ios 10.2.1 to 10.3 battery drain

I'm the guy who wrote about my experiences with this problem in an earlier comment, and who is now on my 5th iPhone 7. I thought I'd report back after having used it for the past three days (still early, I realize). The phone I received on Saturday, and which was restored from a backup, is giving me better battery life than any iPhone 7 I have had so far, including the one I purchased on launch day. So far, it has not heated up at all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Throughout my many and lengthy phone and online chat conversations with Apple tech support, and in person with techs at my Apple Store, there was no consensus about what was causing the problem. The assumption that it must be software was the reason we set up the first three replacement iPhones as new phones, but that did *not* fix the problem. True, that does not prove that the problem is not software-related, but it was why the senior advisor allowed me to restore this iPhone (the fourth replacement) from a backup.

I have no explanation for this, and neither does Apple, at least not that they have shared with me. The thing I want to emphasize here is that *every* Apple support person with whom I have spoken has said that it is *not normal* to experience rapid battery drain, over-heating, and the incorrect reporting of standby and usage as identical when they are not. Apple does not consider these problems to be acceptable. While it's possible that some users may experience problems like these because they are not following ideal battery conservation procedures, that cannot explain why users who previously had no problems suddenly begin to have issues.

I do think that one should not rule out the possibility that it's hardware-related. Just because an iPhone's battery passes the diagnostics tests does not mean that the phone itself is not defective.

I've talked with apple support 4 times.

My aggravation must have been obvious so the requested that a supervisor call me on the phone.

Her solution was factory recover the phone . Rest as new on the phone and download my backup from iCloud , not my computer . She suggested that downloading the backup from the computer may be redone loading something corrupt .

This has not helped.

It's a iOS issue. 10.2 perfect. 10.3 battery problems . Plain and simple. In 2 hours time form starting iOS update to signing back in to my phone post update problem began.

The woman I was chatting with before the phone call was almost defensive. She stated a few 1000 phones with problems doesn't point to an iOS problem. That statement was made by her without me saying anything about this or any other forum about this problem. Tells me they know there is an issue just not willing to fix it or don't know how to fix it.

I'm done. This is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to search all over to try and debug an issue that they caused. .

Only solution I see is make ios10.2 reavailable

It's not an app problem. That's just stupid. It's an ios10.3 problem. That's when it all started. Immediately after 10.3. That's pretty obvious.

And it's safari that eats the battery according to my phone and you can't delete safari as far as I know .

So please quit leading people rabbit trails that don't end with ios10.3

It very well could be an iOS issue, but my first iPhone 7 failed using iOS 10.2.1, so in that case at least, it could not have been an iOS 3.x problem, since the iPhone failed before iOS 3 was issued.

We also have to allow for the possibility that while the problems are the same, the causes of the problems may not be the same for everyone who is having them.

anthodavis wrote:

It's not an app problem. That's just stupid. It's an ios10.3 problem.

Then why haven't the 300 million users who updated to 10.3 descended on this forum to report it? Why haven't my two iOS devices on 10.3.2 exhibited it? Why haven't the usual apple-hating trade press sites gone gaga over it? Why are there people who say that it must be 10.2, because that is when they experienced the problem - and that's the version you want to go back to? If you read through this thread alone, you will find lots of users who have fixed it, using many different solutions. It isn't a problem - it is a symptom. And like all symptoms, it can have many unrelated underlying causes.

I agree with you that it's not an app problem since I also had the situation you're talking about, where Safari was the worst culprit when it came to battery usage. But that's based on the battery usage data reported on the phone, which may not be accurate.

The bottom line is that Apple doesn't seem to know what the real problem is, and so their fixes are hit or miss at this point.

Actually if you read back through the entire conversation thread almost everyone who has posted says this started with ios3 . I can verify that because I have read every post. I found this conversation day 1 and have followed since.

Don't know anything about your phone or the other 300 million iPhone users but mine started with ios10.3 and nearly everyone else on this conversation did too.

Don't think it's to hard to believe if a 1000 people find and post to one thread there is 10times the people having issues but just looking for answers but don't reply

It's amazing how everytime that Lawrence says something, he points out that we are doing wrong. That we don't know how to use an iPhone.

-Why haven't 300 million users who updated to 10.3 descended on this forum to report it?
A: Because not many people knows about this forums. Because many people is so used to charge their phone twice a day even if is not empy, so they don't realize that the battery is draining faster than usual. Because many people doesn't even use their phone to work, but just as a gaming console or a music player, so they don't realize of the importance of having a good battery performance the whole day. There are now 3 threads in this forum talking about the same, more and more people it's starting to complain.

-Why haven't your two iOS devices exhibited that problem?
A: Lucky you but, do you realize that denying a problem just because it hasn't happened to you it's absurd?

-If you read through this thread alone, you will find lots of users who have fixed it.

A: Wrong. People in this thread has recived a new iPhone because they couldn't fix it. Not even Apple Support could fix it. They have even tried to use their phones totally empty, without installing any app, without logging to iCloud, and the problem continues.

People in this thread is trying to find a solution for a problem. Stop blaming people because they don't know how to use their iPhone, when not even Apple Support can find a solution for this problem. To receive a new iPhone it's not exactly a solution.

I'm not 100% on this answer, but I would like to take a crack at it. I just purchased iPhone 5s the other day, and it ran on 10.0.2 and battery was perfect. So today I made the idiotic decision to update to 10.3.2 without checking for issues. I to now have battery drain issue. The only noticeable difference I see now is iCloud. First of all it's just sitting in settings at the top like a sore thumb, and annoying to look at honestly! I'm guessing either it's refresh rate, or that it's always on now is part of the problem? So I logged out of it and my battery seemed to be a bit better, but it wiped out my notes, contacts, and photos until I logged back in. Like I said I'm not 100% on the answer, but I'm willing to bet it's part of the issue.

It seems that whatever ios the phone comes with new out of the box is not the problem. in fact it seems that the ios it came with is optimized for the phones best performance. It's once you update the software after having used the original ios. it is then when the battery and other issues begin. I was LOVING my 7 plus that I got back in April. After the 10.3.1 update I noticed immediately the battery drain. 10.3.2 didn't improve. What I would give to go back and not click the update button!

Lawrence, It doesn't have to be a silent update though. It should be one which the user is made aware of what will be done and to confirm (or not) to update. It really is straight forward. You are finding reasons why not rather than being more positive.

I also noticed that many of the high level contributors (not just you Lawrence) are tending to minimise or defuse this issue at the moment. Either we all are really stupid or they know something we don't. I know you will hark back to numbers affected, but I think one contributor has addressed that and clearly its not all iphones, but many iphones. Why doesn't Apple just come out and ask the users if their phones are affected? Then you can more accurately how widespread this is. It will be a gamble, as it could be massive and they will have to deal with it. As it is, they seem happy to just deal with those who complain the most or make others wait.

Lawrence, are you saying that this level of anxt, frustration and inability for Apple Support to resolve all cases is typical of an IOS update? Also how do you know that all the "resolved" cases you spoke about are permanently fixed?

I still feel, because of the wide variation of successes, that there is a hardware component incompatibility somewhere (batch or manufacturer related).

So more just an update. I have also tested airplane mode and it causes a dramatic change in battery life. Unplugged, fully charged, new battery and it only dropped 60% after 6 hours. Much better...so I guess I'll need to change to airplane mode on occasions.

I'll keep working on finding a solution though.

Interesting results, which indicate some unknown network activity may be causing the drain. Airplane mode is OK if you don't need connectivity, but it also defeats most of the reasons for having a phone. But until a better fix comes along, at least it might get you through the day without re-charging!

As Phil said, if airplane mode makes a difference there is an app that is using data continuously and also using energy. If you are not connected to WiFi go to Settings/Cellular Data and see which app(s) are using the most data.

In most cases its safari . Safari can't be deleted. Very doubtful it's a app tha has been downloaded that's causing this.

That's already been discussed and people have tried deleting all apps with no resolve of the issue.