Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

No surprise here.

It was very similar in IOS 18 which had similar battery life issues until they got fixed late in 18.6-18.7.

Apple has a lot to catchup to do in terms of new features (AI) which have higher priority over stability and optimization.

Mark my words - don’t expect this time will be different and that they will fix issues soon (like in 26.1).

No chance.

It’s probably going to be few weeks before iOS 27 release next year (just like it was for 18).

If you remember battery life in iOS 18 was starting to get better when Apple finally gave up on delivering promised features in iOS 18 and from that time next releases were more focused on bug fixes.

By this time around battery got better in iOS 18 but it was very late (following year of iOS 18 release, not the same year anyway).

For this reason I have not updated to 26 yet.

My second post in this thread (critic to Apple) is nowhere to be found (censorship?).

Here is restored version:

Perhaps we should get used to the fact that now every new major iOS release needs at least a .5 or .6 update for battery optimization.

New features appears to be more important for Apple than stability and iOS 26 does not appears to be „maintenance” version.

Its actually quite opposite as Apple has a lot to catchup to do with AI features.

Unfortunately, based on past experience with iOS 18, battery improvements usually come last.

Apple’s lack of vision years ago and failure to embrace LLMs are now backfiring, resulting in the lower software quality we’re experiencing today.

14 pro here, updated Tuesday or Wednesday last week. Battery feels like it’s draining about 30% faster than before the update. I’m used to a few days of increased drain after an update, but I’m getting slightly concerned now. Took the phone off charge this morning at 8:30, for example, and it’s now down to 27% twelve hours later. I’m going to update all the apps now and do a forced restart to see if that helps

Hello~ First…you are addressing fellow forum members and Apple will not see your disappointment here. You may however let them know using the link below…

Product Feedback - Apple

That is a large update for a device with a battery health getting very close to the recommended replacement %. It doesn’t surprise me that your battery is draining.

If the battery in your iPhone or iPad drains too quickly - Apple Support

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

~Katana-San~

They didn't; it's poorly optimized apps.

I get the same or better battery life from iOS 26 than I did from iOS 18.

That isn't meant to minimize the issue for anyone suffering from it, but rather it shows the problem is not universal among all iOS 26 users.

How long someone has owned and used an iPhone isn’t particularly relevant. iPhone 16 and 17 models are the first fully adapted to run AI and other advanced functions. Much more goes on in the background than previous generations especially early models like iPhone 3G etc.

It’s normal for a recently upgraded iPhone to use extra battery capacity while performing numerous tasks in the background. This not only affects the iOS but many Apple apps and third party apps and Widgets.

The battery drain is usually attributed to the top 5 or 6 apps consuming your battery capacity. List those apps and we can assist troubleshooting your battery drain issue.

What you say about charging at night sounds good. But what about people who can't use optimized charging because they work 2-3 shifts? I guess optimized battery charging wouldn't work in 2-3 shifts either. Turning off Reduce Motion in Accessibility improved my battery life significantly, so you're saying there's nothing wrong with Liquid Glass? :)

kill all apps. Turn off background app refresh. Turn on dark mode. Turn off mail sync to manual apart from turning off other settings mentioned in this article.

Try browsing in safari for 4-7 minutes normal websites if your battery health greater than 80%. If it drains by 1% every 4-7 minutes it is normal.

[Edited by Moderator]

cathyand80 wrote:

I am

having same issue starts out 100% then 6 hours later 30% something really wrong and I did all the changes Apple suggested!

pretty disappointed

You can certainly post your Battery Health at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity, and the device/iOS version you are using.

It would also be helpful to post your green battery graph with the last 24 hour option along with the top apps consuming your battery at Settings > Battery.

Ive also noticed worse battery life in iOS 18 which started to get better around the time when Apple realized it’s not going to be able to deliver promised AI features and next software releases we’re more around bug fixes.

This time around with iOS 26 it appears same story again (with Apple backlog in AI features).

I guess Apple software known for its stability, reliability and deep integration with hardware also doesn’t play well with rapid development when engineers are in rush.

This is probably what sets them apart from the competition which can work on a new features faster but it’s less solid.

Now because of rough schedule Apple might be simply short of time for proper testing before releasing new features and updates.

If really root cause of the issues are external factors (Meta) than this definitely makes it an Apple problem because customers may ultimately stop seeing iPhone as a solid, reliable product for no matter what reason is behind it.

I change each year for the newer iPhones since the first and i noticed that Apple was oone of the best to manage idle time , but nowadays they are the worst, one big tweak i noticed work for gaining battery life is diabling apple intelligence cos it works on the background for no great results so for moment i disabled it .

Super upset about my 16 pro battery life with iOS 26

so completely awful that

I did a factory reset & restore 7 days ago

ive also turned off all background refresh , except maps programs

( maps, Google Maps, Waze )

turned off lots of app notifications

turned off spatial on wallpaper

I keep screen brightness at about 25-30%

I close apps religiously

I update apps every night

I charge to 95-100% before bed

and I wake up and the battery is already down to

92%

just used my phone for about 1- hour

and it went from

100% to 92

Adaptive turned on

all use on WiFi

( battery health was 98% on iOS 18

after update to iOS 26

battery health says 94%

I’m at iOS 26.1 now

battery health still says 94%

all push is set to off

fetch is manual.

bought phone new

12-03-2024

I've tried all of the suggestions given here, the last turning off Apple Intelligence. It's made no difference at all. There seems to be something particularly wrong with FaceTime. The day before yesterday I made a 1 hour factime call that ended at 7:30am. Shortly after I checked the battery usage. FaceTime was at 13%, which seems not unreasonable for a 1 hour call. It was not used at all for the rest of the day. That night, I forgot to put my phone on the charger. The next morning when I checked the battery usage for the previous day, FaceTime was up to 37%! This has been typical. Either there is something wrong with FaceTime, or the Battery stats are defective (i.e. FaceTime is being charged with some other App's use). In either case this is very bad! I have a iPhone 16 Pro Max, bought in November 2024. Before upgrading to ios 26 the factime call used to use 8% and stayed there.

iPhone 14 Pro Max. 87%. No apps were used during that time. I have the same issue with 2 other iphone 15 plus, 2 iPads, and 3 watches. All began chewing through their batteries after the upgrade.

I think we all need to agree there’s an issue and tweaking settings upgrading apps rebooting is not the answer.

if battery the monitor was a little less like my kids crayon drawings and actually showed system task cpu usage like any other OS it would save a lot of frustration.

Could you scroll further down and upload your App and System Activity Usage as well please?