My iPhone 16 Pro battery is draining rapidly

Ultimate test: the iPhone was charged to 100% and put it off during night (11h pm). I noticed although it is off the iPhone stay slightly warm. This morning at 6h30, 43% remaining, so almost 60% of the battery was drained during the night when it was off (between 11h pm to 6h30 am)!!

I noticed that he draining curve has always the same slope whatever I do (saving mode, flight mode or off).Without any usage, I take less than then the working day to be empty. The iPhone is also quite hot, in charge and also in idle. It has been factory reset 3 times. I has the same setup than my previous identical iPhone 16 pro (which has a quasi flat draining curve slope). I have to send it back, there is an hardware issue for me.

Update : i’ve bitten the bullet and did a full factory restore. First created a local backup up on the mac and then a factory restore using that local backup. After two days checking the battery usage , it seems it solved the battery drain in idle. Seems that something was corrupted which did not go away with a normal iOS updates. Fingers crossed that the problem doesn’t come back.

update : did a factory restore with ios 18.5, and it looks like idle drain problem is gone (for now)

also disabled / removed a chipolo one spot (third party airtag) since i did not trust that one anymore (was reporting low battery but when i checked it was full)…. maybe that device kept the bluetooth connection activity high??

Hello,

After 3 trips to the Apple Store, they made all the test (which I had done by the way), and then they changed the mother board (so everything except the frame) under warranty. Now my battery is completely normal as expected: don't need to charge it everyday according my use, not even every two day. Draining curve is almost flat, nothing to see with the previous one...hopefully!

I agree you need to take it to Apple for diagnostics. Even if you had to drop it off for 2 hours and return to compare the battery drop with the phone turned off, it should not show a 20% drop and would be worth it to hear their explanation.

Shortly after purchasing an iPhone 16 Pro in November last year, I began experiencing unusual battery drain, with the highest usage consistently attributed to “Home & Lock Screen.”

I visited the Apple Store in Rome multiple times (six, if I’m not mistaken), escalated the issue to the store manager, and even had the display replaced. In the end, I was told to wait for future software updates.

Since then, I’ve been monitoring the percentage of battery used by “Home & Lock Screen” each morning, both in the “Last 24 Hours” and “Last 10 Days” views.

Throughout the entire period, I had no widgets on the Home or Lock Screen, and the Always-On Display was only activated about a month ago to show the time.

It ultimately took over seven months to resolve what turned out to be a software issue on a flagship iPhone. It is now stable on 10%.

I’m definitely not happy with how this was handled, and I can only hope things won’t get worse with the next iOS release.

Please find the graph attached for reference.

Happy to discuss this further if needed.

[Edited by Moderator]

What is that graph from? Do you play music on your iPhone? Many activities that occur in the background are not attributed to the underlying app, but to Home & Lock screen. I have a friend that had the same issue. He played Music or Spotify about 8 hours a day. He’d leave it playing all the time even when he wasn’t listening or using his iPhone. It was just sitting on his desk.

The measure of battery health deterioration/drainage is subjective and can vary depending on individual usage patterns. There is no universal standard to determine whether the battery health deterioration/drainage is normal or abnormal because it heavily relies on how the battery is used and maintained.

Protect & Prolong the Life of your iPhone's Battery:

1. About the battery usage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch ...
2. Batteries - Maximising Performance - Apple (IN)
3. iPhone Battery and Performance

Try to monitor Battery usage by iPhone Activity as shown below

What is shown under battery usage? Checking that would give you an indication of the usage behavior.

1. Background Activity
2. Notifications
3. Connected to Charger
4. Or any Other

See the pic below (iPhone 12 Pro iOS 17.3.1)

"Show Activity" feature will show you more info see the pic below

Try some of these options too.

To prolong the life of your iPhone battery, you can follow these tips and best practices:

To prolong the life of your iPhone battery, you can follow these tips and best practices:

1. Optimize Battery Charging: Enable the "Optimized Battery Charging" feature on your iPhone. It helps reduce the wear on the battery by slowing down the battery aging process. You can find this option in Settings > Battery > Battery Health. About Optimized Battery Charging on your iPhone - Apple Support (IN)
2. Avoid Extreme Temperatures: Extreme temperatures, both hot and cold, can negatively impact your battery life. Avoid exposing your iPhone to excessive heat or cold, such as leaving it in direct sunlight or in a freezing car.If your iPhone or iPad gets too hot or too cold – Apple Support (UK)
3. Use Original Chargers and Cables: Always use Apple's original chargers and cables or certified third-party accessories. Low-quality chargers or cables can damage the battery and reduce its lifespan. Identify counterfeit or uncertified Lightning connector accessories - Apple Support (IN)
4. Avoid Draining the Battery to Zero: Charge it whenever the charge becomes lower than 20%. The rest is up to you when to charge. how long to charge, how often to charge, which adapter to use starting from 5W to 140W USB-C Power Adapter etc.
5. Optimize Display Settings: Adjust your display settings to optimize battery life. Lower the screen brightness, enable auto-brightness, and use shorter screen timeout durations. Adjust the display and text size on iPhone - Apple Support (IN)
6. Minimize Background App Refresh: Limit the number of apps allowed to refresh in the background. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and disable it for apps that don't require real-time updates. Switch apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support (IN)
7. Disable Push Email: Push email notifications can drain your battery quickly. Instead, set your email accounts to fetch data manually or at longer intervals. You can change this setting in Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data.

If your iPhone's battery is draining even when it's not in use, there could be a few possible reasons for this issue. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Go to Settings > Battery and see which apps or processes are consuming the most battery. If you notice any particular app using an unusually high amount of battery in the background, it might be the cause of the drain. Check the iPhone battery health and usage - Apple Support (IN)
2. Some apps refresh their content in the background, which can consume battery. You can disable background app refresh for specific apps by going to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and toggle off the apps you don't need to update in the background. go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn on Background App Refresh. -->Switch apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
3. If you have multiple email accounts set up on your iPhone and use the push email feature, it can drain your battery. Instead, consider changing your email settings to fetch data manually or at longer intervals. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and adjust the settings accordingly.
   1. Push Mail: Whenever possible the email client will push mails to all your devices.
   2. Fetch Mail: You need to set How you want it to be fetched, Automatically, Manually , Hourly,Every 30 mins, every 15 mins
   3. Automatically: will fetch when the iPhone is powered and on WiFi
   4. Manually: with fetch when you open email, open Inbox and swipe down
4. You get an email notification as soon as the client server receives an email and your device is connected to internet, irrespective of whether the mail is in your device's Inbox or not
5. Some apps constantly track your location in the background, which can use significant battery power. You can manage and restrict the location access for apps by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and adjust the settings for individual apps.
6. Keep an eye on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings. Sometimes, if Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is left on even when not in use, it can contribute to battery drain. Make sure to turn off these features when you don't need them.
7. Sometimes, a simple restart can resolve temporary software glitches. Turn off your iPhone, wait for a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
   1. Restart the device. That's it.
   2. Still not solved --> Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
8. If the issue persists, you can try resetting all settings on your iPhone. This will not erase your data but will reset all personalized settings to their default values. Go to Settings > General > Transfer & Reset > Reset > Reset All Settings and confirm the action. Note that you will need to reconfigure your settings afterward. All settings—including network settings, the keyboard dictionary, the Home screen layout, location settings, privacy settings, and Apple Pay cards—are removed or reset to their defaults. No data or media are deleted.
   1. Reset All Settings: Return iPhone settings to their defaults - Apple Support:- Return iPhone settings to their defaults
   2. You can return settings to their defaults without erasing your content.
   3. If you want to save your settings, back up your iPhone before returning them to their defaults. For example, if you’re trying to solve a problem but returning settings to their defaults doesn’t help, you might want to restore your previous settings from a backup.
9. Make sure you have the latest updates installed.
   1. Update Over-the-Air (OTA) —> Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support (IN)
   2. Update using iTunes/Finder —> Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support (IN)

If none of the above steps resolve the issue, it is recommended to reach out to Apple Support or visit an authorized service center for further assistance. They can provide specific guidance based on your device model and iOS version.

same here, iphone 16 pro. What I recall when i bought the iphone in october 2024 (ios18.0.1) the battery performance was much better. Charged at max 80% and above 60% at the end of the day, but with the same usage now I end at 30% at the end of the day. Looking into battery settings, no real apps draining the battery, seems background processes draining the battery during idle and those are NOT listed in the battery settings overview. Running latest ios 18.3.1, battery performance became bad at ios 18.2 (what i recall). Already did force restart serveral times, did network reset. Looks like after a force restart the idle drain is less (flat line in battery level overview) for a short time, but then the steady draining in idle starts again :-(

Really disappointed about the software quality of apple these days…. looks like there is more focus more on features (aka AI, which I even can’t use in europe) then on quality…. not a happy customer right now.

btw i also have a ipad pro 13 (with m4 and ipados18.3.1) and there the battery performance is perfect, so from my point of view it looks to be related to iphone 16 model?

they restored the iPhone and reload the firmware with a special tool they have at the Genius Bar (also removed the vpn). They were surprised and impressed by the facts: slope of the drain without any usage, also when off and unplugged, always warm, and in the last days the battery usage indicated that the flash light was on more than 2h (which is obviously wrong). They took pictures of the battery drain curve...

Results of the restore: nothing has changed. Yesterday I charged it to 100% and let it off (unplugged) on my desk all the night, this morning when putting it on, 40% remaining (so a 60% drain without any use when the device is shutdown). As they said yesterday, if the problem is not fixed, I took another meeting at the genius for tomorrow...

No offense, your home built graph is want I need to see what apps are your top 5 for usage last 24 hours and 10 days. Two screenshots are perfect.

Let is know what is determined today when you take it to the Apple Store.

Hello,

Same issues. I partially broke the display of my pervious 16 pro so I bought a new one, the same exactly. The broken one had a perfect autonomy (quite flat battery drain curve): with basically almost no use, the battery could last more than 2 days. I installed the new one from my broken one. Starting the morning with 100% at about 8h am, I have about 20% or less in the evening with quasi no use as usual. When travelling and more intensive use, the life is about a half-day (I have to charge it beginning afternoon). The draining curve is quite steep. I did a factory restart, without installing any app, just connect my iCloud account (synch of iCloud calendar, mail, contact, messages), removing all widgets, put always on screen option as off. The problem is still there: with both iPhones fully charge yesterday at 10pm, this morning at 6h30, the new one is 20%, the old one 98% (I even put the Sim card in the old one so was also searching the network). The old one as localisation on, background refresh on in wifi, no auto light mode...Both have iOS 18.5, the latest. So 2 same iPhone (one is 1 month old, the other 1 year), unexplainable battery drain different, performance of the most recent one is really bad/poor/unacceptable for this amount of money, while I was pretty satisfied of the old one. When checking app usage, this is generally welcome-lock screen that is draining all the battery.

Yes. i will wait some days to see if improvements are there. But today, (my hard reset via the Mac was yesterday, still did not installed my apps, remove all default widgets...auto light, remove AOD....keeping other default setting), I took it after the night charge (100%): it loosed 10% in 1h! so this sounds bad. It seems quite a significant amount of people are concerned, apple is no apple we used to know before: what ever it is : hardware or software, this is not really acceptable without any strong support, thinking the price of the device. Here I can really compare my too identical iPhones (same iOS) with drastic performance difference: so either a real hardware issue (but battery health is 100%, just 35 cycles) of a corrupted iOS from the installation.