battery life on 5.1.1

[lbpanter]

i am on 5.1.1 (updated a couple of days ago) and my battery life has drastically decreased. it was fully charged at 6:00 this morning and now (3 hours later) is at 53%. I looked to see if i downloaded anything or what changes i have made recently and the only difference is going from 5.1 to 5.1.1. Anyone else have this issue? It is driving me crazy! Anyone know how to fix?

 

[Skull One]

Drain it down till it falls below 5% and then do a full recharge. May have to do this twice. You are basically seeing the affects of "starting over" on your battery stats used by iOS.

 

[dlwhtrose]

I use wifi whenever it's available and that seems to do wonders for the battery life.


Tappin through the universe

 

[velocity22]

I'm having the same issue as lbpanter; will try what Skull One suggested.

It has always been my understanding that using Wi Fi drains the battery more quickly, not less. Is that wrong? Does using/having Wi Fi on, actually use less battery power?

 

[dlwhtrose]

I get way better battery life when using wifi. I'm not sure if that is the norm or not but that is my experience.


Tappin through the universe

 

[Skull One]

Wifi at full load uses roughly 36% less power than 3G under optimal conditions based on my Android testing. I haven't run the same level of testing under iOS because I refuse to jailbreak to be able to read the dB loss of both signals. But since the radios are very similar, I suspect that it is comparable.

So dlwhtrose is quite correct in her observations. Wifi should always be preferable to 3G.

 

[crowd pleaser]

I just spent a week in France, mot prepared to pay ridiculous data roaming and call charges i turned off data, and diverted my phone to home answer phone.

Phone was on simply to receive texts 3G active but WiFi on only at hot spots to check mail.

We left on Friday morning, it lasted until Wednesday evening before going red having made a few calls to check the messages.

Conclusion drawn (not scientific) WiFi on while not registered to a hotspot causes very heavy battery use.

 

[Skull One]

I just spent a week in France, mot prepared to pay ridiculous data roaming and call charges i turned off data, and diverted my phone to home answer phone.

Phone was on simply to receive texts 3G active but WiFi on only at hot spots to check mail.

We left on Friday morning, it lasted until Wednesday evening before going red having made a few calls to check the messages.

Conclusion drawn (not scientific) WiFi on while not registered to a hotspot causes very heavy battery use.

That is impossible. iOS API specifically states that wifi only turns on under two conditions.

1) You wake the phone up.
2) An app has registered itself to use WiFi

The developer documents further states that wifi shuts off after 30 minutes automatically if no activity. And as an iOS developer I can confirm that is exactly how iOS has worked since version 4 was released.

 

[zig9449]

Yup.

Do what Skull One said

You cannot state whether an iOS drains battery really fast after a fresh restore....it just can't be done.

You have to do a full cycle charge before you make assumptions about battery life.

When I updated to 5.1 my battery drained so rapidly it was almost unbelievable.

Of coarse I knew better. I did 2 full cycle charges...and after that I realized my battery usage definitely increased with the 5.1 update.

Tho I restores back to 5.0.1 to have the untether and enjoy the original lock screen :/

Bums me out that I have to install yet another Mobile Substrate addon just so I can have my old lock screen slider back.lol.

Apple should have made the new lock screen camera grabber an option to you can toggle on/off, and an option to only show when you double press home......I just don't like it....well...I actually love the new function....I jus hate that it's *alway* there and not an option you can enable/disable.lol.

 

[crowd pleaser]

That is impossible. iOS API specifically states that wifi only turns on under two conditions.

1) You wake the phone up.
2) An app has registered itself to use WiFi

The developer documents further states that wifi shuts off after 30 minutes automatically if no activity. And as an iOS developer I can confirm that is exactly how iOS has worked since version 4 was released.

Did i not "say conclusion 'not scientific' ".

i use my phone for business, very little social use in order not to block incoming sales or service calls.

my job often entails field diagnostics, so i know one example don't make proof perfect. Just with greatest respects that experience means i treat 'developer documents' with a very jaundiced eye (otherwise why so many bug fixes be needed if the developers were always bang right first or even 20th time as example?).

Not saying i'm right either, just my observation of results while under a different usage regime for a short 'test' period.

btw never ever cycled my battery either, which is now just over a year old. It has wonderful battery life, if they were ALL the same as per 'developers documents, my battery should fade just typing this reply surely?

CP

 

[lbpanter]

Ok. Thanks guys for all the replies. My battery life is good again after letting it go down to 5% then recharging fully. Thanks for the suggestion!

Sent from my iPhone using iPF.net

 

[Skull One]

Did i not "say conclusion 'not scientific' ".

i use my phone for business, very little social use in order not to block incoming sales or service calls.

my job often entails field diagnostics, so i know one example don't make proof perfect. Just with greatest respects that experience means i treat 'developer documents' with a very jaundiced eye (otherwise why so many bug fixes be needed if the developers were always bang right first or even 20th time as example?).

Not saying i'm right either, just my observation of results while under a different usage regime for a short 'test' period.

btw never ever cycled my battery either, which is now just over a year old. It has wonderful battery life, if they were ALL the same as per 'developers documents, my battery should fade just typing this reply surely?

CP

The good news of the day is, that API documentation is spot on and has been for the 14 months since I have been using the iPhone. This is thru direct observation as a developer. Odds are you were dealing with a roaming issue and your phone was only talking with a few select towers that put your radio dB at around -99 down to -108 dB. Which will cut your standby time in half and even as far down as 1/3rd.

BTW; hunting for WiFi hotspots takes less than 45 seconds and is a listen only mode which means the power used is not even 1/2 the power of sustaining an active connection. Once nothing is found the system goes into periodic listen mode and that only occurs when the screen is on.

And deep cycle discharges are only needed if you don't use the battery in a consistent manner. IE if you don't play a lot of games and use it as a phone only with it being put on the charger at 60% or more every time, you could go the next 3 years with no issues. It's when you start putting a full load on the CPU and GPU that you can skew the battery stats and you might need a deep cycle run to help the stats level out.

 

[crowd pleaser]

Hi Skull,
Just shows how subjective individual user views on battery life really is. Puts me in mind of old CB days- getting requests for signal strength.

Personally i've found it very good on both my ip4hone and ipad2 against other phones i've used, especially win mob's.

Tbh been seriously pondering to stay put and not go for the S upgrade in a few months just on a don't fix what is not broke basis and Siri just don't float my boat.

I normally have blue tooth enabled as to much faff to turn it on/off, don't play games often, or have push mail / auto check enabled (is it ever THAT important?).

this stops audible pings of new emails during the night - which keeps madame dragon happy, saves on battery and stress use.

Only time i have heavy use is if i forget to turn off my satnav app after looking up an address (doh'), even then it last a few hours.

Regs
CP

 

[pinkiwong]

does anyone know of a good portable battery charger? i am desperate in need of one!

 

[willerz2]

Well the only thing that I can agree with Apple is the fact that it's good to completely drain your iPhone's battery monthly (or twice a month) to upkeep a healthy battery life. The little things like notifications, fetching, etc, will also affect your battery life. I'd recommend getting a battery replacement every year to get the most out of your charge. My uncle's iPhone is abused on a daily basis, being used on and off almost all day, and even with a fully charged Mophie case, it doesn't give all the charge back that you'd like. Got a new battery, improved battery life (considering he's had over 250 full charge cycles on it in a span of 8 months)