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Iphone 5 Shutting down, Cold Weather? or defective battery

Below is a log of when I started to notice this issue and when it happened. today did a restore to new and we will see


Dec 5

Shut off at garage dec 5 round 5? Had like 13-15% and then shut down

like the battery was dead. Tried to turn on but it gave me the charge

it symbols so I left it for a few minutes and then tried to power it

and it came on. Showed 9 or 10% checked the Internet got down to 7

and shut off again same thing. Turned on had 5% texted a few times and

same thing. Left it got home and charged it from the wall.

Dec 6

Phone is doing the same thing around 15% battery a couple of times to

3% I plug into computer and charge while doing a restore. Hope this

works 🙂

Dec 7

Restore seems to have worked. We'll see

Dec 15

Phone shutdown would not turn back on had 6%. Got cable and plugged

into wall and phone powers right up on its own soon as I plugged the

cable in the apple appeared on the screen. And showed 6%. Charging it

now. Plugged into wall fack!!

Dec 16

Phone acted same way as 15 of dec. not happy camper. Lol

Dec 30

Showed 11% started trade nations and after a min phone shutdown.

Plugged in and after restart 5%.

Maybe there's a bug calculating the battery's remaining charge?

Jan 2 2013

Phone shutdown and when I plugged it in it started up and showed 12% 😟

Jan 6 2013

At the park phone had 36% took a few pics of the kids put phone away

for a min took back out and shutoff saying charge. Left in car for 15

min not charging and turned phone on and it has 33% life ***!!!!!

Jan. 15

Shopping at store and phone shuts off at 23%. Tells me to charge. Wait

for a few mins and power back on. 20% send text and phone shuts off

again. Bring home and plug into wall as soon as its in phone starts to

boot up and shows 16% battery life. Call apple and advised to restore

and setup as new phone and see how it is.

Jan 20 phone at 8% plugged in and phone displayed 31%. 5 mins later

the phone says 25%. Unplug and answer a couple of texts 18%. Weird.

Plugged back in.


Jan 25 Actual restore to new and start from scratch. More outa desperation cause I dont have a cc for express repair and the free option taking 2 weeks will be hard as this is my only phone.

iPhone 5, iOS 6.0.2

Posted on Jan 25, 2013 5:28 PM

Reply
68 replies

Jan 27, 2013 2:07 PM in response to srettie

I've had my iPhone 5 (Verizon) do this to me quite a bit with the battery ranging from a low of 30% to a high of 80% when it happens. If you bring it indoors and let it warm up, it will come back on with the battery at 3-5% below where it was when it froze. A couple of thoughts:


1. Will the Apple Genius replace it if you take it in? I presume that there must be some specs that they can pull out of the battery and this immediate shutoff doesn't seem like part of standard operating procedure.


2. I have no idea how a restore would/could fix this problem as it feels to me like a chemical/physical thing with this new design (and ideally only some batches of the battery) but if anyone has any different experience, please post it here!


Thx,


AR

Jan 27, 2013 2:49 PM in response to srettie

Lithium ion batteries can drain very rapidly in extremely cold conditions. When outside in sub-freezing weather, try to keep the phone in an inside pocket, close to your body. Don't leave it in the car for any length of time. Once the phone is warmed up again, it should function normally and there should be no lasting damage. If your phone continues to behave that way under normal operating conditions, take it to the Apple Store.

Jan 27, 2013 5:38 PM in response to sberman

Of course the phone is charged to 100%. The problem is that when it gets down into the teens and more than once with better than 20% it shuts off.


Another example. Today I go walking for 30 min in -25 weather. The phone is in my inside pocket 47%. After the walk I check it when I get home and its still at 47%. Sorry was listening to music the entire time. Jump in the car a half hr later go to the mall and a hr later I leave and go to send a text in my car (in the parking lot don't drive and text) and it shuts off. Says charge. 5 mins later with no charging I try it and it turns on and shows 20%. It was warmer than when I was walking and the phone was in my pocket. I wasn't outside at the mall in the cold more than a minute or two.


I get that with less than 5% charge I'm on borrowed time. But with 20 or 30% it should be more reliable no?

Jan 31, 2013 1:49 PM in response to srettie

I read your whole case and it is IDENTICLE to mine. I restored it and I put back all my applications and such from iCloud (the apple store said that that would work as setting it up as a new product). When I took it to the "genius" bar they diagnosed it over the network to find out that my applications as well as "springboard" are crashing multiple times. The genius said that springboard crashing is the cause of it. The said all of the hardware on the phone ( battery and such) was working perfectly. I'm yet to go back after restore. Still no fix for me, any luck for you? I am still covered under warranty so any guesses on what I should try and ill let you know if it works so you know whether you should pay the money to get it done or not? Hope this information helps a little.

Feb 8, 2013 6:08 AM in response to sberman

Similar experience in cold weather. I think it is normal. I think iPhone 5 actually handles it a bit better. My 4 used to suddenly lose power in the cold and would require charging before it could be powered on, even once temperatures rose.


Today my iPhone 5 had 52% batteries. It was in an inside pocket, but I went higher up a mountain today and the temperature dropped to -15. Even with the phone in an inside pocket, it shut down. I have seen it do this while watching the screen - it does not go down to low battery and then power off, it is a straight shut down. It won't respond in this state even to show the 'charge' screen.


But now in a warm restaurant, after a few minutes warming up, it's powered on and is right back to 52% where it started. Assuming you are below 0°, I think not a fault, just the way the batteries respond to cold. If it happens when it's not that cold, perhaps there is another issue.

Nov 13, 2013 5:50 PM in response to Mariefromnt

Mariefromnt wrote:


Is there a solution to this? I live where it is cold all the time in the winter and many, many, many, people bought Iphone 5s here.

This is not unique to iPhones. It's a function of the chemistry of a lithium ion battery which is what all modern cell phones have. As noted above, keep the phone in an inside pocket, close to your body. Mind you, it would have to be extremely cold before this should be a major problem.


And, this is a user-to-user technical support forum. Apple doesn't generally participate here.

Nov 13, 2013 7:55 PM in response to Mariefromnt

The solution is to take advantage of the fact that virtually every coat and parka designed for cold weather in the past 15 years has an inside pocket or two or three just the right size for a cell phone. Keep the phone in the pocket next to your body and it will be close body temperature, and the outside temperature won't be an issue.

Nov 19, 2013 6:44 AM in response to grahamm_6t9

grahamm_6t9 wrote:


...or for Apple to acknowledge that this shouldn't happen when the phone has 70% charge and it's 10°c?

Apple, magical though they might seem to be, cannot rewrite the laws of physics and electro chemistry.


However, what you're describing sounds like it may be something completely different. Perhaps it's time to take your iPhone into the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store.

Iphone 5 Shutting down, Cold Weather? or defective battery

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