iOS 15.x.x.x is an absolute disaster: a sluggish, buggy, battery draining monster, right?

[adb1973]

So far. YES
I'm really really disappointed by iOS 15 performance. But maybe there's someone here who proves it's just me who is the problem. And this rant is way out of line...

I don't say this lightly but the amount of bugs, the sluggishness and especially the battery drain make me mad and wonder: how can I get out of this mess that's iOS.

So far, my:
- iPhone 12 mini (5G,4G dual sim Vf NL and KPN NL)
- iPad mini 4 (4G VF NL)

In my family
- 1x iPhone 12 mini (4G carrier Vodafone NL, single sim)
- 2x iPhone SE 2016 (different carriers)

...all drain their batteries -even with NO use- within a day/overnight
...turned into sluggish monsters, especially the iPad mini 4 I use as an e-reader is dead slow now.

What I did so far on my iPhone 12 mini was switch off almost all background activity, even removed apps, reinstalled iOS, rebooted, checked battery use per app...you name it.

But what really makes the case is that my family members living in other places and with completely different use cases have exactly the same problems. I don't know what's happening in the background but what I do know is that my 82 y/o dads SE (2016) (he hardly uses(!) and has 94% battery quality used to drain in 2 days and now drains overnight. My own SE with very moderate use is empty before the day ends.

In the meantime an old iPad mini and iPad 2 on iOS 9.1.3 just sleep there for weeks before they are even remotely depleted.

So does someone actually know what's really going on with iOS? Is it the CSAM algorithm? Is it iCloud phoning home all the time.? Is it AdGuard Pro's fake VPN (no I would say my family members don't use it).

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

 

[NT1440]

No idea, I have a 12 mini and iPad mini on the latest iOS updates and don’t see that problem at all.

Silly question, have you don’t a hard reboot of these devices?

 

[Isamilis]

So far. YES
I'm really really disappointed by iOS 15 performance. But maybe there's someone here who proves it's just me who is the problem. And this rant is way out of line...

I don't say this lightly but the amount of bugs, the sluggishness and especially the battery drain make me mad and wonder: how can I get out of this mess that's iOS.

So far, my:
- iPhone 12 mini (5G,4G dual sim Vf NL and KPN NL)
- iPad mini 4 (4G VF NL)

In my family
- 1x iPhone 12 mini (4G carrier Vodafone NL, single sim)
- 2x iPhone SE 2016 (different carriers)

...all drain their batteries -even with NO use- within a day/overnight
...turned into sluggish monsters, especially the iPad mini 4 I use as an e-reader is dead slow now.

What I did so far on my iPhone 12 mini was switch off almost all background activity, even removed apps, reinstalled iOS, rebooted, checked battery use per app...you name it.

But what really makes the case is that my family members living in other places and with completely different use cases have exactly the same problems. I don't know what's happening in the background but what I do know is that my 82 y/o dads SE (2016) (he hardly uses(!) and has 94% battery quality used to drain in 2 days and now drains overnight. My own SE with very moderate use is empty before the day ends.

In the meantime an old iPad mini and iPad 2 on iOS 9.1.3 just sleep there for weeks before they are even remotely depleted.

So does someone actually know what's really going on with iOS? Is it the CSAM algorithm? Is it iCloud phoning home all the time.? Is it AdGuard Pro's fake VPN (no I would say my family members don't use it).

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

Have you tried reset all setting and delete data. You can install one by one later. My iPad M1 has been smooth (15.2.1). I don’t use Siri, Apple email and Apple Music (these 3 are well known defects since around iOS 13). I also turn off background app refresh. Battery consumption was flat during standby.
The other thing, how is the cellular reception in your area? 5g / 4g connection will take plenty of battery in areas with weak signal.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I'm not experiencing this on either my iPhone 13 Pro or my iPad Air 3. My iPad's battery health is in the 80s and I can still get a 10+ hours of screen on time. I'm going to echo what Isamilis stated above, how is cellular reception? Weak service can drain a battery in a matter of hours without any screen on time.

 

[MacManiac76]

I have no issues that you stated at all on my iPhone 13 Pro Max or iPad Pro 12.9 running iOS/iPadOS 15.2. I have always used Apple Mail, Apple Music and sometimes Siri when I think she might actually be helpful, which is not that often. My advice would be to setup the devices as new without restoring from a backup and then see if the sluggishness is still there with no third-party apps installed. After that I would install your most used third-party apps one-by-one and see if you can find a possible app that is causing some or all of your issues. Doing this will seem tedious depending on how many apps you have, but it will all be worth it if you can find the culprit to your issues. Create a full backup before doing any of this so you can just reset all content and settings and restore from this backup to get back to where you were before if so desired. Hopefully during this process you will find out what is causing your issues.

 

[MBAir2010]

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me

I admire your vigor an understand your dismay,
but
There is really nothing legally to do about anything faulty on your  device,
since other users are not experiencing these problems.

hopefully a hard restart-shut down might solve some problems.
good luck!

 

[AZhappyjack]

Nah... not here. I've had a number of frustrations with CarPlay on iOS 15, but I really haven't experienced battery drain or sluggish response. I see nothing worthy of a suit, class action or otherwise...

 

[Taz Mangus]

Two days ago, my 13 Pro Max running iOS 15.2 started having bad battery life. It happened out of no where. Up to that day, I have had really impressive battery life using iOS 15.0-15.2. I did install the app SuperAgent which I thought could be the culprit. Triaging issues like this can cause you to want to tear your hair out because they can be very time consuming, tracing where it might have happened.

What I did was first uninstall SuperAgent and then do a Recovery Mode Update. This replaces a fresh copy of the latest iOS version for the phone model. After that I charged my phone up and watched the battery life to see if I still had the issue.

The battery life was back to where it was, really good again. I then re-installed SuperAgent to see if that was the issue. The battery life is still really good. Hard to say why there was some bad battery drain. I will probably never really know. I am just happy that I was able to solve the issue, divide and conquer. If the issue had not been resolved, I would to resort to setting up as a device and go from there.

Beyond that brief issue, my 13 Pro Max runs smooth and fluid. Sure there are a couple annoyance I have encountered like the touch registration issue and the Music app sometimes queues up a random song in Now Playing in Control Center. Really beyond those 3 issues, I have been very happy with my 13 Pro Max.

I know this will be hard for you to hear and do but @MacManiac76 has the right idea. Do a backup of your phone to your computer. Boot into Recovery Mode and do a Restore which will completely erase your storage including everything you had installed. Setup your phone as a new device. When it is in factory condition evaluate if your phone is sluggish. After you do setup the phone as a new device, iOS will run file indexing which could take some time to complete. During that time, the phone may feel not as responsive as possible. Mayne a couple hours depending. If after that, the phone feels fast and fluid, do a Erase All Contents and restore from your backup. Again, iOS will initially do the file indexing so be aware of that. If the phone starts feeling sluggish again then there is something in your backup that is corrupted, maybe a preference file. In that case, start over as a new device and start setting up from scratch and see where it start feeling sluggish and not responsive. I would suggest baby steps like login into iCloud and setup your e-mail. Along the way do a little test to see how the phone feels. Start install apps, see how responsive your phone feels. Take baby steps to understand what might really be the issue causing your issues. That is how I would approach the problem, divide and conquer.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

Sure go start a class action lawsuit. If you win you might get $1.50 out of it after the lawyers take their cut.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me

I admire your vigor an understand your dismay,
but
There is really nothing legally to do about anything faulty on your  device,
since not too many others are not experiencing these problems.

hopefully a hard restart-shut down might solve some problems.
good luck!

I think you meant "since not too many others are not experiencing these problems."?

 

[An-apple-a-day]

So far. YES
I'm really really disappointed by iOS 15 performance. But maybe there's someone here who proves it's just me who is the problem. And this rant is way out of line...

I don't say this lightly but the amount of bugs, the sluggishness and especially the battery drain make me mad and wonder: how can I get out of this mess that's iOS.

So far, my:
- iPhone 12 mini (5G,4G dual sim Vf NL and KPN NL)
- iPad mini 4 (4G VF NL)

In my family
- 1x iPhone 12 mini (4G carrier Vodafone NL, single sim)
- 2x iPhone SE 2016 (different carriers)

...all drain their batteries -even with NO use- within a day/overnight
...turned into sluggish monsters, especially the iPad mini 4 I use as an e-reader is dead slow now.

What I did so far on my iPhone 12 mini was switch off almost all background activity, even removed apps, reinstalled iOS, rebooted, checked battery use per app...you name it.

But what really makes the case is that my family members living in other places and with completely different use cases have exactly the same problems. I don't know what's happening in the background but what I do know is that my 82 y/o dads SE (2016) (he hardly uses(!) and has 94% battery quality used to drain in 2 days and now drains overnight. My own SE with very moderate use is empty before the day ends.

In the meantime an old iPad mini and iPad 2 on iOS 9.1.3 just sleep there for weeks before they are even remotely depleted.

So does someone actually know what's really going on with iOS? Is it the CSAM algorithm? Is it iCloud phoning home all the time.? Is it AdGuard Pro's fake VPN (no I would say my family members don't use it).

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

Not seeing this behavior at all on iPhone 12 or iPhone 7 Plus. I suspect that you and your family members (based on your recommendation, perhaps) have installed one or more crap apps.

 

[blkjedi954]

So far. YES
I'm really really disappointed by iOS 15 performance. But maybe there's someone here who proves it's just me who is the problem. And this rant is way out of line...

I don't say this lightly but the amount of bugs, the sluggishness and especially the battery drain make me mad and wonder: how can I get out of this mess that's iOS.

So far, my:
- iPhone 12 mini (5G,4G dual sim Vf NL and KPN NL)
- iPad mini 4 (4G VF NL)

In my family
- 1x iPhone 12 mini (4G carrier Vodafone NL, single sim)
- 2x iPhone SE 2016 (different carriers)

...all drain their batteries -even with NO use- within a day/overnight
...turned into sluggish monsters, especially the iPad mini 4 I use as an e-reader is dead slow now.

What I did so far on my iPhone 12 mini was switch off almost all background activity, even removed apps, reinstalled iOS, rebooted, checked battery use per app...you name it.

But what really makes the case is that my family members living in other places and with completely different use cases have exactly the same problems. I don't know what's happening in the background but what I do know is that my 82 y/o dads SE (2016) (he hardly uses(!) and has 94% battery quality used to drain in 2 days and now drains overnight. My own SE with very moderate use is empty before the day ends.

In the meantime an old iPad mini and iPad 2 on iOS 9.1.3 just sleep there for weeks before they are even remotely depleted.

So does someone actually know what's really going on with iOS? Is it the CSAM algorithm? Is it iCloud phoning home all the time.? Is it AdGuard Pro's fake VPN (no I would say my family members don't use it).

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

I’ve Had a similar problem with iPad Pro 2020 12.9. iOS 15 caused the battery to drain overnight while on standby. I mean from 100% to 7% in one night while NOT IN USE. Turned off all background processes. Turned location services. Still same problem. Restore to “new” with no apps installed. Same problem - in drains from 100% to less than 10%. Took to Apple store. Battery test shows 99% capacity. Techs couldn’t figure it out. Battery was draining right in front of them. This started happening with iOS 15. Genius tech re-installed as ”new” but it drained right in front of him. So it was replaced. Their diagnostics could not figure it out. iOS 15 causes some serious problems with some devices. My iPad Pro was always warm even in morning after restore and set to “new” - factory settings. Genius tech couldn’t figure it out nor could the Apple support tech who remotely logged into the iPad Pro. It was draining 1% ever 2 minutes. Horrible iOS bug. They replaced it because it was still under warranty. Sad day. Very time consuming and frustrating.

 

[ian87w]

So far. YES
I'm really really disappointed by iOS 15 performance. But maybe there's someone here who proves it's just me who is the problem. And this rant is way out of line...

I don't say this lightly but the amount of bugs, the sluggishness and especially the battery drain make me mad and wonder: how can I get out of this mess that's iOS.

So far, my:
- iPhone 12 mini (5G,4G dual sim Vf NL and KPN NL)
- iPad mini 4 (4G VF NL)

In my family
- 1x iPhone 12 mini (4G carrier Vodafone NL, single sim)
- 2x iPhone SE 2016 (different carriers)

...all drain their batteries -even with NO use- within a day/overnight
...turned into sluggish monsters, especially the iPad mini 4 I use as an e-reader is dead slow now.

What I did so far on my iPhone 12 mini was switch off almost all background activity, even removed apps, reinstalled iOS, rebooted, checked battery use per app...you name it.

But what really makes the case is that my family members living in other places and with completely different use cases have exactly the same problems. I don't know what's happening in the background but what I do know is that my 82 y/o dads SE (2016) (he hardly uses(!) and has 94% battery quality used to drain in 2 days and now drains overnight. My own SE with very moderate use is empty before the day ends.

In the meantime an old iPad mini and iPad 2 on iOS 9.1.3 just sleep there for weeks before they are even remotely depleted.

So does someone actually know what's really going on with iOS? Is it the CSAM algorithm? Is it iCloud phoning home all the time.? Is it AdGuard Pro's fake VPN (no I would say my family members don't use it).

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

Can't comment on previous versions, but I updated my iPhone 7+ from iOS14.8 to iOS15.2, and so far I don't see any significant difference in battery life. Standby battery life remains excellent, while usage battery life remains mediocre, the same as iOS14.

You cannot compare standby battery life with iPads as they have much bigger batteries.

There a lot of possible issues. And it is difficult to ascertain specific usage when asking a family member. From my own family members, they'll classify watching youtube all night on their phone (or letting youtube/netflix playing on it for hours while they're sleeping) as "not using their phone."

There's also carrier issues. The biggest battery drain (of typical usage) from a phone are the screen, and the cellular radio. Low signals can be a surprisingly deadly to battery, even when you're not using the phone. And sometimes, the modem just goes out of whack. This happens on my iPhone once in a while as well. Sometimes there's an error with the carrier, and it was like the tower and the phone keeps pinging each other to get an SMS that never went through, resulting a battery drain. A network setting reset seems to fix it. You can give it a try.

Sometimes it's Apple's own servers. I have seen my iPhone stalls when accessing the App store, or syncing iCloud stuff. And that can also drain battery a lot as the phone keeps trying while Apple's servers are timing out. Sucks, but it happens.

Another thing to ascertain as well is, are the battery drains consistent, or does it only happen once in a while. Might be difficult to monitor this though. So it's hard to tell. So many possible issues.

 

[adb1973]

Thanks for all replies, really:
- so far the drain and sluggishness are not as common is I thought they were although I have not seen replies from people with the same hardware.
I did several reboots and a fresh install even, but I replaced all apps.

- class action was a joke of course
- what I get from this:
A - check 4G/5G reception (disable 5G maybe)
B - fresh install and one by one app install
C - go to the App Store to get the phone checked
D - The overnight drain in both 2016 SE’s is a lead. They do not use YouTube overnight or anything obvious

Open for other suggestions, rapid depletion really is out of the ordinary and different from previous behavior.

 

[bollman]

I've seen the drain on SE2 too. I stayed on iOS 14 for a long time, but got hit when Apple one day decided it should have iOS 15 a few months ago, after that, battery started draining like crazy. I eventually replaced the phone with a new 13 and I easily get 2 days of battery time even with heavy usage. The SE2 went to my son, and as he is quite young he does not use it all that much (thank you screen time) but still, he has to charge every night. My wife's iPhone 8 does not seem to suffer from drainage.
My iPad Pro 9.7" is harder to tell as it's mostly plugged in, but I have noticed that if it's not plugged in it seem to drain a lot faster than before.
Surfing the web with Safari on the SE2, you can actually watch the battery percentage drop.

My guess is that the SE2 has a "better" CPU than the battery really can cope with and iOS15 thinks that by having that CPU, it can use it more, but as the SE2 has a pretty small battery compared to the iPhone 11 it resembles, it drains the battery quickly.

 

[ian87w]

Thanks for all replies, really:
- so far the drain and sluggishness are not as common is I thought they were although I have not seen replies from people with the same hardware.
I did several reboots and a fresh install even, but I replaced all apps.

- class action was a joke of course
- what I get from this:
A - check 4G/5G reception (disable 5G maybe)
B - fresh install and one by one app install
C - go to the App Store to get the phone checked
D - The overnight drain in both 2016 SE’s is a lead. They do not use YouTube overnight or anything obvious

Open for other suggestions, rapid depletion really is out of the ordinary and different from previous behavior.

I have a feeling your iPad mini 4 (A8) and 2016 SEs (A9) will have a hard time with battery, as those models don't have efficiency cores. Maybe newer iOS is more optimized for the A10 Fusion and up with efficiency cores to control battery drain during standby of low-power usage. Just guessing though.

 

[macintoshmac]

So far. YES

Just do a DFU, don't put any apps, use it like a normal person and see what happens. Hopefully the results will be more dramatic than your first post.

Use it like a normal person implies a standard test case plus minus some, as per Apple.

 

[adb1973]

I have a feeling your iPad mini 4 (A8) and 2016 SEs (A9) will have a hard time with battery, as those models don't have efficiency cores. Maybe newer iOS is more optimized for the A10 Fusion and up with efficiency cores to control battery drain during standby of low-power usage. Just guessing though.

One would assume Apple knows this too and would adapt or restrict iOS on those devices then… but maybe yes…

 

[macintoshmac]

I have a feeling your iPad mini 4 (A8) and 2016 SEs (A9) will have a hard time with battery, as those models don't have efficiency cores. Maybe newer iOS is more optimized for the A10 Fusion and up with efficiency cores to control battery drain during standby of low-power usage. Just guessing though.

It is possible, indeed. However, I understand that sometimes apps just eat battery even without a user interacting with them. Also, for overnight drains that OP mentions are a recent phenomenon, it is easy for them to just come and rant, but it takes some method, patience and temperament to find out what exactly is going on. It could simply be that the network in their area has taken a hit, and the phone is having to work more to stay connected. Even if it shows great signal, a case of bad carrier aggregation could cause the network to keep fluctuating between CA and no CA, and drain battery all the time.

My point is that there are so many factors, and it takes time to eliminate. Time that I do not know the OP wants to spare.

 

[adb1973]

OK. Thanks for the rant and information.

If you would even say how much use the phones see in a day, how many calls, how long for, what apps, if any social media, how long for, what about games, such.. it would have been greatly beneficial.

But, it does not look like you want a solution. You want to rant, and to start a class action lawsuit. Good luck.


For reference, I do not use any social media apps, I do not make more than 10 minute phone calls a day, no video calls of more than 15 minutes on average every fortnight, no games, nothing. All I use my phone for is internet browsing and video streaming for about 3 hours a day, banking apps, Amazon, Ulysses, Telegram and Signal, etc. and in total for about 5-6 hours a day from the time I wake up to the time I shut off for the day. I do not need to charge my 13 mini in 2 days easy. I do only to keep battery stocked up, else I can drain it down into the 30s and I could eke out another day from it.

The phone(s) and even AdGuard which I happen to use, too, are not the issue here. Certainly not home-calling conspiracy theories that people just love to spew out of their mouths.

Humor is often misinterpreted.

But to be beneficial:
My use case is very very(!) similar to yours. And I do have to charge my mini 12 approx 8 hours after I took it off the charger.

My 82 yo father uses his phone like a Nokia 3310. Just to receive calls and text (can you imagine!)
And then all of a sudden it starts to drain over night. From 2days of battery life it goes back to empty at night. With the earlier mentioned ‘rapid drain with no apparent cause’

Thanks for your info…

 

[macintoshmac]

Humor is often misinterpreted.

But to be beneficial:
My use case is very very(!) similar to yours. And I do have to charge my mini 12 approx 8 hours after I took it off the charger.

My 82 yo father uses his phone like a Nokia 3310. Just to receive calls and text (can you imagine!)
And then all of a sudden it starts to drain over night. From 2days of battery life it goes back to empty at night. With the earlier mentioned ‘rapid drain with no apparent cause’

Thanks for your info…

If the use case is similar to mine, and I do not have any social media apps or games installed, just few banking apps, Signal, Telegram, note, writing, diary, email etc. apart from streaming services Netflix and Amazon - 42 in total as per iOS info, then I suggest please perform a DFU and do not restore anything. Just stick with no additional apps (except maybe your communication apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram) and see what goes on.

Also, dial *3001#12345#* and check your RSRP. It should tell you how good your LTE signal is.

 

[adb1973]

Yes that DFU was performed earlier but with restoring apps, I will DFU it again and do the app by app stuff

Reception is mediocre here

 

[adb1973]

Yes that DFU was performed earlier but with restoring apps, I will DFU it again and do the app by app stuff

Reception is mediocre here

RSPR -106 and -113

Still it’s out of the ordinary behavior since I did not move

 

[ikir]

So far. YES
I'm really really disappointed by iOS 15 performance. But maybe there's someone here who proves it's just me who is the problem. And this rant is way out of line...

I don't say this lightly but the amount of bugs, the sluggishness and especially the battery drain make me mad and wonder: how can I get out of this mess that's iOS.

So far, my:
- iPhone 12 mini (5G,4G dual sim Vf NL and KPN NL)
- iPad mini 4 (4G VF NL)

In my family
- 1x iPhone 12 mini (4G carrier Vodafone NL, single sim)
- 2x iPhone SE 2016 (different carriers)

...all drain their batteries -even with NO use- within a day/overnight
...turned into sluggish monsters, especially the iPad mini 4 I use as an e-reader is dead slow now.

What I did so far on my iPhone 12 mini was switch off almost all background activity, even removed apps, reinstalled iOS, rebooted, checked battery use per app...you name it.

But what really makes the case is that my family members living in other places and with completely different use cases have exactly the same problems. I don't know what's happening in the background but what I do know is that my 82 y/o dads SE (2016) (he hardly uses(!) and has 94% battery quality used to drain in 2 days and now drains overnight. My own SE with very moderate use is empty before the day ends.

In the meantime an old iPad mini and iPad 2 on iOS 9.1.3 just sleep there for weeks before they are even remotely depleted.

So does someone actually know what's really going on with iOS? Is it the CSAM algorithm? Is it iCloud phoning home all the time.? Is it AdGuard Pro's fake VPN (no I would say my family members don't use it).

Please enlighten me, show me the way, keep us away from the dark side or start a class action lawsuit with me.

It runs like a dream here, but hey I suppose others will join the whine fest!

 

[macintoshmac]

RSPR -106 and -113

Still it’s out of the ordinary behavior since I did not move

My RSRP is in the -90s.

I do think a DFU and installing apps back again in a step by step way might help you isolate the issue. It has to be some app(s) or that there are two networks with low signal strengths.

Considering you have year-old devices, a battery going bust might not be it, but would not be a far-fetched phenomenon. Use Coconut Battery to see the battery stats.