iPhone 12 Pro Dumbfounded by iOS updates and battery life …. WTH Apple?

[whizkid11]

I have an iPhone 12 Pro used heavily since purchased in December. The battery life used to be phenomenal. I may have gotten down to 20% from a full charge by the end of the day maybe twice since. I was very impressed by this battery / phone being that I use Safari A LOT throughout the day. I regularly clear apps in the background.

When iOS 14.5.1 was installed, the battery went to crap. Same usage, same charging methods and I’m down to 88% after an hour of use. No overheating / excessive heat either.

After hearing about many similar complaints with iOS 14.6, I skipped that update and just download it 14.7 hoping that the issue would be fixed. Unfortunately it’s not.

How does Apple manage to incorporate this bug into its iOS updates? I remember this happening with the iPhone X and it’s off three subsequent updates until the issue was corrected.

My battery health is at 96%.

Now my buddy just bought a iPhone 12 Pro with the 14.7 iOS and agrees that the battery drain is excessive for a brand new phone.

This is nonsense. It’s like you wake up the next day after an update with a phone that lasts as long as your last three year old iPhone before upgrading.

Is it possible to downgrade to iOS 14.3 until Apple gets this screwup figured out?

I’ve done the resets and even installed the Firefox Focus content blocker to use with Safari.

Thanks.

 

[CTHarrryH]

Most people don't have that issue.
Have you looked at Battery in Settings and see what application(s) are using the most CPU?

 

[whizkid11]

Most people don't have that issue.
Have you looked at Battery in Settings and see what application(s) are using the most CPU?

Yes. Safari. I’m losing 1% every 6 to
8 minutes.

 

[whizkid11]

Is it worthwhile to do a full backup, restore this device, update it to the latest iOS, and then do a restore?

 

[minik]

It seems to be isolated. I have the iPhone 12 Pro since launch day and the battery health is still 100% when other report much lower. While working from home, I usually charge my phone every two days with the mixed of 18W adapter + MagSafe Duo or 5W adapter or 12W adapter.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Many people seem to be having issues with battery life. It’s crazy.

 

[JahBoolean]

I have been using the automation option to toggle the battery saver mode all the time (when battery saver is off-> toggle battery saver on), absolutely phenomenal battery life ever since.

But again, that may interfere with some apps doing calculations in the background, never noticed anything wrong though.

 

[whizkid11]

I have been using the automation option to toggle the battery saver mode all the time (when battery saver is off-> toggle battery saver on), absolutely phenomenal battery life ever since.

But again, that may interfere with some apps doing calculations in the background, never noticed anything wrong though.

How do you enable this?

 

[whizkid11]

I just did a complete wipe and restore from backup. Will update.

 

[Barbareren]

How do you enable this?

It is in the control centre, or under Settings - Battery

 

[eyoungren]

Is it possible to downgrade to iOS 14.3 until Apple gets this screwup figured out?

Gonna say no.

The way this works is that Apple digitally signs firmware upgrades/updates. When a new one is released they stop signing the previous one after a couple of weeks.

When firmware is unsigned for your device you can neither upgrade nor downgrade to it.

Oh and if it is still signed, you're going to need a computer to do it. You can't do it on the device itself.

 

[NativeTxn]

I’ve not noticed *excessive* drain on a daily basis. However there are days that it drains faster than others with similar usage.

I got my 12 Pro at the very end of October and it shows my battery health is down to 92% max capacity, which I feel is lower than it should be but don’t really know. My wife got her 12 Pro about 3-4 weeks after I got mine and her battery shows 95% max capacity.

 

[LFC2020]

Is it worthwhile to do a full backup, restore this device, update it to the latest iOS, and then do a restore?

Get a content/ad blocker, problem solved. 😃

check out Firefox focus in the App Store, free great app. 👌

 

[whizkid11]

Get a content/ad blocker, problem solved. 😃

check out Firefox focus in the App Store, free great app. 👌

Check OP. Did that already.

 

[whizkid11]

UPDATE. Currently at 90%.

Still seems excessive but perhaps a bit better.

 

[thadoggfather]

people always complain battery life is ruined with updates,

but gotta say I think 14.6 seems like the biggest uptick of threads in a while. and to an extent, that 14.7 is better but still not back to optimal levels

 

[Branaghan]

Did you notice if that battery improves somehow if you do a full wipe of your device then do not restore from iCloud or offline backup? I mean, reinstall everything (manually) and reconfigure from scratch?

Full wipe = reset to factory settings.

If that doesn't fix the battery drain (this and following general tips that reduce what may be contributing, like background app refresh) nothing else will. Or perhaps could it be some app not optimized fully?

I'd say 0.1% of people do what I suggested after YEARS of updating iOS. I did this here with my iPAD Pro 10.5 at 80% battery health and noticed 6 hours is the max time it can hold in a single charge.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

I use my 12 pro max as an office phone and tend to be on it all day. I've not noticed any issues with battery life and tend to update when available. Got the phone shortly after it came out and currently at 98% battery health. Don't consider that a big deal based on how frequently I use it. Also - put on charger nightly.

 

[whizkid11]

people always complain battery life is ruined with updates,

but gotta say I think 14.6 seems like the biggest uptick of threads in a while. and to an extent, that 14.7 is better but still not back to optimal levels

Although there are frequent complaints about battery drain after iOS updates. I’ve only noticed it twice. Once on my 10 and now on my 12 Pro. On the 10 it was corrected with an iOS update eventually.

 

[whizkid11]

UPDATE. Currently at 90%.

Still seems excessive but perhaps a bit better.

Any thoughts?

 

[RedRage]

Yeah, I noticed my 12 Pro battery life doesn't last as long as it used to. It doesn't make it through a full day at work now when it used to before. Batter health down to 95%

 

[Shirasaki]

Since Apple will not open iOS for third party apps to snoop around, I’d plug it to a Mac and use Xcode to see if I could find the internal process that causes the issue.

This is what looks like on my iPad running iOS 15 beta 3. Overall decent-ish, but the report is a bit all over the place. Thankfully no safari issue yet.

 

[ian87w]

More reason for Apple to be less stingy on battery capacity. Battery capacity will degrade over time, and Apple seems to be too stingy on iPhone, as long as it meets their increasingly too liberal battery life claim when brand new.

And it's even sadder seeing many of the complaints coming from Safari use, the browser that is supposedly the most efficient on its native platform. Apple need to tighten this up instead of putting smaller batteries.

 

[whizkid11]

Get a content/ad blocker, problem solved. 😃

check out Firefox focus in the App Store, free great app

The Firefox Focus doesn’t show you how many trackers have been blocked when using it as a content blocker in Safari. You have to just expect that it’s working. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂

 

[transpo1]

I use my 12 pro max as an office phone and tend to be on it all day. I've not noticed any issues with battery life and tend to update when available. Got the phone shortly after it came out and currently at 98% battery health. Don't consider that a big deal based on how frequently I use it. Also - put on charger nightly.

Glad you’re not experiencing issues but I have a 12 Pro Max and the battery life is much worse since 14.6/7. It noticeably does not make it through a long day as it used to and capacity is down to 89%, which is surprising for a phone that is only 9 months old.

Totally agree 💯 with the rest of the folks here— Apple needs to fix this soon.