iOS 12.1.4 battery drain

I have found that 12.2 has greatly improved the battery drain issue. However, prior to installing, I had restored and started it as a new phone rather than using a backup as I was concerned about the backup being corrupted which I was told (by an Apple Genius staff member) sometimes happens. It was a pain to have to reinstall the apps and put in passwords, but it may have made the difference.

Updated to 12.2 on my 5S. Battery life whilst not in use is now much better, lost just 1% overnight, but while in use the improvement is not so marked. Better than under 12.1.4. but but not as good as under 12.1.3.

Well the same advice applies .

Use itunes to restore iphone as a new device. No restore. No apps added. If it still drains its a busted phone or battery.

If on the other hand it then runs normally it will be a long process of adding your most essential apps til you find the culprit.

But if I try it your way doesn’t that mean that I won’t be able to import everything else backed up on iTunes? I have tons of photos, videos, notes, files, etc. that I won’t be able to restore if I start from scratch installing apps and all.

It's clearly NOT an app issue. It started with iOS 12.1.4, may have been partially resolved with iOS 12.2, but Apple needs to acknowledge that there is an OS problem and provide a timetable for fixing it.

Oh boy, we have been down this road a few times already. It is clearly triggered by the iOS upgrade, but it is NOT an iOS issue per se. If it were an iOS issue, all users would have it, but that does not seem to be the case.

Of the many users who came to this thread and similar ones, anything from very old phones to phones just a few months old, and anything from the SE to the latest model (and even some ipads) were affected, which makes me think it is not a hardware compatibility issue (as in, certain chipsets etc. don't like 12.1.4). So, if it is not the iOS itself, and not the hardware that leaves certain profiles/settings or certain Apps.

In my case, it got significantly better after a slew of apps updates (and after having deleted some others) which for me is a strong indication that some apps cannot handle 12.1.4. Claiming that "it is the iOS" (A) does not help with finding a workaround (B) is demonstrably false and (C) will only cause shouting matches in a (users-only) forum ...

You can’t be more wrong than that. I use my current iPhone 8 while I still have at home my old iPhone 6S. They are both connected to the same Apple ID. This means that every app installed on one smartphone gets automatically installed on the other (you can try it too if you have 2 different devices at your disposal). Same configuration, same apps, same everything. While my 6S has absolutely no problem whatsoever, the newer iPhone 8 has the said battery problem.

Sounds logical. Except for the fact that when I installed iOS 12.1.4 as new, loaded no third party apps, changed no default settings, I had the same battery drain issues. So if it is not a third party app issue, not a phone model issue, not a setting issues, that leads me to conclude that it is an OS issue fixable by Apple. (BTW, it has been stated that Apple reps do monitor these discussions.)

“While my 6S has absolutely no problem whatsoever, the newer iPhone 8 has the said battery problem. “

That just proves it is not a basic problem with iOS

Also there are other users with 6S that do have the problem.

If any of us had the answer it would be in this thread but it defies all attempts at logical analysis.

But nobody is “wrong” by stating their experience and analysis, OK?

That was exactly what happened to me. Added no new apps, installed 12.1.4 and suddenly I experienced rapid battery draining. Iphone had been functioning perfectly prior to the update. With 12.2 it is performing much better.

It's a fallacy to state that if a problem does not happen all the time for everyone that it is not in the OS. It is quite possible for an OS issue to be intermittent or to be triggered by different configuration settings, environmental conditions, etc. For my part, it is intermittent, and *may* be triggered by network changes.

What i’m trying to say is that I am convinced that it’s a software issue and not a hardware one since it affects a large range of hardware products. And I am also convinced that it has to do with the OS itself rather than with a certain app or an app configuration or any other 3rd party software.

Hm, that is interesting ... no 3rd party apps, I mean. You may have said that before and I missed that.

I think we can conclusively rule out hardware issues - just too many similar reports from people with different hardware. Unless there is a little radio chip that some of us got and some of us didn't - possible, but not likely. And there is always the possibility that there are two different pathologies triggered by the same change which could be due to different things.

But be that as it may, you are saying you started completely fresh and loaded NO 3rd party apps and it is still draining. That is extremely interesting. This would mean it is one of the default apps - but we all have them, so it should happen to everybody. Or it is one of the default settings - but then again, why does it only happen to a subset of people??? I am with Peter on this - it does defy logic.

One thing I am now thinking about is interaction with certain routers ... hear me out - that is something that is different between different people who may have the same phone. And at least some reports seemed to indicate that it is related to wireless interaction. And some wireless users reported reception trouble with 12.1.X (truth be told, my performance got worse with 12.1.2 or 12.1.3 - I know because I bought a back-up power pack for the first time in my life - and then it dropped off a cliff with 12.1.4, at least for the first 1.5 weeks, now limping along). That's the best I can offer at this point ... I don't believe in "intermittent" - any kind of electronic system is highly deterministic, if there is a difference in behavior there is a difference in the underlying factors.

Replying to my own answer here ... of course, during the 1.5 weeks that my phone was essentially an expensive doorstop it lost power when in use on wireless AND on the mobile phone network, so that speaks against my own theory. The only way I could get it to stop was to cease wifi/mobile activity completely.

Unless there is a carrier component? I believe carrier-specific versions still exist? You know what, I give up - the whole thing is maddeningly incongruous.

And you have identical data in each app on each phone, and they sync and update in lock step so there is never any difference in any of the data on either phone? You always use both apps simultaneously on the two phones? You have exactly the same mail accounts on each phone? You receive the same texts on each phone? Each has the identical Whatsapp messages (or whatever messaging service you use)? The same Facebook accounts on both phones? You go to the same websites simultaneously on both phones?

The problem is not that an app is installed on the phone; it is what the app is doing that affects how much energy the app uses.