Some iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro users are reporting significant and unexplained battery drain, sparking concern across online forums like Reddit, Apple Support Communities, and MacRumors. While the majority of complaints stem from the new iPhone 16 models, some users of older iPhones running iOS 18 have also encountered similar battery life problems.
There is a long-running iOS 18 battery life complaint thread on MacRumors that was started while the update was still in beta, but there have been a fresh wave of complaints following iOS 18’s launch and the debut of the iPhone 16 models.
Affected iPhone 16 owners have seen significant battery drain even when the iPhone is not in use… In some cases, much of the battery drain happens in standby mode when the iPhone isn’t in use, suggesting a background activity could be causing problems for some users. Using the phone seems to cut the battery drain in these instances.
There are similar complaints about the iPhone 16 models and older iPhones running iOS 18 on Reddit, and while we always see reports of battery life issues when a new version of iOS comes out, there seems to be a definite uptick in the number of people having problems.
MacDailyNews Take: Expect Apple to fix whatever is causing this in a near-future iOS 18 update.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
For a supposed longer battery life, my new 16 Max Pro (upgraded from 14 Max Pro) was going down to 50% at the end of the day even though I wasn’t using it that much. I looked at the system settings and individual apps. Nearly every single app, even those I rarely used had “refresh”, “cellular data” and sometimes “notifications” features turned ON.
After going through every app and its notification and cutting most off, my battery usage dropped significantly.
We see this headline after every major update.
It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to reboot their iPhone.
At least my 2020 iPad Pro has improved battery life with iPadOS 18, maybe it has to do with fixing the long-standing bluetooth battery drain issue, I’ve gotten used to turning it off unless I need it.
I think the new OS is an issue. My battery life has PLUMMETED. I am not even getting through a single day, and that came very suddenly