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iPhone 4S Battery Woes Prompt Apple to Contact Customers

Owners of Apple’s latest handset asked to install diagnostics software

Oct 29, 2011 12:56 GMT  ·  By
Apple's SVP of Product Marketing, Phil Schiller talking about the iPhone 4S battery during the company's Oct. 4 event in Cupertino, California
   Apple's SVP of Product Marketing, Phil Schiller talking about the iPhone 4S battery during the company's Oct. 4 event in Cupertino, California

Apple engineers may give you a call this weekend to ask about your experience with the new iPhone 4S, particularly regarding battery life. It seems the company in Cupertino has a real issue on its hands, and is now reaching out to customers to try and alleviate battery drainage.

Customers are reporting that Apple has given engineers the green light to ring people up and ask to install diagnostics software that they must then send back to Apple to have the results reviewed.

One iPhone 4S owner says Apple contacted him directly and asked him to install a monitoring program on the phone, according to the Guardian.

The file is tasked with diagnosing the problem, in an attempt to find an explanation as to why the severe battery drainage occurs.

This person reportedly said, "My battery life was extremely poor - 10% drop in standby every hour. I noticed that the usage figure was roughly half that of standby, even when the phone was not being used, so I assumed something was crashing or running in the background. I switched off all the new features including Siri and location services, but it was still really poor. I also tried setting up a clean phone with no apps but it is still really poor.”

“I then got a call from a senior [Apple] engineer who said he had read my post and was ‘reaching out’ to users for data and admitted this was an issue (and that they aren’t close to finding a fix!) and asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file below and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info. I extracted the file from my Mac after a sync and emailed it to him. He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!”



Softpedia recently reported that iOS 5.1 may be required to fix battery drain issues, as well as other potential bugs. Our readers are also confirming what is clearly a widespread problem.

Have you been experiencing battery drainage issues on your iPhone 4S? Can you identify one process / application that may be the culprit? Sound off in the comments.