iPhone 6 iCloud Safari Sync Drains Battery

I just got off a call with Apple Support, and they seem interested in this issue - I've got another call setup for tomorrow and we're going to to do some back-and-forth diagnostics on this to see what is actually causing the issue, and the rep says he sent it on up the chain because it was unusual but important that it get noticed. I've taken some notes regarding the issue and I'm posting them below, and I will keep this thread up to date as things progress.

Apple Case #683680964

Support Forum: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6563016

Issue: iPhone 6+ battery drains rapidly and Safari always shows as top spot in battery usage for both 24h and 7d, usually over 40%.

Before: Used Safari on iPhone 5S and enabled Settings>iCloud>Safari, along with installing iCloud for Windows on Desktop, Laptop, and Surface Pro3, all of which had enabled "Sync bookmarks with Internet Explorer". Normal battery consumption, but no detailed usage info available.

Change: After purchasing iPhone 6+, initially looked similar and got 30+ hours of normal usage on device from a full charge. After 2-3 charge cycles, began noticing severe battery impact, cannot go 24h without recharging and the usage (standby) is always the same as usage (in use). Safari began showing up at the top of the usage list, generally over 40% usage. No changes were made on iCloud for Windows, no other devices were changed. Noticed that while Safari is open, the data usage icon would briefly appear every 1-2 seconds in the status bar, possibly indicating recurring usage while the app is inactive? Icon does not appear on the home screen despite apparent Safari battery drain.

Prior to call - Uninstalled iCloud for Windows and all associated Apple software on Laptop and Surface Pro 3, ran Apple Software Update on Desktop but no updates available, ran Windows Update and installed all available updates and rebooted. No changes made to iCloud for Windows on the Desktop, no changes made to iPhone 6+. Noticed that data usage still appears every 1-2 seconds with Safari open, apparent behavior unchanged.

After Call 10/22 16:35 - On iPhone 6+, disabled Settings>iCloud>Safari, selected "Keep on device". Recharged to 100% and then unplugged, followed normal usage patterns. Followup call scheduled for 10/23 16:00.

I'm also experiencing this issue, first time I've ever had a battery drain problem with an iPhone in several years...Safari consistently shows above 40% of my usage within the last 24 hours, even if I haven't opened it once in that period, and the battery on my 6 Plus drains from full in about 20 hours of light usage. If I open Safari, I can see data activity every second or two in the top corner, the little spinning circle indicating something is occurring in the background appears briefly and then disappears again.

My setup is a 6 Plus with Safari syncing bookmarks via iCloud with a Surface Pro 3 and a desktop PC, both running the most recent version of iCloud Control Panel and syncing to IE11.

Well, that's a bitter disappointment. I need to keep bookmarks and contacts synced between my PC and my phone, hopefully this will get figured out and fixed soon - major productivity killer. Is there a better way than iCloud Control Panel to keep these things in sync between Outlook/IE and iCloud/Safari?

Update after yesterday's followup call:

10/23 16:34 - after 24h normal usage, have 58% battery remaining. Under Settings>General>Usage>Battery Usage, shows Safari at 45% (though I did use Safari a bit in the last 24h), Usage is 6h43m, Standby is 23h30m. Drastic battery improvement after disabling Safari sync under iCloud settings on the iPhone. Representative advised to continue using with sync disabled for now, I provided the thread on the support forum and my notes, rep said they will notate the findings and forward to "engineers", to get examined at some point for a minor OS bugfix.

Hopefully this is actually getting looked at and it's not just the CSR trying to tell me what I want to hear and then burying the issue. They both seemed very knowledgeable and personable, but you never really know what the call center's policies are regarding this sort of thing.

'Nother update, because I hate leaving problems unresolved and I felt like tinkering.

I uninstalled and then reinstalled the latest version of iCloud for Windows on my desktop while Safari sync was still disabled on my phone. Then, I enabled every syncing option in iCloud for Windows, and logged out on the desktop. Then, I re-enabled Safari sync on the iPhone, let it freak out for a minute while it attempted to sync all the mismatched stuff, then I disable dit agian on the phone and chose to DELETE everything on the device. Then, I signed in on Windows again, let it sync everything and calm down, and then re-enabled on the iPhone. The end result is that now they both can add/modify/delete bookmarks and the changes sync to the other device, and Safari on the iPhone does NOT continue to update in the background anymore, no more spinning wheel in the corner while it's open and no increased battery drain.

I think something got out of sync or one or both devices had corrupted data from previous installs/configuration, and doing this wiped everything and started fresh, clearing the issue. If it begins happening again, I will update here - but for now, I'm going with "resolved" by following my steps above.

Can you try the steps outlined in my post (let me know if you want any clarification on my approach) and update with your findings? This is a good opportunity to see if we can nail down the root cause and a workaround until Apple patches it.

(The issue has not resurfaced for me since I fixed it above)

This is still an issue on my iPhone SE running iOS 10.2. Once I turned off Safari iCloud sync, the issue was resolved. With the Safari iCloud sync setting on, the phone was losing about 10% life per hour with no useage, i.e. the phone was just sitting there, face down. Thanks!

I did have the same issue, but turning the Safari iCloud off solved the issue with battery draining too fast.

So it is a software bug in iOS 8.

Exactly the same issue here - I too am using iCloud control panel. Would be interesting to find out if the issue lies within iOS8 or iCloud Control Panel. The workaround for now seems to be what has already been suggested.

I strongly believe that the issue is with the iCloud control panel for windows. If you turn off Safari syncing I'm sure you will see an instant MASSIVE increase in your battery life. I went from just 6 hours of battery on STANDBY - changed my settings last night & am still going strong 24 hours later on the 1 charge!

From my experimenting it seems that you only need to turn off the bookmarks - I still have contacts, calendars etc enabled with no reduction on battery life. As for an alternative - sorry I can't help with that one!

I can reproduce the issue on an iphone 5 with ios 8.1

last 24h: safari used 51% of my battery

full charged this morging, it's about 49% now with 1h30 minute active running time.

what I did:

disabled safari icloud sync, keep on iphone, recharging at the moment.

is the approach correct?

I have a 5S with iOS 8.1.1 and have been having battery life problems as well as the high Safari battery usage. I've disabled the Safari iCloud sync and will watch over the next day or two to see if that's the problem. If it is, I'll try your reset steps to see if that fixes it. One difference is I've upgraded Windows machines and the system I had been using iCloud sync with has been replaced. I don't know if that will affect it or not.

One thing I noticed recently on the iCloudwebpage is the Settingssection. There's an Advanced section in Settings that has a Reset Documents option to reset and merge iCloud data. Has anyone with this battery problem tried that option?

I have encountered a bizarre problem. My iPhone 6 battery started draining rapidly about a week ago. Within 3-4 hours from 100 to 30 percent. I have done extensive troubleshooting, including all the battery saving tips to no avail. I have been to the Apple Store and we determined that the hardware is all ok. After additional troubleshooting I determined that when I delete my iCloud account the problem goes away. This led me to investigate my iPad air 2 as well and sure enough same problem there (the battery is a lot larger and I did not notice it before).

I Have even tried restoring the device as new and once the iCloud account is signed in the issue persists.

When I look at the battery usage in settings both standby and usage time are identical when iCloud is signed in. When I sign out of my iCloud account the usage and standby work as they should. i subsequently tried turning off individual services with iCloud (ie mail, calendar, reminders, etc.) sequentially but the problem persists. Only signing out of the account completely resolves the issue. Apple Store has escalated it to engineering and I am waiting. Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. This sounds like the .mac problems all over again.