iOS4 quickly drains iPod Touch battery

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief July 13, 2010 · 1 min read

Listen to article

AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE announced GPD MicroPC 2 with Intel Core 3 N350 announced Nintendo Direct to unveil Switch 2 games for second half of 2026 iOS 27 Beta Is Out, But You'll Need to Join a Waitlist to Try the New Siri AI Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2026

Since I updated my iPod Touch 2G to iOS4 several weeks back, I haven’t really used it very often. So last night, I pulled it from the charger and played a single podcast.

Then this morning, I woke up and saw that the iPod Touch had its battery almost drained.

In less than 10 hours, the iPod Touch went from 100% to 10% battery life and all I did was play a 30-minute podcast.

The culprit, it seems, is iOS4. Been reading more about this now from searching for similar incidents but have not gotten a fix for it. Probably, downgrading and reverting back to the previous OS might help.

Anybody out there experienced the same problem and found a fix?

React to this article:

Battery Drain Fix Battery Life iPod Touch iOS4 Battery Drain iOS4 Battery Optimization iOS4 iPod Touch iOS4 Troubleshooting iOS4 Update Problems iPod Touch Battery Issue iPod Touch Battery Solutions ipod touch philippines

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

8,007 Articles

View all posts by Abe Olandres →

86 Comments

jimboy · 16 years ago

I have no problem with ipod touch 2G since i upgraded to OS4 the battery was improved,it takes a week before i recharge it again in a normal use.

Mark Carey · 16 years ago

I have this problem too, Ipod Touch 2nd Gen, battery drains overnight, before sleeping it was left on home screen.

Today I will try Ken’s suggestion to turn off Notifications to see if that helps…Thx for the tip.

lito · 16 years ago

i experience also this ios4 since i upgraded my ipod touch 2gen. my battery became worse. how can I restore the original OS of my ipod touch. please help. anybody there, please

SojaBird · 16 years ago

I totaly have the same problem.
Since the update to os4 it’s all but trouble with my iPod Touch 2G (16gb).
It’s getting way hitter as well as it drains the battery empty when I’m nit even using it.
I haven’t got mine jailbraked but I’m consisering it since there isn’t a other way to downgrade my framewire (isn’t it?).

Pls someone has a solution on this.

Good luck,
SojaBird.

ian · 16 years ago

I forget where I read it but for the Ipodtouch,
IOS4 leaves the wifi on unlike before where once it goes to sleep, it disconnects..

so that may be one of the reasons

maurice · 16 years ago

For 1st gen ipod touch owners: If I were Steve jobs, I would say to you… “Go get a new ipod…(with a greedy grin).”

joseglads · 16 years ago

that’s unfair? iOS4 is only compatible with 2nd gen 3rd gen ipod touch? how about for 1st gen?

joseglads · 16 years ago

Hi.

i have IPod touch 3.1.2. does this mean i’ll stay na lang for this version? di ko na b sya iupgrade?

ken · 16 years ago

Sori for d repost d yugatech app crashes alot.. Update please

-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

ken · 16 years ago

Like i said before with or without multitasking.. Its the “notifications”. Try it turned off n d settings. It worked wonders for me. I dont have to close my apps n multitasking. Even of all my apps ar n the multitaskng

-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

ken · 16 years ago

-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

Ligrev · 16 years ago

3gs user on iOS4.0

YES, it drains my batt very much! But googling around, the solution was simple:

close multitasking apps from the multitasking bar.

It improved my batt life!

As for the iDevices without MultiTasking, I feel you folks, and don’t get it…

maurice · 16 years ago

yup! ios4 sucks! my ipod touch 2g battery life is getting worst. I use my ipod as a backup for my android phone for emails and facebooking. 10 minutes lang nga surfing, half agad ang battery meter. Upgrading ios4 was a headache cuz nagka conflict yung usb drivers when using windows vista. I had to look for a macbook to restore the damn thing.

Junalquis · 16 years ago

that’s true especially a jailbroken ios4 but normal ios4 also drains battery alot.

ken · 16 years ago

it seems like some apps with notifications “on” and not yet compatible with ios4 for some reason stays connected with the wifi in frozen state on multitasking. thus considerably draining battery life.

ken · 16 years ago

I fixed with turning all push notifications off .. Or just pick which app u like to have push notification. Im very sure this is the problem.

-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

Louie6380 · 16 years ago

I have my iPod Touch 32G (3rd Gen) updated to iOS4 and surpringly battery life seem to have improved 10-20%. I would normally recharge every other day but now I change every 2 days with the same use on a day to day basis… I think you may wanna check if your battery is already worn out?

Adrian · 16 years ago

ok naman. wala naman po ako na encounter na problem sa battery, after I upgrade to iOS 4.

poche · 16 years ago

@boy kuripot
basa po kau. 2G nga daw un kay yuga doesnt support multitasking in ios4 environment. how can he left apps running if it doesnt support it in the first place??

boy kuripot · 16 years ago

You might have left some apps running. I’m using an ipod touch and the battery life is the same

snpklsdmbldr · 16 years ago

this is apple’s way of saying “Get the newest iphone 4 even though it has reception issues.”

mousephotato · 16 years ago

2G = Ipod Touch 2nd Generation

kim · 16 years ago

didnt know na may 2gb version pala ng itouch. ang nasa istore kasi ngayon is 8gb or higher… on a completely different topic, how much po is the 2gb version?
:)

Rommel A. · 16 years ago

I am an Ipod Touch 2g user with iOS4 upgraded and yes when I played N.O.V.A or Brothers in Arms 2 for half an hour, I noticed that the battery power depletes by 50%. By the way,I am looking forward for any update for the new Ipod touch 4g which I hope have a specs similar to Iphone 4.

gabriel · 16 years ago

i upgrade also my itouch 3G 32g batt life is good but some aplication crash 90 % like yuga tech hope will upgrade he he.. and all my photos are gting blury doh..

iMe · 16 years ago

Experienced the same problem at first, try turning off the wifi when not in use. It should solve the problem ( at least in my experience it did ;) )

Yuya · 16 years ago

I also noticed my battery life became worse. It drains battery even in standby mode. Hope i could downgrade my ipod touch 2G back to 3.1.3.

electronic.egg · 16 years ago

yeah…I’ve been observing that too…
it’s like a time bomb on my touch…every now and then, I would notice that the battery level/indicator would go down.

Kim Roa Endaya · 16 years ago

too bad for the iPod Touch…

but for me, the iOS4 works well…
I have a 32gb iPhone 3GS :)
I love multitasking :)) lol

deuts · 16 years ago

@abeolandres that’s an uh-oh!

Rabby · 16 years ago

ah.. I thought my speaker dock is the culprit.. why? coz it’s constantly charging my iPod I thought it lessend the lifespan since it’s constantly charging.

My ipt2g is on OS4 too

I’ll try the suggestion downgrade to 3.1.3

Efren Sy · 16 years ago

so the battery of the old units won’t work well with iOS 4

Vi · 16 years ago

I hate the upgrade, not because of the battery but something worst, everything I saved in my apps like my ebooks are all gone, as in empty content as if all apps are newly bought. Everything I saved in my lockbox application gone. Most apps not working anymore, won’t even open! I’m using 3g by the way.. :(

jhonwags · 16 years ago

F i will to upgrade my ipod i wud
Mke it sure that jailbreak is already present in ios4
-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

Teknisyan · 16 years ago

did not experience that yet, though i did notice that there was a difference in the battery life but nothng like urs, My officemates are not complaining either. any apps that you hav left running? i did read somewhere abt a battry issue aftr upgrading 2 ios4, not sure if its from TUAW or somewhere else. Can’t copy & paste the link using a cel fone. O></

http://www.teknisyan.net

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 16 years ago

@Kaye – yeah but my iPod Touch 2G does not support multi-tasking on iOS4.

isangblacktupa · 16 years ago

@abeolandres not true in all cases. My 32GB (2009 version) lasts around 10-20% longer after the update.

kumukulongyelo · 16 years ago

iOS4 on my iphone 3gs works fine except that the yugatech mobile app crashes 100% of the time. As in.

-Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

bogus · 16 years ago

i’m an iphone 3gs user. ever since i updated to IOS4 i have same battery experience. no difference when i was on 3.1.2

Kaye · 16 years ago

Hi,

I happen to have experienced this before. But I noticed that it eats up too much battery life when you have too many applications open at the same time. If I have around 10 or more apps open all at the same time, my iPod Touch is heating up.

Hope this helps!

-Kaye