iPhone users say their battery is ruined after updating to iOS 18.3 and your phone could be affected too
Another maligned Apple update is here, and with it, you're moaning that your battery life is taking a hit.
While Apple does its best to improve the battery life on each new iPhone, it's largely undone when the updates start rolling out.
The iPhone 16 might be the most sophisticated yet, but while it's making the most of Apple Intelligence as the tech giant tries to futureproof itself, that doesn't mean everyone is loving it. iOS 18.3 is now rolling out on iOS 18-compatible devices, and although it's not as substantial as the Apple Intelligence overhaul of iOS 18.2, there are some major improvements to Visual Intelligence, as well as some much-needed TLC for Apple Music and Siri in terms of major bug fixes.
The big takeaway is that Apple Intelligence will now be enabled by default on iPhone 15 Pro or above.
Advert
With complaints about the amount of storage Apple Intelligence takes up, as well as genuine fears of letting it into our lives, there are fears that it'll now be automatically booted up when you upgrade your iOS.
Apple Intelligence aside, iOS 18.3 is accused of zapping our phone battery...again.
One disgruntled iPhone user took to X and wrote: "'I was forced to update to iOS 18.3 because of the many bugs I'm facing. I hoped they were fixed! No!! And the battery is now dying so fast! "Anyone else disgusted? @Apple @AppleSupport @theapplehub Again, not expecting any response, I paid for the product after all!"
Another joked: "Upgrade to iOS 18.3 : Because your phone clearly needed another reason to overheat, featuring groundbreaking bugs and revolutionary battery drainage. 🔥💥🥳."
A third thinks they found the problem and added: "Battery life has been poor, 1% drop every 3 minutes on idle for the past 24 hours. This is due to a bug in iOS 18.3 where Apple Intelligence is stuck in a perpetually ‘downloading’ state with no option to cancel or disable."
Not just facing battery issues, others hate iOS 18.3 in general. Someone else concluded: "iOS 18.3 has completely and utterly f**ked up my iPhone. Cool great."
@AppleSupport after updating my phone to iOS 18.3, my battery is draining in an abnormal way. Please see the graphs in the pictures attached. Device iPhone 14 plus 128 GB pic.twitter.com/l4BU538IJe
— TanMadridista (@TanbirAlamRMA) January 29, 2025
Things are so bad, that some are even rolling back their iPhones to a time before iOS 18.3. The problem is, you can't stick to an old iOS forever because Apple will eventually force you to update. It's also best to keep your phone as up-to-date as possible because Apple often includes important security updates to keep your devices free of malware.
You're told to stick it out, as following an iOS update, it can take a while for your phone to recalibrate and all the software updates to finalize.
Apple Support has previously warned about update issues, writing: "If you notice that your battery life has decreased after updating your iPhone, wait a few days and then check again. Even though you can use your iPhone immediately after an update, certain tasks related to the update continue in the background and might affect battery life and thermal performance.
"While they are ongoing, you may see the Insight Ongoing iOS Update in Settings > Battery."
Still, if you continue noticing a dramatic drop for a couple of days, it might be best to take a closer look at what's going on.
We're used to complaints coming with every new iOS update, so at this point, the ever-angry Apple community is nothing new. Then again, just because we come to expect battery issues doesn't mean we should have to put up with them.