iOS 11 Is Causing Massive Battery Drain Problems (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson writes: A study conducted by security research firm Wandera shows that iOS 11 is causing iPhone and iPad batteries to drain faster than ever -- much faster. The difference between iOS 10 and iOS 11 is anything but minor; batteries can drain in half the amount of time following the upgrade. Wandera's report shows how, on average, an iPhone or iPad running iOS 10 takes 240 minutes of usage to drain the battery from 100 percent to zero. With iOS 11 installed, this number plummets to just 96 minutes -- over twice as fast. Users have also complained about the issue.

Comments

article blames FaceID

[YesIAmAScript]

One problem, no one has an iPhone X yet.

It also says 'We suspect it is also a case of Apple fans wanting to test out all the shiny new features right off the bat.' and then the reporting on this reporting just ignores that and says the update is causing "massive battery drain problems".

I want to know where they got the data. Do they have a lot of data? A little? What app are they using to monitor users' battery usage? I presume they are using some app of their own as a form of spy?

Re:article blames FaceID

[Gilgaron]

You just go to Settings > Battery to see what has been using it up the most. I'm not certain, but I doubt an app could measure how much battery power the others used in iOS the way they have things split out on the security end of things.

Re:article blames FaceID

[Anonymous Coward]

We see this EVERY time there is a major release and the problem goes away on it's own.

Wanna know why?

When the iOS upgrade happens it swaps out the OS, but leaves userdata more or less intact. After the OS upgrade is good background tasks clean up all the user data, databases, etc (And in a modern smartphone there is a LOT), and bring everything up to the current version

This takes a lot of time. And power. After every major uprade your phone will get hot just sitting there chugging away at the gigs of photos, videos, music, etc. Happens every time.

Apple really should tell users about it. Maybe but a notification on the lock screen saying "Post upgrade cleanup in progress you may want to plug in your phone"

End users are idiots though. Probably cheaper to keep them in the dark and ignore these stories every major release cycle.

Re:article blames FaceID

[Archimonde]

Same story every time that part is true. What is also true is that even after a few days the battery drain is still there. And people can't downgrade anymore after first two weeks (of a new SW version release) so they are screwed.

After that people complain and the usual response is "your battery was dead anyway" (which is false) and/or "buy a new phone, why are you so cheap".

Re:article blames FaceID

[Anubis IV]

Not only did they incorrectly blame FaceID in the original article, they even acknowledged the actual cause right at the start, before leaping headfirst into a series of factually incorrect assertions. Right at the start:

Battery drain is a common iOS problem that usually pops up immediately after a major iOS upgrade release. This is partly due to Spotlight re-indexing and other behind the scenes shuffling.

I.e. We know exactly what's causing it, and it's a perfectly understandable problem that resolves itself after a few days, but let's author a report using data that we know is in no way representative of actual usage so we can stir up a storm over an "issue" that won't exist in about a week.

As for the iPhone X stuff that you mentioned they got wrong, here's the relevant quote for anyone interested:

New functionality in iOS 11 could also be responsible for draining the life out of your phone. Animoji and iPhone X’s FaceID hardware use face-scanning technology relying heavily on the camera which is a notorious battery sucker. The hardware enabling this advanced facial recognition (A11 Bionic GPU) in the iPhone X could be the reason there is such a dramatic difference in battery decay rate.

They managed to pack a lot of wrong into that one paragraph, namely that:
A) The iPhone X doesn't launch until November, so we can safely rule the iPhone X out as a factor.

B) Animoji is an iPhone X feature, so we can safely rule Animoji out as a factor.

C) FaceID is an iPhone X feature, so we can safely rule FaceID out as a factor.

D) FaceID does not rely on the "notorious battery sucker" camera (it relies on an IR sensor like the Kinect's), so we can rule the camera out as a factor.

E) The A11 SoC is not available on any iOS 10 device. Given that Wandera claims to have measured "the same device" draining in different versions of the OS, we can conclude that they didn't measure any A11 devices, so we can safely rule the A11 out as a factor.

More or less, they said exactly what the actual cause was, then proceeded to lie through their teeth for no reason other than to make a salacious headline that would drive traffic their way.

Re:article blames FaceID

[D.McG.]

My 2.5 year old son actually triggered the upgrade to 11 on the family iPad, because Apple doesn't provide a way to opt out of upgrades beyond a 24 hour delay, and it popped up, right in front of the video he was watching. So please leave out this bullshit of "Apple fans wanting to test out all the shiny new features". Hell, it's sometimes easy to mistakenly tap on the intrusive dialog as an adult. It can appear while your interacting with the screen and you tap on upgrade instead.

Re:I am having this problem on iPhone 6S

[Anonymous Coward]

My 6 is also losing battery performance.

Last week I had to replace my battery as after 4 years it was dire, so new battery and working great and lasting 1.5 days, then 3 days ago upgraded to IOS11 and it's now drains in .5 days.

My battery life has improved with iOS11

[SuperKendall]

The very first thing I did after installing iOS11, is go through the location permissions and convert all apps that were "allows background location" to only be "while in use".

There were not really too many apps that were a problem, but that definitely helped at least with Waze.

Looking at my battery logs, I notice nothing especially different about app usage so I don't really see other changes in battery use...

The one culprit I would guess at, is that if people are using AR apps that drains a LOT of power very quickly. I imagine people will stop using so many once the novelty wears off though, there are a few that are useful but it's not like you'd be in them every day.

Happened to me on day one...

[Anonymous Coward]

I had a serious battery drain issue with iOS11 on the first day installed it on my 6. Updated in the morning with it plugged into my laptop with a full charge. By 6PM, I was getting a 20% warning, when I usually have more like 65-70%. However, over the next couple of days, battery life went back to something closer to what it was prior to updating, maybe 5% less, but not like it was. Seemed better after I power cycled the phone while trying to sort out an issue with connecting to my bedside dock after the update.

Re: Happened to me on day one...

[La Camiseta]

My understanding is that the phone has to reindex everything almost to a MacOS upgrade. That kills the battery for a day or three until it's done,then things start to normalize.

Re:My iPhone SE is like butter on iOS 11

[that this is not und]

Like butter, it melts in your hand?

This is news?

[dysmal]

How is this news? EVERY major iOS update has had this same damn problem with battery life sucking on any older devices.

Now iOS users get to sit back and wait 6 months for Apple fix (errr... make less bad?) this problem while being badgered into buying a new phone to circumvent this preventable problem.

240 minutes of SOT is good? Actually kinda sucks

[technomom]

That's only 4 hours of screen on time. There's tons of good phones out there (Moto Z Play for one) that easily get between 8 and 12 hours of SOT with normal use. Why anyone you settle for only 4? And now it's under 2? Magical!

Just replace battery

[stooo]

Open it
Replace battery
Close it
Done. It's easy.

Every. Single. Time.

[TheFakeTimCook]

Yes, Every. Single. Time. Each time a new major version of iOS comes out, people forget (or never heard about) the fact that Spotlight Re-Indexes the "Drive" in iOS Devices for the first day or so, and people whine about "Battery Life".

Yes, sometimes there are some adjustments needed to background-task prioritization; but most of the time it is simply Spotlight. If that is the case, then the drain should settle-down in a couple of days. If it requires Re-nice-ing, then you'll soon see a "point update" that will do so.

But this happens. Every time. Apple really needs to tell people to expect it; but who wants to give "bad news" about the new shiny; even though it is fully-explainable, temporary, and expected by experiened iOS users?

Re:240 minutes of SOT is good? Actually kinda suc

[technomom]

So what's your point? We're talking about averages with moderate to heavy use here. Same as I do with my Moto Z and I'd be horribly disappointed if I only got 4 hours. The low end (with high use) for me is 7 hours. The high end (with moderate) is 10-11. From the article. "a subset of 50,000 moderate to heavy iPhone and iPad users." Over three days, battery decay rate was monitored on iOS 10 and iOS 11 devices. We've already mentioned that iOS 10 devices last for 240 minutes and iOS 11 device just 96, minutes, but Wandera provides another way of looking at the figures:"

Re:My father has it, I have it, my sister has it..

[parkinglot777]

Upgrade to iOS11 and you can have that power drain too!

I love Apple's forced upgrades!

No, it is not forced upgrades iOS but rather annoyingly nag you to upgrade. Since iOS9 (iirc), the system will keep asking you everyday on updating the iOS if you haven't done it already. If you click "Later", it will ask you whether you want to set up the upgrade after 5pm and asks you to enter your pin (or authorization). You could simply discard it by canceling to pin entering screen. I don't know what happen if you do not lock your phone though, but that's plain stupid not to lock your phone anyway. Therefore, it is not a forced upgrades, but it nags you to upgrade.

Turned on everything ...

[Anonymous Coward]

In no small part, this is because iOS 11 turned on every goddamned thing in the system.

All of that cloud shit, and wallet shit, and all of the network stuff I'd turned off was re-enabled when I updated. Within minutes of the update I went through and touched every setting, removing piles of crap I don't use and don't want, but which Apple decided I clearly couldn't live without.

The amount of crap which was suddenly enabled was mind-boggling.

This is my work phone, so I'm stuck with it ... but damn if they didn't pretty much enable every goddamned gizmo and service. Sorry Apple, I'm not interested in your cloud, or Apple Music, or allowing random strangers to Air Drop me files, or Siri.

The problem is every vendor seems to think all of those things are things we can't live without, so you pretty much have to forcibly check every setting and update it to turn off all the crap.

With the amount of shit which got enabled I don't want, I'm not surprised the battery life has dropped. Turn the stuff off you don't need, and enjoy your phone how you want, not how the marketing department thinks you want it.

Re:I am having this problem on iPhone 6S

[VirginMary]

Lasting 1.5 days is "working great" for a g*m phone?

Boy, do I feel old.

It's not a phone you moron, it's a pocket computer! Sheesh, who uses these devices primarily for making phone calls anyway? You *are* old!