Fix iPhone OS 3.0 Battery Charging Problems

After updating to OS 3.0 my iPhone started exhibiting problems with battery. The battery would not charge at times, it drained fast and the phone ran hot. These are the steps I took to fix the problem.

  1. Backup and sync your phone. Connecting your phones to iTunes and doing a sync will also backup your phone.
  2. Reset your settings. Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings.
  3. Hard Reset your iPhone. Press and hold the home button and the power button together until the silver apple logo is shown  on screen [First the "Slide to Power Off" message will appear and then the screen will go blank and then the apple logo will appear]. Once the apple logo appears you can release the buttons.
  4. Disable Push for your accounts. To disable Push you need to go to Settings -> Mail,Contacts,Calendars -> Fetch New Data. Turn Push off and set the fetch interval to whatever you desire.
iPhone Reset

iPhone Reset

Following these steps, I was able to fix the battery problems and the phone now runs as cool as it was under the previous OS version. My guess is that step no 3 alone would be able to fix most problems, but it didn’t do it for me.

A lot of people are experiencing these issues and there are a ton of posts on apple forums. It may be due to iTunes not resetting your phone properly or because of bugs in OS 3.0. I have never seen this widespread complaints about an OS update affecting battery so far especially charging, so it is more likely that the problems are caused by OS 3.0 bugs.

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June 29, 2009 | Share:   Share on facebook   Share on digg   Share on LinkedIn   Share on delicious   Share on Newsvine   Share on Stumbleupon   Share on Yahoo Buzz | Tags:, ,
Eri Hidayat on July 2, 2009

Your post is very useful, it works for my iphone 3G

Thanks,
Eri Hidayat

JOe on July 3, 2009

The hard reset won't have any effect on jailbreak will it?

Manu J on July 3, 2009

Jailbreak should stay intact. Only a restore or software update breaks
jailbreak as far as i know

mickeymicks on July 4, 2009

Hi!
thanks for this post.. it worked for my iphone.
just one thing though, wouldn't Step3, undo Step2 (Push)?
for that, i had to re-disable Push after the hard reset (i don't use it anyway).

Thanks so much, though! great help!
(i was almost at the brink of downgrading). hehe

Manu J on July 4, 2009

Yeah. Probably. I have changed the order of things just to be sure.
Thanks for pointing that out.

mm_01 on July 4, 2009

Apparently it worked on my iPhone 3G, thank you a lot for the hint.

Jamaal Rasheed on July 9, 2009

Thanks a lot. It worked like a charm.

Brandon on July 9, 2009

wow i think it worked for me… thx so much

Uffe on July 9, 2009

This Hard Reset, removes Cydia and the JB, just so u know

DONT USE THIS GUIDE

Manu J on July 9, 2009

A hard reset won't remove cydia or un-jailbreak your iPhone normally.

braga24 on July 12, 2009

thanks man its working, i thought i was gonna die.

azs on July 16, 2009

i tried this and it worked for my iphone 3g. however after a week, the problem came back. any other suggestions? what happens to my iphone 3g, is that when i plug it in, it automatically gets battery from the plug (plug sign on the battery bar). as a result my iphone 3g gets extremely hot.

yo on July 20, 2009

seems to be working for me. Great help! Thumbs up!

But I was actually wondering will turning push on for a mobile me account resolve in the previous battery issues?

Manu J on July 20, 2009

if this doesn't work, you can try downgrading to 2.2.1 firmware

Manu J on July 20, 2009

You can enable push and see if it comes back. If it does, then you
know what to do :)

jose on July 27, 2009

the best way to fix the battery issue is to restore your iphone as new NOT FROM YOUR BACK UP that will fix the problem.
http://iphon3n3wz.blogspot.com

mohamedsulthan on July 29, 2009

great manuj,thanks for you help……………..

Eric on July 30, 2009

i only goes with step 1 n 2 , and its now showing battery full
cool
i`ll see if the problem fixed
if i dont post it here, mean no further issue

thanks mate

bessie21 on August 4, 2009

thanks it worked, good one

Erik on August 9, 2009

Thanks a TON for the info on fixing my phone. I was about to head to the Apple Store.

Jimmi1412 on August 12, 2009

Hi Manuj,

I bought my Iphone 3G in Singapore and it worked very well.
But when I came back to my hometown, Vietnam and use Vietnam simcard, the battery can not be fully charged even I charge it for 3 to 4 hours.
I did try your solution but it seems like does not work on my Iphone.
Could you pls assist me on this matter?

Thanks & Regards
Jimmi

Jimmi1412 on August 12, 2009

And 1 more problem, when my iphone battery is 60% fully charged but the plug icon still appears. What's happened?

Thank u

hazemhossam on August 17, 2009

stupid question what is “push” please answer fast I'm aching to get the update

Manu J on August 17, 2009

Push notifications allow the iphone to show notifications for an
application even if the application isn't open. For example, even if
you are not using a chat application, new chat messages can be pushed
on to your iphone

hazemhossam on August 19, 2009

thank you very much for the info

LizzieM80424 on August 26, 2009

Will doing this delete all my SMS messages on my phone?

hazemhossam on September 4, 2009

sorry another question will this harm the jailbreak (resetting the settings) thanks

ammarfarook on September 6, 2009

hi, having the same problem for weeks and now taking courage to reset all settings…im praying it works with my stupid 2G!!!
I really hope it does..ill update it after testing your method.
Regards

Manu J on September 7, 2009

as far as i know, jailbreak should remain intact.

johnst on September 7, 2009

I'm still now able to charge my iphone. I got iphone 3g 3.0 firmware. My iphone is not charging. It doesnt have any physical damage. It was working well. Now, It doesnt charge. Whenever the battery is fully dead then it gets charge upto 20% but still it doesnt shows the battery is charging on the icon.
Can someone please help me with this???

Manu J on September 8, 2009

Did you follow the instructions in the article?

gonzo79 on September 8, 2009

I have the same problem and nothing here fix it. The fastest way I found is to charge it in “Plane mode” then it doesn't heat and charge good. Of course you can`t receive calls in the meantime. Someone know an official Apple report of this issue? Thanks.

Gonzo79 on September 8, 2009

I have the same problem and nothing here fix it. The fastest way I found is to charge it in “Plane mode” then it doesn't heat and charge good. Of course you can`t receive calls in the meantime. Someone know an official Apple report of this issue? Thanks.

chic on January 31, 2010

thanks it works! my battery is charging now and have reach full bar! so genius! i thought i had to replace my unit which is sooo expensive! the sad part is i cant restore my back up!:(

Jaysen on February 1, 2010

We at The Music Void have encountered similar problems with the iPhone. For a product you pay so much money for you really expect quality. That, recently, appears to have been sacrificed. There have been a number of issues that have arisen, and the battery-life is definitely one. Check out this article we wrote – http://bit.ly/aML9UT Agree or disagree?

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