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iPhone 6 battery dies in cold weather

Battery dies on my iPhone 6 in cold weather. Phone is about 15 months old, and dies from good battery 50% to 30% down to nothing and auto switch off. ON normal weather the battery is still very good and doesn't show sign of weakening on any normal day. 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. But now it started doing it when it's around +5C (41F) shutting the phone down from 30% battery. When I plug it in, it immediately turns the phone back on and shows 25 or 35% remaining....

Anyone? Design issue? Specific app to kill? Running iOS 9.3, but it was already doing it on iOS 9.2 .... Thanks

Posted on Feb 13, 2016 7:49 AM

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340 replies

Jan 18, 2017 6:25 AM in response to Csound1

I understand that that is true. Phones die more easily at below zero temperatures. BUT: how can it be that today (and for the last couple of months) there are so many complaints about batteries. Not that they wear out, but that the phone shuts down at totaly random percentages? I just don't understand... Yesterday I charged my battery to 100% (4 hours after it told me it was fully charged, I disconnected it). Then I played a film which was 1,5 hours. I have even put my brightness up and it played the whole frickin' movie. Then I quited and the battery showed 5%. Then I opened another app (doesn't matter what app, but take whats app for example), and it immediately turned of the phone.
After that I charged it again (same time as last time, plus 4 hours after fully charged), then i unplugged it and took a photo. After i took the photo it shut down (at 95% charged!!!!!!) go figure that! Is that a temperature issue? I don't think so.

Jan 18, 2017 6:39 AM in response to fredrikdk

You have the answer to this question in my older post in this thread.

Look at the measurement graphs that I posted a while ago where I compare a new iPhone 6 battery to a old one.

The behavour in colder environments are very different.

New iPhone 6 batteries have no problem at all even in a few -C degrees.

Old iPhone 6 batteries have huge problems even in a few +C degrees.

Jan 18, 2017 6:46 AM in response to Visualo

I think it's excellent that Apple publishes the operating temperature. This says that if I put my phone in the refrigerator for a while (above freezing, temperature controlled, easily measured), it has to continue to work. I will do this as soon as I can. Might be interesting if we got a larger sample size to do the same.

Jan 18, 2017 6:46 AM in response to jacravensbergen

jacravensbergen wrote:


to backup MarkoL1: "shouldn't be sold" not cannot be sold. If it was true that iPhones cannot be working in below 0 degrees temperatures, it would come out a lot earlier and apple would have sold a lot less phones in northern countries... And what about phones of different makes? I have never heard that other phonebatteries die after 2 years? They can ware out, true, but it can't be that phones shut down at 80% and the next day at 20%, and another day at 90% (like mine)

That information has always been available to you, you just have to read it.

Jan 18, 2017 6:50 AM in response to marktso

marktso wrote:


I think it's excellent that Apple publishes the operating temperature. This says that if I put my phone in the refrigerator for a while (above freezing, temperature controlled, easily measured), it has to continue to work. I will do this as soon as I can. Might be interesting if we got a larger sample size to do the same.

Putting it in such a wet environment is also not good for it.

Jan 18, 2017 6:53 AM in response to Visualo

I have checked the post you are reffering to. It's very helpfull, thanks. My conclusion is that my next phone will not be from Apple since it seems the problem is hardwired into the device and it requires either a costly repair (and giving away the phone with lots of personal info for the time) or throwing away otherwise a perfectly fine device and buying a new one (@cca 900 EUR) - and that doesn't sound very smart to me.

Jan 18, 2017 7:07 AM in response to MarkoL1

First of all this discussion is about iphone 6.

So all of you writting about replacement program for the 6s - please stop. Go and create another discussion about the 6s battery.


Second of all, from what iphone 6 users are writting it is clear that a 1 year old iphone 6 is pretty much useless in cold weather (for me the phone dies even at 10 C with 50% battery). It becomes a useless piece of metal.


We need to draw our conclusions from this:

- Apple will most likely not recognise this an issue on their side. They're saying we don't care about your 1 year old iphione 6 - go buy a new iphone 7.


If you want a phone you can rely on:

- you can replace the battery - where I live (Poland) this is about 24% of the price of a new iphone 6s, so I don't know if its worth.

- you can swith to another brand like Samsung or Sony as their phones don't appear have this sort of problems.


It's not easy. I love apple, my iphone, new mac pro, old mac air. But I guess this is not the same company anymore. Now you pay fot the design; not the functionality.

PS I can't wait for iphone 8 (or 7s whaterer they call it) 😁

Jan 18, 2017 7:15 AM in response to jacravensbergen

This is also a hard question to reply since "old" is relative when it comes to iPhone 6 batteries.

I have tried to define "old" only comparing number och charge cycles.

The problem is that you have to take other things into consideration as well, like high temperature.

This is why Apple do not have any "Maximum charge cycles" recommendation for iPhone 6.

All mobile phone users have their own way to use them.

Some ppl put them in the sun in the middle of the summer and the temperature gets extremely high

which is bad for the battery health.


But if we put all the other parameters away and only focus on Charge Cycle Counts I would say

(from my experience) that an iPhone 6 battery is old when charge cycle count reach around 300.


And 300 charge cycles is very easy to reach within a year.


In my opinion it sould be ALOT higher than that.

Jan 18, 2017 7:22 AM in response to EmAnTo

1. What authority do you have to decide who can and cannot contribute to that discussion?

2. The problem between 6 and 6a are obviously linked as problems reported are similar

3. The more we are reporting such problems the more attention we will get not only from Apple but also from the press

4. Apple has done very little until now and this is a huge disappointment for many of us who have paid a lot for a malfunctioning phone

Jan 18, 2017 7:24 AM in response to Csound1

My point exactly, but you are obviously so "capable of running a business" that you don't understand that selling devices which are designed to fail in two strongest markets in the world is not a proof of being "capable of running a business".

Besides making people angry in the two most important markets (which is not very smart, right?), you can have legal problems. And that also doesn't sound brilliant.

iPhone 6 battery dies in cold weather

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