Unusually high battery drain is a symptom, not a problem. There are many possible causes for this symptom. In theory, as many as there are apps installed on the phone.
Sudden change in battery drain is caused by an app or apps that are using more energy than they should. It can happen at any time, but is slightly more likely after an update, because the update process interrupts apps in the middle of some activity, either foreground or background, and some apps do not recover cleanly and get stuck attempting to repeat a failed data update, essentially forever. Killing the app doesn't always resolve it, because the real problem is data that was corrupted by the interruption, and the app will continue trying to recover the corrupted data after it restarts.
MS Exchange email accounts will do this frequently, due to a bug in the Microsoft ActiveSync process which, unfortunately can never be fixed, because it would break millions (billions) of older MS Exchange clients that cannot be updated. If you have an MS Exchange account the only fix is to delete the account, restart the phone, and add it back. Or have your administrator restart the MS Exchange server (which most admins don't really want to do). If you are interested I can provide technical details on this bug, but I don't want to distract from solving the problem.
Other IMAP email accounts can exhibit a similar problem; again, the easiest solution is to delete the account, then add it back. As the email server is always the master for IMAP accounts no messages will be lost.
Accounts that sync data from a server (and this includes iCloud) can get out of sync between the server and the iPhone. Given enough time this can resolve itself (at least for iCloud), but it's easier to shut down the sync service, restart the phone, and start it up again. Yes, even for iCloud syncing. And I had to do this over the weekend when my iCloud Contacts stopped syncing correctly. It took about 14 hours for my contacts to again sync.
As many 3rd party apps sync with a server all can be suspect. That's why checking to see which apps are using the most energy in Settings/Battery is a good diagnostic step.
Same here big time! I used to go to sleep with my phone charged at 100% and wake up with my phone's battery at 98%. I have tried tonight my battery was at 100%, I woke up this morning and it was at 72%! I used to charge my phone once a day but since I update to 11.2.5 I have to charge it 3 times a day..
Is simply unmistakable that the 11.2.5 update created this battery mess..
I hope they do something about quick.
Same here. I’m using an iphone 8 plus just over a couple of months. Moderate usage on a daily basis for checking and replying emails, whatsapp-ing and browsing the net usually last me a day and half or 2 at max. After updating 11.2.5, I’m recharging my phone in less than 24 hours!
Fully charged before I sleep, I usually wakes up at around 5.30 or 6 in the morning and the phone was still on 100% and half an hour after use then only it drops to 99%. But now, i wake up to a 97 or at worst 93% ! Whats going on?
My brother with iphone SE called me yesterday and I had to convince him not to smash his phone since after installing 11.2.5 the battery last him only up until noon!
Apple, you really need to solve this. Its obviously software issues and not the physical battery.
By the way, as far as setting is concerned, nothing changes from the previous ios version.
Well I think that worked for me also! Ive turned off icloud drive as it was on (i have also taken out my sim card and rebooted my phone then put it back) when my phone battery was at 72%, 4 hours after and after i used my phone a few times like a quick whatsapp call, read a few emails etc my batter is now at 67%.. Im definitely happier than before thats for sure, maybe it worked as my phone is just a 5s dunno but I would give it a try people..
Hi,
Not only that the battery drain is enormous. I also see that System services -> Push notification ( in Mobile data) eats a lot of data. Approximately 10MB per our on cellular use. On wifi it is probably the same but this cannot be measured there. It was never like that before upgrade to 11.2.5
@MichelPM I don't understand why you keep suggesting to people to go and get a new battery? All these batteries where just fine a few days ago before update 11.2.5, isn't that enough to make you understand that 11.2.5 is the problem? I have an iphone 5s but i bought it new 4 months ago so my battery is fine since the battery of my last iphone 4s lasted me more than 3 years..
Thanks so much for this, I was having to charge my iphone 6 twice a day following the recent update and had already tried all the other ‘solutions’ to no avail. I don’t use Siri either, so I disabled it this morning after reading your post. My battery has only drained by 14% all day. Such a relief as I’m disabled and really need a reliable phone, so thank you for your helpful post
"You Can’t Downgrade from iOS 11.2.5
If you’re currently running iOS 11.2.5 on your device you’re stuck until Apple releases a new upgrade!
Apple is no longer signing off on iOS 11.2, iOS 11.2.1, and iOS 11.2.2 which means you can no longer drop back down to an older version of iOS 11 in an effort to improve your device’s performance.
Apple also stopped signing on iOS 11.1.2, iOS 11.1.1, iOS 11.1, iOS 11.0.3, iOS 11.0.2, iOS 11.0.1, iOS 11.0 or iOS 10.3.3. This is a permanent change and Apple won’t bring any of these updates back."
Really can't understand why apple wouldn't keep signing at least the latest stable update (11.2.2) just in case the 11.2.5 came out as pile of crap which it did. Wouldn't that at least avoided so many people's hunger but most and all of their customers who are starting considering android after this update and I've I heard too many these days?
I think Apple is changing into a banana..
Thanks Apple 😠
Sorry lawrence but you are wrong and your comment is not helpful to others with a problem.
I updated to 11.2.5 from 2 perfectly good and healthy devices (no way am I going to update the other devices I have!)
One was unaffected and works ok. The other (an iPhone 6 with a 6 month or so newly replaced battery) immediately began to act slow, was needing a charge at least 3 times a day a ran really hot... immediately after the update... I had changed nothing but it was terrible.
After reading these posts I made some of the suggested changes in settings and the problem went away. (Battery cool and lasting all day again)
Therefor the battery drain and heat problem was 100% an update software issue.
Maybe it only affects some phones, maybe it only affects some phones with certain settings turned on or off? But it definitely is a software issue
Define "a lot". Yes, there are probably hundreds. Roughly 500,000,000 have updated to 11.2.5. But when there is a real problem people find the time to ask for help. As I mentioned in another post, there were 13,000 who posted in only one thread 5 years ago for a real issue that affected about 5 million phones out of the 100 million in use back then. There are always posts about battery issues after any iOS update. With iOS 11 there have been far fewer than with many other recent updates.
As I posted to carrasco.de, battery life changes are a symptom, not a disease. Like a fever; there are thousands of medication conditions that manifest as a fever. And there are as many possible causes of battery life changes as there are apps on your phone. It's even possible that no two users have the same cause of their battery drain.
It's a problem with your phone. It isn't a problem with my phone. Or with hundreds of millions of other iPhones. So the only way Apple can solve it is to see your phone. Make a genius bar appointment, or work on troubleshooting it yourself.
As the problem seems to be overnight, why don't you just plug the phone in overnight? It will be fully charged at the start of the day, and, if you turn on iCloud Backup it will automatically back up your phone every night when it is connected to Wi-Fi and locked.
I was one, untill I found a real explaination. Sure the reset was a hassle but I believe Its probably heathy do do once a year also will make me more aware of what to do for a clean update. I also realize having many devices over the years, when 1 thing goes bad or compromised it can send the rest out of sync.
My iPhone6 is driving me crazy. Before 11.2.5 (i had 10.x) i had zero problems with battery run time, which means to charge it every 1-2 days. Now, i have to charge it every ~6-8 hours.
The App lirium Info lite tells me the battery wear Level is at 88% and it is in good condition. When i monitor the CPU load it doesn’t go below ~30%. iCloud Drive is off, Siri off, iMessage off, background update for nearly all apps off. I have done a hard reset with 11.2.5 and made a restore via iTunes (newest x64 version for win10). It didn’t solve the problem. I have updated to 11.2.6. No difference. Followed by a second hard reset and restore via iTunes, but no difference.
I assume the iPhone CPU doesn’t go into “sleep”/standby mode, because the iPhone is warm. I am an IT engineer and to me it seems that quality assurance is really bad this time. From the past I know that updating to a new version results sometimes into a slow warm iPhone because of some background processes executed. But this normally ends after 1-2 days latest. But this time with 11.2.5/.6 it is different.
I am really disappointed and if this won’t change in the next weeks then I won’t buy any new Apple product, after a long and happy journey... and will also not recommend it to others...
I troubleshooted my iPhone 6s EXACTLY the same way with zero positive results. The battery continues to
rapidly drain (even on standby) with updated 11.2.5. Siri off. iMessage off. iCloud off. Background updates off. I did a restore via iTunes twice and a few hard resets. Deleted most of my apps. Tried Airplane Mode. Use Low Power Mode. Location Services off. Replaced the battery. Updated to 11.2.6. Nothing has made a difference. I’ve been troubleshooting this phone for over two weeks. My old iPhone 4 (which I use to play music while working outdoors) has an original battery which will last me all day. My iPhone 6s NEW battery will last 6 hours. I’m waiting for the next iOS 11.3 update to see if this phone is going to get back to normal.
There is no massive bug. If your battery is draining abnormally there is something wrong with your phone. It has nothing to do with a bug. And the update simply gives you more information about the condition of your battery. It isn't designed to fix anything, because there isn't anything to fix. You should be troubleshooting the problem with your phone, not waiting for some magical solution from Apple. This thread, amidst all of the whining, has some good advice on how to fix the problem with your phone.
Hello Lawrence. I have been following this thread for almost a month now and have tried (many, many times) every troubleshooting solution presented so far. I have an iPhone 6s and my mother has my old iPhone 6. Both had their batteries replaced and were in excellent condition PRIOR to the 11.2.5 update. The battery drain on BOTH phones is approximately 15% per hour on standby (more if a text is sent or call is made). You have been emphatically insistent on this thread in stating that our phones are the problem, not the IOS. I have to disagree. The IOS update did something to some of these phones making them extremely inefficient and features unusable due to us having to turn them off in order to conserve our batteries. If you know of a new solution, other than the ones you and others have posted, I would love to hear it. If the IOS 11.3 update is NOT, like you said, going to provide a “fix” for this problem, then that’s going to be pretty sad for a lot of people who are counting on Apple for help with this battery drain issue.
IOS 11.2.5 battery drain
