Apple is aware of battery life problem on 4s and iphone 4

xrayeyes · Nov 22, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
What's still a bit of a stumper to me - someone remind me how this could be -- if it's all a software issue - how come people with iPhone 4 on iOS 5.0.1 aren't having battery issues?

I have an iPhone4 and while I can't swear to it, it seems that my battery life decreased with iOS5. But, I just got my phone in June and I've been playing around with settings constantly. I have done some tweaks that have definitely helped my battery life recently though.

I turn off data when at work, since I have a low cell signal. I have bluetooth off. I don't fetch or push e-mails...set to manual. I have minimal locations on. I have ALL System Services location settings OFF. I have data roaming off. I make sure I close out applications regularly since I have noticed that the ones that I do have location services enabled on seem to run down the battery and increase my usage even when they are running in the background. Diagnostic and Usage is set to "don't send".

I don't do any gaming on my phone and I don't watch videos, so I realize that helps my battery life too.

This morning I was at 26% with 6 hours of usage and 32 hours of standby.

Daca · Nov 22, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
Yes, sir! That's your only choice with that problematic phone. Expect some push back from the Apple or Carrier (AT&T, etc) rep. They're getting impatient with all the returns. And they'll tell you a fix is coming. BUT tell them that your phone is one of the 'really bad ones' that with even everything turned off it still drops 10% an hour or whatever.

And then when you do get your new one - don't expect miracles! 5.0.1, as an operating system, is still friggin' BROKEN!?!@$&! Ughh... This is SOOOOOOOO UN-Apple... ?!? This is MICROSOFT's antics... Poor Steve Jobs is rolling over in his grave... God rest his soul...

So just don't expect a 'miracle phone' when you get your new one...

Good luck. Report back when you get the new one and tell us if it's at least better than the one you have now.

In fact I live in Sydney Australia, will see what CBD Apple store people will do about this.

I'll report back either way, but I'm afraid they are going to get a very bad back-fire from me, as I'm not an easy one, especially in situations like this.

/

AnthemX · Nov 23, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
ugh.. i just got an awful pit in my stomach reading this - but I think you're probably spot on. Apple didnt miss anything here. They built a beast here and its just a battery hog. I'm beginning to fear we're not getting a fix either.... boo hoo sad.........

I do believe everyone's got to go through the restore and set up as "new phone" option. Just to rule out app issues.

And in the end all of us put our phones on the charger at the end of an 18 hour day. Even with Push and Fetch on and moderate to heavy use - I get at least that before need of a recharge. The 4s will hold me over to the 5 this June...

agreed, the phone does last the day, even if we would prefer more. I am on my second 4s though, the first one have the getting hot, draining thing happening, i changed this out at the store and this one has been fine. As you said, i have a feeling the more serious battery draining problem is prob a hardware/software combo

p3unit32 · Nov 23, 2011

xrayeyes said:
I have an iPhone4 and while I can't swear to it, it seems that my battery life decreased with iOS5. But, I just got my phone in June and I've been playing around with settings constantly. I have done some tweaks that have definitely helped my battery life recently though.

I turn off data when at work, since I have a low cell signal. I have bluetooth off. I don't fetch or push e-mails...set to manual. I have minimal locations on. I have ALL System Services location settings OFF. I have data roaming off. I make sure I close out applications regularly since I have noticed that the ones that I do have location services enabled on seem to run down the battery and increase my usage even when they are running in the background. Diagnostic and Usage is set to "don't send".

I don't do any gaming on my phone and I don't watch videos, so I realize that helps my battery life too.

This morning I was at 26% with 6 hours of usage and 32 hours of standby.

I understand your reasons for doing this. But what's the point in having an iPhone 4S and not use the features which clearly make the phone standout? If that's the case I would just get another phone.

SweetPoison · Nov 23, 2011

xrayeyes said:
I have an iPhone4 and while I can't swear to it, it seems that my battery life decreased with iOS5. But, I just got my phone in June and I've been playing around with settings constantly. I have done some tweaks that have definitely helped my battery life recently though.

I turn off data when at work, since I have a low cell signal. I have bluetooth off. I don't fetch or push e-mails...set to manual. I have minimal locations on. I have ALL System Services location settings OFF. I have data roaming off. I make sure I close out applications regularly since I have noticed that the ones that I do have location services enabled on seem to run down the battery and increase my usage even when they are running in the background. Diagnostic and Usage is set to "don't send".

I don't do any gaming on my phone and I don't watch videos, so I realize that helps my battery life too.

This morning I was at 26% with 6 hours of usage and 32 hours of standby.

What do you use your phone for? Just to answer it and make calls? Seems sad that you have to turn off all these features...

xrayeyes · Nov 23, 2011

No one has given me a clear answer to any reason for system services to be on or useful??? The only things I have turned off that you might think are useful in a smartphone are the e-mail push and bluetooth? I don't have any bluetooth devices and I can't even have my phone on my person at work to even receive e-mails...so why push? (I work in a hospital).

It's not that I have gaming "turned off" so-to-speak, I'm just not a gamer...I don't do any gaming at home either. And videos? My eyes couldn't handle a video on a screen that small! LOL!

I do admit I am older and probably haven't learned to use the phone to my full advantage, but believe me, I am having fun with this phone and I do have fun with the apps!

xrayeyes · Nov 23, 2011

p3unit32 said:
I understand your reasons for doing this. But what's the point in having an iPhone 4S and not use the features which clearly make the phone standout? If that's the case I would just get another phone.

I have an iPhone 4, not 4S. If I had the 4S, I'd probably use Siri quite a bit!

Yarrenbool · Nov 23, 2011

xrayeyes said:
... ... ...

If I had the 4S, I'd probably use Siri quite a bit!

Yeah, Siri really is fun, and you would use it a lot ...

for the first week or two. 

Rocko · Nov 23, 2011

Again, I think there are two groups of 4S people who are having issues. 1) High Idle Drain. Battery drains more than 2% per hour of idle non-use. 2) High Usage Drain. Battery drains 1% per 1-2 minutes of use.

I am confident the High Idle Drain will be remedied, I am not sure the High Usage Drain will be. I think it's just the dual core high speed GPU's nature to need more power.

Skull One · Nov 23, 2011

5.0.1 was not a "calm us down" move. It was rushed due to a major security hole that had to be patched that day. We will never know if 5.0.1 would have fixed the issue if Apple had had more time to work on it.

Rocko · Nov 23, 2011

NewdestinyX said:
I completely agree with Rocko here. Though I'm not quite as confident in the 'high idle drain' situation being resolvable - mostly because I don't understand how some phones could have this as a software issue and others not. It seems that that would be a hardware issue - phone specific. But I guess we'll find out soon enough. Apple, like the antenna issue with the 4 is just hoping it will 'die away'. The 5.0.1 we got was just a 'calm us down' move - purely damage control tactics 101.

Good point, I wondered that too. The 5.0.1 cured my high idle drain and seemed to have helped my usage drain. I never had a 4 so I can't compare. After reading the Steve Jobs book, I am worried Apple will not have a strong leader who demands perfection-or as close to it as possible-as Jobs did, and I fear the quality of future products may suffer. I hope I am wrong. I am really liking the Apple stuff now.

hgratt · Nov 23, 2011

Another red herring???

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16817934#3492588

Rocko · Nov 23, 2011

Skull One said:
5.0.1 was not a "calm us down" move. It was rushed due to a major security hole that had to be patched that day. We will never know if 5.0.1 would have fixed the issue if Apple had had more time to work on it.

I don't agree 100% Skull. While I agree the most important motive was to plug the security hole, at the same time the battery issue was picking up so much steam and I think the negative publicity they feared it would hurt 4S sales so they threw in some sort of fix to appease us. It's also less damage control to say the update is for battery improvements than use the dreaded words 'security flaw'. I hope they are working hard now on a real IOS 5 thorough once over to clean up the battery and other bugs it has.

Rocko · Nov 23, 2011

hgratt said:
Another red herring???

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16817934#3492588

Nice find. I wish I had the test equipment to confirm this. Having a gpu usage while idle should be easy for apple to spot and remedy. This is one case where a detailed usage stat like Android has would be useful. Real time CPU monitoring and logging by apps and system files.

Skull One · Nov 23, 2011

hgratt said:
Another red herring???

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16817934#3492588

I don't believe that is a red herring. This is exactly what I have been predicting since day one. Heck a lot of my posts have mentioned the GPU and a rogue API call.