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iOS 26 battery life thread.
- Thread starter goldmac2006
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People want more features but they are unaware of the power cost. Go through the settings and make some choices.
If you really want to any iPhone can probably make it all day and then some if you know how to tailor your settings for better battery life.
If you really want to any iPhone can probably make it all day and then some if you know how to tailor your settings for better battery life.
Hey, just wanted to share a tip! If you’re too early to get your iPhone battery replaced (but it’s still around 80% or more), and your iPhone feels a bit sluggish lately, maybe tweak some settings and habits. Remember when the Apple Genius told me about my iPhone 15 Pro back in July? He suggested cutting back on background usage by turning off background app refresh, hourly email fetch, and setting the display to automatically lock after 3 minutes or less.
And if you’re curious about HomeKit accessories, my ex Apple employee friend always said that only about 1/100 of them are really necessary for y’all to check it often. So, why bother with disabling the display auto-off if you’re just itching to see the camera feed all the time? Only do it if you need to keep an eye on your packages or something!
What gets me is during all the beta testing, battery usage was never seen as an issue?
It was, but everyone always assumes that “it’s a beta, it will get better, the issue is all of the background tasks of a beta”.
That may be true of the first few betas. When I saw that people overwhelmingly reported significant battery life issues throughout the GM, I knew that Liquid Glass itself was a battery drain.
But this isn’t iOS26-specific. Liquid Glass animations kill battery life.
Speakers have always been battery killers, on any iOS version. It isn’t as significant as full brightness, but I think it’s only slightly behind in a ranking of impact.
Use Bluetooth headphones or speakers and battery life will skyrocket.
It's gotta be more than Liquid Glass animations. The passive battery drain on my devices is also significantly worse over 18.
And watch your volume levels. Recently read an article that explained how higher volume requires more power, causing battery drain.
I totally get that! The only time I use the speakers is when I’m doing fitness+ at home. I’d much rather use my iPhone’s speakers to watch workout videos or catch up on my favorite shows, or even for navigation on Apple Maps.
I’m also an AirPods fan when it comes to listening to music, YouTube videos, and podcasts. They’re way more battery-efficient than the three speakers on my iPhone. But, of course, if I crank up the volume on my AirPods, the battery takes a hit!
I left my iPhone unplugged since I got back from school today.
Here’s a quick rundown of how much battery my iPhone uses when I’m listening to music:
Battery usage today:
iPhone is still on iOS 26.0.1 public release on iPhone 15 pro.
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iPhone 11, new battery. iOS 18 on home Wi-Fi: watching videos with a 100% battery charge lasts at least 12 hours.
iOS 26, same conditions: 5 hours maximum. The settings were the same.
Hello,
I have a 4-month-old iPhone 16 Pro Max and I'm hesitating to update it.
Currently on iOS 18, I have blocked updates
What do the latest updates say about heating and the battery?
Thank you
I have a 4-month-old iPhone 16 Pro Max and I'm hesitating to update it.
Currently on iOS 18, I have blocked updates
What do the latest updates say about heating and the battery?
Thank you
Would hold back until you had confirmed reports it’s better.
I am in a similar situation as I have an iPhone 16 Pro that is about three months old. I have decided to hold off for the time being due to battery concerns, heat and reduced performance with iOS 26.
I know this doesn’t specifically answer your question, but I wanted to share my point of view.
After restoring from backup and DFU mode the battery was pretty fine but somehow I have a drain again.
Honestly, Liquid Glass and several other factors we’ve discussed here are battery-draining on this specific iOS version.
If you don’t want your iPhone 16 Pro Max to experience hot flashes, unexplained battery drain, and battery health drops, it’s best to avoid updating.
However, if you decide to update, the IPSW of iOS 18.7 and 18.6 is no longer signed, which means there’s no way to restore your device back to its original state using Apple Configurator or Finder if you change your mind.
This is the part that gets me most.
Apple is free to ship whatever broken software they want, but the fact that they don’t give me the freedom to change my mind after experiencing how broken it is on my own device is a serious problem.
That's exactly why my last Apple device will stay on iOS 17.7.2 until it dies.
Totally fed up with the "quality" of Apples crap software lately...
Seems as though Apple put a bigger battery in to accommodate the 19 Pros draw of energy
Bigger battery doesn’t always = more run time
Bigger battery doesn’t always = more run time
Hey, since few years I notice my devices (yes all my devices) seems to suffer of anormal battery drain, I had the idea to install Charles Proxy to check the traffic. And I can notice a lot of trafic to gateway.icloud.com.
But I can't see the request so I don"t know what it is (Apple disallow this feature for his own traffic)
Here is the trafic during less than 5minutes....
410 requests ! Do you think it's normal ? Could someone test to see if you experience the same results ?
EDIT: on another iPhone, it seems to sometimes be the same with this URL but it's strange ! Apple does not allow to see the content of requests.....
But I can't see the request so I don"t know what it is (Apple disallow this feature for his own traffic)
Here is the trafic during less than 5minutes....
410 requests ! Do you think it's normal ? Could someone test to see if you experience the same results ?
EDIT: on another iPhone, it seems to sometimes be the same with this URL but it's strange ! Apple does not allow to see the content of requests.....
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Also my ex-Apple employee friend totally agrees! When I mentioned that the public release of iOS 26 on iPhone 17 models had pairing issues with Apple Watch Ultra models, which was because Apple was rushing to release public releases that felt like iOS betas, he explained it like this:
“It sounds like the Apple software and hardware weren’t quite compatible for a smooth transition and sync. It seems like the software was rushed, or the product needed to meet deadlines. Something probably held it up, probably because of those Trump tariffs.”
That’s a great analogy for how some final builds can end up being a bit wonky like this… and the decision of whether to keep it from updating or not is totally up to you!
I charged my iPhone 16 PM to 95% five and a half hours ago. It’s now on 28%. I’ve had Amazon Prime Video open for just under three hours.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Battery capacity is 98%.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Battery capacity is 98%.
were you streaming the video over cellular? Was the 16 pro heating up a lot?
The battery on my 16PM isn't that bad on iOS 26.0.1. Yes it was really bad the first week after I've installed the update but after that it stabilizes. Yes it's not as good as iOS 18 was but it's still very decent. My phone isn't warm all the time like the first week of my iOS 26 usage.
I really don't get this randomness..maybe my battery is fried? One minute it's 92% just play some music for 30 mins or so and it's down to 85? I've never experienced something like this on my 13 Pro Max. I might try and restore again at this point...