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iPhone 16 Users Complain About Excessive iOS 18 Battery Drain
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Really every year?
So maybe, "they" should do something about it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Every year, Apple promises, battery life to be great and yet always battery drains for users still
I’m surprised I’ve never had this issue given I upgrade every year and often run betas. I’ve literally never had a single battery life problem on any of my phones on any iOS version. I have to imagine certain apps, settings, notifications, and background tasks cause this rather than something more inherent to the phone or OS. I think it was instagram last year, lol.
Exactly! Probably those users that claims their 16 pro max are delusional.
You must be a very dedicated apple user who doesn’t care about battery life as long as it lasts 5 hours from 100-0 %
I’m shocked by these comments. Do people not realize that the iPhone 16 with 18.0 is doing tons of work, constantly, including connecting to networks for countless tasks at all times, even when powered off! (Note the new find my even with phone powered down).
Some iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro users have been experiencing excessive and unexplainable battery drain, according to complaints on Reddit, the Apple Support Communities, and the MacRumors forums. While many of the reports are from iPhone 16 users, older iPhones running iOS 18 may also be experiencing battery life issues.
There is a long-running iOS 18 battery life complaint thread on MacRumors that was started while the update was still in beta, but there have been a fresh wave of complaints following iOS 18's launch and the debut of the iPhone 16 models.
Affected iPhone 16 owners have seen significant battery drain even when the iPhone is not in use. From MacRumors reader T1aaj:
From JulianL:
In some cases, much of the battery drain happens in standby mode when the iPhone isn't in use, suggesting a background activity could be causing problems for some users. Using the phone seems to cut the battery drain in these instances.
From huanbrother:
From kirbysmartdawg:
There are similar complaints about the iPhone 16 models and older iPhones running iOS 18 on Reddit, and while we always see reports of battery life issues when a new version of iOS comes out, there seems to be a definite uptick in the number of people having problems.
From Reddit user Ok-Interest-6561:
On Reddit, one user did an experiment with an iPhone 16 Pro and an iPhone 14 Pro, and claimed to have used both in the same way. The iPhone 16 Pro dropped to 58 percent battery life within 36 hours, while the iPhone 14 Pro was at 85 percent.
Battery drainage issues are difficult to diagnose because iPhone usage habits vary so much from person to person and from day to day. Impacted users have tried turning off ProMotion, disabling the Always On display, turning off background app refresh, removing widgets, turning off cellular, and entirely resetting their iPhones. Some people have seen improvement with some of these methods, but not all have, and the battery life issues persist for many despite troubleshooting.
Some users reported improvement with iOS 18.0.1 and the iOS 18.1 beta, but software updates have not worked for everyone. It is not clear exactly what's going on to impact battery, but it's sounding like there is an underlying bug that Apple will need to fix in a future iOS 18 update.
Article Link: iPhone 16 Users Complain About Excessive iOS 18 Battery Drain
so the idea that the battery is being drained fast I say, of course it is! And its only going to get much worse with the new AI features.
There’s definitely some optimization issues going on. My iPhone 16 Pro dropped 30% in just over an hour, most of the time it was in standby mode 😐
I wonder if it has anything to do with the weird bug that causes my Lock Screen to randomly light up and not turn off until I restart my phone?
I wonder if it has anything to do with the weird bug that causes my Lock Screen to randomly light up and not turn off until I restart my phone?
I had terrible idle drain (2-3%/hour) on my 16P. Then I started keeping bluetooth off unless I was actively using it. Now my battery life is nice.
iOS 18 and 18.01 are not really optimized for the iPhone 16 Pro Max in my opinion. It’s actually the worst performance I’ve seen out of a flagship iPhone at launch from a user experience perspective and I’ve had em all. The 18.1 public beta pretty much brings it up to the iPhone 15 Pro Max as far as performance but it’s still not that much better. I guess considering all the Apple Intelligence stuff running it’s ok.
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I have no issues but I also don’t transfer old phone data to new phone ever. I always see people have problems when they do that and I suspect that’s the case here
Thought it was just me. Really disappointed with battery life. Upgraded from 13PM to 16PM. The 13PM was replaced 3 months ago by Apple with a new replacement (CC phone insurance) — so its max battery capacity is 100%.
I’ve tried to preserve battery life by turning off background refresh for several apps.
I set up 16PM as a new phone (didn’t do transfer).
Also annoying is phone gets hot when MagSafe charging & charging is paused.
I’ve tried to preserve battery life by turning off background refresh for several apps.
I set up 16PM as a new phone (didn’t do transfer).
Also annoying is phone gets hot when MagSafe charging & charging is paused.
My iPhone 16 Pro is amazing, battery life is incredible on it, love the optimized charging, and everything is running so smooth. immediately turned off always on display, turned off the product improvement location services, and turned on background app refresh to wifi only. Just flawless.
my 15 Pro was a pile of junk, absolute worst phone every that would run at a solid , what felt like 200 degrees, and unbeleivable battery drain , even with those same settings above and fresh install. the 16 is a dream compared to that thing.
my 15 Pro was a pile of junk, absolute worst phone every that would run at a solid , what felt like 200 degrees, and unbeleivable battery drain , even with those same settings above and fresh install. the 16 is a dream compared to that thing.
I don’t see why this is a problem. Transferring from old data to new = should NOT transfer any bugs or errors from old phone but instead only media files or users setting transferred only. I don’t see why a trillion dollar company would ask the APPLE “GENIUS” to request customer to do a clean factory reset to “SoLvE” this issue at apple stores. I’m flabbergasted .
Also they’re pretentious and oh so fake diagnostic software? Don’t even get me started on that.
Apple is writing checks they cannot cash when it comes to software and AI.
Came from a launch day 13 Pro and now have the 16 Pro. Battery life is about the same as it was on my 3 year old phone that I had to charge twice a day.
Absolutely experiencing this on my iPhone 15Pro. Used to be 75% at 3pm now 20% or lower. Battery screen under Settings doesn’t show anything except Safari which I do not use much. I make no calls. Definitely broken. These idiots need to get one thing right - the phone should work. 50,000 Apple employees evidently isn’t enough to make a working product. Complete morons.
Battery life has been amazing on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. I’m talking 7+ hours of screen time with 40% battery left everyday.
Same issue but not with 18. It started at 18.1 beta. Home % Lock Screen instantly killing 20-30% of battery in the morning. It’s been indexing for weeks. I feel like it has to do with Siri Intelligence constantly reading everything. I bet Siri intelligence is in 18.0 as well but you just can’t get to it. It’s doing some type of background process to read everything on the phone.
I had same experience with iOS 14 and SE1. Since then I stopped upgrading to the newest version instantly and cancelled my public beta membership. This year I paid for battery replacement and started using the phone again. I learned my lesson. To everybody affected, I keep my fingers crossed for you. I know what you are facing now.
Edit, my advice: If you have this years phone, Apple will fix it. If you do not have an old phone, Apple will fix it for the newest and it might help your device as well. If you have an older phone, restore as soon as possible and hope this will fix it.
Edit, my advice: If you have this years phone, Apple will fix it. If you do not have an old phone, Apple will fix it for the newest and it might help your device as well. If you have an older phone, restore as soon as possible and hope this will fix it.
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I've experienced this too. Some third party apps are not coded optimally or something.