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iOS 6.1 Leads To Battery Life Drain, Overheating For iPhone Users
An anonymous reader writes "We have started seeing an increase in iPhone issues related to battery life and overheating. All of them seem to be related to users upgrading their devices to iOS 6.1. Furthermore, Vodafone UK today began sending out text messages to iPhone 4S owners on its network, warning them not to upgrade to iOS 6.1 due to issues with 3G performance. The text reads, 'If you've not already downloaded iOS 6.1 for your iPhone 4s, please hold off for the next version while Apple fixes 3G performance issues. Thanks.'"
My phone is too full to run the upgrade. I guess I am just good.
It seems background audio from Safari and other browsers is broken as well.
And this is why I refuse to install system updates for at least a month after they are released. Let some other poor sod brick their phone with an obscure bug, and get the fixed update once they finish the croudsourcing beta test.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
I didn't know Boeing's 787 ran on iOS.
You updated it wrong. - The Ghost of Steve Jobs
Maybe those have the same bug since they are (allegedly) such a shameful copy of the iPhone...
lucm, indeed.
iOS 6.1 - iPhone 4S - no issues. Don't know where TFA is getting this from.
The most recent update on my HTC increased my battery life significantly.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
It's a feature to keep user's hands warm during the cold winter months, which will be turned off in a future release when the seasons change.
- Apple PR
Trolling much?
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/12/17/galaxy-s3-jelly-bean-problems-since-verizon-update/
I've been reading /. since 1998 or something and one thing that would always make me mad were the assholes that would reply to a problem in a particular OS with the suggestion that the solution to that problem would be using another particular OS. Normally it would be a MS Windows issue and always there was an asshole saying that with Linux that particular problem would not happen.
So to get back to point. Next time you have a headache, please remember, that the problem is that you have a faulty head and should be using another, better one. So please have someone chop it off, and replace it with a new one.
Presumably by using an iPhone 4S at all, I'm "owning it wrong". My deepest apologies to the hallowed memory of Jobs. I shall drop everything this instant and run out and purchase an iPhone 5.
Coming from the Microsoft world I have been very surprised at how little attention Apple pays to legacy compatibility. It's only recently become impossible to run 16 bit Windows apps in the latest Microsoft OS. Compare that to the constant forced churn in Apple desktop software. And just to pick another example still raw in my memory as a developer, see the change on iOS to CocoaTouch/UIViewController auto rotation handing methods, with pretty much zero attention paid to "helping old stuff still work", leading to really ugly breakage all across the App Store. That was not an accident, that was basically a premeditated Three Stooges eye-poke on third party developers.
Conclusion: Apple doesn't care about yesterday's customers, they keep their eyes fixed only on future dollars. When Apple goes down (as all behemoth tech companies eventually do) I shall do a little iDance on their grave, perform an Xpectoration on their development tools, and will be sure to Pee Different(r) on anything else I see lying around.
Yea so when the Nexus 5 or Samsung Galaxy S 4 come out you can buy that one too because you won't get the latest OS for 6 months on your old phone, well unless you root your old phone.
My iPhone 4S is running fine here.
Everything I read points to interaction with MS-Exchange as the culprit.
It may be an Apple bug related to interacting with Exchange, but since Exchange is a proprietary and non-standards compliant interface, such things happen from time to time.
I've experienced better battery life since going to 6.1 on my 4S. Of course I don't (and hopefully won't ever) use Exchange.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
Next time you have a headache, please remember, that the problem is that you have a faulty head and should be using another, better one. So please have someone chop it off, and replace it with a new one.
And we'd really like to hear about your experiences afterwards. Especially if this problem keeps recurring despite your solution...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
and they have replaceable batterys and extended ones as well.
...to keep from fucking things up all the time.
There may be many worthy reasons to move from an iPhone to a Nexus 4, but battery life isn't one of them, and neither is heat.
However, you may be on to something with the SIII. After all, if holding off on upgrades to the newest OS version is something that's important to you, going with a non-Nexus Android device will provide that functionality far beyond expectations. :D
How many different models of the iPhone 4S are there though? As an example, there are actually 18 different PS2 models not just two like most people think.
You mean Downgrade... No LTE = the phone is LAME and junk.
I am pissed that the Nexus 4 does not support LTE.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I remember hearing battery problems for practically every iOS version from 5.0 onwards.
http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/16/ios-5-battery-life-fix-tips/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/12/ios-6-0-2-suspected-of-draining-batteries/
What gives?
I have NEVER had to replace a battery on a nexus phone. nobody needs a replaceable battery unless you cant afford the phone to begin with.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
One of the strong points of iPhone is the fact that it is very manufacturer supported. It is *THE BEST* menufacturer supported consumer device out there. I don't care what you cheer for or what you bought, I think there's simply no denying Apple's iPhone is at the top in this category. They get updates. They get fixes. The carrier does not and cannot get in the way. (Though in the early days with AT&T demanding Apple disable tethering and all that kinda sucked.) After saying all this, you would think I'm another Appe fanboy. I'm not. I'm not any kind of fan boy, but I choose Android over all others and choose carrier independence by going with unlocked, rooted and custom ROM'd phones. So all that out of the way, what am I talking about cutting both ways?
Well, this: Apple pushes updates to the whole OS -- kernel, apps and all, to all users and all [selected] phones. "The experience" is pretty important to Apple and that it should be consistent is a high priority to them. I think their rate of updates appear to be okay but their all-or-nothing thing is a problem in that problems like these occur and from what I understand, going back to a previous version is not done... not casually anyway and requires jailbreaking maybe?
The power of the various versions of the iPhones vary. Android devices vary a LOT more. And as I look at the potential of the devices, it is easy to observe that the hardware has limits which shouldn't be exceeded. I've been pissed off at T-Mobile and Samsung for not updating my SGS2 soon enough or for long enough, but sometimes the argument that the hardware can't support the software is true. This Apple story rather reminds me of that fact.
So it cuts when the device (iPhone or Android) doesn't get the updates users crave, but it also cuts when the updates kill the phone. I guess it's time for me (and anyone else who hasn't yet) to accept that my expensive phone(s) are to be considered short-term use devices with a life expenctancy of about a year... maybe a year and a half. (And certainly not the duration of the contracts that most people sign in order to get their new shiny.)
Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a more PC like experience with our phones? By that I mean, choose our body/case, display, processor, RAM, storage, radios and all that? I know... too much to hope for. Still, to fight be able osolecence would be nice.
the models are all the same, the 3G networks around the world are all slightly different
probably a bug in how vodaphone does something on their network and some app using location services
I solved my 6.1 battery issues by deleting and recreating my two exchange email profile.
Apparently this a common issue after iOS upgrades.
CC
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
why is this marked off topic (2000CET 09022013) ? It is sensible proposal - I do not have either of the phones and do not intend to buy one of them but if calling were vital function I would think twice before buying apple esp as this is not the first time they have problems with radio.
Apparently if you update a calendar item on your iOS device, it tries to update Exchange and fails.
It then retries continuously, chewing through battery life and log files: http://wmpoweruser.com/exchange-server-acting-up-blame-those-ios-6-1-users-then-ban-them/.
Including two iPhone 4S.
Jobs fucked up many things when he was alive.
Now he's dead, he'll never get the chance to fuck things up again, but that doesn't mean if he were alive he'd not screw it up in his own way.
Basically, the other phones have access to the same tech produced by the companies Apple bought from and since that was the major reason for the iPhone to be better in the beginning than competing phones, they lost their competitive edge.
Even Jobs would have buggered it up with that scenario. Unless he put contracts out on Gorilla et al to forbid them from selling their stuff to other than apple.
Because the manufacturer of my 1 year old phone has decided that it isn't *worth* updating. No problem - I just installed Cyanogen mod and I'm good ... well, except that the camera isn't supported yet, and the battery life is 1/2 what I get on the manufacturer's ROM.
Suddenly, overheating Apple phones don't look so bad - at least iPhone owners can be reasonably certain that Apple will actually release a fix, in a timely fashion.
So to get back to point. Next time you have a headache, please remember, that the problem is that you have a faulty head and should be using another, better one. So please have someone chop it off, and replace it with a new one.
Don't be a pirate. Don't steal heads.
#DeleteChrome
Did you get paid for that advertisement? Either way, it's still spam.
Or if you go out for the day (and night) and you would like a spare so your phone doesn't die while you are out. My old job I'd sometimes work 20 hour calls without an outlet to charge my phone.
I suggest switching to Linux.
Title fixxored.
I can see the fnords!
Im posting this from my 4s with iOS 6.1 and as you can see, no battery dra..#=+####|{#*CARRIER_LOST
Would you feel the same way if someone told you to use a spoon instead of a fork to eat oatmeal? Sometimes the solution to a problem is to use a tool better suited to the situation.
They only copy the obvious parts. It would be way too easy to show infringement on prior art if they copied the bugs as well.
Oh I get it! M$! Like "MS" for "MicroSoft," but you used a dollar sign instead of the S to show they're greedy! That's so clever! Did you think that up yourself? I bet you're well-liked with tons of friends, being as witty as you are.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Every civilized person shouldn't venture more than 4 feet away from an outlet. Swapping batteries is so bohemian. This isn't some hippy love-in we're talking about.
yaaay Crapple
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
I am pissed that the Nexus 4 does not support LTE.
I concur.
While I think it is great that Google released a high end phone for $300, I would gladly have paid the normal Nexus retail price of $650 for a Nexus 4 LTE.
Instead I have gone with the Galaxy SIII and a custom ROM to get an AOSP and LTE experience on 2012 hardware.
The inclusion of AWS Band 4 LTE the requires some hacking is interesting.
I was hoping for LTE 700MHz Band 17 personally.
What LTE frequencies would you want supported?
"There's Always Next Year", when the Nexus 5 will have:
4/17/13/7/3/12/25 band LTE and Penta-Band HSPA+
A high quality 16MP CMOS camera sensor with O.I.S and Xenon flash.
A 5" 1080P IPS screen.
A physical QWERTY keyboard as well as physical home, menu, back, accept call, end call, and camera shutter buttons.
Dual EasyPoint Joysticks.
Hey, I can dream!
It will be interesting to see if Google can pull off a multi-band LTE device at the $300-$350 price point later this year.
It seems LTE cannot be ignored given the inclusion on the iPhone 5 and the backlash of complaints (although Nexus 4 sales exceeded supply expectations still).
But if Google "must" include LTE, how will it do it?
Penta-band HSPA+ has been a great feature of the last two Nexus Devices (only took two next years to get that).
In addition to the GSM support, the inclusion of LTE Bands 17/4 would cover AT&T and T-Mobile.
Throw in LTE Band 7 and Canada carriers covered.
The CDMA/LTE Verizon Galaxy Nexus was a headache for Google due to the proprietary CDMA binaries.
But including LTE Band 13 and counting on the 700MHz C Block FCC open rules would allow Verizon LTE coverage.
However, that would be data only on the Red Devil Carrier.
Including LTE Band 25 is tempting, but Sprint does not offer up SIM cards for its LTE device since it has no 700MHz C Block rules to comply with like Verizon.
Looking outside of North America, including LTE Band 3 and Band 20 would complete LTE coverage in handful of Asian, European, African, and the Middle Eastern locations.
I could not find the exact seven bands that the Nexus 4 Qualcomm WTR1605L chip supports.
The WTRL1605L supported bands may reveal what the Nexus 5 would support.
Of course there are rumors that Google is creating an experimental wireless network in Mountain View.
Perhaps like Google Fiber we will see Google's own wireless network rolled out...
It seems that the android "fanbois" takes the cake today.
Grow up please.
I thought the M$ thing was cool when I was a kid. Then I realized that Apple (and later Google) were all about making profits, too, so the whole $ thing seemed rather juvenile. No company is perfect, either with their products or their business tactics.
Anyway, to the topic on hand: As far as I know, it's a relatively uncommon issue. I haven't noticed any battery problems with my iPhone 5; I still recharge it every other night, and LTE/3G seem the same speed as usual. I'm not claiming that some people don't see the problem, but that it may not be as big a deal as the article/summary/headline makes it out to be. As is common for modern /., the headline itself makes it seem as if it's a problem with every iPhone running the new update. Also keep in mind that people will post complaints, and be more vocal about them, more often than they will post compliments.
For those who are experiencing this issue, though, I hope Apple fixes it soon.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
When I was a kid there was no "google," or rather they didn't matter yet. Apple was the company who's products you laughed at for being awful. Well...google matters now.
Umadbro? Umad? Why u so mad brah?
My data connection drops, I have to toggle Roaming to get it back. I've never had roaming turned on and prefer it off but turning it on and then back off or simply turning it on brings back the data connection - for awhile. The screen also seems a bit dimmer and softer especially in dark conditions but I'm not seeing any issues with battery life or performance of 3G for phone calls. The data thing, THAT is a killer that needs to be fixed and hopefully without breaking the jailbreak that's out.
I've done the jailbreak on an iPad2 and want to do it to an older iPhone 4 but I'm having issues upgrading the 4 to 6.1 from 5.1.1 that I suspect have to do with the jailbreak. I'm going to take it through recovery mode with fingers crossed as a simple upgrade wouldn't do it nor would it clear correctly when asked. This experience is making me a little less eager to jailbreak my primary device to say the least. However some of the tweaks are pretty nice and I'll admit make Android a little more attractive. They have their own issues too with custom ROMs and whatnot so I know it's no panacea there either and I like my existing hardware. We'll see what Apple does next, if they break the JB I'm going to be peeved...
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
... works flawlessly with iOS 6.1 installed.
Apple was the company who's products you laughed at for being awful.
Wow. If I were being charitable, I'd say that you must have been a really late developer if you thought Apple's products were awful.
The Nexus 4 has a glass back, that's so like June 2010 to October 2012, dude.
I know a UNIX admin who took the server MSCE exam when it first came out. Didn't touch any books or study materials. Just took the test.
For every question, he looked at the answers, and asked himself - "Which answer would make Microsoft the most money?"
He passed the test.
late developer? An idiot if I was being charitable.
This is exactly why Apple must lock down your device for your own good. If you jailbreak, you might run unapproved software that could affect battery life or ecen overheat.....OH.......Never mind. Nothing to see here. Move along!
Oh I get it! M$! Like "MS" for "MicroSoft," but you used a dollar sign instead of the S to show they're greedy! That's so clever! Did you think that up yourself? I bet you're well-liked with tons of friends, being as witty as you are.
It's okay. Really. Corporations don't have feelings.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Every iOS 6 release has had some kind of new bug like this in it, and it's getting ridiculous. I'd like to be able to use the damn phone without worrying that the next update (needed to fix one problem) is going to cause two new ones.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
This has been around for a long time. Most big places that are Exchange oriented (e.g. US Govt) have issued guidance that you shouldn't try to schedule meetings with your iPhone or accept/decline invitations.
It all depends on what you use your phone for.
I have an iPhone--no replaceable battery. And I didn't really miss it. Until I also started using it as a bike computer. Because of the reflective screen, I have to turn it to full brightness. I'm also using the GPS, downloading mapping information, etc. I can get a little over 50 miles--about 3.5 hours--before I'm out of juice.
So I'm sure you've never had to replace a battery on a Nexus phone because you don't use your phone in an environment where it's eating lots of power and you're not near an outlet.
From the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
A month ago I was on a trip, when all of a sudden my iphone 4 was shutting off at exactly 20% battery remaining. I would recharge, and same thing would happen again. I looked online and people said to reset your phone.. So I did that, and while that did fix it, ever since then my phone has been draining faster (so maybe the software bumped the new 0 to be 20%. I used to be able to get 2 days out of it, now it is dieing after about 1 and a quarter days.
Then I upgraded to 6.1 three days ago, now my battery isn't even making it through a day. Ill let it charge to full overnight, and by 9 or 10 p.m it is <10%.
wait, when were Apples products ever awful? when i was a kid i would laugh at my friends who's parents had a mac because they couldn't play as many games as i could on my dos computer but then again their parents worked in publishing and actually used the computer as a workstation and not a glorified game console...which is pretty much how it now. gamers laugh about how much macs suck meanwhile mac users laugh about how much gamers suck.
Then use of the many battery extenders which double or more the battery life of your phone, or use one of the portable battery rechargers, which isn't much larger than the battery itself.
Like one of these rechargers: http://www.charmofdresden.com/techcandy-batteryextender.html?productid=techcandy-batteryextender&channelid=FROOG
Or one of these extenders: http://www.wirelessground.com/iphone-4-battery-extender-case.html?utm_source=iphone-4-battery-extender-case&utm_medium=shopping%2Bengine&utm_campaign=googleproducts&gclid=CNnrweviqrUCFag7MgodQTkAcQ
LTE really sucked on my Galaxy Nexus when the phone was first released. It would drop the signal entirely every 5-20 minutes even though I live in an area with really good coverage. Verizon said they knew about the problem but it took them months to release a fix. Luckily, the update was leaked online very early on so I was able to get the phone in a working state.
I've been fine with my phones for years. Recently I've been playing Ingress on my HTC EVO Design 4g. That can suck up a battery pretty quick. Even on a 2.1A charger it doesn't keep up all that well. After an hour or two, it starts complaining. I found replacement batteries for about $5/ea on Amazon. It's much easier to swap batteries, than to sit at a portal for 1/2 hour waiting for the battery to charged enough to run the game for a while. The car charger isn't all that useful when walking around to resonators, or in a high density area.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I noticed this. Didn't even consider that the upgrade caused it. Timing fits though.
That's not a pirate. That's a head hunter.
Life is not for the lazy.
I have NEVER had to replace a battery on a nexus phone. nobody needs a replaceable battery unless you cant afford the phone to begin with.
Lucky you. Lithium batteries do fail. Ask Boeing if you need proof.
Oh look, a little neckbeard gets shown up for his suggestion to "upgrade" to shitty devices with a shitty OS and posts anon to cover his shame.
Lol the ironic part is that you thought you were being funny with your comment. It just made you look like an ass.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
When did Apples products suck?
Mid 80s- Late 90s. Give or take.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
When did Apples products suck?
Mid 80s- Late 90s. Give or take.
Depends on what you were doing with your computer.
Audio production work: Mac ruled this domain.
Desktop publishing: Mac here as well.
Pretty much anything else, PCs were the order of the day.
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
What's amazing is how anyone ever viewed Apple as having good software. They've always had the absolute worst and buggiest software, and simply censored their forums so nobody was allowed to talk about them. So, people simply stopped using Apple's forum to discuss tech problems.
No issues on mine...
How can they not test a upgrade or an update before it launches live? I mean what are you stupid? Seriously Apple get with the picture! I'm suck in tired of this crap and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there as well that's getting sick in tired of this!
- Do a full backup and sync on your iTunes;
- Transfer all your purchases in App Store to your iTunes;
- Make sure all your music is synced with your iTunes;
- Make coffee;
- Do a DFU restore to iOS6.1;
- Restore everything from iTunes.
The thing is that iCloud just goes batshit insane after Over-Teh-Air updates. If you check your diagnostic logs you'll see that (for the ones with battery & overheating issues) that iCloud may try over and over to sync something and just crash, reload, and attempt to sync stuff, crash again... stuck in it's own loop.
AND doing a full iOS6.1 install from DFU restore is known to fix this issue.
For the ones who does not want to deal with DFU restore, just disable all of your iCloud sync stuff. It's an ugly workaround, but it will keep your device from draining battery. I don't think I'll be doing OTA updates anytime soon.
The issues with 6.1 are no different from scattered reports of issues for every release of iOS that has ever come out. There are a few phones after each release that eat battery fast or have other problems, and there are easy solutions posted on many sites as well as Apple support fora. No problems with iOS 6.1 on my phone.
... except that there's no fault in the logic, despite your distaste for it.
If in fact [softwareA] is better at something than [softwareB] and this thing matters to you, then you should probably switch.
If I spent all my time complaining about how I don't get iTunes integration on my Android phone, I'd expect a few dozen "then buy an iPhone" responses.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Except that these guys http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/ make a killing selling extended batteries for phones. Even if you never need to replace it after the fact, the ability to buy an extended battery is eliminated with a sealed case.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Sounds like a Verizon issue there not a S3 issue.
Jellybean 4.2 runs beautifully on mine, non-Verizon of course.
I've experienced this with activesync, exchange 2010 and an iphone 4S with IOS 6.1. It burned through a fully charged battery in under an hour and the phone was HOT to the touch. The only "fix" was to turn the phone off for 2 hours (long enough for the exchange loop to time out?) and then NOT use the iphone to accept, modify, delete or create calendar events. I was able to replicate the problem twice. The IT folks are contemplating making activesync calendars read-only or blocking calendar access, as apparently the exchange transaction logs grow VERY quickly when this is going on.
If you were on Linux you could write a script that would make sure you never saw those comments while reading Slashdot.
I updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 6.1 yesterday. I live in Sao Paulo. Today I went to my parent's in Sao Bernardo (just 20 miles away) and tried to access 3G. I found out neither 3G nor my phone service were working. I turned off / restarted my iPhone, the problem continued. I thought it was a problem with the carrier (Vivo), but my brother-in-law laughed at me showing his Android phone working just fine with the same carrier. Back home, my iPhone started working again.This may be evidence that there is really a problem with iOS 6.1. I don't like to jump to conclusions, but it quacks like a duck...
I've tried to recreate the issue, and so far I can't.
iPhone 5 iOS 6.1, Exchange 2010
I created an appointment - no abnormal increase in logs
I invited someone internal - no abnormal increase in logs
I was invited from an internal account, rejected one, accepted another - no abnormal increase in logs
I was invited from an external account, rejected one, accepted another, also declined after accepting - no abnormal increase in logs
For each of these, there was the expected 20 or so packets associated with the changes, and no ongoing network traffic.
On the other hand, we had a client that had the runaway log issue last week - I'll be following up with him to find the iOS versions involved
Posting as AC, for the normal reasons.
After an upgrade the IPhone 4S in UMTS mode seems to lose uplink synchronisation to the base station (as a educated guess). Looking at the Physical channel you will see continous spikes across the band at a high power - hence the battery life reduction. We saw this very easily with a spectrum analyser.