Battery Issues with 3.0.1

It should NEVER be hot, although it can be warm sometimes. Try Reset Network Settings, then reboot. If you have any Push email accouts (MS Exchange, Yahoo or MobileMe) delete those accounts, reboot. See if it still gets hot. If it doesn't add the email accounts back, wait for them to sync, charge fully, and test again.

If none of these steps fix it and if you have not done so already, Restore again, and choose to SET UP AS A NEW PHONE; do NOT restore your backup. This should fix the problem. If it doesn't you have a hardware problem and the phone must be replaced.

Lawrence,

I appreciate all your suggestions to fix the battery issue some people are having with their phones. My issue is that we shouldn't have to go through all these hoops to fix a problem that either appeared after the 3.0.1 update or got worse. My standard method of trouble shooting any problem is to first determine what has changed before the problem started. If nothing else has changed (email accounts, adding apps, settings, etc...) then the problem has to lie with the update or some corruption during the update process. Unfortunately iTunes doesn't save multiple backups (as far as I can tell) so I can't restore my phone to it's state from say, last week or before that. The backup that happened before the 3.0.1 update is now gone and I'm left with the extremely inconvenient option of starting out fresh. For me it's just annoying. For those without my skill set it must seem daunting, to say the least. While I'm new to the Mac world I've noticed that Apple is much like IBM or Windows in that they don't admit error and at best simply offer a patch to fix a problem. Hopefully that patch will come along soon. I'm not going to run my iPhone with 2/3rds of it turned off just to get a full day's use out of it. I'll charge it whenever I can through the day as I did with my 3G but Apple really needs to address this issue even if it's just a perception problem with users who are used to a phone that you can use for a full day without it going dry. That's the only thing I miss about my BlackBerry...really, the only thing.

Message was edited by: Networxs

I have another idea. Just turn the battery percentage meter off. It seems to be making everyone crazy and obsessed.

Ok, I've done a factory reset and right now have the iPhone hooked up to my Macbook Pro as it sync's my music back on. As this has been going on the battery icon shows fully charged with a power plug in the icon. However, the battery percentage has been dropping from 100% to 92% over the last half hour, WHILE the phone is attached to my Mac!!! Tell me something isn't wrong here? There has to be an issue with either the update or my phone is dying.
Thoughts?

Is the iPhone connected directly to a USB port on the back of the Mac, or is it connected to the keyboard port or a hub? It sounds like the phone isn't getting enough power from the USB. If it is connected directly to the back then you have a hardware problem with the phone.

You didn't say if you set up as a new phone or if you are restoring from backup. If it's from backup it could still be software. If this is the case create a new user on your Mac, log in as that user and restore the phone as a new phone (new user so you don't overwrite the backup that you already have). See it it holds a charge. Then go back to your regular user to reload your music.

Guys i have the same issue. I have a 32 gig 3gs and since the upgrade it is getting really warm during chargeing. And sometimes gets HOT in my belt clip. I've tried everything. all the resets and everything else. Still not working right. I also notice the camera seems to not look as good as it did either. I cant beleve that apple has not said anything about this since it seems to be a real problem. I'm debateing if i should go to the apple store tomorrow and see if they will give me a new phone. Since it seems the 3.1 software is no where near release.
Anyone haveing any luck with getting new hardware?

If you do a Restore and set up as a new phone and the problem does not go away Apple will replace the phone. Their diagnostic software can determine if you have done the Restore.

To do a Restore as a new phone without losing your backup do it on a different computer, or create a new user on your computer to do the restore.

I may have a solution for those having battery issues with your iPhone 3Gs. I talked to Rogers today and apparently when I upgraded to my 3Gs I used an old SIM card that had been mine since my first Treo 600. The iPhone 3Gs needs a current 4000 series SIM card to function properly, or so says Rogers. I had a bunch of SIM cards lying around the shop from upgrading my clients to the iPhone so Rogers assigned one of them to my account and so far so good. Charged my phone and it's been holding at 100% for an hour now even with a little email use. I'll let everyone know if this is a real fix after 24 hours of testing.

I admit I haven't read this whole thread, but suddenly this morning my 3GS is running down the battery like crazy and getting warm. It seems like most issues here were around the 3.0.1 upgrade, but I've been running that since it came out and haven't had any problems until today. I've restarted the phone a couple times, but just went out for a walk at lunch (maybe about 45 minutes) after which the fully charged phone was down to 82% charge with no use at all. Normally in the morning I take the train/walk to work for about an hour, listening to podcasts, and the phone will be at 95-96% when I get to work. This morning it was 68%. As I said, I have not had anything like this until, suddenly, right now. Anyone else have something along these lines, not tied (at least not directly) to upgrading the firmware? If so, any suggestions? I use push corporate email, and have notifications on, but this has been the case the entire time I've had the phone, I haven't really changed my usage pattern at all.

My battery started running down after the 3.0.1 update but not immediately. Like you it just started one day for no reason. I haven't had the problem of the battery getting warm though and that isn't a good sign. I'd phone your carrier or take the phone into an Apple store to see if it isn't a hardware issue. My fix with using a current SIM card seems to be related to me only. Good luck m8

What's happening is some app is continuously polling the internet. It could be mail, Safari (if it is on a page that refreshes) or any app that uses Notifications. To narrow the problem go to Settings and if you see an entry for Notifications turn it off then go to each of the apps that were listed launch it and force-quit it (hold HOME and SLEEP until "Slide to Power Off" appears. Then hold HOME only until the app closes. If this doesn't fix it try force-quitting Mail. And then Safari.

Thanks, I wasn't familiar with "force quitting" apps, I'll experiment and see if that helps.

I too started this battery drain issue this morning. iPhone 3GS has worked perfectly then all of a sudden started draining very fast this morning. Tried hard reset and several other things. The other strange thing is the battery percentage jumps around. Goes from like 90% to 75% then back to 95%. ***. I guess I will try a restore, but I think my battery is toast or going to be very shortly.

I wanted to confirm that the notifications off/force quit worked for my sudden battery drain/heat problem. I separately turned off notifications for each app that had them available, then force-quit each of those apps along with Mail and Safari. Interestingly, Mail seemed to lose and redownload all my messages after this. I then reset the phone, and the battery life is back to normal. Thanks for the tip!

My 3gs is 10 days old and I'm experiencing the somewhat fast battery discharge too. I had no applications installed, no mail, push, location s., 3g, wifi, notifications all off. The battery was completely drained and recharged two times.

For example, fully charged put on standby overnight -> morning: 97%.

Wrote one sms in the morning-> 96%.

Used safari over edge (as wifi and 3g is turned off) for 15 minutes-> 91%

One call and three texts later ->89% (icon lost a pixel row too)

Barely managed to get it home with some charge left.

Two days ago I fully charged it and immediately wrote two texts -> 98%


But that would probably somewhat acceptable to a user who had his first iphone. But I have iphone 2G for almost 2 years now, and I did completely the same test and the difference is staggering. The battery indicator stayed full for at least twice the load. And one of the reasons for getting a 3gs was that the battery life on my old iphone was considerably shortened with time.


Of course I did try all the suggestions (reset all settings+redownload firmware+restore as new etc) but nothing of that worked. I seriously doubt that the problem mentioned in the tread is really connected with "corrupted backup". The problem may be software related but as far as I'm concerned it makes no difference to me. I'll probably return it next week if nothing goes any better. I'm not even sure if I'll wait for the "repair" because those take a month here.