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Battery Life after upgrading to iOS 12.2


  • Total voters
    91

lindros2

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
847
503
Let me be the billionth person to post battery issues...
But in all seriousness, I feel like betas have great battery life (unusual), and then the release is garbage.

So iPhone 8 Plus, about 15 months old, 95% battery cycle...
Battery drains wicked fast on iOS 12.2 release (12.1.4 was good, 12.2 beta was fine)...

... and CHARGING is super slow (first I've seen this). Even on fast-charging and wireless charging.
 

theapplehead

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2018
782
929
North Carolina
Let me be the billionth person to post battery issues...
But in all seriousness, I feel like betas have great battery life (unusual), and then the release is garbage.

So iPhone 8 Plus, about 15 months old, 95% battery cycle...
Battery drains wicked fast on iOS 12.2 release (12.1.4 was good, 12.2 beta was fine)...

... and CHARGING is super slow (first I've seen this). Even on fast-charging and wireless charging.
Agreed. My iPhone 8 is the same way. I wish Apple could just figure this out for once on a new iOS release. Oh well. Bug fix coming soon. Let’s hope.
 
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Solver

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
1,225
3,199
USA
Let me be the billionth person to post battery issues...
But in all seriousness, I feel like betas have great battery life (unusual), and then the release is garbage.

So iPhone 8 Plus, about 15 months old, 95% battery cycle...
Battery drains wicked fast on iOS 12.2 release (12.1.4 was good, 12.2 beta was fine)...

... and CHARGING is super slow (first I've seen this). Even on fast-charging and wireless charging.
Try a “hard” restart.
 

ipooed

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2014
638
271
Let me be the billionth person to post battery issues...
But in all seriousness, I feel like betas have great battery life (unusual), and then the release is garbage.

So iPhone 8 Plus, about 15 months old, 95% battery cycle...
Battery drains wicked fast on iOS 12.2 release (12.1.4 was good, 12.2 beta was fine)...

... and CHARGING is super slow (first I've seen this). Even on fast-charging and wireless charging.
Same with my 7+ 98% battery health... I went back to 12.1.4 everything is back the way it was before the update.
 
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theapplehead

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2018
782
929
North Carolina
Same with my 7+ 98% battery health... I went back to 12.1.4 everything is back the way it was before the update.
How did you do it after downloading the ipsw file? Did you hold Alt while clicking “Check for updates” or did you hold it while clicking “restore”?
 

theapplehead

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2018
782
929
North Carolina
I decided to post a thread/poll on this because a number of Apple users including myself have expressed complaints of worsened battery life since upgrading to iOS 12.2. Feel free to take the poll or leave a comment on whether you have better, same, or worse battery since upgrading to iOS 12.2.
 
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mikeka

macrumors member
Jan 31, 2013
59
39
iPhone 7 battery life much worse after 'upgrading' to iOS 12.2. I did an OTA update. Need to figure out how to get back to 12.1.4 which was fine.
 
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jrolson

macrumors member
May 15, 2011
54
7
Battery life is much worse on my iPad Air2, I left my iPad sleep for 20 min. and when I turn it back on I've lost 5-10% battery.

Should of stuck with 12.1...
Did Apple do this on purpose for older devices, to make us buy new ones?
 

lindros2

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
847
503
How did you do it after downloading the ipsw file? Did you hold Alt while clicking “Check for updates” or did you hold it while clicking “restore”?

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/how-downgrade-ios-12-3618122/

The way I did it (on a backup 6s) was to download the IPSW from a third party site.
Since I didn't have an (old) backup, I had to reinstall all apps (ugly).

SIDE FACT - phone charging for an hour, 94% > 94% (yes, I typed that correctly).
Restarted phone. Battery at 98%.
 

theapplehead

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2018
782
929
North Carolina
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/how-downgrade-ios-12-3618122/

The way I did it (on a backup 6s) was to download the IPSW from a third party site.
Since I didn't have an (old) backup, I had to reinstall all apps (ugly).

SIDE FACT - phone charging for an hour, 94% > 94% (yes, I typed that correctly).
Restarted phone. Battery at 98%.
I ended up doing it pretty similarly. First I downloaded the IPSW from their website, then I held Alt while choosing the update option via iTunes.

Although I did get my system to boot after finishing the downgrade, I had continual glitches like Safari crashing for no reason.

Therefore, I also had to restore it and reinstall 12.1.4 afterwards. Thankfully I had already done a backup prior to installing 12.2, so minimal data loss.

I wasted a good amount of time, but I’m happy to report that my iPhone is working just as it should now with a more reasonable battery life.
 
Last edited:

MadAngelUK

macrumors 6502
Sep 15, 2012
354
701
To be honest I haven't noticed any difference, but it's typically expected to be bad in the days following an update as your device has to re-index the entire contents of your device while you're not using it songs/pictures/emails/apps for searches ect. Once it's done its done ...until the next os update when it will have to do it all over again.
 
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CTHarrryH

macrumors 68030
Jul 4, 2012
2,938
1,432
and what does battery under setting show is using battery? And does anything look unusual in that?
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,459
This apply to iPads too? Or just iPhones?
What do you mean by "applies"? It seems that some people are having some issues with their devices after the upgrade in one sense or another when it comes to something going on on their device that results in higher than typical battery usage.
 

BLUEDOG314

macrumors 6502
Dec 12, 2015
377
120
There is definitely something suspect going on. I will do a more scientific test this weekend but I have experienced the following behavior. Multiple devices in the family, and also have access to multiple brands of chargers. I did not record times and numbers at first obviously as I wasn’t expecting an issue, but I noticed our 10.5” iPad Pro charging unusually slow on an apple usb c to lighting connected to an anker atom pd1 30w charger.

Pulled out the kill-a-watt and put it in the wall with the setup listed above with the iPad at 78 percent battery. Gave it about 20 seconds to settle in and it was only charging at 8 watts. Replaced the anker power delivery charger with an apple 29 watt MacBook charger and charging settled at 13.5 watts. Switched between chargers and observed the same rates, as well as after a hard reset.

Used my 11” iPad Pro which had battery at 33 percent with an anker usb c data and charging cable, and switched between Apple and anker chargers mentioned above. Apple one pulled 29 watts and anker pulled 30.2 watts.

Haven’t tested my X or sisters XR with either chargers yet but plan to. The way I actually noticed the anker charger working more slowly was it did not warm up like it usually does. Is it possible apple whether intentionally or not borked charging with non apple fast chargers?
 

jrdatrackstar1223

macrumors regular
Oct 31, 2017
215
98
Brownsburg, IN
To be honest I haven't noticed any difference, but it's typically expected to be bad in the days following an update as your device has to re-index the entire contents of your device while you're not using it songs/pictures/emails/apps for searches ect. Once it's done its done ...until the next os update when it will have to do it all over again.

But for what...3 days after..? The indexing is usually finished within hours...tops...

The way I’ve tested how bad it has been is to turn off background app refresh completely. My battery drains just the exact same as if background app refresh is still on.
 
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