My battery stopped fast draining. Here's how.

[offcamber]

After fighting fast batt drain until I couldn't take it anymore I did the following:

• Plug phone into power outlet and be connected to Wi-Fi.

• Jot down your apps and contact info.

• Erase all content and settings. (Settings, General, Reset)

• Once the phone restarts set it up as new. (Do not restore from back-up file). Turn on/off the features you like but don't send data to Apple when it asks you this.

• Reconnect to Wi-Fi.

• Do not sync phone for Apps. Go to App store and download again. You will not be charged again. Easy process over Wi-Fi and you avoid iTunes asking to back-up your phone etc.

• Add contacts (Contacts button on home screen) This is a pain but I feel this was necessary in the end. If your contacts are on your sim then you may not have to add many. You may get some of your contact info from your mail accounts which is in the next step. I copied my contacts manually just in case. NOTE: Skip this step if you want to avoid adding hundreds of contacts but your results may vary.

• Add your mail accounts. (Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars)

• Turn off Cellular Data. (Settings, General, Network). This is important as this bad boy kept data flowing constantly even when on Wi-Fi.

Update: With Cellular Data turned "on" (after implementing the nuclear option) I'm not seeing the drain I had yesterday.

Now it's time to check your battery usage (Settings, General, Usage) and leave the phone in standby for an hour or long enough to see if standby time is more than usage. If standby and usage are close to the same then something is still running and this process did not help you.
If you see little to no usage but a bunch of standby time then you are looking good.

.........sorry about the giant image.........

• Now connect to iTunes and backup your phone before a sync. This backup is key as it will be considered CLEAN. You may want to name it that when you do the back up.

• Now you can set your music up and playlists from scratch. Sucks but you don't want to pull corrupt data from a previous backup file.

• Backup phone again.

REMEMBER to restore from the CLEAN backup if you should ever need to restore your phone. Choosing the wrong backup will mess the phone up again.

Yes, it's a tedious process but I was finished wasting time reading post after post and waiting on Apple to help. I bit the bullet and started over with a clean install of EVERYTHING.

Sad, but it reminds me of working on a PC and doing a reinstall of Windows.

All I can say is that I've noticed a big improvement and I hope this helps others.

Best of luck!

 

[nebo1ss]

Glad it works for you but maybe you don't have many contacts and calendar events. This would not be possible for some of us. I have over 250 contacts set up in Groups by Family, Friends, Business associates, Restaurants, Medical, Travel etc. All contacts have addresses, emails phone # There is no way i could ever enter all this data again.

 

[HitchHykr]

Turn off cellular data? What's the point of having an iPhone then? This isn't a solution, it's a temporary workaround at best.

My daughter had this battery & data issue after updating her iPhone 4 to iOS 5 and the "fix" was to turn off sending the diagnostics to Apple. This is in Settings-General-About-Diagnostics & Usage, select "Don't Send". YMMV

 

[hakr100]

Turn off cellular data? What's the point of having an iPhone then? This isn't a solution, it's a temporary workaround at best.

I turn off cellular data when I am not using a feature or app that needs it. I bought an iPhone 4S to serve my needs, not the needs of others. I check email every hour or half or so, and messages at the same time. I know my way around the metro area where I work and live and don't need GPS unless I am in a strange city or area. Hell, you can drive from New York City to Key West, Florida, without even using a map, much less a GPS.

So, why would I leave cellular data on? If I need it, I turn it on.

 

[Sandman1969]

Hell, you can drive from New York City to Key West, Florida, without even using a map, much less a GPS.

A LOT of people actually drive off that path...

 

[aztooh]

Glad it works for you but maybe you don't have many contacts and calendar events. This would not be possible for some of us. I have over 250 contacts set up in Groups by Family, Friends, Business associates, Restaurants, Medical, Travel etc. All contacts have addresses, emails phone # There is no way i could ever enter all this data again.

If you don't already have a gmail account, make one. Set it up on your phone as an exchange account (google it if you don't know how, easy step by step instructions available). Follow the proper steps to get your contacts to your gmail account. Then set your phone up as new, re-add the exchange account and sync contacts (all done OTA).

There's been no need for quite some time now to plug your phone in to sync your contacts.

 

[Interstella5555]

You lost me at "jot down contacts" The last time I did that was 2003 and it was still a PITA.

 

[heyloo]

I really would like to try this out...if I didn't have ~300 apps installed on my iPhone I guess my iPhone could use some cleaning but doing everything from scratch...ugh, I don't think I could do it.

 

[anti_]

I turn off cellular data when I am not using a feature or app that needs it. I bought an iPhone 4S to serve my needs, not the needs of others. I check email every hour or half or so, and messages at the same time. I know my way around the metro area where I work and live and don't need GPS unless I am in a strange city or area. Hell, you can drive from New York City to Key West, Florida, without even using a map, much less a GPS.

So, why would I leave cellular data on? If I need it, I turn it on.

Makes so much sense. Although I don't think I could do it; coming from a Prepaid MVNO where I constantly have to turn Airplane Mode on/off to refresh the otherwise stale data connection, it would be nice to just unlock my phone and surf.

 

[lpeedin]

And what about all the data you've collected within apps? I have logged every tank of gas and the corresponding mileage since I bought my current car in 2006. Plus I have several years of blood pressure information as well. Oh and 200+ contacts

 

[saving107]

You explained the process but can you explain why you believe this method will solve the issue?

How is manually:

• Re-entering your contacts
• Re-downloading your apps

related to battery issues?

 

[HitchHykr]

I turn off cellular data when I am not using a feature or app that needs it. I bought an iPhone 4S to serve my needs, not the needs of others. I check email every hour or half or so, and messages at the same time. I know my way around the metro area where I work and live and don't need GPS unless I am in a strange city or area. Hell, you can drive from New York City to Key West, Florida, without even using a map, much less a GPS.

So, why would I leave cellular data on? If I need it, I turn it on.

Cellular data is not just GPS, it's email, news, etc. That's great that you like to spend so much time thinking and managing your phone, more power to ya. But for me, I don't want to be constantly fidgeting with the settings, the phone works for me I don't work for it. Wouldn't you rather not have to worry about turning this or that setting on or off based on what block you may be walking by? I personally have better things to do.

"Oh gee, I need cellular data, oh gee now I don't, oh gee, the wiFi is down' at Joe's Cafe, turn on Cellular data..."

 

[offcamber]

Nuclear Option

There is no doubt in my mind that this process isn't for everyone but it was the only way to make the phone usable again without purchasing a batt case.

The bottom line is that the iPhone community and Apple have yet to locate the exact source of the batt drain issue and I couldn't wait any longer.

As ZDNet proved that it was not a hardware issue (at least with the iPhones they tested) I guessed it was in the data on the phone originating from a corrupt backup file or something not playing nice with the new OS. I use multiple backups for iOs devices so I made a mistake along the way and choose the wrong one.

I hated to dump contacts but most were on my SIM.
Outlook calendar stuff will come back when you add your Exchange acct.
iTunes allows you to see all of your apps and then decide which or all to add back.

It became a battle to keep things turned off and the phone on charge all the time. If I ever forgot to charge it then the phone would be near death and one phone call would kill it.

Obviously no one has to follow this advice due to the unique setup of their phones but after many hours looking for a solution I said "F" it and started from square one.

It worked!

 

[TM WAZZA]

I haven't done any of this and I still get good battery life.

 

[aztooh]

You explained the process but can you explain why you believe this method will solve the issue?

How is manually:

• Re-entering your contacts
• Re-downloading your apps

related to battery issues?

Setting the phone up as new instead of restoring from backup is supposedly the cure for the battery woes. Losing your apps and contacts are consequences of doing so.

 

[offcamber]

You explained the process but can you explain why you believe this method will solve the issue?

How is manually:

• Re-entering your contacts
• Re-downloading your apps

related to battery issues?

Corrupt data from iOs 4 transferred to iOs 5 is triggering phone use when not needed.

This is a guess but multiple resets and "set as new phone" didn't solve anything for me once I restored the phone from a previous back up file (originating with iOs 4).

Same thing experienced by ZDNet.

----------

I haven't done any of this and I still get good battery life.

Which is awesome and the experience we all should all be having.

 

[nikhsub1]

Cellular data is not just GPS, it's email, news, etc. That's great that you like to spend so much time thinking and managing your phone, more power to ya. But for me, I don't want to be constantly fidgeting with the settings, the phone works for me I don't work for it. Wouldn't you rather not have to worry about turning this or that setting on or off based on what block you may be walking by? I personally have better things to do.

"Oh gee, I need cellular data, oh gee now I don't, oh gee, the wiFi is down' at Joe's Cafe, turn on Cellular data..."

Agree 100%. I took my iPhone 4 into Apple because the battery was whack, the genius asked me if i turn 3G data off when I'm not using it. I told him if I had to keep turning that on and off (along with bluetooth he suggested) that the phone was useless to me. I politely asked for another genius and got my phone replaced which solved the issue. Point it, if we have to start turning things on and off based on need when they are BASIC FUNCTIONS OF THE PHONE then the phone is worthless IMO.

 

[mcdj]

What worked for me was wiping my phone, setting it up as a new phone, not downloading ANY apps, having NO contacts, putting it in Airplane mode permanently, covering the screen with black tape, placing it in a padded envelope and mailing it, first class, to a random PO Box in Alaska.

Battery life has been awesome since then. I assume.

 

[AndrewR23]

Agree 100%. I took my iPhone 4 into Apple because the battery was whack, the genius asked me if i turn 3G data off when I'm not using it. I told him if I had to keep turning that on and off (along with bluetooth he suggested) that the phone was useless to me. I politely asked for another genius and got my phone replaced which solved the issue. Point it, if we have to start turning things on and off based on need when they are BASIC FUNCTIONS OF THE PHONE then the phone is worthless IMO.

Unless we had SBSettings.

Then a lot more people would do it, haha.

 

[offcamber]

Turn off cellular data? What's the point of having an iPhone then? This isn't a solution, it's a temporary workaround

I don't disagree but I had to cut this off as the only way to stop continuous data flow even in standby.

Now that the drain has slowed I've turned cellular data back on to test how it acts with a clean install.

 

[HitchHykr]

I don't disagree but I had to cut this off as the only way to stop continuous data flow even in standby.

Now that the drain has slowed I've turned cellular data back on to test how it acts with a clean install.

In your OP I don't know if you turned off sending the diagnostics to Apple. My guess is that there is an app or two that are crashing or creating lots of log entries under iOS5 and these logs are getting sent to Apple. That would explain the battery use and the large amounts of data.

 

[pb01890]

This has worked for me as well.
I also experienced fast battery draining on my 1 week old IP4S with 5.01, even on standby. Received it and restored my IP4 backup on it. I disabled notifications, Siri, recalibrated the battery, ..., nothing helped.
2 days ago I erased all data (content and settings). iPhone rebooted, set-up as new, no back-up from data, WIFI connection on and then got the message 'activating iPhone, please wait..', strange enough ...
I fully charged the battery and left it on standby the whole day, only lost 6% in 12 hours. Connected it to itunes, set-up as new iPhone. Synced my contacts, my music and half of my apps. Today battery life seems stable, no fast draining anymore !
Just my experience. Good luck to all of you.

 

[Applejuiced]

You explained the process but can you explain why you believe this method will solve the issue?

How is manually:

• Re-entering your contacts
• Re-downloading your apps

related to battery issues?

I agree.
Its just his guess or what he did but doesnt mean that's a must.
I think if you just setup as new and then sync back your contacts from address book and your apps and media you'll be fine.
The issues most experience with battery is software related and has to do restoring from older firmware and older iphones backups.

This is a guess but multiple resets and "set as new phone" didn't solve anything for me once I restored the phone from a previous back up file (originating with iOs 4).

Obviously it wont solve anything. You first setup as new and then you restore again from previous backup so you inherit the bugs/problems again.
Its pointless to setup as new and then a few minutes later to restore from backup. You have to setup as new and start fresh without restoring from backup.

 

[offcamber]

My guess is that there is an app or two that are crashing or creating lots of log entries under iOS5 and these logs are getting sent to Apple.

Yes, I did say do not send Apple any info when prompted in the setup as new phone process. My phone had this feature turned off while battery leaked power like oil from a British sports car.

Update: With Cellular Data turned "on" I'm not seeing the drain I had yesterday.
It's looking stable. Time will tell.

 

[AnotherBrian]

iPad, iPhone work fine now

I fixed my iPad and iPhone by just doing a restore and then I did a restore from backup, I also did a reset of all settings. Both iPhone and iPad work fine, I did turn of some services in location services like timezone, iAds and traffic.

iPhone 4S did it right when I bought it, but my iPad didn't have problems until the last minor update to fix the battery issue, it worked fine on 5.0.