SOLVED THE 4S Battery Issue!!! I'm 99.99% Sure I have uncovered it!!! Need Testers!!!

Question

SOLVED THE 4S Battery Issue!!! I'm 99.99% Sure I have uncovered it!!! Need Testers!!!

This has been my experience with the 4S Battery, currently I am on my 4th physical iPhone 4S unfortunately.. or FORTUNATELY?! Because I may have the answer?! I hope my solution I'm posting fixes the problem and helps everyone out there! btw this my first post too! I saw an article online about this still not being fixed... hopefully my 2c helps everyone out maybe this fix problem.. would that make me iPhone hero for day? oh boyeee.. 😎

Actually, I came to this conclusion about a month ago when I got my iPhone replaced yet again at AppleCare for having a "Faulty Battery".. I even mentioned this fix I'm writing out to the Genius and actually worked!! My iPhone with the once "Faulty Battery" I took to the Genius's is currently functioning as it should, my battery now last longer than my old iPhone 4 =P ..Too think I was going to downgrade too back to a 4 over this if this "fix" didn't work.. Siri listened to my frustration.. but she didn't understand... as usual... Siri a joke? I hate her, she's ******** and always "out of the office" to put it when I give her a request... That's another thread..

The bug is somewhere in the restore process from a past Device Backup, I haven't tested nor do I want too because my battery works and "if ain't broke..".. but I "Believe" both iCloud and iTunes backups are affected? I could be wrong, it may be just iCloud but I never tested this theory. I do not have the battery issue now but another theory I have is if I do restore my iPhone completely and pull the backup from the clould in theory aquire the "Battery Bug"?

I'm not a programmer/engineer but this has gotta be a simple fix? I was experiencing HORRIBLE drops in battery life with my replacement iPhone 4S, literally up to 10% would just drop just sitting there unplugged.. This only happened AFTER I restored my iPhone back from the iCloud Backup from my stolen 4S. - Which BTW I will be getting that stolen phone back, someone activated it with a new line of service with AT&T, just waiting for the police to give me that call they picked it up from the address AT&T provides! YAY, Justice WIN 😀

Think about it, really what are the chances I would go through 3 new phones with the same "Faulty Battery" issue when my 1st iPhone had NO Problems and had EXCELLENT battery life. It's the backups, period. There's a glitch in the backup Matrix, hopefully Apple or someone smarter than myself can patch this without making it complicated fix like I'm posting... If this doesn't fix your phone you all have defective phones and Apple needs to recall em all..... jk jk😝

Steps 1-3.

First - Manually Back all your important stuff up!

- When you Setup your iPhone 4S for the 1st time did you create a "Brand New" Device/iPhone and NOT restore a backup made to iCloud? The only thing lost is old text messages by following this method but there's a screenshot feature for those important "must save" texts or 3rd party apps.....

Second - Do a complete Restore of your iPhone to the 5.0.1, I'm going to suggest you download the slightly modified 5.0.1 if you don't have that IPSW handy. If your unsure, find it, delete it and redownload it.

- Personally I backed up everything prior too my mac and the iCloud. I really like that fresh clean OS install feeling ALOT and knowing I didn't bring any potential "bugs" or OS slow downs with me onto my new shiny device.

Third - Spend some love time with your iPhone again.. setup it up with love and connect your life to iCloud. Know that this time things are going to be better time around... I hope for your sake this does work and helps untether your phone from the Wall/USB port it

BATTERY BUG UNCOVERED! Now Step 4 (Optional) - Give your phone a lil kiss and a nice lil squeeze... wisper to it, "it's all going to be ok from now on..." hahaha 😉

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1, I'm using the slightly newer 5.0.1

Posted on Jan 16, 2012 6:37 PM

Reply

Answer 1

dani4576

Level 2

396 points

Jan 16, 2012 6:46 PM in response to Community User

I can't believe I'm the only one writing back. I have to admit, I did a factory reset on my phone after noticing the battery problem the forst day I had it. I now have my brightnes on high and 70% of location services on and my iPhone 4S battery lasts me about 16 hours of obsessive use.

Reply

Answer 2

reginap

Level 1

5 points

Jan 16, 2012 6:52 PM in response to Community User

first of thank you for the help.

I have some qustions though.

It is my first iPhone ever, so since the begining it was a brand new phone, right?
So how could that restore and resetup help me? I jus don't wanna loose anymore time doing restores, and resets. also, will I loose all the apps I've insalled already if I do that?

thank you!

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 16, 2012 7:57 PM in response to reginap

Your Welcome.

Honestly, my motto. If it's broke, fix it the right way the first time. Unless your a true geek, then tinker tinker tinker.. until a SOLUTION occurs/happens/or your inner Apple Genius kicks "on" 😀 I feel like I need to go recite the Torna Ra from South Park..

ACTUALLY I am wondering if Apple is holding back a update 5.0.2 due to the pending A5 jailbreak that's due to come out at any moment. It would be very "wise" in the game of Cat and Mouse with the jailbreak community to come out and say HEY, WE FIXED THE BATTERY now update and lose your jailbreak you've waited months and months for.. Check, Apple. Good move if that's the case...

But hey, fix your battery with my guide now. 5.0.2 (if it exists) can be ignored ^__^

UPDATE: I setup my little sisters BRAND NEW 3GS and used my broken backup from the cloud. Her battery on the 3GS is broken almost just as bad as the 4S if not worse.. Prying it from her texting fingers for a couple hours to fix it will be a challenge, but it's more evidence/proof this is Backup/iCloud related and Apple needs to address this somehow.. Squash that BUG!!

Answer to your Questions:

- Setup everything to go into the iCloud, turn everything on, let the Cloud do it's thing without you having to think. It's the number 1. most easy thing you can do. Unless that's not your cup of tea, privacy, photostream having potentially Questionable photos that can't be deleted yet... all your contacts data... My advice, unless you got something to really hide, don't use it.. Most nay sayser have a problem with Mary Jane or whatev letting Miss Suspicious and her Cousin Paranoia in... The Cloud is Good and tis Fluffy and full of 5GB of free data for to keep your stuff safe.

- Setup Find my iPhone. DO IT DO IT DO IT.

- Apps, they go into the cloud too. You can sync Apps to iTunes and they are NOT part of a "backup", so just manually select in iTunes you wanna sync them all. Honestly, they'll all in the clould so there's really no point in wasting space on your computer... I got a Macbook Air with an SSD, Cloud Space? Free? I'll take it!!!

- Are you experiencing battery issues at all right now? Did you have an iTouch or anything you pulled a "Restore Backup" from?

Honestly backups are pretty unnecessary with iCloud turned on all the way, that's the way I like it and it's wonderful. Now if text messages could sync to the iCloud, backups would be not longer necessary and I would be a happy iPhone camper... well kinda, I hate Siri. There are ways around texts though, screenshots, 3rd party apps, or just say whatev/lose em and be confident in your friends they will send more F'd up memorable messages to you in the future... But do Save their crazy MMS's, if you have photostream on, they go to the cloud forever.... mwhahaha.... ^__^ That's all I got for ya. I got some fun tips when the JB comes out but I'm pretty sure I can't throw that around on here....

Funny Fact: I was fired from an Apple Store for unlocking the 1st Generation iPhone for customers after my shifts and had one in my pocket with T-Mobile until my Manager and DM caught on and put the big Apple Legal bible in my face. Meh, I got a job with T-Mobile 2 days later getting paid to setup iPhones on the Network and keep calls over 20min.. mwhahahaha...

Apple, Think Different (but not too differently...) =P haha

Reply

Answer 4

reginap

Level 1

5 points

Jan 16, 2012 8:57 PM in response to Community User

I did the reset. No backups. Then I syncd my contacts, music and apps from iTunes.

So far I already lost 30% but I was reorganizing everything and sending you this reply

so, yeah, I don't know. Let's see . Thank you anyway

Reply

Answer 5

reginap

Level 1

5 points

Jan 16, 2012 9:00 PM in response to Community User

Just lost another 2% writing this Message. F****! 😟

Reply

Answer 6

Jan 16, 2012 9:41 PM in response to reginap

It's hit and miss on this.

When I first brought home my 4S last week, I used it for a day without restoring my backup. Battery life fresh out of the box with only push email setup was bad. I eventually restored my backup and under location settings, turned off all but the top two selections in system services. That greatly helped.

Over the weekend, I exchanged my 16GB 4S for the 64GB and again restored from my backup and am at 33% left at 22 hours standby.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 17, 2012 12:43 AM in response to reginap

"Restoring" your phone requires you plugging it into iTunes and reloading the 5.0.1 Firmware, not simply going into your settings and hitting "Reset iPhone Settings" from within the phone. That's a soft reset that could fix small bugs like your home screen icons getting all funky and crazy.

- Try doing that, restoring your firmware

- Set up a new iPhone when asked

- Post your results back here.

🙂

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 17, 2012 3:58 AM in response to TooDarkPark

The problem I found, despite being the "same device/model type" the Battery Bug seems to be happening when a "restored backup/iCloud in my case" is used on another device regardless of iPhone Model/Size. Kinda interesting, something with the iCloud or iOS5 is buggin out here... I really wanna squash this too or hopefully make someone's job a little easier with all this provided information... 👿

When I got my replacement 4S after my 1st one was stolen, I set everything up the way "Apple Intendend" with my iCloud Backup Restore Point made from 1st 4S before it was stolen. It was very nice know my data was safe up in the Apple Cloud not lost data 😉

Moral here: I had 2 iPhones with the exact same battery problem from the same iCloud backup used on both newly purchased devices. Hopefully that's some pretty concrete evidence/data for someone hirer up at Apple to investigate.

My Question for you: If you are NOT having battery issues presently with your backup on your replaced device. Did you restore from the iCloud or did you restore from a backup saved to your iTunes?

Next Question: For the sake of testing and geeking out, would you be willing to take note on your present day to day battery use and then follow my guide IF YOU RESTORED USING A iTUNES BACKUP and see if setting up a device in the clould actually "improves" battery life even slightly 😉 *** Persoanlly I'd do it, but ya know the Cat and Mouse with Apple for the A5 Chips is about to start and I have a grandfathered tethering plan I'm ITCHING tap into...

Since I have "fixed" my "Faulty Battery" and everything is working properly now, I can go a WHOLE DAY with use/talking/surfing/texting/youtubing/Spotifying and I don't always have my charger... I'll look at my battery, literally I'll say "WOW", it didn't move! That made me happy and has confirmed yet again, this fix works if done properly like I wrote out 😉

I wonder how fast the Ice Cream Sandwich Android Update melts the battery away compaired to the iPhone... Hmmm I smell a flame war, I'll take it to Facebook hahaha😎

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 17, 2012 4:02 AM in response to reginap

Monitoring your "Percentage" does actually Decrease your battery life, you know that right? Basically the phone waste CPU cyles to come up with a percentage, it's VERY SMALL, but if you haven't attempted to fix your phones battery with the method I provided I would recommend turning it off the percentage monitor and not caring until those 20% and 10% messages start poping up 😉

When you fix your battery, it does become nice to turn on and see it not move.. just because you turned the screen on for a half a second... Those days are now over, thank god haha

Reply

Answer 10

reginap

Level 1

5 points

Jan 17, 2012 5:35 AM in response to Community User

I'll turn if off then, but I dont'think it will help either.
about the restore on itunes, it was one of the first thing i tried. I'm already running 5.0.1 (9A406)

Don't know what elese to do, I can'nt even make a small phone call without having my battery drop at least two points in a minute.

Reply

Answer 11

Jan 19, 2012 6:37 AM in response to Community User

99.99% enthusiasm, 0.01% reality... which weighs more in the end? 😝 Solved!

Reply

Answer 12

Nanis23

Level 1

0 points

Jan 19, 2012 7:46 AM in response to Community User

I don't get this topic

I never did restore and I have battery problems

All my hopes for nothing....

Reply

Answer 13

Jan 22, 2012 12:02 PM in response to 1AppleADayNoWay

Worked for me...

Reply

Answer 14

Mar 13, 2012 7:12 AM in response to TooDarkPark

I tried replacing my 3gs for a 4s and was told: "There's a penalty of 5% for every month left on your contract"

I kept my 3gs.

Reply

Answer 15

Mar 13, 2012 7:21 AM in response to Nanis23

Hang in there Nanis23. My daughter talked me throught this. Turn the light brightness down to minimum. Turn every option off. You're now in emergency power mode. Buy yourself a router. Use WiFi as much as possible. Limit the use of Celluar Data to just about never. There's free Wireless Fidelity @ every McDonalds and some other public places. It works.

Reply