iOS 12.1.4 battery drain

The problem for me started 2 updates ago. The battery started draining over night out of nowhere all the while I was paying attention to battery cycles not to fully charge my iPhone 8 to 100%. After the 12.1.3 came along nothing happened, same thing, the battery was draining fast. I checked to see my battery’s health after the 12.1.3 update and it was at 91%. Few weeks later when 12.1.4 came along, while no improvement on battery drainage happened, something else happened, my battery’s health went from 91% to 89% out of nowhere while I was still not charging my phone till 100%. All the while my girlfriend’s iPhone 7 experienced none of these issues and her phone’s battery health was and still is stable at 89%...

***Sorry, posted too soon. Trying again***

I have been part of the group that has been impacted by severe battery drain of ~1% every 5-15 seconds since updating to iOS 12.1.4.

I tested the options mentioned in this thread, and have found that the issue seems to be related to app data download connections and/or downloading new data on the device (downloading an app from the app store, opening an app that needs to fetch new data, fetching new content by pulling/swiping down to refresh within an app, background app refresh, etc). I have confirmed that this issue occurs in both native apps such as Mail, App Store, Podcasts, as well as 3rd party apps.

Close all apps this did nothing, and the battery continues to drain. If not immediately, on the next background app refresh.

Power cycle (restart) device you can see evidence of some people's theory that there may be something going on with battery percentage calculation. After the battery appears to have severely drained, a power cycle will show the battery percentage back closer to what you would expect the usage to be prior to the draining event. A power cycle will likely still result in the device attempting to fetch new data, and more often than not will resume battery drain

Turn off Fetch New Data (Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Fetch New Data > toggle Push to off) + Power cycle device battery continues to drain

Turn off Background App Refresh (Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Background App Refresh > Off) + Power cycle device At first I thought this solved the issue while I was at work for a few hours in the morning, but when I started actively using my phone a bit more the battery drain started again

Delete Skype for Business + Power cycle device This is where I discovered that the issue is not isolated to only 3rd party apps doing things in the background and adversely interacting with 12.1.4... I tried this because some people indicated that they thought it may be related to Skype. I thought this worked for a while as well, until I opened my native iPhone Podcasts app and it started downloading new podcasts. I then watched my battery start draining at a rate of 1% every 5 seconds (I could hear a clock ticking beside me and timed it)

Turn off Bluetooth + open an app and pull down to initiate data fetch/download connection battery continues to drain

Turn off Wi-Fi + open an app and pull down to initiate data fetch/download connection battery continues to drain

Turn on Airplane Mode + open an app and pull down to initiate data fetch/download connection oddly enough, this doesn't always seem to work in interrupting whatever process is trying to download new data, and in some of my testing the battery would continue to drain.

Turn on Low Power Mode (Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode) + open an app and pull down to initiate data fetch/download connection this has been the only solution that I have been able to use to consistently and reliably keep my battery from draining. If the device is plugged in and charging, it will turn Low Power Mode off once it reaches a certain percentage (89%? 90%?) so you'll need to turn it on again once you unplug

Switch to a different device with <iOS 12.1.4 I have a spare backup iPhone 6S which is still on iOS 12. Apple will not allow me to restore from backup without updating to iOS 12.1.4 so I did not complete this test

Factory reset + restore at this point I did not have the time nor the patience to attempt this, but I did see that it did not resolve the issue for another user

Again, it seems like the only way to reliably stop the battery drain is to break or interrupt whatever connection is trying fetch new data by turning on Low Power Mode. I do have a lot of apps on my phone that I use regularly, which I'm assuming is the reason I may be impacted more than others since there is a lot of background activity happening with each additional app.

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tl;dr the battery seems to drain significantly when downloading new data or making a connection to fetch new data (unclear which it is, specifically), and the only workaround that reliably helps is to turn on Low Power Mode (Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode)

This 12.1.4 release is a disgrace. Upgrade? That's a laugh. I conducted a test. I turned off everything on my phone 6S that could possible draw power, and I mean everything. Charged the phone to 100%, 11:00PM, removed phone from charger, turned off home screen. Next morning 7:00AM, phone completely dead.

Here’s some more things that I noticed trying to figuring out what’s at stake. On my iPhone 8 when I do a complete cycle (charging the phone to 100%) and unplug it after fully it got charged it doesn’t drain that fast over night. That’s one thing and I think it might be on purpose so we can deplete our batteries’ life.

The other thing I noticed is how the apps I use come into play on battery drain. The apps I use the most are Facebook, Safari, Messenger, YouTube and WhatsApp. They somehow seem to keep working in the background even after they are completely shut down.

Therefore I tried a little trick. After closing all of those apps I open the google translate app because I know it doesn’t exchange data in the background. I switch the screen off, open it again, close google translate from the background and then switch the screen off again.

What I think this means is that somehow the apps are still running and exchanging data even if they are not active in the background. The last one opened I think it does that. So if one tries to make the last opened app one that doesn’t exchange data in the background, the battery won’t be drained anymore.

hi all,

an important point is many reported Low Power helps.

@peter pointed the effect of the Low Power

Siri is not working w/o net.

could be Siri?

_____________

and some thoughts...nor so happy ones.

I switched to iPhone X last year from Samsung S8+.

Just because I wanted to try Apple and wanted to move as away as I could from Google.

I wanted something that smells quality, professionalism.

I do not regret my step.

Moving from Google Drive to iCloud was a painful one.

Mostly because of Drive.

But this battery drain make me crazy.

Yes I know software releases can sometimes be full of bugs.

I have GoPro (many models) and Garmin (many products) and I went trough many software upgrades, officials and betas.

But, I want to tell you...I did not see this coming from Apple.

just me.

robert

Good that you are thinking this through. Too many just post MeToo,

Problem is millions of users including me have no battery problems and yet use Siri and iCloud. Can’t be those apps in isolation IMO

The planned obsolescence thing is illogical because it has affected new models.

Hi peter_watt,

Thanks for adding that. Here are my observations:

Email fetch I had already tested this by turning off fetching new data for all functions (not just email). This unfortunately did not resolve the battery drain issue. Either does turning on Airplane mode and Wi-Fi off, which theoretically should end all fetches

"Hey Siri" I tested this by turning off Siri and attempting a data fetch by opening an app and pulling down for refresh. Battery began draining immediately until I toggled Low Power Mode again

Background app refresh I tested this previously by turning background app refresh off. This also did not resolve the issue

Automatic downloads Same here

Some visual effects I have always had Reduce Motion turned on (Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > On) which minimizes a lot of the visual effects that are built in to the iOS. Regardless, this should not affect battery life if all apps are closed and the screen is locked or asleep. If this really was the issue, the only other thing you could do beyond turning on Low Power Mode is to keep your device turned off...

Auto-Lock (defaults to 30 seconds) my habit is to manually lock my device when I'm done using it, and rarely wait for the device to auto-lock. Regardless I tested this as well and even after auto-locking the battery will continue to drain

iCloud Photo Library (temporarily paused) Tested by turning off iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, and iCloud Backup starting individually at first, and also all together. Opened an app which refreshed and battery began draining again

I was able to replicate what AndreiChi found re: opening Google Translate as the last app and the battery drain was interrupted by that. I have not yet seen/tested whether some other background process might cause the battery drain to resume after a set amount of time, but if it's between toggling Low Power Mode after every charge 1-2x/day or having to remember to open Google Translate after everything I do on my phone, I'm sticking with Low Power Mode.

The above seems to me another indication that supports the theory that the root cause may be related to either fetching data or the connection that is attempted when fetching.

In my case, I have an iPhone 6s and after using social media for less than a minute, my battery percentage drops by 3% or more even though I am in battery saving mode. In other cases, my phone is above 10-20% and suddenly drops to 1% despite not using it.

Save your photos to ypur Mac Photos or cloud, backup to itunes or icloud. and then restore as new by

Going to Settings > General > Reset, then tap “Erase All Content and Settings.”

Do not install any apps just yet. Do not restore from backup. The 6S runs perfectly well on 12.1.4 so if it still drains your phone needs repair shop.

If the battery behaves then reinstall essential apps.

Until the Apple and third party app developers find the culprit app combination then the options are limited.

I encourage you to read the whole thread.

If a user has to go through all of that trouble because of a minor OS release, and this is not an isolated event as far as releases are concerned, then perhaps it's Apple's underhanded way of forcing hardware upgrades on users. After all, sales have declined , the phone market is saturated. BTW, My wife's phone drains like a sand egg timer. Soon as it is removed from charger, I'm able to watch the battery percentage drop in real time. So you're saying 12.1.4 runs perfectly on a phone devoid of any apps ? Hahahaha, now that is funny. Imagine, a mobile phone with no apps. Apple quality has suffered severely since Jobs died. It has been in a slow and gradual decline for years. This is not a bug between some third party apps, it's another embarrassing Apple OS bug. This last debacle is proof.

I too believe that this is Apple’s way to force hardware upgrades down our throats, and I’m more and more convinced of it since it’s been more than a month since 12.1.4 is out and no fix has been released. And if I were to corroborate that with their absolute silence on the issue the picture becomes even clearer. Have any of you guys seen any press declaration or anything like that on their part admitting that the problem the users are facing is acute?

No, the press (Forbes) hasn’t said anything yet so we assume most of the half billion iphones are ok.

So, two more tin foil hat conspiracy theorists have failed to notice that the OP and several others have brand new models of phone and ipad. To what model do you think Apple are trying to make them upgrade?

I have plenty of apps running well on my old model. I am not advocating running without apps permanently, just until you identify what whacky app combination you have installed that is causing it. It’s entirely up to you. Sit on your hands or fix your problem.

Hi Peter

So I went into apple store yesterday, that was 2 hrs of my life wasted. They reset my iPad back to factory and suggested manual set up, which I did. Made absolutely no difference.

I suggested they report this to Apple, that was met with a look that suggested that would be a waste of time.

I've got an Samsung phone which I have updated many times, never with the issues I have with iOS.

It suggests to me that Apple are way more focused on profits rather than looking after their customers. They may well end up going the same way as Nokia, who?

My battery drains on my 8 plus at a remarkable rate as compared to prior software version. Fix this Apple!!

Ah, someone else who didn't bother to read any of the thread before making a foolish post. As a start, this is a user--to user forum. Apple does not participate or respond, and only reads to assure compliance with the terms of use. So exhorting Apple to do anything is a waste of bandwidth. You would also get some good suggestions on how to fix the problem if you bothered to read it.

So why should I have to faff around trying to work out which combination of apps, if any, is causing the battery drain problem? A problem that didn't exist prior to the 12.1.4 upgrade. The apps I have on my phone are there for a reason, the reason being I use them. Having to delete app(s) just to get the phone to work as it did before the update is just plane crazy. Hobble my phone to sort out a problem that Apple should be fixing - brilliant.