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Level 1

12 points

iOS9 background app activity with background app refresh turned off.

I went to bed with 100% battery and woke up with 60%. I looked at the battery usage and it showled that Facebook had background activity all night. I verified that background app refresh was turned off, then toggled it on and off just in case. Still, through the day, Facebook continued to operate in the background. I've now removed the app to stop it draining my battery. Anyone else seeing a similar battery drain with Facebook or any other app, even with backgroun app refresh turned off?

iPhone 5, iOS 9

Posted on Sep 20, 2015 1:44 PM

Best reply

Lawrence Finch

Level 10

202,896 points

Posted on Sep 20, 2015 1:48 PM

Background app refresh controls whether an app can spontaneously launch in background. But it does not prevent an app from responding to a notification in background. You should leave the phone plugged in overnight. This has 3 benefits:

Your phone will be fully charged when you wake up
Any apps that do data transfers at night will use WiFi instead of cellular data (WiFi is off when the phone is locked, unless connected to power)
You can enable automatic iCloud backup, which will back up you phone every night when connected to power and WiFi

There is no downside to leaving it plugged in. You can't overcharge it, because it has a built in smart charger that will stop charging when it reaches 100%.

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22 replies

Jan 16, 2016 5:00 AM in response to vin12

I just recently moved from android (5 years been a great fan to the OS tried everything) but decided to move to iOS and i hope for good. I just hope this **** gets fixed in 9.3 and be able to use my phone as I should. Either way a friend of mine has the same Iphone 5s as me and he doesnt seem to have this issue, weird..? . Thank u for atleast replying , because I thought i'll wait for weeks till I get a proper reply. I hope everyone that has this problem to be solved.
Cheers guys! 🙂

Natura11

Level 1

0 points

Jan 23, 2016 8:08 AM in response to KiltedTim

I don't think this is just about Facebook. I am having the same issue with a different app, iHeartRadio. Everything is turned off but the background activity eats my battery up. I had to delete it to stop the battery drain.

vin12

Level 1

4 points

Jan 24, 2016 7:54 AM in response to Natura11

There is an iOS 9 Battery feature called "Low Power mode", which shutsdown all background activity when turned on.

It does not work. Even when it is turned on, I just put a packet trace on my router outbound traffic - whatsapp is sending around 3 requests in a minute!!

it is absolutely crazy.

The only thing apple appears to be benefit is more sales from this bug- i.e make people replace their batteries much often with a non-working feature that drains battery !!

Jan 24, 2016 8:54 AM in response to vin12

This is a pointless comment. Apple benefits in no way from battery replacement. Other than the 5 issue, battery replacement are hardly ever done. It's almost always a software issue.

Feb 13, 2016 10:16 AM in response to afterglowness

I had the same exact problem and the only option was a complete restore.

Nov 13, 2016 4:25 PM in response to levymetal

My calendar has been running in background even after I deleted. I even took it into the sprint company and they said it was my phone, so got a brand new phone and doing same thing!

Dec 25, 2017 1:31 PM in response to afterglowness

go to restrictions and disable app store

iOS9 background app activity with background app refresh turned off.