iOS 15.2 Battery Drain

As posted in the 15.1 battery drain thread, some of the fixes that I found might help with 15.2 as well. I'm talking about drain that persists for more than the 1-3 days after an update while Spotlight is indexing. I had my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPad Mini 6 BOTH draining enough to run dry in 20 hours of standby, and fixed it completely, so I'm still on 15.1 with no issues..

1) Turn off Apple News Widget on your Home Screen if you have it configured. I had seen that Apple News was using a lot of battery in "Settings > Battery" and I wasn't using it. Turning off background app refresh made no difference in battery use and drain in the background. Then I discovered the widget hiding on the screen to the left of the Home Screen that has my app icons, and turned it off. That reduced my drain from 5-7% per hour to only 3-5% per hour. I also turned off most of the other widgets except Calendar, Reminders, and Battery level for bluetooth accessories (watch, and AirPods).

• Turning off other widgets had no impact on battery drain.
• Turning off push mail had no impact to improve battery.
• Turning off Background app refresh had no impact on improving battery.
• BEFORE I REMOVED APPLE NEW WIDGET EVEN LOW POWER MODE DIDN'T SEEM TO IMPROVE DRAIN.
• ONLY AFTER I removed Apple News Widget did low power mode make a difference in drain, and in Low power mode I could get though a 16-18 hour day without plugging into power. But not till I did #2 below could I turn off low power mode.

2) I had my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPad Mini 6 paired with my iMac and MacBook 16", and had "show this iPad/iPhone when connected with WiFi" turned on. I "Reset Network Settings" which broke this pairing, and COMPLETELY solved my battery drain issue. I was later able to plug my devices back into my iMac and pair/Trust them, but I made sure to turn OFF "show this iPad/iPhone when connected with WiFi" when I Trusted them, and the drain has not come back.

Apparently the WiFi network connection between iDevice and Macintosh computer maybe has the iDevice phoning home continuously in 15.1, even when you are not on the home, and this system resource is still draining the battery regardless of low power mode or not. But my best guess is that when the iDevice is NOT looking out for the computer constantly, with "show this device on wifi", then the drain goes away completely FOR ME. This might not be your problem.

oldtimer2021 wrote: 'IPhone 7"

oldtimer ~ With an older iPhone model such as your iPhone 7, it's worth checking the battery. If it's still the original 5 year-old battery, the long process of applying an iOS update can strain a weak, aging battery and be "the straw that broke the camel's back".

Does your iPhone 7 still have its original battery?

What's the Maximum Capacity % here?...

Settings > Battery > Battery Health

...And is there an "Important Battery Message" there? [Ref: Apple]

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Some people in another forum were reporting heavy battery use if you have AirTags.

In my case my heavy battery drain with 15.1 was fixed by resetting network settings, and then not choosing to see my iPhone when connected with Wi-Fi after I connected my iPhone and iPad to my computer and clicked on “trust”.

By eliminating the wireless network between my iPhone and iPad to my computer, my battery life has returned to normal. I can use my iPhone heavily over a 16 hour day and not go through half of a battery, whereas before I could go through half a battery in 10 hours without touching the phone. I can now use my iPad for a few hours a day with a charge just every three days.

It seems like a lot of battery drain problems could have its roots in continuous exchange of information between devices: your case of wireless connection between computer and iPhone or communication with AirTags.

It looks like 15.2 bug is affecting different people in different ways, but for me - definitely removing AirTag in FindMy was a good idea. Left part of the picture - AirTag connected, right part - AirTag disconnected + some charging @10am + activity @15 (3pm). The difference is huge, isn't it.

It's very sad to see continuous degradation of Apple's software quality. It seem like they launched too many products and features, like FindMy, AirTags, SharePlay, etc. and are loosing control over quality of their products.

EDIT. "Funny" thing. It seems like I lost my AirTag. It's disconnected from my current account but not available to reuse for same/different account. One more sign of quality degradation. It's pathetic, really.

DocJekyl wrote:

What is strange is that on 15.0.2 my Apple News widget didn’t suck down 2-4% battery per hour, and my connection to my iMac and MacBook 16” didn’t suck down 3-4% of my battery per hour, and yet with 15.1 they did.

Now that it’s fixed with reset network settings and no apple news widget I’m afraid to go to 15.2 yet. THOSE 2 THINGS FIXED ME. SEE BELOW (everyone should look at all the possible fixes till apple resolved this).

With 15.1 installed I started to lose 4-7% battery per hour combined when both the widget and the Wi-Fi connection to iMac were active, and only lose 4-5% after turning off Apple News widget on both devices. Reset network settings brought me to lose a little under 1% per hour, but it used to only drain about 1% per 2 hours or so.

IPAD - After turning off Apple News widget my iPad would still only last 20 hours on a charge in standby, ie IF I DID NOT TOUCH IT OR USE IT during the 20 hours. Now I can use it for about 2 hours a day over a 3 day period before I need to charge it (or a solid 10 hours in one day). I have used it with screen on for 3 hours today, 24 minutes screen off, and I have 66% charge remaining - normally I only use it about 1-2 hours a day. It used to last a week if using it 1 hour a day.

IPHONE 13 PRO MAX - After 15.1 update I was dropping to 50% or so after only 6-7 hours off the charger with 2-3 hours of screen on usage. My days are usually 10am to 3am, and it would be dead by 10pm if I didn’t top it off. Now after reset network settings and not turning on Wi-Fi syncing, I can have 50% left at 3am the next day.

I unplugged from charger the other day at 10AM and used my iPhone for 9 hours and 14 min SCREEN ON and 25 min screen off, with 45% charge left at 3AM the next morning! Today I unplugged at 11am and 7 hours later I am at 83% with 2 hours of use during that time, so not quite as good as the other day. But still, that would be 8 hours of use over 28 hours with 32% left if the trend continued.

No way an I going to 15.2 if other people didn’t have problems prior to 15.2, like what if my fixes break and there is another problem causing it? Apple doesn’t pay me enough to beta test and trouble shoot their OS. oh, wait…

Inspired by your story I decided to do an experiment. I cut off internal connectivity in my wireless LAN (each device can communicate with internet, but the they cannot see each other). The results are quite interesting so far:

1. 1st iPhone - battery consumption decreased from 6%/10h to ~0%/10h (no noticeable battery consumption within 8 hours!). This iPhone is using appleId account which is currently not used on any computer - only this device.
2. 2nd iPhone connected to my actively used appleId account which is also active on my macBook - a bit better but not much.

Funny thing is that I'm just migrating my data to new account and before the migration iPhone with new account consumed much less power.

So definitely - something's going on here with data exchange (?) between different devices connected to one account.

I'll try to make some more experiments. Looks like the best idea is to just migrate all "iCloud like" stuff (contacts, calendar, etc.) which needs synchronization between devices to competition and use different appleId accounts on different devices.

It's so irritating - Apple is showing off with its focus on battery consumption. But ... only those not from Apple. How come list of active apps is empty and at the same time phone drains 25%/10h battery. It's really unfair.

4Tanya - when I had battery drain that severe with no applications showing activity during the drain time period, it was always fixed by “resetting network settings” and not reconnecting and trusting my computer.

Once I connected to my computer and clicked “trust” if I left it connected to my phone via Wi-Fi the battery drain would return, even when away from home or Wi-Fi off.

I don’t think it’s an issue with the battery. I think it’s an issue with the operating system sucking down CPU time and draining the battery, without giving credit to any particular app.

Although I did have some issues with Apple news widget, turning that off was the only other thing that had any impact on the significant battery drain that could empty the battery in 20 hours without touching the device

I bought my 13ProMax during Thanksgiving week, before Thanksgiving and it was fine and 15.01 and 15.02. I had to do the 15.0.0 update as soon as I took it out of the box, none of those updates car‘s battery drain my battery was at 100% capacity. After 15.1 battery drain was horrific and Battery Health was still 100%. 15.1.1 did not fix the battery drain, and battery health was still 100%

In my particular case reset network settings would fix the drain every time, but after a few days it would return. I then had to sit down and think about what was I doing to cause it to return after a few days. I made the connection (no pun intended) that I was plugging it into my computer to sync and back up and then my battery drain came back. It had something to do with the network connection being set up between my computer and my phone or my iPad. It was the same fix for both devices. My iPhone is still at 100% battery health.

I was hoping this fix would work for everybody.

Many people experience battery drain after updating to a new point version. The spotlight index has to update and if you have autoupdate turned on you will get a lot of downloads. Give it 72 hours and see what happens.

I have iPhone 13 and in fact i recently upgraded to IOS 15.2 and it was draining the battery like from 100% to 30% in one day and only 3 hours screen on Times . so I decided to take back up of it on my Mac and then Reset to factory and erase every thing and set up it again and restore my back up ,

I think the problem is solved because now for 3 H screen on and surfing the web and social networks it has reduced only 10%

AndrewBuckle wrote: "...my iPhone 7. Hardly lasts..."

Andrew ~ With an older iPhone model such as your iPhone 7, it's worth checking the battery. If it's still the original 5 year-old battery, the long process of applying an iOS update can strain a weak, aging battery and be "the straw that broke the camel's back".

Does your iPhone 7 still have its original battery?

What's the Maximum Capacity % here?...

Settings > Battery > Battery Health

...And is there an "Important Battery Message" there? [Ref: Apple]

õ¿õ¬

tay292 wrote: "Mine iphone 7. "

tay ~ With an older iPhone model such as your iPhone 7, it's worth checking the battery. If it's still the original 5 year-old battery, the long process of applying an iOS update can strain a weak, aging battery and be "the straw that broke the camel's back".

Does your iPhone 7 still have its original battery?

What's the Maximum Capacity % here?...

Settings > Battery > Battery Health

...And is there an "Important Battery Message" there? [Ref: Apple]

õ¿õ¬

I did some measurements. Got iPhone SE (1st gen) an 12 mini reset with fresh 15.2 installs. Then configured it, skipping connection to iCloud. Both of them consumed <1% of battery overnight. Then I connected them to fresh (empty) iCloud account. Energy consumption results after 10 hours:

iPhone SE (1st Gen) - <1%

iPhone 12 mini - 17%. !!!!

The measurements are almost the same when repeated the day after (iOS needs some time to make some initial stuff, like indexing, etc.).

It's ridiculous! 17%/10h battery drain with fresh, clean iOS 15.2 install as compered to ~0% for SE with old 1200mAh battery, with ????

The only way for now to get rid of this bug for me would be to disconnect from iCloud - which is ridiculous as this is quite important feature (Find My, contacts, calendars, etc.).

The problem concerns 15.2 only. No such battery drain happened for previous version (at lest not in such amount).

It seems like it's finally time to turn off automatic updates and wait at least 1-2 weeks before installing new versions. Apple products quality is degrading - definitely.

Anybody else is using AirTags?

I had continuous battery drop ~35%/10h. I did one and only one thing - removed my AirTag from my account in FindMy. Now I observe ~5%/10h. Seems like huge improvement. Back to pre-15.2 days?

It would be great should somebody try to do the same. Could be coincidence on my side, but actually it's hardly possible. I didn't change anything except removing AirTag.

What is strange is that on 15.0.2 my Apple News widget didn’t suck down 2-4% battery per hour, and my connection to my iMac and MacBook 16” didn’t suck down 3-4% of my battery per hour, and yet with 15.1 they did.

Now that it’s fixed with reset network settings and no apple news widget I’m afraid to go to 15.2 yet. THOSE 2 THINGS FIXED ME. SEE BELOW (everyone should look at all the possible fixes till apple resolved this).

With 15.1 installed I started to lose 4-7% battery per hour combined when both the widget and the Wi-Fi connection to iMac were active, and only lose 4-5% after turning off Apple News widget on both devices. Reset network settings brought me to lose a little under 1% per hour, but it used to only drain about 1% per 2 hours or so.

IPAD - After turning off Apple News widget my iPad would still only last 20 hours on a charge in standby, ie IF I DID NOT TOUCH IT OR USE IT during the 20 hours. Now I can use it for about 2 hours a day over a 3 day period before I need to charge it (or a solid 10 hours in one day). I have used it with screen on for 3 hours today, 24 minutes screen off, and I have 66% charge remaining - normally I only use it about 1-2 hours a day. It used to last a week if using it 1 hour a day.

IPHONE 13 PRO MAX - After 15.1 update I was dropping to 50% or so after only 6-7 hours off the charger with 2-3 hours of screen on usage. My days are usually 10am to 3am, and it would be dead by 10pm if I didn’t top it off. Now after reset network settings and not turning on Wi-Fi syncing, I can have 50% left at 3am the next day.

I unplugged from charger the other day at 10AM and used my iPhone for 9 hours and 14 min SCREEN ON and 25 min screen off, with 45% charge left at 3AM the next morning! Today I unplugged at 11am and 7 hours later I am at 83% with 2 hours of use during that time, so not quite as good as the other day. But still, that would be 8 hours of use over 28 hours with 32% left if the trend continued.

No way an I going to 15.2 if other people didn’t have problems prior to 15.2, like what if my fixes break and there is another problem causing it? Apple doesn’t pay me enough to beta test and trouble shoot their OS. oh, wait…

One more final post here for same topic.

To confirm my observations, I left my phone with iCloud account connected in settings yesterday. As predicted (I played with the buggy SW for some time) the battery drain was quite huge. I logged out from my AppleId account in the morning, and to my surprise, nothing has changed. Then after 12pm, I've remembered that I have another appleId account connected in Mail settings (only to read e-mails from previous, old account). I deleted it and now as predicted - battery consumption dropped to ~0%.

So conclusion from this (and previous) measurements are that no matter how I use ApppleId, if my 12mini is connected to AppleId, through:

• "Login to iCloud" in Settings,
• second Mail AppleId account in Mail settings,
• AppStore (to download new apps),
• Music (to listen to paid music).

some bug in 15.2 (or on server side - who knows) makes some background process work continuously which results in battery drain.

The bug is so obvious ( and I think concerns not only me) that I count on Apple to resolve it in next release.