Battery indicator percentage error iOS14

For your wife, Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (such as Best Buy) will replace the battery for $49, while you wait.

There are several factors that affect the useful life of Lithium chemistry batteries:

• Primary: Number of full charge cycles (0-100% or a combination that adds up to 100% such as 50% to 100% twice)
• Secondary: Chronology - much less important than full charge cycles, but age matters some; however, I have 3 over 10 year old iPod Classics that still work reliably. And my 9 year old Plug-in Prius still works perfectly. (So does my 18 year old Prius, but it has a NiMH battery)
• Coddling: Totally discharging a LiIon battery completely just once will kill it; When the phone shuts off at 0% the battery is not really flat; Apple builds in a buffer, but if it is not charged “soon” after it drops to zero that can kill or damage the battery

Here’s a lot more information→When to charge your iPhone or iPad | Communities

My iPhone 11 Pro is doing the EXACT same thing. As soon as I unplug from a full charge, it goes down to 1% within about 30min. It is definitely a software issue, as the phone will last nearly all day with me watching videos, at 1%. Also, if I force reboot the phone, the battery percentage will go back up to nearly 100%, but will quickly drop to 1% within minutes.

I doubt anybody on this forum is going to be able to resolve this. The first thing to do is to have Apple test the hardware to isolate the issue. Since your're up to date, so they probably won't give you the update your software line. Just woke up to my 8s at 1%; it was at 80% after plugging it back in after 5 minutes. I'll be following my advice assuming Apple is open again; haven't tried since they closed for the pandemic.

resalg wrote:

I doubt anybody on this forum is going to be able to resolve this. The first thing to do is to have Apple test the hardware to isolate the issue. Since your're up to date, so they probably won't give you the update your software line. Just woke up to my 8s at 1%; it was at 80% after plugging it back in after 5 minutes. I'll be following my advice assuming Apple is open again; haven't tried since they closed for the pandemic.

The only thing that will resolve it is replacing your battery. That’s a clear symptom that the battery is close to failing.

Try deleting Amazon apps from your phone. After a factory wipe did nothing, removing Amazon apps made a world of difference.

1. I have been dealing with a similar issue since I updated to iOS 14. I am now on iOS 14.2 on an iPhone 7. I can charge to 100%, unplug the phone, let it sit for three hours and it will show 97% battery. The moment I start to use it (check email, add a reminder, take a photo) I will look and battery is showing 78% and dropping. I haven’t tried to simply use it throughout the day (ignoring the battery percentage) to see if it will actually last for many hours (despite the battery reading), but this percentage indicator has been completely inaccurate since iOS 14. I can’t imagine no-one at Apple is experiencing the same thing. A quick fix would be greatly appreciated. (By the way, this has nothing to do with turning on-or-off various items to “save battery life“. This is an indicator issue tied to the battery.)

Oh, I forgot to mention—I had the issue with EXTREME battery drain on my 1st Gen iPhone SE, and doing the factory reset twice did nothing to change that.

However, then I deleted the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Music apps and usage went mostly back to normal.

I am on an original iPhone SE, but it was purchased brand new and activated around April 2018. So it is only about 2.75 years old.

I use minimal data/app traffic and have kept it charged religiously, so the battery health was still at 100% when iOS 14 dropped. Then, I started having a huge drain of 10% per hour or more. I did a factory reset which did nothing, then removed all Amazon apps which eliminated most of the massive drain, but it is still upredicable and draining faster than before.

One month after iOS 14, the battery health had gone from 100% to 95%. Since then, I have kept it in low power mode at all times using a script, and keep it plugged in almost all the time. That seems to have slowed the degradation of the health %. But the battery indicator simply isn't accurate and clearly there are problems.

Good observation, but, well, it's not that simple. Around 80% is the point where other factors become more significant, such as increased internal resistance. It has been observed empirically that devices that use Lithium technology battery abruptly shut down under heavy load as their capacity decreases below 80%, so 80% was chosen as the indication that the battery should be replaced (plus the shorter battery life between charges becomes more significant). There’s nothing wrong with the battery meter algorithm; the battery condition is actually a chip in the battery itself. Actually, my wife’s iPhone started showing symptoms of battery failure around 95% capacity, and the battery health page displayed a message saying it should be replaced. As it was still under warranty Apple replaced the battery for free.

In 2018 Apple added a feature that slows down the processor as battery internal resistance (which it measures) increases to prevent abrupt shutdowns. They made the mistake of doing this without telling anyone, which resulted in a class action lawsuit that was settled late last year for a half billion dollars. It’s now in the documentation, and the feature is still there.

Lawrence-Thanks for the information

While this information from Apple Support about upcoming iOS 14.5 is interesting and relevant to some users, it does not seem to address false readings by the battery meter (which indicates the state of charge of the battery). Rather this bulletin talks about battery health indicator (maximum capacity at full charge).  Most of the community seems to have a problem with the battery meter.

Also it is specific to iPhone 11 series whereas the problem as relayed by the community includes units from iPhone SE 1st edition forward.

Unfortunately, the battery health information doesn't give you the whole story. You'll need the number of cycles it's been though as well, assuming it is the battery at all. Could be iOS, plugs, cables, maybe the battery was faulty from the beginning. I think the genius bar is the only possiblity for a final answer. Everything here is just guess work.

Go to Settings/Battery/Battery Health. What does it say (not just the percentage)? It sounds like your battery is failing.

Have the same issue on iPhone 6s, after upgrading to iOS 14.2 battery indicator goes quickly to 1%, then my phone works for hours... after restarting the device, I have 80% which again goes quickly to 1%... and the phone keeps working on 1% for another hours...

Agreed. If battery health is fine (mine continues to show as 91% on my iPhone 7 purchased new from Apple) then something else is happening. Last night, my battery was charged to 100% at 2148 hours. This morning at 0800 it showed as 32% with (and I checked for activity in Settings>Battery) absolutely NO activity occurring. Nothing. Just checking the battery caused the status indicator to drop to 28%. Put on charger and in 6 minutes battery shows at 56%. Mighty quick charging it seems to me. I'd love to hear serious recommendations.

(By the way, I've deleted all Automations as well as the Photo widget in an attempt to reduce background actions.)

Thanks to anyone with serious ideas.

I have been having the bad-indicator problem on my 1st-gen iPhone SE which I purchased brand new from Best Buy in early 2018. The readings are all over the place and sometimes it takes a long time for a drop in battery charge to be reported. The reading often experiences a dramatic change after a reboot. I have gotten in the habit of rebooting the phone after a call for this specific reason, but after the reboot, sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down, thus it is not clear whether the cause is an overestimation of charge before the boot, or an underestimation of charge after the reboot, etc.

Yesterday the charge indicator was inexplicably at 50% for about 6 hours straight light despite usage, then when I was at the grocery store after work it suddenly went from 50% to emergency shutdown and when I rebooted it said 8%.

SEPARATELY, I have often been using a Shortcuts script to keep Low Power Mode on at all times, although it wasn't on during the 50% to 8% drop I just described. I have read some posts claiming that constant use of low power mode can cause premature battery aging. However, based on the reported functionality of Low Power Mode, I do not see how it could cause any problem at all—UNLESS the steady trickle of background activity is less of an impact on the battery on sudden bursts of activity when the user activates an app (e.g. Mail downloading 20 messages at once instead of pulling them in gradually during the day).

Any thoughts on this latter issue?