Ipod Touch 4g terrible standby battery life?

New iPod touch received yesterday with iOS 4.2.1 installed exhibited no battery drain this morning with WiFi (Airport 802.11g) running overnight.

Bought mine only 2wks ago and it didn't come pre-installed with 4.2 or 4.2.1.
Guess I missed the cut-off.........

Here is another point worth noting.
Don't forget about the multitasking feature in the newer OS'. On older OS' when you closed the app by pressing the home button the app would shut down, but with the newer OS' when you press the home button the app actually goes into stand-by mode in the dock. In other words it's still running in low power mode in the background. You can get quite a string of apps running in the background.
I would suggest double tapping the home button to reveal the running apps in the dock, then press and hold one of the apps until it starts to shake and show a little minus symbol in a red circle. Tap the minus sign on the apps to shut them down completely.

I've had the same problem since updating to 4.1. Now at 4.2 and still have the problem. Got a new iPod since then, and it too has the problem.

After posting about this a while back, I was contacted by Apple tech support and they asked me to try several things, including installing an app that logged power and Wifi and such. I complied with all their requests and provided all the information I could, until they started asking me to shut things on my network down. I work at home, and can't shut things like my modem, backup drives, or printers down for extended periods of time. After going back and forth about this a few times, with me trying to explain that my business was more important than my iPod battery, I haven't heard from Apple again.

I was hoping this latest update to 4.2 would fix things, but no. After installing it the other day, I turned off airplane mode, and two days of standby later my iPod is completely dead.

FWIW, about the same time I updated to 4.1 and noticed this problem, I also got a new modem from Verizon. I use my Airport base station for wireless, as my old modem did not have it. But this new one does, so now I have two wireless networks in my home, one of which I've never used. I can't help thinking this new modem is somehow involved, but a colleague has the same modem and the same iPod touches and does not have the battery drain problem. So who knows? All I know is it really ***** that I can't use my iPod as I did for the first year I owned it.

@Dave Baker1

While it's great that iOS is now essentially multi-task capable, I don't like the way it goes about it.
Why not give us the ability to properly quit apps when we close them?

The method you mentioned highlights the extent to which one can inadvertently have too many apps in the background.*
This is simply because there's no way to kill an app _at the time_ you've decided to "close" it.

*I had about fifteen!
I realise it's handy to have some apps running at all times, but I want to decide this.

@John Baro1

Batteries do degrade, exact same make/models can do so at different rates, depending on usage patterns.
Perhaps it's simply a case of the battery starting to "give up the ghost" on your iTouch?

jedlh wrote:
@Dave Baker1

While it's great that iOS is now essentially multi-task capable, I don't like the way it goes about it.
Why not give us the ability to properly quit apps when we close them?

The method you mentioned highlights the extent to which one can inadvertently have too many apps in the background.*
This is simply because there's no way to kill an app _at the time_ you've decided to "close" it.

*I had about fifteen!
I realise it's handy to have some apps running at all times, but I want to decide this.

Actually in iOS 4 very few Apps are permitted to run in the background. An example would be an App like Pandora (Internet radio) and even these special Apps don't run when they are paused. Apps which have been left by the user are suspended and are not using any processor time.

Interesting, so most of the apps I saw were merely sitting in ROM?
Any idea where I can get more info on this subject matter?

N.B.
I have very few 3rd party apps installed at this stage.
Only *Nike+ GPS* & *Rage HD*...

I haven't even bothered upgrading to iOS 4.2x yet. (on 4.1)
I'm worried it may cause more problems than any good it may do.

I am curious about whether how long you all are leaving the screen on (auto lock at 1 min, 2 min, ...never?) and how this affects battery life. No one seems to mention this when you talk about leaving wifi on or leaving it on overnight etc. I posted on another thread about my problems with low (like under 3 hours with wifi on) battery life both before and after installing os 4.2.1

jedlh wrote:
@John Baro1

Batteries do degrade, exact same make/models can do so at different rates, depending on usage patterns.
Perhaps it's simply a case of the battery starting to "give up the ghost" on your iTouch?

My first thought, even though my first iPod is still less than a year old. But the exact same problem with a brand new one? A problem that goes away when airplane mode is on? A problem that started right after a system update? Doesn't sound like a bad battery to me.

Fair enough,
I'm not having any probs, but others users are claiming to have problems since 4.1.

I'm not in any hurry to update to 4.2x, as I can't see any dramatic improvements it introduces, so why fix something that aint broke?

There is no doubt in my mind that this is in the operating system. The poor battery performance began the day I installed 4.1 The differences with 4.1 that I noticed were:
1. A games center app that I can’t remove.
2. The WI-FI indicator was on immediately after I woke the iPod ~ previously it used to take a second or two for it to come on.
3. The battery life went to less than half what it had been. I can partially save it by always using airplane mode, BUT it is a pain and I shouldn’t have too.

This is ridiculous that this many people are experiencing and discussing this problem and Apple is ignoring it. *If I could go back to OS 3.X, I would do it in a heartbeat*. It has taken the joy out of a product I really liked and promoted.

If it makes and difference, I have a 16 gig 2nd Generation Touch.

Come on Apple !!

iOS 4.2.1 came installed on my device, an iPod Touch 4G. Persistent WiFi was still draining my battery overnight. Reason to think it was WiFi? When I woke my device from sleep, the WiFi icon was immediately on.

I found squall_boy25's suggestions on this page helpful: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2579543&start=15&tstart=15. Now, after my iPod goes to sleep and I wake it up again, the WiFi icon is off for a second or so before it comes on. So far, so good, even with Location Services on.

:CORRECTION:

Just to recap, I am NO LONGER having any standby battery drain issues on my iPod Touch 4g.

I previously stated that my router was an 802.11g (Wireless-G) model, but have since realized that it is actually a half-speed (150Mbps) 802.11n (Wireless-N) model. (Comcast loaned it to me with my modem, and I just assumed it was a G model) It is a Netgear N150 WIRELESS ROUTER, Model# WNR1000. It works VERY well and very FAST with my iPod, my iMac, and my wireless HP 7280 printer. I would highly recommend this router (which you can buy for under $50 at Amazon.com).

Ever since I learned how to force-quit Skype when I'm not using it (Skype WILL drain my battery overnight if left on), and ever since I RESET my network settings (at the bottom of the General Settings screen), my iPod Touch 4g will now last 1-2 weeks between charges, even with light use several times per day (email).

Just to let you know, whenever I wake the iPod 4g from sleep, the wifi logo is instantly on (unlike my former iPod Touch 2g where the wifi logo would take a few seconds to appear. I think it had OS 4.0 when I gave it away)

As for the rest of my settings, I have Bluetooth and location services turned off, and my email is set to Push. (For other applications that don't use push, they are set to check every hour.) I also have my screen brightness set to 50%, which doesn't affect the standby time, but does seem to DOUBLE the amount of time I can use it with the screen on.

So, let's do a quick survey...

Who here, who is still experiencing standby battery drain issues, is using a Wireless-G Router? Is ANYONE having this problem on a Wireless-N network, and if so, how strong is your signal strength? (Is your connection frequenty getting disconnected, and then having to scan for networks and reconnect?)

I have wireless-n. I bought this thing 8 days ago and will be taking it back. 4 hrs max standby. If I use it for 15 minutes it drops to two hours. Signal strength is maximum.
After 4.0 ruined my 2g by burning out the wireless and having Apple tell me I had old equipment and needed to buy new, you would think I would learn. The tech even hung up on me while I was trying to explain to him what happened. I guess MS will win another battle.