Apple
How to Fix Bad iPhone 6s Battery Life
iPhone 6s users continue to complain about severe battery drain and today we want to show you how to fix bad battery life should you encounter on your device.
The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are still very capable smartphones and they’re solid alternatives to the iPhone XS, iPhone X and iPhone 8.
While many people love their iPhone 6s, some users continue to feel underwhelmed by the device’s battery life.
Fortunately there are some ways to get bad iPhone 6s battery life fixed without having to perform a factory reset or take a trip to an Apple Store.
How to Fix Bad iPhone 6s Battery Life
We want to help you fix your battery life issues and ensure that you’ll be ready if the problems suddenly return in the future.
Apple’s got more iOS 12 updates on the way and iOS updates can be the root cause of some battery life issues. That’s why we recommend memorizing some of these fixes so you’re prepared for all of Apple’s future iPhone 6s iOS updates.
The iPhone 6s’ operating system allows you to search for specific settings at the top of the Settings screen. If you can’t find something, you can search for it there.
Wait Two Days
If you just installed a new iOS update, give it a couple of days before drastically altering your settings or habits. Battery life sometimes takes a day or two to settle in immediately after a new update is installed. Keep that in mind for future iPhone 6s updates.
Use Low Power Mode
If you haven’t started using it already, you’ll want to start using the Low Power Mode that Apple debuted with iOS 9.
Low Power Mode will allow you to stretch out your last 10-20% of iPhone 6s battery life without killing your core services. Best of all, it accomplishes this with one press of a button. Toggle it on, and you’ll save yourself in critical situations.
If you’re at the 10-20% mark, you should get a prompt that asks you if you want to turn it on. You can also turn it on in your iPhone 6s’ settings if you need it before that. In order to turn it on:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Battery.
- Toggle Low Power Mode on.
We recommend putting Low Power Mode into Control Center for easy access. Control Center is the menu you see when you swipe up from the bottom of the display.
To do that, go to Settings, tap Control Center, tap Customize Controls and tap the green plus sign next to Low Power Mode.
Stop Closing Your Apps
You might think closing your apps will help conserve battery life on your iPhone 6s, but Apple says closing apps in your multitasking screen doesn’t help.
Use Airplane Mode in Bad Service Areas
If you’re in a bad service area, your iPhone 6s/iPhone 6s Plus is going to work extra hard to find a signal. This can kill your battery.
To offset this, you can do a few things. You can flip off cellular data or you can kill all of your connections using Airplane Mode.
To toggle Cellular Data off, you’ll want to go to Settings > Cellular > and toggle it off at the top there. If that doesn’t work, try using Airplane Mode. You can toggle it off at the top of the Settings screen.
Monitor Your Apps
It’s easy to blame Apple and iOS for your battery life troubles but sometimes it’s a rogue app (or apps) causing the drain.
If you’re noticing abnormal drain, you’re going to want to look into your app usage. If you use an app a lot, it’ll obviously drain a lot of battery. If you’re confident it’s not the constant use that’s killing the iPhone’s battery, you’ll want to dig in.
We recommend getting familiar with the iPhone 6s’ battery usage tool. It’s located in Settings > Battery. It’ll show up under the Battery Usage header.
This tool shows you which apps are eating the most battery. You can check the last 24 hours and you can check to see what they’re doing over an extended period of time.
If something doesn’t seem right, you’ll want to take a few more steps. First, you can try downloading the latest bug fix update if you haven’t already. If that doesn’t work, try reinstalling the app or apps causing problems.
If that doesn’t help, you’ll want to get in contact with the developer. Or, worst case scenario, uninstall it and find an alternative.
Delete Facebook
A piece from The Guardian asserts that the Facebook app is the cause of many iPhone battery life issues. Uninstalling it apparently delivered huge gains to performance so deleting is worth a try if you’re not attached to it.
Limit Background App Refresh
If you have background refresh turned on, apps will download information in the background so that new info is shown when you fire them back up. It’s useful but downloads can eat up battery in the background. This is why we recommend limiting it to the apps you use the most or killing it completely.
To get a grip on this feature:
- Head into Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Background App Refresh.
- Turn it off for the apps you don’t use or the apps causing problems.
It’s also possible to turn it off completely but you may not want to do that.
Shut Off Location Services
Location Services (GPS) can absolutely wreck havoc on battery life. If you’ve ever used Google Maps or Waze for an extended period of time then you already should know that.
To get a handle on what should use Location Services and when, head into Settings > Privacy. You can turn Location Services off completely with a toggle off, but we recommend going through your apps to determine what should be using what when.
You might not want some apps using Location Services in the background and you can limit that with a simple tap.
Turn Off Push
Like Location Services and Background Refresh, the iPhone 6s’ push feature for notifications, email, calendar, and more can suck up battery life. You’ll want to manage it.
To look at your Push Notification settings, go into Settings > Notifications. There, you can shut off notifications for all of your apps or apps that you don’t use on your iPhone.
You might also want to think about settings Mail, Contacts and Calendar to Fetch instead of Push. To do that, go into Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and turn off Push.
Stop Using Dynamic Wallpaper
Animated wallpapers often look amazing, but they could cost you a few precious battery percentage points. If you want to save your battery stick to using static backgrounds.
Manage Your Retina Display
Your iPhone’s screen can eat up battery if it’s not managed correctly. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus come with sensors that power the auto-brightness feature.
The auto brightness feature can be useful but it sometimes fails to work properly. If you think you can easily manage the brightness of your iPhone 6s Retina Display yourself, try adjusting it manually. It could help save you some battery.
iOS makes this extremely easy. All you have to do is pull up from the bottom of the screen to enter Control Center. From there, just use the screen toggle to adjust your screen brightness. Turn it down when you don’t need the screen to be bright.
Restart the iPhone 6s
If you haven’t turned your iPhone 6s off for awhile, try restarting it. This simple fix has worked for us in the past.
Reset Network Settings
If that doesn’t work, try resetting your device’s Network Settings. This will cause the iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus to forget Wi-Fi passwords to make sure you have those handy.
To do that:
- Head into Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Reset Network Settings.
Reset All Settings
If you’ve tired all of these little fixes and nothing’s worked, it’s time to take some drastic measures to fix your bad iPhone 6s battery life.
The first step to take is to reset all of your settings on your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus. To get this done:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Reset.
- Tap Reset All Settings.
- Enter your passcode when the prompt tell you to.
This could take a few minutes and it will force your device to forget your connections (and passwords) but it might fix your battery issues. It will not delete any files.
Downgrade
If that doesn’t work, you could try downgrading to the previous versions of iOS if the downgrade is available and it was working fine on your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.
The downgrade process can be a bit tricky the first time but after you do it once you should be set. If you’re interested in dropping down to an older version of iOS you can read about the process here.
Restore from a Backup
If none of these aforementioned fixes work, you can try restoring from a backup or wiping your iPhone 6s/iPhone 6s Plus completely starting from scratch.
- Plug in and backup to the computer or to iCloud.
- Turn off Find My iPhone. To do that, go to Settings, tap your name at the top, tap iCloud, scroll down to Find my iPhone and toggle it Off.
- In iTunes, click Restore.
- Follow the prompts and the iPhone will reinstall the software from scratch.
- When it completes click Restore from Backup to put your information back on the iPhone or choose to set up as a new iPhone.
You should only do this if nothing else works.
Take Your iPhone 6s In
If you don’t want to restore or perform a factory reset, you can also make an appointment to go see an Apple Genius at the Apple Store. (Or another store but we recommend Apple itself.)
Geniuses will be able to run some diagnostics on your phone and they could help you figure out the problem. We once took in an iPhone 5s and discovered a bloated battery was responsible for the battery drain.
If you’re under warranty, and you will be for a year from your purchase date, you might be able to get another iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus for free.
You can find a list of your local Apple Stores right here.
Install iOS 14.8.1 for Better Security | |||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||
If security is important to you, think about installing iOS 14.8.1 right away. The iOS 14.8.1 update brings 12 new security patches to the iPhone. You can read about all of them over on Apple's site. If you want to better protect your iPhone and its data, you'll want to install the iOS 14.8.1 update in the near future. If you missed iOS 14.8, you'll get its security patches with your upgrade. You can learn more about them right here. If you missed iOS 14.7.1, you'll get its patch with your upgrade. If you want to learn more about iOS 14.7.1's security update, check out its support page. If you missed iOS 14.7, you'll get its 31 security patches with your upgrade. You can learn more about those on Apple's website. If you skipped iOS 14.6, you'll get the update's 38 security patches with your iOS 14.8.1 update. If you're curious about the particulars, you can read about them right here. If you skipped iOS 14.5.1, you get the update's two security patches on board. You can read about them over on Apple's website. Both are related to WebKit. If you missed iOS 14.5 you'll get its patches with your upgrade. You can read more about those changes over on Apple's website. iOS 14.5 also brought Apple's new App Tracking Transparency which lets you control which apps are allowed to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites for ads or sharing with data brokers. If you skipped iOS 14.4.2, you get its security patch with iOS 14.8.1. You can learn more about that patch over on Apple's website as well. If you missed iOS 14.4.1, you get its patch with your upgrade to iOS 14.8.1. You can read about that patch right here. If you skipped iOS 14.4, you get the update's patches with your upgrade. You can learn more about iOS 14.4's security patches right here. If you skipped iOS 14.3 you'll get its nine security updates with your upgrade. You can read more about them on its security site. iOS 14.3 also included a new privacy information section on App Store pages that includes a developer-reported summary of the app’s privacy practices. If you skipped iOS 14.2, your iOS 14.8.1 update includes 24 additional security patches. You can learn more about the patches on Apple's security website. If you're still running iOS 13, iOS 14.8.1 includes iOS 14.0's security updates. iOS 14.0 brought 11 new security patches to the iPhone. If you're interested in the exact nature of these improvements, you can read about them over on Apple's website. In addition to those patches, iOS 14 comes with some security and privacy upgrades including improvements to Home/HomeKit and Safari. For instance in Safari, you can now tap the Privacy Report button to better understand how websites handle your privacy. With iOS 14 on board you can now get information on the App Store that will help you understand the privacy practices of apps before you download them. There is also a new recording indicator that will appear at the top of your screen whenever an app is using your microphone or camera. You can see if an app has used them recently in Control Center. Researchers also discovered that Apple brought a new "BlastDoor" sandbox security system to iOS 14. The system is meant to prevent attacks from occurring via the Messages app. You can read more about "BlastDoor" right here. | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Me
11/25/2015 at 12:33 pm
Thank you
Janell Young
02/19/2016 at 8:06 am
Thank you!
Barbaraltrask
01/21/2016 at 5:10 pm
0=18my best friend’s half-sister makes $87 /hr on the laptop . She has been out of a job for eight months but last month her check was $16467 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
find more info…. See More
saadtariq50
02/14/2016 at 9:19 pm
Guys, my friend send me this link that someone is making this so called fat battery that will have more power than normal 6S current battery.Here is link.
https://www.thediverge.com/who-else-wants-to-know-the-mystery-behind-tracking-mobile-phone-through-battery-91632
Ram
02/16/2016 at 1:28 am
whats the use of a iphone when we stop all the services running in the background – My Iphone 6 never used to behave this way but i have upgraded it 6S where i am sick of charging it two times a day
dieter
02/23/2016 at 9:04 pm
yes me too!!!!! i deleted it and reformatted it and still it loses power like a leaky tyre….
Monica
03/05/2016 at 10:49 am
This is ridiculous. Even with the charger on, I can see the % drop. What the hell is going on? Will they fix this with a new upgrade?
Sam
03/09/2016 at 4:22 pm
My phones ok when the 4g is on and I’m listening to music when I’m out but as soon as I get wifi it starts dropping?!
Kurt
03/13/2016 at 6:49 am
Another idea that works for me is let the battery completely drain out to the point where it automatically shuts off and then let it charge to 100% before using it.
sup man
03/18/2016 at 9:28 am
just dont buy an iphone… Get s7 or s7 edge. It lasts 6 more hours…
simon
04/13/2016 at 8:44 am
There are so many different things that can be giving you a bad battery life. It could be too many apps running, an overheating issue, low storage, or even a virus. These are some more in depth reasons and fixes for the problem if anyone needs it https://goo.gl/jbhBFG
Sarahdbrown
04/16/2016 at 8:31 am
….!!!Super and Easiest 0nl!nee Home opportunity for all. make 87 Dollars per hour and Make 52512 Dollars per month.All you just Need an Internet Connection and aComputer To Make Some Extra cash.
Visit this link…… See More
Lora Huls
04/28/2016 at 9:28 am
tried every trick in book, horrible still, fix upgrade already, getting sick and tired of having to lose settings because of poor upgrade
Waqar Nadeem
05/07/2016 at 7:29 pm
Its a worse mistake to buy an iphone 6s and plus. I have to charge it 3 times a day. Battery drain is so rapid that I am now keep loosing important calls as the phone dies by itself during the day.
Apple genius are of no use they replaced my phone without any luck. I did factory reset and removed all apps it helped a little but as soon as you reinstall the apps CPU starts clicking at a high number. I wish I had bought Galaxy S7.
Finally i am going to buy an additional battery back for $50
Waqar
05/27/2016 at 12:50 pm
I don’t know how to delete my review as my issue is resolved after talking to my carrier. It appears to be the carrier issue not the apple however it took us a very long time to figure this out. High data use and battery problems have a connection some how – I returned my battery pack as the iphone battery itself is working great so far.
latatooti
06/22/2016 at 4:21 am
what was the carrier issue waqar?
Karissa
08/03/2016 at 3:37 pm
I shut my phone off, let it sit for a few minutes, turned it back on… Then I bought a new phone charger through Apple. I have been using an after market one and I’ve noticed my battery has been really bad, my husband said something about it a few days ago. I had 19% when we were out to eat and it just died without using it. So I started using the apple charger along with doing everything this article said to do and my phone battery is acting a lot better now, still dies fast for a phone I paid $850 for, but it’s better then it has been being.
Victor
09/29/2016 at 9:17 pm
My 6s battery doesn’t drain rapidly I’m ok with it
Holly
10/01/2016 at 7:41 pm
The battery life isn’t good at all! I would hate to think of being stuck somewhere with out a charger and something bad happenes to someone and not be able to dial 911!!! That’s my big concern! Not everyone carries a wall and car charger around with them because their phone doesn’t hold a good solid charge through the day!!! This really needs to be fixed! I’m surprised there hasn’t already been some type of law suit because of this very thing happening to someone! When my phone decides to die it just shuts down until I can get back to my car or home! AND a lot of cars won’t charge your phone which takes FOREVER in the car without the engine running!!! I would make this problem the first one on the list to fix!!!
Thank you!
Jeanie Stouffer
10/03/2016 at 5:46 am
I agree with Holly and others. Was on the phone with Apple just yesterday trying to fix battery issues. Whu even have an $800 phone when I have to turn apps off/shut them down/low power mode/turn off app refresh blah blah. So disappointed with this iphone 6s.
Guss
11/23/2016 at 10:20 am
My 6S has been running relatively fine since I got back in January. But since iOS 10 was released, my phone has suddenly started having battery issues. As in it drains much faster now, and I haven’t been using it any differently. I’m not a social media fanatic. I check Facebook, Instagram and Twitter every so often. But I don’t live my life in them. Eg. prior to iOS 10 release, I spend 10 – 15 min going through FB posts, and replying to a few. Used up about 1% maybe 2%. Now, for the same amount of time, doing the same things, my battery goes down about 8-10%. Yes, I’ve learned to test stuff like this over the years. For referencing in times like this.
I can’t prove, nor will any Apple authorities admit to it. But using basic logic and common sense, it leaves one to wonder. For the last 4 versions, what I’ve noticed was whenever a new iOS comes out, within a couple of weeks or so, my battery starts draining faster (no more usage than before). And whenever I contact Apple, they always say “I can’t help you if you aren’t on the latest iOS”. Hmmmm. And also keeping in mind, that Apple CAN and DOES push iOS updates to some peoples phone without their consent or knowledge. It doesn’t install, but it’s put there by Apple regardless. If they can do this, I’m absolutely certain they can do other things to our phones without our knowledge or consent. They’ve been doing it to me for years, since the iPhone 4S. In fact, just in the last couple of weeks, I’ve had to decline and delete the updates twice already. If and when I decide, I will do it myself. No reason why Apple should be twisting my arm to. I know all the troubleshooting tips. I’ve done them all, except for resetting and reloading. Which in my experience has NEVER worked for me. It was just a pain the arse to have to do.
I really do believe that Apple does this to force people to update to the latest iOS, without looking like they are forcing people. Until anyone can explain with valid reasons as to why this happens to some and not all, this is the only logical explanation that comes to mind. Doesn’t take a lot of code to tweak something to cause the iPhone to use up more battery life in the background than normal.
In Apple’s defense though, they did acknowledge (finally) a battery issue with their phones. And have offered to replace the battery on selected iPhone 6s that qualify. You’ll have to check in with an authorized Apple repair or got the Apple Store to check if your phone is one of them.
Rich
12/03/2016 at 12:37 am
I turned off all background apps, locations settings and turned down the retina display. It’s easily given me a few extra hours of battery life.
MLB
12/12/2016 at 4:18 pm
For what you pay for an iphone it should have a decent working battery. I have turned off everything i can and still use my phone. The battery still needs to be charged by noon. I finally got a case that has a back up battery and that helps, but I still have to charge my phone several times a day. I agree with A previous comments by Ram which stated why have an iphone if you have to shut everything off. I am not going to run in and purchase yet another expensive phone in order to get more battery life. Apple should be taking care of the problem or allowing a greatly discounted upgrade for those stuck with the lemons.
Alfonso Quiroz
01/04/2017 at 7:14 am
I have the same problem, charged my iPhone 6S Plus (iOS 10.2) for approximately 5 hours at night and in the the morning when i unplugged it, it showed 100% but then within 5 minutes of being unplugged the phone dies and it showed the dead battery symbol so I could plug it in again. This only started happening after I installed the iOS 10.2. I bought an iPhone because I thought it was reliable but i was wrong. I’m not sure how the sales are going for the iPhone 7 but it is a big coincidence that the new iPhone comes out and a new software is released that causes issues on the old iPhones. I had the iPhone in the past and it was OK so i decided to buy the iPhone 6S plus and with the new software I’ve had a lot of problems. Even to the point where I’ve had my phone for about 9 months but when i enter my serial number on the apple website it says it is out of warranty. Pretty sad that Apple doesn’t care about their customers.
Nrapendra pratap Sharma
01/07/2017 at 6:24 am
Indeed great knowledge. I was looking for knowledge on downgrading IOS version. I also did a successfull experiment last night to stable my iphone 6s battery drainage. Link: https://youtu.be/AVqgyibz8H0
Glenn
05/12/2017 at 4:41 pm
Can’t THANK YOU enough for the excellent suggestions. I was able to locate an app that I’ve never used that was consuming 35% of my battery. I was ready the bring my iPhone to the Apple Store for replacement of the battery. Thanks to your suggestions, I don’t need to do that… THANK YOU!
Mintcake
05/15/2017 at 8:31 am
I agree with Ram , you get a phone that gives you more features and then have to turn them off to protect the battery life. Not good . As suggested , I will try turning the WiFi off when not in use and monitor the results. Come on Apple sort it out!!
Gerald Scartiong
09/11/2017 at 7:57 am
Just buy new iPhone. Like iPhone 7. I don’t have any battery issues with a 3G working full day, I have enough percentage by the end of the day.
DRSmith
09/30/2018 at 8:07 am
40 years of using cell phones – never met the garbage experience I have enjoyed in the last 2 years with Apple technology – a fact…
Similar battery issues with 6 plus under v12x IOS with battery lasting 20 – 30 minutes – one app running (bluetooth enabled music app, no cellular access granted to any apps except Gmail etc.) – Difference between final v11x vs 12 is a disaster – from 3-5 hours on similar (read no changes) usage to literally 20-30 minutes battery life – (note battery health @80%, and under non-high performance setting thanks to v11 crashing the system massively a few months ago)…
No word from Apple, no acknowledgment – Nada – terrible, terrible, never Apple again – has been a fiasco for the last 18 months or so… Now have to have the phone plugged into a battery pack whenever I am not plugged in
– Bottom of the pile you are Apple – contrary to the BS promotions… Not reliable, poorly executed designs, buggy, performance hampered …
A World Citizen