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Don’t panic when iOS 10 starts killing your iPhone battery much faster

Published Sep 13th, 2016 11:41AM EDT
iOS 10 Battery Life

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As long as you’re not hoping for any truly innovative or revolutionary new features, Apple’s new iOS 10 software is a pretty terrific update. It’s packed full of great new features, many of which iPhone and iPad users have been clamoring for — here are the 10 best new features you’ll find in iOS 10. You’ll also find tons of refinements and enhancements across the board. Nearly every Apple app has been updated with nifty new functionality, and Siri is smarter than ever in iOS 10.

Of course, there are also some changes in iOS 10 that users aren’t going to be particularly happy about. In some cases users will come around over time and in others, they won’t. Regardless, get ready to see plenty of complaining once iOS 10 hits the general public on Tuesday. One of the biggest complaints you’re going to see is going to focus on big hits to battery life, but don’t start to panic just yet.

MUST READ: The 10 biggest changes coming to your iPhone today with iOS 10

When you first update your iPhone or iPad to iOS 10, your device is going to take a serious hit where battery life is concerned. Apple’s iPhones don’t have very good battery life to begin with, so this is going to seem like a huge problem at first. But just calm down and take a deep breath, because this isn’t actually a problem at all. In fact, many users will ultimately see better battery life with iOS 10 than they had using iOS 9 thanks to various optimizations.

Here’s what’s going on: when you first install a major iOS update, two things happen that have a negative impact on battery life. First, you use your iPhone or iPad much more than you do normally because you want to check out all the new feature. Above average usage obviously leads to above average battery drain.

Beyond that, your device will need to re-index a huge amount of data when you first install iOS 10, such as contacts, photos and more. Pretty much anything that is searchable with Spotlight will need to be re-indexed. It all takes place in the background so many people are unaware that it’s even happening, but it does have an impact on battery life and it can take quite a bit of time for the process to complete.

So, long story short, don’t worry about it. The battery life on your iPhone or iPad might seem shorter at first but after a few days, you’ll be back to normal. In fact, you might even notice a slight increase in battery life.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.