Battery Life: DFU restore vs Regular restore

[dictoresno]

i checked all over and cant seem to get a solid answer. ive restored my phone a few times now, set up as new.....tried just about everything. i an unable to get the heavy battery drain to subside.

from what i gather, there is no real advantage to DFU restore over a normal restore is there? i dont feel like trying it in order to help my battery life if its not gonna do anything different.

 

[stooovie]

Battery Life: DFU restore vs Regular restore

There shouldn't be ideally, but there can be. Battery life is mostly given by

A) brightness of the display
B) signal strength. In places with low/bad coverage, the antennas have to amplify the weak signal, leading to drains
C) apps used. Especially GPS-tracking apps can wreak havoc on your battery in pre-5s models.

Everyone's usage is different, you cannot really infer anything from other people's claims about battery life.

DFU restore is your last resort - if you feel battery should last longer even after DFU, definitely take your device to Apple Store.

 

[Brian Y]

A DFU vs Normal restore will have no effect on battery life.

DFU mode is just a low level firmware mode which lets the device restore even if there are software glitches which are preventing it (such as a corrupt iOS-side USB driver), or a messed up partition map.

Providing you don't restore from backup - the result from a normal restore and DFU restore are identical.

 

[declandio]

A DFU vs Normal restore will have no effect on battery life.

DFU mode is just a low level firmware mode which lets the device restore even if there are software glitches which are preventing it (such as a corrupt iOS-side USB driver), or a messed up partition map.

Providing you don't restore from backup - the result from a normal restore and DFU restore are identical.

I recently restored 'as new' on an iphone 5 that was bought on 'launch' day. I used iBackupbot to restore all my SMS (sentimental value!).

I did do it in DFU mode but only for the hell of it, for no particular reason other than it's easy.

No exaggeration, battery life is almost twice what it was before. I'm amazed!

 

[Volcano22]

I recently restored 'as new' on an iphone 5 that was bought on 'launch' day. I used iBackupbot to restore all my SMS (sentimental value!).

I did do it in DFU mode but only for the hell of it, for no particular reason other than it's easy.

No exaggeration, battery life is almost twice what it was before. I'm amazed!

I have a launch day iphone 5, was thinking of trying this as battery really has been terrible. Tried all the usual and the switch off of various things. I'm now thinking of the DFU restore. How did you get your stuff (music/apps/photos) back to the phone after the DFU restore? Do you sync from iTunes? Also do you have to setup your email accounts as new? What about safari bookmarks? Thanks

 

[Max(IT)]

I have a launch day iphone 5, was thinking of trying this as battery really has been terrible. Tried all the usual and the switch off of various things. I'm now thinking of the DFU restore. How did you get your stuff (music/apps/photos) back to the phone after the DFU restore? Do you sync from iTunes? Also do you have to setup your email accounts as new? What about safari bookmarks? Thanks

You're going to lose everything and to have every app reinstalled .... A nightmare I'm not going to face, since I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with battery life.

From my experience in iOS 7 battery life is strongly influenced by signal strength. In a poor coverage area I can't reach 5 hrs usage, in a good coverage area after 3 hrs I'm still at 80%.
I used iMessage a lot, and doing that in a poor coverage area hit pretty bad on my poor battery.
Maybe iOS 7 is a little too much "aggressive" in the network searching activity, to improve reception, and this affects battery life.

 

[Count Blah]

Thanks all, this is the 1st thread I've seen the signal strength mentioned as a cause for battery strength drain. I've performed all the tricks and reinstalls that have ever been subjected. I've still mentioned that there is a problem, and have been ridiculed in many threads as a Pisa Samsung troll because of it. But this explanation fits me perfectly.

Thanks all. So maybe there is hope, but that assumes Apple admits it has a problem and fixes it, which is not a given.

 

[Volcano22]

You're going to lose everything and to have every app reinstalled .... A nightmare I'm not going to face, since I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with battery life.

From my experience in iOS 7 battery life is strongly influenced by signal strength. In a poor coverage area I can't reach 5 hrs usage, in a good coverage area after 3 hrs I'm still at 80%.
I used iMessage a lot, and doing that in a poor coverage area hit pretty bad on my poor battery.
Maybe iOS 7 is a little too much "aggressive" in the network searching activity, to improve reception, and this affects battery life.

I appreciate the signal strength issue. I have no mobile signal in my house. For the past year I've run my iPhone 5 on airplane mode with wifi on. I'd get 8-9 hours usage now I'm down to 5-6 hours. I'd accept 5-6 hours if I had the cell signal on. I'm seeing a genius on Wednesday but not hopeful of much as out of warranty now :/

 

[Max(IT)]

I appreciate the signal strength issue. I have no mobile signal in my house. For the past year I've run my iPhone 5 on airplane mode with wifi on. I'd get 8-9 hours usage now I'm down to 5-6 hours. I'd accept 5-6 hours if I had the cell signal on. I'm seeing a genius on Wednesday but not hopeful of much as out of warranty now :/

You should buy an iPod then

 

[charlituna]

There shouldn't be ideally, but there can be. Battery life is mostly given by

A) brightness of the display
B) signal strength. In places with low/bad coverage, the antennas have to amplify the weak signal, leading to drains
C) apps used. Especially GPS-tracking apps can wreak havoc on your battery in pre-5s models.

D. Push email
E. Background app refresh
F. Automatic app updating
G. Motion effects.
H. Antennae like wifi and Bluetooth being on and in constant searching mode

 

[Max(IT)]

Thanks all, this is the 1st thread I've seen the signal strength mentioned as a cause for battery strength drain. I've performed all the tricks and reinstalls that have ever been subjected. I've still mentioned that there is a problem, and have been ridiculed in many threads as a Pisa Samsung troll because of it. But this explanation fits me perfectly.

Thanks all. So maybe there is hope, but that assumes Apple admits it has a problem and fixes it, which is not a given.

A whole day under good network coverage and I passed the 6 hrs of intensive usage, with another 20% left.

Definitely in my case signal strength is the culprit ....

 

[squeakr]

Signal strength has been an issue in most devices. That is why it is not fair to compare usage without noting area, carrier, and other cellular artifacts as part of the discussion. This is why the only fair comparisons are when taking a fresh device on the older OS and comparing it to the same device loaded freshly on the same device (as even badly coded apps can kill a device and apple only really Tests and cares about their apps not other third parties). Even the little differences between CDMA providers and GSM providers can be great. My dad gets awful battery on his Galaxy on Verizon (as does his neighbor on the iPhone on Verizon) while I get phenomenal life. The difference, I am on AT$T and get 4g in his area and the others on V are spotty on 4 g and constantly hunting for signal. When we locked them into the 3 g only they both almost doubled their battery life with nothing else changed.

 

[Count Blah]

Signal strength has been an issue in most devices. That is why it is not fair to compare usage without noting area, carrier, and other cellular artifacts as part of the discussion. This is why the only fair comparisons are when taking a fresh device on the older OS and comparing it to the same device loaded freshly on the same device (as even badly coded apps can kill a device and apple only really Tests and cares about their apps not other third parties). Even the little differences between CDMA providers and GSM providers can be great. My dad gets awful battery on his Galaxy on Verizon (as does his neighbor on the iPhone on Verizon) while I get phenomenal life. The difference, I am on AT$T and get 4g in his area and the others on V are spotty on 4 g and constantly hunting for signal. When we locked them into the 3 g only they both almost doubled their battery life with nothing else changed.

The comparison is with the same device, same usage, same location, and two different OSs. iOS6 was fine. The same phone(through various reformats, turning off apps, etc...), with iOS7, is total garbage when it comes to battery life.

Hopefully Apple acknowledges this issue and fixes it.

 

[squeakr]

The comparison is with the same device, same usage, same location, and two different OSs. iOS6 was fine. The same phone(through various reformats, turning off apps, etc...), with iOS7, is total garbage when it comes to battery life.

Hopefully Apple acknowledges this issue and fixes it.

Yes but as I said with the same device and both being fresh. The other apps could be the cause as well since these weren't done on base comparisons. Apple only tests on their stock apps as that is what they have control over (people have many times found apps sticking in the background and causing issues, whether the system reports them as active, ope, running or none of the above).

 

[PNutts]

i checked all over and cant seem to get a solid answer. ive restored my phone a few times now, set up as new.....tried just about everything. i an unable to get the heavy battery drain to subside.

from what i gather, there is no real advantage to DFU restore over a normal restore is there? i dont feel like trying it in order to help my battery life if its not gonna do anything different.

What is your battery life and usage? Losing 1% a minute is much different than lasting six hours (when you expect eight). A restore is typically used for the first and usage / configuration changes are done for the second.

Thanks all, this is the 1st thread I've seen the signal strength mentioned as a cause for battery strength drain.

You should visit more threads.

So maybe there is hope, but that assumes Apple admits it has a problem and fixes it, which is not a given.

Turning up the radio's power to overcome a weak signal is intended and desired behavior, not an Apple problem. It's either that or have no connectivity.

 

[dictoresno]

What is your battery life and usage? Losing 1% a minute is much different than lasting six hours (when you expect eight). A restore is typically used for the first and usage / configuration changes are done for the second.

well i wont get any more than 6 or so hours of use, 24 hrs of standby on a full charge. and if the phone is sitting there idle, it will be fine for the most part. but god forbid i send imessages or browse facebook for 1 minute or even attempt a phone call. just last night i was at 55% and browsed FB for about a minute...literally...and the phone jumped to 53%, skipping 54. its crap.

and before i left my house at 100% and had a total usage on the phone around 2 minutes. once i got to work, about 15 minutes later, the phone was at 96%. i was like WTF. rebooting it made it go back to 100%. i just cant stand the battery indicator and all these battery issues. it seems like idevices never represent the battery properly.

and all these people getting 10 hrs of use, WTF??? on ios6 i was able to do that with no issue, but on 7 i cant get more than 6. its almost like theres a problem with the way ios 7 manages battery power.

 

[squeakr]

That could be a possibility or it could be the way that FB and others have coded their apps are not the best and most efficient for the new IOS yet. Yes FB has a talented crew, but they program modularity so that they can be the most productive on the majority of the OSs. They reuse code and until they can fully understand and optimize for the kernel and apis they are working with, they can be inefficient as well. Remember they recoded for ios6 entirely and may need to so the same for ios 7 as well. It is so new they may not have full optimizations in effect yet. Compatibility does not equal efficiency.

Also remember iMessages aren't as lite on battery as text messages are. I like them better, but they are no where as efficient.

 

[dictoresno]

since my last post, half hour ago, ive lost 6% on my phone just from sending a few imessages lol. sucks so bad.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

My girlfriend's 4s has having major issues, and they were getting worse as time went on. The Apple genius looked at her phone with his troubleshooting tools, and discovered that the backboardd daemon was throwing errors constantly. He had her specifically do a DUF restore to fix it.

I don't know what her battery life is like yet (just finished a few hours ago) but it seems as though there's a reason to do a DUF restore vs a regular one.

 

[dictoresno]

My girlfriend's 4s has having major issues, and they were getting worse as time went on. The Apple genius looked at her phone with his troubleshooting tools, and discovered that the backboardd daemon was throwing errors constantly. He had her specifically do a DUF restore to fix it.

I don't know what her battery life is like yet (just finished a few hours ago) but it seems as though there's a reason to do a DUF restore vs a regular one.

were her issues battery related or something else.

 

[PNutts]

and all these people getting 10 hrs of use, WTF??? on ios6 i was able to do that with no issue, but on 7 i cant get more than 6. its almost like theres a problem with the way ios 7 manages battery power.

Yikes! Sounds like you have an app problem, not iOS. Something is chewing up the battery. You mentioned FB twice. Uninstall it and see if your issues go away, then reinstall. I remember during the beta someone reported poor battery life and opened an xcode console and saw an app was repeatedly trying to authenticate to something keeping the CPU hot and the radios on.

There are free apps that monitor system resources. You might be able to use one of those to identify a process that's consuming resources.

Another method is to close all apps in your recently used app list, reset the phone, and confirm the battery no longer drains. When you start using your phone, launch only one app and see if the battery drain returns. Eventually you'll hit the point where the battery starts to drain.

If your battery still drains after the reset then remove or disable your e-mail accounts, iCloud account, etc., and add them back one by one monitoring for battery drain.

If you poke at it long enough you'll be able to solve it!

 

[clauzzz203]

Battery Life: DFU restore vs Regular restore

Simple summary of all macrumors forums: delete ALL your backups, restore AS NEW. Speed and battery life will be perfect GUARANTEED.

Any wise guy who thinks otherwise should go have a good computing course.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

were her issues battery related or something else.

Simple summary of all macrumors forums: delete ALL your backups, restore AS NEW. Speed and battery life will be perfect GUARANTEED.

Any wise guy who thinks otherwise should go have a good computing course.

The Apple genius didn't say not to restore from a backup, just that the backup needed to be on a DUF-restored phone.

were her issues battery related or something else.

Battery, settings not working, rebooting, you name it.

 

[dictoresno]

Yikes! Sounds like you have an app problem, not iOS. Something is chewing up the battery. You mentioned FB twice. Uninstall it and see if your issues go away, then reinstall. I remember during the beta someone reported poor battery life and opened an xcode console and saw an app was repeatedly trying to authenticate to something keeping the CPU hot and the radios on.

There are free apps that monitor system resources. You might be able to use one of those to identify a process that's consuming resources.

Another method is to close all apps in your recently used app list, reset the phone, and confirm the battery no longer drains. When you start using your phone, launch only one app and see if the battery drain returns. Eventually you'll hit the point where the battery starts to drain.

If your battery still drains after the reset then remove or disable your e-mail accounts, iCloud account, etc., and add them back one by one monitoring for battery drain.

If you poke at it long enough you'll be able to solve it!

i remember when the report came out about facebook chewing battery. i always make sure ALL apps are closed from multitasking and it still drains. ive already restored 4-5 times as new and just last night deleted and resetup my exchange email account. nothing helps.

----------

Simple summary of all macrumors forums: delete ALL your backups, restore AS NEW. Speed and battery life will be perfect GUARANTEED.

Any wise guy who thinks otherwise should go have a good computing course.

ive done this 4-5 times with NO change. i figured it would help, but doesnt.

 

[ClaveMan]

DFU and Backup

Over at the Apple Discussion forum:

"..I went to the apple store and got it checked they said that this was a software issue and that I needed to do a dfu restore and backup my data to icloud and not itunes.."

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23460208#23460208

I am going to try this. I will report back if the iCloud restore brought back the SMS/Messages.

[UPDATE] The iCloud restore was a pain in the boot. It took 12 minutes, but did restore all my old SMS messages. The apps are all back but are "ghosts" -- they are downloading outside the backup. I hope the DFU restore helps my battery..

Restore from iCloud:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521

I have multiple iCloud accounts thanks to the Mobile/iTunes/iCloud smashup a few years back. This guide helped me figure out why I had no iCloud backup. (The backup was under a different iCloud ID). Did you know you can view your iCloud backups for iPhone through Mac OS X Preferences? Its all here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4036