My iPhone 4S keeps shutting down before battery is low

The Iphone 5 shuts down when temperature drops below freezing.

I am having the exact same problems with the 4S. Battery drains 2-3% an hour in standby mode and when it reaches 12% it shuts off. I can restart phone but it dies promptly. Also have the cold issue. If I take it camping and its below 40 degrees, it dies. This is the third 4S and all have done the same. I will never own another Apple product again. Not going to go through the hassle of the Apple staore and another replacement again; this one is getting crushed under my truck and I will get an Android phone. Apple can kiss my ***.

I had this exact same problem & took it to my Verizon store where I bought it. (Fortunately for me, several of the reps there are Apple enthusiasts.) Apparently there are a couple of features that were installed in one of the iOS 7 updates that are really serious battery hogs. One of them is 'background app refresh.' This allows apps to constantly refresh themselves on 3G/4G or Wi-Fi while you're not using them. Which is kinda pointless, since they're going to refresh anyway when you open them! To turn it off, go to 'settings,' 'general', 'background app refresh,' and turn the feature off completely. It might take a few extra seconds for your apps to refresh when you open them, but it's worth it to not lose so much battery life.

There is another feature that for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of. What it does is make your background image on your homescreen actually tilt/rotate when you tilt your phone to various angles. Nifty, but totally unnecessary, and again a really battery drainer. Ask an Apple rep or your cell phone store to find it and turn it off for you. (If I remember it later I will add it here!)

Ever since I turned these two features off, my phone has been working fine. The only thing that seriously drains it now is taking HD video; if you get below 20%, I wouldn't do it. Hope this helps!

I have 2 Iphone 4s's which have all the upgrades. One is for business which is highly used & has lots of important info so I would never restore it. The other is just a play phone....it has no music, very few pics or apps.

About 1 month ago both iphones started going off while in the 30% range. My business phone just died & when plugged it was at 37%. I have had both iphones going on 2 years next month and never had any issues until this latest upgrade which has been a real battery drainer. I very much dislike it & would love to go back to the previous version if it would not kill all my business sensitive data on the phone.

I am with verizon. I do have insurance but would cost me $169. to get another & would be a 4s so why bother when I can upgrade in 1 month.

I have always been totally iphone, itunes, ipad & would not consider, think about, or talk about any other brand, but now I'm wondering. Since this recent update/upgrade (I'm not computer savy) it has been a total fail in my opinion. I thought the 5s would fix it, but now I wonder if it's just poor quality with the iphones in general.

My poor husband (who owns the phone with very little on it) says my phone is perfectly fine & I don't need to upgrade if we can just get a new battery. I'm like "honey, a new battery will not fix this"! lol

So apple this can not be with something we are doing with our phones. It's happening to too many of us. I am not doing anything different in charging or anything else that I did over a month ago. This also is happening in the warmth of my home....70* + temps...so it's not the cold either.

I hope someone at apple support can figure this out within the next month or I might have to start thinking about a different brand.....arghhh, the horror!

tcoplen,

See my reply above yours. Mine started acting up about the same time yours did, which is when the latest software update went through. Shutting off some of the background features has REALLY helped my battery life!

Message was edited by: combatTVgirl

I'm on iOS 6 still so I know that has nothing to do with the problem. My 4S will show about 32% battery and then out of nowhere it drops to 1%. Within 15 seconds of plugging it in it jumps back up to 32% and if I unplug it again it drops back to 1% within another minute or so. If the phone is cold from being outside the problem is ten times worse. Shuts off at 50-60% and will not turn on again until it gets warmer.

I'm still not aware if any solutions to this but I believe I've discovered the cause. Put simply, Steve Jobs was the only person at apple who actually gave a **** about the customer. Ever since he died apple has been going steadily downhill when it comes to quality and customer service.

I am facing the same problem with new IPhone 5S (16GB).

I have iOS 7.0.4. My iPhone shut down automatically at random time when i was doing something. I plug the charger, it restarts and shows me battery 34%, 35% or 43%... its not exact one.

It's been only 1 month after purchasing new iphone and this issue observed. This issue happens on ashalt applicaton, youtube, pandora.. any of the application I was playing and phone shut down automatically. only recovery to switch on the mobile is to plug the charger. I have purchased contract-free phone from apple online store. Please help me if anyone can find solution or I am gonna contact apple people and will try to solve this.

My iphone 4 keeps shutting down, the battery makes no difference it is shutting down every other minute and i am having to put it into recovery each time. This is happening when the phone is charging, plugged into computer or neither. Does anyone know what i can do to sort this or does it just need taking to be repaired or to apple?

Backup NOW! Looks like we have a very sick phone here.

I would suggest gently cleaning the docking/charging connector then see what happens if you reset the phone as new... If all fails then Apple should be able to replace it for a fee.

Lovely Apple,

when trying to fix your bug with batery, I made a back up copy on iTunes on my HP EliteBook, Windows something. from Problem A to problem B, iPhone won't show up in iTunes. Says to connect it to the computer. Backup lost. Just now when I REALLY need this crapy phone.

F*** U Apple!

II've had this exact problem with my 4s I've being nursing this phone and observing with some interest it seems to see high battery percentages as a zero charge so wether it is at 50 70 80 100'it just goes as an example if my phone is showing 80 percent and I'm in the middle of any thing and it shuts off then brings itself back on it will show possibly 70 percent or less and the usGe data will have disappeared so basically don't bother charging it from any of those points your wasting your time I ran this phone down to 12 % without doing anything just leave it don't use it once it's their I plug in the charger with the phone switched on once it shows it's charging I switch it off leave it all night in the morning switch it on with the charger plugged in check it's at 100% then before you unplug check your usage standby counter it should read zero thN unplug the phone make sure you still have the usage and standby at zero if the disappear plug the charger back in to get them back than unplug then leave the phone for five minutes and your usage should be less than your standby also what I've done is switched off the phone off about half an hour after check the percentage ie 98 percent switch back on should be the same and check the usage and standby counter also this should still be working I have had instances where I've switched off and turned back on and their has been a 10% drop instantly but I've had this phone working for a week now and allshare good it has got issues but this is a software issue caused by ios 7 these 4s should never have been allowed to be upgraded to ios 7 it should have been left at ios6 where it was more compTible with its hardware it's never going to be reliable aple know this but won't do anything because their thesis is to move forward if they spend to much time trying fix 4s this would be unproductive in their eyes and they just want to move on so unfortunatly were stuck with them this was my entry into the apple phone market but never again their are are lot more reliable products out their you don't need ios and I certainly don't I wouldn't even entertain ios 8 on this phone don't even risk it you know it's not going to work these platforms are designed to get people to move forward with apple by buying their new products as it stands we are just getting palmed off with refurbs that is what I got from my phone shop don't be fooled by the brand new sealed box their was information on my phone that proved it was a refurb old wifi pass codes for a starter anyway I'm done not bothering to take this phone to apple I'm getting another phone just put SIM card into that one so many people on these forums and beyond that have had enough of apple I emailed them in the us a few times they never bothered getting back as I say their not going to get tied up in the past with 4s their moving on and dealing with ill performing phones they sold years ago is not in their remit it's not productive and doesn't make revenue work it out yourselves

the battery may be calibrated wrong.. I have that on my iphone. change the battery or use it until it turns off and wait 5 minutes and start it and repeat until it wont turn on at all. Then let it be off for about 2 hours. Then charge to 100% without using it and then let it charge about 2 hours after 100% and repeat About 5-10 times.

it happens to me ,it even shutted down at 43. I THINK THE REASON WHY THAT HAPPENS IS BECAUSE - ihpone is sh*t ihpone is sh*t ihpone is sh*t ihpone is sh*t

OK here is a quick resolve that has worked for me. Ok so when your battery drops to 30 % or 20% and shuts down try and open it using a charge after you boot it up wait a minute and unplug your cable and boom there you go and please let the phone heat up a little bit. Because I live in Greece we don't have Verizon, we have Cosmote which is the best company here so i dont think its Verizon sim card problem etc. And last i've noticed that most crashes happen when i open camera or safari what they have in common its gps both in order to access location they use gps so disabling gps might help a lot 🙂

How I "fixed" my iPhone 4s from randomly shutting down.

Turned Auto-Lock to NEVER.

Not the best solution, but the ONLY solution that worked for me.

Now my phone stays on and lit-up 24/7.

I keep it plugged into my charger whenever possible. (I have 4 in different locations.)

If I accidentally let the battery run down, at least I know it will recharge and work.

I deleted any personal information and photos, in case of theft or loss.

I back up everything every night.

This is the price I paid for the last 2 years, to keep from having to shell out for an upgrade

that I don't need.