iPhone 6 battery dies in cold weather

Holy bleep, thanks for this, mine qualifies, taking in to Apple Store Monday.

FWIW my device is 14 months old, and tests at 82% (good range) in the battery testing app. I have seen it die, with the phone in my pocket in out temperatures of 45°F, mostly it dies when I use the camera app. But I was also outside when it was 33°F and it worked. Not very consistent, but it definitely fails within the stated operating temperatures for the battery.

And thanks Visualo for the testing graphs

So i have this same problem too and so does my friend and she has told me the reason for this is that when your phone shuts off is because it is to cold outside and it is a way of protecting the phone. So that is why your phone will shut off when its too cold for the phone.

Hope this was helpful to all of you that have the same problem.

Oh, it's a feature?!?

No, it's not.

The battery is unable to provide the current necessary at the cold temperature without the voltage sagging. It's a classic symptom of (low quality) lithium batteries. When the voltage sags/drops, the phone reads that as, "my battery is dead" and shuts off, telling you to plug in. We have the same issue in the RC hobby area - cold lithium batteries generally don't perform as well, but some are definitely better than others. (i.e., my Samsung is fine in the cold)

Froggercn47 wrote:

Can I ask you a question? Why did it take them an hour and a half to replace your battery? What did they have to do to replace it? Thx

Probably because there were a lot of devices to work on before they started on his. Actually changing the battery takes about 15 minutes at most.

My 13 month old 6S started to lose power very quickly just after christmas. This was indoors and out. Never had a problem with it before and have been in -12 degrees without any issues.

I Just got my battery changed under the free apple exchange program and it made no difference at all, so i dont think its a hardware issue.

Next on the list of things to do is a restore, which is always a pain to do and really shouldn't be needed.

The name Apple doesnt seem to stand for what it used to IMO.

iPhones have an operating temperature ambient situated between 32° and 95° Fahrenheit, that's 0° and 35° Celsius. The manufacturer also provides information about a non-operating temperature interval ranging between -4° to 113° F, that's -20° to 45° C.Nov 29, 2014

I have been following this thread since my original post - a few things:

Clearly the iphone 6 batteries work well in cold weather when NEW - myself and others posting here had no problems with them last winter, even when using them near or slightly below the temperature range apple has available for the product.

It seems that after a while the batteries wear out, but only to the point where they are affected by 'cold' weather - even ABOVE the lower limits posted by apple. Lithium batteries wear out with repeated use/charge cycles - this is annoying, but is no surprise to people who understand these things better than myself.

It will be very difficult to know if the batteries wear out faster than they should, because the issue is only realized in colder temperatures often well after the warranty expires. in retrospect, i should have got my phone near (but not lower than) the acceptable lower use temperature limit before the warranty expired to see if the battery could handle it, but i and others obviously did not do this - and why would we, we had nothing to suspect? Especially for those of us who have had multiple older iphone models that survived many years/winters without this issue. We have come to depend on, and even praise, the reliability of iphones through years of experience using them. i can no longer depend on my iphone battery and will need to get a new one. I will be very closely monitoring it with scheduled testing afterwards and will report back.

Be aware - in my case they replaced the iphone 6 with a new one. Not just the battery!

So the problem can be with the phone not with the battery..

There are -18 deg. Celsius here now.

Except for a lag in the screen (which is to be expected) the battery is holding up just fine!

Does Apple know that this is a HUGE issue? I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (winters are cold). I know that lithium ion batteries are inherently subject to, poor, cold weather performance.

I hope to get an new iphone 7s! In September... will Apple address this?

No, there is nothing to address and the operating environment for Lithium polymer batteries have not changed. You need to look for a phone that is ruggedized to meet your operating environment or find a case that will provide that protection.

Normal range is 0 to 35 degrees (Celsius), and there are many posts here that reference using it outside that range, if you iPhone does not work at temperatures within the normal range, take it back to Apple for service or battery replacement.

"But if it is cold outside, phone will dye in minutes if used outdoors. I first noticed when we went skiing around -5C (20-25F) and it was really bad there"

According to Apple, iPhones have an operating temperature ambient situated between 32° and 95° Fahrenheit, that's 0° and 35° Celsius. The manufacturer also provides information about a non-operating temperature interval ranging between -4° to 113° F, that's -20° to 45° C.Nov 29, 2014

I have been experiencing the same issue the last couple of weeks. I live in Denver, Colorado, so temperatures fluctuate greatly in the winter. I first noticed the problem on Jan 3, with temps in the low 20s. It continued on Jan 4 with single digits and Jan 5 in the low teens (Fahrenheit). It did not happen on Friday, Jan 6, because it was about 50 degrees. It continued Tuesday this week (low 30s) and today (20s). I am definitely noticing a cutoff at about 40-45 degrees F.

My iPhone 6 (128 GB/iOS 10.2/16 months old) shows good battery power (usually 85%+) one moment, and the next, I get the "low battery" error, often with 1% battery power. I have a portable charger, sometimes when I plug my phone into the charger (or into an outlet when I get to work), it shows almost the full amount of battery charge prior to the moment when it dropped.

Even if Apple gives the "optimum operating temperatures" at 0 - 35 C (32 - 95 F), they need to do better. Most of their customers, both domestically and internationally, are going to be dealing with temperatures either below or above that range for significant parts of the year. If their phones are not going to work outside of that temperature range, they are more of a "spring/fall" phone.

I have had my 6S for 15 months, same problem. I live in New Hampshire and at this point if I expose it to outdoor temps for two seconds it dies pretty much instantly. It's quite a delicate little princess. I'll replace the battery if that's an option but this is really annoying. Crickets from Apple on this.

Yes spent 1 hour scoping snow was 10 degrees and then was walking to an elderly lady's house to help her. Went to call wife to let her know where I would be and I pone 6s went black nothing worked Came inside just now no button worked waited 5 minutes pushed power button pops up and battery showed dead so plugged in and it turns on showing 65% scharged and now working

My battery on my 6 plus is doing the same, only I live in Florida and it doesn't get colder then the high 50's. It's been doing that since the summer. My battery will be at 40% and then say it's at 10% and shut down. I'll plug it in, and it'll turn back on at 40%. My ex-husband has the 6 and this has been happening to him for a couple months as well.