Ios 15.1 battery drain

Take this post in context with what I have posted in the past 24-36 hours, as this is a continuation of those posts.

I have given feedback a few times, once for iPhone and a few for iPad which had even worse drain than the iPhone. If I didn't have a mostly-good solution right now I would elevate to AppleCare at this point. In my case I had to do the following for both iPhone and iPad on iOS 15.1 or higher, and I have posted my findings and tests over the past couple of weeks in the order that I tried them:

(1) removed Apple News from widgets on Home Screen as it was using up a large amount of battery as seen in "Settings > Battery" even when News was not open and background refresh was turned off.

(2) turned off background app refresh and push mail.

(3) reset network settings.

(4) don't pair my iPhone or iPad to a Macintosh after resetting network settings.

The first 3 things only helped for a day or so, and then battery drain came back. I think that was because around that same time the battery drain would always return because I would have re-paired my iDevice to my iMac for syncing and backup via wifi. I think that "pairing" and continuously being seen in the iMac Finder via wifi is likely what really broke my battery life.

So, I think the next step will be to pair one of my devices to my iMac, but TURN OFF WIFI connection, so I have to connect wired-only when I sync or backup and then eject my iDevice when I am done. I suspect it was the continuous wireless connection to my iMac that was causing battery drain in the background that could not be attributed to any one app. iOS 14.8 and older didn't drain the battery like this. if battery life stays good I will next try to turn Background App refresh and push mail again.

Apple News widget was still definitely a culprit to some degree, draining battery a lot in the background; but whenever I would reset network settings the process would also UNPAIR my iPhone and iPad from my iMac. And I think that unpairing was actually the main fix to the battery drain. It was a process of elimination.

Right now my Phone is at 84% FIVE hours after unplugging from the charger. I have used it for 2hr 16 minutes "screen on" during that time, and have not needed low power mode yet today. Battery life seems fixed, and the only thing different with "reset network settings" this time is that I have NOT paired it with my iMac this time.

My iPad is still at 66% after unplugging from the charger at 2:45AM on Saturday (yesterday). So I went from 20 hours of standby time before having a dead battery to now having only 34% battery drain in 38 hours. Standby time has climbed from 20 hours to about 4.5 days. And I do have 5 minutes "screen on" with iPad today. Since I unplugged the iPad 38 hours ago, I have had 40 minutes of "Screen On" use and 12 minutes "Screen off" use, so not actually all on "standby" which is even better. I have had my iPad screen on for an additional 5 minutes while typing this last paragraph, and it's still at 66%, whereas before I would have dropped 1-2% already with use.

Absolutely echo that. My latest news is that engineering requested usage data from my phone 2 weeks ago and I still haven't heard anything back, so will be following up with them today. They did say not to install 15.1.1 as they maye require further log files which leads me to suspect that the 15.1.1 release has no specific fix to the battery drain My general sceptical nature is leading me to suspect that this isn't an issue Apple wants to own up to and that they're just prolonging the ongoing support ticket that I raised until 15.2 is released.

As a general comment (this is not a direct reponse to you or anyone else in the forum) - any advise I've seen either here or through other forums or even from Apple themselves is basically irrevelent advice. My sentiment is that my phone is there to work for me as I wish it to operate. After an upgrade, if I now have to alter my own life to suit my phone, that then defies the purpose of the phone as I now would work for it and not the other way round. I don't want to switch off background app refresh, I don't want to switch off notifications, I don't want to constantly reset network settings or limit the amount of time I spend using Safari. any advise that Apple or anyone else gives that makes me feel i have to change my life to suit the phone, is basically not advice at all. I've said this before in a previous post, but I can't use my device as I want to use it (and indeed have been able to use it up until 15.1), then the device is no longer fit for purpose. It's like having to hold a TV antenna in a particular spot to get a signal - It's just not what anyone would want to do.

Apple simply won't admit to there being a problem because they don't want to open themselves up to any lawsuit by saying there is a mass problem. I can only hope that 15.2 solves the problem because if it doesn't,then the legal route is the one I'd be taking. Consumer law provides a lot of protection for people and I'm giving Apple the benefit of the doubt to have this fixed by 15.2. I take great care in looking after my battery health (still 99% after 13 months of use) and if this additional constant recharging is now damaging that further then I would say that's open to legal recourse. Just my 2cs. I'll keep everyone posted in case Apple engineering get back to me.

@Alancito - I want to be clear that I have posted here previously that I have already reported this to Apple for both iPhone and iPad.

I am not here to complain anymore. I am trying to help the people here that are having this same problem, while we wait for Apple to fix things. So far my solution works, do a reset network settings AND do not pair and trust your iPad or iPhone to your Macintosh.

I have not plugged in my iPad since 2:45 AM on Saturday morning, and 2 1/2 days later my iPad was at 50% when I woke up at 10:30 AM today. The standby time on my iPad has increased from 20 hours up to 4.5 days with about 1 hour of use during the past 2.5 days!

The ONLY thing I’ve done DIFFERENTLY over the last two weeks after resetting network settings each time, is that this time I did NOT plug it into my iMac and NOT ”TRUST” it to Sync or Backup wirelessly.

NEXT STEP OF TESTING - I am going to use my iPad today until the battery runs out. Then I’m going to charge it by plugging it into my iMac and hitting ”trust” to pair them. But I will turn off the ability to wireless sync and back up, before I unplug it. If the battery drain stays away, then I will have narrowed the cause down to simply having the iPad set up and trusted with my iMac to be accessed wirelessly.

I made it through an entire 16 hour day on my iPhone yesterday (10:30AM thru 2:30AM) with four hours of “screen on” use on my iPhone and 60% battery left when I went to bed at 2:30 AM, and did not need low power mode anymore. Prior to this fix not trusting my iMac I could not get through the day without low power mode unless I plugged in for a partial charge.

No, I have not turned background app refresh back on yet because I only had three or four apps out of 100 that I had using this feature. And turning off background app refresh had not improved battery life anyway. I will test that later. And No I have not turned push mail back on, because I was only using push for iCloud mail and had fetch automatically on my other 10 email accounts. Fetch automatically is still on. Besides, turning off push email did not improve battery life either.

The only two things that improved battery life on iOS 15.1 have been disabling Apple News widget on the home screen, and resetting network settings without re-pairing it to my iMac.

Also want to note that I have not force closed any apps on my iPhone 13 pro max, and the same 27 apps are open throughout my iPhone test yesterday, and now.

@Suppose, the fix for you was likely when you did the refresh network settings. But IF iOS 15.2 did not fix things then it may get worse again if you connect to a Mac computer and “trust” the computer to see the iPhone/iPad with Wi-Fi connection to the Finder,.

I haven’t tested more yet today because I am still trying to run down the battery on my iPad, so that I can plug it in to iMac and “trust” iMac but turn off Wi-Fi sync in Finder. In the past 5 hours I have over 4 hours continuous “screen on” use on iPad to drain it and still have 8% battery (started out with 49-50% today, and not charged since 49 hours ago at 2:45AM Saturday).

I should note, my 2015 iMac that usually would sync with is still running the latest version of Mac OS Big Sur, and not on Mac OS Monterey. I don’t know whether if I was on Monterey that my trusted computer would continue to drain my iDevices via the Wi-Fi to Finder connection.

Regardless, I am going to wait a few days before I update, since mine is working fine right now on 15.1.1 iPhone and 15.1 iPad OS as long as it is NOT paired to a “trusted” Macintosh. I’ll test pairing as soon as my battery has run down (calibrating it).

I would like to add that I checked my battery app usage and saw that mail was using 23%. I had also recently set my account to fetch data, I would not be surprised if this is where most of the drain is happening. I have switched back to manual mode for mail. I am also installing 15.2.

DocJekyl wrote:

@Suppose, the fix for you was likely when you did the refresh network settings. But IF iOS 15.2 did not fix things then it may get worse again if you connect to a Mac computer and “trust” the computer to see the iPhone/iPad with Wi-Fi connection to the Finder,.

I haven’t tested more yet today because I am still trying to run down the battery on my iPad, so that I can plug it in to iMac and “trust” iMac but turn off Wi-Fi sync in Finder. In the past 5 hours I have over 4 hours continuous “screen on” use on iPad to drain it and still have 8% battery (started out with 49-50% today, and not charged since 2:45AM Saturday).

I should note, my 2015 iMac that usually would sync with is still running the latest version of Mac OS Big Sur, and not on Mac OS Monterey. I don’t know whether if I was on Monterey that my trusted computer would continue to drain my iDevices via the Wi-Fi to Finder connection.

Regardless, I am going to wait a few days before I update, since mine is working fine right now on 15.1.1 iPhone and 15.1 iPad OS as long as it is NOT paired to a “trusted” Macintosh. I’ll test pairing as soon as my battery has run down (calibrating it).

Well here is a real kick in the pants. After I got the iPad down from 50% to 1% with 5 straight hours of browsing the web and Reddit App, I plugged my iPad mini 6 into my iMac, then clicked "trust" and typed in my passcode. Then in Finder I looked for my iPad and clicked on it, and unchecked "show this iPad when on wifi", then clicked on "Apply".

As soon as I clicked "Apply" iMac tried to sync with the iPad and Mac OS proceeded to remove 78GB of movies from the iPad, with the error message "Some items, including "Track 1", were not copied to the iPad 'iPad mini 6' because you are not authorized for them on this Mac." Argghhh!!!!

I had to open the Mac TV app and re-authorize TV app on the iMac (formerly iTunes); at which point Mac TV app says that I am already authorized and that it has re-authorized the iMac. Then I hit "Sync" in the Finder for the iPad, and it's now putting all my movies BACK onto the iPad. Thank God for USB-C if it's got to restore 78GB of movies!!! Lightning would have sucked.

BEWARE - IF you have previously "RESET NETWORK SETTINGS", Maybe try to re-authorize your Mac TV app BEFORE you do any kind of sync or click the apply button in Finder, while viewing the iPad or iPhone in Finder that you just "trusted".

SO, I WILL LET THE IPAD SYNC AND CHARGE, AND I WILL RUN ANOTHER BATTERY DRAIN TEST SEE IF THE BATTERY DRAIN COMES BACK EVEN THOUGH I DISABLED "SHOW THIS IPAD WHEN ON WIFI" THIS TIME.

If the drain comes back, even with that option disabled, then I will reset network settings and I WILL NOT RE-PAIR the iPad to the iMac (just as did not pair them last time, which helped). I will then see if the drain goes away again.

If the drain goes away again, then my issue is simply having the iDevice paired with my iMac. That will prompt me to upgrade to iPad OS 15.2 if available, since pairing with my iMac is necessary to sync any new ripped CD's and DVD's, and to back up the iPad locally.

NOTE- My iPad mini 6 lasted from 2:25AM Saturday until 5:15PM Monday = 62.5 HOURS. I only had about 1 Hour "Screen On" prior to this morning when I was at 50% when I got up around 10:30 (about 2 days 8 hours off the charger). I then used my iPad today for almost 5 hours "Screen on" by reading Reddit and surfing the web, checking mail, and sending iMessages to get it down to 1%.

To go more than 2.5 days total with over 6 hours of "Screen On" usage during that time is about what I would expect, so reset network settings and don't pair to Mac had fixed the battery drain - that was previously dropping my charge by 4-6% per hour, which would cause the iPad battery to go to DEAD in just 20 hours while not actually using it.

I almost regret pairing my iPad with my iMac just now, since it deleted my movies and might bring the battery drain back.

Do you wirelessly connect, sync, or backup to a Macintosh? if so, what version of Mac OS is on that Mac? Thanks!

@k_p95 Thanks. but I am asking the above question for a reason, for an answer that might help others including me.

If you didn't understand, let me ask this another way - did you plug your iPhone into a Mac, have to click on "trust this computer", and then enter your iPhone PIN? IF NO, then that is all, thanks.

IF yes, you HAVE "trusted" the computer, then when you click on the iPhone's name in the side bar in Finder do you see that the Mac is set to "SHOW THIS IPAD WHEN ON WIFI"? IF NO, then that may be why you have not been affected by the battery drain. IF YES, then I might be wrong about the cause of my own battery drain. Thanks.

...So, THE FIX = After "reset network settings", when you re-pair/trust your iPad/iPhone to your Mac, do NOT turn on "show this iPad/iPhone when connected with wifi" in the Finder.

I am paired/trusted to iMac again, but via wired only, and I'm not seeing the battery drain anymore...

I also tested iMazing Mini on the iMac to stay connected to the iPad and iPhone over wifi, and it's not draining the iPad battery at all. I can use iMazing for wireless backups to the iMac.

My devices are still holding their charge overnight with the above fix, with the iPad only losing 2% charge while I slept. My iPhone has been unplugged for 3 hours and is still at 100% with about 25 minutes of use (15 screen on). Previously the iPad would be down to 60-70% charge after being unplugged overnight, and my iPhone would be down to 85-90% after being unplugged for 3 hours and unused.

I can still sync and backup to Finder using a wired connection, since wifi is no longer causing the battery drain.

I also now have iMazing app running on my iMac and connected wirelessly to both devices in the background via WiFi instead. It is not draining the devices at all, unlike what happened when I had the devices show up in Finder over WiFi. So, I can still do a WiFi backup whenever I want, I'll just use iMazing instead of Finder, until Apple fixes this. If I have to use SideCar, I'll do it wired.

After I upgrade to 15.2, I'll try turning on "show this iPad when connected with WiFi" again, and see if the drain stays away. But that may be a few days away.

If this is a problem with iOS 15.1 and Big Sur 11.6.1 being used together, it will be a bit longer before I upgrade the 2015 iMac to Monterey (maybe when 12.2 is out). I am going to run a backup and then do the new Big Sur 11.6.2 that I just noticed first.

It took a couple of days after the update, but it seems the battery life span increased again and got settled. My battery is holding up again how it was before the update.

just installed 15.2 IOS and hopefully it stays as stable as it is right now. Because I’m fully pressing the battery on usage right now and so far no mayor drainage occurred.

I have noticed a big improvement since the 15.2 upgrade from 15.1.

Ive been working out in the field for hours and the battery is still close to full.

After 15.1 I would have been 50% or less by now.

It is still too early to say 15.2 fixed the battery drain but overall my iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro are both lasting longer on the charge.

how is everyone else doing?

Not on 15.2 yet, but since "reset network settings" and re-"trusting" my iMac but turning off "show this iPad when connected with wifi" my iPad Mini 6 is not draining. It was draining at 4-5% per hour before. It's been unplugged for 17 hours and used for about 30 minutes since unplugged, and is at 86% charge.

My iPhone 13 Pro Max on 15.1.1 was losing 3-4% per hour before, whether using it or in standby, and I could only make it through the day in low-power mode. Now it's been unplugged for 4 hours and I've used it "screen on" for 67 minutes and still has 92% charge (that includes a 24 minute phone call with the screen on, and checking email and bank balance.)

Using iphone 11. There is battery drain in ios 15.2. And after updating, my iPhone's battery capacity which was 99% previously before update fell to 98% after updating to ios 15.2. When I was on ios 14.4 the phone battery capacity was 100. When i updated to ios 15.1 it fell to 99% and now after installing 15.2 it fell to 98%. It seems with every update the battery capacity gets reduced. I know Lithium ion batteries degrade with time. But reduced battery capacity with every ios update is something I not happy with. It’s too early to say if ios 15.2 actually drains battery because it takes upto a week to stabilize. And after ios 15.2 I will probably not update my iphone again until i buy my next iphone. Should have stayed with the iOS version with which my phone was shipped.

Yes, I have reported it to Apple. I was hoping that 15.2 would solve this issue, but it didn't. Before 15.1 I used to have 24+ hours of normal usage (ie. normal for me), with 15.1 and 15.2 I charge my phone twice a day because I get 12-13 hours of usage. Battery capacity is still 98%.

And yes, I tried resetting my phone, I tried resetting my Network Settings, I tried everything. All in all: ridiculous battery drain. One very disappointed and annoyed old iPhone user.

I will agree with the last comment.

battery still shows strange drain it looks that they intentionally covered up the battery slow-fast drain

as for the iCal both mac M1 and ip11 pro do notcshow any info or when they suddenly show they are wrong. Picking all the company appointments.

if I were to code name the release 15.x

i will Call it Titanic

i regret pushing the button for upgrade which I usually delay.

I can’t urge you guys enough to read my posts about how I fixed my battery drain.

My iPhone 13 promax has been unplugged for 17 hours, and I have seven hours screen on usage and one hour screen off usage, and I just hit 50% before going to bed now.

i’m still on iOS 15.1.1 my iPad mini 6 is on 15.1, and after my fix I still had 55% iPad battery after being off the charger for over 40 hours (more than a day and a half).