Home & Lock Screen consuming screen time after iOS 18

Same exact issue, warm/hot screen, battery drain of 50-60% in two hrs while phone is literally just sitting on my desk at work. Something changed for sure. Tried deleting all widgets and reduced brightness on display, but no impact.

And just like that, battery drain came back with a vengeance. Lost 40% battery over night with my screen off, iphone mirroring disabled, battery saver mode activated and activity showing as Home Screen & Lock Screen taking up most of the activity. It had been getting better but I wonder if the drain last night was because I left my Macbook powered on and plugged in (in sleep mode) vs having it completely shut off on the other days when drain wasn't as bad. I still can't figure it out but this is clearly an issue as I haven't changed anything about my phone or how I use it since it updated to ios18.

Same here, battery percentage dropped 30%+ over night (wifi, mobile data and bluetooth off at night) - normally i experienced a 2-3% drop over night before IOS 18. Lock & home screen 32% of battery usage, and also battery health on my 14 pro max dropped from 100 to 97 in 2 days after upgrading to IOS 18. I hope apple will repair this issue

Tried everything

18.1 Doesn´t solve the problem.

Restar all settings doesn´t solve the problem.

The only silly thing I'm going to try today is unpairing and restarting the Apple Watch to see if that's what's keeping the phone draining so much battery when the screen is off.

Yes, interesting, So in last 24 hours Home & Lock Screen is listed as being on for 1 minute every hour that I used the phone except 1 hour where it was on for 2 minutes. It doesn’t show any time for it when I was sleeping over night or during one mid day hour that I did not use phone. My guess is it just rounds up and 1 minute is shortest it will show?

EDIT: I had something here about how maybe turning off Face ID unlock the last 5 hours might be helping but oddly when I just looked again either the numbers are different or I was mistaken but it doesn’t look better. Anyway I’ll have a better idea about that by late tomorrow.

As for overall battery stuff, it’s hard to gauge exactly because one of the main things I do with the phone when I’m using it a lot is take photos which most sources say is battery intensive. Do you know how much taking a bunch of photos in say an hour drains your battery or how much it’s normal to drain? Also I have been playing with the Pro mode photo formats that are bigger, like HEIC or RAW, which may draw even more power.

A lot of my other usage is listening to downloaded podcasts with AirPods which is not power intensive, or using Safari with 5G (because I’m out and about, otherwise if I have WiFi more often using computer or tablet).

The battery was definitely worst just after I did 18.2 update about 8 days ago when I’d had phone for about 2 weeks. I had some overheating with it that day which generally have not. Definitely better than that now.

Hi, i have exact same issue on brand new iphone 16 pro. First i got the phone in december 2024, used for almost 2 months with issue persisting through everything (even factory reset). Home and lock screen simply kept draining double digit % for 1 or 2 minutes being active every hour. Then, desperate as i Am, i decided to sell the lphone abd buy a new one, also 16 pro. This time i went for fresh setup without backup. I only logged in to my apple ID when prompted. Guess what? SAME thing is happening AGAIN!! Im so disappointed beyond words. This is insane and such a shame so many people are reporting same issue. Have you ever fixed the issue completely or you’re fine with 15ish% of usage per day? Cause im stuck now after i find out even buying a new device will not solve my problem. Someone, for the love of God and everything good and pure, HELP! Thanks ❤️

Hi, I actually responded because this forum emailed my your initial message so I thought it was directed to me as response but I see now it isn't -- this forum is actually a little confusing to follow threads. I've also been engaged in discussions about this on Reddit in the past but there's no conclusion, some people seem to think it goes away and others it doesn't. I really was hopeful that one person doing beta testing with IOS 18.3 was right it might fix it but no luck for me.

When you say SoT does that include what the Battery Screen breaks down as Screen Active AND Screen Idle? Cuz if so and you used 60% of battery to get 8 hours that's pretty dang good based on my experience, and if it's ONLY Screen Active time that's amazing, LOL.

I understand it's annoying and getting obsessed with it.

I'm mostly not a power user putting in tons of hours and a disproportionate amount of my use is Camera and Photos related stuff which is big battery hog -- I suspect also maybe that there is still some drain from cold temps. and I'm doing outdoor photography in cold often right now here in northeastern USA (though not like old school Iphone SE 1 that the battery could drain in minutes when below freezing outside, LOL)

Sorry I took a while to get back to you, I've been distracted with various recent events here in the USA (not sure where you're located but a lot of the people I interacted with about this issue on Reddit previously were on other continents). I will definitely update you if I see further improvements and probably just let you know in a month or so period how it's going.

It's gotten a lot worse last 2 days cuz I have barely used phone and have been on desk top a lot and using that for texting and web stuff mainly. Back up to 18% in last 24 hours. But my usage is so low it's kind of meaningnless.

It's possible (though not that likely) because of increased concerns with privacy and security generally and potentially related to AI I may switch to a used, pre-AI Pixel running Graphene OS (I'm also interested in their cameras as an amateur photographer) and sell this phone and maybe not lose much money if consumer electronic prices here go sky high due to tariffs. How did you sell yours by the way?

Hey, you’re right, it is a bit confusing for me as well, lol. I spent a lot of time scrolling and searching for answers, so re-reading all the replies is what I got used to by now. I’m a light user compared to you, don’t use my camera much unless i’m going out on weekends or travelling outside the country. I like to take photos and edit them for social media, but im far from photographer :) Im mostly using social media, safari and youtube/netflix. So in terms of that type of usage, its around what you’d expect from battery. Mine also drains fast the moment i open camera.. now im looking at it and in the last 24h i have little over 4h SoT with home and lock screen being 14mins “on screen” and caused 15% of the drain, same % as 20mins of safari, to put into perspective. Im from EU but im up-to-date with the recent events in the USA and feel very sorry for what’s happening. Take care and stay safe! Hope we’ll resolve our issues whether with iphone or another brand. As an ex pixel 6 owner i have only words of respect for their camera and image processing, but at the time i couldnt stand the battery. Now, it’s all balancing out and you may really have a good experience if you choose to switch. :)

Well I hope it fixes for you. I scrolled down in Photos to bottom and didn’t see such a message. But I don’t use iCloud with photos. I did turn off the “show features content” setting just now though. The problem is worse again consistently since 18.3 update and home and Lock Screen is at 20% of battery use in last 24 hours.

I have an iPhone 16 pro running 18.3.1. and the Home & Lock Screen battery drain has been an issue since day one, running every iOS update. Activity ranges from 29 to 49 percent and the phone starts draining as soon as it’s unplugged. Screen mirroring and AI has been disabled with no improvement after complete power cycle.

I have the same problem and the battery percentage dropped from 98% to 94% after updating to ios18

Something here. Make my iphone15 pro max not usable. Battery drain like crazy. The phone keep heating during mobile data. Battery health dropped few % after the ios18 update.

I have the same issue too. What went wrong?

Me too, my problem. I'm going crazy. I can't understand what it's due to.