I phone battery drain

[Clifford11j]

Hi, has any one experienced iPhone battery drain since joining EE ?

I was transferred over from Plusnet just over a month ago and have noticed the battery on my iPhone 6s does not last half as long as it use to, checked the battery use and condition and all looks normal with a battery condition of 90%. My wife has the same phone and has experienced the same issue. The battery drain appears to be worse over night when not in use , and no app’s running in the background.

Any ideas much appreciated 

[Chris_B]

@Clifford11j  As a test can you turn on airplane mode and just use Wi-Fi calling obviously this means being connected to Wi-Fi and it’ll need to be a long test as you need to see what happens to the battery over a long period.   

Have you tried a network reset ?  

[Clifford11j]

Correct me if i am wrong but by turning airaplane mode on  disables the WiFi function so i am not sure how you can use Wi Fi calling.

And yes i have tried network reset. but have the same issue.

I am waiting to get a reply from EE network as i reported low network signal so will wait until they come back to me.

My son is with a diffrent provider so will see what his signal strength is when i next see him.

[Chris_B]

@Clifford11j  You can turn Wi-Fi back on after you turn off airplane mode.      Airplane mode is just a quick way to disable all connections types. 

[Danng8]

Thank you, yes, for me, airplane mode has the same effect as changing the SIM to a different provider - it halts the excessive battery drain (1% per hour vs 10% per hour) 🤔

[Danng8]

UPDATE:

I have tried the new SIM supplied by EE, and as expected, it still chomps through the battery at the same excessive rate (over 10% per hour).

I’m going back to try the GiffGaff SIM, and if it works as it did before, I’ll reluctantly give up on EE.

I will also try a Vodafone SIM, and report back here.

[Chris_B]

@Clifford11j  @Danng8   When the device is not in airplane mode do you see on the device where the cellular signal is the wording “SEARCHING”.  

[Danng8]

Thank you, but no, I have not seen SEARCHING on my phone. I just see one or two bars, the wi-fi signal strength (full) and “wifi calling”.

[Clifford11j]

No I don’t get the wording,  but I do regularly get a circular symbol revolving where the EE signal strength bar is .

[Chris_B]

@Clifford11j   That indicates that there is network activity.   Have you tried closing all the apps from the app switcher ?    Do you have any apps enabled to run in the background?  

Have a read of this.   It’s for an iPad but it’s the same thing for a iPhone. 

The “spinning asterisk” indicates network activity. A process on your iPad is accessing the network. You’ll need to do some detective work to identify the process, however, it is generally nothing with which to necessarily be concerned. An indication of network activity will not, of itself, impact speed or performance of your iPad

To identify the process that may be causing unexpected network activity, you might try force-closing all Apps on your iPad...

Assuming that your iPad has iPadOS 13 installed, swipe upwards from the bottom edge of the screen towards the centre of the screen - and pause briefly before lifting your finger. This gesture will invoke the Task Switcher - and will display the “open” (but not necessarily running) Apps. Each App can be force-closed by swiping its respective window off the top of the screen.

For models of iPad with a physical Home Button, a double-click of the button will also reveal the Task Switcher.

With all Apps closed and the iPad idle, other than occasional system activity, the network activity indicator should only been seen intermittently.

A common reason for extended network activity indication is a potential problem with your email provider. If the mail server is offline, performing poorly, or is only accessible over a slow network connection, you may see extended network activity as your iPad continues to attempt synchronisation with the mail server.

A further tool with which to control network activity is to change your WiFi network setting, on your iPad, to enable Low Data Mode. This will inhibit automatic background network connections for email and other services. This should further reduce network activity - and is a useful diagnostic tool.

[Chris_B]

@Clifford11j  Have you checked your battery stats?  You might find an app that has lots of usage because it’s allowed to run in the background.  This might need to be switched off in the background settings.