IOS 18.3.1 — high battery consumption?

[bear_in_mind]

Updated my three mobile devices (iPhone 16 Pro; iPad Pro; AppleWatch) with the latest security updates last week and all of the devices are blowing through battery life at about a 40-50% faster pace than the previous OS iteration. Anyone else having a similar experience? It seems AAPL pushes out 2-3 iOS updates a year that tax mobile device batteries, and I think this may be one of them.

 

[It’s always something]

Updated my three mobile devices (iPhone 16 Pro; iPad Pro; AppleWatch) with the latest security updates last week and all of the devices are blowing through battery life at about a 40-50% faster pace than the previous OS iteration. Anyone else having a similar experience? It seems AAPL pushes out 2-3 iOS updates a year that tax mobile device batteries, and I think this may be one of them.

Presumably you mean 18.3.1…in which case: I have not experienced this on my iPad mini 7.

 

[bear_in_mind]

Presumably you mean 18.3.1…in which case: I have not experienced this on my iPad mini 7.

Yes! Thanks for catching that… updated the thread accordingly.👍

 

[fergus2019]

Hi, mine also discharges faster compared to 17.7.1 and that's a fact. I'm waiting for a new firmware version.

 

[James6s]

No issues here on my iPhone 16e I got this week that had the 18.1.3 update waiting to install out of the box.

Very surprised how good the battery life has been!

 

[Sophytaylor6@]

I didn't experience any battery-related problem after updating to ios 18.3.1. You should try closing the background apps and always using the on display option to save your battery.

 

[pali2704]

No issues here on my iPhone 16e I got this week that had the 18.1.3 update waiting to install out of the box.

Very surprised how good the battery life has been!

That is impressive! 18.2 was the best for my iPhone 16 PM in terms of battery. 18.3.1 is ... ok, I could get around 8-10 h of SOT based on my graphic (from the Battery section).

 

[yeahtyeaht]

Hi, mine also discharges faster compared to 17.7.1 and that's a fact. I'm waiting for a new firmware version.

A fact? Do you have any statistics? Or is it just how you feel, which doesn't make it a fact then.

 

[fergus2019]

A fact? Do you have any statistics? Or is it just how you feel, which doesn't make it a fact then.

Same usage for several months. Every day I see how I charge the phone 2 times a day, instead of 1 time in 2 days, as it was on 17.7.1. The battery is leaving before my eyes. A similar situation was with the firmware 17.6. After updating to 17.6.1, the wild battery consumption stopped.

 

[mondaymorning]

The whole iOS 18 has been a battle for battery life on my iPhone 14 and 13pm. Luckily I downgraded and kept the 13pm on 17.7. I created a configuration profile via imazing profile editor which disables a lot of things, like Siri, NFC, Airdrop, Handoff, iCloud, AI (...), Background Apps and Find My also disabled. Like what more could I do. BH on the 14 is at 85% and it can't manage 3hrs of SOT. The 13pm with 87% BH gets above 6 hrs of SOT across two days. When I start charging this one it usually has more than than 20% battery left. There is something not right in iOS 18 and IMO it's not within the user's grasp to attempt to fix.

 

[fergus2019]

The whole iOS 18 has been a battle for battery life on my iPhone 14 and 13pm. Luckily I downgraded and kept the 13pm on 17.7. I created a configuration profile via imazing profile editor which disables a lot of things, like Siri, NFC, Airdrop, Handoff, iCloud, AI (...), Background Apps and Find My also disabled. Like what more could I do. BH on the 14 is at 85% and it can't manage 3hrs of SOT. The 13pm with 87% BH gets above 6 hrs of SOT across two days. When I start charging this one it usually has more than than 20% battery left. There is something not right in iOS 18 and IMO it's not within the user's grasp to attempt to fix.

Moreover, on my iOS 18 the Safari browser started to drain the battery a lot. Now I use Google Chrome and wait for the new firmware.

 

[SebCohen]

Updated my three mobile devices (iPhone 16 Pro; iPad Pro; AppleWatch) with the latest security updates last week and all of the devices are blowing through battery life at about a 40-50% faster pace than the previous OS iteration. Anyone else having a similar experience? It seems AAPL pushes out 2-3 iOS updates a year that tax mobile device batteries, and I think this may be one of them.

Each and absolutely every single time I've updated my iPad M1 Pro I've had severe battery drainage for a couple of days or up two a week or two.

I could have the screen on and literally watch the battery percentage tick downwards within seconds. IPad would also get upwards to very hot cpu side.

Afterwards it normalises and currently the battery is better than when my iPad was new.

So that's what's happening I guess.

I have no idea why...I've seen speculations before about iCloud sync or some internal cleaning process. If it is that, it should last longer the larger capacity device you have I would guess. Like old Windows Disc Cleanup hehe. I could watch that for ages haha.

 

[TgeekB]

Each and absolutely every single time I've updated my iPad M1 Pro I've had severe battery drainage for a couple of days or up two a week or two.

I could have the screen on and literally watch the battery percentage tick downwards within seconds. IPad would also get upwards to very hot cpu side.

Afterwards it normalises and currently the battery is better than when my iPad was new.

So that's what's happening I guess.

I have no idea why...I've seen speculations before about iCloud sync or some internal cleaning process. If it is that, it should last longer the larger capacity device you have I would guess. Like old Windows Disc Cleanup hehe. I could watch that for ages haha.

Exactly. Let the new update settle in and see if it improves.