iOS 16 Causing Battery Drain? Three Possible Reasons Why and How to Fix

If you updated to iOS 16 this week, you might find your iPhone battery draining faster than you remembered before you got the latest update from Apple.

While you might be quick to point the finger at the update itself as the culprit, there are several reasons you might find your battery draining a bit faster in the days following the update. We have listed some reasons below and how to fix them.

iOS 16 Photos app

The Photos app on your “iPhone” applies advanced machine learning and image recognition algorithms to your photos and videos. The Photos app uses the A-series chips in the “iPhone” to perform these complex operations and consumes battery life.

In particular, on “iOS 16”, a new feature automatically shows duplicate photos in your photo library. This new feature uses on-device processing to look through the thousands of images on your device to identify possible duplicates, and this process can be time and battery consuming.

The more photos and videos you have, the longer it takes to complete the categorization process. As Apple suggests, the best practice is to leave your “iPhone” plugged in overnight while connected to Wi-Fi. This allows the Photos app to curate your photos and videos while it’s powered, which should save some battery power. The process can take several days if not weeks depending on the size of your library.

Spotlight search indexing

Spotlight search on your ‌iPhone‌ is a powerful way to not only search for apps and contacts, but also to search for content in apps like Mail, Messages, Maps, ‌Photos‌ and more.

In order to provide search results for content in your apps, your “iPhone” must index all content in all your apps using on-device processing, which consumes battery life. This can be a long and untraceable process that runs in the background while you use and charge your “iPhone”.

Although there is no way to trace the process, you may be able to simplify it. You can turn off Spotlight’s search feature in individual apps under Settings -> Siri & Search. If there’s an app you might not want indexed, you can turn off “Show content in search” to prevent your “iPhone” from indexing that app, which could help save some battery life.

Your apps need updating

Apps are essential for the ‌‌iPhone‌‌, but automatic updates for installed apps can impact battery life. Especially after a major update like “iOS 16”, apps still need to be updated to support new technologies and the latest operating system.

In the coming days and weeks, developers will slowly update their apps to support “iOS 16” and its new features. Legacy apps that have not been updated for new technologies in “iOS 16” may cause some battery drain as they may be using older tools and code.

A good old reboot and battery health check

It’s always worth just restarting your “iPhone”. Sometimes your “iPhone” can be buggy and buggy after a major update and a simple restart could fix the problem and bring your battery life back to normal.

Another thing to note is that the iPhone battery, like all lithium-ion batteries, loses capacity over time. On your ‌iPhone‌, open Settings and tap Battery -> Battery Health, where you can see how much of your original ‌iPhone‌ battery capacity you have left. iOS will warn you when your battery needs replacing, so this is another point to consider when thinking about your “iPhone” battery life.