What the heck is going on with my battery? Will Apple repair it?

[Sonic04GT]

I have had this phone since February when they released for Verizon. I made a road trip the other day and the phone was connected to my stereo for a few hours at a time, at 100%. After all, that's the point of having Pandora on my headunit, so my phone can stay connected and play music.

Well a day or 2 ago I noticed my battery life is a lot worse than it used to be.

This seems pretty terrible comparing to some other screenshots I've seen. And this is with moderate use, no games, maybe recording a video or two. It just seems to drain a lot faster than it did before the trip.

Anybody dealt with battery issues through Apple, after buying a phone from ATNT or Verizon?

 

[WordMasterRice]

You are going to get little to no help from Apple when your battery lasts a day and a half, especially when you are actually using the phone.

I wish I got that kind of battery life.

 

[DeaconGraves]

Were you using Pandora when you noticed these battery problems? Apple advertises 6 hours 3G use.

I wouldn't freak out if it just started in the past few days. If it becomes common though, I would take it in. If the battery is defective, Apple will replace it under warranty.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Were you using Pandora when you noticed these battery problems? Apple advertises 6 hours 3G use.

I wouldn't freak out if it just started in the past few days. If it becomes common though, I would take it in. If the battery is defective, Apple will replace it under warranty.

Nope, this was after the trip. Haven't connected it to my stereo since. Just been using my iPod Classic in the car until I figure this out.

Going to try a full cycle charge through one of those apps and see what happens.

I figured it might be a pain to deal with Apple, especially since this isn't TERRIBLE battery life but I noticed a steep dropoff and it's pretty upsetting. We'll see what happens over the next week.

I rarely ever talk on the phone and haven't been using the phone much in general lately. Well, nothing demanding at least.

 

[wordoflife]

To be honest, those numbers look fine. Most battery life problems are software related, so I'm not sure if they'll replace it other than tell you to restore and come back later.

Haha you've had your phone since February and have talked 10 hours longer than I have. And I last restored it in June 2010. lololol

 

[Sonic04GT]

To be honest, those numbers look fine. Most battery life problems are software related, so I'm not sure if they'll replace it other than tell you to restore and come back later.

Haha you've had your phone since February and have talked 10 hours longer than I have. And I last restored it in June 2010. lololol

Lol, and I rarely talk on the phone.

 

[Sonic04GT]

After a full cycle charge right before bed, I placed it on my night stand and woke up to find it surprisingly at 97%.

However, this was the result of little use, some texting, occasional web browsing here and there.

I used to be able to play Angry Birds for an hour and only lose around 10%.

20% in one hour? Probably end up taking it to Verizon and see what they can do. Good idea to completely restore the phone before going down there?

If I restore to a fresh start, will I be able to restore from a backup later on? Will it save my settings and game saves?

 

[s.hasan546]

I used to be able to play Angry Birds for an hour and only lose around 10%.

20% in one hour? Probably end up taking it to Verizon and see what they can do. Good idea to completely restore the phone before going down there?

If I restore to a fresh start, will I be able to restore from a backup later on? Will it save my settings and game saves?

Verizon can't do anything for you. Verizon stores are not suppose to troubleshoot any iphones. We're suppose to tell you to call apple/go to an apple store.

And that is pretty good battery life IMHO. I doubt apple would replace it for that reason. But than again you can go and complain about that and a few other "issues" like freezing up; etc and they will replace it.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Verizon can't do anything for you. Verizon stores are not suppose to troubleshoot any iphones. We're suppose to tell you to call apple/go to an apple store.

And that is pretty good battery life IMHO. I doubt apple would replace it for that reason. But than again you can go and complain about that and a few other "issues" like freezing up; etc and they will replace it.

I was just told that in another thread. I thought I saw something on Apple's website about contacting Verizon. Might be in reference to other issues.

Yeah, I'm going to mention it completely dropping signal occasionally. It did freeze up on me a couple days after I got the phone. Had to do the hard reset. I had an appointment at the Apple store for tomorrow but was going to contact Verizon first. I also need to back everything up anyway so I can give them a completely restored phone back, with no personal info on it.

Do I need to bring the box and accessories to the Apple store?

 

[Mlrollin91]

If you are getting more than 5 hours worth of usage Apple will not replace your phone. That is the minimum call out for a healthy battery. When they plug your phone in to run diagnostics it will tell them your average over the last 2 weeks.

 

[Sonic04GT]

If you are getting more than 5 hours worth of usage Apple will not replace your phone. That is the minimum call out for a healthy battery. When they plug your phone in to run diagnostics it will tell them your average over the last 2 weeks.

So I should play Angry Birds a lot for 2 weeks and then go? lol

That's BS though if I'm getting half the battery life I used to, and I've only had the phone for 4 months. I'll definitely give them a piece of my mind. I don't expect something I paid $300 for to degrade this quickly.

I've been using my phone as little as possible to see how good of a battery life I can get. Tomorrow I'll go back to normal use.

 

[WordMasterRice]

So I should play Angry Birds a lot for 2 weeks and then go? lol

That's BS though if I'm getting half the battery life I used to, and I've only had the phone for 4 months. I'll definitely give them a piece of my mind. I don't expect something I paid $300 for to degrade this quickly.

I've been using my phone as little as possible to see how good of a battery life I can get. Tomorrow I'll go back to normal use.

You did not get 10 hours of usage and 2 days of standby before, sorry but you just didn't. Your battery life is right in line with what it should be and apple would be foolish to give you another one.

 

[flipster]

I'm getting double your battery life 0.o, and I thought mine was bad.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

2 contradicting posts beside each other

 

[Shockwave78]

what is odd is that right after you restore your phone and set it up as new, you will get about 1hr of usage per 10% of battery life. But after about 3-4 days it goes down to the usual, about 30 minutes per 10% of battery use. I have done this about 15 times and its always the same result. You can clear your cache, reboot the phone, wipe all information and it still starts to drain the battery more after 4 or 5 days after that initial restore.

 

[French]

Man what are you all complaining about? Mine has been dying after 9 or so hours with less than 3 hours usage! If I could get an entire day out of it with usage I'd be thrilled.

 

[Mlrollin91]

OP: There are so many variables in getting good battery life, that is why Apple makes the 5 hour minimum. It can be anything from signal strength, to screen brightness or something running in the background that actually is running rather than frozen.

I get 7 hours of usage: 3G on (AT&T), auto brightness 50%, push mail,calendars and contacts off, most location services off, notifications off,WiFi off, bluetooth off and the list keeps goings, it depends on how you tweak your phone's settings.

 

[iceterminal]

I'm getting double your battery life 0.o, and I thought mine was bad.

Unless you're doing EXACTLY what the OP is doing, comparing your battery usage to his is pointless. Web browsing uses different amount of battery than watching videos, etc.
So unfortunately, comparing those numbers isn't an "apples to apples" comparison.

OP. Have you tried a simple restore as NEW and then put your apps, music, etc. on your phone? Or are you restoring from a back up?

 

[flipster]

Unless you're doing EXACTLY what the OP is doing, comparing your battery usage to his is pointless. Web browsing uses different amount of battery than watching videos, etc.
So unfortunately, comparing those numbers isn't an "apples to apples" comparison.

Idk, I'm happy with mine and we have the same service provider. I usually keep my brightness at 70-100% with e-mail push every hour, facebook push instant, and texts instant. I have spotlight search shut off, and about everything else off as well.

Right now I have the brightness at 100%, with iheartradio running in the background with facebook and web browsing. Everything is running in the multitask thing. Usage: 1:24 minutes, battery is at 92%. TBH though, some days battery is great, some days it isn't. One day I had it on 1 hour of usage, 3 hours on stand by with 100%! Today it is pod as well.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Unless you're doing EXACTLY what the OP is doing, comparing your battery usage to his is pointless. Web browsing uses different amount of battery than watching videos, etc.
So unfortunately, comparing those numbers isn't an "apples to apples" comparison.

OP. Have you tried a simple restore as NEW and then put your apps, music, etc. on your phone? Or are you restoring from a back up?

If I restore, it will be from a backup. I don't want to lose my game saves and such.

 

[darkside flow]

Your battery is 100% fine. Without a detailed hour by hour exact statement of app use and Internet (3G vs. Wifi) nobody is going to be able to tell you why it's going down lately. Cellular signal strength also affects battery life. One thing for sure is that Apple is going to check your stats and will either send you on your way or just give you a new device to appease you. Bottom line, it will return to these levels at least once in a while if you continue to use it the same way.

I can get 6 hours usage with a day and a half standby

OR

I can get 10 hours usage with 15 hours standby

.. and many other variables.


Restart your phone in the morning after a full overnight charge every day.

Once a month, completely drain your battery and fully recharge to recalibrate.

 

[flipster]

OP: We have the same service provider. You want to make your battery last really long? Try this.

1. Turn push e-mail to every 1 hour.

2. Go to Settings, Notifications. Now, turn off every app that uses them, besides Facebook (or whatever you preference is)

3. Let your battery completely drain to 0% (I'm talking keep using it until the thing shuts itself off)

4. Let the battery recharge for 10 hours.

5. Uncheck every spotlight search to turn it off. (Settings, General, Spotlight Search)

6. Put your brightness on 75% with auto brightness (it will adjust it for you, but keep it bright)

7. Keep wifi off.

8. Keep bluetooth off.

9. Leave the multitasking pane alone (I've learned that closing the apps does nothing to battery life to improve it)

Now, after your battery completely dies and recharges, you should enjoy insanely long battery life! This is what I did. We are both on Verizon too. I'm in an area with 4 out of 5 bars signal strength all the time, yours might differ. Anyway, those are my settings, and it barely changes the phone, it just shuts some extra crap off that most people never use. With those settings, I get this (as seen above).

 

[Sonic04GT]

OP: We have the same service provider. You want to make your battery last really long? Try this.

1. Turn push e-mail to every 1 hour.

2. Go to Settings, Notifications. Now, turn off every app that uses them, besides Facebook (or whatever you preference is)

3. Let your battery completely drain to 0% (I'm talking keep using it until the thing shuts itself off)

4. Let the battery recharge for 10 hours.

5. Uncheck every spotlight search to turn it off. (Settings, General, Spotlight Search)

6. Put your brightness on 75% with auto brightness (it will adjust it for you, but keep it bright)

7. Keep wifi off.

8. Keep bluetooth off.

9. Leave the multitasking pane alone (I've learned that closing the apps does nothing to battery life to improve it)

Now, after your battery completely dies and recharges, you should enjoy insanely long battery life! This is what I did. We are both on Verizon too. I'm in an area with 4 out of 5 bars signal strength all the time, yours might differ. Anyway, those are my settings, and it barely changes the phone, it just shuts some extra crap off that most people never use. With those settings, I get this (as seen above).

Thanks man I'll give those a try. I had 3 email accounts on push but never had an issue since I got the phone. I now have one, set to fetch hourly. We'll see what that does.

Notifications are already off except facebook badges and Viber alerts which I rarely use.

Spotlight search is already off. Wifi and Bluetooth are always off unless I'm downloading at app that requires Wifi.

My brightness is normally 100 but I'll do 75, and then try the 10 hour charge. I have one of those battery apps that supposedly does full cycle charging. May try that also.

Thanks again.

I just found it odd that this came out of nowhere. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me but I could have sworn I remember playing games for an hour and only losing about 10%.

 

[flipster]

Thanks man I'll give those a try. I had 3 email accounts on push but never had an issue since I got the phone. I now have one, set to fetch hourly. We'll see what that does.

My brightness is normally 100 but I'll do 75, and then try the 10 hour charge. I have one of those battery apps that supposedly does full cycle charging. May try that also.

Thanks again.

I just found it odd that this came out of nowhere. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me but I could have sworn I remember playing games for an hour and only losing about 10%.

Yeah, weird stuff happens. Letting it drain to 0%, and recharging it to 100% really does work. Keep the brightness between 65-75%. No need for 100% all the time !