Q: iOS 6 iPhone 4s battery drain

I reset all my setting and let the phone run it course of restarting itself. Went back in and set things up to how I had them before and it seems to of helped. Unplugged at 8AM and its 12:15AM and I have 15% left. Average use with calls, text, Internet, Facebook & Instagram. So far so good for day one. It's weird because it just started draining more a few days ago and I've had iOS 6 since release.

I had a wonderful iPhone 4... that could run for days.

First, right after the update the battery life was about 1/4th of what it was before with iOS 5.1.1. when the battery lasted for 2-4 days without a recharge. And with iOS 6 it lasted less than a day....

So, the battery drain was really bad the first day after this update. And I thought this can be solved "normally" with just restarting the phone - maybe restoring - but it's getting worse and worse all the time!

I've tried the following solutions - None of these work:

1. Restarted the phone

2. Force restarted (with the home button also pressed)

3. Restored again, and again, and again....

4. Restored as a new phone

5. Deleted all the apps

6. Disabled Safari

7. Disabled push in mail to get new mail (Exchange and others also)

8. Disabled iCloud features, Passbook, etc.

9. Let the battery drain totally and then recharge

10. Shut down the phone after full recharge and still blugged in (& wait for 15 min & then booting)

11. Called my service provider... "We can't help you"

12. Called Apple... "You just have to wait for an update"

Well... I've just updated my phone from iOS 5 to iOS 6... And now I have an iPhone 4 that is broken.

The Phone dies in a couple of hours without any useage, making it close to unusable as a mobile phone - and basically useless as a "smart" mobile phone.

I also think my phone's battery will not last the wait and is going to break up for good because I have to recharge it all the time.

I've been using Apple products for over twenty years and never ever faced a problem like this.

This just makes me sad.

Hi alprunty,

It did work for my ipad2...thanks for the advise!

I upgraded to iOS6 and now I only can connect to home WiFi interrmittently, my Email sends WAY slower, and my battery is draining 3-4X as quickly.

I turned off ALL location services, have never used iCloud, GPS is disabled, "Cellular" is turned off...made no difference. I took all 417 Apps and all iTunes music off the phone...no improvement.

Called Apple - no real suggestions other than "we are aware."

Asked if I could returen to iOS5.1.1, and was told no. So I said I would just buy a new iPhone and NOT "upgrade" to iOS6, and would reload my Apps on the new iPhone 4s.

Was told Apple would "push" iOS6 to my iPhone4s, whether or not I wanted it.

Well, that was not true. I went out and bought another iPhone (with iOS5.1.1), did a "restore" via my computer, and all my Apps were on the phone...and I did NOT have iOS6 "pushed" at all.

Everything works perfectly, now.

I would not put iOS6 on my iPhone if you gave me 20 iPhone5's.

I miss Steve Jobs.

Hi SidneyPolk,

I had same problems with my 4s and was in contact with Apple and at the store many times. Finally I phoned in desperation and got a decent tech who arranged for me to get a new 4s in exchange. The new one came with 5.1.1 and works GREAT. Back to having a normal phone thank goodness. But my point would be that you shouldn't have had to buy a new phone....Apple should have replaced it for you. It's their goof and they should foot the bill.

After following this community for the past several weeks, and trying everything that everyone had mentioned with no success, I finally took my iPhone 4s into the Apple store last night.  I had pretty much turned everything off with the exception of my phone, email, and text messaging.  I did leave "find my phone" turned on through the iCloud settings afer seeing a lot of posts about turning off everything else under iCloud, which did make a small difference.  I was getting so frusrated with my phone since I normally got 16 hours of battery life prior to my upgrade to the new iOS 6 upgrade.   I basically hated my phone.  When I took it in to the Apple store, the guy wanted to verify that my battery was good, but was unable to verify since their network was down.  I knew my battery was fine, since I had no issues until I upgraded.  What he ended up doing was going into the Mail settings, went to fetch new data and turned off push, and set it to fetch my messages every 15 minutes.  What he told me was that with the 3G on the new iOS 6 operating system, it was constanting going and getting data.  That was one of the reasons my phone was hot all of the time.  So today was a big test, I unplugged my phone early this morning, and this evening, I still have 68% of my battery life left.  I hope this helps others.  So make sure you turn push off, and only fetch your email.  Good luck.

I got the solution!!!!

Turn off Fetch New Data all to manual

Settings>Mail, Contacs, Calendars>Fetch New Data>Push off (then down to Advance)>Adavance>Icloud/Exchange/mail>Manual

Enjoy your powerfull Phone

Thanks for all the tips......but, all the tips and tricks has been mentioned and repeated and repeated and repeated. It works for some user. The bottom line is, APPLE NEED TO FIX IT...

Exactly the solution I found for my phone.  Battery is performing as before installing iOS 6.  I trust that Apple will issue an update that corrects the problem.  Good company and they always correct the problems.

My iphone 4s is 3 days old :p and on ios6. Same problem. But THANKS to this thread, i read each n every one, and manage to solve my iphone 4s battery drain ( for now..hope it lasts..but i dont know about others..give it a try..)

Ive followed everything. Turned off navigations,ads, opt out of that auto advert thing (in one of the comment in this thread..u gotta read them all.i cant really recall which page..im sorry) , turned off push email, fetch MANUALLY, turn on icloud except for find iphone and avoid using safari. For now..until the bug is fixed..i hope.

Those helps. But not quite really significant. However, combining all that and doing this (from one of the thread in here as well ) :

CHARGE YOUR PHONE ALL THE WAY AND THEN TURN YOUR PHONE OFF WHILE STILL PLUGGED IN AND CHARGING.  LEAVE YOUR PHONE TURNED OFF FOR 15 minutes AND THEN TURN YOUR PHONE BACK ON AND THEN UNPLUG.  Before this my phone would get extremely hot when plugged in for only minutes and now the phone doesn't get hot anymore.  I've been using my phone non stop for 2 HOURS STRAIGHT AND HAVE A BATTERY LIFE OF 93% STILL. If you have any questions about this please contact me via r mail address medic24149@comcast.net

IT WORKED. I cant believe it. My phone now remains at 100% with its screen locked or in idle. I fetched few emails,opens twitter.. but battery remains, i am so thankful. Im not going to charge Tonight. And will give update on how my iphone 4s copes tomorrow.

I meant TURN OFF icloud except for find iphone and yes, turned off iclouds contact as well

My situation is similar to yours.  Updated to iOS 6 on 9/19 on my 4S and everything was great until overnight 9/30.  On 10/1 I noticed the battery drain issue.  I found this a bit strange and since it has persisted I started to look for solutions in this forum.  There are a lot of posts but your situation approximates mine.  Was in the local Apple Store on 10/19 with a friend who's considering an iPhone 5 and asked the rep about battery issues with the 4S and the 5.  He said he wasn't aware of any.  Told him of my issue and he suggested I make an appt. at the Genius Bar.  I doubt that will help.

Hi There, I had the same issue so I plugged y iPhone into my computer and reset to factory default. Although this still left me on IOS6.0 it seems to have removed the battery drain.  I have no ides what cleared the issue but it is now 21:27 pm and I have not charged today and I still have 53%. Some things I did change in settings are:

- turned off all system location services

- changed the email download to fetch every 15 mins

I hope it helps you guys too as it drove me crazy.

Thanks for all your help Apple NOT.

Ive spoken too soon. Like many others here who is trying to help updating progress...i thought mine is solved but unfortunately the draining level ticks like minus 1% every minute while in idle. Its driving me nuts. So i turned off the batt percentage. :((

I give up. Tried everything posted. Ill just keep on charging the phone then..untill apple come out with solution. This is hurting.but i have faith in apple products. I own a macbook pro and ipad2... Please dont let me down.. *cry*

Just to give an update on how crappy my battery drainage still continues to be. I'm at 15% and I have 4hrs 24mins usage, 12hrs 25mins standby. Disgusting! How bad is it for everyone else?