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shaggy1966 Author

Level 1

1 points

iPhone 4 iOS 5.1 Battery Drain ... Major progress for me

Me: I'm a freelance Apple iOS developer. I have so many iOS devices I can't count them all.

My issue: My iPhone 4 has worked flawlessly (minus the antenna issue everyone knows about) up until I got iOS 5.0.1...and then worsened with iOS 5.1.

My battery life went from "as described" in the product literature to "as described" by all the comlpaints on these boards regarding battery drain (2-4 hours of standby time on full charge, very long charge time).

I have 3 batteries for my phone. All behaved the same.

I went through all the incremental steps to nail down the root cause.

1. Turn off WiFi

2. Turn off Blue Tooth

3. Turn off personal hot spot

4. Turn off iCloud

5. Deleted every single non-Apple app

6. Remove running apps for memory

7. Reboot

8. Reset all settings

Nothing worked....except this:

1. Backup to iTunes

2. Restore to Factory Defaults

3. Restore from Backup

FIXED. Didn't loose any data.

Can others confirm?

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1, Battery drain slow charge

Posted on Apr 27, 2012 9:48 AM

19 replies

May 15, 2012 1:38 PM in response to shaggy1966

Nope - didn't work for me. Still less than 7 hours on standby from 100% to dead, still more than 5 hours to recharge. Did exactly what you did.

May 21, 2012 3:36 AM in response to jak1975

jak1975 - Just wanted to say that your hotmail solution worked for me also! Switched off hotmail contacts, phone cooled down almost instantly and has now lost only 1% in the last hour vs previously where it was losing 15-20% in an hour. Thankyou very much.

shaggy1966 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 24, 2012 7:27 AM in response to shaggy1966

IMPORTANT UPDATE WORTH READING...

I know, promises promises.

So, my initial post was unfortunately premature. I thought I achieved a battery life fix and I had reason to believe I did.

THIS TIME ITS FOR REAL and I have some important news for all the other people looking hard for a battery drain fix.

Here we go... Important bullet points... Sorry, yes, there is "theory" involved instead of "absolutes" but hear me out. I'm not selling anything...

1. I believe the battery drain is hardware-related

2. I believe it is related to the internal dock connector

3. I replaced my dock connector and my battery is as good as new. This time I am not being premature. Its honestly behaving like it is a brand new phone.

4. Replacing the dock connector will void your warranty (mine was already out of warranty)

5. Replacing the dock connector for me involved:

- Buying a replacement dock cable off eBay

- Buying the case opening kit (small screw drivers, etc) also from eBay

- Watching one of the many YouTube videos that walk people through the process

Why do I believe the dock connector is the main culprit with the battery drain issue?

The electrical contacts are very close together
Imagine that you buy a cheap aftermarket charging cable and use it over and over... the contacts are smooshed (technical term) over and over... wear and tear ... perhaps... especially from low quality cables.
Power can theoretically arc from lead to lead and cause a circuit...thereby draining power: - just like attaching a paper clip to both leads of a AA battery: the battery drains quickly .
My dock connector began giving me "fits" sometime around when my battery drain problem surfaced.
I recall buying a couple no-name charging cables; one for each of my cars around the same time

MOST IMPORTANT REASON?

Simple: I replaced the internal dock cable and the battery drain issue was solved instantly. Its been several days now.

Sorry to all those who were hoping I had some magical software setting. All I know is that I can use my iPhone 4 until the new 5 comes out rather than opting for a 4S so close to the new model release.

Dec 3, 2012 8:11 AM in response to shaggy1966

I have iPhone 5 with iOs 6.0.1. Its working fine until yesterday. The phone heating up and drains battery about 15-20% / hour . I`ve noticed that if I put the Hotmail account (email , contacts) off , phone is cooling down and batterylife is normal. But when I put Hotmail Push - options ON , its heating very hot and battery is gone after 4-5h...

What is this ? Try to reset / re-add the account , no help. Also do hotmail account with microsoft exchange , no help again.

iCloud push is on (all but email and contacts) , everything is fine with that.

My iPad 3rd Gen is working fine with same accounts (iCloud and Hotmail) , battery last about 7-8days , no heating or other misbehaving. Its alltime in Wi-Fi . iPhone 5 is Wi-Fi when im home , outside its 3G.

I took my phone to the service , and now have the Nokia N51 and a same problem ! I guess that Microsoft has very bad problems with their servers or something... God dammit !

iPhone 4 iOS 5.1 Battery Drain ... Major progress for me