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Apple Continuing to Investigate iOS 5 Battery Issues

I updated around 5:00 pm yesterday on power and unplugged around 5:30 pm. I was down to about 73% by 10:00 pm and left the phone over night. Managed to make it to 3:00 pm or today before crossing the 10% mark. Activity included Instagramming, email, some casual surfing, and use of the Camera.

I ran the battery down all the way until the phone powered off and have left it to fully recharge as recommended by some folks to recalibrate from time to time.

So far, seems like maybe battery life has been improved?
 
battery life is more atrocious before the update to 5.0.1

from a 100% charge, my 4S fell to 99% within a minute.. it's been an hour and now it's at 95% with virtually no use other than intermittently checking the lock screen for the time..

unacceptable apple.. you're really making me miss my 2.5 years old, cracked screen 3GS
 
lets face it, Apple ships poorly tested products. How could they have not caught something like this with all their resources. Thats two screw-ups in a row.
 
Voice memos going out-of-sync may be a cause of battery problems

When I updated from iOS 4.3.5 to iOS 5 I had much reduced battery life on my iPhone 3GS. But once I cleaned up my voice memos the battery life has improved dramatically, now it is even better than before the update.

For some reason, I found that over the time that I've had my iPhone 3GS, voice memo syncing became gradually more and more out-of-sync. In November last year I tried fixing it, but it got out-of-sync again afterwards. Part of this may have been due to a transfer to a new computer in May this year that didn't go quite to plan as far as itunes was concerned. Last week, I found that some voice mmos were on iTunes but not on my iPhone, some were on my iPhone but not visible to the Voice Memos app (they were visible and even playble from my computer via iTunes), some were duplicated on my iPhone, some (not necessarily the same ones) were duplicated on my computer in iTunes and some were duplicated as music tracks rather than voice memos. There were also duplicate Voice Memos playlists on both iTunes and my iPHone, and there were even voice memos listed on my phone and in iTunes (not necessarily the same ones) that didn't have any actual voice memo associated with them (i.e. they pointed to nothing).

Once I cleaned this all up properly (as much as I could- see below), my battery life improved so dramatically, it hadn't been this good since about a year ago.

Although I have cleaned up my voice memos, I haven't been able to fix all problems. Voice memos on my iPhone become greyed out and unplayable from the PC after awhile, but they are still playable in the Voice Memos app on my iPhone. I still have some voice memos that appear on my iPhone, are playable from my computer vie iTunes, but are not visible to the Voice Memos app. These are all voice memos I recorded since transferring to my new computer. I can't download them to the computer (iTunes doesn't let you download voice memos from the iPhone manually). But at least they're still there.

NOTE: When cleaning up voice memos, you have to be careful. For example, you have to delete the right duplicated voice memos playlist and not the wrong one. If there's enough interest I'll post a tutorial on how to do this. It is long, and provided as is, with no guarantees whatsover, but it worked for me.
 
iPad 1 here, battery draining more than 2x what I am used to. 33% lost in 14.5 hours. No change in apps or usage patterns. Even with 5.0 I could get 4-5 days off a charge.
 
Well, at least this update came early not weeks, to resolve some problems. Another update may come out in weeks, but hopefully sooner. :)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

My battery life has definitely improved since the update. Maybe not entirely, but I at least make it thru the day with moderate use.
 
jsdc2005 said:
I dunno, is that acceptable? As a practical matter it means you're getting about 4 hours use before you need to recharge. I get about the same and I'm not happy with it.
Click to expand...

It's now at...

Usage: 4h 28m
Standby 14h 4m
hasnt been plugged in, location services on, lift to access siri on

36% battery life left.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I got a 4S on launch day, while using it I noticed the battery wasn't lasting as long as I thought it should, so I plugged into iTunes and did a fresh restore and battery calibration (letting the battery completely die and then recharge to 100%) and re-synced apps, music, contacts...etc manually. My battery life has been flawless ever since. The key for me was to not use a backup file, since that will just negate the fresh software.

I've been reading other forums online and most people that had issues had problems resolved by the same manner.

EDIT: My settings are all on, wifi, Bluetooth, location services, iCloud...etc. I'll have my phone at 100% in the morning and with regular web browsing messaging email (not much maps or heavily location based apps) and be at ~30-40% by 8pm
 
Some other probs

So on my 4s the battery was already worse than my 4 on 4.x as well as 5.0, and the upgrade to 5.01 at best did nothing to fix at worst I think has actually made the problem bigger.

The battery issues are well documented by now, but I had some other issues maybe you guys could help on. The biggest one is my network. In places my 4 had weak signal I'm actually getting good signal on my 4s . But every time I seem to be In an elevator, underground garage, etc where my signal totally cuts off, my phone won't recover from the no network message. Reports are that the 4 is being too aggressive looking for networks. My issue seems to be the opposite, it not looking for network. I have to turn airplane mode on and off to get signal back, which it gets immediately.

Another issue I had on 5.0 was that even thought I'd have full Signal and 3G, my internetnould refuse to work. Not sure if the 5.01 fixed it but doesn't seem like it.

You guys experienced any issues or heard of them?
 
Count me as one of those adversely affected by iOS 5.0.1. I used to be able to get through two days on a single charge on my iPhone 4S, but since I upgraded, it's painfully obvious my phone is losing charge much more rapidly. My iPhone lost 7% charge in the last hour just on standby.
 
koban4max said:
I'm starting to see that apple is losing that quality edge. "It just doesn't work."
Click to expand...

Although you're "starting to see" it, Apple's quality has been tanking since they closed the US assembly factories in order to get higher profit margins with Chinese labor.


maranellotech said:
Sometimes I think some of the items like push notifications just get "hung" and need to be reset.
Click to expand...

Wirefully posted (Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/5.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; SLCC2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E))

As in, "it sometimes works".


macidiot said:
What I want to know is what the hell they are doing with the major bluetooth and audio issues???

I am SERIOUSLY getting tired of my phone defaulting to and getting stuck on speakerphone when I try to make a call.

And at this point, I've turned off bluetooth, as it is so broken it is useless.
Click to expand...

As in, "it sometimes works".


Nuvi said:
8 hours of use or 8 hours of standby? If you get 8 hours of any use out of it then you're a lucky one. If its standby then just join the refund queue.

My iPhone 4S is using as much as five times the battery in standby then my wife's year old iPhone 4. What's next? Last time Apple gave me free rubber band to remedy an antennae problem. This time they will probably give away free battery packs... Better make them car batteries...
Click to expand...

The battery pack won't be free.


koban4max said:
My first iphone and yet...failure.
"It just doesn't work."
Click to expand...

As in, "it sometimes works".


Nuvi said:
Sure there isn't... Apple just loves releasing updates to fix that "nonexistent" battery problem.
Click to expand...

You're holding it wrong.
 
So far I've been having great battery life with 5.0.1.

4c5f44af-0013-39ed.jpg
 
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I only had my 4s for one day and it used 50% of its power in two hours and was hot in my hand. Even after upgrading to 5.01 it still used too much and getting hot.

I did a reset and now it is cool to the touch and only using lots of power when actively using it. Might just be I haven't hit the bad process yet, but it gives me hope.
 
Lucr4568 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I got a 4S on launch day, while using it I noticed the battery wasn't lasting as long as I thought it should, so I plugged into iTunes and did a fresh restore and battery calibration (letting the battery completely die and then recharge to 100%) and re-synced apps, music, contacts...etc manually. My battery life has been flawless ever since. The key for me was to not use a backup file, since that will just negate the fresh software.

I've been reading other forums online and most people that had issues had problems resolved by the same manner.

EDIT: My settings are all on, wifi, Bluetooth, location services, iCloud...etc. I'll have my phone at 100% in the morning and with regular web browsing messaging email (not much maps or heavily location based apps) and be at ~30-40% by 8pm
Click to expand...

Same here...and though 30-40% by 8pm seems ok. A day of heavier than normal use will force a mid-day charge. I rarely had to worry about this with my iP4.

I know, the 4S is doing a lot more "for us", but this was a bit unexpected. I now have to monitor battery...
 
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BobVB said:
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I only had my 4s for one day and it used 50% of its power in two hours and was hot in my hand. Even after upgrading to 5.01 it still used too much and getting hot.

I did a reset and now it is cool to the touch and only using lots of power when actively using it. Might just be I haven't hit the bad process yet, but it gives me hope.
Click to expand...

If your phone is getting hot you should really think about getting it checked out at an Apple Store.
 
Just to say, this update hasn't worked for my iPod Touch either. I updated and fully charged it yesterday and I woke up this morning to see no battery at all. This, having not played a single tune.

Not really good enough is it, shame.
 
I'm supprised this was not an issue with the last version before ios 5 was introduced. I've started to notice massive battery consumption, I seriously thought my ipad battery was defective. I would charge my ipad to 100% and by the end of the day it was dead. This new version solves the battery issue I was having. The new update has me down just 10% drop in battery all day in sleep mode. That's pretty good.
 
I went from 100% to 20% within 5 hours... Didn't use it for anything... Hopefully apple fixes this soon, as this is unacceptable. I would never recommend the iPhone right now until apple is able to figure this out. I never thought I would say this, but I wish I never would have upgraded to the 4s.
 
firstapple said:
I went from 100% to 20% within 5 hours... Didn't use it for anything... Hopefully apple fixes this soon, as this is unacceptable. I would never recommend the iPhone right now until apple is able to figure this out. I never thought I would say this, but I wish I never would have upgraded to the 4s.
Click to expand...

Nothing to do with hardware, this is a software issue. If you had updated to iOS 5 with your iPhone 4, you'd be experiencing the same issues.
 
kbmb said:
Based on the Apple provided numbers, here's what you 4S owners should (roughly) be seeing for battery drain under ideal conditions:

Talk time - 8 hours on 3G
Loss per hour: 12.5%
Loss in 30 minutes: 6%
Loss per minute: 0.2%

Standby time - 200 hours
Loss per hour: 0.5%

Internet use - up to 6 hours on 3G
Loss per hour: 17%
Loss in 30 minutes: 8%
Loss per minute: 0.3%

Internet use - up to 9 hours on WiFi
Loss per hour: 11%
Loss in 30 minutes: 5%
Loss per minute: 0.2%

Video playback - up to 10 hours
Loss per hour: 10%
Loss in 30 minutes: 5%
Loss per minute: 0.2%

Audio playback - up to 40 hours
Loss per hour: 2.5%
Loss in 30 minutes: 1.2%
Loss per minute: 0.04%

(numbers rounded)

Let me followup with the standby time number......I for example on my iPhone 4 on 5.0.1 charged to 100% last night before bed. Woke up this morning still at 100%. So standby should generally be a slow drain, depending of course on what you have running.

-Kevin
Click to expand...

The number was close to 80% when I went to bed last night. This morning, it is 36%. I don't know whats up with that.
 
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