Camera app draining battery - is this normal??? iPhone 6 Plus iOS 9.3.2

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Level 1

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Camera app draining battery - is this normal??? iPhone 6 Plus iOS 9.3.2

I have AppleCare Plus until end of October 2016. Is the below normal or should I take my phone in for service? I already did a factory reset followed by iTunes backup restore 2 weeks ago but no change in behavior.

Thank you!

Last 24 hours - Camera on screen 5 mins but used 19% of battery! (Compare, e.g., to FaceTime - on screen 2.6 hrs, just 20% battery)

Last 7 days - Camera on screen 10 mins but used 10% of battery!

P.S. The only thing I can think of is that Location Services has heavy battery usage in the Camera app. I could turn it off for the Camera app but I really would prefer to have geolocation data when I take a photo...

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 9.3.2, Thank you!!!

Posted on Jun 18, 2016 4:34 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 23, 2017 7:08 AM in response to RitchieFloats

The camera uses a lot of energy. However, if your phone drains 100% to 20% in 10 minutes your phone probably has a failing battery.

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Answer 2

Dec 23, 2017 6:48 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

iPhones, at least mine drains faster. I was at a concert and everyone was recoding video. After 10 minutes, of off and on recording, my battery went from 100% to 20%. The Android users in front of me recorded for about 1-2 hours. Same thing happened yesterday at my daughters singing performance.

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Answer 3

Jun 21, 2016 3:06 PM in response to misha680

Mine used a large amount of my battery as well before I caught it. I noticed that my flashlight control when you open control center was greyed out and not able to be activated. I used it a week or so ago and I wonder if it doesn't activate the camera when it turns on the light. A restart reset it. Maybe apple will fix the issue in a future update.

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Answer 4

misha680 Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 18, 2016 6:21 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you so much for your reply! I understand that the camera uses a lot of power. It seems, though, that 5 minutes of Camera use uses the SAME AMOUNT OF BATTERY as 2.6 HOURS of FaceTime (much of that was a FaceTime video call to my significant other). Is the Camera usually THAT battery intensive or is there possibly something else wrong with the phone? Thank you!!!

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Answer 5

Aug 26, 2016 5:22 AM in response to Alanalanalan

CCD sensors require a lot of power. Any camera on any device (and any dedicated camera) will drain the battery very quickly if left enabled. That's why dedicated cameras turn the sensor off after 1 minute of inactivity. However, 26% in 1 minute indicates an additional problem with your phone, either a failing battery, a battery display that needs to be recalibrated, or some other process running on the phone. Get the app Battery Life to test the battery, or take the phone to an Apple store for testing and diagnosis.

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Answer 6

Sep 11, 2016 7:50 PM in response to misha680

I recommend updating to iOS 9.3.5 if you have this problem and see if that fixes it. I heard somewhere that they patched a vulnerability where someone could hack into your camera remotely... I dont think this is the issue TBH but it wouldn't hurt giving it a try. I noticed the same battery draining on my 6S iOS 9.3.3 and I'm updating to 9.3.5 right now. I'm going to provide an update to see if this fixes the issue. Have a good day everyone (:

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Answer 7

Sep 12, 2016 7:26 AM in response to ol_

ol_ wrote:

Same problem here :-(.

Even on iOS 9.3.5, camera app is the biggest battery drain - even if not used that much.

I reset my iPhone (5s) already - and still have the problem :-(.

On every version of iOS in 9 years the camera app has used a lot of energy. Every digital camera does, whether it's in an iPhone, an Android, a Nikon or Canon DSLR or any other camera; it's the way digital cameras work. That's why just about every dedicated digital camera turns off the sensor after about a minute of non-use.

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