So, long-term iPhone users will know that this happens. Something gets actively stuck on the background and you get the good old “1h screen-time” bar in settings with home and Lock Screen as 100% of the usage when the phone was on the table on standby. Easy fix, you reboot, either normally or with a hard reset and it’s fixed.
Well, that’s what used to happen. On March 5, I got my new iPhone 16 Plus running iOS 18.3.1. Everything was okay for about 25 days. Four or five days ago, I got the ghost usage. That’s fine, I rebooted, charged back up to 100%, and it stopped. Then it came up again. I rebooted and fixed it. And it came back again. Now with some weird issues… I left the phone overnight from 22:00 to 06:20 am, on airplane mode. From 22:00 to 05:20, perfect. Without touching it, at 05:20 it started, so the 05:00-06-00 bar had 40 mins of “screen-on time” with home and Lock Screen and the 6 am bar had 20 minutes. On a different occasion, it kept randomly adding time (and draining battery) for a few minutes at a time.
Every setting tip I read about iOS 18 (as I was using iOS 12 on my iPhone Xʀ before getting the 16 Plus) I had already disabled. Now it just randomly comes and goes, all the time, with seemingly no explanation. Like I said, it was fine for over three weeks, I changed nothing, and it appeared randomly. I didn’t even update, it’s been running iOS 18.3.1 since I unboxed it. I’m out of ideas. It shows up mid-cycle after changing nothing, I unplug at 6 am and it shows at 17 with no settings changes. I’m at my wit’s end.
Did this happen to anyone? Or is this happening to anyone? If you fixed it, how?
Well, that’s what used to happen. On March 5, I got my new iPhone 16 Plus running iOS 18.3.1. Everything was okay for about 25 days. Four or five days ago, I got the ghost usage. That’s fine, I rebooted, charged back up to 100%, and it stopped. Then it came up again. I rebooted and fixed it. And it came back again. Now with some weird issues… I left the phone overnight from 22:00 to 06:20 am, on airplane mode. From 22:00 to 05:20, perfect. Without touching it, at 05:20 it started, so the 05:00-06-00 bar had 40 mins of “screen-on time” with home and Lock Screen and the 6 am bar had 20 minutes. On a different occasion, it kept randomly adding time (and draining battery) for a few minutes at a time.
Every setting tip I read about iOS 18 (as I was using iOS 12 on my iPhone Xʀ before getting the 16 Plus) I had already disabled. Now it just randomly comes and goes, all the time, with seemingly no explanation. Like I said, it was fine for over three weeks, I changed nothing, and it appeared randomly. I didn’t even update, it’s been running iOS 18.3.1 since I unboxed it. I’m out of ideas. It shows up mid-cycle after changing nothing, I unplug at 6 am and it shows at 17 with no settings changes. I’m at my wit’s end.
Did this happen to anyone? Or is this happening to anyone? If you fixed it, how?
