Q: iOS 6 iPhone 4s battery drain

The indicator is not a problem. The problem is some process/app/whatever that runs in the background and that can't be turned off. Several things indicate this: 1) the phone is warm even in stand by mode 2) battery usage shows that the phone never/almost never reach standby.

I think it is remarkable that Apple does not even know what's going on. It's been 4-5 days since the update was released! I was hoping for a quick bug fix, but the best seems to be to send the phone to the repair center.. Not that they will be able to repair it...

You could be right!

My 4S was at 83% before a golf tournament when I left home yesterday morning. Seems to charge slower, but not sure. In the afternoon, I compared with another 4S on IOS 5 and he was at 75%, but started the day at 100% with overnight charge. I forgot to do the overnight, but did last night. Today seems much better, althoug nearing 50% at noon. I do listen to audiobooks in my car to and from work and it charges quickly in my car (or did before). Today I didn't plug it into my car to test how long it goes without charge. I did listen the abook for 15 minute without plugging in and did have a longer phone call and some reminders today. Siri is off as are most of the cool network functions. Auto-brightness is off too as a number of people seem to think that may be the culprit. Never seemd to work for me much before anyways, so maybe Apple did something to make it work better, but the constant checking of lite conditions may be draining the battery. I am loath to completely reset to new, but that is my next step if your idea isn't the fix. First time I've heard that idea in probably 300 post reads. It makes sense with what I did yesterday for the golf day. At this time yesterday, at golf out in a rural area, I was around 25% and am 50% now. Of course, things are quite different on a rural golf course and in my urban office.

Let's hope!

(I wonder if any of the battery reader apps read the battery themselves or just use Apple's numbers? I will check that.)

Also...great to hear Kelly Moller!

agreed, but at least we know that it is being worked on.  My concern was whether or not we all were just wasting time by posting here.  I do not expect a quick fix, but as i type both my ipad (which i have not expereinced any isues with after the update) and my iphone just restared all on their own..???  Anway, hopefuly this will be resolved soon.  And for any that are just starting on this thread, it does not seem that ANY of the offered options for a fix here consistantly work and my discussions with the Apple rep more or less confirmed this.  I have tried everything offered here EXCEPT for a "restorre" and setting up as a new phone, to no avail and many have tried the other 2 options and that has not fixed the problem.  I am really trying to avoid a complete restore as that involves far too much time on resetting and updating things and it does not seem to be a guaranteed success anyway.

You aren't grasping my words Kelly. They probably are not working on this, dont hold your breath. Many have had this problem since ios 5, so what, about 6+ months and no fix. Apple wont even admit to me that theres a problem when I inquire. I eventually gave up and am waiting out my contract. The best part is, ever since ios 6 my phone echos like crazy when I make a call. I can listen to music, youtube all day long, but the instant I get on a call it is echo city. With and without headphones. Im going to have to use annoying bluetooth headset just I can use my phone as a phone. Pathetic. My phones been in a waterproof case almost since day 1 so it has not been damaged in any way. The echo came with the ios update.

Same problem!!!!

Maybe or maybe not but why even bother to have anyone call me solely based on my comments here?  Unfortunately I don't expect a solution as quickly as we all want and we should not be in this situation in the first place but hopefully the ghost of Steve Jobs can jump in and help get this taken care of quickly.

See the test I did:

With the phone in idle, open the iphone configuration utility to see the console log. Then I connected the iPhone (via USB), unlocked iphone, connected on wireless, and open a site.

Some interesting things:

- Several errors (Could not stat / private / var / mobile / Library / WebKit / localStorage / StorageTracker.db: No such file or directory)

- There are several entries in the log level DEBUG, ie final version still running in DEBUG MODE??

See the rest of the log:

Sep 25 15:06:42 RodGGui-iPhone com.apple.misd[378] <Notice>: allowing special port forwarding for test fixtures

Sep 25 15:06:42 RodGGui-iPhone profiled[377] <Notice>: (Note ) profiled: Service starting...

Sep 25 15:06:42 RodGGui-iPhone profiled[377] <Notice>: (Note ) profiled: Recomputing passcode requirement message

Sep 25 15:06:49 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Warning>: Preferences[299]: Could not stat /private/var/mobile/Library/WebKit/LocalStorage/StorageTracker.db: No such file or directory

Sep 25 15:07:01 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[381] Builtin profile: container (sandbox)

Sep 25 15:07:01 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[381] Container: /private/var/mobile/Applications/7529F081-0405-4339-9849-2AAECE0C17A6 (sandbox)

Sep 25 15:07:01 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Warning>: CoreAnimation: updates deferred for too long

Sep 25 15:07:02 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Warning>: CoreAnimation: timed out fence 24ef3

Sep 25 15:07:02 RodGGui-iPhone Chrome[381] <Warning>: CoreAnimation: failed to receive fence reply: 10004003

Sep 25 15:07:09 RodGGui-iPhone kbd[57] <Warning>: -[TIXPCDataTransport _handleForPurpose:withReplyBlock:] couldn't get data source for purpose=__TIRDTAB

Sep 25 15:07:15 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[384] Builtin profile: PasteBoard (sandbox)

Sep 25 15:07:42 RodGGui-iPhone profiled[377] <Notice>: (Note ) profiled: Idled.

Sep 25 15:07:42 RodGGui-iPhone profiled[377] <Notice>: (Note ) profiled: Service stopping.

Sep 25 15:08:04 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: 005957.983769 wlan.A[1019] AppleBCMWLANNetManager::checkRealTimeTraffic():  now 5957.983761708 num entries 4

Sep 25 15:09:17 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Notice>: ALS: SetDisplayFactor: factor=0.0500

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Notice>: ALS: SetDisplayFactor: factor=0.0000

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Notice>: Posting 'com.apple.iokit.hid.displayStatus' notifyState=0

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Notice>: MultitouchHID: detection mode: 3->255

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: ALS: AppleARMBacklight::setBacklightEnableGated 0 (set level to 0x1f7)

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: AppleMultitouchN1SPI: updating power statistics

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone profiled[386] <Notice>: (Note ) profiled: Service starting...

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone profiled[386] <Notice>: (Note ) profiled: Recomputing passcode requirement message

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Warning>: Chrome[381]: Could not stat /private/var/mobile/Applications/7529F081-0405-4339-9849-2AAECE0C17A6/tmp/etilq s_nAlPFyBXdemxpt0: No such file or directory

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Warning>: Chrome[381]: Could not stat /private/var/mobile/Applications/7529F081-0405-4339-9849-2AAECE0C17A6/tmp/etilq s_7VEMMhAvhs6JwiM: No such file or directory

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone backboardd[52] <Warning>: Chrome[381]: Could not stat /private/var/mobile/Applications/7529F081-0405-4339-9849-2AAECE0C17A6/tmp/etilq s_G7xXnZONIySy5IX: No such file or directory

Sep 25 15:09:32 RodGGui-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: ALS: AppleARMBacklight::handleMessageGated - framebufferState -> 0

I decided to try the full battery drain method, but when it quickly got to 1% remaining it didn't die, and it's been over an hour. I've text and had a couple phone conversations as well. I'm starting to believe that it's a battery indicator bug where it's not corretly displaying battery remaining time.

This might also explain why my car's radio touch screen has been ocassionaly showing a red battery (indicating very low charge left) when I connect it via bluetooth and USB (which simultaniouly provideds charging) and my 4S indicates it has sufficiant charge (80%+/-). I never saw this red indicator prior with iOS 5 (the indicator was right).

I'll report back after it finally shuts off.

Count me in on this problem. 

I got my 4S at launch and upgraded as son as iOS 6 was available.  I wanted a few days to see if the battery drain was my imagination.  After the uopdate, I'm often below 90% battery with light usage in less then an hour.  My battery used to be good for 2 days and now i'm seeing 20% after an 8 hour day.

So, just to add my 2 cents.

Went to apple store yesterday.  Their diagnosis said my phone was always on...they gave me a new 4s and assured me it would fix the problem.

It didn't.

Battery still drains in 3-4 hours, and the phone is too warm to put in my pocket.

This tell me, a layman, that there is a software issue that they need to address.

I have tried everything that has been posted here, to no avail.

One of my employees has a 4s with ios6 with no problems, so clearly one of my programs is causing the problem.

Not using facebook/twitter, etc.  wifi off, shut down safari, etc.

Nothing works.

I have FIXED my issue which was the same experience as soooo many!!  After the upgrade to iOS 6, I had to recharge multiple times per day or just keep it plugged in.  Rapid loss of battery and the phone was always very warm so obviously processing something constantly.  I had shut down just about everything on the phone I could find to shut down.  So, here is what I found to be my problem and maybe is a common issue with everyone:

I found my Calendar was in a constant loop, trying to connect/update my schedule.  Now, I connect to an Exchange Server at my work for my email and shared calendar!  I realized my calendar was not working correctly as it did not have the data for my schedule.  It showed a dot indicating I had something booked for that day but would not display any of the data related to that appointment.  I TURN THE CALENDAR OFF and problem gone!!!

My battery percentage stayed around 100 % even after multiple phone conversations, checking email, etc and 4 - 5 hours of use.  So as a test I went back in and turned on my Calendar, guess what I could start watching the level drop.  Also, observed some really glitchey stuff happening as well. 

It's unfortunate that I don't have my calendar available on my iPhone right now and have to write notes to remind myself of appointments but at least one major issue has been solved.  I hope this turns out to be of help for the rest of you as well......OH, by the way I did go back in and start turning the Location Services and other things back on with no further issues with the battery!  GOOD LUCK!

I don't have time to read ALL the comments but I just wanted to add.....

My phone seems to be constantly searching for a signal now, which may be why my battery is draining at a high rate of speed since the update.  I'm with Sprint.  Any thoughts on that being a possibility?

After I updated it to iOS 6, I charged the battery and unpluged the phone from power cable after battery indicator reached to 100%. I noticed that the battery drained so fast from battery indicator than before.  Also I noticed that I charged the battery (connected to power cable or computer), the battery indicator could show 100% in one hour.  Normally, it might take couple hours to have battery fully charged. So, I ignored the battery indicator (even though it reached to 100%) and charged it over night.  It works like before now.

it might be the battery indicator that doesn't correctly display.

How do you do this???