battry drains fast

I have the same problem, but I found the draining of the battery is fake. If you reset it after it shows you the battery death, it comes back to life and shows you a higher battery level. It is some sort of software issue. But I have not been able to fix it. I just keep resetting the phone all the time.

maybe try this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2471090&start=2055&tstart=30

Something on your phone is running it down.
You have to find that thing and remove it or disable it.
This should not happen with standard Apple applications (mail, map, safari, ...).

1 - Disable email accounts.
Go to settings.
Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Go to mail account and push the slider from "on" to "off".
Repeat for each mail account.
2 - Restore the iPhone using iTunes.
Plug the iPhone into the laptop and bring up iTunes.
Click on the iPhone icon.
Select "restore" (this takes a while).
3 - If the iPhone still runs down quickly, remove all of the applications.
Make sure the iPhone is not plugged into the computer.
Press your finger on the icon and hold without lifting.
Icons begin to shake.
Hit the "x" next to each icon.
Answer "yes" to delete the app.
Repeat for each application that you added to the phone.

This should eliminate the problem.
If so, then turn on email accounts one at a time.
If the problem has not returned, then restore applications.
You have isolated the problem when the iPhone starts to run down quickly.
You disable or remove that item to fix the problem permanently.

Upgrading the phone to iOS 4.x may improve the problem.

I hope this helps.

Hi.

It seems your battery meter is not calibrated. All you have to do is drain the battery down to 0% or 10% (At least) then allow it to recharge it to 100%. This will calibrate the battery on the iPhone.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

As for the processor. All you have to do is close all background apps, then reboot the iPhone, and all processes on the background will be cleared from memory. So that way your CPU does not use any cycles.

I have a 3GS and it has been draining battery, and getting extremely hot, on occasion ever since I upgraded to IOS4 (now on 4.2.1). This is what I have discovered thus far, no acknowledgement of the problem from Apple.

1) Certain Apps will cause the issue. I had FileApp installed to allow me to store and view PDFs (train timetables). Every time I ran it, my phone began draining and overheating.

2) Since removing FileApp from my phone, I had some stability. Then the phone just started to do it again, apparently after updating some apps via the phones App Store app. So I stopped doing it.

3) This weekend, I updated Skype using the phone's App Store app. Lo and behold, the phone started overheating and draining battery again.

Whenever this occurs, I have found that the only way to fix it is rather convoluted.

1) fire up iTunes and connect your phone.
2) Take a backup. Regardless of what Apple support will tell you, the problem is not in your settings, so back the sucker up.
3) Do a full restore to factory defaults.
4) When you get prompted to either create a new phone or restore from packup, chose create a new phone.
5) When you get a fully bare phone, copy all of your apps onto it.
6) Power the phone off and leave it off for a while. 5-10 Minutes.
7)Restore the phone to the PREVIOUS backup, not the one you just took. Once this is done, remove any offencing app that may have started the problem. This is a JIC step.
8) Power the phone off and on again after around 5-10 minutes.
9) Restore the very last backup of the phone you took before starting. Remove any offending app in case it got copied on again.
10) Power cycle the phone one last time.
11) Restore your photos, music, vids, etc using iTumes, becasue the "backup" doesn't do any of that for you. Some wierd idea of a backup apple.

This is what I have done in the past, and it restores the phone to a working condition and not overheating or draining battery.

I don't seem to get the issue if I use iTunes to update my apps, though that is till being put to the test.
It is obvious from my expericnces that the issue is NOT hardware related, it is purely software related. It is as iff something turns on the GPS and causes the battery drain and overheating. The problem has only been around since the IOS4 upgrade, and no matter which support person I talk to at Apple, they all try and blame an app. This is just NOT trune. The issue is in the IOS4 multitasking and likely the GPS code as it gets screwed up if the Appstore App upgrades a multitasking app.

Fix it apple. or we will move to Android phones. At least they are reliable and support flash etc.

And fix this post text box. It constantly jumps to the top while I type. Very annoying.

Upgrading to IOS4 makes the problem worse. I never had an issue with IOS3.
See an earlier post from me.

My iPhone is 3GS and running 4.2.1. Ever since the IOS4 upgrade, this problem has recurred fairly constantly and the only fix is to restore the phone to factory defaults.

My suspicion is that it is to do with multi-tasking apps, or the way an app is coded to work/not work with multi-tasking, and updating apps through the phone's appstore app.

Somehow, it appears to me, to cause the GPS hardware to activate and stay activated, even though no app is running it. It is the only thing that generates the heat and causes the drain in normal use, so it is likely the culprit in this case.

Please fix this. I have lost uncounted hours since the IOS4 update started causing this. It is not hardware related, as a rebuild of the phone in the manner I outlined fixes the issue for months, until I forget and update an app or two through the appstore app.
Regards

BTW, fix the alarm clock. I am a type 1 diabetic and rely heavily on the alarm clock feature to be reliable.

100% agree with the last two posts. This upgrade just killed a great phone. Why is it taking them so long to figure this out?

I have no idea. I still have an open case with Apple support on this. Problem is I need to take it to the only Apple store in the state (2 hours away) so they can check the hardware. Their only other solution was to rebuild the phone to a "new" phone, which meant losing a lot of app data. One I cannot live without is the diary app I use to manage my diabetes, so not really an option. Trial and error got me as far as being able to restore the phone to a non draining/overheating state, and still have all my data.
It really is poor form. It is as if they just want to force us to upgrade to the iPhone 4 (another suggestion of the support guys). I have a year left on my plan, so that aint about to happen. And I have no confidence, given my experience with IOS4, that this will fix the problem anyway.
And they wonder why jailbreaking is so rife. If they cannot release software the "just works", and won't acknowledge issues raised by knowledgable (electronics and IT engineer here)people, let alone any standard user, they really have no right to be in business in consumer products.
BTW, in tha past I hasve been a strong supporter of their products. Not as nymore as far as the iPhone is concerned.

If you are getting poor battery life here is a very good clear and concise list posted by Lawrence Finch.

Many people have had suscess in fixing fast battery draining issues by following these some or all of these steps

+There is some process that is using the battery when the phone is idle. It is not a problem specifically with 4.2.1, it can happen with any version, and at any time. It IS more common after an upgrade, however. you need to identify the process that is causing the problem. There are several things to try to resolve it. Be sure to reboot (hold HOME and SLEEP until an Apple logo appears, about 10 seconds) after each step. Test after each step and if the problem is resolved do not go further.+

+1. Go to Settings/General/Reset and Reset Network Settings.+

+2. Go to Settings/General/Reset and Reset ALL Settings.+

+3. If you have a Push email account or accounts, go to Settings/Mail,Contacts,Calendar, tap on the push account name and turn if off with the switch. (Turn off the ACCOUNT, not PUSH). Next open the email app so it "knows" the account is off. Quite email. After the reboot go back into Settings and turn the account(s) back on.+

+4. Close all Safari pages.+

+5. If you have used Game Center at any time in the past, go to Settings/Restrictions and enable the restriction on Multiplayer games. You will have to assign a lock code. DO NOT FORGET IT!+

+6. If none of these have helped Restore the phone in iTunes.+

+7. If that does not fix it Go to Settings/General/Reset and Erase All Contents and Settings. Restore again, but this time set up as a new phone.+

+If you have gotten this far the phone should be working normally. If it still is not you most likely have a hardware problem.+

Hope this helps

I am sorry, but on what planet in what galaxy is this considered a "solution" to this problem? The issue is with IOS. I have stated it has been a particularly prevalent problem since IOS4 first came out, not just restricted to 4.2.1. It is not simply a case of a process running away with the processor, it is the operating system letting it do so. I had one occasion where this was an issue with IOS3, and a simple power cycle of the phone fixed the issue.

To be clear, this is the history I have had.
1) The day I put the first release of IOS4 on my phone, the phone began heating and draining the battery right away. Power cycling the phone fixed the issue.
2) Within two months, it occurred again, and power cycling the phone did NOT fix the issue. I did a reset to factory default, and restored a backup, which seemed to fix the issue.
3) Then it appeared that every time I was visiting a particular part of Melbourne, the issue would recur. I found out it occurred every time I ran FileApp to read the train timetable. I live 2 hour outside of Melbourne, and usually catch the train when I am going into the office. I contacted apple support who said it was a hardware issue and I should take it to their Melbourne Apple store to have it looked at. I explained that I lived a long way away, and on the evidence I had, it was not a Hardware issue. They suggested I rebuild the phone as a new phone (and lose all my data) and NOT use a previous backup as "it is likely something in your backed up apps and settings causing the issue.
So, I rebuilt the phone as new, lost my data, and started again. Next time I visited the office, and checked the train timetable on FileApp, the problem happened again. I removed the App, rebuilt the phone, restored from backups as I outlined in my previous mail, and the problem did not occur again for months.
4) Until of course last weekend I updated an app through the AppStore app. The app was Skype, and this was the first time in months I had updated apps using the phone instead of iTunes.

So the evidence is as follows:
1) The phone overheats and drains battery.
2) This occurs most often when an app is used that either does not honour the Multi-tasking correctly (meaning the MT libraries app developers are using have the issue), or in some other way spawns another process that hogs the processor, or turns on hardware that is usually dormant until required. It is NOT restricted to a single app or app developer, pointing again to the libraries used for app development.
3) It can be either a process that draws power and hogs the processor causing the heating issue, or it can be some part of the hardware that draws power and heats the phone (such as GPS) is on. I have experienced this in a way when my GPS App went Multi-tasking, and I forgot to kill it off. Similar battery drain and similar heating, though not as bad as the issue overall. It may simply be because the GPS app is well written and was in control of the GPS hardware.

BTW, as pointed out I am an electronics and IT engineer with over 30 years of experience. I have designed, programmed, and otherwise developed embedded systems based on various OSs. No matter what, the issue is with IOS and/or the libraries used to develop apps. Apple cannot eschew responsibility of this.

Just think that if every time your iPhone started doing this you had to run through all these steps you outlined (which I have done many times) each and every time this issue occurred. You are suggesting that basically we should rebuild the phone as a new one every time and wipe all our settings. We are out of pocket in time, out of patience with the device, and if we weren't tied to a plan, even if this was the only bug we were dealing with, we would throw the device away.

IOS 4 has some fantastic advantages over the previous versions. But given the bugs and issues we are dealing with, it has become Apples "Vista". Get it up to "7" as soon as possible please, and stop with these ridiculous and unlivable "solutions" to serious problems.

This from a long time advocate of Apple products should give you an idea of the level of frustration your customers are coming to. Android is not without it's problems, but at least we can get under the hood and fix them ourselves.

The really ironic thing is, if I jailbroke my iPhone, I would be able to get to a console and find out what was going on. I haven't, because I honour the EULA, and it is Apple's job to acknowledge and fix the issue.

Sounds like you need to contact the publishers of the 2 apps that have caused you problems. The posters here are other users like you.
And the app developers would probably welcome bug reports.
Granted Apple has vetted those apps, but if they checked all apps for all bugs, we would have very few apps.
Since you have an Apple ID, you can report a bug here https://bugreport.apple.com/

Hi jstevensog,

I'm not sure who you think you are addressing in your reply to me, but like you, I am just another iPhone user, just like every other poster on this forum. Apple never or rarely post or respond here and the very occasional Apple employee that does post here, is doing so on a voluntary basis and not on behalf of Apple. I'm sure that you understand this situation, because when you signed up to this forum, you would have read this in the Terms and Conditions of the site.

The list I posted here is simply, as I stated, a list posted by another user that has helped other users with battery drain issues. Maybe you are a special case and the offered help does not solve you issues, but I don't remember saying that it would.

I am not questioning your experience as you obviously have plenty. There maybe some issues with the OS but as a fellow user I am not going to speculate one way or the other. As a user, you have no control over the OS software and if you think there are bugs in it, then report it to Apple.

Maybe you should contact Apple and offer your services to them so you can fix everything up for them.

It sounds like there is a problem with FileApp as when ever you use it, the battery drain issue appears. Have you contacted the developer of this software to notify them of the issue? I'm sure that if you were writing software for one of your clients, and your client found an issue with the software, you would appreciate being notified by them so you could have a look at what has occurred.

Skype works in multitasking on iOS4, so when the phone is in sleep mode, a call will wake it up. This will increase the battery drain of the phone. How much the battery drain is increased I have not tested and have no desire to test. It may also have other issues with its software.

GPS apps also work in multitasking, so again, while the phone is in sleep, they will continue to drain the battery. Many developers have put settings within their Apps so you as a user can set the App to how you would like it to operate, to not use or limit the use when switching to other Apps or in sleep and other developers have simply written into their software to turn off the GPS when closed, sleep or switched to other Apps. If you have Apps on your phone that have not been developed particularly well, then you need to turn them off when you have finished with them or you can even contact the developer as asked them to update their software with the features you would like.

I am not suggesting that you do anything anytime, you, as a user and a consumer have a choice of what you whenever you want to do it. If you wish to reboot your phone every time there is an issue, that your choice. If you wish to take your phone to Apple every time there is an issue, that your choice. If you wish to throw out your phone and move to a different phone, that's your choice. If you wish to JB your phone, that your choice.

A