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iOS 4.3 battery drain

@Derek87

Derek87 said:
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)
Click to expand...

Derek, I think push.apple.com is with us forever (until a fix):(. But, it appears that some programs, even when "disabled" don't fully kill the push.apple.com. In other words, when I kill notifications, it seems that push.apple.com dies too. But when I tried to kill itunes store, for example, push.apple.com remained until I reset network settings. This suggests to me that not all push.apple.com issues are created equal, so to speak. I'm more concerned with the "lingering" push.apple.com than the ones that end when the program is disabled.

Jowie, thanks for the data re:FaceTime. That's a very useful data point. I'll try re-enabling it and report back. But I'm really starting to think this is some software glitch in 4.3 that is interacting with hardware not found in the original iPad. Now can we also eliminate the frontfacing camera as the culprit (not on 3Gs) and just focus on rear-facing camera? Just thinking out loud.
 
With all this chitty chatty going on, I think it is important to point out that if you have Find My iPhone enabled, you will have 1 push.apple.com connection open but it is normally inactive (not using data or very little). I have this setup and my battery life on standby is superb (not that I've experienced battery life issues, home button issues on the other hand......).
 
joonbeams said:
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.
Click to expand...

With the above observations/configurations, do you also use WiFi with either Edge or 3G on? Or just Edge or 3G by itself? Just wondering... (I work at home, so WiFi with 3G is always on... but battery seems to go down 1% every 1-2 minutes). It is less frequent with WiFi and Edge on. With only 3G, my battery life seems to be longer (1% every hour of use average).

I'm also testing my battery life with my regular notifications on. Will experiment with App Store as well...
 
Bizfox

I keep 3G enabled and use WiFi. At home and work, I mostly use WiFi and only use 3G during my commute. My iPad 2 is wifi only but I do use a Verizon MiFi with that occasionally.
 
joonbeams said:
I keep 3G enabled and use WiFi. At home and work, I mostly use WiFi and only use 3G during my commute. My iPad 2 is wifi only but I do use a Verizon MiFi with that occasionally.
Click to expand...

Thank you... please keep us updated on your findings for the battery drain, too...
 
More Info

Did some more sleuthing with my original iPad. I used a program called xsysinfo to see what processes were running in the background (it's 99cents but no need to install it, didn't do much.). I was able to set my iPad 2 and iPad 1 to basically the EXACT same features enabled/disabled and I discovered one errant process not on the iPad 1 - a process called "imagent". I did some sleuthing around and it seems that this is related to FaceTime (not surprising). I made sure FaceTime was killed both by turning it off and by turning it off in "restrictions." Supposedly, this should kill imagent, but no luck. It's still there. I see no use for this process other than FaceTime, so, again, I'm leaning toward FaceTime being the main culprit. Also this is present in iPhone 4.

Again, I've gotten my devices to hold strong on standby with my previous procedures so at least I don't wake up with a dead device. But once I start doing ANYTHING (and that's with nearly everything disabled) my battery plummets! I can't explain the 3GS, which doesn't have FaceTime capability, so that's the one remaining puzzle. FaceTime does explain why the iPad 1 holds strong with OS 4.3. Perhaps imagent does something with the rear camera? Anyway, but I feel more comfortable than ever that there is something wrong with IOS 4.3 and FaceTime - related to "imagent."

Again, everything I say here is just my own observations to help people troubleshoot. I'm not even going to pretend I have answers.:confused:
 
Mine's getting worse. After a day of essentially no use I could come home and see mid-90s in the charge. When I started posting in this thread it was in the 70s with 4.3, today it's at 57%.

Something is rotten in the state of um, my phone, ergh, bad use of that quote.
 
Yep another Battery Drain, but possible solution

I am running iOS4.3 and past few weeks had a significant battery drain issue.
My usage had not changed significantly and battery went down to less than 10% within 4 hours. Also I had a significant uptake in my data usage for some strange reason and was running out on my data plan after two weeks.

I checked all, in terms of background data usage and nothing significant. O2 my provider was little help, apart from saying that you had used data or issue with phone and take it to Apple. To be fair they did try to help.

Here's what i did which solved it . There is an option for push email which is what i use with exchange backend. I switched this off and set this to check every 1/2 hour
this significantly helped!

i also reset my iphone using itunes.

now back to a fully functional phone without battery issues.

hope this helps
 
We shouldn't have to change the way we use our phones just to save battery life. This is why I can't use an android phone.

I had an htc desire for about 2 day before I returned it. Even as a back up phone to play around with android. I had to turn gps, data, push off, wifi off screen brightness down all the way....just to be left with 10% by 10pm.

If you need to start making changes in usage after an update because of battery life, that's bad and apple needs to fix. That's why I went back to 4.01. Everything on, and my battery is excellent. Launch day iPhone 4.
 
aphexacid said:
We shouldn't have to change the way we use our phones just to save battery life. This is why I can't use an android phone.

I had an htc desire for about 2 day before I returned it. Even as a back up phone to play around with android. I had to turn gps, data, push off, wifi off screen brightness down all the way....just to be left with 10% by 10pm.

If you need to start making changes in usage after an update because of battery life, that's bad and apple needs to fix. That's why I went back to 4.01. Everything on, and my battery is excellent. Launch day iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

Agreed! Turning features off is NOT a fix. Obviously if I turn off data intensive features I'll save battery life! That's not a solution. Apple must provide the solution.
 
3Gs

My 3Gs 16GB battery
games 2 hours 100% to 0%
web 3 100% to 0%
doing nothing in my bag 8 hours 100% to 40%!!!
iOS 4.3
 
i've been having noticeable battery drain since i installed 4.3 GM. im not sure if its the OS or the "due" app i bought. :confused:
 
iOS 4.3 battery drain

My wife's 3GS and my iPhone 4 have both seen a dramatic decrease in battery life as soon as we updated to iOS 4.3. I turned all of the push notifications on mine and it got a little better but no where near where it was before 4.3.
 
I've noticed the same thing in the last week. Thought it was the battery but now it ties in with the 4.3 update.

I usually get 2 days, possibly 3 out of the battery. Since 4.3 I'm lucky to make it from 9am to midnight and have over 50% battery left even with me shutting inactive apps down. Disabling Wifi and location services doesn't seem to make much difference. The only thing running is mail checking every 15 minutes.

Any way of restoring 4.2 back?
 
Frustrated...

Well, despite trying out the solutions on this thread and the one on the official Apple support forum, my iPhone 4's battery kept draining and dying within minutes. I called up AppleCare's tech support, who forwarded me to the Walnut Creek store. However, the Genius (let's call him "A") just tried to restore my iPhone as new after placing it in DFU mode (which I also stated that I tried). After taking my current phone home, it's dead again and wouldn't charge from the wall charger. Frustrated, I called AppleCare and "P", the tech, shook his head as I told him my story. He promptly issued a repair ticket for my device. Since it is past the cutoff time for UPS (6 pm Pacific), I'll have to drop this off at the San Leandro location tomorrow as it is conveniently located near my workplace.

I hope I have better luck this time. I guess it's not really 4.3 iOS at fault. The rapid battery drain began around 4.2.1 and became worse after the update, despite trying out the suggested fixes. So hoping that I get a solid-working iPhone back soon!
 
A few weeks ago I too noticed rapid battery drain. It went from about 2 days of use per charge to 1 day of the same use per charge.

I've always keep bluetooth off, all push/pull (except for push for mail) off, and rarely use wifi.

I took it into the Apple Store last Sunday, and their batter diagnostic turned up as normal condition.

The "Genius" suggested that I delete all of my apps! And then to add them back slowly one at a time to find a possibly offender app. I asked her if she was high and left.
 
WOW WOW WOW!!!

I thought it was me using the phone a little more but this morning I reset my usage and here's what I ended up with.

I'm at:

Full Charge all night last night I unplugged at 11am
Right now at 853pm I'm at 3%

Here's my usage:

Current period: 1 hour 26 minutes
Sent 1.3MB
Received: 9.8MB

I never turned on WIFI, however bluetooth is always on since I used it in my car. For some reason, it's not displaying my Time Since last full charge and I have a - [hash mark].

I know I didn't talk on the phone much as I know I had one 30 minute phone call. I checked my email about 10 times and browsed Facebook about 5 times.

This battery drain is horrible. Can someone verify that your getting similar results with this firmware 4.3?
 
I recently updated to iOS 4.3 and had noticed that my battery was draining extremely quickly. I would unplug my phone at 5am to go to work and by 11am I was 10-15% battery life without sending 1 text, making 1 call or even touching my phone expect check the time.

It didn't click for me until I read the post on MacRumors saying that they are hopefully fixing the issue in iOS 4.3.1. I am currently out in a regional town and do not get much chance to find a power point and it is really frustrating. :mad:
 
Glad I found this thread. Was just about to make appointment at genius bar as noticed considerable battery drain since update and thought problem with battery. Whereas I was able to leave for a couple of days before recharging, past few days battery almost 10% just overnight. Will try restoring but have not made any other changes to warrant this battery drain.
 
Downgrade

Bliss!

Finally managed to downgrade to 4.2.1 and am back to normal battery life.

So glad that I'd saved SHSH files before upgrading to 4.3. (Google "TinyUmrella" if you want to know how to do that. But it's too late if you've already upgraded to 4.3.)

Here's hoping that Apple sorts you guys out with the 4.3.1 release.
 
pareshch said:
I am running iOS4.3 and past few weeks had a significant battery drain issue.
My usage had not changed significantly and battery went down to less than 10% within 4 hours. Also I had a significant uptake in my data usage for some strange reason and was running out on my data plan after two weeks.
Click to expand...

Exactly the same! Within 8 hours my battery went down to less than 30%. It also decreased by 20% overnight while I was asleep. As for my data usage, I turned Mobile Data off and only used over wifi, but for some reason, my mobile data usage increased steadily and exceeded my data plan limit.
 
I've definitely had a drop in battery life since the update.
Leaving my phone overnight with all apps closed used to drop the power by around 5-10%, but now I'm seeing it lose around 23 - 30%.

One night it even drained completely from 40% to nothing!!!
 
Apple confirms 4.3 corruption

I too have problems with my battery life ever since I downloaded 4.3... I turned off all my push notifications, 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi and within 8 hrs of texting/calls and checking emails my phone died... So I took it to the :apple: store yesterday (Mar 23) and they ran a check on the phone... the battery was fine but the Usage and Standby time were identical which lead the: apple: Genius to believe that it is a software corruption problem...

His suggestion: Take the phone home and uninstall/install a new version of 4.3 but DON'T resort from backup as this will install the corrupted software... :(

This means I will lose ALL my data from all my apps and will have to start from scratch not to mention it will take HOURS to do this. :mad:

The corrupted 4.3 doesn't work with the :apple: cradle as the :apple: Genius tried 3 (NEW) different cradles and none of them charged the phone.

SO I don't know if I should wait for the 4.3.1 or set a few hours of my life to wipe clean my phone and start ALL over again. :confused:
 
ruruboi said:
I too have problems with my battery life ever since I downloaded 4.3... I turned off all my push notifications, 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi and within 8 hrs of texting/calls and checking emails my phone died... So I took it to the :apple: store yesterday (Mar 23) and they ran a check on the phone... the battery was fine but the Usage and Standby time were identical which lead the: apple: Genius to believe that it is a software corruption problem...

His suggestion: Take the phone home and uninstall/install a new version of 4.3 but DON'T resort from backup as this will install the corrupted software... :(

This means I will lose ALL my data from all my apps and will have to start from scratch not to mention it will take HOURS to do this. :mad:

The corrupted 4.3 doesn't work with the :apple: cradle as the :apple: Genius tried 3 (NEW) different cradles and none of them charged the phone.

SO I don't know if I should wait for the 4.3.1 or set a few hours of my life to wipe clean my phone and start ALL over again. :confused:
Click to expand...

I'd wait and turn my phone off during times I definitely won't need it - ie at work, during meetings
 
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