My iPhone 5 battery seems to be draining abnormally fast. I started using it around 10:45 this morning and it is now 2:15 and at 58%. I've been browsing, using apps, email, and no phone calls. It seems to be dropping at about a percent every couple of minutes. To me this is an issue. It was around 65% when it came out of the box and I didn't let it run completely down before charging fully. I charged it overnight and it was at 100% this morning when I started using it. Am I being overly paranoid and should I just let it run down and re charge over night? Or do you think there's a real issue. Just typing this it dropped from 59% to 56%.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 5 battery drain??
- Thread starter kds786
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I took mine off the charger at 1:30PM today. Its 3:47PM and I am at 69%. This is WAY WAY worse than my 1 year old 4S.
I'm having the same issue. I think the battery needs time to be 'run in' and be 'calibrated'. Though it's reporting 56%, for example, it might not actually be that low. You'll probably find that it stops dropping so fast when it gets to lower numbers like 10%. Then the next time you charge it, it will re-calibrate. Basically, it thinks it's lower than it is.
I hope that's all it is. I've gotten several apple products on launch day and never had issues. DH says that'll teach me to get the first one. It doesn't drop as fast on Wi-Fi so I wonder if it's something to do with AT&Ts network...
Check your data usage (general, settings, usage, cellular data usage)
Just to be sure you don't have something glitched. Background data usage can kill a battery.
It thought it was fixed but it is still worrying me...how much should my battery drop if I'm occasionally using it for email, texting, and some browsing? I've had 51 minutes of usage since the last full charge and I'm at 88%. I'm only using it on 4G right now an I don't know if the drainage is normal or not...
I've used it yesterday for the first time, after a full charge I've used it around 3h on wifi, installing and configuring stuff.
I left it with around 65% battery and turned wifi off.
After around 10h of standby, I've found it with only 1% battery, very strange in my opinion.
What do you think?
I left it with around 65% battery and turned wifi off.
After around 10h of standby, I've found it with only 1% battery, very strange in my opinion.
What do you think?
Today after a full charge I have dropped 15% in 2 hours with being on LTE but minimal usage. Just a few texts and very light surfing of a couple of sites. Going to continue to do the "calibration" options and see what happens.
A coworker has had his drop 30% in about an hour, then turned off LTE and it still dropped another 12% in the next 20-25 minutes.
A coworker has had his drop 30% in about an hour, then turned off LTE and it still dropped another 12% in the next 20-25 minutes.
I have same problem. My brand new AT&T iPhone 5 drains WAY faster than my 2-year Los iPhone 4. The indicator is decreasing before my eyes as I type this. I have done all the location services and data use tricks to no avail. This is garbage. I'm still within my 30-day return window and might do just that and go back to my iPhone 4.
I believe my iPhone 5 is not lasting like it should battery-wise.
Here's my use for today:
Unplugged from wall charger at 10am and now at 3:36pm it is showing 28%. This is 3 hrs. 45 minutes of usage on 4-5 bars of AT&T LTE network. I literally while waiting read (just read), no back and forth web browsing of a web site and it went from 47% to 36% in 10 minutes of reading...which doesn't sound right. My phone was restored as new and even recently did a DFU restore as new.
I was concerned so I took it to apple. He ran some diagnostics and came and told me everything look fine. I said it dropped 10% in 10 minutes of reading a web page, which doesn't sound right.
He told there was some things I could do and that was to.
1) turn off LTE, because it was constantly searching for towers.
2) turn off Bluetooth when not using. I use this in my car all the time and I've always had this on constantly on my old iPhones.
3) turn down brightness and/or put on auto. I've always kept this on super high and never had battery drain before this phone and kept it like this on all previous iPhones.
What do you think of these suggestions? Should I change them? I kind of feel like it would change why I bought a new phone as those suggestions didn't hurt my previous iPhones and turning off LTE would be just like having a iPhone 4S. Anyways I didn't receive a new phone and didn't want one unless there is a problem.
Thoughts?
Here's my use for today:
Unplugged from wall charger at 10am and now at 3:36pm it is showing 28%. This is 3 hrs. 45 minutes of usage on 4-5 bars of AT&T LTE network. I literally while waiting read (just read), no back and forth web browsing of a web site and it went from 47% to 36% in 10 minutes of reading...which doesn't sound right. My phone was restored as new and even recently did a DFU restore as new.
I was concerned so I took it to apple. He ran some diagnostics and came and told me everything look fine. I said it dropped 10% in 10 minutes of reading a web page, which doesn't sound right.
He told there was some things I could do and that was to.
1) turn off LTE, because it was constantly searching for towers.
2) turn off Bluetooth when not using. I use this in my car all the time and I've always had this on constantly on my old iPhones.
3) turn down brightness and/or put on auto. I've always kept this on super high and never had battery drain before this phone and kept it like this on all previous iPhones.
What do you think of these suggestions? Should I change them? I kind of feel like it would change why I bought a new phone as those suggestions didn't hurt my previous iPhones and turning off LTE would be just like having a iPhone 4S. Anyways I didn't receive a new phone and didn't want one unless there is a problem.
Thoughts?
Last edited:
Apple MUST respond to this somehow! At the very minimum a statement. This is crap! I'm calling this 'battery gate'. And don't tell me I have to turn off location services cuz that is a major feature of the phone!!
To be honest and based on some reports, mine seems to be quite nice.
The only thing I don't use is LTE (I'm in the UK), location is ON, I use Bluetooth with my earphones around 2h/day, Wifi several hours a day and 3G the rest of the time, screen brightness around 80%, and I'm able to leave with it all day long, doing everything I want to do, and only need to charge it when I go to bed at night.
The only thing I don't use is LTE (I'm in the UK), location is ON, I use Bluetooth with my earphones around 2h/day, Wifi several hours a day and 3G the rest of the time, screen brightness around 80%, and I'm able to leave with it all day long, doing everything I want to do, and only need to charge it when I go to bed at night.
I dont know if this semi solution has been posted elsewhere, but here's been my experience:
A week ago I noticed that the battery life started to drop a little faster than it normally did. I wasn't sure if it was me. Within an hour of light usage I was already down to 90%. So I turned the phone off and back on and the battery life jumped to 95% immediately, and from then on it drained at a much slower rate. This has happened a few times so what I do every morning when I unplug it is just turn it off and back on, and it's been working fine. Yesterday I got about 18 hours of standy with 10 hours of usage.
Like mentioned above, I think the phone thinks the battery is draining faster than it actually is, hence a reboot will fix that. Though it's kind of annoying having to do this all the time, I hope this is a fix they can do with the next iOS 6 update. But that's been my experience.. maybe someone else has tried something else that's worked better, would really like to know...
A week ago I noticed that the battery life started to drop a little faster than it normally did. I wasn't sure if it was me. Within an hour of light usage I was already down to 90%. So I turned the phone off and back on and the battery life jumped to 95% immediately, and from then on it drained at a much slower rate. This has happened a few times so what I do every morning when I unplug it is just turn it off and back on, and it's been working fine. Yesterday I got about 18 hours of standy with 10 hours of usage.
Like mentioned above, I think the phone thinks the battery is draining faster than it actually is, hence a reboot will fix that. Though it's kind of annoying having to do this all the time, I hope this is a fix they can do with the next iOS 6 update. But that's been my experience.. maybe someone else has tried something else that's worked better, would really like to know...
3 hours drains battery from 100% to 60%!!!! WTF is going on?!!!
So I used my iPhone 5 last night until it shut down on its own due to low battery. I plugged it in, let it charge over night, 100% at about 8am so I unplugged it and have been putting it through normal use for the past ~3 hours. Just surfing web, check email. A couple 5 min youtube clips, the rest of time in my pocket. Nothing major. But battery now shows at 56%. And like I said it's been only about 3 hours.
I've gone through the location services and data usage settings which I thought was suppose to help. I've also closed most running apps. I've also turned phone off and back on thinking this might help calibrate it.
I'm returning this thing ASAP when I get back from my vacation
Is Apple really going to ignore this? I don't see how they could!
So I used my iPhone 5 last night until it shut down on its own due to low battery. I plugged it in, let it charge over night, 100% at about 8am so I unplugged it and have been putting it through normal use for the past ~3 hours. Just surfing web, check email. A couple 5 min youtube clips, the rest of time in my pocket. Nothing major. But battery now shows at 56%. And like I said it's been only about 3 hours.
I've gone through the location services and data usage settings which I thought was suppose to help. I've also closed most running apps. I've also turned phone off and back on thinking this might help calibrate it.
I'm returning this thing ASAP when I get back from my vacation
Is Apple really going to ignore this? I don't see how they could!
Assuming LTE is indeed the culprit, is it any better or worse battery drain on GSM vs CDMA? I am currently on AT&T.
BS.
This happens to me every few weeks and I have to reload the OS.
iOS is crap.
----------
That screenshot is because you're on WiFi. Turn off your wifi for 1 day and let me know how it goes.