iPhone 5 shuts down with plenty of battery life left

I have had this problem for a couple of months now, specifically with my 5 it shuts down when I take pictures with less than 50% battery showing. None of the resets and recalibrations has worked. I believe the problem is a software/hardware combination one. Most phones seem to start failing around 13 months old, in fact around the 500 full charge battery life that Apple quote! So it is probable that our batteries are on their way out which is unacceptable for a phone costing so much. The problem is then made worse when the phones are used in cold conditions, nearly all batteries have reduced life when cold and sometimes they can be revigorated by warming them. Not so with the iPhone 5! This series of events then seems to upset the internal battery meter which some find they can reset successfully while others, like me, cannot. The reason that the camera seems to be the antagonist in all of this is because it is a high draw app, the battery surge required is just enough to tip the battery into failing due to power loss; other high draw apps (running, golf etc) have the same effect.

The problem is a design fault. No item costing this much should have a built in obsolescence of just over a year in normal use, less for high users and more for infrequent users, especially when most of our contracts are for 24 months! Apple has a legal duty under the Sale of Goods Act to supply goods that are 'fit for purpose'. The iPhone is clearly not; alternatively it should only come on a 12 month contract. We can bleat on forums like this all we want but what we should do is bombard Apple with complaints, make them public and involve Trading Standards, TV's Watchdog programme etc. Once Apple realise that they cannot keep fobbing off and robbing customers the price of a new battery when it is their fault anyway, maybe then they will start providing products as good as they once were. But please, don't use your energy here other than to like this post and show extent of the problem, step up your complaint to Trading Standards and let's 'out' Apple for their appalling handling of this widespread problem!

I agree Apple has really drop the ball on this. I would suggest to replace the battery, but dont give apple the 80 dollar charge to replace the battery. I would suggest buying the battery and tools from amazon. I bought the replacement battery for 7 dollars and the tool kit for 6 bucks. There are several videos posted on youtube that show you how to replace the battery. There are a total of 4 screws and it look me less than 10 minutes to replace the battery. Since replacing the battery I had no more battery issues on a that is only 18 months old. It cost me less than 15 dollars. I believe this is just another way for apple to make money on whether you pay 100 dollars for the extended warrenty where their cost to replace the battery is probably less than 6 dollars or you pay the 80 dollars to have them rip you off. Either way apple is making their money. My next phone will be a samsung.

Wow guy must been playing candy crush. The 7 dollar battery I bought from amazon was the exact same battery that came out. Same manufacturer. I installed the new battery almost 2 months ago. Never had an issue with the phone getting hot.

My iphone 5 is 14 month old. It starts shutting down with plenty "battery" left, like 35%, 20%, etc. I have "caliberated" serveral times over the weekend, at one time completely draining the last 1% battery took a full movie over airplay. Monday I had the phone draining to 4% and did a hard reset, then the phone could not come back and only showed 'plug to charge' screen, once I plugged it into the charger, it came back on with 7% battery. Then it only took 15 mimutes charged to 40%.

Anyway, in case the recaliberation would not work for me (actually it didn't), I ordered a replacement battery and tool kit ($13 after tax) over the weekend. It came in today and looked very genuine. It took me 10 minutes to do the replacement without breaking anything. Will see if the new battery will solve the problem.

I am not sure if it is just the battery problem, or combo of battery and iOS 7.0.3. But look, my wife and I had each and every model iphone starting from 3GS to 5S. None of them had a battery problem within our two year contract (whoops, knocking on the wood for my wife's new 5s 😉). If my 5 problem was indeed a depleted battery, it is absolutely unacceptable as apple charged the premium price for their products and services (oh, $79 + tax to replace a $10 or less worth battery for 10 minutes work?.. that's what I am talking about).

By the way, I am just a casual iphone user. Never ran any crazy apps.. mostly browsing news, reading emails, snapping some pictures, occasionaly some video streaming. The battery is gone after 14 mon just out of warranty. Apple must be kidding me.

I used to be a big fan of apple and bought 5 iphones, 4 ipads, 5 ipods, 1 mac mini, 1 macbook air, 1 macbook pro retina, 1 apple TV and 1 airport extreme for myself and family. But due to the recent experience with iphone 5 and iOS7 problems and also deteriorating customer service at "genius" bar at local stores, I will give a second thought when I come to my next purchase decision.

I think that there is more than one root cause to all of the problems in this thread, so readers should take fixes as suggestions and not the for sure fix. Always go the free way first, then the next most expensive, and so on so that you don't waste your money.

In my case, background app refresh was sucking my battery juice in big gulps where my signal was weak. In that case, I can see it causing my phone going from a high percentange remaining to off quickly. I've turned it off and my battery is lasting a lot longer. I'll come back in a few weeks to report on if this fixed it or not.

AxeBox - the specific topic is that iPhone 5's shut down with plenty of battery left, not that they run down quickly as yours does. We are currently having our phones shut down with 30%+ showing on the battery level indicator, the phones then remain shut off until connected to a charger and then re-start showing the same battery level (30%+) as when they shut down. I'm glad that you feel you have found the cause of your rapid battery drain and suggest that you post it under the relative heading. Meanwhile we still have our same problem for which the only solution Apple is offering is for us to buy a new battery for £70+ only for us to find that this is not always resolving the issue. Come on Apple, read this blog (and all the others), you can see how many unhappy customers you now have, most of which will be looking elsewhere when our contracts allow. A little goodwill shown for a product that is evidently unfit for purpose because the battery does not last as long as most peoples contracts would go a long way.

You missed the part of my post where I said "I can see it causing my phone going from a high percentange remaining to off quickly." , meaning from 30% or higher battery remaing to 'off'. In some cases, the phone may be consuming power faster because you have a weak signal and the background app refresh is on. The battery may need to be replaced. An errant application could be the cause.

For me, the issue is that my phone will show 20%+ battery left, and suddenly it powers down. When I try to turn it back on, it will either turn on or show the "connect to power" icon. Sometimes it will show that until I connect it to power, or sometime it will miraculously turn on and stay on , draining at a normal rate.

I am sorta glad everyone else is having the same issue with this phone. I love my IP5. From what I can tell, it doesn't like the cold-AT ALL. I do a lot of winter activities and even keeping it zipped next to my base layer it will shut down with a lot of power left above 35% when exposed to the cold. She'll work but hates the cold. I have been ice climbing and sometimes the phone as a backup for some camera equipment or emergency contact to the outside world but I really can't depend on it for anything it seems when it is cold...I should take it to the genius bar for evaluation.....I also use the LIFEPROOF case which has issues in itself....

I've been having the same issue for a while and I'm convinced in my case it is a software issue. I took my phone to an authorized repair center and had them test the battery. It tested fine. So I'm not sure what to try next other than wait for 7.0.5

I would strongly suggest replacing the battery yourself which you can buy the battery and tool for under 20 dollars from amazon. Like you I took my phone in to apple which they told me my battery was good. My at the time was 18 months old. My phone would shut off with 30 to 50 percent. Would only turn on when I plugged it into the wall to turn it back on. I tried everything resetting the phone to factory setting, running the battery down and recharge it for 8 hours. Nothing worked. My last attempt was to replace the battery. I did it my self because I did not want to ripped off by apple. It has been almost 4 months now and have not had the phone shut off with 35 plus percentage left. Phone does not get hot when charging. I. Hope this helps.

I have this problem too, however i found a trick that might work for you too. Its very wired it only sometimes work for me, but if you hold down the Off/On button and the home button at the same time for about 1 - 1.5 sec's and then let go of the On/Off button while still holding the home button. Again it may not work for you.

Well it utrns out that if you ALL could access the diagnostics programs embedded from APPLE and check your batteries you'd see your batteries are probably past their useful life ~700hours or was it charges?

They had to replace my battery for $80, but it also turned out that something else was wonky and they repaced the entire phone and I have had this over a year....

So, you could try to change the battery yourselves through IFIXIT or IFIX what ever the site was and save $60.....because more than likely your batteries are done!!!!

hope this helps and sorry I didn't report back sooner...

v.

My daughter's iPhone 5 is on IOS7 and is having the same issues of battery loss and now very frequent power downs... I am running IOS6 and I had the same issue the other day... Besides doing everything besides a battery calibrate, I cleaned the lint and dirt out of my power slot and earphone slot with a thin plastic toothpick and I did the same with my daugters and they are both working normally now... Has anyone else tried and had succes with cleaning out the phone ports???

I don't think this is a software issue...when you think about it, at least my issue with cold temperature, it is a battery issue. Take it to the genius bar and have them tell you the condition of your battery.

Replace the battery yourself I guarantee you that will fix your issue you can take to apple store and get ripped off by paying 80 dollars or you can do it yourself. I had the same issue I took it to the apple store they told me my battery was good and that I had programs in the background that may be causing the battery to drain. I was told to restart the phone to factory settings. I did but continued to have the battery issue shutting down at 30 to 40 percent left. I tried the recalibration with no success. The replacement of the battery was the last ditch effort. That was 5 months ago, I have not had any battery issue since. I installed all my apps I had. Cold weather did not effect my phone at all. You can find YouTube videos on how to replace the battery and find the price for the battery and tool for less than 20 dollars on amazon