Some iPhone users who have recently installed the iOS 16 update may feel like their battery life is draining much faster than it was before. And truth be told, it very well may be!
If you’re experiencing rapid battery drain on an iPhone after installing iOS 16, there’s likely a reason for that, and fortunately it’s typically one of the easiest things to resolve.
1: Spotlight & Photos Indexing Draining Battery Life
If you recently updated to iOS 16 and you notice battery life is much worse than normal, it’s actually normal and expected behavior, as indexing activity goes on in the background.
Any time you update iOS system software, background tasks are triggered that run through to completion. This includes everything from Spotlight reindexing the stuff on your phone, including notes, photos, and app data, to the Photos app which reindexes and scans photos for objects, faces, places, and metadata.
Those background tasks and indexing behaviors take up power, and thus reduce your battery temporarily while they complete.
The more stuff you have on your iPhone, the longer the indexing processes take, so if you just updated iOS to 16 and you experience battery drain, the best thing you can do is simply wait it out. It may take an hour or even a few days, depending on what’s on your iPhone, but it will sort itself and you’ll be back to normal battery in no time.
Often plugging in an iPhone and letting it charge overnight while connected to wi-fi is enough to let this complete and work itself out.
2: Install App Updates
It’s always possible that third party apps are leading to increased battery usage, and keeping them up to date is a simple way to make sure that any issues like that are resolved.
Open the App Store and then tap your Apple ID profile in the top-right corner, then scroll down to find the Updates section and install updates for all apps, or apps you use frequently.
3: Find Exactly What Apps Are Using Battery Life
The Settings app on iPhone will tell you exactly which apps are using battery life on your iPhone.
Go to Settings -> Battery and you’ll see a list of apps where your battery is being used. This can offer some insight into app behavior, which apps may need updating, and what to do.
4: Turn Off Background App Refresh
Background App Refresh allows apps to update in the background when not in use, which is a feature that basically allows apps to use battery in the background too. Turning off the Background App Refresh feature on iPhone therefore works to stop this behavior.
Go to the Settings app > General -> Background App Refresh and toggle this to the OFF position.
Most users will not notice that apps have to take an extra second or so to update when this feature is off, but you may notice the improvement to battery life.
5: Use Low Power Mode to Prolong Battery Life
Low Power Mode is a useful feature that suspends background activity and other processes on the iPhone to extend the battery life. While this can help to extend battery life, you’ll find that it also pauses some tasks that may ultimately allow your battery life to return to normal (like the aforementioned indexing tasks), so you’ll want to use this if you’re out and about and looking to make your iPhone battery last longer.
Enabling Low Power Mode is easy from Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode.
6: Force Restart the iPhone
Sometimes simply restarting an iPhone can resolve battery issues, and it’s a simple procedure so there’s little reason not to try it.
You can force restart any modern iPhone with Face ID by pressing Volume Up, then pressing Volume Down, then pressing and holding the Side/Power button until you see the Apple logo on screen.
7: Turn Off Keyboard Haptics
The iPhone keyboard haptic feedback feature is one of the coolest new features in iOS 16, but it also can cause the battery to drain faster than expected. This is because it’s using more energy to trigger the vibration engine on the iPhone.
If you notice that battery is draining faster with iOS 16, and you use the haptic feedback feature on the keyboard, try turning it off and you’ll likely see an improvement.
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Did installing iOS 16 impact your battery life? Did you notice your battery draining faster on iPhone after updating to iOS 16? Did it improve? Did the tricks mentioned here help? Let us know your experiences in the comments!
