IOS12 Battery Drain

[Perene]

Um, me? Am I not one person? I've done it on 4 different devices. Therefore, I have 4 samples to go off of. I never update X.0 versions of iOS. I always restore as new.

If that's the case then you have your answer. It's one specific setting that is shortening your battery.

Have you disabled background app refresh and all other ones that are consuming your battery without any need? (example: Mail - change fetch to manually *).

* Push ensures that you get an instant notification when you get a new email, whereas Fetch will look for new data 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly or when you launch the Mail app (manually). You may want to disable Push email temporarily for your email accounts to see if it improves battery life.

Someone already posted a picture in a previous post showing this:

- Music - Audio, Background activity

Disable background app refresh for ALL apps. And see if anything changes.

Note: the reason behind reducing brightness is that if you increase it will also waste more battery (and it's worse for the health, too).

P.S. I forgot to add that in here True Tone is enabled, and currently Night Shift isn't.

 

[Mlrollin91]

If that's the case then you have your answer. It's one specific setting that is shortening your battery.

Have you disabled background app refresh and all other ones that are consuming your battery without any need? (example: Mail - change fetch to manually *).

* Push ensures that you get an instant notification when you get a new email, whereas Fetch will look for new data 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly or when you launch the Mail app (manually). You may want to disable Push email temporarily for your email accounts to see if it improves battery life.

Someone already posted a picture in a previous post showing this:

- Music - Audio, Background activity

Disable background app refresh for ALL apps. And see if anything changes.

Note: the reason behind reducing brightness is that if you increase it will also waste more battery (and it's worse for the health, too).

P.S. I forgot to add that in here True Tone is enabled, and currently Night Shift isn't.

I appreciate you trying to help, but I don't think you understand just how technical savvy I am. All this has been done since the get-go. I configure my device a very special way every single time I set up a device as new. Comparing Apples to Apples, iOS 12 to iOS 11.4.1 with the SAME exact settings, and set up as new, I have taken a 20% battery hit on all 4 devices. Occam's razor suggests that that is an iOS issue.

In order to account for variables, you are supposed to make them identical, which I have. The whole idea is to compare the devices, not make the iOS 12 one more crippled than iOS 11.4.1. Then you have an unreliable sample with variables.

Just so you know, Background App Refresh is NOT the same as App Background Activity. They are completely different.

 

[Sid91]

Did you get the battery replaced at some point recently?

No, the battery health is at 85% and 252 cycles.

 

[Mlrollin91]

No, the battery health is at 85% and 252 cycles.

Oof. That's not really healthy. That battery is definitely on its way out.

 

[Sid91]

Oof. That's not really healthy. That battery is definitely on its way out.

Phone says it's at normal peak performance, even the Apple guy ran a diagnostic and told me the battery is fine. The phone's getting slightly warm though...

 

[Perene]

I appreciate you trying to help, but I don't think you understand just how technical savvy I am. All this has been done since the get-go. I configure my device a very special way every single time I set up a device as new. Comparing Apples to Apples, iOS 12 to iOS 11.4.1 with the SAME exact settings, and set up as new, I have taken a 20% battery hit on all 4 devices. Occam's razor suggests that that is an iOS issue.

In order to account for variables, you are supposed to make them identical, which I have. The whole idea is to compare the devices, not make the iOS 12 one more crippled than iOS 11.4.1. Then you have an unreliable sample with variables.

Just so you know, Background App Refresh is NOT the same as App Background Activity. They are completely different.

iOS 11.4.1 also had battery issues:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8458262

You can't compare iOS 11 with this one, since iOS 11 was plagued exactly by this problem in most if not ALL versions.

What I am trying to convey to you is that if you repeat all your settings from iOS 10.3.2 (for example) and expect them to not drain your battery you are wasting your time.

I'll explain:

- Let's say I am using ALL (and I really mean ALL) my settings from iOS 10.3.2 and expect the battery to last the same 8 hours and 30 minutes.

And then I discover it lasts 6 hours.

- It's one of the following:

- My device was shipped with 10.3.2, so the CPU is not powerful enough to handle iOS 12, like a future iPAD Pro released in 2019 (guessing a date) which will be shipped with iOS 12.

Or

- Apple has screwed things this time and one option that was working perfectly fine is now draining 2, 3 times more battery.

My opinion is that the 2nd scenario is more likely. The 1st entails planned obsolescence. The 2nd that Apple continues to do a lousy job with iOS.

If you believe this is another flawed version (since you already did a clean install) then you'll agree with me that if you were an Apple developer you would turn off several settings and enable them one by one to make sure which ones are draining more your battery.

For example:

- My wi-fi and bluetooth are permanently off (I told you I use ethernet and rarely use the Pencil). Yours aren't. How would you know this isn't what is draining a lot of your battery?

Here's what you would need to do:

1) Turn them off
2) Produce a log and post to Apple developers

How many users have done this?

Zero.

Then we are back to square one. Not saying it's your job to try finding out what is draining the battery, all I am informing you is that I haven't noticed this issue SO FAR. And I like to watch videos during the day, which also drains considerable battery.

You know what happened when I updated to iOS 11 in my old iPAD Pro 9.7 (2016)? The battery was reduced considerably, and doing a clean install didn't help. Usually I never had to recharge before 10 PM, after this I had 2-3 hours less.

iOS 11 was a complete fiasco. Now this hasn't happened with my IPP 10.5 and iOS 12.

Am I saying other devices are exempt from problems?

No. All I suggested was that if some specific setting is causing this a thorough investigation is needed.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Phone says it's at normal peak performance, even the Apple guy ran a diagnostic and told me the battery is fine. The phone's getting slightly warm though...

iPhone batteries are rated to retain 80% health after 500 cycles. You are at 85% after 252 cycles, meaning it is failing prematurely. It will never reach its life expectancy. If anything, you should be able to persuade Apple to replace it for free (if under warranty) based on those statistics alone. It will not reach 500 cycles before dropping below 80%.

 

[Sid91]

iPhone batteries are rated to retain 80% health after 500 cycles. You are at 85% after 252 cycles, meaning it is failing prematurely. It will never reach its life expectancy. If anything, you should be able to persuade Apple to replace it for free (if under warranty) based on those statistics alone. It will not reach 500 cycles before dropping below 80%.

The phone was fine before I updated to iOS 12 and all these issues started happening right after the update...

 

[Mlrollin91]

The phone was fine before I updated to iOS 12 and all these issues started happening right after the update...

Your particular issue is likely hardware and software. Once a battery gets to about 85% health remaining, battery life reduction will be noticeable. So you are being plagued by a failing battery and poor iOS 12 battery life.

 

[Sid91]

Your particular issue is likely hardware and software. Once a battery gets to about 85% health remaining, battery life reduction will be noticeable. So you are being plagued by a failing battery and poor iOS 12 battery life.

So should I get the battery replaced now or wait for iOS 12.1 and then do it?

 

[Mlrollin91]

So should I get the battery replaced now or wait for iOS 12.1 and then do it?

Is your phone still under warranty? iOS 12.1 probably won't drop until mid-November.

 

[Sid91]

Is your phone still under warranty? iOS 12.1 probably won't drop until mid-November.

It's a launch model...

 

[Mlrollin91]

It's a launch model...

Okay, so no. Well your phone does qualify for the $29 dollar battery replacement before the year is up. I would definitely do that if you plan on keeping your phone for at least another year.

 

[aengelbrecht]

Seems every new version of iOS has more background tasks after install. Started to notice it more and more starting with iOS 10. My experience so far on iPad Air 1 has been that it needed quite a few days to stabilize after installing iOS 12 and updating the apps. Left it on the charger when not in use and used the apps, etc. Guess the old A7 takes a while to get all the data indexed, etc.

Just updated my IPX last night to 12 and updated Apps, have not really noticed a battery drain issue after leaving on the wireless charger all night. Still early to call, but have not seen the drastic drop I saw with my IP6 and update to iOS where it dropped a % per minute of use.

My advise would be to update all apps, and leave the device on a charger as much as possible for the first week or so. After some use and time things seem to settle down, and performance and battery got better on my old iPad Air 1. On the IPX have not seen issues out of the gate, performance is batter than 11 and UI is much smoother, will see on battery but I suspect it will get much better after a week or so.

 

[myrtlebee]

I doubt all these people which are complaining about battery issues have done all I suggested. Find me one person that erased everything in his device and only then installed. Just one.

In my opinion these major updates won't work if you update from a previous version with tons of settings and apps already installed. It's a waste of time.

It's either that or some setting or app that it's wasting more battery than usual. Here's an idea: anyone that is having battery issues post a picture from iOS internal settings saying what apps are wasting more in the last day(s), and at which moment.

This is available in iOS 12 and if the members of Macrumors post here perhaps someone can tell what is causing this issue.

I am not ruling out that iOS 12 is shortening the battery from a few devices, all I am saying is that it's not good to update without cleaning the trash first. For example, in my PC I pretend to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows 10. Is this annoying to do? Sure, no one likes to do it often. It would be better to update from Windows 8 or some ancient version...

However after a while the system isn't in pristine condition as it was.

This is bull in most cases, sorry. I have updated from scratch on devices and I have updated on devices right on top of the previous iOS version as is and experienced no difference in performance.

 

[bleak7]

When I got hit by the battery drain back in 11.4 the only thing that saved me was a DFU mode restore (battery was fine health wise).

Common possible culprits pointed to back then were location services (compass calibration was particularly aggressive) and WiFi connectivity (the whole frequency discussion that took place, it’s somewhere on the ios11 forum).

I assume you guys have checked all of these off your list?

 

[CreamEggBear]

I can’t seem to improve things. On 11.4.1 I used to see around 4-5 hours easily. With the same settings I’m seeing 3 hours at a push.

I did update to iOS 12 through iTunes instead of OTA but no difference.

I can’t set up as new as I will lose my activity data so I’m hoping Apple can push a software update to resolve.

Well I’ve just set my iPhone and watch up as new. Lost a lot of activity but at least I can say that I’ve tried a clean install. I would downgrade to 11.4.1 but I don’t think the watch on os5 will run with it.

I didn’t make my appointment with apple to have the battery replaced but will do it this weekend.

I’m still convinced that it is iOS 12 that’s causing the issue but we’ll see.

I’ll keep everyone posted.

 

[kenny911]

My Iphone 6s which is 2 years olds is getting killed with the new iOS 12. My battery will drop 20-30% in an hour just sitting on my counter. Something happened with the new iOS and Apple needs to acknowledge this problem, it's making the older phones useless.

 

[C DM]

My Iphone 6s which is 2 years olds is getting killed with the new iOS 12. My battery will drop 20-30% in an hour just sitting on my counter. Something happened with the new iOS and Apple needs to acknowledge this problem, it's making the older phones useless.

What's the battery health? Have you tried any troubleshooting?

 

[kenny911]

Battery health is 96% and yes I have tried and turned of all my background app refreshes off. Frustrating that this crap started within the past week.

 

[saxman211]

Battery health is 96% and yes I have tried and turned of all my background app refreshes off. Frustrating that this crap started within the past week.

I just went into my settings and checked my passwords section, it revealed that my all of my email had all been switched to fetch. I turned it all off and my battery is much better now... Give it a try

 

[C DM]

I just went into my settings and checked my passwords section, it revealed that my all of my email had all been switched to fetch. I turned it all off and my battery is much better now... Give it a try

Turned off fetch? And set it to what?

 

[TokMok3]

Every since updating my iPhone X to IOS12 and I'm experiencing extreme battery drain. Am I the only one?

Same here...
[doublepost=1539194083][/doublepost]

I don't think I ever saw someone that did a clean install complaining...

I did a clean install... iPhone X battery drains faster With iOS 12 than iOS 11.
[doublepost=1539194264][/doublepost]

Not sure if it helps but after upgrading my iPhone 6S I read in another thread that Screen Time is a huge battery drain. After disabling it I noticed a huge difference. My battery health is 83%.

I'm going to try this.

 

[saxman211]

Turned off fetch? And set it to what?

Set it to manual. It just means you have to actually go into the app to get the mail. It won't look for it until you go into the mail app.

 

[colodane]

I had an experience that may or may not be relevant. I'll share it just in case.

Always had good battery life on my iPhone 8 on iOS 11. After I updated to 12.0, battery life was about half. Hard to make quantitative comparison since, of course, they changed the measurement criteria with iOS 12. But I had to recharge about twice as often.

The most noticeable thing was that "Mail background" was now showing up as the app with the most battery drain. This was strange, because with iOS 11 my news apps such as NY Times, Google News, were always showing as the most battery usage. And I did not change my usage habits.

So I spent a lot of time checking all the settings on the apps such as background refresh, etc. and nothing seemed to be different. I also tried closing and reopening the "Mail" app, but that didn't help either.

Then, a couple days ago, I just turned off the phone completely and rebooted it. That seems to have things back to normal. Now have good battery life again, and the "Mail background" contribution is back to less than 10% where it used to be.

If you haven't done so yet, just try turning the phone off and then back on before giving up on iOS 12.