iPhone 16 users complain of severe battery drain with iOS 18

After the release of iPhone 16 and an update to iOS 18, many owners of the new devices, as well as previous iPhone models, began experiencing issues with rapid battery drain. Complaints of excessive charge loss have appeared on Reddit, Apple Support Communities and forums MacRumors, where users share their negative experiences.

Reddit, Apple Support Communities and forums MacRumors, where users share their negative experiences.

Battery issues on iPhone 16 and iOS 18

Although the most complaints are coming from owners of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, battery issues have affected other devices running on iOS 18 as well. There’s a long-running thread on the MacRumors forum discussing battery issues that started back during the iOS 18 beta testing. However, with the official launch of the new version of the operating system and the release of the iPhone 16, the number of complaints has increased significantly.

iOS 18.

Some users are claiming severe loss of charge even when their iPhone is not in use. One MacRumors user with the nickname T1aaj shared his experience:

“I have an iPhone 16 Pro, and the battery is dropping to 60% by mid-day, and I’m not actively using the phone. This needs to be fixed urgently, wish I had kept my 15 Pro! My new 16 Pro Max has terrible battery life compared to my old 15 Pro Max. Even with the same settings and background app refresh turned off, I lose up to 50-60% of the time between charges compared to the previous model.”

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Loss of standby charge

Many complaints are related to the fact that most of the battery is consumed even in standby mode when the device is not in use. This may indicate activity in the background that is causing the problem.

A user with the nickname huanbrother on the MacRumors forum described similar difficulties:

“My 16 Pro was losing too much charge in standby mode, especially when not connected to the Apple Watch. I turned off the Always On Display feature (which shouldn’t work in sleep mode anyway), and also limited the screen refresh rate to 60Hz. The background processes seemed to calm down, but the battery continued to drain rapidly. In 4 hours and 20 minutes, it dropped from 70% to 59%.”

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Fast charge loss with low usage

Other users have noted that the battery starts draining drastically even with minimal usage. One Reddit user with the nickname kirbysmartdawg shared his surprise:

“This morning I unplugged my phone from charging at 9am and it only lasted at 95% for 20 minutes, after which the charge started dropping rapidly. I was losing 1% every five minutes until I picked up the phone. After that, the discharge slowed down, but I still don’t know what’s going on.”

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Comparison with previous models

On Reddit, user Ok-Interest-6561 said that despite expecting improved battery life on the iPhone 16 Pro, in reality he noticed his phone losing 10-15% of its charge overnight just by being on his bedside table:

“I upgraded from the iPhone 12 to the iPhone 16 Pro mainly because of battery and speaker issues, but found that even with the 16’s better battery, it loses about 10-15% overnight just lying on a table.”

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There were also experiments with the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro under the same usage. In one of them, the iPhone 16 Pro discharged to 58% in 36 hours, while the iPhone 14 Pro stayed at 85% charge.

The iPhone 16 Pro was also tested with the iPhone 14 Pro at the same level of charge.

Trying to fix the problem

Many users have tried to solve the battery drain problem by disabling various features such as ProMotion, Always On Display, background app updates, and even resetting their devices completely. However, despite some improvements, not everyone has been able to get rid of the problem.

ProMotion.

Some users have reported small improvements since the release iOS 18.0.1 and beta iOS 18.1, but for most, the problem remains. This could indicate a bug in the operating system that Apple Apple is expected to fix in future updates iOS 18.

iOS 18.1.

What to do about the battery problem?”

With standard methods failing to fix the problem, users are awaiting further updates from Apple that may fix the battery issue. For now, it’s recommended to minimize background activity, disable unnecessary features, and check battery health regularly.

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