Something is continuously draining my battery. Is my battery faulty? (iPhone 7 Plus)

Question

Something is continuously draining my battery. Is my battery faulty? (iPhone 7 Plus)

Hi everyone.

I have an iPhone 7 Plus that I bought new in November/2018. My battery Health currently is on 99%. Since I got it, I've noticed a battery drain during overnight with everything off (wifi, bluetooth, mobile data, all apps closed...), always around 10-15% (some days more than this). My girlfriend also bought an iPhone 7 Plus but in January/2019. Some weeks ago, I've noticed that she actually uses much more than me and her iPhone ALWAYS last longer the battery than mine. So, I decided to do a test last sunday to really see the trouble I'm having. I disconnected the charger of both phones at 4:40am and we both use the same Wifi network during the whole day. The only real difference in usage was about 19h-20h when I used bluetooth to play music on spotify in my car.

Here you can see the results: Image

Note: On the left is her iPhone, at right is mine. Both on iOS 12.2.

Note²: Her battery health: 96%; my iphone: 99%.

Note³: We use different mobile carriers. The mobile signal of both phones during the whole day was in 3/4. When the phones were charging, my girlfriend's iphone keeps on 2/4 and mine 3/4. Only in the screenshots, her iPhone was on 3/4 and mine (in my room) keeps between 3/4 and 2/4 sometimes.

I think that everyone can clearly see that something isn't right on my iPhone. And this is happening everyday. It looks like something keeps running in my iPhone and I just can't figure out what could be...

What I did? Yesterday I got in touch with Apple support and they said that "this is not a normal behavior of the iphone 7 plus". They suggested me to do a Factory Reset using iTunes and set up the iPhone as new, just to ensure that this problem is not caused by any bug on the IOS.

I did that, installed everything again and the problem seems to keep happening.

Here's my usage today: Image (you can see that I had to charge it a little bit to last until I go to sleep)

So, can I consider that my phone have a faulty battery? Because I have tried from simple solutions that we all can find on internet (disabling background refresh, reducing screen brightness, etc...) to the more difficult one (restoring the iPhone) and nothing changes...

I almost forgot, but my girlfriend uses in her iPhone almost every feature possible, so, there's no point of "trying to disable things" on my iPhone and still get a much lower battery life

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 12

Posted on May 1, 2019 6:48 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Totemic_tHiRp Author

Level 1

8 points

May 12, 2019 5:00 PM in response to Totemic_tHiRp

Well, I've contacted Apple Suport again and a "superior" of tecnical support told me that my "weird" battery usage was due the carrier signal. This might sound weird, but actually makes sense, because when I use my iPhone with airplane mode turned On, I get a much better battery life and the battery drain overnight didn't happen

I want to test with a nanochip from other carrier to be sure, but I'm 99% sure that this is the reason.

Found the reason; didn't find a "solution". Weird.

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Answer 2

May 2, 2019 4:55 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

In the OP I've posted a pic of my test with the exactly same conditions (this image right here). In this test I've turned everything off in both phones, and she always turns everything off everyday when she go to sleep.

In this post you can clearly see that her iPhone consumes almost nothing in the battery while she isn't using it, with everything turned off. In my phone, it doesn't matter, I always get that 10~15% overnight.

I know about this of charging overnight, but the question is: I'm getting drain in my battery while doing nothing with the phone (no matter what is turned on or off), and this is for sure affecting my usage the entire day. You all can see in the screenshots: the battery usage chart almost looks like a perfect diagonal.

And do you really think that there's nothing wrong with my iPhone? You think that a phone consuming 10~15% of battery while doing nothing with everything off is "pretty good"?

Sorry but I just can not agree with that statement

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Answer 3

May 1, 2019 7:35 PM in response to deggie

I use WhatsApp and there's no point in removing it to "test". Why? Because, even that I had 41% of battery usage by Whatsapp in the second screenshot that I've posted, it only was on screen during 40min and 2h00 in background activity (receiving messagens, notifications).

And, do you know why I got high usage of Whatsapp in my battery? Because it is practically the only one app I use in a normal day. I check Instagram 3 times a day, for example...

That's why I really think that my battery isn't right.

If I think about removing what I use and that does not demonstrate an abnormal behavior, soon I'll have my iPhone with nothing on it to "not drain the battery"... Why would my battery drain even everything is closed? If whatsapp was using my battery during standby time that you can see on Image 1, this would make sense, honestly...

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Answer 4

deggie

Level 10

167,231 points

May 1, 2019 7:53 PM in response to Totemic_tHiRp

Sigh. First off this is a user-to-user technical support site so how about saving the attitude?

I only proposed leaving it off as a test, it can be using too much battery even in the foreground. Had you mentioned that you only use Instagram 3 times a day I would have gone that way, 37% is too high for that little usage. Remove it JUST TO TEST IT and see what happens.

If you don't want to do that click on the Contact Support link at the top right of this page to start the service process and have them do a hardware test of your battery.

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Answer 5

May 2, 2019 9:15 AM in response to deggie

What attitude? I'm saying that removing whatsapp (the app that I mostly use) just doesn't makes sense in this case.

Again: Why? Because I'm pretty sure it's not a software related problem, mainly because I've restored the iPhone using iTunes.

I tried to disabling 4G to voice services and leaving it activated just to mobile data, assuming that this problem could be mobile signal related, and I didn't see a real improvement.

I leave it in standby with everything off and the battery still drains a bit (today I took off the charger at 4:00am with 100% and woke up at 7:00am with 93%...).

Removing whatsapp in this case is something like if someone posts in this community "my airpod is draining battery fast, is it normal?" and someone else suggest "hey, try to not listen music to see if it stops".

And the Instagram using 37% is because I've didn't use any other apps, practically. It shows 37% because iOS calculates the battery consumption based in how much time that app was used. If, for example, I just use Whatsapp an entire day, it's obviously that iOS will show this app like "80% battery usage", but this NOT represent that I've seen the battery draining from 100% to 20% in my face while I was using the app... And this is the same about that 37% of Instagram usage.

In the end of the day I'll post my today's usage to show this.

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Answer 6

May 2, 2019 4:08 PM in response to KiltedTim

It's probably not a software-related problem, but indeed a hardware problem. I'm posting this here because Apple suport told me to test a few days after the complete restore via iTunes, and I just want to be sure if there is someone else who had the same problem and found a fix that is software-related...

Seizing the opportunity, here's my usage until 6:00pm: Image

Here's my girlfriend usage of her iPhone 7 Plus: Image

It's obvious that something isn't right on my phone.

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Answer 7

May 2, 2019 4:29 PM in response to Totemic_tHiRp

The thing that is continuously draining your battery is your phone. There is never a time when the phone is doing absolutely nothing. No matter what you turn off. And some of what you are turning off actually increases battery drain. Maybe your GF does NOT turn everything thing off; that's why her phone is working better. 10-15% overnight is actually pretty good. But what you should be doing is charging the phone overnight, every night. Then you won't care what is using energy overnight. In addition, whatever is using energy will be using line power and will not be using the battery, which will extend the life of the battery. And you can turn on iCloud backups; your phone will then back up every night when it is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged in and locked.

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Answer 8

deggie

Level 10

167,231 points

May 1, 2019 6:50 PM in response to Totemic_tHiRp

Remove your WhatsApp app for a test for a day and see if the drainage subsides.

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Answer 9

KiltedTim

Level 10

196,942 points

May 2, 2019 9:27 AM in response to Totemic_tHiRp

If you're convinced it's not a software problem, but a hardware problem, make an appointment at the genius bar of your local Apple Store. No one here can fix a hardware problem with your phone.

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Answer 10

May 2, 2019 4:59 PM in response to Totemic_tHiRp

I am absolutely certain that there is nothing wrong with your phone. But as there is nothing that I can say that will convince you I won't post again.

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Answer 11

May 2, 2019 5:09 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

It's impossible to get convinced due the fact I have tested with another 7 Plus and both phones were totally different in battery life. Anyway, thanks for coming here and share your thoughts

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Something is continuously draining my battery. Is my battery faulty? (iPhone 7 Plus)

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