iPhone Camera App Battery Drain Issue


Charged my phone to 100% at 11pm. In the morning at 7 am phone was dead with no battery!

When I looked at the Battery usage in 24 hours, I was surprised to see that the camera had use 82% of the battery for a 1 min usage 😔


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Feb 21, 2023 5:47 AM

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Posted on Feb 24, 2023 7:01 AM

It appears the problem has been solved! When I visited the Apple store, initially an employee suggested I hard reboot the phone (Press the Volume Up Key, Let Go, Press the Volume Down Key, Let Go, & Kepp pressing and holding the Power Off key till the Apple Logo Appears). This is what I did and appears to have solved the problem for now.


The Genius bar representative suggested I need to reset the phone to a new phone and reinstall the apps. Her view was when the install was being downloaded, it was possible that the download was interrupted for a second causing a bad install. I didn't like the idea, as the answer to every problem is not "to reset the phone.


However, the Hard reboot of the phone appears to have helped. Thank you to everyone who replied.

23 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 24, 2023 7:01 AM in response to mardnusajus

It appears the problem has been solved! When I visited the Apple store, initially an employee suggested I hard reboot the phone (Press the Volume Up Key, Let Go, Press the Volume Down Key, Let Go, & Kepp pressing and holding the Power Off key till the Apple Logo Appears). This is what I did and appears to have solved the problem for now.


The Genius bar representative suggested I need to reset the phone to a new phone and reinstall the apps. Her view was when the install was being downloaded, it was possible that the download was interrupted for a second causing a bad install. I didn't like the idea, as the answer to every problem is not "to reset the phone.


However, the Hard reboot of the phone appears to have helped. Thank you to everyone who replied.

Apr 2, 2023 11:45 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hello Lawrence, Appreciate your response. However, as I had mentioned earlier in my post, the problem has been resolved with a hard reset of the phone as suggested in the Apple Store.


"When I visited the Apple store, initially an employee suggested I hard reboot the phone (Press the Volume Up Key, Let Go, Press the Volume Down Key, Let Go, & Kepp pressing and holding the Power Off key till the Apple Logo Appears). This is what I did and appears to have solved the problem for now.


The Genius bar representative suggested I need to reset the phone to a new phone and reinstall the apps. Her view was when the install was being downloaded, it was possible that the download was interrupted for a second causing a bad install. I didn't like the idea, as the answer to every problem is not "to reset the phone.


However, the Hard reboot of the phone appears to have helped."

Dec 4, 2023 9:52 PM in response to AAITZONE

hi! update on my phone as i have experienced it last august which i posted above. its still on 100% health and the drain never happened again. my best guess is after i used my phone that one time i must have swiped right accidentally opening the camera. it drains battery even when you dont use it and just keep it open. try to close the camera app on your recent open tabs and make sure that the phone is really turned off before sleeping. hope it helps.

Apr 2, 2023 8:05 AM in response to Fiberly

How about you should have closed the camera or the app using the camera before locking the screen? Not just for the battery, but for privacy also.


And why weren’t you charging overnight? The absolute best way to get maximum use on a charge, as well as slow the decline of battery capacity long term is to enable Optimized Battery Charging (Settings/Battery/Battery Health) and charge the device overnight, every night. The battery will fast charge to 80%, then pause. During the nighttime pause the phone will use mains power instead of battery power, allowing the battery to “rest”, and thus reducing the need to charge the battery quite as often. The phone will resume charging to reach 100% when you are ready to use your phone; it will “learn” your usage pattern. If you enable iCloud Backup (Settings/[your name]/iCloud - iCloud Backup) the phone will back up overnight also, assuring that you can never lose more than the current day’s updates. Here's more information→About Optimized Battery Charging on your iPhone - Apple Support

May 6, 2023 8:49 AM in response to mardnusajus

16.4.1 the last and urgent update on Security.

Then,yessir no charger needed overnight. Battery drain inexplicably due to zero use or open apps?

Shows as extremely high camera percentage from battery usage. NOT!

Last I checked any and all sudden battery drain is a problem. As I understand it this means something else is accessing??

Not bugging out yet,but if it is a swift kick to the thing,a Reboot is always #1

Feb 21, 2023 9:17 AM in response to mardnusajus

The link on top of this page which you had visited, before posting this question here, is shown under the "Related Article” that may have given you an answer. 


You need to mention which part from the above article was not clear to you.



Please go through the following links.


Protect & Prolong the life of your iPhone's Battery: Batteries - Maximising Performance - Apple (IN)



Try some of these options too.

  1. Avoid Screen Mirroring
  2. Put on Low Power Mode
  3. Put Auto-Lock on (1 min):- with the Low power mode it will be 30 Sec
  4. Disable Push notifications for apps you do not use often
  5. Keep your iPhone Facedown to prevent notifications to light up the screen
  6. Enable Auto-Brightness:- Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Auto-Brightness [Enable]
  7. When possible, manually lower the brightness from Control Center
  8. If you want to watch continuous Videos/Movies. Stream it on TV or a Monitor
  9. Don't force close apps; Apps that are not on the frontend screen are paused by the system to save energy. Apps require more energy to re-launch. Apps that are open in the background use large memory is a myth and quitting them is counterproductive
  10. Location services may please be allowed only while using the app. Avoid the "Always" option wherever available
  11. Set your iPhone to fetch email & Calendar data from the internet less frequently
  12. Turning off Background App Refresh 
  13. Charge before it drops below 20-30%
  14. Periodically Check the Battery Health (Settings > Battery > Battery Health)



May 6, 2023 8:56 AM in response to WhattheUNW

If you don’t charge overnight, your battery capacity will decrease faster than it will for any other charging protocol.


If the phone discharges overnight, then a charger CERTAINLY is needed overnight!


If you leave the camera on it will use up the battery very quickly


Something is using energy; you can see what it is in Settings/Battery

Feb 21, 2023 9:47 AM in response to SravanKrA

Thank you for the quick reply and the generally useful suggestions (See at end of message). These are actions I normally do. Despite all my applications being closed and no background activity, the battery suddenly drained from 100% to 0% in less than 8 hours - never happened in any of the iPhones I have owned. The Maximum Capacity of my Battery is 97%!!

This happened ONLY after I upgraded to 16.3.1, and has happened once (yesterday). I am concerned about the other iPhone 12 devices as well we have at home.

Apple Support mentioned that they could not explain why the Camera consumed 80% of the battery when 1min usage in 24 hours period. The advanced support certainly did a good dance of wanting me to reset the phone, etc. but clearly stated they could not explain why the battery drained because of the camera. Finally, they referred me to the Genius Bar!


Suggested options in earlier Reply

  1. Avoid Screen Mirroring
  2. Put on Low Power Mode
  3. Put Auto-Lock on (1 min):- with the Low power mode it will be 30 Sec
  4. Disable Push notifications for apps you do not use often
  5. Keep your iPhone Facedown to prevent notifications to light up the screen
  6. Enable Auto-Brightness:- Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Auto-Brightness [Enable]
  7. When possible, manually lower the brightness from Control Center
  8. If you want to watch continuous Videos/Movies. Stream it on TV or a Monitor
  9. Don't force close apps; Apps that are not on the frontend screen are paused by the system to save energy. Apps require more energy to re-launch. Apps that are open in the background use large memory is a myth and quitting them is counterproductive
  10. Location services may please be allowed only while using the app. Avoid the "Always" option wherever available
  11. Set your iPhone to fetch email & Calendar data from the internet less frequently
  12. Turning off Background App Refresh 
  13. Charge before it drops below 20-30%
  14. Periodically Check the Battery Health (Settings > Battery > Battery Health)


Dec 4, 2023 9:48 PM in response to mardnusajus

Exactly the same problem after updating my 14 pro max to 17.1.2. I charged my phone to 100% at 9 pm used it till 10pm left it on 94 % before going to bed. In the morning at 6 am phone was dead with no battery!

when I checked the Battery usage in 24 hours, the camera had use 87% of the battery for a 2 min usage 😔

and it happens just after going to bed for the last two nights how strange🤔

Feb 21, 2023 12:38 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you Lawrence. I restart my phone every night before charging to kill all active apps. I do optimized charging half the time and others I charge fully before going to sleep as I read books for an hour or so.

The Apple Store suggested that I hard reset after every software install. Push the Volume Up button, let go, Push the Volume Down button, let go, and keep holding the power button till the Apple logo comes up. I’m also taking with the Genius Bar now

Aug 5, 2023 11:37 PM in response to mardnusajus

I have the same issue. It 16.6 and I've never had it before. Updated a few days ago and yesterday all of the sudden my battery is dead.

The camera isn't on in the background and also tried shutting it off completely in settings but nothing works. Oh man apple needs to fix this asap. Can't have a phone which dosent work properly and completely drains my battery in a few hours while just sitting there.


Does anyone know the link to were i can send bugg reports to apple also?


Aug 22, 2023 6:09 PM in response to zion185

i had the same issue just today for the first time but i havent updated to 16.6 yet and the camera was also the issue. the last app i used was the camera before i slept last night but the video recorder wasnt on so i wonder how was it possible to drain it to 0 overnight. also my battery health was still 100% since i bought this last november. i think there was a bug issue.

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iPhone Camera App Battery Drain Issue

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