It's used for locating you. Think triangulation. More specifically it's supposedly to "pre-locate" you (i.e. give a relatively rough guestimation of where you are) in order to more quickly pinpoint you via actual satellite GPS data.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Batterygate??
- Thread starter M33-1
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's used for locating you. Think triangulation. More specifically it's supposedly to "pre-locate" you (i.e. give a relatively rough guestimation of where you are) in order to more quickly pinpoint you via actual satellite GPS data.
It's ICLOUD!
Shutting off some options isn't enough. You have to delete your account.
There's a link on this forum circulating regarding it.
Some early jailbrakers noticed the 4s constantly pings/connects w/ iCloud, and it averages out to a steady 1kbps rate. They're not sure what it's sending/receiving, but it definitely is.
Might have to do with keeping tabs on available space?
Shutting off some options isn't enough. You have to delete your account.
There's a link on this forum circulating regarding it.
Some early jailbrakers noticed the 4s constantly pings/connects w/ iCloud, and it averages out to a steady 1kbps rate. They're not sure what it's sending/receiving, but it definitely is.
Might have to do with keeping tabs on available space?
Glad to hear this, going to try and swap it out in store this weekend if I can.
I heard that too about iCloud being the culprit. I find my battery is hit or miss with its perfomance. If i am in a good network area with good 3G, i notice the battery is great. Same if i am on wifi. If i am say, in my office at work, with 3G but not great reception, the battery dies a lot faster. I have even tried turing off all location services and such. I just deleted my iCloud accout. I am going to see how this works for now...
For me, it wasn't iCloud, or any setting or feature I could access in iOS. I literally tried everything. Independently. For days. Nothing. Still had some background iOS process running in standby, draining it 6-7%/hour.
I too noticed an increase in power consumption with iCloud turned on and showed it above.
Here's my updated usage after getting the new iPhone 4S at the Apple Store
Key thing, look at the difference in standby vs. usage. I am using the phone more now, yet the usage is exactly what one would expect from an Apple battery. On my other 4S, these numbers were within 20 minutes of each other after 8 hours, and that was the 20 minutes I tested it in Airplane mode.
Some rogue process always ran when an internet connection was available, regardless of what setting, app, or e-mail account I deleted. It just flat out drained. I bet for most who aren't finding battery improvement through settings, this is occurring to them.
If you are at your wits end, go see the Genius Bar. They'll make the switch.
Key thing, look at the difference in standby vs. usage. I am using the phone more now, yet the usage is exactly what one would expect from an Apple battery. On my other 4S, these numbers were within 20 minutes of each other after 8 hours, and that was the 20 minutes I tested it in Airplane mode.
Some rogue process always ran when an internet connection was available, regardless of what setting, app, or e-mail account I deleted. It just flat out drained. I bet for most who aren't finding battery improvement through settings, this is occurring to them.
If you are at your wits end, go see the Genius Bar. They'll make the switch.
And yet you got a new phone which mysteriously doesn't have this background process running, correct?
Or are we leaning more towards it being hardware, which I personally still fail to believe because of how extremely varied the individual cases are.
Either way we're all no closer to identifying exactly what is the culprit.
With these statistics, you are projected to get a little less than 6 hrs usage time.... How do you feel about that? It seems to me you are getting similar to performance as the others here who are complaining.
Here is my experience so far
I have an iPhone 4s that I restored from a back up of my Iphone 4. I had noticed that my battery seemd to be draining a lot more quickly on the 4s compared to the 4. I found the items below as possible solutions on several different websites.
If these have already been posted, I apologize. I did all of these and my battery seems to be holding up a lot better. I don't have before and after stats or anything like that for you. I can tell you that I was at 100% at 11:40 am today and with some texting, a little bit of data and several phone calls I am down to 86% as of right now at 1:40 PM. That is dramatically better than this morning before the changes when I watched the percentage drop several points just holding it in my hands.
iOS 5 Battery Drain Fix
■Reset Network Settings: Tap on Settings > Reset > Reset Network Settings
■Disable Bluetooth: Settings > General > Bluetooth > OFF
■Disable unwated Notifications & apps: Settings > Notifications > Turn OFF for anything you dont need
■Disable Location Service: Settings > Location Services > Disable selectively for services you dont use
■Disable Timezone Adjustment: Tap on Settings > Location Services > System Services > Setting Time Zone to OFF
■Disable Ping: Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Ping > OFF
■Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports: Tap on Settings > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Dont Send
Disable Email accounts by heading to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Account Name > Delete Account. Once done, reset network settings (the first tip up there) then reboot your device and re-add your accounts back from Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.
I have an iPhone 4s that I restored from a back up of my Iphone 4. I had noticed that my battery seemd to be draining a lot more quickly on the 4s compared to the 4. I found the items below as possible solutions on several different websites.
If these have already been posted, I apologize. I did all of these and my battery seems to be holding up a lot better. I don't have before and after stats or anything like that for you. I can tell you that I was at 100% at 11:40 am today and with some texting, a little bit of data and several phone calls I am down to 86% as of right now at 1:40 PM. That is dramatically better than this morning before the changes when I watched the percentage drop several points just holding it in my hands.
iOS 5 Battery Drain Fix
■Reset Network Settings: Tap on Settings > Reset > Reset Network Settings
■Disable Bluetooth: Settings > General > Bluetooth > OFF
■Disable unwated Notifications & apps: Settings > Notifications > Turn OFF for anything you dont need
■Disable Location Service: Settings > Location Services > Disable selectively for services you dont use
■Disable Timezone Adjustment: Tap on Settings > Location Services > System Services > Setting Time Zone to OFF
■Disable Ping: Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Ping > OFF
■Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports: Tap on Settings > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Dont Send
Disable Email accounts by heading to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Account Name > Delete Account. Once done, reset network settings (the first tip up there) then reboot your device and re-add your accounts back from Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.
Since you have WiFi on and your around 75% battery left after 1.5 hours I can assume that you will get 6 hours total of usage with WiFi.
6 hours of usage while on WiFi is not good battery life for the 4S according to Apple. Should be at least 9...
(btw mine is the same: 6 hours of wifi browsing max)
And yet you got a new phone which mysteriously doesn't have this background process running, correct?
Or are we leaning more towards it being hardware, which I personally still fail to believe because of how extremely varied the individual cases are.
Either way we're all no closer to identifying exactly what is the culprit.
The new 4S isn't just draining battery with all these services turned off. I have them turned ON with this phone (iCloud, Location Services, etc.) and it behaves like it should.
My wife's 4S has worked as expected out of the box from day 1. I noticed a difference when I set them up on Friday night.
I honestly think, for us, it's a rogue process from the setup of the phone that uses network services to run. What it is, as you said, is a mystery. The folks at the Genius Bar seemed to agree.
----------
It was pretty heavy usage, including time with Bluetooth. It's LIGHT years better than bleeding 6-7%/hr, so happiness in this case may be relative
----------
I guess I was focusing on standby time, rather than usage. My usage was pretty heavy this morning, including Bluetooth and Location Services.
We all need to be very careful about interpreting what Apple states about battery performance. They do not state you will get 9 hours of wifi web browsing. They state: Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi. The operative word here is INTERNET USE. Which could mean anything and everything to include (or exclude) web browsing.
You aren't taking into account standby time. The more standby time you have used the less usage time you will have.
For an accurate test, you would have to charge your phone to 100% and then continuously browse the web using wifi until your battery has exhausted. Who wants to do it?
Agreed, and I wasn't on WiFi for all usage; I was in 3G for at least half of it. I'm happy with those usage statistics, particularly the standby, which is light years better than the 4S I returned.
You should be very happy with your standby performance. I have been following your posts and I think you had a real honest to God problem with your iPhone.
The drop in standby time problems are very much real. But what about those that are complaining about usage? Are these problems real or perceived?
What is killing me is usage. I can barely get 5 hours of mix usage (some games, surfing, music listening). I don't think this is good but I really don't know what to expect.
Old 4S: DNP
New 4S: C38
----------
Thanks, yea, something was just off, and I think the Genius Bar finally caved to it being something out of my control since the factory restore did nothing and they saw my awful standby stats with no e-mail accounts or major services enabled LOL.
The usage does appear to drain faster than I'd like, but I'm not normally a very heavy user (I deflect a lot of web browsing to the iPad), so standby was more important to me. It was killing me to be running out of battery at the end of the day right before leaving after only using it three or four times during the day.
I'd be happy enough with your figures too, they're what I'd be expecting to see.. and I've definitely got a rogue process too, only thing that seems to kill it is switching into airplane mode. Soon as 3G radio comes back on, even with data turned off, battery drain increases a lot, and phantom usage shows.
I'm taking mine in on sunday.
Yep, the only way I stopped mine was Airplane mode. I told the Genius Bar I wasn't surprised my battery diagnostics came back clean since it seemed to stop in Airplane mode.
Now, if it is a rogue process that can be identified by Apple, surely they could fix it with an iOS patch. Question is, are they even looking into it now?
I had a problem while in San Francisco on Monday and using Maps. When I exited the Maps app, the purple arrow stayed in the status bar (normally it goes away). I went into Location Services and noted that the Traffic Update was continuously updating even when the app was exited. I have never had this happen before. For now, I have Traffic Update turned off in System Services - you can still get traffic info in Maps.
I am on iPhone 4 with iOS 5. I am going to assume there is something in iOS that is not right - and for those suggesting to turn off iCloud, that is not acceptable.
(Also to note: when going to "Hide Traffic" in Maps, it had no affect on iOS using Location Services. Does anyone know what Traffic Update is intended for?)
I am on iPhone 4 with iOS 5. I am going to assume there is something in iOS that is not right - and for those suggesting to turn off iCloud, that is not acceptable.
(Also to note: when going to "Hide Traffic" in Maps, it had no affect on iOS using Location Services. Does anyone know what Traffic Update is intended for?)
Last edited:
Who knows, I'd hope so.. Seems fine in airplane + wifi too, so it's just 3g.
dropped 4% in airplane standby after 11 hours, that seems reasonable enough to me, I'd probably expect about 8-12% for the same with 3g on as reasonable, based on how apple quote their standby time vs the 4. Rather than the 3-4% an hour I'm currently getting.
In any case, I've taken plenty of snapshots of usage screen to show apple
The traffic in system services is what sends your speed and location info to Apple's crowd-sourced servers to expand their traffic database. Thank you for contributing
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4995