You may have updated your Apple smartphone to iOS 13.1.2 and possibly are not having any issues, but likely you will be experiencing strange battery drain problems that are still in existence since the 13.1.1 update.

I missed the original 13.0 update and updated at 13.1.1 and immediately started experiencing battery drain issues. I have an iPhone 6S, which has been doing just great with its battery and I installed a new battery via the ‘battery replacement program’ back in December 2018. It’s performance has been and is currently at 99%.

So, I called Apple and support never mentioned an issue and had me walk through a lengthy reinstall process, which initially appeared to have resolved it, but it didn’t. Then 13.1.2 came out, specifically released to solve the battery drain issue, but it hasn’t resolved it.

I found that. I’m not the only one with the issue, below a link to the Apple users community, which confirms that a major issue is still at play across many different iOS users, regardless of device and regardless of battery performance. This many users can not be wrong, read the posts, if you have time.

[embed]https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250710027?page=3[/embed]

After reading the community posts, I tried out one of the recommendations. Run the battery down to zero, let it auto-switch off and recharge from zero. After that event, it has performed slightly better, but other folks in the community haven’t had the same success with this process. It’s just on the off chance if you’re tearing out your hair and would like to try something, then maybe this could work for you.

I will come back to this article later after I’ve had a chance to contact Apple again and get their response to this. I will of course share the community posts link with them and see what they have to say.

Stay tuned…

UPDATE — October 17, 2019

So something must be wrong because Apple released iOS 13.1.3 on Wednesday October 16, 2019. No admission of anything though!

My comments so far on that version as it is performing on my ancient 6S.

• Battery is no longer heating up, phew that’s good news!
• I took a trip via air, for 4 hours. Battery started at 72% and I played Crossy Roads for quite a while on and off, maybe 90 minutes in total, plus I listened to music, opened the phone at least a dozen times.
• When I got off the flight, the battery was at 42%.
• Generally one day later things appear to be performing okay.
• But that’s not the feeling off other users on the discussions forum, link in first half above. Some reporting the same battery drain issues and some saying its even worse. Hard to believe but I am not doubting them.
• I haven’t contacted Apple as yet, as I’m not sure I have anything serious to report, trouble is I have no idea what performance was like before, because you only notice it and monitor it once you’re having issues.
• Oh and as far as MacOs Catalina, I can see they had to update that one to 10.15.1 as well, because of installation issues. Probably leaving that one to update until Christmas, what do you reckon? 😜

[embed]https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250710027?page=3[/embed]

Update — October 22, 2019

Well, things are still better, although I feel it drains just a little faster then I had been used to. Unfortunately no way I can compare it with any performance from previous. Having said that, I am subscribed to the comments on discussions.apple.com, see link inn the main piece above and plenty of folks still complaining, although it has reduced significantly.

I still have no confidence in Catalina. This is first time since 2010, when I switched to Mac that I haven’t updated immediately.

Unfortunately, because of Apple’s performance, I will never upgrade my operating systems with them straight away. Now they remind me so much of Microsoft of the 90’s and early 00’s. I might leave it for 3 months after release to allow all the bugs to be cleared up.

Apple were the only ones we could trust until now and now there’s nobody. What a massive fail for Big Tech. Size matters I guess, the bigger you get the worse you get. Please come back Jony Ive, we miss you!

Update — October 31, 2019

I have spoken with Apple Support just now, we ran a diagnostic on my 6S and he confirmed there’s no issue with the battery, the health is perfect. Well it should be it is only 1 year old (through the apple replacement program) . He then recommended to switch off ‘background app refresh’. This I had done previously with 13.1, but when 13.1.2 came out or was it 13.1.3, oh flip I’m losing count, anyway which ever one it was and the battery was behaving slightly better, I switched background app refresh back on.

So he then suggested I should monitor what happens for a few days when app refresh is off, then if it performs better start switching some apps back on, one by one to see if it is a specific app that is causing it?!

As I am talking to him (and app refresh is off) the battery dropped from 92% to 81% , then I had to check train times on an app (UK railway app) because he suggested I can also take the phone into a store and they will run a deeper diagnostic on the phone, it dropped from 81% to 72% literally within seconds. When I relayed that to him, he then said YES this shouldn’t be happening.

He concluded seeing as the battery health is fine, it has to be a software issue. He’s half saying it has to be an app, but the only difference between yesterday and today is iOS 13.2, so it HAS to be Apple’s software.

Update — November 7, 2019

So I’m in the Genius Bar in Birmingham U.K. and they confirm that iOS 13 has been an issue. All in-depth diagnostics done again and confirmed that no unusual usage and the battery drain is too fast for very little usage on my phone, at least we’re not all imagining it. They recommend a complete wipe and reinstall. The recommendation is to use the phone for a few days without restoring from backup and see how it performs. So my phone has been wiped and I will use the phone in a raw state to see how it performs. A call back from Apple has been arranged for this coming Sunday 10 November, 2019 so I will give you a further report after that.

The answer to my question, ‘what if this action doesn’t resolve it? We will have to escalate to engineering, but likely the outcome will be to wait until the next iOS update’. 🙁

To confirm, my device is S6 with 13.2 installed and a battery that’s 11 months old with a 98% maximum capacity on battery health.

**WARNING: Please do a backup before you wipe your phone. **

Success, Michael ツ

Update — November 8, 2019

After having met with Apple and done a full reset on my phone, I got back to base and charged my phone to 99%. I decided to remove it from the charge cable and use it very lightly, it immediately started to lose charge quickly and in about 6 hours it had nearly lost all of it’s charge.

According to Apple it the 6S should offer up to 14 hours of talk time on 3G and up to 10 days of standby time from a single charge. Internet use is listed as 10 hours on 3G and LTE and up to 11 hours on Wi-Fi. The iPhone 6s also offers up to 11 hours of HD video playback and up to to 50 hours of audio playback.

So unfortunately, the full reset really didn't work, so I posted an angry comment on the discussions forum and this resulted in an email from Apple, confirming the removal of my post, see email below, which includes my post.

Update — November 10, 2019

After my follow-up call with support today as planned, they confirmed that all the suggested actions that they advise, have indeed been carried out. The default action when an issue like this occurs is to reset the phone from new, which was done. But as this didn’t resolve the issue, the support agent, was going to speak to two different departments, log it as a complaint too (that was new to me, never heard that before), but there will not be any response to the complaint as such.

She then transferred me and escalated my case to senior support. So after being told to run my phone without restoring for a few days, now I’ve been told to restore from back-up and then run for a few days. After that on Wednesday Nov 13 they will take logs from my phone and submit to engineering. After 3 calls and one visit to a store they are confirming the complaint. If you have the time and inclination please continue the process of reporting it, the more complaints can be lodged the better.

I guess I will just have to wait until the next version of iOS, maybe 2020 until this gets resolved? Although I would imagine that my iPhone 6S, won’t qualify for a software upgrade by then, now that would be upsetting indeed.

Email to Tim Cook

Hello Tim

I am writing from the UK. I’ve been a loyal Apple user and supporter for 9 years. I made the switch to Apple in 2010 and was delighted with my move away from Microsoft and substandard hardware. I was overjoyed.

I have spent thousands of pounds on hardware and software on several Macs, iPhones and iPads. I was hypnotised by the Apple formula, you got me at hello!

Since the past few years, I have reduced my spend to make sure I can leverage the equipment I have already invested in, my last iPhone which I am pleased to say is in 100% working order is an iPhone 6S.

That was until iOS13 was released. I have always been an early adopter when software gets released and this time I was about a week late, due to vacation and by then iOS 13.1 had already been released. Little did I know of the issue with battery drain caused by iOS 13. Sure enough I encountered very poor battery performance. I had replaced my battery through the ‘battery replacement programme’ in November ’18, so I knew it wasn’t my battery, it had to be something to do with software. So I search on discussion.apple.com and found this thread; https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250710027.

471 people say they have the same issues, over 90 comments and 5,887 views of the article. I would suggest it’s one of the most active discussions I have ever witnessed.

Phew I wasn’t the only one, but little assurance, because now my iPhone has been rendered useless. I even called support twice, they told me to go into a store, I spent hours and days trying to resolve the issue. It is still an issue today even after version 13.2.2, released the other day.

At no stage has Apple admitted there’s an issue. I get it with well over a billion of devices installed worldwide and just a few hundred reporting an issue, it’s not really that big of an issue is it? But it is a real issue not ‘fake news’, many folks are all having the same issue, some may believe that it’s just part of Apple building in redundancy, to force us all to buy new devices. Well maybe the new device we buy is not an Apple device?

My question is, why won’t Apple admit to the battery drain issue with iOS13 and let us know that you are working on a fix?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards, Michael

ps. I haven’t dare install Catalina, I’ve heard all sorts of nightmares with it too. Oh dear, this must be the worst year of software updates for Apple, I’ve never known it this bad, it has always been faultless in the past

Update — November 11, 2019

I’ve had a response from Craig Federighi! See below…

Hi Michael,

I was forwarded your note to Tim. (I head up iOS Software at Apple).

I’m very sorry to hear that you’ve experienced a degradation in battery life in your iPhone 6S since upgrading to iOS 13. Something very odd is going on; we worked very hard to maintain both performance and battery life in iOS 13 (and iOS 12), and our current field telemetry is not showing any widespread regression among customers who upgraded (including those with older devices).

I would very much like to figure out what is going on with your phone so that we can correct it. To do this, I’d appreciate if you’d be willing to send me diagnostics from your phone. If you’re willing to help, please click on the link below (on your iPhone6S) to begin a diagnostic session. You will be guided to collect a sysdiagnose, which contains diagnostic information helpful in investigating issues. You will have the option to review files before sending to Apple. This link is valid for 7 days, and cannot be reused once a device has started the diagnostic session. If you would like to view a diagnostic session that is in progress, you can tap this link again or go to Settings > Privacy > Analytics > View Enhanced Logging Session.

Diagnostics Link: [link removed]

Thank you!

- craig

Update — November 11, 2019 pm

So my first full day, or rather half day of using my iPhone 6S iOS 13.2.2 without being on charge. Have a look at how quickly it drained, with very very little activity. Fascinating…

Update — November 12, 2019

So Apple Care USA got in touch with me, more information to follow, except to say that if you are experiencing this issues then you MUST pick up the phone and call Apple Support, it will be worth it. The senior Apple Care support individual suggested that not enough people are reporting if they have an issue.

Update — December 2019

After detailed and regular communication between USA and Ireland Apple Care, I am now the proud owner of a replacement iPhone 8. So how did this come about?

Well after my engagement with Apple Care USA, they told me that it had been decided to replace my iPhone. I have to just say that I do not have any Apple Care Cover! So how this was decided, I have no idea.

But…

Jim (name changed) in the USA was not able to organise the transaction, because I live in Europe, so he advised me that someone from Ireland would be in touch. But before he hung up, he told me that the process would be as follows. Apple sends me a new phone and after I have transferred everything, I send the old phone back to Apple, through their approved courier service, of course at their expense. One small thing, they would need to take a credit card hold for the cost of the phone, just in case. Fair enough I thought.

Sure enough Apple Ireland contacted me, but…

No, I would have to send my iPhone to Apple Ireland first and then after they check it, they will then send me a new iPhone. Oops, that’s not what I had been promised. No worries I said I will get back in touch with the USA, they will sort it. Several emails later, no response from the USA. What to do next?

Ask Ireland to challenge it, that’s what I did. The answer came back again, no, they can only do it this way. Send us your iPhone and then we will send the new one to you, oh and don’t bother telling the USA, they have no say in Europe about how we operate.

So I sent this email to Craig:

Hello Craig

Sorry to disturb you. I wanted to give you an update on what has happened, since you reached out to me, as I believe it is important that you guys know what actually happens in your support cases.

Jim (don’t know his surname) from Apple Care USA reached out to me on Nov 12 and we had a lengthy conversation. He confirmed that he wanted to organise a replacement phone for me and advised that the replacement iPhone 8 would be sent and that I would need to return the iPhone 6S via FedEx, which is fine. He confirmed that he would need to take a credit card number to guarantee that I would be sending the iPhone 6S back, which is also fine. He then tried to process this on his system, when he then realised as I am in Europe, the system wouldn’t allow him to move forward with this. He advised me that someone in Europe would get in touch with me.

Alexander Smith from Ireland contact me on Nov 14 and he outlined that the way it works in Europe is that I would need to send my phone to Ireland via DHL, they would check the phone out and only then would they send a new phone out to me. So the process that Jim had offered me, he could not do the same. I said I would check this out with Jim.

I communicated what Alexander told me to Jim on Nov 14 by email.

I followed this up via email on Nov 18, as I had no response. Still no response as of today, Nov 25.

I also called the support line and left a voice message for Jim, as per the procedure he had outlined to me in an email on Nov 12, no response received.

I suggested in my voicemail that maybe a workaround would be for me to travel to my nearest Apple Store, about 50 minutes by train in Birmingham UK and do the swap in store in person. I’d be happy to do that at my expense. I also then suggested this to Alexander in an email Nov 21.

Alexander called me today Nov 25 and advised me that this process of taking it to a store would not be possible, after his discussion with engineering. He also told me that Jim has no jurisdiction in Europe, so basically telling me there is no point waiting for a response from the USA on this, as Ireland would not accept it anyway. He then told me that he would need to set a deadline of this Wednesday Nov 27 to get things moving. When I challenged him on forcing a deadline on me, he retracted it and suggested he’s not putting a deadline on me, but we’d need to get things moving by Wednesday.

I also asked Alexander if he knew Jim to which he said no and then afterwards he said he could see the case notes and that he would get in touch with Tim. So now I was left wondering why he couldn’t have done that for me in the first place and why I had to do all the running around without success.

As you may appreciate, being without a phone for several days, maybe up to a week, is not very workable for me. I run my own very small business and clients rely on me being available. Unfortunately I have no old phones I can use in the meantime. I’d be without a phone for the whole period it takes to send a phone back and wait for a new phone to arrive.

The case number is 100940133420 and hopefully you will be able to see all the notes there.

Again sorry to disturb you with this, you can see how this case is not a great case study for Apple Support.

I appreciate your support with this.

Kind regards, Michael.

Sure enough within just 24 hours, I was contacted by Executive Liaison in Ireland, who basically told me they would honour the original promise of sending the new iPhone, take a credit card hold and then I can send the old one back, once I’m happy that everything is okay.

So to cut a long story short, that’s what happened.

But…

After a few days of using the iPhone 8, with the new ear pods that go into the lightening port, every time I was on a call the call dropped off the ear pods. So I emailed Executive Liaison, then spoke to Apple Care, tested things out and they concluded my iPhone 8 probably had a faulty lightening port.

This was happening just a few days before Christmas!

They organised for a new iPhone to be shipped to my nearest store in Birmingham UK and once it got there, I could travel in and exchange it, which is what I did on December 23, 2019.

I now have a working phone, upgraded to iPhone 8, free of charge on Apple, no battery issues any longer and the ear pods work great.

So I’ve written this article for 2 reasons, basically to record what happened with the battery drain after iOS 13, but more importantly to record that actually it does pay to complain and raise the issue as high as possible in the organisation. I had never ever expected the result I got, but I did and I am of course grateful to Apple and the Apple Care team.

They have restored my faith to a point, I am still concerned about possible technical issues going forward. I will unlikely upgrade to a new software release on iOS or MacOS immediately, I will wait for a few months until all the bugs have been removed.

For those of you who are still having battery drain issues, get in touch with Apple, they need the reports before being able to take it seriously.

Success!

THE END

Michael de Groot