Apple’s iPhone battery fix fails to fix

November 11, 2011 By Trevor Mogg

Apple's iOS update, released on Thursday, was supposed to fix the problem a number of iPhone users have been having with the device's battery life. It appears, however, that for many phone owners the fix has had no effect.

At the end of last month some owners of Apple’s new iPhone 4S device running iOS 5 started to report problems with battery life.

After posts by disgruntled owners of the phone began to accumulate on various Apple forums, the Cupertino company acknowledged the problem. “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks,” it said in a statement.

Version 5.0.1 of the iOS was seeded to developers on November 2, and a short time later it was sent to select end users to try out. Everything appeared to be going smoothly, possibly ahead of schedule.

On Thursday iOS 5.0.1, supposedly containing the fix, was released by Apple. It appears, however, that some iPhone 4S users are still experiencing issues with battery life.

Forums are once again filling with posts by frustrated owners of the phone, complaining that the ‘fix’ hadn’t actually fixed anything at all. One poster wrote: “After installing update phone was fully charged at midnight. This morning at 8AM just sitting on desk, not used at all, battery down to 59%.”

Apple has up to now been somewhat reticent over the specific cause of the battery problem, saying only that it was related to a “few bugs” that had affected a small number of phones. Considering that the latest iOS update hasn’t solved the problem for all users, it seems that the Cupertino company doesn’t actually know the root cause of the problem.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller said, “The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” adding: “We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.” Meanwhile affected iPhone owners will just have to sit tight in the hope that Apple come up with a solution soon. And keep their phone on charge.

Showing 23 comments

Christopher D Hammock at 1:43am 13th November 2011 sound like people should have bought a droid
Jared Sirilo at 11:12pm 12th November 2011 I treat my Samsung Galaxy S ll as a computer more than a phone by keeping it plugged in till I need to go somewhere. I even made a long usb charging cable.
Bret Bagozzi at 5:07pm 12th November 2011 not only did it "fail to fix" it screwed up my ipod. TO THE APPLE STORE!
Joe Lachiana at 5:01pm 12th November 2011 People load 50apps and wonder why they have no battery life.
James Phillips at 3:38pm 12th November 2011 I'm convinced Facebook is the problem. No matter if you use the app or the webpage, it's constantly polling for data over 3G as indicated by the icon. My battery drops almost 1% per minute when using Facebook.
James Phillips at 3:36pm 12th November 2011 @Tommy : it is a myth that turning "background apps" off will save battery life. On the iPhone no tasks are running in the background - they are in a frozen state. In fact it could be argued that closing apps all the time wastes battery, because your most commonly used apps have to be reloaded from scratch over and over when you use them.
Tommy Massengale at 1:57pm 12th November 2011 If people learned how to turn off wifi and all background apps their issue would be resolved. Press the home button twice and at the bottom of screen apps will appear (that are running and consuming battery) press and hold one of the apps and then delete each one. Presto done! That easy period. During a single day I turn off over 40 of these before bed. Funny how complex everyone wants to make life. Quit complaining and enjoy the greatest phone on the planet! I know I will...
Tripp Elliott at 12:27pm 12th November 2011 My battery lasts me all day and I have the latest iOS 5
Greg Johnson at 11:57am 12th November 2011 I love these "Apple disaster" stories! Remember "Antennagate"? That was followed by huge, record sales of the "Antennagate" iPhone 4. Now there's gnashing of teeth about, I guess, "Batterygate." I predict a similar result.I'm sorry for those having problems. My 4S battery lasts much longer; I don't even recharge it every day.
chris-kerr at 2:06am 12th November 2011 I'd been suffering real issues with this on my 4S. I was loosing about 50% capacity in 2 hours with minimal activity and a very hot phone. Pretty unhelpful on a 26 hour flight form New York to Melbourne Australia!!However I found this useful article: http://www.macworld.com/article/163200/2011/10/troubleshoot_iphone4s_battery.htmlSo i tried the following and it seems fo have worked (12 hours into my testing period, still needs more):Here's how I did it:1) download new IOS 5.0.1 2) do a restore from iTunes (use cable not wifi) 3) set up as a new phone - DO NOT use a backup as it brings in some corruptions 4) go through the tedious process of a full setup from scratch - actually a good opportunity to not include crap apps you never use anywayOptional:on the phone, under Settings > Location Services > System Services (right at bottom of screen), turn off everything. There's been mixed comments about what specific system location setting it might be (Compass and Time Zone seem popular culprits), but I've turned them all of for now and will introduce them one at a time over the next week to see if any one (or combination) makes a differenceI've also killed the iCloud as I sync with my laptop and all my email, contacts, calendar and reminders/tasks are on Exchange systems (Work & Gmail) so it's frankly pointless and I couldn't fit my 180Gb music library on there even with the overpriced top level of iCloud.And normal service resumes and you don't feel like a cock because your new iGadget actually works now :-)
Joe Pawlak at 9:39am 12th November 2011 Yikes.
Tyler Roden at 7:55am 12th November 2011 Sounds like the battery life on my HTC Thunderbolt. I empathize.
Dean Parks at 7:17am 12th November 2011 Jobs is laughing from the grave...
Jared Sirilo at 6:43am 12th November 2011 You cannot change the fact it needs a better battery with more Mah.
Steve Coyle at 6:30am 12th November 2011 hahaha.....
Julian Bugliarisi at 6:27am 12th November 2011 Works fine for me
Marisol Irigoyen at 6:27am 12th November 2011 At least my skype works now
James Phillips at 6:25am 12th November 2011 LOL. Didn't I read an article just a day or two ago which said something along the lines of "iOS 5.0.1 is freaking amazing according to beta testers, battery life through the roof etc"?? Well I updated today and have noticed absolutely no improvement, plus my phone has started sounding message tones when there is no message. The thread on the Apple forum is now 300+ pages of people complaining that their battery life is either no better or much worse.
Sharke at 9:57pm 11th November 2011 How can few bugs "only affect a small number of phones"? If it's bugs, it's a software issue. We all have the same hardware. And we all, presumably, have the same software. So either Apple is talking out of it's arse, or what it meant to say is that 3rd party Apps are responsible.
1. Ian Bell at 10:10pm 11th November 2011 I think you could be right about the third party apps. I think Apple is just trying to cover their tracks obviously. Better to answer a question with a question when you don't know the answer. And that is what Apple is sort of doing in my opinion.
  1. Sharke at 10:37pm 11th November 2011 If I had to put money on it being a case of iOS 5 not playing nicely with a 3rd party app, I think I would have to go with Facebook using way more data than it should. I don't know what the hell is up with that app but the 3G circle never stops spinning when I have it open, even if I'm not updating anything. If I had to make another guess I would go with something Exchange related - people have had severe battery issues with Exchange push before, and if say you're having Gmail and Google Calendars pushed, it could well be something to do with iPhones not playing nice with Google's servers or something. And if that's the case then we're buggered because I can't see Google collaborating with Apple to get it fixed.Anyway, those two things would affect a lot of people, but not all people, which would explain why some people are reporting no problems while others are going nuts. Although I might be completely wrong, lol.
    Ian Bell at 10:48pm 11th November 2011 I think you are right. I had to turn off "Push" and tell my iPhone to check for email on my exchange every 5 minutes instead. The day I made that change it saved me about 30% on my battery life.With regards to Facebook, something fishy is going on. I will have the app completely closed and STILL random notifications from it alerting me to people commenting, adding me as a friend etc. And I mean with the app completely off (yes, double tapping the home button and clicking on the tiny X to close it) haha.
    Sharke at 12:43am 12th November 2011 Do you have Facebook notifications turned on or off? Mine are turned off and I don't get any - I have to open the app to see them. Mind, when I had a Blackberry the Facebook app would push me notification alerts even when I had them switched off in the settings. I think Facebook phone apps in general are programmed very badly. The iPhone one has tons of bugs that are annoying every time you use it, for example pairing the wrong comments with photos etc.