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

same here man..

I'm having the same problem. The proximity sensor is always on even after turning off "Raise to speak", completely disabling Siri, turning off auto brightness and doing a full restore.

Nothing will keep the sensor from flashing except for turning the screen off. This is an issue that needs to be addressed, this is draining the battery and I don't feel comfortable using my iPhone anymore knowing that the IR sensor is always on pointing at my face everyday.

I just submitted a report to apple, I hope more people notice this so we can be heard.

I had great standby life but as soon as using the phone it went to cr@p...

I didn't have a webcam handy but used the front camera on iPad to look at the proximity sensor on the front of my 4s when the phone was active/unlocked - I didn't have raise to speak or even Siri on but the sensor was alight as soon as screen went on. Anyway, I turned on Siri, turned on raise to speak then came out of the settings, went back in, switched off raise to speak then switched of Siri and came out. Rebooted the phone and the proximity sensor is now off when I look in the camera.

Gonna play with the phone for a while and see if the drain continues...

Wait you got it to turn off? I'm going to try what you tried in tat order. Hopefully I can get it off. My standby time is great my drain is happening when the screen is on because of tat sensor. If I get it off I'll post back.

I can't get it to turn off at all. But I noticed another thing. My sensor always being on, with siri on and raise to speak off, when I hold the home button and pull up Siri then cover the sensor with my hand or put it up to my ear the screen turns off and the raise to speak feature is activated. I think this is why the sensor never turns off. And I have yet to find a way around it. Can someone else try this and see if it's happening on you device too.

I am also experiencing the same problem with the proximity sensor on my 4S. Regardless of whether I turn off Siri or the raise to speak feature or even the auto-brightness and after doing a reboot several times the proximity sensor is still flashing when I look thorough a camera. This is really frustrating as I can't seem to find a way to get it to turn off!

I followed your instructions exactly but couldn't turn off the sensor. Are you completely sure yours is off? Maybe you tried seeing it with a camera with an IR filter or didn't notice it was still on. When I checked mine I thought it was finally off but it was still there, just had to look closer.

I covered the sensor with my finger while using Siri and the screen does turn off and back on when I remove it. I think this is acceptable because some people activate Siri with the home button and then put the phone next to their ear to speak, the screen must turn off to avoid accidental input .

What I don't find acceptable is the sensor being on all the time, even when Siri is not being used.

Check this interesting article and video from "ifixit" about the battery issue and the proximity sensor. It needs to be active all the time for Siri to activate when you raise the phone to your face.

http://hottipscentral.com/could-siri-be-hurting-iphone-4s-battery-this-little-li ght-might-mean-something/

So the flashing is sensor has to do with Siri, but I don't understand why it has to stay on even after fully disabling Siri.

Yeah that might be a bug, doesn't make much sense for it to stay on if Siri is disabled. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this. I don't have a major battery drain problem on my 4S and I do use Siri but I just disabled the raise to talk because I don't like it. I'd rather push the button when I want to use Siri. Maybe disabling the raise to talk feature would help some people.

Really did you not read all of these posts, the sensor problem has always been because of Siri. And it's definetly a bug in ios 6 because it didn't happen on iOS 5.x. It's obviously an issue that effects the 4s's because of Siri's raise to speak feature. Why hasn't one of apples people commented on this yet or at least confirmed that this is not an isolated problem and it is effecting all 4s's. My battery on standby is great it can last days, it's when I use the device which of course it drain when in use, but its drains more rapidly than it used to. In 10 mins of use it will drop 2-4% and that's just texting a little and checking the weather. I used to be able to use for 10mins and only lose 1%. Just yesterday my usage was 4hrs of usage and 1day 17hrs of standby and I still had 20% battery left. It's not horrible but it's been better. Apple should at least let people restore back to 5.1.1 it's ridiculous that they dont allow downgrading like that. We should be able to do what we want with our devices we spend a bunch of money to buy the devices and keep service on them and we can't even restore back to a more stable firmware, it's just ********. I'm surprised that iOS 6.0.1 hasn't been released in beta yet with all the battery issue and horrible maps debacle.

If I could just make this even more confusing... For a start i'm UK based with a 4s...

Anyway, always had great battery life when phone was active on the previous software. Updated to iOS6 on my iPhone 4s and whilst standby time was great, in use it was using about 1% every 3 minutes just with the screen on even in airplane mode (I seldom have things turned on like siri or location services, anyway). The performance issues were immediately after I downloaded the update (also on my iPad 3 - although my missus' iPhone 3 was fine).

Further to this I tried everything to sort it out; every restore possible.

The guys in California called me as they have a few on this post and ran software on the phone and we tried some troubleshooting, but they were unsure as to the cause but acknowledged it was odd and that there was similar feedback.

Fast forward to today where I went into my UK Apple store and was told there was no issue with the iOS upgrade and nobody else had mentioned battery issues (as a side note apparently the proximity sensor is often mistaken for the LED which is meant to be on all the time). However, they checked my battery and there was a degradation in it's capacity which they believed may have been because of the restore as it "strains" the battery; so they happily agreed to exchange the phone (free) as it was in warranty.

Walked out of the store with nice new phone in hand which they upgraded to iOS6 for me; hour later I realise it is draining exactly the same.

Enter store again, throw wobbly, request another new iPhone (supplied with 5.1.1) and for them not to upgrade it to 6, which they agree.

Walk out of store with iPhone, notice a couple of hours later, same drain.

I have now upgraded to iOS6 again - if it's going to drain, I may as well have the "top" operating system.

So, whilst you should probably get battery checked and may get a new phone on 5.1.1 (just tell them not to upgrade iOS / don't do it yourself), for some inexplicable reason even going back to 5.1.1 has not solved it for me.

I am thoroughly confused, although my battery performance was significantly better on my old phone pre-iOS6

iCloud / server issue?!?!?

I have had the same problem as everyone else but I've never had the "raise to speak" function on. The may sound strange, but as soon as I turned off location services for Passbook, the problem went away. Now my battery life is normal.

I've never posted on these things so don't yell at me if this is a stupid answer!

I was getting the same 'could not connect to App store' error. And my battery life is abysmal. Tried something that someone posted re turning off extraneous location services. Go to: General - Restrictions - Location Services - System Services (all the way at the bottom) - turn off "location based ads" Actually I turned off everything except Cell network search, and so far going on an hour it hasnt dropped more than 1% crossing fingers!!!