery has been okay, but I've heard that some people are getting massive battery fails.
 
F

fedefmz

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2011
1
0
GatorSF said:
I've had terrible battery performance ever since upgrading to iOS 5.
Click to expand...

My performance is terrible too since iOS 5. I even tried to set some features off with no luck at all. I turned off a lot of location services, applications that back up to iCloud, iMessage. I don't know what to do :(
 
Xian Zhu Xuande

Xian Zhu Xuande

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
941
128
I don't remember the article, but one person traced his instance of this issue to Address Book and iCloud syncing (it went away when he did not sync Address Book and he eventually resolved it permanently with a clean restore) and a loop associated with a software crash. I wouldn't be surprised if it is some kind of syncing circumstance triggers this bug and causes this result. If anyone wants to look that up I'm pretty sure Gruber linked to it some days ago. I could be a little hazy on some of the details, but it might help.

I'm syncing everything but Mail with iCloud on my 4S and I haven't encountered any problems. I'm also having no problems with my other synced devices, and my wife's devices are working properly as well. All under iOS 5. I feel like I might be getting the smallest touch less battery life than I did with the 4, though that's probably just because I'm using the 4S more. I don't know anyone else who has encountered this issue either. I bet it would be really frustrating to deal with.

AxeluteZero said:
iCloud absolutely BURNS through battery, either on WiFi or 3G (esp. 3G, no surprise).

My battery has been okay, but I've heard that some people are getting massive battery fails.
Click to expand...
I am not having this problem.
 
J

jp70

macrumors member
Jul 7, 2008
83
3
Palmdale, CA
Excellent battery life for both our phones.

I only turn off Time Zone, blue tooth when not in use, Ask to join networks, and I don't send data to Apple.
 

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richard4339

richard4339

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2006
891
108
Illinois
I've had days where I've been at 30% battery with the phone on standy after a few hours, as has my wife. In general, though, its not bad.

My phone has currently been off the charger for 7 hours, was used to play 30 minutes of music this morning, and has otherwise primarily been in standby, and is at 70%.
 
TimUSCA

TimUSCA

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2006
701
1,539
Aiken, SC
DESNOS said:
I love Apple, truly. This is above and beyond what I expect from any customer service, even Apple. I'm impressed.
Click to expand...

I had the same experience with TrendNet. I posted a complaint on NewEgg, and within 24 hours had a representative from TrendNet calling me. They not only replaced my device, but they upgraded me from the $40 router I bought to a $120 gigabit gaming router for free.

I was a happy man and buy only TrendNet routers now.
 
A

alakazzam

macrumors member
Mar 7, 2010
83
0
MA
Nothing out of the ordinary for me. I'm up by 630/7am and it lasts the day on a full charge for the most part.
 
alphaod

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
I'm not sure what constitute bad battery life because I can go about 14 hours on one charge, but I have push enabled, along with locations services, etc.

14 hours isn't terrific, but it's fine.
 
iTim314

iTim314

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2005
337
6
U.S.
Turn off iCloud Contact syncing. My iPhone 4 battery was dying from 100% thrice daily. I used iPhone Configuration Utility and pulled the console logs, and it's sending out multiple error reports every two or three seconds regarding iCloud and contact sync services. Turned that off, and all of the sudden my iPhone held a charge for two days again.
 
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