Now this is just getting ridiculous...

[Wavechaser]

Anyone have an idea what could be causing this? I no longer have standby usage, it's apparently being utilized by something all of the time (even though it's locked in my pocket). I recently restored from a cloud backup and have been having these issues since. All settings are EXACTLY how they were prior to the restore.

 

[TallGuy1970]

Yeah, mine drops at most 3% overnight (usually like 2% though).

What DotCom2 is describing is in fact a problem. It should NOT be dropping by 30% overnight. But instead of sitting and waiting for Apple to do something, start troubleshooting!

Step 1. Identify all variables. Literally list them out on a piece of paper if you must:

-- Location services (and all sub-categories)
-- Cell signal
-- Email accounts (and all attributes of each one)

Step 2. Once you have a list, start testing them individually. Meaning, only change ONE variable at a time and observe the impact. So maybe on one night, turn off ALL location services. MAKE NO OTHER CHANGE. Does it still drop by 30%? If so, TURN THEM BACK ON and move to the next variable. If it doesn't drop by 30% maybe you should test EACH location service individually to see which one is causing the problem.

Assuming turning off location services makes no impact, the next night, test Cell signal theory. MAKING NO OTHER CHANGE, put the phone in airplane mode. This will disable it from searching for a cell signal constantly. In the morning, check to see if it went down by 30% again.

Assuming it still did, take phone out of airplane mode. The next night, totally delete one of your email accounts (or all of them if you want to test them all at the same time).

You see what I'm getting at here... eventually you should be able to pinpoint EXACTLY what is causing the drain. "Oh it looks like when I disabled the account that is syncing my contacts, the excessive drain stopped." Now you can further drill down into what specifically may be the problem with contact sync.

I don't disagree -- Apple should figure out what is happening here BUT it's NOT happening to everyone.

This is some solid advice. Not all iPhone 4s's (I know that's not right, but you get the idea) are having problems. In fact, all of my friends who upgraded (about 10) are not having problems.

There seems to be something wrong with your phone. Troubleshooting which app or process may be causing your problem is a great idea. It will accomplish much more than ranting on a message board, though you may feel better now.

 

[crackedandblack]

I'm getting about 6 hours of good usuage - wifi, 3G apps etc and I'm on 5.01 - I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

 

[bri1212]

Although I do not doubt that all of you are having these problems,
My Iphone4s is rock solid. My battery lasts me more than one day. Which is all I care about. I used it all day on Friday, did not charge it and used it most of the day on Saturday, I started charging it about 9:00pm, it was almost empty at that point.
As such, I would take it to Apple Genius' for trouble shooting.

 

[Sirolway]

have you tried a full restore via itunes (take a backup before hand, but don't restore from this backup), then see what your standby time is like without installing any additional apps?

+1

 

[Rocko1]

You got the GPU driver bug. It runs the GPU at 100% when the phone is at idle. Restore as new see if that helps, otherwise get another phone. There are plenty of 4S users with good usage/standby times.

 

[Wavechaser]

You got the GPU driver bug. It runs the GPU at 100% when the phone is at idle. Restore as new see if that helps, otherwise get another phone. There are plenty of 4S users with good usage/standby times.

I just tried to "reset all settings" testing now to see if that resolved the issue. Odd that it happened only after I restored to an old backup from the day before...

Prior to yesterday, I could easily get 2 days of usage out of my phone before charging, which is why I know something is up.

 

[Leonard1818]

Or you could just be wasting your time and turning off things that shouldn't have to be turned off.

If there's a bug in the code of iOS, there's no setting you can just switch off to make your battery better.

If there's a bug in the code of the iOS then why is my battery life (on 2 phones now) LEAGUES better than what the OP is reporting? Bugs don't just pick and choose who they impact. If the code is wrong, it's wrong and it will impact everyone similarly.

There may be a bug in a *piece* of the code (that only the OP and others are utilizing)... If that's the case, some basic troubleshooting should be able to narrow it down and probably find a workaround until a fix is released.

I'm a technical support engineer for a major software company (I won't say who but they're the largest in the world) and I support an enterprise-level ERP system used by many large companies. I am pretty good at troubleshooting, identifying a problem and figuring a workaround for it. Trust me. It works!

 

[Wavechaser]

I just tried to "reset all settings" testing now to see if that resolved the issue. Odd that it happened only after I restored to an old backup from the day before...

Prior to yesterday, I could easily get 2 days of usage out of my phone before charging, which is why I know something is up.

Okay, that didn't help, back to square one. Phone is still hot, I had restored all backups and restored all settings to default, yet the battery is still draining fast. Looks like I'm taking this bad boy to the Apple store.....

 

[Leonard1818]

Try setting up your phone as a new phone and don't restore any backup yet. Manually add your email accounts. Does it still drain?

My theory is that there's something corrupt in your backup that is not restoring properly causing the phone to constantly be "in use" trying to sync/restore something.

 

[Primejimbo]

I have an iPhone 4s for work and probably get 300 emails, send about 100, talking on it, and I don't see much of a difference than my 4 for personal use. Far better battery than the Droid 2 it replaced and I also have my sound on for email, brightness at 30-40%.

 

[Wavechaser]

Try setting up your phone as a new phone and don't restore any backup yet. Manually add your email accounts. Does it still drain?

My theory is that there's something corrupt in your backup that is not restoring properly causing the phone to constantly be "in use" trying to sync/restore something.

If I set it up as a new phone without restoring a backup, I'm literally losing years of application data and other information which I just can't do. I cannot afford to lose all the data on this phone.

 

[DiamondMac]

I bet your battery will magically get better.

You must work for AT&T's customer service department

 

[Leonard1818]

If I set it up as a new phone without restoring a backup, I'm literally losing years of application data and other information which I just can't do. I cannot afford to lose all the data on this phone.

it's just a test man. It's not intended to stay like that forever. These are troubleshooting steps to help narrow down what part of the backup could be causing an issue.

I have never had an iPhone before therefore I didn't have a backup to restore from. I don't have any battery issues with my phone at all. See where I'm going with this? You can wipe and set up as a new phone manually adding most everything back one at a time. This should help you to narrow down what part of the entire backup is causing your issue.

EDIT: Once you've done this, restore again, from your backup and tweak the one thing that may be causing the problem.

As a side note however, I did get a replacement phone after my first one and I DID restore that one from a backup (of my first phone) but I still don't have any problems with battery life.

 

[Wavechaser]

it's just a test man. It's not intended to stay like that forever. These are troubleshooting steps to help narrow down what part of the backup could be causing an issue.

I have never had an iPhone before therefore I didn't have a backup to restore from. I don't have any battery issues with my phone at all. See where I'm going with this? You can wipe and set up as a new phone manually adding most everything back one at a time. This should help you to narrow down what part of the entire backup is causing your issue.

EDIT: Once you've done this, restore again, from your backup and tweak the one thing that may be causing the problem.

As a side note however, I did get a replacement phone after my first one and I DID restore that one from a backup (of my first phone) but I still don't have any problems with battery life.

I may try that, although I'm unsure of how to spot-restore apps and data once doing a clean fresh install.

 

[Leonard1818]

I may try that, although I'm unsure of how to spot-restore apps and data once doing a clean fresh install.

I don't think you can... I think you have to do it manually. However I would doubt it's an app causing your problem -- moreso an email account sync, contact sync, etc.

 

[mcdj]

Someone should make a battery thread.

 

[AlphaVictor87]

If there's a bug in the code of the iOS then why is my battery life (on 2 phones now) LEAGUES better than what the OP is reporting? Bugs don't just pick and choose who they impact. If the code is wrong, it's wrong and it will impact everyone similarly.

There may be a bug in a *piece* of the code (that only the OP and others are utilizing)... If that's the case, some basic troubleshooting should be able to narrow it down and probably find a workaround until a fix is released

Oh no doubting troubleshooting. But if in fact that is the case where its in once piece of software, perhaps its a bug that once its active, there's no way to turn it off. Who know's i'm no expert or anything.

It was just a theory.