iOS 12.1.4 battery drain

Hi everyone,

I am also experiencing a massive battery drain on my iPhone SE with iOS 12, especially in idle mode. The phone was completely replaced by Apple in November 2018, so new battery.

As a_c_a has noted already, I also think that iCloud is the reason for the battery drain - or to be more specific, my individual iCloud account.

Here is why:

• Signing out of iCloud on my iPhone immediately resolves the battery issue and at least triples battery life in idle mode.
• Restoring the iPhone with iTunes and setting it up as a new phone did not help one bit (no third party apps installed and no settings changed)
• I have a work phone (also an SE, 2,5 years old) running iOS 12 with a separate iCloud account - no problems there, great battery life in idle mode.
• I have created new iCloud accounts for testing purposes on my private SE - no problems with battery life either.

Conclusion: My private iCloud Account is damaged. However, Apple does not even recognize any issue with the battery in my case and they won't be of any help here. According to Apple tech support, 2 days of standby time (i.e. not using the phone for a single second) is absolutely normal for a brand new battery.

To all others with battery issues: You might try signing out of iCloud completely (not just turning off individual iCloud settings) and check if that helps.

Looking forward to your results!

Interesting but

1. We should not be on 12.1.4 now and this thread should be closed now.
2. 8 to 10 days standby??? Seriously?

This thread was about a dramatic 4 hour flat drain before lunch time, not how many days you can go between charges.

iphones should in my opinion be charged overnight. If it goes a full day of reasonable usage, ie maybe 8 hours browsing and emailing, then it is absolutely normal.

Yes, interesting.

1. I am on 12.2 and this thread should please stay open.
2. Yes, seriously. We are talking about pure standby time here, meaning leaving your phone sitting on the desk and not using it. This seems to be completely new to you, but specified (by Apple) standby time has always been in the range of (up to) 200 - 300 hours (the latter for iPhone 4). For iPhone SE, Apple's own website stated up to 10 days. My work iPhone SE lasts 7 to 8 days with iCloud and Exchange connected, push switched on, iPhone always online around the clock.
3. Here is why this matters: If you get only 2 days instead of 10 standby time, guess how many hours you can actually use the phone per day. Right.

1. Whatever
2. Standby time is time when the phone is doing NOTHING, not just when you are not using it. The phone is always doing something whether the screen is on or not. If you want to measure standby time do the following:

• Disable Background App Refresh
• Disable Location Services
• Disable all notifications
• Turn off Wi-Fi so it doesn't connect to known networks
• Delete or turn off all email accounts
• Log out of iMessage and FaceTime
• Contact your carrier and have them disable SMS and MMS on your account
• Also have your carrier turn off voice service, or put the phone in Airplane mode, because the phone "calls home" frequently so the network knows where it is
• Note that you will not be able to actually use the phone, but that's what Standby means - not using the phone in any way whatsoever

Again and to sum it up:

• Private iPhone SE, new battery, set up as new device, iCloud logged out, airplane mode not turned on, connected to wifi: standby time is 10 days.
• Same iPhone, same settings, but iCloud logged in: standby time 2 days.
• Different iPhone SE, different iCloud account (logged in), additional exchange account logged in, iPhone not in airplane mode and connected to 4G around the clock: 7 to 8 days of standby time.

Why?

Hey Joey,

Do you also use an Apple watch.

Yesterday I was connected With an Apple support team and they were analysing my iPhone’s battery.

My battery health shows Maximum capacity of 75% and the support team told me that you need to replace your battery.

I also asked them that If the battery drain issue is due to the Apple Watch that I have paired with the iPhone 6s running ios 12.1.4 , However they told me that my iphone battery needs to be replaced as the issue is not due to the pairing of apple watch.

Then I thought of unpairing my Apple Watch with my iPhone and that actually worked .My battery life is as good as it was before.

I feel very embarrassed on the way apple support team works . They should be knowing what is causing the issue and not simply telling me to replace the battery.

Now i dont Know what to do with the Apple Watch.

Thankyou for this Izadi but i turned background refresh off for all apps and last night after full charge i put my brand new ipad pro into aeroplane mode. I did not touch it after that. I have a 5 year old ipad air with a stuffed battery which i have not updated to 12.1.4 and it lost virtually no battery over same period. Ive only had my new ipad for a month and have noticed signicant decline in battery life when installing 12.1.4 See attached.

I am too facing the same issue and it's not any app because if you see the screenshot, when no app is active, the battery percentage is on sharp decline.. This has happened only after the 12.1.4 update.

With 12.1.13, Battery life with my iPhone8 was best. 100% at 12am midnight and it's 99% when I wake up at 8am, with my apps running in the background.

With 12.1.14, battery life with my iPhone8 was 100% at 12am midnight and it's 79% when I wake up at 8am, with all my apps closed in the background.

So 20% battery drain over the night doing nothing.

I am technically inclined and there was no changes done to my settings, so I know something is wrong after the update.

So why is there a drastic drain in the battery life?

hi all,

iPhone X

before IOS12.1.4, during night, when I went to sleep 100%

in the morning 100%

after 12.1.4, a drain is present, even no app is reported.

please see below the 22:00 - 23:00 interval:

background app refresh - off

thank you,

robert

I checked battery usage graph on the top. I see the difference before and after updating last night. My battery slightly reduce once I was at iOS12.1.3. Comparing to today, my battery are consuming dramatically. I have checked the battery usage and it tell me that Youtube and Apple Music are consuming the most of my battery which my phone does not have been like this until I updated iOS to 12.1.4.

Use the Settings app to see what is using your battery the most. Once you know that you can take the appropriate steps to reduce battery usage.

Settings app > Scroll down to Battery > wait a few seconds until the Battery usage appears. Below the graph of battery usage will be a list of apps and the percentage of battery they are using.

Even I am facing the same issue in my iPhone XR. Battery is draining by default.

I charged in the morning & even with minimal usage; my battery has reduced significantly by 30% in a matter of 3 hours.

Mail is taking 27% and radio app is 27%. However, I charged to 100% before bedtime last night and it became 92% an hour and a half later ( using social media app).. I did not use the phone at all this morning and it is now at 50% - 12 hours later. Battery was draining the day before ( Monday) also after I updated to 12.1.4 earlier in the day.

I have a 7 plus, and my battery health is 83%. This battery drain is drastic and it is contemporaneous with the update.

There is no time that any smartphone is doing nothing, unless it is completely powered off. You had one or more apps doing something during those 13 hours. Settings/Battery will tell you which apps, and if you tap on one the display will switch to show how many hours the app was doing something and whether it was background or live.