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iOS 15.6.1 Battery Drain

My iPhone SE is hot to the touch since downloading the 15.6.1 upgrade. Also the battery level is dropping quickly in both that phone and two iPads with the upgrade. No applications are open/running on the devices.


It seems that the OS upgrade is causing something to run in the background that's heating the devices and gobbling up the battery life.


Any suggestions? Thanks!


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Aug 20, 2022 4:56 PM

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Posted on Aug 21, 2022 8:19 AM

After every iOS update, it is advisable to Force Restart your device.


See how here --> Force restart iPhone - Apple Support


34 replies

Aug 26, 2022 12:49 PM in response to wruhm

I have had inconsistent behavior with the past two iOS updates. For this latest one, my phone would die twice in one day. I've seen on REDDIT people saying it's the phone indexing things after the update and to give it time, but I don't buy it. This is going on 72 hours now and seems to be getting worse. I've definitely done a force restart many times and didn't seem to do anything.


I just ended up plugging into my macbook and doing a full restore. Then restored my backup from iCloud and all seems good. My phone is no longer overheating and draining my battery nonstop.

Aug 27, 2022 2:17 AM in response to wruhm

I have had the same issue since this update. Also, a friend of mine complained about this.


Getting almost suspicious here… I really do not hope this is well-thought Apple plan to force us into buying new ones? I hope Apple puts its money where its mouth is and resolves this problem promptly.


iPhones are costly and should last long, also for the environment.

Aug 27, 2022 6:13 PM in response to wruhm

I’m using iphone 13 pro max. Notice this battery draining issue after this update as well. As the phone usually will optimise charge when i leave it on charger overnight, i simply thought the optimise charging went haywire when i woke up to my phone being on 74% charged. When i was looking through my messages (while my phone’s still connected to the charger, the battery went down to 64%). And it’s still 64% as i’m typing this message…

Aug 28, 2022 11:53 AM in response to Mark2060

Mark2060 wrote:

I'm also having the same issue. My battery percentage also dropped from 100% to 96% after downloading the new ios 15.6.1

Do you mean your the battery's maximum capacity under Settings>Battery>Battery Health?


How old is your phone? If it's more than four to five months old, you're in great shape. Battery Health gets reclalibrated when you do an iOS update. So, if it was lagging a bit, you may see a drop of a few percentage points.

Aug 28, 2022 12:07 PM in response to anncon

What I found frustrating is the closest Apple Store is over 150 miles.

I took the phone to BestBuy to have a new battery installed.

Due to the fact my battery health

was/is above 80% they would not replace the battery. They told me Apple would not allow for it even with me waiving and discounts. They did not care that in the time to drive from my home 25 miles away the phone dropped from 100% to 85% in 45 minutes with no use. I shut down everything possible and left only enough to run the phone.

Aug 28, 2022 1:26 PM in response to wruhm

I've been working to isolate the issues on my phone. The battery health is fine. There is something constantly pulling/pinging Cellular System Services in the background. It appears that's what is gobbling my data plan and causing the battery to discharge more than normal. (It started right after I downloaded the 15.6.1 update.)


It slows down when I turn off Cellular Settings.


Will be calling Apple Support.

Aug 28, 2022 1:30 PM in response to wruhm

wruhm wrote:

I've been working to isolate the issues on my phone. The battery health is fine. There is something constantly pulling/pinging Cellular System Services in the background. It appears that's what is gobbling my data plan and causing the battery to discharge more than normal. (It started right after I downloaded the 15.6.1 update.)

It slows down when I turn off Cellular Settings.

Will be calling Apple Support.

Better suggestion would be to call your cellular provider. There have been a lot of reports of this, which I would attribute to the cellular providers not updating cellular services appropriately for 15.6.1.

Aug 28, 2022 2:04 PM in response to OT51

OT51 wrote:

With all of these postings I have to think this is systemic and on Apples radar. It’s important to send your concerns to Apples site.

If it is systemic and caused by 15.6.1, why do I have absolutely no battery drain on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. None, whatsoever.


Never assume something is system wide, just because a few people have an issue after an update. Since the dawn of iPhone, and after EVERY iOS update, there are threads from people on these forums claiming the update caused unusual battery drain. Given the millions upon millions of users out there and the fact this is the most visited iPhone forum in the world, it would take far more reports of an issue for this to be something everyone is facing.


If you walk into a hospital and see nothing but sick people. Would that mean everyone on the planet is also sick?

Aug 28, 2022 3:15 PM in response to lobsterghost1

You were correct, lobsterghost1. Thanks for the suggestion.

I contacted my cellular provider, AT&T. The AT&T rep said "Apple has released iOS 15.6.1, along with a warning to update now, because it fixes two security holes already being used to attack iPhones. That's the reason it is using large amount of data but AT&T firmware will correct all the phones settings and will fix this issues.”


He promised to send the new AT&T firmware to my iPhones. "Once the update is installed, it will correct all the phone settings and you can get better network coverage and it won't consume large amount of cellular data.”


He also said "AT&T is sending update only to customer who requested because, this new iOS update is consuming more data."


Fingers crossed this fix does the trick to save both battery level and cell data.

iOS 15.6.1 Battery Drain

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