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

Piss poor battery life with iPhone 4...?

lilNol said:
Some of these issues people are having regarding their battery's performance might be due to not fully understanding the new multitasking functionality. I know I was a prime example of this and was getting "piss poor" performance before finally learning how to use the new function correctly.

1. Double tap your home button.
2. Swipe through the icons in the multitask tray (in my case every application :eek:), this is what is currently running in the background of your iPhone.
3. Hold down your finger on one of the applications until it starts to shake and the option to close the application becomes available.
4. Turn off most of the applications, or all of them if you want.

Doing this combined with some of the other settings already mentioned in this thread should produce better battery performance overall. If this doesn't help, well then I'd suggest visiting your local Apple Store. If you were like me and didn't bother reading on how to actually use this important feature to begin with it might actually be a very simple fix and save you that trip.
Click to expand...

I don't think you grasp the new multi-tasking functionality actually.

Those apps in the fast app switching tray are not really running. With a few exceptions.

Here's the scenarios where they are actually running.

1. GPS (Location based multi-tasking) think apps like TomTom or Navigon. You can tell these are running because there's an arrow in the menu bar. No arrow in the menu bar? It's not running in the background.

2. Music. iPod, Pandora, Slacker, etc. You can tell these are running because there's music playing and a play icon in the menu bar. Don't see the icon? Don't hear music? Not running in the background.

3. Task-Completion. Uploading a picture to flickr? If you quit the app early it will still upload the picture in the background. Once it's done, the app quits. It has 10 minutes to complete or it is quit by the OS. At most, 10 minutes of an app running in the background

4. Voice Over IP. You can tell these are running by the RED BAR at the top of the screen. No red bar? Not running in the background.

From here on out, the following "multi-tasking" features are NOT running in the background. Only the previous 4.

5. Fast App Switching. This is probably the most confusing for people. Fast app switching is unique in how it works and it confuses everyone. When an app needs to quit and it supports fast app switching it basically saves the last known state. It deep freezes the app. When the app is reloaded this deep freeze is undone and the app appears as though it never quit. However, it most certainly quit. It is NOT running in the background.

6. Local Notifications. Uses the calendar technology to allow apps to post events that can be used to notify the user at particular times. Nothing different here, developers just have access to the same thing the Calendar app has had access to since iPhone OS 1.0.

7. Push Notifications. Same as 3.x. Nothing running in the background but a connection to apples push server.

So really. There are 4 scenarios where applications are ACTUALLY RUNNING in the background. Music, GPS, VOIP and Task Completion.

That task list you're talking about is merely a way to easily switch between apps while in another app. It just so happens to work at the home screen too. Clearing that list will do nothing for you unless the app in question that you just removed was in fact doing 1 of the 4 things listed in the previous paragraph (GPS, Music, VOIP and Task Completion). Otherwise you're just wasting your time.
 
IronLogik said:
I don't think you grasp the new multi-tasking functionality actually.

Those apps in the fast app switching tray are not really running. With a few exceptions.

Here's the scenarios where they are actually running.

1. GPS (Location based multi-tasking) think apps like TomTom or Navigon. You can tell these are running because there's an arrow in the menu bar. No arrow in the menu bar? It's not running in the background.

2. Music. iPod, Pandora, Slacker, etc. You can tell these are running because there's music playing and a play icon in the menu bar. Don't see the icon? Don't hear music? Not running in the background.

3. Task-Completion. Uploading a picture to flickr? If you quit the app early it will still upload the picture in the background. Once it's done, the app quits. It has 10 minutes to complete or it is quit by the OS. At most, 10 minutes of an app running in the background

4. Voice Over IP. You can tell these are running by the RED BAR at the top of the screen. No red bar? Not running in the background.

From here on out, the following "multi-tasking" features are NOT running in the background. Only the previous 4.

5. Fast App Switching. This is probably the most confusing for people. Fast app switching is unique in how it works and it confuses everyone. When an app needs to quit and it supports fast app switching it basically saves the last known state. It deep freezes the app. When the app is reloaded this deep freeze is undone and the app appears as though it never quit. However, it most certainly quit. It is NOT running in the background.

6. Local Notifications. Uses the calendar technology to allow apps to post events that can be used to notify the user at particular times. Nothing different here, developers just have access to the same thing the Calendar app has had access to since iPhone OS 1.0.

7. Push Notifications. Same as 3.x. Nothing running in the background but a connection to apples push server.

So really. There are 4 scenarios where applications are ACTUALLY RUNNING in the background. Music, GPS, VOIP and Task Completion.

That task list you're talking about is merely a way to easily switch between apps while in another app. It just so happens to work at the home screen too. Clearing that list will do nothing for you unless the app in question that you just removed was in fact doing 1 of the 4 things listed in the previous paragraph (GPS, Music, VOIP and Task Completion). Otherwise you're just wasting your time.
Click to expand...

IronLogik thank you for this valuable info, most people dont realize that most apps are just frozen and arent doing anything to drain battery!
 
I quite often do what IronLogik suggested and this is my latest usage stat from today. Have had Pandora on almost all day today too as well as doing other stuff.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0080[1].png
    IMG_0080[1].png
    109.4 KB · Views: 86
b-rad g said:
I quite often do what IronLogik suggested and this is my latest usage stat from today. Have had Pandora on almost all day today too as well as doing other stuff.
Click to expand...

My one wouldn't even be able to last 24 hours with wifi and 3G on let alone 6 hours of use + 24% left.

I may have a lemon but is there an app that can test the iPhone 4 battery?
 
SmackP said:
My one wouldn't even be able to last 24 hours with wifi and 3G on let alone 6 hours of use + 24% left.

I may have a lemon but is there an app that can test the iPhone 4 battery?
Click to expand...

No.

Usage is going to be different for everyone. Games for example are going to drain the battery faster. Graphically intense applications as well. Anything where there might be a lot of calculations.

Basic web browsing and stuff like that will use less. Apps that don't access the internet at all will use even less.

There's no way everyone is going to have the same usage patterns, thus never going to have the same usage time on the phone.

High power draining services: GPS, 3G, Wifi, graphically intense applications such as games, Bluetooth, etc.

Anything like that will cause your usage time to drop pretty dramatically. Ask yourself if you use any of those on a regular basis and it will explain a lot. Usage time also includes listening to the iPod app... which is something like 40 hours max on the new iPhones... so you can inflate your usage time by listening to music from the iPod app.

Yadda Yadda Yadda.

I do however get roughly 5-6 hours of usage on my 3GS. Which is primarily internet, a couple of very light weight apps (omnifocus, Reeder, Instapaper, and primarily Trillian). Very little voice on my part.

A suggestion I can make, turn your phone off at night when you aren't using it. It will help dramatically for most people.
 
IronLogik said:
No.

Usage is going to be different for everyone. Games for example are going to drain the battery faster. Graphically intense applications as well. Anything where there might be a lot of calculations.

Basic web browsing and stuff like that will use less. Apps that don't access the internet at all will use even less.

There's no way everyone is going to have the same usage patterns, thus never going to have the same usage time on the phone.

High power draining services: GPS, 3G, Wifi, graphically intense applications such as games, Bluetooth, etc.

Anything like that will cause your usage time to drop pretty dramatically. Ask yourself if you use any of those on a regular basis and it will explain a lot. Usage time also includes listening to the iPod app... which is something like 40 hours max on the new iPhones... so you can inflate your usage time by listening to music from the iPod app.

Yadda Yadda Yadda.

I do however get roughly 5-6 hours of usage on my 3GS. Which is primarily internet, a couple of very light weight apps (omnifocus, Reeder, Instapaper, and primarily Trillian). Very little voice on my part.

A suggestion I can make, turn your phone off at night when you aren't using it. It will help dramatically for most people.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that help buddy. I'm finding myself lose 15% with phone on at night and 25% with phone and wifi (nonpush).

I guess I'll turn the radios off at sleepy time.

It would be useful if there is a battery benchmark app though... I'll see if I can develop one now...
 
hi all, i know, i know. i have started a thread about the same issue and i'm hijacking this one now. blast away but at least help me out here :p

my iPhone 4 is getting on average (at the very best of times when not cranky) 3 minutes usage per 1% while on 3g. i have no notifications, push, location services, brightness at 20%, nothing running in the background, tried activating as a new phone, power cycle, bicycle etc.. what do you guys think?

also, those posting up the massive 9 billion hours usage, is that on wifi all the time or do you guys have 3g usage etc as well?

thanks people
 
I've been having similar problems.

My last charge full battery use was 4:52 usage and 17:08 standby.

So I turned off push and removed all the programs from multi-task (which nearly every single one of them was in) and I'm checking my battery life now..

I don't understand why push would take so much battery life though.. It makes absolutely no sense.
 
ag101 said:
I've been having similar problems.

My last charge full battery use was 4:52 usage and 17:08 standby.

So I turned off push and removed all the programs from multi-task (which nearly every single one of them was in) and I'm checking my battery life now..

I don't understand why push would take so much battery life though.. It makes absolutely no sense.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it seems like Push is one culprit. Prior to setting up my Mail to Push emails, my battery life was pretty amazing. But, once I turned it on and setup my mail account properly it seems like my battery life is draining a lot faster.
 
baller1308 said:
Yeah, it seems like Push is one culprit. Prior to setting up my Mail to Push emails, my battery life was pretty amazing. But, once I turned it on and setup my mail account properly it seems like my battery life is draining a lot faster.
Click to expand...

I'll be pretty disappointed if it is a big problem lol..

In contrast, my other iPhone bought on the same day and from the same manufacturing week went down to only 64% with 18 hours of standby and 2 hours of usage..
 
A way to check if your battery is working as it should is to check apple's benchmarks for browsing, iPod, etc. Mine's working fine, getting 6+ hours of 3g browsing and minimal app usage, but if I go and lay some Real Racing, Fruit Ninja or angry birds I get around 5 hours, so point is, don't be scared about other usage times that people post, because every case is different. Tip* a way to not be so paranoid about the battery is to turn the percentage off, it will make you feel like you have more, but I must admit, I find myself constantly going back and turning it on, i'm very paranoid.... that's until the wow factor wears off.
 
I haven't gotten 2 days out of mine, but it's been much better recently for some reason. I use it almost all day, and I just plugged it in with 7h14m of usage and 16h21m standby with 12% left on the battery.
 
I get about 7 hrs 15 of usage out of it with around 10-15% battery left before I plug it back in. At the very least I get 6 hours flat.

I remember the best I was able to get was 8.5 hrs with over a day of standby. The best I ever got out of the 3GS was 6 hrs flat. And that only happened once. My average on that was usually 4.5 hrs. Terrible compared to the 4.
 
I basically need to charge it each night.

:(
 

Attachments

  • image.png
    image.png
    112.1 KB · Views: 69
  • image-1.png
    image-1.png
    108.2 KB · Views: 70
Roofy. said:
I get about 7 hrs 15 of usage out of it with around 10-15% battery left before I plug it back in. At the very least I get 6 hours flat.

I remember the best I was able to get was 8.5 hrs with over a day of standby. The best I ever got out of the 3GS was 6 hrs flat. And that only happened once. My average on that was usually 4.5 hrs. Terrible compared to the 4.
Click to expand...

is that just surfing or downloading apps etc? also, is it on 3g or..?
 
My battery life was excellent with OS 4.0, but as soon as I updated to 4.01, I noticed that the battery life went down much quicker....maybe 25% faster. I made no changes to the iPhone4, nor different usage.
 
I've got 7h14min of usage (mostly browsing, iPod, camera, and very little location based apps) and 1 day 14h of standby.
I turn my WiFi on when I need to surf, and turn it back off when finished. Brightness at 50%. Location, push email (gmail), push notifications ON.
I often "close" some of the apps on the multitaskbar when I know I wont be using them anymore.
Hope this helps!
 
Mine was ok until I jailbroke. Have only installed sbsettings, lockinfo(lockicons,lockweather) and a few winterboard bits but something is seriously draining my battery now! :(
 
Just got about 3.5 hours of sleep in.. Slept and my battery was 80%, wake up and it's 68%.

Everything off except wi-fi.

This is really disheartening.
 
if you have bluetooth on that could kill your battery life. thats the only thing i leave off and i have great battery life
 
specops said:
if you have bluetooth on that could kill your battery life. thats the only thing i leave off and i have great battery life
Click to expand...

No bluetooth..

I'm gonna go and try to get a replacement. Going down 12% in 3 1/2 hours of STANDBY is unacceptable.

I got the phone from my carrier so I'm not sure if I should go through them or Apple.

Picture.. Has decreased to 60% since the pic
02bc962d.jpg
 
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