Battery Drain on iOS 26 and iOS 26.0.1.

They didn't; it's poorly optimized apps.

I get the same or better battery life from iOS 26 than I did from iOS 18.

That isn't meant to minimize the issue for anyone suffering from it, but rather it shows the problem is not universal among all iOS 26 users.

How long someone has owned and used an iPhone isn’t particularly relevant. iPhone 16 and 17 models are the first fully adapted to run AI and other advanced functions. Much more goes on in the background than previous generations especially early models like iPhone 3G etc.

It’s normal for a recently upgraded iPhone to use extra battery capacity while performing numerous tasks in the background. This not only affects the iOS but many Apple apps and third party apps and Widgets.

The battery drain is usually attributed to the top 5 or 6 apps consuming your battery capacity. List those apps and we can assist troubleshooting your battery drain issue.

What you say about charging at night sounds good. But what about people who can't use optimized charging because they work 2-3 shifts? I guess optimized battery charging wouldn't work in 2-3 shifts either. Turning off Reduce Motion in Accessibility improved my battery life significantly, so you're saying there's nothing wrong with Liquid Glass? :)

kill all apps. Turn off background app refresh. Turn on dark mode. Turn off mail sync to manual apart from turning off other settings mentioned in this article.

Try browsing in safari for 4-7 minutes normal websites if your battery health greater than 80%. If it drains by 1% every 4-7 minutes it is normal.

[Edited by Moderator]

cathyand80 wrote:

I am

having same issue starts out 100% then 6 hours later 30% something really wrong and I did all the changes Apple suggested!

pretty disappointed

You can certainly post your Battery Health at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity, and the device/iOS version you are using.

It would also be helpful to post your green battery graph with the last 24 hour option along with the top apps consuming your battery at Settings > Battery.

Ive also noticed worse battery life in iOS 18 which started to get better around the time when Apple realized it’s not going to be able to deliver promised AI features and next software releases we’re more around bug fixes.

This time around with iOS 26 it appears same story again (with Apple backlog in AI features).

I guess Apple software known for its stability, reliability and deep integration with hardware also doesn’t play well with rapid development when engineers are in rush.

This is probably what sets them apart from the competition which can work on a new features faster but it’s less solid.

Now because of rough schedule Apple might be simply short of time for proper testing before releasing new features and updates.

If really root cause of the issues are external factors (Meta) than this definitely makes it an Apple problem because customers may ultimately stop seeing iPhone as a solid, reliable product for no matter what reason is behind it.

I change each year for the newer iPhones since the first and i noticed that Apple was oone of the best to manage idle time , but nowadays they are the worst, one big tweak i noticed work for gaining battery life is diabling apple intelligence cos it works on the background for no great results so for moment i disabled it .

Could you scroll further down and upload your App and System Activity Usage as well please?

When you tap the apps with the exclamation point what does it indicate?

What does Home & Lock Screen show? It’s cut off in the bottom image.

sutiknohalim wrote:

Mine too after update to 26.0.1 my battery draining fast.

What is your Battery Health and what apps are consuming your Battery at Settings > Battery?

No, Apple does not permit a downgrade. What 5 or 6 apps are consuming the most battery capacity on a daily basis? Do any of the apps show background activity?

Removing Facebook from my phone has helped. However, battery life is still poor. Battery health is 85%. Apps are up to date. Apple needs to address the issue.

Contact Apple Support directly:

Contact - Official Apple Support

andrea_filice wrote:

I've tried everything, resetting network settings, hard resetting by pressing Volume Up + Volume Down and holding the power button. I strongly believe it's a software optimisation issue.

It certainly is possible. We can't rule out app usage of background processes or indexing is still going on if you are seeing high usage of Home & Lock Screen though at this point, without seeing the apps consuming the battery.

The next update is currently in beta and being testing and as I said before, we are unable to comment on the issues that have been resolved relating to battery usage in that update. No release date has been set, but you may find improvement when it is officially released.