Battery life on iphone 4

RobinBanks

Hello All,

I am sure that this has been covered already but I couldn't find a thread.

I recently upgraded to the iphone 4 because of a battery issue with my old 3GS iphone. The problem with that phone and the new one is that the battery all of a sudden will die. Last night for example when I last checked the battery there was 40% remaining. When I wake up every morning the first thing I do is check the time with my phone. However this morning there was no time as my phone was dead. Then panic set in! Was I late for work and all that. The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago. As I said I had the same problem with my old phone so I think I would be extremely unlucky to have received two defective iphones. I am sure somewhere here has encountered the same problem.

I don’t always kill the apps that are running in the background but I usually do. I have found that this makes no difference whatsoever to the problem. The phone will become warm at the back. Noticeably so, and the battery will drain in minutes. Other times the phone might last a full day from a starting point of 5% so it is really baffling me. I follow the general guidelines about re-charging the battery. I nearly always let the phone die completely before plugging it in. This was recommended to me by the shop that supplied the phone.

So has anyone any suggestions as to what the issue could be? I am reluctant to go back to the shop just yet incase there might be a setting that I have not set correctly. The network where I am is very strong so it’s not like its constantly searching for a network.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Paul

P.S – please don’t suggest turning the phone off a night or getting a real alarm clock!

PaddyFagan

RobinBanks wrote: »

The phone will become warm at the back. Noticeably so, and the battery will drain in minutes.

This suggesting that something is running using up lots of CPU time on your phone. I'd suggest that it's one particular application. Likely candidates - do you have push (or peroidic pull) of email enabled - in particular if your email server goes down for extended periods at night (like a backup running) it may spend a long time repeatedly checking to see if the server is back... Also do you have notifications switched on....

I'd suggest if you have either or both of these on, try switching one of them off for a few nights, then the other - it should be easy enough to track down.

It could be another app either, but I'd try email/notifications first...

Paddy

PS While your trying this out you are likely to need a backup alarm clock

Conar

The thing that I find uses the battery quickest is the GPS. It can drain from 100% in 2-3 hours. Could that be the source of the issue? Any GPS apps left open?

RobinBanks

PaddyFagan wrote: »

This suggesting that something is running using up lots of CPU time on your phone. I'd suggest that it's one particular application. Likely candidates - do you have push (or peroidic pull) of email enabled - in particular if your email server goes down for extended periods at night (like a backup running) it may spend a long time repeatedly checking to see if the server is back... Also do you have notifications switched on....

I'd suggest if you have either or both of these on, try switching one of them off for a few nights, then the other - it should be easy enough to track down.

It could be another app either, but I'd try email/notifications first...

Paddy

PS While your trying this out you are likely to need a backup alarm clock

The notifications were turned off but the push function on the email was on. So I have now that turned off. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Thanks for the relpies

dee o gee

You could try turning off both wifi and 3G before you go to bed each night.

ironclaw

Try a restore as a last ditch effort. It happened to an iPhone 1G I had a while ago. It would get warm for no reason when I updated it and drain the battery in no time, a simple restore fixed it.

jester77

Some of the background apps keep running depending on their functionality. Skype is the worst offender on my phone and drinks the battery as it doesn't use push for notification like most other apps.

RobinBanks

I use my phone allot for work email and this updates automatically. I have a feeling this may be causing the damage along with fact I always have WiFi turned on so when there is no network available it is probably draining the battery searching.

With regard to the suggestions about turning stuff off at night. I don't really want to go down that road and I shouldn't have to, but thanks for the advice all the same.

muff03

Not being funny, but are you sure you didn't start the stopwatch by accident! Happened me before, one of the lads was messing on it and for a week I couldn't keep a charge on the phone. I checked everything until I spotted the stopwatch. Sorted since.

RobinBanks

muff03 wrote: »

Not being funny, but are you sure you didn't start the stopwatch by accident! Happened me before, one of the lads was messing on it and for a week I couldn't keep a charge on the phone. I checked everything until I spotted the stopwatch. Sorted since.

I wish it was that! unfortunately its not

Crackity Jones

For me location services and push are the biggest offenders. I have gmail set to fetch every 15 mins rather than push and I get at least a third more usage and double the standby time than when I have push email on. Also even with push turned off, if you are logged to the the App store in 'settings' this maintains a connection with apple so I log out of that too. I keep 3G and wifi on all the time.

There's a handy app called Netstat that shows your open connections. I generally get just over 8hrs of 'usage' with 1 1/2 days 'standby'. Happy enough with that.

WebGeek

Yeah, same happened to my iphone 4 as well - disabled skype and bluetooth and that fixed it.

RobinBanks

Crackity Jones wrote: »

For me location services and push are the biggest offenders. I have gmail set to fetch every 15 mins rather than push and I get at least a third more usage and double the standby time than when I have push email on. Also even with push turned off, if you are logged to the the App store in 'settings' this maintains a connection with apple so I log out of that too. I keep 3G and wifi on all the time.

There's a handy app called Netstat that shows your open connections. I generally get just over 8hrs of 'usage' with 1 1/2 days 'standby'. Happy enough with that.

Thanks for the top on app store. I was logged in. I am getting great help here today from everyone.

barryd09

im beginning to notice lately that on work days my battery doesnt last near as long as days im not working.
bit of background info...
i have location sevices cut down to a very bare minimum,push notifications are all off and screen brightness is just below half way and auto brightness is off.
the days Im in work i have wifi switched off.
now,my theory....where i work has particulary bad reception.
my phone usually sits on 1 bar of 3G signal,then flicks between "no service" then "o" then "E" and then maybe back to 1 or 2 bars of 3G signal,then the same cycle all over again...is THIS why my battery depletes faster than a day im not working??where im pretty much constantly on a 3G signal with wifi on too,more or less the same amount of use aswell but a longer battery life?

aidan_walsh

Yep, the worse the signal area the more power the iPhone (or indeed any phone) has to give to get reception.

barryd09

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Yep, the worse the signal area the more power the iPhone (or indeed any phone) has to give to get reception.

cheers,i thought so!

julanont

I play games regularly and have skype on all the time. I have to charge my phone every day and a half.