iPhone 5 IOS 7 battery dead when really at 29% after taking photos

I just had this issue happen to me today on my almost 1 year-old iPhone 5 with 7.0.2 while watching video. I was surprised when it shutoff as I didn't recall seeing the warnings at 20% or 10% and it turned out when I plugged it back in that it was at 26% charged!

I just read a few posts, for the past week my batt life shot down so fast I rang Apple, my I phone6 isnt from The Apple Store and is 2 years old so no warranty. i booked online and got anext day appointment at the Genius Bar my phone has a new batt, or maybe a re Con it cost me £79.

Hello there, avatarsound11.

The following Knowledge Base article provides some good pointers for troubleshooting the issue you are having:

iPhone and iPod touch: Charging the battery

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1476

Particularly:

iPhone or iPod touch displays the low-battery image and is unresponsive

If you see the image below, charge the iPhone or iPod touch with USB power adapter for at least 15 minutes.

You should see this image when iPhone or iPod touch begins to charge.

If the screen still displays the low-battery icon, try turning the iPhone or iPod touch off and then on again.

If the issue persists, follow these troubleshooting steps.

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers,

Pedro.

I also have exactly this problem with my iPhone 5 but this does not really resolve it as it presumes that a charger is readily available. For instance, on holiday last week my battery showed 39%, I used the built-in camera for a single photo and my phone suddenly displayed the low battery image and powered off. It would not turn back on until I plugged in the charger, when the battery percentage immediately showed 39% again - luckily I had a portable charger with me as I was not near a fixed power source, but I shouldn't have to worry about battery at 40% and nor should I have to carry a portable charger with me all the time or leave my phone off for half an hour and hope it will turn back on. This has been happening repeatedly since upgrading to iOS7 and happens with both the iPhone camera and Camera+; changing flash settings, shooting modes etc makes no difference.

I have played around with various phone settings, recalibrated the battery several times and tried all the tips offered on this site and elsewhere, but these really just help my battery last longer until the inevitable shutdown if I happen to use the camera with what I regard as a pretty decent amount of apparent battery life left. This weekend I'm going for the nuclear option of restoring my phone as new - before I trek 100 miles to the nearest Genius Bar next week while my phone is still within warranty.

As a precaution my phone is now in its Mophie Juicepack all the time, but I'd really like to find out what exactly is causing this issue as this is a workaround, not a solution.

The OPs exact scenario happened to me with my iPhone 4S running iOS 7.0.2 this past weekend.

After leaving the phone off for about 10 minutes, not charging it, I was able to power it back on and the battery life showed 39%. iOS 7 definitely has some issues but this was an annoying one!

NetSquirrel - can you please let me know, how to recalibrate the battery? How do you do this?

I have the same problem. My Iphone 5 keeps on turning off with still 25% battery.

I have this exact same problem too! I was walking home from a friend's house a couple of days ago. My phone was at 60 % battery. I started listening to music on my walk home, and took a couple of photos with the camera. Suddenly the phone just shuts off, and the charging symbol starts showing. I tried to reboot it, without any luck. When I got home, I connected it to a charger, and it showed that it was at 60 %. The iPhone 5 is NOT supposed to just shut itself off when it's at 60 %. This is not acceptable. I didn't have a problem with this before iOS7. I too feel like it's a bug, and that Apple should come out with a solution. Charging it is NOT a viable solution. You shouldn't have to charge your iPhone when it's at 60 %. Just saying.

I have the same issue on my iPhone 4S. When using the iPhone and battery is around 20% is just shuts itself off. No way for me to get it back on again, except placing the phone in a dock.

When placed in the dock it startsup again and shows the 20% battery power.

Same thing here on my wife's iPhone 5 running latest ios update. Let me know if anyone has found anything to fix this yet. Very annoying.

i have exactly the same problem with 2x iphones 5 running 7.0.3 - both shut themselve off when reaching 27-25%. Specifically during 'heavy battery use' like taking pictures or listening to music. Couldn't find any solution. I was restoring them, setting them up as a new iphone etc. Both of them are nearly 1 year old.

Sending them back to apple tomorrow and will see what solution they have. Both of them are still on warranty, so hopefully it will get fixed in a heartbeat.

This is a great explanation of the problem but useless to fix it.

Who do you contact at apple for help?

I also have the same or similar problem. A week or so ago the phone turned off when taking a photo, but it would turn on again if I waited a few minutes. But this week the power meter wouldn't refresh I.e it didn't diminish with use, and now the last two days it has been shutting down completely. Yesterday the only way I could get it work was to do a complete restore. This worked fine for the day although the battery meter still didn't work, then on the way home it shut down completely again and wouldn't charge - just got the flashing apple logo. When plugged into plc this mornin it sated up again showing 80% battery. Did another full restore. But same problem tonight except that it did charge plugged directly into power socket.

This seems now a common problem following IOS 7 come on apple at least acknowledge the problem and then provide a solution. My iPhone 5 is just out of warranty but I don't see why I should pay to have a problem solved because of an issue caused by a software update.

My iPhone 5 is doing this too. I try to take a picture when the battery still has around 25% then it shuts off and won't turn back on for several minutes. I also have the iOS 7.0.3 on my phone. It is really a pain in the butt especially when I am several hours away from home and do not have a charging source around me (and I refuse to buy another one just because the phone is glitching). The other thing I have noticed is the first time it did this (which was October 20th) everytime I did get it to power back on, it would show a different battery percentage. FIrst it was 25%, then 5%, 8% and then the last time I got it to stay on (and I stopped taking pictures or doing anything on it) it was back up to 20%. Very odd. I use my iPhone as a camera all the time so it is not pleasant to have it shut off and then continuing to shut off until I charge it and the battery life gets above 25%. I really hope they fix this. This is the 2nd major bug that I have experienced (the first one was that the date and time would randomly change, making me late for work if I depended on using its alarm). I don't know if location matters, but I live in the Central Michigan area.