iPhone iOS 5 Battery Drain Fix!

[JonRC]

After upgrading to iOS 5, my iPhone 4 ran hot, was unstable (apps, including texts/iMessage would crash often) and the battery life dropped off tremendously, losing 10-20% per hour while in "standby"! I did some research and found that many were experiencing similar issues with iOS 5.

I tried all recommended battery saving techniques, including turning off features (location services, notifications, push email, etc) as well as hard resets, removing all data, reseting network settings, deleting email accounts, and restoring the iPhone (from backup).

Nothing helped!

I really did not want to try the "nuclear option" - restoring & setting up "as a new phone", which many recommended. As a last ditch effort, I tried resetting all settings (Setting > General > Reset > Reset All Settings) and this fixed the problem!

The battery is back to losing ~1% per hour while on standby, even with location services and all other battery draining features turned on.

If you're experiencing horrible battery drain on iOS 5, I encourage you to reset all settings and let me know if this works for you as well.

 

[jdedl]

Reset all Settings

What will this reset & what will I loose?????

 

[nwmtnbiker]

You will lose everything dear to you. Make sure you back-up FIRST before trying something of the like…

Many people of found many solutions for the "battery drain". To each his own. Plug into iTunes, backup,click restore then wait… Set up as New.

If that doesn't work an update should be coming around shortly. But the update could either make it better or worse.

My solution was to wrap it in a DRY towel, curl up into a fetal position holding tightly onto the towel and phone, and wait until Siri says she's "is feeling better now". Should be good to go after that

 

[JonRC]

No data loss with restoring settings only

What will this reset & what will I loose?????

You will lose everything dear to you. Make sure you back-up FIRST before trying something of the like…

This is not true.

You should not lose any important data (contacts, texts, music, calendars, email, etc). This will reset is all of the settings on your phone to default (brightness, wallpaper, turn bluetooth on, turn location services on, etc). All of these settings can be easily changed back after resetting, so you have very little to lose.

As some on other threads have mentioned, the battery drain problem seems to be coming from some core processes within the iOS 5 software, which restoring settings seems to fix.

 

[vitzr]

After upgrading to iOS 5, my iPhone 4 ran hot, was unstable (apps, including texts/iMessage would crash often) and the battery life dropped off tremendously, losing 10-20% per hour while in "standby"! I did some research and found that many were experiencing similar issues with iOS 5.

I tried all recommended battery saving techniques, including turning off features (location services, notifications, push email, etc) as well as hard resets, removing all data, reseting network settings, deleting email accounts, and restoring the iPhone (from backup).

Nothing helped!

I really did not want to try the "nuclear option" - restoring & setting up "as a new phone", which many recommended. As a last ditch effort, I tried resetting all settings (Setting > General > Reset > Reset All Settings) and this fixed the problem!

The battery is back to losing ~1% per hour while on standby, even with location services and all other battery draining features turned on.

If you're experiencing horrible battery drain on iOS 5, I encourage you to reset all settings and let me know if this works for you as well.

While I can appreciate this worked for you, it does _not_ work in every case.

So to those who are expecting this to fix your phone, don't be surprised if it does not. While it doesn't hurt to try, it's most probably a waste of time.

Apple is working on a fix, I would suggest waiting for that to be posted.

 

[nwmtnbiker]

This is not true.

You should not lose any important data (contacts, texts, music, calendars, email, etc). This will reset is all of the settings on your phone to default (brightness, wallpaper, turn bluetooth on, turn location services on, etc). All of these settings can be easily changed back after resetting, so you have very little to lose.

As some on other threads have mentioned, the battery drain problem seems to be coming from some core processes within the iOS 5 software, which restoring settings seems to fix.

My bad I misread what you wrote. I thought it said erase all content and settings..

 

[Jonw123]

iPhone 4 IOS 5 Battery Drain Problem Continues...

Right after upgrading my iPhone 4 to IOS 5 I noticed my battery draining much faster than on any of the IOS 4.x versions. I found several postings where people have tried the following with varying success. I tried the following with no change in battery drain.

1) Reset Network Settings: Tap on “Settings” > Reset > Reset Network Settings
2) Disable Bluetooth: Settings > General > Bluetooth > “OFF”
3) Disable Notifications & apps: Settings > Notifications > Turn OFF
4) Disable Timezone Adjustment: Tap on “Settings” > “Location Services” > ‘System Services’ > Setting Time Zone to OFF
5) Disable Location Service: Settings > Location Services > Disable
6) Disable Ping: Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Ping > OFF
7) Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports: Tap on “Settings” > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Don’t Send
8) Deleted iCloud account from the phone and stopped all iCloud syncing.
9) Disable Email account/s by heading to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Account Name > Delete Account.

After completing or verifying 1-9 I again reset network settings and rebooted. Then I re-add my accounts: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.

If there's some code bug what I did above shouldn't have accomplished anything, and it didn't. Two days later I resorted to a hope based strategy and did a full restore on the phone and still the power drains. Even during the night on standby with no apps running the power drops ~20% over 8 hours. I used the app System Status to see if any processes were still running except the 14 mobile user procs, 13 root procs, 1 mdnsuser proc, and 1 wireless user proc.

I called Apple support and put in a ticket. They offered to replace the phone but after thinking about it I thought why? The phone worked flawlessly until the IOS 5 update. Apple has some work to do here and I hope it is soon. If I've missed something or anyone has any suggestions they would be welcome.

 

[vfradkov]

try to turn off 3g

I had the same battery drain issues as many of you (which became worse after 5.0.1 upgrade), but I also found out that I ran out of my data limit without actually using it (at least, not more than usual, when I could never reach even 50% of my 200 mb limit). To avoid extra charges, I switched my 3G and Cellular Data (Settings --> General --> Network) and now I am loosing about 1% an hour, as before the iOS 5 upgrade.

 

[mark.roemers]

Switched what??

I had the same battery drain issues as many of you (which became worse after 5.0.1 upgrade), but I also found out that I ran out of my data limit without actually using it (at least, not more than usual, when I could never reach even 50% of my 200 mb limit). To avoid extra charges, I switched my 3G and Cellular Data (Settings --> General --> Network) and now I am loosing about 1% an hour, as before the iOS 5 upgrade.

Now I am curious as to what you switched?