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iOS 13.5.1 battery drain

The battery drain from background activity in iOS 13.5.1 is horrible. Happens on several apps, currently Bloom berg and Teamsnap. Same problem on my iPad and my wife's iPhone Xs. Come on Apple, this needs to be fix now!

iPhone XS

Posted on Jun 5, 2020 8:28 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 8, 2020 8:04 AM

in that case it is apps that have not been modified to run on the new OS and have runaway background usage, Viber fir example.

or a busted phone.

Nothing in 13.5.1 itself is causing this.

So to test this ( yes effort required)

  • backup
  • restore to factory settings as though you were selling it - see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351
  • Set it up with your apple account
  • Check battery usage in that vanilla environment.
  • Restore from backup.


636 replies

Jul 8, 2020 12:31 PM in response to AzizBhimaniMax

Please all of you

Send a feedback to Apple please

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

https://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html


Apple needs to know about the catastrophic update they made.

Maybe just if it cares about Apple Music LOL!

I do not have the subscription and Music is not the culprit for me but even the replacement iPad I got is not fully charging

What it solves- for 2-3 days - is to force restart it. This is an issue of the diabolic 13.5.1

Apple needs to fix it!! It's going on since June

Shame on APPLE!

Jul 13, 2020 5:34 AM in response to TexThomas

Finally fixed on my iPhone XS: disconnected from iCloud account, and reconnected.

I did power cycle the device in between, but don’t know if it necessary.

Before that, I tried everything without success:

  • uninstall Mail (it was using the most of the background process)
  • turn off background activity
  • reset iPhone, re-initialise with backup

Nothing worked.

Now its fine!




Jul 17, 2020 3:31 AM in response to AzizBhimaniMax

If 13.6 didn't do it for you like it has for some others then you need to look at the other reasons and remedies, starting with taking it back to factory settings without recovery from backup (like I used to do on my S5)


Here is a guide for those steps:


How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings


time and again it has been stressed thete is no one single cause or remedy.

Jul 19, 2020 10:37 AM in response to moni8181

Battery Recalibration

This technique is controversial but has been marked as a solution by more than one community member.

It is suitable when battery charge drops step-wise or dramatically has you described..

It may be that a new battery is required but worth a try


First backup the phone

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Then put on a video with full screen brightness and the auto lock set to never so that the battery runs down fully. Throw in the flashlight if you want.

When flat (turns off), leave it flat for one hour, no more, no less,

Apply the charger and in one session fully charge the phone and leave it on charge for at least 2 hours after it reaches 100%

Remove from charger and immediately force restart

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph8903c3ee6/ios


The battery is now recalibrated. 


Any further dramatic stepwise loss should indicate a new battery is needed, particularly if large losses are experienced when the phone is powered off. 


General high usage (but steady) may indicate a rogue app or setting, in which case the next step would be to restore your device, and setup the device without restoring a backup, to see if the issue is replicated. I would first make sure you have a backup so your data is saved.


Here is a guide for those steps:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings

and see how it goes


If no improvement send it for repair or replace battery

If it works well restore from backup but be prepared to wipe again without restore from backup. 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204184

Sep 11, 2020 1:59 AM in response to Puma6

Nothing to fix. Vast majority of phones have no problem

The next procedure is to restore your device, and setup the device as new without restoring a backup, to see if the issue is replicated. I would first make sure you have a backup so your data is saved.

Here is a guide for those steps:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings

and see how it goes

If no improvement send it for repair or replace

If it works well restore from backup but be prepared to wipe again without restore from backup. 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204184

Jun 15, 2020 4:07 AM in response to PeggySue66

I will say three things

  1. It may settle once the reindexing has finished.
  2. Why leave it overnight without a charger? These phones are designed to use in the day and charge overnight. The battery app even tries to determine your sleep pattern.
  3. If all else fails you may need to get a new copy of the OS. Which means...
  • Backup.
  • Then set to factory settings with Settings, General, Reset, Erase all content and settings.
  • Then set up with your appleID like a new phone without a restore. Try for a day. How did it do?
  • If OK then restore from backup and see how it went


If anyone says they tried that and no difference then they don't speak for you because your phone is not theirs

Jun 15, 2020 11:58 AM in response to paulmic2011

"...battery usage just shows a step drop in the graph, no apps had usage. I’m happy to help test anything right now to aid in resolving this issue. .."


I had battery step drops when I set up my old 6S for my wife after a full reset to factory (which surprised me)

To fix it I recalibrated the battery:-

  1. Run a long video with screen timeout set to Never and top brightness on, so as to run the battery down flat and leave flat a further 2 hours
  2. put on charge to 100% and leave on charge a further 2 hours
  3. Disconnect charger and force restart the phone

Worked for me

Jun 23, 2020 4:17 AM in response to shabanonda

Heresay evidence is of even less value. let them give their own evidence.


None of the regular contributors have this problem including me but unlike me they stay away from these battery drain threads.


Bottom line is that if your phone still has a drain or battery display problem after a complete vanilla restore and a recalibration procedure, the phone has a hardware problem.

The big suspects remain

  • Apps
  • Settings
  • Cloud services

Jul 6, 2020 6:15 AM in response to knopfler19

Same story here. I updated two iPhones (6s and 6s Plus) to 13.5.1 a couple weeks ago. But issues started just two days ago, on both devices.


In my case I tracked it down to the native Music app. The issues started when I tried to download a music album on one of the iPhones. The app behaved strangely, showing partial download of some tracks, spinning the download wheel picture but never finishing the download. The phone started to get hot and drain the battery. Closing the app and restarting the phone didn't help, it seemed that it continued the downloading attempts in the background and loaded the system. The other phone started lagging, getting hot and draining battery later the same day, although I didn't touch the Music app on it, - probably because it was on the same iTunes account and decided to download the same album automatically.


What helped in my case:


For the first time, I did full encrypted backup of the phone to a computer, fully erased the phone and then restored from the backup. This helped. However, once I attempted to download a music album in the Music app again, the issue returned.


For the second time, I tried a lighter approach, and it helped:


  1. I closed Music app.
  2. Turned on 'Airplane mode' (my idea was to prevent it from continuing download attempts)
  3. Opened Music app again to check if it stopped loading the album (it did)
  4. Restarted the iPhone - turn it off and on (just to be sure it interrupted background download)
  5. Loaded Music app to check that it didn't attempt to download music anymore
  6. Turned off 'Airplane mode'


I can use the Music app if I do not download tracks, - streaming seems to be fine and does not cause issues.


[Edited by Moderator]


Jul 7, 2020 1:10 PM in response to Bullwinkle2112

Bullwinkle, Don't quote me from 24 pages ago and accuse me of demeaning people I am trying to help.

The only positive fixes coming out of these 25 pages that worked are:

  • Restore to Factory or
  • Restore from backup or
  • Delete the offending apps or
  • Reset or modify settings, Siri, Dark mode etc.

No other remedies have worked

What do you suggest??


Begging Apple for a "fix" and threatening to go Android certainly havent worked do far.


Jul 8, 2020 8:03 AM in response to TexThomas

I have an iPhone SE 2nd gen and had this problem with the music app, battery drained badly even when I was asleep and not using the phone. As of writing this it appears I fixed the problem by


  1. turning off mobile data use for music streaming
  2. turning off background refresh for the music app
  3. turn off automatic downloads for new music
  4. turn off and back on the phone when I made these changes.


Will update if this changes.

Jul 13, 2020 3:50 AM in response to TexThomas

iPhone XS Max. Ever since have got iOS 13.5.1, the battery drain has been insane.


  • I get it to 100% and it's down to about mid-40% within 2 hours
  • Phone gets extremely hot if I am on a call especially if internet is turned on
  • Have tried everything including no background refresh and switching off internet intermittently for about an hour every now and then and that stretches the battery life by about 30-40 minutes


It's an absolute shame from Apple that after spending thousands of dollars on a device, we end up with a s/w update that kills the battery and almost renders the device useless. In the middle of a f**** pandemic when calls have increased and we need our phones more than ever.


If this is a mistake, then Apple should have the ethics and decency to communicate ETA for a fix.


If this is intentional to push users to upgrade to a device, then Apple just lost 1 dedicated customer for sure! I would rather spend $300-500 on a Chinese device because I atleast would know that I need to upgrade every year & not be under any apprehension of a fantastic 'service' and corporate BS like 'revolutionary devices and customer focus'!

Jul 13, 2020 10:47 PM in response to TexThomas

Since a few days my battery of my iPhone 8 (iOS 13.5.1) drains at a rate of approx. -25% every hour.

Under my iPhone Settings > Battery I noticed an extraordinary background activity (several hours) of the Music App, without being used/opened.

The following preliminary actions did not solve the problem:

  • forced restart
  • deactivation of background app refresh

Now by coincidence I found out, that each time I close and re-open the Music App, the SHUFFLE-mode is ACTIVATED with another song loaded.

Therefore I have a strong guess, that whenever you close the Music App, music is played continuously in SHUFFLE-mode in the background without noticing resp. hearing it. As soon as I leave the Music App on, deactivate the SHUFFLE-mode and keep the music stopped from playing, the battery drainage resumes to a normal rate.

iOS 13.5.1 battery drain

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