iPhone 4S battery dies with 19% left. Why?

I had been having the same issue. I went into the Apple Store and they checked my battery health. After they found out the battery was good, they did a restore and it didn't help. The genius suggested I wipe the iPhone and start fresh creating a "new device" and restoring the stuff I saved via iCloud. That's one way of doing it, but's it is too time consuming. I ended up calling Apple Care and after a diagnostic proved that my battery was fine, we narrowed it down to a software issue.

Instead of starting fresh, I decided to start deleting apps that may be corrupted. The first thing I deleted was the "Battery Doctor" app and then any games and apps that frequently crashed or were buggy. After doing that my battery goes all the way down to 1%. I would totally suggest doing that. Find the apps that are suspicious, delete them and see if you battery goes all the way down to 1%. If you do, changes are you have fixed the issue.

What a relief to hear someone else with the exact same problem who's being told the same things! I have been trying to figure out if it's app related too...the phone I have now only has 6 apps and problem started back up again, I'm just curious if you have any of the same apps: Facebook, FB Messenger, Pinterest, The Weather Channel, My Verizon, Pandora (do you stream music? I'm also wondering if that's an issue?). Glad to hear you're figuring it out, there is hope.

I do have Facebook, the Weather Channel and Pandora and they are still on my phone. I think my bad app was the Battery App. What you could do is delete those apps, and re-download them directly from the app store again to make sure one of those six aren't buggy. The AppleCare person told me that the corruption could also lie in a bad picture or song (which may have issues being sync'd with your computer). It's strange that the issue is following you through three different phones. It could also be in a text message or email with a malicious link. Hope you figure out your problem. Good luck!

same problem but mine turns off when using camera with 10-45% of battery remaining

shows flat battery animation

will NOT turn back on until i plug charger in, then it turns on immediately showing 10-45% of battery

seen far too many people/posts here about this with NO solution

i had a new battery fitted 10 days ago and its still happening

so its NOT the battery and NOT the firmware

care to explain apple?

didnt think so....

I think it might be a bad app. I'd try deleting some buggy apps or anything that messes with your battery and see if it fixes the issue. You can always redownload the app fresh from the App Store rather than from a backup.

I thought it was a little strange too that it's happened to all 3 phones. From what I've experimented with so far it doesn't seem like it would be an app (I downloaded those 6 apps as new, not from backup). I've also ruled out my pictures and iTunes music files since I have not plugged this phone into my computer or synced anything yet. Maybe it could be my email? (I just don't know how to check that).

If you have any emails with weird links from friends who have been hacked, delete those emails. Also, an email could have a bad attachment too. I would delete old emails or not sync all emails, so you only have the most recent on your phone.

Hmm, I never open spam and definitely don't click on links that I'm unsure of. I also delete all junk/deleted emails daily. I would think if my email had a virus, I'd be having issues with my laptop too. There's got to be something somewhere that I'm missing. I'd start from scratch and set up as a new phone but that's never worked in the past, the problem kept going with absolutely nothing in it. I'm about to give up and buy one of those charger packs so when the % gets high I can recharge easily anywhere ha. It does eventually reset itself though, very strange (at high % of course). But it always starts back up within a matter of weeks. Been dealing with this since June! Wish Apple could magically fix this!

I have the same issue. Mine is an IPhone 4 with 6.1.2 , I just restored my phone as new and there isn't any app on my iPhone right now,I let the battery drain till it reached 7% and it turned off. I have to plug it to get it back on again and I'm sure it's not a battery problem. I live in India so there no Genius bars over here or whatever you call them. I just don't know what to do :S

The phone shutting off with more than 3% battery means either the battery is failing, or, more likely, the battery gauge needs to be calibrated. Also, something to check. When it shuts off at 7%, wait 10 minutes, then try to reboot it by holding HOME and SLEEP until an Apple logo appears. If it comes back on go through the calibration procedure: Run the battery all the way down until the phone shuts off. Charge for 4 hours with a mains charger, without using the phone. Ideally, repeat this process once more - run the battery all the way down again, then charge for 4 hours.

If this does not fix it you have a hardware problem, either the battery is failing or the main logic board.

For me, I had an app that corrupted my software. I was running a Battery Help app that messed with the phone's ability to read the battery. I deleted it as well as other apps I never used and then my iPhone drained all the way down to 1%. I would delete any apps you don't use or redownload a fresh copy from the App Store. If you have any buggy apps, start with those.

Even if you don't have an Apple Store nearby and you can still receive AppleCare, I would call them. My phone was able to send out a diagnostic and they were able to determine that my battery was healthy. Good Luck!

I'm glad to read all of this, in a way. Had a videoshoot of my brothers band today, told them i would take pictures with my awesome iphone he he ... It just shut down while taking pictures and i was certain it was not done!

When i eventualy plugged it in to my car charger it turned on at 19% ... Happened 3 times today always just below 20% or so... I am jailbroken but it only happened while taking pictures with the stock camera even in 'safe mode' (no jailbreakstuff active)

Checked my battery health, it's old yes, but still 83% capacity so it can't be the battery i think.

It's not that taking photos is too heavy for the iphone since i run much heavier apps simultaneously all the time to the point where itgets realy hot, but always goes to 1% ... It's weird, must be software

Actually the camera app is the highest power consumer of any app, either built in or 3rd party. The sensor chip itself requires enormous power. That's why this happens most frequently when using the camera. See my post about 6 posts up (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3767760?answerId=25265214022#25265214022&ac_cid=tw123456#21476866) about recalibrating the battery gauge. This will usually fix the problem if it is not a bad battery.