Q: iPhone 4S 5.0.1 Update Improves Battery w/ Settings Reset

I've read your very helpful information on how to possibly resolve the battery draining issue caused by Apple's 5.0.1 software update. I have had my i4 phone for 18 months and have loved it, until about two days ago when it began to dramatically lose battery power. I hadn't changed my usage in any way, but the battery is losing around 5% per hour on standby alone. I called the Apple helpline who asked me to tell them my latest software update  which is version 5.0.1 (9A405). I update by syncing my phone to my Mac laptop

(OS X 10.5.8)

She told me pretty much what you said in your recent 'even worse battery life' answer to aplCla55ic.

In other words I have to restore my phone to default.  I argued that as Apple had caused this catastrophic failure of my phone THEY should put it right. I don't know enough about phones and computers to feel confident in trying to resolve the problem. I may make it a lot worse. I've also read on this site that many people who restored their settings still experienced the continuing battery problem. The helpline also told me that if I wanted them to resolve the issue I would be charged - I think she said £42.   I almost exploded!

So Apple sends software to my phone which virtually disables it, and then tells me they want money to fix it Isn't this known as BLACKMAIL by any other name?

I've trawled through a fair amount of the misery people are experiencing with this same problem, and I see a lot of anger and frustration. But I don't see Apple holding up their hands and taking responsibility. Is it possible that they are currently frantically beavering away in an attempt to resolve this problem, or can their reputation and future sales withstand this disgrace? Like many other posts I have read I will not ever be buying another Apple product.

Thanks for replying, should I do this from a fully charged battery or what level ? Also will I lose anything or will EVERYTHING be exactly as it was ? Thanks for your help:)

Hi David,

I followed your steps 2 months ago when I was first get my iphone 4s.  My battery draining percentage is approximately 0.5% per hour or some time I left my phone standby while I was sleeping for 7 hours my battery is still exactly the same percentage before I went to bed.

However, 2 days ago I noticed that my battery start to drain a bit faster.  At that time I think because I didn't calibrate my battery (fully discharge and fully recharge) once per month like what recommended by Apple.  Yesterday, I took my iphone off from charger at 1 pm. and about 7 pm I noticed that my battery is 80% and the problem is my standby time is equal to usage time.  I didn't have any application open, I always close every app after I finish using it by double tap home button and close each app.  I don't have any push email, wifi, location service, bluetooth etc. I really have no idea what happened.

So I try reset all setting again like what you recommend and set up as new iphone (Except that I havent' discharge my battery yet, still in the process).  Switch off my phone leave it for over an hour turn on again, it still shows standby time is equal to usage time.  So I try another method as what people recommended from the internet by turn off wifi, turn on 3G and leave the phone for about 5 minuetes, turn on wifi again and turn off 3G.  This time it works standby time is not equal to usage time.  However, I notice that my batter performance is not as good as what I usually have before having this problem.  I left my phone standby for 6 hours with nothing turn on except I set my alarm clock.  When I woke up this morning, my battery was down from 61% to 57% in 6 hours.  Normally I can have my battery draing for 0.5% per hour.

Do you have any recommendation? Should I restore my iphone? And what causing usage time to be equal to standby time?

Thank you very much

You can do it from any state of the battery other than almost dea. You do want enough power to get through the reset and wizard after it reboots. Also it will retain your data and apps but you will have to reconfigure your settings.email signature and who you are to Siri.

Caro16 wrote:

 

Thanks for replying, should I do this from a fully charged battery or what level ? Also will I lose anything or will EVERYTHING be exactly as it was ? Thanks for your help:)

David i'd like to add this to the point as it  worked for meas The FINAL solution.

For those who don't see any improvement by resetting all settings (which is the starting point for the battery issue) try to check with NETSTAT (a free app) if there is a constant stub opened to push.apple.com which is the apple's push server.

Sadly it seems it is constantly pinged and polled byt the AppStore app and Gamecenter app, this means your data connection is always on and off, on and off.

The solution is to SIGN OUT from the applestore (Settings -> Store -> SIGN OUT) and stay logged off.

Every time you log in again you'll get this polling start over, so check it every time you buy something on the appstore.

Also in General -> Restrictions disable ITUNES and PING. if Gamecenter is available disable it too, if not prevent it to check your location in location services

If push.apple.com is still on (check it with netstat) , wait a little,  powercycle, and check that your mail app is not in the background, disable push from email as well if you want to be sure  it doesn't connect with push servers....

This seemed to work for me (today is the first day i'm checking, but it seems to discharge ona  regular fashion) in partnership with all your suggestions (which sadly didn't suffice to the cause on my 3gs).

For fariness sake : THIS IS NOT A THING I DISCOVERED MYSELF:

I read it somewhere by a guy from IPHONEITALIA.com about 3gs battery issue on 4.X firmware but i can't find the original link by now.

Hope this helps

Hi Davidch,

I did a reset all settings as you recommended and my usage time is still equal to standby time.  So I have to turn off my wifi, turn on cellular data and data roaming, then leave my phone for 5 mins and turn on wifi again.  After did this process the standby time and usage time is seems normal.  However, after I recharge my phone again uplugged it when it fully charged, leave my phone standby for over an hour, my usage time is equal to standby time again.  I really have no idea what happened.  I will try reset all settings again, if it dosen't work I will try to restore my phone. 

Davidch, in this case do you think that it is a software problem? I am really new to iphone this is my first smart phone.  And I just bought it for 3 months.

Thank you again for your recommendation.

hey davidch..!!
i jus got my iphone 4s 2 days back..!!
i followd ur process...
n nw i get a standby time of 13-14 hrs..n i use my phn fr lik 6 hrs..!!is this normal.??
i hav most of the features of in my phn..like siri ..icloud..location srvice..etc..!!

however my carrier service is on 24x7..!!

i hav most of the feature of my iphn..lik siri ..icloud ..location srvice..turnd off

Hey all,

My problem started a couple of days ago, now my phone (iPhone 4) heats up and it falls through battery like nobody's business. Today I got 2h 14mins usage out of a full charge cycle (100% first thing in the morning after charging from 0% all night, 2% when I took a usage reading) with a supposed 1h 49mins use (more like 20 mins in total use, I took a call and checked my email a couple times, closed all my apps though WiFi was on).

Up until Monday morning it was working fine, I've had it for >6 months and it usually kept its charge for 12 - 24 hours with heavy to medium usage or 24 - ~38 with light use.

Since I noticed the problem, I Googled heavily and after a hard reset gave no dice, I followed your steps to reset all settings. I also drained the battery all the way down and charged it all the way up. Twice.

No luck.

What else can I do..?

Have you added a new app maybe? If so see if perhaps its causing your issue. Also you can try and reset network settings (even though you did the reset all) just to see if it helps. Its a know issue that something hangs and the network reset fixes it (as does iOS 5.1 so I hear). Guess you could try a restore and let iTunes backup,restore then restore the backup as it wants to and try. If that does not help a restore and setup as new may be warranted and let iTunes sync to get your apps and contacts etc back.

Hello David And everyone ,

i am from jordan ...i got my 4s  2 weeks ago.. and all this time was reading reviews from here and there  about updating to 5.0.1 ,

and most of reviews say that ios 5.0.1 is waste of time and made things worse .

anyway, finally i decided to update my phone yester day .

i updated it ( OTA ) , after update  is done , here is what i noticed :

- my phone didn`t need restore or something like that , all my data and apps still there

- after update was done , battery was 50% , i didn`t discharge and recharge . i just blugged in the charger.. and charged the battery .

- i didn`t reset all my settings and steps u adviced YET !

- after fully charged , time was 6pm ...   now , my status is :

* Usage : 3 Hours , 1 minute  ( 30min playing temple run )

* Standby : 17 hours , 24 minutes

THE BATTERY NOW IS  ( 63% )  ...

how u see that ? , and do i need to reset all settings? , coz i think my battery is great without doing anything .

- NO jailbreak on my iphone .

Thank you all for help

What is the build of your iOS 5.0.1? The current iPhone 4S (only) build is 9A406. I don't know if this loads OTA, it is what you get by doing Restore in iTunes.

Also, please bear in mind, that if your iPhone 4S is brand new, it may take up to 10 full recharge cycles (say, if you charge it when it's 50% battery, that means 20 time charging) before the battery is properly conditioned and holds up it's rated charge. Any brand new litium-ion battery will only hold part of it's capacity first few charges. This applies to any such battery in any device, not only iPhone. It also seems that Apple has used a new design battery in the latest iPhone which looks like needing more cycles initially, but may last much longer (as a number of charge cycles).

Your result loogs good.

Mine, with 4-5 charge cycles so far are: 49% left, 2 days standby and 3 hours 52 min usage.

If your 3G network is not perfect, iOS 5.1 will let you disable 3G and have much longer battery life.

dkalchev ,

hello there ,

my iphone version is : 5.0.1 ( 9A405 )

is this the right version ?

coz when i check for update , it says : my software is up to date .

thank you in advance .

if someone can help me that would be awesome. I think i am having battery issues but im not sure. I recently moved to a different city.. a small town. Where my apartment is, i dont have any 3G but when i drive about 7 mins up the road, i get my 3G service back. I think my battery is dying fast because my phone is constantly roaming but I keep my wifi on all day. Also, I have data roaming turned on and cellular service turned off. Could that be the problem?

Im not too sure what this second photo was but i took it anyway just to make sure i gave enough information. I did notice that i had much better battery before i moved, but my battery has also gotten better on roaming. I use to only get about 6-7 hrs battery before i started playing around with my settings trying to figure out how to help my battery out.