Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

There's something a little strange about the reports from Battery. I made a 1 hour facetime call this morning. After it terminated (and I terminated the facetime app) Battery said that Facetime had used 11% of the battery. When I checked battery a 1/2 hour later, it said that Facetime had used 19% (even though Facetime wasn't running). I just checked again - now about 6 hours after it finished, and it said that Facetime had used 25%. Can someone explain what's going on?

I spent a lot of money to buy the new iPhone 16 PM. At first, the battery worked well with iOS 18. However after the update to iOS 26, everything changed. It ruined my new phone, and now I don’t feel like I’m using a new device anymore. The battery is draining super fast even though the phone is new and the battery cycle count is only 45. I updated to version 26.1 today but the battery is still draining super fast. Why is Apple doing this to us and not fixing this major issue?

galicegonsalves wrote:

She has clearly said her phone is brand new with 100% battery health.

You just need to make note of the person you are responding to. For example you responded to my post where it says: "Oct 12, 2025 7:06 AM in response to martinjames1962".

That person did not provide their battery health which was the reason for my question and that person did not say their phone was brand new. I understand how you may have been confused, so hopefully that will help. It does make it more difficult when others simply provide "me too" posts without providing any information for a resolution.

I think it's actually very convenient for Apple supporters to put a blame on WhatsApp, however we've seen number of reports here from US customers not using this app (which is not that popular in US) yet still being affected by the issue.

Hello team Apple

i have iphone 15 pro max, in February 2026 will be exactly 2 years of use. 2 months ago i have checked my iPhone battery capacity and it was 91% and after the update of ios 26 it dropped to 88 last month and now to 87 ! Honestly it is very frustrating to drop this fast. This is not my first iphone but this is the first one that the battery drops quickly like only one month apart !! Can you do something abt it ?

Same issues, the batery in the best of cases is consumed around half of the time before updating.

Several day since the update has applied and the issue still continue.

Hope this issue won't be ignored as wifi desconections on iOS18.

Regards

I upgraded to 26.1 and the iPhone 17 Pro is great, but the M1 iPad is still horrible. I was getting 1 week of occasional usage before, now it's down to 2 days at most and the consumption is nothing, 4% Youtube, 1% safari, the other 80% idle...and I disabled already all the things I've seen in recommendations, from the new animations to the notification of apps in background, etc.

I'm genuinely looking for guidance on how to downgrade, at this point I'm also fine doing a system reset.

Me too, a few days ago, my iPad acted weird when I unplugged it from my charger. All I knew was that the percentage of battery usage was supposedly up to 100%; instead, it went down rapidly. It was very frustrating to me. So, will there be any updates on iOS 26?

sk8gal wrote:

I have iOS 26.1 on an iPad A16 and an iPhone 13 mini. The iPad mostly stays at home and doesn't get used all that much. Still has Facebook on it. The battery life is fine. I haven't tested it by taking it out and about. The phone, however, has horrible battery life (85% battery health).

With an 85% Battery Health, I would expect you are going to need a new battery in about 5 months or less. The iPhone mini was discontinued over 2 years ago and released over 4 years ago, so based on the time range, that would be average if you purchased it closer to the 2 year mark and exceptional if you got it shortly after release.

Apple states that the iPhone 14 or earlier is expected to last 500 charge cycles before needing to be replaced when it drops below 80%, while later models are rated at 1000 charge cycles. What we have seen on average and also in line what Apple has disclosed on the expected Battery Life is that iPhone 14 and earlier models drop about 1% Battery Health a month on average when measured over time. The iPhone 13 mini does have a smaller battery than the base model, so there may be some truth to what you were told, but as far as Battery Health is concerned, it still looks like it has exceeded its expectations. It also would make sense the a 15% drop in Battery Health would be more noticeable when a device has a smaller battery to begin with.

With that said, the iOS update does not change your Charge Cycles for any of the expectations on your Battery Health and performance is directly related to the health of your battery. I do think the iOS 26 update uses more of your battery due to the UI effects, but personally for me it has not been a drastic change and I think you are seeing more of the effects of your decreasing Battery Health being compounded with the update where your battery will need to be replaced shortly anyways. Removing the high battery consuming apps will see an improvement, while you are in these last few months, but the battery replacement will be inevitable. That would have been true no matter what iOS version you were using.

My previous phone was a 6S. I keep them until they die. The speed with which the battery drains at times is quite dramatic - something is causing this, something is overworking. I hope my little mini lasts a while longer because I prefer a small phone!

Followyoheart wrote:

1. Following can be tried depending on your risk appetite. May not be advisable from safety point of view and depending on how essential are these features to you but could be done until the iPhone stabilises after updates:

,,,

I haven't done any of that and my battery usage is just fine

TabyR wrote:

This is happening to me also. I tried to find a way to uninstall the new iOS 26.1 because it’s so frustrating. I’ve already forced a restart and checked my settings. But today as an example, I glanced at my phone for 10 minutes this morning. And glanced again for 2 minutes around 1 pm and my phone died at 2 pm. After being charged all night mind you. Before this update my phone battery would die after 13 hrs of CONTINUOUS use. This is ridiculous

Hello~ In add to *Jeff Donald’s* request for a screenshot…what iPhone model are you using?

~Katana-San~

Mine was updated today nothing but lag since and talk about battery drain I’m literally watching it go down in front of my eyes rapidly shocking I was on 99 percent and am on 11 within a very quick time and hardly any use please help This is shocking and to upgrade all apps how do I even do that all manually ?

oldmaninflorida wrote:

Why are there three different places to disable this battery eating, poorly written program?????

As it doesn't cause problems for most people, I suspect the issue is something other than "a poorly written program."