iOS 8.3 has halved my battery life

[gusping]

Since upgrading my iPhone 6 to iOS 8.3 for my watch my battery life has pretty much halved compared to 8.2 I've tried not using my watch and it makes no difference. Before i updated to 8.3 I could use my phone for 1.5 - 2 days but now it lasts about 75% of the day. Anyone else noticing similar issues?

 

[adamhenry]

I haven't noticed any difference. Which apps are the top power users?

 

[ardchoille50]

I typically get around 12 hours of heavy use, and over two days of standby with light use on iOS 8.3. I outlined my practices here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1873193/

Some of the points I made may be of help.

 

[gusping]

I typically get around 12 hours of heavy use, and over two days of standby with light use on iOS 8.3. I outlined my practices here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1873193/

Some of the points I made may be of help.

I can't get over 6 hours actual use so... my battery must be dead

 

[ZEEN0j]

I noticed worse battery as well. I did a reset all settings and now it's much better.

 

[flyinmac]

Sadly I must concur.

I've always had excellent battery life with my iPhone 5 w/ 16 GB. Through every iOS version up to 8.3.

I've always updated the phone through iTunes, directly connected through USB. And, I only do so when the phone is 100% charged.

I have always been skeptical of those complaining of iOS revisions decreasing battery life.

Up until 8.3, I wad accustomed to having my phone survive more than 24 hours without needing to be charged. I actually never saw my phone drop below 60% remaining battery life. I charged it when and if I slept. 24 and 48 hour days are typical for me.

With 8.3, I'm finding that I'll be at 50% remaining charge after only 3 to 4 hours of mostly idle time.

If I start with a 100% charged phone, I can have it drop to 80% remaining after about 10 minutes of a texting conversation.

By 12 hours of idle time, the phone will be down to 1% remaining.

I have never seen numbers this low on my phone before I upgraded to 8.3.

All the way through 8.2, I would have believed most were crazy to think that the update decreased their battery life.

Yet, here I am with my usage habits unchanged, and a phone that doesn't get me anywhere near the usage I used to get.

Now I have to plan and minimize my use of the phone if I think I might need to use it 5 or 6 hours from now.

In fact, my phone was just pulled from the charger, and lost 10% just entering this response. That's just a few minutes of typing with the screen on.

Unfortunately, I now have to give credit to those I used to question on this topic.

And, yes I do keep Bluetooth turned off, cellular data turned off, and 99.9% of the time it is within a few feet of a wifi router. So it's not struggling for a signal.

And, I always have a strong cellular signal as well.

Background tasks are all extremely minimized and most removed.

So, for me, 8.3 has meant more time charging, and more time planning my usage to get through a day.

 

[C DM]

Sadly I must concur.

I've always had excellent battery life with my iPhone 5 w/ 16 GB. Through every iOS version up to 8.3.

I've always updated the phone through iTunes, directly connected through USB. And, I only do so when the phone is 100% charged.

I have always been skeptical of those complaining of iOS revisions decreasing battery life.

Up until 8.3, I wad accustomed to having my phone survive more than 24 hours without needing to be charged. I actually never saw my phone drop below 60% remaining battery life. I charged it when and if I slept. 24 and 48 hour days are typical for me.

With 8.3, I'm finding that I'll be at 50% remaining charge after only 3 to 4 hours of mostly idle time.

If I start with a 100% charged phone, I can have it drop to 80% remaining after about 10 minutes of a texting conversation.

By 12 hours of idle time, the phone will be down to 1% remaining.

I have never seen numbers this low on my phone before I upgraded to 8.3.

All the way through 8.2, I would have believed most were crazy to think that the update decreased their battery life.

Yet, here I am with my usage habits unchanged, and a phone that doesn't get me anywhere near the usage I used to get.

Now I have to plan and minimize my use of the phone if I think I might need to use it 5 or 6 hours from now.

In fact, my phone was just pulled from the charger, and lost 10% just entering this response. That's just a few minutes of typing with the screen on.

Unfortunately, I now have to give credit to those I used to question on this topic.

And, yes I do keep Bluetooth turned off, cellular data turned off, and 99.9% of the time it is within a few feet of a wifi router. So it's not struggling for a signal.

And, I always have a strong cellular signal as well.

Background tasks are all extremely minimized and most removed.

So, for me, 8.3 has meant more time charging, and more time planning my usage to get through a day.

Sounds like the battery might have gone bad. Since it's an older phone, and in particular an iPhone 5, which is a model that has a recall related to batteries of some of them, it's a possibility.

 

[Yun0]

my iphone 5's battery "died" at 100%..it just shut off giving me the "it needs charging" screen..

replace it

 

[Mo42]

My iPhone 5, 16gb shows horrible battery life after 8.3 update. Like you, I've not changed my habits. The only thing changed was the update. I am not a heavy user. Previously could have gone 2-3 days without charging, now I need to charge daily.

Like another poster pointed out, I find myself now needimg to really think through my use for times when I know I will have a few hours of heavy usage, but away from ability to charge. I feel like I need to plan ahead before leaving home. 60% remaining goes quickly now, and I would want to ensure I am close to full charge before knowing I will be away from charging capability for a few hours.

The battery isn't even a year old. It's was one that was recalled, and I had it replaced at the Apple Store late last summer.

I am seeing this battery issue just on the phone. iPad 4 with retina, same 8.3 update, battery seems fine. I'd say I have heavier use of th iPad than I do of the phone.

 

[flyinmac]

Sounds like the battery might have gone bad. Since it's an older phone, and in particular an iPhone 5, which is a model that has a recall related to batteries of some of them, it's a possibility.

On the surface that would sound possible. It's not the early model iPhone 5. It was actually purchased new after the iPhone 5s and 5c were around for a while.

So it's not from the defective battery batch.

And to have delivered such consistently great battery life through 8.2 and take a total nose dive immediately after 8.3, it seems more related.

If battery life has degraded over time, an aging battery would seem more likely.

 

[C DM]

On the surface that would sound possible. It's not the early model iPhone 5. It was actually purchased new after the iPhone 5s and 5c were around for a while.

So it's not from the defective battery batch.

And to have delivered such consistently great battery life through 8.2 and take a total nose dive immediately after 8.3, it seems more related.

If battery life has degraded over time, an aging battery would seem more likely.

Overall I would agree. Although I do recall quite a few people suddenly getting noticeably worse battery life once they upgraded to iOS 7 or 8 almost as a coincidence. In various cases I recall it in fact being a battery that was somewhat off in some way and iOS upgrade in some way was more sensitive to that. Doesn't sound as likely in this case, but seemed like there were some potential similarities.

 

[GreyOS]

can you take it into an Apple Store for battery diagnosis? alternatively some apps like ibackupbot and coconut battery can tell you cycle count and capacity. just to rule out battery issues?

 

[flyinmac]

can you take it into an Apple Store for battery diagnosis? alternatively some apps like ibackupbot and coconut battery can tell you cycle count and capacity. just to rule out battery issues?

I've attached an image from ibackupbot to this reply.

The cycle count is high, but I would expect that most of those cycles are coming from the last few months, since battery life is not making it past a couple of hours of actual usage anymore.

An interesting detail that I've noticed the last few days, is that when the remaining life percentage is low, I can plug it in, and as soon as the phone makes the connected to power sound, the charge remaining level will jump up 20%.

This kind of lends to my thoughts that it is a software issue, that iOS is incorrectly reporting actual battery life remaining.

While the full charge capacity is 130 less than factory numbers, I still don't see that it would be low enough to be losing 10% in 5 minutes of light use (such as typing). Especially when I'm used to being able to type and text for at least a half hour before seeing the percentage drop a bit from 100%.

The sudden decrease in battery life, has only been an issue since updating to 8.3. It was a sudden nose dive.

The interesting discrepancies between charge level when unplugged and immediately upon being plugged in, is also curious.

Another interesting thing I noticed, and this may just be how ibackupbot reports it, is that the phone was 100% charged at the time, it had been plugged in an left at 100% charge for at least an hour prior to taking this screenshot (and obviously was still plugged in when taking this screenshot). So, it's interesting that it says it is not fully charged in the report. Maybe that's just how the program reports it. I don't know.

 

[C DM]

I've attached an image from ibackupbot to this reply.

The cycle count is high, but I would expect that most of those cycles are coming from the last few months, since battery life is not making it past a couple of hours of actual usage anymore.

An interesting detail that I've noticed the last few days, is that when the remaining life percentage is low, I can plug it in, and as soon as the phone makes the connected to power sound, the charge remaining level will jump up 20%.

This kind of lends to my thoughts that it is a software issue, that iOS is incorrectly reporting actual battery life remaining.

While the full charge capacity is 130 less than factory numbers, I still don't see that it would be low enough to be losing 10% in 5 minutes of light use (such as typing). Especially when I'm used to being able to type and text for at least a half hour before seeing the percentage drop a bit from 100%.

The sudden decrease in battery life, has only been an issue since updating to 8.3. It was a sudden nose dive.

The interesting discrepancies between charge level when unplugged and immediately upon being plugged in, is also curious.

Another interesting thing I noticed, and this may just be how ibackupbot reports it, is that the phone was 100% charged at the time, it had been plugged in an left at 100% charge for at least an hour prior to taking this screenshot (and obviously was still plugged in when taking this screenshot). So, it's interesting that it says it is not fully charged in the report. Maybe that's just how the program reports it. I don't know.

The jumps in battery percentages are often a sign of something going on with the battery itself, despite it seemingly being unlikely based on most other things. Have you tried recalibrating the battery meter (by draining the battery until the phone shuts off and then recharging it all the way to the top)?