Health app causes recurring battery drain on iPhone 17
Hi everyone,
I’m experiencing a recurring issue where the Health app causes abnormal battery drain on my iPhone 17, and I’m hoping someone has found a solution.
Device info:
— iPhone 17 256GB EU (iPhone18,3)
— iOS 26.3 (23D127)
— Apple Watch Ultra 2 paired
— No third-party apps with Health access
The problem:
Every 7-10 days, the Health app suddenly consumes up to 25% of daily battery with almost no active use. The issue started a few days after pairing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with the iPhone 17.
What the crash logs show:
The healthd daemon (HeartHealthDaemon) gets stuck in a CPU loop, using 74-95% CPU repeatedly and causing a memory leak from ~20MB up to 600MB.
My theory:
The issue seems to be triggered by the Vitals baseline calculation that Apple Watch performs after 7 nights of sleep tracking. After this threshold, a background process starts and gets stuck in a loop.
Steps already taken:
— Deleted all Health data
— Disabled iCloud Health sync
— Disabled Motion & Fitness tracking
— Disabled heart rate notifications
— Disabled Watch background app refresh
— Removed the Heart Rate app from Apple Watch
— Disabled Sleep tracking on Apple Watch
— Reset Apple Watch as new device
— Restarted iPhone
— Contacted Apple Support
— Booked a Genius Bar appointment
The problem always comes back after 7-10 days. Has anyone experienced the same or found a solution? Thanks.
iPhone 17, iOS 26
