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.
Latest IOS update never changed my auto lock. It was set at 2 min and remained at 2 min after the update so that wasn’t my issue. It’s been days now since I tried the fix in my previous post (imessage and cellular settings) and while I think the battery performance is still not as good as it was pre update it’s much better than it was.
I wanted to provide an update on my progress. I had two tasks that I needed
to address in order to determine if the problem I have is fixable, or not.
- Factory Reset my phone completely
- Change out the battery
I've scheduled a battery replacement from an Apple Store (because I don't
want any excuse that the replacement was done by someone NOT Apple, and
that's why my phone battery drainage is so poor). And while they are taking
a while to get back to me, I'm hoping in the next week or two I will hear
back.
I've just Factory reset my phone. No 3rd Party apps exist, and the battery
drain appears to still continue.
So now I'm going to wait for the battery replacement. At which point all my
other options will have ended, unless someone else has any ideas.
On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 1:03 PM, Apple Support Communities Updates <
Interesting, I have been running my iPhone 6s on WiFi only with iCloud enabled and had no battery drain. I removed the sim which cured my battery so mine wasn’t anything to do with iCloud.
What happens when you turn iCloud back on?
Very poor reply. The problem as it stands is an Apple issue. Apple need to do something about this. Deleting Apple mail is the next step.
There has not been a single reply from Apple. This is a user to user forum. Apple does not participate. To communicate with Apple use the Contact Support link at the top of this page.
I’ve just had my iPhone 7 returned by apple after a repair. They sent me a brand new phone running on iOS 11.5.1 so pre last update. Once I’ve put all my stuff back on via a restore, it will be interesting to see if the battery life returns to normal. I certainly won’t be updating to iOS 11.5.2! I’ll keep you posted as to elegant happens.
Same here. My brand new iPhone 8 doesn't even make it through the day. Empty in around 12 hours without even using it too much. Before the update to 11.2.5 it was working fine and lasted easily throughout the day. I've used the developer tools to monitor energy consumption but I do not see anything strange.
Interestingly, I removed the SIM card and left the phone linked up to the WiFi and battery consumption seemed to be fine. However, as soon as I pick up the phone and start typing or using apps, zap! It starts to drain.
I too am having battery draining issues on my iPhone 6 and iPad mini 2 since the update. I have spent several hours with Apple support chat/phone, and taking all steps possible to improve the battery life. Nothing has worked for me. Have you been able to improve your situation?
Your reply has merit, but I don’t understand why my usage of my iPhone 7 has not changed since installing the latest update and the battery is draining. If anything, I’m using less to preserve the battery. Will the next update address the battery drain issue?
The same exact problem ever since updating to 11.5 and I have an iPhone X barely a month old. I went through the day and end up with a battery 30-40%. Now with this update using as before I end up with 2-5%... very depressing for a new iPhone 💩
Why don't apple understand that after ios 11.2.5 update battery is draining faster than before update, Why don't they come up with patch or fix for this rather suggesting tuning battery performance and settings. I'm facing battery problem after updating my Iphone 6+ to ios 11.2.5.
You are right. I have 6s (1,5y old) and i have manufacture issue: dark corner , dust under screen, and ofc i have no warranty. And now i have battery drain on iOS 11.2.5. I am dissapointed in Apple devices. 😢
Cynical or not, I was thinking the same thing. Nothing I have done since this update has fixed the problem. And I’m of the opinion that it’s a devious and greedy way to keep customers buying new products. And they’re not inexpensive products!!
I will not buy another iPad if this problem isn’t fixed. Why would I trust they wouldn’t do this again in a couple of years? My iPad worked perfectly until this. Not a thing wrong and held 100% charge on standby all day. Now it’s dying on standby.
Everybody at Apple acts like they don’t have a clue what’s going on. You get the standard ”battery saving tips” for an answer when you ask for help, and it doesn’t help.
Hint for Apple: if there are this many people complaining about an issue, it needs to be fixed. Not fixing it is a great way to lose customers.
IOS 11.2.5 battery drain
