Batterygate??

[DB2k]

ok chaps

initial findings look good.

I as I have said, turned that GPS timezone thing off. It was making my phone hot.
I also deleted each email account, then rebooted the device and then re-added each account. I also enabled iCloud backup which I had set to off previously.

I charged it up again to 100% at 15:05, and now just over 1 hour later it is still 100%. All I have done in that time is take a couple of test photos and look in some settings. Nothing else.

I will keep my eye on it but I'm taking it to the gym later for some Nike+ and music so that will kill it a bit. See how it copes over night I think.

 

[tivoboy]

don't think so

I also have this set up (see redmamoth's post) and it definitely seems to have helped. I found that the main culprit was:

Location Services > System Services > Setting Time Zone

By default, it's permanently set to ON which uses GPS constantly. Switch it off & you should see an improvement.

I don't think this is using the GPS, in the menu it says that there would be a grey arrow next to it IF it used the GPS for this info (which normally comes from the cell tower) and I haven't seen any (of four) devices yet that have the grey arrow next to this setting.

 

[ljmjag]

I've found turning off the following has drastically helped my battery life:

'Ping' in General -> Restrictions (need to turn restrictions on)
'Setting Time Zone' in Location Services -> System Services
'Daignostics & Usage' in Location Services -> System Services
'Location-Based iAds' in Location Services -> System Services

Then set 'Don't Send' in General -> About -> Daignostics & Usage Data

Hope this helps someone else.

Still dropping about 1% per hour on standby but I'd consider that 'acceptable'.

Actually, I think that these settings help a lot. I noticed a difference almost immediately. I already had the Ping off and Don't Send enabled, so I am guessing it is either the Location Based iAds or the Time Zone setting that is making the battery drain constantly.

If the battery holds, I will re-enable iCloud and see if that now works better too.

But I noticed a distinct difference immediately on making these changes.

Nice detective work and THANKS!

 

[wurt]

ignore, i can't read

 

[Reach9]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm nearly 100% convinced this is a bug in the battery controller now.

After my own experience, I know of two other users who have had the problem where taking it off the charger immediately drops the charge down to 98 or 99%. Indicating it stopped charging prematurely.

Of those users, both have indicated it is improving over time. One finally was able to have his phone off the charger for over an hour at 100%. Aka, normal iPhone behavior.

The other friend hasn't gotten there yet, but is reporting his battery life is improving each day.

I think that, if anything, a minor software update will correct these issues. And, for most, it will work itself out over time before the update comes.

Clif

That is very interesting, I think I'm in a similar place. My battery went to 99% within a minute, and dropped quick, then it worked great at around 85% and then dropped big time. Now I'm at 57% with 3 and a half hours, with very average usage.

I'm on my way to an Apple Store now to get a replacement, hopefully the next will be better.

 

[metsjetsfan]

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That is very interesting, I think I'm in a similar place. My battery went to 99% within a minute, and dropped quick, then it worked great at around 85% and then dropped big time. Now I'm at 57% with 3 and a half hours, with very average usage.

I'm on my way to an Apple Store now to get a replacement, hopefully the next will be better.

let us know if they give you a refurb or factory? Sure there are some refurbs that they used for tests that they might give to people.

 

[JP30]

Over the first night it was better than during the day...... since last full charge, my battery has dropped 50% and my stats are:

Usage 2h34m
Standby 14h39m

Is this about normal or poor?

Also, I found that overnight on standby with push exchange emails and all services activated (cloud, photo stream, etc) I was losing 1% per hour of battery life.

I literally have the exact same stats as this right now and battery is at 45% with basically everything off. Not sure if thats normal or not, I had the same question

 

[fabian9]

I'm surprised you guys don't charge your iPhones every night. There is no way my 4 would last me for more than a day if I didn't charge if over night...

Why not just get into the habit of connecting the phone before you go to bed? It'll then also do a iCloud backup for you while you're sleeping and you'll have a freshly charged phone for the next day.

 

[MacDevil7334]

I'm surprised you guys don't charge your iPhones every night. There is no way my 4 would last me for more than a day if I didn't charge if over night...

Why not just get into the habit of connecting the phone before you go to bed? It'll then also do a iCloud backup for you while you're sleeping and you'll have a freshly charged phone for the next day.

The issue is not about our charging habits. The issue is that many people's 4Ss are getting significantly worse battery life than they were getting on the 3GS or the 4. While some drop is understandable (since we are getting a major performance boost), I did not make it through the day on a full charge yesterday even though I didn't use my phone any more than normal (slightly less in fact since I had to work late). My iPhone 4 would have had 40-50% left, but my 4S died around 11PM. That is unacceptable. No performance boost is worth not being able to make it through the day on a full charge.

 

[Oppressed]

This is very stressing...

I used the stopwatch function to time exactly how much time would pass to lose 1%. The laps are the time between every % of battery power. No other apps are open.

 

[Fynd]

Rotted

My 4S is getting absolutely terrible battery life. Today after charging to 100%, I'm now at 94%. It's been just under an hour (50 odd minutes) and literally the only thing i've done is text my girlfriend. **** sakes.

 

[isoft7]

This is very stressing...

I used the stopwatch function to time exactly how much time would pass to lose 1%. The laps are the time between every % of battery power. No other apps are open.

It's not a perfect science, the battery is not going to drop a percent at the same rate each time. A lot of this is due to the system used to measure the capacity of the battery itself.

The numbers are fairly theoretical and not be taken for anything beyond that of a reminder of when you should plug in your phone.

Chill out and play some angry birds.

 

[X-rated]

My 4s sucked at te beginning too but all I did was a hard reset and what a change it made. I am back with the same battery performance my 4 had.

 

[Oppressed]

It's not a perfect science, the battery is not going to drop a percent at the same rate each time. A lot of this is due to the system used to measure the capacity of the battery itself.

The numbers are fairly theoretical and not be taken for anything beyond that of a reminder of when you should plug in your phone.

Chill out and play some angry birds.

No it's not a perfect science but it does show a serious issue with battery draining. I can't play angry birds if my phone is dead!

To be honest I'm questioning if the upgrades are worth this battery trade off if it is indeed "normal" consumption.

 

[Ori]

I thought it was just me. I've turned off that time zone thing and hopefully that will sort it.
I think it's an ios5 bug as I messaged a friend of mine with the tip (he has an iPhone 4 running ios5) and he said thanks and he was wondering why his phone battery was behaving like an egg timer.

Anyway. Will see how the battery is now after a full charge. It's been dropping 10% in under an hour since I got it.

 

[jasko]

Is this good or bad? Lol

 

[tivoboy]

notifications

Over on businessinsider they commented that the notifications center apps like stocks and weather are constantly updating, not only when the notifications center is opened and therefore are using up battery.

I'm going to move them OUT of the notifications center and see if things get even better.

I would wager than 100% of us have the stocks and weather widgets setup in the notifications center.

 

[tann]

Over on businessinsider they commented that the notifications center apps like stocks and weather are constantly updating, not only when the notifications center is opened and therefore are using up battery.

I'm going to move them OUT of the notifications center and see if things get even better.

I would wager than 100% of us have the stocks and weather widgets setup in the notifications center.

Actually I removed the weather app. Was annoyed with it both checking my location AND updating every time I looked in the tray to get to my new messages lol.

 

[3460169]

Over on businessinsider they commented that the notifications center apps like stocks and weather are constantly updating, not only when the notifications center is opened and therefore are using up battery.

I'm going to move them OUT of the notifications center and see if things get even better.

I would wager than 100% of us have the stocks and weather widgets setup in the notifications center.

Nope. Just weather here. Same setup I had on my ip4 since the early iOS 5 betas. Remarkable battery life in the ip4 (on later iOS5 betas and GM). Crap battery life on the 4S. Either it's hardware or there's a code path in iOS5 specific to the 4S that's making it crap the bed (& thus needs a patch).

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

Over on businessinsider they commented that the notifications center apps like stocks and weather are constantly updating, not only when the notifications center is opened and therefore are using up battery.

I'm going to move them OUT of the notifications center and see if things get even better.

I would wager than 100% of us have the stocks and weather widgets setup in the notifications center.

I know the more widgets you have running on a android the quicker the battery drains, live wall papers also hurt. Hard to imagine two simple widgets would kill batteries hand over fist, but it's worth a try.

 

[metsjetsfan]

Has anyone tried turning ALL 6 location system services OFF? It may help a great deal you just won't be able to use things like reminders with geo fence or 4 square radar, basically location running in the background(ie locationgate). you will be able to get location on apps and even find my iphone. Just wondering if this helps anyone.

Cell Network Search
Compass Calibration
Diagnostics and Usage
Location based iAds
Setting Time Zone
Traffic

 

[ljmjag]

By turning off Location Services for iAds and for Setting Time Zone, my battery life went up from approximately using 10% of battery for every 30 minutes of usage to about 55 minutes for every 30 minutes of usage.

That is almost a 100% increase in battery life by turning off two needless services. My stocks and weather notifications are still running as are all other location services.

The difference is startling by adjusting those two settings.

 

[jamespa66]

Well after my 4S went from 100 to 0% in about 5.5 hours yesterday I decided to do another restore and setup as a new phone for the second time. Today my battery life is greatly improved. With about the same if not a bit more usage than yesterday my battery is at 88% after three hours. This is a huge gain considering I was at 40% at the same point yesterday. I have all the settings that same and have not turned off anything trying to save the battery life. At this point I'm thrilled now with my 4S.

 

[username008]

Hey Everyone - Questions for you...

Sorry if these questions are very silly, I'm genuinely wondering though...

1) Those who are experiencing extreme battery drop over night - are you guys using Wifi or 3G?

2) And those of you who are reseting your phone... do you mean "Restore" on iTunes... I set up my iPhone 4S as a new phone when i was activating it in the very beginning.... should i be plugging it into iTunes and be setting it up as a new phone there as well?

3) Even though the phone already comes with iOS 5, are you guys simply just restoring the phone again to see if it increases battery life?

Thanks everyone

 

[tivoboy]

weather app

I also turned off the LOCAL weather feature in the actual weather app, not just the notification center one.