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iOS 14.2/14.3 battery drain bug!

Not sure you know anything about this, but my iPhone 8 battery randomly started to be really bad.


One day my battery was working great and randomly it’s draining battery at a super fast rate...


I didn’t download or change any settings. My settings are the best for battery saving...


I’m hoping it’s a weird software issue!


Know why this could be happening out of the blue?


UPDATE: I have since update to the iOS 14.3 RC/GM and my battery has been much better but the issue is still there not 100% fixed!

iPhone 8

Posted on Dec 9, 2020 1:18 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 20, 2021 2:24 AM

A little follow up on my previous post.

In my company we have more than 100 users with iPhone 11 purchased on July 2020 and many (me included) have raised an issue that the phone is inadequate for our work due to fast battery drain.

We mainly use the phone for e-mail and messages between us (5 to 10 per hour) and access to a site over the browser to enter some data 5-6 times a day for about 10 minutes per time (plus phone calls off course).

With these many barely get through the day (80% to 20% charge) and some don't even reach the afternoon.

So our technicians performed some operational tests and came up with the bellow:

Main Settings:

Newly reset 6 months old iPhone 11's with Background app refers off, Location services only maps, WIFI calling, find my iPhone and share my location on, raise to talk off, Siri search off, App and IOS update off, Bluetooth off, 1 mail account and iCloud on.

stand by drain 14-20% per 12 hour.

Enabling airplane mode (working with wifi calling) stand by drain 6-12% per 12 hours

Disabling notifications stand by drain 2-4% per 12 hours. (actually my phone went from 93% to 55% in 5 days stand by).

So notifications seems to be a major culprit here but we do need them so turning them off is out of the question and obviously airplane mode is out of the question for people on the road most of the time.

Based on the notifications finding techs began to suspect the screen-on, battery usage.

So they put 5 iPhones on home screen without any widget, dark mode on and 20% brightness, no open apps and all above settings as described and let them on for 1 hour. The battery drain was 22-36% . Even continued the test until the phones went off and it took them 3.5-5 hours in total (sitting there, doing nothin with the screen on). That's a screen battery drain of above 1% per minute.

Now further to the above we performed the same test with safari open on a news page that auto-refresh and the results were double as bad. No phone lasted more than 3 hours.

To conclude they checked the battery status with iMazing and they found that the battery health displayed on the iPhones was 2 present above the the health reported by the program ranging from 90% (124 charging cycles) to 96% (47 charging cycles).

Out of curiosity Techs performed the same test on a same lot brand new spare iPhone and a coworkers iPhone still on iOS 13.

The new iPhone performed much better but still way less than the IOS 13 one which by the way had 99% (98 according to iMazing) battery health after 93 charging cycles.

Their opinion is that IOS 14.3 is too heavy on the battery and actually it kills it as the battery health seem to degrade much faster than the !OS 13 one. That's why it performs so much better on new iPhones were the battery is on its peeks.

With the above results the management decided to return all affected iPhones (42) to our ISP supplier and get them back only when they are functioning within described specs and all necessary settings on (the claim is that we buy phones based o functionality and operational performance to meet out needs and not technical data), so we wait a response from them.

For the mid time i got from the Techs a mid range android phone on Monday morning, fully loaded with my apps and i am charging it now for the first time from 27% battery. If i get used to the android UI and logic i think i will ask to stick with this one.





227 replies

Feb 1, 2021 5:21 AM in response to FinalCutPro7473

14.4 has not made any noticeable difference to my 12 Pro sadly. The device has had enough time to reindex etc, so I don't think it does get any better at this point.


If your carrier allows you to enable Wi-Fi-Calling you are lucky, as you can continue to use your device normally even with Airplane Mode on and as long as you are connected to Wi-Fi.

The only thing, and I mean really, the only thing that helped mitigate the issue for me so far is to enable Airplane Mode while I am at home (which is pretty much all the time, and I suppose it is the same with a lot of people nowadays).


Strangely enough, the last time I was out and about for about 2 or 3 hours while constantly being connected to Cellular on LTE and using the phone quite a lot in that time ([all streamed via Apple Music] 1hr music via Bluetooth in the car, 1hr music via headphones, and some minor other tasks) I lost only 1%! which is crazy. I had full bars the whole time while having mostly 3 in my home. My hair's on end about this because it just doesn't make any sense to me.


Does the cellular modem use so much more power if it has anything but a full 4 bar signal all the time? It would make sense if I had only 1 miserable bar of cell reception in my home but since I do have 3 which isn't that bad, and it didn't drain at all last time I was out and not on Wi-Fi, I can't wrap my head around it.



Feb 1, 2021 6:13 AM in response to user0197

Well, I gave it a chance... waste of time. my iPhone SE still loses up to 20% sitting idle overnight with no apps open. And yes, I've done all the usual when it comes to preserving battery power. It dropped from 90% to 59% just sending my mom a text yesterday.


I've used iPhones since they first came out, but won't be getting another one. I've already purchased a different phone – Android, Moto G Power on sale for $170 at Target over the New Year... since I'm not a very heavy phone user, the battery lasts me up to a week before I feel the urge to recharge and even then it's still got about 40% left.

Feb 1, 2021 6:19 AM in response to Moonspinner

Yep, it's exactly the same with my iPhone Se. Shame on you, Apple, for not fixing this issue. I'm also thinking of switching to another brand because of this problem and the inability/reluctance of Apple to fix that bug..


But please don't start an Apple/Android in this thread, it just doesn't help.. :'( Other phones have other shortcomings.

Feb 1, 2021 6:52 AM in response to Moonspinner

Is it the first generation SE?


When there is a sudden drop like this, my first though is maybe you should do a battery calibration?!


In a case like this, I suspect the battery not even being that bad, but just giving out a false reading.


I had an iPhone 6s sitting on 1% for hours (percentage jumping around and dropping in large amounts instantly like in your example) and powering on multiple times after it has shut itself off due to the 'empty' battery which it shouldn't be able to if the battery reading would be accurate. After doing the following procedure, it worked a whole lot better. It still has the original battery with 84% health. Granted it is the 6s and really rather old already, and while it didn't improve overall battery life by much, doing the calibration fixed the erratic percentage drops and made the device a little bit more reliable because 'what you see is what you get' and not a plummeting battery meter that is lingering on 1% for hours.


To calibrate: (it is best do to this on the weekend when you are less likely do not have any place to be early in the day etc.)

1) Drain your device until it shuts off. Reboot or at least try to until it doesn't do so anymore (also do it by the hard reboot method, as sometimes the device boots whereas it wouldn't boot if only the power button is held).

2) Leave unplugged for a couple hours (overnight is best)

3) charge the device until full and then leave plugged in for at least two more hours.

4) unplug, then do the whole procedure one more time


Be vigilant about those steps as only performing them the right way, will actually give you any real and good result. Good Luck!

Feb 1, 2021 7:23 AM in response to user0197

Hi user0197,


No, it's the second generation iPhone SE. The battery is not bad at all, and it was confirmed by Apple Support. It's definitely a software issue has my usage is very minimal.


Thanks for sharing the steps. I really appreciate. However all those things and many more were done and nothing seem to solve the issue. The only way I can use my iPhone now is by activating the «Low power mode» each morning when I wake up. And even then, I think my iPhone went from 50% to 40% last night in an hour for just being next to me.


Thanks again for the help, it's much appreciated.


Have a great day!

Feb 1, 2021 8:06 AM in response to b.desroches

Do you have the option to enable Wi-Fi calling?


If yes, could you enable that and also enable airplane mode (any call/texts etc will come through don't worry)


It would interest me if it stops the battery drain on other devices as well, since it does work on my 12 Pro. That would at least mean, that it is definitely a software bug with iOS 14 that is affecting all devices and not a hardware defect of a certain series. iPhone 12 owners have already been suspecting a hardware defect of the modem or a faulty batch.


Feb 1, 2021 9:09 AM in response to user0197

Hi user0197,


Thanks again for your help. I can try that. However I know that before upgrading to iOS 14.2, my iPhone battery was working just fine. The Apple customer support agent I spoke with confirmed it is a software issue, he just didn't have any visibility on an upcoming fix.


And to be honest these days I mostly use my iPhone to listen to music when I go out for a walk. Beside that it sits on my desk waiting for a fix ;)


But I did activated the Airplane mode. I'll see later if this bring any improvement.


Thanks!

Feb 2, 2021 10:33 AM in response to cyrille273

Hi everyone,


I did turn on the Airplane mode as recommended by user0197. I can confirm that while being on Airplane mode, the battery doesn't drain as fast as when it is off when I don't use my phone.


Prior to that my iPhone was optimized to preserve battery life. Therefore, in my case at least, the problem seems either related to wifi or bluetooth, or maybe even both of them. I'll try to see if one of them is the culprit.


That being said I have the exact same settings on my iPhone today that I had with iOS 14.1 when my battery was not draining super fast.


I hope this might help some people!

Feb 2, 2021 10:52 AM in response to fredrikse

Hi fredrikse,


I have the second generation iPhone SE. I'm currently located in Québec on Fizz mobile network (Vidéotron) using LTE network. However since I'm working from home all the time I'm basically always relying on my wifi.


So based on your reply I'm guessing it could be an LTE/4G issue? If so I could try tomorrow to disable LTE and get everything else back on to see what happened.


Thanks!


Feb 2, 2021 10:52 AM in response to b.desroches

Hi!


Airplane mode does initially disable all connections (Wi-Fi, Cellular, Bluetooth) however all except Cellular can be separately re-enabled even if airplane mode stays active. Hence why I asked if your carrier supports Wi-Fi Calling.


Did you update to 14.4 already? Even though the drain bug on my device isn't gone, the overall battery performance though got better. And because I am connected to Wi-Fi 99.9% of the day, airplane mode with Wi-Fi calling works like a charm.


Being on airplane mode and completely offline (in case you do not have the Wi-Fi calling option) is not really a fix either, is it?

I only use and recommend airplane mode because Wi-Fi calling exists and is a possibility for many.

In any other instance, I advise you to plug in your phone however often you can until Apple hopefully fixes this, so you are not prematurely ruining you battery (if it drains entirely multiple times a day and you have to recharge it, it most definitely will put on many many cycles and makes it degrade even faster). But as you said, it is sitting on your desk most of the day waiting for a fix, it's alright ;) The battery draining like this (not only your device, but devices across the entire line-up) has to be a software bug which they should be able to patch up. Nobody knows what is taking them so long, and why they do not address this. It has made quite a bit of fuss already and they don't do anything. Maybe they are clueless as well, who knows

Feb 2, 2021 11:00 AM in response to user0197

Hi user0197,


I did update to iOS 14.4. I didn't see any battery improvement on my end. I can do wifi calling. However as I previously mentioned, I basically don't even use my phone at the moment, except to listen to music when I go out and even then, the battery drains crazy fast!


I know Airplane mode is not a real fix, but it did help to identify what can actually be causing the battery to drain. I should have think about that ;)


As you said I don't know what is taking Apple that much time to patch this issue. I hope they'll do soon, because as you said in the meantime my battery health is going down.


Thanks again for the precious feedback!

iOS 14.2/14.3 battery drain bug!

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