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frozzbite

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
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
 

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Last edited:

tymaster50

Suspended
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
so you're saying you basically want us to restore our phone and set it up as new if we're erasing all settings and network settings lol it would just be easier to restore from iCloud
 

orpheus1120

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2008
1,417
48
Malaysia
OP, since you claimed that push consumes less energy than fetch, why would you want to set email notification to fetch at hourly rate then? Wouldn't you just use push instead? :confused:

And logic tells me push should consume more battery since it's always on a constant lookout for emails, whereas fetch email would do so at a predetermined time, thus reducing battery usage.
 

frozzbite

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
OP, since you claimed that push consumes less energy than fetch, why would you want to set email notification to fetch at hourly rate then? Wouldn't you just use push instead? :confused:

Because gmail on the iPhone mail app doesn't offer push.

refer to this
http://guides.macrumors.com/iOS_Email_Recommendations

----------

so you're saying you basically want us to restore our phone and set it up as new if we're erasing all settings and network settings lol it would just be easier to restore from iCloud

I think you misread.
The process is to DFU restore and then restore from your backup.
Then only erase all settings. \
 

brokenbuyer

macrumors regular
May 7, 2011
136
1
Can someone else try these steps and post if they work?

Kind of want to have someone else verify this as well.
Not sure if it's effective... don't want to waste time DFU restoring either.

If you want to save the most battery you can with mail, wouldn't you just "Turn off Push", "Fetch Manually" and then Advanced < Accounts < "Manual"?

That way nothing is being pushed/fetched unless you open up the mail app and refresh/load it.
 

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,560
858
the most that hit the battery is the brightness. if i have the brightness only at 25%, i can hit 10 hours and 40 minutes of usage. if the brightness set to 50-60%, the usage is only 8 hours.
 

frozzbite

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
the point of the DFU restore is to ensure your firmware isn't causing an issue. My firmware did. I got 2% drops. The DFU restore fixed that.

Erase all settings is to wipe old settings that might have worked for our past iphone. It is also to ensure that we don't have some old lingering setting from the backup that might be causing the battery drain.

I think these steps are quite friendly to most users because it doesn't require us to wipe everything and start afresh. The DFU restore to a backup wouldn't take more than 20 mins if you have already downloaded iOS 6.0.1 into your computer.
 

brokenbuyer

macrumors regular
May 7, 2011
136
1
the point of the DFU restore is to ensure your firmware isn't causing an issue. My firmware did. I got 2% drops. The DFU restore fixed that.

Erase all settings is to wipe old settings that might have worked for our past iphone. It is also to ensure that we don't have some old lingering setting from the backup that might be causing the battery drain.

I think these steps are quite friendly to most users because it doesn't require us to wipe everything and start afresh. The DFU restore to a backup wouldn't take more than 20 mins if you have already downloaded iOS 6.0.1 into your computer.

So I guess just back up my phone now and go DFU restore and then back it up from the latest?

The most annoying thing is losing all my network/WiFi connections.
 

tymaster50

Suspended
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
Because gmail on the iPhone mail app doesn't offer push.

refer to this
http://guides.macrumors.com/iOS_Email_Recommendations

----------



I think you misread.
The process is to DFU restore and then restore from your backup.
Then only erase all settings. \
you're still restoring to iOS 6, you might as well just restore from iCloud which does almost exactly everything you posted, in 2 steps instead of 9.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
Haven't try this out myself, will do so after my exams for my 3GS that is facing a bit of a battery drain since OTA update to 6.0.1.

Then again, I would like to applaud the Frozzbite for coming up with such a solution for all Macrumors members, really appreciate your efforts for coming up with such a guide. It's good to know we have members like you that is willing to extend a helping hand to those in need, or rather those who's iPhone is in need. Good job!
 

tymaster50

Suspended
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
the iPhone needs one of those batt saver programs like the one available for jailbreak, if you don't use your phone for more than 20 minutes it'll turn on airplane mode, disables celluar data if nothing is using it, disables wifi if not used for more than 5 minutes, turns off all unused radios, etc..
 

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,560
858
the iPhone needs one of those batt saver programs like the one available for jailbreak, if you don't use your phone for more than 20 minutes it'll turn on airplane mode, disables celluar data if nothing is using it, disables wifi if not used for more than 5 minutes, turns off all unused radios, etc..

that's stupid thing to do. i'd rather buy a 5600mah portable battery than restricting my iphone to behave like that.
 

tymaster50

Suspended
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
that's stupid thing to do. i'd rather buy a 5600mah portable battery than restricting my iphone to behave like that.

different strokes for different folks, I know if I wasn't using my phone for a while I would want it to save as much battery as possible, these tweaks that apple tries to do only work so far, they can't just increase the mah by 10 every year.
 

frozzbite

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
you're still restoring to iOS 6, you might as well just restore from iCloud which does almost exactly everything you posted, in 2 steps instead of 9.

yea, but the purpose of a DFU restore is to reinstall your iPhone's firmware. A normal restore through your computer or iCloud, does not allow you to do that.
 

tymaster50

Suspended
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
yea, but the purpose of a DFU restore is to reinstall your iPhone's firmware. A normal restore through your computer or iCloud, does not allow you to do that.

iirc restoring iPhone gives you a new version of iOS 6, which you said to do. so restoring from backup would be the same thing
 

frozzbite

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
iirc restoring iPhone gives you a new version of iOS 6, which you said to do. so restoring from backup would be the same thing

I'm sorry but I think I have lost you. Maybe you don't quite understand the purpose of a DFU restore?

You can DFU restore the firmware then restore backup from iCloud, but that would take ages.

If you are trying to compare a restore from iCloud with a DFU restore, then I think you are on the wrong track. DFU restores firmware & OS while iCloud just restores your iPhone's previous content and settings.
 

tymaster50

Suspended
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
I'm sorry but I think I have lost you. Maybe you don't quite understand the purpose of a DFU restore?

You can DFU restore the firmware then restore backup from iCloud, but that would take ages.

If you are trying to compare a restore from iCloud with a DFU restore, then I think you are on the wrong track. DFU restores firmware & OS while iCloud just restores your iPhone's previous content and settings.

heres what you said to do
DFU Restore, which gives you a new copy of the OS, then restore from your favorite backup, which will replace the copy with your old one. Then to reset network settings and reset all settings which leaves settings at their default and resets all notifications like hold home to use siri. Setting up as new would achieve almost the same affect, maybe even better battery life.
 

thomasjon

macrumors member
Jul 21, 2008
30
0
Worked like a charm

Just wanted to than you and let you know I reached 5+ hours use and 20+ standby. Before I was getting 3 and 8. Much improved.
 

frozzbite

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
101
9
setting up as new would achieve almost the same affect, maybe even better battery life.

The objective of the solution, as spoken in the title of this thread, is to achieve a decent battery life WITHOUT having to "set up as new iPhone"

Anyway, I hope the solution will work for you. Good luck!
 
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