Bugs and lags after iOS 26 update

Hello. I'm experiencing a lot of bugs and lags on my iPhone 12 mini after the iOS 26 release update. Is anyone else having the same issue?


[Edited by Moderator]

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 17, 2025 6:46 AM

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Posted on Sep 26, 2025 6:18 AM

Jnhimanshu wrote:

I am also facing several issues like battery drain so quickly, performance issue. When i tap on home search button, then it even takes few second to load. I had to disable the reduce transparency option to minimise the impact of new release. But this IOS26 release was really not good at all.

Sorry, you have not provided any information to help, or what recommendations you have tried from this post. From that standpoint, all you can do is wait for the next point update currently being tested. We can't comment on the issues that have been resolved in this beta software, as that discussion is not allowed on public sites. For some that is the best option and they don't have to do any of the troubleshooting steps.


Of course there have been many different issues and some would be expected:

  • In a couple of cases, a user posted their Battery Health and it was under 80%. The battery needed replaced and it was not the fault of iOS 26 and the same thing was happening to them on iOS 18.
  • After the update, every user should experience battery drain, heat, and lag for a period of about 3-5 days for indexing. Apple posted a support article about this, but some users still post about battery drain when they updated yesterday. If you have a large photo library, give it an extra day or two for photo optimization of object detection algorithms. The device will have to be turned on and it is best when plugged into power for these background processes to complete quicker.
  • Some users reported back that the Force Restart recommended earlier solved the problem they were experiencing.
  • We have also seen problems with many VPN's, where once removed all issues were resolved.
18 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 26, 2025 6:18 AM in response to Jnhimanshu

Jnhimanshu wrote:

I am also facing several issues like battery drain so quickly, performance issue. When i tap on home search button, then it even takes few second to load. I had to disable the reduce transparency option to minimise the impact of new release. But this IOS26 release was really not good at all.

Sorry, you have not provided any information to help, or what recommendations you have tried from this post. From that standpoint, all you can do is wait for the next point update currently being tested. We can't comment on the issues that have been resolved in this beta software, as that discussion is not allowed on public sites. For some that is the best option and they don't have to do any of the troubleshooting steps.


Of course there have been many different issues and some would be expected:

  • In a couple of cases, a user posted their Battery Health and it was under 80%. The battery needed replaced and it was not the fault of iOS 26 and the same thing was happening to them on iOS 18.
  • After the update, every user should experience battery drain, heat, and lag for a period of about 3-5 days for indexing. Apple posted a support article about this, but some users still post about battery drain when they updated yesterday. If you have a large photo library, give it an extra day or two for photo optimization of object detection algorithms. The device will have to be turned on and it is best when plugged into power for these background processes to complete quicker.
  • Some users reported back that the Force Restart recommended earlier solved the problem they were experiencing.
  • We have also seen problems with many VPN's, where once removed all issues were resolved.

Sep 19, 2025 6:45 AM in response to luksord54

A lot of that is pretty normal for the first couple of days after a major update. The phone has to do a lot of background tasks after something like that. If you don't have a good network connection, it can take even longer.


The rest of it sounds like changes in the UI that you don't like.


The first thing you should always do after a major upgrade is a forced restart.

Sep 25, 2025 6:52 PM in response to lupinlestrange

Sorry you are having problems that hundreds of millions of other users don’t have. Thus, there is nothing for Apple to “get it together” overall, and they certainly won’t see your plaintive call in this user-to-user forum, but if you contact Apple support they may be able to help.


Do you have a 3rd party VPN installed, even if you are not using it? If so, delete the VPN profile in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN, then restart your device. Don't just turn it off; delete the profile. If that fixes it, you can try reinstalling VPN after you restart the iPhone, but probably shouldn't.


Have you tried a forced restart:


  1. Press and quickly release the volume up button.
  2. Press and quickly release the volume down button.
  3. Press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo (this might take longer than 10 seconds).

Oct 11, 2025 10:55 AM in response to luksord54

I can assure everyone that I have done many restarts and forced restarts after the update (duh..?), and it didn’t fix anything because it has nothing to do with that.

And yes, I have a perfect, fast, and constant network connection. No, I didn’t experience any of the issues I’ve mentioned right before the official iOS 26 release update (not Beta!).


And now that I’ve successfully restored my iPhone back to iOS 18.x without any data loss, I can confirm that I no longer have the issues I experienced while on iOS 26.

Unfortunately, same thing could not be done with my previously perfectly functioning Apple TV 4K 2nd gen on iOS 26, which remains ruined…


[Edited by Moderator]

Sep 19, 2025 8:33 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

IdrisSeabright wrote:

A lot of that is pretty normal for the first couple of days after a major update. The phone has to do a lot of background tasks after something like that. If you don't have a good network connection, it can take even longer.

The rest of it sounds like changes in the UI that you don't like.

The first thing you should always do after a major upgrade is a forced restart.


I don’t agree with you on that at all — none of this is normal, actually. I have gone through major updates before, and I know how it works. What you’re talking about is maybe accurate in the first few hours right after a major update, but certainly not as a consistent ongoing condition as bugs and lags. Not even during those first few hours after a major update should it be at this level..

And it doesn’t take several days for an update to install itself fully. Not even if you don’t have a perfect, constant, and fast network connection, which I have. 🙃


Distortions, object misalignments, freezing, stuck and disappearing objects, color abnormalities and unintentional differences, high battery and performance decrease, etc. — all of these things point to firmware level issues/bugs and incompatibilities. And yes, I restarted my phone for like a thousand times by now, including forced starts. 🙃


If this is normal to you, then I would really recommend you consider a phone upgrade, mate. 😬

Sep 19, 2025 12:34 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

IdrisSeabright wrote:

Without knowing what issues you're having, that's an almost impossible question to answer.


Well, where do I even begin..? Overall performance decrease, constant screen/phone freezing and unresponsiveness, unreasonable quick battery drain (charging twice a day even), UI and object misalignments and ”movements”, laggy and distorted animations in general, keyboard getting stuck on the screen and not closing down, disastrous and illogical ”customization results” with uneven (and even different) color shades, app-icons disappearing completely when closing down the ”customization”, widgets looking faded out and resulting in weird colors, ”standby” not appearing naturally as it should..

I mean, I can go on and on but I don’t have the patience for it. 🙃 And I haven’t even tested everything yet..


All of these issues were nonexistent before the iOS 26 update. And this current state of the battery and system performance now.. it’s a complete disaster! And I don’t even use my phone that often since I’m not a fan of spending my time that way at all as it gives me anxiety — my screen time is ridiculously low. I’ve also turned off background app refresh for most apps and disabled many unnecessary location services, etc. So, there’s no reason whatsoever for my phone to be in this condition.

Sep 19, 2025 10:37 AM in response to luksord54

luksord54 wrote:


I don’t agree with you on that at all — none of this is normal, actually. I have gone through major updates before, and I know how it works. What you’re talking about is maybe accurate in the first few hours right after a major update, but certainly not as a consistent ongoing condition as bugs and lags. Not even during those first few hours after a major update should it be at this level..

I don't care if you agree with me or not.


About Apple software updates - Apple Support


Distortions, object misalignments, freezing, stuck and disappearing objects, color abnormalities and unintentional differences, high battery and performance decrease, etc. — all of these things point to firmware level issues/bugs and incompatibilities.

Most people are not seeing this. If you are, you may want to consider there is something wrong with your phone.


Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple


If this is normal to you, then I would really recommend you consider a phone upgrade

I'm picking up my iPhone 17 Pro in a few hours. I look forward to another phone with very, very few problems.



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Bugs and lags after iOS 26 update

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