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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

Dec 25, 2015 8:13 PM in response to Roxidawg

I'm having the same issue, but mostly with my iPad Air 2. When I check the usage, it shows safari as the main culprit. Prior to the update, everything was working fine. I feel ticked at the thought of backing everything up, resetting my iPad and then hoping that everything will work properly again. I shouldn't have to do this!! Also, trying to post pictures to Facebook now won't work. It says it was successful, but when I go to my Facebook page, there is nothing there. Very frustrating and quite frankly a real **** off. If Apple knows there are glitches, then THEY should be the ones to fix it. Making us do all the work is unacceptable.

Dec 25, 2015 11:14 PM in response to Paul Squyres

Thanks Paul, this fixed my same problem.

Dec 26, 2015 7:10 AM in response to Roxidawg

Yes, both the iPhone and iPad have the same operating system, and the troubleshooting process is the same.

Dec 29, 2015 7:25 AM in response to Paul Squyres

Thanks for your help Paul. My iPhone 6 battery works as in previous system.

Dec 29, 2015 6:43 PM in response to Banjo72

I Have a very similar experience. Upgraded to 9.2 a couple days ago. It's mostly been on charge with little use during the Christmas holidays.

TOday i I had it off charger and it was around 60-70% charge when I started to take a few photos When it suddenly died. i tried the home button and then the power button and after a couple of button presses, the display came up with the empty battery symbol and red bar. i was surprised by this as this phone never had battery issues (iphone6 64GB). I plugged it in to charge and after a couple of minutes it lit up with 57% battery charge and continued to charge. I unplugged it and it went dead again within a minute. So I plugged it in again and enabled low power mode so it would charge faster. So it's now charged to 100% and I'll see how it goes. I'm sure this is an issue with the update from my 9.1 to 9.2. Bloody Apple!

sliolis

Level 1

0 points

Dec 30, 2015 6:23 AM in response to Paul Squyres

I experienced the same issue myself since my upgrade. And although all 5 devices (2x 6s, iPad 2, iPad 4 and iPad mini 3) are on 9.2, ONLY ONE device (one of the 6s) came up with the issue. And although, I understand that such issues do appear after almost every upgrade, this was a first one for me.

I followed the steps described by the original poster and it looks like the issue is gone. The whole process doesnt take anymore than 20-30 minutes of your time and with the exception of the touch ID (have no apple pay yet) it is pretty straight forward.

Thanks,

Spiros

Dec 30, 2015 7:34 AM in response to sliolis

it doesnt resolve the issue with every model of IOS device, for example my Ipad4 still has the issues as well as my wifes Iphone but it seems to help some. If you are referring to resetting and restore, the process can take anywhere to half hour to 2 + hours as it depends on what you have installed on your device.

Dec 30, 2015 8:07 AM in response to Waterbound

I've noticed with my iPhone 6, the battery drain isn't as bad, as long as I keep the Bluetooth turned off. If it's on, the drain is incredible. My iPad Air 2 is a different story. Major battery drain. Spoke to Apple support and did a reset which didn't help and caused me to have to input all of my passwords and preferences again in settings. Still can't open jpg images in emails. My sound has a mind of its own. Even with having the sound buttons toggled off, I still get sound on 1 game I play, so I have to mute my iPad. Then if I want to watch a video the volume buttons don't work and I have to turn my iPad off/on to have the volume buttons work again. None of these were an issue prior to the latest update. The Apple support even told me that doing a back up, then wiping my ipad clean and restarting as new, might not work because as soon as I did a restore, whatever is wrong might just go right back onto my iPad. Very frustrating to say the least!!

yosho24

Level 1

1 points

Dec 30, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Radio-Master

I have this problem, too.

My phone died last night even though being plugged in, setting me up to miss all 5 alarms (uh oh). Upon waking up I immediately unplugged/plugged it back in (fearing it wasn't connected before I hit the hay) and was very quickly notified, via the double-buzz, that the phone had turned back on. I found this strange as it usually takes a few minutes after completely dying to reboot. The battery bar was already indicating 17%... 😕.

I'm not sure what's going on with this. Very frustrating, especially from a company like Apple.

Dec 30, 2015 4:24 PM in response to Paul Squyres

Your problems sound alot like mine except i have upgraded to ios9, downloaded anything prior to the week its gone fubar.

Dec 30, 2015 5:42 PM in response to Paul Squyres

Hello

thanks for posting your solution. After going to a "genius" in an Apple Store I was told that there is no known issues with the 9.2 update and my battery was fine and I just wasn't charging correctly. I needed to let phone die completely and then charge it. Well as you and so many other stated, the rapid battery drain only started happening AFTER updating to version 9.2 and even letting battery die before charging did nothing to improve battery life. I then proceeded to turn off all the programs and anything else anyone mentioned as a possible solution to improve battery life. Then I came across your post and was excited at yours and so many others success so I immediately tried it. Unfortunately, it did NOTHING to improve my battery performance. I turned my phone in this morning at 7am and by 1015 it said low battery mode and by 1045 it was down to 1%.

I Then got home and charged it to 100% when I got home at 245 and turned it back on at 430pm. Here it is 830 and battery is at 36% which means it will be at 1% I the next hour. Basically your fix did nothing to improve my battery function. I'm currently running NO programs, no background updates or anything and it's s happening. Anyone have any other suggestions to solve this problem. I have another 9 months till I can upgrade to an iPhone 6s which none of my friends claim has this problem. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm a Project Manager for a Construction Company and spend my days out in the field with little or no access to electricity and can't afford to have my phone die in the middle of the day.

JAQRIPP

Level 1

0 points

Dec 30, 2015 6:05 PM in response to Jeffbel59

jeffbel59... I Was in the same situation as you are now, but I ended up going back to the IOS 9.1 and it fixed everything. My battery lasts a A day and a half to 2 days if I'm not on it playing games and a day if I am. I have not changed any settings like refresh or my usage and the phone is faster and battery life great. It was a little bit of a hassle and you need a desk top to do it but it was well worth it. I posted the info earlier in this discussion if you want to check it out. Good luck.

Dec 30, 2015 9:46 PM in response to JAQRIPP

TThank you for reply. I was so frustrated I didn't bother to read thru all the posts. if as you say going back to 9.1 gave u back the battery life u used to have which is what I used to have then it's worth it. I'll tackle it over the weekend.

happy new year

JAQRIPP

Level 1

0 points

Dec 30, 2015 10:36 PM in response to Jeffbel59

no prob. Just make sure you back your phone up before you do it. Happy new year

Dec 31, 2015 2:27 AM in response to kerry_452

Sorry meant to say I HAVENT upgraded to ios9 or changed anything prior to my phone going downhill.

IOS 9.2 Rapid Battery Drain Issue