iOS 6 iPhone 4s battery drain

So, everytime let it run down (let it shut down by it self, then charge)?

Or only once a month, do that?

Well I hear ya. Except if it were an inherent issue with iOS everyone would most likely have the same issue. If in fact you have done all the steps did you by change restore a backup? That could put back any problems you resolved by restoring. Sure way to test is restore,setup as new and dont put your backup back immediately. Try is for a bit and see if the problem goes away or not. That will tell you if its a hardware or iOS issue if its in its native state. If it works add back you apps via sync with iTunes or download again and see if it continues to work. Seriously dont think its the iOS causing your issue. More likely a setting or rougue app causing it.

Would you happen to be using the same apps on iPad and iPhone? That could explain why they both have the same symptoms if there is a certain app causing it.

No not every time. Once a month or so. Apple actually recommends this but their version most seem to think means let it go to the 20% mark where the battery warning comes up. However a total drain then full up does wonders for calibrating what the software thinks the battery has and what the actual power the battery has. For instance you may see a 5% left and the device shuts off. Or it may show 1% and continue to run for a bit. This process gets the two in sync so the software is more in line with the true battery power. See the below article. Especially the end

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

sbaily4 says:
"Seriously dont think its the iOS causing your issue. More likely a setting or rougue app causing it. "

What Setting?

What Rogue App?

And if it were either of those, why would my battery usage go from "normal" to "15% of battery life per hour of standby" instantly after the upgrade to 6.1 rebooted itself?

6.1 is a huge pile of code.

Just because fewer than 100% of users are seeing the issue doesn't make it "not a 6.1 issue".

The only thing that changed on my device that day was 6.1. No settings. No new Apps. No change in my usage or behavior.

I have upgraded to iOS6.1 as well and notice the battery drain super fast!!

Just as you stated just because your issue appeared just after the update don't mean it is iOS 6.1 core either. So you are saying that it is not possible that perhaps there is some other issue? Maybe your particular device has a hardware issue? Maybe there is some setting or software corruption that occured during the update process to iOS 6.1? Stating that iOS 6.1 itself is broken and there is no other possibility is quite an asignine train of thought, Given the millions of iOS devices out there that are working fine with the same iOS 6.1 code. All this has been answered in the other thread. Interesting you come to these forums looking for help then refuse any possibility that there could be a resolution. DFU restore your device with fresh iOS 6.1 code and prove me wrong. Or return your device if you are convinced it will never work.

Don Louv wrote:

sbaily4 says:
"Seriously dont think its the iOS causing your issue. More likely a setting or rougue app causing it. "

What Setting?

What Rogue App?

And if it were either of those, why would my battery usage go from "normal" to "15% of battery life per hour of standby" instantly after the upgrade to 6.1 rebooted itself?

6.1 is a huge pile of code.

Just because fewer than 100% of users are seeing the issue doesn't make it "not a 6.1 issue".

The only thing that changed on my device that day was 6.1. No settings. No new Apps. No change in my usage or behavior.

Quoting sbaily4:

"Just as you stated just because your issue appeared just after the update don't mean it is iOS 6.1 core either. "

When only one thing changes, and then something breaks, there is a very high probability that That One Thing is probably the source of the failure. In my experience, of which I have some.

"So you are saying that it is not possible that perhaps there is some other issue?"

Nope, never said that. The world is full of infinite possibilities. Just in this case, I can't see any reason to point the finger anywhere except at 6.1. I find your adamant defense of 6.1 to be curious. Just as I strongly believe that 6.1 is the culprit, you seem to refuse to believe it could be broken in any way.

"Maybe your particular device has a hardware issue?"

Possible. But highly unlikely. My only data is the non-trivial number of people who are also posting their experience with high battery drain after taking the 6.1 update. I'm not alone; others are seeing the same issue after doing the same thing. Unless we all had simultaneous hardware failure, that seems like a red herring. Especially since nothing else is malfunctioning on the phone (for me anyway). It doesn't even seem sluggish, which leads me to think it is a background task running amok. To be clear, I'm guessing there. I'm looking for answers, I don't claim to have them.

"Maybe there is some setting or software corruption that occurred during the update process to iOS 6.1?"

Yes. But (see above) if the corruption is caused by the update process, then there is either a bug in 6.1 or a bug in the update code of 6.0.2. If there is a setting incompatibility with the 6.1 code, then that also is a failure in 6.1. Code should always be written to accommodate previously existing settings. Should be. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe that's the bug.

"Stating that iOS 6.1 itself is broken and there is no other possibility is quite an asignine train of thought, Given the millions of iOS devices out there that are working fine with the same iOS 6.1 code."

I think you just called me asinine. Well, you tried to, anyway. Very mature of you.

Millions are working fine? Did you count them yourself, or is that more supposition and guesswork? It's a serious question. What millions? Are you taking their lack of posting as an assumtion that all is well? Or are you statistically comparing the number of posters who say "Mine's OK" as compared to the number that say "Mine's Broken" and extrapolating out to millions?

"All this has been answered in the other thread. "

No, actually, all of the 'answers' I've found here (and in that other thread) so far are how to work around the problem. No mention has been made of the actual cause of the problem, or why it is happening, or anything that would be useful in understanding the problem. Yes, restoring will very likely get rid of the symptom, but not the bug. Hence the industry joke, when all else fails: "Just ask them to Re-install Windows"

"Interesting you come to these forums looking for help then refuse any possibility that there could be a resolution. DFU restore your device with fresh iOS 6.1 code and prove me wrong."

Your idea of a Resolution is different than mine. Yours is to make the problem disappear. (and you have well explained that) Mine is to understand the problem. You have not provided any help there.

Restoring my device will wipe out any chance of proving what the root cause actually is. Yes, eventually, if Apple fails to respond with a fix, or a statement, or any kind of official information, and if I fail to find helpful answers here on the forums, then I will restore. I am rather familiar with the "Restore" button in iTunes. I'd wager I used it long before you ever did.

"Or return your device if you are convinced it will never work."

At what point did I say I thought it would Never Work? That seems kinda like trying to get your money back on your car when it gets a flat tire. I'm trying to understand WHY this car's tire is flat. You are suggesting people drain their gas tanks, swap out all five wheels and tires, and then replace thir blinker fluid. Yup, that will definitely solve a flat tire.

I'm not saying your solutions won't work. I'm saying they don't answer the question. Maybe I'm the only one who cares about the root cause, and everyone else just wants their phone back, at whatever cost. Meh.

Update: Letting the iPhone 5 run own to 2% and then charging back up overnight has brought the battery life back to normal.

However, this did no work on the iPad it still has battery drain. Same programs and settings on both pieces of hardware.

I still think it is an iOS update issue. In addition, if fully draining the battery to recalibrate is necessary after update why doesn't Apple just say to do it in the update notes. I would have done on both iPhone and iPad and would only have complained about the iPad battery life in this thread.

If you have read anything I have posted I have given some explanations as to the "why" it could have happened. The reality is there are reasons that the upgrade could have caused corruption to the underlying OS, especially with OTA update. It happens. There is plenty of evidence supporting that. The other reality is lots of folks are running iOS 6.1 now that are not having issues or that have restored via iTunes and now are not having issues so that proves that iOS 6.1 itself does in fact work. So I suppose you and I will never see eye to eye and thats ok.

If others here read the info and try the solutions (read further they have and are reporting resolution to this issue) then I have accomplished my goal.

If you or others like yourself choose to not take the advice well thats ok too. You can have your theory and keep waiting for an Apple engineer to report to you the technical cause of a particular failed update if thats more what you are interested in.

Hi all,

As an example of other users outside of this thread, I spoke with a friend about his iPhone 4s a few weeks ago and I mentioned the battery issue to him, and he was very surprised to hear about that. His response was: "wow I didn't know about that but my own phone lost about half of its battery life after I upgraded to iOS 6 but I didn't realize it and put the 2 together".

So this may be happening to many more people that are simply unaware of the issue and don't report it.

Another person I mentioned this to, simply said he is used to charging his phone several times a day so he never looked into this.... (I don't want to have to do that however)

I am a very experienced hardware and software tech. I updated to 6.1 yesterday, and immediately began using battery at perhaps 3x the previous rate. The software has a bug, any other interpretation of the cause and effect is a waste of time. The sooner Apple has an awareness of the problem, the better.

I will downgrade my OS, and wait for the fix to be announced. The fact that "millions are working fine" is irrelevant. No software bug affects everyone using the software, in fact one would assume that the code was extensively tested before release. That does not change the fact that something is not right with it.

There is absolutely nothing unusual about my iPhone, or the apps on it. There may be lots of advice on here about a workaround, but the real answer is to remove the update until it is fixed. That's why every production software environment applies released patches in a temporary mode, ensuring no run-time errors before accepting the changes as permanent.

IOS 6.1 has bug.

Based on that logic, then there are more people outside of this thread, who doesn't experience the battery drain.

I have 30 users here at work using iphone 3 to iphone 5, only 2 or 3 users experience battery drains.

I have a question for those who have battery drain issues......

WHERE DO YOU LIVE????

I live in Los Angeles, I charged my phone last night, unplugged it and in the morning it was at 99%. I travel to New York City quite a bit and because of the nature of NYC i.e. TALL BUILDINGS my battery drains much quicker. I believe any phone in NY does this. In NYC I turn off locations and sometimes the LTE and of course it lasts much longer. I just deal with this as it seems to only hapen (to me) in NYC.

Trouble with these threads is we focus on the phone but maybe a lot of you are in NY. Move to LA!!! it's warmer 🙂 good luck.

PS I have had the same functionality with all the updates i.e. no less or more battery life - NYC has always been bad on any phone I've owned...

PPS if anyone has 'Notes' issues with syncing I figured that one out!!

ok

nmiexi wrote:

I am a very experienced hardware and software tech. I updated to 6.1 yesterday, and immediately began using battery at perhaps 3x the previous rate. The software has a bug, any other interpretation of the cause and effect is a waste of time. The sooner Apple has an awareness of the problem, the better.

I will downgrade my OS, and wait for the fix to be announced. The fact that "millions are working fine" is irrelevant. No software bug affects everyone using the software, in fact one would assume that the code was extensively tested before release. That does not change the fact that something is not right with it.

There is absolutely nothing unusual about my iPhone, or the apps on it. There may be lots of advice on here about a workaround, but the real answer is to remove the update until it is fixed. That's why every production software environment applies released patches in a temporary mode, ensuring no run-time errors before accepting the changes as permanent.

IOS 6.1 has bug.

Hi All,

I was a little more excited after I got to know from developers that iOS 6.1 shows real improvement in battery life. And for this reason I downloaded the update within first 30mins after it was made public. The initial few hours were OK but then my battery started draining like anything.

I charged my 4S overnight , removed the charging at 6:30 in the morning( I know the time because its my alarm time). When I finally got ready, I checked the battery percentage >>> 87% <<<< !!!!! Without even touching the phone

I went to usage ( General - > Usage ) , it showed Standby and usage time same 1hour 37mins. So statistics and the battery percentage was in coherence. But which process used my phone for those 1hour 37mins.

After reading so many issues about exchange , I thought may be its my exchange calendar. I turned it off, but it brought no change in the statistics. With each minute , percentage was dropping down and counters for usage and standby were increasing simultaneously .

A technical and figitive guy like me can't really concentrate even on my breakfast when something like this is happening to my phone. I tried to figure out what else can be the culprit, just went through some points/features which were updated by iOS6.1 in my mind.

I had "Limit AdTracking" ON and tried to switch it OFF and observed my phone for sometime. And guess what ...

The battery percentage stopped decreasing, stand by time started increasing as compared to usage.I switched my exchange calendar back with push selected. And after loosing 30% battery in the first hour of the day, I came back home with 40% .I felt like a winner !!

This 40% was when I had 3G off, push working, telephonic calls of around 1hour-2hours, a bit of social networking & iMessage.

I felt really happy with each minute passed without a drop in the battery percentage ! I think many of us here in the forum can understand, how it would have felt.

I am not really sure, if this will help others as well. Each device is different, each person has its own variety of way of using it. And no Software is perfect, a developer CANNOT make code which is 100% bug free. It is just a matter of fact, how many use cases one has covered while coding your OS.

Just felt like sharing this experience and found it relevant , so jotted it down here. Incase it helped anyone, will be good to know.

All the best...