Background Battery Drain IOS 13.5 iPhone XS Max

Question

Level 1

8 points

Background Battery Drain IOS 13.5 iPhone XS Max

Hello.

i am having substantial battery drain on my iPhone XS Max. I’m not sure what’s wrong. I already did a hard reset and it doesn’t fix it. At night I place my iPhone on the night stand with battery in the 50s and I wake up with it hovering around 20. It happens during the day too even thought I have background refresh disabled. I’ve tried placing the phone in battery save mode at night and it still happens. I’ve checked battery drain and notice apps are consuming a lot of battery in the background but it is never the same app. They vary from day to day. This has never happened to me before. I am pretty knowledgeable but not sure what could be causing this. I’ve included some pictures to illustrate the problem. I have more if needed. I’m on iOS 13.5. Thanks for the help.

iPhone XS Max, iOS 13

Posted on May 30, 2020 6:46 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 30, 2020 7:16 AM in response to PJMED

It depends on the usage probably not on iOS 13.5. How has your usage changed after the iOS update.

Protect & Prolong life of your iPhone's Battery: About the battery usage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch ...

Try some of these options too.

Avoid Screen Mirroring
Put on Low Power Mode
Put Auto Lock On (1 min):- with low power mode it will be 30 Sec
Put Auto Answer Off
Disable Push notifications for apps you do not use often
Enable Auto Brightness:- Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Auto-Brightness [Enable]
Manually lower brightness from Control Center
If you Want to watch continuous Video. Stream it on TV or a Monitor
Don't force close apps; Apps which are not on frontend screen are paused by the system to save energy. Apps require more energy to re-launch. Apps which are open in the background use large memory is a myth and quitting them is counterproductive
Location services to be allowed only while using the app
Set your iPhone to fetch email and calendar data from internet less frequently
Turning off Background App Refresh
Charge before it drops below 20-30%
Try connecting to trusted Wifi where ever available in stead of Cellular
Enable Airplane mode in areas with bad cellular and wifi coverage. Your phone keeps trying for reconnection with the missing / weak network. This uses lot of energy
Switch off Wifi & Bluetooth while in Roaming or Not in Range
Enable "Wifi Assist" : Settings > Cellular or Settings > Mobile Data > Wi-Fi Assist [Enable]
Periodically Check your Battery Health (Settings > Battery > Battery Health)

iPhone Battery and Performance

Reply

Answer 2

lindros2

Level 2

194 points

May 30, 2020 1:14 PM in response to PJMED

Yes - having drain issues on (1) iPad Pro - Bloomberg app went haywire, and (2) iPhone 11 Pro Max - ESPN went haywire.

"Recently deleted app" is ESPN. I had background refresh - for that app - turned OFF. See the background usage? Crazy.

Note that the iPhone was more resilient, but over a shorter period of time. The iPad battery overnight (6-7 hours) drained from 80% > 15%.

Reply

Answer 3

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

May 30, 2020 1:46 PM in response to lindros2

Lindros

Interesting. When did you notice the problem? Because at first I thought it was just one app but I can tell you right now. It’s not ONE app, so deleting the ESPN app won’t solve the issue. Look at CNN and Tapatalk. There are others you can’t see, for example Weather Channel 37hours 9 minutes of background use. MarketWatch 32:28, Investing.com 17:03, etc. By the way, the onscreen usage is always 1,2,3,4 minutes. At the moment I am testing closing the apps manually after using them. Which is incredibly tedious. But it does appear to work. Will let you know if it does once I confirm it. Probably tomorrow.

Reply

Answer 4

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

May 31, 2020 1:31 PM in response to lindros2

Lindros

We will see what happens. I have double checked apps and some of the offending apps have been updated for 13.5. Or at least, they received updates after the release. Others haven’t. Anyway, I’ve been closing all the 3rd party apps and leaving the Apple apps only and it seems to be working. Here is a picture of the battery consumption graph which I think speaks for itself. I will keep monitoring the issue and report back any findings. You are absolutely correct in saying that doing this is a big inconvenience, especially since it is something that we are NOT accustomed to doing. Also Keep in mind that it is something that Apple itself does not want us to do, and has mentioned it several times over the years (continuously close apps manually). But the alternative is that not doing this WILL degrade your battery faster that normal usage. Which is what I’m trying to prevent. I hope somebody, somewhere, says something about this and the problem is fixed. I spoke to a friend las night and he seems to be having the same problem with his iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Reply

Answer 5

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

May 30, 2020 7:28 AM in response to SravanKrA

Hi.

Thanks for posting. It is not a problem with the battery. My usage is the same as always, hasn’t changed. I at first I assumed a problem with an app but if you look at the pictures provided you will notice several different apps having the same problem. Please look at the screen provided carefully. The provide a ton of info. For example, that first one is from TODAY at 6:40AM when I woke up. If you look carefully you can see that the CNN and MarketWatch have been running in the background NON STOP while I was sleeping. Keep in mind I wasn’t using the phone (I was sleeping) and that I have background refresh disabled. I’m not saying it is iOS 13.5 (although it could be) but it is NOT a hardware issue. This is a software issue. Again, thanks for the help.

Reply

Answer 6

lindros2

Level 2

194 points

May 30, 2020 9:05 AM in response to PJMED

There should be a running list.

Bloomberg on my iPad, and ESPN on my iPhone 11 Pro, went nuts.

There are no updates for those who proposed that solution.

AND I have background refresh turned off for those apps (Bloomberg doesn’t even have the option; ESPN does).

Reply

Answer 7

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

May 30, 2020 11:33 AM in response to lindros2

Hello Lindros.

Are you having the same issue on your iPhone 11? What apps are giving you issues in the background? I am currently testing closing the apps manually after using the to see if it works. It might, not sure yet. I am worried because this will degrade the battery faster.

Reply

Answer 8

lindros2

Level 2

194 points

May 30, 2020 3:16 PM in response to PJMED

@PJMED

Totally hear you. For me, I don't have Tapatalk or CNN, but it appears to be (some) apps which haven't been updated (nor weren't properly tested) to deal with changes to the background refresh logic in 13.5. (I'm guessing here)

After deleting Bloomberg and ESPN, I'm okay (for now), but obviously monitoring the situation.

(I also removed and reinstalled, and they were better, but over time, went back to haywire)

Reply

Answer 9

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 1, 2020 6:19 PM in response to lindros2

I can definitely confirm that force closing the apps fixes the background usage problem. Even though it is a chore to do this and I occasionally forget an app. Today it was the Weather Channel which stayed on in the background eating up my battery for an hour until I finally noticed it.

Lindros

is there any chance you can install The Weather Channel, CNN or one of the other apps to AI if you can replicate the problem in your phone?

Reply

Answer 10

lindros2

Level 2

194 points

Jun 2, 2020 5:26 AM in response to PJMED

Two things @PJMED

First, I actually have The Weather (Channel) on my phone. It wasn't pegged at "1hr" background usage, but did use about 10-15 minutes of it (over 36 minutes of an hour, when I checked). This is high, but not abnormal.

In that case, it was closed (wasn't active/front/open/minimized). But I have a widget that I occasionally view.

Second - iOS 13.5.1 came out. Anyone see differences? I would presume Apple would have to acknowledge/admit the issue before fixing it...

Reply

Answer 11

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 2, 2020 9:21 AM in response to lindros2

Lindros

i agree with your assessment of the background consumption of the weather channel app in your phone. While it does sound a little high, it does not look to be “out of control” like on the examples presented here. The fact that you are running a widget should definitely account for some background usage as the widget updates itself on the background.

I installed 13.5.1 today and will see if it changes anything. But being a .0.1 update, my hopes are not very high. Let me know if you notice something different.

Reply

Answer 12

PJMED Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 2, 2020 9:25 AM in response to PJMED

By the way, I called Apple about this issue and they ran a diagnostic on my phone. They concluded that there is nothing wrong with it and that it is running normally. So I don’t know what to say.

An interesting point was when I said that Force Closing the apps seemed to “solve” the issue. The Apple representative said that the battery drain due to the background usage is normal because I was leaving the apps “open” in the background. Also, the fact that I had Background Refresh disabled makes NO difference because I was not Force Closing (Swipe cards up) the apps when I stopped using them. I said that according to Apple that is not encouraged. I’ve read this many times and have been told not to do this by Apple store employees. I have other friends who’ve been told the same when they visit Apple Stores with battery consumption issues. To my surprise he said “that is not true”. So apparently, according to the 2 people I spoke to on Apple, you now need to Force Close apps after you finish using them. And that is what Apple recommends.

Reply

Answer 13

lindros2

Level 2

194 points

Jun 2, 2020 10:27 AM in response to PJMED

@PJMED -- This is why Apple support has gone to garbage.

Maybe if their little fingers could do a Google search, they'd realize that iOS 13 (earlier versions) were KILLING apps in the background, causing them to crash.

This is now the INVERSE situation, which might be caused by apps REMAINING on the new workaround behavior, while the OS actually changed and pulled the rug out from developers because it went back to the pre-iOS background handling?

Maybe? https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/31/20942043/apple-ios-13-iphone-11-pro-ram-memory-management-app-background-refresh

Reply