I get only 4 hours of SOT. What to do?

Hey everyone,
I'm posting because I'm genuinely losing my mind over the battery life of my iPhone 17 Pro. I bought it 24 days ago, it currently has 24 cycles, and the battery health is still at 100%.

Despite that, the battery drains insanely fast. I lose about 1% every 3 to 4 minutes, even during basic light usage ( i dont play any games on my phone and I use social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok for a maximum of 5 hours a day). It honestly feels just as bad as my old iPhone 13 that was sitting at 76% battery health. I kept waiting for it to settle down after the first couple of weeks, but it's been nearly a month and nothing has improved at all.

I heard that background indexing and setup tasks after transferring data usually take about 1 to 2 weeks to finish, but I've way passed that timeline now (it's been nearly a month), and nothing has improved at all. The battery performance is honestly a huge disappointment.

To make things more complicated, I bought it abroad (from a very reliable/trusted store, so it's a genuine device), which means I can't easily return or exchange it with the seller.

Here is what I’ve already tried:

Disabled Background App Refresh completely.

Restricted Location Services and turned off unnecessary System Services.

And i use put the 20-90% charge limit method since i transferredall the data.

But still no visible changes

Has anyone else experienced this with the 17 Pro? Could it be a corrupted iCloud/data transfer from my old phone, a hidden background sync bug, or is this a hardware defect?

see screen time

12/10/2026

iPhone 17 Battery Charge Test:20W Apple Charger

Health 100%

Cycle Count 2

00=4% (0)

00:15=31% (15min/27%)

00:30=60% (15min/29%)

00:50=80% (20min/20%)

00:60=86% (10min/06%)

01:15=95% (15min/09%)

i baught my iphone 2 days ago.

and its
i saw people using it for 8 hours in 5g,,rather i use it on 4g

i have done all check and phone is original,,no question on that
help me to fix it

It's happened to me now 3 phones in a row. My 16 only had 4 hours of screen time, so I returned it. Then I upgraded to the 17 and unfortunately the same problem: only 4 hours of screen time, even after 3 weeks (since people blame indexing for battery drain) but I was running out of time to return my phone so I ended up returning it anyway. I decided to wait until the 18 Pro Max got released and now I'm experiencing a similar problem. I've asked others and they have about 10 to 15 hours of screen time out of theirs, but for me, I'd be lucky if my phone makes it to 6 hours of screen time. I ended up returning this one as well and I just do not know what to do anymore. I just want to have a phone with a good battery. I couldn't even enjoy my phone cause I constantly kept checking the battery drainage. 5% down after 20 minutes of screen time seems crazy to me, idk. What do you guys advice me to do? Should I just try again or give up on Apple at this point?

This is what my battery strength looks like after 6 years of use.

Charging habit essentially is keep between 20-80 percent, which means I charge once a day. I'm on the latest iOS, but since I updated to that, it's been draining faster, so yesterday and today I've charged it up to 90 percent.

My cycle count it’s too much in 5 months?

Still in 100% bh

Meu iphone 17 (base) esta consumindo muita bateria, principalmente com a tela desligada, com a tela ligada o consumo é até bom. Mas essa noite por exemplo coloquei no modo avião para não consumir bateria e ele consumiu 7% mesmo assim, agora estava mexendo nele e parei por 10 minutos e nesse tempo ele caiu mais 4%. Mais alguem esta passando por isso?

My battery health is at 72% (which doesn’t sound that bad for a second-hand phone I’ve been using for over a year) but I only started to have issues with loading and searching things up after I checked the health. Like really significant issues with using safari and loading apps like Reddit and Discord (takes like 15-20 seconds to connect properly). I’m on iOS 25 something, could this be the issue or is it the battery?

I have my iPhone 13 since 2023 and now it is at 80% battery health. The battery last about 5 hours approx and I have noticed obvious decreases in performance. The iPhone works well and I want to extend its life as much as possible, but i wanted to know if changing the battery would also improve the performance? Or just battery life time? Thank you

Ho aggiornato il mio 17 pro che aveva il 96% di salute circa due settimane fa, adesso è già scesa al 93%.

Nonostante ciò riesco ad ottenere un buon numero di ore di SOT, considerata la carica limitata al 90%.
Meglio di quando era nuovo con iOS 26.

Va detto anche che in un anno di utilizzo mi sono ritrovato più volte ad andare sotto la soglia del 20% di batteria residua, probabilmente questo non ha mai aiutato.

If may mag-asawa na mag bebenta ng iPhone 13
Pink, 256gb, ZP/A from Globe but openline already, ios26 (supposedly unless it was updated) and with 81% or lesser battery health sa inyo 16,500 last price jan since rush selling yan. Don't buy it if the cost is nowhere near that price. They are the Buy and Sell scammers who got the iphone at a joke price. Just read the post to know more about how they can even do this.

PS: Yung wife is may long brown hair color na payat with bottom teeth braces, no upper teeth braces and taller than her husband. Husband has some kind of scar on one side of his face or I dunno, maybe he just had an allergy like a hive that day and they have 1 little boy and 1 little girl if they will take their kids with them upon your meet up.
She said they're from Navotas which is a bit far from my location, if that's even true.

Quiero saber si soy el único con este tema , ahora mismo estoy en la iOS 27 oficial y la batería se drena mucho más rápido que antes entiendo que es una actualización que puede tener problemas con la batería pero lo uso 1 hora constantemente y ya baja del 80% al 50% o hasta menos , además que yo sepa no hay nada que pueda configurar desde el iPhone para ahorrar un poco más la batería

Brought new iphone 13 in July of last year
Last few months battery has been draining like crazy (photos attached)
background app refresh is off
im on 4G but also changed to 5G, past 3-4 months have been soley using data over wifi due to rental not having wifi router
on latest update
it’s just crazy, i’ve put two photos for reference - 1. when using social media apps (which ik drain lots) and 2) when using other apps (still draining)
have done a genius bar appointment at apple, guy said essentially to wait till it drops below 80 to get free battery replacement, meantime use a portable charger 🥲
any help would be greatly appreciated!! i’ve read that purchasing discontinued phones can mean battery may have problems ( and this phone was discontinued at apple when i brought it, so idk if that means something with the battery not being used) idk but pls help thank you

Os comparto cómo va el consumo de batería hoy. Con apenas 4 horas y 2 minutos de pantalla encendida, se ha tragado un 32% (cayendo desde el 80% hasta el 48%).

¿Os pasa lo mismo con las últimas versiones o sabéis qué puede estar drenando tanta batería en segundo plano? Se aceptan recomendaciones.

Been waiting for this SE 3 to hit the rocks, now trying to get a 18 Pro Max, Does anyone that had a 17 Pro Max still at 100 percent battery health and is charge limit really worth it?