turning off just 3G to save battery?

[Pencil4]

Is there any way to turn off just 3G? When I'm at my workplace, my signal hovers between normal and 3G, often times not receiving 3G. But I think because it's trying to detect one of them all the time, it's draining the battery. Also, my work wireless doesn't seem to stay on all the time either. At home, the battery barely dips at all -- same as when I'm out and about in my neighorhood which has a great 3G signal.

It's just at work that my battery goes down every day -- I don't do anything on the phone and the battery will be anywhere from 40% to 50% at the end of the workday. What can I do?

[xlost6]

Well you cannot turn "3G" off because it's not a feature for Verizon's CMDA version of the iPhone.

Your best bet is to either update your wireless connection with Verizon towers by dialing *228 and pressing 2.

I have the same thing happen to me at times at the hospital I work at. When I'm up on the nedical floors I'm able to get full 3G coverage but when I'm down in the basement of the hospital I revert to Verizon's 1X data or according to the iPhone that simple "o". That's just saying 3G is unreachable.

Hope this helps...

[kaebfly]

If you have wifi enabled while at work but it doesn't hold the signal then that's probably why the battery drains quickly. You might want to turn off WiFi when you're not actually using it to see if that helps.

[ericreinhardt]

Yeh there is an option. If u go to settings than general than network there is an option to turn cellular data off.

[Pencil4]

All good info. Thanks! It's not that it doesn't hold a wireless signal because it's too weak, it's more like my work wireless doesn't stay logged in. It will just revert back to data after a while even though I've set it to wireless and logged in. Annoying.

I knew I could turn off cellular data in general -- dumb question alert: Will I still receieve voicemails, calls and texts normally? The other day I turned off celluar data and I got a voicemail about 5 hours after the fact (I knew because the caller told me in an email they called; backwards communication, I know!). Wasn't sure if that's because I had the cellular data off that the voicemail was delayed?

Just to note, I charged it to 100% overnight and so far for today it's listing 47 minutes usage and my battery is at 62%! After checking email, Facebook and Twitter once in the morning the only other thing I do all day is simply turn on the display to check for messages since I keep it on silent.

[kaebfly]

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Pencil4 wrote:

All good info. Thanks! It's not that it doesn't hold a wireless signal because it's too weak, it's more like my work wireless doesn't stay logged in. It will just revert back to data after a while even though I've set it to wireless and logged in. Annoying.

I knew I could turn off cellular data in general -- dumb question alert: Will I still receieve voicemails, calls and texts normally? The other day I turned off celluar data and I got a voicemail about 5 hours after the fact (I knew because the caller told me in an email they called; backwards communication, I know!). Wasn't sure if that's because I had the cellular data off that the voicemail was delayed?

Just to note, I charged it to 100% overnight and so far for today it's listing 47 minutes usage and my battery is at 62%! After checking email, Facebook and Twitter once in the morning the only other thing I do all day is simply turn on the display to check for messages since I keep it on silent.

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Do you have push turned on for emails? Location services on for any of your apps? There are a number of things that can play into your battery draining quickly so it's hard to say if there is a battery issue at all or if your settings are playing into it. As far as still getting voicemail, calls, and texts normally...if I'm not mistaken you should get them normally. Not sure why you would get a voicemail so many hours later...unless the voicemail was there and you just didn't get the notification (or see it) until much later. What is the time stamp on the voicemail? If the timestamp is 5 hours after the caller states they left the message you may need to contact VZW.

[Pencil4 · Accepted solution]

Nope, no push notifications for anything or location services turned on. Email is on manual refresh. I noticed that when I first turn the display on, the data signal is shown and then when I unlock, THEN it switches to wireless, almost as if it hasn't been on wireless the whole time it's on standby?? weird.

My guess is it's somehow tryign to switch between normal data, 3G and wireless all day or something. Thanks again for everyone's tips.

[kaebfly]

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Pencil4 wrote:

 I noticed that when I first turn the display on, the data signal is shown and then when I unlock, THEN it switches to wireless, almost as if it hasn't been on wireless the whole time it's on standby?? weird.

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Mine does this and I don't have any issues with my phone and the wifi connection. Also, I checked my mother's iPhone and it also does this...she doesn't have any issues either. Since it never caused a problem I never worried about it being odd or being a problem. It will also show 3G when I first push the top button to wake it up...but switches to the wireless icon without me having to unlock it. I don't know if this is normal or not, but like I said, for me there hasn't been an issue. I also check My Account often and there isn't a change in data usage unless I actually am off of my (or any other) wifi and using 3G.

As far as your theory...to be honest, if you think the issue is truly present then you should contact Apple support or VZW Tech Support to have them take a look into the issue. It will likely garner you quicker response than on here has so far...also, try checking on the Apple Support forums to see if anyone else has had your issue or has suggestions on what may help.

[Jax_Omen]

Voicemail on the iPhone is Visual Voice Mail, and downloads messages using data, not "voice", so yeah, it won't work while cellular data is turned off.

[kaebfly]

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Jax_Omen wrote:
Voicemail on the iPhone is Visual Voice Mail, and downloads messages using data, not "voice", so yeah, it won't work while cellular data is turned off.

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Not sure if it means much but you can check voicemail without it downloading just by calling your number from another phone and pressing # when your vm starts. Again, not sure if that means much but it would seem that the vm would still work regardless of you having cellular data on or not.