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Battery on iphone 3g s drains very fast.

bboucher790 said:
Many people have posted false information in this thread. I researched the iPhone 3G's battery last year. My guide offers many useful tips to help preserve battery life with the 3Gs as well. The guide is not for everyone, but it helps explain how to maximize your battery life, if you choose to do so. ;)

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/525741/
Click to expand...

I liked your thread the first time I saw it, but I'd like to add a comment. Many people didn't agree with you about using 3G over EDGE. What you need to show is how much battery is used by EDGE/minute and 3G/minute. You had EDGE taking 243 minutes. 3G taking 197 minutes. 3G 400 pages. EDGE 246 pages. From that pages/minute are about double for 3G. But if the battery goes down more than double from using 3G over EDGE, then this is not a good idea. Understand why you need to know the EDGE/minute and 3G/minute battery usage?

Also, TheSpaz has discovered a great way to make battery life better by resetting all settings, which seems to be equivalent to restoring as new. A number of people have already tried this. I have a 3G, and it makes my battery life better as well. I'm running a number of tests and will eventually report them. Here's his thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/761046/
 
Yea, I stopped "adding" to it a long time ago, I'm sure new stuff has been released. Most of what is posted does help people understand how the battery works, even if some stuff is "common sense".

As for the EDGE vs 3G, it's confusing for sure.

- With 3G being used to browse, you would spend 197 minutes browsing about 400 web pages.
- With Edge being used to browse, you would spend 243 minutes browsing about 246 web pages.

You do not spend 2x as much battery life using 3G, but you get to access roughly 2X as many sites. I can't remember exactly how I did the math last year, but it makes no sense to use EDGE, in any situation.
 
All I'll say is that when I first got my Iphone, I turned off pretty much everything. BT, Wifi, 3G, Locations Services, Notifications, Push (fetch Manually), just to see how far I could push the battery. To my horror, my battery percentage was dropping almost a percent every 3 mins about. I thought it might just be new battery, but the first couple of cycles were the same.

Then I turned on 3G, and boy, did things take a turn for the better! With everything else off, I got 2 good days and a bit out of the battery, and im a heavy music listener. Now I got BT on, Notifications on, Fetch 30 mins (seriously, if someone needs to contact me ASAP, they can call me). I usually leave my Wifi Off since I'm a programmer I prefer using my 23 inch screen ;) I still have Locations Off, simply as I only turn it on as needed.

Was a nice relief to know I have a good one. I post up a screen shot later if I get the chance.
 
phonewentwest said:
I see what your sayin. but I've had my 3gs since day one
and cycled through 100 to 0 several times. but still this
seems to be draining fast. perhaps it's just the apps I'm using
but damn that fast. nearly 10% after 25 min!
Click to expand...

Well, you could always do what I wrote above and reset all settings (NOT erase all settings). It seems to do the same as restore as new and has helped my battery life as well as others.

bboucher790 said:
Yea, I stopped "adding" to it a long time ago, I'm sure new stuff has been released. Most of what is posted does help people understand how the battery works, even if some stuff is "common sense".

As for the EDGE vs 3G, it's confusing for sure.

- With 3G being used to browse, you would spend 197 minutes browsing about 400 web pages.
- With Edge being used to browse, you would spend 243 minutes browsing about 246 web pages.

You do not spend 2x as much battery life using 3G, but you get to access roughly 2X as many sites. I can't remember exactly how I did the math last year, but it makes no sense to use EDGE, in any situation.
Click to expand...

I know it doesn't use twice as much (I've been looking at links on the 3G vs. EDGE battery usage and came up with 3G using about 25% more when browsing), but if you put that in your results they'd be more meaningful. If you don't remember the posters in that thread didn't agree (or it might have been in other threads where I brought up what you had said).
 
iphone.aggie said:
I know it doesn't use twice as much (I've been looking at links on the 3G vs. EDGE battery usage and came up with 3G using about 25% more when browsing), but if you put that in your results they'd be more meaningful. If you don't remember the posters in that thread didn't agree (or it might have been in other threads where I brought up what you had said).
Click to expand...

If you have a clearer way to explain it to people, post it and I'll change how it's worded. I remember some people being confused. People thought just because your iPhone's battery would last longer while browsing w/ EDGE, it was smarter to use EDGE....but they failed to realize that they were wasting their battery while the page loaded, whereas the 3G browsing would allow for less time because it took less time to load....therefore saving battery life.

I still can't explain it clearly :p
 
bboucher790 said:
If you have a clearer way to explain it to people, post it and I'll change how it's worded. I remember some people being confused. People thought just because your iPhone's battery would last longer while browsing w/ EDGE, it was smarter to use EDGE....but they failed to realize that they were wasting their battery while the page loaded, whereas the 3G browsing would allow for less time because it took less time to load....therefore saving battery life.

I still can't explain it clearly :p
Click to expand...

I thought I did in the previous post. :)

You mainly have to show pages/battery usage. That's what will be meaningful. Right now you show pages/minute (when you divide the pages by the minutes you showed). Or you can just show it different way by showing how much battery is used to load 400 pages in EDGE and how much in 3G. Are those your graphs? Can you change them to reflect any of that?

BTW, here's a link I found on battery life for 3G vs. EDGE. It's not mainly iPhone, but it does show something:

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3036

Another important thing is whether your 3G signal is as good or better than EDGE. Another wrinkle, I know, but it makes a difference as to what you should use.
 
I think there is some confusion, unless I'm still confused about what you're confused about lol.

I am showing pages / battery usage. You will use your battery a total of 197 minutes. That's usage. During that usage, you will be able to browse about 400 web pages. It's not how many minutes it takes to get to 400 web pages, that is the actual battery of the iPhone. In 197 minutes, your phone will be dead. Once it's dead, you will have browsed 400 web pages. Whereas, in EDGE, you will use your phone for 243 minutes before it dies and only browse 246 pages.
 
bboucher790 said:
I think there is some confusion, unless I'm still confused about what you're confused about lol.

I am showing pages / battery usage. You will use your battery a total of 197 minutes. That's usage. During that usage, you will be able to browse about 400 web pages. It's not how many minutes it takes to get to 400 web pages, that is the actual battery of the iPhone. In 197 minutes, your phone will be dead. Once it's dead, you will have browsed 400 web pages. Whereas, in EDGE, you will use your phone for 243 minutes before it dies and only browse 246 pages.
Click to expand...

Oh, then I was confused. I didn't know you started at 100% and then surfed until the battery died. I thought you were just showing how many minutes it took to load pages. So, forget what I said, it's clear now. But I guess the other members were confused too, since no one seemed to agree with the principle. After reading your article a month or so ago, I tried to bring up (and linked) your findings to others on here in other threads, and the idea was pretty much shot down.


Edit: @firewood....see what I wrote here. I understand what he was doing now. :)
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
 
iphone.aggie said:
I liked your thread the first time I saw it, but I'd like to add a comment. Many people didn't agree with you about using 3G over EDGE. What you need to show is how much battery is used by EDGE/minute and 3G/minute. You had EDGE taking 243 minutes. 3G taking 197 minutes. 3G 400 pages. EDGE 246 pages. From that pages/minute are about double for 3G. But if the battery goes down more than double from using 3G over EDGE, then this is not a good idea.
Click to expand...

Actually the opposite. The time measured is closer how long a user has to wait for their pages. A shorter waiting time is better, not a longer wait time. The reason the EDGE user got 243 minutes is that they waited almost twice as long for each page to load. The 47 extra minutes were time the user wasted watching the little spinning activity indicator, not extra value added to their life.
 
OK, here is my case.

I have had the 3GS for four weeks now didn't have a problem with the battery drain until 2 days ago.

The phone was averaging at least 2 days without reaching under 20% that is with wifi on, 3G on, notifications on, push on.

As of friday night i went to bed with 77% woke up 7 hrs later, it was dead. Charged it till 95% took it out 5 hrs later is was under under 20%.

So i came on these forums and tried what some of your suggested, (which i don't understand, why i buy a phone, but have to turn off all these functions for it to last 24hrs.)

Anyway, turned off 3g, push, notifcations and still no difference in battery drain, only lasting 4-5 hours on standby!

The back of the phone is quite warm aswell, is their something that is not shutting down properly... Do i need to do a full reset, or do i have a lemon of a 3GS iphone?

Any help, would be great.
 
knouth said:
OK, here is my case.

I have had the 3GS for four weeks now didn't have a problem with the battery drain until 2 days ago.

The phone was averaging at least 2 days without reaching under 20% that is with wifi on, 3G on, notifications on, push on.

As of friday night i went to bed with 77% woke up 7 hrs later, it was dead. Charged it till 95% took it out 5 hrs later is was under under 20%.

So i came on these forums and tried what some of your suggested, (which i don't understand, why i buy a phone, but have to turn off all these functions for it to last 24hrs.)

Anyway, turned off 3g, push, notifcations and still no difference in battery drain, only lasting 4-5 hours on standby!

The back of the phone is quite warm aswell, is their something that is not shutting down properly... Do i need to do a full reset, or do i have a lemon of a 3GS iphone?

Any help, would be great.
Click to expand...

Sounds like there is an issue with your battery, especially due to the warmness (however, make sure there's nothing running in the background that may be causing this). Try a DFU restore. Oh, and you shouldn't have to turn off everything for a 3GS to last 24 hours. I have a 3G and it lasts 24 hours. So, if the DFU doesn't work, you may have a battery issue. Just take it back.
 
BTW, I updated the thread for the 3Gs. I'm also going to add TheSpaz's advice to the thread. I think I cleared up the 3G vs EDGE debate, let me know if you think it's clearer now. :)
 
knouth said:
OK, here is my case.

I have had the 3GS for four weeks now didn't have a problem with the battery drain until 2 days ago.

The phone was averaging at least 2 days without reaching under 20% that is with wifi on, 3G on, notifications on, push on.

As of friday night i went to bed with 77% woke up 7 hrs later, it was dead. Charged it till 95% took it out 5 hrs later is was under under 20%.

So i came on these forums and tried what some of your suggested, (which i don't understand, why i buy a phone, but have to turn off all these functions for it to last 24hrs.)

Anyway, turned off 3g, push, notifcations and still no difference in battery drain, only lasting 4-5 hours on standby!

The back of the phone is quite warm aswell, is their something that is not shutting down properly... Do i need to do a full reset, or do i have a lemon of a 3GS iphone?

Any help, would be great.
Click to expand...

Try a regular reset first (the "slide to power off" kind). That will shut down any stuck background app or process (Apple's, of course).
 
knouth said:
OK, here is my case.

I have had the 3GS for four weeks now didn't have a problem with the battery drain until 2 days ago.

The phone was averaging at least 2 days without reaching under 20% that is with wifi on, 3G on, notifications on, push on.

As of friday night i went to bed with 77% woke up 7 hrs later, it was dead. Charged it till 95% took it out 5 hrs later is was under under 20%.

So i came on these forums and tried what some of your suggested, (which i don't understand, why i buy a phone, but have to turn off all these functions for it to last 24hrs.)

Anyway, turned off 3g, push, notifcations and still no difference in battery drain, only lasting 4-5 hours on standby!

The back of the phone is quite warm aswell, is their something that is not shutting down properly... Do i need to do a full reset, or do i have a lemon of a 3GS iphone?

Any help, would be great.
Click to expand...


Question....

When you first bought it, How was your initial charge?
How were you charging it there after?
Can you list your usage on it before it started going haywire?
 
knouth said:
OK, here is my case.

I have had the 3GS for four weeks now didn't have a problem with the battery drain until 2 days ago.

The phone was averaging at least 2 days without reaching under 20% that is with wifi on, 3G on, notifications on, push on.

As of friday night i went to bed with 77% woke up 7 hrs later, it was dead. Charged it till 95% took it out 5 hrs later is was under under 20%.

So i came on these forums and tried what some of your suggested, (which i don't understand, why i buy a phone, but have to turn off all these functions for it to last 24hrs.)

Anyway, turned off 3g, push, notifcations and still no difference in battery drain, only lasting 4-5 hours on standby!

The back of the phone is quite warm aswell, is their something that is not shutting down properly... Do i need to do a full reset, or do i have a lemon of a 3GS iphone?

Any help, would be great.
Click to expand...

Reboot the phone. If this problem persists, contact Apple. Let them run a diagnostics on your phone. They will replace your phone if something is abnormal.
 
Ok guys, I did a normal reset (sleep and home button at the same time until apple logo appeared, didn't help).

So, i did a full reset using itunes, but didn't set phone as new and used the backup which kept my data, however, my apps are sync'd to my macbook pro and my videos, music and photos are sync'd to my pc.

So, after the reset, I have all my data back on the phone but I have not sync'd my apps yet with the macbook pro, but the phone is back to normal, overnight 93%, this morning it was 89%, usage today has been great, I have wifi on, 3g on and 9hrs later it is 77%.

So, i'm thinking it is something to do with an application i have d/l, that is draining my battery, even when my phone is asleep. I'll have to do a process of elimination to see which one it is.

One more thing, for furture reference, is it better to charge the phone from a wall power outlet and not from your mac/pc?

Thanks for the info.
 
knouth said:
Ok guys, I did a normal reset (sleep and home button at the same time until apple logo appeared, didn't help).

So, i did a full reset using itunes, but didn't set phone as new and used the backup which kept my data, however, my apps are sync'd to my macbook pro and my videos, music and photos are sync'd to my pc.

So, after the reset, I have all my data back on the phone but I have not sync'd my apps yet with the macbook pro, but the phone is back to normal, overnight 93%, this morning it was 89%, usage today has been great, I have wifi on, 3g on and 9hrs later it is 77%.

So, i'm thinking it is something to do with an application i have d/l, that is draining my battery, even when my phone is asleep. I'll have to do a process of elimination to see which one it is.

Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing your issue is resolved, but who knows :cool:
 
85% left after 1 hour of mixed use - good or bad?

hi i bought my iphone a few weeks ago, everything ok, except i did think the battery was draining far too quickly compared to my 1 year old 3g. so i took it back to the store to get it replaced. i got my replacement and the i am getting the same usage time as the one i took back!
heres my settings, wifi on, 3g on, push (beejive) on, push email on, location services on, brightness about 40% and bluetooth off. now i know that i have all the power hungry options set to on, but in comparison with my 3g everythings set the same (except for push though), signal is mainly 3g with 1 - 5 bars and sometimes edge 4-5 bars but i was expecting better life from my 3gs considering its a newer phone.
i did a quick test this morning and got to about 85-84% in the first hour, this is about average with usage of web, map, itunes store, app store, checking mail, beejive check, stocks, itunes music (looking - not played anything, just for testing purpses)
any advice? its a week 72 3gs (the returned one was too), should i return it? wait for update 3.1 see if that improves things? or is battery life consistant with my usage? i dont know but any advice will be helpful!
many thanks
d
 

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@ David

Your usage is completely normal, based on your screenshot. There is no need to return your phone. Each phone's battery life will vary from phone to phone.

I noticed you have Push Enabled. Did you ever use your iPhone 3G w/ the 3.0 software? If yes, did you have Push enabled? OS 3.0 added Push, which decreases battery life on both the 3G / 3Gs. If you never used Push w/ the iPhone 3G, that could be why you're experiencing shorter usage time with the 3Gs.
 
bboucher790 said:
@ David

Your usage is completely normal, based on your screenshot. There is no need to return your phone. Each phone's battery life will vary from phone to phone.

I noticed you have Push Enabled. Did you ever use your iPhone 3G w/ the 3.0 software? If yes, did you have Push enabled? OS 3.0 added Push, which decreases battery life on both the 3G / 3Gs. If you never used Push w/ the iPhone 3G, that could be why you're experiencing shorter usage time with the 3Gs.
Click to expand...

yeah i did use push on 3g for a short while before upgrading and would get about 4 to 4 and a half hours usage, i suppose i was expecting a great leap forward with the 3gs. im still probebly getting about the same usage.
i did worry a little as you can see the percentage decreasing as you watch it, maybe thats the problem, the 3g didnt have this so would have known.
with my 3g though i could get about 1 hour 10 mins usage when the first chunk of battery would disappear, but with the 3gs i get around half that before the first chunk disappears.
d
 
Thoughts on my battery life

Here are my current stats...

IPHONE 3Gs
64%
Usage 1hr 47minutes
Standby 2 days 17 Hours

Usage has mainly been Facebook App, Twitterrific, App Store. 3g used minimally and wifi used minimally.

I am not sure I am getting the battery life I should be and have performed a new phone restore and let the battery drain all the way to 0 and then recharged. I want to get some thoughts before I set up a genius bar appointment.
 
i bought Scrabble and noticed that when i listen to the ipod and play scrabble at the same time my battery is used a lot faster than listening to the ipod and doing something like reading NY Times on my iphone.

Streaming Slacker and Pandora also seems to use less battery than regular internet surfing
 
davidjtaylor07 said:
with my 3g though i could get about 1 hour 10 mins usage when the first chunk of battery would disappear, but with the 3gs i get around half that before the first chunk disappears.
d
Click to expand...
I actually noticed that too. The 3G had a very inaccurate display for showing the 1st hour's usage (most likely on purpose by Apple). The 3Gs, from what I've seen, displays a much more accurate meter for estimating battery life. I would look at the usage statistics @ 80% / 50%. Those are two good numbers to estimate how much juice your phone has left. As you drain the battery further, see if your usage is where it should be compared to the numbers you received @ 80 % / 50%.

iphone.aggie said:
Yes, it's very clear now. BTW, have you found TheSpaz's advice to have helped you personally?
Click to expand...
I like the advice a lot, but haven't had the need to test it.

I just bought a 3Gs, so there's really no need to do this, as I set up the phone as a new phone (very stupid) and lost all my game saves. I wish I had this information last week :).
 
eBay app drained my battery!?!

Thought this might be worth a mention...

For over a week now my 3 month old iPhone's battery has been draining at a rate of more than 10% per hour, regardless of usage.
I removed the eBay app 4 hours ago and I'm now sat at 95% :)

I'm not sure of the exact reasoning why this particular app may have caused such dramatic battery drain. I anybody out there does know how to fix the app to prevent it from this I'd be very interested to know.

Here's a little background which may help anyone else out there solve the problem:
It was just 1 week ago when my iPhone battery decided to function on par with my 12 year old Nokia's.
I did the usual google searches and removed pretty much all the apps I'd installed over the last 2 months as well as changing all my phone setting as advised by the masses.
No change!
I recently recalled that I had been receiving SMS messages from eBay informing me of various item updates. A result I guess of my recent change in location where I am frequently travelling in and out of various free WiFi spots.
As the eBay app was one of the very first apps I'd installed I never considered it to be the cause of my sudden battery problem.
I don't fully understand why removing the app has immediately resolved my problem, as all my phone internet settings and the like have been disabled for the last week. I can only assume that the eBay app has been 'trying' to operate regardless of having no internet connection.

If anyone has knowledge of this situation I'd be very grateful as I am sure that the same reasoning could apply to many other apps out there.

Hope this helps.

Update: It's been over 6 hours since the removal of eBay app and I'm still sat at 95%!
:)
 
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