Odd weather app behavior

[MrDoh]

Using the latest version of iOS on my iPhone 16 Pro. I'm not using any weather widgets, I just open the weather app occasionally. Like once a day, maybe. Last time I went to the "Battery" settings tab, I found an odd item there:

Weather
Widget on Mac. 21%

Which is way too much battery consumption. And I'm not using a weather widget on my iPhone or either of the two Mac's that I have. I also don't have iPhone Mirroring turned on for either mac. So why is the battery on my iPhone apparently being used to put a weather widget on my mac? Or vice-versa? Or maybe I'm misinterpreting this battery consumption entry entirely?

I really don't know what to do with this, but it is really annoying that so much of my battery consumption is going into an app that I only open maybe once a day.

Anyone else dealt with this problem? Any suggestions? I've removed the Apple weather app from my phone just now, since I'm tired of it. Giving Weather Underground a fling. But I do want to be able to have the Apple weather app there without having it take over 20% of my battery consumption...given how much I use it, the amount of battery usage by the weather app should be closer to 1 or 2%.

 

[Speed38]

Something is screwy there. I open my Weather.app every once in a while. I just checked and it battery usage was at the very bottom of that list of apps, below 1%. Here is what Perplexity.ai returned:

If the weather app on your iPhone 16 is consuming a lot of battery, there are several strategies you can implement to reduce its impact:

## Reasons for Battery Drain

1. **Background Activity**: The weather app may be running in the background to fetch updates, especially if you have location services enabled or are using widgets.
2. **Widgets**: If you have a weather widget on your home or lock screen, it can continuously pull data, leading to increased battery usage.
3. **Animated Features**: Some features, such as animated wallpapers or live weather updates, can also contribute to battery drain.

## Solutions to Reduce Battery Usage

1. **Disable Background App Refresh**:
- Go to **Settings > General > Background App Refresh** and turn it off for the weather app or disable it entirely to prevent apps from updating in the background.

2. **Remove Weather Widgets**:
- If you have added a weather widget, consider removing it. Long-press on the widget, tap **Remove Widget**, and confirm. This can significantly reduce battery consumption from the app[1].

3. **Limit Location Services**:
- Navigate to **Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services** and adjust the settings for the weather app to "While Using" or "Never" instead of "Always." This will limit how often the app accesses your location.

4. **Turn Off Notifications**:
- Disable notifications for severe weather alerts by going to **Settings > Notifications > Weather** and turning off notifications. This can help reduce background activity[1].

5. **Check Battery Usage Statistics**:
- Go to **Settings > Battery** to see how much battery the weather app is using compared to other apps. This can help identify if it's indeed the main culprit or if other apps are contributing to the drain[2][8].

6. **Restart Your Device**:
- Sometimes, simply restarting your iPhone can help reset any processes that might be causing excessive battery drain.

7. **Update iOS and Apps**:
- Ensure that your iPhone and all apps are updated to their latest versions, as updates often include optimizations for better battery performance.

By implementing these steps, you should be able to mitigate the battery drain caused by the weather app on your iPhone 16 effectively. If issues persist after trying these solutions, consider reaching out to Apple Support for further assistance.

Sources
[1] How to Fix Weather App Battery Drain on iOS 16 - Nerd's Chalk https://nerdschalk.com/how-to-fix-weather-app-battery-drain-on-ios-16/
[2] How To Find What Apps Are Draining Battery On iPhone 16

[3] Is your iPhone's battery draining out quicker after iOS 16 update ... https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...his-may-be-the-cause/articleshow/94398839.cms
[4] What Causes iPhone 16 Battery Drain and How to Fix It https://www.macobserver.com/iphone/iphone-16-battery-drain/
[5] Weather widget battery drain - MacRumors Forums https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/weather-widget-battery-drain.2433754/
[6] Battery Life - check runtimes https://apps.apple.com/us/app/battery-life-check-runtimes/id1080930585
[7] Draining battery - Windy Community https://community.windy.com/topic/32433/draining-battery
[8] About battery usage on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support https://support.apple.com/en-us/102432

 

[MrDoh]

Yes, I went to the internet first, and have checked all those items. I just don't know what's going with the "widget on mac" thing, since, for one thing, I'm not using any weather widgets anywhere. And, as I said, iPhone Mirroring is off on both my mac's. I have "update in the background" totally off, no apps have background update permission. And I always use "while using the app" location permission, unless I'm sharing my location with my wife when we're in different places...but that has nothing to do with the weather, of course. I've restarted my phone a couple of times while trying things to get rid of the excess battery consumption.

I doubt that the non-Apple weather apps have this issue, since it appears to be something built into the iPhone/mac ecosystem that's biting me. Some kind of widget projection between my iPhone and mac's?

My last resort, of course, is factory reset my phone and reconfigure it manually. Like to avoid that, but I'm almost there.

 

[MrDoh]

Just found a setting that sounds suspiciously like the culprit here. In my mac settings, under widgets, there's setting to "use iPhone widgets". This was enabled. I've turned it off in hopes that the reference to "Widget on Mac" above will just go away. The fact that I wasn't using weather widgets on the iPhone or Mac appears to be irrelevant, seems like a bug in the implementation somewhere. That's my hope, anyways.

I did factory reset my phone when the battery consumption of "recently removed apps" went from 15% after deleting the weather app to 45% consumption today...this told me that something really fishy is going on since I haven't deleted any apps other than the weather app in the last day. And it seems obvious that a deleted app's battery consumption should be tailing off as a percentage of consumption as time goes on, not going way up like it did.

Got my fingers crossed that resetting my phone and turning off "iphone widgets" on my mac's will take care of this problem.