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battery drain

  • 20 April 2017
  • 7 replies
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New to T-Mobile this week from AT&T.

Major problem with our iPhones (5S and 6+) with battery drain.  We didn't see this problem with AT&T (had other problems, thus the move), but now having to recharge during the day while we easily made it through the day before.  Coverage maps say we should have strong signals, but trying to understand and correct the issue.  This is a big problem for us and starting to regret selecting T-Mobile.

Thanks for any help.

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Best answer by stanb42 29 April 2017, 15:58

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7 replies

Userlevel 3

Yikes, @stanb42‌!  We're happy you made the switch, and want it to be entirely free of regrets.  When you take a look at your Usage in Settings, does it seem higher than before, if you had checked it prior to switching?  How does it look compared to the Standby time (Standby is the total time - so really it's easier to think of it as Standby = Usage + Standby)?  I've read (although I've never personally had cause to test this) that the Genius Bar folks can actually plug your phone in and see exactly what's causing a battery drain - but without having that equipment at your disposal, it's a little tougher to diagnose the root cause of battery drain on an iPhone than it is with an Android device, where you can review your settings to see which apps or processes are actually consuming the most battery.  Is your experience with coverage pretty true to the map?

- Marissa

Userlevel 4

Any luck with your battery life? You can see a rough estimate of your phones battery usage and what apps are hogging all the power by going to settings > battery on your iPhones.

Hi all,

I've waited a week or so before responding just to see how things play out.  It seems as things have become more stable after that first few days that our battery usage has returned to levels before we switched over.  Maybe some background activity due to the change over?  I don't know, but it seems to have corrected itself.

Thanks.

Userlevel 4

Hooray! That is really good to hear! Please let us know if we can ever be of any help.

I recently switched my iPhone 6 from Time-Warner to T-Mobile, and started having problems with my battery, which seem to have escalated very quickly over the past week or so. Someone mentioned that, oftentimes, a software glitch may the source of unusual drainage, so I JUST updated to 12.1 and updated all my apps, deleting unused apps and tweaking my preferences to maximize battery life.

My phone was fully charged just now, so I unplugged it and am keeping it on next to me and literally seeing the percentage go down. The rate is about 2%/minute with the screen on but doing engaging with any apps. According to my Battery setting, it's performing at 91% of its original capacity, which is considered Peak Performance Capability. For the record, my biggest drains today were Recently Deleted Apps at 41% and Instagram at 27%.

The other issue I have is my battery draining pretty much instantly when it's cold out. This morning, my 100% charged phone died while I was out on a walk, not using it at all, and it was in my purse. It drains more slowly if I keep it in my pocket with my hand on it.

Obviously, my phone is pretty impractical at this point. I have to bring a charger everywhere I go and keep an eye out for outlets. What could be the source of this, and how can I fix it? Thanks in advance!

I did some more testing with a stopwatch, and the drainage is approximately .5%/minute indoors and 2%/minute outside at around 65 degrees. I tested both scenarios for a while, keeping the home screen on but otherwise not touching the phone or engaging with apps. This morning was much colder when my phone fully died while in my purse. So, I would say that it's definitely draining too quickly over all AND there's an issue with the cold.

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I switched four days ago to tmobile and the battery drain has dramatically increased. I did not install the tmobile app so it isn’t that.  I will try the suggestions but in the long run may not stay with tmobile.  I have an iphone 6.