Softpedia Readers Speak: iOS 4 Affects Battery Life

I hate the 20% remainig battery message i get all the time now. I used to charge my 3rd gen touch every other day. Now it wont last half a day.

Susan #25, your second '[sic]' comment is unjustified. The lack of punctuation, as in the original, is correct. No apostrophe is necessary.

3gs ios 4.0 update lost batteritime 50% WHY can`t a big compagny like apple just TRY to be a little pro... if iphone was made in china or germane we would not have that problem, anyone wants to trade a iphone 3gs 32gb with a android....????apple suks...

I upgrade to OS4.. Feature of Multitasking and Folders is good but.. Battery is like drained in few hours... I charges it fully yesterday night .. and in meningitis it was dead.. No Application running .. Closed all for multitasking... Is there anything else to be disabled.. Blue tooth was off notification of few apps and location service remains on.. Any updates to improve the same..

My 2nd generation Ipod Touch has dramatically changed in regards to battery life since I did an update. I have to charge it all the time. Before the update my charge would last for days. Another problem that I noticed is that the Wifi power signal is frequently showing as only one bar when I am at home. Before the update I always had a strong 3 bar signal. This update is a major problem for me. They need to fix this NOW. HELP!

My iPod Touch 2nd generation was great before I upgraded to version 4 last week. I could use it for 4-5 days without needing a charge - just for accessing emails, reading news websites, occasionally listening to ebooks and for using the calendar and contacts - rarely other apps.

Now, every morning it is dead when I wake up despite fully charging it before bedtime. It's only a 8gb so there is no multi tasking. Bluetooth is off. I've just turned off location services and will see whether that is better.

My husband hasn't yet updated his - not sure what to advise him to do. Hope Apple sort this out soon so I can start enthusing again about my ipod.

iTouch (3g?) anyhow -- battery lasted forever. Now I have to leave it on the charger overnight every night if I want to use it the next day. The software update KILLED my iTouch. I really hope they fix this.

We have 1 IPhone 4, one IPhone 3G S and 2 itouch 2nd gen 8 gb in our family, so far the new IPhone 4 has been great, great battery life and minimal dropped call issues. Our iPhone 3G S battery luf since upgrading to ios4 has decreased noticeably. We tried many fixes and restoring it, still is poor. Both of our itouches have now horrible battery issues since upgrading. Don't do the upgrade. We even traded them in at the apple store because they were still under warranty and tried restoring one back to keep saved apps, battery life is still horrible. They were great at the apple store but really were uninformed on the battery issues IOS4 has been causing. Were going to drop back to 3.1.3 on the itouchs till they get this fixed, unfortunately we will loose and saved files within the apps and have to start fresh. Apple please fix this, it is more of an issue than any other.

Try resetting your network settings. It seems that as I added more WiFi networks back to the device for it to automatically connect to, the battery life dropped again, but it did work for me.

Reset Network Settings:
Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings

Same battery issue with my touch (3rd gen) post 4.2 upgrade. I have also tried disabling all background running apps with the hopes it will save the battery. While it helps a little, the touch drains MUCH faster than before.

I agree that I get about 8 - 9 hours of music play on OS4. Prior I could get at least double that

My touch is only 8 months old.

I bought an IPOD Touch 32gb 2 weeks ago. Due to the much hyped OS4, i simply upgraded it to OS 4 from OS3.
And what I get...a irritating low life of battery...even with 2 apps and wifi connected, the battery goes down in no minutes.
You gave me multitasking, but why should that be a pain for me to check every now and then as to how many apps are running behind. It takes numerous clicks to close all the apps and besides I have to always keep track of the number of apps in use.
Infact if I go to turn on the Airplane mode and then to home, double click and I see the 'settings' itself is displayed as an open app. Now I have to take care to close that also. So many clicks all the times, it simply freaks me out.
On Apple site, they say use minimal multitasking, disable push notification. If that is the case then why did you in the very first place give us OS4 on IPOD touch. If you want it to be a pure audio/video player, then why raise our expectation.
I'm getting sick of I Devices. my friends say everytime they are beginning to get used to a device, Apple comes up with some new features in both hardware and software killing their own previous device. The problem being they don't forsee the future, they just live in present, satisfying what anybody asks them to.
I had a great many expectations from OS4, but I think it's better to stop expecting something from Apple, but since now I have that 299$ IPOD, I should get back to OS3.

Have the same problem as anyone else after updating to OS4 on my 3rd G IPod Touch.
To me it seems like there is something wrong with the battery life indicator, because I can use the device a whole day, surfing, listening to music etc. without the battery going down. Today fx it started out at 20% left, now 12 hours later there is still 15% left ???
I recharge more often than before but perhaps it's only neccessary as to avoid the alert of low battery life, the battery is not really in pain - could that be??

iPod touch 2nd Gen.
I had the very same problem. After I upgraded to iOS4 I would charge the iPod before going to bed, in the morning it would be nearly empty, down to 20%. I decided to roll back the upgrade and restore the iPod version 3 OS. To do this I first restored back to factory settings and bring it up to the latest version backup I had, this turned out to be iOS4. The routine was difficult to stop and I found I had no option to select OS3, so, I let it continue. When all was done, I had lost some of my customizations, these I could restore over time.

The net result is, I now have much better battery life, probably the same as before. I can only assume the complete reset to factory, removed something the iOS4 upgrade did not like, and so far things are very much back to normal.

This may not be to everybody the best solution but, I would recommend it if battery life is a major problem, as it was becoming for me. Good luck.

I just saw this thread a couple of days ago after searching for iPod touch users who were having problems maintaining a charge after upgrading to OS 4. I followed the suggestion from Adam Stark and it worked like a charm. In brief, his solution was to restore the iPod using iTunes but then to restore as a new iPod rather than from a previous back-up. I followed Adam's instructions and admittedly went through the laborious effort of restoring all my apps and tunes. However, I'm happy to say that my iPod is back to its healthy self and keeping a charge for several days. Bottom line, if you're still having problems follow Adam's advice.

Adam's method seems to work until reconnect to your wifi network for the first time. Then the battery drain kicks in again. Anyone else have a different experience with this tip?

My 2nd gen ipod touch used to have a battery life of atleast 1 week (if left unused) after recharging completely. After ios4 upgrade it doesnt even survive for 2 days..

My ipod touch used to be wiked for battery life, sometimes may even last me a week before having to be recharged! now every morning im continuosly having to put it on charge, which is hard when you need it every morning at 5 for the gym ! ive also noticed how after unplugging it from itunes, ill go to the gym to selelct music, to find it says no content (i didnt disconnect it while itunes was syncing etc) messes up my whole gym routine ! regret updating to the version as it all started from then!

hi my names Timothy
I had my iPod 2 gen for about a year
and it was all cool and pro with ios 3.1.3 with the battery lasting like 24 hours , even after a day of games Internet and music it would still be about 50% of battery life left and it would be kinda warm but it was fine
but now after upgrading to ios 4.2
my iPod freezes when I unlock it if I have left a app open and it went into sleep mode it's almost always warm and the battery life is tiny it drops in standby mode !!!!
I was already angry at apple calling the iPod touch 2g 8 gb a iPod touch 3gen 8gb
but this is just ridickus
hopefully it will be fixed after ANOTHER update but I'm keeping my hopes down .

btw my friend called apple support cuz his wi fi was weak and kinda droping a lot and apple said he was holding it wrong and he said it was a iPod touch 3 gen 32 gb
and they just hung up on him
im just 11 almost 12 and after having to work hard for my iPod
good grades
good behavior
no birthday and Christmas presents for a year
it just doesn't see
worth all that anymore
and I don't want to bother my mom and dad for a new one like 4 gen iPod touch
because we r kinda tight on money now because our a/c brke and we just got back from a trip from hong kong and bejing so yea

I'm ready sad now :(

oh and I'm not a hater it's just that I'm really annoyed you know working so hard for this and all

plz reply if u have any news of it being fixed :( plz

thanks and sent from my iPod whose battery droped at least 5% posting this and os quite warm

thanks in advance Timothy

My husband and I both upgraded to 4 on our ipod touches and now they are basically useless as the batteries drain to zero in half a day even when the units are completely off. The batteries were absolutely fine before the upgrade. ...Amy

My iphone battery would never fully charge and died quickly after upgrade to ios 4.1

I thought the battery had a failure!

But double click the home button and close all the background apps running.

Now, every time you run an app it will keep running and sucking the life out of your battery!

Same problem here. My Ipod Touch 3rd generation loses all battery charge overnight. I've found it helps to turn on the airport mode but that is not a good solution. Hope Apple fixes this issue soon. Is there a way to return to the previous OS?

I recently purchased a refurbished 2nd gen 8gig ipod touch from an ebay auction. I didn't experience the problem with OS 4, but when I updated to 4.1 I got the same problem--battery doesn't even last a full 8 hours. I was about to petition the seller of my auction before I came across this thread.
Should I just wait for the next update?
I'm pretty tired of this kind of thing. If its not one thing its another with these updates. Maybe I'll just get a Zune.

I have an iPod Touch 2G. I thought it was a problem with my battery, so I had the battery replaced. It turns out, it wasn't a problem with the battery, it is a problem with Apple's development staff.

After the latest upgrade, I can use my iPod Touch with battery power ONLY if I have WiFi disabled.

If WiFi is on (regardless of notifications/push), it will shut down within minutes. EVERY time.

I've tried fresh restores and all, running it without my apps....no diff.

I have an iPod Touch 2G. I thought it was a problem with my battery, so I had the battery replaced. It turns out, it wasn't a problem with the battery, it is a problem with Apple's development staff.

After the latest upgrade, I can use my iPod Touch with battery power ONLY if I have WiFi disabled.

If WiFi is on (regardless of notifications/push), it will shut down within minutes. EVERY time.

I've tried fresh restores and all, running it without my apps....no diff.

My third generation iTouch now does not last a day since updating to iOS 4.2.1. I am very disappointed. Every morning when I'm ready to go for a run my iTouch with my Nike app is dead. Apple should respond to this issue immediately. I am very disappointed with how this has been handled so far.

Just found out that you need to close all open applications as they take juice even when the ipod Touch is in standby mode. To do so, click the bottom round button twice and a screen of open apps appears. Place your finger on one of the icons for 4 seconds and then you can click the minus sign above each window to close them all. I recommend you do it everyday. Not sure why they have this feature. Doing as I suggest will save your battery. Straight from the Genius Apple Store Technician. Why don't they tell you about this????

Apple has had a year to fix this. Obviously they do not care that they broke our devices. Very poor customer support. I will never buy another Apple product. This Touch was my first and last.

I think that apple should fix all of there iPod problems and give everyone who has had a problem with the battery life and replace them or fix them! I have a iPod touch fourth generation and the battery will be fully chargered and then
Within 5-10 minutes the battery had 20% left even after barley using it!

Every time i try to use my ipod its completely dead. If i let it sit after charging, theres no hope. only after downloading the most recent OS. This is really ridiculous

Add another one to the list, my ipod battery does not last long at all after update.