Ipad 2 battery life shortening

IrishHomer

I have an ipad 2, been using it daily for long periods of the day every day and i have it since it was released by apple.

Anyway i noticed in the past two weeks the battery life has suddenly deteriourated. I now must charge it nightly where previously i could use it for two or even three days without charges.

Anyone else experiencing similar issue? Perhaps ill have to think about replacing the battery some time in the next year?

Sad Professor

I assume you've tried restarting.

Do you have a lot of push notifications coming through? Do you use Exchange? Do you use any VOIP apps like Skype? Facebook? Are there any apps using Location Services in the background?

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Sad Professor wrote: »

I assume you've tried restarting.

Do you have a lot of push notifications coming through? Do you use Exchange? Do you use any VOIP apps like Skype? Facebook? Are there any apps using Location Services in the background?

Just to add to these questions, have you installed any new apps around the time the battery started deteriorating?

IrishHomer

Sad Professor wrote: »

I assume you've tried restarting.

Do you have a lot of push notifications coming through? Do you use Exchange? Do you use any VOIP apps like Skype? Facebook? Are there any apps using Location Services in the background?

I use Skype, never heard of Exchange?

It's a wifi only model mainly get notifications from Facebook, Mypad app,

I don't recall putting any new apps on it recently.

I am unsure of what apps are using location services, mine never leaves the house cause the other half hooked on it too

Sad Professor

Sign out of Facebook, delete the app and see if there's any improvement. It's a terrible app, very heavy on battery. I would recommend using the website instead. I'm not familiar with MyPad, but try getting rid of that as well.

If that doesn't work, try signing out of Skype as well. It maintains a constant connection to the server. It's supposed to use very little battery, but I wouldn't trust it.

Colonel Panic

But if Facebook isn't the currently running app, it uses no battery unless it requests extra time in the background to finish tasks.

Sad Professor

Yeah, but those background tasks can run for up to 10 minutes. A poorly written or misbehaving app can waste a lot of battery in that time. And if you go back to the app in the meantime, that's another 10 minutes.

And even after 10 minutes, if you are a receiving a lot of push notifications (as I imagine would be the case with Twitter or Facebook) that would also rapidly drain the battery.

Colonel Panic

Sure, if the user is uploading images in the background. I'm not saying you're outright wrong, but "Facebook is crap, uninstall it" without asking him about his Facebook usage is a bit of a heavy handed solution.

I haven't have those problems with the Facebook iPad app for example.

andy1249

Ive had my ipad2 since release date as well , I have skype , facebook , etc on there , I have nothing bad to say about any of those apps.

What I will say is that battery life is not constant based on hours of usage , rather is based on hours and type of usage.

For example , playing SD video I get about 10 hours , playing HD video , I get about 4 to 5 hours.

Reading comics , 10 or more hours , reading kindle books , about 8 , dont know why it would be less , but there you go !

So it depends on what your doing .... tasks that require heavier processing obviously use up the battery quicker , it may not always be obvious which tasks use more processor power.

Sad Professor

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Sure, if the user is uploading images in the background. I'm not saying you're outright wrong, but "Facebook is crap, uninstall it" without asking him about his Facebook usage is a bit of a heavy handed solution.

Telling them to delete the app was probably extreme I admit, but I did ask the OP their usage in the my first post and they said they received Facebook notifications. If you are getting a notification every time somebody updates their status or posts on your wall that could waste a lot of battery which is why I suggested they try signing out of Facebook.

Maybe the Facebook app has improved recently, but when I was using it it had some serious problems and I noticed a significant improvement in battery life after getting rid of it.

Hobbes

First go into settings and disable all notifications except the ones you want. Even if the app isn't running, with notifications on they can poll.

I've seen huge drains before with SkyPE and Facebook, although not as bad now.

A crashed app which is still running in memory can cause it as well. Hence as someone suggested, do a reboot.

Sad Professor

Hobbes wrote: »

First go into settings and disable all notifications except the ones you want. Even if the app isn't running, with notifications on they can poll.

This isn't really necessary. All push notifications go through Apple's own server which your phone maintains a single connection with regardless. It's the number of notifications actually coming through that affect battery life.

I've seen huge drains before with SkyPE and Facebook, although not as bad now.

Yeah, I'm very suspicious of VoIP apps like Skype and Viber. They don't go through Apple's PNS and instead maintain a separate connection to the server in question. Like exchange email accounts that push, they can have an unpredictable effect on battery life.