IOS 4.2.1 battery drain
Anyone noticed any battery drain so far on IOS 4.2.1?
iPhone 4, iOS 4
these battery drain threads never stop. every new update. It cracks me up every time.
526 replies
And no one actually reads the thread they post to, even though it frequently has the solution.
In case anyone actually reads this far into the thread....
I found this forum because after updating to 4.2, my battery was losing 1% battery every 60 seconds on my 1 month old iPhone 4. A Google search lead me to this thread.
After a lot of digging, the earlier posters are absolutely correct. This seems to happen to a certain percentage of owners after every freaking update. Unfortunately, I turned off EVERYTHING on my phone that was suggested, and the drain was still incredible. I was forced to do the iTunes iPhone restore which fixed the problem. Doing the "Set Up As New Phone" meant I lost all my notes and had to resetup all my apps. Cost me about 3 hours to do the full restore process (including the setup on my email accounts, and apps). I should send a BILL for my time to Steve Jobs. Seriously, this is an OBVIOUS problem that happens EVERY SINGLE TIME they update the OS. They clearly feel that it is MY problem, and don't care that I have to spend 2-3 hours trying to figure out what is wrong, then another 2-3 hours figuring out how to fix it, then another 3 hours fixing it. Wow. Looks like they have decided to use the Microsoft business model.
I found this forum because after updating to 4.2, my battery was losing 1% battery every 60 seconds on my 1 month old iPhone 4. A Google search lead me to this thread.
After a lot of digging, the earlier posters are absolutely correct. This seems to happen to a certain percentage of owners after every freaking update. Unfortunately, I turned off EVERYTHING on my phone that was suggested, and the drain was still incredible. I was forced to do the iTunes iPhone restore which fixed the problem. Doing the "Set Up As New Phone" meant I lost all my notes and had to resetup all my apps. Cost me about 3 hours to do the full restore process (including the setup on my email accounts, and apps). I should send a BILL for my time to Steve Jobs. Seriously, this is an OBVIOUS problem that happens EVERY SINGLE TIME they update the OS. They clearly feel that it is MY problem, and don't care that I have to spend 2-3 hours trying to figure out what is wrong, then another 2-3 hours figuring out how to fix it, then another 3 hours fixing it. Wow. Looks like they have decided to use the Microsoft business model.
sometimes my battery drains fast sometimes its dusnt, its not a problem! when my battery goes flat i just charge it up again!
if you try turning the screen brightness down a tiny bit, that will help to save battery life too.
if you try turning the screen brightness down a tiny bit, that will help to save battery life too.
I think my battery life increase again after install ios 4.2...
Has anyone updated to 4.2.1 and NOT had issues with it? Those are the people I'd like to hear from.
I upgraded my iPod Touch 3rd gen from 3.1.3 to 4.0 the day iOS 4 was released. I noticed a small decrease in battery life, but it was something I was willing to deal with in lieu of all the new features that iOS 4 provided. At this point, my battery life, with moderate usage, would last me about 2 days. I again updated to 4.1, in hopes that battery life would be improved to that of the 3.1.3 days.
I was let down - the night that I updated, I unplugged my iPod with a full charge and set it next to my bed before I went to sleep. By morning, my battery was completely drained. I read about the issues people were having and tried all of the workarounds. Eventually, I performed a full restore, and found that this improved the battery drain. However, I was still finding that under moderate usage, my battery would decrease from a full charge to the 20% level by the time I got home from work.
Last week I took my iPod to the authorized Apple Repair center here in Seoul, South Korea, and after a few days of testing, told me that my battery was defective and needed to be replaced. They gave me a new unit with 3.1.3 on it.
Now I am torn - do I upgrade to iOS 4.2.1, with the understanding that it was my battery that was indeed the problem? Or so I stick it out with 3.1.3 and forgo all of the awesome features that were introduced with 4.x?
I upgraded my iPod Touch 3rd gen from 3.1.3 to 4.0 the day iOS 4 was released. I noticed a small decrease in battery life, but it was something I was willing to deal with in lieu of all the new features that iOS 4 provided. At this point, my battery life, with moderate usage, would last me about 2 days. I again updated to 4.1, in hopes that battery life would be improved to that of the 3.1.3 days.
I was let down - the night that I updated, I unplugged my iPod with a full charge and set it next to my bed before I went to sleep. By morning, my battery was completely drained. I read about the issues people were having and tried all of the workarounds. Eventually, I performed a full restore, and found that this improved the battery drain. However, I was still finding that under moderate usage, my battery would decrease from a full charge to the 20% level by the time I got home from work.
Last week I took my iPod to the authorized Apple Repair center here in Seoul, South Korea, and after a few days of testing, told me that my battery was defective and needed to be replaced. They gave me a new unit with 3.1.3 on it.
Now I am torn - do I upgrade to iOS 4.2.1, with the understanding that it was my battery that was indeed the problem? Or so I stick it out with 3.1.3 and forgo all of the awesome features that were introduced with 4.x?
The difference is no one considers it unusual that you have to periodically reformat your disk if you run Windows.
Has anyone updated to 4.2.1 and NOT had issues with it? Those are the people I'd like to hear from.
I don't have any issues at all. Anyway, you are rarely going to see people logging into troubleshooting forums here if they don't have issues.
TheDish wrote:
Has anyone updated to 4.2.1 and NOT had issues with it? Those are the people I'd like to hear from.
I upgraded and had no issues. probably 50 million people upgraded and had no issues. You don't hear from them because they have no reason to visit a support forum. If you went to hospital and saw that it was full of sick people would you conclude that everyone was sick?
I've been reading this forum for many years, and simply based on the relatively few number of people seeking help with the 4.2.1 upgrade this has been a very successful upgrade. A few hundred (or even a few thousand) problems out of 100 million users is a drop in the bucket. Unless you are one of them, of course; then it becomes an earth-shaking event.
I won't advise you to upgrade, because you will blame me if you have problems. So it is your decision, knowing that there is a small possibility that you will have a problem after the upgrade. If you do have a problem, it can be fixed (as your was).
Lawrence and Techfrenzy -
Just out of curiosity, what are your usage patterns like with your device? I realize that what I consider "moderate" usage may be considered heavy usage by some and light usage by others. Personally, I eventually became fed up with having to disable many of the bells and whistles that made the iPod Touch such an attractive purchase in the first place.
Do you have notifications/push enabled? How long can you go on a full charge without having to find an outlet? How much (if any) battery drain do you experience over night while not using your device?
And Lawrence, I would never blame the problem on someone else. I'm just trying to be cautious, given the experience I had with my previous iPod.
Just out of curiosity, what are your usage patterns like with your device? I realize that what I consider "moderate" usage may be considered heavy usage by some and light usage by others. Personally, I eventually became fed up with having to disable many of the bells and whistles that made the iPod Touch such an attractive purchase in the first place.
Do you have notifications/push enabled? How long can you go on a full charge without having to find an outlet? How much (if any) battery drain do you experience over night while not using your device?
And Lawrence, I would never blame the problem on someone else. I'm just trying to be cautious, given the experience I had with my previous iPod.
Good questions. I leave all features of my phone enabled all the time. 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Location Services, Push, Notifications. I charge my iPhone overnight every night so it is 100% when I get up. If I can go through a "normal" day without having to recharge I consider it a success, and this works 99% of the time. It's only if I spend more than a couple of hours on the phone AND receive a lot of email that I must recharge before the end of the day. The phone meets its specs of 6 hours of use. I've never been able to test the 300 hours standby because my phone is never on standby long enough.
I HAVE had the occasional problem with unexplained battery drain when the phone was idle. For me it has almost always been a problem with the email client being unable to connect but continuing to try. To fix this when it happens (and it doesn't always happen after an upgrade, but sometimes does) I turn off my Push mail accounts (the accounts, not Push), open the mail app to clear existing connections, then reboot and turn the accounts back on. This has always worked to restore normal battery life - except once, when the problem was Game Center. I fixed that instance by disabling multi-player games in Restrictions (since I have no interest in Game Center anyway).
I HAVE had the occasional problem with unexplained battery drain when the phone was idle. For me it has almost always been a problem with the email client being unable to connect but continuing to try. To fix this when it happens (and it doesn't always happen after an upgrade, but sometimes does) I turn off my Push mail accounts (the accounts, not Push), open the mail app to clear existing connections, then reboot and turn the accounts back on. This has always worked to restore normal battery life - except once, when the problem was Game Center. I fixed that instance by disabling multi-player games in Restrictions (since I have no interest in Game Center anyway).
I leave notifications off. I also keep the following settings most of the time.
-Bluetooth off when not in use
-Locations services off when not in use
-3G enable off (I only turn on when I need celluar data) Edge is fine for phone calls
-Brightness is almost at half. Turn off auto-brightness
-Wi-fi off when not in use
-Auto lock one minute
My battery last 2 full days until having to charge. (and then I'm left with 25%) If left on overnight, it barely drains at all
-Bluetooth off when not in use
-Locations services off when not in use
-3G enable off (I only turn on when I need celluar data) Edge is fine for phone calls
-Brightness is almost at half. Turn off auto-brightness
-Wi-fi off when not in use
-Auto lock one minute
My battery last 2 full days until having to charge. (and then I'm left with 25%) If left on overnight, it barely drains at all
Mitch Hewitt wrote:
And yes, as an earlier poster had said, one should NOT have to do a "new setup" each time they upgrade. If 4.3 comes out in December, I'm going to hold off until the reports from the field come in. Lesson learned.
I guarantee that you will see reports saying "4.3 killed my battery". As this has been the case for every update since the first. Given this, you will likely never upgrade again 😉
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I have tried all possible solutions and it doesn't work in my case. I can agree that each time the is a software update we are facing problems related with faster battery drainage, but this time in my case it's very bad. I really hope that Apple is working on a new update very soon. I have iPhone 3GS.
Victor Mihajlov wrote:
I have tried all possible solutions and it doesn't work in my case. I can agree that each time the is a software update we are facing problems related with faster battery drainage, but this time in my case it's very bad.
Everyone thinks that this time is different. Read those old threads and you will see it was very bad for earlier versions.
I really hope that Apple is working on a new update very soon. I have iPhone 3GS.
I seriously doubt that they are, at least to fix battery drain, as it affects only a very small number of people. Instead they will fix it via support here, telephone, and at Genius bars for the few that can't resolve it on their own.
When you say you have tried all possible solutions, have you tried this?
1. Go to Settings/General/Reset: Erase All Content and Settings.
2. Restore the phone in iTunes, and set up as a new phone.
Do not install any apps and check your battery life.
If you still have a problem after these two steps you have a hardware problem and should contact Apple for a repair. It happens. And it can even be coincident with a software update.
IOS 4.2.1 battery drain