iPod battery life is short. Help.

twister

twister

Howdy
My iPod is not very old. I got it in September and recently the battery seems to just drain.

Today it was charged to 100% full. I had it hooked up to external speakers via the audio out (no dock) and it was in the red in about 3.5 hours.

My backlight is set at 5 seconds, it's playing on shuffle but it's always been that way.

My iPod is a 20gig color iPod.

Could a case cause an iPod battery issue? I did recently get a lajo rubbery case. But before that i had a Tough Skin and it's the same material I think. The lajo case has no holes in the back though. Could it be breathing bad???

I just don't get it. I think my old 2g 20 gig one is getting better battery life these days.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks
 
Shuffle will effect the battery time, as it is accessing the hard drive more than usual, if you put it on repeat it will stay going all night because the ipod remembers the song in its RAM (random Access Memory, like a human if you sing a song off of a sheet for the first time you are not as good as you are if you revised it and know it 'Off by heart', try turning the ipod right down and the stereo right up the more volume the less battery time, also the case may change the battery life as the ipod gets hot just like computers cooler the faster.

Hope this helps,
CJ
 
What kind of audio files are you playing in the iPod (MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless) and what bitrate are they encoded with (128, 192, 256...)?

Files encoded with high bitrates dramatically reduce battery life.

Also, the iPod's battery indicator is pretty inaccurate -- I've had my iPod dip into the red within 4 hours of use, then continue playing happily for another 8 hours.
 
Humm, bad battery indicator. I guess I should just let it go sometime. Draining it to zero isn't bad is it?

Ohh and my files are all mp3. Lots from the iTunes store and all others should be around 128. I think.
 
Draining it to zero should not be done often. Actually, your iPod will shut off before the battery hits dead-zero, but you should still rarely let this happen.

For the sake of testing purposes, you could do a battery test: fully charge the iPod, then set it to repeat and put it on a playlist with 30 or more AAC/MP3 files at 128kbps (160kbps for the MP3s). Turn off the backlight and let it go... you should get somewhere close to 15 hours of continuous play out of it.
 
Another (possibly related) issue. When I unplug the audio cord from my external speakers or when I un-dock my iPod from my Intel iMac, it won't sleep!! I select sleep from the menu and nothing happens, same with holding down the play button. When I un-dock it from my G5 iMac at work, it sleeps just fine. I'm still looking into this issue to see if there are any other factors.

I think it's related somehow though. :(

Oh and I'm testing my battery today. After a full charge, it went down ~20% on a 20 minute drive to work.
 
Today I kept the volume below 1/2 and let it run until it died. It lasted until 12:15pm. Started about 7:30am. So I got around 4.5 hours out of the battery. This is MUCH less than I had just a few weeks ago.

Is there any tech tools for iPods? How long is the warranty?

Thanks
 
If you're getting significantly less battery life than is advertised, then it is possible that you got a bum battery... a simple call to Apple should get you a new iPod. The warranty is 1 year from the purchase date, so you should be ok.

4.5 hours is abysmal! Take it back!
 
Thank ElDia.....

I may take it in this weekend. Wonder what they'll do though as they don't sell regular iPods anymore. The next closest is the 30GB Video. ;)

Actually I think it has something to do with the "can't put it to sleep" issue. I'm still testing that out to see what's going on.
 
I know this is probably remedial, but have you tried resetting the iPod (menu + select for a few moments)? Barring that, have you tried wiping the iPod clean with the iPod Software Updater?

I doubt either of those would make much difference concerning the battery, but they may help with the sleeping issue.
 
I was unable to force it to sleep last time I tried, but maybe I had the wrong buttons down. Thanks for the idea. Wiping it doesn't sound like fun, but I may have to try.
 
Hmmm... let's see:

Sleep: hold down "play" button for a few moments with the hold switch disengaged.

Reboot/reset: hold down "menu" button and "select" button (center wheel button) for a few moments with the hold switch disengaged.

And, for those techie-types:

Diagnostic mode: perform a reboot/reset, then immediately hold down "select" and "previous" button.
 
twister said:
Thank ElDia.....

I may take it in this weekend. Wonder what they'll do though as they don't sell regular iPods anymore. The next closest is the 30GB Video. ;)
Click to expand...

they sent me a replacement 4G B+W clickwheel a month ago. i was also gunning for a video ipod...
 
Yeah, I guess they _do_ have _some_ stock for replacements, but won't sell them anymore, because for sales, they wouldn't get good prices anymore. However if they replace your old iPod with an old iPod, you're still "in" for buying a new video capable iPod. Makes sense.
 
Guess what? My battery has lasted all day and it not even in the red yet! I gotta figure out what is causing the issue. Case? Maybe. Pod2Go software? No idea. Intel processor? Doubt it.
 
All that I know is that my iPod's inconsistency in the field of battery life is extremely aggravating, as is the fact that I must have it in a case (which scratched badly itself yesterday, whoohoo).
 
Ok, final thought. I think it had to do with the fact that when I charge my iPod, I sometimes forget to turn off the hold switch. Doesn't seem to be a software issue, or case issue or anything else I can think of. It's been working fine for a while now.

Thanks for all the interest. :)
 
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