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Battery drain: is iOS 11.4 a huge battery hog?

As first noticed by 9to5Mac, there are an awful lot of people complaining about battery drain since updating to iOS 11.4.

In particular, most of these complaints focus on an issue causing the battery to drain heavily even when the device isn’t in use. One user said his battery dropped from 100% down to 40% after just a few hours on standby.

One thing we noticed is that many of the users complaining are using older devices like the iPhone 6 and 6S. These devices likely have worn out their batteries to some degree, which would make any unusual power drain even more noticeable.

Also, bear in mind that although this seems to be a heated topic on Apple’s support board, it doesn’t seem to be affecting everyone – just these few dozen unlucky customers.

There’s been no official word from Apple yet, but a minor update in iOS 11.4.1 has just been released and promises to fix lots of bugs – so updating could well help ease these battery woes. It’s a little too early to tell. Failing that, iOS 12 is coming this September and promises to improve performance across the board – in fact, the beta release of iOS 12 already seems to improve battery life on older devices.

If you’re having trouble with battery life and you have a device which is a few years old, in most cases replacing the battery will give it a new lease of life. Since the #iPhoneSlow controversy at the turn of the year, official battery replacements are currently just $29/£29 for the rest of 2018 for eligible devices. We recommend booking an appointment with your nearest Apple Store if you’re concerned about your device’s battery.