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Users report excessive Facebook background activity draining battery after iOS 16

iPhone changing wallpaper black iOS 16.1.1

Multiple users have reported that Facebook background activity is too high, causing battery consumption issues after the iOS 16 update.

Reports of high Facebook background activity and battery issues after iOS 16

After updating to iOS 16, users are facing multiple issues with their apps. One of them includes the abnormally high Facebook background activity that is negatively affecting their devices’ battery life. Some reports show over 9 hours of background activity on the Facebook app.

“Two days ago I noticed large battery usage from Facebook in the background. On iOS 16 and today updated on iOS 16.0.2. I need to close the app to stop working and use the battery in the background. Never had this before on iOS 15. Anyone with a similar situation. Restarted the phone, uninstalled the app, nothing changes,” a user posted.

“Anyone else noticed that the latest version of the Facebook app, which came out on 22 Sept, is creating unusually high battery drain on background activity? It’s the same on both my iPad Pro and iPhone 11,” another posted.

While many affected users have upgraded to iOS 16, the issue was reported on some iOS 15 devices as well.

According to some, the issue might be occurring due to Meta trying to use some ‘tricks’ to keep its apps running in the background for more time to get more useful user data for localized ads.

Others suggest that there could be a type of ‘imperceptible noise’ that always runs in the background. The issue is also affecting other Meta-owned apps such as WhatsApp.

“Facebook used to do tricks, like playing noiseless audio just so it could keep a function running in the background to keep sucking your data. It is even used to keep the microphone active to hear your conversations. Don’t know if they’re still doing it,” a user posted.

Potential workarounds

There are several possible workarounds to reduce the Facebook background activity issues. You can try to turn off Bluetooth on your device for some days. You may also try to log in to Facebook through a web browser.

Team Meta has not commented on the matter yet or provided an official fix.

About the author

Saman Iqbal

Saman is a law student. She enjoys writing about tech, politics and the world in general. She's an avid reader and writes fictional prose in her free time.







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