Turn Off Time-Zone Sensing To Improve iPhone Battery Life?

[Amazing Iceman]

I have noticed that on my iPad 1 a couple of days after I installed iOS 5. My battery was draining fast sometimes, and I also noticed that it kept trying to synchronize the time.
I'm sure they will fix it soon.

 

[silver8ack]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A334)

Every time I've checked the Time Zone location service has not been used within 24 hours. So it's not it for me.

 

[cameronjpu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Doesn't work, despite every tech website on the face of the earth claiming it does.

What DOES work is turning off just about every feature that is new to iOS 5. It's obviously just a bug that Apple will fix ASAP because the betas didn't drain like this.

What's clear is that anyone telling you that any one thing works for everyone, or as you did above, that a fix doesn't work, is lying.

This problem clearly has multiple causes and multiple fixes. I wish people would stop proclaiming or panning any specific fix - what worked for you WILL NOT work for everyone, and what failed for you WILL work for others.

This actually worked for me. I made it through today and now have 20% remaining at 1130 pm which is almost exactly what I was used to with my usage pattern. I'm happy!

 

[adamoadam]

I turned mine of and only left the search for cell tower thing on. Seemed to help some bit. The only thing that now seems to eat my battery 3G usage and listening to music. I just pray its not a hardware problem and whatever is going on is just some software glitch.

 

[eltoko]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Just turn your phone off.

I lol'ed

 

[daveup2bat]

iPhone 4S and the "S"..

S stands for Suck battery life to zero !! Seriously, thank god I have one of those Mophie Battery extenders or this thing wouldn't last a day...

What's the point of having a phone with all these new cool features, if you have to disable them all just to keep the thing ON... silly.

We need a fix not a turn this off and turn that off suggestions.. Come on!

----------

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)



I lol'ed

Now we just need to wait for one of those awesome unauthorized Apple Movies that show up on Youtube! Seriously!

 

[Nalim]

I had the crappy battery life just like most everyone else here. Did as some others wrote and completely drained it until it shut off then recharged completely to 100% and did that three times in a row. Today with normal use at the end of the day there is still 50% left. If you haven't yet tried this do it and see if it helps. It only helped after the 3rd battery drain. 3rd times a charm I guess.

So there may be something to be said for recalibrating the battery, although I have no idea why that should be required for a brand new phone, that should have been done at the factory if that is what it takes to make the battery work normally.

 

[Jweldredge1]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm not one to post often, but I have to agree with a previous comment.
This may or may not be an issue affecting lots of people.
I have a 4S and a 3GS.
With the same settings and same use, the 4S lasts substantially longer.
I take that back, I have turned off all notifications with the 4S. Can't stand being interrupted all the time. But I do have the auto time zone on.

 

[chairguru22]

You can turn off all of those features basically. I did and haven't noticed a change to my daily used apps.

 

[hexx]

how about Find my Friends app, every time somebody wants to stalk you it needs to get your location - could this be the cause? way too many stalkers as your friends?

 

[slu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I don't really notice any battery issues on my iPhone 4 with ios5. But I don't display the battery percent so I don't obsess about it. I did just turn off location based iAds though, so I was happy to see this post.

 

[rtkane]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

My settings were showing the compass calibration as active. Let's hope shutting it off also helps me.

 

[justinfreid]

Stand by for.....battery drain

I turned this feature off just as a catchall; next time I switch time zones I'll turn it back on. But what I have noticed is that the 4+ day reduction in standby time on the 4S vs. the 4 is a big deal, especially since I don't use 3G voice all together that often.

 

[ed724]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

FWIW, letting the battery go dead and charging it completely seemed to work for me. I haven't turned off any settings and I get "close to iphone4" battery life.
The battery % indicator is complete B.S.
I can watch a whole TV show at 1% remaining.

Thats because the battery indicator is not calibrated, The % indicator is not exact but its relatively close, so saying its complete B.S., is complete B.S.

 

[sswanky]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Turned off the time setting and compass calibration last night. Been using my iPhone 4 for 12 minutes and haven't lost a single percentage point yet. Hmm. Will keep an eye on this today.

Pause...

15 mins, no loss. Wow.

Update:

Yes, better standby life today

 

[Risco]

I was unsure about this workaround. However it seems to have made quite a big difference. I have been pretty heaving using ( games and internet, plus a few texts ) and it currently has 1 day and 5hrs standby with 5hrs and 3mins usuage.

Of course, it is nowhere near the stellar battery life of my iPhone 4 ( used to last 3 days! ) I do however have faith in Apple fixing this, along with improving overall battery life.

 

[gnozh]

No good.

 

[mms13]

My battery life was HORRIBLE when I first got my iphone 4S. What really worked for me.....draining my battery completely, then charging to 100% nonstop....I have better battery life than my iphone 4 now. My phone's battery just keeps going now!

People should know by now that this is standard procedure with any lithium-ion battery. Out of the box, they aren't really calibrated. But they ARE 'smart' batteries. At first, the percentage indicator doesn't really know what is 0%, which is why a lot of people will notice it hanging at 1% for a long time. After you let it die though, it knows where dead = 0%.

 

[mlmwalt]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

This hasn't helped me in the least.

 

[justperry]

People should know by now that this is standard procedure with any lithium-ion battery. Out of the box, they aren't really calibrated. But they ARE 'smart' batteries. At first, the percentage indicator doesn't really know what is 0%, which is why a lot of people will notice it hanging at 1% for a long time. After you let it die though, it knows where dead = 0%.

No its not SMART batteries, its the electronic power manager inside the phone which is responsible for that.

Also, few people claim that the batteries get better after a few times discharge, again its as the above poster said the calibration process which is responsible for that.

 

[mlmwalt]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

This hasn't helped me in the least.

 

[ryan2714]

Just noticed mine had constantly been active.. Turning it off now

mine doesnt even have a grey icon next to it and its turned on. i dont think this is why batteries are being drained, theres def a bug or other issue in iOS 5.

 

[DavidLeblond]

This is odd, I too have not noticed any significant battery drain since updating my iPhone 4 to iOS 5. So I peeked at the Time Zone setting and it was on, yet had no arrow next to it (purple OR gray.)

Those with the purple arrow, what carrier are you on? Just curious.

 

[charlituna]

Tried it last week and haven't seen it make a difference

Then that isn't your problem.

From reports it seems like for most folks the issue has been setting up the phone from a backup of either previous hardware, iOS 4 or both. wiping the phone back to factory and setting it up as new results in no to much much fewer issues.

it's because of this that I never set up from a back up when I switch hardware or major iOS releases. I always work fresh.

now I have already turned off time zones, about 2/3 of the location services etc. but mainly cause they are pointless or creepy (does Safari really need to know my location). I also turn off wifi and 3g data when I'm off somewhere that I know I can't connect like the middle of the desert on a shoot. So I can often go all day (and i'm talking 14 hour days) with only 20-25% loss in my battery on my iPhone.

if you don't want to go full hog on a complete restore, some folks are saying that just resetting their settings has purged whatever was crappy things up for them. try it.

 

[Friscohoya]

This worked really well for me. I went from phone going from full charge while I was aasleep to dead to now only a few percentage points lost.