There have been reports of iPhone SE 2020 battery draining quickly than usual. Although this iPhone model is quite new, there has been concerns from Apple users that despite the newness of their iPhone, their battery is already draining faster. This can be depressing particularly to those who are always on the go and needs their iPhone for their day to day living. If you notice your iPhone SE 2020 battery draining fast, there are some steps you can take to fix the issue before contacting Apple Support.
One of the issues plaguing iPhone SE 2020 users is faster-than-normal battery drain. Battery issues iPhone SE 2020 are extremely common, particularly after new iOS releases, so the complaints don’t come as much of a surprise.
Some of the issues might be hardware related, but many others are probably software related. In a most cases, poor battery on iPhone SE 2020 is caused by a rogue app or bad habits.
If your iPhone SE 2020 battery drain fast, your first thought might be to downgrade back to an older version of iOS. That’s certainly an option. That said, before you downgrade, you should try and resolve the issues on your own.
Why is iPhone SE 2020 battery draining fast?
There can be a number of reasons why your iPhone SE 2020 battery dies fast. It could be because of a bug from the recent update, or maybe there is some issues with the recently installed apps or current apps on your device. The settings on your iPhone could also affect battery consumption.
iPhone SE 2020 battery drain fix
If your iPhone SE 2020 battery drain fast, the following tips will help you fix the problem. These fixes have worked for us in the past and there’s a good chance they’ll get your issues resolved in no time.
Solution #1: Restart Your iPhone
The first thing you’ll want to do is restart your iPhone. Shut it down, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on. Often times, this will resolve the problem.
Solution #2: Update Your iPhone
If your iPhone SE 2020 battery dies fast, and there’s a new version of iOS available, try updating to the latest version.
Apple probably won’t call out any battery life fixes in an update’s change log, but there’s always a chance new software does wonders for your iPhone. Before you install a new version of iOS, be sure to read reviews and dig into feedback about the update’s performance on your iPhone.
Solution #3: Check Out Your Apps
If you are still experiencing battery issues on iPhone SE 2020 after performing a restart, and there isn’t an update available, check your applications. Apps, especially third-party applications, will sometimes act up after a new iOS operating system is released and there’s a very good chance it’s one of your apps causing the battery drain issues.
Checking app performance is easy and you might be able to identify a rogue app in a matter of minutes. Here’s how to do that:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Tap on Battery.
- Head into the Battery Usage section.
This section will show you the apps draining your iPhone’s battery life and when they’re doing so. If you’re using an app a lot, it will obviously drain your device’s battery. However, if you notice that an app you rarely use is draining battery life, you might need to take a closer look.
If you see an app you rarely use draining your iPhone’s battery life, try updating the application to the latest version. App developers are busy rolling out iOS updates and an update could resolve the problem.
If you are still having poor battery life on iPhone SE 2020, try deleting the app and see if that returns things to normal.
Solution #4: Use Screen Time
The Screen Time feature on iPhone SE 2020 can help you conserve battery while also eliminating bad habits.
Screen Time includes a set of controls that can help keep your addictive behavior in check. If you aren’t on your iPhone using your apps, you won’t be consuming your battery life.
Screen Time gives you the ability to set limits on how long you can use a given app on a particular day. If you approach the threshold, it’ll give you a warning.
The feature also lets you set these alerts for kids and link them to a ScreenTime Allowance. This allows you to set limits on games, but keep important apps available.
Solution #5: Use Low Power Mode
The Low Power Mode feature on iPhone SE 2020 can help you conserve battery life by disabling services (Hey Siri, automatic downloads, and mail fetch) that could drain your battery.
You can turn Low Power Mode on and off any time you want and your iPhone will also prompt you to turn it on whenever it reaches 20% battery.
You may also want to add Low Power Mode setting to your Control Center. Control Center is the menu that pops up when you swipe up from the bottom part of the screen. Here’s how to do that:
- Tap Settings.
- Now, tap Control Center.
- Next, tap Customize Controls.
- Lastly, tap the green plus sign next to Low Power Mode.
Next time you launch Control Center on your iPhone you’ll see a battery icon. Tap it to enable or disable Low Power Mode.
You can also turn Low Power Mode on from the Settings app. Here’s how to do this:
- Launch Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Battery.
- Tap Low Power Mode.
- Toggle it On.
Solution #6: Turn On Optimized Battery Charging
Starting with iOS 13, Apple introduced a feature known as
“Optimized Battery Charging.”
This feature can help reduce battery aging.
The feature learns from your daily charging routine and waits to finish charging your device to 100% until you need to use your
iPhone.
In doing so, it will stop your battery from sitting at maximum capacity and could prolong the overall life of your iPhone’s battery.
Here’s how to enable Optimized Battery Charging on your iPhone SE 2020:
- Launch the settings app on your iPhone
- Scroll down and tap Battery
- Tap Battery Health
- Turn ON the switch next to Optimized Battery Charging tab
Solution #7: Disable Widgets
If you don’t use widgets, try turning them off and see if battery life improves. Here’s how to disable widgets on iPhone SE 2020:
- On your iPhone Home Screen, swipe to the right.
- Scroll all the way to bottom of your widgets and tap Edit.
On this screen you’ll be presented with a list of your apps and services. These are your widgets and you might notice that some of them are active. To deactivate a widget:
- Tap on the red circle with the white line.
- Now, tap Remove.
At first we recommend disabling the widgets you never use. (at times, that might be all of them.) If you still notice poor battery life on iPhone SE 2020, return to this screen and go through them one-by-one or disable them all.
You can always turn your widgets back on if you discover they aren’t the cause of the poor battery life on iPhone SE 2020.
Solution #8: Turn Off Raise to Wake
iOS’ Raise to Wake feature is handy, but turning it off could help you conserve your iPhone’s battery life.
If you don’t need your iPhone’s screen to automatically turn on whenever you pick it up, head over to the Settings app > Display & Brightness and turn the Raise to Wake feature off.
Solution #9: Disable Vibrations
If your iPhone vibrates every time you receive a notification, and you don’t need it to, try turning the vibrations off. Turning them off will help your iPhone use less power.
To turn off vibrations on iPhone SE 2020:
- Launch Settings.
- Tap Sounds & Haptics.
- Switch Vibrate on Ring and Vibrate on Silent to off position.
You may also need to go into each individual Sound and Vibration and make sure Vibration (which is located at the top of the display ) is set to “None”.
Solution #10: Use Wi-Fi Instead of Cellular
Using your iPhone while it’s connected to a cellular network can drain your battery. If you have a Wi-Fi network at your disposal, connect to it. It could help you save battery.
Solution #11: Stop Background Refresh
Apple’s Background App Refresh refreshes apps in the background in order to show you the latest data when you launch them. It’s a handy feature, however, it can also consume your iPhone’s battery life. If you don’t need it, try turning it off.
Follow these steps to disable Background App refresh:
- Launch Settings.
- Go to General.
- Tap Background App Refresh.
- Turn it off for any apps you don’t use.
There is an option to turn it off completely if you don’t want to go through your apps one at a time.
Solution #12: Turn Off Fitness Tracking
iPhone SE 2020 features a motion co-processor that tracks your steps and other movements. If you use your phone for fitness-related activities, you’ll probably want to keep this feature enabled. If you don’t, you may need to disable it and see if that helps your iPhone SE 2020 battery that is draining fast.
To do this, launch the Settings app and go to Privacy. From there, select Motion & Fitness and toggle the Fitness Tracking function off.
You might also want to toggle off apps listed below Fitness Tracking in the menu. If you don’t notice any change, you can always turn everything back on.
Solution #13: Turn Off Assistive Touch
If you’re currently using Assistive Touch on your iPhone, it might be one of the culprits. Turning it off might help your iPhone SE 2020 battery that is draining fast.
If you don’t want or need Assistive Touch active on your phone, try turning it off. Follow these steps:
- Launch Settings.
- Go to Accessibility.
- on Touch
- Tap AssistiveTouch.
- Toggle it to Off.
Solution #14: Enable Dark Mode
Since the dark mode feature is now available on iOS 13 update and most of Apple iPhones that supports the update, turning on Dark Mode feature can help fix battery draining issue on iPhone SE 2020.
Follow these steps to enable Dark Mode:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone
- Tap on Display & Brightness
- Tap on Dark Mode to enable it.
Solution #15: Disable Automatic Downloads
If Automatic Download is enabled, as the title suggest, it automatically downloads and updates apps purchased and installed on your device. This means it constantly refreshes to search for available update especially if connected to a WiFi thereby draining your iPhone’s battery life.
Follow these steps to Disable Automatic Download:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone
- Go to iTunes & App Store tab
- Under the Automatic Download section, you can turn Off for Music, Apps, Books and Audiobooks and App Updates. You have the option to select one or you can select to disable all.
Solution #16: Adjust Screen Display
There is a high possibility that the cause of the battery draining faster on your iPhone SE 2020 is because of the settings on your screen display. Be sure to change your iPhone screen dimmer on for daytime use and enable auto-brightness in order for it to auto adjust based on the lightning conditions with the use of a light sensor that is built-in to your iPhone device.
You can adjust the brightness of the screen manually in two ways:
- First option: Drag the Sun Icon when you opened the Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of your display.
- Second option: Open the settings app on your iPhone and tap on Display & Brightness, then drag the slider to adjust brightness
To enable Auto-Adjust function, follow these steps:
- Open the settings app on your iPhone SE 2020
- Tap on Accessibility
- Tap on Display & Text Size
- Toggle ON Auto-Brightness tab.
Solution #17: Enable Low-Data Mode
Besides reducing the data usage on your iPhone, Low Power Mode can also can help extend battery thereby helping fix battery draining problems on iPhone SE 2020.
Follow these steps to enable Low Data Mode:
- Open Settings
- Tap Cellular
- Tap on Cellular Options tab
- Turn ON Low Data Mode
Solution #18: Manage Location Services Feature
Location Tracking can drain your iPhone’s battery therefore, it’s good to manage your location service feature not to track you on all apps all the time. You can either choose to track you on a particular app “Once” and when an app tries to locate you again a prompt will appear if you want to be tracked or not. This does not only fix battery draining problems but also keeping you secured with privacy as well.
Here’s how to manage Location Services:
- Open the settings app on your iPhone
- Tap Privacy
- Tap Location Services
- Select While using the App on each of the apps
Solution #19: Reset All Settings
If your apps aren’t the cause of the problem, try resetting all of your settings. This will restore your settings to their factory defaults (so make sure you have your Wi-Fi passwords handy), but it could fix your battery life issues. It has worked for us in the past.
Here’s how to reset your iPhone SE 2020:
- Launch Settings.
- Go to General.
- Scroll down and tap Reset.
- Tap Reset All Settings.
- If asked, type in your passcode.
Great job with this!
Apple’s claim of over 10 hours of battery life is absolute rubbish. I just bought an iPhone SE — was very excited to finally get it — and the thing loses it’s charge unbelievably quickly. You can sit and watch the battery drain away. I’m getting 3-4 hours out of mine. And that’s not gaming, that’s texting, email, and reading newpaper apps only. I close apps constantly, keep the light dim, and more to save power. The other day I sat with it in front of me, just open, nothing happening, and it was losing 1% every 2 minutes. Holy s@$t that’s bad. And it’s out of the box new.
same here! my se battery health just dropped till 87% and my phone is not even 1 year old! i dont understand why its like that. thankfully im not the only one here with this problem
Got a brand new SE 2020 about 3 months ago and the battery continues to drain even after trying the above fixes. Not sure what my options are at this point, but not happy with this purchase!
I’m very disappointed that my new IPhone SE which I have had for 5 days needs charging at least once a day.
None of my activities on it are using a lot of power.
Not good enough !
I’ve got the same issue as everyone else. Battery drain. My SE isn’t even a week old! Very frustrating. Tired of being tethered to charging cord! And what’s up with the new charging cord anyway? The whole world uses USB ports/plugs. Now I’m unable to use the cord in my 2019 truck! UGH
Apple need to look at this problem of losing battery life more seriously.
Their response to me was disabling most of the new features that persuaded me to buy this phone in the first place!
I am having same problem phone is 3months old been ongoing problem, I charged my phone yesterday at 8.30am phone data off, WiFi of did all setting above sent 3 texted no phone calls in or out this morning at 8.00am 5% battery left?
Just got my iphone SE recently and like all above, the battery drains with almost no use! Not happy. Miss my old SE.
My iPhone is like 4 months old and it’s already 95% battery health, even the iPhone 6 what my cousin has is better and I’m not happy with buying the iPhone SE 2020, I know I can change the battery to the better one but it costs pretty much
was having problems with i phone 5se dropping battery charge from over 60% and would suddenly drop to 1%. Re boot brought it back again but kept happening. Discovered that as i usually keep my phone in my pocket that the charging port had fluff and bits in it. Cleaned it out by using the sim card wire and sucking out with vacuum cleaner. Did this over a week age and not had the problem since. must cause some sort of short in the charging system !!!
I also just got the SE. battery drains in a few hours. Very unhappy.
Terrible battery. My phone is 2 days old. Charged it overnight. It’s now 3:30 pm and I am just leaving work. Sent zero text messages. Zero emails. Checked the weather and the news a couple times and my battery is at 50%. I had half of the suggestions already done so I added whatever I could from this page. The reason I got a new phone was because I thought my Iphone 8 battery was bad after 2 and a half years. This one looks to be almost as bad and it’s brand new??
I got mine last summer and battery was just fine. Now all of a sudden it’s losing battery very quickly and don’t know if it was maybe a new upgrade causing it . Very annoying, almost as bad as my old 6s!
Right now, I had 60 % and and followed the update recommendation and when it finished the update, battery and almost dead. I changed to the battery about 4 months ago
Just received the new SE from Verizon, the battery drained fast from 98% to 20% in three hours. What I did in three hours was playing youtube for an hour, received and sent a dozen text messages, checked my mails and visited yahoo finance app. I can’t believe iphone battery is much worse than my LG G4 battery.
I’ve had my iPhone SE 2020 for two months. I use my device for talk, text, email, a podcast every other day. Every time I do any of these the battery charge goes down 1-4 percent. I disabled just about everything else.
I’ve had Apple online help and been to the “genius bar” twice. I was offered $200 to trade my phone in for a new (much more expensive phone). I am sorry to say the Apple brand has been severely damaged with this phone battery. Is there anything we can do?
ive never had a phone die as often as this iphone SE dies…. worst apple purchase ever!
Same as all above…. completely disappointed with that, specially coming from an Android Samsung that i used extensively and only when I do really a lot of daily use it reached the end of the day with 15%…. but on this brand new iPhone SE2020 no matter how light i use it, it drains battery super fast…. only exception is when I simply dont use it and dont receive notifications…i say this cause it took me some days passing from one phone to the other so, the iPhone was mainly on standby…like this it lasted 2 days….
Not sure what to do about it….I really enjoy its features but this issue is really annoying…how is this possible even….nowadays there is more then enough battery technology in order to have a phone last for days…i kind of feel there is some capitalistic interest behind… just sad.
Wish Apple would offer a replacement or would seriously address the issue. I wonder if the fully featured iPhone that it costs more then a 1000€ also suffers from similar things….maybe thats the catch. You get a taste of an iPhone for 500€ but if you want the “real” thing then you need to spend over 1000€.
Hi, A late reply but just wish to thank you for posting your message. I was having a charging problem ( not always charging when cable inserted) and then recently an IDENTICAL problem to what you mentioned.
I had previously looked and not saw any fluff. After reading your post I tried the sim card wire. Initially nothing came out but persisted then ALOT of fluff came out. I could not believe how much came out. Charging always works now
Thanks again
.
John
I’m experiencing the same problems as the people above. I talked to Apple about it and they claimed it was not a hardware issue when clearly it is. There should be a lawsuit.
Yep I’ve had my iPhone se 2020 128gb for less than 3 months of light use age (web surfing/bit of texting/maybe a short video clip or 2) and basically full storage capacity open with only a few apps installed. Have done everything listed to ‘save’ battery, and health is at 97% already. No idea why? My old 5s lasted me almost 7 years when I finally ‘retired’ it-battery health was at 80%. This new SE battery won’t last even half those years I bet! Does anyone have any recent solutions or information-as this isn’t ‘normal’ like Apple says!