Since Apple introduced iOS 4.3 last week, I’ve found a number of complaints about battery issues with the firmware update. I’ve even experienced these problems personally and I know many of you have too.
The update has caused issues with the battery life on my iPhone 4 and my iPad 2 is getting considerably less time out of its battery than my old iPad running iOS 4.2.1, so if you haven’t upgraded to iOS 4.3 you may want to wait until this issue is resolved.
According to users on Apple Discussions under the topics iPhone 4 – ios 4.3 – Battery Drain and iOS 4.3 causing battery drain, the iPhone’s battery life is severely shortened by the latest iOS update. As a result some users are also complaining that battery life is lasting 2 to 4 hours less than before the update was applied.
In other words on a moderately heavy day of iPhone 4 usage I wouldn’t have to charge my iPhone 4 until sometime between 6:00 and 8:00 PM before this update. Now I find myself having to charge it around 2:00 or 3:00 PM in the afternoon. My day normally starts around 5:00 AM.
I used my original iPad moderately for e-mail, web browsing, and reading and I had to charge it at least once every 10-14 days. Now with the iPad 2 I’m finding myself charging it more often. I’ve only had it for a week and I’ve had to charge it three times. I no longer own the original iPad and therefore I have not tested the battery life on that model iPad after an iOS 4.3 update. If you have please leave a comment describing your experience with it.
Things get worse because users are reporting that the usual fixes where you turn off Push Notifications, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Personal Hotspot, Location Services, or even Ping are not helping much. Restoring a device by re-flashing the firmware isn’t helping either.
Apple hasn’t provided a solution to this problem yet, although it is likely that an update to iOS may address them.
Are you experiencing problems with this recent iOS update? Tell us about it in the comments.
David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET’s iPhoneatlas.com, MacLife.com, CultofMac.com, BYTE.com and recently for aNewDoman.net. He comes to Cult of Mac’s website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin or see what he’s up to now at davidwmartin.com.
301 responses to “Battery Complaints Mount After iOS 4.3 Update”
New Ipad 2 user here. Nothing to compare it to, but I am not getting anywhere near the 10 hours I always read about in the the reviews of the Ipad 2. I bet it’s more like 6 to maybe 7. I hope it’s something a tweak to the IOS can remedy…
Kinda of interesting. I’m actually get the opposite result. I’ve noticed an improve in my battery life. I can get about 2 – 4 hours more of life out of it than I did before. I haven’t changed anything that I normally do with my iPhone, but I usually still have about 30 – 40% batter left at night before going to bed when I normally had about 10 – 20% before.
No problems here either.
In your article when you say “According to users on Apple Discussions … the iPhone’s battery life is severely shortened by the latest iOS update.” You should really say “some” users or “some” iPhone’s. I understand you are having a problem but it’s patently obvious that it doesn’t affect everyone.
I do have this feeling for couple of days now ! My iPad is severely affected. I would say it’s four hours less. It’s almost visible as batery goes away and loosing percents ;(
Yes.. Same problem. visited Apple Store. The “genius” started off with a list of things to do and I told him to take a look at the phone settings. Everything possible was done. No Push, no Bluetooth, WiFi OFF, Brightness set to low, no vibrate. no text tone, 3G off.
He ran a diagnostic check on the phone, put it into DFU and restored to 4.3
did not help.
Went again.. got a replacement.. Unit was in 4.2.1 and I connected to iTunes to sync my data.. and iTunes did an upgrade to the new phone as well.. What do I say.. I’m the luckiest man on the planet.
I’m definitely having a battery issue. The Usage and Standby times are EXACTLY the same as if something is continually running. I did a Restore and added my content back from a backup and it seemed to have helped temporarily….at least in terms of the Usage/Standby not matching exactly….though the battery still seemed to run down quicker nevertheless. Now, the Usage and Standby matching exactly issue is back. So it does seem that there is a battery issue, and it seems to affect both certain apps (running constantly) and be a problem in general (overall battery availability decrease). Hopefully an iOS update is forthcoming shortly.
Same here. I had 4.2.1 jailbroken though. Having minimally used any of the jailbreak features, I updated to 4.3 w/ no jailbreak and the battery seems noticeably improved
I’ll loose 15% when on airplane mode in the space of 8 hours where as before I’d lose 0 – 2%
I’m on the not-affected boat…with one exception…whenever I use the new thetering/personal hotspot (which is free in my carrier :) I do see my battery go down down down very fast…may it be usage change in the case of others too? I’m amazed at how much the new thetering affects the battery life…it’s a killer, seriously bad. But when I don’t theter, my battery usage is the same as before the update to 4.3.
Prior to 4.3 I never turned my iPad 1 off, I’d just let it blank the screen at night and the battery percent would be the same the next day when when I picked it up. There was no reason to power it off at night. With 4.3 the battery goes down by 10 to 12% overnight unless I power it off. I need to recharge it at least twice as often since the “upgrade.” That is unacceptable.
Disabled Ping (Through restrictions) and my battery is back to normal…
(iPhone 4)
Yep, battery life on my iPhone 4 is shorted considerably since the 4.3 iOS upgrade. Apple needs to figure it out and issue a patch.
iPhone 4 battery life seemed normal until I enabled personal hotspot. Now even with every thing turned off battery life is very poor.
Yup! I have noticed the batter drain. Normally if my battery was 100% charged at bedtime it would be 100% in the morning (8-10 hours). Now I see a drain of 3-4% during the same period. The only thing additional is that I got an AT&T MicoCell.
Thank goodness! I thought I was the only one having this problem.
Yes..yes..
I have also had issues since update , standard apps such as iPod and keyboard just popping up and then closing , safari freezing , opening and doing nothing .
And other apps like iBooks just shutting down., and of course the apps that were not designed for 4.3 that I had to just delete, and now USA today and BBC news tend to close by themselves .
I sent apple email ..but no reply yet ….needs to be fixed .
There is definitely noticeable battery drain. Have to carry the mophie juice pack plus al the time now when I’m out and about.
Apple should fix this battery problem immediately because I definitely don’t want the battery on my iPhone to leak. I am spending too much money for the service and everything. Well, the selling of the iPad 2 this past weekend was a success although many fans weren’t able to get one because the stores did not have enough. But the iPad 2 can also be obtained for free if you follow certain conditions at http://www.digitalundivide.com
I’ve had my iPhone on at work for a few hours as I normally have it, and it’s lost 13% battery life! When sending a text earlier I actually lost 3% in the span of 2 minutes…
iPhone 4 and have found my battery life was cut in half since 4.3 upgrade was run.
I am having substantially less life with my battery on the iphone 4 recently.
I definitely noticed poor battery life on my iPhone 3GS after installing iOS 4.3. Disabling Ping and Game Center (Settings > General > Restrictions) has helped a lot. Apple needs to issue a fix, though.
I have noticed a significant reduction in battery life, I was thinking it was something else I was doing so have been reseting my phone and removing apps from the multitask very frequently.
I have noticed this the past couple days as well, didn’t really think about it until today when it dropped a lot faster.
Has anyone been having issues with the home button no responding as well? I had this issue with 4.2 and hoped that it would be corrected with 4.3 but it’s only become worse. At the Genius Bar they restored as new phone before the 4.3 release and it worked better for a while but since 4.3 it sometimes takes several clicks to register.
I just updated this weekend and now when I make calls people can’t hear me.
I just updated this weekend and now when I make calls people can’t hear me.
Improved battery life here as well. before charge every day, this week i charged monday and wednesday. does not look like i need to charge today yet. this is strange
yes , battery life gets worth, apple helpdesk doesnt help a lot. Bad 4.3!
Having a problem with the album artwork in movies tab in the iPod app: all pictures get mixed up!
Updated my original iPad the day of the release. No issues and I still have push on.
Did the upgrade have any affect on the new iPhone or are you still experiencing the drain?
Good, I’m not alone. It seems to drop a lot faster after it hits about 70%. And the phone is warm to the touch, so there’s definitely something going on.
This happens on 4.2.1 as well. Something is going on with 3G data.
I have the same problem but in my iPhone 3GS, it randlomly turns off with 30-40% of charge since the update. I really thought that was my battery
Having the same problem. I noticed my battery draining faster lately.
The same happens to me :(
Same problem here…my 3GS has been really warm and battery life falls to red within three or four hours of 100% charge. All started after 4.3 install…please apple, make it better!
I’ve owned a 32GB iPhone 4 for 44 days. The battery lasted me two days of (my) normal use. Once I updated to 4.3, my phone needs a charge ever 3-4 hours with the same usage as before. I find myself struggling to keep it charged when not at home. When home, it lives on the charger because of this issue.
Had an issue like this when I upgraded to 4.0 on my 3G. Apple told me it was “water damage” but “none of the indicators within the phone had been set off”. I was also told it was the fact that the phone was 18 months old. It also lagged like death and froze in the middle of games and typing.
I paid to replace the 3G 46 days ago. It worked fine. I installed the backup from my old phone and it lagged and the battery life was terrible. I wiped the phone and the lag went away, but the battery life was still terrible. I ended up buying the iPhone 4 two days later. $1100 on two phones in as many days. Both are brand new and neither work. I’m not even remotely impressed. Apple will fix everything I have that’s years out of warranty when it’s manufacturing defects. Even gave me a free iPod Touch because the of the battery and lag issue in that. They just refuse to replace or repair my phones and I’m getting totally sick of it.
I won’t cross the line and go Android… But I just might walk into a local carrier and buy one of those $10 basic phones that just texts and makes calls… You’re pushing me to give up on your phone, Apple!!!
Ditto Grendelspyce! I though I might be making a mistake noticing it. But the battery life has really gone down (iPhone 4)
ok, and here i was thinking it may have been an app i downloaded :(
have the same!
Same here, with iPhone 4. Usually, it get 2 full days of moderate usage, and at the end of the second day I usually got somthing aroung 20% battery. Now after the update, I have to cherge it after a day and a half, around 3 or 4 pm. Which is kind of inconvenient, for me anyaway.
Yep! I noticed that my iPhone 4 was draining faster than usual. I thought it was just my imagination. I am also noticing that when I Face Time, it is starting to freeze up periodically in the middle of your conversation. I am not sure if it is 4.3 related, but it seems to have started happening around the same time I upgraded.
I also think my iPad 2 is draining faster than my original. Anyone else notice it?
My iPhone wont play music since the update, and battery is crap!
The iPhone 4 is rubbish and should be withdrawn. I have to hold it on it´s side to get a decent signal and the battery, at best, lasts 3 days. 4,3 update is causing touch screen problems even thou I have done a fresh install. Also, when you select a 4 digit number for screen lock the phone will not unlock even thou the number is correct and when you try and close an app it doesnt matter how many times you press the red cross the app will not close. I`m losing patience fast and wish I had not bothered buying the phone in the first place.
I’ve had the 4.3 on my iPhone 4 for two days and noticed what I considered a uncharacteristic battery drain. I even remember telling myself “dang!, I just charged it. I must not have had a good connection” I had not put 2 and 2 together yet.
Luckily, I discovered the 4.3 anomaly while the update for my iPad was still downloading. Whew!
I still feel the pain from the 3.0 update on my iPhone 2G. To my knowledge, Apple still has not provided a solution. After that fiasco, I planned never to install an update within 2 weeks of its release, allowing any anomalies to be identified, then make an educated decision whether I want it.
I really need to stick to my commitments :)
Oh, good. I’m not going crazy. Because my iPhone 3GS’ battery has been dropping like mad since I updated. It has never been stellar; on iOS 3.0 when I first got it, it lasted around 5 hours of usage. Not bad, as that seemed about average. It was still getting around 4.5 hours on iOS 4.2.1, which is amazing considering the age of it, multitasking, etc. On iOS 4.3, I guarantee I couldn’t get to 3 hours. Thank goodness I don’t use it THAT often. But, having to charge it by 5PM after taking it off of charge at 7AM is insane. Apple, please fix it! Oh, and to all of you people demanding a battery that lasts for 4+ days at a time, you may want to go back to your Blackberry…
No difference at all in battery life for me. This firestorm of “omg my battery dies in half the time” stuff seems to start whenever there is an iOS update. I’ve never experienced it.
The next day after the update I noticed that my phone was at 30% by the end of the day, when normally it goes to about 60%. I thought maybe I had used it more than usual, until my other half said her battery is completely dead at the end of the day, then I clued in. Do they not go through performance characteristics testing before rolling out an update and affecting how many millions of users? Anyway, guess we wait for another update to fix this problem….
I thought I became crazy with my iPhone draining so quickly the energy. I’m happy I found I’m not alone facing this trouble. But I worry about how long we will have to wait for the solution.
im glad im not the only one!!
after the updrate, none of my apps work(besides the ones that came with the phone).
the app just blinks and turns off. my home button feels like it doesnt connect anymore. although it worked fine yesterday right before the update.
is it because of daemon programs? certain apps dont stop running with the 4.0 multitasking introduced. You can install an app and not even access it and it still kill ur battery. in my case, i had an alex jones radio app and it wouldn’t stop feeding from satellites.. i couldn’t last more than 6 hours of battery on a 3 day lasting iPhone 3gs battery..
Not only does the batter drain quickly, the phone now runs hot even when it’s not “on.” I am extremely unhappy.
it’s crap. don’t download ios 4.3…! All your energy will go down the drain..
The known issues I discovered is of course the battery dies out faster, the display “statics”, the device performances slows, the retina in safari browsing sometimes takes long to sharpen visuals and any apps in use crashes and slows due to the update. From now on, I’m not updating my damn firmware until after I investigate the issues brought.
thanks for the info – most definitely noticed this as soon as the update was made, but never “connected the dots” until now
I have the battery down problem in 4.3, but only with jailbroken app “Activator”, after i uninstall “Activator”, the problem was solved.
Original iPad here and no problems with battery life. I leave various apps running, mail, etc. and haven’t noticed any difference since iOS 4.3.
When I upgraded to iOS 4.3 all kinds of things have gone wrong. When I use the phone and dial a number, it appears to get stuck on a number. When I single click on an icon on the home screen, the icons start to jiggle like I want to move them. Anyone seen the same issues?
Brand new iPad 1st gen 64g wifi here. Updated to 4.3, battery life is about 6-7 hours, not 10ish as stated. Not happy.
I bought an iPad 1 about 2 weeks ago, the battery life was fantastic, I had to charge it about once every 5 days until I updated to 4.3… Now, the battery doesn’t last more than 8 to 10 hours even if I don’t use the iPad!
Same issues, turning off Ping is helping but still not great.
What’s worse is the loss of wifi access on my 3GS, 3G works fine but no wifi at home is killing my data limits and is another fubar by apple.
Restores and network resets no help…
A most noticeable difference in battery life for me since the update, hoping an update comes soon.
I thought there was a battery defect with my iphone, i bought it about 2 weeks ago and it worked great the first few days i had it lasted sometimes more than a day with light use. After i updated if i just leave my phone in my jacket pocket while im at work the phone only has 20% battery left by noon even tho it was fully charged at 6 am in the morning and thats just with the phone sitting in my pocket not being used. So i’m experiencing severely less battery life.
Iphone 3Gs was amazingly good with power until 4.3 upgrade. Now it only lasts a few hours with nothing active.
using 1phone 3Gs.. not happy now since the upgrade.. battery life’s short..
After the update, my iphone’s battery life plummeted remarkably. It loses 50% battery in 3 hours of just being in the dormant locked position and push notifications off. Not a happy customer. I went to the Genius Bar on Saturday and they were of no help. Told me they believed me but couldn’t do anything about it other than swap it out for a new iphone (and use up my one time courtesy swap).
Yes. Pulling my hair out over decreased battery life since u/g to 4.3. Appears that I am not alone after a few google searches. I want 4.2.1 back. It worked just fine. There also doesn’t appear to be a simple way to downgrade either.
My iPad 1 is not draining like a mad dog. I would say its reasonable to say it has about 60% of its original battery life.
this problem is really getting out of hand ! i charged my ifone4 all night and by 2pm , it was already 30percent , i fully charged again and by 7pm its 60percent … this is really annoying and all my PUSH NOTIFICATIONS ARE OFFFF
I have an iPhone 4 and had serious battery drain until I restarted the phone. I could literally site an watch the percentage a point each minute…and I was doing nothing with the phone. Is better since restart but still not what it used to be. I would go days without charging. Now I charge it every day.
Iphone 3gs after the iOS 4.3 is a completely new animal. Went from a midsize truck to hummer fuel consumption. At full charge by my bedside for alarm use it would be almost still full battery before new iOS, now its dead by morning, runs very hot and takes twice as long to charge. By turning off the “cellular data” button in the setting menu it is much more like the old iOS battery drain but its a PITA as it is needed throughout the day.
I think that did it, ping, who knew. 3gs
After the 4.3 update I just thought it was “me”, you know a cockpit error that was causing me to see less battery life before the update. So, I’ve crippled my iPhone 4 by turning off every conceivable push, fetch, bluetooth, display attribute, and wireless feature that could be disabled and still no luck. After a full charge I’m still experiencing battery drain after accessing the springboard and flipping through a few pages of applications. In minutes the phone goes from 100% to 90% within minutes.
Just traded in a broken iPhone 4 for a new one, and have had the same problems. Last nite went to sleep with full charge, and all apps closed. Woke up with it totally out of juice. Been running hot, and draining fast. Let’s go Apple, clearly there is a problem here.
yes my battery is getting so hot i cant hold the phone
I noticed my battery life has gone down dramatically since the update. Twice in the last week my Iphone 4 battery has completly died and the phone shut off. Never had that happen before. I disable Ping last night and we shall see if it is back to normal however it still seems to lose it’s charge quicker than before. I hope they fix it quickly, because I have a business trip coming up and I don’t want to be left with a dead phone while on the road!
Update. I unpluged my fully charged Iphone 4 at noon and it is now 4:34pm. I barely used it and it is now at 25% battery life. I hope they have an update soon!
One thing I noticed to cause battery drain is the Contacts Application. If I have the wifi and cell data turned off and add a new contact (or change an old contact), it will try to sync with my google contacts and can’t reach the net so it just tries every few seconds….drains the battery in 5 hours. You can tell if it is trying to sync with google on the net by going to your iPhone contact list and flick scroll up or down, it will scroll really jerky. Once you turn on the cell data or wifi and it syncs the contacts to google, it solves the problem. Oh….the other way to tell is the battery heats up, you can actually feel it get hot in you pocket. I emailed Apple about the issue…..no answer.
3GS is the same, my battery on standby used to last for days! Now it lasts 1 day. Not cool Apple idiots!!!
My iphone 3gs is down to 20% by 5pm with low usage since 4.3 update
I just talked to Apple Support a few minutes ago. She said the new software update enables the multitasking. Here’s what happens according to her: whenever you open up an app, it automatically puts the on the multi tasking bar. And once they’re there, they are running in the back ground. So, each time you’re done using an app, double click on the Home button and remove the apps that are showing on the multitasking bar by touching and holding the app button for 3 secs until the minus sign appears, then touch the minus sign and the app should disappear. All of my apps were in the multitasking button. We’ll see if it works.
My Mugen Battery case will no longer work with my 3Gs since upgrading to 4.3.1. $80- down the drain. – not happy Apple user.
Disabling Ping does nothing:
Tested, un-updated iphone 4 (girlfriend’s phone), same settings as phone currently–>lasted close to three hours longer than updated iphone 4 with ping turned off.
Apple needs to fix this ASAP.
I recently got an iPhone 3GS (previously had a Blackberry) and shortly after upgraded to the 4.3. The battery life is horrible now. At 6:30am I take it off the charger at 100% and by lunch I’m at 49% and haven’t even used the phone that much. No fixes worked. Took it back and got a new Blackberry. LOVE IT!
I had a state of the art Blackberry – 9700. It was a great phone & text & email messenger with great battery life but that’s about it. It was a hopeless PDA with a more limited repertoire of software capabilities than my 7 year old Palm device.
No thanks. Not going back to BB. It would be like going from Snow Leopard back to DOS.
-evan
I just upgraded to 4.3.1 and have less battery life, which is bad enough, but during texting, my phone will lock up so I have to completely do a hard reboot, or the incoming text will completely shut my phone down. UGH!!!
Definitely shorter battery life now!!!!
its becos on the iphone 4 the apps are always open therefore wasting ur battery to close them properly double tap the home button hold the app till a red dot comes up and delete them of the multi task if u dont ur battery will be drained becos the app is always open
I started to experience this problem with the 4.3.1 update. I tried the 4.3.2 update yesterday and I still experience the same problem. The battery drains very quickly in even in fly-safe mode with no apps running! When checking CPU load with System Activity Monitor it is almost never below 50% and device stats never reports a load average below 0.70.
It feels very silly to have to bring a cable for your phone everywhere you go. It is so…1980ish =)
Battery life is aweful now!
I used to have my iphone 4 in my pocket like 99% out of all time, only used it like 15 minutes per day. The batterly lasted up to a week atleast before i had to recharge, but now i still don’t use it that much at all, same as before, and its down to 33% every day! its insane how much it uses, like its constantly active.
I think the original iPad (which i also own with patch 4.3) did not get all features that the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 got
I seriously thought I was the only one having problems with iOS 4.3, battery fully charged at 100% 2hrs later 45%. So wish I had a blackberry.
I have 4.3.2..installed it hoping the battery drain I was getting tired of would be fixed…but it got worse…Now it is dropping just as fast or faster even…
Wish Apple would man up and face this..
U r definitely an idiot! We have all had our iPhones 4’s for some time, apps staying open in the background is nothing new to this update, therefore, your comment is just a waste of Internet space! What a joker!!
This is retarded, multitasking is no longer a new feature, it hasn’t been for some time!! The most recent update or 2 is what is causing the battery drain… Why do u even have an iPhone? It doesn’t sound as if u even know the basics of it’s functionality!
Yes I to am having the same problem with the battery on my iPhone 4 since the last update. Even I don’t use my phone it drains my battery down.
I am having the same issue here, the phone is extremelly hot and the battery is draining within hours even though every data driven feature or app is off or removed.
Is it possible to go back to iOS 4.2???
i have noticed a major difference in battery life… it seems like it was a night and day difference after the update and i agree that the usual helps aren’t helping
My battery is draining real fast after the 4.3.2. Very troublesome. I wish I had waited to update I learned my lesson next update I will read the comments first.
I must say i agree With Redsam1411, i have 4.3.1 and it is awfull ! all services are off,no other programs running,3g disabled,celular data disabled,push disabled etc
in 7 h of sleep it eats 12% battery !! why?? OMG
Same issue here. Both iPhone 4 and iPad 2 are draining incredibly quickly. I used to be able to go a couple days w/o charging my iPhone 4 and now I can’t get through a work day. iPad 2 is less noticeable b/c I use it less, but I’m having to charge much more frequently.
Any word on a fix?
just another iphone 4 user here with the same issue. finally decided to turn to googling this issue to see if there were any other complaints and obviously i am not alone. ugh. wish i hadnt updated.
I have the exact same problem since version 4.2.1 (BRAND NEW PHONE). Updated to 4.3.1 then to 4.3.2 and the battery is still draining too quickly. Have completely reseted the phone several times but to no avail! 3G, data cellular, WiFi, all switched off. This is happening more frequently than ever. I have recharged it full last night, woke up in the morning, the battery was completely drained!!! I could not start the phone until it recharged for around 10 minutes. And in a different case, I had to activate the phone (again) and all my data were deleted!!! I hope apple can release a fix asap, otherwise, I am going back to blackberry.
I have had the same problem- I updated my IPad 3 days ago, and it runs out of battery life about twice as fast as usual. SO annoying! I already have things set for power-saving, so there’s not much else I can do except plug it in during the day.
tried disable ping and refresh network settings and battery still sucks, apple updates are becoming for a negative than a positive. i suddenly feel i own a pc again.
I have a 3Gs and it is at least 30% slower since upgrade. A friend’s 3Gs was all but paralyzed by the change and 2 hours with the Genius desk did nothing to help. His battery power is cut in half.
Also experienced issues – still not solved with iOS 4.3.3 so I went to the Apple store and got a battery replaced – it wasn’t the battery so a Google search led me here. I learned that turning off Ping and in some cases Reset Network Settings worked so I did them both. Battery life is what it was prior to the 4.3 update.
Ditto… my phone with limited usage used to stay alive for 2 days at a stretch but now before end of the day, battery rains out completely. I did upgrade to ios 4.3 but i have started facing this problem since last 3 days. Very disappointed with this as i just bought another iphone yesterday. :-(
My battery only last less than 2-3 hours :(. I did all the methods in the setting but still drain my battery very fast! i dunno wat to do!
Yes – lots of problems. Battery life is less than half what it was on my 3GS, so it is not just iphone 4. The phone actually heats up as though it was on analog or something – very very bad. I was about to replace the phone when I thought I would check to see if others were having this problem. Figures…..thanks Apple – you nut heads.
I updated my wifi ipad 2 on friday and i can watch the meter tick down while i type or browse. I disabled everything i heard was doing it but isn’t the point that we would like to USE the ipad not just look at it?
I might return to store and get an ipad 1 which i never had these problems with or possibly a netbook. I have had enough of the updates that FIx the updates
When I first bought my iPhone 4 I was impressed by how much more the battery lasted comparing it to my iPod Touch 2G. Then after updating I have to charge it everyday and the worst thing is that when I leave my iTouch in the night to when I wake up it only consumes 1% if it consumes at all and now my i4 drains 15-20% aprox from when I go to sleep to when I wake up and it’s really annoying.
Turning the cellular data off extends my battery life considerably, but that’s not what I want. I want my old firmware back! I remember I decided to update because of the personal hotspot feature but I’d change it for my old battery usage!.
Have noticed over the last 2 days that my batt has drained very fast with very little use. started the day off with 100% but by 2pm was down to 27% – no phone calls, occasional data usage but nothing heavy so very annoying.!!! come on Apple fess up and sort this out
Andy
Followed many of the suggestions I’ve found on the web, disabled ping (via restrictions), 3g, location services, and even removed apps thinking they were causing a drain. No luck. After 100% charge at 7am, I’m at 60% at 1pm and 20-30% late afternoon.
SOLUTION FOUND!
I Have been doing alot of RESEARCH with the BATTERY DRAIN PROBLEM and now I have found the core of the probelm,let me explain:
SYMPTOM:
My Battery would start to drain power abnormally, every 5-7 minutes for 1 percent. I have restored my Iphone previously which solved the problem last time but not this time…..
WHAT I TRIED BUT FAILED:
I restored my Iphone to IOS 4.3.4, Closed every single application, Disabled all push notification and disable Ping, disable location service and even turn on Airplaine mode!, howevthe batter still drains!!!!……….. :(
THE MAGIC TRICk
Finally, I read someone mentioned the issue with exchange server….. I thought I would investigate this further…. I made sure my exchange server setting is all correct.
Then the magical but simple thing I did:
1. Enable Wifi
2. Open “contacts” (or what ever that you have in the setting as sinc to the exchange server) and allow it few minutes to syncronise with the exchange server.
Doing the above 2 simple steps solved the annoying battery drain Problem which is associated to IOS updates for 4.3 and later!!!! What I suspect was happening was that the IOS is trying to synchronise my contacts with the exchange server in the background, however my phone have cellular data disabled and when I connect to wifi I don’t open my contacts……..therefore the IOS is tryin to synchronise and resynchronise and do this repeatedly in the background causing powerdrain and overheating.
I can not believe I finally found the solution to my battery drain problem. I was getting so sad and annoyed :( but now I am :)
Please post this on if it help you solve your Iphone battery drain probelm!
I have an iphone 3GS. I was getting a full days use from my iphone charging once every morning for about 30 minutes. Downloaded and updated iphone 4.3.4 2 days ago. Now my phone is dying within 2 hours after unplugging it from a power source(my PC or wall socket). I killed all apps multi-tasking before I went to bed last night. I had 80% battery and my iphone was dead by morning when i woke up. I’ve turned off push email and am recharging now. We will see if that works. Is anyone else having battery life issues after the iphone 4.3.4 upgrade?
This may be the cause of my issue. When I upgraded my 3GS to v4.3.4 my iphone started asking me for my Exchange password. It said my current pw was incorrect. Since then my phone has been running hot and dying within 2 hours. I just deleted my exchange account and am recharging to test if this works.
That was the issue. Thanks for the tip!
This worked for me! My battery was OK until iOS 4.3.4, when it tanked to a full discharge every 3-4 hours, even with no apps running.
The solution above worked for me. I went into my Settings… Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then chose any accounts that were connected via Exchange and turned them off, then back on. Then, while connected to WiFi, I opened my Calendar and Contacts apps and waited for them to finish syncing.
My battery is now back to the full-day discharge that it normally is. Thanks, kapwila!
Ever since the 4.3 update my iPhone now dies after only 5 minutes of use. I’ve done everything from resets to restorations and even updated the firmware, but can’t fix the problem. I’m really chapped about it.
The solution above worked for me. I went into my Settings… Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then chose any accounts that were connected via Exchange and turned them off, then back on. Then, while connected to WiFi, I opened my Calendar and Contacts apps and waited for them to finish syncing.
This solution has already been given in above by a few other people as well. I tried and my phone has been working fine. The battery is not draining any more and the phone is working fine. As it used to do in the good old 4.2.x days …
hope this helps …!!
i have had 6 iphones sent to be in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my usage and standby time is always the same showing me that my phone is RUNNING ALLL DAY LONG!! i charge my phone over night, i wake up and take it off the charger and i go back to bed for an hour and within in that hour of not even touching my phone, the battery has gone down 20 percent. my day starts around 9 or 10 and by 1:30 my phone completely dead! i am a stay home mom so in the mornings i only use my phone for a few calls and a few texts. they keep resting my phone and make it a new iphone and start over and yet this crap is still going on!!!!!!! i am beyond frustrated and i do not know what to do!!!!!! this is so unacceptable but nobody seems to know what the heck to do but replace it.
its bullshit did you have it fixed?!?!?! i have had 5 iphones replaced in 2 weeks and the same problem is being repeated with all 5 phones!1 usage and standby is the same and my pphone runs while im passed out!!! ill be luckly if i make it till noon
did yoiu have this resolved bc i am about to break my verizon contract if they dont give something non apple!’
I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 1 and they are both now having the same issues. I just watch the iPad tick down as I type. It’s really depressing!
YES YES YES and I’m not happy about this! Battery life within 15min decreases 15%, I can’t even keep my phone on or have time to charge it up (I’m a commuter for business). I have realized I rely on my phone too much for work etc, and it’s really caused problems. I have tried a number of solutions you suggested above and nothing has worked yet.
I will say this is the 2nd time this has occurred to me, first time I took it to the apple store and they said it was the firm wear- nothing I or they could do, however after 3 weeks my phone just stopped using the battery life and all was fine, SO STRANGE!!! I should have learned the first time.
I will mention that not only does it drain your battery- certain call buttons and “deleting” messages- won’t work.
I have the iphone 3Gs, which is only 1year and 1 month old, and I thought my battery was on its way out. I always try and leave charging the phone until it is at it’s lowest % and then fully charge it. I did do this yesterday and I unplugged at 3pm. I didn’t use the phone at all until nearly 8pm last night and the phone had already used 25%. Thought it was very strange and when I told my brother he said he thought the battery was in need of replacement. It was only until this morning that when I looked at my phone there was only 2% left and then it turned off. Was nearly buying a new battery until I googled the problem and found this information. Thank you.
I can appreciate all the reasoning and explanation for the battery drain, but is there a fix for it?
so you did the exchange sync steps then what? Did you turn off wifi and everything was fine? I did the steps (turned off exchange mail, calendar, and contacts (which deleted info from my iphone)) then turned on wifi, turned exchanges back on, checked that calendar and contacts had repopulated, then turned off wifi. I just did this so don’t know whether this annoying battery problem fixed….
mine iphone 3g is almost a year old and just had a new op sys upgrade and it’s draining in less than an hour after being fully recharged for hours! I don’t even recalling it taking that long to recharge. As soon as i unplug it, less than an hour goes by and it’s in the red againl I deleted almost everything with push notification (and that upsets me since news and weather were big) no deal. Just followed this thread and turned off the email push. I’ll wait and see what happens.
I’m just happy to know I’m not going crazy – I bought my iPad 2 a couple of months ago and was really impressed with the battery life – then a week or so ago I noticed that after I charged it to 100% even if I didn’t use it for a couple of hours it was already down to 90% or less – it was only when I read this article that I remembered that I was prompted to update the OS recently and did so without thinking.
So does anyone know if/when there will be a fix?
same here…Apple made me reset everything once already to “fix” this problem…OY!! it caused MORE problems…most everything got erased and I had to practically start from scratch…NOT good! Going on a long air flight and worried I won’t get to even watch a movie! Any help yet?
Hi guys first time i have used any of these sites, i bought an i phone back in march of amazon,
didnt no it was jailbroke as the seller never put it on, Anyway cut a long story short i was having problems with the battery last week i more or less had to leave it on charge all the time to use it only lasted an hour then was dead, so bought a new battery came yesterday, put it in and still the same prob lasted a lot longer then the old one did tho, came in from work at 9 this morning picked it up and it was on 71 % now on 21 %, any ideas what it could be ,
my phone dies even while turned off. are you serious, apple?
Yes you can count me in the crowd with battery issues. I unplugged from a full charge at noon, I’ve sent 3 text msgs check my mail once thats it and in four hrs I’m down to 80%. I’m relieved tho that its a known issue, I have the 4.3 update. So I guess we just suck it up till Apple gets off the couch and fixes it???
I am also experiencing severe battery shortage. Hope the find fix soon.
It’s a very bad upgrade, my iPhone 4 battery will not survive more than 6 hours, shame on you Apple
Try iOS 5.
I get about 1/2 a day of a charge on my iPhone 4, where before the new upgrade, I get about half a day. I’m a heavy user. It’s really frustrating. I hope aPple has a fix soon.
Yes this is exactly what I suspected.
Expiercing same thing
Same here! I don’t even use my phone much – was on recharge most of yesterday util late at night – 2 hours later and not used phone all day and battery is dead as a dodo!!!!
Just updated my iPad 2 to iOS 5 and started having battery issues some apps have locked up overall things don’t seem to work as smoothly as they did before
Just update my iPhone 3GS and I have had to charge it 3 times in one day, normally my battery will last for at least 1 day. Very annoying, hopefully there will be a remedy soon!! I’ve tried turning of all locations services etc… but no difference!!
Beyond annoying. I am a loyal Apple and Mac customer, but am about to ditch the iphone altogether. Shame on you Apple! I rely on my iphone for business and to keep in touch with my kids. I download YOUR update that YOU insists I should have and now my battery life is almost nothing.
See this link:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1357…
I’ve upgraded to iOs 5.0. Turning off this time zone setting has greatly improved my battery life. (3 Gs)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1357…
I have 3Gs running iOs 5.
The above maneuver has significantly improved my battery life.
– evan
Get the iOS 5 update & turn off the Setting time zone services & you will likely have very good battery life.
I have a 3Gs & this has significantly improved my battery life.
-evan
I need my phone for work and it now ids not holding a charge for more than 3 hrs! I can’t always be plugged in, that why I have a cell phone! They need to fix this fast!
Let me tell ya my story. I was on 4.3.1, had the phone for almost 4 months. Everything was great. Then suddenly, after a full charge of the battery, my phone started to run VERY hot and the battery was draining incredibly fast. I’m talking about 2% every 5 minutes. So i started asking google, doing all the possible things to make this stop and nothing. I changed even the battery and the same thing was happening. I’ve updated my phone to 5.0 and the problem kept going. Then, since was my first encounter with iOS 5, i started playing with the camera. Guess what? I HAD NO AUTOFOCUS! And it suddenly came to me that the phone is trying to move the camera lens, hence the heating and the fast battery drain. I removed the camera module completely and everything is back to normal. Dunno if replacing the camera module will get me back to the same problem, hopefully not, but this did the trick to me. So check your autofocus function before going nuts:)
The first two weeks of having the ipad, I was astounded at how long the battery was lasting. Now, I have noticed that I have to recharge it about every othe day. I think in the first two weeks, I only charged it once. I have been shutting it completely off when I am not using it, but the battery is zooming towards 0%. RIght now I am on 2% and an hour ago it was 40%. I read in the paper today that the batteries are draining faster, so I feel like I am not confused or delusional! help!
I charge all night and get maybe %50 charge and my phone is hot all the time!!!!!
I have the original ipad and I have to charge my ipad every night. It was at 100% and in five minutes drop to 98% and it was on standby, I hadn’t even started using it yet. I now have to keep my ipad plugged up and it still takes forever to charge compared to how long it gets drained. This is such an inconvenience. I have gone back to traveling with my 17 inch mac book pro (the reason I bought the ipad in the first place) because its battery life last longer than my ipad. This is very frustrating to have a device that you bought because of size, battery life and convenience only to have it and it be a hindrance to every day business. Please fix!!!
Woww!!!!!! I thought I had bought a defective phone Bt I see it’s that stupid update! Please when anyone gets any info that could help pls let me know!!! :/
Anyhow part of the solution is the essential batterylifeguard app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app…
Anyhow part of the solution is the essential batterylifeguard app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app…
My iPhone 3GS is dying very quickly. I had it off of the charger for 2 hours without any usage and it went down to 63%.
Yes I upgraded my iPhone and its terrible. I can almost watch the battery drain going on. Apple please fix this, i am a salesperson and I need my phone and this is a pain the the rump.
I have a 3 rd gen iPod touch, did the required iOS update. Now battery life is so much less, even with all tricks of things turned off. Even in stand by mode I am losing a great amount of battery life, I use to be able to play solitar and listen to music while going to sleep. Now I do that and after 2 hours I have about 40% battery life left, I put it in sleep mode when I get tired enough
updated the software, reset the phone, still charge it at least 3 times a day, no response from apple, no response from my service provider, to say to call this battery problem the work of idiots is an insult to idiots
I’m not a heavy user of my iPhone 4 at all, and there-for my battery would often last for 2-3 days. Since the update installed I have to charge every day, regardless if I have talked on it a lot or not. This is very frustrating to me, a I have lost calls and messages the last couple of days because the phone was off when I awoke, not realizing what the issue was. Whatever they did really messed up my iPhone battery, and I am not happy about it. Let’s hope they fix it soon, or I won’t be purchasing another iPhone.
my iphone with ios 4.3.3 isnt charging after it reaches 60%
can anyone help me and the battery lasts only for 4 hours at the most with wifi off
will updating the ios firmware to 5.0.1 fix this problem. plz help me fast
My IPhone 4 could go all day with out charging until the end of the day. After the upgrade, it starts to die after only 4 hours. FIX IT FAST APPLE!!!
i found this site that has a portable battery for ipod or iphone. all you have to do is plug the case to the ipod and it starts to charge
http://snapshopdeal.com/shop/s…