Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Battery drainage at night

A

anqelic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 22, 2023
10
4
I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and recently, I've begun to notice that my battery drains overnight by a few percentages (around 6% and this is before I even used Do Not Disturb mode). I recognized this two days ago when I had 74% before I went to sleep, and when I got back on my phone in the evening **(b/c I don't bring my phone with me to school and I only get on it during the evening)**, it was 68%.

Last night, I decided to use Do Not Disturb hoping it would at least reduce the amount of battery lost but it was slightly worse as I had 44% before I went to sleep and when I got back on my phone last evening, my phone was at 37%- that's a 7% battery loss. Are there any settings that I could change to solve this issue or at least reduce this issue? Tips and advice are appreciated as I am not a techy kind of person.

Edit: This is my first phone that I got a month ago and so I don't know what is considered normal and what is not, so please keep that in mind.
 
Last edited:
I reckon 6% with antennas on is quite normal. iOS has worsened in terms of standby battery life since iOS 12 (or 11, not sure when it started, but I know iOS 10 is far better).
 
Jim Lahey said:
Airplane mode is FTW overnight. Saves battery but also minimises RF radiation exposure for those who care.
Click to expand...

Charging your phone is FTW overnight.

Honestly a little confused as to why this is even a topic of conversation. If someone is worried about battery life to the point where 6% matters, what conceivable reason could they have to not simply plug the thing in while they sleep?
 
  • Like
Reactions: G5isAlive
ignatius345 said:
Charging your phone is FTW overnight.

Honestly a little confused as to why this is even a topic of conversation. If someone is worried about battery life to the point where 6% matters, what conceivable reason could they have to not simply plug the thing in while they sleep?
Click to expand...

Some users don’t like to charge past 80% and their irregular routines mean optimised charging doesn’t work. That’s just one conceivable reason 👍

ETA: although I think 15 Pro has a charge limiter in options. But nevertheless OP clearly has a reason or wouldn’t be asking.
 
anqelic said:
I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and recently, I've begun to notice that my battery drains overnight by a few percentages (around 6% and this is before I even used Do Not Disturb mode). I recognized this two days ago when I had 74% before I went to sleep, and when I got back on my phone in the evening **(b/c I don't bring my phone with me to school and I only get on it during the evening)**, it was 68%.

Last night, I decided to use Do Not Disturb hoping it would at least reduce the amount of battery lost but it was slightly worse as I had 44% before I went to sleep and when I got back on my phone last evening, my phone was at 37%- that's a 7% battery loss. Are there any settings that I could change to solve this issue or at least reduce this issue? Tips and advice are appreciated as I am not a techy kind of person.
Click to expand...
It's not a problem at all, it's you being suspicious. What is there to be surprised about and panic about? Communication module 4G, 5G (depending on the operator and coverage) consumes battery with great appetite. You want to keep it from running out? Turn off the power at night. If you are lazy, turn the screen backlight to minimum, turn off auto-update, wi-fi, delete unnecessary applications from the phone, unload minimized applications from memory.
You can charge your phone in the morning. Have you tried that?
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345 and Reverend Benny
FeliApple said:
I reckon 6% with antennas on is quite normal. iOS has worsened in terms of standby battery life since iOS 12 (or 11, not sure when it started, but I know iOS 10 is far better).
Click to expand...
Oh alright, thank you, I just didn't know if it was normal because this is my first phone ever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: G5isAlive
I have a 15PM and here is the rundown of my battery for last night:
- charged to 80%, took off charger at 9pm
- between 9 and 12 I did a few minutes of surfing and an hour of youtube
- over the course of the night there were about 10 minutes in background activities from the clock and vpn app etc.

I woke up with 75%.

There are YouTube videos on how to save battery life by tweaking certain settings. You can search for them, watch a few and then decide on the settings you want to turn off or keep on.

But I doubt there is phantom drain going on. More likely lots of stuff in the background that you aren’t aware of that can be configured.
 
  • Like
Reactions: anqelic and G5isAlive
Jim Lahey said:
Some users don’t like to charge past 80% and their irregular routines mean optimised charging doesn’t work. That’s just one conceivable reason 👍
Click to expand...
Fair enough. Battery management as a hobby doesn't do much for me, and I always forget people do all this elaborate stuff instead of just charging their devices when they need to be charged. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
  • Like
Reactions: decafjava and G5isAlive
ignatius345 said:
Fair enough. Battery management as a hobby doesn't do much for me, and I always forget people do all this elaborate stuff instead of just charging their devices when they need to be charged. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
Yeah, the funniest thing is when people do this “to maintain battery health and henceforth battery life”, and then update through a million iOS versions. Screen-on time plummets “but at least I have 92% health”. All of that micro-management for nothing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345
Sorry if the intent of my post wasn’t clear. I was using my usage as an example that 5% drain is nothing considering what I did between charging and waking up.

And also pointing out that it’s possible to disable some of the other features that cause battery loss by reviewing the plethora of YouTube videos.

I do not advocate never updating as a way to increase screen time; it seems pennywise and pound foolish. A better solution is to carry around some battery pack if you think you need it.
 
anqelic said:
Oh alright, thank you, I just didn't know if it was normal because this is my first phone ever.
Click to expand...

As many have pointed out there are numerous background tasks that are always running unless you turn them off. Add to the list 'find my' which is keeping track of where your other Apple devices are (if you have others). Safari can too depending on the tabs. And also if you are in an area of poor cell reception and have wifi turned off, it will drain faster because it takes more juice to retain a signal. Your life will be considerably easier if you dont sweat it, but there are tons of videos if you want to make it your concern. But none of those videos or helpful tips will tell you what you actually gain by wasting time managing all these things. Will your battery last an extra month? two months? half a month? No one knows (besides maybe, maybe Apple). But it's relatively small compared to the potential lifetime of the phone. In other words you might be losing a lot of sleep over nothing at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: anqelic and I7guy
BugeyeSTI said:
What does your battery stats say about apps that are using the most battery on the phone?
Click to expand...
I found out Find My was using background for around 10 minutes, so thank you for making me check haha. I turned Find My off since I don't think my phone is gonna get lost.
 
G5isAlive said:
As many have pointed out there are numerous background tasks that are always running unless you turn them off. Add to the list 'find my' which is keeping track of where your other Apple devices are (if you have others). Safari can too depending on the tabs. And also if you are in an area of poor cell reception and have wifi turned off, it will drain faster because it takes more juice to retain a signal. Your life will be considerably easier if you dont sweat it, but there are tons of videos if you want to make it your concern. But none of those videos or helpful tips will tell you what you actually gain by wasting time managing all these things. Will your battery last an extra month? two months? half a month? No one knows (besides maybe, maybe Apple). But it's relatively small compared to the potential lifetime of the phone. In other words you might be losing a lot of sleep over nothing at all.
Click to expand...
Oh my god, thank you, I forgot about Find My and it was using background for around 10 minutes or more overnight so I turned it off.
 
anqelic said:
Oh my god, thank you, I forgot about Find My and it was using background for around 10 minutes or more overnight so I turned it off.
Click to expand...

Yep on my idle devices at least, Find My seems to consume the most background power. Makes sense, it routinely is communicating with the mother ship. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: anqelic
anqelic said:
Oh my god, thank you, I forgot about Find My and it was using background for around 10 minutes or more overnight so I turned it off.
Click to expand...
Also have a look in "local network" on your phone and just as a try and set up an new network on your home network (isolated guest WiFi) and see if that makes any difference. Sometimes other devices communicate or broadcasts can drain battery. Or just turn of WiFi for one night and see it it makes a difference.
These things don't show up in battery stats (along with many other processes).
 
Reverend Benny said:
Also have a look in "local network" on your phone and just as a try and set up an new network on your home network (isolated guest WiFi) and see if that makes any difference. Sometimes other devices communicate or broadcasts can drain battery. Or just turn of WiFi for one night and see it it makes a difference.
These things don't show up in battery stats (along with many other processes).
Click to expand...
Alright, I will after school, thank you for the suggestion!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Reverend Benny
For what ever it is worth, one night I charged my battery to 80%. The only use after that was to set the alarm. After the alarm rang the next morning battery percentage was 79%.

So it seems you can get low overnight battery drain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back