Push KILLS iPhone 3GS battery life!

[aaquib]

Got my iPhone 3GS on launch and just signed up for MobileMe yesterday. Last night I left my phone to charge, so by the time I woke up, the iPhone had a full 100% charge. I listened to music for about an hour at the gym (I don't have data so it couldn't have even used MobileMe at this time). I then browsed the web for about half an hour to an hour on it at home. During this time, I was connected to wifi and push was on. It's been a couple of hours since then and I've left it on sleep and it's gotten about 10 emails and I'm at 20% battery life! What do you guys think the reason is for the huge battery decline?

 

[JNB]

I don't think push is the culprit; in fact that should increase battery life, as the phone isn't going out to fetch stuff regularly. Given your usage, I"d say there's something else wrong, and it could just be a dodgy battery you've got. Monitor your usage and battery health, if it continues I'd get thee to an Apple Store for a replacement unit.

 

[speakerwizard]

its definatley better than your phone checking for email every 30mins (or whatever time)

 

[colonels1020]

I'm also having this problem. Push and Fetch are both killing the battery on my new 3GS and I'm lucky if the thing makes it through a little more than half a day without needing a recharge. I really hope Apple improves the battery life in a future software update. 🙁

 

[checkflag]

i have to agree.. (software update for battery) i just replaced my 1st gen iphone.. and i honestly feel it got better battery life. just this AM, i went out to meet some friends.. i used a GPS thing to track my trip, and by the time I got home, like 2 hours, i was down to 70%.

 

[jasonkneen]

There is something wrong with push

Push is definately a problem on the 3GS. I picked up mine on Friday and restored my settings which included exchange on push and two IMAP accounts.

First day I got 4 hours usage and 8 hours for standby, not what I'd normally get on my 3G.

Next I charged up to 100% and turned off push setting fetch to hourly. I ended up getting around 3.4 hours usage and 17 hours standby.

Whilst writing this i've lost 2% battery and that's after a full wipe and resync.

Something is not right

Jason

 

[Mpalmieri1203]

I'm running the 3GS with push...had some heavy usage today. I'm slightly over 6 hours usage time and 14 hours standby...I'd take your phone in!

 

[jasonkneen]

I'm running the 3GS with push...had some heavy usage today. I'm slightly over 6 hours usage time and 14 hours standby...I'd take your phone in!

how many charging cycles?

The problem is it's difficut to compare experiences as we all may has different settings. Eg are you push with mobile me or exchange? What's to say it's not my exchange server?

With the 3G I had similar experiences in the first few days and over time it improved.

I'm not giving up on it yet and will see what it's like by the end of the week before I take it back

Jason

 

[alphaod]

Yes push probably burns through battery life because you're connecting a power hungery data connection (3G), and then it's on 24/7, so the end result is you have abysmal battery life.

 

[Mycatisbigfoot]

On a side note here using moble me on an ipod touch does burn the bat faster but not that bad as im not using my touch as much as im out of school

 

[Wateroksnmud]

Yes push probably burns through battery life because you're connecting a power hungery data connection (3G), and then it's on 24/7, so the end result is you have abysmal battery life.

I thought push was on the "server" side? The phone's not saying, "Hey server, do you have anything for me?" and server saying "yes", but server saying "hey iPhone, here you go" and phone going "hey user, here you go". AM I wrong?

 

[Zengrok]

I thought push was on the "server" side? The phone's not saying, "Hey server, do you have anything for me?" and server saying "yes", but server saying "hey iPhone, here you go" and phone going "hey user, here you go". AM I wrong?

You are correct, for the most part. Push is better than fetch on the battery.

 

[aaquib]

Well I can now testify to the fact that push does in fact kill my battery and it's not the phone itself. Yesterday, used the iPhone very lightly just occasionally texting or listening to music. Maybe about an hour talk time. It died after about 5 hours. Today, with push notifications turned off, I used it to watch videos off Youtube, browse the web, listen to music, text multiple times, and talked on the phone for about half an hour, and it's at 71% battery life.

My settings were and still are: 3G off, Bluetooth off, Location Services off. All I did was turn off mail notifications and my battery life is dramatically longer.

 

[Jigsawjammer]

Well I can now testify to the fact that push does in fact kill my battery and it's not the phone itself. Yesterday, used the iPhone very lightly just occasionally texting or listening to music. Maybe about an hour talk time. It died after about 5 hours. Today, with push notifications turned off, I used it to watch videos off Youtube, browse the web, listen to music, text multiple times, and talked on the phone for about half an hour, and it's at 71% battery life.

My settings were and still are: 3G off, Bluetooth off, Location Services off. All I did was turn off mail notifications and my battery life is dramatically longer.

Interesting thread- I just went from my 2G to 3GS and I can't believe the battery life- I'm scared to use it just in case I need it for something while I'm out. I'll try to mess with the push settings.

 

[NT1440]

Well I can now testify to the fact that push does in fact kill my battery and it's not the phone itself. Yesterday, used the iPhone very lightly just occasionally texting or listening to music. Maybe about an hour talk time. It died after about 5 hours. Today, with push notifications turned off, I used it to watch videos off Youtube, browse the web, listen to music, text multiple times, and talked on the phone for about half an hour, and it's at 71% battery life.

My settings were and still are: 3G off, Bluetooth off, Location Services off. All I did was turn off mail notifications and my battery life is dramatically longer.

Why are you so quick to jump to the conclusion that its the Push service and not merely just a bad battery or one that is still being worn in? Until that battery is a bit older you have too many variables.

 

[Ezra1107]

3GS Battery Problem

Why are you so quick to jump to the conclusion that its the Push service and not merely just a bad battery or one that is still being worn in? Until that battery is a bit older you have too many variables.

I wonder if there is an overall battery problem out there. Apple promised better battery life with the 3GS. I have the following turned on:

Bluetooth
Exchange Push Notification
MobileMe Push Notification
Location Services

Took the phone out today at 6AM. Spent about 30 minutes on phone calls using my bluetooth setup in my car and then maybe another 10 minutes on the phone without bluetooth. I checked email and sent replied to a few emails. The rest of the time the phone just sat there doing nothing. By 12:00PM (6 hours later), my battery was showing 19%!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm thinking of either calling AT&T or contacting Apple. I guess I can turn my push services off but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? Anybody out there think there is a bad batch of batteries?

 

[jasonkneen]

If you're using Push with Exchange

Then try the test I did which solved my Push/battery issues.

(my 3G was fine btw using the same account, something unique to the 3GS and it's 3.0 build)

First and if you want to do this properly, take sample readings from your usage/standby at 10 minute intervals with Push on. Check the two figures and if it's bad you should see for around every 10 minutes of standby around 6 mins+ of usage - very bad.

Now, if you're using push on more than one folder, try it on only one folder e.g. your inbox. If you're already doing that then on your desktop, create a new folder and move ALL emails from inbox to this folder, sync and ensure using outlook for web that all the mails have moved.

Now, test again (and REMOVE the Exchange account from the phone and re add if you want to be sure)

When I did this I noticed a dramatic drop in usage over a 10 minute period. There was till *some* because it obviously has to respond to any emails that come in but the difference was massive.

Result, I just plugged in this morning at 11% charge having had 7hrs 49m of usage and 1 Day 9hrs of standby with push and wifi on. (between hours of 12pm and 6am I turn flight mode ON and WiFi ON)

Before this I was getting around 5 hours standby

Jason

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Well I can now testify to the fact that push does in fact kill my battery and it's not the phone itself. Yesterday, used the iPhone very lightly just occasionally texting or listening to music. Maybe about an hour talk time. It died after about 5 hours. Today, with push notifications turned off, I used it to watch videos off Youtube, browse the web, listen to music, text multiple times, and talked on the phone for about half an hour, and it's at 71% battery life.

Are you talking about push notifications or push email? Those are two different things.

Also, with my 3G, I got better battery life after a couple of months than I did when I bought it at launch. I had to get it replaced in December (the screen glass started to come loose) and I'm now getting better battery life than I did the first couple of weeks.

My settings were and still are: 3G off, Bluetooth off, Location Services off. All I did was turn off mail notifications and my battery life is dramatically longer.

Why have a 3G S (or even just a 3G) if you're going to have all that turned off? If I were you I'd sell the one you have now for a bundle and buy a used 2G iPhone.

 

[miniConvert]

I have a 3GS with both MobileMe push email and Google IMAP fetching every 15 minutes. Battery life is comparable to the 3G.

 

[mikeev]

Add me to the list. First day of full use of my 3GS was like this:

DAY 1:
8pm- 100%. Gmail Push = ON, Bluetooth = OFF, 3G = ON, Wifi = ON

Used iPod function on and off for most of the day. Got maybe 5 e-mails. 8-9 hours of work the phone was on Wifi.

Battery was at 10% by the time I got home at 6:30pm.


DAY 2: Same settings. Was down to 70% by lunch. Turned off Push e-mail (in favor of 30 minute fetch) and I seem to be holding better in the mid-60% range 2.5 hours later.

 

[d21mike]

DAY 1:
8pm- 100%. Gmail Push = ON, Bluetooth = OFF, 3G = ON, Wifi = ON
DAY 2: Same settings. Was down to 70% by lunch. Turned off Push e-mail (in favor of 30 minute fetch) and I seem to be holding better in the mid-60% range 2.5 hours later.

Since there is no support for Gmail Push. Did you go from Gmail Fetch every 15 min to every 30 min?

 

[uberamd]

I have 3 IMAP accounts setup to fetch every 15, and a MobileMe account on PUSH. I have bluetooth off, location on, wifi on. The battery will last me all day, and after 18 hours I still have around 35% left.

 

[mikeev]

Since there is no support for Gmail Push. Did you go from Gmail Fetch every 15 min to every 30 min?

Whoops- My mistake. Yes, I did do that, but I can't see how that would make such a huge difference. This tells me one of two things- if push is on it is still somehow "active" even if it's not being used (?). I'd call that a pretty serious software bug. OR, these batteries really do take one or two complete cycles to get "broken in". No MobileMe or Exchange running on this phone (yet).

It's been almost 3 hours since lunch and I'm at 58%. Got one phone call, checked a couple things, and have been listening to the NIN app over WiFi for an hour. I'll report back to see where I am at 6:30pm.

 

[mikeev]

Whoops- My mistake. Yes, I did do that, but I can't see how that would make such a huge difference. This tells me one of two things- if push is on it is still somehow "active" even if it's not being used (?). I'd call that a pretty serious software bug. OR, these batteries really do take one or two complete cycles to get "broken in". No MobileMe or Exchange running on this phone (yet).

It's been almost 3 hours since lunch and I'm at 58%. Got one phone call, checked a couple things, and have been listening to the NIN app over WiFi for an hour. I'll report back to see where I am at 6:30pm.

At 6:30 it was at 28%. This was with 4 hours, 56 minutes of usage, and 10 hours, 22 minutes of standby. (It would be useful if we all posted these #'s from our settings page when we give our batt %). This is definitely better than yesterday, but I don't know what my usage figures were. Qualitatively, it was a similar day.

uberamd, how long have you had the phone? Your phone battery sounds like it's in crazy good shape.

 

[DarkJaye]

At 6:30 it was at 28%. This was with 4 hours, 56 minutes of usage, and 10 hours, 22 minutes of standby. (It would be useful if we all posted these #'s from our settings page when we give our batt %). This is definitely better than yesterday, but I don't know what my usage figures were. Qualitatively, it was a similar day.

uberamd, how long have you had the phone? Your phone battery sounds like it's in crazy good shape.

That battery life is pretty decent, about what I'd expect (about 5-6 hours usage).

Anyway, I found out something pretty interesting the other day. This problem might not be push related at all, rather, it could be a bug in the Mail app. Yesterday I was tethering via USB and I noticed that my battery was not charging and was in fact going down, even when plugged in! I chalked that up to the 3G using tons of power to tether, but at night (after I had let it get back to 100%) I left the phone unplugged by my bedside. Next day, the phone was at 40% (no usage, just standby)

So I restarted the phone, not only is it significantly cooler in the back, but it charges while plugged in and tethering and the battery seems to be fine.

Reading on other forums, some with a similar problem on their jailbroken phone said they solved it by running a processes application and closing the Mail process which for some reason was running at high CPU. Once they closed it all was well again.

It's something to keep in mind, if you're noticing suboptimal battery life and the back of the phone is warm it could be a rogue process draining it slowly.

Oh, and for the record, I have an iPhone 3G.