Several iPhone owners have reported a “bug” in iOS 16.5 that severely reduced their phones’ battery performance. British news site The Mirror, for example, cites complaints on social media that a software update is “totally draining my iPhone 12 Pro’s battery” and “draining iOS 16.5’s battery”, which is “even worse”. A quick search on Twitter reveals one user asking Apple Support if there is “any update regarding the iOS 16.5 fix that is draining the device’s battery.” another complaining that “accidentally or not, after iOS 16.5, not only do I have terrible battery life, my charging time has dropped dramatically, and for some reason my battery is reaching very high temperatures,” and many others with similar problems.
It’s all very disturbing, right?
Well, no, not really. Regular readers will be familiar with this phenomenon as we previously explained why iPhone batteries often run out 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 background work, optimizing all kinds of data and sometimes doing things like rescanning photos with new machine learning algorithms, and this increases battery consumption. Not to mention that the batteries are managed by complex algorithms that may require several charge and discharge cycles to adapt.”
Apple itself has recognized that this is how it works, and advises to wait a couple of days for battery performance to return to normal: approximately 48 hours should do this. This is in line with our own experience with previous battery-killing software updates, so the company isn’t just fooling us to divert attention from the real bug. You just have to wait a bit and iOS will sort itself out.
If this sounds like a flaw in the process, you’re not entirely wrong: it’s annoying, and we understand why people get worried when they first notice this phenomenon. But the real concern is that something has been permanently affected, and we are happy to tell you that this is not the case.
And iOS 16.5, while suffering from some flaws of its own, is a major update with numerous fixes for both minor and major bugs. We recommend that you install it as soon as possible and try not to worry about a temporary drop in your iPhone’s battery life.
This doesn’t mean that you should never worry about iPhone battery life, which is an extremely important part of your Apple phone experience. There are a lot of iPhone battery saving tips you should consider, but “do not install iOS 16.5” is not one of them.
If you’re having battery problems, why not carry a portable charger with you? Check out our recommendations for the best MagSafe chargers.