Unexpected Battery Drain & Overheating Issues with new iPhone 15 Pro purchased in the US

[phl92]

We're based in Austria, Europe, and last month, my wife asked a friend who was traveling in the US to purchase the new iPhone 15 Pro 1TB for her from New Hampshire. The 1TB model was nearly $500 cheaper there compared to Austria.

We received it two weeks ago but didn't use it immediately as we were waiting for a case and screen protector. Interestingly, the US models don't even support traditional SIM cards, so we had to switch also to an e-SIM from our provider.

However, we're facing a significant issue. The phone's battery drains from 100% to almost 50% overnight without any use. I've tested it by closing all apps, but the rapid discharge persists. Initially, I thought it was due to background cloud storage or backups, but even after two weeks of being connected to our Wi-Fi, the problem continues. Moreover, the phone warms up considerably with minimal usage. The battery app shows that most of the usage is from the Camera app, as we did have a couple of extended photo sessions last week. Despite minimal use by my wife (we got the e-sim only yesterday and the phone was most times just in standby mode), we find ourselves needing to charge the phone every two days.

I'm quite concerned because we purchased it in the US, and it's not feasible for us to return there anytime soon. Could this be a major issue? What might be causing the battery and heating problems? Should we just go to the Apple Store?

 

[Lex404]

Bluetooth and Find my drains approx 10%

Lack of gsm signal also drains, tho not sure if lack of sim triggers signal search anyway

I think it's cloud, especially if you restored. Also keep in mind that cloud will try to sync everything, including stuff that it shouldn't (app data). Go to icloud > backups and see how much you have there. Photos should sync pretty fast tho.

You can also go in battery settings and tap on a timeframe during the night when the phone was not used, and see what's using it (this is how I discovered about Find My). Camera might be overall usage, but during the night you might have something else.

Also, 15 pro is chargeable daily without draining the battery overnight 🧟‍♂️

 

[phl92]

I am not clear what you mean by "its cloud"? First when setting up everything, to download data from my wifes cloud it took a few hours and were around 200GB and after that I set the settings so that photos are stored offline on the phone not just in the cloud.

I will check what exactly is causing the drain in night.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Has the phone been updated to the latest OS release?

 

[MapleBeercules]

We're based in Austria, Europe, and last month, my wife asked a friend who was traveling in the US to purchase the new iPhone 15 Pro 1TB for her from New Hampshire. The 1TB model was nearly $500 cheaper there compared to Austria.

We received it two weeks ago but didn't use it immediately as we were waiting for a case and screen protector. Interestingly, the US models don't even support traditional SIM cards, so we had to switch also to an e-SIM from our provider.

However, we're facing a significant issue. The phone's battery drains from 100% to almost 50% overnight without any use. I've tested it by closing all apps, but the rapid discharge persists. Initially, I thought it was due to background cloud storage or backups, but even after two weeks of being connected to our Wi-Fi, the problem continues. Moreover, the phone warms up considerably with minimal usage. The battery app shows that most of the usage is from the Camera app, as we did have a couple of extended photo sessions last week. Despite minimal use by my wife (we got the e-sim only yesterday and the phone was most times just in standby mode), we find ourselves needing to charge the phone every two days.

I'm quite concerned because we purchased it in the US, and it's not feasible for us to return there anytime soon. Could this be a major issue? What might be causing the battery and heating problems? Should we just go to the Apple Store?

I would suspect this is the phone downloading and syncing data. Alot of users report this same issue, the phone is warm for the first day or has excessive battery drain. Give it a few days of use before you conclude the phone is not working correctly.

Best of luck with your new phone.

 

[phl92]

I would suspect this is the phone downloading and syncing data. Alot of users report this same issue, the phone is warm for the first day or has excessive battery drain. Give it a few days of use before you conclude the phone is not working correctly.

Best of luck with your new phone.

Not sure you read more than the title. The phone is on for around 15 days. Its not in full use, since my wife still uses her old phone, but its connected to WiFi all time and has been charged around 8 times, since it discharges like magic from doing nothing.

@Apple_Robert:
How can I check what it is downloading/uploading?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Not sure you read more than the title. The phone is on for around 15 days. Its not in full use, since my wife still uses her old phone, but its connected to WiFi all time and has been charged around 8 times, since it discharges like magic from doing nothing.

@Apple_Robert:
How can I check what it is downloading/uploading?

Go to Settings > General > About and post what the OS version is. You should have 17.1.1

 

[phl92]

Go to Settings > General > About and post what the OS version is. You should have 17.1.1

I upgraded a week ago. It is indeed 17.1.1

 

[MapleBeercules]

Not sure you read more than the title. The phone is on for around 15 days. Its not in full use, since my wife still uses her old phone, but its connected to WiFi all time and has been charged around 8 times, since it discharges like magic from doing nothing.

@Apple_Robert:
How can I check what it is downloading/uploading?

The phone being 15 days old means nothing, how long has it been attached to your icloud account and how much data do you have in your applications / icloud is what matters.

Its my understanding apple does not provide warranty for out of country purchases, you would have to bring the device to USA to get it serviced or send it to apple (if they will even allow that)

Check the power usage under battery menu, see what application is using the most power.

What is your cellular service like? My iphone 14pro will drain the battery fast if its struggling for a cellular signal.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Did you set up as new, restore from backup, or use Apple's phone setup from the older to newer phone?

 

[phl92]

The phone being 15 days old means nothing, how long has it been attached to your icloud account and how much data do you have in your applications / icloud is what matters.

Its my understanding apple does not provide warranty for out of country purchases, you would have to bring the device to USA to get it serviced or send it to apple (if they will even allow that)

Check the power usage under battery menu, see what application is using the most power.

What is your cellular service like? My iphone 14pro will drain the battery fast if its struggling for a cellular signal.

I attached it on the first day and I think I used the Apple phone setup from old to new, which took quite long and the download from the Cloud was running pretty much all night!
Ok will check now some things and come back later. Thanks so far

 

[Lex404]

to download data from my wifes cloud it took a few hours and were around 200GB

That's a lot... (pictures are stored separately from iCloud Backup)

Go to Settings > AppleID > iCloud > iCloud Backup
You should see all devices that are backed up. How much is for this and previous iphone? I have <1GB, because I clean it.
But if you have apps that store a lot of appdata (games, Genshin Impact wants to store 24GB, apps that shouldn't be backed up - most apps - it clutters a lot).
If you tap on the device, you will see which app backs up a lot. Problem is that the phone will try to keep backing up crap continuously.

 

[phl92]

When I go to iCloud Backup it shows her old iPhone 11 with 62GB and the new one with 60GB and an iPad with around 29GB. I am still not sure what this really means and it never really convinced me how Apples syncing system really works, already the iPod syncing was mysterious.

 

[Lex404]

But when you tap on each device, you can see which app takes a lot of data from backup.

As I said earlier, those backups are quite useless. Photos backs up in iCloud Photos. Other apps (like Whatsapp, Messages) backup directly in iCloud. Crap backs up in what they call "backups". Honestly I don't find any value in the last one, it backs up app data (which shouldn't) and that takes 99% of space. You can't restore it anyway (that exact data you download it from appstore anyway, and in the backup file it might be outdated). The only thing that "helps with" is it's keeping a list of installed apps, so when setting up a new device you can download them automatically. But because it's so bad implemented I prefer to always set up as new and download the apps from appstore.

 

[phl92]

But when you tap on each device, you can see which app takes a lot of data from backup.

As I said earlier, those backups are quite useless. Photos backs up in iCloud Photos. Other apps (like Whatsapp, Messages) backup directly in iCloud. Crap backs up in what they call "backups". Honestly I don't find any value in the last one, it backs up app data (which shouldn't) and that takes 99% of space. You can't restore it anyway (that exact data you download it from appstore anyway, and in the backup file it might be outdated). The only thing that "helps with" is it's keeping a list of installed apps, so when setting up a new device you can download them automatically. But because it's so bad implemented I prefer to always set up as new and download the apps from appstore.

It was mostly WhatsApp there with taking almost half of the 60 GB. However, when we yesterday got the E-Sim Card and signed in to WhatsApp on the new phone, for some reason the messages of the last 2 weeks do not show up. I went also in the WhatsApp settings on to the old phone, backed up all in the Chat Settings of Whatsapp (took quite a while) and then tried again to sync it but the last 2 weeks just do not show up.

We will test today how the phone holds up with real life usage and not only WiFi at home.

 

[phl92]

Update:
Things got much better. My wife still claims that her 11 has slightly better battery but what I read from the battery statistics 7hours on screen is quite decent. I can post it here over the last 10 days… btw is there a better App for reading battery stats? I used Coconut Battery on Mac, does it work on iPhone also?