iPhone 6(S)/Plus New Battery, Still Rubbish Battery Life.

[eddjedi]

I have an 18 month old iPhone 6S. Over the last few months, the battery life noticeably deteriorated. For the first year I owned the phone, from 7am to 10pm (15 hours) the phone would have approx. 30-40% remaining from a single charge. Now it barely lasts 12 hours without being completely flat.

Fair enough I thought, the battery is over a year old. So this week I took advantage of Apple's £25 battery replacement offer. I checked the new battery using Coconut Battery and sure enough, 0 battery cycles so it is indeed brand new.

However the battery life is no better 🙁 it's still only lasting about 12 hours. According to battery usage in Settings, Facebook uses 50% of my battery consistently. This seems high, but I do use FB a lot and I've had it on the phone since I very first bought it and it never used to drain it so quickly. I have tried deleting the FB app and using the browser version, no real improvement.

I have tried turning off background refreshing firstly on FB only, and then on everything. Again no real improvement.

I can't figure out what is killing my battery. Could it be my Apple Watch? Or some other random app/process that settings is not picking up? Or is it just normal for the latest iOS to not last 12 hours?

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Are you saying you get 12 hours of use or after twelve hours of being on regardless of use the battery needs charging?

 

[eddjedi]

12 hours from 100% charged to 0%, probably split in to 2-3 hours use and 9-10 hours standby.

 

[akash.nu]

How long has it been since you’ve got this new battery?! Battery percentage meter shows an average drop in charge. It’s never dead on because by design batteries operate using chemical reactions so the whole charge and discharge thing you see on the device is really a relative measurement. Not absolute. The chemicals in the battery need to go through a few cycles for the battery meter algorithm to show a more reliable reading.

 

[Vermifuge]

It's more than likely how your using it.

There are many things to check like battery usage, background services and even the screen brightness. Also worth nothing signal strength plays a big factor in battery life. if you are often in an area with low service (not wi-fi) it will drain you battery faster.

 

[eddjedi]

It was replaced on Monday so I have only done two charges since then. Will see if it improves after a few more cycles.

Interesting thought regarding signal strength - reception in my office is terrible so maybe that is contributing? Now I think about it the timing of starting this new job and the drop in battery life may tie up.

 

[ctrlzone]

some things that come to my mind:

- give the Battery some time (cycles) to "warm" up
- there is now heavily sophisticated crypto mining Malware around. (did you jailbreak the phone ?)
ofc mining would drain Battery in no Time but there are some that use just a tiny bit of processing power to not get
detected
- how is your signal ? (did you change provider or location eventually?)
and since you mentioned the Watch, is that item new ? the constant connection uses Battery.
- the new battery could be crap like the old one, but i doubt that
- you could try to wipe your phone and see how it goes, having just facebook installed
- lowering screen brightness increases battery life significantly
- lowering volume and vibration alerts as well
- auto updates consume some, turning that off will help a bit, same goes for real time iCloud backup
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It was replaced on Monday so I have only done two charges since then. Will see if it improves after a few more cycles.

Interesting thought regarding signal strength - reception in my office is terrible so maybe that is contributing? Now I think about it the timing of starting this new job and the drop in battery life may tie up.

i bet thats it, constantly trying to get signal costs a LOT of energy, changing Provider with better signal (if available) should solve your issue

 

[Newtons Apple]

Kinda proves it is not Apple's fault when you are still getting 12 hours of use.

 

[eddjedi]

Would enabling wi-fi calling help? I usually don't connect to my office wi-fi for obvious reasons, but might have to if it improves the battery life.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Would enabling wi-fi calling help? I usually don't connect to my office wi-fi for obvious reasons, but might have to if it improves the battery life.

If you are able to take advantage of WiFi for phone calls it will save some power. Poor cellular signal will eat up a battery big time.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Would enabling wi-fi calling help? I usually don't connect to my office wi-fi for obvious reasons, but might have to if it improves the battery life.

Another option is to use your phone on airplane mode and enable WiFi Calling / iMessage during your work hours. This may or may not be feasible for you, but it should offer a significant boost to battery life assuming you’re willing to turn off your cellular signal.

 

[Puddled]

I have an 18 month old iPhone 6S. Over the last few months, the battery life noticeably deteriorated. For the first year I owned the phone, from 7am to 10pm (15 hours) the phone would have approx. 30-40% remaining from a single charge. Now it barely lasts 12 hours without being completely flat.

Fair enough I thought, the battery is over a year old. So this week I took advantage of Apple's £25 battery replacement offer. I checked the new battery using Coconut Battery and sure enough, 0 battery cycles so it is indeed brand new.

However the battery life is no better 🙁 it's still only lasting about 12 hours. According to battery usage in Settings, Facebook uses 50% of my battery consistently. This seems high, but I do use FB a lot and I've had it on the phone since I very first bought it and it never used to drain it so quickly. I have tried deleting the FB app and using the browser version, no real improvement.

I have tried turning off background refreshing firstly on FB only, and then on everything. Again no real improvement.

I can't figure out what is killing my battery. Could it be my Apple Watch? Or some other random app/process that settings is not picking up? Or is it just normal for the latest iOS to not last 12 hours?

If you have had a 18 month old battery replaced with a new one and it is no improvement at all, then i would suspect that the battery hasn't actually been replaced.

Regardless of the ifs and buts, you should be seeing a ~20% improvement.

 

[akash.nu]

If you have had a 18 month old battery replaced with a new one and it is no improvement at all, then i would suspect that the battery hasn't actually been replaced.

Regardless of the ifs and buts, you should be seeing a ~20% improvement.

That’s very easy to confirm with coconut battery, which the OP has already done.

 

[jav6454]

To be honest, @eddjedi you are stating you are using Facebook 50% of the time. Hence, the only way to curb battery consumption is to diminish its usage. Facebook is a battery hog, old or new battery, it matters not.

However, as social media seems to be your main usage, I’d suggest you look into Apple’s Battery Cases. They provide 2400mAh of Battery of juice. That will last You the entire day and leave some for the night.

 

[Ffosse]

Agreed - Facebook uses an incredible amount of battery, even though you may not be using the app but are on a web page it sucks power.

 

[eddjedi]

I do use Facebook, but probably for no more than an hour in total (5 minutes here and there.) Also as said in my original post I have tried deleting the app, but it didn't make a noticeable difference. I'm leaning towards poor signal now.

 

[orev]

You may need to recalibrate the battery meter. Give it a full charge (let it get to 100% without interruption), then use it until it shuts off without connecting it to a charger. Do this at least once, maybe a few times. The battery meter needs to learn that you have a new battery.

 

[akash.nu]

You may need to recalibrate the battery meter. Give it a full charge (let it get to 100% without interruption), then use it until it shuts off without connecting it to a charger. Do this at least once, maybe a few times. The battery meter needs to learn that you have a new battery.

Erm. No it doesn’t. The algorithm and battery tech in general is way smarter than that.

 

[upandown]

Erm. No it doesn’t. The algorithm and battery tech in general is way smarter than that.

Actually it can be beneficial. Apple has stated for years to do this procedure when getting a new device (battery) and once a month thereafter.
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I do use Facebook, but probably for no more than an hour in total (5 minutes here and there.) Also as said in my original post I have tried deleting the app, but it didn't make a noticeable difference. I'm leaning towards poor signal now.

What's your screen brightness level?

 

[Vermifuge]

Would enabling wi-fi calling help? I usually don't connect to my office wi-fi for obvious reasons, but might have to if it improves the battery life.

No. as long as the signal is low the phone will use more power trying to connect to your nearest tower. this is independent of the wi-fi signal strength or the use of wi-fi calling.

 

[akash.nu]

Actually it can be beneficial. Apple has stated for years to do this procedure when getting a new device (battery) and once a month thereafter.

That’s incorrect information. I know Apple mentions that on their website but it’s just one of those tech myths that people believe in and there’s the placebo effect of doing these things. There’s no quantifiable conclusions. Only anecdotal information from random people.

 

[upandown]

That’s incorrect information. I know Apple mentions that on their website but it’s just one of those tech myths that people believe in and there’s the placebo effect of doing these things. There’s no quantifiable conclusions. Only anecdotal information from random people.

Why would Apple put it on their website? That isn't a believe everything apple says statement. But why the heck would they put something completely useless on their support page. It doesn't make the battery last any longer but it re-calibrates the software scale from 100 to 0. Makes it more linear. That is actually fact.

 

[Vermifuge]

Why would Apple put it on their website? That isn't a believe everything apple says statement. But why the heck would they put something completely useless on their support page. It doesn't make the battery last any longer but it re-calibrates the software scale from 100 to 0. Makes it more linear. That is actually fact.

When I worked tech support a lifetime ago it was inevitable you would get an agitated caller. Nothing like an angry dad who can't get SimCity working for the kids. The fastest and most effective way to defuse the situation was to say "let me transfer you to a manager" when in reality we just sent the call to another rep one cubical over...

lies work

 

[akash.nu]

Why would Apple put it on their website? That isn't a believe everything apple says statement. But why the heck would they put something completely useless on their support page. It doesn't make the battery last any longer but it re-calibrates the software scale from 100 to 0. Makes it more linear. That is actually fact.

Because that helps with placebo effect and customers stop complaining a lot of the times.

Also, the battery meter algorithm doesn’t work like the way you described. As I posted earlier, it’s always a relative average. Never absolute measurement because it’s physically impossible to know how much change a chemical reaction has changed since the last charge. It’s always just a best guess. There’s nothing to calibrate here.

That whole calibration business was relevant to nickel based batteries. Not lithium ion batteries.

https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/lithium-ion-battery.htm

 

[jav6454]

I do use Facebook, but probably for no more than an hour in total (5 minutes here and there.) Also as said in my original post I have tried deleting the app, but it didn't make a noticeable difference. I'm leaning towards poor signal now.

In the Field Test app, what is your average signal strength over the day? This is a value shown in dBm and is negative.