Extreme battery drain in iPhone post update

after a wider testing. To me it seems, bluetooth is the culprit here. Just turn off bluetooth and check the battery drain rates. If it works for you please upvote. My iphone 15 pro battery drain with bluetooth on is around 5% per hour while on standby and with BT off it is 1% (normal).

Clearly keeping BT off is not a solution and apple must look into this ASAP.

I have an iPad and the exact same thing is happening. The battery has been abnormal since updating to 17.5.1.

I recently upgraded to an iPhone 15 from a 12 mini and the battery is absolutely abnormal. It is also running 17.5.1. I am using the phone the same way I used to and it is marginally better than the old 12 mini battery. With a brand new phone I should be able to, use it all day just like I did with my 12 mini.

[Edited by Moderator]

Same here, I have the 15 pro max since update my battery health went down to 99%, I always keep my phone 40%-80% and usually I charge my phone to 80% and unplug it, usually it would last all night or loss 2% at most (wifi/cellular data/ Bluetooth disconnect) now I end up starting the day with 72%. Let along the battery drain like crazy

This is such a frustrating issue. My battery life lasts barely two hours from full charge - with no background activity. Are there any solutions from Apple yet or are we stuck with this built-in redundancy? !

After every update the device goes through its post-update regimen. This occurs while your normal usage continues so there is additional "usage" occurring, just not by the user. Understanding this can help reduce the impact during this timeframe.

There is a pattern: Immediately after an update, a subset of users mention battery life issues. A large portion of those users also notice that the battery life gets better usually between 1 to 3 days afterwards with no changes made. Why is that? The additional usage completes and things go back to normal.

I notice this sometimes as well but I mitigate it by installing the update during a time where I don't need the phone for around 30 mins, usually at work. I plug the device in, finish the install, then update applications from the App Store. I keep the device plugged in for sometime after that to allow any syncing to occur, and for the file indexing done after updates to complete. There is no visual indicator of this happening and no progress meter, I just let it stay on the charger for a few hours and overnight for good measure.

Doing this typically avoids or resolves any issues with excessive battery drain after an update, unless there is in fact, a bug that causes battery drain but it has been a long time and many phones ago that I actually had that happen.

How do we not have a fix for this yet? My phone gets hot and drains in a few hours. It’s no longer usable unless I carry a battery pack around, this is unacceptable. I use this for work and must have the battery life back.

Turning off feature and deleting 3rd party software always helps. Just like turning lights off in your house uses less energy. But a what cost, convenience, health features etc.

Apple releases updates to their software as required.

Sure, why not? There are things an iPhone does at night that consume battery capacity. I noticed this just the other night. My 15 PM usually drops 2% to occasionally 5%. However, the other night it consumed about 10% maybe a little more. The next night it went back to about 2%.

Why the drop? iPhones backup to iCloud at night. Maybe it had issues doing the backup. It could have been network issues, slow WiFi, lots of updates to photo collections etc. Battery drainage is very rarely the same day after day.

At first, I was just having a excessive battery drain, now my phones won’t even charge using chargers unless it’s an Apple one which cost like $40

So are you going to reimburse everybody whose phones you’re destroying while you don’t do anything about this for the last couple months?

because my phones are almost unusable now how are we supposed to get reimbursed for this if it’s not covered within our warranty and we don’t have insurance? Or was this the point of the update to basically screw everybody else over so we’re forced to buy new phones? because it just seems odd to me that you guys ignore this issue for so long, issues were accounted for within the last few updates alone

On my iPad I lost 45% after being on it, roughly an hour and a half. Brand new iPhone 15 is also experiencing similar problem. I should have returned it.

Does Apple not monitor this forum? Given the number of complaints and how long this has been an issue, it would appear that they do not.

I just love how Apple stays silent. I can't go past 8 hours without it going from 100% to 2%! I used to have days before it reached such and I have an iPhone 12 mini. Can we downgrade to previous versions of iOS?

QJack wrote:

I just love how Apple stays silent.

This is a user-to-user forum. Apple's participation here is largely limited to making sure people follow the rules. This was explained in the Terms of Use to which we all agreed when we registered.

If you want support from Apple, you will need to contact them directly. You can start with the "Support" link at the bottom left of every page of this forum.

Can we downgrade to previous versions of iOS?

No.

I’ve also seen increased battery drain … accompanied by the phone getting very warm while just sitting on a table or in my pocket as I take a walk (the only thing I’m running is Beats earbuds and the Audible app - which never caused the phone to overheat in the past). What’s the fix?

Exactly. Most of us just need a phone to communicate in two ways: text messages and voice calls. We don't need background app refreshing or Journaling suggestions, or any other crap that uses more battery. I purposely keep my phone on 17.3.1 just for this reason, learned my lesson the hard way with 17.4. Moral of the story: turn off automatic updates and read reviews before updating.

Bikergofast wrote:

Exactly. Most of us just need a phone to communicate in two ways: text messages and voice calls. We don't need background app refreshing or Journaling suggestions, or any other crap that uses more battery.

If that were actually true, most people would be buying basic phones. They handle text and voice calls and can go for a very long time on one charge. My last basic phone would last about three days. They are also much cheaper. But basic phones are not what most people are buying. However, if that's what you need, I suggest that you sell your iPhone (they tend to hold resale value quite well) and use the proceeds to buy a basic phone. You may even come out ahead. Also, phone plans for basic phones can be cheaper as yo don't need a data plan.