[BUG] iOS 6 - BATTERY DRAIN : SIRI Raise to Speak/Proximity Sensor Always On/Flashing When Screen Active

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Level 1

5 points

[BUG] iOS 6 - BATTERY DRAIN : SIRI Raise to Speak/Proximity Sensor Always On/Flashing When Screen Active

Bug: Raise to Speak sensor for Siri remains on whenever the screen is active - regardless of Siri Raise to Speak Setting (enabled or disabled).

After updating to iOS 6 (via iTunes - not OTA), I noticed that my battery was taking quite a bit of a hit. Granted I was checking out the new features but aside from a very short call, nothing major in the way of activity.

I had also noticed that Siri sounded quite a bit different with iOS 6 (10A403) than with 5.1.1 (9B206). Not only did the Siri Voice change but also the responses vary between the two iOS versions.

Example: What is the weather like in Alaska?

iOS 5.1.1 response:

Here's the forecast for Juneau, Alaska through Monday

iOS 6.0 response:

Here's the weather for Juneau, AK through Monday (note: Siri does not say "Alaska", instead Siri says 'A-Kay'

With iOS 6, Siri sounds more robotic. After looking at speech rate settings and comparing between the two versions, I could find nothing different. I decided to post a video and this is where the Siri bug became interesting and tied into the battery drain with iOS 6.

Remember with 5.0.1 we saw a hit on battery drain and one of the fixes was a fix to the proximity sensor (http://hottipscentral.com/could-siri-be-hurting-iphone-4s-battery-this-little-li ght-might-mean-something/). Well, it appears this bug is back in iOS 6. When I went to do the video, I noticed that my 4s had a flashing light near the earpiece. It remained on continuously. The only time it would stop flashing was when the phone was locked and the screen inactive. As soon as I hit the lock button to bring the phone out of lock, the sensor would begin to flash again.

Give it a shot, hold up your iPhone to a webcam and see if your result is the same.

Submitting this to Apple via the feedback form. Please do the same if you are seeing the same behavior.

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

iPhone 4S, iOS 6, 64GB | Black

Posted on Sep 19, 2012 5:57 PM

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Answer 1

amy_lou

Level 4

1,576 points

Sep 19, 2012 6:07 PM in response to AWArea51

Is it possible your phone has any kind of damage like physical or liquid? because that can cause the proximity sensor to get loopy

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Answer 2

AWArea51 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 19, 2012 6:19 PM in response to amy_lou

I dont believe so Amy. Phone has not sustained any damaging drops nor any liquid spills. Was not an issue before but I figured I'd post as I believe this is a definite bug. I neglected to mention that I have my wife's 4s (5.0.1 build) which I am using as a comparison.

Based on the issues folks are reporting with the ambient light sensor, its either the proximity or the ambient light sensor causing the drain. I've turned auto brightness AND raise to speak both off and the sensor continues to flash as I described in my opening post.

If others can confirm, this will definitely need to be looked at by Apple and fixed.

I just found this - same behavior (posted 7/24/2012 on another forum - source link below).

Hi folks, remember the proximity sensor (always on bug) I reported here in iOS 6 Beta 1 bugs/feedback thread? It continues to happen in beta 3, I reported to Apple and the answer I got from them is that it behaves how it's intended to do

Thing is, when you turn Raise To Speak feature off, and use your webcam (no IR filter) to verify if it turned infrared proximity sensor off, results that it didn't. Since iOS 5 this bug has been present, power cycling, or doing a soft reset solves this issue but this solution does not apply in iOS 6. Don't have an idea on how hard it is on battery draining, but it makes no sense that this sensor stays on forever even when you turn this feature off. Unless it has to do with constantly display brightness adjust feature that we have noticed came with iOS 6 version. Doing some test of this feature (some of you commented about a brightness bug in earlier posts) I noticed that ambient light variations make that display brightness adjust accordingly to brighter or darker ambiences. Previous to iOS 6, the sensor samples the ambient light, and adjusts the brightness; it does this only once--each time you unlock the phone after waking it. Now in iOS 6 you can easily watch how brightness slider adjusts itself when display senses light variations. If you open Passbook app it raises brightness to full (it is supposed to act this way for easy reading of barcodes) but getting out of Passbook app makes that brightness readjusts itself responding to actual ambient light intensity (this adjusting task occurs slowly until brightness slider stops to right level).

I've checked and ambient light sensor and proximity sensor are separate and work differently but if Apple says that an always on proximity sensor in this iOS version is behaving how it is intended to do; all that I could think of is that it has to do with ambient light "sensing"??

Source: http://forums.imore.com/1894808-post55.html

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Answer 3

arabinow

Level 1

0 points

Sep 19, 2012 6:55 PM in response to AWArea51

I am seeing the same thing. Tried turning siri off.. restarting phone .. proximity sensor still flashes. I hope this doesn't drain battery too bad

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Answer 4

krswain

Level 1

0 points

Sep 19, 2012 6:56 PM in response to arabinow

I am also experiancing the same thing. In addition, I am having horible battery drain.

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Answer 5

AWArea51 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 19, 2012 7:10 PM in response to AWArea51

thanks for confirming 🙂

Dont forget to send a bug report -

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

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Answer 6

ahxcjb

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2012 5:47 AM in response to AWArea51

Guys -

I've just tested this on an iPhone 4S running iOS5.1.1 and the proximity sensor _does_ flash in exactly the same way and under the same test conditions that a 4S running iOS6 does.

There are clearly issues with battery life in iOS6, but this isn't the cause.

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Answer 7

AWArea51 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 20, 2012 5:54 AM in response to ahxcjb

Hate to disagree with you, but I've confirmed this using my wife's 4s which IS running 5.1.1 and my 4s running 6.0.

You are correct that both will flash in exactly the same way however as soon as you submit your siri call or lock the screen and then wake the 5.1.1, the sensor will stop flashing.

On 6, the sensor will flash whenever the screen is active - regardless of siri call or anything else. It just wants to flash away 😉

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Answer 8

ahxcjb

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2012 6:03 AM in response to AWArea51

Hi -

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ok, talk me through the steps needed to prove this.

Are you saying that the proximity sensor won't flash when the screen is locked but active on the 4S running iOS5 but WILL flash when the screen is locked and active on iOS6?

If so, i'll give that a try shortly.

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Answer 9

Cardey

Level 1

67 points

Sep 20, 2012 6:52 AM in response to AWArea51

Thanks for the information- I just submitted my bug report. I noticed after the upgrade that my screen was rather dim and had to manually change the brightness. It was also struggling with the App Store connection, popping up a dialog box saying it could not connect to the store when launched, but then still pulling updates. It also struggled with the updates of a few apps and verification step of the Facebook sign-in in General Settings. I have rebooted a couple of times, but I'm seeing marked battery drain and the phone has been heating up.

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Answer 10

ahxcjb

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2012 6:54 AM in response to AWArea51

> You are correct that both will flash in exactly the same way however as soon as you submit your siri

> call or lock the screen and then wake the 5.1.1, the sensor will stop flashing.

I have as 4S running iOS5 with me now, and I cannot replicate this. If I lock the screen, then wake the screen, the proximity sensor is active and flashing away. This is exactly the same behaviour as occurs on iOS6.

Walk me through a step by step of how to replicarte what you're seeing.

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Answer 11

KC7GNM

Level 4

2,920 points

Sep 20, 2012 8:51 AM in response to AWArea51

AWArea51 wrote:

Hate to disagree with you, but I've confirmed this using my wife's 4s which IS running 5.1.1 and my 4s running 6.0.

You are correct that both will flash in exactly the same way however as soon as you submit your siri call or lock the screen and then wake the 5.1.1, the sensor will stop flashing.

On 6, the sensor will flash whenever the screen is active - regardless of siri call or anything else. It just wants to flash away 😉

Sorry but it doesn't do that on my 4S. I can see it flashing when the screen is active but when I lock it the sensor stops flashing. I am running iOS6 on it as well. You may just have to do a reset or try to reinstall the software or you just may have a defective phone. You should also upgrade your wifes phone and see if it does the same thing.

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Answer 12

alsahan

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2012 9:12 AM in response to AWArea51

I am having an unbelievable battery drainage after updating to iOS6, hope it wont take long time from Apple to solve the issue

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Answer 13

Sep 20, 2012 10:44 AM in response to AWArea51

Ambient Light sensor not working on my iPhone 4S and my new iPad after updating to ios 6....maybe i should downgrade to ios 5 again...

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Answer 14

Nalb1221

Level 1

4 points

Sep 20, 2012 4:08 PM in response to AWArea51

I am having the same issue, my battery drains 1% every few minutes while the device is in use. I tried hard resets toggling Siri and raise to speak on and off with reboots between and nothing. It really ***** because my phone was running great on 5.1.1 and my battery was easily lasting all day. I know it's the sensor because when I'm not using the device the battery percentage holds while the device is sleeping. I check the sensor with my old 3GS's camera. I just did all this updating crap from a good stable ios to this cool but obviously less stable ios. Hope they fix this like now.

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Answer 15

Mauni

Level 1

0 points

Sep 21, 2012 5:31 AM in response to AWArea51

I'm having the same issue since updating to iOS 6 (OTA) I have noticed an increase in battery drain, my brightness seems to always increase despite manually bringing it down to about 20%.. Auto brightness is not consistent, and I've noticed that the IR sensor is always on despite turning off Raise to Speak, and even disabling Siri fully. (possible battery drain?) I've also tried to change raise to speak and do a hard restart (power + home button) and still no difference. It's always on, even if Siri is fully off! Any tips?

Thank you!

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