Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

You are correct that you would never know if the same thing would have happened by simply playing a processor intensive game. The battery was likely defective and the replacement should have been no charge to you through the standard AppleCare coverage. Heat is generated by just watching Youtube/TikTok videos and if that was the case, it would appear that action was the cause. In both cases heat is going to be increased through an update or normal use and battery swelling is the result of a defective battery.

I remember a long time ago when iphones were praised for their excellent idle time without loosing much battery comparibg to others.. but since a few years i noticed the opposite also . Nowadays ios is sipping battery life nearly as much no matter if it’s just idle and not used or used .. it’s quite weird .. i also boticed that with my set up my iphones eats more battery on wifi than on cellular from home … and yes i wish apple would give us more options in the battery section like on others , we have adaptive battery with ios 26 but no extreme power saving mode where you can opt in to delay all non urgent notifications when you unlock the phone or just wake it up .. i have a cheap 200 euros phone next to my 17 pro max and the cheap phone is barely usibg any battery idle .. i wish apple would put more effort in this area .

My wife has a 16 Pro Max and it performs better under iOS 26.0.1 than probably another of the iOS 189 versions. If you can’t figure out how to fix the issues you’re confronting, contact Apple Support. But there is nothing subtle about a great working iOS. the improvements are noticeable.

Snoopy72 wrote:

Despite a clean setup and no background apps, I’m losing around 50–55 % in about 12 hours of light use (mostly Messenger, web browsing and short calls). Overnight it also drops several percent while idle.

You should be charging your phone all night every night and I recommend using the Optimized Charge setting. If you are using a charge limit, you are already starting each day with a partially depleted battery. Your phone under any iOS version is going to drop several percent overnight while idle. What you described is having all day battery life. Don't get caught up comparing Screen on/off time as you can see adding the 2 together never equals 24 hours which are the only 2 states other than when your device is powered off.

I have bought a new iPhone 15 and right then on 28 sept I upgraded my phone to 26 then again after 3-4 days to 26.0.1 .I am not facing any issues but for the first 10-12 days my phone battery was draining fast.Now suddenly battery performance improved

Abhijitrabha wrote:

I have bought a new iPhone 15 and right then on 28 sept I upgraded my phone to 26 then again after 3-4 days to 26.0.1 .I am not facing any issues but for the first 10-12 days my phone battery was draining fast.Now suddenly battery performance improved

Yep, that is exactly what is expected and glad everything is working for you.

🛑 I regret updating to 26.0.01! My battery drains twice as fast and I cannot drag and drop apps on my Home Screen. Apple has no clue how to fix and said they don’t support users that go back to previous update that was much better than this latest messed up update. Apple should replace iPhones for those that have major issues instead of forcing us into a position of having to spend $$$$ on another iPhone‼️

Yes, I have the same issue. I ride my bike and listen to music for 1-1/2 hours…when I get home my battery is at 1% and it started at 100%. Something needs to be done if it is the new update that has caused this. It makes me want to go with a different brand altogether. I never had this issue until the IOS update.

According to my observation, iOS 16 was the last major version where you could actually expect quality and good optimization starting from initial releases.

With each new major version, it’s been getting progressively worse, now peaking with iOS 26. The backlog in AI development doesn’t help either. Perhaps its the main culprit.

Apple should really consider time limiting access to new iOS version to latest generation iPhones only. This would set right expectations and allow to be more truthful with customers and perhaps even avoid loosing customers to Android.

That’s interesting because I can unequivocally state iOS 16 that came on my 14 Pro Max, had the worst battery capacity life of any iPhone I’ve used since 2007.

I recently had to backup and restore my 17 Pro Max and since then my battery life is great. I’ve been on my iPhone for 4 hours this morning and I’m at 85%.

I know that doesn’t help you specifically. But consider it might be your specific device and Apple support and users here can assist in troubleshooting your device.

A few days ago, I bought a new iPhone 17 (base version). I have the impression that on iOS 26.0.0, the battery performed much better than after the latest update. On Saturday, my phone updated to iOS 26.0.1, and since then I can say with 100% certainty that during normal use (reading texts, browsing photos, checking notifications, or replying to messages — nothing more), the battery drains so quickly that even my old iPhone 13 on iOS 18 would last almost the whole day.

Does this mean that iOS 26 is really draining the battery so badly that, even with 100% battery health and only three charging cycles, the situation is worse than on my three-year-old iPhone 13? Apple really dropped the ball this time.

Does anyone know if Apple is working on improving battery performance in iOS 26.0.2 or 26.0.3? I’m really disappointed having a brand new phone with such terrible battery life is just awful.

I have the exact same issue, but with an iPhone 16 Pro with 55 battery cycles and 100% health. And agree, this is a software issue. I have 4 IPhone 16 Pro at home, and just mine is running on IOS26. And even after 3 weeks (enough for all background processes to run), and updating apps, and disabling features (which is an absurd- considering that I should not have to change settings and disable features after a software upgrade), the battery life is subpar and way below acceptable levels. And before anyone suggests any further adjustments, I would love to see Apple acknowledging this issue and providing a solution. This shouldn’t be my problem, with a $1,200 brand new phone. And I am an Apple user since the IPhone 3, so I know exactly what is to expect, even before some of the comment authors were born.

My normal usage around lunch time averages 25%. The last two days my battery has drained by 60-70% in the same timeframe. The difference is alarming and stark. to expect about 75% and instead be in the low 30% with very little use. This has never happened to me with an update previously. This is not normal

darren5280 wrote:

My normal usage around lunch time averages 25%. The last two days my battery has drained by 60-70% in the same timeframe. The difference is alarming and stark. to expect about 75% and instead be in the low 30% with very little use. This has never happened to me with an update previously. This is not normal

When did you update?

i updated yesterday Jeff. The battery drain is even worse on 26.1 than 26.0.1

i was on FaceTime with my daughter today for 30 minutes and my battery dropped 45%.

I left my phone on the charger with WiFi overnight last night and all morning and early afternoon today.

seems like it’s taking longer to charge too

not sure what the issue is but 26, 26.0.1 and 26.1 have all been complete duds on my phone

i guess we’ll just sit back and hope that the next one is better