Iphone 4S / iOS5 - Battery drain / issues - An idea Ihaven't seen anywhere yet (17th October 2011)....

All Users they an update to iOS 5.0.1 (9A406) also called russian 5.0.1 not helped now waiting for about 4 months! God bless that my iPhone 4S now runs ok with this upgrade otherwise I had switched back to my old iPhone 3GS.

Apple please release iOS 5.1 as fast as possible.

This might help someone:

I recently turned off mobile data to see if I could save some battery life, relying completely on WiFi instead of 3G. Two things happened whilst my phone was in standby:

1. When not in WiFi range my battery life did not noticably change.

2. When in WiFi range my battery life became substantially worse.

A quick observation showed that, in WiFi range, my phone was continually connected to wireless with my usage time increasing as fast as my standby time. As soon as I turned ON mobile data, everything returned to normal.

Conclusion: It's more efficient for the phone to nibble a few packets of 3G data for notifcations, fetch, push etc than it is to power up the whole wireless subsystem and antenna. Whatever wireless timeout the phone uses in standby clearly never gets a chance to happen. The result is WiFi being on continously (and the usage time increasing accordingly) as the phone keeps it powered up to receive notifications in the absence of mobile data.

Actually, further to that... if you're in WiFi range and have mobile data turned off, it wouldn't surprise me if iOS has been specifically programmed to keep a wireless connection up at all times so it can continue to receive notifications, iMessages etc.

I read earlier in this thread "WiFi uses less power than 3G". Well, I'd argue that in standby 3G alone uses less than 3G+WiFi. For small, periodic amounts of data your phone has a 3G connection at all times, even in standby. Leaving WiFi on all the time for the odd data packet is clearly going to result in worse battery life. Quite why iOS does this is another matter.

Hi all ! I have an iphone 4s and I was very happy with it until one day at work while I was listening online radio (with tunein) the phone got very hot and began very fast to drain . When I got home te phone was completely drained and when I tried to charge it , it wouldnt charge . I found a video on youtube how to turn it on and charge it (hard reset) . Since that day i experience a very bad battery my phone drains while in stand by and if I look at the usage I have the same amount of time on usage and standby. I had my phone sent to service it came back after 10 days. I turnet on the device after a full charge i took a look at the usage at that moment my phone was displaying 15800 days of standby and 15800 days of usage 🙂))) . Now after a few days I have the same old problem the battery drains 5% each hour and the usage and standby the same values . Does eny of you have this problem ???

Do you use iOS 5.1?

I use iOS 5.1 (9B179), and I have the same problem. I have to go through at least two full charges every day, even when I do not use my iphone much (I have a corporate blackberry Touch).

I deleted my gmail accounts (I kept my icloud and lotus accounts). Changed from push to fetch, and only manually. Turn notifications off. Turn location off. Turn wifi off. Turn roaming off. Siri off. Bluetooth off. Etc....

Same incredible fast drain -- 1% every 5 min. When plugged on a USB port, the phone's battery (in standby mode) barrely charges.

There is one interesting fact: the iPhone does not show 'Time since last full charge' in the Usage menu (under the battery usage button), even after the phone has been fully charged -- as if the battery never was actually fully charged (despite the 100% battery percentage).

It is therefore possible that the battery is in fact never fully charged due to a faulty battery charge manager. The phone may stop charging although the battery is in fact only 30% charged -- so, in fact the drain may amount to 1% every 20 min -- more in line with the advertised design capacity of the battery.

In the alternative, the battery is defective and the issue so widespread that Apple is concerned about the brand damage a complete recall would cause during this critical post-Jobs transition time... Whatever the cause, a fix is urgently needed.

iPhone 4S Model MD241X

Serial number: C39GW9BBDTD6

Modem Firmware: 2.0.10

Have you guys tried a full restore? I did it about 2 weeks ago seems to help, I also stopped using my iPhone 4s as an alarm clock that helped as well. I'm pretty happy with the battery life of my device, although I do carry a spare battery case as a backup I've found that I don't have to put my 4s on the charger each night I can wait until the next day when I get to the office.

If you're really worried about battery life I can suggest a product (I don't work for them, but I do own it and use it as my phone case) http://www.phonesuit.com/iphone-battery-case-phonesuit-elite-4. It's a phone case that has has a 2100 mAh battery built in charges over micro usb, comes with an on/off switch so when your iPhone battery gets low you can flick the switch and charge up your phone on the go. The added battery makes your iPhone heavier though so keep that in mind.

Edit...

Another option is http://www.mophie.com, I went with phone suite because they had an larger battery at the time.

Yeah So this is my first Iphone (4S). I have been an avid Droid user for years and always had great luck with them (battery, OS, ect). So I decided a week ago March 25th 2012 to take the plunge and get an iphone family plan with my significant other, assuming "what the heck, everyone says the battery life is the best thing about the phone". From day one this phone has been dog**** battery-wise. Not only is my phone affected, but my girlfriend's same model phone is the same exact way. So let me get to it already:

I consider myself a tech-savy person and thought hey I can figure this out, man have I been wrong, along with 98% of 4S users. So the phone came stocked with iOS 5.0.1 I think. After suffering bad battery life for two days, with realistic/perfect charging to condition the battery, I assumed it was either a bad battery or iOS issue. I realized there was an update due for iOS 5.1 that noted bugs and fixes for battery issues. I proceeded to DL and Install once I had a full battery charge, while being plugged in. I thought to myself, "this is great, finally!" but to no avail; the battery life was still terrible... No Gain or Loss compared to before. Let me elaborate a bit...

*Stock Phone out of box iOS 5.0.1 (03/26/12)

-Day 1 with 100% charge, everything set to default, wifi off when not in use. I unplug from charger at 515am to get ready for work and lay the phone on my desk downstairs and continue to get ready for work. Leave for work and arrive at 7am, phone is at 88-90% (not even touched yet). By 12pm I leave for luch and I am anywhere between 35-40% on battery with on average 3 websites viewed and maybe, just maybe one phone call made. If I made it home at 4pm without my phone dying I don't remember.

-Day 2 (same exact scenario for the most part)

-Day 3 (same scenario) except this time I was proactive after reading about shutting off all the extra background services, apps, siri, ect, but nothing seemed to help at all! Literally if I saved 1-2% I didnt notice.

*Upgraded to iOS 5.1 (03/29/12)

-Day 4. Discovered update that noted bugs and fixes for battery issues and dove in as soon as my phone was at 100% charge. I thought I was finally free form the grips of this...nope. Everything back to default running on 5.1 I had no gain or loss in battery performance. I figured I would again try disabling all the background services listed before, but nothing would help. Sometimes it would drain a lil faster than other, but for the most part I was losing 10-15% an hour at least with the most minimal of use.

-Day 5. I called Apple and their Sr. Advisor acted suprised, as if she hadnt heard of this issue really , and set me up an appointment with the "Genius Bar". Sooo I wait for that appointment hoping for a new update or patch to resolve this issue so I would'nt have to drive 2hrs to the closest apple store.

-Day 6 and 7 resolve nothing other than reading forums and trying to educate myself on the issue.

-Day 8. (04/02/12) I go to the Apple Store. The "Apple Genius" does a diagnostic scan on my phone and determines the battery and hardware seem healthy, but becomes aware of the giant loss in battery as we sat there for 10mins and it dropped over 10%. He was shocked and said "this def is not normal". He proceeded with options, such as "I can wipe the phone clean and give you a new battery or I can just give you a brand new phone". I wanted to rule out hardware entirely so opted for the new handset replacement so I could start from scratch. So we moved forward and I went on my way back home with my 2nd iphone 4S with the original 5.0.1 on it. Charge conditioned it and didnt put any apps at all on it or upgrades. I wanted to see what the culprit was. It still was draining after giving it a lil use (10mins of soft web surfing and a 4min phone call). I seemed to be in the same boat again and dissapointed. I was right to feel that way because my battery issue was there exactly the same as before, except I had an empty phone I had to start all over with again...

-Day 9. (04/03/12) Decided to upgrade new handset to 5.1 hoping for the best, assuming it really just needed that bug fix through the upgrade. Pretty much started my work day at 7am with iOS 5.1 on the new handset with no apps or customizations. Battery life still the same. I could not believe it, so again I disabled all the services listed before to see if it would help along with some other troubleshooting I read about over the weekend... Nothing would help. I could not find the culprit! Battery was still draining at an alarming rate.

-Day 10. (TODAY! 04/04/12) Did my usual 7am-4pm workshift. While at work my battery showed signs of no hope once again, but I decided to get over it for a few minutes and finally use the smartphone portion of my purchase and redownloaded my apps one by one and see how the battery reacted; nothing seemed to help or hinder the battery life.

So here I am at 8pm trying to help the cause by giving the steps I have taken. Sorry if I have left out important details, but I am exhausted over it, so feel free to reply with extensive questioning. My only hope is to shed some light for apple and its iphone users. Too many places I have read that people werent doing enough or were doing too much, which annoyed me because I could relate to every single one of the issues and I know you guys can to. So enough from you guys who say try this, try that, stop using the phone so hard, swap it out at apple, upgrade, restore from itunes, restore from scratch, put it in the oven, put it in the freezer, because NONE of that has worked for me on any level as of yet. Same for my girlfriends phone. None of these steps have helped my battery life and I know there are other in the same boat which is deflating.

Currently my iphone 4S is a white 32gb with iOS 5.1 installed.

I am on Sprint and generally have 4-5 bars of service all the time, including 3G.

My serial number is starts with DQGH12V*****

Model MD246LL

Version 5.1 (9B179)

Let's crush this rediculus issue that has gone on for far too long.

Okay, Important realtime update!

-Day 11. I went to sleep last night at 1030pm with my phone unplugged at 93% and just woke up at 515am to grab it at 90% and currently at 6am it is still at 90%, this is huge for me, but actually realistic...

What did I do different? It it basically in tandem with what a few other dudes were saying on here: the 3G.

I looked on Sprint to see my coverage area (work and home) and it looked good, I am even two houses or so down from excellent service. That said, my phones service bars and data service reflect that considering I get pretty quick upload and download speeds.

So to the difference:

Location Services: ON

System Services: OFF (not that this should be a factor because it never helped before)

WIFI: ON

Cellular Data Services (3G): OFFFFF!!!!

-Nothing else dissabled and bam.

So with the culprit pointing to the 3G antenna I am going redirect my focus today, but this is the only positive feedback I have been given in the 10 days I have been hammering away at this phone. Apple needs to put us on their payrolls for this?

With all that said, I have not been able to get any momentum the entire time whatsoever with any troubleshooting tactic until now, with just turning off cellular data (3G). I am even running WIFI and tons of apps to push the phone a lil and it isnt budging battery-wise. Like other have said, this def doesnt "fix" the issue , but it is a slight work around that will set your battery life back to the stone age of good batteries.

Go ahead:

Setting>General>Network>Cellular Data (OFF!)

Now this is redic considering your biggest monthly cellphone plan cost is generally your data, but it seems to me it's better temporarily than to have a totally dead phone. I am pretty sure apple has installed some shotty antennas in some of the handsets that is constantly pinging the network hard and it probably has something to do with iOS 5 being 4G ready... This is EPIC FAILURE for this company I think. I think they know it to, but like the original 4S issue it should get solved, but I am sure the flawless iphone 5 will come out then, since they seem preoccupied by it rather than fixing this issue within 6-7 months. I can only hope they knock off $400 dollars at trade in with this phone for the new one at minimum.

Hit me with any other questions.

Another update!!!!

Thanks, I only want to get to the bottom of this like everyone else...

Another side note. I decided to turn on cellular data (3G) about 5mins ago at work, since I don't have wifi, to see how'd she hold up. Keep in mind I was at 89% at 7am when I arrived at work. I am now at 81%. I dropped 7% in 5mins with cellular data turned back on. This is def the main issue by far.

Any thoughts?

For anyone new to the thread be sure to go through these steps to address the battery issues after updating to iOS 5.0.1 or 5.1:

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!

You can check details on my thread along with numerous successes here:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3484755

I have tried this on two iPhone 4S issued to me through apple along with a hundred other troubleshooting tactics that did not work...

Please, check out my status below:

8 AM: 100 percent

8 hours later - Mobile data OFF, few text messages, on standby, mostly....and I am on 4 pecent!!!

Yeah, no 100 - 4 . It's 100 - 96 = 4!

Terrible!