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Battery Drained - App Store Background Activity

I know that the last thing that the Apple Support community needs is another battery complaint, however, this case seems to be different then any others I have seen on here and I am completely baffled.


Just within the last 48 hours, my phone has been draining battery quicker then normal. I have not modified any specific settings that would have affected this. I have been keeping an eye on what the Battery settings has stated has been using my battery the most.


I just now noticed that after only being awake for 4 hours today (with hardly any phone use as I am at work) my battery is at 18% already and the phone feels warm.


Some more background: My work doesn't have a wifi network for us to use (sh*t I know) so I have heavily manipulated which apps use data because I frequently go over my data plan 4-5 times a month (AT&T *****)....anyway. I have cellular data turned off for the App Store app, yet, when I checked my Battery usage today to see what happened to drain my battery so quickly, it showed 4.2 hours of background usage.


I have tried soft-resetting my phone, and am likely going to try restoring it later today, however nothing seems to helping.

I am really trying to avoid going to the Apple Store to get it checked out since the mall is about the last place on earth I want to be right now.


Any suggestions?

iPhone 6, iOS 9.2

Posted on Dec 24, 2015 7:45 AM

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Posted on Dec 24, 2015 8:39 AM

Did you also disable auto download for music, apps, books und app updates in Settings/iTunes&AppStores?

To make sure that this is not software related, set it back to factory settings, without using any backup data afterwards. Set up the rest of the personal settings manually and test the phone.

If the battery life goes back to normal, restore from the latest backup. If the problem comes back, the backup data contained corrupt data, causing your issues.

Use iTunes to restore your iOS device to factory settings - Apple Support

Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider

iPhone - Contact Support - Apple Support

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Question marked as Best reply

Dec 24, 2015 8:39 AM in response to okvasm

Did you also disable auto download for music, apps, books und app updates in Settings/iTunes&AppStores?

To make sure that this is not software related, set it back to factory settings, without using any backup data afterwards. Set up the rest of the personal settings manually and test the phone.

If the battery life goes back to normal, restore from the latest backup. If the problem comes back, the backup data contained corrupt data, causing your issues.

Use iTunes to restore your iOS device to factory settings - Apple Support

Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider

iPhone - Contact Support - Apple Support

Jan 20, 2016 10:30 PM in response to Ingo2711

Has anyone come up with a solution?


This happened to me last year. I ended up backing up my phone and reinstalling the IOS and then reinstalling all my apps.

Worked fine again for a couple of months.

Now its happening again!! Phone overheating and the app store draining battery in the background.

All settings for the app store are off And have always been off.


Do i really have to reinstall IOS again???

Jan 21, 2016 5:10 AM in response to wisdomdave

So I ended up going to the Apple Store that day and talking with someone there.

They did their hardware diagnostic testing and found that there were no hardware issues with my phone.

Long story short, it was recommended that I restore my phone, but set it up as a new phone and re-download my apps.

The theory makes sense, in that if there is bad software that is causing the battery to drain, it will be part of my backup; if I then restore with that backup, it will simply reload that bad software.


I did this, and was having great results, except I am running into the same issue again, having been about a month since this happened.

Jan 29, 2016 5:36 AM in response to okvasm

My iPhone is having these same symptoms and they seems to be randomly. My iPhone gets warm after the night charging and when I see Battery Usage, again... the app store working on background for many hours doing what? I do not know. I have all automatic download settings turned off.

I disconnect my iPhone three hours ago with 100%, and now its only 33% battery left. This is sad.

Anyone from apple support team who can help us?

In my case, iPhone 6 (iOS 9.2.1) last release.

Thanks in advance,

Jan 29, 2016 1:39 PM in response to delillod

Having same issue with iPhone 6s, iOS 9.2.1 (but only upgraded this morning as it is a new iPhone less than 72hrs old). Made sure most background refresh is off, reduced the number of things in the notification centre to minimum, wi-fi and cellular on but bluetooth off, screen on half brightness. Been reasonably intensive with screen use this morning, but it has dropped from a full overnight 100% charge to 56% in 2hrs. Looking at battery usage in the settings, and App Store comes up at the top with 54% usage in the last 24hrs, 1.7hrs on screen. The 1.7hrs on screen seems accurate (adding apps yesterday afternoon), but everything else is way below - 11% for Home & Lock Screen (1.3hrs on screen), 7% for Photos (11min background).

Jun 4, 2016 1:13 AM in response to delillod

Today my phone started its App store background activity drain once again. This will be the 5th time i will be backing up my phone, restoring it, and reloading all my apps


This fix lasts about 1-2 months each time. Then out of no where it just starts again.


I really wish there was a better solution. Battery at 33 percent after less than 3 hours. Extremely hot when i hold it.


If this happens to you, my sympathies. There seems to be not fix but backup and restore every few months.

Aug 23, 2016 12:03 PM in response to okvasm

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. ✌️  ⌚️ 

Oct 4, 2016 10:52 PM in response to okvasm

I have had this issue for a few months now on both my iphone 6 and iphone 7 as well as ios 9 and ios 10. I spend 2 hours with Apple Support last night and ended up taking all the logs off my phone to send to their engineering team. I think this is a bug/exploit in the App Store app.


I will let you know what Apple Support comes back with.


I don't think its any single one app causing this. Does everyone who is having this issue have an Apple watch connected?

Oct 16, 2016 6:08 AM in response to okvasm

I had a similar problem with my iPhone 6, at first the battery panel was reporting as the settings app, but it wasn't long before it was reporting as the App Store app (specifically a large amount of background activity met with a warm iPhone and very fast battery draining.)


For me turning on low power mode does help significantly, it doesn't solve the problem but it allows me to get a normal amount of usage out of it.


Previously restoring my iPhone and loading my iCloud backup did fix the problem permanently, however the issue has cropped up again with my iPhone 7 after a recent restore (something we did while troubleshooting a software issue.)


I'm 100% confident this is software driven. For reference I let the phone auto-update the apps.

Oct 20, 2016 5:09 PM in response to okvasm

Same problem here too. Had the problem with my iPhone 6s Plus. The problem always goes away if I restore the phone as a new phone (not from backup). Then it always would come back. I thought I'd wait for my iPhone 7 Plus upgrade and see what happens. I set it up as a new phone and did not restore from backup, again no problem. As soon as I started putting apps on eventually it came back again. Then I decided to troubleshoot. Followed all the suggestions to turn off background activity and automatic downloads and that did not solve the problem. I then restarted the phone and killed all the apps running in the background. I went into settings/battery and with no apps opened, I sat there and and watched the battery percentage for App Sore continuously climb. This made me believe it must be my Apple Watch. My next step was to restore one last time as a new phone. Again, no problem so I slowly added apps. I added the Wells Fargo mobile banking app and a few others and my problem came back. Last night with my warm battery draining continuously, I removed the app from the iPhone and this morning my battery percentage for App Store has remained at the same level. I think it's Wells Fargo but must be the Apple Watch app since the battery kept draining with no apps open. I will wait to see if I still get good battery performance with it removed but I'm optimistic this is it.

Oct 20, 2016 6:36 PM in response to okvasm

Hey guys,


so as I have said before I'm working with Apple on this. currently my logs are with their engineering team and waiting for a response. Next steps may be for apple to put a profile on my phone for a few days so they can monitor.


SIde note, apple offered me a replacement watch and I said no I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I can help you all.


ssome other questions.


do people having this issue have a series 1 watch or series 2? (Mine is series 1)

have people having this issue ever ran beta watchOS?

Battery Drained - App Store Background Activity

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