iPhone 16 Pro Find My iPhone battery drain is a “feature”

[jairopena]

I’ve been using my new 16 Pro for a couple of days and noticed the location icon almost always on with occasionally being off. I checked within settings and it turned out to be Find My trying to get locations all the time. I wrote to apple just to letting me know it is a “feature” of iOS 18.1, so basically the battery draining is not their fault. I have an iPad Pro M4 with Find My on and it doesn’t behave the same way as the iPhone so the only way to stop this is to turn of Find My completely.

I’m not sure if this is just Find My but the battery drain is dreadful, almost 1% per minute and by this answer I think they won’t attack the issue but only concentrate on Apple Intelligence.

 

[Iwavvns]

After reading the reply in the attachment I have to ask, where did that message come from? It is full of bad grammar.. I have never seen that much bad grammar in one message outside of scammer call centers. If that reply was from an email message then I would recommend researching the email headers.

 

[jairopena]

After reading the reply in the attachment I have to ask, where did that message come from? It is full of bad grammar.. I have never seen that much bad grammar in one message outside of scammer call centers. If that reply was from an email message then I would recommend researching the email headers.

Apple support through iMessage

 

[Iwavvns]

Apple support through iMessage

I'm sorry, but I am highly skeptical.. I don't think you were talking directly to Apple. If it were me I would abandon that route of assistance and find another way to contact Apple directly. Those kinds of grammatical mistakes are typical of someone trying to impersonate Apple in the hopes that you will end up giving them private information.

 

[jairopena]

It was through the official support app from Apple. When finished, I even got an ID case number which was easily reachable at https://getsupport.apple.com/ . Maybe I ended up with a new agent, but in any case there’s something faulty with Find My iPhone IMO using location services all the time.

 

[jairopena]

I'm sorry, but I am highly skeptical.. I don't think you were talking directly to Apple. If it were me I would abandon that route of assistance and find another way to contact Apple directly. Those kinds of grammatical mistakes are typical of someone trying to impersonate Apple in the hopes that you will end up giving them private information.

 

[Iwavvns]

It was through the official support app from Apple. When finished, I even got an ID case number which was easily reachable at https://getsupport.apple.com/ . Maybe I ended up with a new agent, but in any case there’s something faulty with Find My iPhone IMO using location services all the time.

And I'm still skeptical, it could be that your Find My issue and the bad grammatical mistakes are connected somehow.. this is all very suspicious. If it were me, I'm very security minded, I would first delete the iCloud backup for that phone, then erase the phone and set it up as a new device. If that fixes the Find My issue then both problems are solved.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Make sure the “Find My” app location is not set to “always”, unless you want it to be. Otherwise, keep it set to “when using certain apps you want to use your location while using those specific apps.

 

[JPack]

And I'm still skeptical, it could be that your Find My issue and the bad grammatical mistakes are connected somehow.. this is all very suspicious. If it were me, I'm very security minded, I would first delete the iCloud backup for that phone, then erase the phone and set it up as a new device. If that fixes the Find My issue then both problems are solved.

The check mark in the message header of the screenshot confirms it's from Apple Support.

 

[Iwavvns]

The check mark in the message header of the screenshot confirms it's from Apple Support.

Thank you for that, I wasn't aware what that meant.

 

[GuruGuy]

I'm sorry, but I am highly skeptical.. I don't think you were talking directly to Apple. If it were me I would abandon that route of assistance and find another way to contact Apple directly. Those kinds of grammatical mistakes are typical of someone trying to impersonate Apple in the hopes that you will end up giving them private information.

Agree, that is super sketchy to be from Apple.

 

[Rainshadow]

I second (or third or fourth) the skepticism. I also wouldn’t just trust a checkmark. Even if it were legitimately Apple, I would immediately contact Apple by another means if I ever received a response like this.

I too have contacted Apple countless times. Never have I had that level of grammatical error.

Add to it they refer to it as “the iPhone” instead of just iPhone, and “the iOS18” instead of just ios18. These are brand matters for Apple and they generally stick to them like stink on a skunk. They say “your iPhone” sometimes but in that first sentence, a customer service person wouldn’t generally call it “the iphone”.

During conversation it’s easier for customer service to make mistakes, but on a typed response, there should be stuff checking grammar and messaging like that.

Idk. I would wipe that phone and restart - especially with that level of battery drain anyway.

 

[dave006]

I’m not sure if this is just Find My but the battery drain is dreadful, almost 1% per minute and by this answer I think they won’t attack the issue but only concentrate on Apple Intelligence.

This actually sounds like it was an AI generated response to open an ID Case number . No real Apple support reps were harmed in the dumb response.

Dave

 

[jairopena]

In the end I erased the phone and set it as new without iCloud restore. Find My still activating every single time I use/unlock the phone (maybe it had always worked like that and never realised) but it won’t stay that long nor pop up every couple of minutes so I think the restore worked.

Now, iOS 18.1 is still draining in the background but that’s for another thread haha.

 

[Iwavvns]

In the end I erased the phone and set it as new without iCloud restore. Find My still activating every single time I use/unlock the phone (maybe it had always worked like that and never realised) but it won’t stay that long nor pop up every couple of minutes so I think the restore worked.

Now, iOS 18.1 is still draining in the background but that’s for another thread haha.

Yeah, people are having mixed results with battery draining. I have an iPhone 13 and an iPhone 15, both updated to iOS 18.1, and my batteries on each phone last for about a day and a half. But, I rarely use my phones and I have 1 third-party app installed. It all depends on how much time you spend using the phone.

 

[Iwavvns]

This actually sounds like it was an AI generated response to open an ID Case number . No real Apple support reps were harmed in the dumb response.

Dave

I've seen actual written responses like this and they almost always come from foreign call centers used by scammers. That response was not from Apple.. I don't care what that checkmark says.

 

[azhava]

I’ve been using my new 16 Pro for a couple of days and noticed the location icon almost always on with occasionally being off. I checked within settings and it turned out to be Find My trying to get locations all the time. I wrote to apple just to letting me know it is a “feature” of iOS 18.1, so basically the battery draining is not their fault. I have an iPad Pro M4 with Find My on and it doesn’t behave the same way as the iPhone so the only way to stop this is to turn of Find My completely.

I’m not sure if this is just Find My but the battery drain is dreadful, almost 1% per minute and by this answer I think they won’t attack the issue but only concentrate on Apple Intelligence.

Almost 1% per minute? So your phone is completely draining its battery roughly every 100 minutes? Sounds like you have something out of the ordinary going on that needs to be checked out. Not many people would put up with their phone going dead in less than 2 hours over and over again every day. If it was a widespread occurrence there would be people screaming about it here and everywhere else on the internet.

I have Find My running, tracking my wife's iPhone and several of my own devices. In Settings>Battery it shows Find My as using 1%, entirely in background activity, within the last 10 days.

 

[Kissmo1980]

I can double down on this issue as I have the exact same thing.
The battery drain on my new iPhone 16 Pro is insane. After finding this post, I disabled in Location Services Find My access and now I no longer see the location icon active all the time and the battery drain is not that aggressive.

Update: After about 8 hours I dropped 11% with some usage including YouTube.
Disabling Find My does address the battery drain

 

[dave006]

Update: After about 8 hours I dropped 11% with some usage including YouTube.
Disabling Find My does address the battery drain

Seems odd that millions of other customers don't have this issue. It really looks like you have an app that has Location services active vs just Find My's use of Location Services.

Try comparing Find My vs just Location services enabled and how high is your Find My battery usage vs other apps? Mine is showing 4% after 12 hours today and I use it often to find folks.

Dave

 

[jairopena]

Almost 1% per minute? So your phone is completely draining its battery roughly every 100 minutes? Sounds like you have something out of the ordinary going on that needs to be checked out. Not many people would put up with their phone going dead in less than 2 hours over and over again every day. If it was a widespread occurrence there would be people screaming about it here and everywhere else on the internet.

I have Find My running, tracking my wife's iPhone and several of my own devices. In Settings>Battery it shows Find My as using 1%, entirely in background activity, within the last 10 days.

It is more like 50% with 2:30h SOT. Find my app only shows 1% but it is Find My iPhone the thing that is always running with purple arrow on all the time. Maybe is a bug with very little affected phones but it is still an issue. As I mentioned, this is the only device that’s behaving this way as my iPad M4 and MacBook Pro M3 are not using Find My all the time.

 

[dave006]

Find my app only shows 1% but it is Find My iPhone the thing that is always running with purple arrow on all the time.

Check your setting for Find My. Do you have Location set to "While Using" and "Precise Location" both set and what type of structure are you in most of the time? Try changing the setting to "Ask Next Time or When I Share".

There is no Purple arrow but the Blue Chevron next to your Current time display is that what you are seeing? That is the Location Service indicator and is not tied to Find My. Find My is just an app that uses Location Services.

Dave

 

[jairopena]

Check your setting for Find My. Do you have Location set to "While Using" and "Precise Location" both set and what type of structure are you in most of the time? Try changing the setting to "Ask Next Time or When I Share".

There is no Purple arrow but the Blue Chevron next to your Current time display is that what you are seeing? That is the Location Service indicator and is not tied to Find My. Find My is just an app that uses Location Services.

Dave

I had Find My app set to “While Using” and “Precise Location” on, just changed it to “Ask next time…” and turned off “Precise…”. Now, what you said is right, I’m seeing a white arrow next to the current time and when I check Location Services>System Services is where I see the purple arrow from “Find My iPhone”. It’s really odd as it starts every time I unlock the phone, stays on for a long period of time, disappears for 10 seconds and then it shows again. Maybe I have something set I’m not looking deeply but nevertheless that system services location shouldn’t be active all the time.

 

[dave006]

It’s really odd as it starts every time I unlock the phone, stays on for a long period of time, disappears for 10 seconds and then it shows again. Maybe I have something set I’m not looking deeply but nevertheless that system services location shouldn’t be active all the time.

OK the White Chevron on the Status bar is showing often since you have the "Status Bar Icon" Set On in Settings > System Services. The Purple Chevron in the System services should show for many (6-8) on average for the System services. It should just not be Find My iPhone.

Purple Chevron - just shows the service has "recently" uses Location Services. The time period is not published...

Dave

 

[Kissmo1980]

Seems odd that millions of other customers don't have this issue. It really looks like you have an app that has Location services active vs just Find My's use of Location Services.

Try comparing Find My vs just Location services enabled and how high is your Find My battery usage vs other apps? Mine is showing 4% after 12 hours today and I use it often to find folks.

Dave

I did that Dave.

The battery drain was driving me nuts to the point I regretted moving from the 14 Pro max to 16 Pro.

The problem is that I am not seeing any report on Find My in terms of battery drain at all.
I am only seeing the location icon continuously even when I disabled every app's permission to location services.

I Disabled the Find My in Privacy & Security - then immediately the Location icon disappeared.
I re-enabled locations services for all Apps - When in Use.

And now I can say that from 6 am until around 11:00 pm, I used about 26% of battery.
Previously, I had to charge the phone at least once.

However
One thing that comes to my mind as I am replying now, is that I restored from an iCloud backup of my iPhone 14 Pro Max, when I setup the phone out of the box.
Maybe I should have elected to set it up as a new phone, and reinstall everything by hand.... Which is something I am not in the mood to do
Will probably try that during this weekend and see if that fixes the problem.

 

[dave006]

One thing that comes to my mind as I am replying now, is that I restored from an iCloud backup of my iPhone 14 Pro Max, when I setup the phone out of the box.

For reference I did a transfer from one iPhone to my iPhone 16 Pro. You could always test by making another iCloud backup and then test trying setup as new and run it for a few hours.

Dave