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iOS 4.3 battery drain
- Thread starter richardc1983
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Could be. Possibly. But, since turning it off, battery drain has noticeably slowed for me.
Bah! I downgraded to 4.01, and now everything is REALLY back to normal. It seemed like 4.3 was alright the first day after the tweaks, but I wasn't doing much with it.
Plus 4.3 is like a pig compared to 4.01 as far as performance goes.
So I have 4.01 with the 4.3 baseband. All is well, and it seems like I'll have 4.01 forever and I'm totally ok with that.
Plus 4.3 is like a pig compared to 4.01 as far as performance goes.
So I have 4.01 with the 4.3 baseband. All is well, and it seems like I'll have 4.01 forever and I'm totally ok with that.
Think I gotta agree with Ping being a placebo.
The true battery drain lies with buggy email push connections (persistent push being on even with manual enabled) and the store push connection that stays on until you log out, even longer sometimes.
This fixed my iPhone anyway, I'm currently at 5 hours usage, 2 days standby and 47% battery left, as good as it ever was
The true battery drain lies with buggy email push connections (persistent push being on even with manual enabled) and the store push connection that stays on until you log out, even longer sometimes.
This fixed my iPhone anyway, I'm currently at 5 hours usage, 2 days standby and 47% battery left, as good as it ever was
Turning Ping off has made mine better (it now lasts the day), but it's still down a good 20% from what it was before. I'd love to know what other stuff is going on in the background that we can't see.
+1.
Before disabling Ping, my iPhone was draining about 20-25% of the battery overnight. Now it's back to draining about 4-5% overnight. No way is that a placebo.
My "Fix" (I feel Really Good About This)
Let me start by saying this is a "diagnosis" and not a treatment "per se" that worked FOR ME. To me a true "treatment" allows you to use the core features you pay for (e.g. facetime, location, push, etc.) with minimal drain (as in previous versions.). Also, most of the "how-tos" for the steps below have been laid out elsewhere so I didn't include them.
With all that said, here's what I did that has ABSOLUTELY worked for me (w/out factory restore):
1. Install free "netstat" app and verify that there is a process "push.apple.com" running in the background. (If not, you have a different problem, so stop here).
2. Disable Ping, Location services, Notification, etc. as others have said. In notifications, actually go in and manually turn off EACH app, then turn the whole thing off (I know, you'll continue to see this pattern, it's annoying).
3. Set ALL email to manual, and turn off ALL calendar, notes, contacts syncing (you can leave email on, except mobileme mail - turn that off). Make sure you also go into EACH account, after generally turning off "push" and set each account to manual (i.e., the "advanced tab").
4. Sign out of app store.
5. Manually go into EACH of the apps in the setting panel and make sure you disable all notifications (e.g. BBC News app has has a "refresh ticker" function that runs ever 15 min).
6. iPad 2: turn off facetime in link on left side of setting panel. iPhones - go to Settings/Phone and turn off face time.
7. Turn of "find my iphone/ipad"
8. Reset all "network settings"
9. Relaunch "netstat". You should see "no tcp connections." At the very least, you should see no "push.apple.com" action.
Watch your battery life return to it's normal splendor! But wait, you're saying "I've basically disabled ALL smart features!" That's correct. Now, you should walk back through the whole process backwards, checking netstat with each "re-enabling" until you start to see "push.apple.com" activity again (but note, not all "push" activity is bad - only push when you've presumably disabled all push). This will tell you your problem. Make sure to reset network connections with each "fail". Initial tests for me are pointing to one or all of: "mobileme mail," FaceTime, and/or "Find my iPod/iPad" on BOTH iPad 2 and iPhone 4. EDIT: Add "apple store" to suspect list. I'm not overly persuaded by the "Ping" workaround though it probably gives a modest boost. This scenario is for people who are suffering even after PING.
Hopefully this helps troubleshoot. But I'll report back tomorrow with definitives.
Let me start by saying this is a "diagnosis" and not a treatment "per se" that worked FOR ME. To me a true "treatment" allows you to use the core features you pay for (e.g. facetime, location, push, etc.) with minimal drain (as in previous versions.). Also, most of the "how-tos" for the steps below have been laid out elsewhere so I didn't include them.
With all that said, here's what I did that has ABSOLUTELY worked for me (w/out factory restore):
1. Install free "netstat" app and verify that there is a process "push.apple.com" running in the background. (If not, you have a different problem, so stop here).
2. Disable Ping, Location services, Notification, etc. as others have said. In notifications, actually go in and manually turn off EACH app, then turn the whole thing off (I know, you'll continue to see this pattern, it's annoying).
3. Set ALL email to manual, and turn off ALL calendar, notes, contacts syncing (you can leave email on, except mobileme mail - turn that off). Make sure you also go into EACH account, after generally turning off "push" and set each account to manual (i.e., the "advanced tab").
4. Sign out of app store.
5. Manually go into EACH of the apps in the setting panel and make sure you disable all notifications (e.g. BBC News app has has a "refresh ticker" function that runs ever 15 min).
6. iPad 2: turn off facetime in link on left side of setting panel. iPhones - go to Settings/Phone and turn off face time.
7. Turn of "find my iphone/ipad"
8. Reset all "network settings"
9. Relaunch "netstat". You should see "no tcp connections." At the very least, you should see no "push.apple.com" action.
Watch your battery life return to it's normal splendor! But wait, you're saying "I've basically disabled ALL smart features!" That's correct. Now, you should walk back through the whole process backwards, checking netstat with each "re-enabling" until you start to see "push.apple.com" activity again (but note, not all "push" activity is bad - only push when you've presumably disabled all push). This will tell you your problem. Make sure to reset network connections with each "fail". Initial tests for me are pointing to one or all of: "mobileme mail," FaceTime, and/or "Find my iPod/iPad" on BOTH iPad 2 and iPhone 4. EDIT: Add "apple store" to suspect list. I'm not overly persuaded by the "Ping" workaround though it probably gives a modest boost. This scenario is for people who are suffering even after PING.
Hopefully this helps troubleshoot. But I'll report back tomorrow with definitives.
Last edited:
What It's Not
I feel (fairly) comfortable that: Ping (other than modestly), Location Services, calendar syncing, and basic mail settings (e.g. fetch) aren't the issues. I think I've ruled out mobileme mail too. Not sure yet about regular notifications (e.g. facebook, etc. Those trigger the "push.apple.com" issue but I'm not sure how bad.). Find My iPod, Apple Store, and FaceTime all remain strong suspects. FaceTime is the frontrunner. Will report back.
I feel (fairly) comfortable that: Ping (other than modestly), Location Services, calendar syncing, and basic mail settings (e.g. fetch) aren't the issues. I think I've ruled out mobileme mail too. Not sure yet about regular notifications (e.g. facebook, etc. Those trigger the "push.apple.com" issue but I'm not sure how bad.). Find My iPod, Apple Store, and FaceTime all remain strong suspects. FaceTime is the frontrunner. Will report back.
That's a great "diagnosis" and it seems to have done the job for me, so far anyway! This is one of those problems that seems to trigger in different ways for different people.
For me, it's definitely the App Store. After a full restore of 4.3 I had 3 days of great battery life until I logged back into the App Store to download an app. Then my battery started tumbling again. And signing out of the App Store and restarting Network Settings doesn't cure it. I really do have to go through all of these steps to do that. Thanks again.
Finally managed to do a proper test with standard usage.
Sitting on 3 and a half days standby and 7 hours 30 minutes usage.
Not bad at all tbh, would be 8-9 hours without all the standby time, eg using it intensively all day
This is with everything properly done, and "No TCP Connections" in NetStat
Sitting on 3 and a half days standby and 7 hours 30 minutes usage.
Not bad at all tbh, would be 8-9 hours without all the standby time, eg using it intensively all day
This is with everything properly done, and "No TCP Connections" in NetStat
+1
What a great response. Thanks for the help. I haven't done it all yet but I'm very grateful for your advice and never realised there was an app out there that could monitor traffic! Very helpful stuff. Many thanks.
I can rule that out... I'm on 3GS.
Unless it's something in iOS which is running background processes and making the processor overworked when idle?
suffering with this for a few weeks and finally had the chance to play some today without much success:
on rough order:
- disabled ping
- logged out of app store
Still see dreaded push.apple.com and battery continues to drain quickly.
- getting really frustrated, do a full restore and then try to retrieve my previous backup...problem comes back meaning the "bug" is in my backup (ugh!)
(not to mention that the restoration of the backup was far from painless with weird other errors occurring that i eventually worked my way around although i have yet to restore my movies/music)
following joonbeam, i ran some tests and i can get rid of the dreaded push.apple.com by doing everything he suggests, yet it comes back if i:
- allow facetime without restrictions
- turn on notifications (which as far as i can see only lets words with friends post badges!)
- find my iphone is enabled in mobile me
- location services turned on (for me, using mapquest, maps, and yelp)
crazy stuff as these are all things that i should be able to use without draining my battery? maybe it'll be fine if i let push.apple.com have its way? hard to tell or know if this was active in 4.2.1 and as far as i can tell, there is no way to return a nonjailbroken 4.3 iphone to 4.2.1 (which i wish i could do because i'd rather have my old battery life than faster safari or airplay -- the latter which i don't have use for right now)
anyone else?
it seems anything can get push.apple.com going! (of course, with my limited testing, i can't tell if one drains more battery than the other)
on rough order:
- disabled ping
- logged out of app store
Still see dreaded push.apple.com and battery continues to drain quickly.
- getting really frustrated, do a full restore and then try to retrieve my previous backup...problem comes back meaning the "bug" is in my backup (ugh!)
(not to mention that the restoration of the backup was far from painless with weird other errors occurring that i eventually worked my way around although i have yet to restore my movies/music)
following joonbeam, i ran some tests and i can get rid of the dreaded push.apple.com by doing everything he suggests, yet it comes back if i:
- allow facetime without restrictions
- turn on notifications (which as far as i can see only lets words with friends post badges!)
- find my iphone is enabled in mobile me
- location services turned on (for me, using mapquest, maps, and yelp)
crazy stuff as these are all things that i should be able to use without draining my battery? maybe it'll be fine if i let push.apple.com have its way? hard to tell or know if this was active in 4.2.1 and as far as i can tell, there is no way to return a nonjailbroken 4.3 iphone to 4.2.1 (which i wish i could do because i'd rather have my old battery life than faster safari or airplay -- the latter which i don't have use for right now)
anyone else?
it seems anything can get push.apple.com going! (of course, with my limited testing, i can't tell if one drains more battery than the other)
I dunno if you guys are accounting for normal wear and tear on the battery's health... A brand new iPhone's battery is going to perform better than an 8 month old battery; 2% overnight to 6% overnight really seems quite normal to me over the course of a year.
My Macbook battery health dropped 12% in a year
It's not like everybody got the iphone as soon as it was available. 8 months isn't that long anyway.
Some More Anecdotes
Okay, so with everything I mentioned earlier, I saw MUCH improved battery life with the iPhone 4, but still not the rock solid life before (overnight went from 98% to 94% with iTunes store enabled - really pointless to turn off unless you never get/update apps - and mail fetching, location services on). iPad 2 went from 98 to 97%. All background apps (in bottom bar) were killed. Again, nothing to cry about, but with my first gen iPad, I'm still sitting at 100% battery after installing 4.3 and with all push, notifications, Ping, etc. all still enabled - after about 2 days. THAT's the type of battery life we expect!
Now, I should mention that my iPad 2 is a "restore" of my first-gen iPad settings (I'm desperately trying not to have to reduplicate HOURS of work in setting up my iPad). I've read that such restores can mess up battery issues, so below are some other suggestions:
1. First, for iPad 2 users using the "smart cover," try disabling the auto-on/off feature. This makes some slight difference its seems. On that note, make sure for Pete's Sake to have the "auto-lock" on (not passcode lock, but autolock). Mine is now set to 2 min, just like my original iPad.
2. Also, try to do a couple (2-3 in a row) "hard resets" (hold home button and power button together until device restarts. No data is lost.). This seems to have made a HUGE difference on my iPad2/iPhone 4 in standby mode, though somewhat less in actual use. In fact, I'm gradually restoring functions (e.g. push notifications, Store, etc.) on iPad2 and noticing that battery in standby seems to be holding strong like the original iPad. (Two hours+ on standby with notifications, apple store, mail fetch, location all on and percentage hasn't budged! Fingers-crossed!). I'll update later.
iTunes Store has taken over as the frontrunner as far as suspects, followed by FaceTime, then Find My iPod. Gamecenter is also a player. It appears that it's really an amalgam of all of these, including I guess Ping.
But the question remains, what else is different about iPad vs. iPhone 4 and iPad 2 using IOS 4.3 causing poorer battery performance, especially during use? Cameras, facetime, (processor)??? Whatever it is, I hope a software patch does the trick.
Okay, so with everything I mentioned earlier, I saw MUCH improved battery life with the iPhone 4, but still not the rock solid life before (overnight went from 98% to 94% with iTunes store enabled - really pointless to turn off unless you never get/update apps - and mail fetching, location services on). iPad 2 went from 98 to 97%. All background apps (in bottom bar) were killed. Again, nothing to cry about, but with my first gen iPad, I'm still sitting at 100% battery after installing 4.3 and with all push, notifications, Ping, etc. all still enabled - after about 2 days. THAT's the type of battery life we expect!
Now, I should mention that my iPad 2 is a "restore" of my first-gen iPad settings (I'm desperately trying not to have to reduplicate HOURS of work in setting up my iPad). I've read that such restores can mess up battery issues, so below are some other suggestions:
1. First, for iPad 2 users using the "smart cover," try disabling the auto-on/off feature. This makes some slight difference its seems. On that note, make sure for Pete's Sake to have the "auto-lock" on (not passcode lock, but autolock). Mine is now set to 2 min, just like my original iPad.
2. Also, try to do a couple (2-3 in a row) "hard resets" (hold home button and power button together until device restarts. No data is lost.). This seems to have made a HUGE difference on my iPad2/iPhone 4 in standby mode, though somewhat less in actual use. In fact, I'm gradually restoring functions (e.g. push notifications, Store, etc.) on iPad2 and noticing that battery in standby seems to be holding strong like the original iPad. (Two hours+ on standby with notifications, apple store, mail fetch, location all on and percentage hasn't budged! Fingers-crossed!). I'll update later.
iTunes Store has taken over as the frontrunner as far as suspects, followed by FaceTime, then Find My iPod. Gamecenter is also a player. It appears that it's really an amalgam of all of these, including I guess Ping.
But the question remains, what else is different about iPad vs. iPhone 4 and iPad 2 using IOS 4.3 causing poorer battery performance, especially during use? Cameras, facetime, (processor)??? Whatever it is, I hope a software patch does the trick.