iPhone suddenly draining batteries - troubleshooting tips?

Question

Level 1

9 points

iPhone suddenly draining batteries - troubleshooting tips?

I've had my iPhone for about 8 months and the battery have never had a problem making it through the day. Usually its at about 50% at the end of the day. I went on a road trip on April 29 and after about 4 hours the battery was at about 20%. I assumed it was because of searching for the nearest network while traveling. However, ever since, back at home the best I can get out of the battery is 6-8 hours and that with almost no use - 5-10 minutes talking, no browsing, checking email for <5 minutes and with push services off, fetch new data off, and bluetooth off. I haven't added any new apps in that time but several have had updates. I tried restoring the phone and that hasn't helped. I had the battery checked at the local Apple store and it appears to be ok.

It looks like I'll have to try a restore as new phone and add back apps 1-by-1. Since some of the data on the phone can't be backed up offline I'd rather avoid that if at all possible. Are there any other ways to try to identify if a particular app is behaving badly and running in the background and draining the battery.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 10, 2009 5:24 AM

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Answer 1

markdr

Level 1

91 points

May 10, 2009 7:56 AM in response to Seablayne

Check to make sure your locations services is off. That happened to me recently, all of a sudden my batt started draining like crazy. Apparently when I went to use an app (not sure which, maybe the camera app from the app store) it must have turned on, or I inadvertantly turned it on and forgot about it.
Turned it back off and my batt is norm again.

Hope that resolves it

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Answer 2

Tamara

Level 6

13,738 points

May 10, 2009 8:11 AM in response to Seablayne

Try letting the battery drain all the way down until the phone only displays the charge request and then fully charge it. This will recalibrate the battery.

Also, try a reset (hold the sleep/wake & home button until the Apple logo appears).

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Answer 3

May 10, 2009 8:36 AM in response to Seablayne

Hi Seablayne,

For general battery life tips take a look at this article: http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

If you suspect a third-party application is draining your battery there isn't much you can do to narrow it down beyond installing apps one-by-one and observing performance.

You should make sure you are running the latest version of iPhone OS (currently 2.2.1). Also, make sure that all of your applications are fully updated.

Restoring you phone resolves lots of issues, including battery life. If none of the above resolves your issues try that.

Enjoy your morning,
Brandon H.

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Answer 4

Seablayne Author

Level 1

9 points

May 10, 2009 6:41 PM in response to Brandon H.

Thanks for the responses. I've already tried all of the suggestions including restoring. All of my apps are fully up to date, and since I haven't added any new apps for a while I suspects that one of the updates may actually be the issue. I sure wish better diagnostic tools were available.

So it looks my most likely option at this point is to do "restore as new phone" which will collaterally wipe out data that some apps don't allow off-phone backups of. I'd be curious to see if others are having the same problem since the guy I spoke to at the Genius Bar said he has been having the same problem and it started at around the same time.

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Answer 5

Phlstj

Level 1

0 points

May 10, 2009 6:57 PM in response to Seablayne

Same problem here...

Turn off 3G - 3G really ***** your battery..
Turn off Location Services..
Turn off your screen Auto Brightness...

Same complaints by many many people... I must charge my phone daily..

Regards,
A 3 month experianced Iphone user.

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Answer 6

Seablayne Author

Level 1

9 points

May 11, 2009 6:28 AM in response to Phlstj

As I mentioned before, I already have location services off. Turning off auto-brightness won't do much since I usually have the screen turned off anyway. Turning off 3G is not an option. I'm in Japan so No 3G means no networks and no calls. It's not a matter of good energy management habits, this is a drastic change in performance that started 2 weeks ago after 8 months of no problems.

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Answer 7

dilipc

Level 1

50 points

May 11, 2009 6:44 AM in response to Seablayne

When I keep push on at night, my fully charged iPhone drains to about 50% of capacity when I wake up. However, with push (and locations services) off, there is hardly any drain on the battery through the night.

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Answer 8

May 11, 2009 12:16 PM in response to Seablayne

I'm having the exact same issue. 8 months with my 3G. No problems with battery life until a few days ago when it started draining like crazy even when it's in "sleep mode".

I did the complete discharge-charge thing and that solved the issue for like 2 days. I just turned off locations and we'll see if that helps.

I did go into Settings > General and it says my Usage (not Standby but USAGE) is for 3.15 hours today which is crazy since I'm at work and have only been on it to check email and facebook for about 20 minutes total.

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Answer 9

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

May 11, 2009 12:35 PM in response to luv_my_macs

The Usage is only reset to zero when you fully charge the battery.

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Answer 10

Seablayne Author

Level 1

9 points

May 12, 2009 6:36 AM in response to paulcb

I finally ferreted out the offending application. It's Evernote.

The last time the desktop version was updated it must have set the default synching to "automatic". After I set synching to "manual" my battery life is back to it's usual levels. There was nothing that I could have changed from the iPhone side, the setting was on the desktop version. Before last night, I wasn't even aware that the app had user controllable synch settings.

I sure wish there was a way from the iPhone side to identify which apps are are synching even if they aren't set to do so by any of the iPhone settings. Some kind of record of the sync log (with synching apps identified) could have saved a lot of trial and error.

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Answer 11

Jun 10, 2009 2:15 AM in response to Seablayne

@ Seablane - nice work isolating the app (most people don't bother to follow-up once their problems are gone).

Your post is nearly verbatim to my scenario: decent battery life for about 8 mos, then this last week it started to drain within a couple hours. I haven't had "official" diagnostics run, but I really don't think the battery is the real problem. It's gotta either be a specific app or power mgmt is going haywire. I restored it the other day, but the issue persists.

I have recently purchased a couple photo-editing apps (directly from iPhone), which I was beginning to implicate. I also have Evernote installed on iPhone and MacBook Pro (Uni), but sync setting on desktop version was already set to "manual". Evernote.app on iPhone did have sync over cellular network enabled, which I think I previously set to Wifi only. This should reduce battery drain somewhat, but I can't imagine too much.

I also notice that iPhone it hotter than usual as I wake it from standby (in my case), which makes me think it's not really reducing power consumption in standby mode.

It's really frustrating on top of having a "dead zone" throughout my house. I have to go outside to make/receive call or check voicemail--sheesh!

I promise to report back if/when I resolve my battery problem.

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Answer 12

Jun 11, 2009 2:49 AM in response to Seablayne

It IS the battery. If you have an apple store near you, you can take your phone there and they will check it on the spot. If it shows that the battery is bad, they will give you a new one for free, provided that you either purchased the phone within the last 30 days or have the Apple warranty. If you don't have an Apple store close by, call them and see what you should do. Good luck 🙂

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Answer 13

Jun 11, 2009 2:52 AM in response to Seablayne

I would not recommend doing that. It IS your battery. Apple still hasn't fixed the "battery problem" as of yet. Trust me, it is the battery.

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