I bought my iPhone XS towards the end of January and it’s been less than 2 months now and my battery capacity is at 96%. I don’t have any abnormal/heavy usage either and my phone easily lasts over 12 hours. I’m a bit confused as to what’s going on. Is anyone else going through something similar and is my phone fine or is my phone/battery faulty?
iPhone XS, iOS 12
Do you typically leave your phone charging over night? This generates heat. This slowly damages the Li ion cells in your battery. This might address the issue of your battery capacity but not why it drains so quickly. As anypats stated, check and disable background app refresh for apps that don't need to be updating continually. Facebook and WhatsApp could be culprits.
If you use WhatsApp, I suggest that you set make the following changes in settings.
data and storage usage / media auto-download:
notifications - turn off as many as possible.
If you use Facebook, turn off as many notifications as possible.
Howard
So Apple has had a look at it and they say the phone is fine but I don’t believe it. My phone drains battery way too fast; literally 1% every 3-4 minutes and I’m not even doing anything much on the phone. By mid day my battery is at 30%.
Do you reckon iOS 12.2 will make a difference? About to update my phone.
Thank you for the detailed response Howard. I just did what you said. I don’t have a Facebook so that’s fine there. For WhatsApp I have changed the storage use settings as well as background app refresh but in terms of background app refresh won’t this affect my phones ability to receive push notifications?
I do charge my phone overnight and that too with the 12W iPad charger but I do that only because Apple’s official website state that it’s safe to use and everyone I know technically charges their phone overnight because apparently iPhone can’t really ‘overcharge’.
Regarding WhatsApp, you have to decide which is more important? Longer battery life or frequent WhatsApp notifications. If you disable the automatic downloading of videos, that will save your battery usage even if you don't change your notification settings. I suggest that you make 1 change at a time if you wish to determine what is impacting your battery life.
The issue is overheating; not overcharging with regards to your battery being able to retain a full charge for as long as possible.
Li ion batteries maintain optimum battery life if you do multiple shorter charges rather than longer charges. I would recommend that once your phone runs down to 60-80%, charge it until it is fully charged then unplug it.
A few years ago, an Apple genius informed me that regular use of the iPad's 12W charger to charge your iPhone can eventually damage your phone. Your iPhone is designed to be charged with a 5W charger.
Because everyone does something has no bearing on whether it is good to do or not.
Howard
Your battery usage shows you that WhatsApp used the battery for almost 5 hours. About half of that usage was when it was running in the background. As previously mentioned by 2 of us, disabling background app refresh for noncritical apps will extend your battery life.
Howard
The Apple Geniuses don’t know everything. There was a report of a genius saying that you shouldn’t wirelessly charge because you’re using the battery to charge itself. Whoever told you that the 12W charger shouldn’t be used was misinformed. Apple clearly advertises using an 18W, 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W charger with the iPhone for fast charging.
Actually taking a closer look at this article and the previous one that I posted, it appears that the 12W charger may be fine for all iPads. Higher wattage chargers are fine for the iPhone 8 or later.
Charge your iPhone with an iPad or Mac notebook power adapter
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202105
I learned something new. It appears that fast charging is fine for newer iPhones (8 or later).
Fast charge your iPhone
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208137
Howard
WhatsApp drains my battery the most according to this chart and the background activity is more than the time on the screen which is really odd.
You can have Apple diagnose it but they won't replace it unless it is below 80% within the warranty period. I wouldn't be too concerned about it.
Try force closing all your apps and restarting your phone. Also check your background app refresh in Settings.
Also go to settings / battery. Identify the apps that you are using the most. They may be the apps that are draining your battery.
Howard
iPhone XS Battery Capacity at 96% after less than 2 months use
