iphone 3gs turns off

I went to the genius bar today also, unfortunately there were more concerned that my Home Button wasn't working very well so I ended up just getting a new phone for $199. Since my phone was out of warranty and my upgrade for the iPhone 4 isn't until Feb, I just got a new iPhone 3GS. Upgrading it to 4.1 now so I can restore everything and see if it works.

Btw my wife also has a iPhone 3GS and 4.1 (and 4.0.2 prior to that) and it's working fine, no problem.

I noticed with mine that it was only turning off(on a full charge) when i tried play cro-mag rally multiplayer... i have a 3gs running 4.1. I played the game single player and no issue phone stayed on. I tried testing the multitasking theory and actually after closeing all apps and relaunching the game the multiplayer race didnt even make it to the first turn before it shut off. I wanted to test gamecenter but thats the only game i have right now that supports it and i am not going to spend money on a new game if its going to kill my phone. I never noticed the shutting off problem before 4.1 and never in safari like other people have mentioned.

edit: i was wondering if this is related to the issue people were having with the phone shutting off durning calls... i dont make long calls so i cant really test that

Message was edited by: apiannone

'Glad' to see I'm not alone. My 3GS started shutting off right around 30% but if I hooked up to power or battery case it would stay on and work just fine. It's now shutting off randomly at any time around 60% or less and percentage indicator is very erratic.

This all started with 4.0.1 for me. All 4.0 betas and final release worked just fine.

I can't drain the thing down all the way to attempt battery calibration.....the phone turns off completely long before it's drained.

Have reset/restored as new, double reboot, etc. Problem still exists on fresh restore (no backup loaded) and can't figure out what is triggering it but there is definitely a problem. Too many people on here having these issues.

It's odd that some are just having erratic battery drainage and others the phone actually just shuts off completely...???

I actually have problems with both random shut downs and erratic battery draining. Started shortly after I upgraded to OS4. I think it was after the first "upgrade" to OS4 but I'm not sure. I also no longer get the low battery warning, even if my battery drains to where I used to get the warning.

Today my phone has crashed off while using Safari, checking Mail, browsing Photos and while in an app. I was hopeful that this "update" would fix my phone but it crashed about 15 seconds after I unplugged it from my computer.

I'm not eligible for an upgrade until April, so I guess I'll just stick with this phone until then. 😟

Just out of curiosity, have your usage stats also gone away? Mine no longer update...like the battery never reaches a "full" charge even after charging overnight and it saying 100% to start the day.

Also, did any of you have Camera+ installed and did you activate the volume rocker toggle before the app was pulled? (if you don't know what I'm talking about no worries, but if you fall under these circumstances please mention).

Trying to isolate every little thing here...

Yes, I got the 3GS, and the volume thing had also happened to me once in while.
I'm having the same problem as everyone here.
It powers off, and then I have to reset it in order to be working again, in no logical time or circumstance. Totally random.
Hope someone finds the solution or wait till Apple does...

Good to know I'm not the only one.

So, restoring doesn´t help, right???

Thus far, no. I've restored as a new phone (not restoring from backup) and the problem is still occurring with 4.1...

I'd hold off on going thru the trouble for now.

Caballera wrote:
I went to the genius bar today also, unfortunately there were more concerned that my Home Button wasn't working very well so I ended up just getting a new phone for $199. Since my phone was out of warranty and my upgrade for the iPhone 4 isn't until Feb, I just got a new iPhone 3GS. Upgrading it to 4.1 now so I can restore everything and see if it works.

Btw my wife also has a iPhone 3GS and 4.1 (and 4.0.2 prior to that) and it's working fine, no problem.

That's why I say "Genius" and not Genius. lol I had my 3GS replaced with a brand new one, still having the same issues. Let me know how updating to 4.1 helps you. After suffering the 4.0 update, I'm very apprehensive about updating to 4.1. Too many mixed reviews. Waiting to hear more positive than negative before I do, if I ever do.

Unfortunately, if I can't ever get my phone to run like it did under iOS 3, I may just end up selling it and get an iPhone 4. Or save some money and go for an Android. I'm an Apple guy, but this whole curfuffle with iOS 4 has left a very bad taste in my mouth. I want to spend money on a phone that works. I thought I did when I first bought the 3GS, but Apple in all their wisdom decided to mess it up with iOS 4. 4.1 seems to be working for some 3G users. Not hearing very much positive stuff for 3GS users. According to Apple, they have no clue about issues with the 3GS, just the 3G. Which is quite hard to believe.

Following up on my earlier posts on the subject...

There are definitely some issues with 4.1 on the 3GS. The comments here confirm that. This evening I restored to 4.0.1 from 4.1 as a new phone (no backup reloaded) and I have my phone back working as it was before updating to 4.1....normal battery, no random shutdowns, usage reporting correctly, etc.

Just a quick recap - on 4.1 my phone would shut down randomly anywhere from 60% on down. Attempting to turn it back on would indicate a completely discharged battery (incorrect) but then it would work fine once connected to a power source (either via USB or my battery case). Also, usage stats never would update as if the phone was never receiving a full charge. I attempted a new phone restore with 4.1 firmware and the issues were still there.

Now that I've downgraded everything is fine again, on the same phone, same hardware, same everything. There are a few guys on here that seem to just know everything. I can assure you that there are no apps causing this problem, it's a bug in the firmware and it will be there until Apple addresses it with a new version....period.

I'm holding off for now until we see some official word on things from Apple. I'd really like to know what the root cause is.

If you don't know how to downgrade I cannot help you, my apologies. Probably not a discussion for the Apple support forums.

Hopefully there will be an official response/fix soon.

Well......

Not sure what is going on but it just went black on my 4.0.1 restore around 35% battery.

F it

nateinva wrote:
Well......

Not sure what is going on but it just went black on my 4.0.1 restore around 35% battery.

F it

That would lead me to believe that you have a hardware issue, not a software issue.

I updated a few days ago as well and no help- in fact now the phone has shut down on using both the ipod and phone functions which it hadn't before. My situation is exactly the same as Caballera, phones are the same age etc. It's DEFINITELY unrelated to the number of apps running as I've been fanatical lately about not running more than 1 or 2 apps simultaneously (both because I didn't know if it was exacerbating the shut downs and because the iOS4 battery drain is awful). Anyone had any luck at the genius bar?

APPLE! ARE YOU READING THESE?

This is so frustrating. This is exactly the same behaviour as last year with the update to 3.13. I wish there was a way to find out whether apple is aware and trying to help us.