iPhone users who have been suffering from worse battery life since upgrading to iOS 9 may want to try deleting Facebook’s iOS app.
The social network confirmed reports that surfaced earlier this week claiming the iOS app uses a heavy amount of resources in the background to run processes. The big problem with the battery drain is that it occurs even if iPhone owners have background app refresh disabled. It’s actually worse with the setting turned off. because Facebook is sneakily creating channels to continue refreshing its app in the background, even when users tell it not to.
Facebook’s battery-hogging ways were first spotted by Matt Gilligan, who noticed the app ate through 3.4 hours of his battery in the background, despite turning off background app refreshes. Federico Viticci noted on MacStories that this issue has been around for years but the company has refused to fix it (or circumvented new user controls that are supposed to prevent the problem).
Photo: Matt Galligan/Medium
The best way to avoid the battery drain is to just delete the Facebook iOS app altogether and access the social network through Safari. Facebook users in the United States can also try switching to the Paper app.
A Facebook rep told TechCrunch this morning that the company is working on a fix.
“We have heard reports of some people experiencing battery issues with our iOS app. We’re looking into this and hope to have a fix in place soon,” the company said in a statement.
