MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1384448
Apple Watch Could Be the Culprit for Major iPhone Power Drain in iOS 14.6 By Kelly Hodgkins Following the release of iOS 14.6, some iPhone owners are reporting issues with diminished battery life. Though many people discussed the problem, few people had a solution that would halt the power drain. That is until now. According to one Redditor, the Apple Watch may be the culprit and should be the first place you look if you are experiencing any unusual loss of power with your iPhone. Redditor Hans_Brickface noticed a correlation between unusual battery drain and the Apple Watch. Every couple of months, his iPhone will lose 25 percent of its power in eight hours, a rate of loss that is significantly faster than usual. Under light use, Hans_Brickface claims he can get three days between charges. “I’ve noticed that every couple of months or so since I got the Watch SE last Nov, something starts savaging my iPhone 12 Mini’s battery; where I’m usually able to go 3 days easy with light use, it starts draining 25% or more in an 8 hour period. After some trial and error, I figured out that the culprit was the watch. (And I’ve had the same two apps installed on it since shortly after I bought it.)” -Redditor Hans_Brickface After testing and trying various power-saving steps, he finally discovered the offending device was the Apple Watch. To fix this issue, Hans_Brickface recommends rebooting both devices and then unpairing and re-pairing the Apple Watch if necessary. The Apple Watch may be one possible cause, but it may not be the only device or app draining your battery. Others hint that the Podcasts app may be consuming battery life at an alarming rate. In one comparison test by Redditor bearface93, the iOS Podcasts app consumed 30 percent battery in four hours, while the Overcast app-only drained less than 5 percent in the same amount of time. Unless Apple issues a fix for the Podcasts app, the only way to avoid this battery drain is not to use the Podcasts app and possibly even uninstall it to prevent this unexpected and annoying loss of power.