My SE has suddenly started draining the battery at an alarming rate in the last few weeks after switching to ios12 (I’m assuming some causality and not just coincidence). Fully charged at 0700 this morning, mainly on Wi-Fi all morning and, with a few photos and one inbound phone call of a few minutes down to ‘low power mode’ by 1600. I’ll try switching off screen time as well.
So, I generally hate to give anecdotal evidence, but, in case it helps, this happened to me with one of the iOS 11 updates (or maybe it was after a fresh install of iOS 11) and I changed two settings in Settings / iTunes & App Store. I turned off automatic app updates, which I prefer anyway - I like to know what updates do before I install them - and I turned off “Video Autoplay”. I’m not sure if one of those things changed anything, but I did stop seeing the App Store at the top of my Settings / Battery list after making those changes.
Thanks for the ideas, Doug. But, I’ve always had automatic app updates turned off and video autoplay has always been turned off as well.
Dave,
I turned off Screen Time Saturday and had much better battery life. Sunday I put it back on again and it was better than my initial report last week (where I drained to 80% with the phone just sitting there unused). It went downhill quickly Monday once I was out and about and I’ve had it turned off since.
I’m not sure I can report anything decent though. It seems like being out is causing an issue more than being in, even though I am on wifi most of the time. Today I think I got down to 25% with 2 20 minute phone calls in the house, and a trip down the street.
I do use an app called Geofency to track my client time so it’s possible that’s draining more in iOS 12 than 11. No social media on the phone and most of my location services were turned off, though I haven’t checked to see if they came back on again with the update.
Diane
iPhone SE
Hi Diane.
Thanks. I followed your advice and everything turned off that I can see (though Twitter left running). I think your observation is right. It’s taking the phone outside away from Wi-Fi that seems to cause the problem. I’ll see how it goes over the next 24 hours.
Thanks.
Dave
When my iPhone 6s Plus got down into the 80% range I had Apple Replace the battery under the $29 program, back in May. Not sure if that program is still available.
That’s what I tried to do too, but they said 85% was fine. I’d like to know if that was still available too.
Diane
The $29 battery replacement is still in place until December 31, for the 6, 6s, SE, 7, 8, and X, as well as the Plus versions of the 6, 6s, 7, and 8. The XS and Max and XR are $69, and any phone older than a 6 is $79.
Starting in January, the price will go up to $49 for all of the $29 phones, except the X, which will go up to $69 with the other X series phones.
You can only get one replacement done per phone under this pricing. Until Apple started the $29 battery replacement earlier this year, they would only replace if the battery was lower than 80% health, but that is no longer the case. Now they still do a health assessment but will do the replacement if you insist.
The only exception is a warranty replacement if the battery health is too low while under the 1 year warranty period. Those, of course, are free.
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They actually replace vs exchanging the phone , correct? That’s how it was with my 4s, but the iPad was a replacement unit.
Worst time of year for the Apple store but I’d love a new battery.
Thanks for the info.
Diane
Apple replaced my 6 in Feb 2017 because the battery blew up and pushed the display up through the frame. They charged me $79 plus tax for it. Later came the $29 deal, but they weren’t willing to reimburse people that had paid full price before the $29 deal started. Personally, I didn’t find that too big of deal. I got a basically new 6 for $79. My battery’s max capacity now, one and a half years later, is still 95%.
The battery failure was quite cool actually. Before the screen started to bulge and I realized what was going on, I had noticed that my cell reception had become quite poor and GPS had increasing trouble locating me in places where it never had any trouble before. Once the screen started to bulge things really went off the rails. You could almost watch the battery expand. My understanding is these batteries can basically vent off overpressure to prevent them from actually blowing up. But considering how much it bulged despite this “break point”, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to have this phone in my pocket if it couldn’t vent.
Plus, whenever you quit an app, it has to persist the app state to non-volatile memory, which takes energy.
Diane, I’m not sure I saw you share the most basic first step here: what does the battery settings say are the top 5 culprits? All this other talk is just speculation.
Secondly, consider a simple phone reboot. Sometimes a process gets stuck and a reboot can clear it out.
Then please report back!
Dave
Dave,
The first time I noticed how big a problem it was, Screen Time told me that usage was 12 seconds on the lock screen. I didn’t check the battery settings for the top apps. I had unplugged the phone (in the house, on wifi) and moved it to my desk, and 2 hours later it was down to 80%.
I’m sleeping away from home the next few days and the wifi doesn’t reach the bedroom so I’m going to lose some overnight. I’ll see what I can get.
I’ve done a few hard reboots.
I also have the phone on DND from 9pm - 9am. Not that I don’t use it then, but I would think it’s not doing as much. Saturday when it dropped so much was from 630-830am.
I can see the graph from last Saturday though, the activity bar is very low, under and hour, and battery usage is nearly 70%.
My last 24 hours of usage is:
Phone 40 mins 41%
Safari 15 mins 12%
Messages 9 mins 11%
Music 1 hr 45 mins 8% (all in the car, some plugged in)
Home & Lock screen 22 mins 7%
I just turned off Analytics, which I thought I turned off in the past.
Location services shows:
Geofency (hollow arrow)
Maps (solid grey - that’s an issue as I haven’t used it since noon Tuesday and it’s only supposed to be on when it’s in use, unless the widgets screen is using it)
MyRadar (hollow)
Siri (grey)
The Weather (hollow)
Wallet (grey)
Weather (grey)
System Services (purple)
Within System Services - what are location based Apple Ads?
Compass Calibration
Location based alerts
Ads
Suggestions
Motion calibration and distance
Wifi networking
Significant locations
Routing and Traffic
Thanks
Diane
I just drove 6 miles listening to music via Bluetooth. Battery went from 57% to 5% and now 1 and I’m not home yet
Diane
Thanks for the reply!
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If there’s reason to believe Location Services is a culprit, just disable it completely for a while. That’s a lot simpler than trying to track down the app. If that helps significantly, then dive deeper into identifying the app(s).
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Phone is the runaway leader for battery consumption. How’s your signal? Poor signal can make the phone do lots of extra transmitting to stay connected. Consider toggling your WiFi calling setting. Shut off cellular data. Even try airplane mode. Disable LTE if that’s an option.
Dave
Assuming nothing else untoward was going on, in my experience on transoceanic flights, listening to music via Bluetooth is a surprisingly low-drain operation. That suggests that you have some other problem. I suspect that 85% battery capacity is that problem; although it sounds like plenty, my iPhone 6 exhibited similar rapid depletions when it dropped to that level. A battery replacement brought me right back to good performance. I suspect in your case it might be worth $29 and seasonal inconvenience.
Our signal is typically good here, although I can hit dead spots while driving. Yesterday my calls were all in the house.
I disabled wifi calling quite awhile ago and I can’t remember why. I know most of my cellular data is turned off but I haven’t gone through the list in awhile. Good time for it.
I’ll unplug it when it hits 100% and track it for the day, as I’ll be doing some loops between home and the houses I’m watching. Signal is not as good at the place I’m sleeping so I always go through more battery while there.
Not sure if you saw my following message earlier, I’d left the first house, drove 6 miles listening to music via BT and when I looked at the phone as I waled in, it was down to 9%. Typing the email knocked me down to 3%, then I found a charger. I don’t use wifi in the second house.
Diane
I would have been happy to pay the $29 in May but they said it was fine, and honestly who wouldn’t think 85% or so wasn’t decent for a then 3 year old battery?
I have a client in that area so it’s easy enough for me to drop the phone off and let them do the work. I’m not sure what happened but my closest Apple store has become insanely busy even at times I wouldn’t expect.
I’ve gone out for 4 hour bike rides using Glympse with less drain on the battery. It’s frigid today but I had the car warmed up before I left, so that shouldn’t have been an issue either. It was still on DND and two text came in which I saw when I got to the house.
I remember when my 4s battery was going, that it would shut off completely if I dared to answer the phone at 30% or below, so maybe this is a similar problem. Though iOS 12 certainly kicked this into high gear.
Thanks
Diane
I suspect it’s a different manifestation of the same, or a substantially similar, problem, and that a battery replacement will fix it. They were resistant to replacing them at first, perhaps because of an avalanche of requests, but it should be easier now.
This is just one of many posts that have referred to a battery’s “health”
percentage. I don’t find anything relating to that when I check my
settings. What am I missing? It only says that the remaining battery
charge should show in in the status bar or not. That figure is what I use
to know when I need to plug in the charger, but does not relate to battery
life. So where do I find the battery’s “health” figure.
Louise