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iOS 17 | Battery Life & Health

FeliApple

FeliApple

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Apr 8, 2015
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ManuCH said:
I have noticed that too on more recent iPhones. The last one I had where the battery would hover at 100% for hours was the 13 Pro Max.
Click to expand...
Shorter by how much? Just curious.

I am a light user, and my records are the following:

On my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12, it took 1h 44 min of continuous screen-on time for it to drop.

On my iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15, it took 1h 32 min of continuous screen-on time for it to drop.

That has come a long way! Back when the iPhone 6s was the latest, it typically dropped in about 20 minutes.
 
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ManuCH

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May 7, 2009
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FeliApple said:
Shorter by how much? Just curious.

I am a light user, and my records are the following:

On my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12, it took 1h 44 min of continuous screen-on time for it to drop.

On my iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15, it took 1h 32 min of continuous screen-on time for it to drop.

That has come a long way! Back when the iPhone 6s was the latest, it typically dropped in about 20 minutes.
Click to expand...

On the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it depends if I'm on Wi-Fi or on 5G, but on 5G, it drops from 100% to 99% within about 15 minutes of usage.
 
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Nikhil72

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Oct 21, 2005
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FeliApple said:
This is equal, perhaps barely better if it’s 30 minutes than my iPhone 6s on iOS 10... not great. My Xʀ on iOS 12 can be three times that.
Click to expand...
You think your old phone lasted 90 min for a 1% drop? Seems like incorrect calibration of the meter.
 
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FeliApple

FeliApple

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Nikhil72 said:
You think your old phone lasted 90 min for a 1% drop? Seems like incorrect calibration of the meter.
Click to expand...
My Xʀ is on iOS 12. So it’s new, for all intents and purposes. Not only has it lasted 1h 30 min, it is never below 1h 10 min before dropping.

My “old phone” obliterates all screen-on time numbers I’ve seen.

I mean, I don’t think I need any more words than this link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-17-battery-life-health.2391634/post-32605365
 
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Nikhil72

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Oct 21, 2005
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Nisaja

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Sep 20, 2016
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Nikhil72 said:
You think your old phone lasted 90 min for a 1% drop? Seems like incorrect calibration of the meter.
Click to expand...

iPhone battery percentage isn’t linear. They intentionally make the first 10% go down slower. When your phone says 100% after 1 hour, it’s not actually at 100%. It’s less than that, but the phone reports it as 100% to make you feel like the battery is amazing.

Still, all iPhones do this, so if one phone is still at 100% after 1 hour of usage, it has better battery life than the phone that drops to 99% after 20 mins.
 
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FeliApple

FeliApple

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Nikhil72 said:
So low power mode was on the whole time?
Click to expand...
Yes, but I’m not entirely sure it makes a whole lot of difference. It sounds like you’re looking for ways to discredit the numbers and I’m not sure why...

It’s a massive mistake to think that just because an iPhone - or iPad - isn’t the latest then it must be abhorrent just because it’s older. Funnily enough, the only reason why that happens is iOS updates. I’m showing that it’s possible to maintain amazing battery life on any iPhone for years on end. It doesn’t have to be like that. iPhones don’t have to be obliterated in terms of battery life. It’s very possible to have good battery life on a four, five, six, seven-year-old iPhone.
 
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fred5

macrumors newbie
Oct 8, 2023
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I had terrible battery life after upgrading to iOS 17, but I think I fixed it. With iOS 16, the battery life of my iPhone 14 was excellent: I'd charge it, then keep it off the charger for over 24 hours, and I'd still have 50% battery. That changed with iOS 17. Suddenly I was losing 25% of battery during the night (7-8 hours), even though I wasn't using the device at all. Curiously during the day while I was using apps, the decline was also about 25-30% every 8 hours. With iOS 16, I don't think I was losing more than 10-15% over the same period. The system didn't show any app using excessive amount of battery. It was clear some hidden system process was causing the drain, not a user facing app.

I thought it would fix itself a couple of days after the upgrade but it didn't. iOS 17.1 public beta 1 and 2 didn't improve anything so I decided to reset the device. It is a painful process, but the battery got so bad that I didn't know what else to do. I restored from an iCloud backup. And I'm happy to report that 24 hours after the reset, my battery is as good as it was with iOS 16. As I'm writing this post I still have 56% of battery, even though I unplugged from the charger 24.5 hours ago.

Edit: By reset I mean "Erase All Content and Settings"
Edit 2: Added another overnight battery usage graph



IMG_8AAC5D296DEF-1.jpeg

Above: iOS 17 before reset: went down to about 60% in 12 hours (9pm to 9am) of almost no use.


IMG_15A1C6370C87-1.jpeg

Above: iOS 17 after reset, battery went down to 60% after 24 hours of normal use.

IMG_3E7E3378416C-1.jpeg

Above: 36 hours after reset, barely any battery was used overnight
 
Last edited:
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ht5pilot

ht5pilot

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Sep 15, 2011
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fred5 said:
I had terrible battery life after upgrading to iOS 17, but I think I fixed it. With iOS 16, the battery life of my iPhone 14 was excellent: I'd charge it, then keep it off the charger for over 24 hours, and I'd still have 50% battery. That changed with iOS 17. Suddenly I was losing 25% of battery during the night (7-8 hours), even though I wasn't using the device at all. Curiously during the day while I was using apps, the decline was also about 25-30% every 8 hours. With iOS 16, I don't think I was losing more than 10-15% over the same period. The system didn't show any app using excessive amount of battery. It was clear some hidden system process was causing the drain, not a user facing app.

I thought it would fix itself a couple of days after the upgrade but it didn't. iOS 17.1 public beta 1 and 2 didn't improve anything so I decided to reset the device. It is a painful process, but the battery got so bad that I didn't know what else to do. I restored from an iCloud backup. And I'm happy to report that 24 hours after the reset, my battery is as good as it was with iOS 16. As I'm writing this post I still have 56% of battery, even though I unplugged from the charger 24.5 hours ago.



View attachment 2291477
Above: iOS 17 before reset: went down to about 60% in 12 hours (9pm to 9am) of almost no use.


View attachment 2291476
Above: went down to 60% after 24 hours of normal use.
Click to expand...
When you say reset, do you mean like selecting Erase All Contents and Settings or just Reset All Settings option?
 
B

bushman4

macrumors 601
Mar 22, 2011
4,139
3,893
iPhone 15 series needed bigger batteries than what we have
However Apple decided to go with caution and avoid a Samsung fire event
Hopefully the bigger 6.3 & 6.9 size rumored for the iPhone 16 series has bigger batteries
 
M

MrMiyagi1

macrumors regular
Dec 22, 2019
203
76
I am also having issues with the battery on my 14 pro. Since installing iOS 17 I have gone from 95% battery health to 92% today. I am on latest iOS version.
 
C

chriswhv6

macrumors 6502a
Apr 6, 2015
501
1,184
Looks like my 14PM crashed and rebooted last night while it was on the charger.

Went to unplug it this morning and noticed it said' iPhone needs passcode after reboot' etc.
Checking Battery history and there is a giant blank gap between 10pm & 6am.

Never has my phone crashed & rebooted while charging before so im guessing something to do with iOS 17 maybe??
 
Mercenary

Mercenary

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Sep 17, 2012
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chriswhv6 said:
Looks like my 14PM crashed and rebooted last night while it was on the charger.

Went to unplug it this morning and noticed it said' iPhone needs passcode after reboot' etc.
Checking Battery history and there is a giant blank gap between 10pm & 6am.

Never has my phone crashed & rebooted while charging before so im guessing something to do with iOS 17 maybe??
Click to expand...
 
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ManuCH

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Sleepinlight said:
Has anyone else noticed that the 100% --> 99% drop has become way shorter in recent years?

It used to be the case that iOS was known for having battery life hover at 100% for a WHILE before it would finally drop to 99%, then it would be more linear from 99% down to 0%. Like on lighter use work days, I remember sometimes it would be nearly lunch time before I finally hit 99%. But now that drop only takes an hour or two.

I don't think there was ever an official explanation why Apple deliberately skewed the stats to make it look like the phone was still at 100% when it was probably really somewhere between 95% and 100%, but it seems like they stopped doing that.
Click to expand...

By the way, I noticed something else on my iPhone 15 Pro Max: the drop from 100% to 99% is way way shorter if I have charged the iPhone using MagSafe. It tends to be longer if I charge using USB-C. It's as if charging with a cable can make the battery "fuller", although it makes no sense.
 
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James6s

James6s

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My 14PM takes roughly an hour to drop 100 > 99% under constant use, I think that’s quite good lol

This is how the first day of 17.1B3 is going…
 

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ManuCH

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James6s said:
My 14PM takes roughly an hour to drop 100 > 99% under constant use, I think that’s quite good lol

This is how the first day of 17.1B3 is going…
Click to expand...

3:40 hours and still 81%? How is that even possible? What are your main apps shown in the list below? A lot of phone calls?
 
James6s

James6s

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Sep 22, 2015
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ManuCH said:
3:40 hours and still 81%? How is that even possible? What are your main apps shown in the list below? A lot of phone calls?
Click to expand...
Do you think that’s good? Here’s the top 5 apps using battery…. Just a few very short calls today. On WiFi.
 

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FeliApple

FeliApple

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Apr 8, 2015
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