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iPhone Battery Life - Usage time = Standby Time

3 days ago my phone started going haywire. I would previously recharge my phone nightly and would very, very rarely run out of battery (unless I had used it extensively during the day)

On Friday last week, I checked my phone at lunch time and it was off, dead battery... I tried to charge it again only to find that it dies just as quickly and while it was de-charging, the battery was quite warm...(which made me think that the phone was doing something.)

I proceeded to kill every app and reboot the phone - no effect - the phone still heated and dies very quickly
I then proceeded to turn off all bluetooth & wifi settings - no effect
I then used the phone with airplane mode on - no effect

One thing I have noted is that regardless of what I do - the Usage Time and Standby Time are always identical... Clearly the phone thinks it is being used but by what??? I've turned everything off???

It makes no sense to me and I've seen lots of posts but no resolution... I'm hoping that by now, someone has found out what the problem is???

I'm using 3GS with iOS 4.2.1

NOTE: I just downloaded "System Lite" and it is telling me that "Maps" is a Running Application - I'm not using it and would think that it would drain a bit of resource... Is this normal?

Message was edited by: whitsey!

Posted on Jan 16, 2011 3:43 PM

Reply
9 replies

Jan 16, 2011 5:27 PM in response to whitsey!

Please note this is what is running right now (and draining 1% every 2-3 minutes)

Running Applications

SystemLite
Phone
Maps

Other Running Processes

57 SCHelper
48 lsd
47 apsd
34 securityd
33 notifyd
32 BTServer
31 CommCenter
27 Springboard
26 accessoryd
25 awd_ice2
24 configd
23 dataacessd
22 fairplayd.N88
20 mDNSResponder
19 mediaremoted
18 mediaserverd
16 lockdownd
13 syslogd
1 launchd
0 kernel_task

Jan 16, 2011 7:36 PM in response to whitsey!

Hi,

When I was having the Same problem with Standby and Usage Times and a very short Battery Life… I tried the usual fixes...

Restart

Reset

Restore

The Only thing that eventually Worked (for me) was to do a Restore as New…

Very Easy and Straight Forward… and the phone has been performing Brilliantly for nearly a month… 🙂

Also, once a week, I make sure to run my Battery right down (5%) and then Recharge over night…

Have a look at this Link

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/12/ipad-iphone-battery-life-shorter-after-ios-4-2-1 -update-fixes/

Hope this Helps,

Cheers

Jan 16, 2011 7:56 PM in response to whitsey!

Hi,

I tried Restoring from Back Up a couple of times but my problems persisted. It wasn't until I did a Restore as New… that All my Problems went away…

Sorry, Not being a user of Exchange I cannot offer any advise…

Could you not put your Contacts in Apples Address Book and after doing the Restore as New… Then do a Sync with iTunes… ?

Just a suggestion...

Cheers

Jan 17, 2011 5:10 AM in response to whitsey!

hi
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

Dan

Jan 17, 2011 9:16 PM in response to Vleaba

Hi All,

Well the problem is fixed but not through anything other than a system restore.

I went through the process - I turned everything off - Bluetooth, WiFi, Push, Airplane Mode (On) and then I killed every app that was running... I rebooted the phone using both methods (hold top button and slide off) and then HOLD top & home and reset - Everytime, the same problem came back.

In the end, I just performed a factory reset and the problem has been resolved.

I have just gone through the process above again and killed all apps, set to airplane mode = on and then reset the phone (top & home button) and the ran SystemLite again.

Below is what is running now the phone is working again... (It's been on for 7 hours and I still have 85% battery)

Running Applications

SystemLite
Phone
Maps

Other Running Processes

57 SCHelper
49 lsd
35 notifyd
34 BTServer
33 CommCenter
29 Springboard
28 accessoryd
27 apsd
25 calaccessd
24 configd
23 dataacessd
22 fairplayd.N88
20 mDNSResponder
19 mediaremoted
18 mediaserverd
16 lockdownd
13 syslogd
1 launchd
0 kernel_task


So what was the difference??? The following processes are no longer running. Not sure what they are or what they do but potentially, one of these processes was crippling my phone battery...

APPLE - Take notice!!! Potentially you can help people resolve this issue without the stock standard - Just do a factory reset!

Processes Not Running anymore (with battery function ok)

awd_ice2
securityd

Anyone knowing what they are may be able to better help other users having similar problems... (I say other users because they're the only ones who seem to care or want to help people like me solve my problems.)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond

Jan 19, 2011 1:59 PM in response to whitsey!

I had a similar problem which I now believe to be related to the phone trying to sync a calendar update with Exchange while out of range of the wifi. See this thread and the linked ones which may point to the same issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2724916

Incidentally, once back in range of my wifi ( and able to connect with Exchange), the phone returned to normal. Look out for my testing results later where I will try to reproduce this problem.

Apr 14, 2011 9:48 AM in response to Kenzooo

I had the same problem and actually from time to time I still have it. This is usually when I go abroad and data roaming is off. Then sometimes it happens that battery level is going down very quickly. I noticed also that phone is warm and Activity Monitor shows CPU usage about 50% all the time.

Nothing helps beside connecting my iPhone to the Internet. After that everything is ok.

iPhone Battery Life - Usage time = Standby Time

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