Poor battery life and WiFi issues after iPhone 1.1.1 update: Potential fix

Posted by Chas_IC
12 October 2007 @ 6pm

I’ve noticed a few oddities on my standard iPhone. I use it on my home WiFi network, but it frequently loses connection and runs off EDGE, burning more batteries. Sometimes I notice the phone getting hot in my pocket and I check it out and it’s lost WiFi and is running EDGE. It usually works right after a shutdown/restart. But it is rather annoying to have to reboot.

Posted by fortune1
12 October 2007 @ 7pm

I first noticed this W-Fi issue today — I haven’t had any trouble before now, for example, on iTunes at Starbucks. But trying to hop onto my dlink g or friends’ linksys routers just wasn’t cutting it. iPhone will connect to the Wi-Fi for about a minute, but then suddenly refuse to use it and switch back to EDGE without warning. But I’m golden at Starbucks, don’t know why. Rebooting iPhone doesn’t fix this for me.

Posted by joshillustrates
12 October 2007 @ 8pm

I had thought I was experiencing reduced battery capacity, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until today. After having it charging in its dock overnight, I took my iPhone out at around 10:30am, over the course of the day I watched one ~45 minute TV show on the train to work, took about two or three short phone calls, checked my e-mail a handful of times, sent a couple text messages, and by 4:00pm my battery was dead.

I’m not sure if my problem was related or not, but I just got back from the Apple store, where they replaced my iPhone on the spot. The genius barely looked at it. Maybe they’re secretly aware of the situation? I’m interested to see how the battery holds up tomorrow.

Posted by caskren1
12 October 2007 @ 10pm

I, too, have noticed my iPhone having difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi networks: both at home and at my office. It previously had no trouble doing so-come to think of it-prior to the 1.1.1 update. It simply doesn’t identify the networks at all. My “work around” has been to power off and turn it on again. Then the networks are visible and the phone automatically connects.

I have also found the iPhone ON in my shirt pocket with very little battery reserve; this, after pocketing it OFF a couple of hours before. I have had it set to check mail frequently, but so it was prior to the 1.1.1 update, and I never had this kind of power consumption before. In fact, the battery life was rather impressive. I use my iPhone a great deal and though I charge it every night, I previously could go a day or two without a recharge. Now, I have to charge it mid-day at work and at night!

Posted by NuclearJDK
14 October 2007 @ 4am

Since the 1.1.1 update my battery life has markedly shortened as well. After the update it was almost like a light switch had been flipped, turning on the power-sucker function!

My Wi-Fi experience hasn’t changed much, but my Safari web browsing has. I am getting frequent crashes where the browser just shuts down and I end up back at the home page.

I am running a “clean” phone; never jail-broken, unlocked, or modified in any way.

Posted by Poweredup.Bill
14 October 2007 @ 4am

I had problems too, as soon as I downloaded 1.1.1.
It was so bad my fully-charged battery would be dead by about 2pm each day.
So I called Apple, and they sent me a new iPhone!
As soon as I told them it occured after the update, he immediately said to send it back.
So I think that they are aware of the problem.

But, when they sent me a new one, it was still under 1.0, so I had to update it to 1.1.1.
Now my new one has a similar problem, but not quite as bad.

I also believe it is trying to hook into the wi-fi network all day, and burning down.
So my solution, is that when not intending to hook into wi-fi, I just shut it and blue tooth down, and only turn them on when I want to use it (which is almost not at all when I am away from home).

Battery is back to normal length with that change.