UPDATED : Amazon has Acknowledged the issue. Read its statement at the end of this article. We should see a fix soon.
I use one of my iPads and the iPhone heavily each day, Often for hours at a time. I carry my iPhone 6 Plus everywhere for long days, usually we 5 am to 10 or 11 pm As my primary work system, the iPad Air 2 (or sometimes the iPad Air) is easily used for 8 – 10 hours daily.
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With dry heavy use I have been impressed with the long battery life of each device. The iPhone 6 Plus can last over 1.5 days Regularly, and I can not remember the last time either the iPad had less than 50 percent of the battery left after a very long day. That changed recently, and it Appears Amazon’s Kindle app is to blame.
About two weeks ago I noticed that my iOS devices were using more battery than ever before. A couple of days the iPhone was very low at the end of the day, and the same with the iPad Air 2. Each time it happened I could not think of anything I’d done differently. The iPhone 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2 were hitting the battery harder than before.
Looking at battery usage by app in Settings & gt; General & gt; Usage & gt; Battery Usage and quickly homed in on the culprit. The Kindle app from Amazon is now always the app That is using a greater percentage of my battery, and Often by a wide margin.
I read a lot of Kindle books but rarely for hours at a time; a typical reading session is only 15 minutes or so. Rarely does my Accumulated daily reading time Exceed an hour. The usage of other apps Far Exceeds this, Especially Safari and Evernote. These do not come close to how hard the Kindle app hits the battery.
Lately I started Regularly playing Halo: Spartan Strike on the iPad Air 2, sometimes for over an hour at a time. Games can go through a battery charge pretty fast, but every time I check it after playing, the Kindle app is always showing a greater use of the battery, sometimes significantly so, than the game.
The screen image above of the battery usage on the iPhone 6 Plus was taken around mid-day. Use of the Kindle app was not heavy, in fact it was only a few minutes. It seems the app hits hard the battery even when not Actively reading a book.
Since I noticed this around a couple of weeks ago I checked the version history of the Kindle app to see if it had been updated That time around. Sure enough, a minor update (version 4.8.1) was pushed to the iPads and the iPhone on April 15 (see image above). It indicates it only addresses “performance and stability improvements”. Perhaps the performance was enhanced at the expense of battery.
When it comes to sudden battery issues, I do not believe in coincidences, so I’ll bet this update is the culprit. Online searching has not turned up any indication That this is widespread. Since I am seeing it on three different iOS devices, I doubt my situation is unique. If you’ve noticed a similar shortening of the battery life on your iPhone or iPad, check how much the Kindle app is using the juice. Hopefully Amazon will get another update soon to address this issue.
Amazon support forums are not showing any complaints about this issue yet, but it’s been a common complaint about other updates for two years. Amazon has not yet responded to our request for comment.
UPDATE : Amazon has Acknowledged this issue and has responded to me with this statement:
..checked and see That number of Eligible customers have contacted us regarding to this issue and our technical team is currently working then address this issue. Once we’ve been alerted that a dry Situations, of course we take steps to correct them Immediately; and errors like this are usually we corrected shortly after they have been reported. In this case, I request you to please wait for the next 24-48 hours and I am sure this issue will surely be That rectify time.
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