Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone X Will upgrading my X from 11.3 to the current firmware diminish battery life and performance?
- Thread starter TH55
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
So 3rd party apps effect certain devices now? I setup my 12 pro from a backup of the 11 pro. Exact same setup.
Edit: I will say, I am not talking fast battery drain, I am saying the 11 pro has much quicker battery loss over a day then iOS 13 did. Been this way every since I can remember with iOS.
I never said third party apps affect certain devices and not others. What I am saying is that there’s no way Apple releases a software update where overall battery life is a regression from iOS 13. Once you rule out the OS, then you look around for things that you have specific to your iPhone that is unique to you (signal strength, which third party apps you have installed, whether you have features on those apps that bring in additional power draw, etc).
Another thing to look for in iOS 14 is how many widgets you have on your Home Screen. Since it’s new to the OS, I bet some people flooded their Home Screen with at least 10-15 widgets. 10-15 widgets pinging and receiving network traffic in the background in set intervals could lead to more battery usage. I only have the Smart Stack, a stocks widget and a clock widget on my Home Screen.
But your missing it! My 11 pro is exactly the same as my 12 pro. Setup completely the same. iOS 14 drains older devices faster. The A14 can handle iOS 14 better than the A13. That makes sense. It’s more taxing on older hardware.
You don’t have a single widget on your Home Screen, no pinned conversations in messages, never used Picture in Picture once? A14 is 25% faster at most than A13. If there is a difference in battery life, it’s so minor. If you’re comparing A8X to A14, then I could see it in certain scenarios. But A13 to A14 is a minor difference in speed. My battery life at the end of the iOS 14 beta period was on par with iOS 13. I still ended the day within 5% of iOS 13 levels.
Okay, so how about the battery life of the iPhone 4s on iOS 9, the iPhone 5 on iOS 10, the iPhone 5s on iOS 12, the iPhone 6s on iOS 14, the iPhone X on iOS 14, the iPad... any iPad that has been updated, and any other iPhone. On literally any iOS version ever (as long as it was updated 3 times on major versions). The results repeat, battery life sucks.
It’s absolutely, completely, decidedly indefensible. That we still have to debate this after all these years is simply mind-blowing.
Not my experience at all. Took a hit from day one of iOS 14. Nothing huge, but very noticeable. It always been that way with iOS updates.
So, enlighten me then. What happened? Why did my battery life drop by 40% LAST YEAR, immediately after updating, and never recovered? Why?
And you’re lucky, it’s just one iOS version. Give it a couple more, and I’m sure that even the battery life of the absolutely magnificent 11 Pro Max will be worse than the iPhone 8 on iOS 11.
My iPad’s battery life is not much better than the iPhone 6s on iOS 9. It used to be better by 6 hours. Now its dropping to 40% with 5-6 hours of SOT. My 6s got 5 hours on 40% On iOS 9 (Until, thanks to the Server activation bug, it got forced to iOS 13 just like my iPad).
Now I can’t wait to buy an new iPad. Thanks Apple!
Yeah I agree. The deeper the update, the more battery drain.
It has screwed me on multiple occasions by people insisting that updating would somehow improve battery life. It would be common sense that adding newer, bigger software that your phone was not designed to run would negatively impact battery life.
See this is the problem. You DON'T understand it, so you've elected to assign blame to something which makes zero sense, and then you have the nerve to tell other people that this is a thing like you're an authority. How about just avoid talking about things you don't understand.
I notice no difference on my X from iOS 13 to iOS14. Battery life is still great and the same.
And a restore is still not the same. iOS doesn't backup and restore a complete image of your phone. Which is why some issues often get fixed with a factory reset, even if you restore from backup afterwards. It just saves a list of your apps, settings, accounts, files, etc.
And they didn't add anything in iOS14 that would be taxing to the A13. That CPU is so fast, that it will likely be heavily underused for years. If you are/were experiencing much worse battery life, it must be due to a bug.
I understand how a backup works. There was no bug because my iPhone 12 pro that is using the exact same backup is just fine.
No iOS 14 didn’t add anything that would be taxing on the CPU, but things like widgets can draw more battery. There has to be a benefit to the A14 and it being more efficient, or why would Apple have wasted their time on putting it in the new phone?
On the 11 Pro it isn’t as taxing. Go slightly older than that and it is incredible. Devices with amazing battery life are now mediocre at best.
Will doing a full restore and wiping my phone clean fix this issue or will I still notice a significant decrease in battery life?
Different people experience different things with different devices and different updates. There's really no one that can really say what things will be like for someone else (or how they will perceive them).
Going by many different update discussion threads to one degree or another that appears to be the reality when it comes to something like battery life and/or performance.
Or perhaps the other way around if you factor in that a very small percentage of users post something online, and out of those most that would post would usually be the ones who would experience something that they don't expect or aren't sure about while most of those who aren't having issues or questions typically wouldn't be posting anything.
It might improve when compared to a non-restored iPhone on iOS 14, but it won’t be anywhere near iOS 11.