iPhone 6S Battery Drain IOS 12

Same problem

Since updating to iOS 12 I noticed my change on my iPhone 6s drains rapidly. I closed all APPs, turned off background refresh, charged battery to 100%, set phone down and did not use for approximately 12 hours. When I picked up my phone after 12 hours, the battery was at 15%. This problem started right after the the operating system update. There was nothing wrong with my battery before this update. Ive rebooted my phone multiple times, it has been 5 days since my install. Big mistake, I shouldn’t have to buy a mophie because the operating system is draining my battery.

My wife and I are also having this issue. It has been a problem for me for about a month and my wife's just started. I keep my phone pretty much on a charger most of the day. I don't use my phone a lot when it is not on the charger and will see it drop from 100 to 50 percent in an hour.

Well couldn’t put up with the battery drain any longer as it was affecting my work. So I now have a new iPhone XS.

Was the transition smooth and what you expect of Apple? No of course not.

First when I plugged in my new iPhone to restore from a backup it says my back up is not compatible as it was done before I upgraded my 6s to the latest software, so no hassle all I need to do is back up my old 6s with the latest update and all will be fine… not a chance!

Of course my old iphone 6s would no longer not back up in iTunes as it has been upgraded to iOS12.0.1. My iTunes was only version 12.8 and the new software requires iTunes 12.9. No hassle you would think, just upgrade iTunes?

BUT iTunes 12.9 does not work with macOS High Sierra 10.13. To use iTunes 12.9, you need to upgrade your whole computer to macOS 10.14 Mojave!!!

So finally an upgrade of my laptop OS is done. Then iTunes is upgraded and then I can back up my old 6s. 5 hours later due to gigabytes of various updates taking ages on a slower connection and then 40 minutes worth of updating time while the mac is out of action!

Still all finished now surely… no, that would be too easy.

I plug my brand new iPhone Xs into the computer and it says this phone is not compatible with the new software and also needs to be upgraded. Apparently it didn’t ship with the latest version of ios 12 that is compatible with Mojave and iTunes 12.9, so it now needs a 3.4gb upgrade.

Finally after all this I was able to restore my last backup from my old phone and all my apps are now installed on my new phone. So I can just carry on as normal now with a new phone…. not quite.

The upgrade did not bring over passwords from all my apps, so I now need to go through my mailboxes, travel apps, banking apps, translation apps, shopping and auction apps re-entering usernames and passwords. Fine in most cases, but having to confirm by email and reset in some cases.

Just over 8 hours later my iPhone Xs is finally ready to go.

I miss the old Apple approach where upgrades were simple and user-friendly. Where an Apple ID and the latest backup were all that was needed to upgrade. I am also not a fan of being forced to update my computer to upgrade my phone. Yes, this might have been made easier if I used iCloud storage but I would need to be on the 2Tb plan to keep a backup of my 256gb phone online as 200gb is not enough. Also to be honest I do not wish to pay another $180 per year on top of the cost of $2200 for the new phone.

I guess I still am a fan of the Apple approach over the Android alternative, but I must admit my view of Apple is now a little jaded.

>>I would need to be on the 2Tb plan to keep a backup of my 256gb phone online as 200gb is not enough.

Do you really need to backup everything? Just as an example, currently I backup 64 gb phone to free 5 gb. Backup takes just 3.4 gb, and transition between phones is quick & easy, including passwords (Do you use iCloud Keychain?)

P.S. Congrats on your new phone! Maybe this battery drain is not a bug but feature that really works... ;)

Hi there. As I travel a lot, often to out of the way places, I tend to keep a recent backup handy so I can do a full install on a new or backup phone if needed. I have had phones go missing or be damaged before. It is also the reason the phone tends to be full as I have both work and entertainment loaded for locations where data is not accessible. I may keep the old 6s as a spare to travel with me and replace my older spare.

> P.S. Congrats on your new phone! Maybe this battery drain is not a bug but feature that really works... 😉

Somewhere in Apple there is probably a marketing strategy person reading my story and going "GOTCHA!!!!" <g>

I have the same problem. I charge my phone to 100%, make a 10-15 min phone call and it drops to around 75%. If I turn on the WiFi it drops 1% almost every 10 seconds (yes, I timed it). Battery life was really good on my 6s Plus with iOS 11 and now it's awful. I disabled a lot of features like "Location services" and "Background app refresh" but it's the same...

Well even the Xs is not an ideal solution. No more battery drain issues, but also almost no bluetooth connectivity either. Will connect to laptop for itunes and my ipad, but not to a single non-apple device.

Most frustrating is not connecting to my seven year old car as handsfree is the only option to use the phone. Holding the phone while driving is illegal in New Zealand.

I just want to chime in to say me too. I've had iOS 12 on my iPhone 6s Plus for several weeks now and my battery life is approximately half of what it was before the update. My battery health is at 88%. I've reset my device and restored from backup. I haven't changed how I use my phone at all. There is definitely a problem with iOS 12.

Me too. Iphone 6s Battery at 89% was perfectly fine on ios10.3.3 and lasting almost 2 days sometimes. Now after one week on ios 12 my iphone don’t last a full day and is acting herratic. It stays to a certain % for 30min then drops 15% in 2 minutes, or sometimes just drops randomly 15% in 10 min whle reading articles on internet (as right now). This is really frustrating and I am thinking of going to pixel phone or samsung for my next phone because my phone is only 1 year and 1 month old (wow big coincidence as I am now not covered by apple care)...

I did a clean install of ios12 and nothing changed. I will attempt one last thing which is changing the battery (in theory not necessary as it is at 89%). After that if nothing changes I will sell this phone for almost nothing because it is now worth nothing (so lose almost 1k$), and buy another brand.

I will keep you updated at the end of noveber so you can know if changing the battery works or not.

Good luck everyone!

I also don’t think it is the battery since it was fine before with ios10.3.3

But if it is the software, we cannot do anything until apple fixes it?

Or did you find something since you updated your iphone?

Thanks!

This is a shame. Those phones are almost new !!! (As mine with 13months old).

Deeply regreting my choice to stay with apple for « one last time ». Well, unless the DFU restore or battery replacement works, this was indeed my last time owning a one year lasting 1000$ Phone

(*see picture below)

I am sure there is something wrong! My battery just dropped from 35% to 1% while using messenger and listening music that was already downloaded on the phone, for about an hour.

But the weirdest thing is that at some point the battery just droped from 30% to 1% directly in one shot.

I took a screenshot as we can see it in the battery app.

But to add something else, the battery almost 50% in about 15 minutes when I charged it (can also see in the screenshot.

What is happening!! My phone was fine on ios10.3.3!!!

Apple, what is going on?

...

I updated to ios12.1 and nothing changed, in fact the time my battery drained from 30% to 1% in line 15 min was on ios 12.1.

So I think my last resort is to change my battery (which is at 89% health).

I have hope it will help if it did the trick for you!

Thanks for letting us know, I will update when my battery is changed.

I'm having excess battery drain in my XS after updating to IOS 12.1. The device can lose 50% battery and burn through 85%of my telco carrier data allowance in less than four hours without the phone being touched. I see a similar thread on here for IOS 11.3 update and some iPhones expending a significant amount of battery power on the Photos app. Mine shows this too, only I've hardly used the photo app. Whatever the phone is doing all by itself, without me changing a single setting whatsoever, is continuing to do it when I'm not connected to wi-fi and is chewing through my external data allowance, at significant cost to me. Between the wi-fi and telco reception problems, the unreliable charging factor and now this, the iPhone XS is the WORST iPhone I've ever purchased from Apple. And I've had an iPhone since the second model. I'm ready to return this phone and skip over Apple altogether because of all the frustration I've experienced with recent Apple devices and software updates. It's just one ****** problem after another, and right now, problems on top of existing problems. FIX IT ALREADY. I need multiple resolutions right now. There's only so much one can take of having to continually revert to an older model iPhone, just to have the functionality I paid an excessive price for, for this bug filled iPhone.

Anyone else experiencing this latest frustration?

I feel your pain !

My phone 6S is one year and one month old ant the battery is acting crazy (just after my apple warranty finished..).
I just wish I had the chance to still return it or change the phone.. Even if the 6S is not from 2018, I purchased it new from apple so it should not be the end of the phone after one year...
I wish you luck!