IOS 4.2.1 battery drain

Ok thanks but in fact I delete my sync account few days ago and I still have the problem...

Did you reboot after deleting it?

It CAN be other things, but email is the most common.

Yes, you're right Norberto.
push = manual and phone data = on

The last 3 days I'm keeping 3G = off, once I'm not using so much cellular data anyway, and the battery improved a little more I think.

lemarq.

Just to conclude my findings the only changes to the phone since the problem first started are the following applications were updated:-

Xmarks v1.3.5
Sipgate v1.3
N.O.V.A. v1.4.7
Geomium v1.0.7
Foursquare v2.2.2
Tioti TV+ v1.10
Ebay v2.0.2
Auto Traider v1.5.2

Just in case someone sees a pattern.

I will continue to delete them all, testing again, add one by one testing as I go to be sure it's not Application related.

I'll also delete the exchange sync email accounts to prove if that too is an issue.

HTH

Message was edited by: SMUGgaz

<QUOTE>
+lemarq, your solution sounds interesting. I personally keep my Cellular Data off at all times to save on phone bills, but with the symptoms I've been seeing, there could definitely be a connection. I'm trying it now, and so far, so good: just turning the Cellular Data on (not even a need to reboot the phone) has detached the Usage and Standby times in a five-minute test. To see if this was a complete fix, I'll have to monitor the battery life over a longer period. Unfortunately, I don't see this as a global fix, since I imagine most people keep their Cellular Data option on at all times (unless they switch it off when not using the phone to try to conserve their battery, in which case the whole thing would be delightfully ironic).+
<QUOTE>

Hi Azukikuru, I'm glad to know it worked out for you!
Indeed, I don't think it will be a solution for all the cases, because I think there is more than one event (or combination of events) that trigger this battery problem...
I guess different types of email accounts and some app iterations may play a significant role with people that keep their cellular data always on and still have the battery drain.
So far, my phone is perfect now, almost three weeks after I found this workaround.
Let's keep posting!

lemarq

For me the problem started a few weeks after I applied the
iOS 4.2.1 update. Tried to enable the Airplane mode for 2 hours.
That helped but only for 3 days. The problem reappeared.

The next step was to remove the MS Exchange email account I had created (i.e. before the upgrade to 4.2.1). This step solved the problem immediately!
So far the battery consumption is normal.
A week ago I tried to create a new email account not using the Exchange option but the googlemail instead. That worked and right now I am running 2 weeks with normal battery consumption.

Message was edited by: tpep

Okay, the overnight battery consumption is back to normal after I turned the Cellular Data option back on. Everything makes sense now: the reason that I saw no drain during my trip abroad was that iOS 4.2 recognizes the Data Roaming option as a trigger to halt connection attempts, but it does not do so with the Cellular Data option. This is definitely a bug in the OS, but it's one that can easily be fixed. I'll send this information along to Apple, in the faint hope that it will reach somebody who might be able to do something about it for the next update.

The proof?

http://blogs.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/news/2010/11/30/new-iphone-os-supports-our -network-technology-to-boost-smartphone-performance/

I'm confident that this is the correct explanation, so if anyone out there is experiencing drain +while keeping their Cellular Data option off+, turn it back on and see what happens. If it helps, thank lemarq (thanks again!) - but if it doesn't, then there is obviously more than one possible cause for the drain.

Azukikuru

I've done some further testing today, deleted all the updated apps, removed all exchange and mail configs, turned off all data (airplane mode).

My conclusion is that many things contribute to battery drain but the biggest is the lack of a good 3G or Data connection either WiFi for CELL. The reason I draw this conclusion is that looking at the two graphs of data usage of the last two days it is clear that when I am located in a WiFi zone or near a 3G mast the battery drain is minimal.

Deleting the Apps, Email settings and accounts, exchange accounts one at a time did not have a significant change on the drain, but I am convinced as most people on this thread have confirmed that they all contribute to the drain.

I've uploaded a new graph today, the two area's of least drain indicated by the green arrows shows the slowest drop in battery drain. The first being at home which is 300 meters from a 3G tower and the other when all data is switched off.

http://yfrog.com/h8ckidj

For me this shows that there is a problem with the OS (there might be other problems with exchange, apps etc as well) but the OS is allowing something to happen when there is poor signal the phone actually works harder and battery gets hot!

I believe that @Azukikuru (and others) are correct and that Apple need to look more closely at what people on the thread are saying.

p.s. if you spot a flaw in my logic or testing plan then please let me know, happy to re-test to prove the theory.

SMUGgaz - You might very well have something there. I have 0 coverage in the area I'm currently in. If I turn off Airplane mode all I get is NO SERVICE. An interesting thing I did notice the other day was that I mistakingly turned on WIFI while airplane mode was on and was able to see networks. This -shouldn't- be possible but happened. It seems that the there is a fundamental flaw in the network service on the iOS side and, perhaps, on the application side.


For reference I'll mention my previous test again:

Re: IOS 4.2.1 battery drain
Posted: Dec 27, 2010 7:44 PM in response to: BB CAT
Reply Email

"So I just completed my final test. I basically turned off everything that a person could, including:
*bluetooth
*location services
*notifications
*auto-brightness
*3G
*wifi
*all email is pull only
*Turned off all cellular data services & roaming
*no apps running
*turned on airplane mode and didn't touch it...

100%charged @ 1:30p
3%charge @ 7:30a this morning. That pretty well seals it for me. When I'm back stateside I'm taking it back to apple for a refund. "

RockiesTwin wrote:
SMUGgaz - You might very well have something there. I have 0 coverage in the area I'm currently in. If I turn off Airplane mode all I get is NO SERVICE. An interesting thing I did notice the other day was that I mistakingly turned on WIFI while airplane mode was on and was able to see networks. This -shouldn't- be possible but happened. It seems that the there is a fundamental flaw in the network service on the iOS side and, perhaps, on the application side.

The phone worked exactly as it was designed to; it is not a fundamental flaw, it is a feature. If you select Airplane Mode that turns off all radios, but you then have the option of turning them on selectively. You would do this if you were roaming internationally and didn't want to make or receive calls, SMS or data, yet wanted to use WiFi and Bluetooth.

if you are in a poor signal area (or an area with no signal) the battery will drop faster, because the phone keeps trying to connect, and increases its output power to reach a weak tower. The rated battery life is specified for a strong signal, when the phone can reduce its transmitter output power to a minimum. All cell phones do this.

Hi all,
I've been on the iPhone 4 for about a month now (December 4th is when I recieved it). It was initially on iOS 4.1; however, I updated to 4.2.1 in hopes of better performance. Overall, I have no real complaints with 4.2.1, except for its battery life. I have restored it once as new and it seemed to fix the problem momentarily. I would say I'm a pretty conservative user...only turning on features (WiFi etc) when I need them. Normally, I lose about 1% of battery every 7 to 16 minutes of usage. If I put it on Airplane mode over night (7-8 hrs) I lose about 1%. Perhaps there may be a rouge app?

Most of the time, I have:
Notifications: off
Location services: off
Bluetooth: off
Wi-fi: only at work or at home with good connection
3G: on (get 4-5 bars recpetion most of the time)
All facebook push notifications are turned off.
Push: on
Fetch: hourly (only account is Gmail)
Auto-brightness: on
41 applications on my phone
0 songs
Carrier: Rogers

As of now, my stats are:
2 hrs 52 minutes usage
19 hrs, 47 minutes standby
51% battery

Are these normal stats? I remember longer usage/standby times during 4.1

Thank you all for your help

Is gmail set up as IMAP/POP or Exchange? If it's IMAP (or POP) then Push should be OFF. If it's Exchange then Push should be ON and Fetch should be Manual. Push and Fetch are mutually exclusive, unless you have multiple accounts. Push is ONLY for ISPs that provide Microsoft ActiveSync (or equivalent) connectivity - MS Exchange, Yahoo or MobileMe.

Your phone is spec'd at (up to) 7 hours 3G, 300 hrs standby. In standby ~20 hours should use 20/300 or 6.7% of your battery. ~3 hours active is 3/7 or 43%. So given your numbers your battery is expected to be at 100 -(43+6.7) or about 50%.

http://blogs.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/news/2010/11/30/new-iphone-os-supports-our -network-technology-to-boost-smartphone-performance/

New iPhone OS supports our network technology to boost smartphone performance
With its latest iPhone iOs 4.2 software, it looks like Apple is joining efforts to cut smartphone signalling down to size. Tests by Nokia Siemens Networks have shown that iPhone iOs 4.2 supports a technology called Network Controlled Fast Dormancy, which we have already introduced into our networks. Basically, the technology makes the network and the handset work together to create the best conditions for smartphones to work quickly, yet have a long battery life and minimize network congestion.

Smartphones connect constantly to the network, often driven by applications. But this creates a huge amount of signalling as smartphones switch from an idle mode to an active state so that they can interact with the network, for example to get emails or pull in the latest tweets.

When it has gathered the information it needs, usually working in the background so you don’t even notice it’s happening, some smartphones then switch immediately into the idle state in order to conserve battery power. So when you next want some data from the network, the smartphone has to reconnect. This involves the network and phone exchanging many small signals.

All this disconnecting and reconnecting takes time and can cause a frustratingly slow network response. On the other hand, leaving the smartphone in an active mode all the time drains the battery very quickly.

To overcome the problem Nokia Siemens Networks introduced a method that, instead of putting the handset into idle or keeping it always active, keeps the handset in an intermediate state. From here, a smartphone can wake up much more quickly and needs to send far fewer signals to and from the network to start a data connection. You get a fast network response and a longer battery life.

The new Apple software release supports this way of working on networks that have the technology implemented. Nokia also implemented the technology in its smartphones earlier this year. So now the two handset makers that account for half of all new smartphones in the world contribute to an improved user experience and cost reduction for operators.

One Middle Eastern operator, for instance, found that smartphones on a Nokia Siemens Networks network had a battery life of 11 hours compared to six hours on a competing network. Meanwhile, testing in North America found that our smart networks generate up to 50 percent less smartphone signalling.

As more operators and handset OSs incorporate technologies that improve smartphone performance, our smart networks will play an increasingly important role in making your smartphone experience simply more enjoyable.

This post is by Leslie Shannon of our Network Systems’ Mobile Broadband team.

Vijay Sankaran / News / 30 November 2010 / 9:05

Thanks Lawrence.
So to clarify: in the 7 hrs of 3G talk time...activation time is included?
As in even if I don't talk for 7 hrs on 3G, because 3G is on, thats how long the phone will last?

No, having 3G on but not in use talking or using data access counts as standby. The phone will periodically register with the network ("here I am") so it can be found quickly if someone calls you, but that is minimal battery usage and is included in standby time.

The exception is if you have 3G on but are not in range of any network. This will drain the battery faster, as the phone will attempt to reconnect every few minutes, using the highest power setting.