Q: Iphone 5s battery drains fast after ios 7.1 update.

Thanks Nathan,

I have tried most of your suggestions do a degree but there are two things that really confuse me.

1, I have wiped my iPhone and started using it as if it was a new phone, as in no backup and no apps apart from the pre installed Apple apps. I then compared the battery drain with my wife's phone and it was still the same. Which brings me to my second point-

2, My wife has the same phone and hers is ok.

It's very weird and annoying.

What I was told (the first time I called about the problem), was that it was happening on "some" 5S devices, and not all; hence the reason the person at Apple told me I could continue replacing it (I have AppleCare) until it's fixed or wait for a software update.

I bought a Mophie.

Finally this is more logical than keep restoring and adding as new device

I had a battery cover too but still with the cover it hold for 6 h

Anyone know when is the new update ?

Same exact problem here too. Currently have an iPhone 5s and the battery life is beyond ridiculous. I have tried to contact apple support and have disabled all the options and even stopped using internet from service provider over 3G. Have restored to factory setting twice but my battery does not last more than 4 hours which before upgrade used to last more than 24 hours. I had bought my phone in US and came to India now I cannot even get support in India. Hope apple fixes the bug with the code or the only option left is throw this phone and move the Samsung S5.

Hope apple is going to fix the issue and release a fix soon as this is almost a month or more now and lot of users seem to be facing the problem.

I have the same issue, but i notice that the baterry makes his own heat (maybe my iphone is really alive), then it start to errase contacts and the lose of wifi network on some games in multiplayer mode. Maybe its just me but it was a relly frustrating. Some later on the iphone start to show different carrier information and then i decide it was time.

I restore the iphone as from a backup from computer a later before the IOS Update 7.1 and it start to work better the battery dont drain to much, just the normal and the information keeps the same, also the games on multiplayer now seems to work well I hope this could fix the problem.

I have appointment on saturday. And I will replece the phone because of battery. iPhone 5S is the worst iPhone I ever have.

Well that makes me a bit happier. I can handle it for a while as long as there is a fix in the pipeline.

I've certainly had enough of restarting, reinstalling and fiddling with all the settings.

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

The short version

Ran the battery down completely then plugged it in, using a genuine Apple wall charger. Charged it up without interruption and the problem is solved.

I honestly can't believe my nightmare is over, I've been suffering for weeks.

Be great if this works for everyone, I feel for you.

Well iBobUK I will be trying that tonight. I did run it down and charge it up with the official chargers but I was using it at the time. Tonight I will put it in Airplane mode run it down then charge it without using it and see how it goes. Watch this space!

I did a restore of 7.1 and my back up. That already helped a lot on my iPhone 5s's battery life. I also deleted the facebook app 48 hours ago. Before my last two sleeping periods, I charged the phone to full and killed all apps. The charge droppedby 3% and 2% until I woke up. That is nice. Although at daytime I still experience a quicker discharge than before.

I'm in the same boat.  Battery life is horrible.  Did the restore with no luck.  Clearly a software issue with 7.1.  Hope it's fixed sooner than later.  Also noticed that my 5S doesn't always connect to my in-car bluetooth since the 7.1 update.

Same, my iphone 5s only max 3hrs with heavy use. It was not like that before 7.1. Tried everything human can possibly done. No results. Apple please fix this, this is frustating, thought apple was the most reliable for phone. 2 minutes 1 percent. Anybody worse?

Yup add me to the list.

The best thing I did was a hard reset. My battery actually when instantly up afterwards.

Also, Settings, Privacy, location services, System services at the bottom,

Turned off:

iAds

Diag and Usage

Traffic,

Popular near me

Frequent Locations.

These seemed to help as well.

I found this :

I often see many misconceptions about iPhone batteries, and Li-ion batteries in general, so I thought I'd write a mini-guide to address this issue.

iPhones have Lithium ion batteries. All Li-ion batteries have a limited life span, ie a finite number of charge cycles that they can undergo before becoming useless. The number of cycles you can achieve is determined in part by how you treat the battery.

The two biggest enemies of Li-ion batteries are heat and over-voltage charging. The latter is mainly taken care of by charger design (ie trickle charging and cutoffs).

Heat is a bigger problem. Batteries get hot when they are charging. Heat is also related to the other big reducer of Li-ion battery lifespan: Deep charge cycles.

Li-ion batteries function optimally and have the longest lifespan when discharged to around 60-80% then charged to full. Full (or deep) discharges* reduce the lifespan of the battery. Full discharges are bad due to intrinsic chemistry (small permanent changes inside the battery reduce its life) and also recharging from a low charge will inevitably heat (causing more permanent chemical changes) the battery more than shorter, more frequent charges.

Often people recommend infrequently fully discharging Li-ion batteries and sometimes even report better life after such treatment. This treatment of batteries is a legacy of times when Ni-Cad batteries were the predominant type and the subsequent conflation with Li-ion technology.

The apparent 'improvement' results only from the recalibration of the electronic gauge used to display the remaining battery percentage. Directly gauging a battery's current level of charge is not actually possible. The percentage shown is an average 'expected' value based on previous uses of the battery after being monitored by software for a period of time. If the calibrated values become inaccurate the battery gauge will also be inaccurate. A full discharge will recalibrate the software gauge, often resulting in more accurate battery-level readings. This in no way affects the battery at all. All that happens is the software is more accurate at reporting the estimate charge remaining. You will get no more performance from your batter by doing a full charge even if it appears to be so (actually, by doing a full discharge, you have reduced the lifespan of your battery by a tiny amount). Apple actually recommends infrequent full discharges. My guess is that they see this as a trade off; they know they are reducing the battery life by some tiny amount, but also receive far fewer customer support complaints due to poorly calibrated battery gauges being perceived as faulty devices.

* For the purposes of this guide a 'full discharge' is defined as reaching around 5-10%. For Li-ion batteries a 'full discharge' is not truly a complete discharge. Li-ion batteries have a cutoff within the battery to prevent complete discharge. If a Li-ion battery is completely discharged it can not be recharged. So when your device containing a Li-ion battery reports the battery is empty this is the cutoff coming into play and preventing permanent damage to the battery.

TL;DR

DO: Charge frequently. Small, frequent charges are best. Charge your battery first if you are going to leave it unplugged for an extended period. Charge your battery in a cool spot.

DO NOT: Let your battery get hot. Fully discharge your battery. Let your battery sit at low charge for extended periods. Believe the lie that full discharges improve battery lifespan.

Also on my experienced, when connected to wifi you should turn off your 3G/4G. Even connected to wifi the 3G still on and that's draining your battery. After switching to 2G i got more power. At 76% battery my 5s lasts for 2 hours 32 minutes usage and 16 hours 38 standby since last full charging.