Anyone have iPhone 4 battery issues? I'm losing 1%/minute...

OzyOly · 21 Jul 2010 at 18:31

Hey there, my iPhone 4 battery seems to be screwed. It started off brilliantly, much better than my 3g, which after two years lasted about 5 hours.

However, recently, my iphone 4 battery has been getting worse.

If I'm using it casually, such as texting or reading mail, it will lose 1% every 2/3 minutes.
If I use wi-fi/make a 3g call/GPS it will lose about 1% every minute.

I just took it off full charge 20 minutes ago, I made 3 texts and went on wi-fi for internet for 5 minutes to get apple's support number, had a 10 minute conversation with applecare and it's down to 90% charge.

I don't usually have wi-fi on as a rule, I only turn it on when it need it.
Screen brightness is at 50%
Push notifications are off (although I do have mobile me that pushes calander and bookmarks but not mail)
I have two imap mail accounts that are checked every half hour

I've heard people get a whole day of casual usage out of their iphone 4 and the battery is still in the 70%-80% range, is this true? What's you're battery life been like?

Feek · 21 Jul 2010 at 18:50

Sounds broken to me. Take it to an Apple Store.

OzyOly · 21 Jul 2010 at 18:55

That's what i was thinking. The battery was crazy when i got it on release day, lasted for about 2 days without charge.

The applecare man said to restore the phone and try it for a few hours to see if it was a piece of software that is eating up the battery in the background. So I've done that.

My only concern is that if it is a faulty battery, how long it will be before they can replace my phone seeing as there aren't any available in shops etc.

mr.sly · 21 Jul 2010 at 18:59

OzyOly said:
That's what i was thinking. The battery was crazy when i got it on release day, lasted for about 2 days without charge.

The applecare man said to restore the phone and try it for a few hours to see if it was a piece of software that is eating up the battery in the background. So I've done that.

My only concern is that if it is a faulty battery, how long it will be before they can replace my phone seeing as there aren't any available in shops etc.

I think they keep phones in store that aren't for sale. A friend of mine took his back 2 days after launch and they swapped it in-store with no waiting.

FreeStream · 21 Jul 2010 at 19:13

OzyOly said:
That's what i was thinking. The battery was crazy when i got it on release day, lasted for about 2 days without charge.

The applecare man said to restore the phone and try it for a few hours to see if it was a piece of software that is eating up the battery in the background. So I've done that.

My only concern is that if it is a faulty battery, how long it will be before they can replace my phone seeing as there aren't any available in shops etc.

Run it all the way down to calibrate it?

OzyOly · 21 Jul 2010 at 19:20

Concorde Rules said:
Run it all the way down to calibrate it?

Tried that, it's dead by the end of the day or near enough at 3%-ish then I charge it over night.
It's been restored now so will try it for a day and if there is no improvement i'll book a genius appointment for when I take my iMac in for a service.

OzyOly · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:38

Right seems to be bad still after the restore, though not as bad.

93%
Usage: 38m
Standby 1h53m
Since full recharge

Looks like i need to call apple again tomorrow and arrange a replacement.

mr.sly · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:40

OzyOly said:
Right seems to be bad still after the restore, though not as bad.

93%
Usage: 38m
Standby 1h53m
Since full recharge

Looks like i need to call apple again tomorrow and arrange a replacement.

Depends what you've been doing with the phone in those 38 minutes. Playing games? Streaming music over 3G/Wifi? Playing video?

OzyOly · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:40

mr.sly said:
Depends what you've been doing with the phone in those 38 minutes. Playing games? Streaming music over 3G/Wifi? Playing video?

Texting, check mail and went on 3g internet for 10 of those minutes, just browsing though.

mr.sly · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:44

OzyOly said:
Texting, check mail and went on 3g internet for 10 of those minutes, just browsing though.

Ahh, maybe there is a problem then.

Usage 30 minutes
Stand-by 2 hours 50 minutes

And my battery is on 99%

That was taking a few pictures, uploading to MobileMe, Facebook, Twitter and a bit of browsing, with both 3G and Wifi on.

OzyOly · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:47

mr.sly said:
Ahh, maybe there is a problem then.

Usage 30 minutes
Stand-by 2 hours 50 minutes

And my battery is on 99%

That was taking a few pictures, uploading to MobileMe, Facebook, Twitter and a bit of browsing, with both 3G and Wifi on.

God damnit!

This is not fair, I hope the replacement will be okay. I always seem to get the problems with apple products, it's bad luck haha.

I'm having to take my iMac into the store in a few weeks to get a 3rd LCD panel because an image persistence issue, so might book in an iphone genius appointment at the same time...

Mattus · 22 Jul 2010 at 00:11

When you set up the phone, did you restore a backup which originally came from your 3G? I read that some people were having battery issues after restoring older backups. As a test, you could try restoring the phone, but not loading your backup onto it.

OzyOly · 22 Jul 2010 at 00:13

Mattus said:
When you set up the phone, did you restore a backup which originally came from your 3G? I read that some people were having battery issues after restoring older backups. As a test, you could try restoring the phone, but not loading your backup onto it.

That's exactly what I did. I loaded in a back up of my 3g onto my iphone 4. However, initially the battery was great, this is something that started a wekk after.

I have restored my iphone as a new phone this evening and the battery still seems to be draining badly so I'm pretty sure it's not the software that's causing it.

Mike UK · 23 Jul 2010 at 16:19

Noticed this morning mines not doing aswell as it used to

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Surely that cant be right ..Can it?

OzyOly · 23 Jul 2010 at 16:25

Mine is like that after 10 minutes of use. I have to travel to either shefield, Manchester or Newcastle to try get my phone changed now. Such a pain!

geekyEd · 23 Jul 2010 at 16:25

Maybe theres an app for that! by that I mean could it be an app that you have installed draining your power.

Also have you switched off "ask to join networks" when the wifi is on?

Alex_L · 23 Jul 2010 at 17:10

I'm having battery issues as well.

Mine is showinf 27%, after being off charge since 8am. Interesting thing is it's showing 9 hours usage, and 9 hours standby. This suggests something is eating in the background given it's been in my pocket most of the day on the home screen.

Suggestions on how to identify the rogue app? Or take it back to the apple store?

Yaka · 28 Jul 2010 at 19:10

my first iphone 4 was like this would remove from cradle at 6am, and batteries would be drained by 12pm on stand by if i even used it a bit it would be dead by 11am. sent mine off to be checked last week new one arrived yesterday and all is well. i did do what apple suggested with this one and not restore from 3g and set it up as new. new ones batteries at 79% after a bit of use today

Raikiri · 28 Jul 2010 at 21:46

Mike UK said:
Noticed this morning mines not doing aswell as it used to

Surely that cant be right ..Can it?

22 mins of usage and 32 mins of standby using 3% seems fine?

Equals about 12 hours of usage and 17-18 hours of standby, assuming each used 1.5% (although, it's probably more like 10 hours of use and 24 hours standby).

OzyOly · 28 Jul 2010 at 21:51

Well these are the kind of drainages I'm getting after setting up as a new phone;

Still not great really. I'm taking it to an apple store, along with my iMac in 2 weeks.