What did iOS4 do to battery life of my iPod touch 2nd gen?

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Level 1

12 points

What did iOS4 do to battery life of my iPod touch 2nd gen?

I upgraded my 2nd gen iPod touch to iOS 4 without incident. Upgrade went fine, everything seemed to work post-upgrade.

But since the upgrade, the battery is being drained at an alarming rate. The iPod touch sat in a cupboard for two days, starting with full charged, and with no use it is now down to absolutely no battery - the battery icon is at the bottom of red with a little lightning bolt symbol. I've actually never seen the battery so low. This has happened twice since I upgraded last week. What is going on?

iPod touch 2nd generation, iOS 4

Posted on Jun 29, 2010 6:14 PM

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Answer 1

tpy01

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2010 12:33 AM in response to medgirl

i have the same problem also.
normally it can lasts me up to 1 week provided that i only listen to the music in the morning while travelling to school. now, only 2 days has passed and the battery is flat!

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Answer 2

Jun 30, 2010 12:49 AM in response to medgirl

I initially found that my Ipod Touch 2G was also suffering from excessive battery drain on iOS4 but since I turned Airplane Mode on it has been just as good as it always was. Give it a try. Oddly enough you can still have your wifi on even in airplane mode.

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Answer 3

Jul 1, 2010 8:40 AM in response to medgirl

I noticed that the upgrade set my 'Locations Services' to on - so perhaps it's getting 'pushed' stuff (and thus being 'on' all the time)?

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Answer 4

Jul 1, 2010 9:48 AM in response to tpy01

My iPod 8Gb has the same symptoms since I upgraded to iOS4, the battery would normally last so well that it only needed topping up every few days. Now the iPod loses 30% overnight and can lose another 50% during the day, even when not being used. It is as bad as a Windows Mobile device that needs charging every day.

Turning airplane mode on stopped the wifi from working, so that is not a solution to the problem

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Answer 5

medgirl Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 1, 2010 9:58 AM in response to medgirl

Here is my update:

First of all, this wasn't just a matter of having push or location services on. I have used those things in the past with my iPod touch without any particularly noticeable impact on battery life. This also was not just a matter of using the device a lot. What was happening is that I put it on a shelf fully charged in the evening, and by morning the battery was completely depleted without any use at all. Pre-iOS4, I could leave it like that for days without any loss in battery. Turning off push/location services didn't make any difference.

The other thing that was strange is that when I took it in its completely discharged state and plugged it in, it charged surprisingly quickly considering that the battery was essentially dead. That makes me wonder if it was more of a battery calibration issue - the iPod was seeing less battery life than was really available.

I ended up doing a clean install (i.e., not restoring from backup), and now it seems to work fine. I haven't noticed if it uses battery a little faster or not with regular tasks. At least it is not completely draining the battery overnight, which is what was concerning me. Doing a clean install is a pain since you have to set everything up again, but it seemed to be the answer for me. I wonder if some process was running inappropriately when I first set up iOS4 by restoring from backup.

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Answer 6

Jul 3, 2010 4:26 AM in response to barrelrun

Russcolli is right about turning on Airplane mode and then turning on the WiFi. Since I did this the battery power has returned to normal and the wifi connects automatically when needed.

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Answer 7

Jul 4, 2010 5:53 PM in response to medgirl

I am another iPod touch user with the same problem. The rapid battery drain seems random. Some nights the touch lasts fine, and on other nights the battery is depleted to 20%. Sometimes a drain of 40% occurs over 3 hours even though the touch is not being used. Charging after such an incident requires only a relatively short time to full charge. I concur with others that part of the problem may be incorrect reading of the true battery level.

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Answer 8

Jul 5, 2010 12:26 PM in response to medgirl

Add me to the list as well on this issue. I use my Ipod Touch to work out and can normally get several workouts in before actually having to recharge it. The other day I went to work out turned on the Ipod and the battery was red, this was after not using it for a day.

I may try doing a complete restore, airplane mode does kill my wi-fi, so who knows.

Edit: did not notice that you have to turn wifi on after turning airplane mode on will try this, although you would think having another mode on would drain the battery faster.

Message was edited by: ChrisJ233

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Answer 9

Jul 13, 2010 2:44 AM in response to medgirl

I have just same problem.

Sure isn't related with the amount of work we do with iPod (Wi-Fi on, Push on, etc.) but with new iOS4.

*With this new firmware battery is drained really quickly but I've also realised that iPod warms up* with normal applications (not CPU intensive ones), back-bottom becomes almost hot to touch. Sure this warming is a clue for finding issue with battery drain.

*Does anybody know how to report this problem to Apple support officially, so they can develop a patch for new version of iOS4?*

Message was edited by: Elminster.aom

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Answer 10

palz2015

Level 1

4 points

Jul 13, 2010 9:33 AM in response to Elminster.aom

Yeah, apple's been really screwing our device. I heard that if it had wallpapers behind the icons, it still would run at good speeds, but back to the battery: I would recommend putting airplane mode on, and turning wifi on. I charge mine every night, so this isn't much of a problem.

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Answer 11

Aug 2, 2010 8:41 AM in response to medgirl

I have the same problem.
I was really surprised after updating to iOS4 and my battery was totally drained the morning after. It's like if some process got stuck in a loop and drained the battery for no reason. I made a clean install hoping that would solve the problem but it does not seem to help at all. I hope Apple is aware of this problem and is planing to do something about it because it wasn't this bad before.

I will try the solution above to turn on the Air-plane mode and see how the device works over a few days.

But really, Apple should do something about this.

Hey Apple? Reading the forums? Knowledge this problem and fix it already!

Message was edited by: MrViklund

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Answer 12

Aug 2, 2010 1:56 PM in response to medgirl

It's kinda funny that you can put the device in Airplane mode but are still able to turn on the WiFi :P

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Answer 13

JimHdk

Level 7

28,874 points

Aug 2, 2010 2:27 PM in response to Elminster.aom

Elminster.aom wrote:
*Does anybody know how to report this problem to Apple support officially, so they can develop a patch for new version of iOS4?*

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html

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Answer 14

slones

Level 1

0 points

Aug 6, 2010 7:35 AM in response to medgirl

I have the same problems. The only way I can get the battery to last any length of time is to turn off everything in settings. I find now that I hardly use my I-Touch and when I do want to use (maybe once a day) the battery is . . . dead. I was just on the verge of buying an IPad and am so thankful I didn't waste that amount of money as I understand they have the same problem(s). This is all so Microsoft!

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Answer 15

TDKuser

Level 1

4 points

Sep 13, 2010 5:53 AM in response to medgirl

I've had some recent revelations to this poor battery performance.

The current OS is 4.1 & I mistakingly upgraded, thinking the massive response to this thread drove apple to resolve the issue, but the poor battery performance is back with OS 4.1

The previous OS (forget which #) WAS GOOD. Then the current OS 4.1 brings back poor batt life.

I have a 2G, have wi-fi at home & have turned off sync - set to manual - notifications off - push off

I noticed when I had my touch AWAY from any wi-fi, the battery life lasted, as expected.

When in sleep mode, the wi-fi shuts off also - in the good OS.

Now it appears that during sleep mode (screen blank), the wi-fi IS STILL CONNECTED & WORKING even though I have set syncing to OFF & manual - when the app, namely outlook, is opened.

Try it - stick your ipod in a metal can so it cannot connect to your wi-fi network at home.

The prev OS this was fixed as the batt lasted almost 5 days & wi-fi was disabled during sleep mode (screen saver on - screen blank)

Now for some reason OS 4.1 leaves wi-fi connected all the time - even though the screen is blanked.

Does anyone know if we can still revert to the OS just prev to 4.1 - that is the OS which gave GOOD batt life, like the good ole days ....

TDK

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