📱 @Apple I recently upgraded to the #iPhone17 and the battery drain issue is really disappointing. Even with normal use, the phone loses charge way too fast. For such a premium device, this shouldn’t be happening.
Please address this with a fix/update soon. 🔋⚡
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Battery Drain
iPhone 17, iOS 26
Lily575 wrote:
Why is this not common knowledge? Is there a way to test if that’s what’s happening or something else?
It is also detailed in the Apple Support Article here:
About Apple software updates - Apple Support
There is no message when the background processing is complete, but if you see a lot of Battery usage showing Home & Lock Screen, that is an indicator that it is still indexing. Usually it should be done in about 3 days, give it a week to be sure. The alternative is to include the indexing/setup in the update, which would dramatically increase the update time where your device would not be usable.
Lily575 wrote:
Why is this not common knowledge? Is there a way to test if that’s what’s happening or something else?
It is also detailed in the Apple Support Article here:
About Apple software updates - Apple Support
There is no message when the background processing is complete, but if you see a lot of Battery usage showing Home & Lock Screen, that is an indicator that it is still indexing. Usually it should be done in about 3 days, give it a week to be sure. The alternative is to include the indexing/setup in the update, which would dramatically increase the update time where your device would not be usable.
shaili81 wrote:
Im experiencing the same issue I was about to return my iPhone.
I had iPhone 15 Plus I loved it because of its bigger screen It has 85% battery health even in this condition it was way much better than brand new iPhone 17.
what I should do now?
DemonSlayerKev wrote:
False I had a base model iPhone 13 and it stayed alive longer than the base model iphone 17 it’s so sad these newer phones drain battery so fast it’s horrible even XR has a better battery life than these newer phones
Not sure what your point is. My Nokia flip phone in the 90's laster longer than my iPhone X. Newer phones are more powerful and also have bigger batteries. With power comes increased energy use. The only metric that is used to gauge the battery life is for it to achieve all day battery life and that is under normal conditions. Installed apps will have an affect on Battery Usage and even a cell signal showing low bars uses much more power on a 5g connection as it is attempting to maintain that connection to a distant tower.
The recommendation is to charge your phone all night, every night and use Optimized Charging. Setting a Charge Limit is intentionally reducing your daily battery usage. If you are unable to achieve all day battery life, then factory reset your phone to get a base battery drop in one day and then compare with adding apps. If you have an app that is a notorious energy hog, like most Meta apps, then you need to determine what is more valuable to you.
If you are looking for non-biased comparison of iPhones, you will find many on the internet and the iPhone 17 is always on the top of those charts. Of course the 17 Pro Max is the king with the largest battery of all, but the base model with the smaller form factor is no slouch. No need to rely on any single users experience, either yours or mine, when there are standardized test routinely done on the products from many sources. Here are a couple:
And specifically for your comparison of the base model 17 compared to the base model 13, tests have also been done.
https://www.thewhizcells.com/iphone-13-vs-iphone-17-is-it-worth-the-upgrade/
No need to rely on opinions when there are actual facts to test the results in a standardized manner removing any personal bias.
Find My may be trying to find devices connected to your Apple Account. The most common reason is that Location services for Find My is set incorrectly. Follow this path,
iPhone > Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Find My > While Using App > If While using app is selected, please momentarily change to Never and then back to While Using App.
The other devices on your account should be set to the same settings. Please restart your devices after changing the settings and check for 24 hours. Another possibility is one of the users on your account is constantly tracking your device or you are constantly tracking another device from your iPhone.
larouche wrote:
Same issue battery goes from 100 to 0 at the speed of light for their latest phone thats a problem.
If you are within the 14 days of purchase, then return it. What you are experiencing is not what has been seen by the latest 3rd party reviews. Pay particular attention to the section on battery performance in each of these reviews that were released in just the last week.
If you think there is a problem with your Software, then do a factory reset using a computer. And if you think there is a problem with the phone and it is after the 14 days for a return, then schedule an appointment for service.
Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple
What is your battery drain issue? If you charge the phone overnight with Optimized Charging enabled (a Best Practice) it should not require charging during the day, until the next overnight charging. If it meets this standard then the iPhone is working as designed.
Battery drain is directly tied to how you are using your iPhone, including cellular voice and data usage, apps you use, screen brightness, how often you use the iPhone, age of the battery and many other factors, most of them under your control.
Here’s a more detailed answer from Apple Support: If the battery in your iPhone drains too quickly - Apple Support
My iPhone’s been draining battery way too fast recently. Here are some tips that should help:
Hope that helps!
You are comparing a claim of up to 30 hours video playback to texts, phone calls and weather apps? Nope, that is not a comparison, which is why you can see the links for real world tests that show the iPhone 17 ranks near the top of every report with the ProMax being the king of all. Beyond the apps that you have installed and can view their battery usage (and also delete), the cellular signal is going to have a significant effect on usage and vary drastically between users and distance to tower, and don't forget Location Services and also consider your screen brightness.
Video playback on a local file will use very little battery when not considering those other factors that do drain your battery and is the basis for a controlled environment test that Apple uses to make the claim where they also say: "All battery claims depend on network configuration and many other factors; actual results will vary". You have not considered those other factors, which is why I provided the links for benchmarks to compare real world results among many different devices.
In fact, if you think that is just Apple that uses the controlled environment tests for their battery claims, look no further than the Samsung S25Ultra where the claim on their website is "up to 31 hours" video playback, and you would see the real world test is 11 hours 58 minutes. Compare that to the ProMax showing 13 hours in real world tests.
https://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-s25-ultra/specs/
Not sure if you actually have a problem with your phone or just don't understand the meaning of controlled environment tests used by all device manufacturers when compared to real world tests. If you do think there is a problem with your phone, then start by posting the screenshot requested by Jeff Donald, along with your current Battery Health and we may be able to advise further.
You will need to give it that time to finish indexing. System processes don't typically show in the Battery usage screen, but previously some users saw excessive use of the Home & Lock Screen during this time, not all. That indexing and object detection on your photos is not going to be done on day one. Also there are AI models being downloaded in the background that your iPhone 12 never had after setting up.
Other things to consider is how many apps you allow to use your location, how many people you share your location with and leaving your WiFi on when not connected since it will be searching constantly for known networks to connect to. Turn off WiFi when going somewhere that you will use cellular data instead. I only have a few WiFi networks that I will turn on my WiFi and connect to, all other times I am on cellular data and WiFi off. Battery life is excellent.
7-8% overnight is not huge; typically it will be 15-25%. And you should be charging overnight, every night.
Any cell phone uses energy continuously, as long as it isn’t powered off. This means that if it is not connected to power for 8 hours the battery level will be lower at the end of that time. How much lower depends on what apps you have, how many notifications you have enabled (which will be delivered and processed by apps even if you force close apps-they will relaunch when a notification arrives), and, probably most important, how strong your cellular signal from the network is; your phone maintains a "conversation" with the network so your phone can be found when a call or text arrives, and low signal strength requires much more energy to do this update to the network. Thus, you should be charging your phone overnight so this nighttime usage is powered by the external source rather than the battery.
Khubayeb62 wrote:
I have upgraded my phone with iPhone 17 pro just 2 weeks ago and now it’s battery dissipating me everyday. I used to charge my phone from 20% to 85%. From last couple of days I’ve noticed that the battery drain dramatically without doing anything. If go to sleep with 50% battery and the next day i can see only 30% left.
I don’t know what’s happening with such a premium phone like 17 pro. And what’s the solution?
Simple, do as advised by Apple for many years, charge to 100% all night every night while on wifi.
Do not go to bed without charging your phone, it will use battery checking for mail, sorting ohotis, etc etc.
Just because there is an option for charge limit you are not obliged to use it, otherwise you may as well have a battery with 85% health.
Regarding usage...
The last update killed my battery! - Apple Community
DebbiZ wrote:
The 17 is supposed to get 12/13 hours of use time. I do not get that. I have also called & get no help. This is so wrong. I have had my new iPhone 17 for 2 months. It’s like there is no warranty from Apple. I am now angry. It’s total BS.
You will get that using the installed apps, but third party apps can certainly use more power. What did you find was using your battery when you went to Settings > Battery? Some apps have already been noted as power hungry, but it is up to the user if they want them or not.
BrittBisch wrote:
I have had my iPhone 17 for 9 days and the battery cycle count is 9. This battery is horrible and I’m having to charge it multiple times a day. I did check the battery health of course it says normal but why is the battery capacity being used completely every single day? That’s not normal. I to am very very disappointed.
If you've had it for 9 days and the cycle count is 9, that means you've given it nine full charge cycles. That doesn't seem too far off for 9 days. Most people use their phones a bit more when they first get them. Also, if you loaded your previous phone's backup and did a system update, that will require the phone to do a number of background housekeeping tasks that can use more battery than expected.
Best practice is to keep optimized charging enabled and put the phone on charge when you go to bed. It should be fully charged and ready to go in the morning. Don't bother with the charge limiting.
Andreaerp wrote:
However, you’re saying that to get the phones full battery potential you have to not have arguably 2 of the most used third party apps installed? How is that reasonable?
That is a simple test you can perform. It is the developer of the app that determines how much power they are going to consume and what background activities they are going to perform, and it is your choice to use them or not.
You would have to ask Meta why a simple photo sharing app would require so much battery power. Everyone else can do that with very little impact on the battery. Of course we know the reason and that is because in order to generate $50 billion in revenue last quarter, your data is what is being harvested and sold to advertisers. Ever wonder what they are gaining when they let you download and use their app for free?
Have you looked at the Privacy Policy page for Instagram in the App Store and the data that is collected? Apple can give you the information and even tell you the apps using your battery, everything else is up to you. Do I think that is reasonable for a photo sharing app, absolutely not, but that would be a Meta question not an Apple one? Let Meta know, even Google has called out Meta for the battery usage on Android devices.
iPhone 17 battery drains quickly with normal use
