iOS 8 Users Seeing Issues With Battery Drain, Slow Wi-Fi

ios_8_iconReleased last week, iOS 8 is Apple's latest operating system update, bringing several new features like Continuity, third-party keyboards, Notification Center Widgets, and more. As with any new iOS update, users have been reporting several bugs in the operating system, with some of the more prevalent complaints pointing towards slow Wi-Fi speeds and problems with battery life.

As outlined by PCMag, iOS 8 users on the Apple support forums have been complaining about Wi-Fi problems in a thread that now spans multiple pages, an issue that was confirmed by the site's own testing. It appears, based on complaints, that multiple devices may be affected by a Wi-Fi bug, including the iPhone 5s, the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, the iPad Air, the Retina iPad mini, and more.

I also got an iPhone 6 on Friday, and noticed some sluggishness when connected to my home Wi-Fi network in New York. Twitter and Instagram photos took forever to appear, and opening a news story in Safari was hanging. I did a speed test using the Ookla app and got an abysmal 0.01 Mbps download and 1.05 Mbps upload. Minutes later, another test jumped up to 4.75 Mbps download and 0.24 upload, but a third test was again at 0.02 Mbps download and 0.76 upload.

Some users reportedly had luck fixing the problem by disabling Wi-Fi Networking under Privacy --> Location Services --> System Services.

Significant battery drain appears to be another complaint that's popping up frequently on the Apple Support forums, with users complaining of their batteries draining much faster than usual. According to one user, his battery drained from 100 percent to zero in four hours with minimal usage, a complaint echoed by several other users.

While those seem to be some of the more prominent problems on the Apple forums, iOS 8 users are running into plenty of other bugs and issues with the software. On our own MacRumors forums, there's an eleven page thread cataloguing complaints, which range from app crashes to the same battery issues Apple forum members are seeing, and a second thread where people are posting a list of bugs. There's also a thread on people experiencing excessive battery drain and a thread on people seeing slow Wi-Fi speeds.

Apple already has plans for an iOS 8 update that's coming in the near future, bringing support for Apple Pay and several features that are currently missing from the software, including SMS Relay. The update may also be used to fix some of the bugs that users are experiencing.

Related Forum: iOS 8

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

Legend of Ive Avatar
134 months ago
You're updating it wrong
Score: 61 Votes (Like | Disagree)
farewelwilliams Avatar
134 months ago
a problem with every major release.
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Blue Fox Avatar
134 months ago
Perhaps people are seeing a drain on battery because they are using it more often because there are new features? Everytime a new version is released, or a new iPhone, people seem to complain about the battery. I drained my iPhone 6 today because I can't stop using it, not because it has battery issues.
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TreyCox Avatar
134 months ago
BatteryDrainSlowWi-Fi-Gate
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Technarchy Avatar
134 months ago
a problem with every major release.

If every release of iOS drained battery like some claimed, no iPhone would last longer than 15 minutes.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SoAnyway Avatar
134 months ago
This is exactly why I always wait a few weeks after a major release so the bugs can be found and worked out. I must give a heartfelt thanks to all the early adopters/beta testers!
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)