Battery Life since 4.0.4 update

[SJFoster]

Since the update was installed on my Bionic... the battery life went from tolerable (a little less than a day) to unacceptable. Anyone else have this problem? It was fine until yesterday AM when the update was installed and it went to zero in about 3 hours and even though charging for the last two hours... only at 30%. What the heck?

[mrpearsoy]

There are topics on this. Search is your friend. After a major software update it is always recommended to do a hard reset. You want to back up your data first. And there are threads on how to do that as well.

[tikibar1]

What he said

Also, ICS will optimize your phone, and that takes a few days.  Battey life should improve soon.  Patience is your friend.

[HighDesert]

One battery-life effect that "optimization" won't cure is that ICS forces you to use 4G/LTE (if available), and that uses more power than 3G.  The option for CDMA-only is not offered anymore.

There are, however, ways around this limitation -- which I've applied -- so now I'm happy.

[mj28]

I've noticed my battery life has been pretty dismal since I installed ICS too. I can't pin down what's draining it. I'm really hoping it is just "optimizing" and that it'll calm down soon. Or that I'm playing with it more than I normally do. I've had ICS for less than 36 hours...I've already noticed some performance improvements but my battery still is noticeably worse. I didn't have too many problems with 4G inconsistency before - it seems to drop less than it used to but I don't think that's the main reason my battery is depleting so quickly.