Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

For people experiencing battery problems!

S

SirStrumalot

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 28, 2011
391
4
Minneapolis, MN
Guys, I apologize in advance if this has been mentioned in threads before as I'm sure it has. I want to offer a quick suggestion regarding the battery problems people have been having; I found this to be a HUGE contributor to draining battery and didn't even realize overlooking it. I now have pretty amazing battery life (will post a screenshot later when I'm down to about 20%).

Go to Settings>Location Services>System Services (all the way at the bottom). Now turn off Diagnostics and anything else you're not using regularly. What you should turn off anyway (unless it interests you of course) is Location-Based iAds. This is a huge drain on battery since it's basically utilized by any free or ad-supported apps you're running and constantly uses location services to give you relevant ads! (Worst part is, it's a silent killer; it never shows you the purple arrow so you never realize that location services are constantly being utilized!)
 
Last edited:
the only thing i have on is cell network search. are you guys doing the same?
 
When I go into that area of settings I don't see a "grey" or "purple" arrow. Doesn't this mean it hasn't been using these services?
 
bmms8 said:
the only thing i have on is cell network search. are you guys doing the same?
Click to expand...
I have this turned off and have no problems with my cellular network (both phone and data). I called Apple to verify what the "cell network search" was exactly.. Interesting thing is, I was transferred to four different reps before the fourth one answered my question in a rather irresolute tone. What he said was, "This is a helpful feature to have turned on in weaker areas of service and uses GPS and location services to try and force connect to a network".

So basically, I would say this is unnecessary for most people and is a useless drain on battery unless you live in an area where you're constantly seeing 1-2 bars virtually all the time (in which case, I might recommend a change of carriers haha).
 
Last edited:
SirStrumalot said:
I have this turned off and have no problems with my cellular network (both phone and data). I called Apple to verify what the "cell network search" was exactly.. Interesting thing is, I was transferred to four different reps before the fourth one answered my question in a rather irresolute tone. What he said was, "This is a helpful feature to have turned on in weaker areas of service and uses GPS and location services to try and force connect to a network".

So basically, I would say this is unnecessary for most people and is a useless drain on battery unless you live in an area where you're constantly seeing 1-2 bars all the time (in which case, I might recommend a change of carriers haha).
Click to expand...

sounds good, thanks! so you have everything turned off?

Lone Wolf said:
where is "cell network search" located..
Click to expand...

settings>location services>system services>cell network search
 
bmms8 said:
sounds good, thanks! so you have everything turned off?



settings>location services>system services>cell network search
Click to expand...
Yup I do! And I'm seeing fabulous battery life on my 4S! I just figured a lot of people might be overlooking this stuff like I did, and the reason I called Apple is 'cuz I couldn't figure out what "cell network search" did. It seemed to have no effect on my reception/data.

The only thing I seem to use and turn on strictly when I need it is 'Compass Calibration'... I only use it when I'm using the compass on Google Maps.
 
Great suggestion.:D

Turned off the iAds thingy - who the hell needs that! Will turn off "cell network search" and see if it makes any difference. My signal strength is usually between 2 and 4-5 bars.

Thanks again :)
 
Stops charging at 95%

I figured instead of making a new thread I'd post here first.

Does anyone's phone stop charging once it reaches 95% but then if you unplug it and then plug it back in it charges to 100%?
 
bmms8 said:
the only thing i have on is cell network search. are you guys doing the same?
Click to expand...

I have cell network and compass calibration ON, everything else off.

----------
SirStrumalot said:
Yup it would. If you're like me and use location services for some apps, just make sure system services aren't silently killing your battery life.
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. Disabling these "system services" has no effect on reminders and locations. These system services are basically to provide feedback back to Apple regarding call quality, traffic information including your current speed and location, and diagnostics info. Read what Apple has to say about some of these: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4995
 
I find this a bit puzzling and worrisome. After charging to 100% the percentage immediately drops to 99% and pretty quickly drops five or six percentage points if I use any function or app. However, if I then plug the phone back in and leave it for a few minutes after it reaches 100% again, battery life is phenomenal.

Yesterday after doing this and taking it off the charger at about noon I still had about 35% at about 3am with heavy usage.

So on the one hand it discharges very quickly but on the other it's amazing. Mind you this is the second iPhone 4S that's acting in this fashion. I had the same exact thing happen with my first one but when I took it to an Apple store they swapped it out for me. I don't want to say that the batteries are defective but it's odd that I can get such huge differences in performance on the same battery by just "topping" it off.

FYI I can reproduce this almost every time.
 
JRoDDz said:
This is incorrect. Disabling these "system services" has no effect on reminders and locations. These system services are basically to provide feedback back to Apple regarding call quality, traffic information including your current speed and location, and diagnostics info. Read what Apple has to say about some of these: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4995
Click to expand...
I think you misunderstood my post. What I was telling him was that turning off location services entirely would in fact disable reminders etc.. So in effect, what I meant was he could set the services he uses 'on' and switch off the system services he doesn't need.

My post was a reply to this post specifically:

SurferMan said:
If you just turn locations off itself, wouldnt all of that not be running anyway?
Click to expand...
Shrink said:
Wouldn't that disable the location mode in Reminders, too? :confused:
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
SirStrumalot said:
Guys, I apologize in advance if this has been mentioned in threads before as I'm sure it has. I want to offer a quick suggestion regarding the battery problems people have been having; I found this to be a HUGE contributor to draining battery and didn't even realize overlooking it. I now have pretty amazing battery life (will post a screenshot later when I'm down to about 20%).

Go to Settings>Location Services>System Services (all the way at the bottom). Now turn off Diagnostics and anything else you're not using regularly. What you should turn off anyway (unless it interests you of course) is Location-Based iAds. This is a huge drain on battery since it's basically utilized by any free or ad-supported apps you're running and constantly uses location services to give you relevant ads! (Worst part is, it's a silent killer; it never shows you the purple arrow so you never realize that location services are constantly being utilized!)
Click to expand...

I've turned off all system services and I'll report back with my experience later this evening.
 
rashawnsdinner said:
I figured instead of making a new thread I'd post here first.

Does anyone's phone stop charging once it reaches 95% but then if you unplug it and then plug it back in it charges to 100%?
Click to expand...

That happens to me as well. I have done everything suggested on all the battery threads but still get poor battery life. I did another clean restore of my phone last night (no apps and everything turned off) and fully charged it. Unplugged it, and this morning it is showing 50% after 15 hours standby and 7.5 hours "usage" (even though I haven't used it). Very odd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back