iPhone XR - CNN and Wash Post apps draining battery in background

[raylo32]

This just started happening... my XR battery drains far faster than it ever has... and the "Battery" view in settings shows it is almost entirely due to CNN and Washington Post apps in background... 41% and 39% respectively. But... I have always had background refresh turned off on those and other news apps to try to avoid this very issue. And I NEVER had this problem until this week. Anyone have any ideas?? I have already tried forcing the apps to shutdown and restarting the XR. Didn't help.

Deleting the apps for now. Will try to reinstall later and see what happens.

 

[raylo32]

Deleting the apps fixed the problem. But still doesn't explain why they were updating in background when that was set to off in Settings? I can't believe no one else is having this issue.

 

[C DM]

Deleting the apps fixed the problem. But still doesn't explain why they were updating in background when that was set to off in Settings? I can't believe no one else is having this issue.

Not sure what they might or might not have been doing, but Background App Refresh is just one functionality of background usage, there are a variety of others that allow apps to do things in the background, which aren't controllable by the end user.

 

[raylo32]

They shouldn't be doing anything if forced to shut down. I thought I tried that but maybe not. I'll re-install one and try that again. Must be something new in those 2 apps in the last updates. The NYT app does no such thing.

 

[C DM]

They shouldn't be doing anything if forced to shut down. I thought I tried that but maybe not. I'll re-install one and try that again. Must be something new in those 2 apps in the last updates. No the NYT app does no such thing.

If you actually close them (and don't open them again) then they shouldn't be doing anything. That said, if they receive notifications that can potentially open a window for them to do something.

 

[raylo32]

I usually do not allow notifications and I don't get any from these that I know of... but who knows what they do with these apps these days. I am a little bit PO'd about this.

 

[jeffz]

I've been having this problem for the last several weeks with the Washington Post app (1st gen. iPhone SE). iOS reports the app as responsible for over 70% of my battery usage most days. I turned off background refresh, which did not help. I removed the widget, and that did seem to help. But a week or so later, the app is back at it—chewing through my battery. As of today, I'm ensuring I force close the app when I'm done using it.

 

[C DM]

I've been having this problem for the last several weeks with the Washington Post app (1st gen. iPhone SE). iOS reports the app as responsible for over 70% of my battery usage most days. I turned off background refresh, which did not help. I removed the widget, and that did seem to help. But a week or so later, the app is back at it—chewing through my battery. As of today, I'm ensuring I force close the app when I'm done using it.

Have you updated to iOS 13.6?

 

[jeffz]

Nope. I'm on 13.5.1. Installing 13.6 now...

 

[jeffz]

Updating iOS to 13.6 seems to have solved the battery drain problem with the Washington Post app. iOS is still reporting that the app uses more than 50% of my battery—so it's still using a lot of power relative to other apps—but the absolute number is back to where it used to be, as the phone charge level is generally between 50% and 75% at the end of the day.

 

[bfgaylord]

I have the exact same problem. I'm running an iPhone 13 and IOS 16.6.1. I used the CNN app the other day for the first time in months. I spent about 10 minutes reading some stories. After that my battery started draining. I wasn't using the app and it showed 50%+ of my battery usage was the CNN app. I deleted it and my battery usage went back to normal.