iPhone 7 Plus Standby Battery Drain

Since buying my iPhone 7 Plus I have noticed much different battery drain per day than what I experienced in my previous 6 Plus and 6S Plus models. They performed tremendously especially during standby and overnight, often allowing me up to three days between charges. This is simply not so with this 7 Plus, which seems to drain constantly under use or not and especially overnight some 10-15% more. At this point I'm not sure whether to blame my specific phone (and thus visit the Genius Bar for counsel) or iOS 10.3 (and thus wait patiently for coming updates) or a combination of both, only more confused by recent calls to Apple Support. Clearly by the huge number of postings like mine there are many others of us experiencing this issue, so solutions... I am asking for solutions!

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 10.3, Matte Black 32gb

Posted on Apr 6, 2017 4:14 PM

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8 replies

Apr 6, 2017 5:10 PM in response to mdeldridge

The first thing I would do is check in Settings to see what app(s) are using the highest percentage of battery on the device. I doubt that mail and maps would be causing an issue unless you have the device set to fetch mail multiple times during the night. What is your fetch schedule for your mail? And unless you have maps open and doing something overnight, it should not consume any battery whatsoever.

I'm using an iPhone 7, not a plus, and I have found that despite my rather heavy usage, I still have battery left at the end of the day. I plug the phone in at night when I go to bed and have 100% when I get up in the morning, again, lasting from 6:00am until around 11:30pm with battery to spare.

Apr 6, 2017 5:03 PM in response to mdeldridge

Starting some homemade solutions tonight: going to charge all the way to 100% before bed and unplug for standby overnight, then show screenshots here of results... but if I just had ideas on apps that might be running unchecked (and perhaps ungoverned by Background App Refresh being off) during standby, my thoughts are that perhaps the native Mail and Maps apps could be pirating battery, a bug to be sure, but I'm grasping at straws here with very little patience... first things first, tonight's test, then maybe I'll replace those two apps as an experiment

Apr 6, 2017 6:50 PM in response to mdeldridge

mdeldridge,


Go to Settings > Battery and scroll down to BATTERY USAGE to see the apps that are consuming your battery. If any of the apps have unusually high usage they can be shut down (double tap the Home button, scroll left or right to find the app, then swipe up to shut it down).


As time goes by you should be able focus on the problem apps. Usually it is a rogue app constantly running in the background. You should then be able adjust the settings to the problem app to solve your problem.


Let us know how it goes.

Apr 7, 2017 3:50 AM in response to mdeldridge

Further, my primary app usage each day falls to Messages and Mail, both native Apple apps. I believe there is a process within the Mail app in iOS 10.3 that has it draining more so now than in past platforms. That said, based also on any thoughts shared today, tonight I'll likely switch to a third-party mail app like Outlook or Spark (or maybe even return to Newton Mail) then recharge to 100% and check my overnight standby again. Related, tomorrow night I might even recharge to 100% then turn the phone off for the night; I'm reading in other posts that some are seeing overnight drain even then.


Side questions: with notorious drainers like Wi-fi Assist, Shake to Undo, Raise to Wake, and Background App Refresh all turned off, is it possible that Auto Brightness is giving me standby battery drain with the screen off?

Apr 7, 2017 11:14 AM in response to mdeldridge

Your overnight usage shows that 8% of the 8% of battery that was used overnight was music, and that there was 10 minutes of usage overnight. Then again, the usage statistics are for the past 24 hours. That isn't bad, however you show that 7% of battery was being used by deleted apps. I suggest that is where part of your problem lies. You have something going on there, such as a stuck process. Mail is not showing usage, and I've not seen Mail problems with my iPhone 7. My biggest battery hog is Twitter. I've been busy with other things today and have not spent any time there, and my battery is phenomenal today. I've been on it since 6:30 today, and have been receiving and responding to my usual amount of mail, and my battery is still at 95% for having been disconnected from the charger for 7 hours. I don't believe overnight is going to give you enough of a clue, since the battery usage statistics are over a 24 hour period of no charge. I have wi-fi Assist off as well as Background App Refresh, since I don't use anything that would need that. I have Raise to Wake off since I keep my phone in my pocket and moving it would cause an issue. I've never heard that Shake to Undo uses battery enough to turn it off. Auto Brightness is the best choice to leave on since it keeps the screen at a minimal brightness. I wouldn't turn that off or believe it is causing battery issues.

Apr 8, 2017 5:18 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

Thanks but I have all that covered. This 7 Plus simply isn't as efficient on its battery usage than I've come to expect... nowhere near it. The culprits are either Messages or Mail or standby mode or all of the above. Somewhere one or more of these has a bug (related to my 7 Plus or iOS 10.3) that is simply keeping a process going differently than it should.

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iPhone 7 Plus Standby Battery Drain

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