"Find My" is draining my battery even though I have turned it off.

I turned off "Find My" in iCloud in settings and set location services to "never" for the app, nonetheless "Find My" is consistently in the top spot for usage in the battery app. I have the same problem on both my iPad Pro and iPhone X so I think it's iCloud related. Just today my iPad Pro dropped from 94% to 79% in about 5 hours without ANY use. The only advice I got from Apple Support was to restore my iPad, but I have a feeling that won't solve the issue and it will be a big waste of time. One thing I haven't tried yet is powering down my device and deleting it from iCloud.com. I would of course prefer to use "Find My" without the terrible battery drain but short of waiting for iPad/iOS 15 I am at a loss for what to do. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

iPad Pro 11-inch Wi-Fi

Posted on Jun 23, 2021 11:31 PM

Top-ranking reply

verdi1987

Level 1

57 points

Posted on Nov 4, 2021 12:16 PM

There is another thread on MacRumors, and all of us with the battery drain issue have AirTags. When the AirTags are removed or Bluetooth is disabled, the drain ceases.

I have not tried the unpair/repair method, but I created automation to turn off Bluetooth at night and re-enable it in yet morning. The drain stops during that time, so at least it’s not draining when I have no need for the AirTags.

Here is the MacRumors thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/unusual-find-my-background-battery-drain-after-setting-up-airtag.2294993/

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40 replies

Jun 27, 2021 3:45 AM in response to NickRedwoodCity

Thanks for the follow-up report.

Nice detective work.

suparol

Level 1

4 points

Jul 31, 2021 12:11 AM in response to suparol

Jul 31, 2021 11:17 PM in response to gregconquest

I selected 7 images to upload, but only the one made it. They all showed similar usage over the whole night: Exposure Notifications using 48-64%; 28-38%.

limijd

Level 1

4 points

Sep 3, 2021 5:01 PM in response to NickRedwoodCity

Same problem here with my iPad Pro. Find my is using 90% battery on the list.

I have AirTag too.

JWvanN

Level 1

12 points

Sep 4, 2021 3:44 PM in response to limijd

Also having the same problem. Brand new iPad Pro 2021 model. Also using airtags.

Find my is completely draining my battery. The iPad is becoming unusable.

Sep 5, 2021 9:55 AM in response to NickRedwoodCity

Deleted.

Sep 5, 2021 9:55 AM in response to JWvanN

Curious behavior indeed.

Question: Were your Airtags “in range” of your iPad during the “battery drawdown” …

… or were they located “elsewhere?”

Aug 1, 2021 3:37 AM in response to gregconquest

I have enabled the Apple built in Exposure Notification feature on my iPhone but don’t see exceptional battery usage, not even from the Air Tag. My iPod touch (for app development) and iPad were being drained by Find My until I removed my only Air Tag from my iCloud account. I will keep it disassociated until I see Apple’s released a patch for it.

Aug 4, 2021 5:10 PM in response to Gyro Gearloose

It happened with my iPhone 11 again last night. I had turned off Exposure Notifications, so it wasn't in on the Bluetooth Party this time. Perhaps this resulted in less of a battery drain. This time it was all Find My.

Notice that in both cases, there were about 4 hours when the Bluetooth power utilization was especially aggressive.

Also, keep in mind that in my previous report that it was both Find My and Exposure Notifications that was draining the battery. This still leads me to believe that it is not Find My that is actually the culprit here. The phone and iOS itself is going Bluetooth crazy. Most people just seem to be affected by the one bluetooth scanning app they're using: Find My

Aug 7, 2021 7:15 PM in response to gregconquest

Yes it seems to be a Bluetooth problem. The only fix I've found for my iPad is to manually turn BT off in settings (not just in Control Center which is temporary) and turn it back on when I use it. The annoyance is re-pairing the Apple Pencil, I have to remove it from the side of the iPad and re-attach it for it be recognized. Find My still manages to make up 1% of battery activity (probably for the brief periods I use my iPad), but I can't see any activity on individual days, just in the summary and it is still nominally turned off.

Find My is turned off on my iPhone too and it is still about 16% of activity, which isn't as bad as before and not worth the hassle of manually turning BT off and on. With Apple's recent privacy pivot I don't think they're as concerned with fixing this issue, they want your devices pinging and enhancing their Find My network. I haven't disconnected my keychain AirTag from iCloud yet, but I might just go ahead and do that and sell it. If it's part of this problem then it'll never make up for the hassle its caused. I'm almost always home with my keys in the same place.

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"Find My" is draining my battery even though I have turned it off.