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iOS 11.4 and iPhone 6s Battery is Horrible

Ever since I updated to iOS 11.4, the battery life on my iPhone 6s has been horrible. with iOS 11.3.x on a light day, my battery level would be at about 90% at noon. Over the past two days, which were light usage, my batter level at noon was about 70%. I've rebooted my phone and it did not make a difference. At 8:00 this evening my batter was down to 13%.

The only change is that I made is that I switched to iCloud Messages. I did that on my iPad Air 2 as well but the battery life on that is fine.

Battery Health reports that my battery is at 99% capacity.

Does anyone else have horrible battery life on an iPhone 6s?

I have reported this to Apple via Feedback - iPhone - Apple.

Thanks,

Mike

iPhone 6s, iOS 11.4, null

Posted on Jun 1, 2018 5:19 PM

Best reply

MikeMcCollister Author

Level 1

57 points

Posted on Jun 3, 2018 9:48 AM

I chatted with Apple support on this and I was told that my battery needs to be replaced. My battery is less than 9 months old. The know nothing about this problem.

I then went back to 11.3.1 and my battery life is great again.

I hope that this is fixed in 11.4.1.

be sure to report this to Apple.

Mike

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88 replies

Russca

Level 1

4 points

Jun 18, 2018 4:11 PM in response to richard0x4a

Sorry to hear that, richard0x4a. Here's an idea: I wonder if messing with the wifi isn't actually exacerbating the problem? I.e., maybe 11.4 needs to log the wifi drain before it figures out how to rebalance the power draw, so it might actually need to see the battery go down to 13%, first. In my case, I let the battery drain to 13% on the second day, before recharging to 100%, and I noticed about a 10% improvement in the battery level on the third day, before a complete return to normal on day four. Might be worth trying... Good luck!

Jul 3, 2018 3:23 PM in response to MikeMcCollister

I've this exact same issue. It has to do with WiFi, iPhone 6S and iOS 11.4. I've reset my phone. Had my phone replace TWICE by the Apple Store Genius bar folks. I'm not sure what can be done here. For now, I've disabled my WiFi and the battery lasts as normal. I really hope Apple acknowledges this issue and looks into it.

Jul 6, 2018 5:42 AM in response to adnanfrommorton

I was able to figure out the problem. It's the 5G WiFi connection. When I connect my phone to 2.4GHz, it works just fine and normal.

So, I believe you can narrow down the problem to iPhone 6S, iOS 11.4 and a 5G WiFi connection. At least for me.

Jul 6, 2018 6:50 AM in response to adnanfrommorton

Exactly the same for me. The 11.4 update does not play well with a 5G connection (at least on the 6S). After days and several attempts/experiments at potential fixes, going off 5G and on to 2.4G did stop the battery bleed. Hopefully apple is focusing on that problem area.

Jul 10, 2018 10:10 AM in response to MikeMcCollister

Last night I installed the release version of iOS 11.4.1. I am using the 5 GHz wifi network at home and so far the battery life is better. This morning I unplugged my iPhone and let it sit on the desk for 45 minutes and the battery level remained at 100%. With iOS 11.4 the battery would go down about 10% in that time.

I will have to see how the weekend goes before I know for sure if iOS 11.4.1 fixes the lousy battery life on my iPhone 6s.

Mike

Jul 11, 2018 5:27 PM in response to MikeMcCollister

OK, full day with iOS 11.4.1 and the battery stinks! I updated from 11.3.1, with great battery life, and went to 11.4.1 and my battery dropped about 20% in about 10 minutes. This was in a location with a bad signal. I realize that it takes more battery for a bad signal but I have never seen it this bad.

I went to an Apple store today and explained my situation. The technician said that my battery is great and does not need to be replaced, as I suspected. She recommended restoring my iPhone and not using a backup. What good is a backup then?

This is a serious problem with iOS 11.4 and 11.4.1 on my iPhone 6s.

I will test is some more over the weekend with my 5 GHz WiFi network and see if it is better when I use the 2.4 GHz network.

Frustrated!

Mike

Jul 11, 2018 6:13 PM in response to MikeMcCollister

I tried the latest update .... using 5G was better w/11.4.1 than it was w/11.4, but still not good (not like it was pre 11.4) - had to get off 5G and revert back to 2.4G WiFi. On the latest update (11.4.1) using 2.4G or just cellular, gives me battery life like it was pre 11.4. This software version is still not playing well with 5G WiFi ... I really wish Apple would fix this.

Jul 14, 2018 8:13 AM in response to MikeMcCollister

After a couple of weeks on 11.4 the battery life gradually improved. It was almost back to normal. I updated to 11.4.1 three days ago and since then the battery life was been stable and back to the performance I was getting before 11.4.

It is almost like, after updating from 11.3, the phone is doing something in the background for several days that burns through the battery. But it does eventually settle down. Though it is very frustrating in the meantime.

Jul 14, 2018 10:15 PM in response to shannonfromchampaign

I guess he automatically downgraded his ios 11.4 to 11.3.1 at the same time that he upgraded

Because apple allows its users to downgrade their os version for 2-3 days after a recent update if they didn't like the new options added..

Like a grace period which is temporary but after a couple of days that window will close and you can't downgrade after that.

Good Luck.

Jul 16, 2018 8:36 AM in response to lukasyoga

Still the same with 11.4.1

Have to charge my iPhone 1-2 times a day. With 11.3.x i got 2-3 days out of one charge.

Pretty bad.

Did a DFU Restore for the second time without a backup and it did not help.

Nothing helped. Its not the 5 GHz WiFi. Standby time is great, but when i use my iPhone 6S i can see the battery % falling.

Jul 16, 2018 11:50 AM in response to MikeMcCollister

After a couple of days it seems like my battery is not too bad. I think that the problem was that the first full day with iOS 11.4.1 I was in a location where the signal was really bad. However, when I was at the Apple store, where the signal was great, my battery was going about 1 percent a minute. I then restored my phone from backup and it seems to be OK now. I'm not sure that the battery life is what it was with 11.3.1 but not horrible now.

Mike