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iPad Air 2 Battery Drains Extremely Fast with iOS 11.4

I upgraded my iPhone X and iPad Air 2 to iOS 11.4 and everything seemed to go smoothly but the iPad battery now drains extremely fast.

Everything was fine with it before I upgraded to iOS 11.4.

After I noticed the problem I backed up the iPad to iCloud, completely erased and reset it, and restored from backup. It did not help.

Apple, please fix whatever is causing this problem. The issue only appeared after upgrading to iOS 11.4.

Thanks

iPad Air 2 WiFi, Cellular, iOS 11.4

Posted on Jun 8, 2018 10:02 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jun 14, 2018 1:45 PM

I downloaded Battery Life and it says my battery wear level is only 7% which is very low; Apple normally only recommends replacement at 20% or higher. Battery Life says I should have many days of run-time in standby which matches my own real-world experience before upgrading to iOS 11.4. With iOS 11.4 it doesn't even last one day.


I am only using 29.7 GB out of 64 GB which means I have 34.3 GB or 53.6% free.


I have turned off and restarted the iPad and I have performed a hard reset.


I am not running 20 or more apps and I am not running 20 or more tabs in the browser. The battery drain happens even when there are no apps at all running.


It is literally impossible to "turn ON and leave ON iCloud backups continuously backing up on a constant and daily basis". iCloud backups only automatically occur when "this iPad is connected to power, locked, and on Wi-Fi" according to the Settings.


I might as well not have an iPad if I turn off everything suggested; I'd be turning it into a dumb electronic notepad. Everything was perfectly fine on this same iPad when it was running iOS 11.3.1 and earlier. It only started happening after upgrading to iOS 11.4.


I am not the only one experiencing severe battery issues with iOS 11.4. There are numerous posts here in the Apple Communities and elsewhere and here are a few articles:


iOS 11.4 has been wrecking iPhone battery life - TechnoBuffalo - 2018-06-11

https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/06/11/ios-11-4-has-been-wrecking-iphone-users -battery-life/


iPhone users are complaining that iOS 11.4 is killing their batteries - BGR - 2018-06-13

http://bgr.com/2018/06/13/ios-11-4-iphone-battery-life-drain-issue/


Mystery iOS 11.4 bug is causing major Apple iPhone battery life problems - The Sun - 2018-06-13

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/6517944/iphone-battery-life-ios-11-4-update-proble ms/


There are many more articles on the issue out there as well.


This is a problem Apple needs to fix.

8 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jun 14, 2018 1:45 PM in response to DennisAS

I downloaded Battery Life and it says my battery wear level is only 7% which is very low; Apple normally only recommends replacement at 20% or higher. Battery Life says I should have many days of run-time in standby which matches my own real-world experience before upgrading to iOS 11.4. With iOS 11.4 it doesn't even last one day.


I am only using 29.7 GB out of 64 GB which means I have 34.3 GB or 53.6% free.


I have turned off and restarted the iPad and I have performed a hard reset.


I am not running 20 or more apps and I am not running 20 or more tabs in the browser. The battery drain happens even when there are no apps at all running.


It is literally impossible to "turn ON and leave ON iCloud backups continuously backing up on a constant and daily basis". iCloud backups only automatically occur when "this iPad is connected to power, locked, and on Wi-Fi" according to the Settings.


I might as well not have an iPad if I turn off everything suggested; I'd be turning it into a dumb electronic notepad. Everything was perfectly fine on this same iPad when it was running iOS 11.3.1 and earlier. It only started happening after upgrading to iOS 11.4.


I am not the only one experiencing severe battery issues with iOS 11.4. There are numerous posts here in the Apple Communities and elsewhere and here are a few articles:


iOS 11.4 has been wrecking iPhone battery life - TechnoBuffalo - 2018-06-11

https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/06/11/ios-11-4-has-been-wrecking-iphone-users -battery-life/


iPhone users are complaining that iOS 11.4 is killing their batteries - BGR - 2018-06-13

http://bgr.com/2018/06/13/ios-11-4-iphone-battery-life-drain-issue/


Mystery iOS 11.4 bug is causing major Apple iPhone battery life problems - The Sun - 2018-06-13

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/6517944/iphone-battery-life-ios-11-4-update-proble ms/


There are many more articles on the issue out there as well.


This is a problem Apple needs to fix.

Jun 11, 2018 11:42 AM in response to DennisAS

Have you tried a hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons?



What other things beside a restore have you tried to improve battery on your iPad Air 2?


How much free data storage space is left on your iPad?

iDevices need to always maintain, at the very least, between 2-3 GBs, OR GREATER, of free data storage space.


Have you tried adjusting the intensity/brightness of the iPad’s screen to a lower, but acceptable brightness level?


In Settings app, under General settings, Reset panel, at the right bottom of the list, Reset All Settings.


In Settings app, General settings panel, turn OFF Background App Refresh for any apps you feel do not need constant data updating/Internet updating in the background when not using the an app OR turn OFF Background App Refresh entirely/globally for the entire device.


Do the same in the Settings app under Notifications.Turn off notifications for apps you do not think you need notifications for and/or edit the different ways you receive notifications to help with performance by not always using all the notification methods together.


In Settings app under Mail, you may want to set a longer fetch time or set your iOS Mail app to only manually fetch your mail ONLY when you launch the iOS Mail app.


In Settings app (NOT from the iOS Control Panel) turn OFF Bluetooth when not using any Bluetooth devices.

There is still an iOS bug that affects turning ON/OFF both Bluetooth and WiFi under the iOS Control Panel.


Also, in general, if you want a faster IDevice, on all of my iDevices, I turn off most of the iOS motion graphics eye candy, by simply turning ON Reduce Motion in Settings app, General, Accessibilty settings.



Make sure you aren't running 20 to 50 OR A WHOLE LOT MORE background apps in the iOS 11 Control Panel/App Switcher.

If you are, you need to quit the bulk of these background running apps by tap and hold a finger on an app window in the switcher and slide your finger upwards to quit an app. You should be able to use more than one finger to quit more than one app window simultaneously.



Also, make sure you don’t have 20-50 OR A WHOLE LOT MORE of active website tabs running in the web browser.

If you do, greatly reduce the amount of active website tabs your web browser.



Some minority of user have been turning ON and leaving ON iCloud backups continuously backing up on a constant and daily basis.

If you are one of these users, in Settings App, tap your Apple ID, then tap iCloud, then find iCloud backup and turn off iCloud backup and only turn this on to do daily backups either when you are not using your iPad for a prolonged period of time (like when you are sleeping), then turn iCloud backups OFF when actually using your iPad.


OR


Only perform your backups on a lesser time schedule.( like twice a week, once a week, once every two weeks, once a month, etc.).



Any large amount of background running apps or active processes that have to constantly go out to the Web to fetch data ALL THE TIME is going to slow down ANY iDevice and chew up battery life.



Good Luck to You!

Jun 14, 2018 2:04 PM in response to DennisAS

Turning off background app refresh means app won't be active refreshing behind the scenes while not using apps and NOT eating up precious battey like and other resource cycles.

Reducing the amount and method of app notifications helps with conserving battery life.

Turning off all of the motion graphics will speed up your iPad and will, also, save, somewhat on battery life.

I have done all of the things in my list for years and all of my iDevices are still working like they should and are far from being "dumbed" down.

Don't knock my advice until you actually try it.

AND constant iCloud backups CAN happen without being plugged into the Apple power block to charge any iDevice.

I believe, the iCloud backup while charging is an option you have to activate.

Jun 15, 2018 10:29 AM in response to DennisAS

My mother's iPhone 6 Plus automatically updated itself to iOS 11.4 and now it is having the same problem (battery wear is also only 7% on it)

Some other users with the same problem have reported that switching from a 5 GHz network to a 2.4 GHz one helped leading some to believe it is a problem with the Wi-Fi implementation in iOS 11.4. I changed my mother's phone to our 2.4 GHz network and I'll see if things have improved. If they have I'll have to do the same thing to my iPad for the time being when I get home. I hope Apple fixes the problem soon.

Jun 20, 2018 10:41 AM in response to DennisAS

Thank you DennisAS.


For the first time since using iOS 11.4 i still have a full battery after 10 hours and not using the iPad (air 2). Usually the battery would be around 60%. Switching to the 2.4 GHz WiFi network instead of the 5GHz resolved the battery drain on my device. Hopefully Apple can resolve this issue in a future release.

Jun 22, 2018 8:58 PM in response to DennisAS

It exactly happened to me as well. Running on 11.3.1 is fine and the battery usually last about a few days with normal usage. 11.4 only last a couple of days even in standy mode after turning off background refresh.


It it is really disappointng ios update I ever have. Btw, my old iPad 2 running iOS 9.3.5 battery last longer than my current one

iPad Air 2 Battery Drains Extremely Fast with iOS 11.4

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