We know you like iOS 7.1, but with a lot of chatter about reduced battery-life, and the only test so far based on a small sample and having results falling within the margin of error, we thought it would be useful to get a sense of how prevalent the issue might be.
We recognize, of course, that there are a huge number of variables involved in battery-life. Even if your phone usage is reasonably consistent, a single extra phone call or a bit longer spent browsing the web can account for the relatively small differences most are reporting. A poll is not going to amount to a scientific study, but a decent sample size should at least give a reasonable indication as to the scale of any issue …
Click on the one-question poll to tell us whether or not you’ve seen your battery-life take a hit since upgrading to iOS 7.1, and let us know in the comments the type of difference you’re seeing.
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No, it’s fine, however it’s draining a lot faster after i turn on Frequent locations
true, i love the frequent locations function BUT it uses gps constantly and makes my iphone really hot. this sucks…
Mine even got better!
80% left now with 2 hours of usage and 15h standby!
My batt was so bad I considered returning the iPhone 5S. After 7.1 my batt is better!
I am not seeing any impact to the battery after updating. I updated via over the air delta update. I noticed that my Bluetooth & Airdrop were turned on by default after updating. Maybe that is causing this battery drain? Sorry, I’m not up to date with the situation.
I was facing a lot of battery related issues after 7.0 but 7.1 seems to have solved it.
I find it rather odd that people are able to tell the difference based the small percentage difference shown in the article below this one by Mike. It lasts through the day, thats all that matter to me.
No of course not. It is still within the same normal range that every iPhone is. Love when people use their phone a little more than usual because they just updated it, and then think, “wow, battery life took a hit.”
There are quite a few people complaining about this on the Apple discussion boards. One poster claimed that he charged his phone to full, drove to work and left the phone in his car, as he usually did. 9 hours later the phone was completely discharged, when he would normally see more than 90% capacity left.
This is far more than a few people using their phones a little more than usual and then blaming the lower capacity on the upgrade.
Read my experience, and possible solution below.
Don’t waste your time arguing with PMZanetti, he won’t believe there is an issue because in his eyes Apple is infallible.
Anyway there is an issue I’ve seen it myself, my routine with my phone is almost identical day to day, before 7.1 I would get home with about ~25% battery life to spare. I now have to plug in my phone when driving home because it’s almost dead before I leave work. Over the course of 10 hours of medium use I’ve lost 2 hours of charge time.
PMZanetti and Tallest Ski – STFU I don’t care what you have to say, you bring now value to these boards so please do everyone a favor and just leave. Thank you.
When I upgranded to iOS 7, I had to make many change to my iPhone 4S settings to preserve battery life. Now with iOS 7.1 update my iPhone 4S is much faster, and I turned back on many settings I turned off and it still has 50% battery at the end of the day.
Here is a tip for anyone who is having an issue. Check to see if an unexpected app is using background location services. In 7.1, doesn’t matter if the app is open or not. I think that’s they key difference here. For me, the Delta Airlines app was using background services even though I haven’t launched it in weeks. Plus there is no reason for it to even need my location while not in use. I blocked it (in the privacy settings) and now my battery is working even better than with 7.0. My friend noticed similar issues with FourSquare. Check on yours and report back please. Maybe Apple is getting blamed for what rogue apps are doing.
indeed, since 7.1 apps that aren’t even running in the background are still using location settings! i had to turn them off at the privacy tab. closing the app doesn’t help anymore
I found that Dark Skies and Apple’s own Apple Store app were culprits on my 5s. I turned them off but after doing what I outlined below, I was able to turn them back on without an issue.
I noticed the same with Nike+ Moves, so I just turned off the location for that app.
Yep! 3 apps have been consistently using location services. You might have figured it out.
Iphone 5s , Battery performance is better !
Much better!
After updating to 7.1, my charge dropped from 100% to 50% in about 3 hours. During this time I received two phone calls totaling less than a minute and played about 30 minutes of an audio book. I called Apple Tech support and during the call my battery dropped an additional 31%.
The location services arrow icon appeared in the status bar immediately after the upgrade.
I found that turning off both location services and background app refresh, letting the battery completely discharge, recharging the battery completely, then turning both location services and background app refresh back on made the location services icon vanish and greatly improved the battery life. Whether the battery life is back to where it was originally remains to be seen.
Battery life is always slightly impacted after an iOS update. It reindexes stuff in the background. OS X does the same after fairly major updates. Obviously it’s less noticeable as Macs have far more processing power so it doesn’t take as long. Once it’s done that it’ll be back to normal.
I did a clean install of ios 7.1 on my 5s and I have been very happy with my battery life
Oddly, after the update installed, battery time was fine except when I active “RunKeeper.” It seems to drain a full battery in no time at all; previously, it seemed like RunKeeper could operate on 5 hours of batter or more. Never tried, but the drain was low.
I have not noticed any difference in battery life since I upgraded my phone a couple of days ago. My wife just updated her phone last night, so we will see with it.
I’m not sure why, with all these articles they always refer to iPhones, when there are other Apple products. But in my case I have an iPad Air. I’ve noticed no noticeable difference in battery power since updating. However I also have an iPod Touch 5. Since updating to iOS 7, I’ve noticed the battery taking a hit. But just in the last few months I’ve noticed that I may be able to listen to at most 3 albums and the battery is at half power. Yesterday I listened to 2 albums, downloaded one from iTunes, and got halfway through my third album when my battery display was showing less than 20% power. Keep in mind that I have animations off. I’ve turned off all notifications. I’ve reduced my screen brightness to about 40 percent. And I keep the wi-fi off. So I don’t get it. I read somewhere that if may have been a glitch with the battery indicator and to run the iPod till it shuts itself off, which theoretically should resolve the problem. I did this but the issue still persists. Anyone have any ideas? I’ve had the original iPod (Classic) and all variations of the iPod Touch, plus 3 iPads. This is the first issue I’ve had with any of them. And I don’t want to just say “to heck with it” and buy a new one in case they come out with the iPod Touch 6 this fall.
Thank you
You said you keep wi-fi off. Have you tried keeping airplane mode on? I always keep my iPod Touch in airplane mode; for the past several years, with several models of iPod Touch, it’s the best way to keep my battery going strongly. Once in a while when I forget to switch airplane mode back on after doing something on-line, it’ll often drain pretty quickly.
I charged my phone in the car on the way to work. It was at 100% when I got out. That was 2 hours ago. I’ve checked my mail several times, checked status on a few apps, and made a short phone call. My battery is still at 100%.
Way better on iPhone 5S
Turn off Bluetooth which is set to on in 7.06 and 7.1 if you don’t need it. Check location services, this can be a drain.
I find that so confusing. Forcibly turning on Bluetooth? What’s up with that, Apple?
Fully charged to powering off in under four hours or so. No problems on 7.0, but (on my iPhone 5) battery life is a disaster on 7.1
There are Millions of iOS devices in use today and millions that have upgraded to 7.1 There will always be varying opinions and things posted on Apple forums and twitter. People will always have something to gripe about. But if not more than 70% of the population of 7.1 is experiencing the “battery drain” issue then its not really an issue. There are a myriad of reason why the battery drains on an iPhone. Quite possible the user data on the phone during the upgrade could have become unusable and needs to be wiped and restored. But to blame it on the OS is ridiculous. There are always complaints of battery life issues at every upgrade. most of them are either environmental or user issues.
Are you really saying that if the failure rate is below 70%, it’s OK? That’s insane! More than a third of the respondents to the poll are claiming a hit to battery life. 30% is a HUGE problem and you’re stating that 70% is fine. Did you ever work for Yugo?
Take the same poll a few weeks from now and see what the results are.
We’ll have figured out how to get around the problems by then, but right now, a full 36% of the respondents are seeing problems and Apple Tech support is clueless despite extensive beta testing. Someone must know about the problem and how to deal with it.
On the first day I saw a 50% drop in charge in 3 hours, now in 3.5 hours, it only dropped 10%. Why can’t Apple document the steps needed to solve the problem and post it on their website?
Since iOS 7.1, my iPhone 5 barely lasts half a day, even without using it. Before it would last almost a full day and I’m a heavy user: 4G/3G, Wifi and bluetooth all the time activated and connected.
Mine went from 99% in the morning to 12% by the middle of the afternoon, and my phone was just sitting in my pocket. I’ve turned off everything possible and backed it up We’ll see how today goes.
Yeah, something is wrong big time there. My 5s battery life did not change and possibly even improved since 7.1. I unplugged yesterday morning around 6am at 100% and was at 58% at 10pm when I turned it off after my average normal usage. Turn on this morning at 6:30am and now it’s noon and I’m at 49%. I regularly make it two days and on 7.1 this is still easily the case.
With most unneeded things turned off, my 5s is sitting at 94% after six hours. I left Buetooth on for syncing with my car, but that’s about it. I’ll start turning things on one at a time over the weekend.
Me too…a much better battery life and signal reception (t-mo)
Mine got ever better, and better signal reception as well (t-mo)
Probably a lot of the problem too is that 7.1 doesn’t let you quit background apps anymore. Even if you swipe up on the apps, if they use location, VoIP, etc they will continue running anyway.
I actually seemed to have longer battery life than normal yesterday after updating the previous evening.
i have noticed faster drain when i have location services on.
It’s one of the Morphy’s law corollaries:
Any OS update (minor or major) of whatever mobile battery operated device will reduce the battery-life of most of its users.
4 iPhones (one 4, two 4S, one 5) + 4 iPads (two 2, one Mini, one 4) all have not only improved responsiveness throughout the system but improved battery life as well.
For the record I have an iPhone 5s on Verizon Wireless running iOS7.1. Yesterday I charged my phone before I went to bed. Then when I got in bed I unplugged the phone. When I woke up 8hr 20min later my battery was at 99%. I got up read some news (20 mins), sent a couple email & txts (10min). Then just to test I launched the YouTube app and watched 8-10 videos (25-30min). After all that my battery was only down to 80%. So I’m just no seeing a drain on my battery from 7.1. Just my unsolicited two cents.
I unplugged my phone at 6 a.m. and it’s already down to 26% at 10:45 a.m. I’m on wi-fi, minimal usage, and I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary. Usually by this time of day I’m still around 70-80% with minimal usage. I’ve noticed for the past couple days that it seems to drain quickly, and it just occurred to me today that it has only been since the update. Coincidence? I think not.
I agree I even went to the apple store. They said my battery was fine. That it was a software issue. Duh!
My 5S battery life has not decreased and has possibly even improved.
I have noticed difference in battery life, but I also completed a DFU reinstall of 7.0.6 prior to the upgrade to 7.1. I set up as a new phone as well. I went through my standard settings setup, but have noticed I am not getting the same battery life over the past week.
My iPhone 5, which had terrible battery issues from the day it arrived (it was a refurb from Apple to replace my first iPhone 5 which had a “factory defect”) became almost abysmal for battery life. Now I’m lucky to go from 100% to dead in roughly four to five hours on a good day. If I try to use my camera, that is the kiss of death and it will not reboot at all unless I plug it in.
Based on consistent usage since the update I am not seeing any significant change in battery life. I’m sure it’s activity dependent but for me, I see no impact.
This is weird to hear about, my battery life seems even better after 7.1 on my 5s.
Here we go again…another update, another burst of noise about battery life. What a surprise.
ArsTechnica did a reasonably good review of iOS 7.1 including battery life. Seems about the same. My iPhone got a noticeable improvement in battery life with 7.0 and 7.1 is the same. Still get about 24 hours with my usage pattern.
Only one data point. You can’t draw conclusions from that, there was only a 1 in 3 chance that they would see a problem.
Over a third of the respondents to this poll said yes. It seems to be a software glitch. After doing what I mentioned up topic, I went from 50% drain in 3 hours to 10% in 3.5.
People aren’t imagining this.
Updated an iPad (Gen 3), an iPad Mini, an iPhone 5s and a 5c and have experienced no change in battery life. I expect it’s the whiners who have a really tough time with change. Every time an OS update comes out, they have less battery life or their device now overheats or they throw up when looking at the screen. Just don’t upgrade and you can live with the old stuff you love forever. The rest of us don’t really care.
I’ve installed every update from iPhone OS v1.1 through iOS 7.1. Some are fine, some are buggy. iOS 7 is a buggy one, with 7.1 being the buggiest. My phone lost 50% of its charge in 3 hours with only 2 very short calls being received and 30 minutes of listening to audio files. An additional 31% was lost during a call to Apple tech support.
Call them “whiners” if you want, but the problem is real. Just look on Apple’s own discussion boards.
It not fine I’m using iPad Air wifi model I was able notice that new update has some issues with battery with few hours I could notice it that battery started to drain
iPhone 5S, was usually at about 80% at the end of the day, after the update to 7.1 (from iPhone), battery was down to 40%-50% in the early afternoon, did a full restore with iTunes this morning (incl. restore of backup) and I’m at 98% now…
my iphone 4 has gone from 100% to 0 and switched off in less than a day and now wont charge at all!!! i have a dead phone!!! What now???
Let the phone sit for a while and see if it will accept a charge. If not, try posting a question here: https://discussions.apple.com
I haven’t seen any difference with my 5s
iPhone 4S is taking a huge hit on iOS 7.1. I home on wifi and haven’t touched it all day. Full Charged at 830am and right now (315p) 26%. That’s awful.
My 5S has become very sluggish. Many times I can even type faster than the keyboard can keep up. All started with 7.1.
My battery life dropped but I found that Bluetooth was activated after the update and I suspect this might have been the cause of it.
I have noticed better battery life than ever running a 5s , my Gf runs a 5 with crap for battery life. I’m thinking it’s something to do with how the phone was setup/restored. I always set mine up as new phones and run fresh software. It’s seemed to help in the past with software bugs.
I am having to charge twice a day now
Yesterday my 5S drained completely for the first time pretty much ever, though it did sit at 1% for over 20 minutes, while it had dropped from 10% to 1% in about the same period.
Today it’s dropping about 1% every 15 to 30 minutes when not in use. When in use, simply browsing the home screen, it drops a percent every few minutes or so. At times the phone would randomly get warm and I’d check the CPU using an app and see if at about 25%. It would then just lower on it’s own back to normal. It seems to do this every time the phone sleeps and I unlock of. Brightness is turned down, background refresh is on, but limited to 2 mapping apps. I did turn animations on, so maybe that’s the cause, though that wouldn’t explain the drain when not in use.
My iPad dropped a few percentages just typing this up. I left it on, but didn’t use it all day (about 10 hours) and it lost 2% (usually loses 0 or 1%). In the last four hours, it’s lost 20% and I’ve only really used it less than half that time for things like web browsing.
Not so much of a hit, rather it drains quickly/dies after reaching 20%
My 5s is actually better, I did a clean restore to 7.1, deactivated all the location services I don´t need, and it took 23 hours to go from 100% to 0%, during that period I was 4 hours over wifi, did 30 minutes phone calls, play 3 hours of music (EarPods), and my regular check of whatsapp, Facebook, instagram, porn, newsfeed. It is clearly that people with this drain problem are just not setting the phone properly.
With location services it was awful though I had to deactivate it. iPad mini retina
I don’t observe big difference. But my phone battery becomes warm when I use it to watch, for example, azdrama.sx.
Battery life on an iDevice? Has it ever mattered to Apple? They keep making iDevices thinner and thinner and the battery life gets worse and worse. A premium device that you can only use for half to 3/4 of a day. Where you are force to bring a battery along, or slap on a huge battery case? Will the iPhone 6 last for only an hour on a single charge? Is that where we are headed. I vote for thicker. I vote for battery life. I don’t want to scramble for a charger at the airport. I don’t want my expensive device dead on a flight. I vote for better – period.
My battery will drop from 80+% to less than 1% in a flash. Unexpected, no typical warnings. Only since the upgrade. Apple OS upgrades all suck. Apples way to use up my space, all under sham of making consumers happy and thus forcing us to purchase their next product. Hate apple. Their “fix” will cost me!
Oh, the drama! Life as we know it has ended! Apparently you prefer to complain rather than read. It’s a bug, not a conspiracy and there’s a fix and I’ll post it here for the third time.
This is what worked for me:
Turn off both location services and background app refresh, let the battery completely discharge. Recharge the battery completely, then turn both location services and background app refresh back on. This made the location services icon vanish and greatly improved the battery life.
On the first day I saw a 50% drop in charge in 3 hours, now overnight, it only dropped 4%.
We’ll that is fine however my location service is off along with background app refresh
Did you run the battery out until the phone shut down? That seems to reset the phone and cures many ills.
Yes I did. I let it run all the way down last night. Then charged and same issues still everything is off all push I shut off notifications I have set up my phone as a new device which is a pain. But apple says battery is fine it is a software issue. Which I already know
Is it still under warranty? Prior to my getting it working, Apple was offering to swap it out.
Yrs it is. I did go to the apple. They said the battery was fine restart the phone as new and that should solve my problem. I really have liked iphone Until now
If you have Applecare just keep calling and complaining. Try to get sent to a senior advisor, go through all the troubleshooting steps and keep using the same case number. That’ll insure that everything documented. With luck they’ll offer to replace the phone.
My 18 month old iPhone 5 cannot hold a 100% charge overnight now on standby with no usage, and gets VERY VERY hot when on phone calls after updating to iOS 7.1. I’m in the middle of a clean, connected reinstall of the iOS and a restore via iTunes to see (praying) if that corrects the problem. But my battery issue was DRAMATIC – it could hold a limited-use standby charge for 3 days before updating. :(
I end the day with a 20% less battery than before the upgrade, it is a 5s
In 4hrs my phone went from 100% charged to 50% charged and I hadn’t used the phone at all. Most of my services are off with the exception of about 3-4 wtf
Since the IOS 7.1 upgrade on my iphone 4s i’ve have a huge reduction in battery life. Charged my phone fully and took it off charger 12 hours ago and its down to 51% batter left although have made/received no phone calls or opened/run any apps myself. Before software upgrade my battery would have been at maybe 85% with same usage. Also another issue i’ve found is that wifi will no longer work and is grayed out.anyone else getting this issue.
I am recvng battery issues and call drops. But wifi is working perfectly fine. Battery os draining a lot widout any usage.
Even if I don’t use the iPhone much all day, I’m left with only 30% battery by 10 pm, whereas before I had about 80% left usually
I am facing battery issues after updating to ios 7.1 from the wifi . Yesterday my battery was 100 percent as i unplugged from charging point within 10 mins it reaches to 98 percent without any usage. I am also experiencing lot of call drops and some problems in facetime. The phone automatically get disconnected while talking. The phone is becoming hot and its using frequent locations very much as you open browser youtube anything…
I think another reset after the update will fix the issue.
Same battery life than before upgrading. Simply people play a bit more to discover changes. It’s enough to stay one hour with screen on and ups!, battery life’s dropped to hell. Relax people. You will get same battery life once you are back to a normal use
You really didn’t read the comments, did you? People are complaining of dramatic changes. My phone went through in 3 hours what it normally would last 24, and this was with minimal use. That’s 12.5% of normal.
It took a lot of troubleshooting to get it back to normal and it wasn’t caused by playing with the new OS, it was caused by a glitch in location services.
My ipad3 is losing battery very fast ffs
The day after I upgraded to iOS 7.1 I took my phone to work and I did not use it AT ALL for anything. After eight hours it was at 22%. The next day I used it a couple of times and sent some text messages. By the time my shift was over I had zero power, for the first time since I’ve been using iPhones. That is a drastic shift in power consumption. I haven’t complained because I know Apple will fix it; until then, though, I keep my phone charging all the time.
Yes!!! Full charge then with no use battery starts countdown. I did all the “new” set ups , restarts, iTunes, iCloud Used to have great battery use. Now I hate my phone If I am not by a power source I am doomed. My phone is useless
Just wanted to update my comment. I let my phone drain the battery completely last night the disabled location services and app refreshes like somebody here said. Today the phone is back to its old self!! Battery is holding up like a champ! Kudos señor Apple
My iPhone 5 was draining battery noticeably faster and turning off when battery level would reach no less than 10% (hard reset needed to turn it back on without plugging it in, only for it to turn off within a couple of minutes). A full factory restore through iTunes and restore from backup and the battery life is now back to normal! It lasts the whole day again like it used to.
i have noticed this, not even gone to lunch yet and already on 40%
Bettery life is pathetic since the upgrade. It drains at least twice as fast as before. Probably worse. I used to be able to go all day on a single charge but now I will drop to 50% by 10am !!!. I have tried all the normal stuff; power cyclying, resetting, shutting down apps that are running in the background and nothing changes the battery drain. I definitely wish I never upgraded. Just to function I have to either leave my phone plugged in to my computer whenever possible or take my external battery with me to meetings and such.
BTW…for the record I am using an iPhone 5s. BUT I have noticed a similar issue with my iPad air and my older iPad after upgrading both of them. It is definitely iOS 7.1 upgrade causing the issue.
Looks like we’re up to 44% out of 15,000 people having problems so far.
Yes, while there’s a large slice of subjective judgement at play in an poll like this, those numbers are way too big for it to be imaginary.
So what now? I spoke to Apple Tech support on a different matter last night and asked the tech if she had heard about the iOS 7.1 battery problem and she said no. Maybe you should send the results off to any contacts you may have over there.
Apple is aware of it, even if frontline tech support isn’t
Apple should really keep tech support apprised of new issues emerging after an update, particularly if they are common enough to be well documented even on their own discussion boards. Otherwise their tech support looks clueless, which is bad for the company’s reputation, not to mention annoying to their customers.
Agreed
My battery is draining really quickly on iphone 4 and switching itself off at 10%
Battery life is horrible now…
YES
I have about he battery before, so i know how the battery is draining.
If you use much cpu the battery will drain faster and if you use low number of cpu percentage the battery will drain slower
My Iphone 5 seems to be doing a lot worse on 7.1 : /
There has been an absolute increase in battery drain rate on my phone since installing 7.1. However, this OS install came two days before I installed Google Play Music app.
At first I thought it was the app that was causing the drastic drain – I started using the app right after the install and I could watch my batter drain a % a minute. The phone also overheated. So I uninstalled the app and continued to use the phone as normal. The battery still drained at an increased rate. I re-installed the Google app and haven’t been able to perform any real tests on the phone yet to determine if it’s the app or the 7.1 update. Yesterday I used the phone for about 2 1/2 hours (no music streaming) altogether and the battery was at 52% at the end of the day.
Today I’m at about 1 hour 40 minutes of use (Google Music about 45 minutes of that) and batter is at 67%. Normally I use Spotify to stream my music, and I can get a good 2 hours or so out of that before my battery drops down to 80%.
Tomorrow I’ll use Spotify again and see how the phone acts. Something tells me it’s 7.1 and not the Google app, as yesterday I didn’t use that app at all and the batter drain was still ridiculous.
Note: I have turned off all location services, background app refresh, etc., so it’s not one of those things that’s killing the batter.
Try letting the phone discharge until it shuts down, then charge it to full. I had a similar problem with battery life and this brought my phone back to normal.
I did that last night and plan on testing the phone again today. I’ll use the Google Play Music app for the same amount of time as I did yesterday and see what happens. If the phone overheats, I’ll switch over to Spotify to see what that does. If it overheats w/ Spotify then I know it’s the phone and not the Google app.
Seriously this update sucks… My i5 only last me 4 hours now… and like Mark, I have everything turned off including push notifications. Freggin sucks. We’re all like slaves standing next to an outlet waiting for our phones to charge while using it.
I had major problems with this update, my 5 was dead inside three or four hours on two occasions.
I followed advice here – switched off Location Services for most apps, closed all apps that were multitasking but not needed especially those previously using Location Services), switched phone off and back on.
And voila – battery life far better!
So it looks like it’s definitely the phone. Switched over to using Spotify after using Google Play Music and the phone still overheated and the battery drain was 1% per minute. (Granted – while streaming music I’m also using other apps (Twitter, Safari), and the battery drain is less significant when just the music is streaming and all other apps closed. But I was NOT seeing a 1% per minute drain before 7.1 while using other apps while streaming music. As said previously, I used to be able to get a good 2 hours of streaming Spotify w/ other programs open & only 20% batter drain before 7.1)
On track for between 4 and 5 hours of usage (at 2 hours 20 minutes I’m down to 54% batter life).
This is crazy.
There has been a dramatic change in my battery-life. I lose 1% for every minute. Today my battery was at 57% and then when I went to respond to a text a few moments later the screen showed the picture above. My phone overheats to the point where I can’t even put the phone against my ear to talk. I’ve turned off the background refresh apps and all the other tips people have posted but I know it’s the upgrade and it’s only become an issue today 03/24/14 even though I’ve had the upgrade for a lil while.