Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

Sylar2011 wrote:

 

Really? I thought it meant you couldn't get texts back, sorry I haven't been keeping up with the thread, how exactly does the "reset all setting" procedure go

[credit to Davidch for this fix]

For anyone new to the thread be sure to go through these steps to address the battery after updating to iOS 5.0.1:

1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)

2 a. Go through initial setup steps (lang, wifi, siri, enable location, etc) and choose setup as new phone (don't worry your apps, data, contacts, mail will still be there). Do NOT restore from iCloud or iTunes (It can copy back corrupt settings)

2 b. If you do not get the complete new setup screen with language setup and setup as new phone or restore from iTune/iCloud backup, be sure to go back to #1 and reset all settings again (it should happen the second time)

3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd (settings -> location services -> system services)

4. Fully discharge battery (until you get the spinning wheel and it shuts off)

5. Fully recharge battery (overnight if possible)

In my experience this improves the Standby battery drain issue significantly in most cases.  It reduces drain from 2-4% or more per hr to 0.5% or less. It has worked for many, many users now. If it does not work after a few try's you may have a real battery or hardware issue and should contact Apple.  Good Luck!

splitster wrote:

 

My wife and I were close to returning the 4S phones we got in early December and going back to the 4 because of the extremely short battery life experienced by many other users (fully discharging in 8 to 10 hours with light use).  We had tried most of the suggested fixes and nothing had any effect. Then, a few days ago, I updated about 16 apps and suddenly the battery life became extraordinarily long.  After 12 hours, I still have a charge of about 88%, even with all my location services on and using wi-fi.  My wife continued to have the battery problems until she updated her apps the following day, and since then her phone has had a similarly long battery life.  I'm not sure how it was fixed, but I assume that there had been a glitch in one of the apps that caused the battery to discharge.  It's been five days since I updated the apps, and the battery continues to work well.  Our carrier is ATT.

Thanks for the info. I totally believe that most of the issues with folks that have crappy battery is more due to restoring from older devices and lots or 3rd party apps that are misbehaving with iOS 5 rather than hardware. I mean after 3 or 6 devices and all the same it would stand to reason maybe something else is wrong. As its been stated iOS 5.1 was sent out to developers so they can test their apps with the new OS and make sure they work correctly. So clearly when there is a new iOS , apps need a refresh to work correctly. Glad you got BOTH  your "faulty" devices working!

Ok great I will follow those steps, thanks! I know this must be annoying but it's sort of important, will I definitely have my texts on my phone after i do this? I'll definetly give me a try though wish me luck!

Sylar2011 wrote:

 

Ok great I will follow those steps, thanks! I know this must be annoying but it's sort of important, will I definitely have my texts on my phone after i do this? I'll definetly give me a try though wish me luck!

Yes you should I have done it and they remained. Be sure to get a back up first tho either to iCloud or iTunes just in case something goes bad. And DONT do the" Erase and reset" just "Reset All Settings" as described in the post. Only takes a few min

Once I have done the reset and I also deleted my backup from iTunes I can sync with it again for music and all of that or would it also corrupt the setting again?

bhavisto wrote:

 

Once I have done the reset and I also deleted my backup from iTunes I can sync with it again for music and all of that or would it also corrupt the setting again?

Um not sure you want to delete your backup from iTunes. May need it is something goes wrong. iTunes will overwritethe existing back each time you run a new one unless you rename the folder where it resides. You can rename the folder and have multiple backups.

The sync will  not restore the backup, you have to select "restore" and choose a backup to utilize any iTunes backups

The "Reset all Settings"  does not delete your apps or data so you really wont have to sync or restore etc. Follow the post exactly and you just have to add back wifi and a few other system settings, not apps or data.

Thanks very much

Not sure if you saw the edit but you wont have to sync or restore if you use the reset all settings  option

I did. I was just wondering about after the reset was done and I wanted to sync new videos and other stuff from my mac to my phone if that would create issues, but I guess it does not.

My issue with the battery just started about a week ago - on Dec 22 to be exact.  Got the 4S in October and battery life was great - lasted on standby for a couple of days and no issues at all.  Then last week after traveling out of town for the holiday that my battery just started draining like others described here. Has anyone else had a sudden issue with the batterry?  I am trying the various suggestions here but nothing has worked yet. 

I will give this a go... presently my battery life is really bad.

I dont know if I am getting correct battery life or not?

1 month back I got the 4S and experienced a lot battery issues.

So I got my 4S replaced with a new one.

Currently my 4S is dead after usage time of 7h 40 min.I dont think I haved used 7h 40min.

I also observed that my 4S drains quickly even in standby.

And it all happened in 1 day. That the big problem. 1 day come on. My iPhone 4 used to give me 2 days with every thing switched on.

My current setup:

Location based Ads/Timezone: OFF

Siri Location / Raise : OFF

Push : OFF

Itunes / Ping : OFF

Diagnostics : Dont send

*All settings are reset.

*Restored it as a new iPhone.

Well I has had cr@p battery life since I got my 4S in early November 2011. Tried all the solutions posted here, but to no avail.

However, on Friday I did the following:

Updated my iOS 5.0.1 (9A405) to build (9A406)

Restored from a backup on iCloud

Removed my phone from its Otterbox Defender case

Turned on lots of notifications and features I had otherwise turned off including BT

Charged it to 100% and then took it off charge.

Results: Standby of 37hours and Moderate usage of 6+ hours (including BT connected to car, calls, texts, downloading a few apps but mostly WiFi Internet browsing). iCloud on, BT on, Siri on (raise to speak off), location services only for two apps that really need it.

I have now run it down to when it turns itself off and have put it onto charge using Battery Doctor.

I am hoping that whatever I/Apple have done has fixed my battery issues. Maybe as another contributor noted, Apple have done something in the background which has had a positive effect on battery life.

Happy New Year to you all.

The battery will likely reach ten hours usage. This is with everyday mixed use. 

Wifi and 3g on

Location based Ads/Timezone: OFF

Siri Location / Raise : OFF

Push : OFF

Itunes / Ping : OFF

Diagnostics : Dont send

Set up as new iPhone 4s 16g - 5.0.1(9A406).  Cycled the battery 3 - 4 times. (DID NOT RESTORE)

Now the battery drops 0.5% per hour in standby and holds up well.

What I will note is that I recently installed an App (some obscure third party workout organizer app) and this caused noticeable drains.  It had clearly not been optimized to IOS 5.  I deleted this and all was fine again.

After optimizing your settings.  I think that one of the first things to do if your experiencing problems should be to delete your apps and install a few of your most popular apps each day.  You will eventually reach the offending apps.  (for every app you install - optimize the settings for that app.)

Regards.

Hi BigBang. How do you update the iOS 5.0.1 (9A405) to build (9A406)? Thanks.