iPhone 3GS iOS 6 and poor battery life

Same here......I got a 4s three weeks ago, and the battery life was wonderful, but since upgrading to iOS 6, the battery life is terrible. I've reset the phone to factory settings, have disabled most of the things that I really don't need, yet the battery is draining at a rate of 1% every 3 mins, and the phone also feels warm?

Reset and reboot did nothing for me.

Location services is apparently milking the batt, two interesting reads...

http://appletoolbox.com/2012/07/how-to-optimize-battery-life-of-your-iphone-ipad -and-ipod/

http://tabletcrunch.com/2012/09/25/fix-ios-6-issues/

i've done all of these and will see if my phone lasts overnight when it finishes charging for the third time today. It makes no sense if it's being cained in Airplane Mode though, thought that rendered all external access and processing obsolete??

Keep your eyes on this similar thread too: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4350842?tstart=0

Sorry I can't offer a solution, but I'd like to join you and also add that all of a sudden last night mine also started acting very oddly with battery life and feels warmer to touch, even though no apps are running. I've literally watched the battery drop by 2% every other minute WHILST IN AIRPLANE MODE. Very concerned... :^S Charged it THREE TIMES TODAY and I've not used it any differently than normal. Three calls, few texts, bi-hourly email checks. NO GAMES or FACEBOOK. Only happened a day after IOS6 upgrade.

So, I did all rests, reinstalls and turned off all location settings, charged it (took 3-4 hours) from flat FOR THE THIRD TIME, left it in airplane mode. Woke up about 7 hours later. TOTALLY DEAD. Ordering a replacement battery just in case, but I really don't understand this. :^<

got back from america. put my english sim back in, it did the update and deleted all my contacts, and now the battery life is around half a day.

get to around 28% and turns intself off, then I have to charge it like it has competely shut down.

Is there any way of getting rid of the new update?

hi hello i am using Iphone 3Gs, after upgrading this to ios6 i found my batttery life is poor.

whether any software update will be released by apple for this issue to be resolved.

for info: when i was using IOS 5.0.1 the battery life of Iphone 3Gs was superb. but now its totally bad.

i would be thankful if apple software team address this issue.

regards

suresh

Having same issue for last several months since upgrading to ios 6 - low battery life and loss all phone contacts even though I backed everything up to itunes. Turned off Cellular Data and 3gs and that seemed to help decrease battery drain until upgrading to the latest ios 6 fix. Now cell phone battery lasts longer but the phone keeps powering off by itself when playing games, surfing internet when in Safari, or just trying to access emails that have web links/graphics. Battery indicator looks fine. Only way to turn phone back on is to plug it into a power outlet. While plugged into a power outlet, I can play games, surf internet, etc without the phone shutting off. Sometimes when phone shuts off like that the back of phone gets really hot but not always. It has become a real pain. I am paying for data but cannot use it when out and about for fear that my phone will "die" and I cannot turn it on again to get phone calls/text just b/c I did a Around Me search or some other Cellular Data heavy activity. I haven't read that anyone is having this problem except the battery life issue.

I love my 3gs and don't really need all the enhancements that come with the 4 or 5 but it seems I am going to have to shell out $$$ to upgrade to 5 (don't want to have the antenna probs with the 4) unless I can find a fix asap. Has anyone done what some other forum site contributors recommended? Resetting to factory defaults after backing up phone or to new device mode? This is my last recourse I fear before throwing it out. Unfortunately cannot go back to ios 5.1 since most apps will not run properly except on ios 6.

Guys,

We have the same issues on "poor battery health" on iPhone which I'll be giving you the general status for all iPhones:

iPhone 3GS - affected and charged power only last over night (12 hours approximately)

iPhone 4 - not affected

iPhone 4G - not affected

iPhone 4S - affected and charged power only last over night (18 hours approximately)

iPhone 5 - not affected

I'm currently evaluating the iPad models.

Note: These results were based on my own and first-hand experiences and observations. Try installing "Batter Doctor" app so you can track your charging habit. The only solution to this issue is to wait for the final iOS 6.1 which hopefully solve this issue. By the way I'm currently using iOS 6.1 beta 3 and noticed a good improvement on the battery health.

Cheers.

Richard

Happy to hear some good news.. hopefully our battery issues with 3GS will be resolved soon.

My phone just goes off in between and i can see some black vertical lines on the phone. This happens even though the battery percentage is above 90%.

I've been having similar difficulties with my iPhone 3gs battery as well. Ever since I installed iOS 6, I have been experiencing lots of problems. Here is a brief summary of the issues that I hope can be fixed with future iOS updates...

1. Rapid battery drain to 0% and crashing

- This is the worst of my problems. The phone's battery will drain completely from 100% down to zero when I run certain applications. It happens so frequently that I no longer use several apps. It won't crash when I have the phone PLUGGED IN at any time, however if I have it unplugged it becomes volatile and unstable. The apps I have noticed which cause the rapid power drain to zero are: any type of game app, music streaming apps, the camera, maps and any application that requires a constant wireless connection to function. I found turning on the Airplane Mode does help somewhat to prevent crashes but it is by no means fail safe.

2. Battery life

- Even when it doesn't crash completely, the battery also doesn't last as long as it did on the previous iOS. The phone also seems to crash more frequently after its power percentage drops bellow about 60%.

3. Unable to sync or backup

- When I attempt to back up my iPhone in iTunes (or with iCloud) it always shows an error message and I can no longer backup my phone.

4. Unable to revert back to a previous iOS

- I attempted to roll back iOS 6 to iOS 5 a few times but was unsuccessful. Apparently this is impossible to do.

Has anyone been able to find a quick fix to this problem recently since the original post? I guess one solution would be to buy one of those external battery packs and have it plugged in whenever you head out. Though it's obviously not the most convenient option.

How about replacing the old battery with a new one?

I too have been experiencing trouble with my IPhone 3GS. :(

1. When charging, it will skip sometimes from like 70% to 100%

2. My IPhone switches itself off (crashes) at around 67% of battery life when in use.

I too myself have tried to manually restore, TWICE and still nothing worked. At first I thought it was because of an App I could have downloaded but it can't be. For some strange reason I put it on charge and it was stuck at the screen where it tells you that it needs charging. (Red almost empty battery)

Hopefully an update comes out, quick!

Mine is not so brutal as some have decribed, but I have experienced a significantly faster battery drain on my 3GS. I'm currently using 6.0, and I do not dare to update to 6.0.2 because I'm not sure if the condition will be worsened. Hope that 6.1 can come out soon to resolve the problem.

After my 3GS upgraded to 6.0 I also noticed a quick battery drain, so I had my battery replaced. Apparently a waste of money.

Much to my dismay, the battery drain continued. After about 3 hours normal use (no games, movies, etc.) and even when on standby, the phone switches off at 70% charged battery (last week it started at 50%, but it worsened). Also, you can fry an egg on the back of the phone, that hot it is.

When I charge the phone, I see a vague picture of a battery with a red line. This lasts about 4 minutes, when suddenly my phone comes to life, restarts, and shows battery charge of 73%. Yes, the 5 times this happened: EXACTLY 73%. In about 30 minutes (!!!) it is fully charged, until.....the whole sequence starts all over again.

But not only the battery charge is a problem.

It is impossible to use my GPS apps, because 80% of the time my 3GS cannot locate the satellites. Often my route suddenly ends up next to the road, or instructs me to turn left, right, 180° around, right, left, all within a minute. I lost my way several times. This happens when plugged in, so WITH power. I have 2 GPS apps that worked fine pre-iOS 6, but both react the same, proving it's not the GPS apps.

I see absolutely ZERO reaction from Apple on this issue.

Don't they care, are they asleep, or are they stupid that they don't know how to respond to this?

APPLE, WAKE UP.....you are bound to lose loyal users to the 50+ other smart phone choices on the market!!!

I demand some customer service having been a loyal Apple user since 1983: the Lisa was my 1st.

Thanks Bathfun for initiating this discussion. I thought there is only issue with my handset, but looks like many people face this issue

My battery wont last more than 12 hrs.

Even at night, when phone idle, it gets drained by ~15 to 20%

Whenever I use the GPS the battery drains 1% per minute, and phone becomes excessively hot.

It has become impossible for me to use apps

Can apple suggest some soultions for this?