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iPhone 4S battery is this normal?

S

sup3r1or

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 24, 2010
205
0
Manchester, UK
Dear Forumers,

I have recently bought iPhone 4S 16 GB, my last iphone I had was 1st gen so I'am a bit new to iOS 5.

Here is my question, I was sitting at my coffee break reading to my twitter when I noticed my battery depleting at a rate of 1% every 2 minutes. That is incredibly fast.

After I switched off push notification and some of the location services I managed to get it better. So my stats by the end of the day looked ike this: Phone active 3h 48 mins Stand By: 12 h 12 minutes, battery remaining 35%.

Is this OK? Or not? I really made only 2-3 short calls, texted few txt and checked my facebook 2 times.

I called apple they said only thing I need to look at is brightness and wifi, nothing else and the phone should average at least 8h for a new one even closer to 10h.

Should I bring it back to them or it is supposed to be like this?

Thank you
 
There must be something wrong with the way the OS handles battery life because today my phone was drained to 27% after ~4 hours of use. This is absolutely crazy.
 
Having battery problems as well

Little bit of phone usage, texting, twitter and some siri use and I am at 12 percent, with Usage almost at 6hours.
 
Some of the battery usage related problems has to do with Location based reminders. I'm not an expert, but I know a few people who had their battery life "fixed" after they turned off Location based reminders. It's kind of sad that they had to resort to that, but that's what it came down to.

I'd definitely contact Apple Care and see what they say... It is free for 90 days after all.
 
I think location services is a cause of alot of bad battery life...luckily i never have mine on.
 
AIP5 said:
Some of the battery usage related problems has to do with Location based reminders. I'm not an expert, but I know a few people who had their battery life "fixed" after they turned off Location based reminders. It's kind of sad that they had to resort to that, but that's what it came down to.

I'd definitely contact Apple Care and see what they say... It is free for 90 days after all.
Click to expand...

where in the settings is the option to turn off location based reminders
 
I was on the phone with aPple yesterday. They said reduce brightness and switch off wifi. Nothing about location or push. He also said Phone should average at least 8 h use or closer to 10 if it's new.

----------

Go to settings then location services, switch off everything apart from Siri maps and weather. Then down below see system location services, there will be time zone location switch that off because it uses gps non stop. I also disables compass calibration.

Damn I lost 2% typing this wtf
 
Is it just related to the iPhone 4S or any devices running iOS 5? I have an iPhone 4, but yet to install iOS 5.

Turning off critical features shouldn't be the solution to the problem imo.
 
 
 
OutSpoken said:
Is it just related to the iPhone 4S or any devices running iOS 5? I have an iPhone 4, but yet to install iOS 5.

Turning off critical features shouldn't be the solution to the problem imo.
Click to expand...

Some people think it has to do with the dual antennas, switching back and forth looking for the best signal all the time. At this point no one is sure, because it's not happening on all phones. There's a lot of phones that are getting really good battery life, and people are still trying to sort out what's going on.

Check out some of the other battery threads here on MR and see if any of the suggestions help you.
 
How do you calibrate? By draining it to zero and then do a full charge.
Apple offered me a new phone do you think I should go for it? I like this phone because it never gets hot as other ppl reporting, I do not want to be stuck in a faulty device cycle as well
 
I've had great battery life from my 4skeepErs what I do and have done on past hones:

keep WiFi off when not in an area that I know I will be using it. No Sense in having the phone waste power searching out signal that I'm not using.

Turn blue tooth off when I'm not in my car. When in my car on trips for more than say 15 minutes I always plug it in too. BT, GPS, Pandora, all drain the battery heavily so realizing that and plugging it in makes sense. Motion X GPS notes that it is more accurate when plugged in too.

While I like and can appreciate location based reminders, I don't use them yet. My schedule is more time related so I base reminders on time. Lists are based on more than just soontinaity too. If I need to remember something at the grocery store, the wife or I will put it on grocery IQ. It is a great program and we have all kinds of stores on there to remind us of any need we may have. Great app to have.

Location services stays off when I'm not in a car. No need to have my gps sucking power if I have no need for it. If Siri or other apps need it, I just turn it on as the phone is smart enough to prompt me to do so.

I do keep my brightness at about 1/2 which is plenty bright. I'm not a fan of auto at night in all cases but for example, I do turn it down all the way when on a plane at night. (I travel a lot)

Those are just a few things I do that help.
 
If you restored your phone from a backup you also need to restore again and try setting up as new.

When I upgraded to the 4S I though I had decent battery life, it drained a little more quickly then my 4 but nothing crazy.

A couple days ago I figured I would give restoring a shot and see if I could squeeze anymore battery life out of the phone. It made a huge difference.

I run my phone with Location, WiFi, Bluetooth, location based reminders and everything else on. Since restoring, my battery is great while in use and it averages 1% for every two hours when I am not using the phone. That puts me right on track for the 200 hours of claimed standby time... not bad with all that stuff turned on.
 
So what exactly do I need to do? Can u write up a small tutorial plz

RafaelT said:
If you restored your phone from a backup you also need to restore again and try setting up as new.

When I upgraded to the 4S I though I had decent battery life, it drained a little more quickly then my 4 but nothing crazy.

A couple days ago I figured I would give restoring a shot and see if I could squeeze anymore battery life out of the phone. It made a huge difference.

I run my phone with Location, WiFi, Bluetooth, location based reminders and everything else on. Since restoring, my battery is great while in use and it averages 1% for every two hours when I am not using the phone. That puts me right on track for the 200 hours of claimed standby time... not bad with all that stuff turned on.
Click to expand...
 
Does the restore replace the apps in their proper spots? I've seen it screw up on the ipod, just throw them around willy-nilly and you're stuck dragging everything back where you had them the last time.

----------
harringbones said:
Anyone still struggling to address this issue should try this quick fix: http://bit.ly/sFsKZD

Worked for me! :cool: Good luck!
Click to expand...

I don't click obfuscated links. goat se or some other horror I'm as yet unfamiliar with?
 
sup3r1or said:
So what exactly do I need to do? Can u write up a small tutorial plz
Click to expand...

1. Sync your phone with itunes to make sure you have all your contacts, music, apps, etc syncd up with your computer.

2. You will lose your text messages so if there is anything important write it down.

3. Plug into iTunes and click restore. Let it go through the process.

4. When it brings up the next screen it will ask you to restore from back up or set up as a new phone. Select new phone.

5. Once everything is done go ahead and sync all your apps, music, etc back. Go through the settings and get everything set back up how you want it.

The problem is that for some reason stuff left behind in old versions of files that contain various settings or preferences seem to sometimes cause issues with new OS versions. Setting up as new means you need to go through and get everything set up again but you are now starting fresh.
 
RafaelT said:
1. Sync your phone with itunes to make sure you have all your contacts, music, apps, etc syncd up with your computer.

2. You will lose your text messages so if there is anything important write it down.

3. Plug into iTunes and click restore. Let it go through the process.

4. When it brings up the next screen it will ask you to restore from back up or set up as a new phone. Select new phone.

5. Once everything is done go ahead and sync all your apps, music, etc back. Go through the settings and get everything set back up how you want it.

The problem is that for some reason stuff left behind in old versions of files that contain various settings or preferences seem to sometimes cause issues with new OS versions. Setting up as new means you need to go through and get everything set up again but you are now starting fresh.
Click to expand...

What about application data? If you have apps that store your data locally, just re-syncing your apps doesn't bring that data back. You have to restore from a backup to get that data back.

Am I wrong about that?
 
You are correct, you will also lose your application data... and if you restore it from a backup you are back to where you started...
 
RafaelT said:
You are correct, you will also lose your application data... and if you restore it from a backup you are back to where you started...
Click to expand...


Exactly... which makes that solution unacceptable to a lot of people.
Apple is really screwing it up (again) with this release.

I only take solace in the fact that when they've blown releases, they fix it eventually.
 
Scott-n-Houston said:
Exactly... which makes that solution unacceptable to a lot of people.
Apple is really screwing it up (again) with this release.

I only take solace in the fact that when they've blown releases, they fix it eventually.
Click to expand...

This has been an issue with each major release, it sucks and they should figure it out but it really is not unexpected at this point.

jollyreaper said:
So how are you supposed to save stuff like your angry birds games?
Click to expand...

Well if the fix works for you... then your not. You get to choose between a phone with good battery life or your angry birds data.. I know which one I would pick.

If the fix does not work for you, you still have that backup from syncing right before you tried the fix.. restore your phone again and this time restore from that backup.
 
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