Battery life much worst on iOS 6?

digitalDCH wrote:

@appleteam6 - people are saying that it is an IOS 6 bug because the problem is not tied to just new iPhone 5's. I can personally attest that the battery drain problem appeared immediately after an upgrade to IOS6 on both a 4S and a 3GS...which means it is a software bug, not a hardware problem.

People are suggesting a complete DFU reinstall as a new phone as a way to get a clean install of IOS 6 to see if that helps solve the issue. Again, I can attest that for me personally it solved the problem completely for a few days on a 4S but then the issue reappeared. The fact that the issue came back after a DFU reinstall, along with the fact that it is appearing on many brand new iPhone 5's that theoretically had a clean IOS 6 install to begin with, suggests that the underlying problem is indeed a complicated bug rather than just an upgrade from IOS 5 that didn't go perfectly...

But if it is specifically an iOS 6 bug how do you explain all of these threads about iOS 5?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3391947?tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3484755?tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3481668?tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3518760?tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2755090?tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3507356?tstart=30

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3482083?tstart=60

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3492588?tstart=60

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3397244?tstart=90

Or older versions than iOS 5:

Battery Meter/Life Problems with 4.0.2

4.0.2 guzzling my battery. Your's too?

4.0.1 battery life

Battery runs out very quicky in iOS 4.0.1

Battery nearly nonexistant after 4.0 upgrade

Dead battery after few hours on standby using 4.0 software

3.1.3 battery problem

OS 3.1.3 battery issues

3.1.3 upgrade - shortened battery life?

Battery life cut after 3.1.3 update on iPhone 3G

3.1.3 Firmware is a battery killer - how do I back out this upgrade?

Poor battery life with iPhone 3G running 3.1.2

3.1.2 EXTREME battery drain - what gives?

3.1 Battery nightmare

iPhone 3GS with fw 3.1 – battery life gets even worse

Battery Issues with 3.0.1

BATTERY drain with 3.0

upgrade to 3.0 drains my battery

Battery Drain after Update 2.2.1

Battery Life Radically Decreased after 2.2.1 Firmware Update

Pretty easily actually...if you go through all those threads that you posted, it looks like many of them are related to new IOS updates being pushed out. Clearly those releases (like the current IOS 6 release) introduced bugs that caused *some* people to experience faster battery drain.

As with all of those situations, I fully expect Apple to release a patch that addresses the underlying bug(s) and puts our battery usage back to normal. Hopefully that patch comes sooner rather than later...

But Apple never did release a patch for any of those, except the 5.0.1 patch. That's the one that got over a million views and 15,000 posts, and that DID affect most phones. 6.0 is not affecting that many. My battery life with 6.0 is much better than it was with 5.x, for example. All of the other battery drain issues were fixed by users on their own using posted troubleshooting suggestions, some of which are in this thread and been successful.

Anyone who wants to wait and hope that Apple will decide there is a broad problem and release a patch for it is more than welcome to, but hope is not a strategy and I suspect it will be a long wait.

Not sure what you suggesting Lawrence...

My post that appeared to initially set you off was simply responding to another poster who was questioning why so many people thought a software restore would solve what he clearly thought was a hardware issue with the iPhone 5. I was trying to clarify that while there very well may be a hardware issue with the batteries in some iPhone 5's, I can absolutely attest to the fact that there is a software bug introduced by IOS 6 that causes the battery life to drop significantly on 4S's and 3GS's.

If you read my original posts, I have already tried many of the suggested fixes included in this thread, up to and including the most drastic suggestion which was a full restore from DFU mode. As I noted, that solved the problem for me initially, but clearly did not solve the underlying problem as the issue reappeared after several days (which I believed would be good information for the many viewers of this thread as well as any Apple employees who may be reviewing this thread along with a similar much longer one).

If you've got any other magic suggestions beyond waiting for a 6.01 patch, I'd be more than happy to hear them

My post wasn't directed specifically at you, but was also an answer to anyone thinking it is hardware (it isn't) and anyone thinking it is a problem with 6.0 specifically (it isn't).

I've already posted solutions hundreds of times over 5 years, because sudden battery drain has happened randomly back to the beginning of iPhone time, 27 June 2007. And the solutions I've posted aren't mine specifically; they are the accumulated wisdom of many users.

Sudden increased battery drain on iPhones happens randomly. Sometimes immediately after an update, but also between updates. As the incidents between updates don't all get posted in the same few days they are easy to overlook, but they are just as common as battery drain right after an update.

Here's what I said about it a couple of weeks ago in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4313585?answerId=19700312022#19700312022

Any sudden change in battery life is either a defective battery (which is rare) or some app on the phone getting stuck in a loop, usually trying to send data and failing. If you identify that app you can stop the battery drain. Sometimes you can also stop it by running the battery all the way down until the phone shuts off, then charge with the wall charger for 4 hours. The battery shutdown terminates all processes, so the stuck process is killed, and is the only way to kill system processes (terminating them in the Recently Used ribbon does not terminate background processes of built in applications like Mail, and does not kill system requests to send data that are stuck).

Most likely culprit is MS Exchange email accounts, including gmail if it is set up as Exchange Push. It's a long standing bug in Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol that will allow connections to the server from the phone to accumulate, all of them trying to send data, but the Exchange server ignoring all but one of them. The only way out if running the battery down doesn't solve it is to delete the Exchange account, reboot the phone, and add the account back. then wait until it resyncs before measuring battery drain (this will take a few minutes to a few hours depending on connection speed and database sizes for mail, contacts, calendar and notes).

iCloud has a similar problem to MS Exchange, and I've seen some posts in this and other threads that deleting the iCloud account fixes it, and it remains fixed after adding it back. I haven't had a problem with iCloud, but I don't use it much. I HAVE had a problem with Exchange from time to time.

Any social networking app can get stuck; facebook seems the worst offender. Beyond that it's either detective work, or chuck it all and just restore the phone as New (as some people in this thread have reported success with, at least temporarily). If this fixes it for a while until you add apps or accounts back then it should be clear that it is one of the apps.

The one other consideration is that perhaps your battery life is normal based on your usage. This clearly is not the case if you've been using it for a while with no problems, and problems suddenly appear, but if the iPhone is new to you and all you've had is a dumb phone before it is rather shocking to find that you have to charge it daily. But that is life with any smart phone; daily recharging is pretty much necessary.

Finally, as to why it is reported more often right after an update - Some may be coincidence, because it can happen at any time and with 250 million iPhones in use there will be coincidences. But I also think that the update process itself is at fault. During the update the phone interrupts running applications, terminating them without giving them time to clean up. When they restart they may not be aware of iOS system requests that they had initiated, so those requests keep retrying. This is purely a guess, but an educated one from almost 40 years of working with Unix, which is the underlying operating system in iOS.

i completely agree, that said it proves the point i was trying to make to other people, thx, lets all hold out for the next patch!!! thx dude

I'm sure there are lots of reasons for this particular battery draining behaviour to occur, but I found one that I'll share. I upgraded to ios 6 soon after it came out and all was fine until this weekend, when my battery started to drain incredibly rapidly, lasting only a few hours. This seems to agree with what most have been saying. I noticed that my new iPad also seemed to be draining the battery faster too, but this was less obvious.

I tried almost everything on here. At one point, any network related activity that I could find (location services, wifi, bluetooth, cellular data) was disabled, yet no change. Eventually I remembered that on Saturday I'd discovered that I could get the new podcast app to sync my podcasts using my apple ID and turned this on. When I turned it off, battery back to normal. Similarly, the slightly faster drain on my iPad seems to have gone too.

yeah i definetly think its a mix of a new battery design, and iso 6 has fb intergraded in it, so its using a **** of alot more juice than predacessers, turning all that crap off did it for me, i get 2 days a charge w everything shut off, notification, ect, and i stilll surf the net a little, always have my wi fi off. driving down 1 block your phone can try and join up to 20 internet locations just using juice when u move about town, so turn wi fi off unless your right there using it!!!!!!!!!!!

After upgrading to ios 6 on my iphone 4, My phone ran hot to touch and battery lasted for 3-4 hrs only. Today i restored the phone software and it appears ( at this early stage) to be working correctly again.

Hey guys, please read this topic I opened, it could solve your issue if you're using 6.0.1 at least until Apple fixes this in the next iOS:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4522112?tstart=0

no issues for me on my iphone 4s with ios 6, on use 3days and without use all settings off 5 days.

plain and simple, it *****

What your image shows is within spec for the phone.

It's not even lasting a working day, never mind a calendar day.

I don't use LTE, skype, youtube, video apps, graphically intensive games or even make that many phone calls (1 on that day). Email push is off and there is virtually nothing in the notifcations center other than the core apps.

And as for the 'spec', here is your spec

• Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G
• Standby time: Up to 225 hours
• Internet use: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 8 hours on LTE, up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 10 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 40 hours

Not even close

I finally surrendered to the fact that my phone needs to be charged around 3-5 PM every day and bought a fantastic case called Third Rail. I can carry an extra charge in my holster and just snap it on when I need it. I don't always have my ZaggSparq with me, so this is working out very well and I'm no longer stressing about battery life.

http://www.thirdrailmobility.com/

Regards,

Rob