iPhone 4s Battery Life?

The following happened on my old 3G phone and it may apply here too. I had an email account set to "Fetch." Somebody had sent a 12 MB attachment and the phone kept trying to download it on cellular and failing. A few minutes later it tried again and failed. This went on all afternoon and killed my battery.

I changed that account from Fetch to Manual (there are two places you need to do this: Fetch>Manually and Advanced>Manual), and I haven't had the problem since. BTW, my 4S seems to have decent battery life so far <fingers crossed>.

Since I also have an Exchange Server account I left "Push" on. The above applies when "push is off or for applications that do not support push." Apparently "Fetch" on the other account was the problem.

For those concern about the battery life. I suggest to turn the Sire and Icloud if you don't use them. see what would happen next?

I too have noticed something was strange with the battery. After I read several of these posts, I decided to start playing a movie. While at 82%, I checked the percentage after the movie played for about an hour and noticed I was then down to 22%! I already have several of the features turned off, but noticed even with the Diagnostics in the "Don't Send" position, there were a ton of entries posted. I let the battery run all the way down to 1% and then plugged it in and will check tomorrow after it charges overnight. I also noticed that charging seems like it takes longer too than my 3GS did.

I had synced from iTunes and it seems a majority of these situations are related to this, but not 100%. My wife just upgraded to the 4S too from a non-smartphone, so I did the "Set up as new iPhone" with hers - we will have to see how that turns out. I think tomorrow, I will reset the 3 e-mail addresses and if no major improvement, I will reset everything.

Here is my day usage. 5:02 usage, 15:11 standby and I have 8% left of juice. My iPhone 4 used to give me 6 to 7.5 hours and 42 hours standby before it was complete down to 2%. I like to think this might be solved. Is software update. I remember the iPhone 3GS had such bad first two weeks on battery that it was unreal too; then Apple released and iOS update and it got much better. I'm crossing my fingers for a solution.

I think maybe the A5 chip optimized by iOS 5 problem, plz look forward to next version of iOS 5!

Hi,

I think I’ve found a cause of the battery drain. Believe it or not but it’s the System Service for setting Time Zone. If I go to Settings -> Location Services -> System Services and turn ON the “Status Bar Icon” option at the bottom, I can see the GPS is in permanent use. Disabling the “Setting Time Zone” option immediately stops it.

I’ve tried this on my dad’s iPhone 4s too. I suspect it’s an iOS5 bug.

All the best,

Alex

Alex,

I don't know if this is true, I don't know if it is a true fix of the only issue - but the fact is, when I went to this setting, it had the purple arrow symbol next to it. I've turn off all system-related location settings. I'll see how it goes.

Does anyone know what the setting beginning with Mobile network is related to?

Hey Alex, well found! No doubt this would have a dramatic effect on battery life. Just disabled time zone updates on my 4S and will see how this effects usage going forward.

Same here, no new info to add, just adding my voice so Apple fixes it. I've had similar problems on all past upgrades with the phone running hot and battery lasting half a day with almost no usage. Turning things off (esp mail fetch) helps but doesn't cure the problem, so I suspect we'll all be waiting for a 5.1 iOS for a real fix.

Hi, not sure what I'm doing wrong but I'm seeing people post replies to this topic and then when I visit the web page replies (e.g. from senzism and BonaHoTep1) have gone missing!

I don't think they can fix this one with a patch... it will just be a bandage... In my humble option, it is the restriction of the case... they were in a rush to get something out(why we have the iphone 4S and not the 5) so they used the old case, and there was not enough room for an upgraded battery... at least not enough of an upgrade.

iphone 4 battery 1420mAh

iphone 4S battery 1430mAh

will all the new features and duel core CPU it should have increase to around 1800mAh...

So the new iphone 5 will have a bigger battery but leaves all of us with a battery draining 4S for the time being.

Hello....Had an iPhone4 & now got my 4S. The battery life is really bad. This morning I charged it to 100%, I used SIRI to check my calender for today & that's about it. I had lost 20% approx of battery life.

Before I got my 4S, I had iOS5 on my 4 & I had noticed lesser battery life for couple of days after I upgraded to iO5. But I did'nt think it was a big deal. But now with 4S, wow , it really ***** energy out !!

Another issue, did anyone ever notice "OVER HEATING" of the 4S. I just played angry birds for 5mins last night and the 4S was quite warm. This is so not like the 4 where I used to play for 15 to 20 min without any issues.

APPLE needs to fix these issues on iOS5. I wonder how soon we will see fixes. I also spent $50 on screen guard, so I dont want to return this phone, I need a fix.

That's a great find - two great finds, actually (showing status in the notification bar as well as time zone/GPS use). As Mark says, it's probably only one of several factors, but I found the same thing Mark found (it had been running the GPS continually). Thank you.

John

Tony, Dont you think that all those features that you suggest be disabled are actually features for users to really use the phone effectively. Sorry, but turning OFF is not a solution in my opinion. I think APPLE needs to fix whatever is causing this issue in the first place. TURNING OFF options only circumvents the problem. We need to have it solved.

In my case I tried all that, stil not a huge improvement. I have spent additional $50 on the scratch guard protection. So if I exchange, I am screwed for $50.

I'm actually relieved to see that this is not just a problem I'm having. This is my first smart phone and was wishing I hadn't bought it after the battery drained within 8 hours. I hope they fix this soon. I have tried several of the fixes recommend in this thread, but none of them work. I charged my phone before bed last night to 100%. Took it off the charger and left it on. When I woke up this morning I checked it and it was already down to 67% with absolutely not use. Should I be calling Apple or Verizon about this? This phone is pretty useless if it can't be used for a single day without the battery dying. If I can't use the "Smart" features of this so-called "Smart Phone," what's the point?