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4.0.2 guzzling my battery. Your's too?

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.0.2 on 11th Aug night, and I have experienced a much faster battery drain than before.

While my iPhone 4 used to sip battery with iOS 4.0.1 firmware, I can notice the difference that it is really draining a lot more battery than before, specially when I am using an app. On standby, however the battery drain issue is comparatively negligible.

What was surprising was, how can 4.0.2 be NOT better than 4.0.1, I mean it is not 4.0.0.2 right?
But I expect Apple to take heed on this and solve this issue ASAP.

Have any of your experienced the same?

Cheers!
Sam

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4), iPhone 4, iOS 4.0.2

Posted on Aug 12, 2010 11:25 PM

Best reply

OrangeMarlin

Level 5

5,210 points

Posted on Aug 12, 2010 11:26 PM

No change here.

BTW, the only thing that 4.0.2 did is fix a security hole.

View in context

102 replies

Aug 17, 2010 3:38 PM in response to Matthew313

Hi Matthew!

You are very welcome! The whole point of having these forums is learning by each other's experiences. And this was exactly my point of starting this discussion, and I feel we are going in the right direction so far 🙂
Yes it will restore everything back up to 4.0.2, because that was the latest version which was installed already through your iTunes on your iPhone. It was the same for me too and since then I didn't had any problems so far. Try it out for a few days and if you feel you are not getting the right service (as expected), you can reset it again and start afresh as a new phone. Do remember to backup your data before you reset. Hope this will help you.

Cheers!
Sam

Aug 17, 2010 3:54 PM in response to media360degree

Hi, Media; I just did a little research to refresh my memory. It seems that EVERY release has caused battery problems for some people. Which convinces me it isn't the release version, it is the update process. Here are the results of my research:

3.1.3 battery problem
OS 3.1.3 battery issues
3.1.3 upgrade - shortened battery life?
Battery life cut after 3.1.3 update on iPhone 3G
3.1.3 Firmware is a battery killer - how do I back out this upgrade?
Poor battery life with iPhone 3G running 3.1.2
3.1.2 EXTREME battery drain - what gives?
3.1 Battery nightmare
iPhone 3GS with fw 3.1 – battery life gets even worse
Battery Issues with 3.0.1
BATTERY drain with 3.0
upgrade to 3.0 drains my battery
Battery Drain after Update 2.2.1
Battery Life Radically Decreased after 2.2.1 Firmware Update

tom_993

Level 1

13 points

Aug 17, 2010 4:31 PM in response to media360degree

My gut feel is that there are runaway processes on iOS 4 that eat battery, memory and CPU. Not everyone has a runaway process, so not everyone's battery dies quickly. In my case, I believe I have a runaway mail process. When I inactivate my mail account, performance improves greatly. Other people may have other runaway processes.

I know that apps on the task bar are supposed to be frozen, but I think some of them use CPU even when they are supposed to be frozen.

paulking

Level 1

10 points

Aug 17, 2010 9:58 PM in response to designerdave

Sorry Dave, that's hard to believe. Screen shots please.

Aug 18, 2010 12:02 AM in response to paulking

@Paul King

Yes it does sound +hard to believe+ and I didn't believe it either but it is true, sadly he never took a screenshot before going to the Apple Store but, here's one of mine from my second handset which is spectacularly better that the first two devices I have had leading me to believe that it is hardware.

This new handset has everything on (just like a smart phone should have even if they're not being used!) and the image is after my very first charge from the box which was on Saturday 14th, 2pm GMT,:

3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Mail Push for 2 accounts (Apple Mail and Hotmail), Location Services on, Notifications on, Alarm Clock on, Battery % on and music loaded. My second charge was Tuesday morning, 8am (GMT), (direct from the remaining 16% in the image) and I still have 59% remaining this morning after 'normal' use yesterday and only 8% drop all day when 'idling'.

I'm sorry if you doubt the findings from my friends phone or mine, all I know is that from weeks and weeks of 'babying' the first two phones, I no longer need to with this one and I am confident that this is lasting as it should or, at least, as how I expect it to last along with Apple's testing standby procedure 🙂

Here's the grab (Link: http://www.davewalshcreative.co.uk/iphone-screen-grab.png) so I hope that helps anyone who is still unconvinced about their performance.

dd

Aug 18, 2010 3:13 AM in response to media360degree

Update:

The restore from back up didn't seem to help. I dropped 8% in a matter of minutes just flipping through my home screen and settings menu. I am going to test the phone as a restore as a new phone, but the weird thing is that it already is showing 4.0.2. Seems like it should have set it back to 4.0.1 like when I got it.

I hope this will work though.

Aug 18, 2010 3:29 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hi Lawrence!

Thanks for your research. Seems quite in-depth and useful analysis. I will keep this on my mind for long-term evaluation.

Cheers!
Sam

Aug 18, 2010 3:31 AM in response to tom_993

Hi Tom!

I agree with you on this. Even I tried the same on my mail and changed from 'Push' to Manual settings, and saw a major improvement.
I've also tried and played around with the brightness and found reducing the brightness till a comfortable level also helped me in at least 15-20% improvement on battery (same as Macbook Pro's).

Cheers!
Sam

Aug 18, 2010 3:34 AM in response to designerdave

Hi Designerdave!

I am glad you are having over 2 days on your backup. Following the settings, even I was able to get good one.

Cheers!
Sam

Aug 18, 2010 3:42 AM in response to Matthew313

Hi Matthew!

Thanks for updating! Yes, you are doing the right thing by restoring it as new. I think it must already have been 4.0.1 when you unpacked it from the box. Isn't it?
Keep us posted on how it went after you restored as a new phone.

Cheers!
Sam

Aug 18, 2010 3:45 AM in response to media360degree

Yes, it was 4.0.1 when I brought it home. So when I just restored it, I thought it would go back to that? It's sitting at 4.0.2 now, but I'll see how today goes.

Aug 18, 2010 3:47 AM in response to Matthew313

Surely I will look forward to your experience on the same.

Cheers!
Sam

Aug 18, 2010 5:03 AM in response to media360degree

While texting on the way in (as a passenger) I arrived with 98% battery this morning opposed to 90% from yesterday. Off to a good start. Now I don't know if losing a couple percent just from texting off and on for 30 minutes is good or bad either for the phone, but so far it seems to be in much better shape and I'm happy with it.

-Matt

Aug 18, 2010 5:35 AM in response to Matthew313

Hi, Matt; "Normal" discharge rate when using the phone on 3G, based on 6 hours of "talk" or data time, is about 1% for every 3 1/2 minutes of use.

Aug 18, 2010 6:04 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thanks for the info. Interestingly, I timed my surf use while in the throws of the new handset and noted that I get a consistent 1% drop every 5-6 minutes. That was without the 'just charged effect' which I know there's a longer time in between discharges once it's been fully charged.

4.0.2 guzzling my battery. Your's too?