Understanding iOS 12 Battery Statistics

[0014]

I’ve seen a few users on here and other forums, social media and in person who don’t understand iOS 12 Battery statistics.

So hopefully this post will help.

This first screenshot gives you the detail for the last 24hrs (no matter how many times you charge it).

The red box shows when it was last charged and to what percentage. As you can see i had mine on charge today which i will explain later.

The highlighted Activity and Screen On/Off times show the total of the last 24hrs, again regardless of times on charge in that period.

The next screenshot shows the apps that used the most battery in that 24hr period, again regardless of charging.

This third screenshot shows how to see, hour by hour, how to understand the statistics.

Click on one of the bars highlighted by the arrow and you will see the following:

What the charge level was (No.1)

The total amount of activity as a bar chart. This is both screen on and background activity with the screen off. Dark blue is screen on light blue is screen off. (No.2)

The total time the screen was on (No.3)

The total time the screen was off but the phone was doing something. (No.4)

Also a list of apps in order of what was using the battery the most being at the top.

In this next screenshot you can see indicated by the top arrow that the phone was on charge. If you look closely you can see there are two sets of bars. One for the battery charge (which is going up) and another showing how long it was on charge for. In this case circa 30mins of the 1hr time block.

The second arrow shows the screen on/off time as normal and the amount is also circled.

Th final two arrows at the bottom will also tell you that although in use they were connected to a charger whilst being used.

Finally in the last two screenshots the stats are slightly different.

The battery usage tells you how much you used for a single day. But also your average screen on off time over the period and which apps used the most on average.

Clicking on a day will then break down for you the apps that consumed the most battery and the level of screen on/off time for that single day.

Hopefully this helps people understand how to read the statistics to work out what is/isn’t draining their phone battery. I wouldn’t pay much attention to a single day unless something is highlighted as drastically draining the battery. I’d look at at least a 72hr period but ideally a week to see the biggest drain.

 

[titrau]

This not cool .

I like ios 11 way ,

 

[krishmk]

Hate it and never gives a good answer on my usage. ios11 battery stats were much better and Apple gimmicked/distracted us with this useless stats.

 

[C DM]

Hate it and never gives a good answer on my usage. ios11 battery stats were much better and Apple gimmicked/distracted us with this useless stats.

Stats are not useless, they just needed to leave the ones they provided before and simply add the new ones.

 

[MrGuder]

I admit that these new battery stats are very confusing to understand. In fact even with your post I’m still confused. It already needs a new design so that it’s easier to understand.

Apple has given us a lot more info but the layout is confusing to digest quickly.

 

[nmeed]

Is there any way to figure out the usage since last charge like iOS had since the beginning of time?

 

[max2]

This not cool .

I like ios 11 way ,

Agreed

 

[imagineadam]

Is there any way to figure out the usage since last charge like iOS had since the beginning of time?

Yes. Check when you were last fully charged. Then go on the graph and select each hour individually and add up your screen on and screen off time for total usage time since last charge.
[doublepost=1538277611][/doublepost]Pro-tip:

Since I didn’t use my phone after midnight and started using my phone after I unplugged it at 7:13am, clicking this graph shows me my total usage for the day since I was last fully charged also. Why is this so hard for you guys to understand? (Also I use a smart battery case on my 7,this is why I have such awesome screen on time)

 

[BugeyeSTI]

My screen off never shows any time. Always shows 0 minutes

 

[imagineadam]

My screen off never shows any time. Always shows 0 minutes

Mine works but it doesn’t start counting up until about 5 minutes or so after the screen has been off with podcasts anyways. If I’m using Spotify it works pretty good but it’s not perfect. The times never add up correctly and maybe there is a reason for this but I feel like it’s a bug. Apple really needs to put out an explainer.

 

[MrGuder]

This is why I’m confused. It’s 9:30 am now and I unplugged at 8:30 am battery says 100% 1 hour ago. I get that part because it matches. But at the bottom it says screen time ON 1 hr 44 mins why does it show more screen time ON when my screen didn’t turn on until 8:30 this morning?

Is it counting times during the night (while still charging) that my screen turned on due to an app like Nest cam? If so why is it counting that as screen time if it’s still on charge and not off charging. I can’t account for the other 44 mins which wouldn’t all be from my Nest app so I don’t understand it.

 

[C DM]

This is why I’m confused. It’s 9:30 am now and I unplugged at 8:30 am battery says 100% 1 hour ago. I get that part because it matches. But at the bottom it says screen time ON 1 hr 44 mins why does it show more screen time ON when my screen didn’t turn on until 8:30 this morning?

Is it counting times during the night (while still charging) that my screen turned on due to an app like Nest cam? If so why is it counting that as screen time if it’s still on charge and not off charging. I can’t account for the other 44 mins which wouldn’t all be from my Nest app so I don’t understand it.

Because the stats are not as of the last charge but for the past 24 hours (or certain number of days if you are on the other tab).

 

[MrGuder]

Because the stats are not as of the last charge but for the past 24 hours (or certain number of days if you are on the other tab).

No wonder I’m confused so there is no way to know screen time ON from unplugged from a full charge to end of day unless I add up the times from the bar graph manually?

 

[C DM]

No wonder I’m confused so there is no way to know screen time ON from unplugged from a full charge to end of day unless I add up the times from the bar graph manually?

Correct, as the OP basically explains.

 

[max2]

This is still confusing.

Is there a way to make the battery stats less confusing or a app that will help ?

 

[Kram Sacul]

Battery stats shouldn’t be this poorly laid out. I really like iOS12 but the new battery status page is junk since it no longer has a time since last full charge section.

 

[Yun0]

is junk since it no longer has a time since last full charge section.

*Circled in red, "Last charge level"*

 

[C DM]

*Circled in red, "Last charge level"*

That says the time when that charge level occurred, it doesn't show usage times since that charge, only 24 hours ago or some days ago.

 

[Kram Sacul]

That says the time when that charge level occurred, it doesn't show usage times since that charge, only 24 hours ago or some days ago.

Exactly. It's like they were so anxious to give us all these battery stats that they forgot to include the most important: the usage and standby since it was last charged. Excluding the graph the rest is just useless fluff.

 

[C DM]

Exactly. It's like they were so anxious to give us all these battery stats that they forgot to include the most important: the usage and standby since it was last charged. Excluding the graph the rest is just useless fluff.

Well, again, the new information isn't useless, but it shouldn't come at the cost of some old really basic information being removed.

 

[peterpayne]

They don't want you to know the basic information cause battery life is worse than it was on iOS 11 and previous iOS. This way, you can't compare.

All these stats are silly and useless if they remove the most important info!

 

[C DM]

They don't want you to know the basic information cause battery life is worse than it was on iOS 11 and previous iOS. This way, you can't compare.

All these stats are silly and useless if they remove the most important info!

Again, they are certainly not useless, and even without the same information that was there before since last full charge it's quite possible to figure out those numbers, it just takes a bit of effort. If it was due to some conspiracy to hide things, it's a rather bad one, given that it might make it more annoying to get the numbers, they are still there to be obtained nonetheless.

 

[clarencek]

What moron at apple designed this? Apple really missed the mark on his one. Usually they’re so good at taking something complicated and making it easy to use. Not in this case.

If I’m in the battery section - why the F do I care about when I charged and didn’t charge my phone. I want to see usage on battery. Geez.

 

[0014]

Actually the battery stats on iOS 11 are worse.

On iOS 11 yes you get the screen on/off time since the last full charge (you’ll get a - if it was a part charge). However you still only get the app usage for a 24hr period.

So, to explain how it works on iOS 11

You take your phone off charge at 0600 in the morning every day. Have a look at the list of apps draining the battery. You will get the last 24hrs. So from 0600 the previous day.

However, without having charged your phone you, you look at the app list at 12 o’clock. You then have the list of apps draining your battery since 1200 the previous day to now.

This may seem great as you can see an app that is a bit rogue since your last charge. But only if it’s using a higher average percentage over that 24hrs.

If you used something like navigation or social media the day before. You’ll probably see they are still at or near the top of the list. So iOS 11 was about as much use as a chocolate fire guard for the end user working out a rogue app draining the battery. At least in iOS 12 you can look at it hour by hour.

What should happen is they should bin the 24hr section and that should be a ‘since last charge’ section. As soon as you plug in a charger the statistics for all apps in that section should reset to 0. This then would give you a clear indication of any battery hogging apps.

Still keep the day tally up to 10. But the 24hr section needs altering.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Yeah count me in with the confused crowd. I no longer even look at the battery stats. I think the BEST solution should have been was to add a detailed button to access these stats if you wanted a better breakdown. If you weren't interested you got the basic summary usage page which is what we've had for so many releases. More complexity for a simple problem.