Excessive Battery Drain on iPod Touch since iOS4 upgrade

Since updating my 3rd Gen iPod Touch 32GB a few weeks ago to iOS4, I noticed a severe degradation to my battery life. Before the update, I could perform routine non-intensive tasks such as casual web browsing via WiFi, e-booking reading on Amazon Kindle app, etc., and could get about 2 to even 3 days straight before getting the 20 percent battery life warning. Since updating to OS4, I can barely get a full day, and more like half a day, on a full charge doing the same tasks.
Is there something operating in the background with this update, do I need to disable any unknown tasks, or has anyone else experienced this same situation on their iPod or iPhone? If so, is there a definitive solution, or any way to reduce battery consumption??

My ipod touch hangs everytime with that new update.
My 3G Iphone also cant barely make it 1 and a half day (without tasking)
But i found out this happens when i keep my Iphone close to my mac or Magic Mouse....

Why has not become a hot issue?

jcal0820 said:

Since updating my 3rd Gen iPod Touch 32GB a few weeks ago to iOS4, I noticed a severe degradation to my battery life. Before the update, I could perform routine non-intensive tasks such as casual web browsing via WiFi, e-booking reading on Amazon Kindle app, etc., and could get about 2 to even 3 days straight before getting the 20 percent battery life warning. Since updating to OS4, I can barely get a full day, and more like half a day, on a full charge doing the same tasks.
Is there something operating in the background with this update, do I need to disable any unknown tasks, or has anyone else experienced this same situation on their iPod or iPhone? If so, is there a definitive solution, or any way to reduce battery consumption??

Click to expand...

I definitely noticed a serious power drain since updating to the new OS 4 on my iPod Touch!

In fact, prior to the update, I could leave my iPod on standby for a week or two with little to no power loss. After the update, my iPod's battery is completely drained after a few days.

In regular use, the iPod's battery is drained approximately twice as fast. What's up with that? The only reason why I updated on my iPod was to have the basic functionality of folders (why did that take so long?).

There are a lot of people reporting excessive battery drain here (this link also includes tips to correct this obvious problem): http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/iphone-battery-drain-after-ios-4-0-update/

I've noticed some increase as well. It helps to keep as many "background" apps closed as possible. This will improve speed as well. That seems to make the biggest difference. You may play with push settings too. I don't have WiFi at work, so that doesn't affect me there, but at home on the weekends I notice it seems to drain faster, so I assume it is due to it checking periodically.

Battery drain lessened with app removals

I updated this 2nd generation iPodTouch to iOS 4 and at first noticed no battery degradation, then did indeed notice faster drain, even merely reading books with wi-fi off. Using one of the many online lists of ways to curb battery drain, I double-checked everything but with the advice to remove any not much needed apps, I removed a bunch of them, maybe a dozen. One I removed was iBooks, and several were wi-fi finder apps that I have not used since the first week. I got iBooks well after I got iOS 4, and it was just about the time I got iBooks that the battery drain increased. Once I did the cleanup and charged to 100 percent again, drain seems greatly reduced here in the first hours. I also made sure to close all Safari pages that had remained open (regretting that I could adjust hardly any preferences for Safari in the app). I will see whether the improvement continues, then maybe I will slowly introduce one or two apps again to the iPod and see if that finds a villain. (Background apps are not included on 2nd gen iPod Touch, in iOS 4, so that is not a factor.)

....and on Day 2, battery holding charge very well

Yes, since as in the previous note, I removed about a dozen apps, the battery is holding up amazingly well. SINCE YESTERDAY I REMOVED THE OPERA MINI BROWSER TOO since it had run into some problems anyway. And today the battery is holding a high level longer than I have seen since I got the device.

I have this issue on my 2nd Generation iPod Touch (16GB). Had I known that battery life was going to decrease badly, I wouldn't have bothered - the update adds almost nothing that I can see. Not sure why I can't change my wallpaper, but I digress...

The issues were pretty bad - normally I'd recharge once every 5-7 days, even in light use I had to charge almost daily. Yesterday I noticed that I had updates available for about 8 different apps, most of them as a result of iOS4 certification. Once I did those updates, the battery life seemed to improve. It's still not as good as pre-iOS4, but it's not nearly as bad as before.

Airplane Mode raised battery level 25%

Oops.. make that "15%" --- On the apple.com forum I posted similar words about multiple app removal ending the battery drain here. And a reply indicated others have discovered the same thing, app problems.

But now I have made an interesting test, with results that surprised and puzzled me. I already had all communications-involved preferences turned to negative. But for the first time I chose Airplane Mode. The battery level had been resting at 85 percent. Shortly, it rose to 90 percent. Then shortly thereafter it went to 100 percent. Evidently communications things go on that our preferences can't touch. So be it. Airplane Mode For Me when I am not using wi-fi. A guess is that location things are going on without us knowing it, even though we turn off what we can. So Airplane Mode might be a real friend.

One additional thought is that maybe Dropbox tries to check on sync needs even though wi-fi is off, and is the missing element in the battery drain equation, blocked finally by Airplane Mode. Maybe other apps do that also, failing to connect but using battery anyway.