Battery on iphone 3g s drains very fast.

[QCassidy352]

No you won't lose your apps. I've done it, and not lost anything at all. I have gained more than double the battery life. see my previous post with screenshot.

Not lose your apps, lose your app data. Like any levels you've gained in games, records you've created (e.g. accufuel) or files you've added (e.g. stanza). Unless you restore from backup (which defeats the purpose of this suggestion) or export and later re-import the data (possible with, say, iXpenseit but not, say accufuel), you will lose that data.

 

[runebinder]

Ok so follow up to yesterday's post. Kept Wireless turned off, also turned off location services, push notification and set it to fetch new data hourly instead. also turned brightness down to 40%, turned EQ off in iPod and closed all pages before exiting Safari. Also had it's first complete discharge and then full charge.

Used my phone the same as yesterday, this time however it didn't die on the bus home Also used it iPod mode on the way home this time. Checked signal bars and at work had 5 full bars of 3G. This is my usage when I got in:

As you can see it's a huge improvement and now have a battery life that I'm happy with. Fingers crossed it will stay like that, will post if there's any changes.

 

[QCassidy352]

Runebinder, glad you are happy, and 86% at the end of the day is pretty good. But IMO being forced to turn off and turn down everything that you did is not an acceptable solution (nor is it necessary for my phone to last through the day). It should last the day with all of that on (with moderate use, of course).

 

[WillieG]

Ok so follow up to yesterday's post. Kept Wireless turned off, also turned off location services, push notification and set it to fetch new data hourly instead. also turned brightness down to 40%, turned EQ off in iPod and closed all pages before exiting Safari. Also had it's first complete discharge and then full charge.

Used my phone the same as yesterday, this time however it didn't die on the bus home Also used it iPod mode on the way home this time. Checked signal bars and at work had 5 full bars of 3G. This is my usage when I got in:

As you can see it's a huge improvement and now have a battery life that I'm happy with. Fingers crossed it will stay like that, will post if there's any changes.

@runebinder... Remember to only drain to 20% no lower than 15% for better battery life. I've done this a few 4 times only in two weeks...

See my results below --> 80% with 1day and 10hours of standby... yours will get better as time goes by.

 

[themoonisdown09]

@runebinder... Remember to only drain to 20% no lower than 15% for better battery life. I've done this a few 4 times only in two weeks...

What? Are you saying that it's bad to run down the battery past 15%? Do you have any sources that say that this is not recommended?

I'm just curious because I drain mine down to 10% or below all the time.

 

[TLewis]

OK, here's a perfect example of how signal strength can affect your battery life.

Normally, my battery life is pretty sucky -- I'm lucky to get even a day, and I'll often plug in the iPhone during the day. I have almost everything turned on: 3G, wifi, bluetooth, and push. The only thing turned off is fetch (because push is turned on).

Here's a sample, where the iPhone spends much of the day in an area with 0-2 bars:

However, I forgot the iPhone at home the other day, and I get 4-5 bars at home. The battery life was much better:

​

However, even though I left it at home for one of these, the actual usages are similar. Most of the usage occurred at home, for both of these, and there was hardly any usage away from home. Interestingly, for the day it was left at home, the phone received around a dozen push messages, while there were only a couple for the other case, yet the battery life was still pretty good (I have selective push email, and so not all of my mail gets pushed).

 

[SephirothXR]

I'm getting excellent battery life here, with just location services on, every other setting is off except wifi. Combination of music, gps, browsing, texting, I even had an hour long phone call in there, basically everything! Just do a full cycle and you'll get your battery life to strengthen.

 

[WillieG]

What? Are you saying that it's bad to run down the battery past 15%? Do you have any sources that say that this is not recommended?

I'm just curious because I drain mine down to 10% or below all the time.

@themoonisdown09

It has been reported in other forums, those who drain completely down to the point of the unit turning off, have ruined their battery life. This is why I recommend 20% - 15% in order to avoid accidentally running it down to 0%.

Those that have done this, have had to replace their batteries due to irreversible damage.

 

[iphones4evry1]

Keeping your screen brightness below 50% saves a lot of energy. I have experimented with this many times. I have found that when my screen brightness is all the way up or really just anywhere beyond 50%, my battery runs down very fast. At night and during the day when I am indoors, I keep my screen brightness at about 20%, and when I am outdoors, I keep it at about 45%.

I hope this helps. As others have mentioned, the GPS uses a lot of energy; so if you use maps a lot but don't need the GPS most of the time, then keeping "location services" OFF will save a lot of battery. Normally, my phone will easily go 24 hours before I need to charge it. If I use the GPS in my car with the screen brightness turned up, the battery drains very fast... which is why I have a car charger.

Request for Apple: Allow us to turn Location Services ON/OFF on a per-App basis in the settings.

 

[Looon]

@themoonisdown09

It has been reported in other forums, those who drain completely down to the point of the unit turning off, have ruined their battery life. This is why I recommend 20% - 15% in order to avoid accidentally running it down to 0%.

Those that have done this, have had to replace their batteries due to irreversible damage.

lol using your battery ruins it? I really doubt that. People need to stop making stupid claims without providing any proof.

 

[WillieG]

What? Are you saying that it's bad to run down the battery past 15%? Do you have any sources that say that this is not recommended?

I'm just curious because I drain mine down to 10% or below all the time.

@themoonisdown.... many in other forums, have reported to have ruined their batteries by draining completely, hence the reason for my recommendation in no more than 15%, in order to avoid complete drain, due to not noticing how low the battery is. my rule of thumb is 20% and I am recharging. although I like to top of the charge in order to get optimum baterry life. one a month is good to drain down to 20%, once you've initially done this 4-5 times when you first get the unit.

 

[Looon]

I have an uncle who says using a case ruined his battery

see how this works?

 

[lavrishevo]

Battery

Just remember lithium-ion batteries like to be charged as often as possible. If you can avoid runnind your battery down it will prolong the overall life of your battery. As mentioned before screen brightness at about 50%, location services off when you are not using GPS and wifi off when not in use is a good practice. Just charge the thing every time you can. The battery has no memory. Running it down to shut down and charging to full only resets the battery meter on the phone it does nothing for the battery itself.

 

[trssho]

@themoonisdown.... many in other forums, have reported to have ruined their batteries by draining completely, hence the reason for my recommendation in no more than 15%, in order to avoid complete drain, due to not noticing how low the battery is. my rule of thumb is 20% and I am recharging. although I like to top of the charge in order to get optimum baterry life. one a month is good to drain down to 20%, once you've initially done this 4-5 times when you first get the unit.

I have run my battery till the phone cuts out. Gets to 3% then powers itself down. The iPhone will not let you "kill" the battery. It is smarter than we are!

 

[lavrishevo]

I have run my battery till the phone cuts out. Gets to 3% then powers itself down. The iPhone will not let you "kill" the battery. It is smarter than we are!

This is true, draining a lithium ion battery till it has zero juice left can ruin the battery. Draining it down does nothing but stress the battery. So many people are stuck in the NiCad days of when batteries had memory... not anymore folks. Keep it charged.

 

[TLewis]

This is true, draining a lithium ion battery till it has zero juice left can ruin the battery. Draining it down does nothing but stress the battery. So many people are stuck in the NiCad days of when batteries had memory... not anymore folks. Keep it charged.

This is mostly right, but 0% on the iPhone does not mean "zero juice". It's just a low-level, above "zero juice", that's designed to prevent significant damage to the battery (that would occur if the battery was really drained to "zero juice"). You are right in that draining it does stress the battery, compared to light usage, but (1) we don't always have that luxury, and (2) this does occasionally need to be done to keep the battery meter calibrated.

 

[lavrishevo]

This is mostly right, but 0% on the iPhone does not mean "zero juice". It's just a low-level, above "zero juice", that's designed to prevent significant damage to the battery (that would occur if the battery was really drained to "zero juice"). You are right in that draining it does stress the battery, compared to light usage, but (1) we don't always have that luxury, and (2) this does occasionally need to be done to keep the battery meter calibrated.

Personally, I value the batteries cycle count over the meter being perfect. The meter does nothing for the battery itself. The meter does not effect the battery in any way all it does it give a graphical representation of the power level for the user to see. It is the battery which decides when to stop charging and when to shut off power to the phone not the operating system. But I agree, every month or two can't hurt.

 

[iphones4evry1]

It has been reported in other forums, those who drain completely down to the point of the unit turning off, have ruined their battery life. This is why I recommend 20% - 15% in order to avoid accidentally running it down to 0%.

lol using your battery ruins it? I really doubt that. People need to stop making stupid claims without providing any proof.

WillieG, your statement is false. Apple's website says that you should let your battery run all the way down until the phone shuts off at least once per month. I have been doing this since I bought my iPhone3G back in August2008, and my battery still lasts just as long as it did when I first bought my phone. The iPhone's electronics prevent the battery from running all the way down; the phone is designed to auto-shutoff well before the battery enters dangerous territory. Because of this, it is impossible for someone to run their battery all the way down to the point of creating irreversible damage. Apple is not a stupid company; they integrated the auto-shutoff on the iPhone for a reason and tested the heck out of the battery. Follow the guidelines on the Apple website. They know what they are doing.

 

[reynodp]

Have you checked your push notification for your email account? I have enterprise mail through the business I work for. Somehow this mail automatically being pushed all day made my iphone 3gs go crazy. It got extremely hot and the battery drained right after charging it. You may want to turn this off and set it to fetch manually. That's what I did and it went back to normal. I now only have to charge my phone every 2nd day or every other day depending on how much I use it. You can find these settings under Settings, mail, about half way down the page you'll see Fetch New Data.....tap on this and set to off and set it to fetch manually.

 

[WillieG]

I'm getting excellent battery life here, with just location services on, every other setting is off except wifi. Combination of music, gps, browsing, texting, I even had an hour long phone call in there, basically everything! Just do a full cycle and you'll get your battery life to strengthen.

Did you drain your battery completely? 1 cycle? Are you jailbroken? Did you restore as new? Do you keep your 3G off until needed? etc... I'm doing a research (study) from various forums... any infomation is greatly appreciated. Battery life is a hot discussion in all forums.

 

[TLewis]

Did you drain your battery completely? 1 cycle? Are you jailbroken? Did you restore as new? Do you keep your 3G off until needed? etc... I'm doing a research (study) from various forums... any infomation is greatly appreciated. Battery life is a hot discussion in all forums.

A full charge/discharge cycle is needed for accurate battery meter readings.

However, as I've already posted, signal strength can have a huge effect on battery life, even with almost everything turned on (and note that SephirothXR has most things turned off).

 

[phonewentwest]

alright I know I should go further to get a true sense
of my battery life but...
charged to 100% played ms pacman the whole time
and my usage is 25 min and standby is 30min
with this usage my % is down from 100 to 91%
that seems likes some quick drain. no?

 

[-aggie-]

alright I know I should go further to get a true sense
of my battery life but...
charged to 100% played ms pacman the whole time
and my usage is 25 min and standby is 30min
with this usage my % is down from 100 to 91%
that seems likes some quick drain. no?

Yes, but like you said, it's too early to tell. Also see the post above yours. Anyway, you need to go through a few days of usage to tell anything about your battery.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Many people have posted false information in this thread. I researched the iPhone 3G's battery last year. My guide offers many useful tips to help preserve battery life with the 3Gs as well. The guide is not for everyone, but it helps explain how to maximize your battery life, if you choose to do so.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/525741/

 

[phonewentwest]

Yes, but like you said, it's too early to tell. Also see the post above yours. Anyway, you need to go through a few days of usage to tell anything about your battery.

I see what your sayin. but I've had my 3gs since day one
and cycled through 100 to 0 several times. but still this
seems to be draining fast. perhaps it's just the apps I'm using
but damn that fast. nearly 10% after 25 min!