It is unimaginable to not discover how dangerous my iPhone’s battery life has turn into since upgrading to iOS 18; it solely received progressively worse with iOS 18.1 and 18.2. It is the uncommon day that my battery continues to be above 40% by lunchtime, and energy banks have turn into fixed companions in my life.
The state of affairs was dangerous (night time or day), battery consumption was a lot larger than something I keep in mind, and even Low Energy Mode did not supply a lot reduction.
It was time to research the issue.
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Nonetheless, I wasn’t optimistic about discovering an answer or perhaps a workaround. Lately, the one treatment for such points has been to attend for Apple to patch the issue. However provided that I’ve watched this problem go from dangerous to worse over the previous few months, I am not holding my breath.
So I made a decision to research. For any battery drain problem, the primary place I all the time look is below the Battery display in Settings. This part is a treasure trove of knowledge, not solely associated to the battery but in addition to the apps which can be operating and consuming energy. Two charts are displayed right here: Battery Stage, which exhibits how the cost stage modifications at 15-minute intervals; and Exercise, which makes use of a bar chart for instance which apps have been lively and utilizing battery energy in hourly intervals. You possibly can faucet on the bars for a deeper dive into what’s been occurring in your iPhone throughout that interval.
However apart from elevated utilization by Residence & Lock Display (mainly, any exercise on the lock display, equivalent to notifications or widgets) there was nothing out of the peculiar. I did strive disabling the iPhone’s always-on show — the setting to do that is below Settings > Show & Brightness > At all times On Show — however to no avail.
The issue continued.
After a bit extra investigating, testing, tweaking settings, and plenty of frustration, I discovered the perpetrator: Apple Intelligence. With Apple Intelligence enabled (the setting may be discovered below Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri), I discovered it unimaginable to make it via a day with out recharging. Nonetheless, with it disabled, my battery life returned to its former ranges.
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And this is the kicker: I wasn’t even utilizing Apple Intelligence. I had enabled it for testing functions, nevertheless it kind of fell by the wayside as I moved on to different issues. I discovered Apple Intelligence moderately underwhelming, however I did not count on it to empty the battery so considerably when it wasn’t actively in use.
Evidently this problem is not restricted to my {hardware}, as I’ve come throughout loads of related experiences. Furthermore, it would not look like restricted to the iPhone; Apple Intelligence is also being blamed by some for extreme battery consumption on MacBooks.
I discover the impact repeatable — on my iPhones and, to a lesser extent. my iPads. Flip Apple Intelligence on, battery life drops like a stone; flip it off, and issues return to regular.
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It is as dependable as clockwork. This tweak additionally seems to reign within the extreme battery consumption I used to be seeing on the iOS 18.3 beta.
For those who’re discovering battery life to be particularly poor since making the soar to iOS 18, and you’ve got enabled the Apple Intelligence function, it could possibly be your perpetrator. I say “might” as a result of this could possibly be a kind of “mileage will fluctuate” conditions. Nonetheless, in the event you’re not discovering Apple Intelligence to be all that helpful, you don’t have anything to lose by turning it off.
