Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

Apple has never and will not support downgrading.

Just because you've updated apps doesn't mean the apps are properly using iOS 26, causing excessive battery drain.

What does the battery settings pane say is using most of your power?

I am another user with dismal battery life…it started for me with iOS 18 and got worse with 26. iPhone 13 mini. Looking at daily battery usage I see Facebook is significantly more of a hog than other apps. I use WhatsApp but it is not using much battery. I’m going to try deleting Facebook from my phone. Good experiment. Will report back with results

Apps are updated for basically two reasons, a new feature and to fix bugs. In the last month there have been 13 updates to WhatsApp. Why the need for so many updates? Have 13 new features been introduced in the last month? No, not that I’ve seen.

Jim’s point is valid, delete the app, review the battery usage over several days and analyze the results. The results will tell you two things. If consumption doesn’t drop a lot, the app and the features you use just consume a lot of CPU and graphic performance. The developer needs to optimize those features to use less battery. It could show a large drop in battery consumption. In which case the developers need to locate the cause of the issue and write the code to resolve the issue. A bug fix is generally not a single line of code. It can involve hundreds, even thousands of line of code. In all those lines of code could be a dozen other bugs that affect users because of the hasty patch and release of an update that has not had time to be tested in a beta format. It impossible to properly beta test 13 updates in a month.

sk8gal wrote:

Removing Facebook from my phone has helped. However, battery life is still poor. Battery health is 85%. Apps are up to date. Apple needs to address the issue.

We can investigate further if we could see what is happening on your device by posting a screenshot of Settings > Battery, that shows your green battery graph with the last 24 hours option and the top apps consuming your Battery.

The Battery Health on your iPhone 13 is OK, but not great. I would expect that you have about another 6-8 months before it would drop below 80% and need replaced. It is literally telling you the capacity is 15% less than what it was when new. You are going to get less usage time, just like if you put 15% less gas in your car, you will not be able to travel as far and will have to fill it up more often.

Having your Apps up to date does not mean it is a problem that Apple has to fix. You have proven that by removing Facebook and seen improvements in your battery performance. Facebook may have been fully updated, but certainly causing your battery to drain more than it should. Yes, it is important to keep your apps updated, as that is how developers can address bugs in the apps that affect battery performance, and is also true for your iOS updates too.

What other Meta apps do you have and how much more battery usage time would you get without them? I only call out Meta because their apps in the past have been significant battery drainers across all device manufacturers, which is why Google also called them out for the poor performance on their devices and you see the same posts on the Samsung/Android support sites.

There is nothing in those apps that would require heavy CPU use like you would see in a 3D Graphics game, most are basically web portals into their service and WhatsApp is a messaging app that you do not see the same battery draining when using Apple Messages. They could do better and they should. What makes it difficult for them is their business model for revenue generation requires them to harvest information about your activities to sell the data to advertisers and they are using the battery on your device to do that.

Please share a screenshot of your battery capacity and usage during the time frame you’re referring to. What you’re experiencing is not normal and it could be hardware or software (or even both) related. The screenshots are crucial for understanding the issue.

Please do a forced restart and let’s see what the next 12 hours look like.

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Why isn’t your iPhone plugged in at night charging? When did you update to iOS 26? What are your top 5 or 6 apps using the most battery capacity?

This worked for me.

Settings -> Search -> Turn off "Help Apple Improve Search"

[Edited by Moderator]

I, too, have noticed a significant difference with my 16 Pro purchased in January from the Apple Store, using Google Fi. I can see the increase post-update reflected in the Battery Usage app. I live in an area without much service (so I depend on WiFi) and before the update I might have drained about 8% overnight if I forgot to plug my phone in. Now just last night was about 34%. After digging into the stats, I’m not making it up, at least a 300% increase in usage just from “No Cell Coverage”

I beg to differ with you, TikTok has had 14 updates in the last 12 weeks. Does that sound like a bug free app?

Instagram has 23 updates in the last 3 months and 5 updates in the last 2 weeks since iPhone 17 was released.

These are not optimized apps. I’ve been on these forums for almost 25 years. Those apps weren’t optimized when iOS 18 came out, weren’t optimized when iOS 17 came out and weren’t optimized when iOS 16 came out. I’m not sure why you think the app is optimized for performance. Have you talked to their support teams and confirmed their optimization?

If you’re unhappy, I get it. I would be too. But I don’t rely on those apps. I understand you may have business dependent on those apps. Hence why I avoid them. I’ve learned over the years who I can trust and who I can’t. I don’t count TikTok or Instagram as apps i can trust.

Since you’re convinced it’s an Apple issue, you best path forward is to express your displeasure in a conversation with Apple Support. Have you talked to Apple Support about the issues?

No surprise here.

It was very similar in IOS 18 which had similar battery life issues until they got fixed late in 18.6-18.7.

Apple has a lot to catchup to do in terms of new features (AI) which have higher priority over stability and optimization.

Mark my words - don’t expect this time will be different and that they will fix issues soon (like in 26.1).

No chance.

It’s probably going to be few weeks before iOS 27 release next year (just like it was for 18).

If you remember battery life in iOS 18 was starting to get better when Apple finally gave up on delivering promised features in iOS 18 and from that time next releases were more focused on bug fixes.

By this time around battery got better in iOS 18 but it was very late (following year of iOS 18 release, not the same year anyway).

For this reason I have not updated to 26 yet.

My second post in this thread (critic to Apple) is nowhere to be found (censorship?).

Here is restored version:

Perhaps we should get used to the fact that now every new major iOS release needs at least a .5 or .6 update for battery optimization.

New features appears to be more important for Apple than stability and iOS 26 does not appears to be „maintenance” version.

Its actually quite opposite as Apple has a lot to catchup to do with AI features.

Unfortunately, based on past experience with iOS 18, battery improvements usually come last.

Apple’s lack of vision years ago and failure to embrace LLMs are now backfiring, resulting in the lower software quality we’re experiencing today.

14 pro here, updated Tuesday or Wednesday last week. Battery feels like it’s draining about 30% faster than before the update. I’m used to a few days of increased drain after an update, but I’m getting slightly concerned now. Took the phone off charge this morning at 8:30, for example, and it’s now down to 27% twelve hours later. I’m going to update all the apps now and do a forced restart to see if that helps

Hello~ First…you are addressing fellow forum members and Apple will not see your disappointment here. You may however let them know using the link below…

Product Feedback - Apple

That is a large update for a device with a battery health getting very close to the recommended replacement %. It doesn’t surprise me that your battery is draining.

If the battery in your iPhone or iPad drains too quickly - Apple Support

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

~Katana-San~