Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

@sbailey4

Given that my phantom usuage seemed to disappear when my iPhone was stored in my jean pocket I decided it might be worthwhile carrying out a few tests that might explain this phenomena. The only things I thought could account for it are Temperature, Pressure on the touch screen or Physical Mass causing weird interference with Cell Signal (I would have expected the later two to have the inverse effect to what I was seein)

Anyway, last night I perfromed temperature related tests and I believe I found the smoking gun (at least in my case). At temperatures above 24 degrees centigrade I get little or no phatom usuage and the system logs show low activity. When I go below 24 degrees centgirade I see an increase in phantom usuage and the logs start showing the phone is powering on to do some checks while in standby mode. When below 20 degrees centigrade the phantom usuage increase significantly (30 minutes for every hour) and the log files show that the phone is powering on every minute to do checks when in standby.

As an overnight test I placed the phone in the 'hot press'/'airing cupboard' overnight  (24 degress centigrade). After 8 hours the battery had droped 4% (as per spec) and the log files where relatively clean. I usually have my phone on my bedside locker which is 4 Metres away from the hot press and would usually be around 18 degress at night. In this scenario I normally see 15% battery drop.

Now the question is. Is it hardware or software related?

@Mark_SRi

Have you tried rebooting your phone after switching off the location services or resetting your network settings?

I was in the same situation as you but after resetting my network settings and powering off my phone and back on, the battery stopped draining like crazy.

It seems there could be a software bug with 'sticky' settings, when you change a setting nothing takes effect until the next time the phone reboot/reset.

Also try turning on flight mode before rebooting the phone, this would make sure network activities/functions are disabled.

Mark_SRi wrote:

 

And back on topic,

 

I diabled all locations services, all applications closed. I went to bed at 11.15 and the phone was at 83% woke up at 6.45 and phone was at 39%. Thats 44% battery use over 7.5hrs doing nothing. I tell a lie, 1 text had been received!

 

So that works out at 88% battery usage in 15hrs, so in roughly 17hrs of doing nothing with the phone it will be dead...........i'm sorry but there is something wrong there!!! If i actually made a call of played a game, would be dead in hours!

 

I will be taking back to store in the next few days and cancelling if this carries on!

i need a ios 5.1 from apple how ?

No I don't have iCloud setup at all but I only use my iCloud email for Find My iPhone. I don't use any of Microsoft's products so no Word, Excel, or Outlook. I have Mail, Address Book, Pages, Keynote, etc. all for Mac. If you have a Mac, check out Address Book. You can sync your contacts from iTunes directly from Address Book. I don't use an external app for syncing contacts. I have all settings set to no sync (Contacts, Mail, Apps, etc.) so nothing syncs when I plug in my phone but it only backs up. I don't use Calender at all, maybe if I have a dentist or doctor appointment, but that occurs rarely.

sbailey4 wrote:

 

Are you syncing with iCloud by chance? If you run Outlook you can sync contacts with iTunes. Or gmail or yahoo mail you can sync via the application in mail settings. Maybe you have a corrupt contact that is hanging trying to sync with whatever service. I would turn off any contact sync and see if  it stops. Based on what you are saying its more than likely during the sync process when its getting hosed so if you turn off icloud or mail whatever you are using to sync with that should tell you for sure. Personally I sync contacts with Outlook so it just happens whenever I manually syn using iTunes. Calendar I sync using the mail application because that changes more often.

AliAR wrote:

 

I added all my contacts and music yesterday and when I woke up in the morning, I was surprised. After about 6 hours of standby, I lost 11% battery and there were no apps. As soon as I got back home, I did a restore as a new phone and added all my contacts from the Address Book (Mac), about 10 apps (which I didn't open at all), and music. When I took it out the charge at 100%, I had phantom usage which had usage time as nearly as half as standby with no use at all and no apps in the background. After less than 4 hours of no use at all, I had 94%. and I lost about 2% every hour. I decided to erase all contents and settings from the iPhone and I connected to the laptop to add music only. I now don't have any phantom usage. It looks like the contacts are f****ng up my phone.

 

Current results:

Usage: 2 Minutes

Standby: 58 Minutes

Battery: 100%

Music: 675 songs (don't think its just 2 songs... you know who you are.)

Now it is calculating it correctly and I'm happy. Still didn't fix my credit card but as soon as I do, I will be installing the apps that I need only directly from my phone.

 

 

If you have phantom usage, try backing up all your data on the iPhone and erase all data and settings. Then install your music (I don't know about the apps) but leave your contacts (you can sync contacts whenever you want as long as you backup). Record any observations and post on this thread.

It hasn't been released yet. Be patient because they will release it soon.

moe-4-me wrote:

 

i need a ios 5.1 from apple how ?

ok thanks

@Youssef

I did back up my phone but after I restored my phone, I didn't use the back up but instead set it up as a new phone. It takes seconds to install music, contacts and apps. When I figured out the problem didn't go, I erased all contents and settings from the iPhone (Settings > General > Restore) and plugged my iPhone so I can sync the music at least and charge it to full but no apps or contacts were installed. I'm sure my drainage problem is from contacts. I went through 10 hours, 3 minutes standby and 17 minutes usage with 100% battery! Wifi or 3G were not on during that time.

Wow, that is nuts. Maybe its some sort of battery temp sensor detecting heat and shuts off some items but when cooler fires back up? Who knows but that is certainly strange. Not sure anyone else has mentioned that phenomenon. Interesting you can make it happen by controlling the temp.

You are correct. There is an issue (as I have heard) with the baseband hanging in certain circumstances. The below is a more detailed description:

"Snitch connection to push.apple.com is too aggressive and prone to hang ups with socket open. The push.apple.com connection in netstat transmits most of the i-services - anything from find my phone to diagnostics. The problem is - it's very aggressive and often trips and stalls, especially if you are moving between data masts while it's transmitting. This results in the phone aggressively polling all possible backup connections and even mast jumping - as a result the phone doesn't properly sleep, often gets warm from background services trying desperately to request data connection through another mast and phantom "usage" stats grow when phone should be sleeping."

Its a known fix that if the reset network settings is performed it solves it, for a while anyway until this happens again.  Reports are 5.1 b3 finally solved this but again just hearsay. Hopefully it does and will be released soon.

TryingToLikeMyApple wrote:

 

@Mark_SRi

 

Have you tried rebooting your phone after switching off the location services or resetting your network settings?

 

I was in the same situation as you but after resetting my network settings and powering off my phone and back on, the battery stopped draining like crazy.

 

It seems there could be a software bug with 'sticky' settings, when you change a setting nothing takes effect until the next time the phone reboot/reset.

 

Also try turning on flight mode before rebooting the phone, this would make sure network activities/functions are disabled.

 

Mark_SRi wrote:

 

And back on topic,

 

I diabled all locations services, all applications closed. I went to bed at 11.15 and the phone was at 83% woke up at 6.45 and phone was at 39%. Thats 44% battery use over 7.5hrs doing nothing. I tell a lie, 1 text had been received!

 

So that works out at 88% battery usage in 15hrs, so in roughly 17hrs of doing nothing with the phone it will be dead...........i'm sorry but there is something wrong there!!! If i actually made a call of played a game, would be dead in hours!

 

I will be taking back to store in the next few days and cancelling if this carries on!

That's a very interesting observation. Makes me want to do the test myself

I usually sleep at around 20 celsius, but typically the toilet is colder, due to ventilation, I'll charge my phone tonight fully and leave it there for the night, see what gives.

By the way, I'm not aware of the iPhone having a thermometer built-in, so I don't suppose this is a software thing. It is however fully possible that hardware behaves faulty and causes errors, which on their turn cause the phone to "wake-up", resulting in high battery usage.

Thanks for this observation, I think for the past 100 pages that I'm more or less following the conversation, this sounds the most intriguing And of course the fact that 3G cellular data destroys the battery even when not in use.

Curious, for sure, but a single test does not make for "a smoking gun".  Any number of circumstances could have driven your results.   You need to repeat these tests several times and prove that it really is the ambient temp that causes something to occur.......

bright raven wrote:

 

@sbailey4

 

Given that my phantom usuage seemed to disappear when my iPhone was stored in my jean pocket I decided it might be worthwhile carrying out a few tests that might explain this phenomena. The only things I thought could account for it are Temperature, Pressure on the touch screen or Physical Mass causing weird interference with Cell Signal (I would have expected the later two to have the inverse effect to what I was seein)

 

Anyway, last night I perfromed temperature related tests and I believe I found the smoking gun (at least in my case). At temperatures above 24 degrees centigrade I get little or no phatom usuage and the system logs show low activity. When I go below 24 degrees centgirade I see an increase in phantom usuage and the logs start showing the phone is powering on to do some checks while in standby mode. When below 20 degrees centigrade the phantom usuage increase significantly (30 minutes for every hour) and the log files show that the phone is powering on every minute to do checks when in standby.

 

As an overnight test I placed the phone in the 'hot press'/'airing cupboard' overnight  (24 degress centigrade). After 8 hours the battery had droped 4% (as per spec) and the log files where relatively clean. I usually have my phone on my bedside locker which is 4 Metres away from the hot press and would usually be around 18 degress at night. In this scenario I normally see 15% battery drop.

 

Now the question is. Is it hardware or software related?

I'll give that a go now and see what happens. i'll report back my findings. Went to the apple store and booked an appointment with a "specialist" for Monday. See what they have to say although the woman in the shop said 15hrs is right for battery drain with no usage. I said you are joking, the specs says 200hrs standby mode.

Anyway will try the reboot! Currently down from 83% to 43% from 8.45 to 14.30 with 10 mins of calls only in 5hrs 45. 7% an hour roughly.

TryingToLikeMyApple wrote:

 

@Mark_SRi

 

Have you tried rebooting your phone after switching off the location services or resetting your network settings?

 

I was in the same situation as you but after resetting my network settings and powering off my phone and back on, the battery stopped draining like crazy.

 

It seems there could be a software bug with 'sticky' settings, when you change a setting nothing takes effect until the next time the phone reboot/reset.

 

Also try turning on flight mode before rebooting the phone, this would make sure network activities/functions are disabled.

 

Mark_SRi wrote:

 

And back on topic,

 

I diabled all locations services, all applications closed. I went to bed at 11.15 and the phone was at 83% woke up at 6.45 and phone was at 39%. Thats 44% battery use over 7.5hrs doing nothing. I tell a lie, 1 text had been received!

 

So that works out at 88% battery usage in 15hrs, so in roughly 17hrs of doing nothing with the phone it will be dead...........i'm sorry but there is something wrong there!!! If i actually made a call of played a game, would be dead in hours!

 

I will be taking back to store in the next few days and cancelling if this carries on!

@Jameson,

      I can understand why you may be dubious about my findings. Please know that there has been a pretty methodical process involved in my troubleshooing process which led me to trying the temperature related tests. The tests were carried out under as controlled an environment as I could manage at home. The phone setup that I have used and the areas in which I have perfromed the tests were chosen in order to elliminate any unkown circumstances that may lead to spurious findindings. I have continued my tests at my work place and I can confirm that so far my current observations and test results contiune to be confirmed. I have alternated the phone from my pocket to my desk every two hours. When in my pocket I have recorded a temperature of 30 degrees C (using a Testo 174 Temperature logger) and over two hours I get approx. 5 minutes usage. When on my desk I record an ambient temperature of 21 degrees C and the phone shows 45-50 minutes usage. I will continue similar tests over the next few days and the weekend.

There is a story in the Business/Tech section of the New York Times today re phone hacking. One of the symptoms of a hacked phone is short battery life!!

Again, I'm not claiming your findings are wrong, BUT.....   The pocket vs the desk test has more variables than just temp.   Movement is nearly continuous when in your pocket, while there is no movement when it is sitting on your desk.   MAYBE, when it sits still for a while, some background process kicks in?   No proof of anything on my part, just wild guesses at this point.

bright raven wrote:

 

@Jameson,

 

      I can understand why you may be dubious about my findings. Please know that there has been a pretty methodical process involved in my troubleshooing process which led me to trying the temperature related tests. The tests were carried out under as controlled an environment as I could manage at home. The phone setup that I have used and the areas in which I have perfromed the tests were chosen in order to elliminate any unkown circumstances that may lead to spurious findindings. I have continued my tests at my work place and I can confirm that so far my current observations and test results contiune to be confirmed. I have alternated the phone from my pocket to my desk every two hours. When in my pocket I have recorded a temperature of 30 degrees C (using a Testo 174 Temperature logger) and over two hours I get approx. 5 minutes usage. When on my desk I record an ambient temperature of 21 degrees C and the phone shows 45-50 minutes usage. I will continue similar tests over the next few days and the weekend.