Hundreds of users, many running iOS 13.5.1 on devices both new and old, are experiencing rapid battery drain when the Music app is not in use. In some cases, the background activity occurs over several hours each day, even if the app has not been used for weeks or even at all.
User: Mojo06 I just purchased a new iPhone 11 a few days ago, and my battery is crashing so fast. I haven't even used the Apple Music App yet and it says that it has been running in the background for over 18 hours and has used 95% of my battery. My phone is also getting very hot from this. I am concerned this will kill my battery on my new phone.
User: Brianwpi Phone is burning up. Switched off background app refresh. Restarted phone. Battery health 91%. iPhone X running iOS 13.5.1. Had to recharge several times during the day just to keep up. Help?
User: svphies I'm having this exact same problem with my iPhone 11, recently updated to IOS 13.5.1. I never had Background App Refresh turned on and I haven't found any downloading song in the Music app. I might try to backup my phone to iTunes and do a reset later. I hope Apple fixes this issue soon.
While reports of the Music app draining battery in the background go back to April, there has been a rapid uptick in reports over the last week, suggesting Apple may have recently changed something on the server side which is causing the problem.
Below are some of the steps that users have taken to try to resolve the issue, but which appear to have a low rate of success.
Force quit the Music app.
Restart / Restore iPhone.
Delete Music app then reinstall it.
Turn off Automatic Downloads (Settings -> Music -> Automatic Downloads).
Turn off Mobile Data (Settings -> Music -> Mobile Data).
Cancel all downloads in the Music Library.
Some users have resorted to deleting the Music app on their device, which brings the battery usage to an end. For those with Apple Music subscriptions, however, this isn't even a short-term solution, so we're bringing these reports to the attention of the wider community in the hope that it will prompt Apple to investigate.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has high expectations for Apple's first foldable iPhone.
In his Power On newsletter today, he said the foldable iPhone will be "the most significant overhaul in the iPhone's history."
"iPhone 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone X were clearly a big deal, but this is a whole new design," he said.
Like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7, the foldable iPhone will reportedly open up like ...
iOS 26.5 is now available for developers, and while it doesn't include any new Siri capabilities, there are some major changes for the European Union, and smaller tweaks for features available worldwide.
Suggested Places
In the Maps app, there's a new "Suggested Places" feature that recommends locations to visit based on trending places nearby and recent searches. When Apple launches ads in ...
New images of an alleged iPhone 18 Pro prototype and screen protectors have emerged from multiple sources, adding weight to earlier reports that Apple plans to significantly shrink the Dynamic Island later this year.
An X user called @earlyappleleaks recently shared an image purportedly showing a prototype iPhone 18 Pro with a noticeably smaller Dynamic Island. In the picture, the flashlight ...
Thursday March 5, 2026 2:08 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple Music is rolling out a new metadata system called Transparency Tags, which indicates when AI has been used in the creation of music hosted on the platform.
According to Music Business Worldwide, Apple sent a newsletter to industry partners on Wednesday to explain how it will roll out the new set of metadata.
The system covers four categories including artwork, track, composition...
Wednesday March 11, 2026 6:22 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
TikTok and Apple today announced that Apple Music subscribers will be able to listen to full-length songs on Apple Music without leaving the TikTok app.
When a TikTok user comes across a song they love while browsing their "For You" page, they will be able to tap a "Play Full Song" button to open up an Apple Music player in the app and listen to the song in its entirety. From there, Apple...
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has high expectations for Apple's first foldable iPhone.
In his Power On newsletter today, he said the foldable iPhone will be "the most significant overhaul in the iPhone's history."
"iPhone 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone X were clearly a big deal, but this is a whole new design," he said.
Like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7, the foldable iPhone will reportedly open up like ...
It’s not only the Music app, since 13.5 a lot of apps suffer of constant background activity. You can check this subject ('https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251435983?answerId=253009672022&page=1') on Apple forum.
I don't know if this is related, I checked this background activity and on my phone it showed the KMB app (only relevant to users in HK) had 19hrs of background activity within the last day. Doesn't seem to affect the battery though, as it is just an app for bus schedules.
Yes, it’s related. The bug is for background activity in general, not only Music app.
I’ll ask again and re-phrase. Does everyone with this issue subscribe to iTunes Match?
I use iTunes Match, and I have the issue.
I believe the assumptions about a server side issue are correct. I typically manually download a couple of playlists to my iPhone for offline listening. For the past couple of days I haven't been able to download the songs in any of my playlists. It looks like the phone starts to download a song, then fails and keeps retrying. I might be able to download a few songs, but the majority won't download. They don't time out and give an error or anything, the app just keeps trying to download them, which I think is where the background utilization/hot iPhone issue is happening.
My phone got so hot one day the flash wouldn't work until I was able to cool the device down.
It's now 10:00 AM. I unplugged my iPhone at 7:00 AM with 100% charge and haven't used it much today. I'm at 57% battery. I have a iPhone SE 2020.
A picture tells 1000 words. Didn't even use Apple Music. All 'Background Activity". One more thing, as soon as this started happening, iTunes Match no longer works on my HomePods. I've tried so many things to try and fix, nothing.
Definitely a server side change Apple have made to their music backend to cause this IMO.
Either way, one of the reasons i keep closing apps at least daily. MR can say what they want. Stuff like Instagram does seem to stay active longer than it should and since there is no indicator which apps are actually indeed still running, i will keep closing them (if not for being a habit)
A significant minority of iPhone users have taken to Apple's Support Communities and Reddit to report battery drain issues largely related to the Music app and high levels of background activity. 
