Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

After two months of this, having my phone run down completely every day in 6-8 hours, I finally caved, backed it all up, did a complete factory reset (except for eSIM), and restored from backup. Was avoiding this because it creates lots of knock-on work getting things working again, especially some 2FA that doesn't play nice with backups. Cost me about 4 hours including some IT support calls and I'm sure there's a long tail of stuff I haven't got to yet. But I am now getting through a full day with 30-40% battery left, like I was back before this saga began.

Kelster46 wrote:

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 ?

Since you just updated today you are going to have to wait 3-5 days for the background processes to finish indexing files and performing object detection on your photos before you are able to make any battery usage comparisons. You should also expect extra heat being generated during this time and some lag on the screen when navigating.

About Apple software updates - Apple Support

Apps are updated independent of an iOS update and are done in the App Store. Most users have it set to update the apps automatically when they become available by the developer, but you can also update them manually.

How to manually update apps from the App Store - Apple Support

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:

1. Set all mail accounts to fetch manual. New mail only arrives when mail app is opened.
2. Turn off Siri learning for as many apps as possible that is not essential to you. You will have to go Siri settings. I have a feeling that the Apple Intelligence and Siri are using lot of phone resources to learn from your apps and phone usage behaviour.
3. Background activity still happens even if you set background refresh off. You can see that in battery % used for apps. It shows on screen % and background activity %. Close apps on your drawer once done.
4. Location services off for all non essential apps. It can be turned off completely as well until required during navigation but this is risky and not advised (I believe ‘find my phone’ will lose access unless lost mode is enabled from other associated devices) and definitely not for people who tend to misplace their phones. I’ve seen location services running every time I unlock my phone. This does drain battery.
5. Lastly 26.1 seems to have improved the battery management. Not sure though. Do not forget to update all apps and do a force restart before these measures.

Yes, some may ask why bother buying a smartphone then but maybe as a temporary measure to save your battery performance until it’s fixed.

Disclaimer: At your own risk please.

hi there friends,for me about battery drain,i have an iphone 16 pro max and happened the same to me....but the best solution for me was to update and restore iphone with Mac or PC with the full iphone firmware downloaded.....but remember to backup your stuff....from 5:00am to 1:30pm i was at work and started to use my iphone after work have 91 % and started to use on youtube,web search and whatever well at least not gaming and at 7:57 i still have a good 55% i hope it works for you 👍🏽

lippe92 wrote:

I may have found the solution. It worsens the user interface, but you need to go to Settings, then Accessibility, Display, and reduce transparency. Apparently, Liquid Glass is poorly optimized and requires significant effort from the GPU, causing the phone to overheat and accelerating battery degradation.

It does require significant GPU handling, but that doesn't mean it's poorly optimized.

Rather the combination of Liquid Glass plus the poor implementation of the apps you are using ends up in more CPU being used.

StereodarkX wrote:

4 min of YouTube draining 10% is for sure normal 🤣. I used to watch 45 min for 10% with iOS 18. I used my iPad 20 min today and it’s down 21%, if that not an issue I don’t know what is. Even if Apple fixes it in 1-2-3 months, the battery is also ruined by many more cycles than necessary. I think it should be looked into urgently and Apple should really focus hard on avoiding this on each update. It’s happens almost every time a new OS is released.

Your battery appears to be performing very well. Over the last 22 hours, your battery only lost 21%. Apps will continue to use the battery even without you viewing them on screen, such as when they receive a Notification. The app will wake up to process that Notification, and if you manually quit an app the battery usage is increased because the app has to launch instead. Your hourly graph actually looks fantastic. Are you also showing anything under Other Battery Usage?

For Youtube, make sure you are on version 20.4.3, Google has identified bugs in the app and fixes were provided in an update today. It is impossible to compare an app with previous usage or even earlier from another device because you are most likely not comparing the same version of the app. For example, YouTube has been updated 14 times in just the last month and of course the goal is to only provide improvements, but additional bugs can also be introduced.

It appears there is one charge cycle being used in about 4 days, that is not concerning. It also appears that this may be a recent install with Friday being your first full day usage day. You have to account for file indexing after the update as well as photo optimization including processing object detection algorithms that run in the background. This will consume more of your battery and usually resolved in 3-5 days, but to be sure, give it a week. That is why you see it happen almost every time a new OS is released and Apple documents that fact here:

About Apple software updates - Apple Support

iOS 26 and iPhone 17 series has broken a lot of things. CarPlay and battery being my primary concern. That being said doing a hard/force restart is worth a try. It’s an old trick for sorting out charging and drain issues sometimes after certain updates. I’ve been doing this since 2009 for iOS devices. The first thing you would observe after force restart is there would be a sudden drop in battery percentage at least by 4-10 percent once the device restarts. I think this is because the battery management has finally got in sync with the correct percentage of the battery and now the charged percentage will show correctly possibly changing the battery to its full capacity now which earlier could have been less. And yes there would be an improvement in battery management. Just a theory. But I have seen it working. Not so sure with iOS 26 though.

It's not an issue inherent to iOS 26.

The most common reason is one or more of your apps wasn't properly updated for iOS 26 and is using excessive amounts of battery.

Check battery usage on your iPhone - Apple Support

life-is-exciting wrote:

It has nothing to do with a fresh iOS 26 installation, the issue still remains after more than a month. Feels like my almost new iPhone 16 Pro Max has changed into a very old iPhone although max battery is still at 100%

Then you are only left with a couple of options after reviewing the information provided.

• Wait for iOS 26.1 that is currently in beta and being tested. We cannot comment on the issues resolved in that release that pertain to the battery performance as it is a violation of the terms of use for being a beta tester. The release date has not been announced.
• Have Apple perform diagnostics on our phone. They can do it remotely or by scheduling an appointment with Apple. It is not clear if you have performed a factory reset, which has resolved the problem of poor battery performance for some, but that can be performed at Apple. It is best to use a computer so the iOS is reinstalled.

Like many others I've had this problem. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I noted that I had 497 tabs in Safari (don't ask). So I saved them on my mac and nuked all but 3 of them that I use everyday. I noticed that the battery drain was markedly less today, though it's still not as good as it was before I upgraded to ios 26. I still notice that some apps (like Linkedin) still seem to use more than I would expect. For example I was on Linkedin for only 7 minutes this morning and that used 3% of my battery. All of my apps are updated. I fear that Apple has significantly changed some interfaces for ios 26 and things that worked ok for a a lot of apps (because there were a lot of different ways to accomplish them) now use some interface that wastes a lot of resources.

Deejjjjjjjjjj wrote:

iOS 26.1 is even worse than

26.0.1 with the battery drain!!

how is this even possible!!!!!

• What is your Battery Health percentage?
• Post a screenshot of Settings > Battery, showing your green battery graph with the last 24 hour option and the top apps consuming the battery. Make note of the System battery usage below for things like Lock Screen that may indicate file indexing, AI model installation after the update and also widget usage.

The battery improvements have been widely reported by many third party review sites across multiple devices.

https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ios-26-1-update-fixes/

crap292 wrote:

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?

You are wondering why Apple is doing this to "us", and that does not seem to be the case as you have seen here that not everyone has experienced the battery drain and it has been reportedly widely from many third party sources that those who did have seen vast improvements with 26.1. There was a bug resolved with the use of Low Power mode that could explain why it was an issue to some and not others, but that is no longer the case with 26.1.

Post a screenshot of your battery usage at Settings > Battery that shows the green battery graph with the previous 24 hour option, along with the apps consuming the battery. Note also the ones below the apps for System usage of the battery, which may be an indication of the file indexing following the update and expected.

jon-luc84 wrote:

…. I left the house with 51% at 6:30 am and ended up on 20% by 10:30 am with my screen on time being only 1hr 40mins??

I agree with Jeff, you should not leave the house with 51% early in the morning, you must charge overnight.

Having said that it doesn’t surprise me that you lost 30% in 4 hours whilst the phone desperately tries to catch up what it missed overnight.

The standby time has also worsened severely, I’m losing 20 a 25% battery overnight, for comparison back when I had the 13 Pro Max on iOS 15 that phone never dropped more than 5% which is honestly unacceptable

if you leave it turned on overnight, not on charge, then 20% is not unusual.

You must must start charging overnight, every night, on Wifi to allow the phone to curate and index.

I may have found the solution. It worsens the user interface, but you need to go to Settings, then Accessibility, Display, and reduce transparency. Apparently, Liquid Glass is poorly optimized and requires significant effort from the GPU, causing the phone to overheat and accelerating battery degradation.

[Edited by Moderator]

dolphinfever wrote:

So then the apps causing my battery draining problem being the photos app and the music app are APPLES problem right?

I don't see where you have provided any details for your case. There is some very important information that has been left out. The battery draining is obviously not s systemic problem, otherwise everyone would see the same thing and that is not the case. I have 3 devices in my family, all with iOS 26, and there is no battery draining problem on any of them.

Don't forget this is a Support Site for those looking for assistance, it is not a Social Media site. For your case:

• What is your Battery Health at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity?
• Post a screenshot of Settings > Battery, showing your green battery graph along with the top 5 apps consuming the battery.
• Describe what you have done to address the problem so far, such as Force Restart, Factory Reset, Contact Apple.
• What version are you on and when did you update?

For some here, simply following the recommended steps have solved their problem, and you can see the examples yourself as Abhijitrabha posted a few days ago that the Apple support article was correct and waiting for the files to finish indexing improved their battery performance.

I have bought a new iPhone 15 and right then on 28 sept I upgraded my phone to 26 then again after 3-4 days to 26.0.1 .I am not facing any issues but for the first 10-12 days my phone battery was draining fast.Now suddenly battery performance improved

We have also seen others that had the problem resolved with a Factory Reset and others seen significant improvement after deleting identified battery consuming Social Media app. Many of those apps have now been updated, so results may vary. A large number of users have a Battery Health lower than 80%, and it has always been the case that the battery needs to be replaced once that happens. We are also aware that iOS 26.1 is currently in beta and being tested, but we cannot comment on any issues that have been resolved related to battery performance as it violates the user agreement for testing the beta software.

If you are wondering why posts are deleted on this site, you will need to review the Terms of Use and can find them on the bottom of this page. This support site is vastly different than a Social Media site where you can post the earth is flat and there is no accountability.