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Some iOS 16 Users Complaining About Slow Spotlight Search and Battery Drain

Some iOS 16 Users Complaining About Slow Spotlight Search and Battery Drain

It’s not unusual for users to find bugs in any new iOS release, and iOS 16 is no exception. MacRumors reports several users are reporting issues ranging from excessive battery drain to slow Spotlight search after updating their iPhone to iOS 16.

Excessive Battery Drain

Some users across Twitter, the MacRumors Forums (12), and Reddit (1,2) are reporting excessive battery drain days after the update.

Wow, iOS 16 is buggy. Completely wrecked my battery life on my 13 Pro. Now I have a 14 Pro and all seemed well, was getting great battery life, and now have had horrible battery life today. Like estimated 4.5-5 hours of SOT. And now, out of nowhere, my phone started getting really hot. What is going on??? Apple please fix this mess.

On the other end of the spectrum, some users are actually reporting improved battery life following their device’s upgrade to iOS 16.

Apple has recently announced that enabling haptic feedback for the keyboard in iOS 16 may deplete battery life, so that could be a contributor to the lesser battery life under iOS 16.

Slow Spotlight Search

Users are reporting that Spotlight sometimes takes up to 10 seconds to load results on ‌iOS 16‌, if they load at all. Users on Reddit (1,2) and MacRumors forum threads (1,2) report:

I have the same issue. Before iOS 15.6 search was instant, but when I updated to iOS 15.6 it became very slow, taking more than 5 seconds for anything to show up while searching. I was hoping that iOS 16 would fix the issue, but it is just as slow. I even erased the phone and restored it from an iCloud backup, hoping it will fix it. It didn’t.

So Apple, please fix this problem in the next update. It’s super annoying and I don’t want to lose all the network settings because of this.

I use search on the phone to quickly pull up apps I have hidden or are several screens away. When I pull down and type to search, it takes sometimes 10+ seconds for apps to begin to appear in the search. They used to be almost instantaneous. Example, if I start typing M-A-P, Apple Maps, Google Maps, etc. come up as a result. Is anyone else noticing this massive slowdown?

While there isn’t as yet an official fix for this issue, multiple users have said that resetting all settings significantly improved the performance of Spotlight search.

iOS 16 Update

Apple will release an iOS 16 update next week that fixes multiple issues. The update, most likely to be iOS 16.0.2, will include a fix for camera issues, a copy and paste prompt issue, and iMessage and ‌FaceTime‌ activation. The update could also address other issues. Hopefully, they’ll include those we’ve looked at above.