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Battery Problems with 3.0? Try the "Battery Logging" Setting to gather Logs

S

skoops

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 8, 2007
116
17
Hey guys;

I have created a configuration profile that enables Battery Level Logging on the iPhone with OS 3.0
If you have bad battery life or an unusally warm iphone with a rapidly depleting battery you might want to install this profile in order to gather some additional verbose logging of your Power levels inside the phone.

There's a short description about this on the apple discussion forums here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9677682#9677682

I have replicated the configuration settings in this .mobileconfig file.
You can either use your iPod/iPhone (OS 3.0 only please) to surf directly to
http://bit.ly/powerlog

or download the file to your pc/mac and peek inside with a text editor. You'll quickly notice that it's a simple XML file which instructs your device to enable the PowerLog setting in the Springboard.app.

Sneak edit: After applying the profile you need to restart your phone.

You can un-install this config profile at any time you wish by going to Settings - General - Profiles - "Sync power logs...." - Remove

While it's installed it will automagically sync the power logs to your iTunes - they can then be found here:
Mac OS X: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/Device Name/Powerlog* -The tilde(~) represents the home folder. You can view the folder by clicking Finder> Go> Home.
Windows Vista: C:Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDeviceDevice Name\Powerlog*
Windows XP: C:\Documents and SettingsUsername\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDeviceDevice Name\Powerlog*
Click to expand...
 
dagomike said:
How do we use this info to evaluate our performance?
Click to expand...

You can identify the application that's waking your iphone and depleting your battery. Most power-issues after upgrading to 3.0 result from not-3.0 compatible third party apps.
For example an app might enable the GPS framework to locate you, but may fail to release control over the GPS unit, so GPS stays awake even when you turn the app off and put your phone into standby.

In the powerlog you could see this behavior.

Here's a sample of my very own power-log
20090624-ficu8t83t1ea8us82drfrn4mdp.png
 
Interesting log, it'd be nice to know what to grep for as this grows quickly. Is there a particular string that would indicate an app waking the phone?
 
I have been using this for the last hour - so I don't have any long time experience analyzing those logs, but there are those recurring lines with the current battery level and usage times...

by combining the elapsed time (using the timestamps) and the remaining battery capacity data you could make out applications which are using a massive amount of energy in a short time period.

I'm sure there are much better options to analyse the logs... I need to find an app (or setting) which depletes my battery really fast in order to have some tangible results in these logs.
Maybe you guys find some useful clues in your own files.
 
Weird - mediaserverd runs even though I have the phone on silent.

Power Assertions:
mediaserverd (pid 15):
com.apple.audio.VAD Aggregate Device UID 1.isrunning NoIdleSleepAssertion == 255 Held for 00:04:13
SpringBoard (pid 24):
com.apple.springboard.idle NoIdleSleepAssertion == 255 Held for 00:07:01

Note that during the period this log covers the phone was in standby, not being used, along with being switched to silent.
 
What also stands out to me is that your battery level is at 43 (3812), whereas mine is at: Battery level = 97 [4190]

How is 43% = 3812 and 97% = 4190?? Math class was a while back, but that doesn't add up.
 
jaycarroll said:
What also stands out to me is that your battery level is at 43 (3812), whereas mine is at: Battery level = 97 [4190]

How is 43% = 3812 and 97% = 4190?? Math class was a while back, but that doesn't add up.
Click to expand...

My iPhone is a refurbished one and it's only about a month old. I wonder what these figures mean. It can't be mAh (like they display it on the portable macs) because I really doubt the iPhone has a 8000 mAh battery.

but spoken in pseudo-units it would mean that your battery has a max capacity of about 4300 units and mine is about 8000... What iPhone do you have?
 
skoops said:
My iPhone is a refurbished one and it's only about a month old. I wonder what these figures mean. It can't be mAh (like they display it on the portable macs) because I really doubt the iPhone has a 8000 mAh battery.

but spoken in pseudo-units it would mean that your battery has a max capacity of about 4300 units and mine is about 8000... What iPhone do you have?
Click to expand...

iPhone 3GS 32GB - so, that can't be right
 
it would be cool if someone else could post his battery data to have some comparison values... preferably with iPhone model information.

EDIT:
It's NOT the capacity information.
I just grepped for "Battery level" and this is what i got:

Code: 
Wed Jun 24 23:12:24 2009: Battery level = 71 [3953] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:12:34 2009: Battery level = 71 [3982] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:12:36 2009: Battery level = 73 [3982] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:15:34 2009: Battery level = 73 [3964] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:15:44 2009: Battery level = 73 [3994] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:18:44 2009: Battery level = 73 [3970] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:18:54 2009: Battery level = 73 [4000] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:18:59 2009: Battery level = 75 [3988] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:21:54 2009: Battery level = 75 [3982] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:22:04 2009: Battery level = 75 [4017] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:22:06 2009: Battery level = 78 [4017] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:25:04 2009: Battery level = 78 [3994] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
Wed Jun 24 23:25:14 2009: Battery level = 78 [4023] (low = no, critical = no, charging = yes, 500 mA)  Call active: no
 
I installed the profile about an hour ago. I will post whatever I've got when I charge it up.

My battery is terrible. I'm down to 30% and haven't even gotten 3 hrs of usage yet. My iPhone 3G lasted well over twice as long with the same exact settings.
 
hi guys, i had this problem with my 3g 8gb, battery would drain in hours, get very hot an eventually stop charging, i suspect because of the overheating.
took it to apple and got a replacement iphone, worked great but after restoring back up same problems occurred. So def software related.
to solve this for myself i deleted beejive and my mail accounts then i made a new backup. I restored my phone then backed up with my new back up, and the battery problems have gone.
so i'm guessing that any push utilizing apps are going to be your problem here. my method is by no means a fix, more making my phone useable for the moment. its a wide spread problem apparantly and i imagine an update will be needed. Anyway hope this has helped anybody
adam
 
I wiped my iPhone clean tonight and reset it all up. I upgraded from a backup, so starting out fresh. If there's a problem in there, or with problem apps, this should root it out. I installed no apps. We'll see how my standby goes tonight and usage tomorrow.
 
dagomike said:
I wiped my iPhone clean tonight and reset it all up. I upgraded from a backup, so starting out fresh. If there's a problem in there, or with problem apps, this should root it out. I installed no apps. We'll see how my standby goes tonight and usage tomorrow.
Click to expand...

i would check the push settings for your mail accounts to, this can cause a problem aswell i've been told.
adam
 
badidio said:
i would check the push settings for your mail accounts to, this can cause a problem aswell i've been told.
adam
Click to expand...

I was using Exchange push on my 2G with no problems. Shouldn't an issue. I don't use any app push.
 
I like how Push is supposed to be a battery saver but drains "too" much battery for some people. :rolleyes:

Anyways, I got just short of 5 hours usage and over 11 hours of standby time on my original iPhone. I do have Push Notification on for AIM. I got down to about 30% because the notification about being in the 20% didn't pop up. But I usually get 15 hours of standby so I'm really not that worried.
 
kage207 said:
I like how Push is supposed to be a battery saver but drains "too" much battery for some people. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I think the point is that Push is supposed to be save battery power compared to the option of having background processes/apps. However, using Push compared to not using it is a different matter. If I remember the stat that Apple used during the WWDC (or maybe the March dev conf), using Push would have about a 21% negative impact on the battery. That may be better than using background processes/apps, but it still is a 21% impact for some (so far) questionable value.
 
sseelman said:
I think the point is that Push is supposed to be save battery power compared to the option of having background processes/apps. However, using Push compared to not using it is a different matter. If I remember the stat that Apple used during the WWDC (or maybe the March dev conf), using Push would have about a 21% negative impact on the battery. That may be better than using background processes/apps, but it still is a 21% impact for some (so far) questionable value.
Click to expand...

I thought that push was draining my battery...but i have turned it off today (in recent days i was using it a lot with text free and beejive)...my phone is still draining just as quickly..time to go back to the apple store..
 
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