iPhone 4S problem: Battery drain blamed on iOS 5

Why is 海角大神 Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The 海角大神 Science Church, and we鈥檝e always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we鈥檝e aimed 鈥渢o injure no man, but to bless all mankind,鈥� as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you鈥檒l find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences 鈥� a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us

iPhone 4S problem: Battery drain blamed on iOS 5

iPhone 4S problem? You're not alone. Apple says an iOS 5 bug has led to severe battery drainage in the iPhone 4S. Problem should be resolved in a few weeks.

Newscom/FILE

Several have reported an iPhone 4S problem related to the battery. Apple points the finger at iOS 5 and says that this iPhone 4S problem should be resolved in a few weeks.

By Tom Cheredar VentureBeat

Nov. 03, 2011, 10:53 a.m. ET

Remember those听phantom battery draining听issues that some iPhone 4S owners have been reporting? Apple has finally determined a cause for the problem.

The company confirmed this week that the unusually short battery life is due to bugs in Apple鈥檚 iOS 5 mobile operating system software, and not due to defective hardware.

鈥淎 small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,鈥� an Apple spokesperson told VentureBeat. 鈥淲e have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.鈥�

While Apple declined to comment beyond the statement above, some iPhone 4S owners are reporting that the battery draining is caused by corrupted contact data imported from Mobile Me, iCloud or Google. Others have reported that clearing the contacts data and re-uploading it has fixed the battery drain problem.

As we mentioned in a previous report, the 4S already has an unimpressive standby battery time (the total amount of time the device can stay powered when inactive) of 200 hours. That鈥檚 100 hours less standby time than the iPhone 4, and 50 less than the first generation iPhone.

Hopefully, Apple will release the iOS 5 update soon so those experiencing the problem don鈥檛 have to plan their day around finding electrical sockets to communicate.

Next Story:听听
Previous Story:听