Batterygate??

[KneelbfZod]

I don't charge my phone unless it is needed. Example, If when I go to sleep I am at 50%, I am not going to charge my phone. So if your phone drops only 15% to 85% when its bedtime, you charge anyway? That doesn't make sense.

Why doesn't it make sense? I want a fully charged phone every morning since I go to the gym and stream Sirius XM over 3G for one hour. Why wouldn't I charge it? My outlet is right next to my bed with a charger ready to hook in. NOT charging it doesn't make sense.

 

[The Game 161]

Can't comment on the iPhone 4, the 4S is my first iPhone. I spent around 5 hrs on Wi-Fi browsing and such, some Pandora, app downloads, email, text, etc.

I got off at 4:30 today, switched to 3G around 40%, watched two episodes of Law & Order: SVU, tracked a package and now I'm below 10%.

Overall, I'm pleased with my phone now. I wonder what it is about iCloud though? Do you have it enabled?

Yeah I do

I have my e-mail on with it and all the syncing when it is backed up..I have it to on for when it is locked and on wifi so it backs everything up..don't think anything else needs to be switched on....my battery life has been better on IOS 5 and havn't seen any drain due to icloud. I wasn't aware it could hurt you battery wise.

----------

Why doesn't it make sense? I want a fully charged phone every morning since I go to the gym and stream Sirius XM over 3G for one hour. Why wouldn't I charge it? My outlet is right next to my bed with a charger ready to hook in. NOT charging it doesn't make sense.

Thought it hurts the battery to charge it anytime it isn't in the red?

 

[vitzr]

An Update:

My wife connected the charger to her 4S at 35% remaining. Didn't see the normal charging indicator so I gave her my charger. Nothing. Took it to our Apple Store, the Genius took it in the back for a prolonged period of time. Returned & apologized for the delay saying they tested it carefully & found a bad battery.

The real surprise was when he replaced it with one new in the retail packaging.

All four of my replacements (bad home button on iP4) were in brown boxes.

 

[Oppressed]

Day 1 of my Apple Store replacement.

The first image is of the iPhone 4S that I replaced. At 28% it was at 3 hours and 37 mins of usage. That equates to 3.01 mins per %. The second image is of the new one and it is currently at 14% with 5 hours 2 mins of usage which equates to 3.51 mins per %. That means the replacement is going to net about an hour of extra usage time. iCloud, email w/ push, LBS, and notifications are on in both cases. Also I have not done a full 0-100% cycle on the new one yet so this number can only go up. Old serial started with C38G and the new starts with C39G.

Do I think that I've gotten a "fixed" phone? Do I think the old one was "broken"? Both of these answers are no. In my completely unscientific feeling about my usage I feel that these are both in the margin for error. I still firmly hold to the fact that this is the norm until an update.

Now after I finish my power cycle and get 7+ hours of usage then I'll come here and eat my own words.

 

[KneelbfZod]

Thought it hurts the battery to charge it anytime it isn't in the red?

No it does not. Who told you that?

 

[The Game 161]

No it does not. Who told you that?

some mentioned it on here in the past.

 

[aristobrat]

Thats fair enough but I wasn't under the impression icloud was using data unless you had it charging and locked

Iirc, that's true for backups, however things like changes to contacts seem to replicate instantly, like they're set up for push. And no option to turn push off (like there was with MobileMe), other than not use iCloud to sync them.

 

[RotaryP7]

Since 10AM EST today. My 4S is at 72% at 932PM EST. And I use my phone a lot. Guess I have no issues uh?

I have every option ON except bluetooth.

 

[ViperDesign]

Down to 25% at this point.

 

[richg916]

I seem to remember a problem with the 4 awhile back.. and everyone was having to sign out of their iTunes Store account in the settings. i will try that in the AM after a full charge and report back. SINCE NOTHING ELSE SEEMS TO BE WORKING!!!

 

[jnick]

Down to 25% at this point.

Have you made any battery tweaks? If so, what?!

I'm sitting at 5 hours of usage, 14 hours standby and I'm at 6%. I don't even recall using my phone that much today.

I thought I had this solved because yesterday my battery life was awesome. 6am - 2am and it had around 20% battery left. Today though, my battery life was pretty bad in comparison.

 

[ViperDesign]

Have you made any battery tweaks? If so, what?!

I'm sitting at 5 hours of usage, 14 hours standby and I'm at 6%. I don't even recall using my phone that much today.

I thought I had this solved because yesterday my battery life was awesome. 6am - 2am and it had around 20% battery left. Today though, my battery life was pretty bad in comparison.

I stopped using push, and in the system location stuff I unchecked everything but cell search.

 

[Kendo]

I stopped using push, and in the system location stuff I unchecked everything but cell search.

Same. My email is set to check every hour and I have every system location off including the cell search. The way I see it, none of these settings existed with my 3GS so I don't see the point of having them in my 4S. It has improved battery life TREMENDOUSLY.

 

[orangetabby]

still going...

My battery was OK the first few days and then I tweeked it to see if i could make it better...but apparently made it worse. Day before yesterday was awful...lost 30% overnight, drained quickly, etc. While i have turned off some push and location services, I have by no means turned off everything....still have find my iphone, icloud backup, etc. Two things seemed to make a difference for me. I had turned off wifi. I have OK 3G reception in my house (where i also work) but not great. I think the strain to get the 3G was killing my battery. This happened with my Droid as well. So, after turning back on WIFI it is much better. I also let it completely drain down and then charged it overnight. Unplugged it around 7am yesterday and I have:
51% remaining
usage 3hr, 48 min
standby 1 day, 1 hour

bottom line: everyone's situation is a little different so I doubt there is one quick fix. But keep trying...it's not a lost cause!

Over 14 hours later, I'm at:
28% remaining
usage 4 hr, 58 min
standby 1 day, 15 hours

hope this continues...

 

[flipninja]

My usage stats are:
Usage-4 hours 39 minutes
standby- 1day, 9 hours
Battery is at 40%

This is my first iPhone so I dont know how good my battery is compared to everyone who had an iPhone before. I've turn some things off under location and other things around my settings. I have push for 2 of my emails, I message moderately, look at facebook and most notifications i get is from facebook, and the "...With Friends" games. Is my battery "normal"? i also left my phone on overnight, and it only went down 3%

 

[smoking monkey]

standy by problem fixed?

Hey,

I was losing 2 percent an hour but now after draining the battery from a full charge I've only lost 3 percent (now at 97) in almost 6 hours of standby which included one use of siri and one short phone call.

All my settings are identical.

So all I did was...
1. full charge
2. full drain
3. full charge

I'm guessing that's pretty good. But my screen is yellowish and feels washed out. No comparison... anyway that's for another thread.

 

[jkozlow3]

Is anyone paying attention to the claimed USAGE numbers on your iPhone vs. your ACTUAL usage? Posting pics of your usage screen showing 6/7/8 hours of usage doesn't do any good unless you're certain you've actually USED your phone for that long.

I am certain my phone is lying about my usage. It was in standby most of the day after unplugging it from a full charge and claimed I had nearly 4 hours of usage by the time the battery was down to 50%. This wouldn't be bad battery life at all if I had actually USED the phone for anywhere near 4 hours. The reality is that the phone was in standby for all but about 1 hour TOTAL during which time I made a 24 minute phone call, did a few emails & texts and not much more.

Something is up with the "usage" number for sure. Perhaps something is running in the background that's causing the extra usage and therefore the battery drain. Unfortunately, I've done a DFU restore and turned almost everything off that's been recommended in any thread, so I don't know what could possibly still be causing the background usage.

Please pay attention to your usage - particularly actual usage vs. claimed usage!

 

[DELTAsnake]

Apple tech support has offered to replace my 4S but I'm still thinking it's a software bug in iOS 5 not a hardware problem.

Should I hold out for a iOS update?

 

[fins831]

After reading countless threads and numerous 'I fixed the Battery Drain' threads...I have come to 2 conclusions...

1. 90% of the battery drain issues are iOS related, because side by side with my dads iPhone 4 running iOS 4 with the exact same settings, its draining twice as fast. I'd wager its iCloud since its brand new and first implementation needs to be patched.

2. Those exhibiting extreme drains, different sense of just bad usage times vs bad standbys. Extreme drains are like going to sleep at 80 percent waking up dead....those are just defective, not every phone can come off the assembly line and be working...thats what the genius bar is for, or apple support.

We have 1 year warranty...and even though my battery is not extremely better than my 3GS (which is sad), I am sure its software related, and will be fixed...if all else fails we can all go to apple stores and get replacements...

So I am just patiently waiting...I expected more, but I give Apple the benefit of the doubt and assume that they read forums and since its been widely publicized about the batteries, they are working on the first bug fix right now.

 

[thenerdal]

Here are 7 simple tricks to make the battery life last longer on the iPhone 4S.

1. Turn off location-based reminders

It's actually a good idea never to use location-based reminders, as GPS drains iPhone's battery. Instead, consider setting time-based reminders.

2. Adjust brightness appropriately

Some users prefer to maximize brightness on their iPhone, but the recommended setting is to keep it on auto-adjust.

3. Disable location services

While new apps added by Apple like Find My Friends may be useful, they automatically use location services, which exhausts battery life. For apps where you don't necessarily need your location enabled, disable the option. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services.

4. Maximize signal strength of carrier in region

It is no guarantee you'll always be in an area with a strong signal (i.e. on a flight). However, your iPhone will constantly look for a better one in a bad signal area, so you can consider using airplane mode, however, you will be unable to make or receive calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.

5. Turn off vibrate and Bluetooth (when not in use).

Turning off the vibrate function and Bluetooth capabilities, when not in use, can conserve battery. For Bluetooth, go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.

6. Turn off push notifications

Push notifications alert you of new data in apps, but disabling this feature conserves the juice. To disable push notifications, go to Settings > Notifications and set Notifications to Off.

7. Turn off fetch

You can automatically set that data, like e-mail, be fetched in real time or every so often. Checking manually can be more efficient and you can change this by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually or Hourly.

 

[ReggaePoweredDC]

I took my phone to an Apple store a few days ago and found out that along with several apps (such as Google Voice, lol) crashing, the entire system was crashing. It goes unnoticed, but it constantly crashed and restarted, killing my battery.

They wiped my phone clean and and reloaded the system and I now have pretty much everything on without any issues. It really had nothing to do with usage.

 

[Jimbo47]

Mine is much better than it was.

Standby is at 15 hours, 48 minutes.

Usage is at 1 hour, 57 minutes.

I have 73% battery left.

 

[fins831]

Yes there are some apps that can overly drain a bettery...however this is a software issue because even with people turning all the location services, notification services, icloud and background apps/processes, the battery is still draining too quickly...

software issue...be patient...it will get fixed

 

[mrgreen4242]

I'm betting there is a batch of bad hardware (probably batteries or charge boards) out there. I bought 3 4S's on launch day (one for me, my wife, and mother-in-law) and my mother-in-laws gets terrible battery life (like 6 hours and shuts down) and she's mentioned it gets hot and this evening she's had trouble charging it (on the charger for hours, won't come back on).

Mine gets pretty poor battery life, no matter what I do. For example, right now I am at 35% with 3:46 usage and 9:14 standby. In the last week with it I've had times where the standby/usage counted up in lockstep for hours and my battery drained really quickly. I had it shut down on my in my pocket for no reason at one point (heat related?), and when I turned it back on wifi didn't work (it just said "no wifi" and wouldn't let me turn it on). A reboot fixed that.

My wife's phone is setup almost exactly like mine with the exception that she is syncing MORE stuf with iCloud (she never bothered to turn any of it off) EXCEPT she's not backing up to iCloud (which, in theory is supposed to only do anything while on a charger and wifi while locked, so shouldn't impact battery life). Right now her phone is at 37% with 5:32 usage and 14:40 standby - what I would consider absolutely acceptable battery life; she would end up with 6-7 hours of usage and 16+ hours standby, more than enough to make it through a day with moderate or more use.

All three devices were setup as new phones, all the same exact way. One seems to be having serious hardware problems, another looks like it might have an intermittent hardware issues, those two have battery issues, while a third is perfect.

We're going to be returning them all anyways and switching carriers (Sprint to ATT - hoping the extra "2G" talk time on ATT will help some more, and the dial up speeds I'm getting on Sprint are KILLING me) so we'll see how it goes next week. (Seriously - dial up speeds... anytime outside of about midnight to 9:00am I'm lucky to get 200kbps. I can stand next to my coworkers with their 4's and 4S's on ATT and get 150-200kbps while they get 1.5mbps. My sisters 3GS gets 500-600kbps where I get 90-150. It's pathetic. Having unlimited data doesn't mean much if you can't use any high bandwidth services).

Also, the best improvement I saw from a settings change was setting iCloud Documents and Data to NOT use 3G. That change is now getting me through a day with minimal opportunity charging or concern about battery life. Hopefully with a new device and some of these settings tweaks (and a stronger network signal from ATT) I'll get a full day with some room to spare.

 

[IndoX]

Extremely heavy use. All I did was watch a few episodes of a tv show on netflix, as well as play words with friends at the same time, and some phone calls.

Should I be happy/unhappy?