Sudden Battery drain, not iOS 9.2, solved

A few days ago my battery suddenly started draining fast. Classic symptom: In Settings/Battery Standby Time was equal to Usage. (see: http://appinstructor.com/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-dra in). It was not caused by 9.2, because it was almost a week after installing 9.2. Here is the troubleshooting procedure I followed:

  • Reset by holding HOME and SLEEP until an Apple logo appeared - not solved
  • Killed all apps after double-pressing the HOME button, then reset as above - not solved
  • Turned off Push email - not solved
  • Checked Settings/Battery; the top app was Calendar, at 78% of battery usage - this narrowed the search
  • Knowing that sometimes an MS Exchange account can cause heavy battery drain, I deleted my Exchange account and reset - not solved
  • Additional clue: In OS X Activity Monitor on my Mac the Calendar app was using huge amounts of data transfers - over 1 GB
  • The only other source of Calendar events was iCloud, so I turned off iCloud Calendar and reset again - Battery drain stopped
  • Added my Exchange account back - No additional battery drain
  • So the problem was related to iCloud contacts. On a hunch I left iCloud Calendar off overnight. When I turned it on again the battery drain did not return - problem solved.
  • The heavy data usage in Mac OS X stopped when I turned off iCloud Calendar.


While I can't explain why this worked, I can speculate that there was data corruption in the calendar database, that somehow was fixed by leaving it off for a period of time.

iPhone 6, iOS 9.2, 128 GB

Posted on Dec 23, 2015 2:49 PM

Reply
8 replies

Dec 26, 2015 1:36 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

"I suspect many users would think this was an iOS 9.2 problem, because it happened after installing iOS 9.2"


If no other changes have been made, no other software installed then it's absolutely logical to infer B comes after A.


I have never had battery problems before during any iOS update/upgrade. But *like many here* I suddenly have abysmal battery life.


I couldn't care less whether it's an ical problem or a dodgy app or whatever - I SIMPLY DON'T CARE. All I want is my phone to be usable again.


I now have a phone that will not last a full day - OF NOT BEING USED.

Feb 16, 2016 6:40 AM in response to Rafiqt

I am using an 6s running the latest iOS and I also repeatedly have battery drainage issues. I'll have all apps closed and the phone is in Airplane mode overnight, yet I see sometimes 5% battery loss overnight. I have iCloud turned off. The other issues noted above appear to not solve the issue either. I was flying my drone the other day and the battery was down to about 10% and then the phone just shut down for no reason. Luckily, I can fly my drone without my phone. 2 days ago, my phone was at about 20% and then I looked a few minutes later and it was at 3% for no reason (no wifi, no bluetooth, etc.) was on. What is up with these repeated battery issues with iPhone 6s?

iPhone 6s, 16 GB, iOS 9.2.1.

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Sudden Battery drain, not iOS 9.2, solved

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