You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Paul Squyres Author

Level 1

40 points

IOS 9.2 Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Since upgrading to iOS 9.2, my battery has been running warm and draining fast!

It seems to drain a percentage point every 30 seconds. I went to the Apple Store and they claimed they haven't heard anything about a 9.2 battery issue yet. When I was at the store it was at 99% and went down to 62% in about 10 minutes - no apps running in background. The manager did a wireless diagnostic on my phone, and told me that a couple of apps I had was using battery but nothing substantial. She mentioned that the opersting system Bluetooth app was crashing constantly and could be the culprit. Manager told me they could replace my phone but if I did a restore of my current phone, the problem would continue since she thought it was a software issue rather than a hardware issue. I'm still having the issue and still waiting for Apple to fix this. It is clearly an issue with 9.2 as other people have begun posting the same types of problems. Also the phone is considerably warm to the touch. I have never had a battery issue prior to the upgrade, and have never had an issue using location services either.

Posted on Dec 11, 2015 6:24 PM

Top-ranking reply

Paul Squyres Author

Level 1

40 points

Posted on Dec 13, 2015 12:26 PM

After reading several other posts for possible fixes. I have done the following and I am NOT experiencing the rapid battery drain anymore, so problem seems to be resolved. Albeit, it isn't an ideal solution, it seems to have fixed the issue:

1. Perform an encrypted backup in iTunes of the phone. NOTE: If you perform an encrypted backup all of your health data (IE: Apple Watch data, exercises, heart rate, etc.), and passwords are maintained. If you do not check encrypted when performing a backup, then all of that information is lost. You will have to renter passwords everywhere (IE: safari, email, apple id, etc.)

2. Turn off Find My iPhone on your phone in :Settings, iCloud, Find My iPhone

3. Errase all Content and Settings on your phone in: Settings, General, Reset, Erase All Content and Settings

4. Once your phone reboots as a new iPhone, following the steps on your phone by connecting to a wireless network, enter your apple ID and password, then select Restore from Backup from iTunes.

5. Connect your phone to your computer and either start iTunes or it will automatically start when your phone is connected.

6. In iTunes, select restore from backup (your latest one should be selected). If prompted, enter the password you entered when making the encrypted backup.

7. After a while, depending on how much content it has to restore, you should have a duplicate of your original phone back. You will have to enter your Apple ID, reset up Touch ID fingerprints, and Apple pay credit cards. All of your apps will be downloading in the background, which for me, is going to take a while as I have less than 1MBPS out in the country. All of your apps and folders would be maintained in the restore.

As I stated, this is not an ideal solution, but it seems to be working for me. It is going to take a while to restore all of my apps though, as my internet connection and cellular connection are SLOW......

Hope those steps help anyone who is having this frustrating issue.

Good luck!

View in context

159 replies

Apr 1, 2016 4:01 AM in response to wisdomdave

Here is a guide for the battery last longer 🙂

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2016/03/31/how-to-fix-bad-ios-9-battery-life-2/

Apr 1, 2016 4:42 AM in response to tarjetasdevisitaoriginales

Thanks tarjetasdevisitaoriginales

Unfortunately not helpful. Been through this guide in good detail but no solution found.

If it was any old app you could just delete it. But the "app store" you cannot delete. So nothing but a complete wipe out and reinstall works. Its such a shame it reoccurs every few months as it is extremely time consuming.

Look at the attached photo. The app store. It makes my phone extremely hot and I'm recharging it for the 3rd time today. Its not even 2pm.

goosetea

Level 1

4 points

Apr 1, 2016 5:06 AM in response to wisdomdave

I'd chime in again. As the last resort tried two tips: wipe out and restore and breaking charging cycle. No luck. iphone6 is still draining like crazy whilst playing video and generally. and it was not the case before 9.2.1 Installed 9.3 hoping it addresses the issue, but it does not. and my iphone 5 is much better at playing videos and not draining even with 9.2.1 and again before 9.2.1 had no problems with iPhone 6

Apr 4, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I know I am a bit behind on the times, but I have a 5c I recently upgraded to. My phone has only the stock apps, and in airplane mode I lose 8-14% an hour. If it is an app, it's one of theirs. Low power mode does nothing for it. . No issues until the iOS update. Never even thought about it until I read this. Had the battery replaced, now I regret that.

May 13, 2016 12:28 AM in response to Colt_Tha_Fish

Hi,

I have the same problem as yours. My iphone 6 plus battery draining in airplane mode is insane 10%/h (no apps in backg, no location, etc.) Im on 9.3.1.

DId 9.3.1 update solved your problem ?

May 25, 2016 2:16 AM in response to Paul Squyres

Hello - and just to add to list of people with a battery/ heating up issue..... in case any of this finally helps solve the issue

My iPhone 5 not had any connection to my network (at home) for almost 4 weeks now - not unusual to have low/ bad service as i live in remote part of France, but 4 weeks? yikes!

Anyway, phone on wifi is fine - battery usage is a little faster than normal, I compared with my old iPhone 4 last night and iPhone 4 battery behaving better

I did take my iPhone into apple a couple of weeks back and they said battery was fine

However, when I take my phone out of reach of wifi (there is little wifi in France) then phone gets very hot and battery can go from 100% to nothing in 4 hours with no use ( i sent one text!)

Yesterday, out and about battery went from 55% to 7% in 15 minutes, phone got hot, when i turned on airplane mode battery was ok and heat went down, all i did was use notes for my supermarket shopping list - so am guessing its something running in the background using/ or trying to connect to mobile data network

I have been reading about this issue on multiple websites and been looking at/ trying some potential solutions, but nothing is fixing this, its been 4 weeks now. I have read that some have restored phone as new, but that does't always solve the issue - so not really keen on that avenue -

Phone is great when i am at home/ on wifi/ but if i dare to actually go anyway - forget it - so i now have to take my iPhone 4 with me just in case - its madness, iPhone madness 🙂

I have had this issue before with an iOS update, but never for so long and never that has made my phone unusable outside the house - as i live in remote part of France having a phone is vital in case of car issues etc - yesterday i was even considering buying a phone just to use in the car..... this is madness, i already have an iPhone!

So, for my trip to Paris tomorrow and my trip to Amsterdam next week, its 'take two iPhones to work' day

dax 🙂

May 30, 2016 8:15 AM in response to Paul Squyres

Hello Everyone,

though I'm not using an iPhone, but I'm afraid I'm experiencing the same dilemma. I'm using iPod touch 5th gen, though i had the same problem as before as my battery drains too fast not it's worse. 😕 It's like whenever i charge it for 2hrs or so, when i unplugged it, its never full charge now. and before i can use it from and hour before it drains fast now its just like 10mins then batt will be red. 😢 before i can use it for hours. then last year its draining fast already, i tried to call an agent from Apple and tried to run/diagnosed and said there's no problem with the battery. And now I've updated it too 9.3.2, and can barely use it in 15mins unless i keep it plug in powerbank.

ive tried everything too though,cleaning up everything, all apps closed, as well as find my ipod, and location services. though im using a wifi but on plane mode. anybody has an iPod touch 5th gen experiencing the same thing?

and I'm in the middle east and there's no apple store/technician here in yet. (Qatar) 😢

appreciate to hear from anyone who could be of help!

thanks.

jette

Aug 23, 2016 12:07 PM in response to Paul Squyres

The App Store has been draining my battery like crazy to the point where my phone would get really hot. I'd reinstall iOS and it would be a temporary fix just to find myself repeating the process over and over again. You have to manually close the App Store, open the App Store, hold the power button, when it asks if you want to turn the phone off then release the power button, and then hold the home button until the phone closes the App Store.

This method has fixed my battery/iPhone getting hot. Now if it happens again I'd just repeat the process vs reinstalling iOS. ✌️  ⌚️ 

Nov 16, 2016 6:20 AM in response to Paul Squyres

Battery on 6+ drains way to fast

IOS 9.2 Rapid Battery Drain Issue