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iPhone 4S Battery Life: Best solutions and procedures for 1st time user: 1-Do you have a battery life issue (learn first what the usage time spec is about) 2-What can you try to remedy the situation without reading 500 pages of posts

What follows is a grouping of some of the most fruitful procedures - from what I've seen in the biggest battery life issue thread - and some background information and discussion for solving or improving the battery life with the iPhone 4S and may be applicable also to devices on which iOS 5.0/5.0.1 has been applied. Credit goes to the respective users who contributed this information to the forum and they should be commended for doing so. This is not a final listing. The goal here is to provide a first stop sort of knowledge base document for newcomers instead of having them perusing the never ending threads where the wheel is reinvented on every page...

Please don't post your questions, usage screenshots, or claims that it worked or not for you or anything here except PROCEDURES/DEBUG STEPS/SOLUTIONS or improvements to the procedures already listed here. Try to use point form and to be as concise and clear as possible. Hope all this helps.

Thank you and good luck!

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General info and specs

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First, take a look Apple's battery tips, info and specs(obligatory reading for all Iphone 4S users - read it once and for all):

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

... you didn't read it? loll Always remember this i.e. the definition of "usage":

Usage: Amount of time iPhone has been awake and in use since the last full charge. The phone is awake when you’re on a call, using email, listening to music, browsing the web, or sending and receiving text messages, or during certain background tasks such as auto-checking email.

I'm still not convinced you read the links so here's what Apple has to say in terms of fine tuning your battery life:

Optimize your settings

Depending on how they are configured, a few features may decrease your iPhone battery life. For example, the frequency with which you retrieve email and the number of email accounts you auto-check can both affect battery life. The tips below apply to an iPhone running iOS 5.0 or later and may help extend your battery life.

Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
Turn off push notifications: Some applications from the App Store use the Apple Push Notification service to alert you of new data. Applications that extensively rely on push notifications (such as instant messaging applications) may impact battery life. To disable push notifications, go to Settings > Notifications and set Notifications to Off. Note that this does not prevent new data from being received when the application is opened. Also, the Notifications setting will not be visible if you do not have any applications installed that support push notifications.
Fetch new data less frequently: Applications such as Mail can be set to fetch data wirelessly at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain. To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually. To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. Note that this is a global setting and applies to all applications that do not support push services.
Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo! or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive.
Auto-check fewer email accounts: You can save power by checking fewer email accounts. This can be accomplished by turning off an email account or by deleting it. To turn off an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account, and set Account to Off. To remove an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account, and tap Delete Account.
Turn off Wi-Fi: If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off. Note that if you frequently use your iPhone to browse the web, battery life may be improved by using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data networks.
Turn off Bluetooth: If you rarely use a Bluetooth headset or car kit, you can turn off Bluetooth to save power. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.
Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas: Because your iPhone always tries to maintain a connection with the cellular network, it may use more power in low- or no-coverage areas. Turning on Airplane Mode can increase battery life in these situations; however, you will be unable to make or receive calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.
Adjust brightness: Dimming the screen is another way to extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness. In addition, turning on Auto-Brightness allows the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions. Go to Settings > Brightness and set Auto-Brightness to On.
Turn off EQ: Applying an equalizer setting to song playback on your iPhone can decrease battery life. To turn EQ off, go to Settings > iPod > EQ and tap Off. Note that if you’ve added EQ to songs directly in iTunes, you’ll need to set EQ on iPhone to Flat in order to have the same effect as Off because iPhone keeps your iTunes settings intact. Go to Settings > iPod > EQ and tap Flat.

Usage specs for the 4S - http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html:

Talk time: Up to 8 hours (12.5% per hour drain) on 3G, up to 14 hours (7.1% per hour drain) on 2G (GSM)

Standby time: Up to 200 hours (0.5% per hour drain)

Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G (16.6% per hour drain), up to 9 hours (11.1% per hour drain) on Wi-Fi

Video playback: Up to 10 hours (10% per hour drain)

Audio playback: Up to 40 hours (2.5% per hour drain)

So a scenario of normal usage could be for example: 4 heavy hours of 3G internet browsing (66.4%), with one hour of call on 3G (12.5%) and 22 hours of standby (11%) = 100%

A battery life issue is a problem where the drain is really out of spec either during usage or standby or both. For example, multi-% per minute drain during usage or a 10% drain per hour during standby is problematic. Browsing the internet on 3G during one hour and losing 16-17% is not.

Apple's test methodology for claiming the specs:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/battery.html

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Procedures

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davidch tips (reset+full discharge 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). 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 (tilll 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!

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ram130's variant of davidch i.e. additional steps:

Now using davidch original steps and attaching the tweaks I made to get me more usage. As shown on page 29.

Go through these steps to address the battery after updating to iOS 5.0.1:

1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)

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)

6. Disable Siri 'Raise To Speak' and REBOOT *( if possible use another camera to verify the infrared is off after the reboot).

7. Set emails, icloud and calendars to fetch. ** test. Mines on hourly.

8. If your in a no signal and your phone is saying "Searching..." even after 10mins, reboot while in that area and after 1-2min it should say "No Service". This mainly applies to Verizon customers and improve battery life in these areas.

9. *optional* Goto Settings > General > Network and you will see "Hotspot.." loading something, wait a few seconds and it should say "setup personal hotspot" then exit out.

* I notice a great improvement after disabling this and rebooting. This increased my "screen on" usage or at least helped it. Make the change.

** I have not tested push yet to narrow down the drain but I had this change on my phone. I believe exchange push is responsible for some stand by drain. As for icloud, haven't notice much of a difference. Just try it for a day. My email still came in fast most times. Again still testing, will report back on these..

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

buxbuster tips(wifi sync, iCloud):

These are my own tested workarounds that worked for my iPhone 4S and seemed to have worked for others as well :

Workaround number 1. Deselect wifi-sync in iTunes and press sync.

If that doesn't work try :

Workaround number 2 : Remove iCloud, reset network settings. ( I guess this won't work for you since you don't have it enabled ).

If both workarounds fail, you can always try to completely wipe your phone. That also solved some of the cases out there.

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rolandomerida tips - i.e. buxbuster and additional steps:

Finally, I solved the syncing error loop. My contacts are syncing flawessly again between my devices and iCloud, and yes, the battery stopped draining, which is the main topic here.

I followed instructions from buxbuster (check his workaround a few pages up!) and an additional BIG step to restore contacts and syncing, as seen in a MacRumors forum.

This is what I did:

1. Make a backup of your Address Book, using the vCard option (or both, it doesn't hurt). Save it for later.

2. In your iPhone, delete iCloud account. When it asks, accept both: delete AND delete from my iPhone.

3. Reset network settings. The iPhone will restart, then will ask you to unlock the SIM card.

4.Turn Wi-Fi on.

5. Add the iCloud account again.

That's for Buxbuster's workaround. For some, it might work just like that. My iPhone repopulated from iCloud after step 5, but I still had that "server error" on iCloud. I had to do some extra steps, since my Mac was not syncing to iCloud and couldn't edit anything on my Mac or iCloud. Syncing back had to be fixed, too. If not, the syncing loop would continue from my iPhone, and the battery would drain awfully again.

1. In System Preferences -> iCloud, I turned Contacts off. I chose "keep on My Mac" those contacts, but I got an empty Address Book after a while. And a few minutes later, iCloud contacts were empty and my iPhone also. It is scary at first! Now, before importing that vCard backup...

2. Turn Wi-Fi off. This is important, since your contact-empty iCloud will attempt to wipe your Address Book from your Mac in seconds after importing.

3. Import your vCard backup to Address Book. Just drag it to your blank Address Book window; it asks if you want to import "x" number of cards. Of course, say yes.

4. Turn Wi-Fi on, and then iCloud contacts on again (System Preferences -> iCloud). It will offer to merge your newly populated Address Book with iCloud (which is empty at this point). It should upload every single contact to iCloud, and then to your iDevices. If not, a fifth step would be to import the vCard file to iCloud, but it shouldn't be necessary.

So, with iCloud syncing working correctly, there is no battery draining! Again, that was my particular issue.

I can't tell if this is the single answer to the widely spread battery draining problem, but it sure can be fixed with these workarounds, and yes, Apple should address the problem with a future update, for we affected customers don't need workarounds in the first place

This is the MacRumors discussion:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1256807

And dont' forget to check buxbuster's fix, video, and THANK him!

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Miless tips (full 800mb release of 5.0.1 and sanitizing a restore):

As for 4S battery life. Try doing this,

1. Settings>Location Service ... disable all location services you do not need. In particularly Facebook because it drains the battery a lot.

Scroll down to the bottom at Settings>Location services>System Services ... Disable Setting Time zone, location based iAds, Diagnostic & Usage.

2. Settings>Notification>Calendar ... turn off the Notification Centre.

3. Settings>General>Reset ... do Reset All Settings. Doing this will not wipe out your iPhone. It will just Reset the network settings, location warning, keyboard dictionary, etc... but it will clear up some corrupted data there. Generally this will help.

Try these 3 steps first... if it still drains a lot, try the following,

4. Drain your battery down to 1%. Then charge it up using USB from PC ... not the charger. The charger output 1.0 A ( x 5V from USB ... you get 5W power). From PC, output is only 0.5A x 5V = 2.5W power. Charging is slower but trickle charge 4S helps the battery retain its charge better. I think it takes about 3-3.5 hours to charge full from USB/PC compared to slightly below 2 hours using iPhone charger.

If after doing the above still could not solve your battery issues (mine with iOS 5.0 was ok up to step 4, but not iOS 5.0.1).... plug you iPhone to a charger (any charger), from iPhone, access your iCloud ... set it up if you havent. Back up your iPhone data to iCloud. if you do not have enough storage (only 5GB is free), go to details and select the apps you need its data backup, choose only those you really need and leave those unnecessary ones out. Back up your camera roll to your PC/Mac manually as it could be too big to backup to iCloud.... once you have it setup, make sure you are on Wifi ... tap backup to iCloud from your iPhone. It will take a while if the file is huge.

Once backup to iCloud is completed, plug your iPhone to PC/Mac and launch iTunes 10.5.1 (make sure you have 10.5.1)

Click Restore. It will automatically initiate a download of iOS 5.0.1 ipsw for iPhone 4S. Wait for the whole process to finish, ie. download, restore software/firmware.

Once its done, do not set up your iPhone from iTunes. Set it up on your iPhone. Go through the selection. When prompted, select restore from iCloud (from your iphone backup earlier). Keep your iphone plugged into iTunes while restoring backup from iCloud. Because while restoring from iClouds, some data will be synced from iTunes if you plug in, e.g. music, video, etc... unless you bought these content from iTunes store. Apps will be downloaded from App Store from the cloud.

Once it's all done restored. Turn off your iPhone,.. and turn it on again.

Now, hopefully your battery wont be draining so fast anymore. Usually it wont after this. But you need to charge your battery at least 4-5 cycles to stabilize the charge on the battery. I dont know why... but battery life seems to get better and better for me after a few charge cycles after all the above work.

Good luck. Let us know if it works for you.

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

W. Raider tips (Sirii):

Bottom line for me of things that helped battery life are:

1. Turing off Siri and Rebooting the phone by holding the Home button and Top button down, ignoring the slider, until the phone shut down. (turn off Siri, reboot, and check top front of iPhone 4S against a lesser camera like the front-facing camera on an iPad2 - making sure the IR sensor is off)

2. Fully draining the battery, meaning using the phone until it shuts itself off from a drained battery and then recharging it to 100% about 4, maybe 5 times. I charged it both with a Mac and a wall charger.

Hope this is helpful!

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Comments

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jmm514 remarks (Twitter):

I may have found something. I had Twitter disabled in my notifications, but got a tweet today that popped up on my home screen. Didn't know I had this enabled. At the bottom of the Twitter notification settings is the home scrren toggle. Since disabling this, battery life seems better. Considering there is no setting for frequency of checking for tweets, it appears the phone is continually connecting to wifi to check for new tweets.

tmksnyder comments (notifications, corrupt data in iCloud):

For me, I found my iphone on wifi mysteriously connecting to my mac. I eventually narrowed it down to the Apple Move Trailers app which keeps a file in iCloud. The phone was trying to sync the file with the mac in the background even when the Movie Trailers app was closed (hitting the red x). Based on my macosx logs the iCloud process that was trying to sync was working directly between the phone and the mac without using itunes by connecting to an https address hosted on the phone. It was connecting every 3 minutes and failing (while phone was awake or awake during during a notification). I also found that iCloud control panel on OSX would error if I tried to delete the file. I fixed it by removing the App and doing a hard reset which stopped the sync. I probably could have turned off iCloud document sync in the phone but didn't think of that. My battery life has greatly improved while at home on wifi. I am now at 28 hrs standby, 2 hrs 20 minutes of usage, and 68% battery. It was ok before where I could get 20-30 hrs standby and 6 -8 hrs usage. My usage today was phone calls, 3g surfing, and music via bluetooth in the car.

I also found even with Itunes iMatch, if I mass updated tages, art work etc, it would hit the phone on wifi even in standby. I was amazed. Granted if I am not doing updates, Match won't hot the phone so this was a once in awhile event. I could drop my percentage by 5-10% in a matter of minutes when doing updates. I think a lot of our problems are background processes, associated with iCloud, notification, and apps. More features means more battery. I think the key thing is to keep track of what has recently been added or changed if battery life gets worse all of a sudden. It may be an app that was recently installed and if possible you may want to completely remove it and not just quit it.

[...]

With twitter, i think it uses push notifications so it doesn't need to be running and actively poll on the phone. For instance , if i quit the mail app, i still will get mail notifications and can swipe the message and load mail. Apple Push Notifications servics maintain the connection to the phone and there are likely pings or connection checks that occur for the service on an os level not an app level. This minimizes the load so there arent a bunch of apps all runing and constantly checking. The notification service , if it is contacted from twitter or another service with data, will check the settings you have registered to the with the apple push service and send the notification to your phone. No matter what, there is a drain with notifications. M hunch is once one application is configured to receive notifications, connection checking occurs betwen the push service and the phone so it knows where it is on the network. If it is implemented correctly, these checks arent frequent if you are still and more frequent as you move. The other drain is for when the noification hits and is processsed. If i get 9 emails over night, my screen just popped up for 20 seconds or so to process each message using battery. I would even think that just go from low power to turning n the screen uses more juice than if the device was already on and i get the message. On nights I get no notifications, I see a 3 or 4 percent drop. On nights with a number of notifications, i have seen up to a 10 percent drop. Besides notifications, wifi sync and icloud will poll on the local network and use up battery if the host computer is on and running itunes or trying to sync a data file that is corrupt (which i had with the apple movie trailers app causing my phone to drain). For me turning off wifi sync and remving a corrupt file in icloud solved my battery issues and I get over 24 hrs of standby with 6 to 9 hrs of use and this is with all the normal location services and push serivices turned on.

See http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/ipad/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Co nceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/ApplePushService/ApplePushService.html for more info. I think it has a good overview of how the notifications work.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Nov 27, 2011 4:07 AM

42 replies

owh786

Level 1

5 points

Nov 30, 2011 10:48 AM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

I have just done a battery rundown test of my iphone whilst using it as i normally would:

Wifi always on, 3G always on

Siri off, diags off, system services off except for traffic and compass calibration

These are my results with 6% battery life remaining:

33.2% (1 day 3 hrs) has been lost on standby where only 13.5% should have been lost.

16% (13 hrs) was lost overnight on standby.

59.8% has been used for** (6 hrs 20 mins).

3% has been used for calls over 3G (13 mins 2 secs).

**texts, browsing over wifi and 3G, reading emails, YouTube, e-reader app.

As you can see with the results above, my iPhone 4s 32gb 5.0.1 is running fine except for one thing;

The standby is half of what it should be. I am losing over 1% an hour where I should be losing only 0.5% an hour

So apple, please do something about the standby time!!!!

Note: 80% of the time I was in an area of full coverage (4-5 bars). And the wifi was also at 100%.

I believe majority of post is about the standby time, so there must definitely be something on when the phone is on standby!!!

Nov 30, 2011 3:16 PM in response to owh786

owh786 wrote:

[...]As you can see with the results above, my iPhone 4s 32gb 5.0.1 is running fine except for one thing;
The standby is half of what it should be. I am losing over 1% an hour where I should be losing only 0.5% an hour
[...]

You don't have any issue at all, so why post that same post 5 times in 3 different threads? This thread is meant to simply consolidate some solutions and although you're free to post anywhere at anytime you want, I'd ask you to respect the main idea behind this thread as stated at the top of the page. Thank you!

owh786

Level 1

5 points

Nov 30, 2011 4:40 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

So everyone can see my results and maybe compare with their own.

An yes there is a problem of the standby drain. It should not be over 1% an hour, it should be 0.5% an hour (hence 200 hours standby).

But I lost 16% in 13 hours, where I should have lost 7.5%.

So I'm sorry to say that my problem isn't as bad as anyone else's, but I still do have a problem nonetheless!!!

Nov 30, 2011 5:19 PM in response to owh786

No big deal and I'm not God lolll. As far as your "problem" goes, while the specs list 0.5% per hour standby, well with network-centric apps and auto checking of mail and notifications and all, it's conceivable it can be slightly more than that. At that point it's all about fine tuning. Further, it's 200hrs standby if the phone were not used at all - I'm sure you understand that those 200hrs are not on top of regular usage... maybe using airplane mode/cell data off/wifi off during longer standby periods can yield something closer to 0.5%. Anyways, good luck with that!

juankaaa

Level 1

4 points

Nov 30, 2011 8:55 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

Hey, i bought an iPhone 4s on sunday, i had a blackberry 9550 wich had a decent battery life for a bb, it lasted for me from 5am to 9pm... now with the iphone everything was ok, using 3G, intensive twitter and GPS on, battery lasted the full day, actually it dropped to something like 15% as low.

Today, my blackberry plan was cancelled, so i had to set up my exchange server, live.com, hotmail, gmail on my iphone, and to my surprise phone started to get very, VERY hot and battery dropped on stand-by, in 5 hours without using it, from 52% to 9%!!!!!!!!!!!!! this has to be the crappiest mail coding ever....

Anyway, phone still got very hot, and if i turned airplay mode on, it would get cooler... So what's now, i wont install ios 5.0.1 as it has more flaws than mine (my friends has a lot of issues with it) im using 5, so i have a great phone that i can't use with emails?

The wifi solution is not good for me as i bought a mobile phone, not a mobile router.

owh786

Level 1

5 points

Dec 1, 2011 3:31 AM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

Yes I'm aware of the usage. However I have everything off, including mail, don't use Facebook or twitter. iMessage is off, Siri off, so I was expecting at least 36 hours of standby, so I don't have to charge everyday.

Oh well, will have to wait for 5.1.

I'm doing another usage test, so will report on another thread

Dec 1, 2011 4:57 AM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

Sorry, what are you talking about win this? Is this similar to your comment in the other thread about what do I stand for?

I am confused by this post and the one with the motorater comment. I am pretty sure that my post was in the other threads and not in this one. I guess if there is anything wrong with my comments the moderators will take action, they tend to be good with that based on my experience.

Thanks and best of luck.

Dec 1, 2011 7:05 AM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

I am having the same battery issues with my 4S. My battery drains about 12% per hour based on light usage: includes checking email, facebook, stocks and a few web pages. The battery drain in my oppion, is the about the same regardless of whether on 3G or Wi-Fi. I have updated to 5.0.1 without any noticeable improvements. I have also limited the # of notifications and reminders, hard-reset the phone and allowed the battery to drain. Nothing has worked. I am ony adding to this discussion so that Apple continues to receive feedback on a fix that didn't address the issue for some users.

Dec 1, 2011 10:39 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

The statement on the device states the kind of data, it is clear, Explicit Consent. It is very clear when it comes to the device. The legal aspects are confirmed, you just cannot pick and choose with that stuff, it is clear. The technical aspects must fulfil the legal framework stated which it does. I think their privacy statement will be a model for competitors at some point, Apple has always been very forward looking as you know.

Apple uses it to enhance the experience which is their thing, not advertising revenue streams. If a company's primary business is personal information they may have a harder time with user privacy.

If users need to explore it for themselves they can check it out right on their phone. The details are in my post above. (Settings>General>About> Diagnostics & Usage, it is right at the bottom.)

The best part about the privacy statement on the Phone is that you get the exact technical instructions on how to turn off the tracking and reporting within the legal framework. It is 100 percent sound.

So, again i think this is one of the best privacy documents I have ever seen.

The other stuff again I do not get, sorry. Just very strange to me.

Thanks and best of luck.

Dec 2, 2011 12:40 AM in response to drStrangeP0rk

Just unrelated to the thread really. Simply because I referred to CarrierIQ and quoted theverge.com. But on the main thread, I've simply undone your argument entirely and you brought up the material for me to do it. Let me quote myself:

"[...]I acknowledge that no personal information is transmitted to Apple through the diagnostic tool as per their policy document you printed and that no keystroke or message content was ever logged for "diagnostic data" as per their statement. [...] You are not a masters of laws so you opinion is that of a layman at best in terms of policy. The wording is important. If they say that the personal information is removed from the diagnostics data before being sent to Apple, it may exist locally in its entirety. If so for how long and can it be extracted. You just don't know this so you cannot logically deny this possibility.

I quote your printscreen: "Personal data is either not logged at all OR is removed from any reports BEFORE they're sent to Apple." (my capitalization). Don't question my ability to read, question yours.

Finally, you failed to take into account all security considerations [for instance third party gaining access to the device through malware and such] and you can't provide an explanation for Apple wanting to remove that sound tool...

[I quote Apple's press release:

"We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so."]

What's clear is your unflinching bias towards all of this.

I mean, I could go on... for instance why in the last paragraph of your printed policy would Apple need to say that they may provide a subset of the diagnostic information for an app to partners and third-party devs only if the data is aggregated or in a form that doesn't personaly identify you... but I thought a moment ago that NO data/information that would identify you could ever reach Apple? So why the need to aggregate it or reformat it further? Why not include the partners and third-party devs mention to the second paragraph? Are we talking about the data Apple collected and that has reached them, or the data that sits on the phone? And I'm not even asking the question whether that means that a partner or 3rd party dev can have access to a subset of the personal information (pertaining to an app) about you as long as it's in aggregated form. Looking forward to a real pro giving meaning to this...

Thanks and best of luck!"

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

Don't use the thread for PR. When you read policies, don't do selective reading, you have to read the whole thing. It's an important issue that has to be analyzed by real professionals... I may not qualify but neither do you, obviously.

Thanks and best of luck!

Dec 5, 2011 8:31 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

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Comments

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Scarface's [thread creator] comment (charging phone while OFF):

Some maybe useless info but I recently charged my iPhone turned off and it managed to carry on the usage and standby of the previous charge, I managed to get to 10 hours of usage and 2+ days of standby, LOL! if only it was like that off one charge!

FHLM's comments (disabling "push" which apps may use):

[...]

But it was when I turned "Push" to "manual" in all applications that the battery started to behave normally..

3dmac's comments (early adoption of new OS best practices etc.):

[...]As with every new major OS improvment, older APP's will be an issue. But MOST don't listen or acknowledge these issues. They just loaded all previous apps and then complained latter when things were not right.

Clean installs or AS new are a must with new OS. Then load an app to test OR wait to see for any update compatability. Alot of apps may be OK, at 1st. But time tells. And that is the case HERE.

[...]

I had 1 temp problem with an app's proccess not closing, deleted it/ restart phone then loaded it back, now all is well. Wife had a contacts sync loop. (this can be checked by turning off wifi and looking at 3g data usage increase, also see the busy pinwheel spinning when contacts or phone app open) Turned off iCloud contacts sync, choose not to keep contacts on phone( this will delete all contact on phone) Restart phone, then turn iCloud contacts sync back on and choose to Keep on phone. iCloud will load them back and the loop is killed.

IE: the sync was actually Downloading to the phone !! Not upload..

enx23's comments (4S on wifi switches to 3G automatically while in standby, reducing one's data usage i.e. plan limit oriented):

Indeed the iPhone 4S and/or iOS 5 is using 3G even when connected to WIFI when in standby!!! Immediately as the lock screen kicks in the iPhone switches to 3G and disconnects from WIFI even that is connected to WIFI!

[...]http://www.vancelucas.com/blog/excessive-data-usage-with-iphone-4s-ios5/

Matt Domenici's comments (curing location services for individual apps):

[...]The telltale symptom is seeing the white location services icon appear on the lock screen or home screen. If you see it persistently there, that's the cause of your problem. To address:

- Visit "Settings" then "Location Services" on your device

- Next, Scroll and look for the purple arrow next to the "on/off" next to the app name. Deselect the app showing purple.

- Go back to the home screen. Note if the white location services arrow still appears.

- If gone, reboot the phone. Swipe to unlock once rebooted. Look for the location services arrrow to see if reappears once you unlock the phone and arrive on the home screen.

- If it does reappear, repeat the process to look for the offending app.

In my testing, I had to go through this cycle twice. One you have found the bad apps, you can try reinstalling them to "fix them"[...]

Different user's comments in Europe (make sure to check micro-sim, try a new one, someone else's, test phantom usage without your sim, Vodaphone vs. O2 etc.)

zSkeptic's comments (fetch settings not working with Exchange, yahoo - etc.):

[...]

Conclusion: I have found that the fetch setting is not working for my MS Exchange account and possibly my Yahoo account. I have read that many people have had issues with various iterations of iPhone OS and MS Exchange so I believe this is a contributor to my battery issue. If you haven't already done so and are having battery issues, you should try changing your email option to manually fetch.

Finally, I have also seen some weird reminders created through what I believe is my Yahoo account. Not sure if this is tied to the battery drain but I deleted 3 of these reminders and am now going to turn off Yahoo reminders.

mojorisn45's comments (changed 3 things and something happened;) ):

I changed 3 things and one of them worked (no sure which). I switch the notification center to organize by time, not manual. I switched to push email and left the 1hr fetch setting alone--with gmail to fetch and iCloud to push. I know that the fetch timer doesn't matter with push, but since it doesn't matter i left the 1hr setting alone. Lastly, and somehow I think most importantly, I deleted Angry Birds. No joke.

Dec 5, 2011 10:33 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

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Procedures

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davidch (reset+full discharge recharge - slightly updated i.e. 2a-2b):

[...] 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 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 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)

Dec 7, 2011 9:41 AM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

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Procedures

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davidch (reset+full discharge recharge - slightly updated i.e. 2a-2b + missing word):

[...] 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 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)

Dec 8, 2011 6:18 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

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Comments and sample of some issues discussed

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trygv348's comments (link to osxdaily tips):

http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/16/ios-5-battery-life-fix-tips/

3dmac's comments (remarks) - more issues on GSM phones than CDMA. For instance UK, and Europe.

DJ.Jan's comments (trying to isolate a problem - howto):

[...]

The best way to find out what is causing battery drain on your iPhone!

The only way to figure out what is causing fast battery drain on your device is to find the process/app/setting that is responsible for it. In my case it was a IMAP mail account synced with gmail.

Here is how you can figure it out:

1. Install a system monitoring tool on your device to have an overview of all running processes.

2. Deactivate ALL data sending/receiving apps and processe:

2.1: disable Location services

2.2: disable Siri

2.3: disable PUSH

2.3: set email fetch to MANUAL for ALL accounts

2.4: disable ALL mail accounts (switch off mail, contacts, calendar in each account!!)

3. Deactivate iCloud completely - including "find my iPhone" and "iCloud backup"

4. Be sure to have WIFI & Mobile Data still ENABLED!

5. Close ALL Apps from multitasking

5. Use system monitor to check that all app are realy closed (if mail was push or automatic fetch before it night still be running. in this case open email app and close it afterward again)

6. Restart you Phone

7. Note time and battery percentage to a piece of paper and leave iPhone in standby for at least one hour (2 hours will be better!)

8. If battery drainage is <1% go ahead and activate only ONE email account, set fetch to 30minutes or 1 hour and open your mail app. leave it on multitasking bar.

9. Write down time and battery percentage again and wait an other one/two hour(s), the go ahead with the next account, iCloud, Localisation service, siri,... until you find your battery draining problem.

As said before, in my case IMAP with goole mail account made my battery drain very fast. I disabled this account (account must be inactive not only set to manual!!) and used the google exchange server instead. Now everything works as normal, with battery going down less than 1% per hour.

The only thing about thet above procedure is that it takes a whole day minimum to find out what is going on but you can only find the bad process by switching on one function after an other and not several of them at the same time.

iVision's comments (network use maintenance):

1. Turn on the airplane mode before I go to sleep so that alarm can be on.

2. Turn off the cellular network and only turn it on when i use it.

[Sample of the some issues discussed in the "iPhone battery life" thread: install type, mail technology, network altogether(UK), 3G coverage(US), iCloud and apps]:

dreamstrider's comments (reinstall+restore to new, reset etc.):

I used to have a battery problem like many others. I restored AS NEW at 5.0.1 (at first updated OTA but was worse[so installed the full 800mb release]), reset network settings, NO wireless sync and everything (it seems) is ok. Also I use email in manual mode notifications and location on, siri raise to speak off, brightness VERY low.

bleepingApple(UK) vs. jameson's(US, east) (scenario comparisons) - in the first case, only airplane mode limits "phantom usage" and consequently, drain, and the choice of wifi or 3G has no significant impact whereas in the second case, drain is obvious during a 1 hour commuting under 3G and kept in spec under wifi usage.

DJ.Jan's comments (setting up an Exchange account for gmail as under his setup IMAP seems to generate for drain):

I believe both types are using IMAP as protocol and both were draining my battery. I tried with both setups. Unfortunately I can't tell if the problem is caused by an iOS bug or a change on googles IMAP servers...

Setting up an M$ Exchange Account for gmail is really easy and it supports multiple calendars for iOS.

-Simply go to "Add account..." and choose Microsoft Exchange.

-Type in name, email address and password.

-Leave "domain" free.

-As server use m.google.com.

When the account is tested succesfully switch all sliders to "on". If you want to use multiple calendars open Safari on your device and browse to "m.google.com/sync". Login with your google account data (in Germany you first have to change the language to English, otherwise it won't work). On the following page select your iPhone and activate as many calendars as you like.

bleepingApple's comments (mail technology bears no impact on his setup):

[...]

Some here say MS Exchange makes battery drain worse, some say IMAP is worse. I've tried all three [POP, IMAP and Echange] and can report that none make my battery better or worse. My usage stats when idle are just as high under any type of email account for Gmail. I equally haven't seen any significant difference between using fetch or push, or the interval I elect to use for fetch [from 15mins to completely manual]. [...]

zSkeptic's comments (different configs):

[...]

Virgin phone with default setting - about 1% per hour battery drain in standy-by for both WiFi and 3G. Also the phone came loaded with 5.0.1

Phone set-up as new and loaded with apps, email (MS Exchange and Yahoo), 28GB of music with default settings - anywhere from 2% to 6% battery drain in stand-by

Turned off Siri Raise to Speak, location services, notification center, iCloud off, and fetch email every 30 minutes. I did not trigger any apps and all other settings to default. I also did one or two battery drains to zero. Battery drain reduced to 1% to 4% per hour in standy-by.

Changed fetch to manual, deleted iCloud, and turned off reminders in Yahoo account. Did one more battery drain to zero and now battery drain varies from .5% to 2% per hour. I believe it is averaging close to 1% per hour. This is workable for me.

I have 3 battery meter apps. All of them typicall show 1% to 2% lower than the iPhone meter on the top left corner.

As others have noted, when I am connected to WiFi and I first wake my phone up from stand-by, the 3G indicator will show for a couple of seconds and then the WiFi indicator.

Also, when I first wake up the phone from a long stand-by period, the battery will rapidly lose 1% to 3% in the first few minutes. I believe this is the indicator just normalizing and does not mean that phone is actually draining that amount.

Dec 13, 2011 3:09 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

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Comments

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jwdean's comments (in his case, despite a colleague not having his issue with the same server, his exchange account is the issue[found out by resetting from scratch and adding accounts one at a time], so he removes it and leaves the ones with which he has no issues):

[...]

Instead of doing a hard reset on my phone again and updating all of my settings, I just deleted my email accounts, restored my network settings, and added my two accounts that were not causing problems:

1 - Delete email account(s) in Setting > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Email Account > Delete Account

2 - Reset Network Settings in Settings > Reset (at the bottom) > Reset Network Settings

3 - Reboot your phone by holding the sleep/wake (top) button then sliding to off.

4 - Re-add the email accounts that were working in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account...[...]

zSkeptic's comments (fetch is not responsive, so sets Exchange to manual fetch and limits components' sync):

Yes, I believe my company's Exchange account has been a major contributor to my accelerated battery drain. To improve performance, I changed the setting to Fetch Manually. I found that any of the other Fetch options (15 mins, 30 mins, 1 Hour) were not working correctly and the manual fetch did help significantly. I also do not sync contacts and reminders which I think also helped the battery. I anticipate turning off the calendar sync may even reduce battery drainage more but I need that functionality. [...]

AltorFire's comments (speculates as to the one setting that made a change for him):

[...]

I am wondering if the 'ask to join networks' setting is causing a problem when you are in an area of multiple wireless. I had tried most of the tweaks previously.

mmbos's comments (gmail folder sync is the culprit in his case - uses gmail through Exchange with fetch):

I seemed to have fixed mine by unsyncing most of my gmail folders. Getting much better battery life with standard use now. Might be something for others to try.

RossPhoto's comments (points for originality in triggering 2G access lolll):

I've figured out how to switch from 3G to 2G manually, without a UI toggle. I call 443 (voicemail) and put my phone in a metal case. When I take it out a few seconds later, it's reverted back to 2G. This gives me much better battery performance due to the poor 3G at my home area. [Editor: what about leaving the phone in a shielded metal box during the night to reduce drain???]

emil109's comments (achieved acceptability with backup then full erase/reset, restore - looks similar to miless's procedure page 1):

[...]

process: transfer purchases, back up on itunes/icloud, back up all your photos/videos and then erase all contents and settings off the phone. When it resets setup as new phone, resync your icloud account which should restore your contacts etc, and then resync your apps and music!! All done!!

faragondk's comments (not fully satisfied but improvements after doing a full reset):

I have battery trouble too, but the drainage became better after doing a DFU restore via iTunes, setting it up as a new phone, and not doing a restore from a previous backup. [...]

Thomasgrox's comments (after exchanging the phone (??)toned down brightness of the device to 50%):

[...]Then, I wondered what would happen if I turned my brightness down from full to 50%. After seeing the result, I think the change is here to stay[...]

mynet's comments (reminder about background app and specific reference to SimCity):

[...]Also, check your apps to see if they are working continuously in the background. Some of the SimCity type games seem to never stop updating and accessing the internet.

miless's comments (all around procedure):

Switch off the phone.

Restore iOS 5.0.1 via iTunes

Reset network settings

[...]

-Drain the battery till the phone switch off by itself

-Charge the phone up to 100%... keep it there for another 2-3 hours.

-monitor again, the life...

-next step if above fails .... change your SIM card to a new microSIM.

-disable auto send diagnostics to Apple.

-disable Facebook location services

-disable location services>system services> diagnostics & usage, location-based iAds, setting time zone.

-disable notifications>calendar>notification centre>off

-Reminders with location alert ... disable it if you dont use it.

i think thats all its needed to be done... and of course, all apps that do not need location services, disable them.

miless's comments (advice for wifi router configuration):

If above does not help, go to your wireless router, change wifi network channel, switch it to manual (default is auto, and normally set to channel 13 for 2.4 Ghz band, and channel 161 on 5 Ghz band) ... on 2.4Ghz try between channel 1 to 13 ... settle for the channel that gives you best signal/speed. And for 5Ghz band... between channel 40 to 48 and 149 to 161. Once you have set the channels (make sure you dont have any wireless access point repeater... if you do, you need to check the channel of your repeater and set it the same as the main router), reboot your wireless router.

Above 2 steps should help your wifi propagating problem.

ministermaniane's comments (reset his router/modem which improved wifi performance):

I actually reset the router and modem a little later this afternoon, and that has helped tremendously.

chazzmichaelmichael's comments (toned down config):

-Bluetooth off.

-Wifi off.

-ALL Push Notifications off.

-Location services on for all apps that I need, but in "System Services", only Cell Network Search and Compass Calibration are on.

-iCloud Back up off.

-iCloud syncs mail, contacts and calendar. Everything else is off, including "Find my iPhone".

-Mail set to fetch once an hour (Comcast, iCloud, and Yahoo).

sophos09's comments (got tired and did a full 800mb release reinstall, which helped in his case):

[...]

Two days ago I said **** it, downloaded the offical 5.0.1 IPSW, disabled iCloud Backup, backed up contents to my iMac and done a complete restore.Happy to say that everything restored perfectly - the only setting that I have thats different now I'm not doing automatic back ups to the iCloud.Battery life is now significantly extended to something far more reasonable[...]

guizotia's comments (similar to sophos09):

[...]Did an erase and reset. Restored from iCloud. Could see that the Set Time Zone was continuously polling the location. Turned only this location setting off. Left phone and measured the standby battery usage and this time noticeably better. Calculated a standby of 50 hours.[...]

bleepingApple's comments (replacement phone yields better battery life):

[...]So from initial use, the new handset has a drastic improvement over the old one. Battery is showing good results but more importantly for me, the usage is now a fraction of the standby time; previously it was doggedly half the standby time. This phone is much less 'busy' than the last one under the same circumstances and conditions. I am encouraged...[...]

enx23's comments (speculation about static noise issue and impacts):

Also the static bug which is the noise one can hear from his iPhone 4s when there is data connection thru 3g or wifi might explain the high battery drain when there is data connection. The chip which produces that static noise just draws more power than it was designed!!![...]

It would be great of those who post here or read this could check if they are affected by the static bug issue too! This could help to see if there the static bug and the battery drain issue are linked or not. It looks like 80% of iPhone 4S are affected by the static bug.

In order to test if you are affected by the static bug issue do these:

1) turn off the WIFI

2) turn on the Cellular Data (3G)

3) open Safari and go to a large web page which takes long time to load

4) put immediately your ear (while the webpage is loading) to the back of your iPhone 4S where is the apple sign and listen carefully

telim's comments (icloud and mail to manual [deleting iCloud or setting to manual is mentioned in quite a few posts throughout]):

I've gotten really good standby time by turning iCloud from push to Manual and all my email accounts (2) to Manual as well. You can access it by Settings>Mail, Contacts, Caldendars>Feth New Data>Advanced.

fenman59's comments (system location services - timezone):

[...]I also noticed that there was a location services arrow on the status bar. When I checked under Location Services in Settings I found that the Setting Time Zone service (it's under System Services at the bottom of the Location Services page) appeared to be using it constantly which presumeably meant GPS was permanently powered and therefore draining my battery.

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

Announcement

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iOS 5.1 beta 2 released to devs December 12:

http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/12/apple-ios-5-1-beta-2-now-available-for-developers- heres-the-change-log/

iPhone 4S Battery Life: Best solutions and procedures for 1st time user: 1-Do you have a battery life issue (learn first what the usage time spec is about) 2-What can you try to remedy the situation without reading 500 pages of posts