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Battery life is killing me.. 32GB 3GS.

OrlandoTragic

OrlandoTragic

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 13, 2007
1,540
438
Orlando, FL
I was fully charged at 9am this morning when I got to work, and its now 4:00 and I'm < 20% already. I played a game for about 10-15 minutes, that's it...

I haven't used the iPod feature at all, and I have Wifi and Bluetooth turned off.

I don't get it. Brightness is just over 1/2... wtf is going on.
This wasn't a problem until about last week.

I haven't taken ONE phone call in that timeframe. Plenty of texting though.
 
That's definitely not normal. Defective battery? Maybe try restoring your phone and see if that helps.
 
1) What game?

2) Are you using PUSH Email?

3) Have you power cycled the phone to ensure you don't have a rogue process running and draining the battery? (iPhone is bad about letting this happen.)

4) You may want to try uninstalling one application at a time and seeing if you see marked improvement to see if you have an app that is causing the issue.
 
There is already a thread over the battery issues. What's your usage/standby times? Mine seems to be a little low as well but it all depends on what your using. Heavy text messaging kills the battery pretty good especially if your on 3g because of the data.
 
I had a weird drain issue once that I realized was being caused by my Google Maps app continuing to track me via GPS after I had closed the program. When I opened it up, the little crosshairs icon at the bottom was lit blue (as it is when you touch it to find your location)...I touched it a couple of times to clear it out, exited Maps, and battery life returned to normal.

Strange, but true.
 
Stats of mine at 20% today, usage: 6 Hours 4 min standby: 7 Hours 34 Min

Wifi on
3G on
Push On
Fetch 15 min.
Texted like 4 times, no talk time, IM'd a crap ton -hours worth, youtubed 10 min., emailed and read about 7 times, played with a new app 10 min., browsed about an hour, and have had the IPod on all day with the exception of when I was on youtube.

I really used it alot today and fell that the 6 Hour usage time was alot. I think I could of gone about another hour or so until dead, but decided to plug it in.

I also sit in an area where its searching for service all day..
 

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Friscochris said:
Stats of mine at 20% today, usage: 6 Hours 4 min standby: 7 Hours 34 Min

Wifi on
3G on
Push On
Fetch 15 min.
Texted like 4 times, no talk time, IM'd a crap ton -hours worth, youtubed 10 min., emailed and read about 7 times, played with a new app 10 min., browsed about an hour, and have had the IPod on all day with the exception of when I was on youtube.

I really used it alot today and fell that the 6 Hour usage time was alot. I think I could of gone about another hour or so until dead, but decided to plug it in.

I also sit in an area where its searching for service all day..
Click to expand...

I would likely sacrifice a small fluffy bunny for usage times like those.
 
Friscochris said:
Stats of mine at 20% today, usage: 6 Hours 4 min standby: 7 Hours 34 Min

Wifi on
3G on
Push On
Fetch 15 min.
Texted like 4 times, no talk time, IM'd a crap ton -hours worth, youtubed 10 min., emailed and read about 7 times, played with a new app 10 min., browsed about an hour, and have had the IPod on all day with the exception of when I was on youtube.

I really used it alot today and fell that the 6 Hour usage time was alot. I think I could of gone about another hour or so until dead, but decided to plug it in.

I also sit in an area where its searching for service all day..
Click to expand...
If your phone is constantly changing from E to 3G to nothing to whatever, then it will use the heck out of your battery.

But 6+ hours of non-iPod usage is AWESOME battery.
 
one time i set the iphone to push all of my exchange email. killed my battery in 2 hours. now it's set for a few folders.

if you get a lot of email like I do, then it will kill your battery. it's not apple's fault you are downloading over 1000 emails a day.
 
Rat-Boy said:
If your phone is constantly changing from E to 3G to nothing to whatever, then it will use the heck out of your battery.
Click to expand...
This.

Also, using a lot of IM is going to blow through a lot of battery, too. Any time you fire up one of the transmitters, it's going to eat battery. I don't think 6-7 hours is all that bad if you IM a boatload, especially with few bars.
 
I'll raise you guys one. 3G off, Airport off. 2 hours of iPod listening (podcasts and music). 2 calls (10 minutes total), and ZERO app use. No maps, no AIM, no Facebook, etc. It's 5:30pm, last full charge was 10am (and I even plugged it into my car charger for about 5 minutes). It's at 15% now.
 

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NewSc2 said:
I'll raise you guys one. 3G off, Airport off. 2 hours of iPod listening (podcasts and music). 2 calls (10 minutes total), and ZERO app use. No maps, no AIM, no Facebook, etc. It's 5:30pm, last full charge was 10am (and I even plugged it into my car charger for about 5 minutes). It's at 15% now.
Click to expand...
If you've been consistently getting 4-5 bars, that really doesn't seem right. I can sometimes get that if I turn everything on (3G, wifi, bluetooth, the works), and then spend much of the day in a place with poor signal.
 
NewSc2 said:
I'll raise you guys one. 3G off, Airport off. 2 hours of iPod listening (podcasts and music). 2 calls (10 minutes total), and ZERO app use. No maps, no AIM, no Facebook, etc. It's 5:30pm, last full charge was 10am (and I even plugged it into my car charger for about 5 minutes). It's at 15% now.
Click to expand...
Either you have a rogue app running in the background or that phone needs to be returned.

No doubt in my mind.
 
Rat-Boy said:
Either you have a rogue app running in the background or that phone needs to be returned.

No doubt in my mind.
Click to expand...

The problem isn't just me, many of my friends with 3GS's have been having issues too. Yesterday my phone went down to 22% (again, with minimal use) in about 8 hours. As I was complaining to my friend online about it, it jumped back up to 80%. 3 minutes later, it shut down. Plugged the dead phone into the wall charger -- first battery reading (as it turned back on) showed it at 60%. 30 minutes later it was full.

Same right now -- I've charged the phone for only 20 minutes, and it's back up from 15% to 85%.

I brought it to a Genius at my local Apple Store but he kept giving me the runaround ("see, you have Push notifications on" -- but no app uses it, I disabled it for AIM. "Your brightness is high" -- it's at half.) He even stated that the % reading was inaccurate and doesn't update regularly -- what? That's why it jumps from 20% to 80%?

In the first two weeks of ownage, the 3GS's battery was more than sufficient. I'd listen to music all day and see it at 40% before I went to bed.

Nowadays I'm lucky to get to sundown without it dying on me.

Gonna try calling Apple Care to see if I can get better support there. Wish me luck~
 
NewSc2 said:
The problem isn't just me, many of my friends with 3GS's have been having issues too. Yesterday my phone went down to 22% (again, with minimal use) in about 8 hours. As I was complaining to my friend online about it, it jumped back up to 80%. 3 minutes later, it shut down. Plugged the dead phone into the wall charger -- first battery reading (as it turned back on) showed it at 60%. 30 minutes later it was full.

Same right now -- I've charged the phone for only 20 minutes, and it's back up from 15% to 85%.

I brought it to a Genius at my local Apple Store but he kept giving me the runaround ("see, you have Push notifications on" -- but no app uses it, I disabled it for AIM. "Your brightness is high" -- it's at half.) He even stated that the % reading was inaccurate and doesn't update regularly -- what? That's why it jumps from 20% to 80%?

In the first two weeks of ownage, the 3GS's battery was more than sufficient. I'd listen to music all day and see it at 40% before I went to bed.

Nowadays I'm lucky to get to sundown without it dying on me.

Gonna try calling Apple Care to see if I can get better support there. Wish me luck~
Click to expand...
Well, the "Genius" is FOS and I would keep making appointments.

I took mine off the charger this AM.

I have 67% battery left with 1.5 hours of usage.
 
anjinhamarota said:
Data drains the battery pretty fast. Apple only states 5 hours of battery life on 3G...
Click to expand...

Actually what Apple says is:

Power and battery3

Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter
Talk time:
Up to 12 hours on 2G
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Standby time: Up to 300 hours

Internet use:
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback: Up to 10 hours
Audio playback: Up to 30 hours


I just exchanged my iPhone. A first I was getting most of a work day out of the battery but it was in the red by the time I got home. Not good. Then battery life got sporadic - loose 20% in 2 hours then 80% the next hour without running any apps, just checking email occasionally. Finally needed to charge though the day to stay alive. Even tried 3G off, WiFi off, Bluetooth off etc. No real difference.

Called iPhone support. Tech tried to say "well battery life is only 5 hours". I said yeah - 5 hours of talk time or data session not idle getting a handful of emails or text messages with no more than 5-10 minutes of actual use. If its 5 hours typical use its a POS and I'll be returning it.

He overnighted me a new iPhone which is better than the old one so far (75% after 8 hours, again in relatively light use but 3G and all wireless stuff on).
 
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