iPod Touch Battery Issues in iOS 4

[kshathra]

Surprised that I haven't seen this covered more on here, so I thought I'd mention it and see what you folks are experiencing. Since updating to iOS 4, the battery life on my iPod touch 3rd gen has taken such a bad hit that it affects my ability to use it. This issue has gotten mentioned on Tom's Guide (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iPod-Tou...news-7325.html) and there's a lengthy (19 pages as of this writing) thread on the Apple Support forums (http://discussions.apple.com/thread....art=0&tstart=0)

What are you all experiencing? What's worked, what hasn't? I've tried a bunch of things posted in the Apple support thread--disabling Push, turning off WiFi, trying a Microsoft Exchange fix--and while I've gotten back to the point where I can go a whole day without charging the thing, it doesn't have much left over at the end and it's still not lasting nearly as long as it should.

In my case, it appears that it does okay when it's on standby, but even slight use (listening to music, browsing the web, etc) burns through the battery verrry quickly. Today, I went through 15% of my battery typing up a draft of half an email--WITHOUT a WiFi connection even! I have a six hour flight on Thursday, and whereas before I could listen to music and watch videos here and there for the whole drive, wait in the terminal, and flight, and arrive with plenty of power to spare, this time I'm worried about having any power left when I get on the plane.

I am extremely frustrated that Apple released an upgrade that was supposed to improve the user's experience with this product (that I used to love) but which has instead rendered it very difficult to use at all. When I upgraded, I immediately noticed that the iPod doesn't interface with my car dock (where it gets 90% of its use) as smoothly, but I was prepared to live with that. However, the fact that we need to baby these thing just to get 10 hours of sporadic use out of them is absurd. Checking my email every so often and listening to music regularly should not require all these little adjustments and conditions and caveats. I spent $400 on this thing so I could USE IT, not so I could pamper it to 10 hours of battery life. Apple of course left no (legal) downgrade path for anyone who wasn't satisfied--so those of us who played by the rules and DIDN'T jailbreak are the ones who lose out.

I suppose that getting an officially sanctioned downgrade path is too much to ask for, but Apple had better at the very least address this issue with a software update in the coming weeks. If not, I will be selling my once-awesome iPod, because, since receiving this "upgrade" my iPod is no longer the device that I paid for.

Again, what have you noticed about your battery life since the upgrade? Better? Worse? Did you solve it? How? Where do we go from here?

[astroman33]

That's really bad news-- and your post is just one of many that has made hold off upgrading.

However, could there be a problem with the battery indicator in OS 4? So that maybe it's simply displaying the wrong percentage?

And maybe that's fixed in the latest update (if one has come out yet) (or will be)?

Ooops! After reading the long thread on the Apple forums, it's pretty clear it's not an indicator issue, but clearly it's a software glitch somewhere!

[1BadPig]

Battery was 90% charged when I went to bed... woke up 7 hours later and it's down to 20%... what has the touch been doing while it was "sleeping"?

[ipodlover29]

Good way to save battery life is to :

disable notifications
disable location services
disable push email
set email to check manually or less frequently

[Jim101]

iPodlover,
Thanks for the tips.....

Jim

[Flyboybob]

I have had no problems with battery capacity since upgrading to IOS4. Additionally, I have unlocked, jail-broken, my 2nd generation iPod Touch and I am enjoying the background wallpaper and multitasking without degraded battery performance. However, I don't put it to sleep without quitting all background applications and turning off the WiFi. I also don't leave a room without turning off the lights to keep my electric bill smaller.

[KayeC]

I had the same experience. Since upgrading to version 4 my I pod won't hold a charge for longer than 5 hours. Called myapple right after the upgrade and they were unaware of a connection to the upgrade because it was too new. After restoring it, which was what they suggested, it still didn't help. Took it to the Apple store and they were not aware of any connection to the upgrade but confirmed that the battery was not holding a charge and swapped it out for a new one. The new one has exactly the same problem! One of the techs mentioned that an app may be running in the background and there is no way to know or do anything about it unless you routinely delete all your apps and reinstall them five at a time to try and find the culprit(s). I have not done that as it is a lot of work and Apple needs to acknowledge the problem and fix it. I think we need to keep calling tech and report this.

[Zigzone]

First of all, my battery life is FAR WORSE with iOS4. Why are we being asked to disable the features we use and that make the Touch fun and cool to use? Oh wait, because it's the same company (Apple) who is asking people with an iPhone 4 to put cases over their super thin smartphone. NOT HAPPY!!!

[KayeC]

Originally Posted by Zigzone

First of all, my battery life is FAR WORSE with iOS4. Why are we being asked to disable the features we use and that make the Touch fun and cool to use? Oh wait, because it's the same company (Apple) who is asking people with an iPhone 4 to put cases over their super thin smartphone. NOT HAPPY!!!

The battery looses charge when in a wifi zone, even when it is turned off. If not in a wifi area, the battery life is normal. I think we need to keep letting Apple support know of this problem since the upgrade. There has been no official mention of this, I guess because they have had enough trouble with the IPhone.

[jonwort]

Have been having exactly the same battery issues as described in this thread since upgrading to OS4.

Battery life is slightly improved if switching off wireless except when access needed, but I forgot to turn off yesterday so the battery is flat again (I guess because there is WiFi signal where I left it, even though the device itself was off).

I wish I had heard about this before downloading OS4! None of you guys seems to indicate there is any way of going back to OS3?

[KayeC]

Has everyone let Apple know of this problem? There doesn't seem to be an official acknowledgement of this problem anywhere but here.

[Dr. Brown]

At least some of this battery draining might come the fact that the wifi stays on in ios4, unlike in 3.

[Jim101]

Jon,

Go to this thread "How is OS4 on a 3rd Gen....... " A guy there has a link and some tips for going from OS4 down to OS3...

Jim

[GTrav]

I was sure that the battery in my nearly new iPod was suddenly running down very quickly. I didn't notice it soon enough to associate it with the OS upgrade.

I'm both glad and dismayed to find that the OS is probably the culprit. Glad because it means I'm not imagining things; dismayed because it's really annoying to have the battery life degraded so dramatically.

I'm experimenting with turning off the WiFi when I don't need it to see if it helps.

KayeC, I've seen the problem reported in a number of places. Here's a column on the PCWorld website. There are lots more; I searched on iPod touch battery life ios 4 and got back lots.

I haven't seen any acknowledgement from Apple anywhere, though, and have seen many skeptical comments.

[1BadPig]

With the way Apple handled the iPhone 4 antenna issue, I doubt we'll get any response unless there is a massive amount of outrage out there.