Iphone 5s battery drain even in airplane mode

I have had the same problem on all of my iPhones going back to the iPhone 5. It happens the same way every time, the phone works great and then 6-9 months in I notice it getting a bit warm and the battery life takes a dive. I could give a lecture on battery saving options and have learned from early on how to get the most out of my battery life. I have push notifications turned off for all apps, background app refresh turned off, location services turned off...etc...etc. The phone will blaze through the battery even when not in use and will take 6+ hours to charge to 100%. Even when plugged into an Apple cable & charger it will drain the battery if it is being used while the phone is plugged in. The same process happens, I take the phone in, the Apple Genius does a battery health check and tells me that the battery is fine and then tells me all the things that I already know about how to conserve battery life. I try to explain that this is something different and they reset the phone, restore from backup, restore and set the phone up as new etc... After either the second or third visit they finally replace the phone after much pleading and explaining that I've been through this before. Each time they come to the same conclusion, that something is telling the CPU to run in the background even when the phone is not in use. In many cases it has something to do with Springboard, Apple's app launching manager. They then tell me that they almost never replace a phone for software issues and I laugh because they've replaced every iPhone I've owned for the same reason.

The thing that is so annoying to me is that it has happened to my iPhone 5, 5s, 6, and now 6s and it happens the exact same way and no one has been able to tell me exactly what causes it. They always replace the phone which make me happy as it essentially solves the issue however, I'd much rather learn what causes this issue so that I can prevent it from happening in the future and avoid having to go through this process every 6-9 months. If there is something that I am doing or an app I use...etc...I'd like to know because I'd stop using it. Most people suggest it's the Facebook app but I haven't used that app since the iPhone 5s. I just want to know why so I can prevent the issue.

Koobers wrote:

I just want to know why so I can prevent the issue.

There's no one reason why. There are thousands, or perhaps even over a million, the number of apps available for iOS. When the problem happens Airplane mode will frequently make it worse, because whatever app is stuck trying to update over the internet keeps trying even though there is no connection to update over. With iOS 8 and later there's at least a tool to help - Settings/Battery will show the apps most likely responsible. It can be the built-in apps; iCloud sometimes gets stuck syncing, possibly due to a bad record in the calendar database (or some other database). Mail, likewise. But there are plenty of suspects.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Koobers wrote:

I just want to know why so I can prevent the issue.

There's no one reason why. There are thousands, or perhaps even over a million, the number of apps available for iOS. When the problem happens Airplane mode will frequently make it worse, because whatever app is stuck trying to update over the internet keeps trying even though there is no connection to update over. With iOS 8 and later there's at least a tool to help - Settings/Battery will show the apps most likely responsible. It can be the built-in apps; iCloud sometimes gets stuck syncing, possibly due to a bad record in the calendar database (or some other database). Mail, likewise. But there are plenty of suspects.

That would only make sense if I had Background App Refresh, push notifications, or iCloud on. In my case I have none of those on so there would be no reason that an app would be trying to update or look for new emails/messages or update iCloud, that also wouldn't explain why the battery would be draining while the phone is plugged into power when the iPhone is in use. In none of those cases do I have Airplane mode on. Also, the battery settings don't shed much light on the issue as whichever app is in use even for even a short amount of time shows up as the so-called culprit. For example, I wiped the phone and set it up as new and did not use it at all for around 6 hours, I used Safari for around 20 mins and it showed that Safari was using 85% of the battery. I then wiped it again, set it up as a new phone and didn't use it for around 8 hours. I downloaded the tumblr app and used it for 15 mins and the batter settings showed that tumblr was using 60% of the battery. How can all of the apps be using that much of the battery percentage when they are in use for such a short amount of time? It even does the same thing if I set the phone up as a new device and I don't add any new apps to it or setup mail accounts etc. Whatever the issue is, it remains an unsolved mystery.

The display in Settings/Battery shows the amount of energy used by an app as a percentage of the total energy used in the past 24 hours (or since setting it up). So if the battery drains from 100% to 90% and an app shows it used 60%, it has used 60% of 10% (100-90), or 6% of the total battery capacity over that time. The number is useful for comparing it to other apps that have used energy, but it doesn't tell you how much of the total battery it has used. It's also measured over the previous 24 hours. You might have charged the battery a couple of times in those 24 hours.

Background App Refresh stops apps from running in background to do processing; it does NOT stop an app from responding to Notifications, location updates, application updates if you have automatic updates enabled, or many other functions that apps can do in response to Events.

In both of your examples, how much was the total battery discharge at the time you measured it? If Safari, for example, was the only thing you used, it isn't surprising that it used 85% of all of the energy used in those 20 minutes, as there wasn't much else running.

When you say you did not have iCloud on, do you mean you did not log in to iCloud, which happens automatically when you set up as new, unless you go out of your way to prevent it? In other words, you did not enable Find my iPhone?

Lawrence Finch wrote:

The display in Settings/Battery shows the amount of energy used by an app as a percentage of the total energy used in the past 24 hours (or since setting it up). So if the battery drains from 100% to 90% and an app shows it used 60%, it has used 60% of 10% (100-90), or 6% of the total battery capacity over that time. The number is useful for comparing it to other apps that have used energy, but it doesn't tell you how much of the total battery it has used. It's also measured over the previous 24 hours. You might have charged the battery a couple of times in those 24 hours.

Background App Refresh stops apps from running in background to do processing; it does NOT stop an app from responding to Notifications, location updates, application updates if you have automatic updates enabled, or many other functions that apps can do in response to Events.

In both of your examples, how much was the total battery discharge at the time you measured it? If Safari, for example, was the only thing you used, it isn't surprising that it used 85% of all of the energy used in those 20 minutes, as there wasn't much else running.

When you say you did not have iCloud on, do you mean you did not log in to iCloud, which happens automatically when you set up as new, unless you go out of your way to prevent it? In other words, you did not enable Find my iPhone?

In the cases of the battery percentages, I am not using the phone at all for the 6 and 8 hour periods before I launched the Safari or the tumblr apps. In that time the battery has not been charged and has gone from 100% battery to between 30 & 15%. Again, no apps were running in the background at the time. I'm not great at math so I will let you do the calculations on that.

As I understand it, having Background App Refresh turned off should stop all apps from doing anything unless you manually open that app. "If you force an app to quit by dragging up from the multitasking display, it won't be able to do its background activities, such as tracking location or responding to VoIP calls, until you relaunch the app." BAR is designed to run efficiently in the background so even if you have it turned on, it should never be the thing that is causing a major drain on your battery or causing the CPU to run overclocked and unchecked in the background. I also have push notifications, locations services, etc all turned off so regardless of how BAR works, the apps shouldn't be doing anything unless I have that app open at the time. I included an excerpt from the app instructor blog and the link to the source material which breaks down BAR using Apple's own definitions. I know intentions don't always come across well on forums so I want to be cleat that I'm not trying to sound like a jerk and am merely attempting to show where I am getting the info from, on how I understand BAR to work.

When I say that I did not have iCloud on, I mean that after I set the phone up as a new device I have gone to iCloud in settings, scrolled down to the bottom and select "Sign Out" so that no aspect of iCloud is running in the background. iCloud is essentially turned off and not connected to the phone in anyway.

Background App Refresh, or BAR (as coined by friend and founder of the MacInstructor, Rick Stawarz) is actually a great new feature of iOS 7 that allows apps to refresh with the latest information in a way that efficiently uses the horsepower of your device without affecting the way you use your device.

BAR does not give any app a blank check to run whenever it wants. It actually adds a layer of intelligence to the way your phone handles apps in the background. I believe that in some cases, it could actually increase energy efficiency of your iOS device.

To get a better understanding of what Background App Refresh adds to the iOS experience, here is Apple's definition from their "iOS: Understanding Multitasking" article:

...Apps can continue to run for a short period of time and are then set to a suspended state so they are not actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. They will instantly launch when you return to them.

Certain tasks or services can continue to run in the background. To lessen the effect on battery life, normal app background refreshing is scheduled for efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged into a power source, or being actively used.

When Background App Refresh is on, apps that take advantage of this feature can refresh themselves in the background. For example, an app can check if new content is available and download the updates, or retrieve the updated content in the background when it receives a push notification, so the new content is ready for viewing when you launch the app. Apps can also schedule background refreshing based on your location. If you force an app to quit by dragging it up from the multitasking display, it won't be able to do its background activities, such as tracking location or responding to VoIP calls, until you relaunch the app.

iOS learns patterns based on your use of the device and tries to predict when an app should be updated in the background. It also learns when the device is typically inactive, such as during the night, to reduce update frequency when the device is not in use."

http://appinstructor.com/blog/2014/background-app-refresh-explained

As I understand it, having Background App Refresh turned off should stop all apps from doing anything unless you manually open that app.

You understand wrongly. Background App Refresh only affects voluntary work done by an app. It does not affect responding to Notifications, or Location events. Killing an app in the quick launch screen has absolutely nothing, zero, nada, to do with Background App Refresh. If you kill a 3rd party app it DOES halt the app. Until it receives a notification or other trigger event, in which case it can launch to process that event. Killing a built in app accomplishes nothing, because it relaunches immediately.

For Safari, if you visit a site that does automatic updates those updates will continue even after you exit Safari, and even if you kill Safari. And even if you have Background App Refresh off. The only way to truly test Safari is to close all pages and clear its cache in Settings/Safari.

Tumblr is an app that gets notifications. It will wake and process any notifications it gets. Even if Background App Refresh is off. And even if you kill it by swiping it up.

For a really meaningful test restore the phone as New and DON'T open Safari. And DON'T install Tumblr. And DON'T create any email accounts. And DON'T enter your iCloud ID during setup. Then monitor your battery life after 12 hours or so. Don't do anything with the phone for those 12 hours.