Q: iOS 6 iPhone 4s battery drain

I too have the problem since the os 6 update. My wife had no problems I have tried iPhone 4 and 4s with my backup restore and same problem. I trouble shoot it to the wifi with it off no problem so now I'm turning everything off but this will take days turning one thing on at a time maybe a fresh install and loading one app at a time unless of course the problem exist in a fresh install. This is a real pain I hope apple does something. My conclusion is a combination of new update with certain phones or settings related to the wifi.

I nuked it and started fresh as a new device. Did not improve my misrable battery life. I am a very light user who on iOS 5 routinely finished a day at 11PM with 80-85%. Now with iOS 6 and all of the same modest settings, I'm lucky to be at 35%.  The clean sweep and new device teatment does not work.

I have posted 4 times now and I have good news.  My 32GB iPhone 4 battery life is now good. 

My problem was battery would go dead in 4 hours with no use (standby) - and the phone was hot.  I want to emphasize the description of this problem because many posters have much longer battery life and they do not mention about the phone being hot.

I will attempt to describe in a followable way what I did including the history.

On Sept 23 I upgraded to iOS 6 from iTunes and did the recommended backup to PC first.

After the upgrade my phone died without use after a few hours.

After a couple days of fighting with it I reset the iPhone -Settings>General>reset>Erase all Content and settings

After the reset I chose backup from iCloud.  Once restored I still had the same battery drain issue and still the phone got warm. 

I called Apple Support.  He explained it could be the hardware (typical response) and suggested I do a restore as new iPhone from iTunes and do not restore the backup - leave it blank.  So I did.

Battery life was great.  I reinstalled apps and email and monitored it for 3 days.  Battery usage was good to normal.

I schedued a call back from Apple support because I wanted to share my findings with them and also to see if i could get my data back on the phone.  I talked to them and as I told them the story I included that I noticed many posts in this forum.  At that point we were disconnected - I dont know why - but he had a call back number for me and I expected he would call me.  He did not.

I was tired of waiting so I decided to try another restore and put my Sept 23 backup onto the iPhone using iTunes and my original backup. 

I followed the advice of one poster - they said remove any exchange type email accounts and re-add them later.

I did as he recommended since it is easy to resync email on exchange.  It has been 24 hours and my phone is working good with normal to better battery life.

All I can recommend to others with this is to try a few restores if the first does not work.  I have no other explanation other than I did the process several times - so don't give up, try it again.

All my contacts, texts and app data is restored as per my Sept 23 backup and phone is working great - no issues with auto dimming, no issues with facebook, no issues with email, life is near normal.

I would like to hear if this works for anyone esle.

Cheers.

I posted before and did not mention the phone being warm both the 4 and 4s. As I mentioned my wife's iPhone 4 no problem. I set all my settings as hers and it appears to have solved the problem however as I am a heavier use I have about 19 more apps without any notifications Including Facebook and mail. The other ones are not as important, due to the fact this is a bug I wonder if it hit or miss no matter what we try it's a big pain and I hope apple gets on top of it.

I have experienced about 10% decrease difference in battery life overall since installing iOS 6. None of this dramatic decrease that everyone thinks they are having. I have given my 4S to my wife. But I monitor her phone, she pays little attention to it. I purchased the 5 and it was chewing up battery life. Ow using the assistive touch feature to save the home button. I switched that of, performance reset and then turned on the assistivle ltouch again and all is fine after I turned on the assistive touch. 

For the 4S users I suggest shutting down all apps that are open, double click the home button.. press and hold on the apps until they wiggle and then tap the minus signs on the apps, this does NOT delete the apps. Then do a hardrest on the phone, I'm sure you all know that by now, please say yes. Leave it off for a few minutes and restart it. I think that will take are of this problem.

My perspective is this is a user error and is easily fixed.

Frogs

Halo, Im facing the same problem too. But, if i restore without back up, is there mean my phone contact will be lost too?

Okay Folks, an update:

I had reported earlier that a clean restore and setting as a new phone helps with the battery drain. However,I had noticed that even left on its own, without any usage at all, the timer for the usage time would go up, and the battery would be warm and drain.

Here is what i realised: Somehow, icloud keeps trying backing up in the background all the time. I looked into the icloud tab and found that the spinning wheel was going on continuously and no date for the last back up. I also  noted that my backup size is totally out of order (massive).

Here is what i have done:

1. Delete the back up you have in i cloud (yes, delete, and do not worry, your calendar, contacts, reminder and mail will not be affected). However be careful with your i work documents.

2. This should delete all the apps data stored in the cloud trying to reconcile with your phone.

3. Restore as a new phone (from the phone reset---> erase, or from i tunes).

4. Pain of reinstalling apps can be minimised through itunes.

5. Follow any personalised settings you need or any optimisation.

Voila...I now have a very happy iPhone 4s and the battery drain has been very reasonable with no battery warmth.

My only explanation is that your old data (mainly app data) is trying to reconcile with the new installation under ios6 and somehow there is a conflict. I guess we all updated without wiping off the old icloud backup.

May be witchcrafty or voodoo, but it worked for me....

To everyone experienceing the battery drain. I have the 4s and updated to to ios 6. I use only email and facebook. Its an Apple Issue. Enough with the myriad of "tricks" that us users have to go through in attempts to remedy the situation. APPLE FIX YOUR PROBLEM. Or maybe they should change the company name to Applesoft..

Tried all suggestions, nothing helped. However, after turning OFF  all iCloud items, the battery life is much much better. Even though, the battery life is lower than when I had ios5, at least it's not dying without even using the phone.

Did not read all the posts but It seems people are bending over backeards to solve the problem on their own. Here's what worked for me and the stats to go with it. Yesterday battery lost 10% an hour like clockwork. last night turned off location services and re-booted. Charged overnight to 100%. Off charger at 7:15. 2:45 later the phone is at 97%. It seems to have really helped. I just hope it lasts

Mine appears genuinely fixed, without disabling any features of iOS6.

As a side note, i turned on "Limit ad tracking" in General -> About -> Advertising.  It didn't help the battery but since all here are also new to iOS6 the option might help save battery by limiting ad tracking.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/29/6-cool-little-features-you-didnt-know-ios-6-ha d/

What seemed to really fix it for me was:

1. Closing all background apps.  I'm used to android having all kinds of stuff running in background eating battery.  I was hoping iOS didn't go that route, letting background apps consume rampantly.  Not the case so far, but apps that were left running in iOS5 after the upgrade may have been causing issue.  After closing them all, I seem to be able to let iOS6 manage them again fine.

This will lose your WiFi passwords, and "open states" of any apps, but at least you wont' lose saved data like user created docs and might be worth a try.

I was losing 10% an hour early yesterday, prior to these things.  Yesterday seemed better but this morning I've been unplugged for 3 hours so far and am at 94% with light use, and can go back to not worrying what's open in the background.  I agree apple should fix it but doing a zero day upgrade I don't mind fiddling a little.  I agree Apple needs to look hard at what happened to fix it for others that expect 6.1 to have learned and fix this, hopefully sooner than later.  I understand this can't fix everyone because those with the new iPhone shouldn't have had any apps open from before the upgrade, unless they restored their old backup data and then re-upgraded.

@TripleAught: Those suggestions are not "tricks." they are power saving suggestions. Would you consider turning off lights in rooms not being used, turning down the thermostat, closing windows in the winter, etc. "tricks" to overcome deficiencies of the power company?

This is a user help forum and I personally find these useful (even though I don't have a battery "problem"). Rants and conspiracy theories are not particularly useful.

@G3gator - I agree. 

I was just going to thank TXPamIAm for posting the tweaks from another thread. 

I was used to just letting iOS5 run with everything on all the time, but regardless of Apple fixing the power usage of the default settings, which they should relatively soon with a 6.1 if they want to keep the same image of quality, being a new OS, with so much more going on, with iOS6 I appreciate being reminded to look at some of the options available to us to run things as lean as possible.  I don't want to waste power or bandwidth on features I'm not using anyway.

I imagine those with power issues that still need to fixed will also appreciating reviewing the power and performance options they're choosing, to run a little leaner if desired.  Once apple addresses the usage of the defaults, spending a few minutes to refine your options will only improve it more.

@TripleAught - I get your point.  You applied an official Apple update and don't expect it to require all you're going through to fix.  I wouldn't either, but Apple is the only company I'd trust downloading things the first day.  I still would.  If I was conservative I'd wait until 6.1, but I get it.  It should have been better.  Given your feelings I really recommend going to an Apple Store and letting them know what iOS6 did to your phone.  I'd be surprised if they left you on your own or didn't adjust your settings for you, without Applecare givin the situation, but I could be wrong.  I think now mine's OK but if yours isn't, I know it's more work but at least talking to someone from Apple is an option.  If they tell you you're on your own without any help, please let us know.

One thing I noticed was that my power dropped preciptously while browsing the web on my 4S using Safari or any Safari-based bookmark on my home screen like Yahoo mail. I downloaded Chrome and added in my bookmarks, which I had to do manually because there is no way that I know to transfer them from Safari to another app in iOS. What I noticed was that my battery barely budged in Chrome--dropping maybe 1% every 10-15 minutes. Just to be sure I wasn't hallucinating, I tried the same surfing in Safari and noticed the power drop by 1% every 2 minutes. So my plan for now is to use Chrome until Apple gets iOS 6.0.1 on the street. Safari is easier and allows be to print and add things to home screen, but I can live without it at a small inconvenience until Apple issues the update.

I'm looking for real answers to the battery drain on my iPhone 5, 4 AND 3 ever since the ios 6 update.  On the 5, after recalibrating my battery, shutting everything off all these forums are telling me to shut off, I lost 50% on STANDBY in 8 hours.  On my 4, I lost 91% of my battery in the same 8 hours on standby.  On my 3? Well, I couldn't even turn it on, it was DEAD.  (In case you want to know, I keep my previous phones for use as an "Ipod" at the Gym, for storing movies music, etc., so my new 5 is free to store new things.)

I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO SHUT OFF THESE ITEMS in order to get a "FIX".  That is not a FIX.  That's a bandaid and keeps me from using my phone the way I USED  to use my 4 before getting the 5 and before the ios 6 update.  I'm a very very very social butterfly and avid websurfer, textmessager and my 4, with the ios5 version, I could be on my phone all day long and not even use 50%. 

APPLE? Are you paying attention? FIX THIS PLEASE.