[ezkcdude]

I have iOS 5 on my iPad, and no battery problems. Must be iPhone specific. Hope it's not a hardware issue.

[Brave Ulysses]

Yea, unfortunately something is messed up with battery life. I think it's more iOS5 than iPhone 4S though.

My iPhone 4S has yet to make it through a day. Where as my iPhone 4 last year would make it through 3... no joke or exaggeration... I have experienced a massive difference in battery life with standard usage.

I hope they can figure it out. I'm really not that happy with the iPhone 4S as a result. The speed difference is as noticeable as I would have expected, the camera is a lot better, but Siri is kind of an unnecessary luxury for sending short texts and quick reminders. and then the poor battery life..... not that great.

[psmith2.0]

Aha...I think I've solved/fixed mine, although I can't tell exactly what I did to make it happen. But earlier, soon after making my previous post in this thread on the subject (around 4:30pm ET), I went into my iPhone and did the following two things:

1. Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
2. Took a few apps out of my Notifications queue/listing (Twitter, Deliveries, myAT&T and Apple Store (stuff I didn't need "notifying" about).

At present (for the past four hours or so), this is what I have in my Notification Center: Weather Widget, Phone, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, Mail.

And in my Location Services > System Services I have turned OFF: Compass Calibration, Diagnostics & Usage, Location-Based iAds and Setting Time Zone

I was at 100% four-plus hours ago. I'm still at 97%.

That's the iPhone 4 battery performance I know and love!



What I'm going to do, since I've obviously hit on something, is to, one-by-one, turn on some of these other Location and Notification things to see which one is the culprit. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

Going to start with Location-based services first, and putting those back on.

I was wondering if that network reset (I read about it on some site today) did it, or simply pulling a few unused/unneeded things out of my Notification Center did the trick?

Whatever it is, I seem to have my old battery life back again. I just need to figure out which item (or combination of items) did the trick.

EDIT: At 8:45pm ET, I put Compass Calibration back on. I'll see what happens in the next 20 or so minutes and go from there...

EDIT #2: At 9:15pm ET, I turned Diagnostics & Usage back on. I only had a 1% drop, down to 96%, in this past half-hour. So I'm starting at 96%, and at 9:45 I'll turn Location-Based iAds back on and monitor it for 30 minutes, then the Setting Time Zone feature at 10:15.

Before, it would've dropped 4-6%, easily.

[MBHockey]

The only problem with your method of testing is that the shorter the time period for enabling/disabling a feature the more likely you are just testing how well the battery is calibrated. It may not be entirely reflective of actual battery discharge.

Also remember that these kinds of batteries operate best between 20% and 80% of their true capacity (i think? not sure if the iPhone batteries are this type of Li-ion: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a..._battery_table)

[psmith2.0]

Hmm. All I know is that before 4:30 today, not even doing anything/using the damn thing, it would drop 5-10% over the span of 60-90 minutes. That was never the case before iOS 5, and, for whatever reason, it's not doing it now.

Something I turned off earlier today was obviously the cause. For five hours now, I'm getting pre-iOS 5 battery performance. I using it as I always do while here at home...some surfing, downloading an app update or two, e-mail, a bit of Scrabble or Boggle play, some music playing, etc.

I'll just have to see what happens. I know it's not rigid or scientific, but I am seeing a huge change from something I did earlier so I have to pursue it a little.

Also remember that these kinds of batteries operate best between 20% and 80% of their true capacity...

The thing is - and this is part of the point - is that before, prior to iOS 5, I rarely got down below that 80% to even know/care about such a thing! It could go all day, every day, and at night, as I climbed into bed, I'd still have a ton of battery life showing, both in the percentage readout and the little menu icon. On a random, "heavy" day, I might drop down to 65-70% remaining, but those was few and far between. One of my absolute favorite features of this iPhone 4 this past year has been the "holy crap, does this thing ever run out?!" battery life.

[turtle]

Well, after 12 hours of "use" my phone now sits at 9% battery.

I tried the time zone thing and that was pointless. I also turned off iAds, but that's because I don't want that service.

Tons of awdd errors in my Diagnostic & Usage data. Like this one:


Now I've reset my network settings and will see how that does tomorrow. Also, from the time I took that screen cap and posted it I dropped to 7%.

[psmith2.0]

At 10:30, I've got all my location stuff back on (and have for about 15 minutes now). I'm at 94%, down just 3% over almost two hours.

I'm wondering if that network reset has any bearing on this? That's the one thing I did today that I've not monkeyed with before. I've been turning various combinations of notifications and location stuff on and off since the weekend, but today, having done that network reset, seems to yield the only real change.

I don't know.

Before, after almost two hours, I'd be a hell of a lot lower than 94% (down from 97%). I can deal with a 3% drop over that time-span, with a bit of actual usage going on during that.

Maybe try that, guys? Perhaps it's some weird glitch that causes the machine to keep searching or not "locking on" to a network or whatever? I'm heading to bed soon, so we'll see how it looks tomorrow. Not planning on charging it tonight, and see how much it drains overnight while sitting unused. Before, it would go down quite a chunk if I didn't plug it in.

[Partial]

Very interesting. Do you have the white or the black?

[psmith2.0]

Me? Black, iPhone 4 (a year old). Not the 4s.

[turtle]

Mine is black 4S but I restored my settings from an iPhone 3G. Wondering if it might be a carryover from the old phone that caused the issue. I'm still charging up right now. Going to leave it unplugged as I sleep to see what happens by the time I wake up. No use by me during that time.

[Majost]

I'm pretty sure my battery woes on my 3GS were due to a different WiFi behavior in iOS5.

Here's what was happening to me: There are two WiFi networks that my phone has login rights to within range of my office desk. One that's specific to my office, and the other is my general school campus network. The campus WiFi is much weaker at my desk, which is why we have our own office hotspot. However, something changed in the way iOS5 chooses the network. I found it was preferring the weaker campus network at all times, regardless of how often I'd manually switch (it'd stick until leaving and returning) or the order in which I chose to join them (after 'forgetting' them). I think it preferred the enterprise security of the campus network over the WPA2 of my office. Since it's connected to a much weaker signal, I think it burns through battery faster.

The only solution in my case so far has been to completely forget the campus network. And now my 3GS lasts just about as long as it did when it was brand new -- I can make it to a charge every other night if I don't play with it too much.

Could it be that it simply tries harder to connect to known networks? And so if you have some coffeeshop near you that has an open WiFi that it remembers (or the like), you burn through battery? That could explain some of the hit-or-miss-ness of this whole thing. Especially with the greater need for data communication with iCloud and iMessage (and more notifications for me, now that I can control them to my liking).

[MBHockey]

Wow. Apple has officially acknowledged (inasmuch as they have contacted The Loop) that here is an issue with iOS 5 causing poor battery performance. Software update coming soon, with a beta already seeded to developers today, with battery improvements.

http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/11/0...sues-in-ios-5/

“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,” an Apple spokesperson told The Loop. “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

Good news!

[PKIDelirium]

My launch day 4S has been draining quite rapidly.

[dmegatool]

So nobody caught that in betas ? Nice...

[MBHockey]

It doesn't seem to have been present in the betas. Anecdotally, at least.

[psmith2.0]

Good to hear. Mine seems to have reverted to prior idiocy (fast draining) today.

Knowing Apple is aware of it, and on the case, makes me feel better. I'll worry/gripe less. This is what I was wanting to hear.

[Mac+]

I had a good day today. After 12 hours it's sitting at 67%. Not bad - a lot better than other days.

For the record, I reset the network settings, turned off the automatic time setting feature and turned off a whole bunch of notifications. I actually expect the notifications would have been a key draining resource due to all these seaparate apps polling the server - a lot of unnecessary usage. Still, I could be wrong but, regardless, I'm happy: my battery life has improved AND Apple are working on a solution.

[kieran]

Originally Posted by Mac+ Still, I could be wrong but, regardless, I'm happy: my battery life has improved AND Apple are working on a solution.

Totally off topic, but I always laugh when I see statements like the end of this sentence.

It seems weird to me when people say "Apple are working on a solution."

I look at Apple as s singular entity, so I would say "Apple is.."

Just something that I wanted to point out.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by kieran Just something that I wanted to point out.

US English vs English English. Across the pond, it's perfectly normal and correct to treat a collective group (such as a company name) as a plural noun.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by kieran Totally off topic, but I always laugh when I see statements like the end of this sentence. It seems weird to me when people say "Apple are working on a solution." I look at Apple as s singular entity, so I would say "Apple is.." Just something that I wanted to point out.

While not as common in American English, either form (pluralizing or singularizing an organization) is actually correct.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by kieran Totally off topic, but I always laugh when I see statements like the end of this sentence. It seems weird to me when people say "Apple are working on a solution." I look at Apple as s singular entity, so I would say "Apple is.." Just something that I wanted to point out.

In American English, you typically would say "Apple is..." The other form is more typical of British English. I'm not sure where the Canuckleheads fall on this one, though.

[edit] Holy flood of posts, Batman!

[kieran]

I know it's correct, but I still think it's funny.

I"m going to start doing it and see what people say.

[chucker]

I agree that "Apple are" sounds rather strange, but with a pronoun, it works for me. "Apple's iPhone was originally released in 2007. They have since improved upon it." sounds rather natural, probably because while grammatically, "they" represents "Apple", you you could implicitly read "they" as meaning "the people working at Apple", too.

[Dorian Gray]

"Apple are" doesn't sound strange to me, but it does irk me a bit (though I do it myself). However, The Economist's latest style guide prefers "Apple is", even in British English.

I'm currently in a state of transition, so expect yet more grammatical oddities in my posts.

[Mac+]

You pedants is confusing me.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

I turned off the Setting Time Zone System Service under Location Services -> System Services and my battery life (iPhone 4) has improved noticeably. Being without utility power since Saturday has me closely watching battery usage (yes, still anecdotal, I know ).

[Escher]

Originally Posted by addabox Funny, though, how (at least here in the States) extravagant tech expenditures become typical become just part of the cost of being a citizen. For instance, there was a time when only fancy pants professionals had answering machines, and when they started showing up at peoples home numbers it was easy to suspect they were trying a little too hard. Why couldn't they answer the phone like normal working people? What, were they so important they they simply couldn't afford to miss a call? Then there was broadband internet, affectation of the well-to-do and seriously geeked. Dialup was good enough for my daddy, what in the hell do you need to see on the internets so damn fast? DVRs, cable TV, hell, smartphones themselves-- once were once luxuries are now practically necessities. Not saying it's good or right or sensible, just that the class distinction thing has a history of fading rapidly in the face of widespread uptake.

Excellent points, addabox! But where do we draw the line between "widespread uptake" of modern technology and people jumping off a cliff like Lemmings?

Maybe we crossed the line when everybody had to buy a house because of the widespread uptake of McMansions by their neighbors, even though many couldn't afford the mortgages, and the US economy imploded, and the rest of the world followed... And see where we are today?

Obviously signing up for a mobile data plan to make Siri work is not the same as banks pushing sub-prime mortgages on people with no business in home-ownership. But there's a similar quality, ingenious salespeople fooling average people into buying stuff they don't really need and can't really afford.

Meh! Who cares about these simple concerns. Buy now and pay later! It's the American way.

PS: Sorry for my cynical ranting. I'll get back to my optimistic self as soon as I get my hands on an unlocked iPhone 4S.

[PKIDelirium]

My 4S battery is currently sitting at 78% with 1 hour, 42 minutes of usage and 7 hours, 57 minutes of standby. Weak.

*waits impatiently for 5.0.1*

[rollercoaster375]

For what it's worth, I was originally getting 10% drain every 1.25 hours (On my new 4S), and disabling a few location services didn't change anything. I restarted the phone, and it's been fine since... 3% over that same timeframe now.

[drewprops]

That's it.
I'm waiting for the iPhone 5.


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