[vranswer]

...or more to the point, 'enabled'. Used the player the other day and noticed it no longer was shutting itself off after being idle for a few seconds. Couldn't find anything in the menu sections to adjust this 'sleep' behavior, nor in any of the iPod documentation. Did a complete Restore on the unit, which should return it to factory settings (which should've meant it would sleep again as this is a factory setting I believe). Still doesn't 'nap' for me.

Given the battery-challenged nature of iPod, this is an issue. Normally, if I stop playing an album, it will shut down to preserve battery life. I will now have to remember to press and hold the > button to manually put it to sleep. ...And my memory ain't so good. Anybody have info on this that I may be missing?

 

[grasshpr]

I think it is assuming that you won't listen to it for a few more days, in which case, the IPOD will turn itself off. It's Apple's way of addressing the issue of the IPOD's crappy battery life. Go figure, eh?

 

[allenf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhlbbs I have no idea why it turns completely off after beeing unatended for > 1 day. Any clues anybody ?

To save the battery.
In sleep mode it uses a bit of juice in standby waiting for a button press to wake it up.
After 24 hrs (??) it enters a deeper shut off state - but not completely as it does not have a separate "power" button as such and still needs to wait for an "On" press.
After about a month of non-use the battery may well be completely flat.

 

[allenf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshpr It's Apple's way of addressing the issue of the IPOD's crappy battery life. Go figure, eh?

Are we talking current or previous models?

 

[sbb]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60945

apparently an ipod never really turns itself off... but this sounds not that surprising since any laptop consumes power when turned off...

 

[Jahn]

my first 3G 40gig ipod would stay on, or actually turn itself on, thus draining the batteries in 2 seconds after i remove it from its charger. annoying. my current one does shut off into sleep mode nicely - i just always make sure after i pause a song to put both the ipod and remote switches into "hold" so a button doesn't mistakenly get pushed and turn it on again, thus playing tunes in my bag all day.

 

[blessingx]

This has been said several times, but when the iPod added PDA features (clock, calendar, alarm, etc.) the battery requirements changed and thus did the 'off' drain.

 

[grasshpr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by allenf Are we talking current or previous models?

I was mentioning the version I have, which is the 3rd gen ones. Previous battery life was about 6-7 hrs of playback. I replaced the battery with a larger mAHR rating and I squeeze about 3 more hours of playback. They should have used better batteries to begin with.

 

[vranswer]

Well, I called the nearest Apple store (in Houston), and they said what I already pretty much knew - that this was not correct behavior, and I should bring it in.

This is actually my second 4G iPod, it was a replacement for the one I originally purchased which suffered from center/selection button freeze ( a physical jamming of the button). They replaced that one with a 'new' one, don't know if all these replacements are refurbished or not but doesn't matter if they work. I'm still in warranty, so it looks like I'm headed back to the 'Genius Bar', to see if the 'geniuses' will recognize this as a defect and issue another replacement. No auto-sleep is a recipe for much shorter cycles between charges obviously.

 

[allenf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshpr I was mentioning the version I have, which is the 3rd gen ones. Previous battery life was about 6-7 hrs of playback. I replaced the battery with a larger mAHR rating and I squeeze about 3 more hours of playback. They should have used better batteries to begin with.

Grasshopper, my photo 60GB (on an overnight charge) does an easy 12 hrs with 320 KB CBR MP3.
This is not crappy.
Heavy backlight/Music Quiz etc "sags" the battery meter a bit - but my old NJB3 with both batteries is not much better than this.

 

[grasshpr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by allenf Grasshopper, my photo 60GB (on an overnight charge) does an easy 12 hrs with 320 KB CBR MP3. This is not crappy. Heavy backlight/Music Quiz etc "sags" the battery meter a bit - but my old NJB3 with both batteries is not much better than this.

This was recently addressed by Apple with the newest model. Too many people complained about the 'crappy' battery life that they had no choice but to put decent batteries in them. However, what happens with the older models? Nothing. I dare you to own an older generation IPOD and see what battery life you get

 

[vranswer]

Yo, brothers! This thread is about 'sleep' mode and how my iPod is not properly going to sleep! It's not an argument about iPod battery life which is debated endlessly in other threads. ...and I do have an update.

Leaving my iPod on after pausing playback, I now can report it does in fact 'go to sleep'. It's just that it does so after a much longer interval than it did previously (since I've owned it). My observation that it wasn't shutting down was based on this - it wasn't shutting down in the time I was expecting it to, but eventually it does shut down. Difference is about a minute - before it would go to sleep mode in about 12-15 seconds, now it does so in a little over a minute.

Ah, but here's the wrinkle: I removed all ALAC files recently and uploaded only LAME APS files to the player (to take advantage of mp3Gain). SO....the question is begging to be answered. Is iPod smart enough to know that I'm playing smaller mp3 files and is staying 'awake' longer because the slower battery drain warrants the adjusted behavior? Or is there really just something wrong with my iPod. In retrospect, the lengthened 'awake' time appears to have begun precisely during the time of my recent switch to using lossy compressed files, but I won't swear to it.

Any thoughts?

 

[bhjazz]

Well, I don't have any real answers.

My 4G is workin fine so far. But, I would try to search on iPodLounge forums. Kind of a cool place if you've never been there. And likely lots of answers and discussions about these issues.

http://www.ipodlounge.com

and the forums are at: http://forums.ipodlounge.com/

 

[grasshpr]

Strange that in: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60945
they say that there is an option to specify the timeout sleep state for the iPOD. However, the newer firmware doesn't have this option available for changing. I think there was an option like that for my iPOD a few firmware versions ago.

As for the length in time in which the iPOD goes to sleep, it could be related with to the type of files you are currently playing, or that you have in the hard drive. You should do some more testing to see if this is actually the case. Good luck!

 

[kunwar]

Deep sleep hack is your answer, in my case on the photo ipod, it works very well, plus I have noticed that even if I haven't used the player for a while (5-6 days), the battery doesn't drain. just perfect,
Must add that ipod functions solely as a player and nothing else. no addressbook/calendar/other anonymous functions used.