Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

0525Phaedra wrote:

Yes definitely. I have a iPhone 14 Pro. When I did an update a month or so ago. My battery started to drain ridiculously. I had no open spots and did everything. In fact, I kept the phone on low battery power. From when I get up at 7 until I leave before 8, my battery goes from 100 to 87 with little use. I’m disgusted because whenever I’ve I talked to Apple Care they look at everything and it say my phone’s battery is fine. However, I know differently.

If you are looking for assistance then there are 2 important pieces that are missing:

• What is your Battery Heath percentage at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity.
• Post the screenshot of Settings > Battery, that shows the green battery graph and the apps that are consuming your battery.

Also make sure you have updated to iOS 26.2.

Your logic is flawed — the battery drain was fine on IOS18 — signal strength hasn't suddenly changed — the ONLY thing that has changed is IOS26 — Find My does have a bug & its evident in xcode/instruments — cpu load is around 80% with it turned on for a bunch of devices

Please do a forced restart and let’s see what the next 12 hours look like.

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Why isn’t your iPhone plugged in at night charging? When did you update to iOS 26? What are your top 5 or 6 apps using the most battery capacity?

This worked for me.

Settings -> Search -> Turn off "Help Apple Improve Search"

[Edited by Moderator]

I, too, have noticed a significant difference with my 16 Pro purchased in January from the Apple Store, using Google Fi. I can see the increase post-update reflected in the Battery Usage app. I live in an area without much service (so I depend on WiFi) and before the update I might have drained about 8% overnight if I forgot to plug my phone in. Now just last night was about 34%. After digging into the stats, I’m not making it up, at least a 300% increase in usage just from “No Cell Coverage”

I beg to differ with you, TikTok has had 14 updates in the last 12 weeks. Does that sound like a bug free app?

Instagram has 23 updates in the last 3 months and 5 updates in the last 2 weeks since iPhone 17 was released.

These are not optimized apps. I’ve been on these forums for almost 25 years. Those apps weren’t optimized when iOS 18 came out, weren’t optimized when iOS 17 came out and weren’t optimized when iOS 16 came out. I’m not sure why you think the app is optimized for performance. Have you talked to their support teams and confirmed their optimization?

If you’re unhappy, I get it. I would be too. But I don’t rely on those apps. I understand you may have business dependent on those apps. Hence why I avoid them. I’ve learned over the years who I can trust and who I can’t. I don’t count TikTok or Instagram as apps i can trust.

Since you’re convinced it’s an Apple issue, you best path forward is to express your displeasure in a conversation with Apple Support. Have you talked to Apple Support about the issues?

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? :)