Facebook Aware of iOS App Battery Life Drain Issue and Working on a Fix

Facebook today acknowledged its awareness of an issue raised by a few iOS users last week, who saw large amounts of battery drain on their iPhones while the social networking app ran in the background, even with background app refresh toggled off. Speaking with TechCrunch, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the company's awareness of the bug and promised a fix would be in place "soon."

facbook battery drain

MacRumors Forum member Oridus suffering from the Facebook battery drain bug

“We have heard reports of some people experiencing battery issues with our iOS app. We’re looking into this and hope to have a fix in place soon,” the spokesperson said.

A number of Facebook users have commented on the issue of background battery drain over the past week, with users on the MacRumors Forums posting about the issue as far back as last Thursday. One poster (seen above) saw Facebook responsible for a dramatic 39 percent battery usage over a six day period, despite having background app refresh set to off.

Several sites have attempted to theorize on the cause behind the overzealous battery drain, including MacStories, hypothesizing that the reason behind the bug could be silent audio emanating from the service's auto-playing videos. Since most people don't bother with turning off auto-play, Facebook could be keeping a muted audio track running in the background with users largely unaware, letting it run and "consume energy to perform background tasks" even after leaving the app.

The company itself hasn't commented on the source of the bug, but at least those affected can look forward to a fix for it in the future.

Top Rated Comments

Bbqthis Avatar
111 months ago
More like "Facebook app finally publicly exposed to be crap, company promises to fix".
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zedcars Avatar
111 months ago
Leave Facebook. It's the best thing you will ever do.
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
btrach144 Avatar
111 months ago
I've been thinking of deleting my Facebook profile. All people use FB for is to brag about what they just bought or where they're going. Basically, who has the bigger wallet.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
drumcat Avatar
111 months ago
Facebook is best used on Safari in iOS. The app is always bad news. I dropped the app two years ago, and it's awesome.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Brian Buttplug Avatar
111 months ago
I am getting old, but:

Who's looking at Facebook for 4 hours?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
avanpelt Avatar
111 months ago
And we'll never know when the battery issues are fixed because their release notes tell us absolutely nothing about what's been changed or fixed with each update.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
iPhone 15 Pro FineWoven

Apple Reportedly Stops Production of FineWoven Accessories

Sunday April 21, 2024 6:03 am PDT by
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. The lack of ...
Provenance Emulator

PlayStation and SEGA Emulator for iPhone and Apple TV Coming to App Store [Updated]

Friday April 19, 2024 8:29 am PDT by
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, SEGA Genesis,...