Battery draining 4s after iOS 9.1 update

The real shame is your not accepting the fact that whatever the problem is, it is a problem with YOUR PHONE, not with any particular version of iOS. If it was caused by some version of iOS I would expect my 4S to have the same problem that you describe, and it does not. And you would see thousands of posts from other 4S owners. If you aren't willing to accept the fact that the problem is specific to you there is no chance of ever getting it resolved.

After all I've decided to test the most labor-intensive way and re-deploy iOS from scratch (restore the device from iTunes with IPFW).

And when my apps downloading was finished I've noticed that the battery draining has disappeared.

I have no idea on what an app was the culprit of this (the bunch of my apps is the same), but it worked.

So my recommendation - give it a try (as a last resort of nothing helped before).

But please bear in mind - you'd backup your apps settings only but not the apps themselves (else there's serious risk of legacy bugs).

@Lawrence Finch

Seriously? The problem - or shame - is I am too dumb for not accepting the problem is from me or my device?

In a way you're right...

As I am still ****** I am not allowed to downgrade to iOS7 (it's not a technical issue, it's a political issue), every new update that make my 4s more obsolete is experienced as a betrayal. And as I must not post anything after 2 glasses of wine, my post was bitter than it was supposed to be. Please accept my apologies.

...but just in a narrow way.

How many people do you need to consider the problem? Despite your low-level moral lesson, your analysis is clearly wrong. Basically you write: "My devices have successfully been upgraded to 9.1, so if someone have a problem with 9.1 he/she must have done something wrong, or his/her device is the problem!"

Wow, we have got an absolute expert over there: "Monsieur" Finch is in da house!

In this thread, some people have experienced the same problem. After the update, there is a "signicative" number of 4s which encounter battery draining. Their only fault is to have followed the Apple recommendations for upgrading from 9.0.2 to 9.1 (= read or not the terms an click on "Accept"). Maybe some tricks will be helpful, but we wouldn't have to find some tricks after a normal update. Let me sum it up for you with your own words:

"If you aren't willing to accept the fact that the problem is not specific to you there is no chance of ever getting it resolved."

PS: please excuse my poor english.

Read the message right above yours. If doing a Restore fixes the problem, how can you still say that 9.1 is the cause? A Restore just reinstalls 9.1.

Perhaps my happiness was too premature..

I'm still able to use my iPhone (Usage statistics from the Settings) for about 6.5-7 hours max (till the power off). Though background battery drain really looks better than before the restore.

My wife's 5c (which officially has less battery capacity than 5s) works for about 8 hrs. Surely one can argue "it depends on how intensively you'll use it".

And I can assure you - she normally use it much more actively than me (a lot of social networks, youtube and browsing) and it lasts for about 8 hrs!

So, all in all, there's still something strange with the latest builds in connection to specific devices (Lawrence, I'm sincerely glad you don't have these issues but to be honest - there're different A-models across the different regions so there're some differences probably).

So, my last resort has been broken... Now I'm eagerly looking forward for a new updates (fingers crossed).

Something that worked for my device: still 65% battery after 22h.

- Backup your iPhone with iTunes (choose the encrypted backup)

- Archive your backup: pref/devices/right clic on the backup and archive.

- Restore tour iPhone as a new phone

- Wait for the iCloud syncing (maybe this step can be avoided, I did it to check if my iPhone had still the problem), my iCloud account saves the Keychain.

- Restore your backup

As the problem seems odd, I hope this procedure will help with the concerned devices.

I dont use face Book and am having same problems as other users.

As a matter of fact, I switched my battery for one sold new on the market for $42.00

and found that the problem of batttery drain persist. Now it´s worst because I did not

get an original procuct. Foolish decision cauused by my ignorance? Yes! However,

I must admit this page has opened my eyes. Wish I had investigated earlier. Please

look into this and solve the problem. I am sure you can do it.

I have iphone 6 plus which could work for 2 days without recharge. After 9.1 update battery is emty in ~12h and phone always hot like I'm playing some games on it.

At last I've recovered my original battery life.

It's a bit strange but the iOS 9.1 triggered something in the background updates for one or more of my apps.

I've disabled Background updates to all of them and first of all I've noticed significantly increased autonomy (from 6.5-7 to 7.5-8 hrs). Then I've re-enabled some of essential apps which are really requiring that kind of activities in background and everything looks still ok in terms of battery life.

But the most interesting part of this story - why before the iOS 9.0.2/9.1 it was ok and then changed so seriously (and even forced me to Restore my device and spent a lot of time for investigation). Furthermore - there wasn't any hint in the Battery statistics on who was the culprit. Probably, something on the system level but who knows...

OK, today I left home with my phone fully charged. Used Waze on my 40-minute drive in, then quit all apps in the background, switched my ringer off, and put my phone in my handbag. Taught a 3-hour class, then led a 1-hour meeting, looked once at my phone toward the end and it was at 57%.

Taught another 3-hour class, left work, pulled out my phone (for only the second time, remember!) and it was so drained it wouldn't even switch on.

From 57%, to 0%, in 3 hours sitting in my bag with the ringer off.

I have almost no apps other than phone and messages that are allowed to send me alerts on my lock screen. Background updating of apps is turned off. Wifi signal and 4G in my classroom are both strong.

I just looked at my stats and in the past 24 hours, they are

Home & Lock screen - 52%

Waze - 41%

Mail (background activity) - 7%

In the last 7 days, they are

Home & Lock screen (18 min on screen) - 25%

Candy Crush (1.2 hours on screen) - 19%

Words (1.4 hours on screen) - 18%

Waze (49 min screen - 3 min background) - 17%

Mail (7 min screen - 29 min background) - 10%

Messages (19 min screen ) - 3%

So, I ask you: what the heck? Seriously, 18 minutes of screen time on my home/lock screen eats more time than 1.2 hours of Candy Crush?

So I called Apple today. They had me restore the phone from my iCloud backup....

Last update.

I tried without success:

1 restore the device via iTunes or iClouds

2 restore the device as a new one, install only my iCloud account and parameters and restore my backup

3 desactivate the background update

4 =2 minus restore backup

5 =3 + 4... is the least bad solution

The first 50% of battery life seems OK, but the last 50% are amazing. I took time to notice: unlock= 50%, 1min of mail: 46%, 3min phone call: 35%, open the music app 26%... in less than 5 min my battery comes from 50% to 26%

But I have noticed in my battery report that my usage time is clearly overrated. For example: after a complete charge: if I check my mail for 1min then lock the phone, 5 hours later I will have 2H of usage and 3H of standby.

@Nicolas: Exactly the same problem here. Usage time is increasing much even in standby-mode, battery life less than half it was before the update. Tried everything too without success.

I called Apple and they told me it's a hardware problem – my battery has to be changed. The answer to my question why this "hardware" problem occured exactly after the IOS-update was: The battery was already broken before the update, but the old OS wasn't as "demanding" as the new one concerning the hardware – so the broken battery went unnoticed before.

Doesn't sound very convincing and I'm pretty annoyed. Not sure if I'm going to buy an iPhone again...

@thetzger

A friend has a different battery problem than my 4s, but she has an iPhone 5. It switch off even she has 25% battery left. Her iPhone has been changed by Apple 6 month ago. She didn't have any problem with 9.0.2.

I read there are some other problems (touch ID...), so I am waiting for 9.1.1 or 9.2.

I would not be surprised to read in the log files of the next update that it improves some battery issues which affect "some" iPhones.

Same here. 5c worked superfine with iOS 9.0. Then - iOS 9.1 on for quite some days - the battery drainage suddenly started while the phone was plugged-in in my car. Phone practically unusable since. Phone gets quite hot and battery lasts for 4h max. Tried everything. No power killing apps onboard. Very unlikely to be a HW issue, smells like a 9.2 bug for me. Spend a lot of money for the phone 3 years ago, if it won't be fixed with 9,2 i might have to switch to android.