The latest version of iOS gives us many new features and changes. However, whenever a major operating system update drops, there will be some issues or bugs that come with it. In this recent update, the common issue which many iPhone users are likely to encounter is related to battery life. If you are facing this battery drain issues after updating to iOS 14. Here are some troubleshooting for iOS 14 battery drain issue and tips to improve battery life.
Best Solutions for iOS 14 Drain Issue
Apple noticed this problem and they’ve published a support document that provides a workaround for fixing poor battery performance after updating to iOS 14.
The support document shows 7 issues that users might face after installing iOS 14.0 and watchOS 7.0. While some are related to the missing health and workout data, there is one issue in the document that is specifically related to the “increased battery drain” problem.
Instead of suggesting users turn off or on any particular settings, Apple recommends us to erase all content and settings on your iPhone this time. It seems to revive battery life for many users. Apple noted in the document that if you’re experiencing “two or more” of the listed issues, then you need to unpair your iPhone and Apple Watch, back up to iCloud, and wipe all contents. After that, restore your devices from the recent backups.
Here is how to do fix iOS 14 battery drain issue:
Step 1: Backup your iPhone before Wiping
- Make sure your devices are connected to Wi-fi (Plugin, if it’s low on power)
- Go to Settings.
- Tap on the Apple ID at the top.
- Go to iCloud > scroll down until you see iCloud Backup.
- Turn the switch on if it isn’t.
- Choose Back Up Now. Wait until the backup process is done before moving forward.
Step 2: Erase all Data
- Open Settings.
- Tap on General.
- Scroll to the bottom and choose Reset.
- Choose Erase All Content and Settings.
- Tap on Erase Now.
- Enter your Passcode and Apple ID password.
Once the process is complete, you can set up as a new device and restore it from the recent backup.
Why Does iOS 14 Drain Your iPhone Battery?
This is not the first time users complain about iPhone battery performance when a new iOS is released. You may notice there are many similar issues with the big iOS updates in the past.
Well, our advice is to wait several days or weeks so that the iOS operating system can settle in first. Therefore, it can begin to optimize the phone and save battery. When you update to a new iOS 14, it has to relearn your daily usage habits again. You may also need to go through 3 full charge cycles. Doing this will recalibrate the battery and give you a more accurate battery meter.
If the battery still drains, then maybe it is your iPhone battery that has aged and you may need to replace it. On top of that, the new animations and features in the latest update can drain more battery. Save your battery life by turning off some of these “extras”! Our tips below will help you with that.
Tips to Improve iOS 14 Battery Life
Beside avoid using while charging, lower your screen brightness, or don’t force close apps. Improve your iPhone battery in iOS 14 with our useful tips below.
Background App Refresh
Remember that you don’t need to turn this off completely because some apps will rely on it. So, set your background app refresh to Wi-fi or Wi-fi & Cellular data only. Also, you might want to scroll down and turn off background app refresh for apps that don’t need it. This will save a lot of battery life for your phone.
To do this: Go to Setting > General > Background App Refresh
Limit Your Widgets
You might want to limit your widget usage especially widgets that rely on the internet. For instance, the new home screen widget changes throughout the day based on things like news. Therefore, it’s always in the background going to be fetching for news. And, of course, that will eat up your battery life.
Make sure you don’t have a ton of widgets that rely on pulling information from a source like the news application or whether. Especially if you’ve customized your home screen to use like shortcuts and you know to change the icons and things like that. It will eat away your battery life because you have to run through the shortcuts and then it redirects to the actual app.
Low Power Mode
Speaking of shortcuts, the new iOS update brings a new trigger to shortcuts that will let you set low power mode at a certain battery percentage. With this new feature, you can minimize iPhone battery drain easier than ever.
- Go to the Automations tab
- Click on the plus symbol in the top-right
- Create personal automation. Scroll down until you see Battery level
- Open and set the battery level to whatever battery level you want power mode to turn on at.
Note: 50% or lower is what you should set this at. Turning on Low Power mode when your battery is over 50% will probably affect your experience.
Siri Settings and Suggestions
We recommend turning Voice feedback to either only with “Hey Siri” or with Silent mode off.
Also, you might want to disable Always listen for “Hey Siri” too. Unless you use it all the time, otherwise, turn it off.
On top of that, Siri suggestions is truly a battery-sucking demon. Unless you find these suggestions useful, then we suggest disabling them. Doing this will help you save more battery life than you think.
Open Settings > Accessibility > Scroll down and choose Siri, then you will see these options.
Changing Email Push to Fetch
One of the biggest battery drainers in iOS 14 is “email push”. With fetch on, new emails are consistently pushed to your iPhone from the server. Set it to manually so every time you open the mail application it will reload and you’ll see all of your new emails. Here is how to do it:
- Open Setting
- Scroll down to Mail
- Choose Account
- Tap Fetch New Data
- Disable Push
- Scroll down to Fetch
- Set Manually
Precise Location and Significant Location Off
Another tip for saving battery life in iOS 14 is to turn off a feature called Precise location. Here is how to do it:
Open Settings > Privacy > Location services.
In here, you can see which apps are now using your location. For applications that don’t need this, your phone is just going to use more energy and data to track down your precise location instead of just using an approximate location. So, you should only enable this feature for specific apps like Maps.
Optimized Battery Changing
This feature was introduced with iOS 13 and it can actually increase the lifespan of your battery. Follow these steps to enable Optimized battery changing on your iPhone:
Open Settings > Battery > Battery Health. Turn on the “Optimized Battery Charging” toggle.
When it’s on, your iPhone will start analyzing your charging routine to determine when it should fully charge its battery. Doing this keeps your battery below 80% until a full charge, reducing unnecessary battery aging. And, you can tap the “Charge Now” option to charge it to 100% if needed.
The Bottom Line
IOS 14 is still in the beta stages, which means Apple has a lot of work to do ahead of a public build. Apple will soon release iOS 14.0.2 to natively fix this battery problem. If you haven’t updated to iOS 14 yet, it is best to wait for a few days or weeks until a more stable version comes out.
