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Considering upgrading to iOS 8.1, how's your battery holding up on the beta?

it's not very good on the 5. and the beta 2 is atrocious. I was getting 4.5 hours a day of battery life on the beta 2. the beta 1 is noticibly better but slightly worse than 8.0 official.
 
Can someone please tell me why battery life gets worst with updates?
An update does more things on the phone than regular use typically so there's the potential that for some people something might not go quite right completely or something might get stuck somehow and use up more battery. In other cases it's more of a placebo effect where people use their phone more after an update and/or pay more attention to the battery and think something really changed when it really hasn't. Ultimately, short of some few bad updates where something is actually buggy and can use up more battery, many people don't actually experience a change in battery life with many updates (although certainly it can be somewhat more likely with major updates where a lot might change).
 
How many threads you going to make. New features like handoff and continuity use more battery. Major updates like iOS 7 or 8 may cause deductions because of new features. (I personally haven't had any issues with worse battery) Typically the .0.1 or .1 updates don't hurt battery they usually help. If you having issues right now you probably need to do a clean install or you are using an app that has not been optimized for iOS 8 yet. That is most likely the problem.
 
3 years, the firs year it came out since 2011.

Exactly. Your battery is almost certainly well below 80% battery health by now.
Batteries don't last forever.

Things like this really make me wonder. When people claim "Oh, this update made my battery life so much worse!" are they using the update on a two or three year old phone where the battery life is already plummeted, but they've only really just noticed and now have something new to attribute the blame to?
 
Exactly. Your battery is almost certainly well below 80% battery health by now.
Batteries don't last forever.

Things like this really make me wonder. When people claim "Oh, this update made my battery life so much worse!" are they using the update on a two or three year old phone where the battery life is already plummeted, but they've only really just noticed and now have something new to attribute the blame to?

I received my iPhone 4S in February 2012 and 2 years and 9 months later the battery still lasts me about 14 hours without the need for a recharge. Granted that is with minimal use. If I use it more heavily with Facebook, Whatsapp, a few games, camera, Safari and email then it will last me about 8+ hours.

(still on iOS 6)
 
Exactly. Your battery is almost certainly well below 80% battery health by now.
Batteries don't last forever.

Things like this really make me wonder. When people claim "Oh, this update made my battery life so much worse!" are they using the update on a two or three year old phone where the battery life is already plummeted, but they've only really just noticed and now have something new to attribute the blame to?

This might be the case for some. But for me it was definitely an OS upgrade that did it. iOS 7 under my general usage, i was getting 2 day out of the battery. I was using all the beta's with iOS 8, starting with beta 5, my battery wouldn't last 10 hours. I'm now trying the iOS 8.1 Beta 2 and my battery doesn't quite last one day ( i get about 15 hours ).

So in my case - it was definitely the release, and not some slow process that I just happened to just notice.
 
Anyone who claims iOS 8.1 battery sucks on the 6 is definitely doing something wrong. 3 Exchange accounts set to push, Bluetooth constantly on, phone is always at <-100.

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Can someone please tell me why battery life gets worst with updates?

A number of reasons:

  1. Software Bugs - self explanatory.
  2. Post update processing - For major updates many times iOS has to reindex things, update data, etc. It does so in the background which can reduce the battery life for a day or two.
  3. Battery calibration changes - Sometimes after an update the battery calibration can get screwed up and what iOS shows for the battery doesn't match the real battery life. This can make the battery seem better or worse depending on the calibration. For example under iOS 7.1.2 I frequently saw the battery drain fairly quickly down to 1% and then stay there for nearly an hour. In iOS 8, I've seen it slowly go down to about 10% and then suddenly drop to 1% (skipping numbers) in less than a minute. Usually doing a full drain and then full charge corrects this unless its a bug (see #1).
  4. Usage changes - Many times after updating people fiddle with their device more often than usual. As a result the battery drains faster than usual, which causes users to check their device more often, etc.
 
Here's the best I've been able to squeeze out of 8.1 beta 2 on my 5. This is all wifi and I guess I would consider myself a "heavy" user. I don't idle much and my brightness is probably at 30% or less most of the time. What I mean by I don't idle much is that I'm mainly continually surfing safari and scrolling facebook and tweetbot. The devices cpu is probably very active during the 6 hours. Is this about right for and iphone 5? Or should I be getting more over wifi? My LTE signal is between 2-4 bars always. If I repeat my usage over only LTE I'd be lucky to get 3.5 hours max! What do you guys think? Battery is very new also.
 

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A number of reasons:

  1. Software Bugs - self explanatory.
  2. Post update processing - For major updates many times iOS has to reindex things, update data, etc. It does so in the background which can reduce the battery life for a day or two.
  3. Battery calibration changes - Sometimes after an update the battery calibration can get screwed up and what iOS shows for the battery doesn't match the real battery life. This can make the battery seem better or worse depending on the calibration. For example under iOS 7.1.2 I frequently saw the battery drain fairly quickly down to 1% and then stay there for nearly an hour. In iOS 8, I've seen it slowly go down to about 10% and then suddenly drop to 1% (skipping numbers) in less than a minute. Usually doing a full drain and then full charge corrects this unless its a bug (see #1).
  4. Usage changes - Many times after updating people fiddle with their device more often than usual. As a result the battery drains faster than usual, which causes users to check their device more often, etc.

Solid response. Thanks man
 
Anyone experiening that should probably do a clean restore and do not setup from a backup. I have had no problems with my 5 on 8.0.2

What does this mean for us non-techie sorts? What's a 'clean install' and such?

I'm planning to buy a new phone in a week or two. Is there something I should or should not do when switching devices in terms of my contacts, photos, icloud, etc? (It's possible I'll buy an android, which might complicate some things. I'm a verizon customer and have backup assistant, if that matters).
 
What does this mean for us non-techie sorts? What's a 'clean install' and such?

I'm planning to buy a new phone in a week or two. Is there something I should or should not do when switching devices in terms of my contacts, photos, icloud, etc? (It's possible I'll buy an android, which might complicate some things. I'm a verizon customer and have backup assistant, if that matters).

If your coming from Android this is erelvant. When you setup a phone the first time you can restore from a backup or setup as a new phone. Since it doesn't sound like you have had any Apple devices before you will obviously setup as a new phone which will prevent any issues. What happens to some people is they restore from an old backup which causes problems sometimes.
 
If your coming from Android this is erelvant. When you setup a phone the first time you can restore from a backup or setup as a new phone. Since it doesn't sound like you have had any Apple devices before you will obviously setup as a new phone which will prevent any issues. What happens to some people is they restore from an old backup which causes problems sometimes.

I'm actually using an iphone 4 now, which is linked to my Mac Air too. That being so, what are the do's and don'ts of setting up 1) a new iphone, if I buy one, or 2) a new android, if I decide on that?
 
I'm actually using an iphone 4 now, which is linked to my Mac Air too. That being so, what are the do's and don'ts of setting up 1) a new iphone, if I buy one, or 2) a new android, if I decide on that?

I would just setup your new phone as a "new" iPhone. You contacts, favorites, notes, and stuff like that will be backed up with iCloud and will automatically populate when you login. What won't is your apps, (which you can redownload)your camera roll...just back them up on your pc first. I may be missing some stuff but that is the big stuff.
 
Is there really any science behind setting up a phone as new vs from a backup? I've personally done it both ways. In the past, I would always set up as new. This time, going from a 5S to a 6+, I got lazy and restored from my backup. I see absolutely no difference (but really don't have a new phone set-up to compare it to though). My battery life is over 10 hours with heavy use. Is the set up as new option just a bunch of smoke and mirrors?
 
Is there really any science behind setting up a phone as new vs from a backup? I've personally done it both ways. In the past, I would always set up as new. This time, going from a 5S to a 6+, I got lazy and restored from my backup. I see absolutely no difference (but really don't have a new phone set-up to compare it to though). My battery life is over 10 hours with heavy use. Is the set up as new option just a bunch of smoke and mirrors?

I've always restored from backup and never had a problem. Maybe I've been lucky, I don't know.
 
If it's just a matter of re-loading some apps, I'll go that route. Better safe than sorry if some claim using the backup route can create glitches. (Presumably my contacts will be easy to switch over via backup assistant with verizon if I get an android, or icloud if I stick with iphone?)
 
Quick update on my iPhone 5. It finally wouldn't charge or boot up yesterday. I took it into the apple store, where it still had the AppleCare+ warranty. They replaced it; I restored from latest backup - my battery last night drop between 5 - 7%; Normally overnight I was seeing around 45 - 55% drop over the last several months.

The old iPhone 5 was one of very first ones produced.

Also, there was always a small rattle in my old iPhone, I just found a post last night saying that this is a loose battery connector, which warrants a fix or replacement. Not sure if that had anything to do with it or not.
 
Can someone please tell me why battery life gets worst with updates?

It's a vicious cycle. People fear updates will degrade their battery life. They will verify this by obsessively using the device and thus using it more than they normally would. Then they jump to conclude that the battery life is worse with the update and that the update is to blame.
 
Hi all! I have a 5s still on 7.1.2. I can squeeze in 24 hours of standby and 6 hours of usage right now. I'm also jail broken. Is it worth upgrading to 8.1? I appreciate all feedback!
 
Hi all! I have a 5s still on 7.1.2. I can squeeze in 24 hours of standby and 6 hours of usage right now. I'm also jail broken. Is it worth upgrading to 8.1? I appreciate all feedback!

I really miss 7.1.2 on my 5! But 8.1 isn't too bad. I'm jailbroken and here's what I can get out of my 5 now. Not too shabby.
 

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I really miss 7.1.2 on my 5! But 8.1 isn't too bad. I'm jailbroken and here's what I can get out of my 5 now. Not too shabby.

The only reason I want to upgrade is to have the ability to find out what app uses what amount of battery percentage. If I could find a tweak in Cydia to add that to my settings, I would be completely set with 7.1.2.

That's not bad for iOS 8 (better than I thought), but I've done a lot better with what I have now. I'm at 6 hours 54 minutes usage and 17 hours 5 minutes stand by with 22% left.

I'm also worried about speed. On 7.1.2, my phone is fast. It responds to stuff instantly. My iPad mini is on 8.1, and it feels slow and sluggish compared to my iPhone.
 
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