Just as we predicted, there have been many iPad and iPhone owners complaining of battery life problems since updating last week, and so we have seen a rise in the number of people searching for iOS 9 battery drain fixes. They are only looking for this because opting for an 8.4 downgrade is an undesired option to them.
Before you are too hasty on changing various settings because you feel your battery is draining a lot faster than before, just remember that whenever there is a new mobile OS update we tend to play more with its features. We have done the same thing and found that the battery on our iPhone 6 was draining at a much faster rate; around 3 to 4 hours sooner.
The worst culprits is chat apps, because they do drain your battery somewhat, and we know you would have used them more talking to fiends about this latest update.
Having said that, we know that most of you that updated to iOS 9 would be aware of that and have factored that in, yet still notice an additional drain on battery life.
The very first thing we would try is to activate Low Power Mode, a new feature introduced to iOS 9. However, even if you do not enable this feature, you will be given the option to do so when the 20 percent warning comes up. Once this is activated you will see that the battery indicator to the top right will change to yellow.
How does this work — What this feature actually does is change various settings or more so turning them off, such as background app refresh, mail fetch, and automatic download. You will be surprised at how much this will save you. Apple reckons this will give you at least an extra hour of battery, although this has yet to be proven in real-world tests.
Something else you could try is to go to Settings, General, Usage, and Battery Usage. Once there you will then be able to see if there are any offending apps that are draining the battery more than others. If there is one maybe delete it and replace with an alternative. If this is not an option, maybe delete it and then re-download and install it.
You need to also remember that Background App refresh can also be an issue, and so maybe you might want to go through the list and turn the ones off that you do not really use much. Some apps also use your Location Services, so it might be wise to have a look at those as well.
If those fail, then reboot your device by holding the power button and home button down at the same time and wait until you see the Apple logo repair. This can often make a huge difference.
However, if you are still noticing significant battery drain, then you might have no choice but to downgrade to iOS 8.4, although only as a last resort.
The simplest way to downgrade back to 8.4 is to first download iOS 8.4 ISPW file on a computer with iTunes installed. You then need to go to Settings on your iPhone and turn Find My iPhone off.
Next turn the device off and launch iTunes. Now connect the device to the computer and hold the power and home buttons down for 10 seconds, and let go of the power button, but still keep your finger down on the home button for 3 seconds.
If you have done the process right iTunes should detect your iPhone or iPad is in firmware update mode. You then want to select the Summary screen in iTunes and then press the restore button and hold down the shift button on your PC or Option on your Mac.
A file browser will now open and you will then have to locate where the iOS 8.4.1 IPSW file downloaded. If you have been successful your device will have the same welcome screen as though you have just got a new one. The next steps are simple and so you just need to follow the advice that shows up on the screen.
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