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 

[Danng8]

If you have the energy and can be bothered, take the issue to “deadlock” with EE, then take it to the ombudsman (it’s an easy form to fill in). They will take it up and hopefully force EE to provide some real support; however do not close your EE account as this will allow EE to wriggle out (this is what happened to me). 

Otherwise, just move to giffgaff, who do not claim to have customer support (only community support) but as we have found with EE, it’s worthless when it comes to difficult and unusual problems like this one. At least you will have a working phone and will not destroy your battery.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

[Chris_B]

@DDB59   Have you updated your device to the latest iOS ?   Have a read of THIS   iOS updates have been known to bring battery drain issues with them.  This doesn’t happen to all devices that update.   Have you tried just restoring the device? 

[DDB59]

Chris, thank you and yes, yes, yes and yes. Updated to iOS 17.2.1 although left my wife’s at 17.1.2 to see if there is any significant difference. I note that the Apple release notes for 17.2.1 are vague but those for China and Japan include mention of battery drain issues so maybe the update will resolve the problem. Nevertheless, the apparent lack of action for this issue and for affected customers transferring from Plusnet remains a real concern. Not so much ‘care’ as ‘don’t care’ it seems!

[Clifford11j]

DDB59, I have tried sorting this with EE for months but to no avail. I find it strange that as soon as I put the EE SIM card in the battery drains remarkably fast, not just my phone but my wife’s also. But they tried their best to persuade me it’s my phone , and I guess someone less savvy would go and buy a new phone .

In my area my phone is usually on 1 bar of signal certainly not the 4 bars EE says i should be getting.

I spent quite some time with Apple support and they came to the same  conclusion EE. simply because all was fine until changing over to EE  I even got Plusnet to have a word with EE but again to no avail. I got fed up in the end.

I think eventually I will go to a better service provider, but me being cynical think perhaps EE would prefer that. EE are certainly not what they portray on their advertising which I find a bit disappointing. 

Good luck with getting things sorted with EE I hope you have more luck than I did .

[Chris_B]

@DDB59  It’s not something EE can resolve,  it could be just a iOS issue.  

There are a few comments on here that refer to battery drainage.  One is basic battery being drained the other is the battery capacity and this battery capacity will not hold the battery charge are long as it used to do it do the battery doesn’t last as long.    Again EE can not do anything that is device specific.       

If a device shows searching for network where the cell indicators are this will drain battery as the device is trying to find the network.   A quick test of this is to put the device in to airplane mode over night and see what battery is left in the morning.  If the battery has drained over night it’s definitely not a cellular connection issue but a device issue.   There are then a few options to try a network reset or a full device factory reset but do not restore from a backup you need to test this with a clean OS.    Preferably using a PC/MAC and putting the device in to DFU MODE.  This will then download a new OS and install that on the device.  A factory reset on the device only purges the system but the OS remains on the device. 

[DDB59]

Chris,

I understand and appreciate that you are trying to offer helpful advice, and it is helpful if the issue was the impact of an old and inefficient battery.  However, you are missing the point of the original query and of several others, including mine.  The issue is the coincidence of a sudden and significant increase in battery usage with the insertion of an EE SIM card on transfer from Plusnet.  It is not simply an issue of battery health or of background apps working or anything else of this nature.  That coincidence of the battery drain with the transfer to EE is what needs to be investigated and a resolution offered.  However, EE is showing no interest in accepting the issue or in seeking a cause and resolution.  Perhaps your Grand Master status might be brought to bear on the real issue?  Anything to get the attention of EE would surely help since they are not interested in my direct complaint which they closed down.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @DDB59 

Thanks for posting. 

To get this looked into and investigated, you would need to contact our tech guides who can run full troubleshooting to see what could be causing the battery drain. I am very sorry we are unable to investigate this issue on the community. 

Leanne.

[DDB59]

Leanne, thank you and tried that already. In the end, the tech support lady resorted to the ‘ it’s a third party item so we can’t help’ argument and then closed down the complaint. So forgive me if I am unwilling, as others here who have had the same issue, to grapple with the most uncaring customer care service in the history of corporate monsters. Yes, I really am that cynical. What amuses me is how the EE Community Support Team seems to be so dissociated from the main customer help and actually communicates with them, but I’m not really surprised at it. As I said, I really am that cynical. 

[Chris_B]

@DDB59   Have you tried a fresh install of iOS out of curiosity and not installed any back up  ?      To install a totally clean OS you need to use a PC/Mac and put the device is to DFU mode.   I hear what’s being said and this is the very first thing I would try.    Until this has been done it’s just pure speculation that this issue is a EE/network issue.  

 It’s easy to say it’s a problem since changing to EE but until you have done the above you can not 100%  prove this at all.     

 A on device factory reset doesn’t prove anything it’s just a factory reset,  and restoring from a backup could just be reinstalling the issue that’s causing this in the first place.    

Another way of looking at this is how many other people have come from PlusNet to EE and don’t have this issue.    And you’re all iPhone users. 

[clikarbar]

Just joined the EE network using an iphone SE 2020 and have the same issue. Battery has been replaced in late 2023 by approved Apple store. Its not the battery.

Its like EE network settings are boosting the phone's antenna

EE can you please explain yourself. I am in 14 day cooling period and will cancel 24 month contract of my wife and I

Yesterday  I had my battery fully charged at 100% by 8am. mobile died around 3pm while at work. Only WiFi and Data was on.