Several iPhone owners have reported a “bug” with iOS 16.5 that dramatically reduced battery performance in their handsets. UK news site The Mirror, for example, cites complaints on social media about the software update “absolutely decimating my iPhone 12 Pro battery” and “iOS 16.5 battery drain” being “still worse”. A quick Twitter search reveals an user ask Apple support if there is “an update regarding iOS 16.5 patch, it drains the battery of the device”, another complaining that “coincidence or not, since iOS 16.5, not only is my battery life horrible, but the charging time has slowed dramatically, and for some reason my battery is reaching very hot temperatures”, and well others with similar issues.
This is all very disturbing, isn’t it?
Well, no, not really. Regular readers will be familiar with this phenomenon, since we previously explained why iPhone batteries often drain after an iOS update. This happens every time there’s a big iOS update, and it’s completely standard.
As my colleague Jason Cross explains, “The operating system does things in the background, optimizes all kinds of data, and sometimes does things like rescan your photos with new machine-learning algorithms, which increases the battery drain Not to mention that battery management is handled by sophisticated algorithms that may require multiple charge and drain cycles to adapt.
Apple itself has recognized that’s how it works, and advises waiting a few days for battery performance to return to normal: around 48 hours should do it. This matches our own experience with previous ‘battery cut’ software updates, so the company isn’t just hijacking us to distract us from a real bug. You just need to wait a bit, and iOS will sort itself out.
If that sounds like a flaw in the process, you’re not entirely wrong: it’s annoying, and it’s understandable why people are upset the first time they notice the phenomenon. But the real worry is that something has been permanently affected, and we’re happy to tell you that’s not the case.
And iOS 16.5, while afflicted with a few flaws, is a significant update with plenty of fixes for minor and serious bugs. We recommend that you install it as soon as possible and try not to worry about your iPhone’s temporarily weakened battery life.
That’s not to say you should never worry about iPhone battery life, which is an extremely important part of your experience with Apple’s handset. There are many tips to save iPhone battery, but “don’t install iOS 16.5” is not one of them.
If you’re having battery issues, why not take a portable battery charger with you? Take a look at our recommendations of the best MagSafe chargers.
