It feels like the 16 pro drains battery like crazy. Mine has gone from 95% to 81% in 38 minutes of light use and some picture taking. Phone also gets really hot when using the camera!
Anyone else experiencing this?
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18
I got my phone on Monday 30th September (delivered at nearly 9pm) and it took me until the following day to transfer everything from my 14 Pro Max, so I didn't start using it properly until Tuesday 1st October. For 2 days, I experienced this issue (excessive battery drain) and I became particularly annoyed because my phone was seemingly permanently attached to a charger and the battery percentage wasn't going up. As of last night I was considering sending it back as other posts on here suggested that Apple support was reporting no issues with the phones even though almost everyone was experiencing the same fault.
I did notice that there is a software update available - and although it is just 18.0 by all accounts this update is just for new iPhone 16's (all variances). It says it's a security update but once installed, my battery life is significantly better - to the extent that at nearly 11.30am, it's at 91% and I've used it for work calls; listening to an audio book for 30 minutes and playing some games since 6.30am when I took it off a normal overnight charge.
Maybe it was the update or maybe something else (although I didn't do or change anything else in my normal phone usage/routine) but the battery drain issue seems to have been resolved.
Hello~ Any help by clicking on and reviewing the information below?
If the battery in your iPhone drains too quickly - Apple Support
Also…
Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
Post back if needed. Take care!!
~Katana-San~
Don’t wait - I reported to Apple at 3 weeks as - was tired of calling and getting remote help- agreed for Genius Bar appt today. They couldn’t fix it. Then they couldn’t replace it either as it was > 30 days ! Great. It needs repair but Apple can’t repair it!!! That means I am done. So, if you are <30 days - return the phone .
bw
Bought mine on Dec. 21st and noticed the battery issue in just 3 days. I charges my Iphone 16 pro in the morning and made sure that it’s 100% full and noticed that I had to charge it again at night since it went down to 28%. (I did not use it that much since we’ve been busy the whole day.) I charged it again that night to 100% and to my surprise, it was just 96% when I woke up. (6-7 hours of not using my phone) No background apps running since I made sure to turn it off to observe what was happening. I’ve had an iPhone 7plus and an iPhone XR and did not have to charge it in 2 days when it was brand new because the battery life was good. This iPhone 16 pro has a defect. I hope apple can replace our unit.
Kida12 wrote:
Just got a 16 pro this week before traveling and wish I had read the reviews. I just read 11 pages of comments about this battery issue and have tried all the suggestions and still draining so fast. I have no location services on and only my camera app open and after 4 hrs out taking some photos and videos it will be at 18% from 100%…. Just from pics. And it gets so hot that I had to turn it off twice just so it could cool down. I am only charging using Apple cords so I have no idea what’s up but it’s excruciating.
That is some fierce battery draining for a brand new device. Which apps uses the most battery power in Settings > Battery?
Have you made an appointment at an Apple Retail Store or contacted Apple Support via phone call or chat? If they don’t know about the exact issue(s) it won’t get into the system. Lumping things into a post, no matter many doesn’t help engineers resolve the issue, if any.
If you’re in the US please call 1-800-MY-APPLE or outside the US, consult the support articles below.
Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support
Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple
Jeff Donald wrote:
OK, the issue that seems to be frustrating you is the battery. Please show a screen of the last 10 days of battery usage by app.
Jeff, you may have missed this from earlier posts: also noticed that battery draining very fast while no network coverage area
peofromswe wrote:
I can see your point about heavy social media usage and complaining. That user is luckily not me.
Here is my battery usage..
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/f624a0ab-831d-48d0-9614-fd2ca21fae85
Your battery usage actually looks quite good over the last 10 days. The issue seems to be from 2 weeks ago when you were in Japan and that was likely due to difficulty in acquiring cellular connectivity and maintaining an efficient connection.
There is no option to view the battery usage farther back than the last 10 days, but currently I do not see a problem there. If you are in an area with poor cellular service, it is best to turn on Airplane mode to power down the cellular antenna. You can still turn on WiFi in Airplane mode if there is WiFi available. When in an area with poor cellular coverage, the phone has to blast signals out at full power trying to connect to any cell tower it can find and will use significantly more battery.
Securikyle wrote:
This battery issue renders the phone functionally useless for me. It has to be charged midday!!
its like going back in time on battery life, and what if I want those background services? What if I use Siri and dictation as part of accessibility extensions?
I’ve never been so underwhelmed by an Apple product.
Have you read any of the 13 pages on this subject? It might be enlightening. To summarize 13 pages:
What model phone? How old is it? What does it say in Settings/Battery/Battery Health? Are you following the best practice of charging overnight, every night? Do you stream videos for hours, or play online games for hours? What is your cellular signal strength? Do you have VPN installed?
Any of the above can affect your battery life.
omarou208 wrote:
And ofc if you go to Apple Store they will give you any excuse just to say that it’s not the phone it’s way you use the phone
And 99% of the time they would be correct. The ONLY things that use energy are apps, the screen, and networking. So if your battery life isn’t what you expect either the apps you use and how you use them are using the energy, or the screen brightness is high, or you have a poor cellular network connection.
I think the problem is with the Cellular Connection. On Wifi it's not so agressive the consumption.
What’s your battery usage look like last 24 hours and last 10 days? Here’s mine.
Hello~ We are your fellow forum members and Apple doesn’t participate here in the way you are expecting. Click on below…
If the battery in your iPhone drains too quickly - Apple Support
~Katana-San~
Hello~ Why don’t you make an appointment and take your iPhone in for a check up?
Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple
~Katana-San~
I did an experiment.
I charged my existing 14 Pro and a 16 pro (bought 2 week ago) and used them the exact same way, but they sit mostly unused for 36h. Here’s the result.
You can see the 16 Pro discharge going faster in the last 12h. Both have the same background app processing running (none). Not sure what’s going on on the 16 Pro. After 36h, the 14 Pro is at 85%, the 16 Pro at 58%.
I'm having the same problem. Today, it sat on the coffee table about 10 feet from the router and even though I didn't really interact with it, it went from about 95% to drained and off in about 10 or 11 hours, with almost no use. I'm wishing I had my 13 pro back, at least it worked, camera, battery and all. This is with the 18.0.1 update installed.
iPhone 16 pro battery draining fast
