Has Apple acknowledged the battery problem with new 3Gs?

Also, I remember quite clearly that I saw a marked improvement in battery life after using my 3G for a week to 10 days...... We'll see!

Hi, Allen; There's definitely a software problem in 3.0 that causes very rapid battery drain (and a hot phone) for some owners. I had this problem the first 2 days after upgrading my Classic iPhone. I deleted my Exchange account, then added it back and the problem was fixed. During those 2 days, even though I had barely used the phone, my data usage was 50 MB, about half of what I normally run in a month. Further, putting the phone next to a speaker to catch the "GSM buzz" I could tell the phone was transmitting continuously, which would account for the rapid battery discharge and the heat.

I say some owners, because of the dozen or so phones in my office mine was the only one with the problem. We all use the same Exchange server, so that eliminates the server as the root cause.

My fix works for some, but not all owners. So there is still some detective work to do.

It isn't related to services; I could turn off push, WiFi, Bluetooth, Location, and it would still happen. It was similar to the problem that some people experienced with 2.0, that Apple fixed with 2.1.

best regards,
Larry

Lol...you must be new to Apple products...Apple never acknowledges anything. If you call them about anything, they claim thats the first time they have heard of it.

I have similar issues. It may relate to push, though that doesn't seem to be the whole picture.

I'd love to get this sorted out or at least attempt to understand what's going on. Would happily run the logging app / mobileconfig. It seems like there's something unexpected going on that didn't occur in testing and I'm sure it's fixable. Apple just needs data help debug it.

Wonder whether something gets left over if you upgrade from a previous phone?

George

George Harker wrote:

Wonder whether something gets left over if you upgrade from a previous phone?

That sounds likely to me. A change in the metadata structure for email accounts or other communications apps that is now using storage that had not been used in the previous release, and thus was not initialized and contained random data. I've encountered this type of problem many times over the past xx years in the business. If you were lucky enough to have no conflicting data in that area you didn't see any problems. If this is the case then doing a restore as a new phone should fix it, although that is probably going further than is necessary. For me deleting and then adding back my Exchange account fixed it (rebooting between the delete and add). This has worked for some, but not all people who have reported the problem.

I think the problem is less common than the number of reports would imply; if your phone works perfectly after the upgrade you are unlikely to post and say so. And with 6 million upgrades completed as of 2 days ago and probably many more through today if the problem was very widespread there would be many thousands of reports, not the few hundred we have seen.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I think the problem is less common than the number of reports would imply; if your phone works perfectly after the upgrade you are unlikely to post and say so. And with 6 million upgrades completed as of 2 days ago and probably many more through today if the problem was very widespread there would be many thousands of reports, not the few hundred we have seen.

Exactly and well put.

I use my new phone a lot with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled. I would say based on my usage lately (playing with the new stuff), the battery life is about the same (3G vs 3Gs). Didn't notice any BIG change either way. My phone always finds the cradle at the end of the day and all is good. For that particular day when there may be heavy usage then my phone my finds the cig charger.

Anyone with a laptop knows that this is life. If you're not plugged into the wall you're going to run out of power before you are done. The iPhone is the same as a laptop but, a whole lot smaller. A lot cooler too.

I have been reading all the responses to the battery problems with the new 3Gs because I too notice that the battery life on my new iPhone doesn't last very long either. And I don't even use it! I guess I'm going to have to take a trip to the Apple store and see what they can do for me.

McMan wrote:
Look, I had all these features (wifi, 3g) on my old 3G and the battery seemed just fine!

Apple claims the new 3Gs has a BETTER battery! Well, that does not seem to be the case on mine and many others!

All you Apple "fan boys" can say all you want and stick up for Apple. I believe there are problems with the batteries in some of the new phones!

Not agreeing with you or experiencing your problem does not make one a "Fan Boy"

I will take mine to the apple store to see about a replacement.

As you should! Good luck.

Phil

The battery on my week 23 iPhone 3G S was draining very quickly along with a yellow tint to the display. I exchanged my iPhone for a new week 24 unit, no tint on screen haven't charged it yet, battery was showing 74% at 12p.m when it was taken out the box, I have had Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, Location services and Push enabled since setting up, I have used it quite a lot today and the battery is showing 47% at 22:41 (time of writing this).

Much better battery performance over my first 3G S

necronym wrote:
The battery on my week 23 iPhone 3G S was draining very quickly along with a yellow tint to the display. I exchanged my iPhone for a new week 24 unit, no tint on screen haven't charged it yet, battery was showing 74% at 12p.m when it was taken out the box, I have had Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, Location services and Push enabled since setting up, I have used it quite a lot today and the battery is showing 47% at 22:41 (time of writing this).

Much better battery performance over my first 3G S

Great! So, if you have this problem, take it back. Problem solved. Quit complaining.

Close this post.

Perception is reality. I think I perceive my battery drains faster when I have the % indicator on. I can watch the percentage drain from 100% to 90% and think how I have already used 10% of the juice. If I just look at the green battery icon, it looks as if I have just a small dent in the stored power.

hello to all, even in italy we have this problem, the battery lasts only 5-6 hours. forum on the Italian news is that the apple has sent an app to American holders of iphone. this app is called battery life logging. right? you know give me some more information?

SO I have been hearing some real horror stories about battery life on the iphone and decided to put mine through its paces in stages and for 9hour periods.

*Test 1: iPod*
First I switched all push notifications off, wifi off and 3g off. Then I put an album on continuous loop through my head phones while i slept. So from approx 1am to 10am it played Amy winehouse.

Result
Excellent, only used 25% over that 9 hour period and having 75% left when i woke up was a surprise as my ipod photo 20gb was about that good almost.

*Test 2: All features (minus wifi & 3G)*
I switched off Wifi as was on my travels around the city so need in having it one. Used 3G a little for facebook and maps (about 20mins altogether) although it was running for the first 3hours of my day but in standby so not using much. Then I switched off 3G but was making a whole bunch of calls before and after while listening to iPod and surfing the net, checking news, facebook uploading several pictures, taking several more.

Result
Acceptable, was left with 35/40% of my battery left which is not great but when you consider how much i have used it and how bad phones like the n95 were in the same situation it stands out. Also I still haven't conditioned my battery yet (drain it completely and then fully charge several times) so i expect at least a 5-10% increase in battery life. Obviously wifi and 3g usage drain the battery to buggery ....wifi more than 3g to be honest so i only use them when i need to, for me edge is fine as i only browse the net but sometimes i will need 3g. I will do a 3g test soon.

Hope this was helpful and I will post further results after conditioning.

Greetings,

No issues here, it works as advertised - you have something else wrong. You may have a runaway app of some sort, do you have a jail-broke phone and some bad apps on it?

We have a 3G and a 3Gs and our battery life is as it's suppose to be. I see a lot of folks complaining about it, but the few I've worked with, had bad apps causing it to be in a loop, and the phone just needed a reset, after the app was removed and they have been good to go ever since.

A factory reset may also be in order. A full calibration may help.

Good Luck All - Cheers,
M.
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