FIX FOR: iPhone 4 battery draining fast, phone running hot

So what should i do is turn on diagnostic and usage, find which app most appear in the list, and once i know which app is, i better delete that app, am i correct? Can i just turn off app notification to stop them using my data so finally will solve my battery draining?

Unfortunately there is no option to check what app uses what, that's y we r screwed.

My husband and I fixed my Iphone4 ourselves 2 days ago from a battery "drain & heat" situation that escalated to the point where just 3 days ago I charged my phone to 100% at midnight, went to sleep, and awoke to a dead battery. After wanting to throw the phone (still under contract) out the window, my husband's calmer head prevailed and we did a few manipulations and now the phone is working better than I ever remember. I am still in a state of shock and dismay.

After reading several bloggers comments we decided to take some tough love measures. Below is what we did, but a few notations first. After first getting the phone back in June of 2011, we had purchased the "mBoxMail" app for hotmail since the "Mail" app back then was inadequate. In October (2012) I activated I-Cloud storage for the first time. In November (2012) I updated the software to "iOS 6" and three days ago updated to "iOS 6.1" (later that night was when I went from 100% battery at midnight to 0%...while I was sleeping). I've never had any music or video stored on the phone, and don't use Twitter or Facebook, but because we own an art gallery, I do have a number of photos of painting stored on the phone.

Now for the fix.

The main two things we did was to 1) delete every single app that did not come included with the original phone (including the "mBoxMail" we bought) while being careful to save my phone contact list, my photos, and our hotmail account with the phone's "mail" app and 2) we de-activated I-Cloud storage (which remains de-activated as we speak as we now fear that it does not "play well" with the IPhone 4...my contact list is backed up on my husband's MacBook Pro). These two things seemed to make the biggest difference. (Incidentally, I was relieved to discover that all the deleted apps have been stored in the "App Store" app under both "All" and "Not on this iPhone" just waiting to be re-added with a touch of the screen).

Then we did a number of other manipulations that we think may have all helped in small ways.

We went into the Safari app and deleted all the bookmarks and into Safari via "Settings" and cleared the browsing history and all cookies and data (something I've never done before on the phone...ever). We then went painstakingly through all the links in "Settings" with special attention to "notifications" and "location services" (which is under the "privacy" link) and turned off and de-activated everything that we thought was irrelevant or unnecessary.

Now the phone is holding an amazing charge (with the iOS6.1 software and no I-Cloud). I should have done some of this stuff a long time ago. In the last 24 hours, I have been bravely adding back and activating a few apps that I've been missing, with no dire consequences...so far!

I've never blogged before, but I hope this can help some other Iphone4 owners who aren't ready to trade up yet.

I spent some time at the Apple store and they did a complete refresh where you set your phone up as if it were new. Obviously you want to have backed up critical stuff before you do is, but the technique is to connect up to iTunes on your computer, hold both buttons for 8 sec, then release the top button and hold until it reboots. Do NOT choose to restore from backup on iTunes. Start as if it is a new phone. Once it is up and running, you can replace apps one by one or a small batch at a time. I did this and a) found out that I had way too many apps that I was not using and b) am back up and running with iCloud on and battery working well.

It may be that one or more apps is just churning and churning, and this cuts it off or that some app I have not put back on was the problem. It is tough love and several hours of work - I recommend that you take notes on what you have done so you can keep track. If at any point you start getting battery drain, you have found the culprit. This is the way that large systems are tested too. If you have an Apple store nearby, go there and have them hold your hand through the first steps.

I had the same problem on my iphone 4s and my wife's iphone5 and the heat and battery drain. I did shutting down apps, shutting down WiFi etc but the problem did not go away. So what fixed it was a a simple full shutdown, leave it alone for 5 minutes and restart from power up. Nothing else was needed.

Anyone else having this problem, try this simple way before going to the extremes.

I don't think many of us shut down our phones completely as we use literaly 24/7 (except maybe when on a plane). So all that was needed was a shutdown!!!

Is it normal when browsing via wifi my battery drain 1% every 5-6 minutes? I already reset to factory setting as a new phone and delete all my data and app (****). Since steve jobs was died, it looks nothing can say about apple, i miss this guy

Sie johan wrote:

Is it normal when browsing via wifi my battery drain 1% every 5-6 minutes? I already reset to factory setting as a new phone and delete all my data and app (****). Since steve jobs was died, it looks nothing can say about apple, i miss this guy

Yes, completely normal and with spec:

• Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G
• Standby time: Up to 225 hours
• Internet use: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 8 hours on LTE, up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 10 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 40 hours

Assuming you were using cellular data the spec says you should get 8 hours (480 minutes) of use. So from simple arithmetic if 480 minutes is 100%, then 480 divided by 100 is 4.8 minutes. So your battery should drop about 1% in 5 minutes.

For WiFi 10 hours is 600 minutes. By the same arithmetic the battery should drop 1% for every 6 minutes of use.

You just proved that the phone's specifications are accurate. I'm assuming you had an iPhone 5; for the 4S these numbers are lower.

Hello, I was given a "Power Bank for iPad/iPhone" , a portable charging device. Instructions are in Chinese.

Capacity: 5000mAh

Input: 5V, 1A

Output1: 5V, 1A

Output2: 5V, 500mA

By discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3511, it would appear that the output port I should use for iPhone5 is Output 1, but to charge my iPad I would need 2.1Amps. My assumption is that I would also use Output1 for iPad, but it will take longer to charge than if I had a 2.1A Output port. Is that correct?

What device is Output2 port good for at 500mA?

Thank you

I Tried several things to fix my hot draining 4s battery. By deleting my calendar totally and then reloading it helped. Think it was a iCloud synch calendar issue

Ios 6.1 gave my iPhone 4 a better battery life.

Try the update !

Back up the phone, do full restore using Itunues and restore your backup and everything will go back to normal. I had the same hot draining battery problem and it is resolved now after I did the above.

Hello,

I have an iPhone 4.. I updated the OS to iOS6.1 a week ago.. Since then I see that my battery drains quickly.

I need to charge the battery very often these days. No calls/sms/songs/video/browsing since I charged my battery 100% last night.

I was occassionally using it to check weather and read news from one of the apps. Now, my battery is left with 17%.

I don't really know why the battery drains quickly these days even though I don't use it very often.

Could some one help to fix the issue?

Thanks!

This is probably the most discussed problem with iPhones, and has been for the past 5 1/2 years. It isn't any one release, it can happen in any release. And, not surprisingly, there are tens of thousands of posts about it already. So I suggest reading some of what has already been posted rather than ask someone to repeat what has been posted uncountable times.

Thanks Skeuomorph.. This is my 1st time in here on the support forum and it has really made me glad by benefiting from valuable information & feedback shared by so many of you.. I own an iPhone 4 since the last year and I'd updated to ios 6.1 last week.. Post this update, my iPhone's battery started draining out like crazy but I did not face any over-heating issue though.. Now, I am not sure if this update caused any problem but I did follow your instructions and deleted my exchange mail account and reset the network settings.. The battery back-up is back to normal.. I am sharing my experience here hoping this may help many more who are facing a similar issue.. I would pitch in here more often.. Thanks Again !!!!!!!!!!!!

I only noticed a battery drain issue after updating to 5.1.1 (or something) phone never got hot.

Battery would be drained by 5 pm. Usually battery was at 40 - 50% before the update.

The fix so far was to turn off the Battery Percentage option.

Battery is at 47%,after being unplugged from the charger around 8 this morning.

Ssome days I use email and web browsing more than others.

Today was a quiet day, so it's battery percentage is higher than normal.

I'll know for sure in a few days.