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ios 9 update battery drain problem

First, don't respond with general battery life advice! After upgrade to ios 9 then 9.01, the battery life on my iphone 5s has been reduced dramatically.


This is not a settings issue as I verified all my previous settings are the same as before the update. All location services and background app refreshes are off and were off prior to the update.


There is clearly a problem with the ios using more resources. All the responses I have seen regarding this issue give the same general advice for conserving battery life. This is not a "settings" issue - update resulted in maybe 50-60% of the previous battery life.


Any fixes in the works?

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.0.1

Posted on Oct 1, 2015 7:55 AM

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Posted on Oct 1, 2015 7:57 AM

Try to update to 9.0.2 version.

Try to follow the instructions on this page in order to maximize your battery life:

http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/21/fix-ios-9-battery-life-problems/

https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/ios-82-battery-life-problems-how-fix-quick-drain-is sues-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-422229

Try to reset your device. This won't delete your data stored on the phone.

  • Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button
  • Press and hold on the Home button
  • Keep holding both buttons until the display turns off and back on with Apple logo on it.

You may also try to reset all settings: go to Settings - General - Reset - Reset All Settings

You may also try to follow these steps:

1. Navigate to settings/general/ battery usage. Check the applications. This will show you which app eats up your battery.

2. Turn off iCloud keychain: Navigate to Settings/ iCloud/Keychain / turn it off.

3. Limit apps activity on the background: Navigate to Settings/ general/ Background App refresh/ turn it off for each application which uses to much power.

4. Disable auto brightness: Navigate to settings/ display and brightness/ auto-brightness. Turn this option off.

112 replies

Nov 16, 2015 7:59 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I Read the other guy did the same thing as you were saying, fresh install with no icloud. I'm going to do that tonight as a last attempt. I did not take it to apple for the battery because I paid $115 for the used phone. For what apple would charge I'd be at about the same price a buying a new phone, which is what i

I should have done at this point.

Nov 16, 2015 12:46 PM in response to CrawlerChris

Hi Chris,

there's no solution.

My iPhone had the same problem.

Apple change my iPhone 5S and now i have two days battery with normal use.

It isn't problem of battery. It's the phone with iOS 9. With some models, that mysteriously drain too fast the battery when update to iOS 9.

Not listen to Lawrence, he doesn't realize that is not a problem of the battery.

The only solution will change the iPhone if it's in warranty. They are many people with the problem..

Claim to Apple despite being out of warranty

Cheers and good luck

Nov 16, 2015 1:36 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

The only thing I can say for certain is the original apple battery was going dead faster than the replacement. Also, the original battery ran fine for a few days before I cleared the prior owners info and reloaded the phone as new.....and it received the IOS9 update. I'm working on reloading it again and leaving the icloud stuff off. I don't think it will fix it as I never loaded any apps on it before and the only thing it got was the contact list from my old 3GS's Itunes saved file. I added email to it the first time but last night all it had was the icloud address added.


This is my last try and then I'm ditching the phone for what likely will be a loss.

Nov 29, 2015 2:36 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

My situation is as follows.


1) Never had any battery issues (iPhone 5s) until upgrading to iOS9.

2) Since the upgrade my battery drains in around half a day with limited usage.

3) App battery usage Top 5 in last 7 days (in order) Mail, Podcasts, Home & Lock Screen, Safari, Messages (all native iOS Apps) - accounts for 65% of all usage, indicting it is not an external App problem.

4) Have always taken care of my battery - never overcharging or letting battery run down too low. This coupled with descriptions of other people's experience indicate that it is not a physical battery problem.

5) Have no Exchange account linked to mail.

6) Girlfriend's iPhone 5c also has erratic and extreme battery drain since upgrading.


I think your refusal to acknowledge that this might have anything to do with iOS9 is utterly ridiculous to be honest. I've tried several of the purported solutions and none have worked. And sure, we could all backup, fresh install, manually add apps back, upload music/photos again etc.etc. to try and fix this. But we really shouldn't have to should we. I'm sure a lot of people don't have the time either. It should just work without drastically deteriorating the battery of many users. Like every other major iOS upgrade that I have performed in the past.


There may not be 20,000 posts on the forum (maybe there are, I have no idea) but a cursory look at the internet shows that this is a real problem that many many people are experiencing following the upgrade from iOS8 to iOS9.

Nov 29, 2015 4:48 PM in response to tintagel74

tintagel74 wrote:


4) Have always taken care of my battery - never overcharging or letting battery run down too low. This coupled with descriptions of other people's experience indicate that it is not a physical battery problem.


There is no such thing as "taking care of a battery". It is impossible to overcharge an iOS device battery (or any Apple product battery). You can leave it plugged in for a month and it won't overcharge. It is a mistake to attempt to out think iOS when it comes to charging the battery; it's smarter than you are. Charge it overnight, every night. It's also OK to let it go down to a low value, but if you charge overnight, every night, it probably won't go to zero. You SHOULD let it charge to 100% regularly (ideally, every night) for the best battery life.



There may not be 20,000 posts on the forum (maybe there are, I have no idea) but a cursory look at the internet shows that this is a real problem that many many people are experiencing following the upgrade from iOS8 to iOS9.

A cursory look at the Internet will reveal identical comments on battery life after every version of iOS that has ever been released in 8 years. So either every version has killed battery life, which implies that the battery should last no more than 5 minutes after two dozen releases, or the problem is not specifically any version, including iOS 9. The number of comments about battery life for iOS 9 is far fewer than for many other releases. You also have no "control group", because people who don't have a problem with battery life don't generally post and say, "Wow! iOS 9 has the best battery life ever!" You only see the posts from people who do have a problem.


If you really want to believe it is iOS 9 and there will be some magic bullet to fix it that is your privilege, but you are likely to be disappointed. BTW, my 4 devices on iOS 9 (iPhone 4S, iPhone 6, iPad 3 and iPad Air 2) have better battery life than they did on iOS 8. The 4S is amazing; it loses about 15% a day. My wife still charges it every night, but it's typically at 85% at the end of the day.

Dec 23, 2015 12:55 PM in response to Applepasion

Hello applepasion.

I have the same problem as Applepasion and to a lesser extent CrawlerChris.


When the iphone is on.. it drains at a rate of about 16% every 5 hours. This is not normal. This was happening on ios 9.1 as well as upgraded ios 9.2. I've factory reset it by using erase all settings, but the battery drain problem still occurs.

I also tried different batteries as I thought it might be a battery problem (it still could be) but I am experiencing fast battery drain.


I've owned multiple apple devices.. and on a factory reset iphone.. it should only drain 1 or 2 percent every few hours. Not at a rate of 3-4% (especially when the iphone is essentially in airplane mode).


I agree with you Applepasion.. there may be some of us who have some kind of rare hardware issue. I think CrawlerChris has it worst. As even though his iphone is turned off, the battery is still draining.


In my case, my iphone is completely factory reset. I guess I could do a clean ios 9.2 ipsw restore from itunes. I may try one more good battery too. There isn't much more troubleshooting I can do with the limited diagnostic tools available from apple.


Lawrence Finch, I agree that many of these problems can be fixed by isolating the problem app (due to upgrading IOS). It is still unfortunate for the small population that has to run into this problem and have to fix by examining what apps might be draining the problem.

ios 9 update battery drain problem

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