After installing the update make sure you reset all setttings. I have done a few updates now and have had much better sucess after settings reset all. Standby drain has been virtually eliminated from 2-4% hr before update. It is located in settings/reset//reset all settings. You loose some wifi and desktop settings, but data, apps, etc remain intact.
BradSK wrote:
Hi all, just posting for some advice regarding a system restore.
It seems as though most people have had success after doing a system restore and setting up as a new phone (when I updates to 5.0.1 I needed to restore but chose iCloud backup instead). I am reluctant to lose too much info, so could someone advise me as to what kind of data would be lost a d what could be recovered from the cloud (not via restore but from my old phone)? I know things like apps and music would have to resynced but that's not a problem.
Thanks
Before doing a system restore, try the steps below. Corrupt system level settings created by an iOS 5 bug in the original release that caused battery recalibration issues, etc. Just installing the update does not fix the issue in most cases (sometime it initially can be worse). You need to clear out those settings and recalibate the battery. For those still having the "standby battery drain" issue follow the procedure below in order. It does fix the problem in most cases.
Go through these steps to address the battery after updating to iOS 5.0.1:
1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)
2. 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 photos, will still be there). At this point, Do NOT restore from iCloud or iTunes (It can copy back corrupt settings)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
4. Fully discharge battery (till it shuts off with the spinning wheel)
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!
Well I admit that I was never having a battery problem with my 4s while on ios 5, or ios 5.0.1. However, I did follow the instructions outlined by davidch, and then tweaked some of my phone settings:
- push notifications/notification centre on for phone, calendar, reminders, messaging and sports updates
- wifi off (unless at home)
- cellular data on (all the time)
- locations services on for weather and maps; off for everything else, including system services
- Siri on (but not raise to speak)
- one mail account set to fetch hourly
- iCloud not used (yes, I sync manually - no wifi syncing or backup for me)
- Ping off under restrictions menu
Then, I pretty much used the phone as often as I could for games, texting, mail, a few phone calls, and web browsing. The phone got warm for a bit, but never hot. I ended up with the following stats about 20 minutes before the phone shutoff by itself:
- standy-by time (basically the total amount of time the phone is on) = 28 hr 54 mins
- usage time = 10 hr 4 mins
Another important note is that I would put my phone into airplane mode while sleeping, resulting in only 1-2% drop over 7 hours.
So the average rate of battery drain was 3.46% per hour, for about 29 hours of total on-time.
I would not normally use my phone this much in such a short time. After a full charge, I am at:
- stand-by = 33 hours
- usage = 4 hr 42 mins
- battery percentage left = 41%
I am convinced that what people are experiencing is either 1) a software problem likely associated with various phone settings (i.e. importing previous backups, etc), or 2) a defective batch of phone batteries.
I would second the recommendation that people set up the phone as new and reload all apps, music, photos, etc, to their phone (stay away from previous backups). This will take time but may result in an improvement. Use davidch's techniques and then tweak all menu and sub-menu settings to match your needs.
TampaMike12 wrote:
Great post and advice davidch. I have read through the thread and tried your advice but unfortunately haven't noticed a huge difference. Right now on the 4S for verizon I have:
Usage= 2hr 29min
Standby=17hr 59min
Battery Left= 58%
This seems kind of ok but I am using it very lightly (light safari, txting, words with friends) and since I have had the 4S phone I can never get the usage over about 4 1/2 to 5 hours. This is my first iphone and it seems some users on this thread can get 6-9 hours and if I could get in that range I would be extremly satisfied with this over my previous android phones.
I was wondering if doing a "hard reset" would make a difference and if I did one should I let my phone drain down all the way and charge all the way back up before doing one? Also my phone seems to charge incredibly fast as I can do a full charge in about just over 2 hours. My old android used to take forever. Is this pretty normal on the iphones? Any advice would be very appreciated! Thanks!
your battery appears normal to me for the usage/standby listed. however, they do not seem to match your time listed (i.e. 4.5 to 5 hours). in order for the usage/standby to reset you must drain the phone to 10% or less (i.e. it will turn red). the 4S recharges very, very fast in my experience. it is much faster than my previous iPhones or Androids I have worked with.
i recommend you follow my steps from the first few posts of thread carefully. "reset all settings", go through the setup process (lang, wifi, siri, enable location services, etc), choose "setup as new phone", if provided. don't worry, your apps, contacts, calendars, mail, data, etc will still be preserved as before. drain battery completely until the unit shuts off with the spinning icon. recharge the unit fully over night. good luck!
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. 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)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
4. Fully discharge battery
5. Fully recharge battery
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!
Yiorgos759 wrote:
hey davich did all the steps except drain the battery am currently at 73%. My usage goes up although the phone is in standby. Any thoughts? thanks
You need to go through the whole process, step by step including complete drain and full recharge:
Go through these steps to address the battery after updating to iOS 5.0.1:
1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)
2. 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). At this point, Do NOT restore from iCloud or iTunes (It can copy back corrupt settings)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
4. Fully discharge battery (till it shuts off with the spinning wheel)
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 been reading this thread with great interest as I plan to get an iPhone 4S (my first iPhone) this weekend. I just read an article about this problem on a Mac magazine's website. (I'd post a link to the article but I'm not sure if it's OK to do that here). The author had the same problem. He downloaded an app called "System Activity Monitor", which works like the OS X's Activity Monitor, showing what processes are using the processor and memory. Using that app, he discovered that the process "dataaccessd" was continually trying to do something and crashing and then producing a crash report over and over. This cycle was causing very high processor usage, which led to the battery draining very quickly. Switching off contact syncing in iCloud returned processor activity to normal. He then used the same procedure recommended in this thread by davidch and it solved the problem for him.
I just post this info here because I felt that installing the System Activity Monitor app might help those folks whose battery problems have not been resolved by using the procedure recommended here determine if there is a single process that keeps crashing and causing very high processor usage, which drains the battery very quickly.
bakarroch wrote:
If i reset all setting, would not I lose my contacts and other applications that are installed on my phone?
No. Only basic system levels settings will be rest to default (i.e. wallpaper, screen brightness, wifi, etc). Your apps, contacts, calendars, mail, data, etc will still remain as is.
Dave4282 wrote:
If I were to use Davidch's method of resetting, should I update to 5.0.1 first, or should I stay on 5.0.0?
Also, I'm guessing I should sync my phone before starting this process, to preserve my pictures just incase? I only have around 50 pics, no music, and a bunch of apps, but these should all be safe once the reset is complete, right?
it won't hurt anything to try the process with 5.0.0 first. however, i have only tested it with 5.0.1 and had success in most cases. all your data should be preserved (apps, contacts, mail, photos, etc), but it is always a good idea to backup all your data first and reguarly (for that matter). you can backup to iTunes and/or iCloud (if you need sometime in future). however, when you perform the process do NOT restore from backup. setup up as new phone. sounds kinda of confusing, but all your information will still be there. ONLY the basic system level info will be reset (i.e. wallpaper, wifi, etc)
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. 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)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
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!
rvishwa_04 wrote:
@devidch, thank u very much ... is this for iphone 4S, specifically or can work with iPhone 4 also?
any device that runs iOS 5. i have seen very good results with iPhones 3GS, 4, 4S and iPad 2. i have not personally tested on iPad 1 or any iPod touch, but would expect similar results
bakarroch wrote:
David
I reset all the setting and fully charged the phone. But still the batter is losing power quickly. Do I need to wait until this drains out then again fully recharge it?
You need to do every step in order to get it to work including fully drain battery and the fully charge battery
1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)
2. 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)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
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!
rinkelk wrote:
Despoten all good intentions from the posters here, didn't help me a lot.
Before 5.0.1 all was fine, good do 2.5 days without any problems. After 5.0.1 no longer than 12 hours and all batterypower is gone. I know it's NOT hardware related as my phone worked fine!
I'll wait for 5.0.2
If that doesnt give a solution I'm off to another OS. (I'll give WP a try, after android and iPhone) too bad, as I much liked my 4s on 5.0.
after updating to iOS 5.0.1 did you try my step by step process:
1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)
2. 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)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
4. Fully discharge battery (until you get the spinning wheel and it shuts off)
5. Fully recharge battery (overnight if possible)
viewfly wrote:
I did not get the 'set up as new' option either, but it clearly reset all my settings. My battery 'drain' improved (after the deep discharge cycle) even beyond what I considered a good battery usage on my 4S.
Thanks davidch!
Regarding the battery drain issue, we are all waiting for 5.0.2. But in the meantime, what I'm not seeing a lot of people report is their phones warming up. A few do, but with such massive drains, that is a lot of energy expended, and I would think the phone would get warm (as it would when I had my mail corrupted and the activity wheel just keep spinning).
It makes me think the main part of the issue is battery calibration, where the phone 'drains' and shuts down, but in fact the battery is still pretty well charged. And Davidch's fix seem to be the answer for most.
Is this true, do most of you that lose 50% or more in a few hours, not experience an overly heated or warm phone?
veiwfly,
your welcome and glad hear it worked out for you also. it does dramatically improve the standby drain in my experience for most users having the issue. in my personal opinion, it is definitely a system level "software" issue (processes, etc) that causes some sort of battery calibration problem. it seems the 5.0.1 update fixes the problem, but the settings and calibration were also damaged by the issue. by resetting and recalibrating, everything gets fixed for most people.
trev8486 wrote:
Just for reassurance, if I do set up my phone again as a new phone, I will not lose any apps that I have downloaded? Granted I only have a few apps seen as I purchased my 4S a few weeks ago, but all the apps I currently have on my phone should remain intact, yes?
all your data should be preserved (apps, contacts, mail, photos, etc), but it is always a good idea to backup all your data first and reguarly (for that matter). you can backup to iTunes and/or iCloud (if you need sometime in future). however, when you perform the process do NOT restore from backup. setup up as new phone. sounds kinda of confusing, but all your information will still be there. ONLY the basic system level info will be reset (i.e. wallpaper, wifi, etc)
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. 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)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
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!
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. 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)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
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!
iPhone 4S 5.0.1 Update Improves Battery w/ Settings Reset
