Battery drain after iOS 14 update.

There is a software issue and this has affected more than 10,000 of iPhones. It’s not something we are doing wrong. Apple needs to fix this ASAP! Or refund us all 1,000$ We pay good money for their products because they’re reliable. This is absolutely insane 😡

Hi All,

I have recently updated to IOS14 for my iphone7+ and I am very attentive to make sure in my setting to leave and turn off most privacy/communication between my phone and wifi/external servers.

To the point... I called apple and they ran the diagnostics that my battery is in great working condition, and I know it is as only since my update to IOS14 the battery drainage began to plague me.

I am not a social media user and in my settings i have most privacy setting communications off and I do not have any apps using location services, only when in use, and there is no apple feedback(analytics) turned on just to make sure no unnecessary GPS or Antena/WIFI use. I removed all widgets/weather locations to make sure they were not sucking up juice. In ios13 i was even using weather ( while using ) and it never took my battery for such a ride.

I hope i've outlined some context to my case; So my question, Is there some new feature in IOS14 that I am overlooking in settings or elsewhere that I should delete/turn off.

Hi, you can check this: iPhone Battery and Performance

Check the battery health, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & if the maximum capacity is less than 80%, you need to replace the battery on your phone.

You can restore your phone as new:

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

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings

If the issue persists, you can take your phone to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. Book an appointment on getsupport.apple.com or use the Apple Support app.

My wife's iPhone 8 is also having the dramatic battery drainage issue. This literally happened right after installing the iOS 14 update. She will have her phone charged at 100% then unplug it for about 35-45 minutes and it is down to 10% and then just shuts off on her without her even using the phone. Her battery health is at 93%, turned off app refreshing in the background, turned off auto brightness and removed apps she no longer needs, updated to 14.0.1 and her battery still won't stay charged. Her phone is pretty much useless right now making this super inconvenient. Please resolve this ASAP Apple!

I have an iPhone 6s and had the battery replaced just over a month ago. The battery health indicated 86% when I upgraded to iOS14. Had no issues with the battery and used to charge my phone only once a day. Right after upgrading to iOS14 my battery health has dropped to 84% and it drains like crazy. The battery drain issue began right after I updated the iOS14. The phone has become useless. I am not able to take my phone out with me as it drains by several percentage points every time I launch an app. My phone is old model but I bought it three years ago. Battery was replaced at an Apple store around one and half years ago. Have contacted Apple support. They ran diagnostic, confirmed no hardware issue, and that the battery is healthy enough to handle all functions. Apple has read analytical data off of my phone, taken pictures of the battery drainage from the battery health screen. After multiple calls with the technical support, now they are blaming the battery although they had told me earlier the battery is healthy enough and drainage issue not related to the battery. Apple asked me to replace the battery but they are not sure if it will fix the battery drain issue. What I can tell is that my battery drain issue began right after I upgraded to iOS14. Had I known, I wouldn't have done so. My phone has become useless overnight, not for what I have done to it but because of the last iOS upgrade.

Apple please see all these complaints. Do something. I am afraid of using my phone. It drains several percentage points as soon as I use an app. Do not use social media, or play games on the phone.

I had 3 updates on my phone this week and today was the last one and I’ve noticed my battery drains not long after so I recharge that up to 85% and then The battery got drained again within four hours with lite using of the phone.

This new guidance was just published by Apple. Please note the article states you need at least two of these symptoms for this to be the correct solution for your issue.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

I'm just a user like you and any random person with an iPhone.

I can't do any work to "fix it" any more than you can.

Only Apple Support can relay issues to Apple Engineering, who can fix things.

No one here can.

Again, Apple Support is the organization that can talk to Apple's engineers about this, no one else here can.

If you believe this is a software issue, Apple Support are the ones who can tell Apple Engineering there is an issue they should look into.

The moderators here do not forward that information on, they only monitor the forums to make sure posts adhere to the ASC Terms of Use.

Therefore if you don't want to work with support, the issue may never get addressed - your choice.

I've posted similar battery drain scenarios on the forum. Battery completely drains, overnight, with no apps "active", No Background App Refresh, and nothing showing usage in Battery Usage graph. My battery was replaced AND phone has been reset to factory setting and rebuilt from scratch, among other reset and restore actions. The problem returns...after a large waste of time!

SUGGESTION/REQUEST: Put your iPhone in Airplane Mode overnight and report back if battery drains as before. Mine DOES NOT. Battery REPEATEDLY does not drain overnight in Airplane Mode.

A diagnostic app shows I have low-level, continuous wifi activity (see image). This, I believe, is draining my battery and is stopped when in Airplane Mode.

I have nothing to see "where" the activity is going, or even if it is Internet activity. I have HomeKit devices from various vendors which may have INTRANet chatter--who knows? Same for my Apple Watch--who knows?

I do know that my modem's DSL (and LAN) light flashes continuously. When I toggle wifi OFF on my iPhone. Both STOP immediately. Toggle ON, they flash rapidly. OFF=STOP. NOTE: I do stop other home device(s)' LAN access activity when I do this test. This test suggests to me I have Internet, not INTRANet, activity. "Oh, to own a sniffer!"

THOUGHTS:

1. iCloud syncing, but WHY do so much you kill the phone???? I have a TV3 and a mid-2011 iMac. Both are not-supported. Again, some iCloud mismatch that can't be corrected so something keeps trying?
2. Malware? No idea how to check for it on an iPhone. Hence, request to others in forum to try airplane mode.
3. Delete apps one-by-one to see if/when wifi activity stops. Definitely a PIA, but something to do with a full battery.
4. HomeKit. This was something I added in the last year with devices from several vendors. I did remove it once, with all the supporting apps. Again, it takes a lot of time and you have to rebuild your home setup. Nothing changed.
5. Wait for IOS+++. Hey, "Hope springs eternal." It's more likely to work long-term than wasting time resetting the phone and rebuilding everything.

anna-marie81 wrote:

Thousands of us have repeatedly posted about this.

Actually, thousands have not posted about this; the "I have this question too" box can be clicked by anyone interested in following a thread.

Just a reminder, we're all users here; Apple does not officially read this forum for any reason other than to ensure compliance with the Terms of Use for these forums.

If you want to get Apple's attention on a technical issue:

1) Contact Apple Support directly:

Contact - Official Apple Support

2) Leave Apple feedback:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

SOLVED (at least for me)!

Over several weeks after upgrading from 13.7 to 14.4.x in early Feb 2021 I tried turning off Siri, background app updates, and MANY other settings as well as offloading all 3rd-party apps -- to no avail. Still sluggish, overheating, and fast battery drain anytime screen was on.

On a second call to apple-support, a tech mgr suggested doing a full Reset of Settings & Content to confirm if a hardware problem or not. BACKUP first!! Doing that showed phone worked fine as as empty new phone... so NOT a hardware issue. With that result he suggested another full Settings & Content RESET followed by a restore from iCloud. So I re-did a full reset and restored from iCloud backup and it SOLVED this problem on my iPhoneSE(1st gen). Now all is faster, no overheat, or fast battery drain.

So do THIS:

• Enable iCloud backups in Settings (pay 99 or whatever cents for 1 month of increased storage). Leave it plugged in overnight to complete a full backup....
• Once a backup completes, go to Settings/General/RESET/ERASE ALL CONTENT AND SETTINGS

(Choose to re-backup to iCloud as part of the reset if you want.) As it reboots it will reset/reinstall to 14.4.x)

• After the reset, follow phone setup steps and login into your apple ID and restore from the iCloud backup. It may take several hrs to restore all your music, photos, etc.

After doing those my SE was back to normal!! :)

I’ve updated to 14.3 several days ago, iPhone XS. And since then my battery uncharges super fast. Like 10 times faster than before the update. Tried to reboot my phone, no success. The phone uncharges even when I’m not using it. This night it has uncharged from 47% to 15%, no apps where working. It’s very frustrating.

Me too. The iPhone 7 Plus upgraded to iOS 14.4. It was fully charged. Then in a matter of an hour went from 100% to 0%. The phone wasn't even being used throughout that time. The battery was working perfectly well before the upgrade. I contacted Apple who informed me that I need a new battery. Why this sudden requirement based on a new iOS upgrade? That can't be correct. It has to be something to do with a fault in the upgrade, not a a problem with the battery. Is this some sort of 'scam' to get us to all buy new batteries - or even worse to have to buy a new iPhone? Neither is an acceptable outcome of an iOS upgrade from Apple. Please get this issue fixed Apple with a fix to the upgrade - one that does not result in catastrophic battery drain please. At present, our expensive and hard worked for iPhones have become utterly useless.

It could be a variety of this. The first is that after a major update the phone re-indexes content and that can use a lot of power. Leave it plugged in as much as possible for the first day and that should fix it.

If not, go to Settings > Battery to see if an individual app is using too much power.