ios 10.2.1 to 10.3 battery drain

Let me try to be helpful. Whatever the problem is, it is NOT a problem with the specific version (in this case, 10.3.3). If you assume it is a problem with the version you will never resolve it. There are a couple of reasons I say that. The first is that this was a trivial change, adding a few lines of code to block a hacker from taking over the radio chip. There is no way such a small change could have created a battery drain problem.

The more general reason is that in the 10 years and dozens of updates that have been released, there are a small number of phones that report increased battery drain after EVERY update. The number of reported problems for 10.3.3 is an order of magnitude fewer than for several other recent releases, and even those were small numbers. There are only two cases where this was actually a problem with the release; 2.0 and 3.1.0. And the many thousands of posts after each of these releases demonstrated that.

If it isn't the version itself, what causes the sudden change in battery life? Sometimes when a version is installed it causes a problem in an app. The update process terminates running apps, and not all of the 1 million+ apps are coded to handle that gracefully. When they restart they may have lost the status of whatever they were doing. They keep retrying and failing, consuming battery in the process.

Another possible related cause is Microsoft Exchange. There is a flaw in the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. It has been there forever; fixing it would require a protocol change, which would break billions of devices that use ActiveSync. So Microsoft doesn't fix it. If an ActiveSync device loses its place in what it was doing it creates a new connection to the Exchange server. But the Exchange server doesn't know about the problem. It accepts the new connection, but doesn't kill the old one, which keeps trying and failing, again using energy. If you have an MS Exchange account and you have a battery problem (even not associated with an iOS update) either turn off the account in Settings, restart the phone, and turn it back on. Or delete it, restart, and add it back.

In general, go to Settings/Battery and see which apps are using the most energy. Wait at least a day after the update to do this, so you have 24 hours worth of data.

Troubleshooting steps for sudden changes in battery life:

• Kill all running processes, then restart the phone. Note that this will not necessarily fix the problem of stuck apps, however, because they may restart in the same state they were in when killed.
• Connect to iTunes, restore iOS, and restore your backup. This does 2 things: it deals with the possible but unlikely problem that the iOS version on the phone is corrupted, and it also assures that all apps restart fresh. Remember that app data must be restored, which uses energy, so wait at least 24 hours to see if the problem is resolved. If not:
• Repeat, and set up the phone as new. Do not log in to iCloud. Do not install any email accounts, calendars or contacts. Do not install any apps. If the problem is still present after a few hours your phone has a hardware problem.
• If this does resolve the problem try restoring your backup. If the problem comes back you have corrupt data for one or more apps. You can try to figure out which app from Settings/Battery.

I'm not sure if you're referring to my situation, which involved multiple replacement phones (not six, though), but I wanted to clarify what happened, since it didn't occur quite the way you describe it (and I realize you may be referring to another case). Working with Apple (phone support and Genius Bar), I followed all of your steps as well as a number of other trouble-shooting measures that Apple had me do.

Every one of my phones, including the first one after the battery drain began, was first restored to its factory settings, and then restored from a backup. When that didn't work, we set up each phone as a new phone. After setting it up as a new phone, I only downloaded the apps that I absolutely had to have. In all cases, the battery drain returned after a period of time ranging from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

The Apple Genius tech support guys were the ones who told me that their diagnostics could not detect every possible hardware issue. Based on their tests, they didn't think it was the battery, and most of them suspected it was a problem with the logic board, which (according to them) might not show up as a problem in their diagnostics.

Since the Genius support guys reviewed my case file each time I came in with another defective phone, they were aware of the steps we had taken before. Even though they initially believed (as I did) that it was most likely a corrupt file or some other software issue, when the battery drain continued after multiple setups as a new phone, they abandoned that theory. In fact, they were so convinced that it was not a software issue that they told me to restore the fourth phone from a backup. And that phone finally was the one that worked, and is still working. While they (and I) suspect that *in my particular case* it was hardware related, it's still just our best guess.

I agree with your trouble-shooting steps, and I also agree that it's necessary to set up the phone as a new phone in order to determine if it's a hardware issue.

When my second replacement phone failed, an Apple phone support tech made an appointment for me at the Genius Bar to replace the phone with a new one. They did this because I had already gone through the restore/set up as new process.

When I arrived at the Genius Bar, the first tech I spoke with wanted me to start all over again, restoring the phone to factory settings and then setting it up as a new phone. I asked her to review my case file, and another tech came over to talk with her, and he told me that they were not going to bother to do that, but instead give me another replacement phone.

The point is that Apple's default fix for these issues is to suspect and trouble-shoot the software first, which makes sense, because software probably accounts for the vast majority of problems that people have with their phones. Also, a software fix is a lot less expensive for Apple than replacing the phone.

So it's not that Apple does not have a protocol for trouble-shooting problems with battery drain and over-heating. They do, and it includes what Lawrence Finch has outlined here. If the phone has been restored to factory settings and then set up as a new phone, and the battery still drains, there's not much that can be done except to replace the phone. If you're still under warranty of if you've got AppleCare, the new phone costs you nothing.

Hello, I visited an unauthorized service today. After diagnosis, it turned out that chip U2 has a constant consumption of 0.2A. The guy there assumed the phone was recycled and sold again, as it was bought long after the launch of the 5S - for Black Friday 2016. I'm going to look for my rights, and I'll try to replace my warranty device.

Fortunate are the few that a battery change will fix their problem. For the rest of us it was and still is an IOS update problem. As I stated in earlier posts I changed the battery as soon as my 6S began the battery drain, reformatted and added no 3rd party apps, and on standby my phone drains overnight from 100% to dead by morning. Never did before the 10.2 updates. It may be a bad chip or bad battery but my phone held a charge for days before the updates. Sadly, reports of beta IOS 11 does not fix the problem. It was and always will be a software issue, and until Apple decides to fix the issue we're stuck with rapidly discharging phones. As a side note, my wife's 6S plus, which I did not allow her to update holds a charge for days with normal usage.

OK, you have forced my hand. I don't believe any of the issues reported here are the result of battery failure or hardware failure, unless the procedure I posted is followed.

The phone that had the battery replaced that fixed the issue. Let's look at that for a moment. To replace the battery you must obviously remove all power. Which kills all processes. When the phone powers up again it's as though it is a new phone. No processes are running. It is that which fixed the problem, not the battery replacement.

The phone that was replaced 6 times which eventually fixed the issue. Apple's diagnostics are very comprehensive. It is unlikely that they would have missed anything big. More than likely it was the fact that the backup was restored 6 times, and that the last of those restores is what actually fixed the problem.

I'm not saying that anyone should believe me, but 10 year's experience with iPhones has made me pretty confident in my analysis. You can either follow my recommendation or not. I don't care. But I'm pretty sure that if you don't you will never resolve the problem. We're not talking here about what should happen, but rather what will.

That is a possibility. As I have said all along, I cannot prove that my problems were hardware related, but the Apple tech support staff I worked with believed that was the case, and so do I. During the time I spent with them (which was many, many hours over the course of several months), we changed a lot of settings to eliminate apps consuming power in the background. I also became fanatical about closing out of apps I was not using. I did everything they told me to do to minimize battery drain, but like Senator Warren, "nevertheless, still it persisted".

The other thing that made them (and me) believe it was hardware related was that the phone that finally worked was restored from a backup, which of course included all the apps I had been using. It's possible that in the time between the failure of my last defective phone and the time I received my final replacement phone, the app was updated, and that update fixed the problem.

I'll never know for sure, but what I do know is that the process was very inconvenient, very time-consuming (hours of re-entering passwords, downloading apps, downloading music, etc.). I knew why it had to be done and I knew it was "for my own good", because a new phone does not solve a software issue. But that didn't mean I enjoyed it! ;-)

Hi... since the new iOS update more or less every iPhone in our house showing the same problems. We are using 8 iPhones in our household models 5s, 6plus, 7plus etc. "Batteries draining very quick" sometimes if a phone is showing 10% or 12% battery is left and I put it on the charging suddenly it shows 71% of battery and sometimes it changes again back to 16% etc!!! Phones are totally unreliable. Last week my father was standing on the airport his phone was fully charged when he left our house, suddenly the same things happened with his phone, his ticket & boarding pass was in his phone and he was unable to turn it on!!! after about 15 minutes of struggle it turned on again and he was able to join the queue. In my opinion it is not the battery consumption thing, I am sure there must be a fault in the software which gives the wrong information!!! because i had this problem few time with different phone and most of them are still new phones.

Thanks

Kash

Ok. i know whats wrong with our phone. i did 2 months of research on iphone battery lifespan. The battery of iphone only last 3-5 years. i bought this battery replacement it works perfectly fine so you need to change your battery or buy a new phone.

Amazon.com: Battery Charger Internal Li-ion Replacement for iP 6 (Not 6 Plus, 6S or 6S Plus) with Complete Repair Tools …

It is simply an iOS 10.1upgrade issue. All our phones were working perfectly before all the upgrades. Changed my battery, 6S, and reset the phone to factory new. It was dead overnight while my wifes, 7S, had almost a full charge on iOS 10.1 without the upgrades. APPLE, IF YOU MONITOR THIS SITE, PLEASE DON'T RELEASE IOS 11 WITHOUT FIXING OUR BATTERY DRAIN ISSUE. I'm sure there are thousands of others with this issue that don't see this site and just live with it. Apple doesn't care about us as they have sold over 1 BILLION phones, but they should. We have been loyal to Apple. Your right, Samsung may be our only fix!!

There is no doubt that an older battery is a problem for some people and the new iOS exposes the weaknesses. However, if you look through the thread(s), there are many who have replaced the battery (or had it replaced by the Apple engineers) which has not resolved the issue. I have been reading this stuff for the last 8 months.

The problem continues....

No, I am reading the thread correctly. This particular poster said he replaced the battery on his iPhone and in his case, on his phone, it fixed the problem he was having. You then said that could not be true, that he didn't fix his problem and I asked how you knew this.

Battery problems on small electronic devices, starting with flashlights, have been around since they first were invented. For small electronics to really take a leap forward we need a breakthrough in battery technology but it hasn't happened yet. With every new version of iOS there are posts about battery life diminishing. On at least 2 occasions I know of there was a global drop across devices and Apple issued a quick update. I'm not seeing a global issue with 10.3.3. Since everyone is using different configurations and different apps in a different manner there will always be some phones that have the issue and some that don't. Without isolating the problem there is no way to reach a solution and in this case there is no one change the programmers can make that will miraculously cure any major problems. If you read about Samsung, LG, HTC, etc. devices you will also hear tales about battery life problems.

Speculation is not allowed here but if there was a global drop in battery life (which would be small) it could happen when using the broadcomm chipset as 10.3.3. was purely a security update to plug a huge hole in that particular chip to stop the Broadpwn exploit. I'll take the loss in exchange for plugging that hole.

Jonathanpxxxx wrote:

"However, if you look through the thread(s), there are many who have replaced the battery (or had it replaced by the Apple engineers) which has not resolved the issue."

The fact that some people's issue have been resolved by a battery being replaced and some people's have not is highly indicative of at least two (if not more) different problems.

No, there doesn't seem to an unusually high incidence of complaints about battery life following the most recent updates.

None of us has any way of knowing how many people have been hit with this problem, and it's also impossible to know how many people have had it resolved. What we do know is that a number (again, we have no idea how large or small) have had battery drain problems with their iPhones, and that they have associated the problem with an iOS update.

In my case, which I've written about in detail in this thread, the problem did not begin after an iOS update, but that doesn't rule out updates as a possible cause for other people.

I think it's important to remember that people come here looking for help and suggestions which may save them hours of troubleshooting. Nobody wants to be told that they're imagining a problem that is very real and very annoying. On the other hand, it is fair for other users to point out that there is not enough reliable data to establish *beyond a shadow of a doubt* that an iOS update is responsible for that problem.

For me, it didn't turn out to be an iOS issue, since the problem was finally resolved with a new replacement phone, but it took several replacement phones before the battery problems disappeared. That would seem to indicate that in my case it was a hardware issue, but nobody, including me or Apple, can be 100% certain that's the case.

What matters is getting the problem resolved. And sometimes, we may never know what caused the problem. I admit I was so frustrated with the amount of time and effort it took to get the problem fixed, that I was ready to jump ship and get an Android phone, but I'm glad it never came to that. I just don't care for the Android interface and it's not as if Android phones are free from troubles. I'd rather have a battery that dies quickly than one that makes my phone explode. But I certainly understand if other people decide they've had it with their iPhone and are ready to try something else.

The bottom line is that we're here to try to help each other, and there have been a lot of posts in this thread that have done exactly that, so for that, I'm grateful. Yes, some posts can sound condescending and I generally just ignore those. I don't think that most people are trying to come across that way, though.

Phil M2 thanks for your comments. It does seem strange that in your case, it was a hardware issue in some consecutive replacements. Again, if you link that to some of the other users comments who have only resolved it with replacement phones despite Apple genii spending loads of time on it, it is strange that none of the high level people accept that it could be a hardware issue across a number of phones.