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iPhone 5 battery life has no chances

Ultra AleM

Ultra AleM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 22, 2012
674
66
Italy
Hello, guys. I own an iPhone 5 since 2012. Lovely phone with great battery life when I bought it (iOS 6). With iOS 7 the decline started. Today battery life's a nightmare.

If I go out with 100% at 8 am, I will be out of juice in 5-6 hours (1-2 pm) with my usage.

I thought it could be a software problem, so I DFU recovered the software. It did not work. I thought it could be the hardware, so I got a replacement by Apple. Battery life improved by 20-30%, but nothing more and still not acceptable.

Is iPhone 5 just dead and condemned to ridiculous battery life with iOS 8? Is iOS 7 a watershed since it was completely rewritten (that's why iPhone 5s doesn't have this problem)?

Am I forced to change phone? Thanks a lot.

PS. my settings are:
- 3G and 4G on
- Wi-Fi on only at home
- Bluethooth off
- Automatic brightness (pretty low, for example when it's dark it's on minimum)
- a few push notifications (only important apps)
- just 4-5 apps in background refresh (like whatsapp and telegram. Turning this feature off does not improve anything)
- localization only for a few apps. Every system service is off.
- push on mail is off

Running iOS 8.1.3.

Thanks a lot

My usage is not that heavy. A bit of messages and mail, and a bit of Facebook and Twitter on the go. When I bought the phone I could get one day of battery life with pretty much the same usage.
 
Last edited:
Your phone might qualify for a battery replacement program apple has

(http://www.apple.com/ca/support/exchange_repair/)

Pop in your serial number, if it qualifies you have until March 1 to get a new battery. This might help with longevity.

I think some of the launch phone models (mine included - my 5 lasts much, much longer than before thanks to this) had issues with batteries for a variety of reasons, hope this helps.
 
nordique said:
Your phone might qualify for a battery replacement program apple has

(http://www.apple.com/ca/support/exchange_repair/)

Pop in your serial number, if it qualifies you have until March 1 to get a new battery. This might help with longevity.

I think some of the launch phone models (mine included - my 5 lasts much, much longer than before thanks to this) had issues with batteries for a variety of reasons, hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Impossible. Apple gave me this model 2 months ago.
 
Yeah definitely sounds like a battery issue. I've had my 5 for almost two years, and I can still go a full day without having to charge until I go to bed.
 
It doesn't suit the battery replacement program. And I'm not under the 2 years warranty anymore. What should I do? Apple gave me this
 
Ultra AleM said:
It doesn't suit the battery replacement program. And I'm not under the 2 years warranty anymore. What should I do? Apple gave me this
Click to expand...

Use iBackupBot to check your battery stats. Then call Apple. I seem to recall Apple can remotely diagnose your battery while you're on the phone with them. If you need a new battery I think it's'$80.
 
Ultra AleM said:
It doesn't suit the battery replacement program. And I'm not under the 2 years warranty anymore. What should I do? Apple gave me this
Click to expand...

I'd still bring it in and have them check it out and see what they say or what they can do for you.
Apple customer service is great, if it has an issue they could install a new battery for you free of charge.
Worth a try.
 
I'll call Apple customer service. But I really think this battery life is just normal since I got it pretty similar on two different iPhone 5 s.
 
Ultra AleM said:
Is it normal?
Click to expand...

Is what normal? That general amount of usage time before the battery dies or..? I'm confused. :confused:

Well. I'll start here. I'm not specifically sure whether my iPhone is defective or not, haven't talked to any form of Apple support or anything.. Most people with iPhone 6's seem to get 8-10 hours on a charge, (according to this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1785390/ ), while I get 5-6, not sure what the issue is, or if there even is one. I've tried to repair my 'issues' by turning things off, turning brightness down, etc, but nothing really works. I think it could be bad service in my area, but I'm not ruling out that it's a defective iPhone either. I live 2 hours away from the nearest Apple Store and I'm being honest here, am only a freshman in highschool... Which means I can't exactly go somewhere that's 2 hours away whenever I like.

Now, if you were asking whether that amount of battery life is normal, I'm on the fence on that one, because it all really depends on the circumstances. Is your cell signal consistently weak? Do you have a program that's bugged and hanging in the background? Is something corrupted or bugged with your OS? Is your iPhone potentially defective, or are all iPhone 5's plagued with horrible battery life? I can't really answer any of those questions, but playing around with settings, disabling cellular due to poor signal strength, restoring as new, swapping iPhones, and researching a bit could definitely help narrow things down a bit.
 
Without Boeing your usage it's tough to say. 6 hours plus 3 hours (30 percent as stated by you) is 9 hours. I could never get 9 hours usage out of my iPhone 5, but my usage always consisted mostly of texting, web browsing, and email.

I would have said that even five to six hours could be normal depending on what you're doing.
 
Ultra AleM said:
Hello, guys. I own an iPhone 5 since 2012. Lovely phone with great battery life when I bought it (iOS 6). With iOS 7 the decline started. Today battery life's a nightmare.

If I go out with 100% at 8 am, I will be out of juice in 5-6 hours (1-2 pm) with my usage.

I thought it could be a software problem, so I DFU recovered the software. It did not work. I thought it could be the hardware, so I got a replacement by Apple. Battery life improved by 20-30%, but nothing more and still not acceptable.

Is iPhone 5 just dead and condemned to ridiculous battery life with iOS 8? Is iOS 7 a watershed since it was completely rewritten (that's why iPhone 5s doesn't have this problem)?

Am I forced to change phone? Thanks a lot.

PS. my settings are:
- 3G and 4G on
- Wi-Fi on only at home
- Bluethooth off
- Automatic brightness (pretty low, for example when it's dark it's on minimum)
- a few push notifications (only important apps)
- just 4-5 apps in background refresh (like whatsapp and telegram. Turning this feature off does not improve anything)
- localization only for a few apps. Every system service is off.
- push on mail is off

Running iOS 8.1.3.

Thanks a lot

My usage is not that heavy. A bit of messages and mail, and a bit of Facebook and Twitter on the go. When I bought the phone I could get one day of battery life with pretty much the same usage.
Click to expand...
How many hrs of real usage are you getting? 5/6 ?
That's quite normal for an iPhone 5.
It mostly depend on network signal strength. If it's weak, it could drain your battery in less than 5 hours.
You have 4G enabled, also. Which carrier? 4G coverage is quite spotty in some area in Italy, and the battery consumption is higher in that condition. I'd suggest you to keep the phone in 3G and enable 4G only when needed.

----------
XTheLancerX said:
Is what normal? That general amount of usage time before the battery dies or..? I'm confused. :confused:

Well. I'll start here. I'm not specifically sure whether my iPhone is defective or not, haven't talked to any form of Apple support or anything.. Most people with iPhone 6's seem to get 8-10 hours on a charge, (according to this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1785390/ ), while I get 5-6, not sure what the issue is, or if there even is one. I've tried to repair my 'issues' by turning things off, turning brightness down, etc, but nothing really works. I think it could be bad service in my area, but I'm not ruling out that it's a defective iPhone either. I live 2 hours away from the nearest Apple Store and I'm being honest here, am only a freshman in highschool... Which means I can't exactly go somewhere that's 2 hours away whenever I like.

Now, if you were asking whether that amount of battery life is normal, I'm on the fence on that one, because it all really depends on the circumstances. Is your cell signal consistently weak? Do you have a program that's bugged and hanging in the background? Is something corrupted or bugged with your OS? Is your iPhone potentially defective, or are all iPhone 5's plagued with horrible battery life? I can't really answer any of those questions, but playing around with settings, disabling cellular due to poor signal strength, restoring as new, swapping iPhones, and researching a bit could definitely help narrow things down a bit.
Click to expand...
It's most probably a bad service area.
In my case switching from 4G back to 3G improved battery life from 5-6 hrs up to 8+ hours. That's because I live and work in an area with spotty 4G coverage
 
Max(IT) said:
How many hrs of real usage are you getting? 5/6 ?
That's quite normal for an iPhone 5.
It mostly depend on network signal strength. If it's weak, it could drain your battery in less than 5 hours.
You have 4G enabled, also. Which carrier? 4G coverage is quite spotty in some area in Italy, and the battery consumption is higher in that condition. I'd suggest you to keep the phone in 3G and enable 4G only when needed.

----------


It's most probably a bad service area.
In my case switching from 4G back to 3G improved battery life from 5-6 hrs up to 8+ hours. That's because I live and work in an area with spotty 4G coverage
Click to expand...

2-4 hours of actual usage. In my city 4G is always at 3-5 bars. So pretty strong.
 
Ultra AleM said:
2-4 hours of actual usage. In my city 4G is always at 3-5 bars. So pretty strong.
Click to expand...

2 hrs is absolutely not normal.
3 dots aren't a strong signal. On the contrary is barely usable for data connections (it's good for voice and sms).
What town is it ?

Here in Rome the 4G network is very spotty, while in Milan is quite solid.
 
Max(IT) said:
2 hrs is absolutely not normal.
3 dots aren't a strong signal. On the contrary is barely usable for data connections (it's good for voice and sms).
What town is it ?

Here in Rome the 4G network is very spotty, while in Milan is quite solid.
Click to expand...
Right now I am in Catanzaro but in Rome the situation is not better. 3 bars give me around 50 Mbps. Pretty fast. I usually get 4 bars of 4G (3 in rare cases). 5 are frequent.

If I'm out I turn off wifi. Disabling 4G does not help that much. I probably get just 20% more.
 
lordofthereef said:
Without Boeing your usage it's tough to say. 6 hours plus 3 hours (30 percent as stated by you) is 9 hours. I could never get 9 hours usage out of my iPhone 5, but my usage always consisted mostly of texting, web browsing, and email.

I would have said that even five to six hours could be normal depending on what you're doing.
Click to expand...

My i5 gave me maybe 6.5 hours of WiFi browsing, or 4 hours using 3G. I rarely got more than 6 hours of usage time out of each charge. That was on iOS7. The battery life was much better on iOS6.
Really though, I wouldn't expect an iPhone 5 to get more than 6 hours usage time on iOS8. Like some have said, the 4.7" i6 doesn't always return much more than 7 or 8 hours.
 
sunking101 said:
My i5 gave me maybe 6.5 hours of WiFi browsing, or 4 hours using 3G. I rarely got more than 6 hours of usage time out of each charge. That was on iOS7. The battery life was much better on iOS6.
Really though, I wouldn't expect an iPhone 5 to get more than 6 hours usage time on iOS8. Like some have said, the 4.7" i6 doesn't always return much more than 7 or 8 hours.
Click to expand...

I agree. As I said, iOS 6 was so much better. For what I remember, something like this never happened. iOS 4 or iOS 5 didn't destroy battery life. iOS 7 was special.
 
Ultra AleM said:
I agree. As I said, iOS 6 was so much better. For what I remember, something like this never happened. iOS 4 or iOS 5 didn't destroy battery life. iOS 7 was special.
Click to expand...

I'm confused... It sounds like you started the thread because you thought you had a problem. Now you're saying you know this is normal. :confused:
 
lordofthereef said:
I'm confused... It sounds like you started the thread because you thought you had a problem. Now you're saying you know this is normal. :confused:
Click to expand...

No. I started the thread because I had a theory. At the same time I was asking you guys for a think, about two things:

1) the theory itself, which is: iOS 7 is a special version of iOS, completely rewritten. So I guess that every phone which came with an older version is automatically cut off and covered of manure by Apple.
2) what usage do you get out of you iPhone 5? Is my usage (which I had with two different models) normal?

As we get into the topic, I am starting to notice that my theory finds confirmations.
 
Ultra AleM said:
No. I started the thread because I had a theory. At the same time I was asking you guys for a think, about two things:

1) the theory itself, which is: iOS 7 is a special version of iOS, completely rewritten. So I guess that every phone which came with an older version is automatically cut off and covered of manure by Apple.
2) what usage do you get out of you iPhone 5? Is my usage (which I had with two different models) normal?

As we get into the topic, I am starting to notice that my theory finds confirmations.
Click to expand...
I had 5-6 hrs of usage with my iPhone 5 under iOS 7.
So your usage isn't normal.....
 
Ultra AleM said:
iOS 7 was better than 8.

Also are you referring to Wi-Fi usage or 3G usage?
Click to expand...

My former iPhone 5 is used by a colleague, with iOS 8.1.2 installed, and it still goes above 5 hrs, with a two years old battery.
I'm speaking about 3G usage.
 
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