Why is my iPhone 16 Pro Max battery draining so fast?

Hi everyone,


Has anyone noticed their 16 pro max battery draining quicker than it should? Got the phone on launch day, under Settings>Battery it mentioned some updates running in the background may affect battery and thermal performance so I waited. Now that the message is gone, I still notice the battery draining quicker than usual.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 9:24 PM

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Posted on Sep 22, 2024 8:46 AM

After an iOS update, it's common to experience an increased battery drain as certain tasks related to the update continue in the background including indexing, you should only experience this increased battery drain for a few days before it goes back to normal.


If the battery in your iPhone drains too quickly - Apple Support

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 22, 2024 8:46 AM in response to HeartsbaneCut

After an iOS update, it's common to experience an increased battery drain as certain tasks related to the update continue in the background including indexing, you should only experience this increased battery drain for a few days before it goes back to normal.


If the battery in your iPhone drains too quickly - Apple Support

Oct 10, 2024 1:02 PM in response to Nels22

If you have any Meta apps installed, you can bet it is doing something. Before you do anything, remove the apps and compare the results.


Take Instagram for example and view the information that it is harvesting about you. You can view this in the Privacy Policy of the App Store. Why does it need all this information for a photo app? Well, the app is free, but Meta makes its money by selling your information to advertisers. Add another app such as Facebook and those effects are doubled.

  • Health & Fitness
  • Financial Info
  • Contact Info
  • User Content
  • Browsing History
  • Purchases
  • Location
  • Contacts
  • Search History
  • Sensitive Info

Sep 23, 2024 1:46 PM in response to kateryna2000

3 days is not long considering everything. The easiest thing to do would be to look in settings under battery to see what apps (or any) are using a lot of battery and if it seems abnormally high make sure you have the most recent update for that app…as well as reporting any concerns with the app developer in case they need to release a new update to address any issues with their app’s performance on the new iOS. If you have ruled out anything actually draining the battery abnormally and you have gone through your settings to make sure everything (including new setting options) are where they should be for your actual needs then the next step would be to contact Apple for troubleshooting so if there is an issue with the battery performance across the board Apple can be aware and work on a fix. Chances are that when the iPhone 13 first released the same complaints and concerns existed and flooded this forum. If you didn’t get the 13 until after bug fixes and everything occurred you were likely spared the early problems.

Sep 23, 2024 1:35 PM in response to HeartsbaneCut

This topic comes up every single year (right up there with the topic of “the iPhone glass is worse than any other previous iPhone because I cracked mine when I dropped it on concrete without a case…but I dropped my old one on rocks all of the time and it still looks brand new” claims). Under normal circumstances battery drain will be faster than expected in the beginning from things like the device indexing over several days to the need for various apps to receive updates (sometimes multiple updates) to properly optimize for use with the new iOS. That is the norm. There is also sometimes the reality that with new features people are actually playing with their devices, settings, and new features a bit more in the beginning even though they may not feel like they are. Sometimes one of the incremental iOS updates that release in the initial days/weeks after the major release will address battery drain issues if Apple notices a problem that is outside of the normal battery drain expectations in the beginning. But if you are concerned and think it’s been more than enough time for things to have slowed down (and today being day 4 since launch…with some getting their devices late in the evening on Friday making actual use time closer to 3 days means that it really hasn’t been that long at all) reach out to Apple to see what they say and if a real issue exists. Also if you notice in settings that there are any apps that seem to be using an insane amount of battery check to make sure you have the latest update for it and report concerns to the app developer as they may need to release another update for that app.

Sep 28, 2024 1:32 AM in response to HeartsbaneCut

Ok i am going to give this a few more days. The battery indexing doesnt only show in settings>battery. If you are like me with >50k photos and videos, I guess it really takes time to index these. If you go to search in the photos app and search for something, you’ll see it is still indexing despite me having my iPhone 16pro since launch date on Sep 20. i guess it really takes time to index all those photos and videos.


It is now Sep 28 and the battery drains faster than my iPhone 14 pro. I’ll update again in a week’s time maybe


Oct 8, 2024 7:07 PM in response to HeartsbaneCut

I changed my app background whoever posted the 11 things proven to help.

IT HELPED ME 100%%%%

freaking fb and gmail was background refreshing ate 40% if the battery I shut that down and others down. No I have 60% by the end of the day and I am up at 6 am and working out on Zwift go to work as a doc on the phone all day and on call. Was about to go back to iPhone 14!! I followed someone else’s post on how stop the apls autorefreshing and it worked!

Sep 23, 2024 9:19 PM in response to HeartsbaneCut

iPhone 16 pro max here got on release date too.

I don’t know how you guys are going through your battery, I charge it, as soon as it gets to 100% I take it off so normally it’s at 9pm-1am when and if I wake up in the middle of the night. From then to 1:15pm my phone is at 91%. I go to work and don’t use it much listen to music on the way to work, text people etc. After work obviously I will be on it more but even then from 1:15-9:15pm it goes to 63%. Some days I don’t even charge it going to bed I will wake up and charge it when I’m getting ready for work. From the iPhone 11 Pro Max to the 16 I would say this is a huge upgrade for me usually my 11 would have died by 4pm.

I would also go into settings >battery and see what background apps are running and the top ones I go and turn off background app refresh and that tends to help or delete to app if I don’t use it. Like for example I had temu on there (I know don’t hate) but I saw it was on in the background even when I didn’t go into it at all so I deleted the app. So much better now. I would also go to Apple and just check and see there has been times where I’ve gotten a product and the battery expanded during elevation changes etc.

Sep 24, 2024 9:15 PM in response to HeartsbaneCut

My phone used to drain battery rapidly even when it was idle, and I couldn’t figure out why. A friend recommended this guide 11 Proven Steps to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Battery Drain Issue. I followed their tips, turning off few features that I didn’t need to be running in background, especially background apps like the weather and map widgets. Now, I’m seeing a noticeable improvement in my battery life! You should try them aswell.

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Why is my iPhone 16 Pro Max battery draining so fast?

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