iOS 26 battery drain and overheating on iPhone 16 Pro Max

There are 3 things I can suggest:

Post a screenshot of Settings > Battery that includes the green battery graph with the previous 24 hour option and the top apps consuming the battery.

Perform a Force Restart:

• Press and quickly release Volume up
• Press and quickly release Volume down
• Press and HOLD side button until the Apple logo appears. It could take up to 15 seconds while holding the side button and you must ignore anything else on the screen. If you do not see the Apple logo, try again as it may take a couple of attempts to get the speed and sequence of the key presses correct.

Wait for the next point update that is currently being tested in Beta. We can't comment on what improvements have been made due to the licensing agreement for being a beta tester.

Mac Jim ID wrote:

• There are 3 things I can suggest:

Post a screenshot of Settings > Battery that includes the green battery graph with the previous 24 hour option and the top apps consuming the battery.

I really wish the iOS26 battery graph had not gone 00:00 to 24:00, it means getting a 24 hour graph mens waiting up til mignight! And the hourly usage has gone too. Well it has on my Home Button phone.

You have issues when third party apps aren’t optimized for the new iOS. Certain companies are more proactive than others in updating their apps to provide a better customer experience. Most notably social media apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and WhatsApp are slow to respond to consumer complaints and are among the worst for optimization to improve performance and battery consumption.

from→About Apple software updates - Apple Support:

Immediately after completing an update, particularly a major release, you might notice a temporary impact on battery life and thermal performance. This is normal, as your device needs time to complete the setup process in the background, including indexing data and files for search, downloading new assets, and updating apps.

My iPhone 16 pro is running through battery life like crazy. After the release of IOS 25, battery life has decreased 5%. Watching YT videos for an hour or two hours of phone conversations will lead to the need to charge, where as before my battery would last all day. I cancelled my Apple Music account because I can’t listen to music as I commute to work due to power consumption. Before 26, I could do all these things and still come home with enough battery life to last before bed. I have all settings reduced such as background app refresh, screen brightness and enabled adaptive power to no avail.Hopefully, Apple will have a fix for this soon because this is destroying my phone. How will theses latest upgrades benefit Apple users when the power consumption is too great to enjoy these new features on devices that are only a year old and touted for “Apple Intelligence “. Loosing my patience with Apple.

Battery drain can be caused by a number of factors including iOS, recent updates/upgrades, non-optimized apps and improper charging just to name a few. Without proper diagnosis it’s just guessing. What troubleshooting steps have you performed?

You can be more polite. Obviously it's not a problem for just one user but for several, iOS 26 brings a lot of errors and one of them is battery drain. These are facts

I am having similar issues with my 16 pro max. Very high temperatures and now significant battery drain. Updated over a week ago and today, in low power mode, lost 60% of battery life in roughly 6 hours with little use.

This particular phone has had video glitches from the time of purchase, which was last November. The two 16 plusses and the 16 base model in the house have not had any issues with 26 that my phone has.

Is this potentially a warranty issue?

027mer wrote:

My iPhone 16 pro is running through battery life like crazy. After the release of IOS 25, battery life has decreased 5%. Watching YT videos for an hour or two hours of phone conversations will lead to the need to charge, where as before my battery would last all day. I cancelled my Apple Music account because I can’t listen to music as I commute to work due to power consumption. Before 26, I could do all these things and still come home with enough battery life to last before bed. I have all settings reduced such as background app refresh, screen brightness and enabled adaptive power to no avail.Hopefully, Apple will have a fix for this soon because this is destroying my phone. How will theses latest upgrades benefit Apple users when the power consumption is too great to enjoy these new features on devices that are only a year old and touted for “Apple Intelligence “. Loosing my patience with Apple.

No, Apple will NOT have a fix for it soon, unless you contact Apple support, because it is a problem with YOUR IPHONE, not 100 million+ other iPhones.

I’ve never been able to understand why people think that because they have a problem it must be a universal problem affecting millions of user.

Apple is doing it on purpose, so that you get frustrated and buy the new 17 series

16 Pro max was supposed to have the best battery life and now after the 17 it suddenly has the same battery life of the iPhone Air

Shiv.thesnakeeyes wrote:

Apple is doing it on purpose, so that you get frustrated and buy the new 17 series

16 Pro max was supposed to have the best battery life and now after the 17 it suddenly has the same battery life of the iPhone Air

😂

ellydruid wrote:

Is this potentially a warranty issue?

No.

Mine is the same. I bought the phone 2 weeks ago and the battery is terrible. drains quickly in any app and heats up in light apps