Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

I have the same experience of an iPad Air M1. The battery used to last a long time, after the update the battery drains 3x faster. I used to charge it once every 4-5 days, now it hardly lasts 1 day. Even in standby it drops 5% in 7h. I already updated all apps, restarted, removed notifications. It is something at the OS level. The iPhone 15 Pro was similar, but I moved to the 17 Pro so that’s now working well, but I don’t want to update my iPad, I would just like to go back to iOS 18.

Please Apple look into this as it’s a bad experience for all your customers.

I’m also experiencing tremendous battery drain with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. Yes, the battery isn’t that fresh (88% 430 cycles), but on iOS 18.x it was pretty okay, dare I say, good.

After updating to 26.0 I immediately noticed significant increase in battery drain and much more overall device heat.

I waited patiently those “2-3 days” for it to optimize itself and finish indexing. I noticed little to none improvement after.

Then I did a hard reset and restored form iCloud. Didn’t help either.

Now I’m on 26.0.1 and I charge my phone twice a day, sometimes 3 times. On iOS 18 it carried through the day with no problem.

My quite new iPad Pro m1 13” is also dying very quickly after the update. It has relatively fresh battery (Apple sent me a new replacement in April).

Feels like iOS 11 all over again, even worse.

Is there a way to rollback to iOS 18?

Me too, iPhone 15 Pro Max here with 99% battery capacity. On iOS 18 I could charge my iphone once per two days. Now I am once per day and sometimes even twice a day.

i rely heavily on my iPhone during holidays (map, photos, mountain trek). Battery life is almost vital for me, I can’t rely on my phone if it doesn’t last a day in the mountains, even more on a 1-week trek, except if I bring with me 3 powerbanks

In battery setting, I lost battery unusually fast, and « Lock screen » is draining at least 5% a day, to almost 10% sometimes

Lagertyke wrote:

Suddenly i was back to all day battery life, it wasnt getting warm when using it and i had my phone back.

Get it sorted Apple. Or i may have to join my friends and other users in switching to Android

On device processing of AI means it is going to be using the CPU, which also means that uses the battery and generates heat. The same is true for any processor intensive tasks such as 3D modeling or game play with graphics making heavy use of the GPU. Models for AI are also being downloaded in the background after it is turned on or after an update that also uses storage space on your device. AI is not free when it comes to resource use of your phone, but you do have the choice to turn it on/off.

As for your "switching" comment, you may want to do your research before making off-handed comments. To be clear, I support you choosing whatever device you want and I also suspect others would agree with me and that could be for any reason you choose. As for battery draining, your may want to check out the Android/Samsung forums before making the decision for that reason, and funny enough you see the same kind of comments where users say they are going to switch to Apple devices.

• https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s23-series/fix-the-battery-drain-or-we-sue/td-p/12584749
• https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/mobile-apps-services/battery-drainage-with-latest-update/td-p/12578989
• https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s22-series/battery-draining-rapidly-after-software-update/td-p/12542803
• https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s24-series/battery-draining-faster-after-software-update/td-p/12117659
• https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S23/Update-causing-Battery-drain-S23/td-p/3234875

I’m seeing this and it’s been a couple of weeks now. I have also had “iPhone storage full” happen and after a reboot I am only using half my 256GB. I’m used to it happening for a few days after a major update but this seems different. No clues under Battery Usage in Settings. All my apps have been updated. The storage used by my apps is not excessive; there’s something going on in the OS that is eating battery and storage.

It's not the only cause of high battery use, but is one of them.

All of Meta's apps seem to use more battery than they should.

That having been said, checking the Battery statistics to see where power is being used is the best first step to resolving the issue.

michalw2 wrote:

I think it's actually very convenient for Apple supporters to put a blame on WhatsApp, however we've seen number of reports here from US customers not using this app (which is not that popular in US) yet still being affected by the issue.

There are other reasons including:

• Battery Health percentage
• Some users being on beta OS
• Not updated to the latest release. Yes updates do include OS battery optimizations too.

In this case, when your Battery Settings are showing high battery use for a particular app, which was WhatsApp, and the problem immediately goes away when the app is removed, then you have found your answer. Also when that same app has been reported to drain the batteries of Samsung/Android phones too, then you can realize that it is not specific to Apple. WhatsApp is just one of the Meta apps that has been seen to cause this behavior and it has also been seen on Facebook and Instagram too. There is a reason why Google called out Meta for their apps draining the battery on their devices.

michalw2 wrote:

Unfortunately that's probably the most effective way on getting proper attention from Apple.

Given the number of people buying them and not returning them, it seems doubtful. It also doesn't tell them why you're unhappy. Use the feedback link:

Product Feedback - Apple

I have iOS 26.1 on an iPad A16 and an iPhone 13 mini. The iPad mostly stays at home and doesn't get used all that much. Still has Facebook on it. The battery life is fine. I haven't tested it by taking it out and about. The phone, however, has horrible battery life (85% battery health). I removed Facebook from the phone after reading this thread, and that has helped a little bit, but it hasn't been a game changer. I started to notice degrading battery life with iOS 18, and this issue accelerated with iOS 26. An Apple Store employee suggested that the smaller size of the phone was part of the issue, but based on the posts here, I don't think that is the main issue. Apps are updated, phone has been restarted numerous times (another Apple Store employee said to restart or shut down the phone every few days). CNET and other outlets have published articles about this with the advice from Apple to wait a few days, but that has not made a difference for me. Based on this thread, it seems clear that there is an issue for Apple to address, either in its own software or with developers that sell on its App Store. I was a tech support professional ages ago, and when so many people experience the same problem, it's unlikely to be due to user error.

FaceTime is now draining more battery. I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max running 26.1. I had 2 FaceTime calls this morning totaling 1 hour. After I hung up (see attached) FaceTime used 16% battery. There was no other FaceTime activity, and it’s now use 37%! Background turned off in all apps. This is ridiculous.

Iphone 14 pro max - 87% - no apps used during this time, just left on the table.

Can we all just agree there's a major issue with ios 26 instead of suggesting tweaks, app updates, and reboots. I've got multiple Apple devices with exactly the same battery drain issue - ipads iphones watches - only started happening since ios26.

Maybe if the battery app wasnt like my kids crayon drawings & had some decent system level cpu usage we could get to the bottom of this.

Ios 26.2 has not fixed the issue either.

What apps are draining your battery?

I still have the same issue after turning off the Glass effect in Settings/Accessibility/Desplay & Test Size/Reduce Transparency.