Why "Home & Lock Screen" consume more than 20% battery life in iOS 8.3?

Ronbo111,

I had a similar problem with an earlier version of iOS and the remedy was to allow the phone to drain to just a few percent, turn off location services and background app refresh and then let the phone discharge until it shut itself down. After leaving it for a few minutes, charge it back to 100% and then turn location services and background app refresh back on. In my case the battery went right back to normal but a few people needed to do this more than once.

Letting the battery drain until the iPhone shuts itself down performs a reset that can't be done any other way, at least that's what I was told by an Apple second tier advisor. I let it sit dead for about five minutes before recharging.

Good luck.

I just found this article: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-fix-battery-drain-issues-on-your-ipho ne-following-a-software-update/. Hope it helps.

That's a good article. I'll bookmark it.

Update: we did the full drain / reset / battery calibration. No joy. Phone still drains from 100% to zero in 24 hours, without any phone calls. Primary battery drain is Home and Lock Screen. Few apps installed, all extras disabled. Also discovered that the phone is not under Applecare, so we may be SOL. Phone is about 18 months old and has seen only mild usage. I have been using iPhones since they first existed, am in the mobile industry, and I can objectively say that I have never observed this before on other OS changes.; this behavior commenced exactly with 8.1.

Most users would be thrilled if the battery lasted 24 hours. I have no idea whether mine will or not, because I charge it overnight, every night. I suggest you do the same. And enable iCloud backup, because it will back up the phone automatically every night, if it is connected to power and WiFi.

I think key points are being missed here.

Most users use their iPhone as phones. This phone battery drains in 24 hours while the phone is not being used. I cannot remember the last time a phone call was made on this phone, the few apps on it use minimal resources, and overnight it is kept in airplane mode. During the day it is on the mobile network, but most of the time the phone is just sitting there with no activity. No background apps, no push notifications, etc. Prior to the most recent OS upgrade the battery typically lasted 5 days.

Appreciate the suggestion about iCloud backup but we do not use it as that will impact battery life.

Apple ran diagnostics at an Apple store yesterday. Battery 98% capacity. Discharge history curves show nearly straight lines from full charge to discharged; no cliffs or other unusual activity. Apple concluded there is nothing wrong with the phone. I concluded the opposite: that the straight lines show that there are no activities discharging the phone, i.e. it is the OS itself. The Apple tech also said that 24 hr is normal. Despite my pointing out that a) this phone is almost never used as a phone, b) it is not normal for this phone, and c) Apple's web site says the battery life of this phone is "up to 10 days." So it's "up to 10 days" when you read about it on the web site before you buy the phone, and then it's "up to 24 hours" after you buy the phone.

Prior to the OS upgrade, the battery typically lasted 5 days between charges. Since the OS upgrade, the battery now discharges in 1 day. Furthermore, prior to the OS upgrade, the phone settings were more resource-intensive; all reasonable extras/apps/settings have since been disabled to minimize power usage.

Explanations:

1. My wife and I are both hallucinating. Prior to the OS upgrade the battery life was actually 1 day as it is now, not the 5 days we remember. Another case of alien abduction and implanting false memories.
2. The current OS uses much more power than previous versions, in background mode.

Typical battery life of other users is not relevant. Different phones have different apps, settings, and usage so they cannot be compared on an even footing. The relevant issue is why the battery life of this phone suddenly changed.

If I have the time, I might run a test in which I wipe the phone, reinstall the OS, and test the battery life with the phone in airplane mode and no apps running. It would be interesting to see if a phone with no apps, no activity, no network, and 98% battery capacity can reach 98% of Apples 10-day claim. However, I do have other demands on my time than debugging Apple's hardware, for which I paid $600 (unlocked) with the odd expectation that it would work for more than 18 months.

Ronbo111 wrote:

Appreciate the suggestion about iCloud backup but we do not use it as that will impact battery life.

Not true. iCloud backup ONLY happens when the phone is connected to power, so it has no affect at all on battery life. And you still haven't answered why don't you leave it plugged in overnight?

Most of your assumptions are simply wrong. Most users do NOT use it for phone calls. They use it for calendar, notes, games, email, messaging, etc. Phone calls are rare for most users, which is why carriers offer unlimited calling plans. They know this. And most users get far less than 24 hours.

Putting the phone in Airplane mode can increase battery consumption, because the background apps that you cannot keep from running will keep trying to access data and fail, and the fact that they are doing this will drain the battery.

A phone that is connected to the mobile network uses considerable power, even when idle. It frequently "pings" the network to report its location, so the network can find it for incoming calls. If the signal is weak this can be a significant battery drain. And if the network disappears entirely battery consumption goes way up, as the phone keeps trying to reconnect.

The "up to 10 days" is on Standby, with nothing at all running. That means Location Services turned off, iCloud turned off (both of these defeat Find my iPhone), No notifications for any apps are enabled, no background app processing enabled.

BTW, I have never heard of any iPhone (or any other smart phone) that went 5 days between charges. Your experience is unique.

If the battery lasts a day, why are you so concerned about it? How much more do you need? And, as I've said several times, what's wrong with plugging it in overnight?

Ronbo111,

Look for an OS X app called CoconutBattery, It has a function that can provide information on any connected iOS devices. Take a screenshot and post it here, look up-topic for some examples.

If you're not using your phone much and only activate it to view your remaining battery life, then naturally the Home/Lock Screen will show the highest usage. Percentage is relative, not absolute. If all you do tap the home button to activate the screen to check the battery percentage, then Home/Lock Screen will have a disproportionally high usage. It makes more sense to look at the next highest offenders too. Also setting the phone's Auto-Lock time to 1 or 2 minutes could make a difference.

The 5 days figure, that was with the phone turned off, right? At its peak my 5s would get 24 hours to 50% with minimal usage but with WiFi and cell radios running.

When you say:

Few apps installed, all extras disabled.

Do you mean:

Notifications

Location Services

Background Refresh

Automatic Downloads

Are all disabled?

If you have any of those items turned on, then they will function and they will consume battery. Have you gone to Settings>Privacy>Location Services>and set all of the apps listed there to either "Never" or "While Using"? I rarely use my phone for very much, but I do have Weather, for example, set to "Always" in Location Services. It uses some battery.

Also, click on System Services in that same window, and make sure that anything you don't need turned on there is turned off. Routing and Traffic is one in particular that can use a lot of battery, but there are several others that you simply may not need to have constantly pinging away. I have "Location-based Alerts" and "Location-based iAds", "Share My Location", "Spotlight Suggestions", "Popular Near Me" and "Routing & Traffic" all turned off.

What about Mail? Is is IMAP or Push? If it is IMAP, the it is going to use some battery.

Not sure what model phone you have, but both my iPhone 4 (running iOS 7.1.2) and my iPhone 5s (running 8.4.1) use their batteries at about the same rate. I usually have to charge them every 2-3 days. The 5s was set up from a backup of my iPhone 4, so they basically have exactly the same setup. So, I'm not seeing any difference between the battery life based on the iOS.

Hope you are able to find out what is working in the background and using your battery.

Best of luck,

GB

i have everything dezactivated, even parallax and notification and is the same at , 20-30 percent bateri, the phone stop

cozmin84 wrote:

i have everything dezactivated, even parallax and notification and is the same at , 20-30 percent bateri, the phone stop

That usually means that your battery is failing or has failed. It has nothing to do with the subject of this thread.

I have found that my issue with the Home & Lock Screen usage being high and draining my battery was related to the Auto-Lock Settings.

If the phone is never locked or even let's say locked at every 5 minutes...that means my phone screen/display is on or "lit" all the time or for 5 minutes after every time you use the phone to check a message or take a call thus draining the battery. And this seems to mean why my Home & Lock Screen battery usages reflects usage of 50% or higher at times.

My fix was to change the lock to 2 minutes and then the phone/screen is no longer lit and draining the battery.

I have read in this thread that airplane mode is an option, but why would I want to do that and not get my notifications/calls until I take airplane off? (maybe I am misinterpreting some of the information)

Hope this helps.

You are correct - if you have the Lock screen set to Never or to a high number of minutes, then it will consume more battery. Also, if you are using dynamic wallpaper, then that is also going to use more battery than static wallpaper would.

And remember, the percentage of battery used is relative to the overall battery usage.

Cheers,

GB

Out of interest, what is your Auto-Lock setting ?

Settings \ General \ Auto-Lock

I had this "Home and Lock screen" battery issue, and it was caused by my "Auto-Lock" setting being set to "Never".... so the screen never turned off !!

It's worth checking if this is the cause of your battery issue...

Mike

Can you provide the information on how to get to these?