iPhone 2.2 and battery life

A thought from a non-techie:

When I got the 3G replacement for my original phone (got wet, killed the screen; $200 to fix or $300 for a new phone? Hmm.), I couldn't believe how fast I was going from green to 20%. But then I couldn't believe how long I would STAY at 10-20%. I listened to Pandora one night for FOUR HOURS after hitting the 20% red zone. So I realized that I had no idea how much battery I'd used or had left. Solution? Totally run down the battery to discharge, then recharge overnight. I know you shouldn't have to do that with the lith-ions, and while I don't believe it changed battery life at all, what it DID do was calibrate the battery icon to more reflect reality.

So what I'm thinking is that 2.2 has created the need to repeat that process, and I suspect we'll find that 2.2 doesn't improve or decrease battery usage at all. That the "impression" of better/worse life is due to an out-of-whack battery icon caused by the soft/firmware update.

Got anything to lose by trying?

SCOTT'S REPLY: Not a thing to lose by trying, Greg. Great suggestion!

Still not sure if it's better or not but 1 thing I'm sure of is that it sure would be nice to have a proper % indicator that was more accurate. Mine is no worse so far and might be better also but it's still too soon to make that call yet. Need to use it in more varied conditions to draw that conclusion. Thanks for the help yesterday.

SCOTT's REPLY: I agree that a proper indicator would be great, but my fear is that we get an indicator and it's completely inaccurate.

Total tangent, but this thread seemed lonely.

Nov. 23, approx. 10:02p. FINALLY getting to 2.2 update. Perhaps not as excited as you and your many followers, but interested nonetheless.

10:07p: After again being reminded how long this will take, I go running.

11:42p: Return from some running/more walking. Update is complete. Rob is happy. Rob still really doesn't pay attention to the important things.

Nov. 24, 11:23a: Rob takes his 1G iPhone for a walk. Notices just now that one song -- ONE? -- is on the phone. One out of, say, 441 (that's 1.2 days). Rob still doesn't really pay attention to the important things and can only hear "Veronica" so many times.

Nov. 25, 11:34a: With Season 2 of The West Wing on in the background (I thought it would be good luck), Rob attempts to sync said iPhone and get his friggin' music back, when he FINALLY starts to pay attention.

The pretty, multi-colored contents bar at the bottom of iTunes reads the following:

Audio: 52.3 MB

Photos: 544.5 MB

Apps: 817.1 MB (yes, 8 pages, I know ...)

Other: 5.18 GB (???)

Free: 527.8 MB

So, after a long-winded post, I ask you old friend: What in blazes is 5.18 GB of "Other" doing on my phone? Is it related to all of the apps? And if so, how is it that I had everything on my device working properly BEFORE the 2.2 update?

Wait ... "Other" isn't new code for "I'm a PC," is it?

SCOTT'S REPLY: What have you done to your iPhone, Rob? Can't leave you alone with it for a second, can I?

I have good news and bad news.

First the good news ... it can be fixed.

But the bad -- normally you need to restore your iPhone.

So I'd do the following in this order.

1. Hard reset your iPhone by holding down the center button and the top button for about 10 seconds until you get the apple logo -- don't release until you see the logo.

2. Once the iPhone is rebooted, restart your computer.

3. Connect your computer to your iPhone and sync. Check to see if a backup is done too ... you want to have a recent backup if it all possible.

4. After the sync, see if the other is gone or back to normal levels.

5. If not, you need to restore. You'll see the tab in iTunes. It can take a while and restoring is never a fun process. As long as you have a recent backup, you should be in fine shape and be able to restore from backup without too much interruption.

The other is normally anything not listed -- not music, apps, etc. But sometimes it gets bloated. It's not really filled with anything, but it is taking up space. It's hard to explain.

But those steps would be a good place to start.

Good luck. Tell me what happens.

Scott:

I am strongly in your camp--my battery drain has improved dramatically since the update. While it may be simply that the usage meter was previously giving a false red-zone reading, the difference for me and several of my friends has been dramatic...at LEAST twice the battery life after 2.2. I've gone from charging every evening to every-other evening...IF THAT. With all due respect to the one commenter's observation that it is only a gauge change, false readings from the battery gauge will not actually extend the time you can use your phone. And that exactly is what a number of us are experiencing.

Clearly, someone at Apple knows what's going on here, and their silence is most interesting.

Regards,

Gregg

SCOTT'S REPLY: Sadly, Gregg, the silence isn't interesting only because it's typical for Apple to know of a problem of this magnitude and leave it to bloggers and disgruntled customers to guess and not tell us about it.

I just went to your site to make a new battery report and you have another article...

Last night I did the same thing I do about 2 to 3 nights a week. I brought my MBP into my bedroom to watch TV on the Slingbox. I then plug in my iPhone to charge until the MBP automatically shuts down at like 1:30am. Then the MBP starts up again at 7am and the alarm on the iPhone goes off. This morning, though, instead of a just about full iPhone battery the indicator was in the RED. Guess I'll be plugging in the iPhone to the wall outlet at night from now on.

Aloha

SCOTT'S REPLY; Aloha, Jacob. Sorry to hear that you are hit by it as well.

I'm still irritated to no end by the lack of practical (for the majority of users) features in this update, but I'll give credit where due. My phone is getting far better battery life. Yesterday my stats were 10.5 hours of standby and 6.5 hours of use (of which most was data) with wifi and push email running(recieved about 70 emails and responed to about half of them) and about 21/2 hours of Wunderradio, which usually kills the battery,. As I went to bed the 10% warning just came up. Before, 6 hours of use by itself would have had the phone turned off after 4 hours of use alone without the standby and push running.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I'm still happy to hear that some folks are having positive results.

initially I thought battery life was better...no longer. I use wunder radio everyday and love it. I NEVER noticed any battery drain with it...now it is rapid!

can no longer hold a full charge for a day...before rarely saw 20% indicator.

SCOTT"S REPLY: I'm starting to think that my battery life isn't as good now as it was before ... Sigh.

I have the iphone 3g and i have not had any battery problems before updating to 2.2. Now the battery icon gives me false information about how much battery is left. I will try what greg has suggested to see if that will make things a little bit better. I would think Apple would get all of this stuff figured out by now... Other than that, the other features work wonderful and I am not having any other troubles with Apps or anything.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yep. It clearly appears to be the icon.

I am in the camp where battery life has never been worse. I have forced quit Safari, and have noticed a SLIGHT improvement. Do I have to force quit Mail as well? I cant say I have noticed my phone being warmer than normal. All I know is, there is no way my battery life is the same or better...it is simply barely usable.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Force quitting anything is useful because it stops the processes from working in the background, but it's only temporary.

I updated to 2.2 and now have terrible battery life. I've not changed my usage patterns nor have I installed any new apps. I'm lucky if my phone stays charged for four hours while in stand by. Right now I'm permanently attached to the wall charger. I have noticed that the battery icon changes from a lightning bolt to a plug when in use and plugged into the wall. Not sure if that means anything.

SCOTT's REPLY: Well, Rick, when it turns into a plug it means fully charged -- however, I'm skeptical that anything the battery icon is showing is correct. I think that's where part of the problem is.

My battery used to occasionally make it two days. A lot of times I'd charge every night even tho I didn't need to. It would only be down to half or so. Since I updated, it barely makes it thru a day. I have also noticed the back of my phone to be warm quite a few times since the update. I charged last nite, was down to 20% by 3pm, recharged, and now i'm at about 30%-ish at 9pm. And I haven't even used it to do much of anything! This isn't going to work for me at all, I hope someone figures out a way to fix it soon or there's another update.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I don't understand where the problem arises -- Apple seems to fix it and then we revert to this.

Really, really weird. I'm in the significantly better battery life camp. I usually have to recharge every day, but after the update to 2.2, I got 3 days of standby time, 5+ hours of usage, with some wifi and occasional e-mail checks. And my phone was just hitting the red level when I recharged it. Also, it recharged back to full in about an hour. It's almost like I have a completely new phone now with at least double the battery life. I should point out that I keep my phone set to Edge at all times, since there is no 3G in Alaska yet.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Well, the EDGE could have something to do with it, I'm sure. And it doesn't sound like you use push for your e-mail. Correct?

Yesterday I had my phone fully charged for the first time after the update and it told me the whole day I had a 100% charge until it died without warning. Today it did it again. Since I am out of town for the holidays it is especially unwelcome. I can't rely on knowing when it will die.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Indeed. I feel your pain. That's the whole reason we have a battery icon!

My battery life has gone from 2 days to 5 hours with less use, wifi now turned off whereas I didn't before, not other changes!!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yep. I hear ya, Stephen and I wish I had an answer.

I'm also in your camp. I *feel* the battery life has improved dramatically with 2.2. But the status is clearly wrong. 100 to 0 - but after 12-13 hrs of moderately heavy use. Before I'd use it for 5-6 hrs and clearly began scouring for a place to charge it.

Now I can hammer the iPhone all day - a good 13 hrs of heavy use or so: Phone calls, Video Podcasts, iPod Audio, Email, Occasional surfing. (3G, Wifi, Bluetooth are ON, brightness around 40%).

But the battery meter stays at 100% the entire time and then the phone just dies. At that point - it gives the screen shot similar to yours and then won't turn on for at least 30 minutes, until there is sufficient charge.

Yesterday: Out the entire day, the iPhone only died when I got home around 1am.

If it helps - I remember Sony Ericsson having these problems ages ago (The routine to interrogate and show approx battery time remaining actually consumes more power and while the information presented was useful, the reduction in battery life didn't justify it). Eventually they fixed it.

So - am I really happy with 2.2? Hell yes. Faster, more responsive. The battery icon bit is irritating - but I'm getting a solid 13 hrs of heavy use and on that basis I'm content to live with a 100 to 0 at an instant as long as they fix it soon rather than downgrade it.

SCOTT"S REPLY: I agree with your assessment ... and I have a post coming tomorrow about my experiences with the icon that will back up what you are saying here.

This is in response to the post by Robert. I, too had the same problem. After I updated to 2.2 all of a sudden I couldn't put all my pics and music on there even though before the update they were all on there and I still had 2 gigs of space left. So I did a complete restore on my phone. It was a pain in the behind but it fixed the problem. Had to redo all my settings and that was a chore. But it's fixed.

That's one more thing I like about your blog, Scott. I never have to feel alone out here if I have a problem.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, I want everyone to learn something from someone else here -- sometimes 2 heads are better than one!

Jeff

Today I had unplugged the iPhone around 8am (fully charged) to use the outlet to charge my mouse batteries and then I was out most of the day, but my iPhone stayed at home (unplugged).

When I got back around 7:30pm someone called me and I notice my battery had only 2% left!

I found it very strange and went to check the battery usage times, and I found there were more then 3h of usage and 8h of standby, but that's impossible... no one touched the iPhone, I had no missed calls and the call I answered only lasted about a minute!

I have a iPhone 3G, 2.2 jailbroken with Mobile Installation, Bossprefs and StatusNotifier. Wi-fi is off, bluetooth is off, fetching is off... I only have push (for MobileMe) and 3G turned on.

In 11h turned on, 3h of usage? It's too much considering I didn't use the phone for anything...

SCOTT's REPLY: Well, normally I'd say that jailbreaking your phone is what's causing the strange behavior here, but in this case I don't think one has anything to do with the other.

Hi, thanks for the article.

I am a iPhone 3G user running 2.2 from Norway. Yesterday, i charged my phone for about 2-3 hours using usb cable to pc.

Battery meter was about 80% full, after only one hour in standby, suddenly it was down to 20%, and then without any warning about 10%, it just died...

Today i have charged it again, and for now its ok, but this really bothers me, i can not rely on the phone anymore.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I'm with you, DannyDJ. And hopefully a fix comes soon.

Ever since 2.2 my battery life is pathetic. I've never had to charge it more than every other day but now I have to charge it within four hours. I wonder if they are going to address this problem.

Jeff

SCOTT'S REPLY: I just hate when there's this incredible silence from Apple when something so big is happening.

I thought it was just my phone until I found this thread. My battery life is terrible ... about 4 hours and my phone seems to be warmer than normal from time to time. 2.1 was fine for me. Is there a way to go back?

SCOTT's REPLY: Going back could make things so much worse ... that's not recommended. An update is what we need. Believe me, it's not just you, AJ.

I have the answer...for me...hopefully for everyone.

After surfing the forums, I found this link (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/reports-3g-slowdowns-battery-problems-with-iphone-22/) which lead me to this link (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1797971&tstart=0) which reports that the problem may be with Safari.

SUGGESTION: Close down Safari "properly" (ie keep the home button pressed until Safari quits). It is a bit of a pain, but I actually do the full close for every application.

I have done this and the battery life seems to have returned to the pre 2.2 state. In fact, it may be even better!!

Hopefully an update comes soon...it does appear that Apple is aware of the situation.

Cheers

Stephen

SCOTT'S REPLY: I agree, Stephen. I totally agree and that's why I posted that very thing last week. While quitting Safari isn't optimal, Stephen is right .. hopefully an update comes soon. And, if Apple is aware of it-- which it has to be, of course -- then we'll eventually see results. Thanks for sending this in.

Interesting event today. Fell asleep listening to a station on Wunder Radio. Woke up about an hour later. station was off, BUT the iPhone back was red hot!!

turned off Wunder Radio and the iPhone has cooled off!

will be calling Apple.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yes, that's a definite reason to call Apple or to bring the iPhone to an Apple Store. Your iPhone should easily be able to handle audio without turning hot.

I have definitely seen my battery life descrease since 2.2 was installed. I've also had problems with my device heating up - sometimes very significantly. I was in Europe for a week and had 3G roaming disabled. As a result, my battery life was stellar. However, upon returning home, I am back to charging my device around 5pm again (like I did with version 2.0) so that I can use it on my way home from work without having to worry about it. I'm glad I'm not the only one reporting this problem.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I can tell you, Dan, that when your device heats up it sometimes happens when Push gets stuck. If that happens, simply toggle push on and off in settings and see if it cools things down.