Here comes another version of iOS – probably the last for the year, unless some colossal security flaw or shocking bug comes to light.
Does the new version of iOS 16.2 make battery life better or worse?
On social media and Apple support forums, opinions are mixed. Some say this update is a giant improvement, others say it’s terrible.
If your battery life is good, good for you. You can stop reading here and do something more interesting.
However, if you’re one of those people with battery issues, ZDNET has some tips and tricks to help you get through the day without dying.
- Be patient
It’s normal to experience a drop—even a significant one—in battery life after installing an iOS update.
After an update, the iPhone has to perform a number of tasks in the background. This consumes more power than usual and battery life will return to normal once all these extra tasks are done.
- Update your apps
It is possible that the problem is not related to iOS but rather to some old app, especially when new version of iOS itself is released. This means it’s a good idea to make sure all your apps are updated before you waste your time trying to diagnose what’s going on.
Launch the App Store app and click your account icon in the corner, then scroll down to Available Updates to check for updates. If available, install them.
- Find out what’s draining your battery
Well, updating iOS and apps didn’t fix the problem, and the battery is still bad. What else could have happened? It could be a rogue app that is draining the battery. Fortunately, iOS provides you with the tools you need to track malfunctioning apps.
Go to Settings > Battery. Here you will see a lot of data, including Battery Usage By App. This menu lets you toggle Activity By App, which shows a breakdown of how much power each app uses while you’re using it and how much when it’s in the background.
You can use this information to diagnose battery drain issues. Here are some other things you can use this information for:
• An app running in the background will show a lot of background activity compared to screen activity (try disabling background activity for that app and see if that helps).
• You can detect charging problems (Was the battery actually charging when you thought it was charging?).
• You may also notice poor battery performance.
- Wait for the next iOS update
If all that doesn’t help, what you can do is wait for Apple to fix the problem and release a new update.
Apple does a much better job of fixing these kinds of issues, although you have to wait for them to be fixed and take a chance that a new update will actually fix the problem and not cause even more chaos.
However, given that almost every update that Apple releases these days is packed with iOS security updates, ZDNET recommends that you install your updates regularly because if you don’t, your iPhone could become vulnerable to attacks.