I have found the solution to the 3GS battery life dilemma!

[christall109]

Hey guys,

I like many of you had terrible battery life with my 3GS. I have had to charge my phone once during the middle of the day in order to make it through the night. So there has been much debate as to if it is a hardware or software issue, and now I firmly believe its a software.

Here was the trick: Charge your iPhone 3GS while it is off and powered down.

A friend recommended the trick to me the other day, and yes his Dad is actual friends with Steve Jobs and he said a software fix is coming. When you plug it in off it will come on, but just shut off while its plugged in and let is sit for a few hours. I let mine sit all night off. Today I've had my iPhone on with usual usage since 7:30am and I'm at 72%, very notable increase. I have 3g on, wifi on, push notifications on, fetch 15min, bluetooth off.

Good Luck! Let me know if you guys notice an improvement too!

 

[The Californian]

Hey guys,

I like many of you had terrible battery life with my 3GS. I have had to charge my phone once during the middle of the day in order to make it through the night. So there has been much debate as to if it is a hardware or software issue, and now I firmly believe its a software.

Here was the trick: Charge your iPhone 3GS while it is off and powered down.

A friend recommended the trick to me the other day, and yes his Dad is actual friends with Steve Jobs and he said a software fix is coming. When you plug it in off it will come on, but just shut off while its plugged in and let is sit for a few hours. I let mine sit all night off. Today I've had my iPhone on with usual usage since 7:30am and I'm at 72%, very notable increase. I have 3g on, wifi on, push notifications on, fetch 15min, bluetooth off.

Good Luck! Let me know if you guys notice an improvement too!

I've heard that the reason for the battery problems is the battery settings differences between the 3GS and both of the older iPhone models. My understanding is that you need to set up the 3GS as a new iPhone and not restore from backup and that will fix the problem.

Then again, my friends dad isn't BFF with Steve Jobs.

 

[sinsin07]

If your friends Dad is a friend of Steve Jobs, then he should of told you Job's uses a Blackberry, he's not familiar with the Iphone battery issues.

 

[NateDMB]

If your friends Dad is a friend of Steve Jobs, then he should of told you Job's uses a Blackberry, he's not familiar with the Iphone battery issues.

OK I'm sorry but I have to at least make bad joke grammatically correct.

"If your friend's dad is a friend of Steve Jobs, then he should have told you Jobs uses a Blackberry, he's not familiar with the iPhone's battery issues."

 

[bakerster]

OK I'm sorry but I have to at least make bad joke grammatically correct.

"If your friend's dad is a friend of Steve Jobs, then he should have told you Jobs uses a Blackberry, he's not familiar with the iPhone's battery issues."

no one cares. seriously.

 

[ryhno45]

OK I'm sorry but I have to at least make a bad joke grammatically correct.

"If your friend's dad is a friend of Steve Jobs, then he should have told you Jobs uses a Blackberry, he's not familiar with the iPhone's battery issues."

...*On Topic*
I did that to my 3GS, and I have had no problems with the battery life.

 

[hamish5178]

no one cares. seriously.

I care, actually.

It's not like we're trying to nitpick. If you're well educated and read/write things besides text messages on a regular basis, mistakes will begin to jump out at you.

 

[eawmp1]

I care, actually.

It's not like we're trying to nitpick. If you're well educated and read/write things besides text messages on a regular basis, mistakes will begin to jump out at you.

Then I am happy to be well-educated!

 

[jsimpson]

I did a restore a few weeks and setup as a new iphone and I am getting better battery life. Maybe there is something to that theory.

 

[iNoob3]

I really don't want to sound like a noob here but if I do a restore as a new phone will I lose my contacts and everything? Is there a way that I can keep them? What about apps and everything else?

 

[-aggie-]

no one cares. seriously.

TheSpaz does.

...*On Topic*
I did that to my 3GS, and I have had no problems with the battery life.

So, does anyone have an idea how much battery life is improved for a 3G doing a restore as new phone?

 

[Rat-Boy]

I really don't want to sound like a noob here but if I do a restore as a new phone will I lose my contacts and everything? Is there a way that I can keep them? What about apps and everything else?

Same question.

If I set it up as a new phone, will I lose application data such as the Checkbook app's data?

 

[mikejfrd]

My 3gs holds a charge for at least a full day with moderate to heavy use. I'm a new iphone user if that means anything. I'm not sure why everyone's having such an issue with battery life?

 

[Ivan P]

Same question.

If I set it up as a new phone, will I lose application data such as the Checkbook app's data?

Yes. They recommend you do not restore from a backup, and all the data from your apps is stored in said backup - so basically, you'll be starting from scratch.

 

[deannnnn]

I'm not trying to be one of those Apple fanboys that stands up for Apple in every way shape or form... but my 3GS has great battery life, and trust me, gets very heavy use.

It's 11:15PM right now, and I stopped it from charging at about noon (I'm a college student and it's summer! Gimme a break!) and I'm still at 53% on what was a higher than average use day (Got some new apps today ).

 

[DaGreat01]

My 3gs holds a charge for at least a full day with moderate to heavy use. I'm a new iphone user if that means anything. I'm not sure why everyone's having such an issue with battery life?

Yes it could mean something. "Moderate to heavy use" could mean something different to a new iPhone user.

 

[-aggie-]

Yes. They recommend you do not restore from a backup, and all the data from your apps is stored in said backup - so basically, you'll be starting from scratch.

Does this work for a 3G as well?

 

[christall109]

If your friends Dad is a friend of Steve Jobs, then he should of told you Job's uses a Blackberry, he's not familiar with the Iphone battery issues.

It was a lame joke that I thought would be funny. Becuase everyone on thus forum knows Steve in some way.

 

[The Californian]

I did a restore a few weeks and setup as a new iphone and I am getting better battery life. Maybe there is something to that theory.

Thanks.

I really don't want to sound like a noob here but if I do a restore as a new phone will I lose my contacts and everything? Is there a way that I can keep them? What about apps and everything else?

Your contacts should all be saved on your iTunes, actually ... I'm not completely sure, mine gets all of the contacts from my "Address Book" app on my Mac. Does anyone with a PC know if iTunes keeps your contacts from your iPhone that you can retrieve if you setup as a new iPhone?

So, does anyone have an idea how much battery life is improved for a 3G doing a restore as new phone?

No. The reason it works for the 3GS is because the 3GS uses different battery settings due to it's new hardware. The problem most people are having with battery life on the 3GS is because the originally set it up from a backup, and because of that transferred over their battery settings from their 3G ... Which will cause a loss in battery life.

Same question.

If I set it up as a new phone, will I lose application data such as the Checkbook app's data?

Yes, you will have to start all over again.

Does this work for a 3G as well?

No. The reason it works for the 3GS is because the 3GS uses different battery settings due to it's new hardware. The problem most people are having with battery life on the 3GS is because the originally set it up from a backup, and because of that transferred over their battery settings from their 3G ... Which will cause a loss in battery life.
THOUGHT I'D ANSWER TWICE SINCE YOU ASKED TWICE.

I hope this helps.

 

[rw3]

Always do a Restore and DO NOT restore from backup. Always start fresh. I just recently did this and have seen an improve in both responsiveness and battery life. Although I seem to have developed the WiFi issues that some are reporting with the 3GS on 3.0

 

[-aggie-]

Thanks.

Your contacts should all be saved on your iTunes, actually ... I'm not completely sure, mine gets all of the contacts from my "Address Book" app on my Mac. Does anyone with a PC know if iTunes keeps your contacts from your iPhone that you can retrieve if you setup as a new iPhone?

No. The reason it works for the 3GS is because the 3GS uses different battery settings due to it's new hardware. The problem most people are having with battery life on the 3GS is because the originally set it up from a backup, and because of that transferred over their battery settings from their 3G ... Which will cause a loss in battery life.

Yes, you will have to start all over again.

No. The reason it works for the 3GS is because the 3GS uses different battery settings due to it's new hardware. The problem most people are having with battery life on the 3GS is because the originally set it up from a backup, and because of that transferred over their battery settings from their 3G ... Which will cause a loss in battery life.
THOUGHT I'D ANSWER TWICE SINCE YOU ASKED TWICE.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for answering (twice ). I don't normally ask questions; normally I'm answering, but I posted another thread on this and was getting nothing. I actually put it in the proper forum (tips), but not sure I'll do that again, since you don't get many views. This should have been in tips, as well. I know, who cares.

You can store contacts in Outlook or Windows Address Book. I have them in both. You can also store Notes in Outlook.

Again, thanks for answering. I had been told that the developers recommended doing a restore as new for any iPhone, so I wasn't sure. I was getting prepared to do this for 3.1, since I already did 3.0.1, but I guess I won't bother if it's not going to help any.

Edit: Love the new title "AT&T Conspiracy" for your thread. Made me laugh.

 

[NathanA]

The problem most people are having with battery life on the 3GS is because the originally set it up from a backup, and because of that transferred over their battery settings from their 3G ... Which will cause a loss in battery life.

If this is true, then these settings are probably stored in a file somewhere that is being backed up by iTunes, and thus us jailbroken users who would rather not have to start from scratch and lose all of the data and settings from all of our apps could just go in and target a fix at a specific file, if we knew what we were looking for.

-- Nathan

 

[The Californian]

If this is true, then these settings are probably stored in a file somewhere that is being backed up by iTunes, and thus us jailbroken users who would rather not have to start from scratch and lose all of the data and settings from all of our apps could just go in and target a fix at a specific file, if we knew what we were looking for.

-- Nathan

Indeed.

 

[Small White Car]

I REALLY wish they could make a freak'n backup of JUST the app data for this sort of thing.

My wife's phone had a "corrupt carrier file" according to the Apple bar. The only fix was a fresh restore since the backup contained the corrupt file.

So goodbye app data! WTF, can't they program the backup to give us a few choices as to which parts we want to restore? Come on now.

 

[tctony]

1.) Turn off Push email and notifications.
2.) Turn off 3G and Wifi when you're not using them.
3.) Turn screen brightness to 50%.

By doing this, my phone lasted me 1 day, 6 hours, and ~39 minutes. I am jailbroken. During this time, I had several 5-15 minute phone conversations, a normal day of texting (~100-200), played games, checked facebook, fml, etc., and safari browsing I.E. a normal day of usage.

Make sure you calibrate your battery, etc.

(image was taken as soon as phone turned back on from dying)

(e) added another image for those who may be skeptical