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
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)
Even with this awful bug, I’m still enjoying 2 days battery life. I close every app after using it and turn off auto dark mode, that’s it. I would prefer not to have this but it fix the problem until Apple patch it.
My feeling is that this is actually a server side issue as I have exactly the same problems with my old iPad Air running 12.4.6 which points to it not being an iOS problem. Therefore I wouldn’t expect the next iOS update to fix things.
My ipad was a hot battery eating brick. I couldn’t use it for Apple News or my other reading apps. I have iTunes Match with auto download and a new CD I’d ripped on my Mac was trying to background download on the iPad. Switching off auto download on its own didn’t help. I had to delete the new album in Music app on my Mac to properly cancel it on the iPad which is now back to normal.
Based on this experience I’m fairly sure Apple made some changes to the Music service on their servers which screwed up downloading tracks.
In addition to all the aforementioned corrections to fix both battery issue and overall system issues, I disabled all Siri functions, including turning it on systemwide so I could get ride of all app settings and then turned it off again...same with privacy settings...same with iCloud settings...same with cellular usage setting. Then turned off WiFi. Reset phone with wifi off and had a struggle to get it to stay off, randomly kept trying to turn wifi on. Then I pretty much set the sucker aside for a couple days, except minimal needed calls and texts. Over then two days, frankly I’m not sure what exactly fixed it but my phone no longer drains and starts my hand on fire. I have slowly been reallocating cellular usage for apps as I need them. Still avoiding turning on any privacy permissions, done with iCloud and Siri forever, but can now use WiFi again with no problems. Also, systemwide glitches are gone. Never touched the Music app other than to reduce Siri invasiveness and stop cellular usage. Good luck to all with this issue, hopefully you will get a solution soon
[Edited by Moderator]
On standby my iPhone X will now last 5 days just sat there with all radios off except WiFi and no background refresh. Additionally I've tried the iCloud disconnect tip.
As soon as I use any app - tested this morning - by using Safari, Mail and Instagram, battery decreases at a rate of ~1.5% per minute.
I installed CPU X from the app store which has a handy CPU activity monitor widget. This reveals that even though nothing is running in the background, CPU activity regularly spikes at around 50% and settles at between 7% and 12%. Memory usage is at a constant 98%. That must mean that even with nothing running, the OS must constantly be writing out 'swap' memory. This in itself is a worry as it would indicate a high level of 'disk' activity (the memory is essentially just like an SSD drive).
So, to conclude this most unscientific test, the phone is working a lot, not doing anything and using a whole heap of memory doing it.
For testing, that's with 13.6, no apps installed other than CPU X and Instagram, Apple Music uninstalled, iCloud turned off then on again and background refresh off. Also, no SIM installed so no 4g. No radios on with the exception of WiFi.
At present, this iPhone X is unusable in any real world capacity as the battery life precludes any sort of reasonable usage pattern; browsing, checking email for instance are impossible for any period.
I fear that simply replacing the battery will make little difference in the long run as the software seems to be causing unnecessary wear and would therefore result in the same problem, only if be £69 plus travel, out of pocket.
At least the iPhone is currently set to good use as a paper weight on my desk.
I don’t claim to have the answer, but noticed an interesting coincidence that may be helpful. My first phone had this issue for several days. Music background activity was using most of my battery (95% at times) and causing phone to be hot. I had listened to plenty of music over those days, but hadn’t spent time with the app open on the screen. I was sorting through music for probably 15 minutes or longer and shortly after this, the phone cooled down and has been fine for about a week.
I just got a new SE yesterday for my other phone number, and set it up as new. Only added a few apps, and turned on all my iCloud services and Music. Phone was good for about 8 hours and then I noticed it getting hot. Battery settings showed Photos background activity suddenly at 45%. I opened the Photos app to see if I could see what was going on, and ended up sorting through pictures for 10-15 minutes, when suddenly the phone cooled down. All is well with this second phone now.
Theory? Maybe whatever app is causing the issue is trying to resolve something, but isn’t able to when running in the background. Actually running it front and center lets it complete the process. Is this a possibility?
Updated to 13.6. Appears the rogue background activity I was experiencing has ceased, yet the inexplicable battery drops and overall poor performance continues with my 6s. The old ‘Green Cliffs of iOS’ are still present.
When your battery is at 30%, switch off your device. Plug in the charger. Let it charge upto 100%. Then you switch on the device. This will clear up certain memory and you are good to go. To be honest in the last 6 days, I have got like 9h of usage per day on average with 70℅ of battery usage. I will attach a screenshot for you to believe. Notice that on 14,15 and 16th July, my battery drain was more. On 14th, 15th and 16th, the screen off time was 28mins, 1h22min and 58mins respectively. But after i followed the protocols that I have mentioned on my post, the screen off time was considerably reduced (5-8mins max). Check the activity and battery usage bar for the dates 17th-22nd July!!!! Almost the same amount of usage per day and the amount of battery drain is considerably reduced!!!! Hope this helps!!
I agree with apple, the battery is worn out. Spend $49 on a new battery fitted by Apple - not at the high street phone shop and get a new lease of life..
Yes, to 'force close' is just swiping away the app in the App Switcher view, correct. The only way to stop the rogue apps running/registering background activity.
I deleted the music app rebooted and reinstalled the app and so far ok
See @peter_watt Post;
Safeguard any local music off the phone.
Delete the music spp
Reinstall it from App store
Mine seems to have been rectified by removing Apple Music and MS Teams. Pretty poor that Apple didnt test their own app and provide an update and my phone was unusable for days
It looks like 13.6 update resolves the issue (will see for sure by end of the day).
iOS 13.5.1 battery drain
