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iPhone XR iphone XR battery - degenerating very quickly

M

Mac2019

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 12, 2016
621
228
I've had my xr for 2.5 months and for the first 6 weeks or so the battery was utterly fantastic; I would take it off charge at 6am on 100%, leave work at 5.30pm and it'd be on minimum of 75% and would easily get through until 8pm the next night before nearly dying. Now, with the same usage, I'm doing the same but leaving work with ~65% and the phone needing a charge by 12pm the next day - to me, that is a massive degeneration and I cannot understand why. It loses 7-10% overnight by simply being sat in my drawer whereas when new it would go down by 1-2% max. I get that after a year or so the battery life is almost non existent as that is what happens with iphones, but to degenerate this much after 10 weeks?

Has anyone else noticed a similar issue?
 
Phone Junky said:
Do you even look at the battery usage stats to see what is using battery in the background. It might shed some light on your "problem".
Click to expand...
Yes, it is no different to when the battery was performing well as I generally use the same apps on a daily/weekly basis.
 
dawesie1 said:
Yes, it is no different to when the battery was performing well as I generally use the same apps on a daily/weekly basis.
Click to expand...
When you go to battery health, what percentage does it give you? (Settings>Battery>Battery Health)

Many factors can contribute to increased battery consumption. A few of the most popular are
  • Temperature extremes (especially cold)
  • Poor cellular reception
  • An unconscious increase in one’s usage habits
  • Downloading/using a new app
  • Have a rogue app that keeps hanging/running in the background
To see if it’s an app or the phone itself, I recommend restarting your phone at night before bed (or killing ALL recently used apps) and seeing if you still have a large percentage drop overnight.
 
Last edited:
willmtaylor said:
When you go to battery health, what percentage does it give you? (Settings>Battery>Battery Health) -100%

Many factors can contribute to increased battery consumption. A few of the most popular are
  • Temperature extremes (especially cold) temperature it is exposed to hasn't dramatically changed (usually indoors during the week)
  • Poor cellular reception - no issue here
  • An unconscious increase in one’s usage habits - possibly but, if anything, I'm using it less.
  • Downloading/using a new app - no significant changes here
  • Have a rogue app that keeps hanging/running in the background - will keep an eye on this.
To see if it’s an app or the phone itself, I recommend restarting your phone at night before bed (or killing ALL recently used apps) and seeing if you still have a large percentage drop overnight. - will give that a go tonight
Click to expand...
 
Best of luck!

The only other issue I’ve run into is that I sometimes disable auto-brightness and forget to re-enable it with the result being that my screen is brighter and uses more energy (and therefore battery) than normal.

Keep us updated.
 
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willmtaylor said:
Best of luck!

The only other issue I’ve run into is that I sometimes disable auto-brightness and forget to re-enable it with the result being that my screen is brighter and uses more energy (and therefore battery) than normal.

Keep us updated.
Click to expand...
Tried this and it in fact only went down by 3% overnight, although from around 6pm last night I was using low power mode so I assume that 3% would have been doubled if it was on normal mode. Woke with 51% today and it is now 35% with very minimal usage on low power mode. Very strange as a month or so ago on a typical day 35% would be around 5pm (it is 11.10am) so something is wrong somewhere, which is frustrating.
 
Maybe there is simply no user error but battery itself is degrading. I have noticed with many of my recent iPad and iPhones (the new devices purchased in 2018) that batteries wear faster than in older models. Maybe you could check what is going on with battery by using CoconutBattery (Mac) or iMazing (Windows).

With those you get more precise information what is going on with the battery. Especially iMazing shows very detailed information. With that I found out that battery capacity and voltage is jumping a lot in another X we have and that one has noticeable worse battery life than our another X that shows more consistent battery statistics. In IOS battery menu both show battery health 100%... Also I was wondering about a lot shorter battery life in my iPad 2018 recently and I noticed that battery had lost about 10% capacity within about 50-60 charge cycles (no battery abuse what so ever). Battery life has dropped in this much more than what 10% capacity loss suggests, so the two numbers do not go hand in hand when it comes to real battery life. Also difference between the two X is like 1-2 days more between charges on better one.
 
I can't say what is causing the decrease is battery performance but for overall longevity it's recommended that you don't intentionally let your percentage get that low. The ideal charge for Li-Ion batteries is between 60 and 80 percent so if possible, charge while you sleep.

From Battery University:

"Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses. If full discharges cannot be avoided, try utilizing a larger battery. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery."

Source: https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
 
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Knowlege Bomb said:
I can't say what is causing the decrease is battery performance but for overall longevity it's recommended that you don't intentionally let your percentage get that low. The ideal charge for Li-Ion batteries is between 60 and 80 percent so if possible, charge while you sleep.

From Battery University:

"Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses. If full discharges cannot be avoided, try utilizing a larger battery. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery."

Source: https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
Click to expand...
​

I'm familiar with all that but I personally haven't had any change in charging or usage pattern compared to my older devices with good battery longevity. I never abuse my batteries by letting them go too low or doing deep discharge. Maybe new batteries should be kept even more precisely and running them only in 40 to 85% area (never charge more than 85% or never let go below 40%) but that is way to demanding in everyday use and as I mentioned my charging and usage habits haven't changed, so that is something to do with the batteries these days.
 
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