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ycooreman Author

Level 1

4 points

How I fixed my 4S battery problem

I do understand that most people will not have the time or will not bother reading through all the advice given in the massive battery problem thread. So I just want to repeat my experience here and I hope it will help someone.

-------------------------------

Ok, my 4S is now working completely as expected.

I'm not sure which step did it in the end, so I'll just repeat my experience.

FIRST ATTEMPT:

I did the 'recovery mode' restore first (google for 'iphone boot recovery mode' to learn how to do this). After which I started from scratch (using a 4S backup should work as well) and disabled the often mentioned notifications (disable calendar) and location services (disable time zone) that seem to cause trouble.

After that I did a full discharge and charge of the phone.

That made a huge difference. The phone still discharged too quickly but it was A LOT better than before, especially when actually using it (as opposed to it being on standby during the night)

SECOND ATTEMPT:

And this is where the magic probably happened.

I did a 'restore settings' (which doesn't wipe the phone: General > Reset > Reset All Settings), disabled the usual notifications and location services again (see above).

I then used 'Battery Doctor Pro' to do a charge with trickle charge.

Went to bed, phone 100%.

Woke up, phone 98%

4hrs later with moderate use (email, texting) but lot's of driving (so network searching)

Phone 93%

-------------------------------

Latest update:

I did my second trickle charge yesterday evening. Went to bed (battery 100%) woke up in the morning with the battery still showing 100%

8hrs later with fairly heavy use (emails, calls, text) and mast jumping (driving), notifications, Siri and location services switched ON.

Battery 80%

Posted on Nov 2, 2011 7:40 AM

59 replies

Nov 5, 2011 6:59 AM in response to ycooreman

my stadistics:

usage time 2hours 50minutes

standby time 19hours 10minutes

36%battery

what do you think about it?

ycooreman Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 5, 2011 12:17 PM in response to xconfusingboyx

I probably had about 60% left with that amount of usage.

Not quite there I would say.

Are you sure you did the settings reset under general > reset > ... before doing the battery thing?

Could just be one of the notifications or even Siri or something. Maybe your location makes a difference. I'm in the UK.

Waynejd

Level 1

15 points

Nov 5, 2011 4:23 PM in response to ycooreman

Qucik question.

When you did the reset of all settings did you start from scratch as a new phone or restore from a backup?

Nov 5, 2011 4:26 PM in response to ycooreman

What do you think about this?

Usage 4hours 55min

Standby 1day 4hours

ycooreman Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2011 1:54 AM in response to Waynejd

Btw, the 'settings reset' only deletes settings, it doesn't wipe the phone. So no need to start from scratch (you just have to set up certain apps again and settings again). It shouldn't matter whether you did a restore from backup or started from scratch before doing your reset.

Waynejd

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2011 2:39 AM in response to ycooreman

I thought I chose "reset all setiings", but somehow I ended up having to choose to restore from either an iCloud or iTunes backup.

I chose restore from iCloud backup and obviously everything went back to where it was.

Did a skip over a screen somewhere in the process?

BTW I am now at the following:

25% remaining

1 day, 9 hours standby

5 hours, 38 mins usage.

I had 3 location based reminders on for the best part of the day today so I don't think those figures are too bad considering.

ycooreman Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 7, 2011 4:10 AM in response to Waynejd

The icloud/local restore is an optional step.

I know it does look as if you have to restore but just skip it and you'll find that all your stuff is still there.

Waynejd

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2011 4:39 AM in response to ycooreman

Cheers, I'll give that a go before I head to bed and then recharge. Should be under 20% by then.

I'll update - again in a few days. Are you still getting good results?

ycooreman Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 7, 2011 5:20 AM in response to Waynejd

Only discharge 1% overnight.

6hrs of pretty decent use now and 85% at the moment.

Waynejd

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2011 5:38 AM in response to ycooreman

Wow, sounds like you're over any problems.

So only overnight at almost dead? I didn't know that.

I'll charge for a bit before bed then unplug. I'll try to run it down to nothing during the day tomorrow and do a full charge plus trickle tomorrow night.

Thanks for your input.

Waynejd

Level 1

15 points

Nov 12, 2011 4:43 PM in response to ycooreman

FYI here's my latest update:

Now on 5.0.1 and it seems about the same as 5.0 for me and overall I'm reasonably satisfied with better life

With most of the time on wifi apart from about 5 hours on 3g here's what I've done - a number of short calls, half a dozen text messages sent and received, read and received about a dozen emails, location based reminders current for about 3 hours, around 2 hours online and using twitter and Facebook, played games for about half an hour, and about half an hour playing with settings and Siri - my usage is:

Standby time = 1 day, 12 hours

Usage time = 4 hours, 50 minutes

Battery left = 39%

My current settings are:

Mail: iCloud and Gmail accounts both set to 15 minute fetch

iCloud: mail, reminders, contacts, calendars, notes, documents, photo stream

Notifications: phone, messages, reminders, calendar, cnbc, mail, twitter, find friends

Location: maps, siri, weather, reminders, twitter

Sytem services: all off but Mobile Network Search is on.

Will let you know the final result when battery drains.

MiiiikeT

Level 1

5 points

Nov 12, 2011 4:52 PM in response to Waynejd

wish i was getting anything close to that:/

Waynejd

Level 1

15 points

Nov 13, 2011 6:28 AM in response to MiiiikeT

Okay, before heading to bed and leaving phone to recharge overnight.

Battery remaining = 1%

Standby time = 2 days, 2 hours and 15 minutes

Usage time = 7 hours

All in all I'm pretty happy with that and seem to be getting what the specs say as far as usage goes.

A 10 minute call today used 2%, that would equal about 500 minutes to use 100% which comes out at just over 8 hours - pretty much what apple say to expect.

Hope everyone else gets sorted.

Nov 14, 2011 7:20 AM in response to ycooreman

I thought my battery drain issues were new with the 5.0.1 update, however after reading the above posts, I realize I never had that great a battery!!!! Daily use, mostly standby time at work for 4-5 hours, texting numerous times throught the day, emails being pushed to phone, occasional internet on 3g at work, use WiFi at home. Here I was up at 6:30am today, after charging all night it was at 100%, here it is 9:18am, my usage is at oops, well I already did the reset so it wont show my usage until next full charge, but I am at 66% already! Its never that low by this time! I usually work at 9:30-1:30 and by 9:30 normally my phone is still in the 90's. Last night regular usage, and actually because it was Sunday less usuage than normal, it was at 10% last night when I went to bed. I think having this phone for 3 years (3Gs) its only gotten that low maybe 2 or 3 times, and having left it in the car yesterday for most of the day, standby only time, for it to drain that low is crazy to me.

Dec 22, 2011 1:53 PM in response to ycooreman

hello ,

I´m sorry to bother, but as I´m brazilian, non-speaking english country, I honestly didn´t get what tricle charger means, and all that doctor pro information means exacly.

is it an app that you can get on apple store or some other battery recharger device.

sorry! I would be more than happy if you could enlighten me! sorry for the poor english!

How I fixed my 4S battery problem