iOS 16 Battery Drain Thread

[Pinkyyy 💜🍎]

Terrible battery life on my iphone pro 12 for sure, geting worse and worse,


Phone doesnt seem capable to handle day to day operations, since ios 16 it overheats when playing music and using google maps, why did i buy the most expensive device of the lineup if it cant handle things my iphone 6 could do all day, and since last week it wont even charge fully because it’s overheating?
Wtf apple seriously?

Ipad pro 2021 on the same sinking boat.


Funnily, my ipad pro 12,9 1st gen, is completely unaffected by all this tomfoolery.

Yeah for some reason I feel like my four-month old MacBook has also been facing battery draining and overheating issues, especially when I use Safari. I used to get incredible battery life with it, but now I’m noticing that it’s draining faster than usual. And it loses about 3-5% when it’s on sleep mode for no reason. This has never happened before.

It’s currently on Ventura 13.4.1 and still has 100% of battery health.

This is really strange…

 

[louis^]

14 pro here. I often went to bed with about 90% battery, airplane mode and low power mode and woke up with 50%. Battery health at 100% (coconut battery). been using since release. It is frustrating. The device is constantly hot and quickly goes empty.

 

[JulianL]

I really hope that Apple acknowledges this problem at least internally; as far as I can see it rarely publicly acknowledges any issues apart from recently fixed security issues. Everything is sunshine, exciting, the best ever, and no acknowledgement of what it is working on to improve. As well as this thread I see a lot of negative comments for the news article about Apple's recent ads promoting battery life. I really, really hope that Apple will get the message.

In my time following Apple which started a few months before I bought my first iPhone (an iPhone 4) on launch day, I can only remember one iOS release where Apple specifically mentioned optimisations to improve battery life in the release notes and that was quite a long time ago. Apple really needs to acknowledge and address the fact that new software releases seem to negatively impact the battery life for a significant number of people.

I'm an iPhone 14 Pro Max user and my 16.5.1 upgrade has knocked about 30% off my battery life. Apple hardware seems really good, my 14 Pro max battery life was as I expected when I first bought it on launch day i.e. really good vs the competition, but now it is very disappointing. Settings/Battery is still reporting my battery health as 100%.

Apple's iOS software operation needs a serious shake-up.

 

[Heymily]

14 pro here. I often went to bed with about 90% battery, airplane mode and low power mode and woke up with 50%. Battery health at 100% (coconut battery). been using since release. It is frustrating. The device is constantly hot and quickly goes empty.

Surprising, even with lots of apps running in the background, that's not normal. I assume you have already checked the synchronization of background apps ?

 

[louis^]

Surprising, even with lots of apps running in the background, that's not normal. I assume you have already checked the synchronization of background apps ?

Sure. I never use backround app refresh. Turned most "features" off.

 

[FeliApple]

I really hope that Apple acknowledges this problem at least internally; as far as I can see it rarely publicly acknowledges any issues apart from recently fixed security issues. Everything is sunshine, exciting, the best ever, and no acknowledgement of what it is working on to improve. As well as this thread I see a lot of negative comments for the news article about Apple's recent ads promoting battery life. I really, really hope that Apple will get the message.

In my time following Apple which started a few months before I bought my first iPhone (an iPhone 4) on launch day, I can only remember one iOS release where Apple specifically mentioned optimisations to improve battery life in the release notes and that was quite a long time ago. Apple really needs to acknowledge and address the fact that new software releases seem to negatively impact the battery life for a significant number of people.

I'm an iPhone 14 Pro Max user and my 16.5.1 upgrade has knocked about 30% off my battery life. Apple hardware seems really good, my 14 Pro max battery life was as I expected when I first bought it on launch day i.e. really good vs the competition, but now it is very disappointing. Settings/Battery is still reporting my battery health as 100%.

Apple's iOS software operation needs a serious shake-up.

I have no hope for this. I had it once: Apple posted at least one ad about battery life with the iPhone Xʀ, saying “you’ll run out of power before it does”, with people falling asleep whilst using the iPhone. I thought, well... since Apple is featuring a battery life-exclusive ad, and considering that the iPhone Xʀ was the iPhone with the best battery life thus far (and by a long shot), they won’t obliterate it with iOS updates... right? Well... no. It happened anyway.

Perhaps they won’t obliterate M1 iPads: after all, they have desktop-level chipsets; however, I’m under no illusions here: even that is unlikely.

It’s been way too long with the same results for me to realistically hope that this will change. Just like the downgrading situation, it seems like updating iOS or not updating will always be a choice between features/compatibility and performance/battery life, respectively. It’s not what I like, and I’d like this to be different, but it’s what we get.

 

[Pinkyyy 💜🍎]

I have no hope for this. I had it once: Apple posted at least one ad about battery life with the iPhone Xʀ, saying “you’ll run out of power before it does”, with people falling asleep whilst using the iPhone. I thought, well... since Apple is featuring a battery life-exclusive ad, and considering that the iPhone Xʀ was the iPhone with the best battery life thus far (and by a long shot), they won’t obliterate it with iOS updates... right? Well... no. It happened anyway.

Perhaps they won’t obliterate M1 iPads: after all, they have desktop-level chipsets; however, I’m under no illusions here: even that is unlikely.

It’s been way too long with the same results for me to realistically hope that this will change. Just like the downgrading situation, it seems like updating iOS or not updating will always be a choice between features/compatibility and performance/battery life, respectively. It’s not what I like, and I’d like this to be different, but it’s what we get.

Yeah I think it’s more of a software issue. iOS 16 was so buggy and wasn’t very stable in general, and the battery draining issues affected most (if not all) iPhones running the update. So it has nothing to do with the iPhone model/chipset nor the battery capacity, it’s the iOS updates. I really hope iOS 17 will be a better release. I just want them to fix the bugs and the battery issues, I don’t want a feature-rich update filled up with features that I don’t really need/probably won’t use.
But I highly doubt Apple will do that, considering they never really acknowledged the battery draining issues with the current iOS releases.

 

[FeliApple]

Yeah I think it’s more of a software issue. iOS 16 was so buggy and wasn’t very stable in general, and the battery draining issues affected most (if not all) iPhones running the update. So it has nothing to do with the iPhone model/chipset nor the battery capacity, it’s the iOS updates. I really hope iOS 17 will be a better release. I just want them to fix the bugs and the battery issues, I don’t want a feature-rich update filled up with features that I don’t really need/probably won’t use.
But I highly doubt Apple will do that, considering they never really acknowledged the battery draining issues with the current iOS releases.

Thing is, it’s always been like that. It’s not iOS 16 or iOS 15, it’s every major iOS release ever. Some iPhone will always be affected. You can say “well, my iPhone 6 was fine on iOS 9”. Yes, but did you see how iOS 9 runs on the iPhone 4s? It broke it. Or, iOS 12 was fine on the iPhone X. Yes, but have you seen what it did to the iPhone 6? It broke it too. iOS 13? Mostly fine on the Xʀ, right? Grab a 6s or a 7. Unusable.

Older iPhones are constantly and consistently obliterated. Some sooner than others, but all models will eventually break. iOS updates are synonymous with complete degradation, eventually. If it’d not on the first major update it’s on the second. Many iPhone 14 complaints on iOS 16, that’s rare. People who upgrade all the time never see this impact because their devices are never old enough and original versions are always good. But keep the same device for a few years and it will be inevitably destroyed. Always. The solution unfortunately is to introduce compatibility issues and lack of features, even if you can live without them. My iPhone is an iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12. It’s 99.9% fine for what I use it (a couple of websites don’t run, otherwise it’s fine for me), but that doesn’t work for everyone because maybe their apps stop working. Disney+ for example wouldn’t work, just to give an example. I have an iPhone 6s on iOS 10 and WhatsApp dropped support. Issues start coming up eventually, and that’s not for everyone. But if you want to have a good device, there’s no alternative. If you upgrade every year it doesn’t matter, though.

Not only has Apple failed to ever acknowledge anything, but they also specifically recommend updating iOS to “maximise battery performance”! Absurd! (See: https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/)

 

[Pinkyyy 💜🍎]

Thing is, it’s always been like that. It’s not iOS 16 or iOS 15, it’s every major iOS release ever. Some iPhone will always be affected. You can say “well, my iPhone 6 was fine on iOS 9”. Yes, but did you see how iOS 9 runs on the iPhone 4s? It broke it. Or, iOS 12 was fine on the iPhone X. Yes, but have you seen what it did to the iPhone 6? It broke it too. iOS 13? Mostly fine on the Xʀ, right? Grab a 6s or a 7. Unusable.

Older iPhones are constantly and consistently obliterated. Some sooner than others, but all models will eventually break. iOS updates are synonymous with complete degradation, eventually. If it’d not on the first major update it’s on the second. Many iPhone 14 complaints on iOS 16, that’s rare. People who upgrade all the time never see this impact because their devices are never old enough and original versions are always good. But keep the same device for a few years and it will be inevitably destroyed. Always. The solution unfortunately is to introduce compatibility issues and lack of features, even if you can live without them. My iPhone is an iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12. It’s 99.9% fine for what I use it (a couple of websites don’t run, otherwise it’s fine for me), but that doesn’t work for everyone because maybe their apps stop working. Disney+ for example wouldn’t work, just to give an example. I have an iPhone 6s on iOS 10 and WhatsApp dropped support. Issues start coming up eventually, and that’s not for everyone. But if you want to have a good device, there’s no alternative. If you upgrade every year it doesn’t matter, though.

Not only has Apple failed to ever acknowledge anything, but they also specifically recommend updating iOS to “maximise best battery performance”! Absurd! (See: https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/)

Yeah that’s right, Apple has always done that. New major iOS releases have always worked better on the latest iPhone models they debuted with and would break the older iPhone models mainly because they want you to upgrade to the latest model. But with iOS 16, it seems like the iPhone 14 models were affected the most, which is indeed very odd. It’s supposed to work better on the 14 models considering they originally came with iOS 16, but no. Turns out iOS 16 was just an unstable release in general, not only for the older models.
And I’m not the type who upgrades yearly, so this is quite disappointing for me. I was planning to keep my 14 Pro Max that I just got about a week ago for the foreseeable future until an upgrade is very necessary, but looking at how unstable iOS 16 was on it, I’m a little concerned about the later releases. I really hope iOS 17 is a better release since I’m not really planning to upgrade to the 15 🙃

And yes I’ve seen this, it’s truly absurd. Those updates are destroying battery life.

 

[louis^]

My iPhone 13 mini has, for months, getting worse and worse battery life, to the point where it was warm all the time, and pausing charging overnight due to heat. It was becoming slow to wake and sleep - click the side button to wake, and Siri activates as if I held it down for a second or two. Control center takes a second to open, when it should be instant.

The solution? Re-download the Fitness app, which I had deleted a long time ago.

I only found this out by hooking up the phone to a Mac with the Instruments developer tool, seeing that a daemon process was crashing and restarting every 10 seconds. Using 100% CPU for 5 seconds each time. The Console app showed this process was looking for the Fitness app.

This is crazy and there was no other way to know what was happening. The Battery settings are misleading at best, you would think that “Find My”, “Siri” or “Home & Lock screen“ was the problem.

Unfortunately my battery health is 90% after less than 12 months probably due to this bug.

Thank you! This fixed my phone.

 

[says_stuff]

I’m pretty sure my iphone 12 pro max battery’s health was about 94% before ios 16, now with all the overheating and the two times per day charging, it’s at 84%, not sure if this is expected

 

[anthonymoody]

Well I just installed that urgent security update (forget what the title was but 16.5.1(c)) and for the first time ever am getting ridiculous battery drain. Grrr.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Finally, battery life has been performing very well. Almost got 9 hours of usage from a single charge, 0-100% 🔋. I could have easily pushed it to 9 hours. The ideal goal would be a solid 10 hours.

 

[Ready-for-Apple]

Finally, battery life has been performing very well. Almost got 9 hours of usage from a single charge, 0-100% 🔋. I could have easily pushed it to 9 hours. The ideal goal would be a solid 10 hours.

Which iphone?
Which battery health?
Which iOS version?

 

[Reverend Benny]

My iPhone 13 mini has, for months, getting worse and worse battery life, to the point where it was warm all the time, and pausing charging overnight due to heat. It was becoming slow to wake and sleep - click the side button to wake, and Siri activates as if I held it down for a second or two. Control center takes a second to open, when it should be instant.

The solution? Re-download the Fitness app, which I had deleted a long time ago.

I only found this out by hooking up the phone to a Mac with the Instruments developer tool, seeing that a daemon process was crashing and restarting every 10 seconds. Using 100% CPU for 5 seconds each time. The Console app showed this process was looking for the Fitness app.

This is crazy and there was no other way to know what was happening. The Battery settings are misleading at best, you would think that “Find My”, “Siri” or “Home & Lock screen“ was the problem.

Unfortunately my battery health is 90% after less than 12 months probably due to this bug.

Installed the fitnessapp the other day after reading your post and it actually seems to help a bit. Have had it uninstalled for years.

Will be interesting to see if it lasts.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Which iphone?
Which battery health?
Which iOS version?

I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it.

iPhone 14 Pro Max 1TB.
Battery health: 94% (Launch date iPhone)
iOS version: 16.5.1

 

[Nithinan]

My iPhone 13 mini has, for months, getting worse and worse battery life, to the point where it was warm all the time, and pausing charging overnight due to heat. It was becoming slow to wake and sleep - click the side button to wake, and Siri activates as if I held it down for a second or two. Control center takes a second to open, when it should be instant.

The solution? Re-download the Fitness app, which I had deleted a long time ago.

I only found this out by hooking up the phone to a Mac with the Instruments developer tool, seeing that a daemon process was crashing and restarting every 10 seconds. Using 100% CPU for 5 seconds each time. The Console app showed this process was looking for the Fitness app.

This is crazy and there was no other way to know what was happening. The Battery settings are misleading at best, you would think that “Find My”, “Siri” or “Home & Lock screen“ was the problem.

Unfortunately my battery health is 90% after less than 12 months probably due to this bug.

Amazing! This fixed my iPhone 14 Pro. Can you tell the name of Instruments developer tool?

 

[bushman4]

Battery Life horrible after each update takes a couple days to get back to where it was
Overall Battery Life on the iPhone 14 proMax is not what it should be compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max or 12 pro max

 

[Reverend Benny]

Battery Life horrible after each update takes a couple days to get back to where it was
Overall Battery Life on the iPhone 14 proMax is not what it should be compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max or 12 pro max

Its pretty standard as far as I remember that it takes a few days after each update before its back to normal.
I can imagine that if you have a phone with more apps, files and that uses many services it can be many things that affect battery life.

Then some releases seem to have a few bugs, that uninstalling the fitness app seem to drain the battery is prob a good example of a bug that needs to be ironed out.

Also the usage pattern varies, some apps drain batteries like crazy. Just found out that Signal, especially when using it for voice and/or video-calls drains battery like crazy.

 

[Keukasmallie]

My SE 2022 loses battery power big time. I went to Apple Store, met with Apple "genius" and he changed several settings (which cost me data...) and said if that had no effect I could return for Phase 2....? I will not be returning. I've turned off most of the things suggested on YouTube, etc. Now, I swish off an app as soon as I finish what I'm doing. Turning off apps is easy, but may actually have little or no impact on my concerns.

 

[horsemeat]

Amazing! This fixed my iPhone 14 Pro. Can you tell the name of Instruments developer tool?

Activity Monitor.

I've now been using the phone for over a week and it's still good. The phone is back to being very fast, and completely cold when I take it off the charger in the morning. Good luck

I'm really annoyed because I think this bug was affecting my phone for many months, at first it only manifested as the phone being very slightly warm in the morning, things got worse very gradually and nothing in the phone could even give you a hint as to what was wrong.

 

[Reverend Benny]

My SE 2022 loses battery power big time. I went to Apple Store, met with Apple "genius" and he changed several settings (which cost me data...) and said if that had no effect I could return for Phase 2....? I will not be returning. I've turned off most of the things suggested on YouTube, etc. Now, I swish off an app as soon as I finish what I'm doing. Turning off apps is easy, but may actually have little or no impact on my concerns.

If you had the fitness app uninstalled you can try what @horsemeat came up with in an earlier post. Reinstall it, it might help

 

[Asherpotter]

The solution? Re-download the Fitness app, which I had deleted a long time ago.

I can't believe it, but this totally fixed my battery life issue. It's still a shame that this is likely what caused it to degrade to 92%, though.

 

[yustas]

On your iPhone, do this:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on Privacy.
3. Tap on Analytics & Improvements.
4. Tap on Analytics Data.

I found this on my phone.

 

[rob2bob]

My battery health going down a percentage or more every month. Phone constantly warm. Mail runs a lot in the background
Toggling fetch from automatic to manual (or hourly) for emails that are not PUSH stopped the warming. (I guess my lost battery health counts for nothing because of this bug unless it drops below 80% within 2 years. Grrr)