iPhone 4S Battery Life

[SweeneyD24]

Hey guys,

Is anyone experiencing poor battery life on iPhone 4S?
Since the update to iOS7, my iPhone 4S' battery life has been upside down. It's not even calibrated IMO. I tried to calibrate it (drained the battery completely, left overnight and charged it the next day for over 1 hour even after it was fully charged) once but it looks like it failed. Nothing has changed.

It's been quite an issue as I can't even tell for sure how much time is left until the battery is out of juice.

I'm seriously thinking about a restore (including a backup of course) but i don't want to lose any of my data (game progress etc..)

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[jjfad]

I had an iPhone 4S on iOS 7. While it was a passable experience (really the main lag was when I opened up a browser and started typing) the battery was horrendous. Could never get through the day. Upgraded to a 5C. Even though I prefer the 4S form factor the battery was a deal breaker.

 

[cynics]

I just ordered a new battery from ifixit for my 4S last night. My battery has been absolutely terrible the past month or so even after a 'restore from new'.

iBackupBot shows the full charge capacity of 1385 (of 1430) but I question it accuracy.

I don't get more then 3 hours of usage when I used to get at least 6. And generally once it gets to 10% it will just die. Trying to manually calibrate it has helped a bit with it not just dropping off from 10 to 0% but it hasn't helped with usage.

I just need it to last till the 6 is out and readily available.

 

[SweeneyD24]

I had an iPhone 4S on iOS 7. While it was a passable experience (really the main lag was when I opened up a browser and started typing) the battery was horrendous. Could never get through the day. Upgraded to a 5C. Even though I prefer the 4S form factor the battery was a deal breaker.

I would have rather downgraded to iOS6 and keep the 4S.

----------

I just ordered a new battery from ifixit for my 4S last night. My battery has been absolutely terrible the past month or so even after a 'restore from new'.

iBackupBot shows the full charge capacity of 1385 (of 1430) but I question it accuracy.

I don't get more then 3 hours of usage when I used to get at least 6. And generally once it gets to 10% it will just die. Trying to manually calibrate it has helped a bit with it not just dropping off from 10 to 0% but it hasn't helped with usage.

I just need it to last till the 6 is out and readily available.

I'm worried my battery is dying as well.

After the upgrade to iOS7, i started noticing a slight change in the battery life. Then it got worst, sometimes dropping from 22 to 0%. Calibrating the battery did nothing. I did a reset(reset all settings) the other day and i can now reach the 2-6% but still keeps dropping at an alarming rate.

 

[Norbury]

I'm having battery issues too, but I'm mainly putting them down to it being 3 years old nearly. I'm hanging on for the 6, and to keep me going I'm buying an extra cable to top up the charge at work. It is annoying though.

 

[dad29236]

the battery is big problem for all version ,, still waiting for iphone 6

 

[T5BRICK]

I had all kinds of battery problems on my 4s. Some of them I was able to attribute to certain versions of iOS, but by the end of the 18 months that I owned it I think the battery was dying.

 

[cynics]

I just ordered a new battery from ifixit for my 4S last night. My battery has been absolutely terrible the past month or so even after a 'restore from new'.

iBackupBot shows the full charge capacity of 1385 (of 1430) but I question it accuracy.

I don't get more then 3 hours of usage when I used to get at least 6. And generally once it gets to 10% it will just die. Trying to manually calibrate it has helped a bit with it not just dropping off from 10 to 0% but it hasn't helped with usage.

I just need it to last till the 6 is out and readily available.

Got the battery in, installed it. Everything went well as expected.

However oddly enough and the reason I'm quoting my post is because the full charge capacity of the new battery is 1359 (of 1430).

iBackupBot reports 2 cycles so its odd it has less capacity then a battery with 452 cycles.

Needless to say I'll need to do real world testing to see how it performs. I'll post back in a week or so for those interested.

 

[Norbury]

I'm not convinced that replacement batteries are worth the hassle. I'll look forward to that report when you've used it for a week?

 

[cynics]

I'm not convinced that replacement batteries are worth the hassle. I'll look forward to that report when you've used it for a week?

It would appear I'm on track for good battery life after replacing the battery.

Or at least better. I'm going to try to do a battery cycle. But like you said I need to give it a week or so.

 

[mlmwalt]

My 4s shuts down anywhere between 30% and 10%. Have seen single digit battery percentage in a long time. Brutal. I even do the hard restart, which works sometimes. But I start looking for a charger any time it gets below 20%.

 

[cynics]

Update from battery replacement.

It's MUCH better then the 3 hours I was getting before and it counted down every % without skipping to 0.

That said, that's a new battery on a phone that has been restored as new. iOS 6 gave me 7-8 hours consistently throughout my normal days routine. But at least it's better then it was prior.

 

[theapplefanboyj]

I just ordered a battery; should be here tomorrow. It's a launch day 4S, so it's had over 900 battery cycles, backupbot says. It barely lasts for two hours so u can't even listen to music without noticing a drop in battery

 

[mlmwalt]

What's the cost/time investment of a new battery DIY vs through Apple?

 

[cynics]

What's the cost/time investment of a new battery DIY vs through Apple?

DIY $5-$30

Apple $80

A lot of variables here. Such as the DIY cost. I've seen batteries cheap on ebay for less then 5 dollars. I don't know anything about them though. I stopped the pricing at $30 dollars because thats the price from ifixit.com and its an identical battery WITH the tools to replace it.

Time is another variable. It took me 5 minutes, probably less. However I may be a little more handy then someone else that would take 10-15 minutes. Time will depend a lot on the Apple store. Did you make an appointment? Is the tech guy swapped with other stuff? etc etc. Does the time include driving to the Apple store? lol Regardless actually doing it is fairly quick.

 

[stevejobz]

Currently im using a 4S i am the original owner i bought it brand new from Verizon. But now the battery has become so horrendous that it shuts off minutes after it comes down to %15 mark lol.

 

[sunking101]

Currently im using a 4S i am the original owner i bought it brand new from Verizon. But now the battery has become so horrendous that it shuts off minutes after it comes down to %15 mark lol.

Fit a new one, it's a 10 minute job (if that). I changed the battery in my old i4 and have already bought a new i5 battery, but haven't fitted it yet.

 

[Jaguarr40]

Sounds like with the 4 and 4S the battery has taken so many charges and depending on charging habits and how it was conditioned when new, Sounds like that is all they need is just new batteries.

 

[SweeneyD24]

My 4s shuts down anywhere between 30% and 10%. Have seen single digit battery percentage in a long time. Brutal. I even do the hard restart, which works sometimes. But I start looking for a charger any time it gets below 20%.

I was having the same problem. I tried everything i could find on the internet, from calibrating to hard reset. The only thing that seems to be working is a "Reset all settings"

Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. You should be able to see some results immediately.
The only downside is that you'll have to re-enter all your passwords. No data or whatsoever will be lost.

Hope it helps.

----------

my 4s shuts down anywhere between 30% and 10%. Have seen single digit battery percentage in a long time. Brutal. I even do the hard restart, which works sometimes. But i start looking for a charger any time it gets below 20%.

i was having the same problem. I tried everything i could find on the internet, from calibrating to hard reset. The only thing that seems to be working is a "reset all settings"

settings > general > reset > reset all settings. You should be able to see some results immediately.
The only downside is that you'll have to re-enter all your passwords. No data or whatsoever will be lost.

Hope it helps.

currently im using a 4s i am the original owner i bought it brand new from verizon. But now the battery has become so horrendous that it shuts off minutes after it comes down to %15 mark lol.

fyi

----------

Update from battery replacement.

Image

It's MUCH better then the 3 hours I was getting before and it counted down every % without skipping to 0.

That said, that's a new battery on a phone that has been restored as new. iOS 6 gave me 7-8 hours consistently throughout my normal days routine. But at least it's better then it was prior.

That's great. Good for you.

I'm not too convinced about buying a new battery for my iPhone 4S running iOS7, sooner or later, it will all come down to the same thing. I'm seriously considering going back to iOS6 or maybe going for the iPhone 5S or 6. IMO, iOS7 isn't meant for iPhone 4S and below.

 

[shady281]

Update from battery replacement.

Image

It's MUCH better then the 3 hours I was getting before and it counted down every % without skipping to 0.

That said, that's a new battery on a phone that has been restored as new. iOS 6 gave me 7-8 hours consistently throughout my normal days routine. But at least it's better then it was prior.

I think a general rule of thumb with batteries is that they have an avg life of 3 years. I've had to support a lot of wireless industrial devices for many years and that's about all you get from any of the batteries in real life daily use. The 4s is now about 3 years old, so I am not surprised to hear a lot of battery life complaints at this point.

Naturally iOS 7 is also a factor, probably because of the new notification center.

 

[stevejobz]

Fit a new one, it's a 10 minute job (if that). I changed the battery in my old i4 and have already bought a new i5 battery, but haven't fitted it yet.

Yea you are right i should do that. Actually i changed the screen of the phone the other day because i broke it and meanwhile i could have easily done that but lazy me didnt feel like going on Amazon Prime and get a new battery lol.

 

[mlmwalt]

DIY $5-$30

Apple $80

A lot of variables here. Such as the DIY cost. I've seen batteries cheap on ebay for less then 5 dollars. I don't know anything about them though. I stopped the pricing at $30 dollars because thats the price from ifixit.com and its an identical battery WITH the tools to replace it.

Time is another variable. It took me 5 minutes, probably less. However I may be a little more handy then someone else that would take 10-15 minutes. Time will depend a lot on the Apple store. Did you make an appointment? Is the tech guy swapped with other stuff? etc etc. Does the time include driving to the Apple store? lol Regardless actually doing it is fairly quick.

THANKS!!!!

Did the battery swap last night. Not a problem, though I couldn't find my plastic tweezers to put the ground back into place. Took 15 minutes due to that hiccup. iFixit's tutorial was very helpful too.

Too bad they don't offer a LTE upgrade kit, I'd never have to dump this phone if they did.

 

[EdwardC]

My 4S is less than 2 years old and I only charge it when it needs a full charge @ around 20% and my battery is terrible. It will last all day ( 12 hours ) if you never use it but as soon as you do anything it's only good for 6. I bit the bullet and bought an un locked Moto G for $ 199.00 on Amazon and it's a much better experience with a solid 24 hour battery and you can actually use it. My upgrade is in December so that will give me plenty of time to see how the 4.7" iPhone 6 is doing, hopefully its pretty good other wise I will roll on with a HTC M8.

 

[cynics]

THANKS!!!!



Did the battery swap last night. Not a problem, though I couldn't find my plastic tweezers to put the ground back into place. Took 15 minutes due to that hiccup. iFixit's tutorial was very helpful too.



Too bad they don't offer a LTE upgrade kit, I'd never have to dump this phone if they did.

If such a thing existed (LTE kit) I'd also keep my 4S for a couple more years.

 

[mlmwalt]

If such a thing existed (LTE kit) I'd also keep my 4S for a couple more years.

I know. Dare to dream.