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iPhone 3.0 causing unusually rapid battery drain?

updated 03:45 pm EDT, Mon July 6, 2009

iPhone 3.0 battery drain

The iPhone 3.0 firmware is likely responsible for some unusually heavy battery drain on Apple handhelds, claims Aaron Vronko, the CEO of RapidRepair. The group was one of the first to conduct a teardown of the iPhone 3GS. Devices with the v3.0 firmware can sometimes drain "very quickly," Vronko notes, to the extent that they may be unable to make it through a single workday without a recharge. Similar complaints have appeared on Apple's support forums.

An iPhone 3G, for instance, may now drain in as fast as two hours, while a first-generation iPhone can last less than a day on standby. The problem is not believed to be connected to an inefficient battery, as it affects all three iPhone iterations. Theories suggest that the drain could be connected to push notification, which continually polls remote servers for app content. Some v3.0 users have reported better battery life after deleting and restoring e-mail accounts, namely those linked to Microsoft Exchange servers; the technique is not guaranteed to work, however.

Some users on Apple forums propose that batteries may be affected by corrupt backups from previous firmware updates. As a result, one alternate remedy involves performing a factory reset, and installing iPhone 3.0 fresh. Vronko suggests though that the problem may be resolved with iPhone 3.1, still in beta testing.

by MacNN Staff



  1. dagamer34

    Joined: Dec 1969



    Definitely happening to me.

  1. Salty

    Joined: Dec 1969


    What kind of idiot?

    What kind of idiot wouldn't think to do a restore if they're getting insanely poor battery life?

  1. dscottbuch

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Yep BUT not apple problem

    For me its happening but traced it to an App that's not quitting properly. In my case Bloons game.

  1. hayesk

    Joined: Dec 1969


    OK for me.

    I haven't noticed a difference in battery performance since upgrading my 3G.

  1. robopope

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Mine Is Pretty Bad

    100% at 7:00am and by noon (almost no usage) it's down to 79%. By 5:00pm it's under 35% (slightly more usage) and by 9:00 it's under 10%. Very frustrating. No Push and on Bluetooth either.

  1. testudo

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Re: Yep, but not apple


    Sounds like an apple problem to me. I thought they were supposed to make sure all software worked correctly prior to approving it.

    And how in the world does one narrow it down to a piece of software? Most people wouldn't know how to go about even quitting an app.

  1. Xinnix

    Joined: Dec 1969


    From Day 1!

    I've had the original 4GB phone for 2 years and I upgraded to the 3GS. From day 1 I've been saying that the battery life wasn't as good as my first phone. Same apps but much worse. I support Macs so of course I turned off the 3G network and Wi-Fi. Turned down the brightness and all the other things I didn't have to do on the Original iPhone. And since I use my phone for work and everyday is much the same as the day before, I never had to plug my old iPhone in during the day. Now with the 3GS I have to plug it in or I won't have any life when i get home.

    I can without a doubt say this battery does suck from Day 1!

  1. Athens

    Joined: Dec 1969



    I have seen both ends of it, bettery battery life and worst. I found on a fresh boot of the phone and using only SMS, Mail, and Phone features my battery life improved a lot, but also found that when using other apps on my phone (had not had time to narrow it down) the phone becomes slughish at times leading me to believe something didnt shutdown right and terrible battery life. Something caused a bad crash that left me no choice but to do a restore on the weekend and Battery life in the last 2 days have been normal.

  1. macentric

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Better Battery Life!!!

    My 1st gen iPhone had been experiencing extremely poor battery life after almost two years. Yes, I bought my phone on the first day. I just assumed that the battery was dying after 650 charges. I resigned myself to getting the 3GS, but while waiting for delivery ended up upgrading to 3.0. After the upgrade my battery life went from 4 hours or so to running a full a day.

    Of course I ended up moving to the 3GS a couple days later so I don't know if it is still working better or not. After the upgrade I theorized that there was a hung process or something that was keeping the iPhone from going into its lowest power state.

  1. r00b69

    Joined: Dec 1969


    more of the same

    Does Apple even do qa testing? Seems every product they have has some Achilles heel. I don't know how they hold on to their satisfaction ratings.

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