iPhone 5s shows low battery symbol with lightning bolt when plugged in

I have an iPhone 5s, purchased in ~2013. The battery is original and has never been replaced. I have had charging problems with it recently - I needed to wiggle the cable to get it to charge. I thought it was a bad cable.


A couple of days ago, I let the phone discharge and turn off to calibrate the battery. I let it sit until today, when I tried to charge it. When I plugged it in, all it did was flash the low battery symbol with the lightning bolt and lightning cable (not the solid low battery symbol).


I did blow into the lightning port to clean it out. The cable fits snugly, and the pins on the inside of the port are clean. There's no lint or anything in the port. I've tried a couple different cables and chargers (I tried a Linux computer, a MacBook Pro, a wall adapter, and three different cables), and they all do the same thing. iTunes did not detect the phone on the MacBook Pro.


The symbol reappears for a few seconds whenever the phone is disconnected, so I know the phone detects that it's plugged in. I did get the solid low battery symbol to appear once, but unfortunately, I unplugged it because I wanted to use a wall charger.


I will need the phone in less than a week, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are some photos:


Note: I cross-posted this question on Ask Different to (hopefully) get more answers.

iPhone 5s

Posted on Aug 19, 2019 8:54 PM

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3 replies

Aug 19, 2019 9:16 PM in response to DadDude429

It might just need a new battery. After 5 years I'm pretty sure it's well past the 500 cycles where it was rated to be at 80% battery health. The longer you use it, the higher the likelihood that it might just fail randomly. There's always a chance of random failure any time.


I'm not sure if Apple still does it, but the 5s isn't on the 5-year vintage list yet, and in California it should still have repair service available for two more years. I can't find a price though.


iPhone Battery & Power - Official Apple Support

Aug 19, 2019 10:16 PM in response to DadDude429

DadDude429 wrote:

I've had bad luck with Apple stores in the past, and there aren't any nearby. Do you think there's any other way to fix it, or is my phone dead until I can get a battery replacement? Thank you.

P.S.: I'm pretty sure it's the latter, as the screen bulges out of the phone without a case, which is probably caused by the battery.


Oh. I wasn't quite sure what that was. It looked like a some kind of tape


If it's on its last legs I don't see why you don't just do what you have to do to get it working again. If the battery is swollen then it's not a good idea to try charging it. Apple probably isn't going to replace the battery after it's swollen. If you've got data in it that's not backed up, then someone other than Apple can have a go at the battery and see if it still works.


All Apple would do at this point (with a swollen battery) is offer their replacement device at $269 in the US. I personally don't think it's worth it for anything that old.

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iPhone 5s shows low battery symbol with lightning bolt when plugged in

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