Following the release of iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6 last week, some users have taken to social media and online forums to report that their devices have been consuming excessive battery since installing the software updates.
Apple Support community and other forums are full of posts from users who say that their device does not update now drains faster. A user on the Apple Support forums writes that his iPhone 11 Pro with the Apple Smart Cover is draining faster than normal after the update. It's worth noting that many factors contribute to a device's battery life, including the health of the battery. Users with weaker batteries can expect shorter battery life. However, according to the forums, the issue seems to affect all devices, regardless of the specific battery life. On the MacRumors forums, a user notes that his iPhone 12 Pro not only drains faster than normal but also starts to overheat while simply browsing in Safari. An accompanying Contribution reminds me of a similar experience with an iPhone 12 mini:
iOS 14.6: Unusually high battery consumption continues
Yes, I updated my iPhone 12 mini from iOS 14.2 to iOS 14.6 a few days ago and over the course of the last 2 days I used my phone for a few minutes to check messages and the battery suddenly drained with the back of the phone heating up just like others have reported.
With iOS 14.5, Apple introduced a new Battery Health Recalibration feature for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The new feature allows the system to recalibrate the device's battery health to fix potentially inaccurate battery health measurements. After the update was released last month, users noticed that the health of their iPhone 11 battery changed after the recalibration process. Typically, after any iOS update, users can expect unusual battery drain in the days following as the system reindexes Spotlight and performs other "cleanup" tasks. However, iOS 14.6 was released more than a week ago, and the unusually high battery drain continues. If the problem is indeed software-related, which is currently believed to be the case, Apple will surely fix it in a future update. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
