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iPhone 4 Battery Draining Itself, Reports Wrong Usage

N

NetBaffle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 1, 2009
17
0
So I've noticed a problem with my iPhone 4 draining itself...even when I'm not using the phone at all. A couple of nights ago, I charged my phone up to 100% and left it in standby overnight. I woke up the next morning and the battery was at 53%. Last night, I charged it up to 100% again and did not touch the phone at all until this morning. When I woke up, the battery was at 83% and it reported 19 minutes of usage even though I did not touch the phone at all.

But it doesn't drain itself all the time. Sometimes standby battery life is great but never excellent. Then when I use the phone (safari over 3G or wi-fi, ipod, light gaming, etc.) the battery drains at about 1% per minute. Is this normal?

...all of this continues to happen after I've restored and set up as a new phone multiple times. Anyone else having these problems? Think it's a hardware issue? I'm a little jealous of all the other iPhone 4 users out there who report stellar battery life.
 
iPhone 4 Battery Draining pretty fast

Hi Nate,

I am also facing similar problem. I charged my battery overnight it was 100%. I switched off bluetooth, wifi, push notifications. only 3G is on. Screen brightness is 20% and auto brightness is off. Still after surfing websites for 5 mins (most of it was text) and making calls for around 10 mins...by battery life is down to 85%. By end of day thought I do not use phone much... it gets below 20%.

With same usage, my old iPhone 3g(not 3gs) use to last longer......
 
I had a similar problem with my battery draining alot overnight after a full charge. I did a restore and setup as a new phone and my battery life is real good now.

Do a complete restore and if that doesn't fix the issue, then just return the phone, they'll replace it.
 
Restore and setup as a new phone did not help. Going to try a return and exchange. Let's hope the Genius is feeling benevolent.
 
So I took my iPhone to the Apple Store and explained my problem to the Genius, which left me quite confused.

"My iPhone is inexplicably draining its battery when not in use. Last night before bed, i fully charged my iPhone and then unplugged it and left it on my nightstand in standby while i slept. When I woke up, 50% of my battery was drained and the usage counter said the phone was in use for over 4 hours," I explained.

"That's normal," replies the Genius.

"That's normal?" I asked.

"Yes."

"But I didn't use my phone at all. I was asleep. And so was my phone."

"Sir, even if you didn't use your iPhone, your iPhone was using itself."

"WHAT?"

"Sir, I assure you. Many customers have come to me with the same 'problem.' It's completely normal. Don't worry."

"Well can you run a diagnostic test and check it out just in case, please?"

"Sure."

The Genius proceeded to run the diagnostic test. And as soon as it's over...

"Sir, you're getting excellent battery life. Your phone is reporting over 8 hours of use out of each battery charge."

"But that's not true. As I told you earlier, my phone reports usage even when I don't use the phone." My irritation starts to grow at this point.

"Well, can you estimate how much time you get to use your phone before the battery dies?"

"About 3 or 4 hours at most," I reply.

"Yup, that's normal," he countered.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes," stated the Genius.

"But my iPhone 3G never behaved like this," I argued. "I'm getting worse battery life out the iPhone 4 than I got out of my 2 year old 3G."

"But sir, your iPhone 4 is THAT much more powerful. It's going to consume more power at a faster rate."

"But Apple says the iPhone 4's battery is 40% larger," I continued to argue.

"And it has THAT much more horsepower too."

The back-and-forth conversation/argument continues for another several minutes. I think since I kept insisting that something was wrong with my phone, the Genius finally gave up and offered to replace it - probably to shut me up and get me out of his hair.

So I am happy to report that this new iPhone is a big improvement so far but I'll test it more extensively later. The replacement unit has the tiniest speck of dust under the screen which is extremely annoying but I'm afraid to replace this one for fear of getting a new replacement with an even bigger defect - like another bad battery. Maybe I'll get used to it.
 
NetBaffle said:
So I took my iPhone to the Apple Store and explained my problem to the Genius, which left me quite confused.

"My iPhone is inexplicably draining its battery when not in use. Last night before bed, i fully charged my iPhone and then unplugged it and left it on my nightstand in standby while i slept. When I woke up, 50% of my battery was drained and the usage counter said the phone was in use for over 4 hours," I explained.

"That's normal," replies the Genius.

"That's normal?" I asked.

"Yes."

"But I didn't use my phone at all. I was asleep. And so was my phone."

"Sir, even if you didn't use your iPhone, your iPhone was using itself."

"WHAT?"

"Sir, I assure you. Many customers have come to me with the same 'problem.' It's completely normal. Don't worry."

"Well can you run a diagnostic test and check it out just in case, please?"

"Sure."

The Genius proceeded to run the diagnostic test. And as soon as it's over...

"Sir, you're getting excellent battery life. Your phone is reporting over 8 hours of use out of each battery charge."

"But that's not true. As I told you earlier, my phone reports usage even when I don't use the phone." My irritation starts to grow at this point.

"Well, can you estimate how much time you get to use your phone before the battery dies?"

"About 3 or 4 hours at most," I reply.

"Yup, that's normal," he countered.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes," stated the Genius.

"But my iPhone 3G never behaved like this," I argued. "I'm getting worse battery life out the iPhone 4 than I got out of my 2 year old 3G."

"But sir, your iPhone 4 is THAT much more powerful. It's going to consume more power at a faster rate."

"But Apple says the iPhone 4's battery is 40% larger," I continued to argue.

"And it has THAT much more horsepower too."

The back-and-forth conversation/argument continues for another several minutes. I think since I kept insisting that something was wrong with my phone, the Genius finally gave up and offered to replace it - probably to shut me up and get me out of his hair.

So I am happy to report that this new iPhone is a big improvement so far but I'll test it more extensively later. The replacement unit has the tiniest speck of dust under the screen which is extremely annoying but I'm afraid to replace this one for fear of getting a new replacement with an even bigger defect - like another bad battery. Maybe I'll get used to it.
Click to expand...

I was getting irritated at that genius just reading this! Glad you got it resolved though!
 
wow what a moron that genius guy is!!!! it most certainly is NOT normal.....i have brightness half way up, push on, wifi on....all the normal set ups.....and when i charge it fully to 100% at night.,....i wake up 8 hours later and it is usually between 97 and 98%.
 
Are you both running 3g and wifi? I shut off my 3g in strong wifi areas like home and school and makes a huge diff in battery life.
 
Do you have any apps running in the background?

It's the #1 thing I've seen so far, people are using the same setting, etc as their old 3g or 3gs but they've got apps running in the background that suck battery regardless of you actually using them or just idling them.
 
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