Does 8.1 manipulate battery usage time?

[Ritte]

I haven't noticed a change in battery since upgrading to 8.1. Usually I get around 10 hours of usage but now with 8.1 usage time reports much greater numbers than on 8.0.2.
I still have to charge the phone as often and I don't feel that battery life has improved as the usage time points out.
Does anybody else experience this?

By the way, I really haven't used the phone constantly 50% of the day as the usage time suggests.

 

[ivandr]

If you haven't been using the phone 50% of the time since it was last charged, that may suggest that some app or process is not suspending properly or staying running in the background when your phone is locked...

 

[pacorob]

In most cases the problems when switching to a new iOS version are (as I had with my switch from iOS6 > iOS7):

- rogue app process (app not updated yet to iOS8/8.1) check Settings > General > Usage > Battery usage in percentage to determine which app is using much more battery although you haven't used it at all or much.

- settings in e-mail receiving is changed
- background app refresh (turn it off if you do not need it)
- location services (look carefully which apps you want to use this feature)
- notifications (look carefully which apps you want to use this feature)
- Facebook app

See also this great article about this.

 

[dk001]

It is, maybe, but ....

Couple of things I have noticed on my 6+ since updating to 8.1:

TIME SINCE LAST CHARGE - doesn't always add up. I have noticed over the last couple of days the Usage + Standby is usually greater than the actual time. Example: alarm goes off at 6:00am. I unplug the phone and roll out to work. By 4:00pm (approx) the total is displaying just over 12 hours. Math?

BATTERY USAGE - you have a 24 hour and a 7 day usage view option. These do not match the actual TIME SINCE LAST CHARGE use. These are more of a "trend" to help determine habits and app excess.

I expect more ...

 

[Mlrollin91]

TIME SINCE LAST CHARGE - doesn't always add up. I have noticed over the last couple of days the Usage + Standby is usually greater than the actual time. Example: alarm goes off at 6:00am. I unplug the phone and roll out to work. By 4:00pm (approx) the total is displaying just over 12 hours. Math?

You are not suppose to add Usage + Standby. Usage is the time the phone has been in use since the phone was last unplugged. Standby is the total time since the phone has been unplugged.

If you unplug your phone at 6AM, at 4PM your Standby will be 10 hours, but your usage could be anywhere from 1 minute to 10 hours.

OP - I noticed this as well but I found the culprit. I had a few Widgets in Notification Center that ran in the background. This added to the usage time, but did not contribute to battery drain. This resolves the discrepancy. So if there is usage time, but minimal battery impact, it will give you the same overall battery life, but your usage time will appear higher than what it was before.

 

[dk001]

Are you sure?

You are not suppose to add Usage + Standby. Usage is the time the phone has been in use since the phone was last unplugged. Standby is the total time since the phone has been unplugged.

If you unplug your phone at 6AM, at 4PM your Standby will be 10 hours, but your usage could be anywhere from 1 minute to 10 hours.

OP - I noticed this as well but I found the culprit. I had a few Widgets in Notification Center that ran in the background. This added to the usage time, but did not contribute to battery drain. This resolves the discrepancy. So if there is usage time, but minimal battery impact, it will give you the same overall battery life, but your usage time will appear higher than what it was before.

I have been up this morning since 6:00am. At that point my 6+ came off the cord.
Usage = 2 Hours, 31 Minutes
Standby = 3 Hours, 33 Minutes

Note: I did not check to see what the values where at the time of unplugging. Will do that tomorrow.

My time since last charge: 5 Hours 4 Minutes.

So........ what am I missing or misinterpreting?

 

[C DM]

I have been up this morning since 6:00am. At that point my 6+ came off the cord.
Usage = 2 Hours, 31 Minutes
Standby = 3 Hours, 33 Minutes

Note: I did not check to see what the values where at the time of unplugging. Will do that tomorrow.

My time since last charge: 5 Hours 4 Minutes.

So........ what am I missing or misinterpreting?

My iPhone 5 has been off the charger since just about 6:30 AM, and at 2 PM standby correctly showed 7 hours and 30 minutes (while usage showed 3 hours and 36 minutes). Numbers seem to be correct.

 

[fortheus]

It's your skype apps. Notice that it says that background process for skype and 4% usage.

When background process run, it is considered as active time and yet it is very low power consumption.

 

[dk001]

My iPhone 5 has been off the charger since just about 6:30 AM, and at 2 PM standby correctly showed 7 hours and 30 minutes (while usage showed 3 hours and 36 minutes). Numbers seem to be correct.

Based on all of this I ran a test last night.
Charged my 6+ to 100% and removed it from the charger at 6pm.
Usage and Standby both read 0.
For the next 4 hours I performed the following:

• Played "Mother of all battles" 30 minutes
• Email reading / responding 20 minutes
• Other app activities like view stock, weather, etc... 25 minutes
• The remainder of the time the phone was sitting, screen dark.

At the 4 hour mark, I looked at the Usage / Standby. The following was displayed:
Usage 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
Standby 3 Hours, 59 Minutes

Based on everything I am reading here, my phone is messed up.
Now I'm just a tad bit confused.
Matching what I am seeing vs. what I am doing, these numbers are worthless.

 

[C DM]

Based on all of this I ran a test last night.
Charged my 6+ to 100% and removed it from the charger at 6pm.
Usage and Standby both read 0.
For the next 4 hours I performed the following:

• Played "Mother of all battles" 30 minutes
• Email reading / responding 20 minutes
• Other app activities like view stock, weather, etc... 25 minutes
• The remainder of the time the phone was sitting, screen dark.

At the 4 hour mark, I looked at the Usage / Standby. The following was displayed:
Usage 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
Standby 3 Hours, 59 Minutes

Based on everything I am reading here, my phone is messed up.
Now I'm just a tad bit confused.
Matching what I am seeing vs. what I am doing, these numbers are worthless.

Not sure what's messed up there--the numbers seem to be correct.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Based on all of this I ran a test last night.
Charged my 6+ to 100% and removed it from the charger at 6pm.
Usage and Standby both read 0.
For the next 4 hours I performed the following:

• Played "Mother of all battles" 30 minutes
• Email reading / responding 20 minutes
• Other app activities like view stock, weather, etc... 25 minutes
• The remainder of the time the phone was sitting, screen dark.

At the 4 hour mark, I looked at the Usage / Standby. The following was displayed:
Usage 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
Standby 3 Hours, 59 Minutes

Based on everything I am reading here, my phone is messed up.
Now I'm just a tad bit confused.
Matching what I am seeing vs. what I am doing, these numbers are worthless.

As I said earlier, and so have others. Standby is the time that the device is unplugged from the charger. You said that you unplugged it for 4 hours. After the 4 hours your standby is showing 3 hours and 59 minutes. That is exactly correct. You're usage is the time that you were literally using the device, the screen was on, or music was playing in the background. That is at the 2 hour mark. So since your last charge your phone has been in usage 50% of the time.

If your usage is growing while the screen is off, and music is not playing in the background, that means you have a process or background app stuck. Do a soft reset, if that doesn't fix it, do a hard reset and you will be good.

 

[mpfuchs]

As I said earlier, and so have others. Standby is the time that the device is unplugged from the charger. You said that you unplugged it for 4 hours. After the 4 hours your standby is showing 3 hours and 59 minutes. That is exactly correct. You're usage is the time that you were literally using the device, the screen was on, or music was playing in the background. That is at the 2 hour mark. So since your last charge your phone has been in usage 50% of the time.

If your usage is growing while the screen is off, and music is not playing in the background, that means you have a process or background app stuck. Do a soft reset, if that doesn't fix it, do a hard reset and you will be good.

That means there are 45 minutes usage missing.
Seems to be a lot for background activity.

Actual screenshot would help.

 

[Mlrollin91]

That means there are 45 minutes usage missing.
Seems to be a lot for background activity.

Actual screenshot would help.

Yes but the stats posted of usage time could be rough estimates.

 

[Ritte]

I disabled a 3rd party widget and the usage time seems to be normal now.

 

[dk001]

As I said earlier, and so have others. Standby is the time that the device is unplugged from the charger. You said that you unplugged it for 4 hours. After the 4 hours your standby is showing 3 hours and 59 minutes. That is exactly correct. You're usage is the time that you were literally using the device, the screen was on, or music was playing in the background. That is at the 2 hour mark. So since your last charge your phone has been in usage 50% of the time.

If your usage is growing while the screen is off, and music is not playing in the background, that means you have a process or background app stuck. Do a soft reset, if that doesn't fix it, do a hard reset and you will be good.

Thanks for the info
I understand what you are telling me. From a battery usage perspective I am looking for:

1. Time since last charge
2. Time the phone was in standby (screen off sitting dark no foreground tasks)
3. Time the phone was actively being used

Your explanation matches the numbers, not the labels.
It should say "Time the device is executing app tasks" and "time since last charge"
I'll look for an app to gather the info I am looking for.

Guess I'm spoiled by the power usage stats on my Android.

Anyway - thanks for the help!

 

[Mlrollin91]

Thanks for the info
I understand what you are telling me. From a battery usage perspective I am looking for:

1. Time since last charge
2. Time the phone was in standby (screen off sitting dark no foreground tasks)
3. Time the phone was actively being used

Your explanation matches the numbers, not the labels.
It should say "Time the device is executing app tasks" and "time since last charge"
I'll look for an app to gather the info I am looking for.

Guess I'm spoiled by the power usage stats on my Android.

Anyway - thanks for the help!

Glad to be of some help! Hopefully you find what you are looking for!

 

[MattBP]

That's exactly what it tells you though?

Time since last charge = standby time

Time executing apps and tasks = usage

The only one it doesn't tell you explicitly is time spent off charge doing nothing, but that is just x - y?

It sounds like you just want the labels reworded which is semantics (literally).