Q: 5.0.1 update--even worse battery life

While the new phone would be nice, I would like my current 3GS to work as intended.  It's well beyond annoying that the phone's battery life was fine until Apple's software "upgrade" that created the problem and caused that life to plummet.  I would prefer a real fix to the "upgrade."

Recently i went to Montreal, CA and was on international roaming and did notice that the battery life was far better than what i had when I am in US. As soon as i returned back or exactly after switching from Canadian carriers back to AT&T, the battery life started going down fast. So i am not sure if it just the software or something to do with the network and how the network is being accessed.

Well I Solved my Battery Drain issue without sacrificing my Push ability.  I'm actually quite upset at how simple the fix was after everything I have done to try to get it working.

Just a recap at my symptoms - Excessive battery drain (1% every 2 mins)  My Work Exchange account was Draining the Battery serverly by getting stuck on "Checking for E-Mail" with the Spinner next to the Clock constantly spinning.

Here were my steps.

1. - Power Cycle the iPhone

2. - Remove the Problem Exchange Account

3. - Power Cycle the iPhone again

4. - Re-Add the Exchange Account

5. - Power Cycle the iPhone one last time

Voila!  No more Battery Drain.  Push is set back up on my Exchange Account.  No more Spinning Wheel. No More iPhone getting Hot rapidly.

What a PITA!  But alas, I am able to have my Push back!!

I thought that I'd included this in everything i've done, but I've  not tried it as a separate process at the end of it all.

I'll give it a go tonight as I'd really like to have Push back.

When you say power cycle are you rebooting or just Slide Switching the power of?

Thanks for the further efffort Dan.

Hey Bob,

When I say power cycle I mean press and hold the power button until you are presented with the option to power off the phone.

Also make sure that you identify the account that is causing the battery drain. This can be done by going into the mail app and looking to see if you have the "checking for email" loop glitch that I had. To identify the account, one at a time turn an account to fetch instead of push then go to the mail app to see if the "checking for email" loop is gone.

Once you have identified the account, follow the steps in my previous post. It worked for me, so hopefully it will work for others experiencing the issue I had.

-Dan

Hello all,

I've had some battery issue but now have no choice and have to restore the phone anyway thought it would be good to take care of both issues at the same time by following steps provided early in this discussion. Unfortunately, when I bookmark that page with instructions on reset procedures I only bookmark the whole discussion not that page with the steps I'm looking for now and have been all morning. I don't remember the persons name but everyone with less battery issues/symptoms such as mine found his solution greatly helped if not resolved their issues. If anyone knows what these reset and restore steps are please post and help me.

Thank you

aplCla55ic... you can restore as "new" or restore from "backup (iTunes or iCloud)". restore as new sets phone back to default after which you will need to re-setup and sync all data from some source on your pc or mac like the first time. this includes mail, address book, calendar, music, etc.  anything that you created on the phone that has not been re-synced back to the relative pc or mac application at some point will be lost and need to be re added on the phone. Note, that pictures taken on the phone are very frequently not sync back.

another more common option is to restore from backup. This restores everything back exactly the way it was at you last backup and is much more convient for most people. however, restoring from backups especially between different model phone and/or different iOS version can result in corrupt low level settings causing various problems like app instability, poor battery life, etc. if you decide to restore this way as most do, you can typically resolve those issues following my process below, step by step and in order. good luck!

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!

I have / had been experiencing terrible battery drain and with basic use my iphone 4s was out of juice in 8 hours. I have now followed 'davidch' advice and running only on 3G i ahve had 8 hours normal / basic use and the battery is done to 75%. Its a big improvement. Thanks DAVIDCH.

Regards

Okay, so today I left for work at 9am. I had no service on the site, so I left my phone in the car. I finished work at 6pm... As soon as I got back to the service area, I made ONE phone call and checked my voice mail. I get the super extremely low battery message... with one smidgen of the battery left as charged (colored red).

What gives?

iPhone 4s

Message was edited by: Reetercat

I don't think my iPhone 4 has a faulty battery, because if I leave it on standby it barely drains at all !!! I left my phone on for 2 hrs without using it and it didn't even drop a percent ! As soon as I start to use it, the phone continues to drain rapidly. I am beginning to think it's 5.0.1 and that there is something constantly running in the background as soon as you "slide to unlock" your phone. I have proof, because I was running battery doctor and for some odd reason, the cpu usage was at like 99% (idle), and my phone wasn't even running anything ! I got the iPhone 4 WITH 5.0.1 installed, and don't wanna bother downgrading to see if  5.0 was any better. I assume it is a huge bug in the software. Anyone think it's faulty?

It's disappointing for me:(.. I had the iPhone 4 and it could easily last 2-3 days.. Now with my iPhone 4S I have to use my phone less, turn things off that I had turned on on my iPhone 4 and it won't even last 1 day.. On my 4 I could get 7-8 hours of usage on average.. On my 4s 5-6 hours TOPS with half of that phantom usage.. I have already replaced my phone once and still have the same issue.. Hope they fix it...

After having upgraded right after 5.0.1 came out on my iPhone 4, and having battery life get better, suddenly last week out of nowhere I began to experience the same issues of battery drain as others have had. So after doing the battery drain to zero and reinstalling as has been posted over the past month by a number of people — and battery drain continued — I decided to go in and take out about 30 apps I no longer really use. Voila!! Suddenly, all battery drain has ceased and I can get 3-4 days out of a full charge. Something is rotten in some of the apps. Also, I noted that I began to experience battery drain after updating about 5 of my apps. I just wish now I could remember what they were. Didn't pay any attention at the time. (removed about 30 apps and still have 61 on my iPhone.)

I agree. I have had virtually same problems. Upgraded iPhone 4 to 5.0.1 right after it came out and battery life improved. Upgraded about 5 apps 2 weeks ago, and suddenly last week battery life was cut in half. I went back in and deleted about 30 apps I hardly ever use and my battery life is back to very good. I use wifi 95% of the day at home and work, but I did turn off push on email. I'm going to go back to push and see how battery life works. I just wish I could remember which 5 apps I upgraded.

Do you think my iPhone 4 has a faulty battery or it's really the ios that is killing the battery ? Like I said I bought it with 5.0.1 installed, so I have no clue if 5.0 will be better. I don't wanna bother going though a downgrade.

Guys, Steve Wotzniak isn't an idiot:

"With the iPhone, something happened with the new OS or the new phone, and it just started running through the battery so fast. I’ve had a lot of issues with things I have to turn off just to save the battery life."

This is saying the cofounder of Apple.

I dont know what it is but i know that using GPS or other location services is sucking out the battery like Dracula blood after a diet.

Dont forget Siri is sending every word your saying to Apple!

Go to a battery app, look at the remaining battery life for GPS. This is only max 3 hours for use.

So the whole package of Siri, location services combined massages... its all an bad idea from Apple with this generation of Batterys and Chips. It uses too much of it all.

And as i read, the new update for iOS doesnst fix the battery problem. How could it?! There is nothing to fix, a bad battery management cant be fixed.

I am really sad about this points and wished i have not buyed the iPhone 4S but waited fot the iPhone 5. I am aJournalist and really at trouble with the battery life. I cant use Siri and all the new features and still running out of batter to early. But i love Apple really much and hate Android and Google, who are only destroying the market with cheap copied ideas and massgifting there products to eliminate the small ones. Look what they are doing with Adsense. ...so i will stay with Apple. But guys, please do something. Honestly, i would be fair when the iPhone 5 comes out, to get special offer for people who buyed the 4S for returning the 4S and getting an iPhone 5.

PS: A good idea for Apple is making a product better than Adsense. Google is destroying the market with cheep commercials. Good sites with good journalists cant finance there pages because all of the companys are putting there budget to Google Adsense. Google really destroys good journalism. I remember the words of Steve Jobs where he mentions this... Good Information should be payed, but how can we handle this?