iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Battery Drain - Apple says normal

[sandman42]

Just got off the phone with Apple Support. My 14 month or so old iPhone 12 Pro’s battery is at 86% capacity, which is probably normal, but it discharges about 15% per hour whether I’m using it or not, which isn’t at all normal, in my experience. My phone won’t make it to the afternoon, even if I barely use it. The pic shows how the battery drops off, even during hours of zero use.

I did a full restore, no help. Apple’s (remote) diagnostics say everything’s fine, but that just means their diagnostics aren’t equipped to find the problem. No other iPhone I’ve ever had has behaved like this. Apple says my only recourse is to buy a new battery out of pocket — I have Apple Care but they say because I’m not below 80%, they won’t do anything about it. Is this consistent with anyone else’s experience?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Yeah that’s not normal at all. If my phone did this I’d reset as new - not restore from backup and let it sit a day or so and see if it does the same thing. If so I’d trade into Apple and get something else. If not - it’s something with your iCloud backup. Set up the phone as new and slowly add apps and services to eliminate cause. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Wando64]

That is not normal, but it is also very unlikely to be caused by a bad battery.
The reason for rapid discharge like this could be numerous.
In my actual personal experience with my own phone, the three times this has happened it was caused twice by something going haywire with the network (Solved by doing a network reset), and once it was caused by problems with the network at at my carrier's end (Solved by keeping Mobile Data switched OFF until the carrier resolved the problem with my local mobile mast).
Keep in mind that Mobile Data problems will drain the battery even if you are connected to wi-fi all the time; I've no idea why, but they do.

My suggestion to you would be to reset your network settings first (this will erase your network passwords and they will need to be re-entered).

If this doesn't solve your problem, I would investigate the status of your mobile connection.
This can be deceiving. In my case the phone was indicating full signal 4g connection, but the data connection was actually either inexistent or extremely poor.

 

[now i see it]

86% battery health after only 14 months is extremely accelerated wear.
My guess is you have a dud battery.
From day 1.
“Normal” discharge might be considered as dropping a few percentage points over night unplugged.

Also don’t be surprised when the battery health percentage decline miraculously stops and hovers just above 80% seemingly forever once it gets that low.
Those numbers are fudged to get Apple off the hook from replacing the battery under warranty.

 

[dcell]

86% battery health after only 14 months is extremely accelerated wear.
My guess is you have a dud battery.
From day 1.
“Normal” discharge might be considered as dropping a few percentage points over night unplugged.

Also don’t be surprised when the battery health percentage decline miraculously stops and hovers just above 80% seemingly forever once it gets that low.
Those numbers are fudged to get Apple off the hook from replacing the battery under warranty.

It is extreme but i know someone who has about the same battery health on his 12 Pro. So i don't know about dud ....

It seems like the cells in the 12 Pro are lower quality compared to previous generation iPhones. Mine stayed on 100% for a year. After it dropped to 99% it went downhill quick. In two months it dropped to 96% (about 140 charge cycles).

 

[Taz Mangus]

From your battery usage you posted, it shows the Find My app running. I would suggest you unpair all devices you have paired to your iPhone. See how the battery life is without anything paired to your iPhone. Iff the battery life is still dropping excessively, I would follow what @BigMcGuir has suggested.

 

[ericwn]

Yeah that’s not normal at all. If my phone did this I’d reset as new - not restore from backup and let it sit a day or so and see if it does the same thing. If so I’d trade into Apple and get something else. If not - it’s something with your iCloud backup. Set up the phone as new and slowly add apps and services to eliminate cause. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I think I’d take this road too, very good advice. Start fresh and build the setup up over time and observe.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

My 12 Pro Max did this LAST Feb. Took it to Apple and it "was normal" But "reinstall iOS just in case"

Nothing normal about it, nothing normal about that phone and glad I got rid of it. After this insane drain, the battery health started to take a fast dive.

 

[sandman42]

My 12 Pro Max did this LAST Feb. Took it to Apple and it "was normal" But "reinstall iOS just in case"

Nothing normal about it, nothing normal about that phone and glad I got rid of it. After this insane drain, the battery health started to take a fast dive.


View attachment 1946239

Yeah, that’s essentially the same as me. Battery life plummets, but nothing significant showing in “Activity”. When I talked to Apple I mentioned the possibility of a cryptic hardware drain on the battery (like a bad internal component) that wouldn’t show up as any activity. They said their diagnostics didn’t detect anything. I deal with internal diagnostics and fault detection in my professional life, and I know that they’re only as good as the faults that developers anticipate.

Regarding “Find My” showing as active in my post, it was, but with no significant activity in minutes. In some hours of usage (when you review activity by the hour), Find My, or other apps, may show as 100%, but that’s 100% of the 1 or 2 minutes of the “screen off” activity within that hour.

I just wish Apple would acknowledge that it’s abnormal. The tech I talked to aggravatingly said he thought my battery life was “pretty good, actually”, when my phone discharges to dead in around 8 hours even with no significant use. Frustrating.

 

[OhMyMy]

Yeah, that’s essentially the same as me. Battery life plummets, but nothing significant showing in “Activity”. When I talked to Apple I mentioned the possibility of a cryptic hardware drain on the battery (like a bad internal component) that wouldn’t show up as any activity. They said their diagnostics didn’t detect anything. I deal with internal diagnostics and fault detection in my professional life, and I know that they’re only as good as the faults that developers anticipate.

Regarding “Find My” showing as active in my post, it was, but with no significant activity in minutes. In some hours of usage (when you review activity by the hour), Find My, or other apps, may show as 100%, but that’s 100% of the 1 or 2 minutes of the “screen off” activity within that hour.

I just wish Apple would acknowledge that it’s abnormal. The tech I talked to aggravatingly said he thought my battery life was “pretty good, actually”, when my phone discharges to dead in around 8 hours even with no significant use. Frustrating.

1. Is this battery drain consistent?
2. Do you see battery percentage drop in front of your eyes when doing anything mildly intensive like during updating apps from the App Store?