VERY VERY Poor Battery Life

I turned off the MMS a couple of days ago, along with location services and the battery life is quite a bit better. I don't think it is location services, as I previously had it on and it didn't cause a faster battery drain. But to be sure after I charge up next time I will put location services on again and see. But it really does seem like it is the MMS.

I too was having the battery issue. was checking some football scores thru the espn app and watched my battery drop 40% in under 3 hours, i hadn't made any calls on it or recieved any texts. all the services were turned off (Bluetooth, wifi, push, location)I had bought the phone 3 weeks ago and did the upgrade to 3.1 on the same day. and never had decent battery life. I returned the phone and got a new one, not refurbished. this phone already had the 3.1.1 upgrade on it, I charged the battery for 2 hours and it lasted for 4 days before i charged it again last thursday, and i just finally recharged it this morning. I have not done the ATT update yet since i'm getting great battery life.

I will now not be doing any updates unless i read positive reviews on it for at least 2 weeks. other wise it'll remain the way it is now.

I agree...my battery life is very poor. I've hads the 3GS for 3 weeks with all the updates and all I seem to do is run for the charger

ever since i updated my phone to 3.1 and MMS i have had horrible battery life.

I never make more then four calls a day and they are all under five minutes, i do very little text messaging, and i only use safari and other web apps when I don't have a computer nearby, which is rare.

Hey,
Couple of things to check to increase battery life:
1) Is your iPhone JailBroken?
2) What is your screen brightness?
3) How many apps are installed on your iPhone?
4) Is "Location Services" turned off?
5) Is Bluetooth turned off?
6) Is "Auto-Brightness" turned off?
7) I would reconmend that you have a "Auto-Lock" timer on.

Basically, the more you options you have turned on, the more battery power you will use.

Hope this helps!

It not jailbroken
the brightness is below 50%
I have less then about 4.5 pages of apps including the default ones
most of the tine location services is off, I only turn it on when driving long distances
Bluetooth is off
auto brightness is also off
and my screen is always off when I'm not using it

From what I've read the battery issue is pretty common in 3.1.

This is my other account sorry for the confusion

Message was edited by: cortozld

I don't know what to tell you then bro, other than i have found 3.1 actually rather decent when it comes to battery life.

There's just one thing bugging me (not related to this battery life postings) is that whenever i download and app off the App Store (on the iPhone itself) the application opens then closes within 2 seconds, very annoying!

If anyone has any idea, i would love to hear them!

I have rebooted about 5 times, and i just restored it. Other than that, i do not know what to do.

(Apple moderators who will read this, if you could help, that'd be sweet!)

Cheers!

I have been reading the Apple forums every chance I get to read up on battery life threads. What I've noticed, is that most of the people having these issues with battery life have bought their iPhones a while back when it didn't come default with the 3.1 firmware update. The people that bought the phones that came with the 3.1 update seem to have an exceptional battery that lasts 2-3 days with over 20 hours of usage or lasts for 4 days with 15+hours of usage. Anyone else find this true?

I think it has nothing to do with your MMS. The OS 3.1 is the main cause of your nightmare. You may want to downgrade it to 3.0 or 3.0.1 and see if this problem still exists.

I bought my iPhone 3GS this past Saturday and OS 3.1 was pre-installed but not the MMS settings. I am not impressed with the battery life. It seems to run down faster than my nearly 2 year old original iPhone. I was using WIFI and I have an Exchange email account. I don't use Bluetooth. I am turning off WIFI for the time being to see if it helps.

I updated my Phone a week ago and my phone will lose 10% Battery Life every hour on standby. WiFi off, Push on, Bluetooth Off, Screen Brightness is Mid Way. I have to keep my phone plugged in just to make it through the day. I'm wondering why did We Buy this phone if We have to turn everything Off???
(This is my 3rd Phone, I have had The Iphone,3g,and now the G3s)
Ok Apple What's the Deal???

[quote]
What a great idea! Let us know how it turns out.[/quote]

Snide comments won't calm people down, it will only exacerbate the issue.

You also won't stop people from posting "Apple fix this" by posting the feedback
URL. They're venting. Let them vent.

That being said, my battery life doesn't seem to have changed after updating to 3.1 (including carrier settings and MMS)....I have notifications on as well...still end up with 60% battery when I go to bed at night (and put it on the charger)...

Sorry you guys are having issues...and I hope it's resolved soon.

I've posted once before on this and believe that data / observations is better than anecdotal evidence. To that end I've been conducting an experiment each night. The phone is left in a known state with regard to which radios are on/off, Push, etc. I record the battery level and time before putting it down for the night and record the battery level and time first thing in the morning. During the night time tests some email arrives (generally 3-4 items) and some SMS messages are received (generally less than 2).

I'm on the Rogers Network in Canada running 3.1 (7C144) on a iPhone 3GS (Model MC145C). The Bluetooth headset is a Jawbone (2nd generation).

Configuration #1 - 3G on, Bluetooth off, Wifi off, Location off, Notification off, MobileMe on, other email on (30 min interval). Battery level drops about 2% / hour.

Configuration #2 - 3G off, Bluetooth off, Wifi off, Location off, Notification off, MobileMe on, other email on (30 min interval). Battery level drops about 3.8% / hour.

Configuration #3 - 3G off, Bluetooth on w/headset present and connected, Wifi off, Location off, Notification off, MobileMe on, other email on (30 min interval). Battery level drops about 4.3% / hour.

Despite what some have stated (including a Rogers rep), turning 3G off does not yield longer battery life. Yes, I am in a 3G service area, however, the coverage fluctuates between "3G" and "E" and on some occasions "O". It is mostly "3G".

I will continue with these night time tests using different radio combinations in an attempt to model battery behaviour.

More to come.

I fully charged my iPhone last night and by 5.40pm today it was flat, despite the fact I have sent two texts, made two phone calls and admittedly sent maybe 10 emails. Have turned off Push to try and make battery last longer.
This never happened with the first iPhone but 3G and 3GS seem to eat their batteries.

Not true, I bought my 3gs with 3.1 pre installed and battery life is half of my 3G with 3.0 installed.