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

I had to find that it was exchange on my own.  In all the crap I've gone through with Apple support, not once was it mentioned that perhaps exchange was the issue or a possible issue.  I went through a process of elimination when comparing my phone to other friends and family.

But the usual fix doesn't seem to be working in my case and it's extremely frustrating.  It also doesn't excuse the lack of response I've had from Apple Support.  I've left another message for my support person.  I'm not confident he will call back anytime soon.

Thanks!  This was so helpful.  My wife & I's iPhone 4's could not go a few hours without draining the battery completely. This has been something new over the past two weeks. It just seemed to get worse day by day. We read your blog, made all the changes you recommended and now are back to normal battery life. Thanks for your input.

@ adamfromhaubstadt : which option u tried ??

Deleting email account could help. Following suggesting may save you a few minutes. It worked for both my ipad and iphone 4 with IOS 5.

My colleague just helped me to narrow the problem down to the calendar.

If we turned off the calendar sync in the mail setting, the problem is solved.

Finally, my colleague found the problem is due to a corrupted meeting invitation in the calendar. If we use PC to open that event, we will be notified a memory error. Once we deleted that bad series of event, we can turn the sync calendar on again. Everything runs smoothly.

Another issue I got is, when I tried to enter mail settings, the program hang. I tried some method suggested by other guru like change the email pass somewhere else and return to the settings. It did not help. I tried reset a couple of times, no help. Finally I found I have to erase all the content in my ipad. The option is in the settings->general->reset->erase all media ***. By deleting everything, ipad worked well as before.

Skeuomorph:

Thanks for the fix. Symptoms were as described and fix was too. You saved me from buying a new phone. Thanks again!

I had the same problem, followed the delete mail advice and got rid of a few accounts, reinstalled the ones I nee and it's all good. BUT I also heard that the charger can be the problem I thought my phone was draining a bit quick again yesterday, charged with my husband's new charger and so far the phone has been on for five hours and is still at 98 per cent.....test your chargers too I reckon!

Worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

I went to the Apple Genius Bar, and the issue is caused by corrupt firmware. Installing a clean copy without restoring backup massively improved my battery life.

http://theether.net/kb/100201

Listen to this, one of the "Genius's" on the phone at apple actually said to me, and I quote "you know, we recommend that you have a back-up phone, like a cheap flip phone or something, for when you are having problems with you iPhone" !!!!!

Really!! I should have a back-up phone, for when my almost new iPhone 4s, $900 32gb, around the $900 canadian mark or some crap, doesnt work! Should I pay the $25 fee everytime to switch phones on my account, or should I just pay for a seperate phone all the time???

Thank you thank you sooo much for this post and the fix.  I had exactly the same problem.  Went to the apple store and they told me it was due to my location services being on and draining the battery.  I was not convinced!  I insisted I got a new battery fitted anyway even though it said it was normal.  The new battery was fitted with 52% battery.  In the 30 minutes in my pocket on the way home, it continued to drain away to 20% in 30 minutes!  I charged the new battery to 100% and got a fantastic 4.5 hours out of it to 0%!!!!!!!!

I realised then it was def not the battery.  They I googled the issue and found myself here!

After deleting both my hotmail and microsoft exchance email accounts, I restored the iPhone 4 with iOS5 using my iTunes.  I took a chance and used a saved backup from my PC.

After a re-start and full 100% charge, I monitored the battery depletion.

Having been always warm to touch previously - the phone was now no longer warm.  It went from 100% at midnight to only 85% by 0900.  By 1900 the next day (when I went back to the Apple store) it was at 52% (some 19 hours later).  I ended up getting almost 40 hours use from it down to 0%, and it was the fix solved the issue, not the new battery!

I explained the issue to the Geniuses at the Genius bar and low and behold they had never heard of such an issue.  I then forwarded on this website hyperlink to them so that they could inform and help other customers.  In the process I was nearly offered a job!!  I declined but was happy to accept back my £55 for the battery replacement (and they let me keep the new battery).  Fairplay to them!  At least my phone is back up and running perfect!   Again - thanks guys so much for this solution.  Maybe Apple now will take care of the matter properly without us having to troubleshoot it ourselves!

Possible fix that I used to sort the problem after encountering battery life issues in the past few days:

Sync iPhone with iTunes and back anything on the device up.

Delete any Email accounts you have on your iPhone.

Perform a full restore on iTunes. 

When back on iPhone then reset all original settings again manually.

If any data or information is lost plug iPhone back into iTunes and Sync.

Just thought I would share this to you all as this has worked fully for me, in the past couple of days I was barely getting 12 hours, from my phone with minimal use.  Today after doing this since 9am - 6.30pm. The battery is at 83%, Usage: 1 Hour 50 Minutes. Standy: 7 Hours 56 Minutes and I have been browsing the internet, texting and made a few phonecalls.  A lot better!

Firmware upgrade wasn't able to fix this for me. I would call tech support and see if I the phone is qualified for a replacement.

So as some have discovered, the fix seems to be that you have to restore your phone AS A NEW PHONE, and NOT restore from a back-up as the corrupt files are in your back-up! I cloud back-up of your contacts etc is ok, but do NOT restore your phone from a saved back-up! My phone was draining in hours, even two new ones, till I had to figure this out myself! Ridiculous Apple!!!! Insane that you have created such near technical products then f-up on the programming and updates this bad!! And your "Genious's" who keep saying, "well this is a new problem, haven't heard of this..." when it's ALL OVER your own "support" forums??! Pick up your **** Apple.

So, I all of the sudden got this same problem.  The fix for me was change my Exchange account from push to fetch (at least for now).  I'm guessing there is some corrupt Exchange email/calander invite/something that is making the push go crazy.  I don't know if you need to go through all of the restore shenanigans or not.  I did not have to.

It is also a good idea to keep track of the remaining charge. That way you will not be out of juice at a crucial moment. Follow these 4 easy steps to get that going.

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