iPhone 12 battery draining fast

We are not complaining about 5G battery drain in this thread. It’s good old 4G.

I tested 4G and 5G capable sims on my iPhone 12 Pro. And as I mentioned multiple times, it drains constantly on O2, Vodafone and Three, with 5G off because prepaid plans do not even offer 5G here in UK. O2 has excellent full signal strength yet it drains my battery like crazy.

The only carrier which works for me is EE, no battery drain whatsoever, even with a weak signal (1-2 bars).

Some of the users experience battery drain on EE and not on O2. So it is the combination of software and hardware issues and depends on local carrier configuration.

Here’s how it looks with EE as primary line on 4G, no drain:

And this is O2, on 4G, same phone, same configuration:

I was just playing around a little in the Instruments application to see wether I can make out some process on the iPhone that is obviously running rogue. 12 Pro on 14.4

So far, the only things I did notice was, Wallet was continuously 'booted' into background mode and suspended again a couple minutes later. I never even use that App but have one generic debit card linked to it anyways. Disabling and 'deleting' Wallet completely through Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps > Wallet and then re-enabling it seems to have fixed that though. However I have not yet relinked the card.

Also Siri Search also always runs. Essentially every single time you simply swipe to the left or down from the Homescreen (Widget Panel/Search Field) and sometimes just randomly it seems. So every time you use Search on your device or check widgets on the left panel of the Home Screen, Siri is running. This would explain Siri showing up for people a lot in the usage graph even though they haven't used Siri itself (Ask Siri). Same goes with enabled Siri Suggestions on the Lockscreen or Homescreen etc. Keep in mind, I even have all Siri Suggestions off, Hey Siri disabled and all 'Learn from this app' and 'show content' etc settings from every app I have installed disabled, so technically Siri and Search virtually should have been turned off for the most part and no constant indexing of every app should take place. Unless it happens in the background no matter what switches you have disabled.

This is just weird... It started out yesterday when I was in a very poor signal room. I stayed there 5 hours and never opened my phone. It lost 50%. I was a little bit worried and when I got home I charged it up to 94%. Lost 30% while using it for 5 hours then I wanted to check how the battery behaved overnight.

I was shocked to find out that I lost 40% overnight. It was all good until I went in that room.

I’ve got the same issue. This is my battery dying over night from +30% to 3% in the morning, with no app usage and all automatic refresh off. Called my provider, O2, phone is out of warranty (1 month) so can’t be replaced but an Engineering will look at it to “fix it” . They of course didn’t mention to me that this is actually a real problem with the new Iphone 12 reported by a lot of other users. They asked me to send it to be fixed by their engineers... but I’m not sure if there’s anything that they can fix?

Thanks for the advice. It seems like the problem it’s gone with the new IOS. I didn’t use the phone too much during the day, but clearly the overnight battery usage it’s not as crazy as 30% but rather normal. I turned the apps background refresh on fir tonight to see if there’s any changes... so far so good.

The Screen on time is the value of the last 24 hours (from Saturday 20PM up to the current time/time of screenshot which is around 18 o clock) and not since the last charge. Which means: The device has been actively used for 1h 13min since Sat. 20PM hours and was last charged to 100% on Sat 11:47. Which means: The device drained from around 85% to around 55% over an 20 hour time span which included approx. 10 hours idling + 1hour and 15 minutes of usage.

And to sum it up. The device, after 10 hours of standby and approx. 2 hours of usage (also considering the usage that occurred between the phone was unplugged at 11:47 and 20PM which the graph shows), has more than half of its battery left.

I have the exact same problem as everybody else. It's just that I have found the workaround. And I haven't even checked wether the drain would reappear again because my device behaves completely normal the way I have it set up right now. Overnight drain is 0-2% max.

It does only work with Wi-Fi Calling unfortunately (I don't know if you have it, because I remember we already talked about it right? But sadly I forgot wether you have it or not) So if you don't have the option, you may ignore the following.

Since I would go into Settings and disable Wi-Fi completely and manually every single time I leave the house or leave any place with Wi-Fi, I have made myself a shortcut that primarily includes two modes. Indoor Mode and Outdoor Mode that I can access quickly with only one swipe and a tap.

With Indoor Mode: Airplane mode engages, Wi-Fi turns on, Bluetooth turns off, Cellular Data turns off (naturally done with airplane mode).

Outdoor Mode: Airplane Mode turns off, Wi-Fi turns off, Bluetooth stays off, Cellular Data turns on.

So instead of manually disabling Wi-Fi in Settings (not Control Center, as it does not disable Wi-Fi entirely), like I would do regardless when I go out, I simply switch modes. You can take this further by allowing Shortcuts to use your location and enable a mode when you are leaving a place (home, work) etc. However I did not do that since it again would require a location service to run all the time. And as mentioned, I made it a habit to manually disabling Wi-Fi, so its not really an inconvenience for me if instead going into Settings, to swipe to the widgets screen (or wherever you want to place that widget) and manage it from there.

I also made a Bluetooth Toggle which allows me to fully switch off Bluetooth without going into Settings and a Cellular Data toggle so I can switch it off right there as well if I choose to do so.

I unplugged my iPhone at 13:40 today and at 23:00 it is still at 100%. Don't mind that I have barely used it. Imagine the entire time span to be 'overnight'.

I don't know if it did anything, but you can also try the following. Go into Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps and turn off Wallet. Restart your device and then go back and re-enable it. You will have to add your cards again if you have any.

*I monitored my iPhones activity with a Xcode program recently and found a glitch where a 'Wallet' process was constantly reloaded, ran for a while and was then suspended into background again. Ever since I disabled it, it did not recur again.

Thanks for the info. I would also not expect the phone to remain fully charged in time, even if I don’t use it at all. My phone still has 28% battery left now, after the last charge on Saturday morning. It’s true that I didn’t use it too much to listen music or watch videos, but in general I don’t heavily use the phone for these activities, so for now , compared with the 30% overnight drop I experienced before 14.4, I d say I am satisfied.

I have experienced this problem two times this week. Last Saturday night I left my iPhone 12 with a charge close to 50%. By Sunday morning it drained to 14%. I moved to iOS 14.4 expecting that it wold help solve the issue. For my surprise, yesterday night I left my phone with a charge level of 55% and it today it was drained to 14%. My phone is barely 3 months old so I was not expecting to experience this problem. When I go to sleep I disable WiFi, Location and Bluetooth. I close all the apps and I also set the battery save mode on. I hope Apple gives us a quick response.

Some nights I lose 20-30% in my sleep. Last two nights went dead.. 97% charge at 1015 and dead by morning. The almost full charge all day because it was charging most of the day. Chart shows no activity all night. I was not in airplane mode (in case of a call) and maybe that is unrecorded activity. Still, by going to zero at night my brick isnt even good as an alarm. Is it possible its just a flawed battery?

I’m having the same issue - it’s 6pm, not done much on my iPhone 12 Pro - and I’m at 20%. In all the previous iPhones I’ve had - I’ve NEVER seen the red battery bar at 6pm.

I feel something is wrong. I know I’m not using the phone any more then usual. But it’s like this every night.

The idea behind optimized battery charging and the result of having it enabled (it is by default) + significant locations service and system customization (those two settings are found in Privacy > Location Services > System services) need to be enabled as well for it to ever work, is to limit the time your device spends on 100% charge if left plugged in because the battery likes to be kept around that percentage much more as opposed to completely full.

You device learns from when you usually pick up your phone in the morning (you need to have a steady enough routine, otherwise it simply will not get enabled, even though the switch itself is on) and if it picks up on it that you almost always pick up your phone at around 7AM it will start to charge probably an hour before. It will also only do it, if you're home or at work, and it does that by keeping track of the locations you spend most of your time.

without it enabled, it looks pretty much like that (but even if the toggle is enabled and you don't have a steady routine or significant locations or system customization turned off, then it also will not work because the phone is lacking data it needs to toggle it).

This is how it looks like if it does take effect. You can see, half the night, the phone stays on roughly 80% and then finishes in the morning.

It's always so funny if I come across battery maintenance/saving tips and people say.

Step one: Turn on optimized battery charging.

Step two: Turn off all locations services.

But to your actual problem. Yes there is bugs in iOS 14 and devices draining so much on their own is clearly an issue.

I have been able to establish beyond doubt that the battery drain on my dual-SIM iPhone 12 Pro was entirely due to my eSIM. Taking the physical SIM out didn't help, but eliminating the eSIM produced this result - almost zero drain overnight:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap either Cellular or Mobile Data.
3. Tap the plan you want to erase.
4. Tap Remove Cellular Plan.

Read more at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

Hey guys,

After all the firmware and carrier updates, I am so confused that I don't know what is normal or not. I don't know if battery life sucks just because Apple failed with the iPhone 12 or if it can still be safe by fixing the bug.

I have an iPhone 12, background app refresh OFF, location services OFF, 4G, brightness set to half, IOS 14.4.1, modem firmware 1.42.03, and network provider EE 45.0.

I have only managed to get 2-3% idle drain overnight one night. The rest of them is around 10%. Below there is a couple of screenshots and I would like your opinion about them.

The first screenshot is for a 24 hour period. From 100% to 56% and 2 hours and 30 minutes Screen On.

The second screenshot is for a period of 36 hours (Continuation from the previous screenshot). From 100% to 46%

I have read comments from people who are heavy users using their iPhone for two days. So, I don't know if I am still experiencing battery performance due to apple's bug with the new modem or if my expectations were too high about battery life and this is what it is.

To be honest, before buying the new iPhone, I checked some websites where they run tests, and the iPhone 12 battery life was around 9-10 hours of continuous use.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Thanks