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iPhone 16 Users Complain About Excessive iOS 18 Battery Drain
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No, it's also my iPhone 13 mini.
Now I'm used to the fact that every new major OS update, the first week the battery drain is always higher due to background processes like re-indexing and newer photos analysing (which still can't be turned off or permanently delegated to my Mac). This usually takes almost a week. I see the same happening on the Mac after upgrading or reinstalling. And I've already turned off "background refresh" for all apps. Plus most apps do not need mobile data access - this drains too even when the "background refresh" is turned off.
But I have noticed that my iPhone 13 mini is indeed more often below 20% charge in the evening the last few weeks than with iOS 17. It's charged overnight and during a normal work day it's mostly in my pocket or on a desk doing nothing since I use my Mac for every task. With iOS 17.6 it was usually at 40-50% by the evening.
But I have to say that a lot of 3rd party apps out there tend to drain a lot more power these days, especially the "social" ones. Maybe there should be new classification in the App Store? Energy use.
Now I'm used to the fact that every new major OS update, the first week the battery drain is always higher due to background processes like re-indexing and newer photos analysing (which still can't be turned off or permanently delegated to my Mac). This usually takes almost a week. I see the same happening on the Mac after upgrading or reinstalling. And I've already turned off "background refresh" for all apps. Plus most apps do not need mobile data access - this drains too even when the "background refresh" is turned off.
But I have noticed that my iPhone 13 mini is indeed more often below 20% charge in the evening the last few weeks than with iOS 17. It's charged overnight and during a normal work day it's mostly in my pocket or on a desk doing nothing since I use my Mac for every task. With iOS 17.6 it was usually at 40-50% by the evening.
But I have to say that a lot of 3rd party apps out there tend to drain a lot more power these days, especially the "social" ones. Maybe there should be new classification in the App Store? Energy use.
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my issue has been with the apple watch since the update it has times where it drops badly very quickly.
Don’t understand why Apple can’t report the status of its mysterious indexing. A lot of people use this as an excuse for poor battery life without any evidence.
Its not just 16 my 15 is atrocious. Turned off everything, background refresh for every app, always on display etc I am a low user like 2 hours max I get up at 6am at 9pm im lucky to have 5%.
My 16PM batt life is amazing but I had a 2+ y/o 12 Regular before this - my last “big” phone was the 8+ and 6s+ before that. All I can say is it’s great to be back to the big screen and big battery after my time with the 12. And that notch was several orders of magnitude more obtrusive than the pill cutout.
Just imagine you'd be able to measure such things and processes that are running or not on a phone. If only perhaps something like Apple's Xcode had a developer tool like Instruments that would give you such insights. There is a lot going on even when idle and not in the user realm either.
That I disagree with. While the 13 Pro, which is what I upgraded from, had a smaller notch than the 12, I think it was A LOT less obtrusive and out of the way than the Dynamic Island/pill. That little bar of screen above the pill is an absolute waste of space and I don't get why people like it batter.
I'm getting literally amazing battery life on my 16P. Set the max to 80% and only once did I have to charge in the middle of the day, but only because I had forgotten that I needed a 100% charge that day due to after work activities.
Anecdotally it's not a 16-specific issue. My 15Pro battery life has decreased terribly in the past 6 weeks. 12:30pm here in the UK and I'm at 42%, with a maximum of 1.5 hours worth of intermittent safari browsing during the course of the morning. It's like this everyday now. Battery health = 96% apparently. I have Slack and Gmail apps running which I'm sure contribute to drain, but they weren't a problem in the summer. It's become the worst battery life I've ever had on a phone of any kind.
To those who keep saying indexing. Why does a phone that is faster than my computer takes a whole month every night to index. My slower computer takes less than 10 hours and it could have been done within 7 days.
Indexing shouldn't be like this
Indexing shouldn't be like this
Quite a few of us have said exactly this same thing the last few years. Just stop with the useless emoji crap and other "features" no one uses or cares about.
Instead, look at every aspect of iOS and OSX. All hands on deck to improve reliability, efficiency, interoperability. Improve every damn line of code if Apple has to. We definitely need Snow Leopard 2.0.
I have the 16 Pro Max and the battery does need charging every night but I do have the display always on
I always carry my iPhone (14 Pro) in my shirt pocket when driving, so that it connects to CarPlay wirelessly.
Something has gone awry with iOS 18. I can literally feel the heat of the phone in my pocket when I'm driving. This never used to happen with iOS 17.
This has to be a software issue. Something has been de-optimised.
Something has gone awry with iOS 18. I can literally feel the heat of the phone in my pocket when I'm driving. This never used to happen with iOS 17.
This has to be a software issue. Something has been de-optimised.
Your strategy is sensible. I can never resist upgrading to the 1.0 release, even though I know it’s going to be buggy and unoptimised
Those of us who remember Snow Leopard know. That was wise move and so worth it.......
I'm not convinced that battery usage by app is 100% accurate. As an example, my old iPhone 13 would sometimes accidentally fire up the camera app in my pocket. That would result in a horrendous amount of heat generation since the autofocus hardware would be coaxed into life. Lenses hunting back and forth in a dark pocket is a sure way of creating a pocket warmer. Removing the camera icon shortcut from the Lock Screen was the first thing I did after upgrading to iOS 18.
Another iOS released; another complaint about battery life. Never ending story. Nothing new people never ending complaining
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We do see this every year but, having allowed for a settling down period both my iPhone 13 and my wife's XS are significantly weakened in terms of battery life. I tried to just sit back and forget it by our phones now need charging during the day so we can be assured they will not expire when we go out for an evening.
You could run this article every year when a new major iOS version is released. I don't see why this is news?
My iPhone 16 Pro Max battery life is fine. Compared to my old iPhone 13 Pro Max (83% battery health), my 16 has AOD enabled and i use the screen at 100% brightness and still easily have >50% at the end of the day.
If they improve battery drain (which they usually do with the iOS minor updates) then it's just a bonus for me.
My iPhone 16 Pro Max battery life is fine. Compared to my old iPhone 13 Pro Max (83% battery health), my 16 has AOD enabled and i use the screen at 100% brightness and still easily have >50% at the end of the day.
If they improve battery drain (which they usually do with the iOS minor updates) then it's just a bonus for me.