Batterygate??

[isoft7]

The battery drop after removing the phone from the charger is due to the fact that when the battery reaches full charge the phone actually stops charging. It remains plugged in, but it no longer charges. This is as otherwise the battery could be damaged from an extended period of charge.

I would imagine iOS 4 was coded in such a way as to hide this. HTC used to do this as well, it would show 100% even though it was like 96% or so. Until it were to reach a certain amount of usage, then it would drop quickly. It's to fool the customer into thinking it's fully charged.

Nothing to worry about, my guess is iOS 5 just isn't coded the same way as iOS 4 was in that regard.

 

[whatdoiknw]

yeah, i'm not so sure on my either. started the day at 100% around 9am and at 5pm, i'm down to about 40%.

in my office the whole day with about 3-4 bars sprint. no phone calls only some imessaging for a few minutes and downloaded one app.

so i'm curious what the geniuses are saying for those who go into Apple.

 

[punchdrunk55]

Thanks to all the people who are just saying turn this and that off and charge it at night. Due to some of the figures that people are putting up there are very obviously other issues with peoples phones (mine included) other than just turning this and that off.

Maybe some of us are dumb enough to have left every single battery draining process on, but Some of us, believe it or not, are smarter than that, and still having problems.

 

[Jimbo47]

The battery drop after removing the phone from the charger is due to the fact that when the battery reaches full charge the phone actually stops charging. It remains plugged in, but it no longer charges. This is as otherwise the battery could be damaged from an extended period of charge.

I would imagine iOS 4 was coded in such a way as to hide this. HTC used to do this as well, it would show 100% even though it was like 96% or so. Until it were to reach a certain amount of usage, then it would drop quickly. It's to fool the customer into thinking it's fully charged.

Nothing to worry about, my guess is iOS 5 just isn't coded the same way as iOS 4 was in that regard.

That makes sense, but I don't know if that is actually the problem. It does make sense because when I plug it back in, it slowly climbs back up. Once it hits 100%, it stays there after unplugging it. You would think it would be smart enough to keep the charge at 100% (or even 99%). So it charges up to 100%, cuts the power off. Once the phone realizes it drops down to 99%, it should get more power, and shut off again at 100%, then keep the cycle going. But for some reason once the power is cut, it doesn't seem to come back on.

There's probably a threshold set by developers to turn the power back on once it reaches like 95% or something.

 

[isoft7]

That makes sense, but I don't know if that is actually the problem. It does make sense because when I plug it back in, it slowly climbs back up. Once it hits 100%, it stays there after unplugging it. You would think it would be smart enough to keep the charge at 100% (or even 99%). So it charges up to 100%, cuts the power off. Once the phone realizes it drops down to 99%, it should get more power, and shut off again at 100%, then keep the cycle going. But for some reason once the power is cut, it doesn't seem to come back on.

There's probably a threshold set by developers to turn the power back on once it reaches like 95% or something.

Exactly... and you have to think about why they do this. Every rechargeable battery has only a set number of charges it can handle before it begins to lose strength, and eventually ability to hold a charge at all.

If your battery were to do that, charge to 100%, then as soon as it began to drop down, to 99.9% begin to charge again you would decrease the life tremendously. The battery is always draining, so thus, you would always be charging. If you left your phone plugged in all the time it would crush the battery.

 

[7timethecrystal]

yeah, i'm not so sure on my either. started the day at 100% around 9am and at 5pm, i'm down to about 40%.

in my office the whole day with about 3-4 bars sprint. no phone calls only some imessaging for a few minutes and downloaded one app.

so i'm curious what the geniuses are saying for those who go into Apple.

Could there be varying degrees to these battery issues? I also have a Sprint version with 3-4 bars of signal, only have done imessaging, and made no phone calls...and I have 2%. I'm waiting for it to die.

 

[ZBoater]

Well, my battery took a POUNDING today, I went from 100% to 28% from 9am to 5:00pm. But I hooked up to my company mail server, and dang did I get a LOT of emails today. And I tethered for a bit, and took some calls.

I'm loving it. I would have had to recharge my Thunderbolt 3 times already...

 

[Hutch1]

First charge on mine and I've got 8.5 hours so far at 27%. I've used it lots including a few calls and tethered via wifi for about 45min. Everything is on, location services took a few photos, 2 short videos, and used blue tooth and Siri. The battery life seems similar to my 3GS. It was set up as a back-up from my 3GS.

 

[wurt]

Hm yeah my battery usage is not that great. Going to restore and set up as a new phone tonight to see if it's any better. This Is off 100% charge From 6am this morning

 

[isoft7]

Well, for whatever it's worth, this has been my experience today.

100% at 7am.

I've been connected to streaming radio (over 3G) for about 4 hours, downloaded an app, played cut the rope for about 15 mins, sent several texts, played with wallpapers a ton, messed with my settings, showed Siri to a couple coworkers, etc.

Now at right near 4pm it's at 28%.

I mean yeah, it's not going to last the entire day with that amount of use, but damn, thats a lot of heavy use for a 1400mah battery to do so well. ESPECIALLY with a dual core CPU.

This is a CDMA 16gb 4s.

 

[wurt]

Hm yeah my battery usage is not that great. Going to restore and set up as a new phone tonight to see if it's any better. This Is off 100% charge From 6am this morning

Image

6:41 now and t 9% battery with the phone getting a bit warm

 

[nutrifa]

how do you guys get your usage and standby times to be different? whenever i look at usage on my phone standby and usage time are exactly the same even when i don't leave it on just standby or just use it?

 

[isoft7]

how do you guys get your usage and standby times to be different? whenever i look at usage on my phone standby and usage time are exactly the same even when i don't leave it on just standby or just use it?

I believe usage time is anytime the screen is on, and standby time is anytime it is off.

This is regardless to background tasks running.

Am I right Apple peoples?

 

[nutrifa]

mine shows the same time no matter what, even when i usually hit the lock button and leave it off so who knows?

 

[isoft7]

mine shows the same time no matter what, even when i usually hit the lock button and leave it off so who knows?

Hmm... weird, go play Angry Birds for like an hour and then turn the screen off for like an hour, see if the numbers separate.

 

[JRoDDz]

Location services kills battery life. Wireless syncing kills battery life. iCloud documents and settings backup via cellular kills battery. Look into these and you will find the culprit.

 

[ikeyes]

Try turning off the Airplane mode and as you get time turn off all location, email, push etc one at a time and see if you can find the culprit. For me it seemed to be the System Location Services that brought the icon up and seemed to warm the phone up very quickly, although my battery life has not been bad, it's also not been really good eithor

----------

I have everything off already, literally everything except Cellular Data and Wifi... the battery is still rapidly draining in this state, I can't get any less usage without powering it off. It sat on my desk, untouched for 3 hours and dropped 30% battery... something is definitely wrong with my 4S.

 

[sddabrow]

I think we need to start analyzing particular apps and settings. My friend had over 12 hours usage and 3 days standby. However, he doesn't use iCloud or email.

I got about 5 hours use and 9 hours standby. However, I use Exchange push and icloud for contacts, photo stream, reminders, find my phone. I was connected to wifi all day.

I'm thinking it's either iCloud or exchange not playing nicely.

 

[ikeyes]

One thing we all need to do... post WHICH iPhone you are using exactly.

I have the AT&T 64GB 4S...

Anyways when I got to work, I checked my battery and after the 40 minute drive listening to Spotify my battery had dropped from 58% to 47% and when I got inside I switched the phone into Airplane Mode...

8:45am = 47%
9:32am = 47%
10:33am = 47%
12:08pm = 47%

So ya... it doesn't appear to be a faulty battery... something is NOM'ing on it

So by the end of the day (5:00pm) my battery was sitting at 45%... 9 hours in Standby and it dropped 2% where as last night it dropped from 100% to 68% doing nothing but sitting on my desk.

To top this all off I got my new IvySkin Wrangler case today finally and it's a used / opened model with parts missing... WTF! LOL

I'm on the verge of just sending it back, I'm sure they will figure it out but I don't want to screw around with this... unacceptable on a $498- purchase. My 3G is still working perfectly after almost 3.5 years of use and I can just use that while they figure this out or wait for iPhone 5 I guess.

I can't go to an Apple store and exchange it, they don't exist!

How's this for battery life?! LOL

 

[isoft7]

If your battery is dropping that much, that quickly, while in standby, you must have a push app running in the background. A ton of email addresses, or twitter, facebook, etc.

Something is constantly polling the network looking for data.

 

[reclusive46]

So by the end of the day (5:00pm) my battery was sitting at 45%... 9 hours in Standby and it dropped 2% where as last night it dropped from 100% to 68% doing nothing but sitting on my desk.

To top this all off I got my new IvySkin Wrangler case today finally and it's a used / opened model with parts missing... WTF! LOL

I'm on the verge of just sending it back, I'm sure they will figure it out but I don't want to screw around with this... unacceptable on a $498- purchase. My 3G is still working perfectly after almost 3.5 years of use and I can just use that while they figure this out or wait for iPhone 5 I guess.

I can't go to an Apple store and exchange it, they don't exist!

You can get Apple do an express replacement. They put a hold on your card. Then they send you a new one and then you send the old one back. Once they receive the old one, the hold gets removed.

 

[Newspin44]

I noticed the battery problem within hours of activating my new iPhone 4S on Friday. It drained 1% for every minute on the phone, and dropped about 25% in idle model while I slept overnight. I took it to the Genius Bar on Sunday, and the tech told me it was probably not the battery, but a corrupted file I had imported when I upgraded from my 3S. He told me to go home and restore the phone as new, which I did. That did not work. I had the same problem.

I took the newly restored phone to the Genius Bar this morning. They actually replaced the phone. Wary of a potentially corrupted file, I set it up as a new phone. Within an hour, it was clear I had the same problem with rapid power drain.

I have done virtually everything recommended on the boards. I have deleted most apps. I have turned off most notifications. I have disabled Siri. I have set my emails to fetch instead of push. I have turned off location services. I have reset the network settings. And I have restored the phone again. Nothing seems to solve the problem. Just playing with settings for 10 minutes will drain it 5%. And it occassionally feels warm.

I am at wit's end. This is simply not a useful mobile device for me. I fully charged it 75 minutes ago, made one 6-minute call, checked email twice, looked at one webpage, and it dropped 12%. I will need to carry a charger with me and plug it in constantly during the workday. If I am out of the office for the day at an event, it will surely die my noon.

Apple, please HELP!

 

[7timethecrystal]

Location services kills battery life. Wireless syncing kills battery life. iCloud documents and settings backup via cellular kills battery. Look into these and you will find the culprit.

At least for my part, none of these being off did anything to stop my battery drain. I tested each one independently for hour long periods and the rate of drain was the same.

It's either Exchange e-mail or I just have a hung process. My iPhone died at 5:20p, after staying on 1% for 10 minutes. My wife's 4S had 52% st the same time. Going to charge them up to 100% (which will count as calibration for me, configure them exactly the same, and let them standby and watch for the differences.

 

[ikeyes]

If your battery is dropping that much, that quickly, while in standby, you must have a push app running in the background. A ton of email addresses, or twitter, facebook, etc.

Something is constantly polling the network looking for data.

Nope... it's not.

PUSH is OFF, Fetch = Manual, how many times can I say everything but Cellular Data and Wifi is turned off? LOL

I've been an iOS user since 3G launch, I know my way around and I've disabled EVERYTHING. Something may be physically wrong with my phone, who knows.

I have a friend who got the 64GB Verizon model... his battery is working better than the 4 it replaced, he's extremely impressed and went almost two days after his first full charge.

I'm not saying it's a problem with the iPhone 4S in general... but mine sure is messed up!

I am on hold with Apple right now...

 

[isoft7]

Nope... it's not.

PUSH is OFF, Fetch = Manual, how many times can I say everything but Cellular Data and Wifi is turned off? LOL

I've been an iOS user since 3G launch, I know my way around and I've disabled EVERYTHING. Something may be physically wrong with my phone, who knows.

I have a friend who got the 64GB Verizon model... his battery is working better than the 4 it replaced, he's extremely impressed and went almost two days after his first full charge.

I'm not saying it's a problem with the iPhone 4S in general... but mine sure is messed up!

I am on hold with Apple right now...

Hmm... weird, I wish you luck man. Apple will take care of you, even if you can't reproduce the problem to their liking, they'll still exchange it.