[Macworld]

Post your comments for Managing battery life for iOS 5 devices here

[ktappe]

"resist disabling Siri altogether. When you do, the information Siri has gleaned from you is wiped from Apple's servers." Whaaat? Is this really true and if so, why?

[jhorton]

Great and very helpful summary, Chris! Thank you!

This is entirely anecdotal (no pre-OS 5 test), but my iOS 5-upgraded iPhone 4 chewed through battery at a rapid pace using the Maps app this weekend. I know I've used it extensively on road trips before, finding alternate routes, pit-stops, etc., but I never noticed battery flying away at the rate of about 10% every twenty minutes (.5% per per minute). I was using the new multiple route feature a lot, not sure how much more CPU and 3G that uses. Outside of that, battery life is not noticeably different.

This post has been edited by jhorton: 03 November 2011 - 11:20 AM

[Rajan]

how about double clicking on teh home button and then press and hold one of teh icons that show up, then kill every app that is working in the background....

[Rajan]

what about double clicking the home button, then hold your finger on the first icon in the list, once the minus sign shows up, start killing all the apps that are running in the background...most people dont seem to know about this but im sure it helps improve battery life.

[SWPeddler]

I find it mildly amusing that now that Apple has finally implemented many of the hallmark features of Palm's webOS that IOS5 users are suffering the same woes webOS users did when it first came out in June 2009. Amused, and yet pleased at the same time. Since I'm now scouting about for a new mobile OS to which I'll realign my loyalties, it's reassuring to recognize that Apple's engineers will figure it out just as Palm's did, and will eventually deliver the software tweaks that will render IOS5 a usable platform. I'm excited that, if I move to an iPhone 4S that I won't have to give up as much functionality as I contemplated. Hurray for Apple!

[TheFLP]

Rajan, on 03 November 2011 - 11:25 AM, said:

what about double clicking the home button, then hold your finger on the first icon in the list, once the minus sign shows up, start killing all the apps that are running in the background...most people dont seem to know about this but im sure it helps improve battery life.

I already do that on a daily basis because the OS keep shutting down apps like Spotify when memory gets low (iPad 1). Which also seems to happen more often with iOS 5.

This post has been edited by TheFLP: 03 November 2011 - 12:15 PM

[macavenger]

Rajan, on 03 November 2011 - 11:25 AM, said:

what about double clicking the home button, then hold your finger on the first icon in the list, once the minus sign shows up, start killing all the apps that are running in the background...most people dont seem to know about this but im sure it helps improve battery life.

Actually, not so much. That was the point of the way Apple implemented "multitasking" Those applications aren't really running, for the most part- they're paused- still resident in memory (unless the memory is needed elsewhere) but not using any processor cycles or battery power. The only exception to this is certain functions, such as streaming audio, that Apple has allowed to continue running. So as long as you're not streaming audio or doing one of the other half-dozen or so Apple-sanctioned background processes, those "background" apps aren't hurting you at all.

[MasterFritts]

I had an issue with my iPhone 4. I did a bunch of recommendations at once. I drained the battery, plugged it in, reset it to default and set it up like a new device and restored from backup. Worked like a charm. Before my iPhone was in my pocket and in 3 hours was down to 30%. Now it is back to normal the way it was before the iOS5 install. I can use it all day now and still be in the 60-70%.

[Rajan]

Actually, not so much. That was the point of the way Apple implemented "multitasking" Those applications aren't really running, for the most part- they're paused- still resident in memory (unless the memory is needed elsewhere) but not using any processor cycles or battery power. The only exception to this is certain functions, such as streaming audio, that Apple has allowed to continue running. So as long as you're not streaming audio or doing one of the other half-dozen or so Apple-sanctioned background processes, those "background" apps aren't hurting you at all.
[/quote]

Thanks! good to know, i was probably killing more battery ending those apps then just leaving them alone lol...

[scottbayes]

<<Similarly, if you stream content to your device in the form of movie trailers, Netflix content, or a music subscription service, you can expect your battery to go south in a hurry if your device isn't externally powered.>>

Actually, I've found this not to be the case on my iPad 1 32GB. In both 4.x and 5.0 I can stream a 90-100 min DVD quality movie from iTunes on my iMac to the Videos app, and starting at 100%, find I still have about 85% battery remaining. I am astounded.

However I do find that my battery seems to drain 30% faster or so in general on iOS 5 than it did in 4.2.

[scottbayes]

(sorry if dupe post. site acted a bit weird)
<<Similarly, if you stream content to your device in the form of movie trailers, Netflix content, or a music subscription service, you can expect your battery to go south in a hurry if your device isn’t externally powered.>>

Actually, I've found this not to be the case on my iPad 1 32GB. In both 4.x and 5.0 I can stream a 90-100 min DVD quality movie from iTunes on my iMac to the Videos app, and starting at 100%, find I still have about 85% battery remaining. I am astounded.

However I do find that my battery seems to drain 30% faster or so in general on iOS 5 than it did in 4.2.

[vincent860524]

Bonus tip: Turn off Wi-Fi when you're know you're nowhere near a base station.

[Swift2]

As a person running iOS 5 on an iPhone 4, I have not experienced any battery issues of note, actually. Well, the one exception is the location reminder I made. Brilliant, but it keeps the GPS open and polling the satellite every minute. That got me to 2:00 that day until I disabled it at around 60% battery. But with that exception, my deliverance was a) learning from "security experts" that I really should encrypt my iPhone backups, forgetting the password I used when time came to update, and c) installing as a "new phone." I think a lot of the problems arrive from an imperfect system update that leaves system files slightly akimbo. It's something like that, because everybody's different, no?