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Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS, Android and Windows Phone Battery Drain Fix

April 7, 2010 By 7 Comments
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It has happened to many iPhone users. Suddenly your iPhone is draining very quickly, even without using the iPhone at all.

This has happened to my iPhone now for two times. On many blogs and forums people are complaining about it and many tips are given but not a real good answer to the sudden quick drain of your battery.  Below are these tips to save on battery power but won’t fix the sudden extreme drainage of your battery.

We have changed the title to include Android and Windows Phone devices now as well. We experienced the same battery drain on other mobile platforms. It seems that the exchange sync funtion (possibly calendar) hangs on the devices. In which it means it constantly is asking for data transfer in which your battery drains very fast. The device will feel hot as well. The solution is simple but takes some time.

  • You need to delete to exchange account on your device
  • After is is finished deleting your synced information you turn off your device and restart it.
  • Set up your exchange account as before, the device will sync all your information back to your device.

The tips below will preserve more battery power:

  • Turn off 3G (saves battery and is almost a must in area’s where you have Edge coverage)
  • Turn off Notifications
  • Turn off Push for e-mail
  • Turn off  WiFi
  • Turn off Bluetooth
  • Set your Fetch schedule on all your other emails to manually
  • Turn your Brightness down

Again these tips above will not fix your sudden battery drain on your iPhone. And really turning off all these options, kinda makes your iPhone a phone like any other. You really don’t have to do this.

I have discovered that the sudden extreme battery drain has to do with your Exchange Account that has been set up on your iPhone.  For some odd reason it keeps check and checking for new info and it won’t stop. Before trying to do a restore on your iPhone I would first recommend deleting your Exchange Push Account on your iPhone and set it up again as a new account. This will save some time in the fix for the extreme fast battery drainage.

Follow the steps below to fix the extreme battery drainage on your iPhone.

  1. Go to your “Settings” on your iPhone.
  2. Select “Mail,Contact,Calendars“.
  3. Select your account that has been set up with an exchange server.
  4. Select “Account Info“.
  5. Copy down the information which you will need to set up this account again later on.
  6. Select the “Arrow back ” on the top of your screen with the name of your account.
  7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select “Delete Account“
  8. Let the iPhone do its work. It will remove all e-mails, contacts and calendar items from your iPhone associated with your account.
  9. When done Turn off your iPhone and Turn it back on.
  10. Once your iPhone is turned back on you can go back to Step 1,2
  11. Back in the “Mail,Contacts,Calendar” Settings you have to select  “Add Account“
  12. Select the “Microsoft Exchange” and enter the credentials you copied down before.
  13. The server information is not visible in this field yet, it will appear after you set up your E-mail, Domain, Username and Password are entered and “Next” has been selected.
  14. Now your account has been set up again. It will take some time for the iPhone to synchronize everything back. Give it some 5-10 minutes.

Now your Exchange Push account has been set up again and your extreme battery drainage has been stopped. If you think that after these steps you still have this issue, I would recommend using the “Restore” function in iTunes while your iPhone is connected.

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Filed Under: Apple iPhone, Google Android, Maemo, Palm WebOS, Phones, RIM Blackberry, Symbian S60, Vodafone 360, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7 Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
About Johan van Mierlo

Johan van Mierlo has been writing and reviewing for the online communities since the launch of the handheld computer Palm IIIe and Compaq iPaq in 1998. He owned and tested many mobile devices including Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, Android, Apple iOS iPhone, iPad and many different GPS and other Mobile products.

Johan was awarded MVP Windows Phone Consumer (Previous MVP Windows Phone and MVP Windows Mobile Devices) by Microsoft in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 for his community activities.

You can follow Johan on Twitter

  • Michael

    Just out of curiosity, what is it about deleting and recreating the Exchange account that fixes it? It seems like the the same situation could happen again with the new account.

    • http://www.mobilityminded.com Johan van Mierlo

      True, but it fixes the problem. It seems that somehow the iPhone keeps checking the account constantly. So some kind of a hang up, which only stops when the account is deleted. This happened for me now twice within the year I have the phone.

  • Rob

    Thanks for the tip. I had the same problem and though it was on the server end. I’m not sure what triggers it because there were no changes to the iphone (system) only updated apps loaded. Obviously though, something is changed internally because restoring the backup onto a new iphone (thanks Apple) yielded the same result.

  • Zoran

    In my case, the problem appears when the Exchange server is down. Iphone is constantly trying to connect to the server, which not just drains the batteries but will also make a huge data traffic – which, costwise, can be even worst problem the battery drainage(i can imagine my phone bill if this happens when i am abroad and using data roaming!!!). I think both Microsoft and Apple have to do something about this if they care about their users.
    Btw, proposed solution can help in some cases – also you must turn off the calendar, and contacts, but even deleting the account sometimes doesn’t stops the traffic.
    *** Temporary solution which works for me: I noticed that the traffic stops only when in Exchange Account info i turn off the “use SSL” option. This will not fix the problem with the email account, but at least will stop the traffic and the battery draining until the Exchange server is up again.

    Also helps if you turn off: wi-fi, 3g, and data transfer (unlockit.co.nz), but in that case all other e-mail accounts and all other applications that use internet can not be used.

    I hope that at least in OS 4.0 this will be fixed.

    • Anita

      I am having a similar problem. I am on my 3rd phone. All of them losing battery quickly and the phone becomes EXTREMELY hot if carried in my pocket or used for more than 5 minutes of conversation. I have restored the phone several times…the last time I didn’t even load the back up,I started a new phone, I added email accounts and apps 1 by 1 and tracking battery life to try to get to the bottom of the problem. Bottom line…for some reason I cannot stop the any of the phones I have received from having these issues. Apple is just as perplexed as I am! Any suggestions?

      • http://www.mobilityminded.com Paul Willen

        Hello Anita,

        I would suggest restoring your iPhone and not replace a backup. Then keep your iPhone original (install no applications, or add any e-mail accounts) for a few day’s and see if you’ve got any problems with the battery.

        Please report if you have any problems after trying a clean, out-of-the-box iPhone for a few days.

        // Paul Willen

  • Nick Steblay

    I concur with this article. I had the same problem with my iPhone’s Exchange application draining power – iPhone 3GS battery was staying warm and couldn’t hold a charge for more than a few hours. I didn’t notice it until after the IOS4 upgrade. I re-baselined the phone (factory restore) and turned off push for Exchange email and set the fetch schedule for Exchange email to manual. Battery life it back to normal. Backup before the factory restore!