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Kudos0

iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 17-Nov-2022 | 1:50PM · 11 Replies ·

For what I have seen I am not the only one who has been affected by an excessive battery drain or data consumption from Norton 360. I've only had the phone in my hands for the past weekend and at first it consumed all my remaining data and after I also realized it consumes more than a third of a battery cycle.

Although I had both, Norton 360 and Secure VPN installed, I have been only using Norton 360 and the other one was always disabled (I have just deleted it anyway). I have set Norton 360 to off for data (my new data cycle started today and it's already consumed a third of the same) and background refresh to avoid battery drain. I understand VPN should only be used if connected to a public wifi for protection, hence I do not need it if navigating with cell data, right? If that's the case, I see no point in using it if I actually never go online with public wifi and the app's been wasting my resources like crazy.

Labels: Customer Support Feedback, iOS, VPN, Web Protection, Wi-Fi Security

Replies

Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 17-Nov-2022 | 4:56PM · Permalink

For what I have seen I am not the only one who has been affected by an excessive battery drain or data consumption from Norton 360.

Are you referring to other threads in these forums? If so, most of those posts on battery use were not really an issue with Norton, but with an update to iOS. I have seen this noted for the 16.1.1 update. These usually get resolved with the next iOS update.

Norton 360 is going to use data when connected to the internet, whether by wifi or cell data. This is because Norton uses online malware definitions for protecting your device. Your changing the cell data usage to off for 360 is the smart move. 

And you are correct about the VPN not needed if using cell data or using a wifi connection that is protected by a strong password. Public networks generally do not have this protection and is where you want the protection of a VPN.

Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 19-Nov-2022 | 12:10AM · Permalink

Well another period of Norton 360 using 210 minutes of background activities, during my charging period. In this time it prevented my from reaching 100% for 7 hours: it was the only application running (I look at the battery activity and I checked with Apple to see if this was correct that under Battery it will list all software activities, hence for iOS activities it is states the app or a generic one). Please Norton work with Apple, to align; as a User, I accept a delay but why for major updates like 15.0, 16.0 and 16.1 your products were immediately aligned. I also switch off all my apps’ background settings when away from a private ‘WiFi’; I never use VPN as this is still an ongoing problem of battery drainage.
Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 19-Nov-2022 | 5:58AM · Permalink

I am sensing a faster battery drain on my iPhone SE 2022. I checked my battery stats and found Norton at just under 5 hours, and my Apple Email app also just under the 5 hours. Those were the two highest users. I don't have a baseline to compare to. 

Remember that any security app is going to use more CPU cycles, and thus more battery than most apps because it is always running in the background to provide the protection you wanted. It seems to get exaggerated when Apple has these battery drain issues with their update.

And as has been shown in the past, it is not a Norton issue. The issue goes away with a subsequent iOS update.

Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 21-Nov-2022 | 12:34AM · Permalink

I am regular user of antivirus on my devices so as soon as I get a new one, the first thing will be to install antivirus. In my opinion its never an issue of battery drain because of antivirus, I speak of my personal experience. However, I do agree that antivirus( don't matter which one) uses more resources than any other app while running in the background.

Furthermore, you can change your device with better performance hardware and long battery life as a hack for using for more battery while keeping yourself secure.

Cheers to good life!

Kudos1 Stats

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 25-Nov-2022 | 1:22AM · Permalink

I allowed a period to pass for both iOS 16.1.1 to settle down (on their forum and multitudes of YouTube comments on battery drainage issues) and Norton 360 for Mobile for Mac (actually I have the full pack) I waited for it to settle with latest version (background activities were immense upto 6 hours in one day). However, my iPhone battery just did not last even half day (yes, I checked the health of my battery, 100%). It was perfect with 15.0 lasting over 2 days. I did a test where I removed Norton and guess what!!!! Battery perfect. Just to add, I had also tried the trick where Norton has less ‘data’ to check in the dark-web; to no avail. The issue is with the end-user hardware I.e. our iPhone and its operating system (iOS) and I believe the firmware. Do I leave Norton for another AntiVirus company service provider.
Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 25-Nov-2022 | 9:58AM · Permalink

Do I leave Norton for another AntiVirus company service provider.

You can try that. But who knows if those apps also have the battery issue when certain iOS updates get released. As you read on other forums and youtube, the battery issues are widespread. Surely not all those reporting are using Norton. It could be an issue with devices with a security app installed, because of how they have to interact with iOS. But again this is an issue with Apple breaking something that security apps connect to. As shown in the past, subsequent iOS updates fix the issue. Not the security app developers.

Kudos1 Stats

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 08-Dec-2022 | 4:15AM · Permalink

I stumbled upon an interesting article about high battery usage on iOS that fairly explains how it really is.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v129651410

My experience is that although the battery consumption figures are really high, the actual battery consumption is very low considering the fact that Norton runs permanently in the background. I recommend disregarding the displayed figures and rather take into account the actual battery usage. For example, during 8 hours of not using the iPhone, the battery consumed 3% while Norton was running in the background. Also, when using the iPhone heavily (surfing, streaming, working, etc.), the battery drop is mostly due to apps other than Norton.

iPhone 13 Pro Max with always latest iOS

Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 09-Dec-2022 | 1:20AM · Permalink

I updated or should I say ‘I had to’, because there was certainly a conflict between Norton and iOS, to 16.1.2 ( before I did the update I removed all my APPs) then re-installed Norton and left it for 24 hours. I then re-installed my APPs, most of them had updates. Finally, I now have my iPhone back as it was for 15.0 iOS, meaning Norton is no longer draining my battery; Norton is not draining over night or those peak hours ( Norton is running around 7 hours covering my charge period from 100% to 17% ). The only odd thing, it can be sensitive to some APPs, however maybe this is because Norton Service is on over drive on background security. However, I make sure all background updates for all my APPs and iOS are off when I am using my SIM service (when I had 15.0 iOS I had everything ON); I will wait a while before I take this leap of faith. Let us hope both companies work together on the next iOS release.
Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 09-Dec-2022 | 5:54AM · Permalink

Did you check the link in the post above your last post? I gives a great description of the perception that Norton is using excessive battery.

Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 09-Jan-2023 | 12:39AM · Permalink

Finally, I have found the admission from Apple where the conflict is between the career (in my case Vodafone with 5G service and international contract, these two elements are important) with Apple’s security service with their iOS; conflict with 5G service. The battery status is actually correct, sorry for correcting you; it qualifies what are the APP services being ‘interrupted’, the % or time is a reflection of a time stamp of when they are ‘open’ and ‘closed’ (I will not explain the programming terminology). Alas, it does not resolve the problem but explains the challenge with iOS because I do not have the same problem with my Android smartphone.
Kudos0

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Max and iOS 16.1.1 excessive data and battery drain

Posted: 09-Jan-2023 | 4:33PM · Permalink

Thanks for posting back with this added information.

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