Let's play "Name that battery killer"!

[Zac7]

I don't have definitive proof. All I can say is that any mobile substrate add-on will cause additional strain on the system as a whole. It may be very minor, or it could be a hog. It depends on what it does and how it's coded.

I have no doubt Saurik coded WinterBoard very well. The thing is WinterBoard works by telling iOS to look for icons and images in another location. That location is the themes folder. Since it's doing so the entire time the phone is displaying a themed screen (homescreen, lockscreen, etc) it causes more work for the phone.

If WinterBoard worked like BytaFont, by replacing the actual files with your custom set, there would not be the issue of additional RAM usage or potentially lessoned battery life. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. You could certainly replace files manually but this is a major pain the in butt. Especially if you like to change themes often. It would be a nightmare, at least that's my opinion.

Great explanation! Didn't know a lot of that. You learn something new everyday. Thanks!

 

[Brandn]

Hmmm... Maybe I should try to delete winterboard. I am using the Ayecon theme right now, which I love, but it's not like some themes where it's that much difference in appearance. I would be fine with the normal stock icons if it would save my battery.

You guys think Killbackground could be causing trouble as well?

I may try to calibrate the battery tonight. From what I gather I need to let it run completely down and then charge it to 100% without any interference, correct? Does that mean no notifications, calls etc coming in? I'm not sure of this, never tried, but can you charge the phone with it off?

Thanks for all the tips.

 

[Sital]

I agree with labman - I have ISX installed (without the Facebook, Twitter and RSS pages) and I don't notice any battery hit, but I don't spend a ton of time on the lockscreen (just a quick check of emails or quick reply to texts).

I also have Winterboard and right now I see no decrease in battery life with the theme I'm running, but I have noticed a hit with other themes particularly those using widgets/animations as you might expect. Other packages I have installed include Springtomize2, ColorKeyboard, Iconoclasm, FolderEnhancer, Activator and Weather Icon.

Bottom line is my battery life is close enough to pre-jailbreak levels that I don't notice the difference on a day-to-day basis.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Bottom line is my battery life is close enough to pre-jailbreak levels that I don't notice the difference on a day-to-day basis.

I agree with this statement. I have the same experience with my phone with the tweaks I have installed. Instead of intelliscreenX though, I use LockInfo. I also use it's RSS addon as well and I don't notice any considerable battery drain or decrease in phone performance that is noticeable. Just my two cents.

 

[labman]

thread starter should have tried a battery recalibration before anything else. next delete suspect apps one at a time a see if there is a noticeable difference. if that doesn't seem to work try restoring to stock and see if there is a difference. then rejailbreak and install one tweak a day done. As of right now

my 4S usage is 5 hours 11 minutes. Stand by 15 hours 25 minutes my phone is at 47% I have IntelliscreenX Winterboard, ayecon etc. any way good luck ts hope you solve it!! good luck

 

[fizz7283]

I noticed a battery hit with both winterboard and intelliscreenx. I didn't even have Facebook or twitter or rss with intelliscreenx. I did use the quick settings though.

I don't see how you all get such high usage times. After removing many packages I get about 8 hours usage. All I have left is activator, bitesms, springtomize 2, lockdown pro, infinifolders, infinidock, browser changer, app switcher album art, ifile and YouTube to mp3. When I still had all the cool stuff I was struggling to get 6 hours usage.

Now I'm wondering if it's just 5.0.1 causing bad battery life.

 

[MastahRiz]

"Recalibrating the battery," just resets the digital readout accuracy. So if your battery is incorrectly displaying 95% when you really have 93 or 97 percent, recalibrating it will adjust the readout to display correctly. Recalibrating does nothing in terms of how much actual battery capacity you have or changing the usage times or standby times.

 

[chickenwingfly]

I don't have definitive proof. All I can say is that any mobile substrate add-on will cause additional strain on the system as a whole. It may be very minor, or it could be a hog. It depends on what it does and how it's coded.

I have no doubt Saurik coded WinterBoard very well. The thing is WinterBoard works by telling iOS to look for icons and images in another location. That location is the themes folder. Since it's doing so the entire time the phone is displaying a themed screen (homescreen, lockscreen, etc) it causes more work for the phone.

If WinterBoard worked like BytaFont, by replacing the actual files with your custom set, there would not be the issue of additional RAM usage or potentially lessoned battery life. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. You could certainly replace files manually but this is a major pain the in butt. Especially if you like to change themes often. It would be a nightmare, at least that's my opinion.

Nicely put.
You got me thinking, since I don't use themes, except for the lockscreen, I should try (probably not possible, since it's an html) to manually change the stock ones!

 

[OMGbrandon]

ISX auto fetch option as well.

 

[fsck-y dingo]

Great explanation! Didn't know a lot of that. You learn something new everyday. Thanks!

I'm glad to have shared something new. I just want to be clear that I'm not against WinterBoard or theming. It's just that it has the potential to slow things down it too many themes, or ones that aren't bundled properly, are used. If you're happy with the phone, things run smoothly and the battery seems normal then keep on doing what your doing.

Nicely put.
You got me thinking, since I don't use themes, except for the lockscreen, I should try (probably not possible, since it's an html) to manually change the stock ones!

Thanks! It may be possible but I'm not good with HTML. My knowledge of messing with that is limited to changing settings around in already completed LS themes. It's worth looking into. Good luck!

 

[kidnz]

Hi,

I have a very normal battery life on jailbroke iPhone 4S but after the last few days it has been terrible for me, I'm trying to find the culprit but still no luck. From last week until now I have just installed ayecon, update few tweak like callbar, intelliscreenx... but dont know what caused battery drains. Normally, I left my iPhone overnight, it lost about 2-3%, now it lost like 10 - 15% some time 20% which is unreasonable. I will try to restore and report back later!

BTW: tweaks I installed: springtomized2, bitesms, activator, ifile, callbar, intelliscreenx, ayecon, Jaku, winterboard (without any HTLM themed), barrel, zephyr, statustweak, password pilot.

Anyone have any idea that any of above tweak has conflict between them? any suggestion are greatly appreciated!

 

[BumpyFlatline]

KidNZ, would you happen to be using the latest beta of BiteSMS? I used it for two days but it chewed through my battery. I also installed the autolock sbsettings toggle at the same time. I removed both programs and went back to the latest public release of bitesms. I haven't had a problem since. Just throwing my recent experience out there.

Also, of you use email, I recommend completely deleting all email accounts and respring, reboot and then, if you have multiple email accounts, add each account back one by one, restarting the phone in between each new addition. Sometimes the email client can go berserk. It'll constantly ping the sever regardless if you are using push, fetch or manual. I'd try some of these fixes prior to resorting to a restore.

Good luck and report back!

 

[kidnz]

KidNZ, would you happen to be using the latest beta of BiteSMS? I used it for two days but it chewed through my battery. I also installed the autolock sbsettings toggle at the same time. I removed both programs and went back to the latest public release of bitesms. I haven't had a problem since. Just throwing my recent experience out there.

Also, of you use email, I recommend completely deleting all email accounts and respring, reboot and then, if you have multiple email accounts, add each account back one by one, restarting the phone in between each new addition. Sometimes the email client can go berserk. It'll constantly ping the sever regardless if you are using push, fetch or manual. I'd try some of these fixes prior to resorting to a restore.

Good luck and report back!

Thanks for your advice mate! I'm using biteSMS public stable version though. I have restore my iPhone as new, now I will only use iCloud for Apple Mail and other account on Sparrow then .

 

[hch3psa]

On average I lose at least 10% if not more overnight. I even go as far as killing all my apps and only leaving the stock alarm clock running.

Here's something I found really interesting. By using Bolt and turning on the battery percent I discovered this.

My tweaks are as follows:
BatteryLogger Plus
BiteSMS
Bolt
CallBar
f.lux
FaceBreak
Forecast
iFile
NCSettings
PlayAwake
Springtomize 2
Zephyr

On average I get about 5 hours of usage time from my phone. I wondering if I should take my phone into Apple and try and get a new one. I can barely make it through an entire day without charging my phone. If I'm using my phone a lot, email, etc, I'm lucky if I make from 7-4ish. It's really frustrating.