iOS 15.2 Battery Drain

Contacted apple support about this yesterday. They recommended a factory reset. I asked if there was any point seeing as over 1000 others on this forum are having the same problems. They wouldn't even entertain that. They just ignored it.

I'm on iOS 15.2.1, iPhone 7 Plus, by the way.

My battery health is at 100% for now. Only bought the 6s in April 2020.

Also just a mention to the thread shared above, my 6s doesn’t really ever get hot at all or like it’s being overworked although I know it’s an older model and just scraped iOS 15 approval and won’t get iOS 16.

These battery drops still seem weird and more like a bug rather than the phone or battery not handling iOS 15 onwards. At least to me.

Frustrating issue for many even on new models which really is unacceptable especially for people who need their IPhone for work purposes.

Hope it improves with future updates for all of you.

EDIT: SORRY! I made mistake and described different version of iOS (which is not allowed to be mentioned explicitly here) in the first sentence. The rest of my text concerns my experiences with 15.2.1 properly.

Very strange. 15.2.1 is just security update to fix terrible bug in macOS Safari / iOS WebKit. My phones behave exactly as terrible as before upgrade. No changes noticed - both for 12 mini and SE 1st gen (which is smaller equivalent of 6s).

I had never problems with upgrades but do clean installs/configuration once in a while - just to be on the safe side (to avoid some side effects of upgrades). Maybe this time it's just coincidence and it's great time to make hard reset? Just thinking.

From what I know yes it was a trusted seller and it was factory sealed and brand new. All seemed exactly as should. but can I be 100% sure of anything, no.

As I said these weird drops only started after 15.2, hence how I came across this thread.

Though after letting it die before charging last night it does seem to be going down normally today at least until now. Maybe I ought to let it die more often before charging as I know some people do that after updates.

As one who complained about the battery drain which was off the scale compared to anything previous, I can say it settled down after a day. I did however change many settings to reduce power , such as apps auto updating, location etc. But i suspect that after a IOS update there are a number of housekeeping tasks with the apps to clear up, especially as it appears to include some regulatory changes to the apps, which then require a user input.

Will IOS 15.3 correct the battery drainage problem or should I not bother upgrading software. Note this is last time I am going to buy any Apple product. The lack of response from the company is unacceptable.

I have to be honest and tell what I found was very fine lint probably from my pocket had been packed deep inside the charging port on my iPhone SE 2020. I was able to carefully remove it with a sewing needle and blowing the loosened particles away as I went. My previous iPhone SE 2012 lasted almost 9 years before the battery wouldn’t even hold a charge and I used a Catalyst case for drop protection, so purchased another from Catalyst for my new iPhone but their new version didn’t have the small rubber port plug so lint was able to accumulate…

I upgraded to 15.3 after solving this issue anyway, in hopes that I might find success in Airdropping files from my Mac to my iPhone and iPad, to no avail, it seems a Monterey 12.1 update issue that prevents my mini from sending files using Airdrop, conversely I am able to receive Airdrops from my iPhone and iPad to my Mac mini 2014.

When I right click on any file or photo in MacOS 12.1 Monterey I can select share then Airdrop and a pop up shows either my iPhone or iPad, (previously in MacOS 12.0.1 both would show) but then clicking on my device nothing happens.

What I faced concerning 12 minis definitely deserves to be called my personal battergate. I purchased 3 12 minis:

1st) battery discharged to 0%, failed to start-up, even using quite powerful chargers, returned,

2nd) same story, this time I asked staff to handle the problem - they finally managed after quite a few failures (returned it anyway - fully discharged batteries are prone to loose its full power quite quick)

3rd) this time battery was at proper ~50% level, anyway it's loosing its power despite showing 100% health (this thread)

From my point of view it seems like Apple have problems with some batteries used for (at least) 12 mini (certain lot, one provider?). Moreover - it's not impossible that the fact that batteries capacity worsens with each SW upgrade for 12x/13x models has nothing to do with broken SW but it is just upgrade process that consumes quite a lot of battery power and makes batteries become even more destroyed - in such a way that is not reported by microcontroller that controls battery health (that's why system reports 100% battery health).

I know - quite risky theory. But not impossible.

I'm having the same issue. iP 12 Pro Max (which I got a year ago) and recently updated iOS 15.2.1. The overheating/dimming of my screen started yesterday. Happened again today. I had turned up the brightness to 100% during my lunch break. Took off wifi (was on 5G), and was using Safari and watching a few videos. Battery Health is at 91%. I've tried rebooting and no help. It's like it suddenly has a mind of it's own.

WTH Apple?!?! Please fix ASAP with another update!!

1070 people on here with all different models of iPhone, all having similar problems and still no acknowledgement from apple. I have yet to meet someone who has updated to iOS 15 and has anything good to say about it.

I didn't think Apple would actually reply to my comment. It's like expecting Tim Cook to respond to an email (not likely going to happen!)

Will try updating and keep my fingers cross it helps.

-iPhoneInRio

csbubbles wrote:

I installed 15.3 yesterday, I am not sure if it got even worse with that update, but for sure it didn't get any better. Still same crazy battery drain.

Same here, 12 mini. I also did a full reset, didn't help. Battery capacity 94%, and it was 98% before the 15.1.

csbubbles wrote:

I'm not sure if it makes sense to keep posting that link for submitting feedback to Apple as there is no option to specify iOS 15.2 there, so no one is going to process our reports properly anyway.

Neither is my country listed, although my language is supported by Apple.

Same here, I bought iPhone 13 Pro max (256Gb) with 15.0.2 installed on it.

The battery was fine (started to charge 20%-80% everyday, and even this amount of volume was okay to handle 8-10 hours of usage as a daily drive), than I updated to iOS 15.1, than iOS 15.1.1, and everything was okay, the the battery drain was okay, at the same level as iOS 15.0.2!

But when I installed iOS 15.2 - oh Lord, the battery drain STARTED TO BE SO HUGE, it is now 5-7 hours of usage!

iOS 15.2.1 didn't do anything better - even worse.

Now I'm on iOS 15.3 - still the same issue as a iOS 15.2. Did a factory reset 2 times.

Battery level - 100%. I repeat, it's a BRAND NEW PHONE!

Apple DO SOMETHING! OR AT LEAST GIVE A CHANCE TO DOWNGRADE BACK TO iOS 15.1.1!

I'll just post my experience as well. I have an iPhone 7 with a recently replaced battery showing 92% capacity. Since the 15.1 update, I've had draining issues but only with specific applications. Safari is currently the worst offender - I often get a 20-40% drain with 20 minutes of usage or less and it makes the phone run hot. Apple News is a close second with similar drain on the battery. Podcasts are not quite as bad, but still pretty poor considering I need a recharge after 2 hrs of listening. I've turned off notifications, background updates, location services, and the whole host of usual suggestions to no avail. The drain appears to be the same via WiFi or cellular signal. It's the point where I'm charging my phone 3 times a day.

Interestingly, I get no such drain with certain applications. For example, I can stream an hour via AppleTV+ with less than 5% battery change. That makes no sense - Podcasts (audio only) with the screen off will drain 40-50% of my battery in an hour. I can browse on the eBay app with no issue, and something like the Hoopla app for reading books has a similar small affect on the battery. So neither data usage or screen usage seem to be the main culprit.

I've factory reset the phone to no avail. Just to be sure I haven't restored the backup, and I have all heavy-usage iCloud functions off (photo syncing, backup, etc).

I see the suggestion to submit to the issue to Apple, which I will do.