Battery draining like crazy after Field Maps 25.2.0 update

[IngridHogle]

Staff are commenting that battery is draining like CRAZY on iPad after last night's Field Maps update. Any tips on how to adjust this?

How do we go back to FM 25.1.0 on our iPads while this gets resolved??

[MaxMolello]

I'm also noticing this on Android. Performance of maps and layers in them is significantly slower too. It seems like the device is either far less cpu efficient working with the layers after the update or maybe Field Maps is now downloading and processing far more data from the layers than it was before. Either way, we are not happy at all with the update and tickets have been submitted. 

[IngridHogle]

Battery is reportedly draining 10% every 15 minutes, with no settings changed (display brightness, etc) since yesterday. Also reported is that averaging 5 GPS locations per point feature is taking much longer than it did in Field Maps 25.1.0. 

This is reported from someone walking slowly, scrolling to view past data, and collecting a new feature every 20 minutes or so. Battery went from 100% to 50% in less than 2 hours. We saw it drop from 67% to 57% in 15 minutes.

[MaxMolello]

Are you also noticing that layers and map features take much longer to load and draw when using online maps? I'm wondering if the two are related?

[IngridHogle]

I'm not sure. My iPad blessedly did not update and all our other iPads are in the field until this afternoon. I made a bandaid solution map for folks stripped of some of our Arcade expressions, so they are all able to work for now.

I hope ESRI can get Apple Store to allow them to fast track release a Field Maps Classic version for those of us who want to roll back to 25.1.0. I understand Apple does not allow roll backs on iOS, so I'm just trying to think of creative workarounds!

[ColinLawrence]

Hi, thank you both for reporting and chiming in on this. Can you provide some context around the workflows being done in Field Maps on an average day? Is the app mostly in the foreground or background? Have you also noticed heavy usage reported in the OS Battery app in the Settings? Any other context can help the team investigate this further. Thank you!

[MaxMolello]

We have a mix of use cases, but in most people open the app to locate things in the map layers and navigate to them. Sometimes they will view popups and info or edit certain layers. I'd say mostly foreground usage. I never really check battery usage before in the OS settings but I just checked this morning on Android and Field Maps is showing 37% of my total battery usage today (phone down to 68% total), screen time 1 hr 8 min and background 4 min. This does seem quite high, although most of my usage was signing in and out and opening and closing apps many times testing sign in issues and app performance issues.

It is very obvious when using the app that overall map performance is much slower. I'd be happy to jump on a call if you want. I do already have a ticket open as well.

[ColinLawrence]

Its good you started a Support ticket and others should do so as well so we can track the impact. 

The majority of usage being in the foreground can impact the battery life of course, but if this is the same type of usage from 25.1 then that wouldnt explain it. Are you doing Location Sharing or Streaming or any other "persistent" collections?

[IngridHogle]

Hi @ColinLawrence, I'm not familiar with the OS Battery app in the settings. Can you clarify what to check?

Our workflow is online and involves walking slowly, recording new features about every 20 minutes, viewing popups for view-only layers as needed (probably every 15 minutes), streaming Esri's default background imagery, and using My Tracks with Battery Optimization toggled off so that we get higher accuracy tracks. We use Arrow 100 external GPS and iPads with up to date iOS.

[ColinLawrence]

Yep, to clarify - Tap the iOS Settings app > select "Battery" . This will present graphs and tables for the "Last 24 hour" and "10 days". Its similar steps on Android. I find the the iOS version to be a little less granular. 

I ran a test on my iPhone Xr (iOS 18.6.1) for the last 2 hours. 1 hour was using 25.1 and the second hour using 25.2 and the battery usage was almost identical. My battery only dropped 1% over the 2 hour period. I did the following on both apps:

1. Toggled off battery optimization for Location Sharing

2. Toggled on location sharing "until switched off"

3. Opened a map with editable layers and made a couple of edits, then opened a few popups

4. Backgrounded the app for 30 minutes and let Location Sharing continue to run

5. Brought to the foreground and collected another feature

6. Backgrounded the app for 30 more minutes, then opened the app and turned off Location Sharing

7. I then installed 25.2 and ran the same test. 

 Unfortunately I ran the test in the middle of an hour, so the bars dont represent each app independently but the smaller bars on 1 & 3pm do and they are almost identical. I probably need to test on a larger scale, but wanted to provide this insight first. I will keep monitoring this thread.