Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

In iCloud try turning off "photo stream and "documents and data" and lower the brightness a little. I have the 4S and after doing that the battery life has done much better.

First, I'd like to thank those who have carefully detailed possible solutions to the excessive battery usage issue.

Like others, I've noticed it's NOT confined solely to iPhones. Lion has caused much higher than normal battery depletion in my Macbook Pro and I've not yet figured out a solution to that issue. But, back to the iPhone.

Other than those who have truly received hardware lemons, I don't believe the battery issue is quite as dire as it seems at first glance.

My phone, a VZW Black 32gb 4s, suffered from identical and dismal battery depletion as many others. For the last few days it has behaved perfectly, and considering this models far higher dependence upon GPS usage, the battery duration is pretty darn good.

I started out by reading over 50 pages of this thread. Between the "me too" responses, there is a LOT of valuable data, carefully recorded by people who investigated this issue thoroughly.

I migrated from the iPhone 4 to the 4s, having upgraded the 4 to iOS5 and then backing it up to iCloud. Everything went off without a hitch, although due to the no doubt impossibly high demand on Apple's servers it took literally hours.

I "fixed" the battery depletion issue on my 4s by adopting the strategy of turning everything OFF, then gradually back on only those features I deemed important. Here's what I did:

1. Turned off sending diagnostic data to Apple.

2. Turned off automatically search for connections in Wi-Fi.

3. Turned off automatic Date & Time setting under General, Date & Time.

4. Set mail retrieve to Manual. Fetch isn't important to me. I'll check it when I feel like it.

5. Turned off Siri raise to speak feature.

6. Turned off automatic Time Zone under Location Services.

7. Turned off use cellular under iCloud Documents & Data.

8. Turned off Ping.

When I'm finished with applications, I close them and likewise shut down the screen. I don't want for the timer to do that, but it's set at 1 minute should I forget. Screen brightness is set just a wee bit lower than default.

I do use Locations for locating the iPhone and Reminders. WiFi is on for several hours a day and Internet usage is fairly high also.

I didn't see it mentioned here, but the signal strength is also a key factor in power usage. My phone usage at home in a semi-rural area is only 3 bars at BEST, while away from home it's consistently 4-5 (highest) bars.

I continue to condition the battery by always letting it run completely dead, then recharging.

The improvement has been nothing short of miraculous. I didn't report a battery issue to Apple because for me, there really isn't anything to report. I'll be happy if they do issue an OS patch to improve it, but right now I'd like to know what the heck Lion is doing to run down the battery on my Macbook Pro and making it hot enough to cook an egg.

Like it or not, the 4s is kind of a beta phone, so we're testing it.

Oh, my 4s isn't running hot anymore either. I don't believe there is any single fix, it's a combination of turning some resource hog features off and conditioning the battery that "fixes" the problems.

Hope this helps someone. As I stated in my opening, thanks to those who posted these solutions because they sure worked for me.

I installed an app to show the status of the phone and saw that my memory was maxed out and the CPU was between 60-70% all with no apps running.  Could this be part of the problem?  It seems like there is a lot going on in the background that I don't know about. I should note that I've also turned off widgets no push email no Siri to ear Bluetooth and wifi off.  Still draining the battery like an android phone ;)

What App did you install?

Frenzi wrote:

 

I don't believe there is any single fix, it's a combination of turning some resource hog features off and conditioning the battery that "fixes" the problems.

Agree and disagree.

Disagree: I think that turning things off and conditioning the battery help extend battery life. These are all important things to add minutes to the usability of the battery during the day. With my old 3G, this is how I made it through longer days.

But... I don't think it's the solution. Let me give an analogy: not racing your car from light to light, inflating your tires and driving 55 will improve your gas mileage. But, while it will let you drive further, it is not the solution to a leaking gas tank.

Agree: There isn't a single fix. There is something "invisible" running that is causing the battery to drain and the use time to report higher than what the user is actually using.

I think for that is caused by different things - but, all related to the phone being very persistent in attempting to complete tasks. For instance, I never actually get to work  because my office is actually at least a half mile from where Google indicates our street address to be. I believe location services knows I'm almost there, so it keeps checking (all day, maybe) to see if I've gone that last distance.

There's evidence of that type of persistence in the reports of attempting to connect to Exchange servers; probably iCloud too. I know for fact that MobileMail attempted for more than two hours to send an email a couple of days back. My Exchange server was reporting back that the account was full and I couldn't send. Mail didn't give up.

Given that line of thinking, I suspect that is why we see posts like "TRY THIS! IT WORKS!!!!" only to find it doesn't work for us.

We're all trying to cure simptoms and none of us have the tools to cure the illness.

I really believe that the more data that the Apple techs gather, they'll be able to spot the cause and we'll all be good. I have every confidence they're working like crazy and losing sleep.

This company hias a history of fixing problems and I have no reason to think they will leave us hanging.

Rod Tulao wrote:

 

What App did you install?

Sounds like System Activity Monitor. 99c. Worth the price, IMO, but also didn't help me solve the problem.

System max

thnx!

Thanks!

Marc,

I agree with you. "Fix" isn't the correct word to use. "Word-around" is more accurate. Apple will be the ones to actually solve the problem with a real fix.

I have complete faith in Apple and expect these issues to be ironed out too. That's one reason I hated turning off sending diagnostic data to them. I may turn it back on to see just how much of a problem it's really causing.

Just wanted to add to the mix in the hopes of getting apple to come up with a fix for this.

Just switched to the iPhone from BB, and have to charge at least once throughout the day with fairly minimal usage, mostly texting some internet and emails.  Lasts about 4-5 hours with this usage.

Same issue with phone getting warm when its charging as well.

Cuppertino, we have a problem.  I have turned OFF bluetooth, WiFi and 3G on my iPhone 4s. Now the phone is working great

Since I hardly ever make calls, I basically have a very expensive brick for texting.

Apple please acknowledge the problem.

want to add my experience, i had 6.9 hours of life at 50% brightness and about 6.5 hrs at 60 % brightness, i dont even know if to return its a hazzle and dont want to get a bad phone like some guys have. my overnight only goes about 2-3% less, if i use safari or youtube 10% every half hour, games im guessing i get 2 full hours if none stop gaming, goes pretty fast. so again i would like to keep phone but this battery issue *****. i have to charge every day if i use a lot.

What is the return policy for iPhone 4s's? If there is a replacement, does the 14 or 30 day (Which is it?) period restart or do you get between 29 days and 1 day, depending on when the phone was returned, to return a second bad device. Also, an AT&T question: Do I still qualify for an upgrade discount for second (Or third) iPhone? Finally, does my warranty period/upgrade eligibility date go from original purchase, or latest purchase?

Surely State Attorney Generals are abuzz about the potential consumer outrage. Has anyone heard about any legal action to get Apple to at least acknowledge this massive consumer product failure. 2% of all American now have an iPhone 4s, and we on this thread do not know if 1%, or 99% have the flaws. Most folks that I know do have this problem, so (Probably) millions of Americans are just waiting for..............................the truth.

As a businessman, I need info to act. I can wait a week, or a month. I can't afford to switch platforms. No information equals no ability to act to protect myself from financial consequences.

Sincerely, and still an Apple fan-boy.

Frenzi wrote:

 

I have complete faith in Apple and expect these issues to be ironed out too. That's one reason I hated turning off sending diagnostic data to them. I may turn it back on to see just how much of a problem it's really causing.

In my case, I didn't have significant improvement with it off, so I turned it back on. I'd rather have a managable bit of pain (discomfort, really) and let them gain info to work from.

I flipped so many switches, it's hard to say for sure - but, I believe the most-significant imrpovement has been by eliminating Location services from the "Reminders" app.

Before that change yesterday, the drain was fast and not congruent with a device that wasn't being used.

Today, I used it like I did my old phone and the percentage is only a tad lower than I would have anticipated.

22% battery capacity

Usage - 5 Hours, 27 Minutes

Stand by - 15 Hours, 25 Minutes

The phone was removed from the charger 15 hours ago at 100%. Simple math tells me that the usage stats still aren't quite accurate since 15.5 + 5.5 = 21 ... and 21 ≠ 15. I don't know how to explain 21 hours of use in a 15-hour period.

So, I think some background process is still running. All that said, the remaining battery capacity seems to be much closer to my expectations today than yesterday.