A number of iOS 10 users have taken to social media to complain about the fact that their iOS devices are running out of juice far more rapidly after upgrading to the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. “iOS 10,” writes one Twitter user. “More like iOS 10% of my battery left.”
Fortunately, there’s a logical explanation — which means things may not stay like this for too long.
One one level, it makes perfect sense that iOS 10 — being feature-filled and designed for Apple’s significantly faster, more powerful iPhone 7 — would place higher demands on a smartphone than last year’s operating system.
But don’t despair if you’re an owner of, say, a two-year-old iPhone 6 and are noticing iOS 10 rapidly draining your battery life after you’ve upgraded. iPhones will typically do a lot of behind-the-scenes upgrading, even once iOS 10 is installed and up and running.
In the first few days that you use the new operating system, it is likely that extra power will be consumed downloading app updates, mail, photos and additional content. On top of that, Apple’s Spotlight feature will also need to index the contents of the phone, which could lead to a faster-than-usual battery drain.
In other words, while it’s certainly reasonable to expect your iPhone to remain in good working order after updating to iOS 10, it’s worth giving it a few days to sort itself out before you consider downgrading to iOS 9 again, or start lambasting Apple for trying to force you into buying an iPhone 7.
According to the latest figures from Mixpanel, around 36.66 percent of eligible users are currently running iOS 10, compared to 58.56 percent of people still running iOS 9, and just 4.78 percent running an older version of Apple’s mobile operating system.
Have you noticed iOS 10 having a detrimental impact on your iPhone? Leave your comments below.
Via: Daily Mail
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
37 responses to “iOS 10 users complain of poor battery life after updating”
Updated the day it came out, still terrible battery drain. Currently off charger for 5.5 hours and at 26% which is less than half of what I normally would be at with my usage. 6s is struggling for sure.
Same case like yours before but today it reverts back to 10 hours use. I guess you just need to let it finish sorting out.
it sucks battery better than porn star
It seems like they fixed that “100%” bug. Every iPhone that I have owned (4, 5, and 6) has lasted an abnormally long time at the 100% mark. It now tapers off at a normal rate.
Besides, every major OS upgrade will take a slight hit on battery life for a few days while everything indexes / settles down. I’ll give it one more week with a full discharge cycle before I make a final judgement. So far it is truly noticeable (slightly worsened battery life)
I’ve been an iOS user since open beta 2 and I can stress enough how poorly the battery is performing since then. I thought it was just part of the beta process but is still there.
The iPhone keeps running out of battery by mid afternoon and shuts down at 20%!!!
At this point I´m just thinking is part of Apple strategy to make me change to the new iPhone series.
Anyways. Next year I´ll be changing to Samsung (if course, if their phones stop exploding), and believe me, If if find someone willing to trade my iPhone 6s for a Galaxy 7, I’d be happy to.
I stopped using Facebook, which is ok it’s most full of shit anyways and stopped running apps in the background as much as possible and have turned off other battery burning options, like location and apps that want to use the cell network and battery is not draining as much.
I must have been lucky. I updated my 6 plus the day it came out and the battery discharges at the same rate as before. The only thing that bothered me was the occasional instances of lag I got on my first two days using the phone, but I think it was all the background indexing it was doing with the new widgets and sorts. The thing runs as smooth as it did before, if not smoother. Heck, Siri now runs at 60fps instead of 30 (which was common on the 6 plus due to the excessive way iOS processed translucency), so I have no reason to complain
Horrible battery life. My iPhone 6 has 6% by the time I get home from work. Garbage. Forget all these smartphones, going back to a flip phone
My battery life actually got better on my 5s and the battery life on my iPad Pro 9.7 is unchanged. It was always very good.
Not a problem. Make sure you reset all network settings, do a hard reset after it soft resets, and that should fix any battery issues.
Oddly enough, I had a battery issue with my Apple Watch after updating to OS 3 where I could actually watch the battery meter run down. It went from a full charge to 40% in a half hour. After rebooting the watch, though, things went back to normal and it hasn’t reoccurred since.
The battery on my iPhone 6s and iPad mini 3 drains battery even if I am not physically using it.
When you say “reboot” do you mean reset to factory settings or just a hard-reset (push both buttons for 10 seconds)?
I tried the first but still no luck. Battery used to last all day/until bed time around 11pm where I would have ~50% left. I’ve used my watch for literally 5 minutes (settings – usage – standby/active use since last charger were only 5 minutes difference) throughout the last 9 hours and I’m already down to 29%.
Couple days and several restarts — my normal game plan is to do restarts, and it has settle very well. I have limited use for spotlight, most turned off. I also reviewed all the locations and background updating settings upon updating.
I have lost hope and faith in Apple. Steve Jobs was a perfectionist. I am actually tired complaining ever since the launch of iOS 7 and upwards. The only USP with apple was its simplicity and intuitiveness which Apple is fast loosing with further updates. (And btw i own the entire series of iPhone including the 6S+ 128 before someone starts blaming me to be an Android follower). Sticking to Apple only cause there is NO other option available on Planet Earth , as yet!
The article explains clearly that this is not a permanent issue, still people do not read properly judging from the comments here.
You’re an ass. Everything says it will take a few days to do the indexing, but it’s been nearly a week. My phone is nearly dead by the time I leave the office when with iOS9.x I would be around 45-55% (and now I’m being more careful about using the phone because I’m trying to preserve battery.)
Yeah, because that conjecture has any sort of actual evidence to be true. You need to learn to think properly.
I got a iphone 7 on the 16 Sept. The install process should have finished days ago. I have done a number of hard resets, but refuse to change app settings (should be able to keep old phone setup). However, my battery is still draining 3 or 4 times as fast as my old iphone 6s. I believe there is an issue with IOS 10.01. I hope Apple fixes quick. Am considering asking Apple to replace the phone.
Iphone 6+ seems to be ok but clearly doesn´t last as much. A full day is not a problem but not the 1 1/2 on regular use of IOS9.
Slept with 100% battery and waking up with 80.. What’s going on? 6s user here..
That doesn’t sound right. Do you have background activity off and location? At night when i sleep I automatically have it set to do not disturb and only loose 1-3 percent.
Yeah.. its usually turned on but I didn’t experienced this drastic battery power decrease when it was on iOS 9.3.5.. this thing happened when I updated it to iOS 10.. I think it has something to do with it..
That’s what mine was like previous to the update, now I go to bed with 75-80 % and have woken up to a dead phone 2 times in the last 4 days
Yes I still have terrible battery life. I also had issues with my headphones not working when plugged in until I restarted the phone. Another issue Ive noticed is major lagging. This is all on the 6s. Really regretting this update.
It also has that weird issue where it will show 5% battery and then just shut off. Then when hooked up to a power source it will show 6%. I had this issue with older phones, but didnt expect it with the update from its immediate predecessor.
My iPhone was plugged in and powered off over night. Turned it on: 75% battery. 30 minutes later, it was dead.
Yep, burned 1% just searching this issue and read the article. Oops make that 2%!
Same thing here. From Brazil!
6S here and it’s bad. My phone used to never get below 50% through normal usage with calls, text, checking emails, etc, before I would plug it in at night. Now it’s at 20% by early evening. Checked the battery usage and the top culprit is Mail? Don’t think so. They clearly have chosen to hide system processes from that list to avoid people being annoyed at Spotlight or whatever the hell is draining the battery.
Same thing here. From Brazil!
Mine too, but I go to sleep with 75% charge and wake up with a dead phone.
Recently updated iPhone 5. Battery seemed unusually low when I got home. Thought maybe I used it more heavily than I thought. Today it was at 50% by lunch when it is normally 80-85%. Something is definitely not bueno.
It is cluttered, dysfunctionally designed, the most and only ugly IOS ever designed. Music starts on auto play but WAIT! good luck finding the player, hidden by some other slide – never do it if being driven, it will give you a headache.
Imessage is by far the worse. Nice new features, very very cluttered interface….. First ever, I reversed to ios 9
I have iPhone 6 and battery life is terrible first day of using new update.It discharge battery twice faster than before.
My phone is dying overnight, it starts at about 75-80 percent and is dead when I wake up (about 8 hours) It takes about 1/2 an hour to start back up when put on a charger, and will take about 2 hours to charge fully. I downloaded IOS10 about 5 days ago, on an iphone 6s that I upgraded to 4 months ago, it had amazing battery life before that. Before I could use the phone for a full day using it for all my work emails, browsing etc, now I get 2 hours.
Two weeks in. Battery drain is unbearable. I have sent a laundry list of items to resolve. I shut everything off to no aveil. I even took out gmail as battery was sucking too much from mail. Is this a ploy to upgrade phone to 7? Please tell me no. I received a bug upgrade 4 days ago and trusted that would help. It did not. Friends seem to be moving to Samsung. So disappointed. Ugh. Please help.
In the short time I write this… all apps off.. my battery went from 62%-45%.
Literally lost over 50% of my battery in less than 2 hours of being off the charger and all I had running was the music app. I updated a week ago and I feel like the battery is getting worse every day.