iPhone battery drain

rockymtnhigh

Hardly Normal
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Apr 14, 2006
30,493
1,141
Normal, IL
Hey, since Saturday my iPhone 5 has been draining like there is no tomorrow. I check usage and it is showing the exact same number for usage and standby, which does not make any sense. No apps are running in memory, background app refresh is off. I have had the most recent iOS 7 beta since it came out last Monday, but the problem only started Saturday.

I am baffled by what is going on, and one of my students is having the same problem on her iOS 6 iPhone 5. Think this could be a Verizon issue?
 


Battery for iphone5 will cost $20

Your symptoms are typical of the LiION that has reached it's life of maximum charge cycles. Usually 500-800
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree

I see three batteries offered by different vendors on Amazon for around $9 shipped.
That's the fix.
And , changing a battery in a 4, 4S, or 5, isn't exactly rocket science.
.
I put one in my iPhone 4, 15 months ago.
Think it was $7.50 shipped, from a vendor I had already had good rapport with.
Luckily I had a second phone to steal a battery from to test.
When the new one arrived, I popped it in, and it's till running fine.
.
Most Amazon reviews don't say who the product came from, leading to inaccurate feedback.
.
 
No, I seriously don't think there is anything wrong with my battery. I am 95% certain an app or process is causing it. Plus if the battery is dying, I have apple care + and apple will replace it.

Last night I got a pop up saying it could not verify the identity of some random Verizon URL. My gut is saying that some how Verizon is making the phone get into some weird usage. Almost like its trying to ping something and is having a glitch. How to verify this, I have no idea.
 
Been scouring the inter webs, and found one thread on an apple forum where someone said to turn on the iCloud keychain feature. I had previously reset Network settings and it didn't work, but when I turned on the keychain, and entered my lock-code to enable it, all of a sudden the usage and standby time began to separate, and battery has stopped dropping. WHY ON EARTH that was causing the problem is absolutely beyond me, but fingers are crossed that it is fixed.
 
Sure enough a couple hours later, the phone is fine. Usage and standby continue to separate; and battery has remained solidly in the 90th percentile the past hour (94% actually). Somehow the iCloud password keychain feature being often kept the phone in "usage" mode, rapidly draining the battery, for no apparent reason.
 
Dang it, the drain is still happening, slower, but still happening, and the usage time is increasing when it is sitting idle. Grrrr….
 
I am convinced this is some sort of Apple iCloud server problem, as today the phone is running smooth as butter, with excellent battery life. But will it in a few hours? No one knows! :)
 
And whatever is going on isn't using actual data, it seems to be quite intermittent too. Yesterday the phone was fine; today, the day I am on a train to Chicago…. usage/standby are the same, and battery is draining. It is either a bug in iOS 7, which I doubt;a local problem with the phone pinging some verizon server; or something else!!! I'll be curious to see if the problem persists once i am in Chicago, in an entirely different region.

I do have my New Trent external battery with me; That thing can recharge an iPhone about 5 or 6 times. But it is heavy and bulky.
 
The problem continues to be intermittent. The phone has been good since yesterday afternoon. Fingers crossed. Going back to iOS6.1 would require returning to a backup from 3 months ago, as the iCloud backups are all iOS7 and you can't restore an iOS7 backup to iOS6.1. Yeah, I know this because of my iPad. :)

I am still not certain what is causing this, but I did find that my iTunes match was messed up; it said it was ON but only downloaded songs were showing up, and it took multiple efforts to get it back functioning. Yet, can't point to any one thing.
 
It is Apple's secret ploy to get you to upgrade to the next iPhone, whose announcement and (likely) launch dates are now imminent ;)

Translation, they want more of your money :p





Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4
 
It is Apple's secret ploy to get you to upgrade to the next iPhone, whose announcement and (likely) launch dates are now imminent ;)

Translation, they want more of your money :p





Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4

I think that is my son's secret conspiracy - so he can get my iPhone 5.

SOmehow the problem just stopped, and it is back to normal. Go figure. I think that the iTunes Match settings had gotten corrupted, as the phone said it was on, but only downloaded songs were showing up, and it took me two or three tries to get it fixed; but since i did that, the battery went back to normal. Guessing it was constantly trying to update or something? Truly a guess. But frustrating as all get out when having to walk around with a big New Trent external battery to get through the day.
 
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