iPhone 5 cold shut down / crash

I'm having the same - and it doesn't have to be that cold. At first I thought altitude because it was on mountains I first noticed, but now it's happened on the prairies in cool (not cold) weather too. Warm it up, and it's right back to 1/2 batt. Anyone get any love from support on this?

This problem can also be caused by a battery gauge calibration error. The phone "thinks" the battery has more juice than it actually has. To fix it you need to run the battery down until the phone shuts off and will not restart, then charge for 4 hours with the wall charger.

Thanks Jim. My iPhone 5 did this for the first time yesterday when watching outdoor soccer in the snow, but mine was the only one out of a handful of friends with iPhones. It showed 60% battery, then would shut off or go into hibernation. Did this about 7 times throughout the afternoon.

I have the same problem. Outside were +3C and my phone kept shutting down 😟 What if I need to call to 911 from the street in the winter? 😟

My iPhone 5 was fine last winter in Winnipeg AND Iqaluit. It was out during -40 °C (Or °F I suppose lol) and worked great. The screen would fog up a bit because it was so **** cold, but no issues. Now, I'm rocking iOS 7 and it's happened 3 times and it's a balmy -20°C. I'm almost in shorts man! Sheesh.

It seems a common problem, it happen to me and my grilfriend the other night in London: temperatures between 0 and +5C. When we managed to find the hotel (without GoogleMaps) and I warmed the telephone up the battery was at 50%.

What Apple has to say about that? This is a major issue, which makes owning a telephone useless in winter, and can have a major consequences when you rely on mobile phones for safety. Think about gettting stuck in your car in a snowstorm. I think that at least 70% of people who buy iPhone live in places were winter temperatures go close to 0C. This is a major issue, maybe Apple should start thinking that there are other places beyond California.

I am having the same issues with shut down at temps below about 0 celsius. Obviously, this is a common issue. Has anyone talked to Apple to see what they will do for us? Is this a warranty issue (it should be) or can we return the phone so we can buy a reliable product? I need a phone that works when in the backcountry. It is bad enough that the iphone 5 battery life is so short in cooler temperatures, but shutting itself off when there is plenty of battery life is not acceptable.

Yes, I talked with them via chat support and they told me this:

Operating ambient temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)

Nonoperating temperature: −4° to 113° F (−20° to 45° C)

They analysed my logs, from my Iphone, and they told me that I used my Iphone5 under "operating temperatures" .

The shocking case was that I used my telephone at just -1C.. 😟

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP655

I just took mine into Genius Bar and they advised me that there was nothing they can do and it's just the cold weather. I told them that it happens even though I've been indoors the whole time. They did a diagnostic and found out that my battery is pretty much close to DEAD and I have to pay to replace it for $80. Takes 1 hour...

I've had my iPhone for a total of 1 year and 3 months.

That's sad 😟 Or it's just a scam..

I know, I didn't have this issue last winter. Funny how that when it falls right outside the warranty there's 'nothing they can do'. I was really frustrated with that response, I had to prod him to get him to run a diagnostics (as I had read people had theirs done). He was very reluctant. Only at that point he offered the option for me to replace the battery for $80 but before that Apple's response was just 'nothing we can do'. That's extremely sad.

I have the same issue as well. Restoring factory settings, and updating software plus firmware do not help.

Common apple, this is a hardware design flaw. This is your flagship product. PLEASE PLEASE fix this. Cellphone is the single most useful gadget during an emergency. What good is it if we cannot use it then. Consider a recalling or providing an insulation cover and not making phones like this in the future.

I was out stranded in the cold and had to call my friend to pick me up as my fingers were freezing inside my gloves and the phone shutsdown on me 😟

My friend's been having issues with her 5 for the same reasons. It's been exceptionally cold in the NYC area recently, but the issue also arised once around 45 F during a Fall hike (60% battery -> instant shutdown). It was notable because my 5 side by side to hers was just fine. It never happened to her again, but now that winter's come around, she doesn't live in the safest area, and it's done it multiple times on her way home during the night. She's not very comfortable with tech, so she asked me to go with her to her Genius appointment. I was pretty confident that they would help her out since I've always had good experiences, especially if I had AppleCare (which she has).

Nope. The guy pretty much denied ever having heard of this problem. And I could understand if he gave a legitimate reason that maybe the ambient temperature was below its operating range, but instead he tried to pull the wool over our eyes with techno babble with some of the craziest explanations as to why it would shut down, along the lines of "She had too many apps open, and her screen brightness was too high, and that can drain your battery from 60% to 0 instantly." "Even though if we warm it up, and it powers right back at 60% battery?" "Yes." "So, doesn't that mean the power wasn't consumed at all? Because it's still there upon restart, and it's usable so long as the temperature is maintained." "Well, when you use too many apps, and the screen brightness is high..." repeat ad naseum. It might have been less insulting if I didn't have a computer engineering background, but I kept that tidbit to myself. Needless to say, I didn't want to outright say "You're full of ****" but after trying to have him clarify multiple times how apps and screen brightness could cause a 60% instant power drain (as he explained it), he wouldn't budge past his rationale and demanded $80 in order to do anything.

Tl;dr: The 5 series and beyond have varying battery vendors and some don't perform as well as others in the cold. Luck of the draw I guess.