iOS 11.4 battery drain

As soon as I downloaded 11.4 the battery started draining extremely fast. Next time I will do some research before downloading updates. Apple is probably making money from selling more chargers (I had to buy 2). I have turned off everything possible and followed suggestions on line. The most I can be without plugging in is 2 to 3 hours. I certainly hope Apple has a fix soon or I may go Android.

I believe the number of variables nowadays is also far greater than yesteryear, just take the iPhone for example, you have numerous models which in themselves can have components sourced from different manufacturers even for the same model, and they all can be running different base versions of iOS to upgrade, it must be a nightmare for coders.

I've had issues in the past with regards to Messages syncing, Podcasts syncing, Continuity, Handoff etc, and when some got fixed others then appeared to break, but at the moment everything I've enabled and use seems to work as intended, but because of prior experience it's the reason I will not yet use iCloud Messages for example, I want the "new" system to establish itself first.

arlingtonian138 wrote:

it is weird in that way - my kid and i have both have iphone 6's with 16gigs memory...he gets a full day of use on one charge...my wife has an iphone8 and she too uses her phone often throughout the day yet hasnt had any issues in spite of the update...so some iphones are having issues, while others are not.. 😟

Probably not so weird when you consider our iPhone's can have hardware sourced from different manufactures, even the same model's have chips from different suppliers (Qualcomm, Intel etc). It's only my view but if all the usual fixes fail (ie. Restore as New) this problem is really starting to point to the iOS version itself being the issue, in that some conflict has been setup with certain hardware contained in those devices following the update.

It's not hard to believe really, after all, remember when the first Retina laptops came out, people were actually returning units for replacement in order to get one with a Samsung screen due to the fact LG was considered inferior, it was later resolved but it took Apple some time to get "consistency" back to an acceptable level. Should this have happened, probably not on devices with a premium price but I suppose Apple just can't source from any one manufacture any more. It could be one of the reasons they are turning to in-house chip design/production.

I can only suggest everyone contacts them on that iPhone Feedback page to express their frustration over such a ridiculous thing, particularly their ignoring the issue. I would have been happily waiting if there was a little announcement that said we are sorry about this and are doing everything we can to fix the issue asap...

My iPhone 8 was getting ~11% per hour battery drain on iOS 11.4 when simply on standby and the screen off - and yes, disabling Wi-Fi did slow it down, but was still a higher draw than earlier versions, and any time I used the phone with screen on, the battery did die way faster than prior regardless of WiFi being on or not. I tried switching off, restoring, setting up, as a new phone - nothing worked.

Until iOS 11.4.1.

Touch wood, after having installed this, the phone is now back to a very slow and steady power draw with Wi-Fi on, perhaps even a bit better than iOS 11.3 if my mind is not playing tricks. Less than 24 hours, but so far, a welcome correction to a problem that should not have occurred in the first place.

The agreement covers mostly on new features and functions. To be honest you can go on any egghead website and they already have the rundown. But people should have the right to know if bug fixes are being implemented. The battery drain issue is a serious one because is wrecking the battery life especially on new batteries. I was told to replace mine for $30.00. Why would I put a new battery in to replace a new battery and have it wrecked by the same bug? Apple has yet to officially address that problem.

I also have this problem on my SE and I too believe it has to do with the wifi.

At first I tried reseting everything and backing up from iCloud and it seemed to have worked, at least until the following day.

Next I tried reseting the wifi settings and turning wifi off, background app refresh off, location services off, and lower power mode on, and charging my phone to 100%. Then, after minimal use (checked snapchat, whatsapp, and email a few times) over an approximately 24hr period I was left with 91% battery. I tried this again except with location services turned on (though with apple analytics stuff turned off), but still on lower power mode, and again left with 91% after ~24 hrs.

For the next 24 hr period I tried turning only wifi back on (still on lower power mode) and connecting to my home network (at 2.4ghz but 5ghz also available). After about a 10 hr period I had 97% battery. Later I left home to go somewhere, taking with my phone with me, and returned about an hour later. When I returned I noticed my phone was warm and the battery began to drain quickly again. After about 2 hours I was at 83%.

Something similar had happened when I had first reset the phone completely. It was good until leaving home and comming back for the first time after reseting it, because when I came back it started to drain again. I had noticed my phone getting warm a couple of times before when not in use, after getting the update, but this did not happen when wifi was turned off.

I'm going to try 11.4.1 now. If it ever gets fixed I'm never updating my phone again after that.

such as not using certain WiFi’s, making sure all my apps are always turned off, etc, as a solution rather a bandaid for the problem. Whether they are doing it or not apple should take responsibility and fix this problem in a timely manner instead of letting their customers suffer. I recently went out of the country, came back, and had this problem. My mother who was here in the states with the same phone (iPhone 6s) also had the same drained issue. I talked to Verizon they said it was my phone. So I went to Apple then they said it was my battery and the problem was Verizon’s new cell tower firmware, in all fairness it did need to be replaced, however after it only marginally fixed the problem. My mother who rarely uses her phone couldn’t leave her phone on standby for more then 2 hours without almost completely dying. I couldn’t even be on the phone 10 minutes without it almost completely dieing. Went to Apple the said battery was fine on her phone and said she had to many things running, what?! Ok I’m sorry if news, email, WiFi, Bluetooth, txt, call or too many things running in the background for the battery to handle, however, never had this issue before iOS 11.4. So I did some research I heard some people had better luck on iOS 12 beta. Installed it on my phone again only marginally better. At least now my phone won’t die within 2 hours on standby, but when I’m using it still ***** the life out of my battery just as quick as iOS 11.4 and it doesn’t matter if WiFi is on or not or on 5g or 2.4. At this point Apple is garbage, has been since jobs died, to me the only fix is waiting for the new phones to come out and get the pixel 3. Googles where it’s at now. Apple is not transparent every where you go they point the finger at the other guy with no real answers. I’m not going to waste my time making sure everything is in a particular mode to make sure my battery can last 3 hours ?!?! Screw that goodbye Apple. I’m tired of waiting for the next update to solve the last updates problems, apples just a revolving door of problems.

Hi. I do not normally use WiFi. Battery drain problem for me does not relate to WiFi. Maybe if I switch on WiFi, the situation will be even worse. I have off 4G function, off location service, off background app refresh, off fitness tracking, off 3D touch, changed Mail from push to fetch manually, on reduce motion, etc, etc. On the airplane mode at night. Now I can use my iPhone 7 Plus for 1 day. Some may say it’s good. Nope, it’s not. I can normally use up to 1.5 days before iOS 11.4. With all these functions off, I can only use 1 day. And thanks for Apple and iOS 11.4 or 11.4.1, my iPhone cannot use 4G and location service together with Find my iPhone function. Touch wood, hopefully I won’t loss my iPhone before I can use location service. :/

This may help https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/apple/how-downgrade-from-ios-11-3664217/

The iOS versions are obviously different because of age of article but procedure should be same, just make sure Apple are still signing the iOS version you wish to downgrade too (ie 11.3 is no longer signed).

The other issue that charging twice a day creates is the amount of "full charge cycles" your battery endures (since install). Anything above 650 and your battery health starts to deplete. (Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity). If you're battery health is less than 70% Apple Care will simply recommend a new battery.

The problem is; you cannot see the amount of charge cycles your phone has been through until an Apple

Tech' runs diagnostics on the device at the Genius Bar.

But. If you're charging your phone twice a day you are definitely (rapidly) adding to the amount of full charge cycles and ruining the capacity of your battery. This problem is a problem compounded.

Apple really needs to address whatever battery drain was introduced in 11.4, some application or background service is depleting the battery faster than was accepted before.

My story was exactly the same. iPhone 6s, upgraded to 11.4 then 11.4.1. Battery almost instantly depleted. Took it to the Genius Bar; was told that my battery had endured 750+ full charge cycles and my battery health was 66%. Time for a new battery. I did explain that the full charge cycles had rapidly increased due to the battery depletion, but battery replacement was $29. Wasn't worth arguing about and I just got the battery replaced.

I have a different problem.

It just keeps rebooting every 2 minutes. This is regardless of the battery charge level at point in time, It could be anywhere from 1% to 100 %.

When I need to charge it, I have to connect the charger and place it very carefully to ensure that the charging lightning symbol is visible. At that point I have to forcibly power it off WITHOUT disturbing the charger cable. If I don't do exactly that it simply does not charge.

I will try next week. Only thing that might work is reverting to the previos OS version. Umfortunately that may not be possible as the **** thing keeps rebooting every couple of minutes.

But they are the same jokers who offered to exchange my wife's iPad with the same model for 20% more than I can buy a newer version in the open market. I am old but not senile, not yet.

If not the phone then certainly you. What I can't believe is how anyone can accept such customer unfriendly attitude. If Bill Gates gets to read this forum he really might be regretting saving the company from going bankrupt.

I have never come across any device that could not be rolled back. In fact my desktop will allow me to roll back upto 6 - 7 version upgrades. My nexus, Samsung & Xiaomi devices will allow al the way back to the original factory level OS. This could even be 3 - 4 major update versions. All this can be done from my desktop PC over a USB cable. Apple is the only one that will not allow or has managed to incorporate any method for rolling back the updates. My purchase was a reluctant one simply out of necessity. Will now look for other means /methods for communicating with my granddaughters.