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iPhone 4 heat and battery issues

My iPhone 4 for the last few days has started to get very hot in use and the battery is gone very bad. Leaving the phone on standby can see the battery drain nearly 20% in an hour. This is gone to the stage where I have to turn it off at times just to save battery during the day. It only began to happen when I updated to iOS 4.3. I updated to iOS 4.3.1 yesterday and it still has the same issues. Anyone else having the same problem?

iPhone 4, iOS 4

Posted on Mar 28, 2011 4:36 AM

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148 replies

Mar 28, 2011 4:39 PM in response to RM040

I just found a colleague with the same issue. He has a 2nd iphone without the issue. The phones with the issue show in settings: general: usage - several hours of usage out of several hours on standby. The phones with the issue show several hours of usage for the same amount of standby. Both of us had the problem start this weekend. I turned off push, fetch and notifications but that hasn't helped, at least not much.

Mar 28, 2011 5:56 PM in response to colmulhall

colmulhall wrote:
My iPhone 4 for the last few days has started to get very hot in use and the battery is gone very bad. Leaving the phone on standby can see the battery drain nearly 20% in an hour. This is gone to the stage where I have to turn it off at times just to save battery during the day. It only began to happen when I updated to iOS 4.3. I updated to iOS 4.3.1 yesterday and it still has the same issues. Anyone else having the same problem?

If you have an Exchange email account you probably have some stale sync threads. Try this:

Go to Settings/Mail,contacts,calendar. Tap the name of the account. Turn off the 3 switches. Back out to the main settings page. Now launch mail, then contacts, then calendar to kill the pending connections. Reboot the phone, go back to Settings, and turn the 3 switches back on. This will probably fix it.

If not post back; there's more that could be causing it.

Mar 29, 2011 6:06 AM in response to colmulhall

The phone overheating or running down the battery when on standby is the result of an application trying to send data and failing or sending large quantities of data; it's the only thing that can cause that much battery drain. Games can cause heavy drain also, but that's clearly not the issue if the phone is asleep. The troubleshooting procedure is to identify the app (or rarely apps), disable it, reboot, and then try to enable it.

If the problem isn't email there are a few basic troubleshooting steps (stop once one works):

0. Drain the battery all the way until the phone shuts off and won't restart, then charge for 4 hours with a wall charger.

1. Go to Settings/General/Reset and Reset Network Settings, then reboot (you will lose WiFi passwords)

2. Same, but Reset All Settings

3. Try disabling the following apps (in Settings/General/Restrictions): Multiplayer Games, Ping, App Store, iTunes Store. Then reboot. If this fixes it turn on the ones you use (one at a time) and see if the problem returns. It probably won't.

4. Check 3rd party apps, especially Facebook, Yahoo, any app that uses Notifications (e.g., news apps) and any streaming apps. Some of them do not terminate unless you explicitly disconnect.

5. Some people have reported Facetime and Find my iPhone causing heavy battery drain. Worth checking.

Good luck!

Mar 29, 2011 10:17 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I had the hot, battery killing feature after my upgrade as well.
I reset the Exchange Servers in Mail first, did not work...
The did a Wi-Fi reset and my phone has cooled and chilled out.


This thread has about four useful posts. *Thanks to Lawrence* for posting some of them.
For everyone else: +Quit yelling back and forth+.
Find the four good posts and do it.
If that doesn't work...my sincere sympathies.

Mar 29, 2011 11:50 AM in response to colmulhall

Hopefully it is simply an iOS issue and not a hardware fault. I never had this problem before now on either the 3G or the 4. It seems to be pretty common anyway. Heres hoping that Apple resolve it in the near future!

Yes. battery draining issue in iPhone 4 is happening because of the new feature added to your device called "Ping".

Here are two methods disable Ping and restore the battery standby time.

http://www.iphonestuffs4u.com/fixing-iphone-4-battery-drain-after-ios-4-3-update /

Mar 31, 2011 1:36 AM in response to colmulhall

I have had the same issue since upgrading to 4.3 4.3.1 still hasn't fixed it. I've disabled ping, no help. The battery goes fully dead in less than 8 hours, even with OFF. Not just in sleep, but power OFF the battery still drains.
Problem is I am in Israel for work and my phone is under warranty. There is an iDigital store here, which is the local Apple store. I'll try and get a warranty replacement but I doubt it will help. Even so, if it is the upgrade causing the issue, Apple needs to address it NOW.

Apr 3, 2011 4:59 AM in response to mahuy

mahuy wrote:
I really think that the new software is the issue.

Thousands of people thought old software was the issue when it was new also: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12667836&#12667836

I have an Iphone 3GS and updated to the new software 2 days ago. My battery is shot now and it overheats. I can't go a few hours on a full charge now. I am extremely upset with this. Is there a number that I can call about software issues?

You can call the regular iPhone support number. If you have AppleCare or are within 90 days of purchase it will be free. Or you can go to an Apple store, which is always free. What they will do is walk you through a restore as new, which you can do yourself.

This is not an issue with the new version, it is a problem with something getting corrupted in the update process and has happened to some phones with every update. The only solution is to find what is corrupted and fix it. Here is a collection of tips that I've assembled:

In most cases it is ONE app, and your job, should you accept it, is to find out which app it is. Here are the most common causes:

These are the steps to try, in order, until you find one that fixes it:

0. Run the battery all the way down until the phone shuts off, then charge with the wall charger for 4 hours to recalibrate the battery gauge.

1. Reset Network settings and reboot (Hold HOME and SLEEP until you see an Apple logo, ignoring "slide to power off").

2. Reset All Settings and reboot.

3. if you have any push accounts open Settings/Mail,Contacts,Calendar, tap on the account name and turn the 3 switches off. Back out of Settings. Open Mail, then Contacts, then Calendar to clear pending operations. Reboot. Then go back into settings and turn the switches back on. This clears stale connections to the Exchange server that consume data and power but do not pass information.

4. Turn off Notifications and reboot. If this fixes it find the app that is sending data when it shouldn't. It will be an app that updates on its own, such as Facebook and other social networking apps, news apps, etc.

5. Kill all programs in the Recently Used ribbon. A long shot, but sometimes it helps.

6. Disable Game Center and Ping in Settings/Restrictions. These can use data and reduce battery life. If you actually use them after disabling them reboot, then enable them again. It may be a stale connection problem like Mail.

7. Disable Find my iPhone. Same as above.

8. If you've gotten this far go to Settings/Reset and Erase all content and settings, then Restore as a new phone without reloading your backup. Do not install any apps or set up email accounts. Test for a day. If this does NOT fix it contact Apple for a replacement phone.

9. If it DOES fix it try reloading your backup. If this breaks it redo the restore and do not reload the backup.

There has also been a discusion of the "mysterious" app ping.apple.com that can be seen with the app Netstat. Some people believe this is an evil app that steals battery power, and that it is new in 4.3. Neither is true; it has been there since 3.0, and its purpose is to manage Notifications for apps that use them. If you enable Notifications you need it. If it causes battery drain it is not ping.apple.com, it is the app that is being notified. More info here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3576

Best of luck solving this!

Apr 3, 2011 9:54 AM in response to colmulhall

same here, iv got a brand new IPhone 4 through work and started using it, noticed the back of the phone getting very hot and the phone draining itself from 100% the night before to dead in the morning.

iv done a full hard reset and not restored just to keep it clean and rule out any third party apps or config on my part.
the phone will run fine, and stay cool, standby for hours with negligible loss of battery.
Then i setup just a single exchange mailbox and watched as the battery drain continues as before, hot back, fast drain and useless.

im running iOS 4.3.1.

my colleague at work got an Iphone a month ago, syncs with the same exchange server and has the same model and iOS version and has no problems, iv set my device up identically to his as well and still no joy.

this is my first Apple product iv had and im not impressed so far, i thought my HTC HD2 was crap for battery life, but this just takes the biscuit.

Apr 3, 2011 6:07 PM in response to tomuk5

I upgraded to the new ios version last week and noticed my battery would drain 20% in one hour even when turned off. It was also very hot when Off. I read through and followed delete exchange accounts, turn off ping..etc. I did turn on airplane mode and noticed in a few minutes it phone was not hot. Battery only drained a few % when on. The phone is not much good in airplane mode. Something does not agree with the last iOS upgrade.

iPhone 4 heat and battery issues

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