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iPhone 3.0 on iPhone 3G S: Battery Percentage Meter Found!

By , Friday, Jun 19, 2009 at 3:29 pm
90

iphone_3g_s_battery_meter

The case of the missing battery percentage meter has been solved! Developers found it in the iPhone 3.0 beta, but when iPhone 3.0 release hit, it was nowhere to be found... until now!

Looks like it's appearing exclusively on the new iPhone 3G S. Why, we have no idea -- and can't fathom a reason for, but check out Jeremy's screenshot above. There it be!

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

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  1. Rv says:

    I couldn't see the option in the usage menu, Am I missing something?

    I am having a 3G with 3.0 update

  2. sting7k says:

    We solved this Wednesday in the forums. You're late!

  3. Jeff S says:

    Are u retarded? It says 3gs only.

  4. Frank says:

    Well, that sucks!

    Why hold it back from 3G users? Is this supposed to make us pony up for the 3GS?

  5. Big Willie says:

    There's absolutely no reason it's not on 3.0 updates for iPod Touch 1st and 2nd gen, iPhone and iPhone 3G. Corksoakers!

  6. Omari James says:

    I think that stupid they made that only for the 3G S ... some bullshiz.

  7. sting7k says:

    No idea why it's not on the 3G at least. The video on engadget's iPhone 3GS comparing speed launching apps (I think it's the first video after a few photos) shows both the 3G and 3GS with the % meter next to the battery. Unless the 3G they were using was jailbroken.

  8. Glenn says:

    One more reason for me not to waste any time upgrading or adding it to my account as an additional line. I'm satisfied with my 3G. ATT needs to work on getting the network issues resolved anyway. 3GS users (new or upgraders) will soon realize how lousy the network is even using a new phone. I've got another year and I bet another iphone will be on the drawing board before then.

  9. Reconnnn says:

    I got an iPhone 3G and i have the % meter.

  10. Tommy says:

    I'm beginning to loathe this iPhone 3GS...there's no excuse why this feature has to be exclusive to the 3GS when it was initially tested on the 3G...WTF APPLE!!

  11. the dude says:

    wow this is really stupid, why isn't this option available to be turned off on the 3G's, its annoying the crap out of me. stupid apple.

  12. icebike says:

    @Reconnnnnnnnnn:

    Is yours jailbroken?

    Cuz you are just about the only 3G user reporting that you have it.

    If others hadn't reported this was available on jailbroken phones I would have assumed that a change in the charge measuring chip was the reason for omission.

  13. joe says:

    Weird. Like reconnnn, I too have a 3G, and have had the battery % meter since updating to 3.0 yesterday. There's no option to turn it on/off either.

  14. noone says:

    It's on my iphone 3G as well and no way to turn it off, like it though.

  15. killer says:

    @thedude if you don't stop complaining, i'm gonna punch you square on the nose

  16. Reconnnn says:

    It's not exclusive at least not in Sweden because i have it in my iPhone 3G. It's not jailbroken.

  17. icvos says:

    battery meter is great. 3G S rocks bitches. much much much faster than 3G as demo vids are showing. S is def for SPEED. vidcam and all the new goodies are fine but imo not worth $199 but the SPEED foshu IS. i lucked out that my 3G was still under 30 days so i swapped.

  18. Reconnnn says:

    No option for me either

  19. miguel says:

    i had a 3g and when i upgraded to 3.0 it had that option on there also... :X

  20. fassy says:

    I also have the percentage battery indicator on my 3G. My phone was jailbroken, but I wiped it back to factory settings a while back. I do not have the element on settings to turn it off, however.

  21. the dude says:

    @killer, get a life you faggot.

  22. thejonotron says:

    I have 3G was jailbroken with percentage indicator turned on in SB Settings, now running 3.0 not jailbroken (yet) and I have the nice percentage indicator.

  23. Theplaypen says:

    "You can also display the percentage of the battery charge (iPhone 3G S only)."

    Taken from the iphone user guide for iphone OS 3.0

  24. AllThingsiPhone says:

    I have it on my 3G as well. No idea how to turn it off though - lol

  25. Theplaypen says:

    I believe you have because your iphone, probably, was once jailbroken...

    Am i wrong?

  26. ThcSyrus says:

    I had a jailbroken 3g with percentage turned on. Since upgrading to 3.0 I have the percentage next to my battery icon

  27. Reconnnn says:

    Theplaypen you are right my iPhone 3g was jailbroken.

  28. matt says:

    i also am on the iphone 3g and have the percentage.

    but when i updated i had the jailbroken version of the battery percentage. it just automatically showed up.. no options to switch it on or off though... but i like it, very useful.

  29. surrix says:

    The reason might be that the iPhone 2G/3G record battery percentages in increments of 5% only, making a percentage meter on those phones seem cheap and jank.

  30. Reconnnn says:

    Surrix my % meter is showing 72% right now.

  31. surrix says:

    Ah interesting. When I had mine jb'd, I only saw 5% increments.

  32. pitsrule says:

    I have a 3G and its has the percentage meter too. Mine right now is 57%. Mine was jailbroken a long time ago and I did use the numbered battery meter. I have fully restored since then and now updated. I guess ill have to jailbreak it again and remove the file causing this since my earpiece rattles and i need to exchange my phone. If they are smart they will know i shouldnt have that feature...but i doubt they are that smart.

  33. Dan says:

    Apple just doesn't want their 3g users complaining how fast the % goes down =[ Since the 3g s is suppose to have better battery life they figure they're safe giving that feature to them..

  34. Ani says:

    I got it too. Showing 56 % right now on a previous jailbroken 3G.

    Well, if you want proof: http://ss.slay.it/000636_20.06.2009.png

  35. Robert says:

    My 3G was jailbroken with SBSettings installed. After uninstalling SBSettings and all Jailbreak software except for the core stuff it warned me against uninstalling, I applied the stock Apple 3.0 update. Afterwards, I have the battery percentage as well as the ability to toggle 3G and WiFi meters between graphics and numbers. Under usage, I do not have the switch in the Usage screen.

    On my wife's non-jailbroken iPhone, none of those abilities exist.

  36. ensorgumbs says:

    I have the meter on my 3G as well. Is it me or has anyone's battery life taken a serious hit with the 3.0 update. I can barely make it to 5pm now.

  37. scriptx says:

    Jeff S. "are you retarded" statement, grow up buddy, get a life, something, you obviously have anger management issues. Feel sorry for you bf, gf, wife and/or kids.

  38. RanJo says:

    I have a 3G and have had the percentage meter since updating from 2.2.1. no way to turn it off but I like it so...no need to turn it off.

  39. Harry says:

    Both me and my GF picked up the 3GS this morning and there is NO percentage meter... whats the deal?

    Does it have to be turned on?

  40. Fassy says:

    @ensorgumbs

    My battery life seems worse after 3.0 as well.

  41. frog says:

    My battery life is as good on 3.0 as it was 2.x.

    It would have been a nice feature on the 3G, my battery level "appears" around 50% some days, then 20mins later it's popping up the 20% remaining alert - I'd dare say if it had a text indicater, it'd be showing around 30% or something.

  42. Gabe shakkori says:

    Wow it's on my iPhone 3g!!! I don't Noe how... I had it jail broken b4 I got the update and mabe that did it idk I'm still really wanting the new iPhone 3gs though ugh apple and their technology;)

  43. Zamarr says:

    I also have this in my iphone 3G

  44. Tony says:

    DAMN!! I was wondering where that was! Thanks

  45. cmwhite says:

    I have the percentage meter on my 1st gen iphone....no way to turn off and no need either...

  46. Cpl.cuzzard says:

    My iPhone was jailbroken, but I restored it about a month ago. After the restore te percentage option I had on my jailbroken phone was still available, and since upgrading to 3.0 it has remained, as shown in the 3gs screenshot above, but I have no option to turn it on or off...

  47. Trat says:

    Why would you even want the % meter when you also have the battery icon? Does it make you happier to see 53% instead of half a battery????

  48. Truth says:

    Under sbsettings go to extras and you will see numeric battery.

  49. Slim mike says:

    I don't have the percentage meter cause I don't have an iphone.

  50. Kelly the Dude says:

    Does anyone have it on the original Edge iPhone? I can't seem to find the option and this phone was never Jailbroken.

  51. Eric m.. says:

    Me too i ahve the percent meter on both my iphone 3G and 3g S infact it was done on my iphone 3G after i upgraded

  52. Eric m.. says:

    @trat yes it does infact lest night i was watching Bleach on my iphone 3G and it showed 4% instead of...knowing its 10% or less adni was able to infer that i could watch the third part(you tube has Bleach in episodes but in 1/3 2/3 3/3)

  53. Eric m.. says:

    :O maybe its a way for apple store people to know you voided your warranty!!(3G people with the battery meter)

  54. PUX says:

    You guys just calm down and google it.....wait i already did that for you

    all you need is a jailbroken iPhone with Cydia and

    add the source http://apt.iphone-storage.de/

    install the app "AsBattery"

    Reboot your precious 3g that is by far better than the 3GS

    and go into settings > General > Usage > Battery % ON!!!!

    There you have it!

  55. dires says:

    pux

    i installed the asbattery app and turned the battery icon to off and it doesnt change?

    any thoughts?

  56. dires says:

    hi i worked it out. had to turn off % in sbsettings for the toggle to work.. looks like the sb settings percentages are more accurate tho?!!

    thanks

  57. Harry Knuts says:

    GUYS - there seems to be a pattern here. I also have a 3G, whcih was jailbroken prior to the 3.0 update. I applied 3.0 as soon as it came out (and before the 3.0 JB was available). So I went from a 2.2.1 jailbroken phone with the number battery (Boss) enabled to Apple 3.0 - and the percentage and battery icon were both present on my phone. I do not knwo if I had the switch in Usage r not as I didntlook, but based on your posts I most likely did not.

    I jailbroke my 3G last Friday night and no longer have the battery percentage indicator, nor does BossPrefs re-enable it. I also restored the phone last night (for other reasons) via iTunes ans still do NOT have the percentage, nor the switchd

    So it must be the combo of peeps who JB their 2.2.1 phones, enable number battery and then upgrade to 3.0.

  58. BHutch says:

    Harry Knuts,

    hopefully you did a restore before installing 3.0. If you upgrade to 3.0 on a jailbroken iPhone, you lose a good chunk of memory. And then, if you rejailbreak it, you continue to compound the loss of memory. Do a restore, then load your backup, then jailbreak. Just thought I'd try to help.

  59. spacejunk says:

    Just jailbreak your phone if you want it that bad and add sbsettings, it is a toggle in the extra settings menu.

  60. KALiEB says:

    If you have the iPhone 3G you can get the % by editing the plist file.

  61. Keith says:

    I have an iPod 1G and just updated to 3.0 (unjailbroken) and I have numeric Wi-Fi (seriously!) and the pecentage next to the battery. The reason, I think, is because mine WAS jailbroken on 2.2 and I had numeric battery and wi-fi enabled through SBSettings. So apparently restoring doesnt clear everything from jailbreaks! (it also didnt reset my carrier that was changed with MiM) haha And to REMOVE THE NUMERIC BATTERY just go to settings and click "reset all settings".

    Just a side note, the wifi is always negative?!?! i.e. right now my ipod has "-37" where the wifi bars should be. sooo weird..

  62. lucaiuli says:

    I have Ipod Touch 1st gen with 3.0 firmware jailbreak. I confirm that you can remove % battery from SBSettings - click on More - then Extras & Otions - then make OFF "Numeric Battery" - that's it. ;)

  63. Jaraad says:

    @Fassy I experienced drastic battery drainage from the 2.1 to 2.2 transistion. I didn't know what the problem was so I just restored and re-jailbroke and it seemed to do the trick.

    To everyone having issues: As the article states, Apple didn't allow the 3G 3.0 to display the battery percentage Having said that, there will be no option to enable/disable it in the "Usage" page. It cannot be enabled/disabled like that.

    Those who have jailbroken in the 2.x firmwares and have activated the hidden numeric battery feature and have now loaded 3.0 have the 3G S battery feature.

    If you have jailbroken in the past and did the proper upgrade technique (restore in iTunes, and load 3.0 removing all data and features to prevent partitional overlapping) the numeric battery change is still enabled if you left it enabled before the restore. It's part of Apple System config therefore doesn't get removed in a restore. The new 3G S battery percentage is essentially the same numeric battery from before but has aesthetic changes. This is why 3G users have it since it's the same piece of data

    To get the Battery Percentage permanently enabled on a 3G: If you have a jailbroken 2.x 3G and would like to upgrade just follow the standard procedure. Back up everything you'd like, optionally use aptBackup, and download the 3.0 firmware for the iPhone 3G (I recommend felixbruns.de although it's the same file that iTunes downloads). Hold Shift then click Restore (Windows. On a Mac I believe it's Command + restore) and navigate to the 3.0 software downloaded. Select OK and it will restore. You will lose all of your data of course but a quick iTunes "restore from backup" option will put back any settings, contacts, etc and you can reload your iPod.app files whenever. You will notice that the battery percentage should already be there even though technically it shouldn't. *I haven't tried this on any iPod Touch but it should work

    If you would like to jailbreak 3.0 with your 3G and/or iPod Touchs use Dev Teams redsn0w program. Google "redsn0w" or look on Dev Teams website for the torrent file link on thepiratebay.com

  64. Jaraad says:

    As Kaleb said the percetage option is stored in a plist settings file. This is where programs like SBSettings and BossPrefs allow the numeric battery and also where Apple allows the battery percentage on 3.0

  65. Will says:

    http://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/howto-battery-percentage-iphone-2g3g-running-os-30

    there is the answer for everyone who wants the percentage who have 3g jail broken phones.

  66. Josh says:

    If you have a iPhone 3G running 3.0... That IS Jailbroken and unlocked. and if you have winterboard running SBSETTINGS, you can go into the extra settings menu and toggle the "NUMERIC BATTERY" on and off, thus giving or taking the percentage by the battery... it's quite nice though. and mine is currently at "46%" so it is very accurate. non of the 5% increments I am seeing people saying on here... Hope this helps a lot of people.

  67. What the hell says:

    When I got the 3.0 update on my iPod touch (2nd gen) it gave the the same thing in the picture above but all friends got the update and I'm the only one with it???

  68. solideuce says:

    i jailbroke my iphone 3g with pwnage 3.0 software...then editing the plist i added the battery percentage option. i backed up the iphone, then restored it recently to the original 3.0 software (non-jailbroken). battery indicator gone...and i loved the option. i have a read that many people have jailbroken and restored and theirs remained. what about mine? what did i do wrong?

  69. mWanteD says:

    Thank you so much PUX...It worked just as you said...awesome.. Keep up the good work... :)

  70. JJ says:

    I have a iPod touch with the 3GS update, I don't even have that collumn in my settings ;(

  71. John says:

    I use 3GS. I downloaded few apps and they were working perfectly until yesterday. All of a sudden, they stooped functioning today. When i tap on any application, its not opening. Do i have to do any thing to make them work? please suggest the process.

  72. franny says:

    i have it on my iphone 3g with 3.0 upgrade...everyone ask me how i got it and idk it just happened when i did my update...its pretty cool

  73. Alex says:

    Maybe it's because they didn't have the percentage polished for the other devices in time for 3.0. Just keep nagging apple to put in this feature and I'm sure they will with 3.1.0

  74. Jim Jones says:

    Who Cares about a Stupid Battery Meter.... What we need is a AT&T Stock Meter, so when it's about to crash we can jump ship and let the RATS DROWN :)

    I hope you Sink like a ROCK you Bastards!

  75. Toney says:

    I have a 3g iPhone and it's not unlocked I was just wondering will I be able to get the battery percentage on my iPhone without jailbreaking it

  76. EZi says:

    OK, everyone here who claims that he has % on his non-jailbroken 3G is f88ing LIAR!

  77. sean says:

    hehe i have it because i jailbroke my phone and enabled it on winterboard, after a little while i restored it but the percentage stayed on my 3g :D

  78. Raj says:

    Guys.. The solution is to download the app "Battery Info". It is free and it works on 3G.. Pretty cool...

  79. RaviraJ says:

    hey budy u wana battrey % in u r iphone 3G this is it

    1st install iphone-notes.de0-2_iPhone-Notes.de’s Source

    than

    2nd install asBattery

    all 1st and 2nd option u get in cydia and then reboot ur iphone 3G when itz swich on go to setting->usage = here ur option tap to on…. :)

    and u r get bored to sarch just email me on my id i’ll get u thos all software my email id is raviraj.daware010@gmail.com

  80. Brittany says:

    My iPhone 3Gs is jail broken and does not have the battery percentage option how can I get it??? :/

  81. adrian says:

    hey guys umm i have the i-phone 3g and im trying to get it to show the percentage of my bettery i i cant find it sooo can anyone help me??

  82. Thater821 says:

    thank you

  83. Thater821 says:

    thank you

  84. Thater821 says:

    thank you

  85. Thater821 says:

    thank you

  86. Thater821 says:

    thank you

  87. Thater821 says:

    thank you

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