Apple confirms iOS 5 update to address battery life bugs affecting iPhone users

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple has announced that it has found specific flaws in iOS 5 that can be patched to address the battery life issues some iPhone users have experienced with the new software, noting that an update is planned to address the problem in the next few weeks.



In a statement published by Ina Fried of the Wall Street Journal AllThingsD blog, Apple noted, "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,? adding, ?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.?



Apple has released an initial beta iOS 5.0.1 build 9a402 to developers to begin testing the new update on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The company says the new build "contains improvements and other bug fixes including:



? Fixes bugs affecting battery life

? Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad

? Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud

? Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation

? Contains security improvements

? iOS 5.0.1 beta introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations."



Tracking down battery issues



Since the release of iOS 5 and the new iPhone 4S, specific users have complained about serious battery life issues, although the problems appear to be tied to different settings, carriers, and usage patterns, making the core problems difficult to diagnose and address.



Apple had reportedly been actively investigating the issues with specific users to determine what fixes could be rolled out to general audiences to broadly resolve the problems.



Some users have discovered specific settings that seemed to be actively consuming battery life, including the automatic date and time setting, iTunes Ping, per-app notification settings, and even the "raise to speak" feature in Siri.



Apple's latest iPhone 4S uses a much faster A5 processor with twice the graphics cores and a higher clock speed, but the company notes that average talk time, WiFi browsing and audio and video playback should be roughly the same as the previous A4-based iPhone 4, thanks to new technologies including a slightly larger battery.







Apple has historically released between six to ten free updates for iOS between annual major updates, rolling them out to users rapidly as soon as they are available, making it unique among competing mobile platforms.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 57
    linkgx1linkgx1 Posts: 742member
    Apple is just gonna release an update where they just keep the charging icon status a little longer.
  • Reply 2 of 57
    29922992 Posts: 202member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by linkgx1 View Post


    Apple is just gonna release an update where they just keep the charging icon status a little longer.



    made my day )))))
  • Reply 3 of 57
    conradjoeconradjoe Posts: 1,887member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post




    ? Fixes bugs affecting battery life

    ? Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad

    ? Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud

    ? Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation

    ? Contains security improvements

    ? iOS 5.0.1 beta introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations."




    Is it my imagination, or is software, and maybe OSs in particular, getting updated/changed a whole lot more frequently lately?



    It seems like it used to be that new stuff would only come out infrequently - Microsoft would announe a "service pack" every 12 or 14 monts or so, and would do something major every 3 or 4 years. Now it seems like these mobile OSs (I'm thinking Android and iOS in particular) are getting updated/changed/improved extremely frequently - multiple times every year.



    Anybody have any thoughts? Is it because it is so much easier to do these days? Back before the internet, it was a major thing to get data to your users. Nowadays, it is relatively easy for a mobile OS to get updated. Is that why it is happening so much more frequently?
  • Reply 4 of 57
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    Is it my imagination, or is software, and maybe OSs in particular, getting updated/changed a whole lot more frequently lately?



    It seems like it used to be that new stuff would only come out infrequently - Microsoft would announe a "service pack" every 12 or 14 monts or so, and would do something major every 3 or 4 years. Now it seems like these mobile OSs (I'm thinking Android and iOS in particular) are getting updated/changed/improved extremely frequently - multiple times every year.



    Anybody have any thoughts? Is it because it is so much easier to do these days? Back before the internet, it was a major thing to get data to your users. Nowadays, it is relatively easy for a mobile OS to get updated. Is that why it is happening so much more frequently?



    Correct.



    That is all.
  • Reply 5 of 57
    postulantpostulant Posts: 1,272member
    My iPhone 4S' battery seems to drain quicker than my iPhone 4, but I'm still able to make it through a whole day with heavy use. My wife reports no battery issues whatsoever.
  • Reply 6 of 57
    dacloodacloo Posts: 890member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple has historically released between six to ten free updates for iOS between annual major updates, rolling them out to users rapidly as soon as they are available, making it unique among competing mobile platforms.



    Stop the Apple propaganda and stick to the news.
  • Reply 7 of 57
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    What's the culprit?

    We should have a poll

    Or "contest"

    Corrupted contacts

    Location services?



    Wish apple had a single button to max

    Battery setting or have 3 choices

    With/ without BT/ max

    How about bringing back turn off 3G



    I could milk a couple hours by switching 3G

    Off



    Btw mines doing great getting >24hrs



    Huge improvement over my 3G
  • Reply 8 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dacloo View Post


    Stop the Apple propaganda and stick to the news.







    I forgot about this one. It's hard to keep track of them all.



    In response, I'd like to say that if there's something contentious in the article, you should probably have some actual proof that it's wrong, otherwise, well, you know.
  • Reply 9 of 57
    kbrkbr Posts: 8member
    I had a battery problem but searched the web and tried all the suggestions and it seems to have fixed it.



    But I have the echo problem



    The echo problem occurs with the earbuds usually after talking to someone for 4 to 12 minutes. Then the person I am talking to hears their voice echo. Hitting the speaker button stops it for a while but then a couple minutes later it occurs again. It happens whether I call a cell phone or land line.



    I hope Apple gets started on a fix for this as well





    On the support boards people have had multiple iPhone 4S replaced but they still get the echo problem.
  • Reply 10 of 57
    Apple needs to add the option for 3G, WiFI, Bluetooth, and Air Plane Mode toggles to the notification center.
  • Reply 11 of 57
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    Is it my imagination, or is software, and maybe OSs in particular, getting updated/changed a whole lot more frequently lately?



    It seems like it used to be that new stuff would only come out infrequently - Microsoft would announe a "service pack" every 12 or 14 monts or so, and would do something major every 3 or 4 years. Now it seems like these mobile OSs (I'm thinking Android and iOS in particular) are getting updated/changed/improved extremely frequently - multiple times every year.



    Anybody have any thoughts? Is it because it is so much easier to do these days? Back before the internet, it was a major thing to get data to your users. Nowadays, it is relatively easy for a mobile OS to get updated. Is that why it is happening so much more frequently?



    its because they've gotten vastly more complex, how big of a file is iOS 5 compared to the 1st iPhones OS?
  • Reply 12 of 57
    sennensennen Posts: 1,472member
    Not saying that the issue doesn't exist for some people, but I'm actually really impressed with the battery life on my 4S compared to the 3GS - I'm getting to the end of the evening (10-11pm) with c.70% after unplugging from the charger at about 8am each morning.
  • Reply 13 of 57
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Patranus View Post


    Apple needs to add the option for 3G, WiFI, Bluetooth, and Air Plane Mode toggles to the notification center.



    1) Don't forget brightness, though I would love to be able to speak these commands to Siri, too.



    2) The Verizon iPhone 4 didn't have the option to turn off '3G' either. Even though that's not a real issue for a CDMA network I have to wonder if the reason for the exclusion is a limitation of the MDM66x0 chip. I say this because that's when this feature went away, not when Apple introduces to LTE to have an "Enable 4G" toggle switch.
  • Reply 14 of 57
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post


    its because they've gotten vastly more complex, how big of a file is iOS 5 compared to the 1st iPhones OS?



    That and this is a big update, even among iOS updates. The beta cycle for iOS 5 was long. Introducing the cloud features and tying those in with both Mac OS X and Windows isn't an easy feat. Also keep in mind that any time Apple introduces a new version (not a point release), the updates tend to flow fairly quickly for the first few and then level out to a more standard schedule.
  • Reply 15 of 57
    bigmikebigmike Posts: 266member
    For now, just turn off the automatic date and time setting. I found this to save a bit on the battery.
  • Reply 16 of 57
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cameronj View Post


    Correct.



    That is all.



    I'd say that the frequently slows down. Just look at Mac OS X releases moving further and further.



    Here is the iOS version history for iPhone OS 1.x:
    1.0 — June 29, 2007 (1 month)

    1.0.1 — July 31, 2007( 3 weeks)

    1.0.2 — August 21, 2007 (3 weeks)

    1.1 — September 14, 2007 (2 weeks)

    1.1.1 — September 27, 2007 (1.5 months)

    1.1.2 — November 12, 2007 (2 months)

    1.1.3 — January 15, 2008 (5 weeks)

    1.1.4 — February 26, 2008 (4.8 months)

    1.1.5 — July 15, 2008

  • Reply 17 of 57
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    My iPhone 4 battery life is much better after upgrading to iOS 5. After one day of light use, the battery still is 90%. Before it is above 80%.
  • Reply 18 of 57
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    So I shut off the time church and the battery life did jump. Interestingly it was not a problem on my iPhone 4 but rather on Touch 4 that was extremely obvious.
  • Reply 19 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    What's the culprit?

    We should have a poll

    Or "contest"

    Corrupted contacts

    Location services?



    Wish apple had a single button to max

    Battery setting or have 3 choices

    With/ without BT/ max

    How about bringing back turn off 3G



    I could milk a couple hours by switching 3G

    Off



    Btw mines doing great getting >24hrs



    Huge improvement over my 3G



    Yeah, it is an interesting situation as I upgraded my +2 year old 3GS to iOS5 and I am getting better battery life than I was before the upgrade. I am very happy. I would not be happy if I was one of the people who are getting worse battery life. I have been pining for the new 4S, but perhaps it is good that I haven't gotten one yet. A couple more months when I have the pennies saved up and all the bugs will most likely be gone.
  • Reply 20 of 57
    trevctrevc Posts: 77member
    Is it too much to ask one of the Apple developers to slip that IPhone clock app onto the iPad?!?!
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