iPhone 7 Plus with iOS 13.4 battery drain problem

This is a problem Apple has to solve, not end users with some battery spy app. For a 1000$ + device I expect beta testing to be done in house or my dedicated beta testers but not end users.

Devices have been fine until iOS 13.4.x and then batteries of thousands of users drain by the minute. So Apple should look into their code and the changes in it instead of ignoring their customers.

And if you personally are not experiencing what thousands of others are, all across the net and all across the world, with reports in reputable media, that may be nice for you, but patronizing remarks here don’t really get the issue solved!

This is an official Apple site. Are they taking any note of what is written here?

I updated to 13.4 from 13.3.1 a week and a half ago, and noticed an immediate upsurge of battery drainage. Not good.

Updated to 13.5 today, 5/23/20, in hopes that Apple has done the right thing and fixed the battery drainage issue that many have made note of.

Not loving Apple these days.

If Apple is unable to fix your phone, you can since yesterday try other alternatives which will give you more control on your device, maybe that will offer better options to control the battery… at the end, it cannot be worse than what Apple is (not) doing for us in the battery side.

The battery drain came back on my XE and the battery level graph was showing steady drain with no app listed as contributing. I realised I had added Microsoft Authenticator and enabled the passwordless mode for teleworking, I deleted it and so far the same steady drain has stopped happening. I may try Authenticator again with passwordless mode disabled.

Fact: I have an XS Max with battery drain since 13.4.1. DFU mode restore to clean 13.4.1 ipsw did nothing.

Fact: 13.5 update did not fix this for me.

Fact: I have uninstalled (and reinstalled) apps that appeared to be taking up more battery to no avail.

Fact: I have disabled Bluetooth for a day and saw no change.

Fact: I have disabled Siri (and Hey Siri) for a day and saw no change.

Final fact: I intend to take this into Apple and request a battery replacement. If refused... I will be a very unhappy customer :)

[Edited by Moderator]

I've been dealing with this issue for 6+ months. I updated to iOS 12, then 13. My iPad battery life went from 20 hours on a charge to 4 - sometimes less. I've done all the fixes. It's an endemic problem for Apple and they've failed to address it.

The problem with the battery app is that it only shows the apps that are taking up cpu time it doesn't show what the iOS is doing & that in the majority of cases is what's causing the problem & I know this because after a complete flat rebuild which no other configuration or apps installed or loaded the cpu was still running close to 100%.

I think I may have isolated the problem at least for some iPhone models. This is only day one though.

Another poster commented about an issue with a SIM card and LTE which didn't make much sense to me except that if 13.4.1/13.5 contained a modem issue that was draining battery.

I had VoLTE (Voice over LTE) turned OFF but it seems that iOS 13's new menu system turned this back on. Turning VoLTE Off (Settings > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data > LTE, VoLTE Off) seems to have improved the battery today although I have not used the device as much today. However, I am not seeing the dramatic IDLE battery loss as I was before.

It may be a starting point so please try turning VoLTE off and reporting your findings to all of us. If we find that this is the issue maybe we can submit a more detailed bug report. (For iPhones or perhaps iPads that have an LTE modem -- which would require LTE off entirely if this was the same problem)...

So, I have two suggestions:

Turn off VoLTE if you have the option. See how the device operates over the next 24 hours.

If you have an iPad/don't have a VoLTE option, turn off LTE and see how the device operates over the next 24 hours.

Let us know if this solves anything at all and then we may find the source of this bug.

In my case, it seems iOS 13.5 more or less fixed the problem, after nearly two months in which I could never used my device for more than 5 minutes a day while my battery health went from 95% to 89%. One week after installing iOS 13.5, I just restored my email accounts… two months useless, what a waste, thank you Apple.

Now this seems to be over for me (at least until the next iOS release), I’d like to understand how some persons who only repeat what Apple 1st level support would say or, worse, constantly deny people having troubles, can reach 10k points… are they real, are they just bots?

torbizo wrote:

I want my battery to be strong.

What does that mean?

Batteries are consumables. They will lose capacity over time. How fast they lose that capacity depends on, primarily, how much you use them and, to a much lesser extent, on how you store them.

Right. Or how a buggy update caused the OS to drain the battery even during idle periods at 5X the rate it was before the update.

Do not tell us our devices do not have an issue. My device is less than 10 months old and was PERFECT ON IOS 13.3.X and 13.4. 13.4.1 instantly caused a problem unfixed by 13.5.

So frustrated that I am about to uhh how do I say it on these forums... go to another Galaxy after 13 years w/ Apple.

Finally got an appt with Genius Bar for Friday. They either replace the battery or I sell the iPhone (iPhone user for 13 years) and switch travel to "a new Galaxy". (Since I have to word things differently on here).

Don’t get me wrong with this post, I was just as annoyed as everyone else with this bug when it first started on my iPhone. I’m not trying to absolve Apple of their responsibility.

The problem has gone away for me. I must have done 3 phone resets to restore to the new phone status and long periods of low battery use to get there. I know this hasn’t worked for others from comments left here.

I never had the 100% or very high CPU load as others but I had excessive battery drain. It must be difficult to fix something that goes away as in my case.

Recently I had to install some apps for teleworking and I found that Microsoft Authenticator in notification mode caused me excessive battery drain and Microsoft write that their app won’t do this but it did for me. Sound familiar?

High CPU needs an equivalent of Linux top to find what is hogging the processor. It’s pity there isn’t a tool to find this out. It needs contact with Apple to give them diagnostics but their first line support are ignorant of the problem. macOS gives us CPU monitoring, it’s a pity the equivalent isn’t in iOS.

This post doesn’t help the people who still have the problem.

All I can suggest is try restore to a new phone with no apps at first. It’s a painful step because you lose all the configuration you have done.

I’m hesitating to post this because of reaction. Here goes, publish and be ******.

Shanesnh wrote:

Finally got an appt with Genius Bar for Friday. They either replace the battery or I sell the iPhone (iPhone user for 13 years) and switch travel to "a new Galaxy". (Since I have to word things differently on here).

You are allowed to say "Samsung" here (or LG or Motorola or HTC). You're allowed to say you are going to buy a Samsung phone. You're allowed to say that you never want to buy another Apple iPhone again.

If you want great battery life, look at Motorola. They have some models that have amazing battery life. They also have a lot less bloatware installed than Samsung.