For the past few weeks my Apple iPhone 6s Plus battery has been dying way faster than it should. For example, on Sunday my battery was at 35% by 3pm under light usage. The next day it was at 18% by 2pm. Considering I’ve never experienced bad battery life on this particular iPhone, I figured I would try restoring in iTunes to fix the problem (I already tried iCloud and that didn’t help). Unfortunately, and iTunes restore didn’t work either.
I should say up front that I did not restore new and I did bring down my iTunes encrypted backup after restoring. This is because I had no desire to lose years of health data, which is what would happen if I had to restore new. Yes, I know you can export your Health app data, but that doesn’t leave you with a way to re-import it to the Health app, which is where I want it to live.
So before giving up and deciding I had no other option but restoring new, I decide to try one more thing….
Instead of restoring again, I decided to try resetting all my settings
While I guess it could have been a possibility that the issue was lurking somewhere in my iTunes or iCloud backups, I figured it was highly unlikely due to the way iCloud and iTunes backups work (most stuff is installed new anyways in terms of apps, etc). However, a corrupt setting could be the culprit.
For those that aren’t already aware, resetting all your iPhone’s settings does not delete data or media off your device. What it does erase are all your preferences, settings, and known WiFi networks. While it’s annoying to have to rejoin networks again and re-configure preferences such as push notifications, alarms, and other basic settings, I find this to be far less destructive than having to lose all my apps, the data within them, and more importantly, my Health data.
3 days later, my iPhone is now running perfectly again. By 2pm yesterday (and the day before), I had a remarkable 70% or more battery. By the end of the day, I still had around 20%.
If you aren’t sure how to reset all settings, just follow these steps (as a side note, this applies to your iPad too if you’re experiencing bad battery life):
How to reset all settings on your iPhone or iPad
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap on General.
- Tap on Reset.
- Now choose Reset All Settings.
- You’ll be asked to enter your passcode if you have one set up.
- Lastly, you’ll be asked to choose twice to confirm your selection and your iPhone (or iPad) will reboot.
Once your iPhone or iPad reboots, your settings and preferences will be restored to default. In case you’re wondering, here are some of the things you’ll want to re-configure after resetting all your settings:
- Alert sounds for messages, mail, calls, etc (and things like duplicate alerts or custom vibrations)
- Rejoin previously known WiFi networks
- Alarms and timers will be deleted
- Location data will be reset
- Push Notifications and Notification Center defaults will be restored to stock
- All apps should now ask you to allow or deny permissions such as push notifications again
I may be missing a few things in here but basically, just go through the Settings app and tap into each section and make sure you tweak any settings to match when you had before wiping them. You may find it helpful to take screenshots before hand of more advanced sections if you don’t think you’ll remember everything.
If you’ve been experiencing bad iPhone battery life, give this a try before wiping and restoring new. Then let me know how it worked for you in the comments!
Thanks so much Ally! My 6S Plus has been doing this for the past two weeks and I had tried everything EXCEPT FOR THIS.
Let me know how it works!
Hey Ally thanks for the advise. I normally use a 6s plus but am trying a 2 week experiment downsizing to a 6s. This helped a little for me but I guess the 6s battery is that terrible 🙁 I am writing about it and would love some professional feedback: http://www.southerntecheveryday.com/?p=28
Works like a dream. I have between 20 & 30% more left over. Think it cleaned up my phone quite a bit :-).
Ugh, did not work for me. I think my iPhone 6s Plus is screwed up ?
If you’ve tried this and restoring via iTunes then call apple and have them run a diagnostic on your battery. They can do it over the phone. 1-800-APL-CARE
Hey!
I have this a go and made some improvement. :). Also had to change back wallpapers, password autocomplete, Apple Pay and Touch ID. Also there are a couple of apps that can import health data back in if you go hard reset. Health Importer by Paradox Customs
https://appsto.re/gb/KmrF3.i
I’ve noticed a fairly significant nosedive in battery life on my 6S Plus ever since I updated to iOS 9.3.1. Before that, especially in iOS 9.2.X — 9.3, battery life was just great! Has anyone else experienced this? Pls note I never ever restore from bckp. I’ll try this if things don’t improve.
I’m with Mr. coldharbour, I think it’s the iOS that causes the problem and not the battery. I put my iPhone 6 Plus on battery power save mode and I have about 70% left at the end of the day. It’s the constant updates that cause the battery drainage.
If you’ve been on Low Power Mode all day you might consider going into Settings>Battery and see if a specific app is eating your battery. Have you tried the Settings reset that Ally suggested? If so you could try wiping the phone and doing a clean iOS install.
I’ve had an infrequent / occasional bout like this with my iPhone 6S 4.7″. Battery shaming pegged Tweetbot each time. I think there’s an issue where it never goes to background due to a left open Safari UI View window left open. a manual kill, reopen to my feed and all is better.
This just fixed my battery drain like a charm. Thanks so much!!
This did not work for me. I tried this, I tried a regular restore, and finally a dfu restore. My battery continues to drain even on battery save mode. In five minutes it drops 10%. Could it be I must get a new battery completely? Any help or advice is appreciated. ( I have an iPhone 6 with the recent iOS 10.1.1 update. )
Hooray – I should have found you first! I followed other ex-Apple experets with no results, but the rest absolutly did the trick. The iPhone version of turning everything off and turning it on again. Thank you very much
Worked like a charm!
Excellent article. Keep posting such kind of info on your page. Im really impressed by it.