Question to people with bad battery life on iPhone 4S

Question

Question to people with bad battery life on iPhone 4S

Hi Everyone,

I think I have narrowed down the problem for battery drainage, even after installing the new update (5.0.1).

My battery drains with a T-Mobile SIM in the UK, but not with a Three SIM or an O2 SIM.

I have noticed that my SIM has SIM Applications on it, but the other two I tried do not.

So, if you are having battery problems (draining in standby), can you have a look in Settings -> Phone, and see if there is a "SIM Applications" menu appearing below the "SIM PIN" menu.

I am interested to hear whether you are having the battery drain problem, together with whether you have this option or not.

It appears to me, that with the option the battery drains, but without it, the battery is perfectly fine.

Also, for me, the SIM Applications do not seem to work. When I press one of them, nothing happens.

Very curious though as to why this is...

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Nov 14, 2011 5:59 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 14, 2011 9:36 AM in response to FiniteAffinity

If anyone with the battery drain problem is willing to have a look and see if they have the "SIM Applications" menu available, it would be much appreciated.

I strongly believe this is related to the problem.

Further, my SIM (that causes the battery drain) also gives me problems when I set a PIN code. It causes it to lose network coverage on a regular basis, requiring a restart. Also, it usually hangs for several minutes when I input my PIN code upon restarting.

The SIM cards that I tried that do not have this applications menu, and also do not drain the battery, are absolutely fine with a PIN code set.

Would be good to hear from a few of you, to test my hypothesis.

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Answer 2

jazzgob

Level 1

9 points

Nov 14, 2011 10:00 AM in response to FiniteAffinity

I do have the battery problem and I actually do have the "SIM Applications" menu available.

My provider is T-Mobile Germany and my SIM ends with "3n". I have heard SIM cards ending with "5n" might solve the problem, is that correct? Tired of waiting for a solution...

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Answer 3

Nov 14, 2011 10:10 AM in response to jazzgob

I haven't heard about the '3n' or '5n' endings before, but I will have a look at what my SIM says when I get home and report back. But so far, every SIM that causes the battery drain appears to have this menu, but they have all been T-Mobile SIM cards (I even had T-mobile replace my SIM, and the same problem persisted).

I will keep you posted on my bug report, if apple tell me they have found the solution.

In the mean time, I will try and find more people with micro-SIMs that I can try.

Just curious - do any of the SIM Applications work for you? If I press one, nothing happens - I'm sure they used to work on the iPhone 4 but might be mistaken...

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Answer 4

jazzgob

Level 1

9 points

Nov 14, 2011 10:19 AM in response to FiniteAffinity

No, none of the Applications work. The buttons turn blue as I touch them but then nothing happens.

I try to find some people with the same problem as well and have them post their answer here as well.

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Answer 5

Nov 14, 2011 12:35 PM in response to jazzgob

I have checked, and my T-Mobile UK SIM doesn't end with either 5n or 3n. It is just a number (ends in 4 actually).

I am going to visit my mum later this evening though, she is also on T-Mobile, and has a microSIM, so I will try hers, just to see if the problem is still there.

Here is something interesting though:

When I got my microSIM replaced by T-Mobile, they disabled my old one.

With the old one disabled and still inserted into my iPhone 4S, the battery drain STOPPED.

The SIM Applications menu is still there though, and still doesn't work.

Maybe it isn't this, but something else that T-Mobile has on their SIM cards that some other providers don't.

I haven't got a clue what though.

But the draining DEFINITELY goes away when I put a Three or O2 SIM into my phone. (The phone is unlocked to all networks).

And I don't think it is the radio service either, because with my new SIM, the battery still drains even in flight mode.

I will post more info as it becomes available.

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Answer 6

Nov 15, 2011 10:06 AM in response to FiniteAffinity

OK - a bit more info.

I tried my mum's T-Mobile UK SIM last night - the battery still drains, albeit not quite as fast as mine does (almost as fast though!).

I really do believe that some providers have SIM cards that behave differently in some way, and this is clashing with the iPhone 4S.

I currently have the "Video Calling" service enabled on my SIM (yes, this is a SIM feature, different to apple's FaceTime, which uses the internet to connect). Since the iPhone doesn't support proper video calling, I wondered if this could be a problem. I have requested the service to be removed.

It should be removed at midnight tonight, so I will post back later to say if it worked or not.

Still not heard anything back from apple bugreports yet...

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Answer 7

Intagli

Level 1

5 points

Nov 15, 2011 10:16 AM in response to FiniteAffinity

Further, my SIM (that causes the battery drain) also gives me problems when I set a PIN code. It causes it to lose network coverage on a regular basis, requiring a restart. Also, it usually hangs for several minutes when I input my PIN code upon restarting.

I'm on T-Mobile Austria and I also see SIM Applications in my menu. Furthermore, I'm experiencing the same problems you do with setting a PIN code. The only thing that helps is disabling the PIN lock to properly use the phone. With the PIN code activated, the network drops frequently, it takes a really long time to unlock the phone etc.

I think there's also a connection between my battery drain on my iPhone 4S and the problems I'm having with my SIM card. With airplane mode on, but wi-fi activated my battery lasts almost forever, even when surving the web and so on. with only 3g activated (no wi-fi) my battery is draining about 5% / hour while in standby and just sitting on my desk.

But I also exchanged my micro-sim with t-mobile 3 times now, to no effect.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one. However, I think it's absolutely unacceptable that my device isn't working.

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Answer 8

Nov 15, 2011 10:27 AM in response to Intagli

Is your iPhone unlocked? Is there any chance you can try a microSIM from a friend, on a different network? This stops the drain for me.

There seems to be a common problem here - I keep hearing T-Mobile cropping up whenever this SIM specific battery drain appears. Maybe they use a different voltage?

Is there anyone out there on T-Mobile, that does NOT have the battery drain problem with a 4S?

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Answer 9

Nov 17, 2011 12:24 PM in response to FiniteAffinity

OK, I haven't figured out the solution yet, but here is some interesting news:

Bug reporting have got back to me, after they requested battery logs, and I gave them to them.

After looking at the logs, they are now requesting BASEBAND logs - so maybe there could be problems with the baseband and some types of SIM card? That's my hypothesis at the moment. Will keep you posted with any updates I get. I really hope this isn't a hardware problem...

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Answer 10

jmgs

Level 1

0 points

Nov 18, 2011 1:23 PM in response to FiniteAffinity

I'm using an unlocked iphone 4s with a t-mobile microsim (formerly transferred from a normal sim).

I have the sim applications menu - not usable.

Overnight I typically lose around 20 percent battery with almost all functions off.

During light use I drop 5 percent an hour.

I have an appointment at apple on Tuesday and I will mention the t-mobile sim card issues.

Any further reports on this would be appreciated?

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Answer 11

Nov 18, 2011 3:20 PM in response to jmgs

I have given them the baseband logs they asked for. I had a quick look at them before I sent them - I don't really understand them, but there seemed to be a LOT of error messages in there. This could well be the culprit - we will just have to wait and see.

Maybe they will update our baseband with the next update?

In the mean time, I have bought myself a mophie, just to get through the day!

Haven't heard anything else from them yet, but will keep you posted when I do.

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Answer 12

D.R.C.

Level 2

189 points

Nov 18, 2011 5:28 PM in response to FiniteAffinity

@FiniteAffinity,

Wish I could award you points for your excellent insight and troubleshooting.

I think you're on to something re the SIM applications. But it has nothing to do with SIM voltage, as you postulated earlier. SIM apps are tiny little programs coded inside the SIM card. Apple's baseband firmware might not be fully compatible. I have an O2 SIM containing a couple of applications. I've used it in my iPhone 3 with no negative battery impact, but it's the older mini-SIM format so I can't try it in my 4S. I'm having battery drain problems too, but not as bad as you are experiencing.

DRC

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Answer 13

jmgs

Level 1

0 points

Nov 19, 2011 2:05 PM in response to FiniteAffinity

Hopefully they will sort this out soon.

Just to update - I did get some of the sim applications to work on my t-mobile sim, i.e horoscopes etc, it loads up another screen and shows you the price to send you a txt etc.....

I am getting rogue usage on my 4s. The only way to stop the usage seems to be puting the phone in airplane mode.

Disabling the data and wifi still eats up usage at almost the same rate as standby.

Seems to be pointing to some type of network signal/ hardware/software issus for me?

I'm off to apple at meadowhall on Monday evening, I will report back after.

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Answer 14

D.R.C.

Level 2

189 points

Nov 19, 2011 5:28 PM in response to jmgs

I'm seeing rogue usage as well. Not a lot - about 20 minutes in the last 12 hours. The phone has been sitting quietly on a table all day, totally dormant except for 30 seconds or so when I woke it up to check the charge level and the usage.

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Answer 15

Nov 19, 2011 5:32 PM in response to FiniteAffinity

FiniteAffinity wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I think I have narrowed down the problem for battery drainage, even after installing the new update (5.0.1).

My battery drains with a T-Mobile SIM in the UK, but not with a Three SIM or an O2 SIM.

I have noticed that my SIM has SIM Applications on it, but the other two I tried do not.

So, if you are having battery problems (draining in standby), can you have a look in Settings -> Phone, and see if there is a "SIM Applications" menu appearing below the "SIM PIN" menu.

I am interested to hear whether you are having the battery drain problem, together with whether you have this option or not.

It appears to me, that with the option the battery drains, but without it, the battery is perfectly fine.

Also, for me, the SIM Applications do not seem to work. When I press one of them, nothing happens.

Very curious though as to why this is...

I am on AT&T with iPhone 4 on iOS 5.0.1, Newest update to Windows 7 iTunes.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3507478?answerId=16784301022#16784301022

The solution seems wacky but it finally got my iPhone working again.

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