iPhone 4s battery never fully charged

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Level 1

20 points

iPhone 4s battery never fully charged

Hi,

I charge my iPhone 4s every night. Most often it never gets to a full charge, even though it says it's full (with the plug symbol). It can range from 92-97%. If I discharge the battery fully several times, it might get to a full charge the next time. Sometimes it will charge to 100% on a wall charger, but if I leave it charging overnight will back off to 95% or so.

I have done hard resets, restored, and even done a DFU restore, to no avail. The battery life seems OK most days. I use bluetooth in the car, make sure I keep most apps turned off, use airplane mode when traveling, etc. I have 3 email accounts, most of which use "push".

I have taken the phone twice to the genius bar, but the only thing they can suggest is that I completely restore the phone from new, which I have been reluctant to do because then I lose all my data and have to start over. Originally, this phone was set up from a backup from an earlier 3GS. I have all of the same apps and email accounts and settings on my original 1st generation iPad 3G, and I have no issues with the battery whatsoever.

Any thoughts short of completely starting from scratch would be appreciated.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Feb 29, 2012 5:03 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Lawrence Finch

Level 10

202,204 points

Feb 29, 2012 5:10 PM in response to Mark Smucker

It depends on when you look at it and what backround apps are running. The battery circuit charges the phone to 100%, then shuts off to avoid overcharging. If there are apps running they will discharge the battery slightly. When the charge level reaches 92% to 96% (it varies from phone to phone) the charger comes back on and recharges it to 100%. But if you look at it after it has reached 100% and before it reaches the recharge point it will show less than 100%.

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Answer 2

Mark Smucker Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 29, 2012 5:28 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Lawrence,

Thank you for this, but it always backs off to 92-96% and never fully recharges and continues to show "full" with the plug symbol. In my phone's case, it seems that the recharge never kicks back on.

Could it be that I should turn off the email app every night so that it stops fetching and pushing?

Thanks again for the speedy reply.

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