BATTERY DRAIN DRAMATICALLY ON IOS 16.1.1

I don't think you are going to get ANY Apple support person to say there is a problem with a release of their iOS, or of their hardware, no matter how many people in the support community complain of similar problems. I'm sure anyone that said anything like that without there being an official statement from Apple would lose their job so fast their head would spin. They have FAR too much to lose to have any employee admit to issues with their products. Any statement or admission of such a thing would have to come from Apple corporate.

That said, my phone did this for just one day - they day I upgraded to iOS 16.1.1 As soon as I upgraded to iOS 16.1.2 (or whatever the newest release is) the problem went away. Lucky for me, I upgraded to 16.1.1 late and 16.1.2 came out the next day. It was very clearly a problem with that version of iOS.

Hello. I have a Iphone 14 for 2-3 weeks with 16.0 version and the battery discharged 20% from 100% in one night,with no usage. Yesterday I’ve done your above steps( battery settings & turn off the optimized battery charging, Switch off your iPhones and then turn it back on. Leave it to die then connect it to the charger let it charge from 0 - 100%) + Contact backup deactivated and 100% succes last night (zero % discharge)

I’ll try to activate the contact backup now and see after.

Thanks.

The day after the 16.1.2 update, I started noticing my case getting hot, and the battery would drain about 15% per hour, regardless of whether the phone was being used or not. Before that update, I would typically make it to bedtime without having to charge during the day.

It's maddening that an update can cause the battery to start draining like this. I've heard different people talk about apps that are using 40%-60% of their battery life (mine was the notes app -which wasn't being used). We shouldn't have to start shutting off apps, changing battery optimization settings, or turning off iCloud sync, etc., just because we updated the phone. I've used mine the same way for years with no issues.... until the update to 16.1.2. Apple needs to fix this right away.

My battery swelled up and broke the back glass. It was cause if all my problems. But didn’t happen until after the update. Had it repaired and was told that the update most likely caused the issue. Now I’m not having any problems.

I'm curious about what they will tell you.

For sure: please wait the system must stabilize...

In my case, the 14 Pro Max is as bad as before in 16.1.

On 16.0.3 was great.

On my wife's 12 mini everything is fine.

Update: My wife‘s 12 mini is draining battery two days after the update.

From 80% to 0% in 4 hours.

First day after update from 16.0.3 to 16.2 was ok.

I‘m sure it is something with shared photo library on iCloud.

@C.J. Roebuck

16.2 Zero improvement. It actually seems worse. Battery drainage not improved. I called Apple tech support today and they ran some tests and said my battery is operating at 100%. I already knew that. They told me to schedule an in store appointment.

don't waste time and fuel to a "genius" bar appointment. went there yesterday and they basically blame the drainage on couple background apps and told me i had to completely deactivate them to get it fixed. the best advice i can provide to you is to follow the threads on subreddits iPhone and iOS. Apple will not provide solutions on support before they acknowledge the problem. Try DFU restoring for like 6 times without a backup, heard of some iPhones that got the drainage solved.

Fortunately, for me, it appears that 16.2 has “resolved” the problem.

I can’t help but feel like I’ve been gaslighted by Apple though. So they create an update that makes you use 100% more battery with no changes to your usage pattern, everyone throws a fit, so then they put out the next update where in the background now you’re only using 20 to 30% more battery power for nothing. Which was probably the intent in the first place, to push additional sales of new phones from people who assume that their phone is messed up for the battery is not working properly.

Since I’ve updated to 16.2 I have not had any overheating that I was having before, or the level of intense battery drain that I was experiencing from the previous update.

hopefully the update will fix it for others as well.

@sebikom1

I spoke with Apple support over the phone. I shared my screen with them. They took a look at my battery performance which showed 100%. It was a waste of time but they told me to go into the Apple Store to speak with a Genius Bar person. I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon. I’ll let you know what happens.

I solved this! The above ideas got me thinking- I turned off Wi-Fi, and kept an eye on cellular data usage per app for a few days.

Turns out the notes app was using 100–200MB/day even though I wasn’t using the app or adding/removing notes. Turning off cellular data for that app greatly improved battery (unless I was on Wi-Fi), but didn’t fix the root cause.

I went through my notes manually and deleted large notes that contained lots of photos or other attachments, which I suspect were having trouble syncing up to iCloud, as I wasn’t willing to turn off iCloud sync. Deleting enough notes cost cellular data usage to drop to almost 0 again - fixing the issue and battery life returned to normal.

Hope this helps others…

@arthuralaor

Went to my Genius appointment. He of course ran a diagnostic test and of course all systems came back operating as they should be. I was told to restore to factory settings. I'm currently in the process of doing this. My iPhone is backing up from iCloud as i type this. After informing the Apple employee that I have almost nothing backing up to iCloud and have every possible setting to the off position (that could possibly cause increased battery drain) and no background app automatically refreshing, It was recommended to add the Apple protection care plan before the 60 days expires. So I did that while I was at Apple. Someone from Apple is supposed to call me on Wednesday late morning to followup if my situation improved after the restore process. I should know by the end of the day tomorrow if there is any improvement. I will report back.

@magikality

Currently doing the restore to factor settings. Prior to wiping the phone clean, I noticed there was no option to toggle notes to back up to iCloud. I added all notes "saved on iPhone" to new folders to iCloud and the other notes saved to my gmail accounts I left alone. I got the intuition that there is something going on with Notes while I was going through the process. I will try your suggestion after my phone is restored from iCloud.

@tzichi

No. E-SIM stayed the same. This procedure is a game changer. I’m far from getting Apples claim of “up to 25 hours of video streaming” for the iPhone 14 Pro Max. It’s been tough to gauge with all the running around I’ve been doing. I went from around 10-12 hours for battery to go from 100% to 0 to around 20 hours from 100% to 0. Maybe 6 hours of YouTube streaming in that 20 hours. I’m going to have my phone at 100% when I tomorrow morning around 8a and see where it’s at at the end of the day around midnight. I never used to leave Always on Display on but I’ve been leaving AOD on since I did the reset. I have 1 or 2 things toggled on in Background Refresh and everything else off. It’s not really necessary to leave much of anything on in Background Refresh running in the background even when not using app and it’s closed out. It’s just collecting data. I had it set up like this even before I did the reset and it didn’t help. I don’t know what how little these people use their phone that claim to go a day and a half to 2 days before needing to charge. I’d really like to know how many hours a day they stream and go on social media and other tasks….it can’t be much. If they are using their phone quite a bit and getting 1.5 to 2 days then I’m still way off that mark. I still think the phone should last longer based on my usage. I want to see if I can achieve 24 hours 100% to 0. Best I’ve gotten is around 20. Far better than prior to the reset using MaxBook plugged in. All my photos and contacts came back on from the cloud but it did take some time and consumed a lot of battery. I would keep it plugged in charging while you do this. It took several hours until all contacts had Re-populated in iMessage and in contacts. I had many of the iMessages repopulated without the contact and only the phone number but eventually the contact populates. So be on wifi and charging if you want the contacts and logs to populate. Of course be sure to back them up to iCloud first. Since I didn’t restore from iCloud, after I don loaded apps I wanted from my purchased app menu, many of the passwords were not automatically populated when logging into the apps. Some were most were not. So you just need to know your passwords or pick new ones. It takes time but it’s like an adventure to see if you’ll succeed. It’s worth doing. Previous iPhone / iPad users should do this as well. They will definitely benefit. Please report back after you’ve done this procedure in a couple days. Like I said first day you can’t tell because your phone is backing up all the photos and contact info from tube cloud. I have over 3000 contacts and about 40,000 photos. Yours may go faster.