The Apple Genius 👨💻 checked out my iPhone again recently, and the battery is still holding strong 💪 !
Still a long way to go before replacement time.
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iOS 26 battery life thread.
- Thread starter goldmac2006
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Still a long way to go before replacement time.
Had this happen again today: 75 mins at the gym doing literally nothing but streaming music over wifi to my bluetooth headphones, and my battery dropped from 100% to 21%. Battery showed 12 mins of screen-on time, and no apps using significant energy. At this point, I have to assume it's a bug, but whether or not it's a bug that will get fixed is up in the air.
I’m experiencing the same issue on iOS 26.5’s public release. I believe third-party apps are the primary culprits.
For instance, running a 6K on the Nike Run Club app on the background for an hour and 15 minutes while listening to music from a third-party app drained my iPhone battery from 75% to 55%.
After that, I did a 35-minute GoNoodle workout, cooldown, and meditation session videos, which further reduced my battery to 20%. No music app is used in the background, only workouts videos are playing as that app didn’t allow me to use my own music. My iPhone had to be thrown on the charger following my workout, vs when I did the same workout duration and same 4 mile run like yesterday.
The cellular network usage also plays a significant role. The WiFi router doesn’t reach the gym room as it does not have enough bandwidth, making it even worse when I use third-party workout apps more frequently than when I use first-party Apple fitness+.
Anyways y’all, with iOS 27 beta coming our way next week with WWDC 26 coming up, let’s see how beta 1 is. iOS 26 beta 1 hasn’t been really the best battery life of all iOS beta 1 releases ever.
Anyone still surviving on iOS 18?
James6s
macrumors 68020
FWIW just 2% idle drain on my iPhone Air overnight on iOS 26.5.1, every night on iOS 26.5 it lost at least 4% sitting idle.
Morac
macrumors 68030
This is just really bad for an iPhone 15 Pro Max even with the maximum capacity at 86%. I mean dropping 70% for 90 minutes of usage and an hour of background, most of it on WiFi?
Battery life on my iPhone 17 Pro since 26.4 has been pretty bad and it feels even worse on 26.5, especially compared to the amazing battery life I had on 26.3
26.3:
26.5:
Not only I’m getting less SOT, I also had low power mode enabled for half of the day… that’s a major degradation for me. I thought late versions of major iOS were supposed to polish the system, not make it worse, but well… I guess I was wrong 🤷🏼♂️
26.3:
26.5:
Not only I’m getting less SOT, I also had low power mode enabled for half of the day… that’s a major degradation for me. I thought late versions of major iOS were supposed to polish the system, not make it worse, but well… I guess I was wrong 🤷🏼♂️
James6s
macrumors 68020
iPhone Air on 26.5.1. It hasn’t been connected to WiFi since I took it off charge this morning, so the vast majority is using mobile 4/5G whilst travelling around. Battery life does seem to be quite bad on the latest updates.
Low power mode is also a coefficient of letting the battery run down slower. Can you try doing the idle drain test without it?
I’ll update to 26.5.1 if it seems good from my 15 pro folks here.
Safari is the only first party app that takes the majority of battery usage from my iPhone 15 Pro. What iOS version are you on?
Did you happen to have adaptive power turned on? It’s usually on by default on iPhone 17 models. Regardless if you are using an iPhone 15, 16, or 17 Pro, we’ve found adaptive power to be a bit of a gimmick and not very helpful. It mainly just dims the screen and reduces the refresh rate, which doesn’t really make a difference. Even the Apple Genius agreed with me when I asked about it!
Morac
macrumors 68030
26.5. i used to get decent battery life earlier this year. Now it can drain 50% just sitting unused in my house.
no wonder it is the same with me, even when I use third party workout apps!!!!
Last edited:
James6s
macrumors 68020
@goldmac2006
I’ll have to try the idle drain tonight without low power mode activated to compare.
4% lost overnight by the home & lock screen.
I’ll have to try the idle drain tonight without low power mode activated to compare.
4% lost overnight by the home & lock screen.
That 4% is out of just the percentage drain from 12am. Not 4% of the whole battery just in case you missed it.
Morac
macrumors 68030
This morning my iPhone 15PM charged to 100% overnight and then dropped to 95% while I used it while it was still on the charger. After taking it off, it dropped down to 90% in about 10 minutes with barely any usage in the Battery section listed. I used an App to check the CPU usage and it never dropped below 20%, so I powered the phone off and on. This caused it to use about 80% CPU usage for about 15 minutes before dropping down to 20% again. The load averages were always at least 4. I restarted a few more times with similar results even after charging back up to 100%. The phone was slightly warm the entire time.
Finally I did a hard reset (up, down and hold power) and within 10 minutes of doing that the phone dropped down to 4% CPU usage and the phone is cooling off. Apparently in iOS 26.5, simply powering the phone off and on doesn't kill stuck background processes. You need to hard reset it.
Finally I did a hard reset (up, down and hold power) and within 10 minutes of doing that the phone dropped down to 4% CPU usage and the phone is cooling off. Apparently in iOS 26.5, simply powering the phone off and on doesn't kill stuck background processes. You need to hard reset it.
James6s
macrumors 68020
That’s 4% drain since 12am whilst I was asleep, so that’s what it’s used sitting idle overnight from the charge it had when I put it down? Am I reading it wrong.
I’ll see tonight what percentage is left when I go to sleep and how much is left when start I using it tomorrow.
James6s
macrumors 68020
Actually I think you might be right. It does look like they’re just stating the actual percentage used by that specific app in this new design. 4% is 4% of the whole battery.
I stand corrected.
James6s
macrumors 68020
Ok, I didn’t activate low power mode last night and it lost the same 4% sitting idle! Made no difference lol.
James6s
macrumors 68020
I don’t think it’s much of a difference so can you test it again without it? Usually it just dims the screen or reduce refresh rate
James6s
macrumors 68020
I have yet to see adaptive power mode activate since getting my Air despite some heavier usage days. Not that it does much anyway!
Will switch it off and do some tests without it.
Of course. I heard it’s useless; it ain’t do anything good or makes the user experience worse. On my end when I have it on I hate how the screen dims too much and slow refresh rate especially on promotion display
James6s
macrumors 68020
Maybe that explains some random changes to performance I witness at times, but not had the notification saying low power mode is active on my Air yet. I’ve turned it off now.