Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

I would expect your Home & Lock Screen and Settings to be using more battery today after the update.

You still have not posted what apps are using your battery by scrolling down on your screen. Just because you aren't using an app does not mean it is not using power. The 2 you identified are the exact ones you would expect to be using your battery after an update for a short period of time.

In addition there is no word on your cell signal which is a major contributor to how much power is necessary to connect to your closest tower. The farther away it is the less bars you will have and the more power your device is going to use. The only thing that uses more power than a 1 bar signal is when it is searching for a tower.

If you post future screenshots, it is the green battery graph along with the apps consuming the battery that is the most helpful. The green graph shows rate of drop where the daily usage does nothing more than tell you what you have used. Leave it plugged in all night tonight and follow up tomorrow with your results.

hi there friends,for me about battery drain,i have an iphone 16 pro max and happened the same to me....but the best solution for me was to update and restore iphone with Mac or PC with the full iphone firmware downloaded.....but remember to backup your stuff....from 5:00am to 1:30pm i was at work and started to use my iphone after work have 91 % and started to use on youtube,web search and whatever well at least not gaming and at 7:57 i still have a good 55% i hope it works for you 👍🏽

Mkrr24 wrote:

Same here, battery drained within an 2 hrs after updates. Apple fix it. Thx

I would suggest making a new post with your device details and include the Battery Health along with the screenshot showing the green battery graph and apps shown at Settings > Battery, that are consuming the battery. The thread you posted in is now over 2 months old and specifically titled for iOS 26.0.1, which is now no longer relevant and the current version that you may be referring to is iOS 26.2, but it is unclear.

We all now that immediately after the update everyone experiences battery drain, lag, and excessive heat on your phone and also explained in the Apple Support article that has been posted here. It is a problem if that continues longer than that. If it is 2 hours after the update, you are still having files indexed in the background and you should plug your phone into power for that process to complete quicker.

phillip9 wrote:

I close apps religiously

I charge to 95-100% before bed

and I wake up and the battery is already down to

92%

battery health says 94%

• Phone should be charged all night, every night using Optimized Charging.
• Do not close your apps, it uses more power.

Do not close iPhone and iPad 'background'… - Apple Community

• On average your Battery Health will lose 1% for every 50 Charge Cycles. I suspect you are around 300 charge cycles, so a 94% reading would fit into that average. The iOS update does not change your Charge Cycles. The drops you see in Battery Health are never linear and some months it will not drop at all and other months it will drop more. Also the calibration of the battery only occurs when it is allowed to charge to 100%. Even when using a charge limit the phone will automatically charge to 100% for calibration at times if not manually removed from a charger. You will also see a larger than expected drop when it has previously been prevented to calibrate and a condition occurred where it was allowed to charge to 100%, since the previous calibration had been postponed.
• Use your phone normally and post a screenshot of the green battery graph along with the tops apps consuming the battery.
• There are 2 ways to troubleshoot if it is app related. Either Factory Reset and NOT restore from a backup, you would need to use a computer for this method to create an archived backup to be able to restore later. Or remove the top consumers one at a time to compare results. Don't ignore an app as a contributing factor. Some have been identified by users where battery performance dramatically improved when removed and others by the developer where they acknowledged the drain with an update. It is simple to test, so you can make an informed decision on what is more important, the app or the battery usage seen by the app.

It's not an issue inherent to iOS 26.

The most common reason is one or more of your apps wasn't properly updated for iOS 26 and is using excessive amounts of battery.

Check battery usage on your iPhone - Apple Support

• Have you updated to iOS 26.2?
• What is your battery health percentage?
• Low Power Mode does turn off Background App Refresh, but it is not reported to stop Background Activities of apps noted in your Battery Settings. What apps do you see using the Battery?
• How many bars are showing for your cellular connection? The less you see the more power is being used to maintain that connection whether you use Low Power Mode or not. On iPhone 12 and 13 5g remains on for streaming and downloads, where other devices turn it off.

Use Low Power Mode to save battery life on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

How much signal do you have? If it's only a single bar that's pretty much normal as it takes a lot of power to keep in contact with the tower at those signal levels.

dolphinfever wrote:

So then the apps causing my battery draining problem being the photos app and the music app are APPLES problem right?

I don't see where you have provided any details for your case. There is some very important information that has been left out. The battery draining is obviously not s systemic problem, otherwise everyone would see the same thing and that is not the case. I have 3 devices in my family, all with iOS 26, and there is no battery draining problem on any of them.

Don't forget this is a Support Site for those looking for assistance, it is not a Social Media site. For your case:

• What is your Battery Health at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity?
• Post a screenshot of Settings > Battery, showing your green battery graph along with the top 5 apps consuming the battery.
• Describe what you have done to address the problem so far, such as Force Restart, Factory Reset, Contact Apple.
• What version are you on and when did you update?

For some here, simply following the recommended steps have solved their problem, and you can see the examples yourself as Abhijitrabha posted a few days ago that the Apple support article was correct and waiting for the files to finish indexing improved their battery performance.

I have bought a new iPhone 15 and right then on 28 sept I upgraded my phone to 26 then again after 3-4 days to 26.0.1 .I am not facing any issues but for the first 10-12 days my phone battery was draining fast.Now suddenly battery performance improved

We have also seen others that had the problem resolved with a Factory Reset and others seen significant improvement after deleting identified battery consuming Social Media app. Many of those apps have now been updated, so results may vary. A large number of users have a Battery Health lower than 80%, and it has always been the case that the battery needs to be replaced once that happens. We are also aware that iOS 26.1 is currently in beta and being tested, but we cannot comment on any issues that have been resolved related to battery performance as it violates the user agreement for testing the beta software.

If you are wondering why posts are deleted on this site, you will need to review the Terms of Use and can find them on the bottom of this page. This support site is vastly different than a Social Media site where you can post the earth is flat and there is no accountability.

My iPhone 14 Pro Max battery drains by approximately 10 percent to 20 percent or more per hour on iOS 26.1, even with only moderate usage or when the screen is locked.

In addition, the maximum battery capacity has decreased by about 3 percent since updating to this iOS version. The battery was replaced less than one year ago and was previously at 99 percent.

It now feels like I get only about half the usage time per charge compared to when I was using iOS 18, and I now need to charge the phone several times per day.

There appear to be ongoing issues with iOS 26 that are significantly affecting battery performance on the iPhone 14 Pro Max and have not been addressed since the initial release.

Harry_chirag wrote:

I am too facing a **** out of this update the battery drain a lot faster . I wish apple fixes it fast

Are you referring to iOS 26.1 that was released today, or still talking about iOS 26.0.1 that was being used by the person you replied to?

I can suggest to use the Sort By option above the first reply and you can choose Newest where you will see the newest reply on top. There you would have seen the iOS 26.1 is available and you should update your software.

TTPDElmer wrote:

I did the update last night. I have not had any prior battery issues. I barely used my phone today due to being at work, but the battery percentage dropped like a ROCK. Not good.

For the first 24-48 hours after any iOS update, battery usage will be higher than usual as the phone rebuilds all its internal databases.

Wu7chamber wrote:

Well, it's been a few weeks and indexing didn't seem to help. Didn't think it would. I'm sure Apple thinks I already need an upgrade after only a year and a half.

Don't forget to update to iOS 26.2 released today. It is seen for most already, but may take a little more time to propagate to your device. Beta testers had already noted improvement, but we could not post here as it violates the Terms of Use for beta software.

What does the Battery pane say is using your power?

Please update to iOS 26.1.X released today 11/03/25.

iOS 26.1 is a relatively major update and, as with every iOS update, battery usage will be higher than usual for a day or two until the phone rebuilds all its internal indices.