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rdunlap

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 13, 2013
320
52
I've been getting really fast berry drain lately since switching to T-Mobile. I've been trying to figure out what's responsible and I've found quite a few articles referencing battery drain to wifi calling. I wanted to see if anyone is also having this issue or knows more information.

Thanks!
 

Mlrollin91

macrumors G5
Nov 20, 2008
14,172
10,181
Couldn't tell you about TMO WiFi Calling, but on AT&T, WiFi Calling uses much less battery than straight cellular. Maybe because WiFi Calling on AT&T only kicks in when you have low service and on TMO it kicks in as soon as you are connected to WiFi?
 

chscag

macrumors 601
Feb 17, 2008
4,622
1,946
Fort Worth, Texas
I've been using T-Mobile Wifi calling with all my iPhones and have found that it actually saves the battery compared to making calls via cellular. What does eat into the battery is Blue Tooth and app background updating. Of course if you have wireless headphones you need to keep BT on.
 

rdunlap

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 13, 2013
320
52
how long have u been using this iPhone? with wifi on draining the battery fast, you can check your battery actual capacity to see if it's lower than the design capacity
I checked this last night. My battery capacity is at 94% still so doesn't seem to be the issue. It's ever since I switched to T-Mobile the battery is draining a lot faster than usual. Not sure why my Messages app is taking so much battery though ...
 

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chscag

macrumors 601
Feb 17, 2008
4,622
1,946
Fort Worth, Texas
Those apps using more battery are also doing background updating. Which means even if you're not actively using Messages or Facebook, or whatever, that they're updating in the background and using battery. I only have a few apps that I allow to update in the background.
 

nburwell

macrumors 603
May 6, 2008
5,554
2,459
DE
I've been using T-Mobile Wifi calling with all my iPhones and have found that it actually saves the battery compared to making calls via cellular. What does eat into the battery is Blue Tooth and app background updating. Of course if you have wireless headphones you need to keep BT on.

Same situation with me. Both my SE and 6s have not experienced any significant battery drain since switching to TMO last month. If anything I have seen an incremental increase in battery life since switching.
 

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,156
Weaker cell reception will cause battery drain. Do you feel you are getting weaker cell reception than your previous cell provider?
 

zorinlynx

macrumors G3
May 31, 2007
8,344
18,555
Florida, USA
I had to turn off AT&T wifi calling because it just wasn't reliable. Calls would stutter and I wouldn't be able to understand the person I was talking to when Wi-Fi calling was active. Ever since I've turned it off I haven't had anymore problems with calls.

It was great when I was in an area with NO cel signal but even a marginal cel signal was better than wifi calling 99% of the time.
 

Wizec

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2019
675
741
In case this helps someone else, I was experiencing severe idle time (screen off) battery drain on my iPhone XS and after weeks of troubleshooting, finally got around to disabling the “Calls on Other Devices” feature of WiFi Calling which stopped the battery drain. I don’t use that feature enough anyway, though occasionally it was handy to answer calls on my iPad Pro 2017.

At any rate, I’d much rather have great idle battery life on my iPhone XS than have the ability to answer calls on my iPad...
 
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