Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My battery is draining at an alarming rate

rocknblogger

rocknblogger

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 2, 2011
2,346
481
New Jersey
I've had my 4S since the day of release. Up until now I've been very happy in terms of battery performance. But starting yesterday my battery is draining at an alarming rate.

Earlier when I took it off the charger at 100% it was down to 93% after checking in here in the forums and checking my email.

About half an hour later it was down to 83% and as I type this it went down to 81%.

I haven't touched anything in settings and I haven't installed any new apps. Actually I did, a new camera app but it's not running in the background.

As a matter of fact I made sure to shut down all background apps.

Any ideas as to where to look or what to do?

Thanks in advance.
 
If you're backed up, trying a restore isn't too painful.

Personally, I'm too lazy to set up as new, but that's also an option.
 
I'm scared to do that. I hadn't mentioned this was my second phone because when I restored my original about two weeks after I got it, the SIM card locked me out and no one at Sprint or Apple was able to figure out what the problem was and I had to wait almost two weeks for a new phone.

I already thought about doing a restore but like I said, I'm real skittish about it.

EDIT: down to 75% since OP
 
Have you ever let it go to 0%? Maybe iOS needs to calibrate the battery. I had this issue with my old iBook because I never really let it get below 50% and as a result the "percentages" were a little skewed.
 
rocknblogger said:
I'm scared to do that. I hadn't mentioned this was my second phone because when I restored my original about two weeks after I got it, the SIM card locked me out and no one at Sprint or Apple was able to figure out what the problem was and I had to wait almost two weeks for a new phone.

I already thought about doing a restore but like I said, I'm real skittish about it.

EDIT: down to 75% since OP
Click to expand...

Now, I wouldn't have been waiting 2 weeks. I don't put up with that stuff from Sprint.
 
My sister who went from 4 to 4S said the same thing about the battery draining faster because she recharges it more often.

I dont have anything to compare because I am a first time 4S owner.

Could it be icloud thats causing the battery to drain faster?
 
Web browsing does chop off about 1-2% every ten minutes on most phones, so that's something to keep in mind when it comes to battery drain.

I had problems with battery life at first but I found that disabling Siri's "raise to speak" feature and disabling all of the "system services" (except for cell network search) in location settings saved me quite a bit of battery life. No problems since then.

iCloud could also be sucking up a lot of battery life, I have it completely disabled because I don't use it so I don't know if it does.
 
Hastings101 said:
Web browsing does chop off about 1-2% every ten minutes on most phones, so that's something to keep in mind when it comes to battery drain.

I had problems with battery life at first but I found that disabling Siri's "raise to speak" feature and disabling all of the "system services" (except for cell network search) in location settings saved me quite a bit of battery life. No problems since then.

iCloud could also be sucking up a lot of battery life, I have it completely disabled because I don't use it so I don't know if it does.
Click to expand...

The thing is that I've had all the stuff you mention either off or otherwise tweaked. The battery has been fine for three months and I didn't make any changes to my settings. I even double checked them and all is as supposed to be.

The problem only started yesterday.

Down to 50% since my last reply. Since my last reply it has been sitting on my desk until now. Down 13% in about in about an hour while on standby. Something's up.
 
I just checked usage stats and it's says four hours of usage since last full charge and that's impossible. I unplugged it about 7:00 pm. That's five and a half hours ago.
 
Try force quitting apps and see if that helps. Maybe one is sitting in the background not doing much but eating battery.
 
rocknblogger said:
The thing is that I've had all the stuff you mention either off or otherwise tweaked. The battery has been fine for three months and I didn't make any changes to my settings. I even double checked them and all is as supposed to be.

The problem only started yesterday.

Down to 50% since my last reply. Since my last reply it has been sitting on my desk until now. Down 13% in about in about an hour while on standby. Something's up.
Click to expand...

That's weird, maybe you should back everything up in iTunes, reset the phone, and set it up as a new phone? I know it's time consuming but it might fix the problem.
 
JeffreyDJ said:
Try force quitting apps and see if that helps. Maybe one is sitting in the background not doing much but eating battery.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did that once already. I also just rebooted the phone too. I went back into usage stats and as I'm looking at the screen the standby time keeps changing. It went from 4 hours 46 minutes to 4 hours 50 minutes. Usage also moved 1 minute but I would expect that if I have the screen on.
 
Here are few options to go for (make sure you fully charge it first, as resetting or hard reset will wipe the usage time and standby time):

1. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset all Settings.
*This does not erase your data, in fact, all it does is, it resets your settings and you will have to go back into your settings and put it the way you like it. It could be possible that one of the settings you may have may affect your battery to drain. (I read a blog somewhere where some had the problem with the usage time and standby time being the same, and reset all settings seems to be fixed).

2. Do a hard reset by holding the home button and the power button simultaneously for 10-15 seconds (ignoring the red slider) until the apple logo appears.
*I suggest doing this one first before you reset all settings.

3. As others have mentioned, since you got your iphone on release day, have you fully drained your battery until your phone turns off on it's own at least once a month? If you have not, then you may want to calibrate your battery meter by fully draining the battery.

4. If it still happens then try restoring your phone.
 
I think I solved my problem. The only thing I did different in the last couple days was to add this phone to home sharing.

I deleted my ID and password to take it off home sharing and I am now at 23% with 16:46 standby and 5:51 usage.

Wonder why it would suck battery life when signed into sharing?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back