OK, odd one this.

I’ve had an iPhone 4 for 3 months with no complaints on battery life. Last week it was rubbish though. I closed all open apps, turned off Wi-Fi, 3G, Mobile data, Location Services and even put it in Airplane mode. A fully charged battery wouldn’t even last the night on standby.

Last week I was in the Alps and took the phone on the mountain with me. This week – back home – it is OK again. Numpty question maybe, but do batteries discharge quicker at altitude? My father-in-law had a similar experience with various electronic devices in Peru.

but do batteries discharge quicker at altitude?

Altitude, No. Cold, Yes.

Were you charging it on 110v or 12v electric? Maybe the charger didn’t like that and didn’t deliver a full charge…?

I have found that occassionally this happens on my 3gs too – the battery just drains much faster than usual. I assumed that it was a bug in an app that ended up running in background doing something that drained the battery – GPS/lots of calculations or similar. I just switch the phone off and back on to reset it and this seems to sort it.

The cold will reduce battery duration though.

I’m not sure what the effect is, but the max operating altitude for iphones (and ipads, not sure about macs) is 3000m or 10000ft.

Mmm, I’ve read a few articles that says cold is not a problem but heat will discharge them quicker.

Maybe the charger didn’t like that and didn’t deliver a full charge…?

That sounds plausible, but just returning to the UK seemed to make the battery last longer, without giving it a “UK charge”. I wondered if there is a bug in the OS that means if everything is off (except the phone) it constantly looks for apps and drains the battery quicker, but I couldn’t replicate that in the UK either.

Apple have suggested a restore but without another Alpine holiday how would I know it has fixed it?

If it can’t find a network, they kill themselves trying to find one, so anywhere with poor reception or travelling at speed eg trains flattens them real quick as they endlessly hand off / search for base stations.

Go on another holiday – simple!

If it can’t find a network, they kill themselves trying to find one

Even in Airplane mode?? My friend – staying in the same building as me and also with an iPhone 4 – had no problem.

Go on another holiday – simple

Good call 🙂