iPhone 15 Pro Max Heating & Battery Draining Fast

You could try all the same things I tried described in this thread.

• Simplest first: Try rebooting your phone if you haven't done so already
• Update to 17.0.3 if you haven't done so already (maaaaaaybe wait for 17.0.4 / 17.1 or so, but that may take a while)
• Closing all apps
• Uninstall top 3 or 5 or so apps that use the most battery (one by one)
• Disable Always On
• Disable background refresh
• Disable 5G
• Use Flight Mode
• Use battery savings mode
• Drain it to empty, then charge it with optimized charging off
• Factory reset

Go the scientific, methodical, route - measure everything. Duration, from how many % to how many % battery in that time, take screenshots. Every time you change something, give it a few hours until you're confident it changes either something or nothing. Then switch it back and try the next thing. Yes, this will take days, if not weeks, but keep a record of everything you do and the result. As you can see I built quite a record and detailed descriptions of what was going on, including screenshots of the battery drain at some points (I have lots more but didn't want to spam too much here). In the end I could with absolute (or at least 99.99%) certainty show that the problem was in the phone, not any of my apps, my usage pattern, my charge pattern etc. etc. When the evidence is irrefutable then Apple has no option to swap it. Otherwise they can* keep sending you back into the weeds with "have you tried ...".

You may not have to go this far. Maybe all it takes is a simple call to Apple Customer Support and mention your phone drains like crazy and they'll replace it. I may be the weird one, but I like to come prepared to the battlefield 😝 If you're close to an Apple Store maybe you could pay them a visit (closest to me is a 2hrs drive away) and have them take a look at it (I doubt they'll replace it on the spot, but you never know). If you have AppleCare+ then Apple may be even more willing to replace it quickly or without too much asking. However, you do have a right to a decent working product which you paid (dearly) for. So if the phone doesn't do what it's supposed to do or doesn't function as it's supposed to function or doesn't last as long as it's supposed to last then - in most, if not any, part(s) of the world - you're entitled to (most) of your money back or a replacement. It depends on where you live (I'm in Europe) so your mileage may vary. But I'm sure Apple will be happy to replace it if it's actually a lemon (production error).

Having said that: how long does yours last and could you post a screenshot like I posted which clearly shows a) the green battery usage graph and b) the blue activity graph? If you have any means to measure temperature reliably, like I did, then measure the temperature after your phone being "idle" for, say, an hour (with no apps open or anything) and also, or especially, at times when it's hot. Note down what you were doing what (may have) caused the heating in your opinion. Again: measure, build a record. The first thing you're gonna have to do is define what you mean with "battery is draining hard"; what is 'draining hard' in your book may be 'normal' in someone else's book. Numbers. Durations. Graphs. Cold hard data.

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* Not saying they will.

I've factory reset my 15 Pro Max and fresh installed all apps manually rather than restore from icloud backup. I heard that there can be problems with icloud backup migrations to a new phone where software gets corrupted. This manual install process was slow and miserable. But, it seems to have fixed my battery drain issues. Phone drained 4% overnight rather than 20%. And lasts a full day now. Battery still doesn’t last as long as my 13 Pro Max did, but it’s better at least.

For those that dont want to wait for if/when Apple fix this, maybe give this a try. Especially as the 14 day returns window is coming up.

Make a new full phone icloud backup to be safe.

Make individual app backups where possible, like Whatsapp, apps with APIs/keys/config files

Factory reset iPhone 15x

Don't restore from backup, but sign into Apple ID when prompted

Manually install all apps from AppStore

Hope for the best

Ok, update time. And this will be the final update from me.

Spoiler alert: I'm happy again.

Last Tuesday my phone was picked up by UPS. Wednesday I got a notification from Apple that my phone was received AND that a new phone was already on it's way. I was told this could take up to 2 weeks or so but I guess that was an underpromise (which is a good thing; underpromise, overdeliver). And yesterday, Thursday, my new iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB natural arrived. I unpacked it and started restoring from backup. First thing I noticed is that the phone, even though it still had to update to 17.0.3 (it was on 17.0.2), never got anywhere near as warm (or hot) as the previous one did. Yes, it did get warmer than ambient but that's normal, it's doing work afterall. At that time I was already convinced this phone was better than the other. I tried temper my excitement, you never know what interaction of apps may cause it to start heating up again and draining battery, so I wanted to make sure everything settled first.

My phone has now been restored for around 18 hours or so and the difference with the replaced one is night and day. If you look at the battery drain screenshots I posted earlier in this thread (one, two and three) which I later compared to my old iPhone 13 Pro Max (here) and compare that to my current battery usage graph I think you'll agree that this phone is much, MUCH better:

The battery drain on this replaced iPhone 15 Pro Max may be sliiiiightly higher still than my old 13 Pro Max but I do have the always-on enabled (hey, I couldn't resist, it's a new phone and I'm eager to use it's new touted features 😉) so the comparison isn't 100% fair. However, it sure does look like I'll be able to use my phone for (close to, or maybe even a little over) two days on a single charge instead of it not even lasting 18.

The experience with returning it was frustrating, I felt I wasn't actually heard by Apple, I didn't feel appreciated as a customer (spending quite a large amount of money) so I do think Apple should work on that. However, Apple did come thru in the end. My replacement arrived (much) earlier than expected and the replacement seems to be fine 🤞. I'm a happy camper again. Thank you Apple 👍

I have the 15 Pro and had issues with mine getting hot (especially on calls), the battery draining, and random restarts. I started a chat with Apple Support and they ran some remote diagnostics. They determined that I did have a hardware issue and gave me 3 options to get it replaced. Take to the Apple Store, send it in and wait for a replacement, or Express Replacement where they put a hold charge on your charge card for the cost of the phone, but send you one in advance. It normally comes with a fee to do that, but it was waived because I had AppleCare. Got the replacement in 2 days, set up the new phone and then sent the bad one back. The new phone was the answer to my issue. They cleared the hold on my card when they got the bad phone back. Except for the initial inconvenience with the bad phone, the rest of the process was well handled. It would be worth the try to do the support chat and see if they’ll run the diagnostics. Good luck.

How many cellular signal bars do you have?

Even if you are connected to WiFi, just having your phone idle in an area with one bar will use a lot more power than somewhere with full bars, because your phone still needs to ping the local cell tower periodically.

Likewise, 5G takes a lot more power than LTE.

Getting warm while charging is normal, that’s true of every rechargeable battery.

As for battery life, there are two big components: third-party apps and cell signal strength.

Check the statistics under Settings -> Battery to see whether a third party app is using a lot of power.

Check the iPhone battery health and usage - Apple Support

Is your cell signal strength low? If you only have one bar it will use a lot more power than if you have full bars.

Also, 5G cellular uses more power than LTE, and your iPhone 7 did not support 5G.

Use 5G with your iPhone - Apple Support

Finally, when first set up and for about 24-48 hours after installing any new iOS update your phone will use more power as it rebuilds its internal databases used for search and other tasks.

RobThree wrote:

I'm on the fence whether to factory reset and restore a backup or trying your method. I'm leaning towards the first as it will most likely be what I'll end up doing anyway, so that'll save me a day or two.

Try updating to iOS 17.0.3.

You've had it two days. Give it a couple more. Especially at first things need to 'settle in', stuff is being (re)indexed in the background etc. If it's still bad in a couple of days, just return it to Apple and have it exchanged. By now it's pretty obvious this isn't a "every iPhone 15 model is affected" issue. There's just some duds, a bad (few) batch(es). It happens. I know first had (read this thread) that finally getting your brand spanking new expensive gadget and then having it not work perfectly sucks. But, trust me, it's no "complete waste of [your] hard earned money". If it's still bad in a few days, have Apple swap it.

Yep, I let it drain the battery until it shut itself down. Then gave it another 30 minutes. Then hooked it up to the charger, disabled optimized charging and let it charge to 100% and set charging back to optimized.

I just finished restoring a backup after factory resetting it after trying many things (just go back a few pages). One thing I noticed is that it got stuck on the last 100Mb (according to the settings screen) from over 55GB.

If it wasn't obvious: This is NOT my screenshot, but this is similar as to what I saw in my settings screen. I just grabbed this from the web for illustration.

The last app that kept "loading" was Amazon Prime Video. I cancelled it and the backup finished promptly. I'm sure it was a fluke but, hey, you never know. So now my phone is 100% charged and (again) restored from a backup. I'll keep it on the charger overnight - after restoring from a backup battery usage is expected to be higher for some time (sometimes even up to a week, but in my experience usually less than 2 days). Tomorrow morning I'll take it of the charger and report back here as soon as I'm confident battery usage is similar (or better) than my 2yr old 13 Pro Max or after I've given it a couple of days to finish whatever it has to do after recovering from a backup.

Removed widgets. Problem solved.

Ios 17.0.3 fix over heat and battery drain on my iPhone 15 pro max

Same here! The phone is reporting the Home & Lock Screen is causing the most battery drain. At first I thought it was the phone and had it exchanged. 2nd Pro is doing the same thing.

I spoke with Apple for quite a while today. They confirmed that engineering is aware of the issue and working on it.

Only guess here is that something within the software is causing the processor to run at full refresh rate when on a call.

fingers crossed for a fix because you can’t take a long call at all.

just a suggestion….between reading multiple forms and trying different combinations; I may have found a solution that HELPS but not corrects the issue. Turning off always on display, activating low power mode, and removing ALL widgets (Home Screen, Lock Screen and the far search screen) has reduced the heat. Currently on a 20 minute phone call while plugged into the car, battery is charging (would deplete prior even when connected to the car) and phone is slightly warm.

give it a shot until Apple corrects this major issue.