IOS battery drain when not navigating on iOS 26

[nomko]

My best guess: any app that is still running in the background (not closed) is still using battery power and therefore draining the battery.

See what happens if you force close the app.

In general, was there not something going with the MRA Next app and IOS?

[Jon Hye-Knudsen]

I understand that it is running in the background, but it really should not be consuming much battery in that state, when no navigation or tracking is going on. It’s like it keeps hold of the positioning for way too long, even when it does not need it for anything.

[Alex reds]

Actually, on iPhone that’s not the case — apps running in the background don’t consume power unless they have special permissions granted by the user, such as location services or background updates.

[Rob Verhoeff]

They also say that after an iOS update, overall battery consumption tends to be higher at first because the OS apparently reprocesses certain background tasks. Since iOS 26 has just been released, that could be a logical explanation, right?

[Jon Hye-Knudsen]

Have any of you actually looked at the screenshot I linked to? It VERY clearly shows that MyRouteApp has been consuming an alarming amount of power while running in the background.

[Jon Hye-Knudsen]

Actually there has been a new development. I have not had MyRouteApp running since my original post…. But now 2 days later my iPhone is still reporting heavy battery use from MyRouteApp. Look at the link to the screenshot: icloud link to screenshot.

I have just checked that MyRouteApp is not running and I know that I force closed it when I wrote the original post.
If this continues I will have to uninstall the app, since it is draining my battery even just being on my phone.
Could one of the developers please take a look into this?
@Corjan-Meijerink

[Rob Verhoeff]

@Jon-Hye-Knudsen Yes, of course I looked at that screenshot! I don’t share your experience — I only mentioned a possible cause that you often read about with new iOS updates.

[Jon Hye-Knudsen]

@Rob-Verhoeff
I am sorry. It just seemed like none of the comments were taking the “proof” into account. I absolutely think this has to do with IOS 26, but it is in relation to how MyRouteApp handles being in the background. I’ve had to do a soft reset of my iPhone to completely force all apps to stop before MyRouteApp actually finished.
If there is any other proof/logs or whatever I can supply I’m happy to do so, because at the current state, I really can’t use MyRouteApp without risking running out of battery, even after having finished navigation and having shut down the app.

[Bart De Medts]

I’ve experienced that in the past as well, even before iOS 26 existed. Back then it resolved itself on its own.
I just checked (I’m also on iOS 26), and for me the app only uses about 2% battery.
No idea what might be causing it on your end, but if I were in your shoes, I’d try deleting the app and reinstalling it. It might help (though of course, no guarantees).

[Jon Hye-Knudsen]

@Bart-De-Medts
Thanks for the tips. I’ve now reinstalled the app and will keep an eye out the next couple of days to see what happens. Will certainly report back here if it continues.

[richtea999]

Disclaimer: you probably know this already, but just in case!

If you do have the same problem again, then be sure to positively kill the app like so:

1. Swipe up from the bottom edge to the middle of screen. All running apps are then shown in a sideways stack.
2. Scroll through the stack to find MRA, and then swipe it up and away to kill it

If you just swipe all the way up the app will not be killed, it just goes in to the background, and will continue to consume resources.

However, I agree it shouldn't be sucking that much energy.

[Rob Verhoeff]

@Jon-Hye-Knudsen I did another test myself with the latest (beta) version. On days when I didn’t use the app, I also didn’t see any battery usage from it. During use, it’s actually quite reasonable in my opinion. I keep the phone plugged in while navigating anyway, since I don’t want to end up with a dead battery. But for now, I don’t see any issues at all.

[Stanisław]

As I understand it, we are talking about the situation, where I pressed "stop navigate" button and MRA is hidden in the background but I don't want to kill it. I want to resume navigation after the break. I haven't noticed such problem on my side because I rather use to kill it anyway and start at new. Perhaps it should be checked.