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Iphone 4 overnight battery drain in standby

D

drw

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
34
0
Trying to determine if I have a problem with my battery. I have noticed that my battery drains overnight while in standby.

If I have my battery completely charged to 100%, unplug it, and put it in standby- the next morning it will be down to around 70% after 6-8 hours of standby.

I have calibrated the battery, same results. And I have made sure that I have nothing running in the background, location services off, no push, etc, etc.

With my 3g, I could leave it overnight and it would always be at 98% or so, never 70%.

Draining from 100% to 70% overnight while in standby- that is not normal, is it???

Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
Had the same problem where is was draining 20% overnight with everything bar wifi switched off.

Took it to the genius bar where they did a battery diagnostic test.

Came up as normal but replaced my phone. Would recommend doing the same thing (although now have a new problem with the new one!!).
 
umm I believe I have the same issues as OP.
I can do some additional tests in the next couple of days but i'm glad i'm not alone in this.
This is my first iPhone and this is not a normal behaviour.
my wife has a 3g and battery drain is definitely not as dramatic as mine.

any tips on how to calibrate the battery?

will post my findings in a couple of days.
don't want to go about exchanging the phone if I can avoid it.

what about others, what type of % drain are they getting from overnight standby?
thanks
 
Battery Drain over night

I had my phone at 92% when going to sleep at midnight last night. I locked the phone as usual and went to bed. When I woke up at 9:00 AM my phone was DEAD!!

I had to plug it into the wall and charge it for a few minutes just to get it to turn on cause the battery was so dead. This is the 2nd time it has happened. There has to be some type of app running in the background that is causing this.

I had wifi and BT turned off so I can't think of anything else that would have done this. I have had the phone since launch date and it has only happened 2 times.

Anyone with help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!
 
Look up my previous post on the subject. You may have some unresponsive programs chewing up battery and not know it.
 
Spideytex10 said:
Look up my previous post on the subject. You may have some unresponsive programs chewing up battery and not know it.
Click to expand...

Spidey,

I looked up your previous post on the issue. Does this mean we would have to all go to apple store and figure out what is running the background that we don't know about? This is a very serious issue since it will deplete the battery very quickly and there is nothing the user can do to stop it.
 
Krad3130 said:
Spidey,

I looked up your previous post on the issue. Does this mean we would have to all go to apple store and figure out what is running the background that we don't know about? This is a very serious issue since it will deplete the battery very quickly and there is nothing the user can do to stop it.
Click to expand...

Or you could do nothing and live with it. If you feel it's a serious problem, you go in to have it checked out. Maybe what I described is the actual problem, which it was in my case. Not an actual hardware problem, but an app problem. Phone has worked perfectly since deleting those apps. All I'm saying is that it could be a solution. If it doesn't fix it, have them replace it.
 
Just to update- I went ahead and made an appointment and took it into the Apple Store- took all of 5 minutes. In my case, they found some “software corruption” (as they called it).

2 of them were third party apps (games), and one was some component of the ios4. They think that is the culprit, so they told me to just restore the phone as a new device.

Will try that tonight and see what happens. I hope that is it because other than this issue, I am having none of the other problems that others are having.
 
drw said:
Just to update- I went ahead and made an appointment and took it into the Apple Store- took all of 5 minutes. In my case, they found some “software corruption” (as they called it).

2 of them were third party apps (games), and one was some component of the ios4. They think that is the culprit, so they told me to just restore the phone as a new device.

Will try that tonight and see what happens. I hope that is it because other than this issue, I am having none of the other problems that others are having.
Click to expand...

Sounds exactly like the problem I had. Phone works great after the restore and deletion of the corrupt apps. You can always do the restore at any time, but there is no way of knowing what apps are corrupt. Sticky situation.
 
Spideytex10 said:
Sounds exactly like the problem I had. Phone works great after the restore and deletion of the corrupt apps. You can always do the restore at any time, but there is no way of knowing what apps are corrupt. Sticky situation.
Click to expand...

Did you delete the corrupt apps permanently, or did you re-download them and put them back on the phone? The two apps that were listed are ones that I do not want to lose..
 
possibly same issue...

I think I might possibly have the same issue. My phone was at 68% when I went to sleep at 2:26 AM and when I woke up at 7:45 AM my phone was at 16% :eek:

There is definitely something running in the background that I am unaware of that is draining the battery like crazy. Wifi off, Bluetooth off. Even with those on it shouldn't be doing that.

I will be taking it into Apple today to find out what is going on with my phone. When I return I will let you all know the details.

I am happy with the new features on the phone, but you would think there wouldn't be this many issues with such a big phone. I am no having reception issues, but I am definitely having sensor issues as well.

I also don't know what I would be able to do about going back to my old phone if I wanted too since I was one of the few people who traded in his iPhone 3G at Radioshack an no longer has his phone to go back too.
 
drw said:
Did you delete the corrupt apps permanently, or did you re-download them and put them back on the phone? The two apps that were listed are ones that I do not want to lose..
Click to expand...

I did not re-download them, but she said I could. I'm you can without worrying about it happening again.

As an aside, I seem to remember the programs freezing up on me and being non-responsive. I shut them down and restarted without any problem, but I guess they kept running. Just something to keep an eye out for...if it happens to freeze up. A hard restart of your phone may work with stopping the unresponsive program, but then it is still there... Hopefully app developers will get the glitches fixed.

Out of curiosity, which app did you have problems with? Mine were Foursquare and Words with Friends.
 
Krad3130 said:
I think I might possibly have the same issue. My phone was at 68% when I went to sleep at 2:26 AM and when I woke up at 7:45 AM my phone was at 16% :eek:

There is definitely something running in the background that I am unaware of that is draining the battery like crazy. Wifi off, Bluetooth off. Even with those on it shouldn't be doing that.

I will be taking it into Apple today to find out what is going on with my phone. When I return I will let you all know the details.

I am happy with the new features on the phone, but you would think there wouldn't be this many issues with such a big phone. I am no having reception issues, but I am definitely having sensor issues as well.

I also don't know what I would be able to do about going back to my old phone if I wanted too since I was one of the few people who traded in his iPhone 3G at Radioshack an no longer has his phone to go back too.
Click to expand...

If you're having sensor and battery issues, take it in. Don't go back to the 3G...
 
Leaving Apple Store

Well, I apple store now. They tested my battery and everything checked out fine. The lady said there was nothing she could do since she didn't see anything wrong. She suggested that I contact apple care since they have more things they could do for me.

I actually didn't have any issue with any apps which is why I brought my phone in. I wasn't sure what was causing the issue, and it seams like they don't either.

The lady who helped me was very nice but said there was nothing she could do. I already have a case number for the proximity sensor so she said to contact them and tell them about the battery as well.

I didn't have anything running in the background when I went to sleep and I shut off WiFi and BT and lost 52% over 5 hours of sleep. Something is definitely causing this but I can't figure out what?
 
My battery was fully recharged last night at 100%. Woke up this morning and it was 83%. I have location services on for Trapster alerts so I suspect it is draining the battery but a 17% drain in less than 8 hours in standby is a lot.
 
decadentdave said:
My battery was fully recharged last night at 100%. Woke up this morning and it was 83%. I have location services on for Trapster alerts so I suspect it is draining the battery but a 17% drain in less than 8 hours in standby is a lot.
Click to expand...

At least yours wasn't a 52% drain over a 5 hr period like I had :eek:
 
I wonder if there's an app that tells you what other apps or processes are running in the background so when I'm multitasking I know which apps are still running and which ones haven't been closed.
 
Smarta$$

dthmtlgod said:
I went to bed last night and put my phone on the charger, it was like at 65% and I woke up and it down to 61%, my dumb a$$ forgot to put the other end of the cable into the charger. :eek:
Click to expand...

Was this supposed to be a smarta$$ comment? I never said my phone was on the charger. I turned off WiFi, BT, closed out all apps frozen in the background and laid it on the night stand next to my bed with 68% and locked the phone into standby mode. Woke up 5 hours later and my phone was at 16%. My 3G phone NEVER had anything close to this.

This has happened to me 3 times since launch date. I don't know what it could be since I cant figure out whats doing it. Most night's it's fine, then all of a sudden one morning it's dead and I have to plug it in for a few minutes before I can even turn it on.
 
Krad3130 said:
Well, I apple store now. They tested my battery and everything checked out fine. The lady said there was nothing she could do since she didn't see anything wrong. She suggested that I contact apple care since they have more things they could do for me.

I actually didn't have any issue with any apps which is why I brought my phone in. I wasn't sure what was causing the issue, and it seams like they don't either.

The lady who helped me was very nice but said there was nothing she could do. I already have a case number for the proximity sensor so she said to contact them and tell them about the battery as well.

I didn't have anything running in the background when I went to sleep and I shut off WiFi and BT and lost 52% over 5 hours of sleep. Something is definitely causing this but I can't figure out what?
Click to expand...

That's strange. It still sounds like you have the same problem I had. The lady I spoke with plugged mine in and came right back and told me of the corrupted apps. Did they do that with yours? Or did you ask them about corrupt apps?
 
Spideytex10 said:
That's strange. It still sounds like you have the same problem I had. The lady I spoke with plugged mine in and came right back and told me of the corrupted apps. Did they do that with yours? Or did you ask them about corrupt apps?
Click to expand...

The lady came back and said that my battery was reporting as normal. When I told her about your situation (Had my MBP with me and show her the posts) she said she had not heard of anything like that. She told me there was nothing that could be done on her end cause she was showing the phone as being in normal working condition. That is when she told me to go the rout of applecare.

I am actually doing a full restore from new right now to see if this helps. I do not want to have to plug my phone into the charger every night and leave it charging so that I know I will have a working phone in the morning.
 
Krad3130 said:
The lady came back and said that my battery was reporting as normal. When I told her about your situation (Had my MBP with me and show her the posts) she said she had not heard of anything like that. She told me there was nothing that could be done on her end cause she was showing the phone as being in normal working condition. That is when she told me to go the rout of applecare.

I am actually doing a full restore from new right now to see if this helps. I do not want to have to plug my phone into the charger every night and leave it charging so that I know I will have a working phone in the morning.
Click to expand...

I hope you didn't get one of the not-so-smart geniuses... Hopefully the restore will work for you. Just pay special attention to any app that may hang or become non-responsive when in use. If it happens, maybe delete that app and re-download if it is important to you. Good luck!
 
decadentdave said:
My battery was fully recharged last night at 100%. Woke up this morning and it was 83%. I have location services on for Trapster alerts so I suspect it is draining the battery but a 17% drain in less than 8 hours in standby is a lot.
Click to expand...

I wasn't having this problem until a got Trapster, and then it would drain the battery 50% overnight. I deleted it this morning, have been using my phone a lot today and after 6 and 1/2 hours, itnis only down to 89% so far. I am going to fully charge it before I go to bed and then unplug it and see if this was the cause.
 
Spideytex10 said:
I did not re-download them, but she said I could. I'm you can without worrying about it happening again.

As an aside, I seem to remember the programs freezing up on me and being non-responsive. I shut them down and restarted without any problem, but I guess they kept running. Just something to keep an eye out for...if it happens to freeze up. A hard restart of your phone may work with stopping the unresponsive program, but then it is still there... Hopefully app developers will get the glitches fixed.

Out of curiosity, which app did you have problems with? Mine were Foursquare and Words with Friends.
Click to expand...

Mine were Cro Mag Rally and Lucky 11's, both games. I deleted Cro Mag completely and did not add it back. I deleted Lucky 11's, then re-downloaded it and installed it because it is one of the favorite games.

I decided to NOT restore yet, wanted to see what happened just deleting the apps. Low and behold, the phone did not drain last night- it was sitting at 99% when I checked it this morning. It may have just been a fluke, so I will test it again tonight, but I may have solved my problem without having to restore. I may go ahead and restore anyway just to be safe, though.

I will say that this is very frustrating- I had my 3g for over 2 years and never had to deal with any of this- its also frustrating that in my case, I had to go to the Apple store to find out the source of my problems- there should be a way for us to check things like this without having to go to the store.
 
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