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Mon, 06 Jul 2009 iPhone users complain to Apple about poor battery life

Dubbed 'iDrain,' problem likely a iPhone OS 3.0 software glitch, says expert

Gregg Keizer Computerworld

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Reports that Apple's iPhones are draining their batteries so fast that some users can't make it through a workday without recharging likely point to a problem in the new iPhone OS 3.0 software, an Apple hardware repair expert said on Sunday.

"Users are reporting battery issues that it runs out very quickly," said Aaron Vronko, the CEO of Michigan-based Rapid Repair, a firm that fixes iPods and iPhones and sells parts for do-it-yourselfers. "It sounds like a problem with iPhone 3.0 [and having] some of its features turned on."

Vronko, who posted one of the first teardowns of the new iPhone 3GS on launch day, June 19, suspects that it's not the battery itself, which is nearly identical to the one found in the older iPhone 3G.

"I don't think it's a hardware issue," he said, "but some interaction within the software that's not quite working as intended. Something is really draining the battery." Another teardown, done by iFixit, noted that the iPhone 3GS's battery is just 6 per cent more powerful than the battery in its predecessor.

Users started complaining about poor battery performance almost as soon as Apple offered iPhone 3.0, the software available for download June 17 for first-generation iPhones and second-generation iPhone 3Gs. The new iPhone 3GS relies on the same software.

"After updating to [iPhone] 3.0 the battery life is very short. It consumes 5%-10% an hour," claimed an original iPhone user identified as "ukfasthands" in a message posted on Apple's support forum June 17.

"I too have experienced severe battery depletion issues since updating to 3.0," echoed Donald Cowan in another message posted on Apple's support forum. "Normally get 5 days or so with my 1st Gen iPhone in standby, but now lucky to get through the day. From a communication point of view my iPhone is now a liability."

iPhone 3G owners who had updated to iPhone 3.0 also said their phones were draining extraordinarily fast. "There's a drastic reduction in battery power to my iPhone 3G since I installed the 3.0 software," said Paul Irvine on the same support thread as Cowan. "Within 2 hours, power drains from a full charge to the alert for 20% power remaining, then the 10 per cent alert followed by it going dead."

Although suggestions by others to delete email accounts, especially Microsoft Exchange accounts, then restore those accounts, fixed the problem for some - leading users to speculate that the vaunted "push notification" that debuted in iPhone 3.0 was the culprit - the solution didn't help everyone.

iPhone 3GS users also waded into the battery waters. Several threads on the 3GS support forums boast as many as 100 messages and have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

"I've had each generation of iPhone since they were launched in 2007, and upgraded from my 3G to the new 3GS a week ago on the day of its release," said "ahawkinson" on June 27. "My experience with the battery life has been really, really poor."

As is usually the case, others stepped in with advice or theories. One of the latter blamed corrupt backups from earlier models, while the former centered on doing a factory reset of settings, then downloading and reinstalling iPhone 3.0.

But that recommendation only raised hackles. "All this rubbish about make sure this is turned off, do resets, clear this that and the other, just so you can preserve battery life is a load of rubbish!" exclaimed a user labeled "::..S a m..::" in a 3GS support forum. "What's the point of having all these features if you don't have the power to run them?"

Apple's own advice about extending battery life made Sam's point, as it suggests that users turn off a myriad of features, including some it touted when it rolled out iPhone 3.0 in March and the iPhone 3GS in early June.

To add to the problem, the iPhone doesn't let users swap out a fresh battery for one that's died, something other cell- and smartphones allow. The omission of a user-replaceable battery was a point of contention in 2007, when the iPhone debuted, with at least one consumer group questioning the practice. For the most part, discussion of the merits of a sealed battery haven't plagued Apple since then.

iPhone battery consumption has even made the national mainstream press.

Late last week, after one Los Angeles Times reporter filed a story about the problem, another chimed in with some personal observations after seeing fast draining on her own iPhone 3GS. "The 'S' in 3GS may stand for many things on this device -- 'sexy,' 'speed,' 'sweet' -- but it certainly doesn't stand for 'stamina,'" said Michelle Maltais. She later dubbed the issue "iDrain."

Help, however, may be on the way, said Rapid Repair's Vronko. "Apple has already delivered the iPhone 3.1 SDK to developers," Vronko said. "I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't fix some of the problems."

Apple was not available on Sunday for comment on the "iDrain" reports from users.

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Comments received


chipper said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

v3 is not going well.

William said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

it had better be fixable. both my 3G and 3GS are draining so fast. Ive resorted to carrying BOTH of them with me :S

I've also noticed the wifi antenna seems to kill itself off a lot more than with 2.x

Chris said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

From the iPod touch point of view the battery life is terrible now, normally my 2nd gen touch could go 4 or 5 days before depleting, but now its 2 days maybe 3 if i am lucky. wifi reception is poorer too.

I like the 3.0 software but i may roll back to 2.1 to maintain battery life till this is fixed.

Debs said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

Yep - am getting it too. Temporarily solved by turning off 'Notifications' - which disables Push notification for my third party apps. Not too happy about this.

Pippin said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

iPod Touch definitely draining faster and seems slower to connect to wifi compared to v2
iPhone 3GS connects fast but I'm careful about battery by turning off 3G etc but I shouldn't have to do this
love the phone

Michael said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

I'm still re-training/calibrating my battery from transit (just got 3GS), so I'm currently getting longer battery life with each charge. I do think it drains too quickly, though it's definitely comms related; the battery drains as slowly as ever in "Airplane Mode". Both Apple and the users could improve matters here.

Andy said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

No problems here - my 3GS has 50% or more charge at the end of the day.

Wes said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

We went through this with iPhone 1.0 and 2.0, both of which were addressed within 1-2 patches. It should come as no surprise with 3.0. Now, why Apple can't make it a priority to address these issues before the x.0 launch is beyond me.

Craig said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

Absolutely no problem with battery power however I am finding reception of 3G has decreased since moving to Version 3.

David James said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

SOLUTION: I tried everything but then found once I switched off Push (it still enables app push notifications) my battery life returned to normal. Syncing with MobileMe has also been faultless since going back to 15 minute fetch.

crazytrain said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

Major battery issues with my 3GS. Not only does it drain far more quickly than my previous 3G (and I don't have push turned on), but it also takes much longer to charge, and I can no longer charge through my USB hub that I used to be able to use with the 3G. It also crashes far more often (mainly in Safari) and I've had to do 5 or 6 complete hard resets when its completely frozen (which I never had to do once with the 3G). Not happy at all with this upgrade....

Richie said on Mon, 06 Jul 2009

I have been using 3.0 BETA and GM for quite long time now and not noticed any issues with power, found it to have more battery power life at the end of the day than 2.x did, so not sure what users are doing to drain it but some app or option turned on must be the cause as my iPhone is ok, I may today update to 3.1 and see what I find with that one.

nom said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

my 3GS battery depletes quicker than my prev Edge iPhone - but I expected that

I use a lot with maps, GPS and Magnometer enabled so I keep on charger when in car

turned off push notification but won't do that with 3G as it's good to be able to check internet or maps while on a call

Craig.w said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

Why is it that they allways include some random picture of the iPhone half way down the page. I mean, what's accessibility got to do with draining batteries. They could have put an iPhone charging or something like that.

Rich S said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

I am now on my 2nd 3GS and this will be returned shortly if no fix is found. First one had yellow tint that became more prominent.

It seems there is very little quality control happening either in hardware or software.

Thomas said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

I had problems with battery life and it took ages to charge, I reset my settings (not the data) then changed everything back to how I want it and my battery life is now fine. No idea why that should work but it did.

James Donevan said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

Does no one at Macworld have an iPhone 3GS to facilitate first hand reporting of this issue. This is a widespread problem being reported internationally and the best Macworld can do is rehash other reports? Not very good.

If there was ever a story that was made for Macworld, this is it. How difficult can it be for several of your reporters to compare their personal experience with battery drain on their own iPhones?

David said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

My iPhone 3G has had no problems, still only get around 1 day out of it but I play lots of games, listen to music and surf the web so it's expected.

David H said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

My only slight disappointment with 3GS over the 3G is that there doesn't seem to be much difference in battery life - still lasts a good 24 hours but no better on the S. My real complaint is with the phone signal; my house has a poor signal but I am generally getting one less 'blob' with the S which often means 'No Signal' . . .

David H said on Tue, 07 Jul 2009

My only slight disappointment with 3GS over the 3G is that there doesn't seem to be much difference in battery life - still lasts a good 24 hours but no better on the S. My real complaint is with the phone signal; my house has a poor signal but I am generally getting one less 'blob' with the S which often means 'No Signal' . . .

Tel22 said on Fri, 24 Jul 2009

Last week I bought the iphone 3GS and since then the batterylife has been terrable, I will charge it to full battery befor I go to bed then leave it on stand by over night (about 9 hours) when i wake up in the morning it is completely dead. Im starting to think that I play Tap Tap Revenge in my sleep because that is the only reason I can think for the battery to be drainging this fast.

Tel22 said on Fri, 24 Jul 2009

Last week I bought the iphone 3GS and since then the batterylife has been terrable, I will charge it to full battery befor I go to bed then leave it on stand by over night (about 9 hours) when i wake up in the morning it is completely dead. Im starting to think that I play Tap Tap Revenge in my sleep because that is the only reason I can think for the battery to be drainging this fast.

RonATL said on Tue, 28 Jul 2009

I upgraded my 1st gen iPod touch to the new 3.0 2 weeks ago before leaving for europe. My entire battery drains in 2 hours max if listening to music, about 12 hours if turned off. I have mail, web, wifi, push, everything disabled. I'm very disappointed.

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